General POV
Betty slammed the truck of the jeep her and Jughead had been driving shut.
"There's no gas in the back. Do you think you can take us a litter further from the city?" She asked the raven haired boy, who was leaning against the car, fiddling with his gun.
"I think so. Hopefully we pass a supermarket on the way so we can get gas and some more food. We're running low."
The two had been together for about 3 months now. Not romantically, much to their dismay, but they had both agreed to not let their feelings get in the way of their survival, so they tried to push them down. They were in California right now, looking for the safe haven known as Steatoda. They had heard about it from their friend Josie, who was part of their group. It was Betty, Jughead, Ethel, Josie, Reggie, Archie, who they had run into after killing the draggers at pops, and Moose. They stuck together for months, and they were close.
Betty and Jughead were kind of distant though, and trusted each other more. One day, around a month ago, someone had intercepted their radio, telling them about safe haven, Steatoda. They had steady food and water source, as well as homes for everyone. It was safe there. So the crew had set out to find them, but in a world that was overrun by the undead, tragedy always strikes. About 2 weeks ago, the group was in what used to be La. It was quiet, too quiet. Until they turned the corner and were met with hundreds, if not thousands of draggers. After that, it was over. They were running, and screaming, and being eaten alive. Jughead grabbed Betty's hand and told her to keep running and don't look back.
Tears streamed down her face as she heard the pained wails of their friends Archie had caught up to them, and the three of them ran towards a fence that would buy them some time. They hoisted Betty over first, and then Archie and Jughead followed. Jughead got over, but the draggers caught up to them and decided to snack on Archie's foot, bringing him down. Betty screamed his name as Jughead turned her head away and held her close.
"Come on Betts, we have to go before we're next." He had told her as she violently shook in his arms, and that was that. She walked for a while, before finding a jeep and deciding to use that to get closer to Steatoda. They needed to get there for their friends.
Even though they had agreed that it was best they ignored their feelings, Betty and Jughead were still very close. Like right now, Jughead was driving on the little gas he had left, while Betty was asleep on his shoulder, holding his arm as if she was a little girl holding her favorite stuffed animal. Jughead was tapping his fingers on her leg to the music that was playing. Thanks to the CDs they had found in one of their raids. He saw a gas station up ahead, and decided it was time to wake Betty up so they could get some supplies.
"Hey, Betts we're at a gas station." He said softly, moving his arm from her grasp so she would wake up. They got out of the car, and while Jughead filled the car up with gas, Betty went to check the gas station for any signs of danger. She came back a few minutes later while Jughead was filling up some containers up with gas for the future.
"All clear. I think we should spend the night here. It's getting dark and we don't want to run into any unwanted guests while we're driving." Jughead nodded and closed the trunk.
"I'll work on blocking the windows."
A few hours later
The pair were lying down on their makeshift mattress, which was really just blankets and pillows, playing truth or dare.
"Okay, truth." Jughead said eating a Cheeto.
"Have you ever been in love?" Betty asks him, suddenly a serious tone taking over her normally carefree one.
"Yes, I have." He smiled slightly at her.
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Have you ever been in love?" Jughead asked her, sitting up. She sat there for a moment, thinking about her answer.
"I don't know...I think. I have feelings for a really cute boy right now, but I don't know if it's love yet. I would have to explore it more, but I know it's something that I've never felt before. I think it's love, but I don't want to say for sure yet." Jughead slowly nodded his head.
"Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"I dare you to tell me who you've been in love with."
"Well my family, my dog, my friends, and..." He took a deep breath. "A gorgeous, funny, feisty, sarcastic blonde who goes by Betty Cooper." Betty's heart skipped a beat as he said her name, but she couldn't find the right the right words.
"Truth or dare?"
"Dare." Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"I dare you to kiss me." Jughead said, slowly coming closer to her.
"Jug-" Betty didn't know how to feel. She was overwhelmed with emotions. Happiness, fear, excitement, joy, the list goes on.
"I mean only if you want to, of course I won't try and force you to do anything with me." The raven haired boy scratched his head awkwardly.
"Forget it, it was a stupid dare." He went to turn away when Betty put a head on his cheek.
"Jug..." She turned his head so that she was facing him, and then leaned in to kiss him. Electricity flowed through her body as Jughead cupped her face with his hands and kissed her as if he would lose her if he stopped. They both pulled away slowly and let out a breath.
"You have no clue how long I've wanted to do that." Betty told him, slightly laughing.
"Me too, Betts. I think I've wanted to ever since I saw you in pops." Betty giggled, but then she turned to meet his eyes.
"Jug, I don't want to bury these feelings anymore. It's obvious we both like each other, maybe more than just a crush, so what's stopping is? Survival? Because we can focus on surviving while being together. I just don't want to pretend as if I don't like you when I do." Jughead studied her face for a few seconds before leaning in and kissing her again.
"Does this mean we're together now?" He asked her.
"Yeah...it does." Betty smiled and kissed him again, before snuggling into his chest and falling into peaceful sleep.
A few days later
Betty and Jughead had been driving for hours, listening to the Beatles CDs we had found. Betty was tracing patterns on Jughead's hand while he tapped his foot to the beat. Betty slowly turned her head to look out the window, and what she saw caused her to sit straight up and rapidly smack Jughead's shoulder.
"Juggie! Look! It's a wall!" Now normally, you wouldn't think a wall is much, but the woman who had intercepted their radio and told them about Steatoda said the walls were white, with the occasional black strip going down vertically, which was exactly what the couple was looking at. They didn't even bother driving the jeep there, since it was only about 50 feet away. They got their bags and got anything that would be useful from the trunk, before they set off towards the wall in a sprint. Once they reached it, they saw a pained on arrow that was pointing to the right, so they followed it. They were walking for about five minutes when they reached totally black part of the wall. The word Steatoda were painted above. This section of the wall seemed to be shifted back a little bit, signifying that it was a gate that could be opened and closed.
"This is it Betts. We made it." Jughead smiled down at Betty, but his smile faded when he saw the tears that were streaming down her face.
"Betts? What's wrong?" He turned his body to face hers and cupped her face with his hands, using his thumbs to wipe away her tears.
"I...I don't know. I guess I'm just so relieved that we made it. We survived Jug. Now we don't have to worry about the draggers anymore. W-we'll be safe. We can spend our lives together and maybe...maybe one day start a family in the future together." By now she was sobbing, but they both knew that they were happy tears. Jughead was crying a little too, and he pulled his girlfriend closer to him so he could envelop her in a hug. They stood there for a few minutes, just taking each other in. Finally Betty pulled away and got on her tip toes to kiss him. Once he pulled away, they slowly turned around to knock on the wall. After a few seconds, a female voice answered.
"Are you a dragger?"
"No, we're living." We called out, but Betty was trying to figure out where she had heard that voice before.
"Are you bit or scratched?" The voice called again.
"No, we're both healthy. We also have food and blankets." Jughead said again.
"One moment please." The girl on the other side said, before they heard her walking away.
"I know her..." Betty said, turning to face Jughead.
"You do? Who is she?"
"I...I don't know, but her voice is so familiar to me." Betty was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps approaching.
"You may come in, but don't get your hopes up yet. We have to decide if you guys can stay or not after a proper inspection and once we have gotten to know you guys." Betty and Jughead shrugged, as the gate started to slowly get lifted open. Jughead wrapped his arms around Betty's shoulder, as the rest of the gate was lifted. Betty finally saw who she had recognized.
"Oh my God..." Betty said, slowly walking forward.
"Cousin?" Red headed bombshell asked, before walking away from Toni and enveloping Betty in a hug.
"I can't believe it's you! You're ...You're alive!" The blonde cried onto Cheryl's shoulder.
"Oh please, cousin." Cheryl said, pulling away from the hug.
"Those lurking meat bags could never get their wrinkly grey hands on Cheryl Blossom." Betty giggled, before remembering Jughead. The blonde grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, so the gate could be closed.
"Jughead, this is Cheryl, my cousin. Cheryl this is Jughead." Betty looked into the eyes of the raven haired boy she had grown so close with.
"My boyfriend." Cheryl squealed in delight and pulled Jughead into a tight hug.
"By GOD you do not know how long I have waited for Betty to get a boyfriend. All those years she was pining after that carrot top. I was worried she would never find a boyfriend." Cheryl pulled away from the hug, and gave the very disoriented Jughead a pat on the cheek.
"You know...If I weren't a lesbian I think I would find him attractive too. Good job cousin." Jughead gave Cheryl an awkward smile, before going back to his girlfriend.
"Walk with me, you winsome turtledoves." Cheryl said, before walking closer to what seemed to be a town.
"Now I know that I said we would have to discuss if you two were going to stay or not, but being that Betty is my cousin, she is guaranteed a home here, you too Jughead. I can see how happy Betty is with you, and as long as she is happy I'm happy. Given that TT and I are very high rank here, there will be no argument, but I have to ask, are you guys bitten or scratched? I need you to be completely honest with me." The ginger turned her head to face them, but continued walking.
"No, we haven't even seen any draggers for the past could of days. Just occasionally driving by some that were eating at whatever had flesh on it." Jughead answered.
"Goodie!" The couple hadn't realized they were stopped in front of a very modern looking home. Cheryl studied it for a few minutes, before turning to Betty and Jughead.
"Yes, this will due, since you two will be living here. I'm sure you want to be living together, right?" After Betty and Jughead both nodded, Cheryl continued.
"This house has 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and even a built in movie theater downstairs. I'm sure you both will be happy here. Normally, we don't give such nice houses to new comers, but Betty is family, which also means you're family, Jughead. I give my family the best. Don't worry about furniture or anything like that. These houses were all furnished when we set up the wall. They just needed some cleaning up. Now, follow me to the town hall. I will introduce you to the mayor and tell you about how life works here. But, I would like to be the first one to welcome you to Steatoda."
2 years later
Betty woke up due to the sunlight streaming through the windows of her and Jughead's house. She stretched her legs and took her head off of Jughead's bare chest and unwrapped his arm from her waist. She got up pulling one of Jughead's shirts and comfy shorts. She made herself some pancakes, and turned on the TV. Her Netflix account never had never been cancelled, so she had basically been watching what was on Netflix for the past 2 years. She heard her fiance walking down the stairs and went to go greet him.
"Good morning, sleepy head." Betty said wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.
"Good morning Betts. What's the plan for today?" Jughead asked her before walking over to the kitchen and helping himself to some pancakes.
"Well, Elliana wants our help dealing with the hoard of draggers that are trying to push down the East wall, and Cheryl wants your help planning out the diner. She knows you're Steatoda's biggest foodie, and wants your opinion on it." Betty told him.
"Sounds good. We can deal with the draggers after breakfast, it should be easy. In the meantime we should probably get ready." Jughead said to Betty taking her hand and leading her up the stairs.
A few hours later
Betty and Jughead were currently sitting at the top of the East tower, slowly picking off the hoard of draggers that was leaning against the wall. It was taking longer than they thought since they kept sneaking kisses and cuddles every now and then, but the hoard was getting smaller.
"You know, at the start of the apocalypse if someone told me that I would be sitting here, with the love of my life, killing off draggers from a safe distance, I wouldn't believe them. I thought that I was gonna die within the first week. But look where I am now." Betty scooted closer to Jughead, but right before she was able to kiss him, she heard a blood curdling scream coming from the woods. The woods that were outside the wall. Suddenly, around three cars came through the trees, followed by hundreds of draggers and they weren't stopping. They plowed through the walls of Steatoda, and all hell broke loose. People were screaming, draggers were filing into the once safe town, some of them going after the people in the cars while the rest were running around the town.
Betty and Jughead hopped down from the tower and started taking down the draggers. There were too many. So many people were running, and the rest of the walls were falling down. The couple was separated amidst the chaos. Both of them screaming each others names. Someone grabbed Betty's hand, she turned around to see Cheryl pulling here to the gates.
"Cheryl stop! I need to find Jughead!" Betty cried, hot tears streaming down her face.
"We'll find him soon Betty, but Steatoda has fallen. There's no going back. We need to find a car and leave. We will come back once everything has settled down. Jughead is fine, he can take care of himself. Toni went to go find you guys, so I'm sure she's with him." Cheryl tried to sound calm, but Betty could tell she was freaking out. So much to Betty's dismay, Cheryl shoved her into a car, and they took off in the opposite direction of the town they had called home. Betty's wails died down to silent cries, until she finally fell asleep. The day had finally come, Steatoda had fallen. While Cheryl and Betty were driving North, Toni and Jughead were running south. Both couples desperately hoping they would find each other again.