The Secret

Part 4

 TW!!!//Panic attack 

~Michael's POV~            

Michael couldn't think, he couldn't focus. All his movements were robotic and forced as his mind stayed trained on one thing and one thing only, the need to run back to his best friend. The need to free him. The need for him.

With every step away from that room where his livelihood and reason for living sat isolated and alone, Michael felt more and more hopeless. He brought his sleeves up to wipe at his damp, tear stained eyes and looked over to Brooke as they walked, "You've been hiding out this whole time?" he asked, voice shaky and quiet but Brooke managed to understand. She nodded her head, keeping her eyes forward on some unknown path, "We've been trying to find the both of you since day one. No sign of either of you until well...until today."

Michael nodded, frown deepening as he kicked at the ground, "Do you think he'll make it?"

"Jeremy?" Brooke questioned, eyes sympathetic and Michael nodded slowly, afraid of the answer. The girl beside him inhaled a deep breath and looked off, as if trying to gather her words and find the right thing to say. "In all honesty...I don't know. His chances of survival are so low I'm not even sure how he could make it." She didn't meet Michael's heart broken stare, "All I'm saying is just...don't get your hopes up? Okay?"

Michael didn't respond, just kept his eyes on the ground as the pair walked side by side. He tried to keep his mind on other things, on how he was going to survive, the joy that the others were still alive and the chance that they would all make it through this, but his mind always drifted back to Jeremy. Childhood memories flooded through his head, one after the other until he could barely differentiate them anymore.

He was so lost in his own head that he had barely noticed when Brooke had stopped walking, and the two had come to a stop in front of what appeared to be a beaten down old building of some sort. Michael guessed it was what used to be some kind of apartment complex or warehouse, but it was so damaged that he could hardly tell anymore.

"Is this it?" Michael asked, keeping his voice low. He glanced over to Brook who was picking her way through piles of rubble and debris.

"Yep, the others are inside. Or at least, they should be if something hadn't gotten to them while we were gone."

Michael sighed, beginning to follow behind Brooke. He kept his eyes trained downward to the ground. This was unfamiliar territory and he didn't need another gash in his leg because he tripped again. Michael hissed in pain as the mentioned injury started flaring up again. With the events of the last few hours, he'd forgotten about the intense pain in his leg, Jeremy being his only focus. But now that there was no Jeremy to try and save and he was out of tears to cry, his mind was focused on the pain plaguing his leg.

Once he'd made it past all the piles and piles of the crumbling remains of the building, Michael looked back up to Brooke, "Do you all have uh some sort of medical kit? Or just...something to fix my leg with for the time being. Jeremy had started to clean it but um...well, you know what happened."

The girl in front of him nodded her head, "We've got bandages and such inside. Come on, we gotta hurry, it's getting dark."

Michael took a deep breath but complied, moving towards the doorway that was so open and damaged he wasn't sure it could even be called that anymore. Before he walked in, he looked up to the sky and silently hoped that by whatever force necessary, Jeremy would survive. 

~Jeremy's POV~

Jeremy watch hopelessly as his best friend and Brooke walked out, tears falling from his eyes as he couldn't do anything. "It's just like... Apocalypse of the Damned," Jeremy said, sniffing as he heard the door being barricaded. His heart sank back into his chest as the fact that he was absolutely alone, no one was there to be with him. He chuckled slightly, beginning to talk to himself. "I can't remember the last time I had a calm day, just a day where I could do whatever I wanted without the fear that some fucking zombie would eat my brains out," he said, chuckling to himself. "Michael and I always used to be forced outside by his mom when we were younger, always going on some new adventure if we were inside for too long. I miss those days, I miss the days where I was able to hold Michael's hand without being called gay, I miss the days where we didn't have to care about jobs or driving, I miss the days where I wasn't the loser, geek... or whatever," Jeremy mumbled, sighing. Jeremy had never had a positive image about himself, ever since middle school started he could only have a negative image of himself. Michael had always been the one to make him feel better about himself, he always has been, and Michael was one of the only sources of his happiness. He had no idea how to deal without his best friend. "Fuck," Jeremy said, tears rolling down his cheeks. He had no idea how he was going to survive a day without his best friend. "His smile... I-I can't go a-a day without i-it, and his voice? God I don't think I'll be able to go w-without it..." He mumbled, putting his head back on the pole. "I need him.. S-so much, I-I love him," He said, going wide eyed. "Wait, I didn't just say that," he said, beginning to panic. "N-No I can't! I-I didn't say that, I-I meant it platonically- or did I? I-I'm sure it's-just the zombie shit," Jeremy said, trying to calm down. Michael always was the one to calm him down, but he wasn't here. He wasn't going to be there anytime soon, so he was just a kid who was stuck in the room, there wasn't much more to say about it. He couldn't be funny in this room, no matter how hard he tried. Before he knew it, Jeremy was sobbing in a room, where no one could hear him. His tears rolled down his cheeks at rapid paces, his breathing beginning to get fast. His mind began to get hazy, before it went black, followed by his vision. He had passed out due to a panic attack, and he didn't wake up from it for three days.