Who: Phil and Nora What: Chain letters are evil When: Tonight Where: Projects to start Warnings: Violence and the like
Five days ago, Phil had received a letter at his home citing specific instructions to hurt someone within the town. His first reaction was shock that the United States Postal Service still delivered mail during the middle of a zombie infestation but his section reaction was him wondering where the rest of his subscriptions to TIME and Reader's Digest had gone over the last couple of years. The letter was promptly tossed aside in the trash but he still read the words if only for a little amusement:
THIS LETTER HAS BEEN CHARMED WITH MAGICAL POWERS TO STOP THE ZOMBIES. YOU HAVE FIVE DAYS TO SEND THIS TO FIVE MORE PEOPLE AND TO CARRY OUT ITS INSTRUCTIONS. THE FIRST FIVE PEOPLE YOU SEE AFTER READING THIS MUST DIE FOR THE MAGIC TO BE ACTIVATED. DO NOT IGNORE THIS OR YOU WILL FACE THE CONSEQUENCES AND YOU WILL NOT LIKE THEM. IT WILL BE BAD.
DO
NOT
DISREGARD
PASS THIS ON TO FIVE PEOPLE AND KILL THE FIRST FIVE PEOPLE YOU SEE AND THE ZOMBIES WILL DISAPPEAR. YOU HAVE EXACTLY FIVE DAYS FROM RIGHT NOW.
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED AND GOOD LUCK.
Naturally, Phil thought that the letter was ludicrous and disposed of it immediately. He hadn't thought of it ever since and never planned to carry out its elementary instructions. Chain letters were nothing but a nuisance and he was certain during his years at S.H.I.E.L.D. someone had decided that it would be amusing to send him these to his agency email address from an anonymous address. He'd tried to find out where the emails had originated from but to this day he hadn't been able to find the source although it had become a running joke among some of his agents when it was found out.
It was still a cold day outside, but relatively warm compared to the past couple of weeks so Phil decided to take a trip over to Stark's base to see what he and Banner had been up to recently. He'd been spending more and more time with Wanda and also with the members of his team. They'd kept up their tracking and monitoring of unusual events since the Nemeton had been activated and although the town was known for the unusual, the numbers had definitely risen which caused some concern. He had tried to get in contact with Agents Fitz and Simmons to have them moved to Everett, but with the communications as they were that was going to take longer than he liked.
Lola was ready to fly and since Phil didn't want to deal with the lack of decent snow plows, he took the sky and soared off towards the base. He wasn't keeping close track of the time, but if he had he would have realized that it had been five days exactly since he'd balled up the chain letter and tossed it into the trash. When the minute hit, Phil heard Lola start to sputter and lose altitude. Next the car fell rapidly to the ground and hit a group of trees before plummeting to the ground just on the edge of the Projects.
He was tossed around but thankfully some of the impact from the trees had helped with the fall. Not to say that Lola hadn't picked up some damage. With a sigh Phil got out of the car and took a look at her.
"I guess Stark can get his alone time with you after all," he said under his breath and started to take out his phone to give the man in iron a call. He paused, though, when he looked up to see a message written across one of the old buildings written in red paint.
FIVE DAYS HAVE PASSED. YOU WERE WARNED.
His thoughts went back to the discarded chain letter. "This can't possibly be real." Phil stared at the message but then went back to his phone only to find that he'd lost all signal and couldn't get through to Stark, May, Skye, Wanda, or anyone else.
Five days. Five people. One clear and very annoyed thought running through Agent Phil Coulson's mind right then as he started off on foot to try and find a phone that would work.