DISCLAIMER: These characters are not mine – just borrowing. No copyright infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Ground Zero – Washington 3.00pm
By Morgaine
Special Agent Ziva David sat on the top step of the stairway leading to MTAC and gazed down onto the mayhem below. "This is not how I imagined I would meet my maker."
Her companion shrugged. "I guess it is one of the slimmer possibilities." There followed a depressed sigh, "I always thought that fighting zombies would be really cool."
Ziva found it unsurprising that Abby Sciuto had, in the past, taken time to consider such things. "Ah, but the zombies you're used to stay nicely within the confines of a TV screen and can be stopped at a press of a button." She looked over the undead milling about below, a hint of sadness entering her voice. "And they do not consist of former colleagues." Her eyes followed a zombie!DiNozzo, who had apparently abandoned the cause of Zombie-ism and instead of joining the attack to kill his former friends was chasing (well, lumbering slowly) after the undead version of the cute wages clerk who had started the month previously.
The two women had managed to barricade a section of the stairs leading to MTAC, and this was holding back most of their would-be attackers. Every so often one of the zombies would summon up enough co-ordination to climb up over the selection of desks and chairs and growl menacingly at them, at which point Ziva would shoot it. The toppling zombie would have a domino-like effect on the others behind it resulting in a mass of undead at the foot of the stairs. These would take an inordinately long time to sort themselves out and then the 'attack' would start all over again. Ziva checked her gun – there were easily a dozen rounds left in the clip – so chances were when they ran out of bullets she'd be bored as well as dead.
She sighed. The idea had been to get from Abby's lab up to MTAC, with its heavy security doors, lock themselves in and tell whoever was out there left to listen what was happening. Unfortunately, as they fought their way up the stairs the top-level security alert had sounded and MTAC automatically shut itself off from the rest of the building. There were, of course, other doors leading off the MTAC level, but, true to Ziva's luck at the moment, these had also been sealed in the security shut down and needed a clearance far higher than hers to get them open again.
The gun jerked in her hand and Ziva watched ex-agent Carter as he bounced not-so-merrily down the stairs on the heads of the other undead. She sighed. Again.
"I don't want to be a zombie!" announced Abby suddenly, and to Ziva's thinking, almost petulantly.
"But you sleep in a coffin!" the confused Israeli replied.
Abby turned to her and lectured, "That does not mean I want to be a zombie. Vampires sleep in coffins."
"So you want to be a vampire?"
"It wouldn't suck." She looked at the Mossad woman expectantly.
The sound of laughter floated down to the confused zombies below.
After the fifth bout of zombie-toppling Ziva broached a subject they had been avoiding. "Abby, have you seen any sign of Gibbs down there?" The forensic scientist shook her head. "He'll be fine." She looked at the still smoking remains of the destroyed coffee machine. "Even a zombie would know better that to confront Gibbs when he's running low on caffeine." Ziva nodded, mainly because the alternative was too awful to contemplate.
In the office below, zombie!DiNozzo's attention had been diverted from the wages clerk and he was now hot on the heels of zombie!McGee. Somehow, Ziva wasn't surprised.
The background groaning of the undead was suddenly punctuated by several shots from somewhere behind a door to their right. Both women leapt to their feet, Ziva moving backwards to put the stairs between them and the door, enabling her to cover both, and guiding Abby in close behind her. "Stay back there Abby" she said softly and brought her gun to bear on the door from behind which sounds of movement were now emanating.
Mere seconds later the door burst open with a loud crash and Abby, eyes closed, her body pressed close to Ziva's back, waited for the shooting to start. Instead she felt some of the tension drain from her protector's body. Risking a look over the other woman's shoulder she was rewarded with the sight of a slightly dishevelled Gibbs lowering his gun and with a shriek of his name flew across the distance separating them to engulf him in a hug.
"S'OK Abs," returning the hug he patted her gently on the back. "Ziva." he nodded to the agent before him.
"Good to see you. We thought you might be dead."
"Undead," corrected Abby, surfacing from her hug.
"Whatever." Ziva said, the relief now washing through her leaving behind a rather large degree of annoyance. "Where the hell have you been, Gibbs?"
"He came to find me." The voice came from behind the senior agent. "I'm glad you made it ladies."
Abby unabashedly untangled herself from Gibbs. "You too, Director!" she beamed and practically bounced back to Ziva's side.
Ziva acknowledged Jenny with a nod but continued to Gibbs "And that took all this time?"
"We were in the Director's office – her staff had turned into those… things." He gestured to the milling bodies below. "It took a while to get out."
Ziva was incredulous "You're telling me that you were trapped in an office for nearly two hours by a couple of zombie secretaries?"
Gibbs' mouth gave the tiniest of twitches. "They were heavily armed."
"With what? Pencil sharpeners?"
There was that twitch again – and a twinkle in Gibbs' eyes. Jenny suddenly found the floor very interesting.
'So,' thought Ziva, 'even senior agents and Agency Directors are not immune to the infamous we're about to die, let's have sex syndrome.' She took a calming breath. "Thank you for coming back to check, the outlook here was not good."
Gibbs steeled himself to ask, "The others?"
"Ducky was alive the last time we saw him, he was heading to the garage to collect his Morgan to try and get home." She found she didn't want to continue. Abby gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Gibbs saw her reluctance and guessed what the reply to his next question would be. "Tony... Tim?"
Ziva simply shook her head and watched the flash of pain flit through her senior officer's eyes, followed by a deep breath and a return to business. Live now, mourn later – she knew the drill all too well.
"There's an agency chopper fuelled and ready to go up on the roof. Unfortunately the pilot was visiting the canteen when all this started and got eaten by something that disagreed with him."
"Then I can get us out of here."
Abby looked at Ziva in awe. "You can fly?"
"Sure." She rather liked the look of adoration on Abby's face.
"That is with the assistance of a helicopter Abs," Gibbs clarified, "She's not Superwoman."
The Goth just smiled wider "Oh, I don't know about that."
Ziva waggled her eyebrows. "I have many skills."
Abby squealed with delight. "And a Xena fan too! I think I'm in love."
The two women just stood there with goofy smiles on their faces, aware something was happening here besides the possible apocalypse - the moment shattered by a 'thwack' as Gibbs' hand reached across and clipped the back of Ziva's head. "If the Warrior Princess" he looked pointedly at Ziva "and her feisty sidekick," his eyes slipped to Abby, "are ready I suggest we make the effort to get the hell out of here. C'mon Jen." and grabbing the Director's hand he led the way toward the formerly blocked door and the stairwell to the roof.
Abby's eyes were still twinkling. "Sidekick to Ziva, Warrior Princess eh?" she leant in and kissed Ziva quickly, but with promising passion. "I think I can live with that." and with a grin turned and followed the others through the door.
Ziva, somewhat stunned and a little breathless from the heated kiss, paused to take one last look at the office below, noting zombie!Tony had finally got together with zombie!Tim and were doing something she'd never considered a zombie pastime in a corner. As she turned to follow the others she pondered the possibilities – Gibbs and Jenny, Abby and herself. 'Somehow I don't think the post-apocalypse is going to be boring.' She smiled and headed for the roof and the future.
The End