VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith - Don't Say You're Sorry

Word Count: 1,445

Zombie au!!

...

There was blood, so, so much blood Keith could even see straight because of it.

"Shiro, I'm so sorry." Tears were streaming down his face by this point, trying to drag the dead weight back to their hidden base, his legs were screaming for him to just stop and breathe, but Keith was so panic-stricken, so filled with adrenaline and the pure need to get back to the base as fast as he could, that he could barely think of anything else.

Shiro was trying his best to help Keith move along, he really was, but his legs refused to work right. His arm where one of the undead had gotten him throbbed painfully and Shiro bit back a cry, hoping to not give away their location to any other scavengers or undead creatures lurking about, a low whine came out instead, but even that seemed too loud. "'s okay, Keith," he mumbled, wincing as one of his feet drug along a jagged rock, but it did little to minimize the growing fire he felt in his arm, "'s not your fault."

Keith currently had both of Shiro's arms slung over his shoulders and was trying to drag the older man behind him. It was painstakingly slow, but Keith pushed himself as hard as he could anyway, Shiro was not dying on him, he-

Keith blinked back the tears, feeling them, instead drip slowly down his face anyway.

- he couldn't. Not after everything they'd been through, Keith wasn't going to sit there and let him die.

Or worse, let him Turn.

Because if Shiro Turned, Keith wasn't even sure he could kill him, even now, if the possibility that Shiro couldn't be saved, Keith couldn't be the one to pull the trigger, he wouldn't.

It was his fault they had gotten into the mess in the first place. If Keith had only been more careful. If only he had listened harder. If only he hadn't bitten off more than he could chew, Shiro wouldn't have had to jump in and get himself injured in the first place.

He just had to break into the abandoned grocery store, their team was running low on food and Keith saw that as being the easiest solution. Shiro had tried to stop him, reasoning that it was too dangerous and that they could find food elsewhere.

But the teen refused to listen.

And now look where that got them.

Keith's shoulders tensed, feeling Shiro's head adjust against Keith back, a low moan emitting from the man's throat, and Keith made his sluggish feet struggle to go faster.

Their scavenged supplies that they had originally been out for was forgotten the moment that Shiro had yelled for help, one of the undead's jaws was clamped firmly on his upper arm and Keith had to shoot the thing in the head multiple times to get it to finally let go.

By that time, Shiro's eyes were already not as sharp as they should be, whether it was from the pain he was feeling or the Turning, Keith didn't know, but he hoped it was the first one over the second.

"Shiro, stay with me," he felt like a broken record, trying to get the other survivor to stay awake, Keith knew it would be disastrous if he lost consciousness.

Shiro didn't reply.

Keith blood ran cold at the silence, "Shiro?"

A low moan rang from the empty buildings around them, but the man continued to remain silent.

"Come on, Shiro, talk to me."

Nothing.

The teen's heart sped up as the base came into view, a tiny school just off of town renovated to fit the survivors' needs, but for once, he never felt so far out of reach in his life.

"Coran!" Keith's shout was loud, but it felt hollow in his own ears as he stared helplessly at the barricaded school door. "Coran, we need help, now!" He didn't care at that moment whether there were other survivors around, or undead that could hear them, they need help and the needed help now.

"Keith?" Lance's figure appeared on the roof, a rifle slung over one shoulder. The Cuban was in charge of watch for the afternoon, but his own calm drained from his thoughts as soon as he caught sight of the two.

Keith had an unconscious Shiro dragging behind, his thin arms trying to keep their hold on the man while Shiro himself looked to be dead. "Oh, my gosh." His words were merely a whisper as Keith looked up at him, a pleading look in his eyes like nothing Lance had ever seen before.

"Please," Lance was pretty sure Keith was crying, "Lance, you have to find Coran, please."

Lance only gave a panicked nod and before he knew what was happening himself, Lance was sprinting down the halls as fast as he could to find Coran.

Keith, on the other hand, just stood there in shock, having gotten to the front entrance, Keith collapsed on his knees, Shiro thudding on the ground beside him, as Keith wiped frantically at his eyes, trying to get the tears to stop. Dammit, why couldn't he stop crying? He could do this, he-

- he wasn't sure he could do this.

Hesitantly reaching for his belt, his fingers latched around the handle of his dagger, pulling it into his range of vision Keith's mind ran circles at what he had to do.

He knew what he had to do, obviously, he had to cut Shiro's arm off and hope that the infection didn't spread itself any further, he couldn't wait for the others, but-

Keith looked down at his wrist, eyes tracing the lightest mark on pale skin, a crescent bite mark, barely there if you didn't know where to look.

He had gotten bit when Keith had first found his way into the group. Coran had been trying to develop some kind of serum that would reverse the effects of the Turning, Keith had been his first trial subject after getting bitten in the middle of a scavenge, and it worked, it actually worked, Keith wouldn't be alive if it hadn't been for Coran's handy work, the guy had more vials left from that experiment in case of emergencies, but Keith didn't think Shiro had the time to wait for Coran to get there.

His eyes fell on the knife again, and Keith let out a shuddering breath to try and calm his nerves, his hold on the handle gripped tighter.

"You have to do it, Keith."

The teen almost jumped out of his skin at the voice beside him. Shiro's pain laced brown eyes were looking at him with such a steady gaze that if Keith hadn't seen the bloody gash dug into his arm and caking his fingers, Keith would've thought that nothing was wrong with him.

"I- I can't, Shiro- I don't want to hurt you." His voice was small at that moment, he couldn't do it, if Shiro bled out on the ground before help came, Keith would never forgive himself for it, he-

"You have to, Keith," Shiro's voice wheezed, "we both don't have a choice in this. Do you want me to Turn?"

Keith shook his head frantically, his hand clenching tighter over the knife in his hands, he bit his lip, mind still running to find a different way out of this, but he couldn't find any other solution. "Of course not."

"Then do it." Although it was obvious that moving sent Shiro through a whole new wave of pain, he managed to rip a strip of fabric from his shirt, and Keith helped him to tie it to his bitten arm, Keith pulling it tight and knotting it not too far off from where the bite was at.

Pulling off one of his gloves, Shiro shoved it in his mouth, the fabric working as a gag to help hide the noise from outside ears, even though, Keith had a feeling that it wouldn't work once he got to the bone.

Just that thought alone sent a whole new tremor through him.

Keith's hands shook, lowering the blade to right below the fabric tied to Shiro's arm, he looked back at the man's face to see if he was ready.

Shiro steeled himself for the pain to come, closing his eyes and taking evened breaths through his nose, then, very slowly, he nodded, clenching his eyes shut.

Keith swallowed the lump in his throat, gripped the knife tighter in his hands, and, with one final look, he brought the knife down.

Shiro's screams echoed into the dying of the afternoon light.