"Did you hear about Bella's new baby?" Chilli asked as she leaned up against Bandit on the couch. Bandit chuckled a little, shaking his head. "Isn't this like the 7th one?" Bandit and Chilli both laughed at that. "This one's named Coco." Chilli pulled up the picture Bella had sent her, a fluffy, pink baby poodle popping up on screen.
"Ah, she looks... just like the other ones." Bandit remarked, earning a wack in the arm from Chilli. The two sighed softly, Chilli clicking her phone off. The room fell silent for a few moments, before Chilli opened her mouth to say something again.
"I wonder if our kid would take more after you or me?" Chilli glanced up at Bandit, who met her eyes and smiled. "I bet they'd have a bit of both red and blue heeler, eh?" Bandit shrugged simply, just the thought of a kid-his kid made Bandit so happy. Chilli too.
It was both of their dreams to have a kid one day. And now that the two were happily married to each other, they were getting impatient. It'd been two years since the two married, and they'd been trying for a year and a half for a kid. Nothing. All of it was in vain. But they were determined to stay hopeful.
Bandit and Chilli both knew their time would come to have either a mini-Chilli or mini-Bandit. They could be patient.
{~--~}
Bandit thought about that night every day. It was the last conversation he had with Chilli where he'd seen her smile. After that, chaos erupted in one night.
About 30 minutes after their initial conversation, every channel was the news on TV, with a breaking news story about some toxic infection being released into the public. It was apparently turning dogs left and right into mindless zombies with one instinct only; kill.
And just when Bandit and Chilli were watching in horror, thanking every god out there that it wasn't happening near them, a crash and glass shattering brought them to reality.
Both heads turned, wide eyes spotting a zombie-dog, followed by another. Bandit and Chilli gasped and shot up, but another crash sounded and they were suddenly surrounded.
Bandit was trying to protect Chilli, but he got cornered, and Chilli pushed him away from the zombies. She herself was forced to the ground and bit and scratched at. The horrifying screams from her were what got Bandit, and he tried to get to her, but was pushed away.
"Go!" Chilli screeched, pleading eyes looking into Bandit's tearful ones. He didn't want to. He really didn't. But Bandit ran like hell, to the car, and he sped off like lightning in a hurricane.
There were sirens blaring outside, adding to the chaos and severity of it all. No one was caring that everyone who was in a car was speeding down the freeway. They were all trying to get away. Get anywhere that was safe.
Bandit was frantically wiping his blurry eyes from tears, breath quick, and he drove and drove all night. He finally ran out of gas and had to pull into a forested area, away from civilization, hell Bandit hadn't seen cars drive by for what felt like hours.
He was remote, wherever he was.
And that's where Bandit had set up camp for about a week and a half. There was an abandoned convenience store about half a kilometer away from where he'd parked, and it was surprisingly not zombie-infested. Bandit had managed to survive off of that, rationing his food. Thank god he was only one dog.
Bandit would've loved to get his car down to the store to gas up, but couldn't roll his dusty, scrappy car down there. It was on its last wheels (haha) before the whole zombie thing. Now it was... as dead as the zombies. Bandit didn't even bother listening to the radio or anything for news. He was constantly looking over his shoulder, whether he was walking to or from the convenience store, or just sitting around.
A rustle in the bushes caught Bandit's attention as he'd just gotten back from the store. He looked around with wide eyes, hand immediately going to the small handgun he'd found, and stored in a holster tied around his waist.
There was a flash of blue, before Bandit's eyes caught on a small... thing eating some food behind his car. "Hey!" Bandit called out, going over to whatever it was, coming face-to-face with a small red heeler eating at Bandit's food.
"Aye, mate-" Bandit didn't have time. The kid bolted before he had the chance to get a sentence out. Bandit was quick to chase after them. "Hey, kid, get back here!" Bandit shouted out, trying to grab the heeler. He ran through the bushes, this kid was quick.
Bandit managed to not lose them, and chased them into a den-looking part of the forest, under a mound of dirt. Bandit had to crouch a little to fit in the place. "Don't take another step closer!" a sudden, young-sounding voice demanded, catching Bandit's attention.
Bandit glanced down, seeing a scruffy-looking blue heeler holding out a knife, the red heeler cowering behind the blue one. "Woah, kid, don't just swing that thing around-" Bandit put his hands up, taking a slight step closer.
"Not another step!" the blue heeler yelled again. "That took my food!" Bandit pointed at the red heeler. "It was for survival!" the blue heeler retorted, and Bandit snorted.
"What are you talkin' about, kid? Where are your parents?" Bandit thought the idea of children having to fend for themselves was stupid. He didn't believe they'd actually have to be independent. How wrong he was.
The topic of the two heelers' parents seemed to make the heelers falter a bit, and the red one just hid behind the blue one, who was looking at the floor. The Blue heeler lowered their knife, rubbing their arm, ears folding down slightly.
"We lost our parents. Like alot of people lost someone in the apocalypse." Bandit was baffled. These kids looked and sounded young. Really, really young. And they were fending for themselves? They lost their parents? It was almost enough for Bandit to feel sympathy for them.
"Don't steal my stuff." Bandit warned, a glare on his face. "How are we gonna survive?" a desperate look was now in the blue heeler's face, and the two looked scared. Bandit was about to say something, but the looks in the kids' eyes... Bandit broke.
"You don't have to steal from me. Just stick with me." Bandit sighed heavily, and the kids didn't argue once. Be under the guidance and help of an adult again? The kids didn't care how mean this guy was.
The red heeler peeked out from behind the blue heeler, and finally Bandit saw her eye. Her left eye seemed to be permanently closed, and she was still clinging to her sister. "What's wrong with your eye?" Bandit asked, somewhat judgementally.
"It's a permanent injury. She didn't get it during the apocalypse." the blue heeler answered. "I didn't ask you." Bandit snapped, and the blue heeler glared back at him. "She can't talk. She's mute." the blue heeler grumbled begrudgingly.
Bandit rolled his eyes. These kids might prove more difficult than originally thought. "Whatever? You got names, mate?" Bandit waited, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm Bluey, that's Bingo." the blue heeler tried to have less of an attitude. If the three were sticking this apocalypse out together, may as well tolerate each other. "Bandit." Bandit introduced himself, seemingly making the same mental agreement that Bluey had.
"Alright. Come on. You kids ain't staying in this den." Bandit ordered, gesturing for them to follow him. They all left the small den, and luckily hadn't strayed far from Bandit's car, because he could still vaguely see it through the trees. They walked back to Bandit's makeshift camp, and spent the day sitting around, and watching their own backs.
Bluey still seemed wary of Bandit, which he could understand. And her sister seemed scared of anything that moved, also understandable. These were young kids thrown into an apocalypse at an age that would leave them traumatized for years.
Nighttime fell, and before long, the kids were passed out across from the campfire from where Bandit was, curled up together. Bandit could've almost smiled. In any other circumstance, Bandit would be overjoyed to be taking two kids under his wing. But now they were just more mouths to feed, and more dogs to protect.
It's not like Bandit would ever grow close to them.
