The Zombie Apocalypse with MCR (Complete)

Last Days

His giggle is a lovely sound, "Looks like the Grim Reaper found your sense of humour."

I wince, blink as I look down. "Sorry that I lost it. Sorry... For making everything harder."

"Oh, honey." He sniffles immediately, and as soon as he's hugging me again I feel the tears take hold. "It's not your fault." He blubbers, "Please don't feel bad. I could have tried harder, I'm sorry I didn't. I could have clung onto you, you know? I knew that's what you needed. I just... I thought we had more time."

"Yeah." I sniff, pull back, scrub at my own eyes. "Yeah, I know."

"Gerard," Ray's voice, sounding weary, "Thought I told you not to make her cry, huh? Told you not to make yourself cry." He drops down into a seat, and Nat and Mikey and Alissa are all with him.

"Big baby," Mikey mutters, but only so that Gerard laughs.

Everyone settles at the table and picks at their trays of breakfast. Frank has one hand hooked around my thigh, and Gerard keeps his arm looped through my elbow. They both eat one-handed, looking unbothered by the limitation.

"Nevaeh-" It's Alissa, looking like she hasn't slept in days. Her hair is lank and a little greasy, and there's a dullness to her usually bronzed skin. The shadows under her eyes are almost as dark as mine.

"Yeah, Alissa?"

Her narrow shoulders stiffen, "You can call me Liss, if you want, like."

"Oh."

She stares at me, and I stare at her. No one says anything.

"Please, someone speak." Ray begs, "I'm going to shit my pants if we all have to sit in silence for another minute longer."

Mikey and Nat do their best to laugh.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Alissa says it quickly, like she's dying to get the words out. Like she can't bear to say them at all. "I know I was a bitch. Worse than that. I was a fucking bastard to you all the time and I'm sorry."

"You're only saying that because I'm going to die."

The snipe is automatic. It's been so long since I put any effort into stopping the nastiness jump out of me - I'm out of practice.

But Alissa gives an impatient little huff; a glimmer of the teenager I knew, all those years ago.

"Well, yeah." She says, giving her hair a Mean Girl flick over one shoulder. "I don't want you to fucking haunt me, okay?"

"This isn't A Christmas Carol, Liss." I roll my eyes, "I'm not going to come back as the Ghost of Christmas Past."

"I'm covering all bases, you know?" She sniffs dismissively.

"Fair enough." I allow, and smile as best I can. She smiles back.

And that's that, I guess.

***

I spend the time I have left as best I can.

Everyone makes a concerted effort - more than I want, more than I deserve - to make it happy, and calm.

The first day, I spend it with my old group. They take me to their house, and walk me round, and no one mentions what's going to happen. We bicker, and we joke, and that evening we make dinner together like we're on the outside again. Gerard shows me the artwork he's struggling with; a new comic series. Something to do with superheroes. After dinner, we play board games. I only win the strategic games. I can't win at any where you have to lie; Frank can tell immediately. When Mikey and Gerard are keeping sleep at bay with slow blinks, and Alissa has already fallen asleep against Ray's shoulder, Frank and I wander back to our room.