In which you both fight to survive (2)
Listen to: Pray For Me - The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar
zombie apocalypse au! tw for violence and all that
You were doing pretty well, riding across the country. It was pretty fun, you got to see different places that showed you how life was before the outbreak. You've met many different people, killed many more. You were pretty sure even more people were on the hunt for you. As you went around, you gave them a different name, unable to track you.
There was a particular group of people that you crossed. The Panthers. You never knew why they called themselves the way they did, but it was certainly interesting. You were just trying to clear a space for yourself, so you just silently killed the entire crew within a building. You were skilled with a bow and arrow, even better when a gun has a scope.
They were after you, angry that you killed some of their best.
________
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Melanie asked, hanging Phoebe some tea. Phoebe had come straight to her once she made the decision to leave. She wanted someone else's opinion. So, she told Melanie. Everything. "It's pretty dangerous out there, especially alone."
"She can't be too far. Y/n gets distracted too, so, she would get stuck in different places." She pulled out the letter and a map of the country. "She said that she would be going out west, the upper west coast. Maybe even Canada. That's a start."
"Phoebe..." Melanie trailed. She could tell that the girl was dedicated to finding you. But it was practically a suicide mission. "That's so broad. It's too broad."
Phoebe swallowed down any sort of tears or feelings. "No it's not. Melanie, please, you have to trust me on this."
"I trust you," She reassured, placing a hand on the other. "But you have to understand that it's a suicide mission. Canada and US are so big."
"I know it is." Phoebe grumbled, running her hands through her hair as she thought it through.
"Then you know you can't go alone." Melanie kept her voice calm, just for Phoebe's sake. She can tell that the girl was flipping out without you, someone needed to be calm for her.
Phoebe looked to Melanie. "I'm gonna bring Cole."
"What?" The blonde exclaimed, standing up. "No. You are not bringing Cole into this! He can barely handle shooting! Take Max!" She pointed off. Phoebe clenched her jaw, nodding. It went quiet again. "You want me to go too, don't you?"
The smaller girl nodded. "I do." She whispered, almost tearing up at the thought of you turning away.
"Why?" Phoebe swallowed the lump in her throat.
"I just- I need someone to turn to if she doesn't come back with us." She admitted, falling back onto the couch. Tears welled in her eyes, this wasn't a common occurrence. But you brought out that emotional side to her.
"Then you could do that when you come back." Phoebe looked at the girl, once more, and nodded. Melanie sighed, giving into what Phoebe previously wanted. "You can take Cole."
"Are you sure?" Melanie nodded. "Thank you, I'll leave soon." Melanie swore that this Phoebe that you brought out, it was almost a different person. She had never seen someone so passionate and caring about another, especially from a girl like Phoebe. You really were something different. You were each other's light in the dark apocalyptic world.
______
"Are you sure you're going to be fine?" Bee asked, trying to reassure herself that Phoebe's going to be okay. Phoebe got onto the horse, nodding. "Okay," She turned to Cole. "If she doesn't come back with you, I'm going to chop your dick into tiny little pieces and force feed you before murdering you."
He gulped, nodding as well. "Got it." He looked to Phoebe, who was a little nervous. "It's gonna be fine, we're gonna find her." He patted her back. She nodded, the horse slowly trotting up to the exit.
Bee watched, tearfully, as the two went off and out into the world once more. "What's going on?" She turned to see Archie, who was a little confused. "Where are they going?"
"To go find the girl that you kicked off." Bee scoffed, shoulder bumping him and walking off. He grunted and stumbled back before going after Bee and taking her to a more private spot to talk about.
"She's immune!" Archie whisper-yelled, looking around in paranoia. "I can't have that." Bee rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms. "Oh, don't do that, Bee." His shoulders lowered as he realized. "You knew, didn't you?"
"Of course I fucking knew, it's y/n!" She exclaimed, raising her hands up. "It's not an issue, we could even study her, and figure out how she's immune. I mean, we wouldn't kill her, but it's crazy how she can withstand all the bites. Of course, we would have to dive deeper into our medical knowledge, but it can be done!"
______
"Okay, first kiss." Phoebe hummed, thinking about it. Cole and Phoebe had been gone for a few hours, and they both started to tell each other stories, just to pass the time.
"Oh, psh," Cole huffed. "I was hiding away from Bee, 'cause she was babysitting me and Melanie. While we were hiding, we kissed. I don't remember who, but one of us knocked down a vase and Bee found us." They both laughed together. "So, tell me about you and y/n."
"What do you want me to tell you?" Phoebe rewrapped the reins around her hand, tightening it even more.
Cole pursed his lips at her, he was trying to get her to talk about it more, Bee told him to. "Are you guys dating?"
"I'm not really sure what we are," Phoebe's voice was pretty quiet among the birds and the trotting of the horses. "We're kind of just... us."
"That's cheesy." Cole joked, earning a scoff and a roll of the eyes.
"Please, Cole, I'm sure you and Melanie are worse." She retorted.
Cole shrugged on the horse beside her. "You're not telling me anything." She huffed, shoulder's dropping.
"What do you want me to tell you?" She looked to her side, but all he did was shrug.
"I don't know," He mumbled. "Milestones? Like how did you meet?" He wasn't sure what to ask, he just wanted her to talk about you. Maybe he could help figure out where you could be.
She hummed, thinking about the story. "It was a few years ago, she had just gotten into town. Bee introduced her to me, and then bam we were friends." She knew what Cole was doing, but she didn't want to get into it.
"Boring!" He called out, the small animals ruffling around at the sudden sound.
"Cole," She scolded, he just shrugged which made her sigh. "What do you want me to tell you?"
"Something interesting!" The reins wiggled in his hands.
She rolled her eyes once more. "You're a child."
"What was your first kiss with her like?" He asked the question as if he just came up with the answer. She chewed on her inner lip.
"We were hanging out," She started, smiling a little at the memory. "She was talking about some space thing. I think I knew it then," He hummed along to the story, smiling as well. "I liked her, but I never really realized how much. It wasn't until I was watching her while she looked up to the sky and explained stupid little things to me that I realized that was in love with her. So, I just soaked up all my courage and kissed her. I thought she didn't like me, so I pulled away, but then she kissed me." The little bit of happiness went away when she remembered that she had to find you. Her hand went to her pocket, which had the letter you gave to her.
"Awh, that's kinda sweet." His smile not going away. "What about first time..."
"Oh god, you're such a perv!" Phoebe cut in, immediately stopping him from asking the whole question.
"I'm just curious!" He exclaimed, flushing a little out of embarrassment.
"Keep your curiosity to yourself!" She broke off a stick from a tree. "I'm not telling you about my sex life with y/n." She threw said stick at his head.
"Whatever." He rubbed his head. "How about you tell me..." He went quiet, thinking about what to ask next. "What you like about her."
Her lips made a thin line. "There's a lot." She admitted.
"I don't mind," Cole shrugged. "We've been riding these horses for so damn long and there's no infected anywhere."
"Okay, well now that I think about it, I don't know what I could say." She kept her head straight, not knowing what to tell him.
He furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her. "So, you don't like anything?"
"No, you idiot." She grabbed another stick and threw it at his head. "I just don't know what to say."
He raised an eyebrow out of disbelief. "You gotta like something."
"I... I like her humor." Cole let out a really loud laugh, it wasn't a good answer. "Cole, I really don't know what to tell you. I like all things y/n." She had a small smile.
"Boo, you're boring." He threw a stick at her face, she didn't even know he had grabbed one.
She huffed at him. "Fuck you." He just stuck his tongue out at her.
"Okay, fine. I have an idea." She rolled her eyes, wanting this conversation to be over.
"You keep talking."
"Shut up." He grumbled, a little offended she didn't want to hear what he wanted to say.
"Gladly."
It went quiet, but only for a few seconds before Cole spoke up again. "What do you think your life would be like if we hadn't gotten into... this." She was going to groan at him, but the question was certainly interesting.
"I don't know. I don't think about it." She admitted, very quietly. She had thought about it, but that was before she met you. It was cheesy but she didn't want to think about a world where the two of you never met.
"Do you think you would've met y/n?" He glanced to her, seeing her shrug.
She shook her head, thinking about it for a bit longer. "As much as I wish, I don't think so."
"Why so?"
"She's from New York, I'm from California. Us crossing paths are pretty rare." She explained. The two of you were from opposite parts of the country, you moved around a lot because of your immunity, if there wasn't any worry about being infected, then you would stay in New York.
He furrowed his eyebrows, a little more confused. "But isn't her family from Canada? Isn't she also heading to the west coast as we speak?" He pointed out, nudging his head up where the two of them were heading.
"That's fair, but I really doubt it." She looked off into the distance, wishing that you were still there. She started to doubt herself, because of this conversation.
"Then why do you think you can find her?" Her head snapped towards Cole, she couldn't tell if she was too far in her head or if Cole actually said that to her.
She blinked, processing if what he just said was real. "What?" She didn't want to explode at him, if what he said wasn't real.
He looked at her, very concerned. "I said do you know where you could find her? Like specific places?" He shifted on his horse, just to take a better look at Phoebe. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry." She mumbled, a little guilty that she was about to yell at him. "Um," She shook her head, thinking about the places that you told her about. "She told me about this place that she used to go to, when she lived in Seattle. It was this rundown Ferris wheel. I think she'd be somewhere there." He nodded, gripping at the reins. "I'll make a list of the places."
"We'll work our way up." She nodded. They both went off, their horses trotting faster.
________
The two managed to find a place to stay in, which was a run-down swimming pool building. It just so happened to be one of the places that you would've stayed at, but you weren't there. They've gone through almost all of Seattle, trying to find you.
"What if she's not here?" Cole was exhausted, they both were, but Phoebe was so determined to find you. They were both hovered over a table that had a map of Seattle. She glanced up to him, she felt a pang of guilt. She could see the exhaust setting into his eyes, blood was splattered and smudged on his face along with a few cuts and bruises.
"What do you mean?" She scanned the map, looking for something, anything. A single lead.
He chewed on his lip, debating whether he should admit what he's thinking or not. "What if she isn't in Seattle?"
"Then we move on to other cities." She went to pull up the map of the USA. Cole stopped her.
"Phoebe, I don't think she's in Washington." She looked at him, more confused than ever. "I- while we were clearing out those Panthers, I overheard them talking about someone. They were saying something about a woman with a bunch of tattoos on her arm, she killed an entire building full of them."
She was more curious when he mentioned the tattoos. "That has to be y/n." She mumbled, looking down at the map. "Where did they say she was?"
"That's the thing, last they saw her was the border between Washington and BC." She cursed to herself, she forgot a Canadian map. "Phoebe..."
"We go up north." She folded up everything, putting it into her bag. Cole stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Phoebe."
She unintentionally ignored him, her mind too busy with the fact that you weren't too far away. "We can head there in the morning, gives both us and the horses some rest-"
"Phoebe." Cole cut her off, finally getting her attention. "Are we going to keep going for her?"
"Of course we are." She looked at him, her heart was pounding against her chest. "We have to, Cole. We have to find her."
"Are you not tired?" He raised his voice, trying to bring her back to where they were. "Phoebe, we've been at this for a few days. We almost died like twenty times!"
She shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm not going back until I find her." She didn't want to let any tears through. "Please, just Surrey and Vancouver. You don't even have to go out and look for me, just be there." She begged.
He sighed, giving in. He's never seen this from Phoebe, it scared him. It scared her as well. She's never been this desperate to find someone. "Just those two, then we head back."
"Then we head back."
________
Phoebe and Cole dismounted their horses, a bunch of cabins in the distance. "That's fucking full of Panthers! We can't do this, Phoebe!" He whisper yelled behind a rock.
"We have to, this is the last place." Phoebe peered over the rock, there was two Panther trucks, but she couldn't tell how many of them there were. "You don't have to come in with me."
He stared at her, but she didn't look at him once. "Phoebe, I'm not going in." He slumped against a rock. Phoebe tore her eyes away from the rock to look at him.
"Are you okay?" He gave her a look, lifting up his shirt to reveal a terribly fixed bullet graze. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I- I don't know." He dropped his shoulder and groaned in pain as Phoebe fixed him up to her best abilities. She learned quite a bit from you, but there wasn't much that she could do. "Bullet grazed me while we were clearing the aquarium."
She continued to fix him up, the only noise was his groans of pain and nature itself. "You'll survive. I'll be back." She handed him another gun and extra things for him. She went off.
She had managed to clear majority of the cabins, some of them having dead Panthers all around. She grew more and more confident that you were there. There was a bunch of shooting that was going, which meant that she needed to be extra careful.
Bodies dropped left and right, kill after kill. Everywhere Phoebe looked, there was a dead Panther on the ground. She stopped crouching because it was starting to cramp her legs, and they were all dead. She was fine.
That is, until she was stabbed. She let out a cry before getting knocked over.
"Fuck you!" Phoebe seethed, she was trying to hold back the Panther from choking her to death. She was losing this fight, he was big and strong, so she struggled to get him off of her.
This was a fight that she was losing, her head was hurting and it was getting hard to breathe. Was this it? Was she never going to find y/n? Fuck, why wasn't she more careful?
"What's another girl doing here? Huh?" The man got up in her face, still in control.
She clawed at his hands, trying to take them off. She also tried kicking him off, but nothing prevailed. "Go fuck yourself." She heaved, making him choke her even harder.
Tears pricked her eyes out of pain. "Be careful what you say." He laughed. "Don't-" He was knocked over by another person. They swung a pipe across his face, landing a punch after punch. Once the guy was knocked out, they stood up shooting him in the head. Phoebe was gasping for air, trying to regain control of her senses. She couldn't even tell who saved her.
"Fuckin' guy." They bashed his head in. "Killed my fucking horse." They held out a hand for Phoebe to take, not yet looking at her. "Are you- the fuck are you doing here?"
Phoebe's eyes finally unblurred, taking in whoever it was. "Holy shit." She was still on the ground, unable to move out of shock. She couldn't believe it. "Y/n?"
You just shook your head in disbelief. "What the fuck are you doing out here? Why aren't you in Atlanta?" She grabbed your hand, wincing when you helped her get up.
"Fuck, we need to get Cole." She leaned against a few boxes, still trying to recover.
"Where the fuck is he?" You went over to the window, which was mainly barricaded, seeing two horses up on some mountain. "I'll go get him, you stay here. It's safe." You holstered your gun. "Shouldn't have fucking come here." You grumbled to yourself as you exited the cabin. You made sure that it was locked up before you grabbed your bike and went off. You managed to make it up the hill, finding Cole slumped against the rock. "Are you okay?"
He gasped and aimed the gun at you, making you raise your arms. Once he realized that it was you, he lowered his gun, gripping at his side. "Fuck, I thought you were-" He looked back at you. "Y/n?"
"The one and only." You kneeled next to his side. "I'm gonna need you to get on one of the horses. We can connect them to my bike and we'll ride back down to where Phoebe is."
"Where is Phoebe?" He let out a small cry of pain as you lifted him onto the horse.
"In the cabin, she's safe." You made sure that he was going to be stable on the horse, connecting it to the bike and riding back to the cabin. You unbarricaded the door and helped him inside. You hid away the horses and your bike, heading inside to take a look at Cole's injury. You turned on a lamp and grabbed your first aid kit. "What are you guys doing here?" You asked, lifting up his shirt. You took a look at it, seeing that it was patched up.
"We're here for you." You looked up from Cole's side, seeing Phoebe sitting and watching you. "We've been looking for you for the past three weeks."
You cleaned up Cole's injury, finishing off whatever needed to be done. You dragged your stuff over to Phoebe, just to fix up her little stab wound. "You shouldn't have come here." She looked at Cole, signaling for him to leave them alone in the room.
He cleared his throat. "I'm going to- um- go to the bathroom." You raised your eyebrow, nodding slowly. He started to waddle away.
"Take it easy!" You called out, earning a thumbs up from the boy. You looked back at Phoebe, a disappointed look in your eyes.
"Don't look at me like that." She let out a hiss out of pain.
You let out a scoff as you pushed yourself away. You were finished stitching her up. "You shouldn't have fucking come after me!" You exclaimed, tossing the tissue onto the table. "It's too fucking dangerous out here."
"Says you!" She jumped off of the crate that she was on, you were a few steps away, facing away from her. "You went off on your own."
"Because I was kicked out! What was I gonna do? Stay? Because if it would take me being physically thrown out, Archie would've done it. I had no choice." You turned to Phoebe. "You," You pointed. "You had a choice. It was a stupid one too."
She scoffed at you. "Then maybe you shouldn't have mentioned where you were going."
"Do you have a death wish?" You were so angry. Angry at yourself for letting this happen. "I'm genuinely asking, because it seems like you do." You were lashing out, but there wasn't anything else you knew to do.
She could see the tears welling in your eyes. This conversation wasn't going anywhere, but you both have pent up anger that you both needed to release. "Fuck you, y/n. I came here because I don't want to be there without you."
"And I wouldn't forgive myself if I was the reason you died." A tear slipped down your cheek. The two of you were a few feet apart in this big room. "I've lost almost everyone, Archie kicking me out was a wakeup call."
"So, you think to push me away?" You shook your head, taking even more steps as you rubbed your face out of frustration.
You walked off, just to blow some steam. You slid the window door shut, standing there for a second before thrashing around a bunch of furniture. You let out yells, not caring who the fuck heard. Cole finally entered the house again because of the thrashing and loud sounds. Phoebe was just watching you through the door. You fell to your knees, crying and sobbing.
After a few minutes, you managed to gain your composure and wipe the tears. You stood up turning around to see Cole and Phoebe looking at you, you let out a yelp and pointed your gun at them. You shook your head once you realized who is was, placing your gun back and opening the door.
"Now that you guys are here, what are you going to do?" You leaned against the frame. They both stood there, looking at each other for help before looking back at you. You sighed. "You didn't- how did you convince Bee to let you guys go without a plan?"
"Do you wanna come back?" Cole asked, careful with his question.
You were caught off guard. You were too busy getting mad at Phoebe for risking her life to realize that it was up to you. Either option risks Phoebe's life, yet one risks not only the life of Phoebe's, but the rest of the town as well. "I don't think it's safe if I do."
They both looked at you, you couldn't tell how they felt, and you were scared. "Why?"
"I killed majority of the Panther population, at least the ones that go out. I don't care whether I want to come back or not, if it risks your safety, I am not doing it." You walked past Phoebe and Cole, packing your things up. "They're all after me, if I go back into town, they're going to kill whatever progress the town made. Archie was right." You turned around, backpack slung on your shoulders.
The three of you just stood there, Cole was unsure what to say, and Phoebe's head was turning. "How many people have you killed?" Phoebe's voice was quieter, you froze. "Y/n, how many people have you killed?"
You refused to look at her, trying to tally up the number in your head. "I- uh- I don't-" You gulped. "Over 700." You mumbled, they both looked at you, a lot more intense.
"How many people?" Phoebe took a few steps to you.
You clenched your jaw. "I've killed over 700 hundred people." You admitted, leaning against the crate that was right beside you.
"Y/n!" She exclaimed.
"That includes infected, Phoebe, don't even." You pointed at her. You turned back around, reloading all of your guns.
"You don't even know how many it is! How much of them are humans?" Phoebe stood beside you, but you didn't look at her.
"Like, over half." You shoved the last gun in your bag and looked at her.
"Oh my god."
"You're right, I don't even know how many people I've killed." You snapped, she took a step back. "That's why you've gotta let me go. I don't want to rope you into my shit. I'm not letting you get killed."
"You must be insane if I'm going to let you live here and die alone." She retorted.
"What about Cole? He's injured! He needs an actual medic." You motioned towards the boy, who was still stood. He just watched between you two.
"I'll be fine," He reassured. "How about me and Phoebe stay for a bit, and if you still think it's too dangerous, then we can head back." Phoebe pointed to him, agreeing with his proposition.
"You know, that'd be a great idea." Phoebe smiled, the two of you were finally coming to an agreement. "If I wasn't going to leave again." It dropped.
_______
You sat against the windowsill, loading and unloading the gun. This was the only window that wasn't fully boarded up, just so you could see through while you keep watch. You knew it was safe for you to sleep, but you just couldn't. There was a faint light from the lanterns you set up, but other than that, it was pretty much darkness.
"I thought you would've passed out by now." Cole laughed, very quietly. He sat beside you. "What's on your mind?"
"Phoebe." You mumbled, not looking at him. "You too."
"What about us?" He looked to you, he can tell how exhausted you were from being on the run.
"I don't know what I'm going to do."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Why are you so worried? We're capable."
"It's not that."
"Then what is it?"
"I don't want to risk anyone's lives."
"Why are you so worried about that?"
"I killed so many of their best men, I'm going to be on the run for my life. I can't stay in one place for too long." You bit on your bottom lip. "I wanna go home, I wanna go home so bad, but the life there is- it's too good for what I deserve. But I don't wanna leave Phoebe. Fuck, she's one of the only people who've loved me. I don't wanna lose her either." You both looked at the faint sight of Phoebe, who was dead asleep. "What do I do Cole?"
If you make Phoebe go home, she just risked her life coming for you.
If you go home with her, you risk the entire town.
If you let her stay with you, you risk her life, especially with the infected around.