Authors Note: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this new fic, I'm trying my best to bring a different twist to zombies. And I have no clue how I've done with that, either way have a good day and take care! And this fic is going to be relatively short.

It was a dark fall night in Inkopolis. A couple of weeks ago, the season had changed, and only days after summer's end, the tree leaves began to change from green to orange, before falling off the branches and scattering in the wind, not that anyone minded. The inhabitants of Inkopolis were inklings, which could change into squids at their own free will. An unfortunate disaster had occurred thousands of years ago, flooding the world. When the water receded, some species began to evolve. Squids became inklings, and after a lot of hardships, Inkopolis was created. The biggest thing in this entire town was turf wars, where everyone competed to improve their skill and show how fresh they were. Everybody could become immensely fresh, but the number one priority was to have fun. Everyone in Inkopolis could be considered an artist in some sense of the word.

The evening continued at the main plaza of Inkopolis, which was a center for many shops, as well as the battle tower which people resided in for battles, with the huge great zapfish attached. At one point the great zapfish had vanished for a few days, and thankfully returned with no harm. Two confused inklings were walking out of the battle tower, looking around the eerily empty main plaza, every shops they saw was closed. Some nights, Inkopolis just really was quiet, which was just what it was. The shops however rarely closed this early. Usually the shops all stayed open until eight in the evening, and it was only half past six. The sun only had just vanished minutes ago.

"Guess it's the end of tonight," a yellow tentacle haired squid spoke up. Beside him was his friend, an inkling with green tentacles for hair that was done up into a bow. Both of the young boys were tired after participating in quite a few turf wars against other random squids, and had become drained of their energy.

"I think it's time we head back to our apartment, Emerald," the yellow inkling yawned, ready to head back to their apartment, but then Emerald grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Beige! Hold on, I wanna see if the Squid Sisters are recording," Emerald begged. He was a huge fan of Inkopolis's two most famous squids, the Squid Sisters. Those two were the biggest trending stars that gained fame more and more daily, and each album they published would turn into a platinum seller in less than a week, and normally the famous duo could be seen near the plaza, working in their studio, though the main thing that most people liked about the Squid Sisters was that they were not mentally corrupted by their huge wealth and fame. They were a very nice pair that actively helped out communities in Inkopolis.

"Fine, but let's hurry up," Beige sighed, reluctantly following his close friend ahead to the nearby staircase that led up to another area in the main plaza. A huge window let the two look into a room that had two chairs and a table to the side, but on the other side of the dark room was some camera equipment, as well as a big television that normally the famous duo stood in front of when reading the news. There was an oddity, though. Something that they both noticed.

"Why is the place a mess?" Emerald frowned. The Squid Sisters' studio room looked like a person had snuck in just to make things look untidy. There was an entrance to the studio nearby. The green inkling was very disappointed to not see his favorite stars, but now he had another thought on mind.

"Emerald, come on… let's get going," Beige groaned, following his best friend. They noticed a pair of double doors, where normally there would be a guard there watching and making sure no one would sneak in through the entrance, but this time, there was nothing. In fact, one of the two doors was open slightly.

"We're going to get in trouble, dude," the yellow squid included in a bit of annoyance, not wanting to be arrested for breaking and entering, all because his friend just wanted to sneak in and probably take something for some delusional reason. He was going to follow though, just to make sure everything was alright.

"Something's going on in there. Aren't you curious, Beige? I mean, if we find some criminal in there and stop him, we might get a chance to meet the Squid Sisters in person!" Emerald exclaimed excitedly while opening the door. All the lights were off, and they could barely see. At times like this, the green inkling wished he could find a light switch, but it didn't look like any was around.

"Okay, one, I hate the Squid Sisters. Two, you look like a stalker enough already. And three, this place is as scary as a cave," Beige retorted, but his comments fell on his friend's pointy deaf ears. He had to follow him inside to keep him safe and explain what was happening to the police if they wound up coming. Emerald went on inside, his friend following shortly behind him. This studio had hundreds of shows made in it, but the Squid Sisters were the biggest rating attractors. The only real television show that was really known from this studio was Squid Attorney, which was about a poor defense lawyer who was never able to get a break from his job, and had to always find some way to prove his clients innocent with evidence, and an incredible amount of bluffing and luck.

"I'm sure the door's locked," Beige stated as they approached the door that had a plaque on the front of it reading Squid Sisters. The studio room's big door would be locked whenever no one was working here. However, Emerald grabbed the handle with a smile and opened the door wide. The irritated Beige just wanted to satisfy his friend's creepy desires and get out of here so he could go home and get some rest.

"Hey look, lollipops," Emerald said, already in the room in half a second. Beige entered confusedly, seeing the table the Squid Sisters normally sat at, which Emerald was already sitting at. Atop the table stood a small round pencil holder with two big lollipops within them.

"Emerald! Those are for decoration!" Beige argued, but his friend had already taken one out and put it near his mouth, licking it happily. The one he had grabbed tasted like watermelon and strawberries.

"You can eat them!" Emerald exclaimed. Beige could not believe half of this. His friend was incredibly lucky tonight. Either that or this was a very elaborate prank being set up, but he doubted that since his best friend could not coordinate anything remotely, not even a game of go fish.

"Can you stop now? You don't know how old that is," Beige ordered. However, the two had their attention caught when they heard a loud crashing noise, perhaps something very expensive hitting the floor and shattering into pieces, and it came from the storage room of the Squid Sisters' studio. The staircase downward showed a door that led to it being wide open once more, like someone had gotten so sick of working here, that they just opened every door before quitting.

"Maybe it was a rat…?" Beige said, Emerald tossing the big lollipop aside before beginning to climb down the steps, his best friend reluctantly following.

"A rat running around breaking things? Something is going on here, Beige, and we're going to make headlines of the news when we stop it," Emerald happily reminded the yellow squid of that odd hope the green inkling had of meeting the Squid Sisters, and maybe being famous for being heroes that stopped a break in. At this point, Beige had given up and just played along with it. If they were not out of this studio in the next ten minutes, he was going to bail.

"Oh, good. Finally, a light switch…" Beige smiled. For once their luck was looking up. The basement light switch was in easy sight and sensibly right by the door, unlike the other missing light switches for some odd reason. He flicked it on, seeing the then illuminated basement. There were a few spare cameras and some older televisions that were used until the Squid Sisters upgraded to higher definition, and stacks of boxes were arranged, filled with wires. In this storage room lay a shattered glass bowl on the ground, only a few big chunks remaining out of the thousands of tiny shards.

"Huh?! OhmygoshBeigelook!" Emerald squealed in an excited tone. He was so enthralled by this that his voice got a little higher pitched. Beige wondered what it was until he noticed himself at the end of the basement. A girl sat there with her back turned to them, having pointy tentacles and wearing a business suit.

"An octarian?" Beige quirked. Octarians or octolings were another race that had evolved, but from octopi instead. All octarians were presumed to have left after the great turf wars that happened between the two races a long time ago. The yellow squid had a bad feeling about this, as this octoling girl looked odd. She was near the fire escape that was underneath the studio. Each room was connected by the basement, all for storage purposes anyway. She appeared to be blocking the emergency fire escape, an alternative one installed in the basement in case the main fire escape was blocked off.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" Beige questioned, coming over and putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, panting, having been startled by the sudden appearance of the inkling.

"He-hey… You need to get out, now," the octoling told him with her shaky voice, Emerald approaching as well. The two friends were very confused. This poor octarian looked like a mess. She was terrified, dirty, and covered in bruises and scratches, as well as a set of bite marks on her forearm. They heard banging on the other side of the door to the fire escape.

"You can't be here," Emerald tried to say, "This is a private studio…"

"Most of the studio workers from tonight are locked behind that door, as well as a few of my friends! Look, something's going on! You need to go now!" she raised her voice. Just then, the three of them noticed an odd color of ink pouring out from under the door. It was a soulless, dark grey, a color that no one had seen before. No squid alive had grey for ink.

"Ah! No!" she backed off. Emerald and Beige were confused. The fire escape was locked tight. Suddenly, they saw three odd figures emerge from the ink, various squids that looked like poor cameramen and editors. Their eyes housed a lifeless gaze in them, and their tentacles were grey, stripped of any color from them. They happened to have bite marks on them, as well. Some of them were drooling that very grey ink from their mouth.

"Wh-what the heck?! What's going on?!" Emerald said in shock. Before the three could do anything, two of the grey squids suddenly spat out bursts of ink that hit the octoling they had found down here. She screamed, being pulled on to the ground and then forcibly sucked into the ink. She was forced to revert into her octopus form, as she sank into the grey ink and never came out.

"Oh, jeez!" Beige began to back up in terror, making sure his friend could try to leave. The three grey squids began to approach slowly, letting out moans that sent shivers down their backs. They were frozen in place with fear. Suddenly, splatters of green ink arrived and hit the three grey inklings. They exploded into a puddle of the green ink, all of them splattered.

"Hey! You two okay?" they heard. Emerald's jaw dropped and his eyes widened, Beige was surprised as well. Standing at the bottom of the steps was a familiar white inkling, with her tentacles tied up into a bow behind her head and angled to the right, and sporting a black dress with green diamonds on it sideways. She was wielding an orange weapon known as an N-Zap'89, and with a full ink tank on her back full of green ink.

"Marie!" Emerald exclaimed in glee. Marie was the one of the Squid Sisters, and normally the more laid back of the two, but she knew to be serious when matters called for it, and this definitely was a big matter that needed nothing but seriousness.

"Er… hi?" Marie awkwardly greeted, looking to the grey ink on the floor. She shot at it with a green ink blast, and then the same octoling pop back out, coughing and gasping for air.

"Ignore my friend. He's just a nut. What's going on?" Beige requested. He had to believe this as the reason why all the main plaza had been cleared out. Marie came over and helped up the octarian, who began crying and hugging the Squid Sister.

"I don't know… I came back because I forgot my wallet. Suddenly, all the night shift workers have lost their minds and a bunch of octarians are in Inkopolis now. This is Octung. She was trying to help me in trade for saving her," Marie explained to the best of her ability. Needless to say she did not expect her night to become so violent.

"I… I got bit…" Octung began to sob, looking for some desperate comfort. She had failed at trapping the grey squids behind the fire escape door. Marie sighed, helping her up.

"From what I can gather, the insane inklings just… when you get bitten, you slowly lose your mind and your color before you become like them… but I'm sure everything will be fine," Marie reassured, having compete confidence. However, she noticed some odd looks on the pair of boys before them as they glanced to each other.

"A mind destroying disease that takes someone's color too?" Beige quirked, having a hard time believing it.

"Taking over minds… transmitting through bites…" Emerald gained a huge grin across his face, his friend having a slightly more concerned expression.

"It's zombies!" they both said at once. Emerald was excited, and Beige was terrified. Marie and Octung did not know what to think, but they were capable and active inklings that could work together with them. Marie was afraid of the octoling's fate, but she knew for sure that it might be grim.

"Right… zombies… look, do you guys wanna come with us? We're going to meet up with Callie and it might be best if we stick together," Marie recommended not splitting up. The more the merrier. The fact that these zombies were slow meant anyone could outsmart them, but she could not believe it herself that there was actually a zombie outbreak, and it was clear. Emerald had been waiting his whole life for some form of apocalypse, but being able to meet both of the Squid Sisters was a great dream that he longed to achieve.

"Sure, we'll gladly come along," Beige agreed, trying to keep a calm head. Marie was glad to know they had some questionably useful inklings to back her up, though she was aware that she was going to be greatly annoyed by Emerald, Marie turned around and began heading up the steps, supporting Octung to help get her out, she was unsure of what would happen to her. Beige and Emerald followed behind the Squid Sister. Marie hoped her cousin would be alright, but soon enough, they will all know that things were far from alright. Things were going to change rapidly in Inkopolis, for both octolings and inklings.