I won't say that it came suddenly. I won't say that no one saw it coming. Because that's not how these things work. They don't appear out of nowhere with no notice, striking fast, destroying all… This kind of thing grows, slowly, like a cancer or a storm. It creeped up when the world was looking the other way; waiting, stalking. I won't say that the world was unprepared.

But I can admit that I was.

I can say that I didn't know. That I wasn't looking. That I was so stupidly stuck in my head that I had done the unimaginable.

I had missed the beginning of the end. When the world was falling apart, when people were dying, when everything that we had known crumbled…

I had blinked.

A. Ham

It was an incident of circumstance. Bad timing. Horrible tunnel vision. And the kind of personality that only Alexander Hamilton could possess.

The signs were all there.

"It's the fucking end of the world." A coworker hissed, while the news station displayed another outbreak.

Hamilton shuffled his papers, shaking his head, "Well, if we don't get this debt plan through, then, yeah, it will be."

Alex missed the way the entire room turned to look at him.

Just a week later, Alex walked into John Adams' office, only to find that the man wasn't there. He turned to the first person he saw. "Where's Adams?"

There were small tears forming in their eyes as they say, "Mr. Adams has fallen ill."

Alex scoffed and stormed to his own office, muttering about how this put his schedule behind.

Perhaps the most obvious moment was when Hamilton had locked himself in his office. It's in the middle of the highest floor of the building. There are no windows in his office, per his request -"Windows are distracting."- so he was unaware of when day turned to night. On his office door there are three different padlocks, all of which were locked at the time.

As Alexander was working, clerking, reading and writing, there was a sudden banging on his office door. Alex huffed and ignored it. Most likely it was just Lee wanting to pick another fight. As the banging continued, Alex glanced down at his watch. It was only then that he realized how long he'd been locked in his office. Was it two days now? Three? Regardless, it had been a while. He figured that he had worked long enough. He could take the rest of his work home.

So he packed up his bag; threw his hair up in a messy bun, and grabbed his phone off his desk. He glanced down at it, realizing that it was off. He pressed the power button, but it didn't do anything. Dead.

He took a moment to stretch, letting his spine crack and groan in protest. His chest hurt; he shouldn't be slouching so long. He certainly needed to get home so he could relax his sore body. He was always bad about ignoring the pain.

Just as Alex was about to open the door, where someone was still obnoxiously banging, the power went out. Plunged into darkness, Alex stumbled. He huffed out an annoyed breath and went back to his desk. He spent a moment to rummage through his drawers until he found a flashlight. Rarely do they have power-outages, unless there's a terrible storm outside. The thought made Alex's stomach churn in anxiety.

You're fine. He thought, It's just a little rain.

But as he listened closely, he couldn't hear any thunder rolling, and the banging on the door had stopped. Alex flicked on the flashlight and pointed it towards the door. Whoever was out there left along with the lights.

Slowly, Alexander made his way out of the building. It was a bit strange; the entire office was empty. Sure, he works late, he's currently working through the weekend, and most of his co-workers are lazy. But the building was completely dark, thanks to the power outage, and papers were thrown everywhere. A chair was knocked over, another completely broken. There were smears of some deep red subsistence on the far wall. Flies flocked to one corner of the room, where a dark lump laid.

God, the people in this office were such slobs.

There was a distinct sound of shuffling coming from down the hall. Alex, head hurting and tired as all hell, didn't want to talk to anybody right now. So he ducked into the stairwell, just as he heard someone groan.

Not his problem.

Alex strolled out of the building, into the bright sunlight. Huh. So there's no storm. Alex grumbled to himself as he wondered if someone drove into a generator again. He'll have to take a look at the news.

The usually busy streets of New York were strangely empty; aside from a few homeless people lying motionless in the shade. Alex stopped to give one of them some change; but the man must've been sleeping, because he didn't respond. Alex left the money on the sidewalk next to him.

It was a beautiful day out. Peacefully quiet, which, for New York, was more than a rarity. There's no way such a thing would happen without reason. Maybe there was a parade going on uptown? Or the president was making a speech? Did Alex miss out on some national holiday?

Regardless of the reason, Alex felt a soft peace roll over him as he observed the sunshine. When he charges his phone, he should call Eliza, and ask how the lake is. It would be a very lovely day for a swim.

See, Eliza and their two children, Philip and Angelica, went up to Maine, where Eliza's father had a summer home. She had tried to convince Alex to go with them, and usually he would, but he was so swamped with work lately that he just couldn't afford a break.

"Are you sure, darling?" Eliza asked, rubbing Alex's shoulders comfortingly. "Father was looking forward to seeing you again."

Alex nodded, offering her an apologetic smile, "I'll go with you next time, I promise. It's just bad timing for a vacation."

Eliza pressed a kiss to his cheek, "Okay. We'll tell you everything when we get back."

"I want pictures." Alex requested, "Of everything!"

"Of course!" Eliza laughed, "Nothing less than the best for you!"

So they went to Maine, while Alex stayed in New York. His home was quiet, and he always hated the silence, so he decided he'd spend his time in the office. And, well, here he is now.

Walking past a convenience store, Alex scowls. The windows were broken open; and the entire store was bare of products. The police were useless, honestly. This is why he wanted to cut the budget for the police force, they weren't doing their jobs anyway.

When Alex turned the corner, he saw where all the people went. Just down the road, there was a large crowd of people. Surprisingly, they were quiet. Still.

Crowds are rarely quiet and never still. They move, they shout, they cheer or cry. Crowds, especially New York crowds, are there for a reason. And these people appeared almost asleep on their feet. Alex slowly approached; he decided that they must all be homeless, because they're incredibly dirty. Some with injuries on various parts of their bodies. Clothes were muddy, bloody, and torn. Alex was a few feet away, when he steps on a child's toy. It squeaks under the pressure of his shoe.

Suddenly, the crowd isn't quite so quiet. Heads snapped up and looked over to him. Alex had the strange feeling that something was very very wrong.

The people snarled at him, jaws snapping in an almost physically impossible way. They staggered forward, slowly at first, and then they charged, all at once. Alex wasn't stupid. He knew when a group of people were chasing you, you ran.

Heart in his throat, Alex turned and sprinted back down the way he came. There was a thunderous noise as thousands of feet chasing after him spurred Alex forward. He looked back over his shoulder, his feet still propelling him onward. Hundreds, thousands, of monstrous demons in what used to be humans' bodies were following him. Alex stumbled over an old car tire, and he crashed to the ground.

Unadulterated, unexplainable fear tore through Alex's chest. He scooted back, desperately scrambling to get away from the approaching storm. His back hit against the car, and he had nowhere else to go. Alex screamed, holding his arms up to cover his face. If this was how he died, he didn't want to see it.

He could hear the gurgling and snarling getting closer with each furious step. And then, like a semi barreling down an empty street, a semi suddenly barreled down the empty street. The giant truck smashed through the crowd of people, it's horn blaring nonstop. The semi wasn't halted by the force of dozens of bodies. It kept screeching down the street, leaving Alex far behind.

It appeared far more interesting than the whimpering human was, because the angry creatures suddenly changed course and followed after the semi, leaving Alexander alone.

His breath was short and jagged as he fought to keep tears from falling from his eyes. His chest was far too constricted and his mind was still blank with fear. What just happened? What were those?

"Hey!" A voice harshly whispered from somewhere behind him. Alex twisted to see a man covered with weapons and ammo leaning over the hood of the car. He had a gun pointed in the direction of the distracted creatures, as he said, "Did you get bit?"

"W-what?"

"Did they touch you!?" The weapon was now pointed at Alexander.

Alex held up his hands, his fingers shaking, "NO, no, they didn't touch me! I'm untouched! Untouchable! Definitely didn't get touched! I ran, and they chased, but there was no touching involved!"

The gun was lowered and the man stared at him for a long moment, "Hamilton?"

Alex squinted at the guy, "Madison?"

James Madison was one of his coworkers. They worked together on occasion, but mostly kept to themselves. They used to be closer, but then Alex got a promotion, and they just lost touch. Alex never felt more relieved to see the other man in his life. He scrambled up and found himself looking over his shoulder, making sure the creatures were gone. He then jumped around the abandoned car and gripped Madison's shoulder.

"What is happening? What are those!?" Alex hissed, fear still lacing his tone.

Madison shot him a confused look, "You mean the zombies? And the end of the world? Are you serious right now, Hamilton?"

Alex thought for a second, his gaze flicking over Madison's face, trying to figure out if he was joking. "Is that why Jay won't return my emails?"

"Jesus Christ." Madison breathed, shaking his head, "Leave it to you to work through the apocalypse."

Alex was going to say something about that, but there was a soft growling sound coming from the road before them. Madison quickly pushed Alex over to a fire escape, shoving him up the latter.

"Go, go, go."

Alex didn't object, climbing up the fire escape as quickly as he could. Soon, he was on the roof of one of the buildings, hands helping him stand up.

"Ew. It's Hamilton." An annoying voice said.

Alex groaned when he realized who was touching him. "Charles Lee."

Madison was soon standing next to him, looking through the scope of his gun down below. "We're good for now, but that semi won't keep their interest when they realize that there's no one in it."

"Then let's get out of here. We'll be fine without it," Lee glanced at Alexander, "or that. Let's go!"

Madison shook his head once, his voice firm, "Not yet."

"We're already behind schedule. Like, waaay behind." Lee argued, "We need to get out of New York!"

"Not until he returns." Madison said firmly. Alexander noticed his hands were shaking slightly, "We both know we need him if we're going to get through this. So, just. Wait."

Lee threw his hands up in the air, "I can't believe this! Everyone else is gone! Why are we-"

"If you want to leave, then go, but I'm staying!"

"Don't be stupid! He's not worth your life!"

"Oh, like you would understand-"

"If you want to be a sitting duck, then so be it-"

"All you ever do is run-"

Alex blinked rapidly. He's never seen Madison so angry before. Or, at least, not so vocal about it. James Madison was far more quiet and tactful than the man that stood before him now. He didn't yell, the spoke firmly. It's part of what made him a good politician, people believed in his tone. He definitely appears to be under incredible stress; which is understandable. Alex was just now still wrapping his head around the fact that a zombie apocalypse happened. Why had no one told him?

Then, there was a deep groan from the other side of the roof. Immediately, Madison and Lee stopped fighting. They both lifted their guns without a word, pointing it towards the noise. Alex held his breath.

Slowly, from behind the air conditioning machine, came a figure. A man, with wild hair and a strong build. Madison's shoulders relaxed as he said, "Hold your fire!"

Lee muttered something that Alex couldn't quite catch as Madison raced across the roof. Alex and Lee jogged after him, slowing down as they approached. Madison was touching every part of the man, his hand skittering over his face, his shoulders, his chest; looking for any new wounds. The man was, surprisingly, smiling at Madison's antics.

"I'm fine, Jimmy. And, look, I got it!" The man said, waving something in the air gently. Madison took the small black object from his hands and grinned. The man tapped his own cheek, "I believe you owe me a 'thank you'?"

Madison chuckled and swatted the man away. Instead of pressing a kiss to his cheek, he inspected the object in his hands.

"What's that?" Alex asked, stepping closer.

The man put a hand on Madison's shoulder, his other hand twitching for the gun by his side, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I asked first." Alex said childishly.

Before anyone could reply, there was a deep explosion in the distance. Alex felt the BOOM revinate through his tight chest. He turned to see smoke rising from between the buildings.

"We have to go." Lee hissed, "Now!"

Without another word, the man ducked back behind the air conditioning, Lee following him. Madison kept his gun close to his chest and nodded after them, indicating to Alex that he'd take the rear. So Alexander shuffled around the A/C to see Lee zipping down a cord that connected two buildings together. The mystery man was already on the other side, ready to catch Lee.

"What the shit-" Alex muttered, but Madison was shoving some thick wire in his hands.

"There's no time to be scared, just do it!" Madison hissed. Taking the advice, Alex wrapped the wire around his wrist and then flung it over the cable, before wrapping it around his other hand. Taking as deep of a breath as he could, he swung himself forward. He felt the cable lurch under his weight, but it stayed connected. Alex wanted to close his eyes, but curiosity made him look down. Hundreds of feet below him were the streets he use to roam. Now they appeared terrifyingly far away. Alexander wasn't afraid of heights, but this kind of thing can freak anyone out. Maybe that's why he didn't realize how close the other building was becoming.

He didn't slow down his descent, he didn't know how, so instead, he ended up barreling onto the other roof with a speed that wasn't suggested upon. But the mystery guy still caught him, surprisingly.

Alex found the breath sucked out of him as large hands wrapped around his waist, pulling him off the makeshift zipline. Thick lips smirked at his expression as he was gently put down. Alex almost said something, but he was having trouble breathing and another explose went off, then.

Madison appeared on the roof next to him, landing gracefully into the man's arms.

"Keep going!" Madison said, taking a second to look through his scope again. Alex was pushed along by the tall man. The next break in the building didn't have a zipline with it, but that was fine, because a makeshift bridge took it's place. What appeared to be a long dining table was connecting the two buildings together. Lee was already on the other side, holding the table still. Alex didn't like the way he kept shifting on his feet, like he was ready to abandon the table and run.

Alex climbed across it first, his hands sweaty and his mind carefully blank. He had a feeling if he thought too much, if he really took in what was happening, he wouldn't be able to focus. And while he's flying across rooftops, it seems like a very important time to focus.

Madison was the last one across again, and as he jumped onto the new roof, he turned and pushed the table off. It fell down to the alley below, cracking into pieces.

The next roof was rather long. The man before him suddenly stumbled, tripping over nothing, and crashing to the ground. Before Alex could react, Madison sprinted past him, helping the man up.

"I'm fine, James, I'm fine." The man hissed, stumbling to his feet, mostly relying on Madison's help. Madison looked like he was about to say something, but the man continued running, escaping his grasp. "See? I'm fine!"

Madison grumbled under his breath, but turned back to look behind them. He allowed Alex to pass him as he retook the position at the rear. Alex realized that the buildings were getting shorter and wider as they made it to the edge of the city.

Soon they were going to run out of roofs to jump onto.

But Lee was way ahead of them, literally. Alex watched as he jumped off the last roof, and for a second, Alex thought the guy just plummeted to his death. But then he heard the distinct rumble of an engine.

Looking over the edge, Alex saw a fancy bus a few feet below him; one of those travel ones with the bathrooms in it. It was waiting for them at the edge of the roof. Alex watched as the man with curly hair jumped onto the roof of the bus and then swung himself inside through the window. He made the whole thing look effortless.

Alexander flinched as Madison suddenly shot something, the sound ringing in his ears. Madison was facing behind them, cocking his gun again. Alex didn't want to know what he saw. He took a breath and jumped, landing on the bus a moment later with a loud thunk.

Then he awkwardly slid himself through the same window that the others went through. He landed slowly, wanting to not hurt himself. A moment later, there was a soft thwap on the ceiling and then Madison was sliding through the window next to him. He quickly turned and slid the window closed.

"Drive!" Madison shouted, and Lee slammed on the gas, pulling them out of the alley and into the streets. He swerved around abandoned cars and debris excellently, but it made for a rocky ride. Alex had to hold onto the seat in front of him to keep steady.

Now that he had stopped moving, Alexander realized how much he couldn't breathe. His chest was far too tight for so much exercise. He gasped in shallow breaths, trying to calm down. He closed his eyes as the world began to spin slightly. As the bus rumbled and jerked, Alex felt his breathing come back to him, slowly. His chest was still aching, though, and he knew he'd have to fix that eventually.

"I can't believe you would disappear like that!" Madison suddenly hissed. Alex turned to see him and the other guy staring out the windows, making sure that they weren't being followed. "That was not the plan!"

"Look, you and bozo over there had the zombies distracted. We needed it, I got it." The guy said, waving the little black thing around again.

"You could've been hurt- or worse!"

"Expelled?!" The man raised his eyebrows in mock horror.

"This isn't funny, Thomas!"

"Jimmy, I'm fine! You're fine! Lee's unfortunately fine, and whoever the new guy is looks like he might pass out, which is fine with me, so I don't see what you're so upset about!"

Alex knew now was probably a bad time to interrupt, but he was never good at timing anyway, so why should he start now? "I'm Alexander Hamilton."

He held out his hand. The guy looked at it and snorted. He shook his hand, but without much enthusiasm. "Thomas Jefferson."

Jefferson shared a look with Madison, and then crossed his arms. "Speaking of which. I thought we said that less was more? We can't afford any more people."

"There's four of us, Thomas. It's not like I invited all of Manhattan." Madison rolled his eyes, "Besides, I worked with Hamilton. Trust me, you'll want him on our side."

Lee spoke up from the front of the bus, "We could always drop him off in the middle of nowhere. Or eat him."

"Lee, you disgust me." Jefferson drawled, not at all surprised by the other man's jokes. Hopefully they were jokes. Alex shifted awkwardly, keeping a sharp eye on their driver. "No, we'll keep him. For now."

Alex felt something dark loom over him. He shifted in his seat as the last of New York faded in the distance and they were on the highway. They were going down the wrong lanes, since all the lanes that were directed out of the city were piled up with cars. Alex watched them as they went by.

"So." Alex said softly, looking up at Madison, "How did this happen?"

"What do you mean?" Jefferson asked.

"Our friend here missed the beginning of the end." Madison said, running a hand over his face.

Jefferson's frown deepend, "How!?"

Alex shrugged, smiling sheepishly, "I had a paper due?"

Madison laughed at Jefferson's expression. He sat down in the seat across the aisle from Alexander and set his gun by the window. "Where do I start?"

"They thought it was just an illness at first." Jefferson said, leaning heavily against Madison's seat. "Like the flu, or that zika virus, or whatever."

"People were getting sick left, right, and middle." Madison said, "It was sad, sure, but no one was really worried about it."

"Parents made sure their kids washed their hands more, and some people started wearing those doctor masks," Jefferson waved his hand vaguely, "but that was about it. No one was really demanding for a cure."

"But then people died from it." Madison's voice grew dark, "And then the first body rose."

"Scientists think it was from mosquitoes. Or something in our food. Either way, it spread quickly." Jefferson's eyes grew distant. "And when the bodies started biting people, well…"

Madison took Jefferson's hand in his own. "We didn't stand a chance."

There was a silence for a moment, and then Lee continued from the front of the bus. "All of this was in the news, of course. But it was also happening around us. I don't know how the hell you missed it."

"I was busy…" Alex mumbled, feeling mighty foolish for being so oblivious to such an obvious thing.

"Well, the rest of us saw it coming." Jefferson said, a small smile playing on his lips. "So I stole this bus, grabbed as much supplies from my farm as I could, came up to New York and grabbed Madison."

Alex took a moment to look at the piles and piles of food, camping supplies, weapons, and clothing in many of the seats. They had a pretty good haul. Almost anything they would need was sitting somewhere in one of these little benches.

"As we were about to leave, Lee joined us." Madison said, gesturing to the driver. "We were headed out of the city, when we realized it would be smart to grab my solar powered GPS from my apartment."

Jefferson held up the black object then. "I went to get it as Lee hooked up that semi to go blaring down the street."

"It was good timing that we found you when we did." Madison added. "As for the zombies, we've learned that they're very active in the light. When there's no lights on, or if it's night, it's like they hibernate."

"But the zombies I saw were like that in the middle of the day." Alex said.

"It's probably been awhile since they ate." Jefferson shrugged, "Then they slow down. Unless a noise wakes them up." He paused, then added, "Have you never seen a zombie movie?"

"Not really." Alex mumbled quietly, soaking it all in. "Okay... So where are we headed now?"

"North." Jefferson said.

"North?" Alex frowned.

"North." Madison nodded, "You see, when everything started going down, people, for some reason, flocked to the south. Most food is grown in the southern states and there are excellent old military sights there… It just seemed smart."

Alex nodded, he would probably go south as well. Hell, he might even go back to Nevis. Once all the zombies are killed off, an island seems like the perfect place to stay. No one can get in. He sees the appeal of it.

"It wasn't smart." Jefferson sighed. "See, the more people, the quicker disease spreads."

"And the less food rationings everyone gets." Madison said.

"So, south was a bad idea. We're going away from all of that." Jefferson licked his lips. "I know a place to go, in Canada, actually. It's perfect."

Alex waited for him to explain further, but he didn't. So Alex figured that was his full history lesson. Lee ran over something especially bumpy and Jefferson stumbled into Madison's lap. The two chuckled and leaned towards each other as Madison wrapped an arm around Jefferson's waist. Jefferson dipped his head to rest on Madison's shoulder. Alex glanced away as he breathed in deeply, inhaling Madison's scent.

"Better get comfy." Madison advised, looking at Alexander from over Jefferson's shoulder, "It's going to be a long ride."

Tell me what you think!