A/N: Hello, everyone! I just want to preface this story by saying that I know the tone of it doesn't completely match the show's. However, I hope that the story and characterization will make up for that small flaw. Enjoy!
The three sets of footsteps was the only noise for miles. There was an impenetrable wall of fog surrounding the walkers, and the sand they made their course on was plain and nearly completely leveled. The three figures were walking towards a broken and rundown building. The paint was chipped, the windows were broken, and there were spiderwebs and dust decorating the outside walls all around. A fallen down sign said, underneath the multiple layers of dust, sand, and rust, "Krusty Krab". The three creatures were familiar with what this building once was, but what it had become was something entirely foreign to them.
As they neared it, the cephalopod with the painted-on frown spoke up in his monotonous and mildly condescending tone of voice, "Spongebob, we're wasting our time looking for supplies here. This place has probably been raided a million times by now."
Spongebob gave no response. His eyes were fixed on his target, and his face was utterly determined to reach it. The squirrel next to him, on the other hand, had a reply.
"Squidward, will ya'll stop being so gosh-darn negative about everything? Spongebob is usually right about this kinda stuff," She said with a glare at Squidward, and though he was about to give a scathing retort, silence took over as the small group reached the building.
The doors were already broken, so a small kick from the sponge sufficed in clearing a pathway. The breaking glass echoed throughout. The interior of the structure looked even worse than the outside. Tables and chairs in varying states of disrepair lay scattered around, and the webs and dust thickly covered every square inch of matter. The wood that the main room was made of was completely rotted. The trio paused for a moment, all with a look of shock on their face, but in seconds these looks faded, and the group got moving.
They moved past the room quickly, heading over to the room behind the barely-recognizable cash register. Perhaps their speed was a matter of efficiency (there were clearly no supplies to be found in the main room), but it also might be attributed to none of them wanting to have to see a place they had all once known in its deteriorated state. Whatever the case, none of them looked around the pathway they made, other than to knock over any obstacles in their way.
They pushed the rusted door open, and they found the remnants of a kitchen awaiting them. Most of what was once used to cook, including the grill and fryers, was missing. From there, they split up. Spongebob went to the freezer, while Sandy and Squidward looked around in the cupboards. The duo found some tightly-sealed hamburger buns, and figured that they were probably edible. Other than that, none of the food items seemed fresh enough for consumption, so they left those behind. Spongebob had no luck in the freezer, as, just like they had expected, it had been without power for quite some time.
Unknown to the other two, however, Spongebob had found something in the freezer that he had not expected to find. Three corpses and one detached head that didn't seem to belong to any of the other three. This would have frightened Spongebob a long time ago, but after all that he had seen since this began, the scene didn't disturb him. He was sure the other two also wouldn't be particularly affected, but he figured that he wouldn't take his chances by telling them what he witnessed.
The next room they looked around in was decayed, but it also had hints of a once-ordinate and grandiose decoration. A desk was there, and wide-open space was all around. After looking around in dozens of hidden compartments and safes, they had found a small fortune in paper money.
Worthless. Absolutely worthless. Money was no good anymore, as they were all aware, so they left it behind, or, in Squidward's case, needlessly tore it up. Some vendettas and grudges hadn't completely disappeared from the old world.
It wasn't a total loss, however. They did find some extra firearms scattered around. Squidward called "dibs" on the shotgun, and Spongebob and Sandy each took a handgun. Spongebob examined his gun for a moment, before sliding it and its ammunition into one of his holsters. Though some who once knew him might find the very idea amusing, the sponge looked positively dangerous now. His military garb, combined with his guns and dozens of knives, made his scarred face seem a lot more threatening than one might assume at first glance.
With all of this done, the troupe finally decided to leave the Neptune-forsaken building behind. As they left and prepared to continue their long and arduous journey, however, Spongebob (again, unknown to the other two) looked back at the Krusty Krab in its shambles, and shed a small tear for it.