Word Count: 2,473
It was quiet for a long time after that.
Lance donated his shirt to help contain the bleeding for now, but there was no mistaking the multiple bite marks marking Shiro's skin. Despite all of his thoughts convincing himself that everything was going to be fine, he knew Shiro was going to Turn, and soon.
Keith's flashbacks seemed to be as worse as ever, there were three different times he found himself sitting on the cot because he had apparently "blacked out" in Hunk's words, and after noticing that it always seemed to only happen when Keith was tending to Shiro, they shortly realized that it would be a better idea if they took turns helping instead of Keith doing it all on his own.
As for Shiro himself, he didn't look so good, and that was putting it lightly.
To start off, he was pale, too pale, but whether it was from the blood loss or something else entirely, Keith wasn't yet sure. That single zombie had taken at lot from him, Shiro was missing a good chunk of skin from his forearm, that being the main source of blood loss and pain, and Hunk had almost lost his dinner upon seeing it. On top of the multiple bites he had gotten, there were also deep gouges from where the thing had dug its nails into his skin to try to get closer to biting Shiro. Keith was also pretty sure he was suffering from a concussion from when the man that had slammed him in the back of the head earlier to get him to lose his balance.
With a whimpering sigh, Shiro's eyelids slipped closed again, and Keith lightly shook him to get him back awake, "Come in, Shiro, you can't fall asleep on me, please."
Shiro just muttered some incoherent sentence before opening his eyes again, staring up at the ceiling without another word. His eyes looked unfocused, and tired, but Keith knew, as much as Shiro wanted to sleep, he couldn't risk it, they couldn't risk anything right now.
His eyes went back down to where he knew the worst of his injuries were, and his stomach churned when Chyra's death made its way to the front of his mind.
"You know you have to, Keith. You- you promised-"
"But I didn't think it'd be me, okay?" His words came out in an angered rush, and he could feel it take hold of him. "I don't want to kill you, you can't expect me to- not after all we've been through-"
"But, Keith-"
"No. No! I can't do it, Chyra, I'm sorry, but you can't just expect me to be the one to-" he dug his fingers frustratingly into his hair as his sentence ended nothing but deep breaths that he couldn't stop. His heart was back to hammering into his ribcage and he didn't know how to make it stop.
Why couldn't he stop it?
"Keith, please," he looked back at her to see her own eyes wet with tears, "please," she repeated, "I don't want to Turn."
At those words, he bit his lip, hands shaking as he forced himself to curl his fingers around the handle and pulled it up to aim, his hands shaking.
A single sob escaped his lips as her breathing even out into a steady rhythm. She closed her eyes, waiting for the bullet to come, "I- I'm sorry, Chyra, I'm so, so sorry."
She only smiled, the gesture soft and sad.
Keith closed his own eyes and with a final breath, pulled the trigger.
A bang echoed.
He was alone again.
"Keith, please, ... I don't want to Turn." Her words echoed in his head, and he excused himself back to the cot to lie down, his stomach churning as he placed his head in his hands, trying to pull himself back to the present.
Hunk took his place next to Shiro to make sure the bleeding was at bay and that he didn't fall asleep on them.
Shiro's eyes fell back closed again, but Keith learned to trust Hunk's judgement in knowing whether or not he had fallen asleep, the teen seemed to know a lot when it came to that kind of thing, and Keith was sure if Hunk had had a stronger stomach, he would've made an excellent doctor.
"Maybe we should let him sleep, I mean, sleeping means that his heart wouldn't be beating as fast, and that could slow down the Turning, right?"
Lance only crossed his arms and shook his head from where he was leaning against the far wall, and Keith once again noticed the multiple scars littering his bare chest, "I don't think so, we can't risk him not waking up again."
"Yeah, that a good point, but what else can we do?"
Keith looked up, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, what do we do? We're sitting ducks here, and with Shiro Turning-"
"He's not going to Turn," Keith forced out between clenched teeth, fingers balling into fists, and Hunk raised his hands in defense.
"I'm just saying that we need to think of an escape plan before Lotor makes more plans of his own, because I don't think that guy is short on ideas."
"Well," Lance bit his lip, thinking, "Pidge is still out there, maybe she'll find help and come bust us out of here, you know how mart that girl is."
"How?" Hunk asked, I don't think she even knows where we are, I mean, we don't even know where we are, we got knocked out, remember? So even if she manages to get help and bring them where we got kidnapped, she wouldn't know where to go from there."
Keith's heart sank as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together in an attempt to think. Judging by how many bites Shiro had, it couldn't possibly be more than twenty-four hours before Shiro Turns and loses control of himself, they needed a plan. All three of them already agreed that they couldn't kill Shiro, even if they had no other choice, he just meant to much to them.
"Well, we could knock out the guards when they come to check on us, we could grab the keys and escape then." Keith said, looking around for anything they could use to knock the guards out when they come to check.
"But how long would that take?" Hunk reasoned, "I'm not trying to be a dark cloud over here, I swear, but we need to think realistically on this, it could be days before those guards come around again, and by then it would be too late, we'd all be Turned by then. And even if they do come, there isn't a guarantee they'll have the right keys we need to get out of here."
"Hunk has a point," Lance sighed, defeated, he slid down the wall and onto the floor with a defeated expression on his face, "We're officially toast."
"No we're not, we just need to think-"
"We have been thinking, Mullet, and none of our ideas are gonna get us out of here!"
"Well, maybe you're not thinking hard enough!"
"Well maybe you should shut up so I can think!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Hunk shouted, getting both of their attentions, and everything grew quiet as they thought about any other possible way to get out that wouldn't require sitting in a cell for a few days, because they didn't have days, they had hours.
In the silence between them thinking up a plan, Shiro mumbled something that caught Hunk's attention as he leaned closer to better hear what the man was saying.
Lance's ears perked up at that too, "What'd you say, Shiro?"
He mumbled it again, louder this time "Pick the lock."
Keith looked uncertainty between Hunk and Lance, and back at the cell, door, it certainly looked like your average door lock, nothing too fancy to break, "Do you guys have anything we could use to pick it?"
Hunk's face suddenly brightened as he reached up to untie his bandana, "Actually, I might have something. I highly doubt they thought of checking here when they went though to make sure we weren't armed." Placing the bandana carefully in his lap, he unfolded on his knee to reveal a tiny screwdriver with an equally orange handle and Hunk raised the small tool in the air triumphantly, "Here, got it."
"Hunk, you big, gassy genius!" Lance exclaimed, getting to his feet.
Hunk beamed proudly, "Always come prepared, that my motto." Hunk smiled before getting up from Shiro's side and following Lance to the cell door, where they proceeded to try and pick the lock.
Keith smiled slightly at the teens' backs before he slowly slid down off the cot to sit beside Shiro again, the man's eyes were closed, but Keith could tell his breathing was too fast for him to be asleep, "Hey, talk to me, it'll keep you awake until we get out of here," he made sure he voice was low so he wouldn't startle him.
Shiro cracked his eyes open and gave a small smile, but it was ruined by the blood on his face and Keith could tell he man's heart was not into it, but Keith smiled anyway, and pretended everything was going to be fine, whether or not it was for himself or Shiro he wasn't yet sure. "How are you feeling?"
"How do you think?" He chuckled, ending in a grimace, and Keith could only imagine how much pain he was in. "I finally get my memory back of my little brother, get attacked by a zombie, and captured all in the same day." He coughed, "Not exactly in that order, of course."
Keith hummed, "Sounds like a really crappy day to me."
Shiro smiled again, wincing almost immediately after, "Yeah, but I'm glad my brother never gave up on me, believe me, after the way I treated him I would have."
"I had a little help," Keith said, moving Shiro's sweaty bangs out of his eyes so he could better see him, "Allura can be pretty persuasive when she wants to."
Shiro smiled, "That she can."
They fell into silence after that, just the two of them listening as Hunk and Lance quietly argued about which way to turn the screwdriver. Keith knew at one time, he would have given anything to have just a few more minutes with Shiro, and here he was, he just wished it had been under better circumstances.
"Keith, listen," Keith looked back down at Shiro, and was surprised to find his eyes clearer than they had been a minute ago, and he realized how much Shiro must be fighting to look that determined, "when they finally get that door open," he swallowed, "I want you to go without me."
Keith recoiled, "What?" His voice echoed off the walls around them, causing Lance and Hunk to turn around in surprise. "N- no, what about you? I-"
"Keith-"
"I just got you back Shiro, we can- we can carry you, that's what we'll do, me, Lance, and and Hunk, y- you don't have to walk, we'll just-"
"Keith, I'll only slow you down, you know that-"
"I- I don't care, we're getting out together! I'm not going to leave you here."
"You have to, Keith, you can't risk your life just because of me-"
"Then what am I supposed to do?!" He was crying again, and Keith viciously wiped them away only for them to come back a minute later, "I- I can't leave you, Shiro I- I can't!"
"Keith, you know no matter what, I'm going to Turn, there's no possible cure for me, you know that as well as I do, I don't want you to get hurt because of me-"
"There's no guarantee that'll work, Keith, you and I both know that I'm not willing to risk you getting hurt too, not when you can stop it-"
"Please. No!" The cell grew quiet, and Keith felt more tears trickle down his face, he couldn't do this, he wasn't willing to leave Shiro behind, there had to be another way to fix this. But, as much as he'd like to somehow fix this, he knew that there wasn't any way to, not realistically at least, and they were running out of time as it was.
Keith choked on another sob as he wiped the tears away again, "I can't lose you too." Not after everything he's been through, not after Chyra and Matt, and everyone they've both lost until this point all because of this stupid apocalypse, if they were getting out, it was going to be together, he wasn't going to leave Shiro behind.
There was a sudden click as the cell door opened, Keith probably wouldn't have even heard if it hadn't been for Lance quietly congratulating himself while Hunk only stared down at the two of them on the floor with a somber expression. "Keith we- it's time to go."
He bit his lip and shook his head, refusing to move as he wiped away more tears.
"Keith, please, go," Shiro moved to give him a light shove, but he didn't get very far before grimacing in pain again and going still once more.
"Mullet, come on, we have to go, somebody could've heard us busting out."
"Keith," he looked down again, meeting Shiro's eyes through the tears, "go, please."
The clanking of a door down the hall sounded, and Keith tensed, getting to his feet almost robotically as survival instincts took over. He looked back down at Shiro one last time, "I'll come back for you, Shiro, I promise." He meant it, he meant it with every fiber of his being, and, if he came back too late, at least he'd know Shiro would be gone for good, and this time, there wouldn't be any way of getting him back.
Shiro smiled sadly before barely giving a nod, "I know you will, now go."
With one last look behind him, Keith walked out, forcing himself not to look back as he followed Lance and Hunk down the hall, if he looked back now, he was sure he wouldn't be able to force himself to leave a second time.
It's for the best.
That didn't make it hurt any less.
They made their way out and into the cramped hall that seemed to stretch on longer than Keith would've expected, but to their left was a set of stairs, and Keith wiped his eyes as they continued on, past cells upon cells of undead, some alive, while others where sprawled out on the floor, dead.
Keith stiffened when a voice suddenly cut through the hall, "Hey! What are you doing out here?"