The Start
AN: Hello lovely readers! This is a zombie story! W00t, my first one ever in fact. I hope you enjoy it. So far the only pairings that I have in mind for this story are the canon couples stated ie Esmeralda/Saradoc and the like, plus Bilbo/Thorin. If you have a couple you like don't be shy shoot me a pm or comment and I'll slip it in if it's a pairing my brain can wrap around xD If you don't understand something let me know so I can try to fix it. Beta read by TheHardCoreHobbit and ParadiseGirl, who I am so very glad took the time to read this. It will probably be edited a few more times cause ParadiseGirl hasn't been able to send me her thoughts yet lol.
Bilbo Baggins knows he isn't the most interesting person to the Big People who live outside the protective Dome of the Shire. Oh sure, when he was younger he "adventured" and was very "unrespectable" to the Hobbits living in the Shire Dome, Section Hobbiton. He still has mementos from his wilder days and unlike most Shirelings, or at least the ones who stay in the Dome and don't venture out into Bree, he knows that outside it, the world is full of science and technology. He has seen the high rising buildings made of metal he has never seen produced in smithies, the low flying carts that aren't carts and the thick smog that clogs the air, making it hard for him to breathe.
But now he is respectable, he enjoys gardening and other respectable Hobbit past times. Always makes sure to eat his seven meals, not a minute late and tuts at the fauntlings that try to steal the pies from his windowsill. Oh how his mother would be scandalized! Her only son, not adventuring!? His father, on the other hand, would be relieved that his son has finally settled down.
It's a source of gossip for his neighbors, the odd mix of blood flowing through his veins. Never before had a Took and a Baggins married... ot that he listened to the harsh whispers of the older Hobbits that criticized his every move. And just maybe it's his odd mixing of blood that saves him.
Life under the Dome can get repetitive easily; the clear glass that covers the entirety of the Shire is the only piece of high technology there is on, or around the fertile grounds depending on how one looks at it. Created by an Istar, long before records were kept, it covers the Hobbit's home. It collects what limited sunlight there is from the outside world and focuses it, tuning it into a blazing pseudo sun and moon. Its sensors allow it to know when the plants need rain and when to turn the air chilly so that the fertile land stays fertile.
So on the day that Bilbo Baggins leaves his large, comfortable smial to visit his cousins Drogo and Primula, toys tucked away to surprise their child Frodo, it is of course; bright and sunny. Looking up at the bright blue sky and lazily moving clouds Bilbo wishes something unexpected would happen before encouraging his pony to move. It doesn't have to be big just something to break up the stagnant flow of time. It's a long ride from Hobbiton to Buckland.
Another interesting blend of blood; Brandybuck and Baggins, even odder that the Baggins decided to leave Hobbiton and settle into Buckland of all places but Bilbo thinks love makes you do odd things. And Drogo Baggins loves Primulla with the same fire that Bilbo say his own father have for his mother. It's night time before he reaches his cousins smial. The moon is high in the sky; a lantern sits in the outer sill letting him know that at least one of his cousins are awake. Walking up to the door, bag of goodies under his arm, he ignores how the hair on the back of his neck stands on end and on how the crickets have stopped chirping. Gandalf, an old friend of the family and quite possibly the maker of the Dome, swore to him a malfunction would never again happen and that the dangerous natural creatures, wolves, would never again attack. He trusts the gray clad man and thus ignores the sign, the instincts honed during Fell Winter. Instead he focuses on the bundle of energy that tackles his legs the moment after he knocks on the door. Basks in the happy chatter of a fauntling who has been allowed to stay up past his bed time.
It's late in the next night that the screaming begins, jolting Bilbo awake from where he is sitting in the front room, Frodo in his lap. Too late his instincts kick in and he tries to shuffle them out the back door. Drogo and Primula were too young to remember the Fell Winter thirty years ago. They don't have the scars or the memories that drive Bilbo to grab every knife he can carry. He hears the ominous thump, thump on the door and squeezes his eyes shut just for a moment. It's spring not winter, there are no howls in the air, no frost biting at his fingers or hunger clawing at his stomach. In that moment Drogo breaks away from his hiding family, to him it's just the desperate knocks of a neighbor in trouble, not death on paws. He doesn't remember the starving wolves scenting out Hobbits like rabbits in their dens nor the ferocious way they attacked the doors, their bodies hitting the solid wood like a frantic fauntling wanting access to their parents room. It is as Bilbo opens his eyes that the door breaks; Primula screams in fear and Drogo is taken down by an enraged Hobbit who tears out his throat. Without thinking Bilbo has thrown a knife, ending the mad Hobbit and pulled the hysterical Primula out of the smial, a quiet and shaken Frodo in her arms. His hands tremble as he bars the back door with a bench, mind racing he tries to figure out why a Hobbit would act like a feral animal... No like a rabid animal crazed out of its mind with sickness. There are still screams sounding, threatening to throw him into a panic attack, he can't panic, he can't freeze, he has to get Prim and Frodo away, has to keep them safe. They trust him; he sees it in Prim's bright blue eyes. Slowly they edge around the smial towards the front, Prim holding on to Frodo tightly not wanting to let him go, they need to get out of here. Myrtle, his pony, is gone, which is better than being dead, and his cart is mostly untouched. He can see other smials with their doors thrown open or broken down. He's just about to steer the down the road, toward Saradoc and Esmeralda's home when Prim freezes.
"Bilbo... Drogo isn't in the doorway."
"What?" he spins around. Instead of two bodies laying in the doorway there is just the rabid Hobbit. Drogo is nowhere to be found.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know Prim, I don't know."
"Does that mean he's okay?"
Bilbo looks at her, her blond hair already escaping the bun she put it in to sleep and blue eyes showing how young she really is. Thirty eight years old with a four year old son. He doesn't have the heart to tell her it is very doubtful that Drogo is okay... Instead of speaking he pats her arm. They need to move before whatever broke the other doors comes back out.
It's Frodo who spots his father, further down the lane, body moving awkwardly. Before Bilbo can stop her Prim shoves Frodo into his arms and runs toward her husband. She cries out his name; he turns skin pale and blood pouring out of his throat. Prim stumbles to a stop, she's too far for Bilbo to reach her in time and the shade of her husband is on her before she can scream properly. Anguished cries fill the air as more things pile out and converge on Primula. Covering Frodo's eyes the best he can, he turns around and runs ignoring Frodo's screams of 'Mama' and 'go back'.
By the time they make it to Saradoc's Frodo is silent. Bilbo feels all fifty one years of his life as he trudges up the lane holding onto his cousin. Primula, Drogo... gone... Its quiet compared to where they were and Bilbo feels tense. It doesn't matter that as the Master of Buckland Saradoc has a smial that has no neighbors. He's seen one of his dearest cousin's die only to not really be dead and kill his wife in the same fashion he had been... But if Drogo didn't die does that mean that Prim is alive? Can they be considered alive if they seem to just be walking corpses with foaming mouths? He shudders and brings Frodo closer to him, he shan't let Frodo down; he will keep him safe. It's a slight relief to see the orange door of Brandybuck Hall shut tight. His mind wonders to a time when he taught his older cousins the knock adults were using to let the Hobbits in the smials know it was a Hobbit not a wolf knocking on the door. He hopes Saradoc remembers it or is at least alive; much rather Saradoc being alive and just refusing to answer the door than the less appealing possibility. One loud knock, two soft, five fast then two slow knocks on the door. Always keep your back to the door Bilbo, face the front, keep the front half of your body with your weapon toward the possible threats my boy, his father's voice floats in his mind, Bungo always the voice of reason, always calm. He barely has time to register the sound of the door opening before he is pulled into Brandybuck Hall. Esmeralda is hugging him and crying, they heard the screams even all the way out here. Questions are shot rapidly from both elder Brandybucks. Questions that hurt to answer. Where are Primula and Drogo? What happened? He answers them the best he can little Frodo having moved off with Merry; Merry always the perceptive one dragging Frodo to lay down with him.
"Do you think its reached Hobbition and Tookland?"
"I don't know."
Esmeralda bites her lip, thinking worryiedly about her older brother.
"What do you think is happening Bilbo?"
Bilbo lets out a long shaky breath of air.
"To tell the honest to Yavanna truth, Saradoc I haven't a clue. It sounded like Fell Winter again only without the howls. The Hobbit that got Drogo? He was foaming at the mouth like that dog of Farmer Maggot's that went mad," he lets out another shaky breath "I saw that Hobbit rip Drogo's throat out before I put a knife in his brains. I SAW it Saradoc, and yet by the time it took us to sneak around the back Drogo was back on his feet. Only he wasn't Drogo anymore... They don't look like they'd move fast, Drogo was walking as if he had an injured leg before he heard Prim, but they do..."
Esmeralda and Saradoc exchange concerned glances. It'll be... not better but easier to think in the morning they decide, all three adults joining the two sleeping fauntlings. They barricade themselves in the room and Bilbo takes first watch. Many, if not all, Big People think Hobbits weak because of their plentiful lands, peaceful ways and seven meals a day. What they forget is that Hobbits work that plentiful land, that they have a biological need for seven meals a day and if any Big Person ever saw them as they were during Fell Winter they'd never call another Hobbit "Halfling" again. Bilbo looks over at Saradoc curled around his wife and child; he's supposed to wake him up for second watch, swore it actually. But really, Saradoc should know him better than that. Instead he stays awake all night, trying not to think of the last time he did this. Hobbits may not be built to fight but endanger their family and they turn vicious.
Slowly the other wake as the sun rises and Bilbo weathers the lecture Saradoc gives him as the un-barricade the door. Carefully they move into the main part of the smial. With Saradoc watching her back, and Bilbo watching the fauntlings and the front of the house, Esmeralda heads into a back room. A room most Shirelings never had use for until Fell Winter. Brandybucks and Tooks, always the exception, have a small armory in their houses, something to protect them when they go adventuring. Not that swords and war hammers and axes intimidate Big People outside of Bree with their high tech weapons. The weapons will work well against the rabid Hobbits however. Esmeralda returns to the main section of the smial, a small pained smile on her face when she notices that Merry and Frodo have barricaded the front door and closed all the windows. Much like she and Paladin had did during the Fell Winter. She places the weapons on the dining room table heading back into the armory. Ever curious the faunts race to the table 'oohing' and 'aweing' at the weapons. Saradoc having checked the entire smial goes into the kitchen. It won't be as good as his wife's but he can make something for breakfast.
"Brandy Hall is a great place to be but..."
"It is far away and not someplace with defenses," Bilbo finishes for Saradoc.
"Right. We need to try and warn the Hobbits who haven't encountered the rabid ones. There is a horn half way to Tookland..."
"We'll head there, then to Paladin's place, pick them up and head to Bag End. I've kept my traps set up from Fell Winter; they just need to be primed."
Saradoc gives him a thankful smile.
"You guys are always welcome in Bag End Never forget that."
"Course Cousin."
After breakfast, the three adults go through the weaponry that Esmeralda brought out. She's already in leather armor with a Hobbit-sized sword on her hip. Bilbo bets Bag End that she has sharp throwing needles on her person too. Saradoc chooses a hefty Hobbit-sized ax while Bilbo grabs the honest to Yavanna throwing knives and the one bow and quiver that is on the table. At Bilbo's questioning glance Saradoc and Esmeralda grin sheepishly.
"Wanted to see why you liked the thing so dam ahem... much. Couldn't get the hang of it."
Sadly none of the leather armor will fit the fauntlings. Not that Merry and Frodo minded, both of the four year olds are too busy checking out their new sling shots. Quietly the adults... discuss, not argue oh no just discuss, the pros and cons of using a cart. Bilbo stresses the fact that since they have faunts with them it would be safer to have them in the cart, which would also be faster than five Hobbits on foot, two of them with faunts on their shoulders. This drowns out any worry about the cart drawing attention. Oh it most surely will, but at least the fauntlings will be out of reach... hopefully. Esmeralda glares fiercely when Saradoc and Bilbo decide that she will sit up front driving the cart while they walk alongside it at least until they get out of the populated area. Should the run into survivors they'd advise them to either get out of the Dome or hunker down. Carefully they set out to the barn where the cart and ponies are. Minty and Daisy, two calm and rather fast ponies are chosen to draw it. Extra weapons, fauntlings and food are loaded into the back; Esmeralda climbs into the driver's seat and they head off.
Like the ride to Buckland the ride out is slow, even slower despite the fact they have a cart. The inner town is rather destroyed, smials broken into and the like. They are halfway out when they encounter the first rabid Hobbit of the day. Her skin is turning a sickly color and it looks as if parts of her are falling off. Bilbo puts an arrow through her throat but she doesn't go down. Another arrow is fired into her chest. This time she falls. The rabid Hobbits spill out like mad ants when their hill is stepped on after that. While they fight their way out, the three adults learn things about their enemy. They learn that even the more progressed rabid Hobbits, ones that are no longer foaming at the mouth, but have pure white eyes and sickly colored skin that stumble around like their legs are broken and groan and moan, move just as quickly as the others. That they are attracted to the scent of blood, even the blood of their own; they eat flesh and can be slowed down by killing one in front of them so that they stop and eat the dead one. And they don't stay down unless vital spots like the heart or brain are hit... cutting off their head works as well though. But it is the fauntlings that witness something big about them. They point out a non rabid Hobbit trying to get home by the looks of it and the two adult males turn too slow. The Hobbit is attacked, bitten repeatedly on the arm before Bilbo is able to kill the attacker. The Hobbit, clutching his wounded arm to his chest, smiles thankfully at Bilbo and Bilbo signs the message "Get out or hunker down." He turns his back, all three adults dismissing the injured Hobbit after he signs back "I'm getting out of here once I get my family". The fauntlings don't however, they keep their curious little eyes on him. It takes two minutes for the Hobbit to stop walking. Another to start convulsing where he stands and a few seconds to turn around to the cart, his mouth foaming. It's Merry and Frodo's panicked screams that save them; the Hobbit moved quickly catching up to them faster than a normal Hobbit could have. Saradoc cuts off his head with his ax when the mad Hobbit tries to climb into the cart and he pulls the convulsing body away.
"Aule! He's burning up," he exclaims in shock, his hand stinging slightly from the sudden heat "He's hot like he has a fever, a really bad fever."
"Let's not get too close to ones that can still bite or sneeze on us then," Bilbo states uneasily. Three minutes and a handful of seconds to turn a normal Hobbit mad. He's never heard of rabies progressing so quickly.
When they finally make it to the horn used to signal danger, Esmeralda kisses Saradoc. She doesn't like the plan, her going ahead a bit so that if the horn is swarmed she and the faunts will be safe, but she heads off any way. Before she goes she forces her husband to promise to stay safe and kisses Bilbo on the top of his head when she hears that he is staying behind with her husband. Bilbo keeps his bow out, arrow notched and ready to fire. Once they are sure that Esmeralda is far enough away to be safe, Saradoc climbs up the ladder and blows the horn. The Dome isn't perfect; don't believe any Man that says it is, and sometimes it glitches. Nothing as bad as Fell Winter, but time consuming bad none the less, that is why the horns were made. To signal something had gone wrong, so Hobbits know they either need to evacuate or try and tough it out. No rabid Hobbits charge them and they cautiously, yet quickly make their way out. They find Esmeralda waiting for them a little closer than they are comfortable with but they say nothing to her. Lunch is terse, the adults watching for dangers. On the road and out of town they move faster, thankfully not running into too many rabid Hobbits.
Paladin's home is just as large as Saradoc's only it's closer to town. They reach it just before supper. Bilbo goes to make sure the smial hasn't been broken into. Once he sees the door shut tight he whistles twice. Esmeralda and Saradoc secure the cart and together they get the food and fauntlings from it meeting up with Bilbo in front of the door. He knocks the special knock and waits. Much like before the door is opened quickly and they are ushered in. Paladin hugs his little sister to him, giving Saradoc a grateful smile. The triplet Took girls take Merry and Frodo, cooing over them and taking them to Pippin. Eglantine, Paladin's wife, is just as happy to see them, cheerfully making more food, or as cheerfully as on can be in their situation. Both of them agree that Bag End is the best place to be.
"We will head there in the morning then," Bilbo says with a decisive nod.
Saradoc bullies Bilbo into sleeping and takes first watch, ignoring Paladin's claims that 'this is my smial! I take first watch.' Saradoc just smiles at him, making Paladin grunt and mutter about disrespectful brother-in-laws. And when Bilbo jolts awake from nightmares, memories, Saradoc sits up with him, talking about happier times. Like the time Paladin took him out to Farmer Maggot's fields, stripped him of his clothes and tied him up like a scarecrow.
"You take good care of my little sister you hear me? If you think this is bad just get on my bad side," Saradoc says mimicking Paladin. Bilbo laughs softly telling his own Paladin tales. Like how one day when he was just a small faunt Paladin got into Bungo's wine and wound up running around Bag End naked. Paladin lets out a groan, sitting up and giving Bilbo a baleful stare.
"Must you always tell that story?"
"Yes."
Saradoc chuckles and with a sleepy yawn lets Paladin take over the watch.
"He's a good boy Paladin. Only a year younger than you and a year older than Esa."
"I know Bilbo, but she's my sister..."
"He'd die to keep her safe."
"That's what is worrying me now."
Bilbo pats his shoulder gently. He doesn't say they'll make it, doesn't try and reassure his cousin. He wants to, wants to wipe away the worry but he can't. Morning comes and they load up the cart; Paladin is smiling and joking as he walks next to the cart making the children laugh. Eglantine is up front with Esmeralda, both of them gossiping softly. Traveling to Hobbiton is easier than it was to travel to Tookland. Complacency, Bilbo remembers too late, begs for disaster to strike. They've stopped for Elvensies when the sun itself flickers like an unfortunate candle left out in a storm. The fauntlings scream in fear. Eglantine calls out for the girls and Pippin to get back to the cart. The Took blood in the younglings makes them thrice as curious as normal fauntlings. Pearl grabs her sisters' hands and they run to the safety of their mother right as a frightening scream pierces the air. The Hobbits freeze just for a moment then spring into action. The children are loaded into a cart; Esmeralda is doing her damnedest to keep the ponies calm, Saradoc and Eglantine are trying to keep the children quiet. Another scream hits their ears, closer this time and the ponies nearly run over Esmeralda in their want to get away. Eglantine looks around madly, triple checking her head count, there is a faunt missing.
"Where's Pippin?!"
Paladin curses under his breath and looks around for his youngest. He spots Pippin, holding a handful of weeds with sticks in his hair; at the edge of the clearing as a third scream sounds. The ponies have had enough and rush off, throwing Saradoc, attempting to get down and retrieve his wayward nephew, completely out of the cart. Bilbo and Paladin, the only two not in the cart because Esmeralda had hoped holding on to the reins would keep the ponies from bolting hear the painful SNAP of bone and Saradoc cries out with an answering scream echoing.
"Shit! Bilbo, you get Saradoc back into the cart, I'll get Pippin."
Bilbo can't say a word against Paladin's plan as the Hobbit takes off to save his son. Thankfully Esmeralda has the ponies back under a tentative control and brings the cart back around to Bilbo. Paladin is halfway back to them when the first rabid Hobbit breaches the forest line. Esmeralda and Eglantine shriek out in fear. They can't bring the cart to him, they can't. Bilbo has his bow out and is contemplating getting out and rushing toward Paladin when a larger figure follows the now swarming smaller Hobbits. The new larger figure opens its mouth and they find the source of the screams that have been frightening them and the ponies.
"PALADIN, get that ASS moving!" Esmeralda screams ignoring Pimpernel's gasp of shock at her Aunt's language. Paladin picks up speed and Bilbo thinks he's made it; he's only a toss away from the cart for Eru's sake, when a rabid hobbit cuts out of the forest from the left. Paladin sees it and Bilbo gets the horrid luck of seeing the exact moment that it registers in Paladin's mind that he isn't going to make it. He bends his head down and whispers something to Pippin, locks eyes with Bilbo and tosses Pippin. It's instinct that has Bilbo leaning out of the cart, a cart that he is just realizing is moving again, to catch Pippin and it's hurting, panting, possibly going into shock Saradoc who keeps him from falling out.
"Keep your promise Brandybuck!"
And their gone, Paladin is gone, out of sight and Esmeralda is sobbing uncontrollably. Eglantine is trying not to cry as she holds onto her girls. Bilbo stands shakily, trying his damnedest to ignore how Saradoc is leaning out of the cart, one arm out stretched like he can still grab Paladin. Pippin is handed to Eglantine and the small blond Hobbit uncurls and shakily holds out the now damaged bouquet of flowers.
"I pickeded them for you mommy," Pippin cries not really knowing what is happening only that it is his fault. Eglantine bursts into tears hugging her baby to her chest.
"Oh, you silly fool of a Took."
They make it to Hobbiton and Bag End without anymore loses. Though Pippin is silent and no matter what Merry does he can't get Pippin to smile again. All the doors in Hobbiton are shut tight and the windows closed. Getting into Bag End Bilbo is nearly brained by his best friend/gardener/brother by bond, Hamfast. Who, as soon as he sees who he nearly brained apologizes profusely.
"You said to come here if it was getting bad."
"I know, you did well Hamfast."
Time moves slowly as they stay cooped up in Bag End, weeks crawl by and soon screams start in Hobbiton as well. The adults stay armed and one night Bilbo is shocked to hear the special knock on the door. Opening the door reveals a blood splattered Lobelia, another best friend/sibling by bond, and a shaken Lotho. He quickly pulls the two into his home, Lobelia slumps into Bilbo's hold asking him if she's still welcome at home even though she hasn't been the friendliest Hobbit since she married Otho. Otho who isn't with her, Otho who won't be making anymore snide remarks about Bilbo, Otho who won't raise a hand against her ever again. There are holes in his family, holes that will never be filled, but it's almost complete... And Bilbo thinks they just may make it through whatever is happening. Then the sun, which has been flickering near constantly goes out and they are left with only the weak natural sunlight filtering through the now normal glass of the Dome.