A/N: This is meant as a work of fanfiction, no infringement intended to AMC, Kirkman, Moore, et al.
Times Like These
By Leah Pensotti
Cooper had spent a lot of time on the beaches of North Carolina. He grew up near Raleigh, but had a deep love for the ocean, ever since his parents first took him to the Outerbanks as a child. The Lighthouses, sea glass, jellyfish and the smell of Coppertone sun lotion all amounted to a great need of gravitating further towards the Atlantic coast.
It was a shock to no one when he got into UNC, but ended up dropping out his sophomore year to live in the area in between Carolina and Kure beaches, working in surf shops and restaurants. Of course, his parents had been upset to raise a glorified beach bum, but Cooper lived happily for about eight years; fishing and surfing and generally enjoying life in the sun.
Besides, his parents had his younger twin sisters Heidi and Hannah to do them proud by them both graduating in pre-med courses.
Of course, Heidi and Hannah...even his parents were dead. Just like a majority of the population.
When the outbreak happened, everyone headed to the major cities. Cooper and his boss from the surf shop, Theo had made it to Richmond as the cities collapsed and crumbled, no government existed to help them survive. They thought being close to Washington, D.C. would help them find some sort of structure...civilization. After burning cities and complete chaos, Cooper and Theo had found some semblance of civilization after surviving for almost one hundred days in the deserted capital.
They met two men, one named Aaron and the other named Eric. They had pictures of a town...with walls. Solar energy panels. Even running water.
For most of a year, Cooper and Theo worked with Tobin on the construction crew in the safe zone of Alexandria. It was like Pleasantville. Town meetings, a food pantry...they even got their own homes, sort of. They ended up sharing with another man on the construction crew named Ethan. The three of them lived like bachelors for the most part. Ramen noodles and red beans and rice.
Even though he was thankful to be alive, Cooper started to wonder why he had left the shore. He could've fished, lived out his life in the quiet on the beach. He missed it dearly, sometimes he dreamed about the water...the slapping of the tide on the sand, the constant sound like a heartbeat...his heartbeat.
Life in Virginia, especially in the slightly Stepford town of Alexandria had made life rote, gray. Full of muscle memory. Get up, work, eat, work some more. Stand on the wall and keep watch. Wash, rinse and repeat.
His life had gone from doing exactly what he wanted to do, to doing nothing of what he wanted to do in suburbia during the apocalypse. He never told Theo his soul was silently being strangled, and that he wanted to go home to the sea post haste.
Cooper Johnson was just happy to be alive.
He guessed.
After almost a year in Alexandria, Aaron returned with a whole mess of new people. Their leader, Rick, seemed like a rather scary dude. Hair-triggered and wild-eyed. A lot of crazy shit went down...basically zero violence to excessive violence; Pete Anderson being beaten in the street,Aiden Monroe dying on a supply run, Reg Monroe getting his throat slashed...and then the gruesome death of Pete Anderson infront of the entire town.
For awhile, no one could make heads or tails of the group that had just arrived. They had been out there too long.
Cooper had been able to dispose of those...things...biters, walkers, whatever; but he had never taken a human life. Rick Grimes liked to talk about other groups coming and taking their supplies, their homes...their people. Other living people who had made it this far would find Alexandria and want it...and would probably attempt to take it at any costs.
Then the herd moved through. About two thousand dead ones. They tried to lead them away, they built walls.
A lot of their folks met their end.
Including Ethan and Theo.
Theo was the one person who he could connect to through all of this, the one person he had knew before.
And now he was gone.
His last remaining friend was Spencer Monroe. Eldest child of Congresswoman Deanna Monroe and Reg Monroe, brother to Aiden. Now, he too was all that was left of his people. The first few nights, they spent the time together listening to music and drinking their faces off.
Despite their ages; Cooper was thirty and Spencer was twenty-eight, they had very little in common. Spencer graduated with honors from college. Spencer was a frat boy. Cooper on the other hand, didn't mind working for minimum wage and tips if it meant maintaining his home between the two beaches. He didn't need much; just some strong coffee, sunshine and sand. Maybe some waves.
But somehow, they became friends. Well, friends enough at the end of the world.
After the herd, Cooper worked hard with what was left of the construction team to rebuild the walls and fix the tower. At night he spent on the walls, watching for the inevitable alongside Spencer or Rosita.
It was clear that Rosita Espinosa had come wrapped in a tough-girl package. Cooper was quiet by nature, he didn't really speak unless he was spoken to. He preferred to hang back and read the room...take notice of people. Who they really were.
Rosita was a hard nut to crack.
When she was first introduced to him through her boyfriend, Abraham, she just smirked and told said, "Cooper Johnson. You have two last names."
He did, actually. Cooper was his mother's maiden name.
He tried to understand what had brought Rosita and Abraham together, other than it being the end of the world and they seemed to be "the fittest" of what they had come from. She sported pigtails and short shorts along with gold hoop earrings. Curious dress for a woman in the apocalypse, he had to note. Abraham was quite a bit older than her...red headed and mustachioed, former military. He talked frankly and was a tank of a man, far different from Cooper who was tall and skinny with a sandy blond mop.
Since leaving the beach, though, Cooper had to admit that Rosita was the most interesting thing he had seen.
Spencer seemed to think so, too.
One night, while they were keeping watch, Spencer nudged him with his elbow, "You know what, man. Part of me wishes some hot chicks with guns would show up. Like something from a cheesy, 80's action flick. Bikini's and cigars...maybe one with an eye patch riding a tank. All the ladies that have come through are all paired up, or like other ladies. Which would make for a great story, if my frat brothers were still alive and Facebook still existed."
Cooper laughed lightly, pulling up the hood on his blue sweatshirt...the cold was something he was still getting used to, "You're here at the end of the world in a horror movie, and you're wishing for some sort of Cinemax after hours movie. I wish we could just change the damn channel."
Spencer shrugged and adjusted the rifle he held at his chest, "What would you wish for? If you had a wish that would come true?"
He thought about it for a few moments and he looked up at the Virginia sky, "The beach, man. Sunrise on Kure Beach. The tide coming in. The sand. Peace and quiet. Knowing that my parents were working nine to fives in Raleigh while my sisters changed the world in medical school. Just knowing that would make me feel better."
Cooper had lost contact with his parents just days after the outbreak. Heidi and Hannah, although only medical students, were needed in hospitals treating the infected. Hannah had gotten sick, last he had heard, before the phones stopped working, before the bombs were dropped on major cities.
If this was all there was, if fighting and surviving was all that was left; Cooper wanted to die by the beach...the sound of the tide slapping the shore in his ears, lulling him into whatever came after this world.
Spencer nodded, "That sounds nice. But hot chicks riding a tank in bikinis sound better."
Cooper took a look at his friend and a wide smile spread across Spencer's face. Cooper couldn't help but laugh, it was a nice break from all the heavy thoughts that weighed on him daily and the homesickness that brewed in his belly...along with the odd dreams of looking for seashells on the beach with one Rosita Espinosa.
He hadn't spent a lot of time analyzing the dreams...he was just hoping that the universe would deem him worth enough to clue him into the meaning at some point.
A/N: Hi loves. Scrapped most of the ideas I've been laboring over for my Male OC. Turned on some music and did some free writing. Putting this out there, let me know what you think. The title comes from a Jack Johnson song called, "Times Like These", in which Cooper the Beach Bum was born. I like him much better than his original incarnations. Drop me a line and let me know what you think!
This story is dedicated to Stormrunner74, who challenged me!
Thanks and Love,
Leah P!
XOXO