A/N: Beep!

Warnings: Character Death, Suicide, Breakups - generally unhappy feelings.


RYS sobbed into her hand, her cries loud and long as she clutched RL's hand – who was kneeling beside her. He was crying silently, staring at the coffin.

RS was gone.

Dead.

There was no doubt – his body was being lowered into the ground and there was not a thing any of them could do.

He was gone and he wasn't coming back.

RYS' sobs made her shudder violently, and she ignored CS as she threw her arms around her girlfriend.

They'd only just lost NS and OS to the sickness – and now RS?

It struck quickly – it changed people. There was no cure – and no way of knowing if it was contagious. It was killing them – their little family – literally and figuratively.

"Who's gonna be next, hm?" CS2 screamed at the sky, glaring with all her might as if someone would come down and answer her – tell her why everything was so bad – why everyone was dying.

BG took her arm, forcefully pulling her down and quietening her through her silent sobs. BG was fairly sure everyone had it – it seemed like that was the only likely possibility at the moment.

It was just a matter of time now – their immune systems would react differently, but one by one, they would die.

The signs were obvious now – they would go quiet for a few days, before the fever would take over. It burned them from the inside out and made them irritable and unlike themselves – delirious with pain – but they could still function.

That was the biggest problem about this stupid disease. No matter how much it hurt, it forced the poor victim to move – to talk, to cooperate – to destroy the people around him.

When RS was sick, he would physically and verbally abuse RL – and RL loved him far too much to let him rot by himself. Watching him die was the hardest thing RL had to witness in his life – but he did it. But now he was caught by the side-effects of the disease – torn between the internal struggle for marginal sanity or release.

RS's last words were unintelligible – although they were something akin to 'fuck you' – aimed directly at RL, before his eyes closed and the fight left him.

It almost destroyed RL that day.

Now, gathered around his grave, RL would give the world just to have him back. Even if he was hurting him – at least he was still around.

DYS and DPS sat in the grass, silently crying together, their hands clasped and intertwined tightly.

They didn't think it would ever get this bad. And they knew that one day soon, they would lose each other, and every day they spent dreading it and trying to do as much as they could with each other.

'Preparing for the worst', DPS called it.

They all lived together now. They had agreed it was safest – quarantining themselves as best as they could unless they needed supplies. They had a game plan for the next victim – as horrible as it sounded.

They had a basement, and the next person to fall sick would be locked down there. It was safest – it had to be done.

If the victim got out and infected the world…

Occasionally they would cry. Once one person started, the others couldn't help themselves.

They were ticking time bombs, and they all knew it.

^.^

BG was the next to go.

She sat on the couch, tears streaming down her face. CS2 was trying to help her – to find out what was wrong, but all she did was shake her head and continue to cry.

She could feel it building inside her – taking over, preventing her from having the energy to do anything. She would have to be locked away soon. Before she was taken over.

But not yet. Not tonight.

She held CS2 to her, pressing her and inhaling her and trying to memorise everything about her. Maybe if she held on to that memory, the sickness wouldn't be as strong.

RL and RYS had retreated into themselves – grief, not the sickness – and refused to leave their rooms – refused to do anything except eat when they were forced to. CS stayed by RYS' side – attached at her hip and doing anything for her. DYS and DPS tried to work in normalcy throughout their day – trying to spend time together and trying to keep everyone happy.

At dinner, they were all quiet, and BG began to cry again.

This was her last dinner with them – with her family – with the people she loved.

"Guys." She sobbed. "I love you."

In turn, each of their eyes filled with tears as it suddenly dawned on them.

"No…" CS2 whispered. "No. No!"

BG gulped and nodded slightly, and CS2 launched herself, pressing the smaller girl into her arms. BG just sobbed, almost hysterical.

"I'll…should I call CDS and LG?" DYS whispered.

"Not yet." DPS grabbed his hand.

The two of them were on vacation (it took a lot of coaxing) – and had been for several months now. They were the only ones not exposed, and they were being updated but told to stay away.

"How long?" DPS asked gently.

BG managed to calm herself enough to respond. "I felt it for the first time today. I…I just want one more night. Please."

They all nodded, and that night they all stayed in the living room, curled up on three or four mattresses, with BG in the middle. They didn't sleep – they talked, and remembered, and waited.

At dawn, BG lost it, sobbing into her arms with such violent tremors that they worried it was another side-effect. CS2 cuddled into her, crying with her.

"I can't do this." RL whispered. "I can't lose any of you. Not again. Please…make it stop."

CS tucked her head into RYS' neck, not able to handle his moans.

"I love you guys. So much." BG whispered.

CS2 shook her head again. "Don't go."

"I have to. I'm not going to hurt you. I won't let myself." BG sobbed.

"Please. I don't want to lose you!"

They all politely looked away as the two kissed – full of grief and fear and uncertainty – it was their goodbye. Closing her eyes and taking a breath, BG let out another sob before shaking her head and swallowing.

"I'll…I'll see you on the other side, yeah?" she tried with a tiny smile, and they each moved in to hug her, saying what they could before letting CS2 walk her down the basement stairs.

It wasn't fair. None of them wanted it – none of them liked it.

But it had to be done.

Four days later, her pained screams were silenced, and she was dead.

CS2 knew it first - she had been sitting on the basement stairs, talking to her, crying and singing to her.

And then she stopped shrieking back.

^.^

"I can't do this anymore." CS2 mumbled, slumped on the kitchen counter, three days after BG's funeral.

"We'll get through this." DYS tried to reassure her.

"We're all sick." She spat back, and DYS recoiled. "We're all dying, and we can't do a fucking thing about it."

"CS2, calm down." DPS hissed, glaring at her, panic slowly rising in his chest.

His phone broke the uneasy silence and he glanced at it.

"It's CDS."

"Hello?"

"DPS…"

"What's wrong? You sound upset."

"LG's in hospital…"

"What?"

"I think it's this…sickness. She was really quiet one morning – she didn't want to get up, she didn't want food or anything…and I remembered the symptoms you described. I've just taken her in…"

"Oh god, CDS…I'm so sorry…"

"Why? The doctors will look after her…right?" he was borderline hysterical, which was new for CDS.

"We…we took NS to the hospital…she was the first – we took her when she stopped eating too." DPS said softly. "They couldn't find a thing wrong with her – they thought we were playing a joke. Everything was normal."

"…what happened then?"

"She started…being violent and she got a fever, so we took her back in. The fever was the only thing they could find, so they strapped her down and fed her…so many things. So many drugs – they tried to cool her down but she just…she couldn't stay still…she was thrashing and they had to sedate her so they could get more drugs into her."

"Did they work!"

"What do you think?"

"She died in hospital?"

"Yeah. With no improvement. She just dropped dead." DPS was tearing up again, and DYS took his hand as CS2 sobbed. "I'm so sorry CDS…there's nothing we can do anymore…"

"What did you do when BG died?"

"We called the ambulance. They perform autopsies…they don't find anything wrong. They assume they've died from something they ate or drank – even if they can't find it in their systems…they just don't understand." He sighed heavily.

"It leaves no trace?"

"None at all."

"Fuck. Fuck…fucking hell." CDS cursed, "What the hell do I do?"

"Find somewhere…lock her up CDS. You'll get hurt otherwise."

"I don't fucking care what the hell happens to me. We…" he paused. "We got back together."

"I'm so sorry…" DPS was holding back sobs, tears streaming down his face.

"…whatever. I'll call you if anything happens."

"Good luck."

They hung up just as CS and RYS wandered down the stairs, catching DPS sobbing into DYS' shoulder.

"What's wrong? What happened?" RYS' eyes flicked around the room, doing a headcount.

"LG's got it." He whispered. "The sickness."

CS paled, sinking down on a seat and putting her head in her hands.

RYS let out a suppressed breath. "Why us? It's not happening to anyone else – there's nothing on the news about it, nothing on the internet."

"We've always been different." RL said from the stairs, his face pale and his eyes sunken. "Ever since we were kids, we were different from the others. Almost like we were the new breed of human…but we're faulty."

CS2 burst into a fresh round of tears.

"Fuck this. Okay, just…fuck it all."