AU. Batman doesn't exist; Bruce Wayne and his family have a normal life, and then there are zombies. That's it, basically.

I own nothing.

It was a nice day. Cloudy, as always, but it wouldn't rain. The Manor gardens looked beautiful; spring was coming and some flowers were already blooming. Alfred had managed to make his stubborn master stay and have breakfast with his youngest son, instead of running off to work as usual. Alfred might do some gardening after taking Damian to school and finishing the chores. The morning was nice, Bruce and Damian were even making some light conversation about the morning news...

Then a special report appeared on the channel.

"There has been an epidemic outbreak all over the US last night. The virus seems to alter human behaviour, and there have been riots in most major cities. The Police are working to keep the situation under control. It's not advisable to go outside unless necessary, but the Government assures that soon everything will go back to normal"

The reporter tried to sound calm and collected, but accompanying the message there were images of the riots. They didn't looked like something that would "go back to normal" just like that. This wasn't your usual glass-breaker car-burning mob. Instead of destroying stuff and gathering supplies to defend themselves from the virus, they were all attacking people. Even from the helicopter that was recording the images, everything looked rather... bloody for it to be your usual, everyday riot. And how could something like this be caused by an epidemic, of all the things.

Alfred started questioning if it was advisable for Damian to saw such images -no matter his behaviour he was still only ten. And the producers seemed to think something along those lines: the images disappeared from the screen even before the reported had finished talking. Then the program from before came back like nothing had happened.

Nobody said anything for a minute. Bruce's oldest son, Dick, worked for the GCPD and lived in a flat in Gotham since last year. Even if the images didn't show Gotham streets, if what the reporter said was true then things didn't looked good for him. At all.

Bruce left a voicemail for WE saying that he wouldn't show up for work that day, and then Alfred had to convince him that trying to go and check on Dick would be a rather unwise decision.

"Master Bruce, no matter what the situation in Gotham is, Master Dick can protect himself and you wouldn't be of any help there. He wouldn't want you to endanger yourself"

Damian didn't seemed to be bothered at all about missing school, but they all were pretty worried, and kept watching the news without a word. Time passed by, and after two more Special Reports with more details about the reigning chaos that were far from uplifting, Alfred finally heard the sound of a car approaching the front door. A minute later Dick was in front of them, rambling about hordes of zombies and the apocalypse.

"Dad you should have seen it, those people... no people, they were monsters! I saw this old man trying to eat an arm, and then the bus crashed, and..." Alfred looked at him. Dick didn't looked good; his uniform was full of dirt and blood, and he had an ugly looking bruise in the jaw, but there didn't seemed to be any major injuries... "...I was finishing my shift, and they called everybody and told something about a fire near the hospital, but the car..."

Nobody had moved and Bruce finally stood up and interrupted him "Dick, please calm down." With that, Dick stopped talking and looked around like he had just realized that he was in the Manor. "Are you injured? Pennyworth..." and before he could finish that sentence his son hugged him. Then he tried to do the same with Damian, who looked pretty distressed at the perspective and snapped "Richard, you look terrible, and your clothes are dirty, do not touch me!"

After some struggling, Alfred managed to make Dick sit down and explain the situation as calmly as he could. Dick insisted that people in the riots were like monsters. He said that when the Army arrived, they told everybody to go back home, but things weren't looking any better as he left.

As he finished his explanation, the butler looked at Bruce and immediately realized which would be his decision. No matter what the situation in Gotham was, after spending the whole morning worrying about his eldest, the man's priorities were clear.

"Shall I start locking the doors, Master Bruce?"

So, this is my first writing anything in this fandom. Or in this language. Or anything serious at all. Also how do you choose titles.

It took a lot of work and I know it probaly sucks but, R&R? Even if you only say that it's boring or that I broke some guideline (I read them all but you never know), so please? And I'll love you forever?