⚠️TW//mentions of blood and death so if any of those things bother you, you might not wanna read this one.⚠️
General POV
4 months later
Betty groaned as she got out of her and Cheryl's car, putting a hand on her baby bump.
"When will you stop kicking me?" The blonde sighed. Cheryl walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"We can keep driving if you want. I'm sure there's another grocery store somewhere down the road." Betty smiled and her cousin, but shook her head slightly.
"I'm fine Cher, and it's gonna get dark soon. We need to get some supplies before finding somewhere to stay for the night."
4 months ago, Steatoda had fallen. Betty and Cheryl had been separated from their friends and family, most importantly, Jughead and Toni. Cheryl hadn't shed a single tear when she knew Betty could hear her, but the blonde could hear her cousins loud sobs once she thought Betty had fallen asleep. Betty wasn't so closed off which her emotions, and openly wailed in front of Cheryl for weeks. But as the days went by, she cried less and less, because she knew in her heart Jughead was alive. She could feel it. Another thing that kept her going was the baby. Her baby. Her and Jughead's baby. A few weeks after the collapse of Steatoda, Betty began to feel sick. At first she thought it was stress, but it got worse and worse as time went on. She was having horrible mood swings, and her appetite had changed entirely.
One day, while her and Cheryl were looting a grocery store, she found a box of pregnancy tests and that was when the realization hit her. So five minutes later, she was sobbing into Cheryl's shoulder, holding a positive pregnancy test in her hand.
Cheryl worked at Riverdale general hospital before this entire fiasco went down, and it just so happened that she was an obstetrician. She had graduated Harvard and then graduated Harvard med with outstanding grades, so Betty trusted her with the little equipment they were able to gather from various hospitals and clinics they found. Cheryl could tell that Betty was around four weeks pregnant and the baby was healthy. Cheryl grabbed as much equipment as she could that they need to help Betty through her pregnancy, and fit it into the back of the SUV they had been driving.
They drove back to Steatoda, which was now in ruins, in hope of finding anyone or anything that can lead back to Jughead and Toni. They walked around for about an hour, killing some stray draggers. They eventually ended up at Betty and Jughead's house. Betty held back tears as she walked inside. It was untouched. Dirty dishes were still in the sink, the pancakes her and Jughead had for breakfast the day of the collapse were sitting in the frying pan, moldy with flies zooming around it. She walked up the steps into the master bedroom, pictures of her and Jughead framed the wall, and a few on the dresser. Their clothes were still strewn all over the floor, the closet door still open from when she was picking an outfit. She collapsed onto the bed and held onto Jughead's pillow, which still smelled like him. A few tears fell down her face before she heard Cheryl calling for her, so she pulled out a duffel bag and shoved everything she could in it. Some of her clothes, some of Jughead's clothes, Jughead's cologne, all of the pictures that were on the wall and on the dressers. She found the camera that held the video of Jughead proposing to her, which had been recorded by Cheryl. Their wedding was supposed to be sometime next month, and watching the video made her heartache. She put it in the duffel bag, and finally grabbed Jughead's pillow. She held it close to her and made her way downstairs to Cheryl, who had her own bag, probably filled with similar things. They nodded silently to each other, and made their way back outside and to their SUV. They decided to go South, since they had gone North before and nothing there seemed promising. So, Betty started up the engine and they set off.
Here they were now, 4 months later. Things hadn't exactly gone to plan, to say the least. The way that they were going had highways which were filled with thousands of draggers, so they had to find a new way which involved turned around and going around the highways completely. Then they got kidnapped by a group called the Ghoulies, but long story short, Cheryl had managed to get her bow and arrows one day and kill the leaders, Malachi and Penny Peabody, which caused the entire group to run away. Betty and Cheryl managed to get back on the road again. There was also Betty's pregnancy, which had been a detour itself, sometimes having to stop for days on end because Betty was too carsick to go further. The pair was currently at a grocery store in Nevada city. Betty put her hands on her growing baby bump, and followed Cheryl into the store.
They gathered their normal supplies, being sure to pack enough for at least a month. As Betty walked down an aisle filled with sweets, she saw a pack of cosmic brownies. They reminded her of the night her and Jughead got engaged, and they didn't feel like cooking so they had simply eaten an entire box of cosmic brownies. They ended up throwing it all up a few hours later, but they had each other, and that was enough to made them smile. She stared sadly at her diamond engagement ring, which was covered in blood and dirt. She really needed to get it cleaned. She put a box of the brownies into her basket and went to find her cousin to tell her that she got everything on her list, but what she saw made her drop the basket. In black spray paint, on the wall of the grocery store, was a clear 'Jughead Jones wuz here.' Betty let out a muffled cry of joy and disbelief as she ran towards it and touched the paint. When she removed her finger, it was lightly stained black. It had to have been pained on today. She collapsed into a head on the ground, not being able to handle the pure joy that made its way into her body.
"Betty? What's wrong?" Cheryl asked her running over to see if her cousin was okay. But she say the writing on the wall and couldn't help but let a tear fall down her cheek too. Partly because it made her cousin incredibly happy and also because if Jughead was alive, it probably meant Toni was alive too. Betty finally composed herself and got up, wiping her tears.
"Cher, they're alive. I can feel it, and they're nearby. We need to figure out where they are." Her cousin nodded and they picked up their baskets of supplies and ran outside. The sun had started to set, meaning that it would soon be the prime danger hour. Over the years, the dead had learned that it was easier for them to hunt for food at night, so they were more alert. As Cheryl was loading up the Jeep, Betty found a black arrow spray pained onto the outside of the store. It was pointing in the direction Betty and Cheryl were originally going to go, and underneath it was a simple JH J. Betty smiled and ran towards Cheryl, telling her about the arrow. They both got into the car as some draggers started staggering towards them. Cheryl ran them over with a thump. Betty smiled as she thought about seeing Jughead again, and they made their way down the road Jughead pointed them to.
Everything went to shit very quickly. At around 3 am, they got a flat tire. Betty had to wake up Cheryl and they had to start walking, hoping to find a car soon so they could go back and get their stuff. They had managed to get their weapons, bags, and food, but the bigger things had to be left behind. They started walking down the road, completely oblivious to the hoard of draggers following around 30 feet behind them. After about 20 minutes of walking, they reached a huge stone wall that surrounded what seemed to be a grand hotel. Before they knew it, guns were firing at them and they had to scramble to get away from what was happening, they hid behind a flipped over vehicle and turned to see what the people were shooting at, and their eyes widened in horror as they saw the massive hoard of draggers. Betty was about to say something when she heard Cheryl's blood curdling scream. The blonde whipped her head around so fast she got whiplash, and what she saw made her heart drop. A dragger had its teeth sunk into Cheryl's shoulder, blood dripping down slowly as it pulled a piece of flesh off. Betty reacted quickly and used her hunting knife to kill the dragger, before pulling Cheryl away from it and laying her down gently. She could see Cheryl's eyes getting droopy, and she smiled sadly at Betty before taking her hand. More guns were being fired now, and she heard what sounded like a gate opening. Betty's vision was clouded by her tears as they dripped onto Cheryl's pale face.
"No, no, no!" She muttered, looking at Cheryl's shoulder.
"There was to be a way Cher...there has to! You can't die on me!" Betty sobbed, but Cheryl just pushed a strand of hair behind Betty's ear.
"Shh cousin. It's okay. You know you can't save me. Find Jughead and TT. Tell her I love her, and live out the life were meant to live with Jughead and your baby. You will make great parents." Betty was violently shaking now as she sobbed onto Cheryl's chest.
"I love you cher." She managed to choke out between her sobs.
"I love you too Betty." And with one final breath, Cheryl died. Betty wailed in agony, and shoving her knife into Cheryl's head before she turned into a dragger. She knew if Cheryl's ghost saw that Betty had let her turn into one of them, she would haunt Betty and make her life a living hell. Betty stood up shakily, seeing that most of the draggers were dead now.
She heard someone call out "She's pregnant!" And heard the sound of feet running to her, but her head was pounding and everything was spinning. And once she felt someone put an arm around her swaying body, everything went black.
Jughead paced around his room in the hotel, waiting for any news. Apparently there had been a huge hoard on the highway and people had to actually leave the safety of the hotels large stone walls to kill them off, There were only 15 people here, and he and Toni were lucky to be apart of those select 15. After Steatoda fell, Jughead and Toni went South. They found the hotel and were thankfully let in because one of the people in charge was a good friend of his dads before all of this. They hadn't let him go back to Steatoda, saying it was to dangerous, but he did spray paint messages on the local buildings in the area, hoping that one day Betty would find her way back to him. But now he was waiting for news on the dragger hoard. He heard the door click open, and in walked Toni.
"Hey J. I have some news for you." She sat down on the edge of his bed and he turned to her, raising his eyebrows as if to signal she can speak.
"All of the draggers have been killed and none of our people are hurt. However there were two girls walking on the road, and one of them died from a dragger bite. The other one is in the infirmary now, and apparently she's pregnant. They want you to go talk to her and see if we should take her in or not. I don't know much but a lot of people feel bad for her. She had to watch her friend die and it doesn't seem like she has a lot of stuff on her. And she's pregnant, so throwing her back out into the world would just be cruel." Jughead nodded and Toni left with a small smile. He signed and made his way down to the infirmary. The first thing he noticed was the blonde ponytail. It was messy and bloodstained, but he could recognize it anywhere. His legs felt like jelly as he turned from where he was standing next to her bed and faced her. Her eyes widened and she dropped whatever she was holding on the ground as her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh my God-" She sobbed, covering her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks. Jughead felt his own tears form as he took a small step forward.
"Betty?" He asked, his voice cracking as he stared at his fiancee,