Epilogue

Resurrection

At the most remotest island in the world at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 1,600 miles from the coast of South Africa, something peculiar was happening on the uninhabited land mass called Bouvet Island. It had become a nature reserve so the only witnesses to this event were the seals, birds and penguins that could handle the cold temperature of the glaciers that covered the island.

Three bleached white skulls with around three metres in between them were floating six foot above the icy terrain, rotating slowly as if they were on strings. Slowly but surely more bones began to appear from beneath these skulls – the spine, shoulder blades, rib cage – and the bones were soon followed by the cartilage, muscles, skin, and organs that made up the human body. Bright eyes formed into existence, black hair flowed down shoulders, and menacing expressions stood prominent on the dark faces of the three men that had appeared on this remote island.

"...So our dear little brother got himself offed again…" One of the three men spoke, the burliest and toughest looking of the men.

"Allowing our return," the sickliest of the three said, eyes ringed with black and his dark skin paler than the rest.

"We couldn't have come back somewhere more convenient?" The final of the three spoke, his body so thin that his skin hugged against his skeleton.

…This is the most convenient place, my loves…

War, Pestilence, and Famine looked around the glacier in surprise but they could not see an owner to the feminine voice. War stepped forward towards the edge of the island where the water lapped against the rocky coast. "Pandora? You are still imprisoned?"

…Of course. Kyros was not so sloppy as to ensure that your freedom meant my own…

"What do you need of us?" Pestilence asked.

"The destruction of mortal kind, of course!" War exclaimed with a fierce expression on his face.

…Of sorts, dear Akadios, of sorts. Yes, we shall reap destruction upon the mortals but we shall do it specifically in a way to make them suffer. Kyros' sealing has not only stopped the flow of souls into my Seven Hells, but has reversed the process. Souls are flooding back into this world with no place to go to except back to their mortal bodies – no matter how decrepit they may be. The dead will rise, my loves, and with our guiding hands we can ensure they cause devastation among these humans…

…Maro, you will infect these dead so that they will spread the rotting disease of the undead on contact with tooth or nail. I want the mortals to be threatened by even one of these roaming dead. They will get cocky when they realise that they cannot die as usual, that their spirits remain resolute as the gates are closed so we will make them afraid of being changed into one of the shambling ones…

…Prokles, you will give the dead hunger. Hunger for human flesh. This will ensure that the dead will seek out any of the living and convert them over to the other side. With Maro's disease and your hunger the plague will spread and overtake the world. Only a few of the many mortals will survive this outbreak…

…Which is where you, Akadios, come in. You will sow distrust, suspicion, and aggression upon the mortals. They will stay in close-knit groups and only the most resistant of them will be able to bring others together. Yet most will refuse to help when others are in danger, will refuse to put their own lives on the line. Let us give these mortals another taste of what they experienced when the boy Shishak sealed Kyros. Only this time, it will last. The plague will spread and millions will die. For my daughter will not do as Shishak did, will not bring Kyros back. She is of my blood and she is of his blood and I know what she thinks. I spoke to her for many a year before that Oracle disrupted my efforts…

"Another plague? Another outbreak?" Akadios smiled warmly. "A wonderful plan, Pandora. Yet what of you? What do we need to do to free you?"

…My dear Akadios, that is simple. My freedom is caused by the destruction of the seven totems. Yet I do not want any of you to destroy those totems. I want you to find out where my generals are hidden and to free them. The humans will do the rest. For the only way to kill my generals is to destroy their totems. By slaying the threats to their lives, they will bring back the biggest threat of all. My loves, they must suffer! I don't want to snuff out the candle, I want to watch it slowly burn to the wick! The mortals will extinguish themselves…

Lisa Valentine stood in front of the closed glass doors of the tall grey building that for all the public knew was just another office building in Cairo, Egypt. Flanking her were three of her personal combat operatives: Oni with his demonic mask, Saint with his trench-coat and sword, and Wildfire with his half-mask revealing his flame-patterned hair. The door was so reflective that Lisa could only see herself and her team in front of it.

"Either Zeina has gotten extremely sloppy," Lisa said with a frown. "Or, as I expected, something has happened." For any DSI HQ, the processes were simple on visitors. Monitor the cameras and as soon as anyone came within thirty meters of the entrance send out somebody to see them in – or throw them out – depending on the situation. As soon as the camera above the door caught sight of Lisa there should have been an entourage of people welcoming a fellow CEO of the DSI.

The reports they had been receiving had stopped days ago and Lisa suspected that the latest reports weren't true either. They didn't seem to match the usual reports Zeina would give in the meetings held between the CEO's of the major DSI HQ's. She had tried to consult the Board of Directors but they had insisted nothing was wrong. Yet Lisa couldn't shake the feeling so upon returning from England she had decided to fly straight down to Cairo to check. If nothing was wrong, then it was an excuse to see a friend, if something was wrong then she would be able to find out what.

Without further pause, Lisa pushed her way through the silver door and immediately stopped. Saint drew his sword with lightning fast movements while Wildfire and Oni leaped in front of Lisa. Lisa looked between them at the receptionist who was slumped face down on his desk. There was nobody else in sight. A shiver ran up Lisa's spine as she walked over to the receptionist. He had been dead for quite a while. "Let's go," she said grimly, beckoning to her silent team. They had quickly taken up their positions and Oni and Wildfire led the way to the stairs.

They walked up the stairs all the way to the top floor; taking the elevator would certainly put them at a disadvantage if anybody were waiting at the top. They reached the top hall and saw that there was nobody waiting at the elevator. She couldn't hear any kind of movement at all. They moved towards the glass doors and Oni and Wildfire came to an abrupt stop.

"…Dios mio…" Oni muttered out from behind his mask, breaking his silence. This surprised Lisa as Oni was the least-spoken of her four combat operatives even when they weren't on missions. She quickly stood between he and Wildfire as Saint covered her flank.

Lisa's eyes scanned the open spaces lined with desks. At each desk there was a body, slumped just like the receptionist. No sign of blood, no sign of injury. It was as if they had all had a heart attack at the same time. It was the same as Zeina's report on the football stadium that they had to cover up. She had informed the rest that she had the situation handled but this… this didn't look handled. Lisa's frowned deepened as she strode up the centre of the floor, passing bodies of what had to be nearly every member of the Egyptian branch of the DSI.

She reached her goal at the end of the floor, the office of Zeina Morcos, and furrowed her brow. Zeina Morcos was not at her desk but there was a spread of dried out blood across the papers. Lisa walked to the other side of the desk and noted a hole in the window about the size of a tennis ball. She peered through it at a tall building far across from the HQ. Putting two and two together clearly made this a sniper shot but where was the body? If Zeina had been shot then she would have been at this desk.

Something clattered behind them.

Lisa spun around and she was immediately surrounded by her three soldiers. Wildfire to the left, Oni to the right, and Saint directly in front of her. She peered past them to see movement at each of the desks. The bodies of the men and women who were clearly dead were somehow rising from their seats with blank expressions. Saint's grip tightened on the handle of his sword as one of them turned and spotted the group of four before letting out a guttural scream of rage and diving forward, smashing straight through the window to charge at Saint.

Swish. A flash of the blade and the head of the man went rolling across the floor as Saint flicked the blood off his blade.

"…That was only the first…" Lisa said with a grimace, drawing the pistol holstered at her hip under her jacket. The rest of the walking dead had made it into the centre corridor and each one let off a guttural scream that acted like a domino effect making each of them shout and yell in turn before the whole horde of undead sprinted full pelt at Oni, Saint, Wildfire, and Lisa Valentine.

Darkness. Deep, pressing darkness. The woman made sure to try and open her eyes but it was made certain that she was indeed deep in darkness. She couldn't understand where she was or why she was there. She desperately felt around the box that held her and started to grow more and more panicked. Had she been buried alive? That couldn't be true, could it? People would realise if she were alive before throwing her under the ground.

Then the woman's panic grew more pronounced as she beat on the cold metal above her face. She didn't know who she was. She tried to think, tried to push through the murkiness that was her mind but all she remembered was pain, intense, mind-breaking pain. She opened her mouth and heard a scream reverberate around the box she was contained in but she didn't recognise it as a voice she knew.

She smashed her fists into the top of the box, kicked her feet and banged the back of her head into the box in the hope of somehow freeing herself from whatever containment she was in. Finally something gave way by her left foot and the woman peered down to see a crack of light – just enough to show her legs were bare. She kicked again and again until a square of metal fell away into a room filled with bright light that forced the woman to cover her eyes in pain.

Even blinded, she desperately pulled her way out of the small metal box and fell with a harsh thump against some kind of smooth floor. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked, looking around at the large chamber she was in. A flare of panic ran in her chest as she saw rows upon rows of short steel doors that reminded her of something… something relating to the dead, a morgue! It was like a morgue's body refrigerators lined in thousands across the massive wall. But why?

The woman scrambled to her feet and saw the chamber did look like a morgue just absolutely gargantuan. She could see a door the size of a nail far in the distance on both sides of this plus-sized morgue. Why would this be a morgue? Was she dead? She couldn't be dead… she couldn't be… the woman shook her head wildly, her long blonde hair freely whipping against her neck. Blonde? The woman grabbed a handful of hair and looked at it before seeing that she was completely naked from forehead to ankle.

The woman paused, confused, but inklings of memory coming back to her. Memories from different parts of her life, she knew. A father with wire-rimmed glasses, a mother's cool laugh, dinner at some kind of restaurant, fire, flames, the rush of waves and the clear sight of a woman with bright red hair. This was the clearest memory and the woman focused on it. The face of the woman was friendly and trusting with short hair of the brightest red. A name… a name flowed over her and the woman knew before she even knew herself that this woman with red hair was named Ruby Ascot.

"…Ruby…" The woman tasted the name of her lips and knew it was a familiar name. A name that meant something. But what? Who was she to know this woman? The woman looked closely at the square doors and saw that each had a small white strip that read a name. She quickly looked down to her own lying on the floor and saw in small black text, S. HOLLAND, 20. "…Ruby!"

In that instant, Sabrina Holland knew exactly who she was. She had no clue on why she was here or even where here was but she could remember it all as if it had just happened. The construction site, falling with the rest, murdering both Meagan and Lily, speaking to Ruby… kissing her… dying for her… Sabrina's eyes were wide as she put a hand against her stomach and saw the long line extending across her belly. "Ruby…" Sabrina put a hand to her head. She had died, she had definitely died, she was definitely… somewhere… but where? She could remember pain but… Sabrina shook her head. It was like a bad dream, disappearing the more she tried to remember it.

One thing at a time. Sabrina moved over to her steel box, her resting place, and saw a small a drawer under the bottom of the box where she had lain. She pulled the steel handle and saw with recognition the last things she had worn when she had died. She quickly pulled on her clothes (a difficult task, considering her hand was still mangled) before grabbing the only other possession sitting in the drawer – the knife. The knife that killed her. Sabrina shook her head again and stepped back, noticing her drawer was grouped with two others, surrounded by a coloured piece of tape. A quick look proved that other drawers were grouped in similar ways with different colours.

Sabrina read the two white strips and closed her eyes. Of course. Of course it was them. Who else would it be? Was this her own personal hell? M. THOMPSON, 20. L. TALBOT, 19.

"Help!" The voice came from the left and Sabrina recognised it immediately. The small square door to the left rattled desperately. "Is anyone there?!" The voice sounded just like Sabrina's had when she woke up. Scared, confused, not knowing who she was or where she was. Knowing that she would regret it, Sabrina reached up to the square door and opened it. A similarly naked young woman tumbled out, breathing hard with panicked eyes. She swung her head up to Sabrina. "Who are you!? What… Where…"

"Get dressed," Sabrina murmured, opening the drawer for the very confused but very clearly still moving, despite the fact Sabrina had strangled her to death with her own hand, Meagan Thompson. Sabrina turned away as Meagan stared down at her own body and gave out a panicked cry, reaching for the drawer and her clothes.

This one would be a lot harder to deal with. Meagan was one thing but Lily Talbot… Could it be? Sabrina shook her head. She didn't know why herself and Meagan were up and about. Didn't know what was going on. Surely it made sense for Lily to be awake as well? Sabrina took a deep breath and opened the square door.

Lily Talbot was definitely still dead. That was the conclusion Sabrina had to reach upon looking at the motionless slender body of the woman she had beat to death with the steel rebar. Sabrina couldn't even look at Lily's face, the memory striking her like her own knife in her belly. Whatever was going on, Lily wasn't part of it. Lily was gone. Dead. Just like she and Meagan should be.

"Sabrina Holland?"

Sabrina winced and turned around to look at Meagan Thompson. She was fully dressed but Sabrina could see the mottled bruises around Meagan's neck that would match her own hand.

"What is…" Meagan reached up to her neck and stared at Sabrina with wide eyes. "You killed me." It was matter-of-fact, no question about it. Sabrina couldn't blame her. "You…" Meagan shook her head and peered around the chamber they were held in again. "You killed me. I… I wanted to help… to atone… for what I did and you… you…" Meagan's face twisted into that familiar anger, the anger that Sabrina had seen on top of the construction site. The anger slipped away quickly. "…I don't understand… Why…?"

However a cacophony of sound interrupted Meagan's emotions as if a hundred men were beating on a hundred steel drums. Meagan and Sabrina looked around the chamber, frightened, as nearly every single metal square door started to shake and rattle. Their occupants were trying to get out, just as Sabrina and Meagan had, but Sabrina felt something in her gut. She spun around as Meagan tried to understand what was going on and opened the drawer at the base of Lily Talbot's tray, pulling the black leather jacket out.

"We have to go."

"Sabrina, what the—"

"We need to go!" Sabrina insisted as a steel door broke free of its hinges on the other side of the room. A figure slid out and definitely didn't carry itself like Sabrina and Meagan had. It let out an intense scream. There wasn't any sign of their former selves. "Move it! Now!"

A/N:- Phew. So there we are. The dead have risen as we bring Final Destination - Last Laugh as well as the Final Destination Trilogy of The World's End Chronicles to an end. Things look dire for all our characters, yet there is hope, perhaps, as well. Sabrina and Meagan have returned to their unlives yet are surrounded on all sides by the dead that haven't come back to their senses. All mortalkind is in terrible terrible danger and I very much look forward to seeing how it will unfold in the stories to come!

Thanks to those of you who have followed me on this journey and for the reviews. It's a personal achievement of mine to finish this trilogy, to tell this Final Destination story, to finish Encore, bring back characters and use new ones for Last Laugh and Elimination game, to test the waters with the supernatural as we delve into the VERY supernatural that will be the Apocalypse trilogy, the last three books of the World's End Trilogy.

I'm not certain exactly when I will start the fourth book of the chronicles: APOCALYPSE: OUTBREAK. I want to get ahead of myself again, to ensure my chapters are written to the quality I expect, to be able to post them without having to panic about deadlines. But it'll come sooner rather than later, that's for sure. Keep an eye out as we continue the journey's of some, restart the journey's of others, and end the journey's of even more! Thank you, and see you next time as the Outbreak tears down humanity!