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At the start of the Zombie outbreak Reginald Hargreeves bought multiple babies.
This was nothing weird anymore. The times were hard. Everything was allowed.
He got them searching for a way to immunize them against the zombie virus.
He gave them numbers at first and then as he purchased what he called the second generation he gave them classes too.
The Life Academy was generation one. None of them survived longer than 5 years.
The Blood Academy was generation two. He had a breakthrough with a young girl there who lived over two weeks after a bite without turning.
And so he went on. Experimenting, changing what he gave the children. Tweaking. Buying new infants.
All while the world broke out in flames around him.
Soon he uses the children that survive long enough to be trained in combat as his own security measure.
They become the guards of him and their younger siblings one generation training the one after them. He lets the most capable ones – the leaders – pick their successors though he makes sure all of them are loyal to him first.
They still turn. It takes longer now and many bites but at some point each and every one of his children becomes a monster.
He’s gone through many years now. The two generations guarding him and their younger siblings now are the sparrow academy and the umbrella academy.
“Dad…” the boy is sitting on the chair reserved for the current leader, it’s not the usual one but his apprentice which can only mean one thing. He’s tall for his age though smaller than the other one and can not reach the ground. Reginald will have to call Pogo to deal with that. He has blond hair and is holding his arm close to his chest.
“Yes?”
“Marcus uh… Number One from the Sparrows, was bitten one time too much. He’s… looking like he’s about to turn.”
“Well, you know what to do, don’t you?”
“But… Dad I’ve never… killed one of us…” the boys eyes are huge. “I don’t know if I can…”
“Well then you better start,” he looked at him sternly. “You’re the leader now, aren’t you? You have to take on what he did.”
The boy looks like he’s about to protest for a moment but shakes his head and looks down.
“Alright Sir,” he whispers.
Luther steps out of his father’s office feeling cold. He doesn’t want to kill who he saw as his older brother. Marcus is just a few years older than him but taught him everything he knew. Everything about Zombies and how to kill them. He taught him how to write, ever patiently and even once smuggled in a small model plane for Luther to build he can’t just…
Luther sets his jaw. No. He mustn’t think like that. Marcus is gone. What is left is a Zombie. A evil bad thing, it’s not him Luther is killing and Marcus wouldn’t want to be a Zombie.
He walks down the hall to where they are keeping Marcus and finds Ben standing in front of it.
Ben’s the only other Sparrow still left. Now he’s the only one, Luther thinks.
“Luther…” he says when he seek him take the gun from the wall. “You don’t have to...”
“I’m Number One now,” Luther says and looks at him. “This is my job.”
“But I’m…”
“You’re just number 2, Ben.”
“You’re eleven!”
“So? I’m still the boss now,” he says.
“Let me do it! Luther, come on… Nobody has to know…”
“No, Ben. I’m Number One,” Luther says and it’s final.
He steps into the room.
“Marcus?” he asks with a small voice.
His older brother is standing in the back. Bound to a metal pole, he’s hitting his head against the wall.
His skin is broken and grey and Luther can smell the sickly sweet smell of rot coming from him. Luther stares at him.
“Hi, Marcus,” he whispers.
Marcus stares back at him, his eyes are bloodshot. There are tears in them. “Lu…”
“It won’t hurt,” Luther promises quietly. “I’ll be quick and efficient like you taught me and then nothing will ever hurt again. No more tests. No more needles. No more fighting.”
“Lu- Luh- thaah,” Marcus says. “Puh… Pl..”
Luther’s eyes are big and round as he thinks about the zombies, the actual ones, the ones that are all the way turned and wouldn’t even recognize their own mother. But Marcus… Marcus is right here. Talking. Can he really…
Marcus gives a snarl and pulls his head back crushing it against the pole he’s tied to.
The pole, Luther realizes suddenly as panic fill him, is already dented.
“I’m sorry,” Luther says and shoots.
He leaves the room quickly ignoring the shouts from Ben.
In his room he sits on his bed and gets his first aid kit. He inspects the bite on his arm.
The zombie had bitten him shortly before Marcus got it, shortly before Marcus saved him. Luther stares at it, the skin around it is turning grey and it will stay like this he knows. He’s the ones Marcus had. It’s his first bite. It’ll take time, years possibly but eventually Luther will become a monster himself.
There’s a knock on his door and he quickly finishes bandaging it.
“Yes?”
“Hello?” a younger girl looks at him. She’s from the generation after them Luther knows. “I couldn’t sleep…”
“Do you want me to tell you something?”
She nods. “Can you tell me about how to kill Zombies?”
“Of course,” Luther says and smiles.