Lincoln

2:05 PM

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Lincoln looked up at where Lisa was pointing. She was right.

The sky was a bright orange color, unlike anything he had ever seen before, especially during an early Sunday afternoon such as today. Even just looking through the living room window, as he was now, seeing the sky in such an amazing state was a vivid experience for Lincoln. White, puffy clouds rolled slowly above. Sunlight poured through, illuminating the earth below.

Something big was coming.

"Well, we're off to Lynn's school," said the Loud father, making his way to the front door. He ruffled Lincoln's hair as he passed.

"Lori is in charge until we get back in a few hours. Do as she says," warned Rita. "Try not to blow up the house while we're gone, either." She chuckled nervously.

It was the early afternoon, and the Loud parents had a meeting to attend at Lynn's school. For what reason, Lincoln did not know. They didn't say.

After yelling their goodbyes for the rest of their children to hear, the two made their way out the door. Lincoln, still looking out of the living room window, watched as they drove away in Vanzilla, under the bright, orange, rolling sky.

"Male sibling, I understand that you're not typically one to keep up with world events, but it's a mess out there right now. I fear for our parental units."

She was right. Lincoln didn't watch the news much, but recently, whenever he flipped by CNN or Fox when he searched for the cartoon channel, he saw nothing but chaos. In major cities around the world, there were riots and looting. Royal Woods, like most small towns around the country, had been unaffected for the most part. Still, that didn't make Lincoln any less nervous for his mother and father, traveling all the way to the middle school alone.

The news anchors never told why there was so much disorder. They assured it would pass. Lincoln hoped they were right.

"Loud family, to the living room! Now!"

Lori's voice rang through the house. When she was left in charge, she made sure that her siblings knew it.

Quickly, Lincoln ran to join the line of children already forming. With as many people as there were in the family, the line started at the base of the staircase and ended not until the front door.

The white-haired boy slid into his place in the middle. Not long after, the rest of his siblings fell into line. Lori stood in front of them all, crossing her arms.

"As long as I'm in charge, there will be absolutely no roughhousing. You are all to remain in your room until dinnertime. After that, you'll immediately return to your rooms, and stay there until you fall asleep."

There was a chorus of groans from the line of siblings. Lori, in Lincoln's opinion, was always way too strict when it came from keeping him and his sisters in line. Sure, without her leadership, the house would likely fall apart, but did she really have to be a control freak?

"Is there a problem?"

"No, ma'am!"

"Good! Now, to your rooms! Go!"

With that, Lincoln and his sisters began to stumble over one another trying to run upstairs.

Lynn

2:09 PM

Lynn Loud Jr. usually loved Sunday afternoons. There was always football on the TV, the weather was almost always perfect for practicing sports in the backyard, and, best of all, the rest of her siblings were usually free. That meant that she would have lots of practice buddies, whether they agreed to help or not.

Today, however, was different. The Loud parents were at Lynn's school, speaking to her principal. Two days ago, during Friday's gym class, her instructor had given the students a soccer ball and set up a scrimmage. Lynn, being the overachiever that she was, put sweat and tears into the game despite the fact that she knew that it was supposed to be pure fun and did not count for anything whatsoever.

She scored goal after goal after goal, celebrating each time. Before long, when class was drawing to an end, Lynn went in for one final point. Without looking, she kicked the ball with all of her might into the direction of the enemy's goalpost. It had ended up hitting one of Lynn's classmates in the face. In fact, it struck so hard, poor Brandon had to take a trip to the hospital; he'd broken his nose.

Lynn's older siblings went to high school. Her younger siblings were either in elementary school, kindergarten, or daycare. The athlete was the only one in her family to currently be attending Royal Woods Middle School, for better or for worse. Because of this, so far, nobody in the family but her knew about what had happened, and Lynn wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Her siblings knew that she was competitive, but this was a new level of bad sportsmanship. How would they look at Lynn if they knew she had sent some poor kid to the hospital over a gym class soccer game?

She certainly wouldn't be viewed in a good light. Lynn knew that much was true.

Luan

2:21

"You won't tell, will you?"

Luna shook her head. "If Lori asks me where you went, I'll just say that I don't know."

Luan smiled. "Thanks, sis."

In a big family, it was always easy to find someone to cover for you. That became especially important in times such as these.

Luan had planned to meet up with someone at the local park, and was really looking forward to it. Of course, Lori was now in charge, and she never allowed anyone to leave the house. That's why Luan had to do it in secret.

The comedienne slowly opened her door, carefully, not allowing it to squeak. The last thing she wanted to do was attract the attention of Lori.

Slowly, she tiptoed down the hall and to the top of the staircase. One at a time, stair by stair, she crept downstairs. As she went down, Luan saw Lori sitting on the couch, watching television.

Oh, she gets to watch TV but the rest of us have to sit in our rooms?

Now at the bottom of the staircase, Luan got down on her knees and began to crawl into the kitchen, moving as quietly as possible. Before long, she made it to the kitchen door. Success!

The comedienne stood up, opened the door slowly, mindful to not let it creak, before slipping outside and closing it behind her.

The October air was cool as it pressed up against Luan's skin. Even though she wore only her yellow pencil skirt and white blouse, she wasn't chilly. In fact, she quite enjoyed the current climate. October, in Luan's opinion, was the month with the best weather.

The Royal Woods park wasn't too far away. Luan moved quickly, not wanted to stay out long enough to be noticed absent by Lori. That was the last thing she needed.

At last, she arrived. Luan checked her watch. 2:30. She looked up. There he was, sitting on a park bench.

Nervously, she approached head on, moving closer to Benny, a friend from school and the drama club, whom had agreed to meet her at the park to hang out.

As she moved closer, he looked up at her.

"Hey! Luan!"

Her reply was timid. "Uh, hi."

She shyly took her place next to him on the bench, looking down and away, hands crossed and on her lap.

Benny scooted closer to Luan. Her face grew red.

"What's up?"

"Uh, not much. I had to sneak out to come here cause my oldest sister is charge and, uh, she's a real bitch when she has to watch over us."

Benny laughed. Then he coughed.

Luan loved making people happy, especially people she really liked. She hadn't even tried to make Benny laugh. All she did was tell him her situation at home to make conversation. Still, bringing joy to him made her feel really nice.

With a newfound confidence, Luan looked up at him.

"Benny, what are we?"

"What?"

"What are we… friends?"

He paused. "What do you want us to be?"

Her blush deepened. Luan looked away.

"Maybe… maybe something a bit more?"

He put his hand on top of her's.

Luan's heart stopped. She slowly turned her head, looking up at Benny. Slowly, automatically, the space in between the two's heads began to shrink. Luan closed her eyes, leaning in...

Benny pulled away quickly, coughing loudly into his arm. Disappointment filled Luan. She was so close!

"Shit, sorry about that," he said quietly after his coughing fit.

They did not talk again for a while.

Lori

2:35 PM

Lori sat on the living room couch, watching television. A new episode of The Dream Boat was on, and her eyes were glued to the screen.

This quickly changed, however, when the TV screen turned to static.

"Oh, come on!"

Technical problems were not uncommon in the Loud house. With eleven children under one roof, things were always breaking down. Still, that fact made it no less bothersome.

Annoyed, Lori stood up from the couch and walked over to the television. She did the standard troubleshooting; the teen checked the cables, checked the DVR, checked the television itself…

Odd, she thought. Everything appeared to be in working order. What was wrong?

Interrupting her thoughts, the static switched. Dream Boat didn't come back on, though; instead, a man in a dark room stared into the camera.

Lori frowned. What the heck was going on?

"Hello," the man said. "I am here to expose the United States government for covering up a very serious pandemic that threatens us all."

Her interest was piqued. Lori stood in front of the TV, arms crossed, listening closely.

"As you may know, there's been looting and rioting in most major cities across the world. Already, many smaller communities are beginning to be affected, too."

On the screen, footage played of a skyscraper in New York City that was completely covered in fire. The flame was beginning to spread to surrounding buildings, too. Next, the television switched to a video of people dressed head to toe in black, hiding their identities, throwing rocks at car and building windows in Los Angeles.

Lori gasped. She knew that, for whatever reason, things were getting bad in certain places around the country. The teen had no idea that it was this out of control. Why?

The man spoke while the footage played. "All of this chaos has been caused by a highly deadly superflu that has recently escaped from a lab. The military and government have been trying to cover it up, but the consequences are quite clear: this flu is highly contagious and very lethal. It has been spreading like wildfire all over the country and world. Ladies and gentlemen, this is no joke. Even if you live in a small town, stay indoors. More likely than not, if you don't have it already, you'll—"

"Open up!"

Footage of all of the carnage continued to play. In the background, a booming voice had ordered the broadcaster to open their door. Lori's eyes widened. Was this a joke?

"Open up, now!" the voice repeated. "On the order of the United States government!"

Lori listened on in horror as she heard the sound of a door being kicked down, followed by two quick gunshots. The broadcast turned into static, and, after awhile, went back to The Dream Boat.

This story is based off of Stephen King's The Stand, a novel with the same exact concept with, of course, the exception of the Loud children or Royal Woods being involved. You certainly don't have to have read the novel to enjoy this fanfiction, but if you have, you'll be able to pick up on a bunch of references throughout the story.

I won't spend forever setting up the plot. In fact, the next chapter will start after a brief time skip so I can really start getting into the meat of the story that I want to tell.

This is a project unlike any I've started before, and I want to know what you guys think. Feedback, especially negative, will always be welcome and appreciated.