Young Writers Society

Jason stirred slowly as he opened his eyes. For some reason something felt wildly off about this morning. For starters, there was the smell. Something was very rotten somewhere and that was simply something he was not meant to be waking up to.

He looked around and frowned. Wait a minute. Why am I in the middle of some random abandoned city? It had been quite a while since he'd woken up in a place he'd never gone to sleep at and this place just did not have a good vibe to it.

Jason hauled himself to his feet, only to spot someone getting to their feet right next to him. He did a double take. It was very clearly Harry, but for some reason he currently resembled a decaying corpse. That had to take the cake for weirdest thing of the morning.

"Uhh, Harry, you wanna explain to me why you look more like a corpse than usual this morning? Did Jennifer put you upto this? Why are we in this random city?" said Jason.

Harry turned to see Jason, and raised his eyebrows. "Uhh, excuse me, if anyone looks like a decaying corpse right now its you."

Jason frowned and looked down at his body. He did his second double take of the day. He was also currently resembling a decayed corpse. Things were continuing to get weirder by the minute.

"Okay, spill, come on, we don't have to time to waste. Whose idea was it, and honestly, what even is this place?" asked Jason.

"Okay, here's the thing, I'd love to credit for this, cause this is a pretty thorough prank, my form is literally altered, and they got that smell almost too perfectly, buut, I know just as much as you do at the moment. As for where we are, one of the many Earths, looks to be the city they call, New Yolk or Fork or something like that," said Harry.

"Great, just what I needed on a...well what day is it on this planet," said Jason.

"Probably Tuesday," said Harry.

"Huh?" asked Jason.

"Trust me, everything happens on Tuesdays," said Harry, "now come on, let's find out what's happening and get outta here."

"Not so fast," said Jason, putting a decaying arm in front of Harry as he tried to walk off. "Look at that." In front of them, Jason could make out a congregation of several other beings.

"Oooh, humans...or I suppose in this current state, the preferred term is zombies," said Harry.

Jason frowned and sniffed the air. Among the decaying flesh he could make out the scents of the beings in front of them.

"Well they're zombies, but from what I can see, no one here is actually dead, aaand these definitely a few humans there, but also a lot of other lifeforms," said Jason, "it may take us a while to get out of here."

"I suppose it'll at least be fun, " said Harry, "come on, a little brotherly bonding trip, we can even pretend to be non celestial beings."

"You're idea of fun is very different from mine," said Jason, "but well, I suppose we don't have much of a choice."

The two of them walked over to the gathered group.

"Heyy Everyone, lovely morning isn't it?" said Jason.

"Really, we're all stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, everyone looks very dead, and that's what comes to mind first," said Harry.

"Oh come on brother, just because its a zombie apocalypse does not mean we're going to be rude," said Jason.

"I take it back. This is going to suck."

"For your information, I am most certainly not dead," huffed Sinestra as she whipped around to face the newcomers. Come to think of it, how many people were there going to be? At this rate, there wouldn't be enough space for them to all congregate here. "If I were dead, I'd likely be pestering someone else's mind or soul, possibly my brother's, rather than standing around here looking likely Medusa before I finally convinced her to get a tan. Ah, if that Gorgon could see me now, the ghastly things she would say--"

All in favor of tying up the crazy old lady and leaving her here to rot while the rest of us walk around and rot, say AYE! Alexander thought silently. "Is there... anyone that you haven't met?" he asked quietly.

"Sadly, I've yet to have a chance to meet Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, though I've heard good things about both of them. Bad things as well, of course, you don't become a malicious dictatorial warrior-general by saying please, but I've been told by Merlin that both had very pleasant attitudes and manners off the battlefield."

"...of course they do," the scientist sighed. Turning to the others, he asked, "Is there anyone here that believes that magic is a myth-- as it truly is-- and thinks that those of us that understand scientific reasoning and questioning ought to go off and leave the insolent hooligans and mutated members among us to stay here where it is relatively safe and they can do little if any harm to the surrounding environment? I am uncertain of... how does one word this without sounding prideful?"

"I'm afraid it's too late for that," Sinestra snapped back. "I have seen over one trillion centuries in my lifetime and I have valuable knowledge and experience that can do more than mere science can. True science is but a form of magic that all people can participate in to some degree: alchemy and potionery." Sinestra straightened her glasses and tightened her hold on her cane and ran everyone's names through her head rather quickly. "I take it that the word Meretica has no meaning to anyone present?"

"...that's not a word."

"Yes, it is, young man. Were you half as educated as you would like to be, you would know that it is one of the greatest places of culture and learning within the multiverse and the religious center of the Estagar Solar System. There are many dozens of portraits of famous men and women that deemed themselves to be among the learnéd and wise of their time periods that hang in the Palace of Versailles in Paris, and though none look alike, all resemble you, young man, in the sense that you are much more full of yourself than you ought to be. Your heart, your hand, and your head cannot be trusted for they each are against the basic ideas and values held by the multiverse in its purest form. I can see through to your soul-- yes, your soul-- and know that you have seen and suffered much and are unable to comprehend much of what I have said to you. To make it clearer, drop the attitude and the superiority complex and I might play nice. Questions?"

Instead of replying to the old bat, he turned back to the assembled group. "I believe that she has made my point for me."

I can't believe I found someone older than Lilia, Rose thought. After hearing Lilia reference things that happened over five hundred years ago for weeks now, she was much more open to the idea of someone being incredibly old. It was still a lot to wrap her head around, but the thought of Diasomnia's smallest dorm member made it a little easier to comprehend.

Ace crossed his arms.

"She did," Ace agreed. "Everyone knows that Night Raven College is the best school out there-"

Rose stopped herself from reminding Ace that people not from Twisted Wonderland had no idea what the NRC was. He seemed to be on a roll right now, and she knew it was best to let him speak when he was.

"-but she's right on you not being able to comprehend what's going on right now. We're all zombies. What other explanation do you have? Only magic can transform people."

He glanced over at Rose.

"Rose didn't know that magic existed at first," he added, "but she accepted it as soon as she saw it and couldn't explain it away. And if you still don't agree that magic exists..."

Oh no, Rose thought.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out his wand. Before she could stop him, he sent a gust of air in the man's direction. It wasn't a full burst—it was barely more than a slightly strong breeze. But the air was still everywhere but where Ace was pointing his wand, so it hopefully served its point.

Rose sighed. At least it wasn't Deuce. His go-to magic spell was dropping a cauldron on someone's head.

Amoku crossed his arms, "Is this some type of cartoon? Did you just pull out a wand?

Had the boy actually done something of importance, like for instance, dropping something heavy, like a cauldron or similar, on someone's head, it might have been actually impressive. This is seemed like he was reenacting a low-budget Harry Potter rip-off movie.

As far as I'm concerned, everyone here is a figment of my imagination. For the first time, Amoku seemed to notice how strange this group looked. Everyone here was extremely unique in terms of clothing or appearance. In fact, Amoku himself probably looked out of place with his stained robes that didn't even look red anymore.

Sugar giggled. "Oh, you must be friends with some spirits! How wonderful! Where are they hiding? Can I meet them?" they hopped down from their perch on the capsule dwelling and looked around, searching for signs of the spirit. They couldn't find any. Those tricky little things got better at hiding every day!

Meanwhile, their winged friend sighed and shook their head. "This is pointless," they said, "We should be searching for the source of our transformations." The stiff monotone with which they spoke didn't help the urgency of their words.

"That-- that shouldn't be-- there was no kinetic energy-- or you just got lucky for a moment--" Alexander began to stutter, eyes wide as he flinched at the touch of the wind.

"The Laws of Science that you have studied, mere mortal," Sinestra replied dryly, "are not in line with the Laws of the Magicks. Not that many have truly studied or tested each of them to the fullest degree, nor have all determined why the laws are such, but they are the true laws of the multiverses."

Looking around, the ancient woman happened to find a pen and pad on the ground. She uncapped the pen and ran it over the top of the page until it finally began to write. Then, she began to write down the laws as she said them.

"Odysseus's Law of Magic states that magic is an ever-changing, ever-growing art form that will one day break all barriers to defeat all illnesses, diseases, etc. In a nation known as Thrymbridigar, they have successfully cured cancer and Alzheimer's' with magic and potionery, as an example. Merlin figured out three of the Laws: magic is taxing on the mind, soul, and spirit; magic does not require incantations or spells when one as reached true magical mastery; and magic is not strictly limited to magical families. I myself uncovered one law, the Law of Surrealism. Magic under all circumstances is bizarre and unordinary, objectifying the basics of the mortal sciences and ignoring the basic beliefs of mortal man, particularly those of Earth in all of its forms. The hybridization of the elemental magicks has resulted in the creation of thousands upon thousands of variants of each magical form, each spell, creating infinitely different timelines and possibilities. As a time traveling agent of-- well, nevermind who-- this was particularly important when I was but a small lass being educated at the Royal Academy of the Magical Arts in the heart of London by Headmaster Apollo Cartington, one of the best and brightest and greatest sorcerers I have ever had the privilege of meeting. The atomic substructures that make up protons, neutrons, electrons, preons, quarks, so on, so forth, until eventually-- well, nevermind what eventually happens, just know that magic controls the multiverses in all of their forms and creates the essence of life." Turning the the group, she added, "This, young people, is why you never want to use the Socratic Method and make use of it in your daily life."

Sugar yawned. Who had signed them up for a lecture?

Off to one side, the angel's decayed wings fluttered in irritation, but her expression remained neutral.

Harry and Jason exchanged a look that simultaneously said. "Well this is hot mess."

Harry decided to step right in.

"Okay, well, while all this bickering is somewhat entertaining, I don't think we're going to get anywhere if everyone goes on like that. Alright, so Mr. Alexander Bernard, or should I say Professor, I get that you don't believe in magic, which is...fair. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you should certainly go down a couple of pegs here cause you can insult a couple of people with that attitude and trust me you don't want that," said Harry.

"Harry, do you seriously want to threaten someone you just met?" asked Jason, "although I reluctantly have to agree with my brother here, you're barreling towards a fatal misunderstanding there."

"Well you just did exactly what I did, and no that was a statement of fact, not a threat," said Harry, rolling his eyes, "anyway, where was I? Yes, so yeah, I think you get the point. Also...uhh...Sinestra I believe, its a bit harder to say, fun fact, Alexander the Great...wasn't that pleasant off the battlefield. Trust me on that one. Dude was a bit much sometimes, much like this Alexander we've got here. Also...that lecture on magic was a bit long for a theory that primitive."

"If you're done making a horrible impression on everyone present," said Jason, "so, ignore what my brother said, the Laws of Magicks are still respected in so many young civilizations. But anyway, all of that is besides the point, because I believe we should be discussing more about how to figure out this zombification problem. We're all definitely not dead...well.." He glanced at Sugar. "But anyway, I think how about we try for some cooperation and like Raziel over there said, let's look for the source of these transformations."

When one of the group yawned, Ace did, too. Rose was sure the lecture had gone right over his head. It had gone over hers a little, too, but she had tried to pay attention to it. There could have been something in it that explained what was going on right now.

"I'm also in favor of putting aside our differences right now," Rose quickly said, glancing between the members of the group that seemed the most likely to get into a fight. Her gaze lingered on Ace for the longest; he didn't seem to notice. "No matter if you believe in magic or not, we all look like zombies and ended up somewhere we weren't supposed to be. We all still seem like people, so it might just be our appearances that changed."

"And our smells," Ace said, smirking at her.

She elbowed him for the dig. He maturely elbowed her back.

Rose thought for another moment.

"We should start with introductions," she decided. "Once we do that, we can try looking for other people. There might be someone near us that can explain why we're here—or at least tell us why a zombie apocalypse started."

She gestured at herself.

"I'm Rose W. Chase," she offered. "I'm from Earth, but I go to a magic school called Night Raven College in Twisted Wonderland. I'm the prefect of the Ramshackle Dorm."

"I'm Ace," Ace offered, following her lead. She was glad he was going along with it. "I'm a first year in the Heartslabyul Dorm."

"That would be wise, assuming that certain people--" she glanced at Harry before returning her gaze to Rose-- "keep their minds away from mine. It is unwise to read minds that are undefended, especially when you're reading the mind of an ancient creature that has lived longer than everyone else here put together."

"...ignoring the crazy woman that can't possibly be that old," the professor interrupted, "I am Alexander Bernard, a... former scientist."

"And I am Sinestra Hopkins-Jones, a woman that is that old, and growing older by the second," she replied dryly. I'd love to go about 500 years without losing my magic rather than having to so something exceedingly dangerous without magic every week. Why not reduce my power rather than take it completely?

...because that would be the obvious thing for Him to do, and he is not one to be obvious. In retrospect, that makes sense.
...that doesn't make it any easier...

Moving on, what are the tasks? Presumably fixing whatever mass issue might be found here and returning all of these people to their original physical states, That might be enough to theoretically return my magic and send these people to their homes...
...assuming that it's safe to go home. I know why I'm here. I'm supposed to be here. Just like I was supposed to-- that's not important, what is important is that these people have the potential of being put in harm's way.

Hypothesis: I'm being tested.
Experiment: Take the bait.

Jason had to burst out laughing at that last comment. Immortals could be truly hilarious sometimes, especially when it came to flexing on each other with their ages. He could correct her, but decided that the smart thing to do was ignore that comment for the moment. If he started a contest to decide who was older, there would be no winners and they'd get absolutely nothing of use done. Harry, however, didn't seem to have realized the same thing.

"Young lady, you want to be careful with the words you use in front of immortals," began Harry and Jason had to roll his eyes at the choice of words. "They can be quite...sensitive about things like threats. Also for your information, I didn't read anyone's mind, there are plenty of ways for a celestial to know things."

Jason was surprised as Harry ended his speech on that note. That had been a lot better than he feared. Perhaps Harry could be mature when the situation presented itself.

"That is good advice actually, " agreed Jason, "you should probably take it. Anyway, where were we, right, introductions...those do tend to help out sometimes. So, I'm Jason, Jason Hardy, I'm from, well...I guess I'm technically Death, with the ol' capital D, but that's been debatable for septillenia...eh well, that's life or death I guess. I dunno. I don't do introductions like this too often."

"Yeah that was a terrible introduction," said Harry, "although sadly it does seem the most appropriate to the current situation....and it honestly wasn't the worst one we had." Harry looked pointedly at Sinestra and Jason had to take back his earlier statement. Harry could not be mature under any circumstances. "So I'm Harry, I'm known as the Darkness, with a capital D. Yeah, I think that's sufficient for now.."

"Huh. Immortals," Amoku crossed his arms, attempting to hide his smile, "But if each of you are so powerful why don't you get us out of this mess anyway?"

"I'm Amoku, a pretty usual non-immortal human being with no wings or vines or weird nicknames like Deadness and Darkness."

Raziel held back her sigh. These people spoke of immortality with the novelty of mortals who had been granted it by some foolish diety. Immortals were around for a purpose. These people were purposeless and arrogant.

"I'm Sugar," the walking garden cheerfully introduced theirself, interrupting Raziel's exasperated thoughts.

"And I am Raziel," they sighed. There was no need for their God-given alias here. This was not their site of exile. "Now, I do believe it would be best for us to move along. Perhaps this city has a town hall or some other place where records of what precisely has happened here would be stored. The local news station is another possibility if they possess paper files. I do not imagine that digital materials will be so easily retrieved."

Rose probably should have been more surprised by two people being the personifications of death and darkness. Ace looked surprised, even though he tried his best to hide it. But after going to a magic school where her closest classmates could all be compared to Disney characters, that reveal was admittedly a little basic. It was a hard one to guess, but it wasn't like Epel Feimer being strangely like the poisoned apple in Snow White.

(Rose had only figured that one out last week.)

She glanced at the horizon, mulling over Raziel's suggestion.

“If this is like my New York City,” she said, “then the news is more digital. There could be newspapers, too, but digital files would probably have more information.”

She thought for a moment.

“...If we're looking for paper files,” she said, “we could try the New York Public Library. I've never been there before and it wouldn't have anything too recent, but we might be able to find some kind of paper on whatever virus would have caused a zombie apocalypse.”

Ace gave her a blank look.

“A virus is a thing that can make you sick,” she said, sighing. Twisted Wonderland was usually pretty modern, but it wasn't like Night Raven College had a basic biology class. It was easier to just spell or potion away a cold.

Ace crossed his arms. “I thought it was magic that was causing this.”

“Magic probably caused us to look like this,” Rose said, “but it might not have anything to do with why there's a zombie apocalypse in the first place. Every zombie apocalypse fanfi-story I've read had a virus.”

Ace gave her a long, judging look. Rose decided to just ignore him for now.

“We just have to find the library,” she said, turning back to the others.

"You know, Mr. Amoku, you do realize that just poofing out of here is a) the most boring way to get out of this mess and b) its good to know who did this before leaving, just to arrange a lovely surprise for them," said Harry.

"I agree on the second point," said Jason, nodding,"now you guys say library, I think that's a good point to start, we should probably get going then."

"Yeah, digital files are never reliable in apocalypse scenarios like this anyway, at least I hope this is one, its hard to tell," said Harry,"contrary to popular belief, a virus isn't always the cause of a situation like this, nor is magic, there could be something else entirely at work here."