5SOS Imagines

Luke - Walking Dead AU Part 1

Author: Julie

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They told everybody to stay inside. It’s safer in your homes, you can still recall the newscaster’s voice straining to sound calm and collected in the state of panic she – along with the rest of the country, no doubt – was in, going outside is too dangerous. Three hours ago, you turned on the news to see a report on an outbreak. Three hours ago, you were home. Three hours ago, you were safe.

You had just gotten home from your summer job, actually. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as you were driving – or at least, you weren’t paying too much attention to the passing houses where people were no doubt losing loved ones to the outbreak. When you got home, the first thing you did was flop onto the couch and flicker through some channels.

When you saw the writing at the bottom of the screen saying “ZOMBIE-POCOLAYSPE”, you didn’t think much of it. News stations had a way of turning a small rainstorm into the “WORST STORM OF THE CENTURY” in your town. However, you were intrigued to see what it was that had the word zombie in it, so you listened.

You’re glad you did. Apparently, whatever happening was in fact a big deal, because the military was being called out to some of the larger populated areas.  You thought it best to call your mom and make sure she was safe coming home. When the phone rang, however, you could hear the ringtone come from somewhere behind you. Turning around, you saw her phone on the kitchen counter, and jumped up to get it.

Your mom was always home after you, so seeing her phone here meant that she must’ve come home early, as she never is without her phone nowadays. You scrolled through the messages, seeing some from her coworkers telling her to “feel better”.

That alone got you worried, but you didn’t have much time to process it when you heard the stairs creaking a moment later (it always creaked when someone was on the second to last step – something you learned as a child when you bounded down them the first time and stopped to jump up and down on it).

What you saw when you turned around nearly made you scream. Standing there was no doubt your mother – but you didn’t recognize her apart from the work clothes she still wore. Whatever it was that had happened to her, it left her eyes dead and empty and her skin was rotting and decaying. Her face was slack, and her cold eyes were locked on you and the phone.

It was then you realized your mistake and how little time you had to flee. You could’ve gone out the back, but the backyard was small and the only exit was through the garage that was now closed and opening it would no doubt alarm any more things nearby. Your mother was moving towards you, albeit at a slow pace.

You didn’t have to do what you feared you would. While he came a little too late for you to be okay with – you were backed up in a corner of the kitchen brandishing a wooden spoon in front of you – the rescue was much appreciated. Of course, the baseball bat he used to bash your mother’s skull in right in front of you wasn’t the cleanest weapon to be using, as supported by the amount of blood that got on your clothes.

It took too many hits for you to count – but you weren’t watching, anyway. Your eyes were closed shut until you knew he had stopped and the thing on the floor no longer moved. He was staring at you when you did open your eyes, and reached his hand out to pull you away from the corner.

“I’m, uh, Luke,” The taller boy introduced, dropping the baseball bat with a thud next to the body you dared not to look at. “I hope you didn’t mind me intruding in you like this. My friends and I wanted to make sure everybody in this neighborhood was, um, alright. Your door was open, so.”

It took you a few moments to actually respond with your name, and by then you were already putting as much distance as you could from the corner of the kitchen. It was then that you actually looked at your savior. He had a kind face that usually spent most days smiling had this whole ordeal not occurred. His blue eyes were welcoming, though you felt that if he were to smile right now, it wouldn’t reach those beautiful eyes of his. Something troubled him, but you weren’t going to ask what in that moment.

“You could come along. With my group, I mean,” His invitation sounded less like a proposal to join a survival group and more like him asking you to dinner. “There are only four of us now and I’d feel terrible if we left you behind.”

What could you lose, honestly? You lived with your mom and only her, which meant that surviving would be a lone experience for you and you wouldn’t be able to fend for yourself with what little knowledge you had on what was going on.

“Yeah, I’ll uh, I’ll come with you guys. I just need to – change, actually,” You didn’t need to look down to confirm that your shirt was covered in what was just in a zombie’s skull, and Luke didn’t object to it, either. Plus, your work clothes weren’t exactly something you’d want to go fighting for your life in. He told you he’d wait downstairs for you and check the bathroom for anything useful he could find.

Three hours ago, you were living your normal life and stressing over work. Now, however, you were trekking through the woods miles from your city with a group of people you didn’t know to escape a disease you had no knowledge of. Two hours ago, your life changed forever.