Title: The Red Oak Tree
Rating: T
Pairings: N/A though some Australia/Canada if you squint really hard?
Characters: Wy, Hutt River, Australia, Canada, others mentioned
Variation: Zombie AU
Authors Note: So, you could call this an accompany fic with Yellow. Its set in the same AU but set after Wellesley and Owen reunite, and, as you guessed it, follows 3 of the other Oceanic nations. Like before it has a similar format of following a character and then having bits in between that slowly lead up to showing how the character got in that situation before. I hope you enjoy it as much as you all enjoyed yellow.
The title comes from the song: Follow You Down to The Red Oak Tree by James Vincent McMorrow, from the Third Star OST (which is also set in Wales. South wales is just a hub of sad stories and films)
Australia – James Cook (age 20)
Wy – Matilda Cook (age 7)
Hutt River – Lawrence Cook (age 15)
She closes the door softly as she leaves the apartment, back pack heavy on her shoulders and she sniffed, trying not to sneeze and attract attention. She still isn't sure if the building was deserted when she stumbled in from the cold, pulling her hood up as she padded down the lino covered stairs of the student accommodation that had once held the students of Swansea Metropolitan.
The magnolia walls are splattered with dried blood, as are the blue floors and steps, Matilda making sure to avoid stepping on them as if she was playing lava or something along those lines. She just knew it would be bad if she stepped on it. Had Lawrence said the lava would burn her?
She had never understood that. Why would it burn her and not her brother who walked on it like it was nothing?
Still puzzled, she left the building, starting her descent into the town centre with a frown upon her features. Her brother, well brothers, was silly. Maybe that's why they…Matilda shakes her head, trying not to think about that as she carried on her way.
They weren't sleeping or monsters. Not really.
"When is James getting back? He's been gone for days and there are monsters out there…is he okay?" Lawrence bit his lip, thinking over an answer before smiling and nodding his head, ruffling his little sister's hair. That was better than lying, wasn't it? How do you explain to a seven year old that James had been…?
What did it matter? Their oldest brother was dead twice over now. First by that short girl (at least, Lawrence thinks it was a girl) with light brown hair who had got him and Matthew on their way back from sightseeing and then…he shudders thinking about the man who had got him with the pipe.
He'd gone looking for him later but there was no sign of him, Lawrence presuming he got the same end as James did, if all the blood in the fountain was something to go by.
"Yeah, he's fine. More than fine actually. If I tell you where he's gone, do you want to go meet him?" He smiles a little weakly as she nods, hoping she'd make it as far as he planned to go. She hadn't been well after all. "Okay, I need you to pack as much as you can carry into my back pack and we'll go meet him and then we can all go back home."
"Even Matt?"
"Yeah, Matt's gonna be waiting with James. You'll see."
The town is deserted, just like the train station has been last night, just like how the building she had slept in had been. Maybe the monsters had moved on? Lawrence had said he thought they might have moved onto the valleys when the cities became barren, Matilda waiting patiently at the traffic lights before walking across after a while.
Old habits die hard and it was the little things that made this whole thing just seem less daunting to her.
Maybe she should head for the beach? She ponders, passing a building surrounded by broken glass and people sleeping in ways Matilda couldn't imagine were comfortable, more so when they slept with their empty eyes open. Yeah, they'd be waiting on the beach for her. Lawrence had said that they wold be waiting for her on the beach, in Swansea.
They'd be waiting for her. She knew it.
She smiles to herself, as he thinks over how she'll see them again. Maybe…Maybe she had beaten them there, there's a bubble of excitement in her at that thought. She'd be early and then they'd arrive a little later and then they'd go home.
They'd go back to Australia then.
"My feet hurt." He pauses then, turning and letting his little sister catch up to him, taking her hand when she eventually does and walking slower for her, knowing he couldn't carry her with the back packs included. He wishes James was here. He'd know what to do. "How much further?"
"Well, we should hit Port Talbot station soon, we'll rest p and we can find you some new boots in the morning. Maybe that'll make walking easier for you?" If he was honest with himself, Lawrence was having the same issue with his own. But he couldn't break his façade for her. James wouldn't have and neither would he.
He had to be a strong older brother for her, right?
It's weird, the city centre, with no one in it.
She stands by one of the trees and looks for any sign of life, monster or not, just something to tell her that she wasn't the only one here. Her too big boots slop against her feet as she bounces on the balls of her feet impatiently, frowning at the half destroyed winter market and silently wondering if there was any food left.
Unless the monsters got it, walking past the burnt out shell of a food stall, wondering what animal had left it's bones on the pavement near the stall, all soot and cinders, half crushed and shattered.
She should find some food.
But where would she find that? Moving past the wrecked shops she continues to explore this new city, over steeping the sleeping people in a bid to not wake them. There had to be a supermarket around here somewhere right? Yeah, there had to be, where else would the people that live…lived…live here get their food from?
Shaking her head and feeling a little silly, she walked through the broken automatic door and into the shopping centre, hoping to find a food store nearby.
He'd got her boots but…
He winces as he bandages his arm up, wondering how he could have been so careless. It was only one bite, he still had time. At least, Lawrence thought he did. He can only hope that his assumption was right, he couldn't leave Matilda on her own, not here, not in this foreign land.
Pulling a fresh shirt and jacket on – he's certain it doesn't count as shop lifting if there is little to no humanity left – he turns as he hears Matilda stir, smiling at her as she blinks wearily at him. "I got some boots and new clothes to wear for you, and myself really, we should be warmer now."
"Can I keep my coat?" He wasn't expecting her to ask that but nods anyway, holding out a jumper and jeans to her and looking away as she changes.
He should tell her, oh god, he needs to tell her. He can't explain this, how would he explain this? But…but he'll have to make her leave eventually, he can't…he wouldn't bite her. Fuck, why had he been so damn careless? This could have been avoided, he wouldn't have to leave his sister alone, he could keep her sa-
"Lawrence, are you okay?"
"What?" He blinked looking at her before smiling, pulling her into a one armed hug and ruffling her hair again, laughing a little. "Yeah, I'm okay. I've got you haven't I?"
It doesn't take long until she finds a Tesco, climbing through the small gap in the automatic doors and tripping a little of her shoes, correcting herself before she starts exploring the aisles. Lawrence said to go for tinned and dried food, food that would last longer and that's what she does, blinking at the tins of baked beans and spaghetti and silently wondering if they could be eaten uncooked.
That's when she hears it, turning to her left and staring at the monster at the end of the aisle and freezing.
Oh no.
Matilda screams as it charges at her, feet sliding on the polished floor of the supermarket as she headed back the way she came, vision blurring with tears as she heading back for the doors she had come through, sliding through only to be grabbed from behind.
Her backpack. It's holding her backpack. She struggles against the grip on her, becoming hysterical as she is almost pulled back through the doors, slipping out of her backpack and staring at the zombie rabidly reaching for her before running again.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Lawrence pauses and looks down at his sister, smiling and wondering where that had come from. He'd been hiding the fact he'd been bitten well, hadn't he? Yeah, of course he had. She couldn't be aware of it, he'd kept it so well hidden…
"Hey! Are you listening to me?!"
"Yeah, just ignoring your questions 'cause your big brother is all good in the hood."
He inwardly sighs with relief as she laughs at him, hoping she doesn't notice the way he winces when she bangs into his arm. "You sound silly when you talk like that, Lawrence."
"Are you startin' on me, mate? Cuz I aint appreciatin' the lack of respect comin' from yer blud."
She's practically crying with laughter now, Lawrence smiling a little, knowing that he's avoided the bullet once again. But he knows he's going to have to tell her eventually, the wound was only getting worse and the smell was only easy to hide because everything smelt like that now.
He'd tell her.
He'd tell her when they reached Neath.
She's not sure how far she's run now, or where she is, passing through two tunnels and running through a marina before she eventually stops, staring out at the beach before her, cautiously looking back before making her way down onto the sand.
Lawrence had said James and Matt wold be waiting, and where better than the beach?
They always met at the beach; there was some form of magnetism towards the beach for the three siblings, so why wouldn't they meet there? She kicks off her boots and smiles at the feel of sand beneath her feet. As hard and compacted as the sand may have been, it was still sand and, oh, how she missed it.
Picking up her boots she started walking along the beach, leaving footprints behind her as she tried to spot her brothers, frowning a little as she found the beach deserted. Where was everyone? Shouldn't they be here by now?
Sighing she carried on along the beach, silently wondering if her brothers had forgotten all about her.
She'd started crying when she saw it, Lawrence leaning against the wall of Neath station's waiting room as Matilda just stared at the festering bite mark. "Don't cry, Tilda, it's my own fault." There was no point lying now because he can feel it changing him, feel the virus twisting round his insides and choking him as he feels death creep upon him.
"I'll make it better, I…I'll look after you…You c-can't…"
He shushes her, trying to smile but his muscles aren't reacting to his thoughts as much as he would have liked. She's never dealt with death before now, she'd been born after grandma had died, and she hadn't witnessed James dying not only once but twice. Fuck, he wishes he could…was…could have been a better brother to her.
He wishes he hadn't been bitten.
"I need you to do a favour for me; can you do that for me, Matilda?"
She nods slowly, wiping her eyes with her torn mittens and looking at him intently, like this was the thing that would save him. That only made it worse, Lawrence wincing at the pain in his chest and he's not sure if it's the virus or his sister causing it.
"I need you to leave me behind."
She leaves messages in the sand, little messages for Lawrence and James to find when they get here so they know where she is. Far enough up the beach so that the waves don't wash them away just yet but also far enough down the beach that the sand was still wet.
Matilda waits in the playground she found, feet sinking into the soft, grainy sand as she moved over to the poor excuse of a swing set, the sand that had buried the area leaving the seat resting against the miniature dunes. They'd be here soon, she could feel it.
They'd be here soon and then they could go home.
Just like Lawrence had said, they'd go home. They'd see mum and dad again. All three of them would. She just knew it.
"Come on guys, we need to go home." She spoke to no one bar herself, wrapping the chain of the swing around the top bar before sitting down and waiting, putting the whistle around her neck in her mouth and starting to blow.
He knows she'll argue back before she even tries, Lawrence gesturing for her to be quiet before digging through his backpack and handing her an old tin whistle, placing the cord around her neck and trying not to laugh at the confused look on her face.
"When…you…get to…Swansea…bay…blow hard…and wait…for…James…"
Matilda nods, putting the whistle in her mouth and blowing experimentally, blinking as Lawrence moved the instrument from her mouth and shook his head. "Only…blow when…in bay…"
"Will you come too?" She's got that determined look on her face, like she'll shout at him if he gives the wrong answer. "Will you come to the bay too if I blow the whistle?"
"Course…I…will…" He lets out a ragged breath, wincing as the pain in his chest got worse and he realises he's not got much longer and she's still here. She needed to go and she needed to go now. "But…you need…to leave…first…go on…I'll…catch up…you'll…see…"
It takes a moment, a moment a bit too long for Lawrence's liking before she stands, picking the backpack Lawrence had been carrying – now half empty – and she makes to leave the waiting room, giving him once last look before she's gone.
A croaky laugh leaves his lips, wheezing as the virus seems to grab his lungs with knife like nails and puncture them, the taste of blood in his mouth. "Maybe…as…bad…I…thought…"
She stops as she hears a noise behind her, whistle dropping from her lips and hitting her chest as she turned and smiled. It worked, she can't believe it worked. One more and they could go home, she only had to wait for one more brother now.
"I knew you'd come."