ONE
We can run
Today can last another million years
Today could be the end of me
.
Atlanta, GA
2:03 PM
Of course, the apocalypse happens on Beca's birthday.
It's not even funny.
Bang!
There goes the sound of, probably, another lamp post hitting the ground or another car hitting another. Well, of course it doesn't exactly sound like bang, but bang is the sound of everything to Beca. She's seen and heard enough on her run back to her dorm.
She's suddenly thankful for Aubrey and all the suicides she's asked Beca to do in the time she spent leading them. If it weren't for those cardio workouts, she'd be dead by now.
She runs to her room, sending the door flying open.
Honestly, she expected Kimmy Jin to be that Asian badass person you see on Korean action movies that suddenly has equipment that are designed to survive the apocalypse. But again, just like everything about her life, Kimmy Jin disappoints her by actually turning into one of the undead. Beca saw her roaming the common room downstairs, probably looking for a body to chomp on.
It will gross Beca out really but she has no time for nausea because the moment she started running out of that classroom when one of her classmates started rotting to death—or undeath, she only had one thing in mind: where the hell is Chloe?
Beca tries not to make anything out of that. She charges it to the fact that Chloe is her closest friend. She tries to ignore that voice in her head that asks her why didn't she think of her father first. Or Jesse.
She shakes her head as she packs as much things as she can and then runs fast.
She doesn't know why her feet make her run to the Bellas' rehearsal space but she's thankful anyway. The Bellas has always been one of Beca's best decisions—and it counts most especially today.
"Beca!" she hears a familiar voice call her name.
Fat Amy.
Somehow, knowing that one of her friends is still alive relieves her to no end.
"Amy?"
Fat Amy runs toward her, breathing heavily. She's holding a lamp—which almost makes Beca laugh because really? A lamp?
"I'm so glad to see you're alive," Fat Amy says when they're finally facing each other.
"Have you seen the others?" Beca asks, really wanting to ask about a certain redhead but she stops herself.
Great. The world is ending and she's still tongue tied about it all.
Fat Amy nods frantically along with her agitated breaths. "I'm on the same floor as Stacie and she went off to find the others, we're meeting here," Fat Amy says.
"Others? So, they're alive?" Beca asks nervously, adjusting the strap of her backpack.
"We don't know yet."
Silence envelopes them—as far as silence goes because outside the building are loud sounds of screaming and groaning and growling. Beca feels her heart race in anticipation. She hopes the door would just open and reveal her friends, all of them alive—probably even the Trebles. Hell, she'd take anyone she knows at this point, even the Stepmonster… okay, maybe not. But still.
"Do we have a plan?" Beca asks, not knowing if there's a proper answer for that.
Fat Amy cringes, "I don't know, Beca. Aubrey is the one good at planning shit."
"Can't believe the day will come I'd actually need Aubrey to survive."
"No shit," Fat Amy agrees.
For the next minute, they both just look around at the room—the empty bleachers, the abandoned piano in the middle of the room. It looks all the same except for the tight-shut windows and double-locked door. In here, it feels like they're just waiting for the others to arrive; like any minute, Aubrey would just come marching in with that annoying scowl on her face and behind her trails Chloe with that signature smile of hers that has made a lot of Beca's days better. Not that she'll ever admit that.
"Try your phone," Fat Amy tells her.
"The signal is down," she says.
"No. I tried calling Cynthia Rose before you walked in but I ran out of battery."
Beca sighs as she pulls her phone out from her pocket. She lights up the screen and sees something that almost makes her tear up.
9 Missed Calls from Chloe Beale
"Shit," she mutters to herself, hitting the Call button right away.
Fat Amy is right, the signal is still up. But somehow, it doesn't relieve her because Chloe is not answering her phone.
"Fat Amy, do you have any idea who Stacie went after?" Beca asks, still with one ear on the phone.
"The seniors' dorms. She went to find Aubrey and Chloe."
Beca nods unconsciously.
Now that relieves her.
She trusts Stacie.
Aside from the friendship she has formed with Chloe, the one she has formed with Stacie also has managed to surprise her in many ways. Stacie Conrad, the one who declared E!Network and cuticle care as her main hobbies, is taking on a double major in Physics and Astrophysics. So really, there's a certain badass-ness in Stacie that so many people wouldn't believe because the girl chooses to be shallow most days.
"Why are we just sitting here again?" Beca asks, now wondering why she's standing idly in this room doing nothing at all. "Shouldn't we go out there to find our friends?"
She's said the word before she could stop herself: friends. Yes because these are her people now. A year and a half ago, the idea of Beca having friends seemed more impossible than the apocalypse but hey, both are happening right now so it probably doesn't matter.
"It's probably best to stay here, Beca. Sometimes, the best thing to do is wait."
She ponders this. Maybe, Fat Amy is right; she hopes Fat Amy is right.
3:00 PM
"It's been an hour, Amy."
"I know."
"What are we gonna do?"
"Wait."
"Amy, it's not—"
A knock on the door interrupts Beca's protest. Both of their heads snap toward the direction of the door. By habit, Amy lifts her lamp up as Beca—realizing she's defenceless—stands up and grabs the chair she was sitting on.
God, we must look so pathetic right now.
Fat Amy walks slowly toward the door with a kind of concentration Beca has never seen in her before. Maybe, Fat Amy could survive this whole thing. She did wrestle crocodile in Tasmania, what's the worst that could happen?
The knocking comes on again and this time, Fat Amy speaks up, "Who's there?"
No one answers for a moment but then, someone from the other side replies, "Of course it's us, Amy. Why would a zombie knock before attacking you?"
Aubrey.
Somehow, even with the sass, hearing Aubrey's voice calms her down. She's never been so happy hearing Aubrey's voice because it means at the other side of the door, there's also Chloe. Let's face it, where there's Aubrey, there's Chloe. The vice-versa of that thought is actually horrifying but right now, both thoughts seem important.
That's why Beca practically runs to the door to throw it wide open.
And in that split second between opening it and actually seeing who's on the other side, Beca felt legitimate fear; fear not of the mass of zombies outside the building but fear of not seeing the people she wishes to see—that one person she needs to see.
But soon as the door opens, she felt air literally leave her lungs. She sees a body quickly throwing itself on her, wrapping its arms around her neck. For a moment, Beca thought this is it.
This is where it ends.
I'm gonna die because I got bit by a fucking zombie who mimicked Aubrey's voice.
But then she smells that familiar scent. She smells that familiar, horrible scent and for the first time since that girl in her classroom jumped and literally ate her seatmate for lunch, Beca felt like she could actually breathe.
Chloe.
"The Britney Spears perfume, really?" she asks soon as Chloe breaks the hug.
Then, Chloe pushes her by the shoulder.
"What the hell—"
"Why weren't you answering your phone?" Chloe asks, almost yelling at her in frustration.
"I—uh—"
Great.
The world is ending and Beca still can't pull herself together in front of Chloe.
"We searched for you everywhere!"
"I've been here all this time," Beca says. She tries to convince herself it doesn't have a double meaning.
"You should probably try checking your phone!" Chloe yells again and Beca has never seen her this worried and relieved at the same time.
Stacie clears her throat behind them both and that's the moment Beca realizes that almost everyone is here. For some weird reason, fate—the one that has never sided her before—decided to be in sync with her today. Her friends are here.
Stacie has just finished securing the door closed before she speaks up, walking past Beca and Chloe to the center of the room, "We need a plan."
Stacie is serious. She's never seen Stacie be this serious.
Three hours into the apocalypse and everyone has changed. Maybe, the apocalypse can really change people—or maybe, it reveals them.
"A plan for what?" Aubrey asks, staring at Stacie as if her life depends on it.
Stacie shrugs.
Beca chooses that time to speak up, "Get out of here, maybe?"
"Where do we go? Is there even a safe place out of here?" Aubrey asks, shots fired. Of course, it was a rhetorical question.
When the world ends, where do you go?
No one dares to make up theories. Everyone just sighs heavily. Beca looks around her. Stacie and Aubrey are tense, both wanting to do something but not knowing exactly what—or how. Lilly sits with Jessica by the piano, looking at the organ as if it can sing the world back to pieces.
Ashley, Cynthia Rose, and Fat Amy resign by the bleachers, features sagged with obvious anxiousness and fatigue.
"Wait," Beca says, holding up a hand when she realizes they're not all here. "Where the fuck is Denise?" she asks no one in particular, throwing unnecessary expletive because the answer terrifies her.
Stacie gives her a look.
Aubrey does the same.
And she gets it.
"Oh my God," Fat Amy mutters when she, too, gets it.
"Shit," Beca shudders. She then sighs, "Oh my God."
A second later and she feels a hand covering hers, stopping it from shaking. She looks at the hand now one with hers, it's Chloe's. She doesn't need to look at the person to know it's her. She just knows.
Lilly clears her throat and says, "We gotta get moving."
"To where?" Aubrey asks, always the one needing answers.
Silence.
There it is again, the silence also known as a bunch of girls wanting to survive the apocalypse. Beca could feel it, her friends are giving up. She wishes she could do something but she's probably also halfway gone as they are.
Without taking her hand away from Beca, Chloe steps forward. "Does it really matter? If we're gonna die, we might as well die fighting."
And this.
This is the reason why Beca is thankful for Chloe. Beca knows she's not even half the person that Chloe Beale is.
"I know where they park the swim team's bus," Fat Amy says.
Everyone looks at her.
Are we really gonna do this?
Beca sees Stacie nod, "Is it anywhere near?"
Fat Amy stands up nodding, her eyes glimmering with a little bit of hope.
"It's in the parking lot across the building," she says.
Stacie looks around her and Beca knows that this, this is the moment that Stacie has become their leader in their quest for survival.
Stacie takes a deep breath, "Who has shot a gun before?"
Lilly raises her hand.
Of course.
"Only Lilly?" Stacie asks, her face scrunches probably because of the terrifying fact that only one of her friends could actually defend herself.
With a shaky breath, Beca raises her hand.
Everyone looks at her.
"What?" she asks.
"Really, Beca?" Chloe, who still hasn't let go of her hand, asks her.
She rolls her hand, "So, no one is surprised that Lilly has shot a gun before and I get these kinds of looks?"
Everyone just looks at her, again.
"My father and I used to hunt before," she says with an eye roll.
Stacie nods, "Fine." Stacie summons everyone to gather in the middle of the room and once everyone is huddled around her, she says, "Fat Amy and I will get the bus in the parking lot. All of you will wait here, keep every window and that door shut, do you understand?"
They all nod.
Then, Stacie straightens her back and reaches for something behind. She takes a pistol out.
Aubrey is the first to react, "What the hell, Stacie? Where did you—"
"Calm your tits, Aubrey. Some people want to protect themselves."
"With two guns?" she asks again, eyeing the other gun held at Stacie's side.
Stacie only shrugs and hands the pistol to Beca.
"Wha—why me?"
They all look at Lilly and the Asian only shrugs and raises a pistol of her own.
"Really? You both own a gun?" Aubrey asks, horrified.
Stacie shakes her head, shrugging Aubrey's antics off.
"If we're not back in an hour, you're on your own," Stacie says which makes everyone suddenly worried about them. Aubrey was about to say something but Stacie gives her a look that shuts her up and then turns to Fat Amy, "Shall we?"
"Yeah, I'm ready for this!" Fat Amy exclaims, somehow excited.
Left without a choice, Aubrey seeks Stacie's eyes out and says, "Be careful."
Stacie only nods.
Beca knows something in that moment has shifted this dynamic for good. But before she can make conclusions, Stacie and Fat Amy are out of the door. Lilly and Jessica run after them to close the door.
"What do we do now?" Ashley asks.
Clasping Chloe's hand tighter, Beca says, "Now, we wait."
4:40 PM
"Where the hell are they?" Aubrey asks for the nth time.
By this time, they've all gone tired answering her with they're coming and don't worry, they're fine. They all just give her a look this time. Somehow, her frantic pacing calms them down. At least, even though the world has changed for the worse, there's something about it that remains the same even if it had to be Aubrey's back-and-forth pacing of all things.
They've spent the last hour talking about where to go. Despite the countless zombie apocalypse movies and videos available out there, none of them ever really prepares you for the real thing.
The phone signal has been down for about 30 minutes now which only means it's getting worse. In a few minutes, the sun will set and they're all gonna have to face the first night of the end of the world. The thought is horrifying and comforting at the same time.
Horrifying because the growls and groans heard from afar could be scarier at night time. And comforting because with the night comes the morning. Maybe, everything will be okay tomorrow.
Maybe.
A knock on the door interrupts their silence.
"It's me, open up," Stacie's voice comes from the outside and Beca sees relief come across everyone's faces. She sighs in relief, too.
Aubrey is the quickest one to stand up and open the door.
Stacie, out of breath, walks in and talks fast, "Fat Amy is waiting by the bus. We're gonna make a run."
They all nod.
Beca feels Chloe's hand clutch hers tighter.
"There are about 20 undead on our way out. Grab anything that can keep them away from you, a chair or a piece of metal... whatever. Just grab anything you can."
They all nod again.
Stacie nods at Beca, "Beca, lead the way."
Beca nods, blindly tugging Chloe's hand closer to her.
"Lilly, stay in the middle and I'll stay at the back."
Aubrey protests, "But—"
But Stacie quickly brushes her off, "Everyone, stay with the group and don't, ever, look back."
That seals the deal—if someone strays, or if someone gets bitten, they will not try to become heroes for each other. The goal is to get to the bus. The goal is to drive away from here.
"Are we clear?" Stacie asks, determination lacing her voice.
"Yeah," they all say in unison.
Chloe's hand leaves hers for the first time since they got here as they all cram around the room to get something they can protect themselves with. In a matter of moments, she sees Chloe with a thin pipe in one hand, and a helmet on the other.
For the first time since the world ended, Beca chuckles, "A helmet? Really?"
"What?" Chloe says, unable to stop the smile forming on her face.
Chloe smilingly walks up to her and puts the helmet on her, "What the hell, Beale?"
Chloe laughs, "You need this, as if your head couldn't be harder than usual."
Beca shakes her head and smilingly takes the helmet off and puts it on Chloe's head, "Finders keepers."
Chloe laughs, "What is wrong with you?"
"No apocalypse can make me wear that."
"What kind of person are you?" Chloe banters.
Beca only laughs in response.
Chloe takes her hand once more, "You ready for this?"
She takes a deep breath and nods, "I really don't have much of a choice, do I?"
"You could've just said yes."
Beca smiles.
"You scared me," Chloe says. Beca turns to her and realizes that Chloe's attention is at the hem of her shirt as she fiddles it in anxiousness. "Don't do that again, okay?" she tells Beca.
"I'll try."
"That's good enough for me."
It's in the moment that Beca decides that this world has not ended yet, at least not for her. Beca realizes that she hasn't lost everything yet. And maybe, even with the world in doom, there's something good left.
Chloe is standing next to her, alive and well—and wearing a helmet that's too big for her; and Beca feels a little bit okay.
They all need Stacie to survive.
But Beca needs Chloe to live.
They make a run once everyone's ready.
And soon as they're out of the door, Beca feels Chloe tug at her hand as if her life depends on it, "Happy birthday, Becs."
Yeah.
Happy fucking birthday.
The idea came to me when my brother asked me which song would be perfect for a zombie apocalypse. Blondie's "11:59" came to mind thus, the title. Well, that's how it started.
Thoughts?