AN: This fanfiction is already on Ao3, so I thought I'd post it on here for people on good ole ~ This fanfic was made by me and my girlfriend (bounoromato), she does Jean's POV and I do Marco's POV! I hope you like it~
Some notes to enhance the story experience:
Recommended soundtracks you can listen too while reading:
The last of us OST (of course) : watch?v=VBQ8FBfhvsE
Journey OST (really good): watch?v=M3hFN8UrBPw
Recommended 8tracks Playlists:
(we tought we might recommend playlists on 8track wich we think might fit to the mood of the characters every chapter. The idea was to give you a bit of the feeling the characters have while reading this story. If you choose to listen to Jeans be prepared for a dark mood. Marcos is...well...marco.)
Jean: /bertholdt-bodt/i-lose-my-mind
Marco: /himealaya/we-are-young
"Trust is won not given."
- TOBSHA LEARNER, The Witch of Cologne
Death beyond the Walls
By Bounoromato and Tomatoprde
Vienna Medical institute, Vienna, Austria Year: September 2018
The conference room was stuffy to say the least, along with tensions running high between the people in this drab, white room with a round table in the center surrounded by rolling chairs. Board members from various medical fields and countries sat around the table listening to presentations given to weary doctors from all around the world for there so no specific field of expertise in this certain case.
The board currently had their dull eyes on a couple, presumingly in their early 40s. Both of them were your average looking people, brown haired, brown eyed, average heights and built for a man and woman, they each had glasses framing their eyes, and there were freckles spotting the woman's cheeks across to her dimples.
She was the one speaking now, with clear, intellect speech, and although their resumes said they were from Italy, there was a barely a spot of accent in his English diction. Obviously they were well read, and educated, but that didn't mean anything when combating a disease virtually unknown.
"…Cordyceps Brain Infection started and boomed in the United States. The fungus, which is causing the infection, grows while the host is still alive, taking away their higher brain function and with it, their humanity, causing the infected host to become hyper-aggressive. It's the first stage of the whole turning process and starts anywhere in between the first and second day of infection."
"Stage 2 starts anywhere in between 1-2 weeks of infection. The fungus starts to grow over the head of the infected, infection will eventually scar their face completely, causing them to lose their sight, resulting in them developing a primitive form of echolocation to compensate."
"Stage 3 starts anywhere in between 1-2 years of infection. Over a very long time, they will eventually develop hardened fungal plates over most of their body."
"Stage 4 starts anywhere in between 1-2 decades of infection. If the fungus kills the host, the host's body will grow stalk-like fungal projections which release infectious spores. The infection can also be spread through bites from living hosts. Hosts can only be infected while alive, as the fungus is unable to infect dead bodies…"
The woman kept clicking the remote she was holding while talking, showing pictures of the Infection and its stages on her presentation. She took a big breath before continuing.
"… Africa, the Asian continent and the European Nations all agreed to cut off any connections to the American continent trying to avoid getting in contact with the infection...but still it managed to spread over to England in one short year. The first case is still unknown since there was a surge of patients diagnosed to the symptoms at the same time, but by then we knew it was too late," The woman click on her remote again and a slide on the projector showed a map of Europe with red dots mapping out the infected.
"Already in these 4 years the disease has captured most of Europe, starting from England over France down to Spain and Portugal and up all the way into Switzerland, at an alarming rate. Before we know it Germany and Austria will be occupied—"
She was cut off by one of the board members, an older man with his stomach protruding nearly out of his tucked in shirt.
"Erhm, thank you doctor for explaining details we are already well aware of, but please do skip us the stalling we've already seen hundreds of presentations the same as yours."
The male doctor put a hand on her shoulder and spoke up, "What my wife is trying to get at although there seems to be no probable cure to such a destructive illness, we believe we have the best research plan to—"
This time a woman with white hair as wiry as her glasses interrupted, "False hope. We've heard enough of this nonsense in the last few months."
"But ma 'me," The woman doctor stepped forward, more eager than before, "My husband is a brain surgeon and me myself specialize in the heart and circulatory system, we are perfect people to administer to test subjects and formulate a plan."
"Test subjects?" the woman broad member mocked, "Monkeys, rodents, cats…We had it all. This is not new science."
"What about a human?" The man doctor answered with a deadly serious look on his face.
The whole room was silent, every broad member were chilled to the bone to what they just heard. It wasn't as if it hadn't occur to anyone to use a human test subject for experiments this early on in the testing process, but to actually speak it out loud was a societal taboo.
A younger male broad member, somewhere around his late thirties, with red hair and pepper undertones stood up from his chair and slammed his hands on the table in a wit of fury, "Are you crazy!? A human?! I know you people are desperate to be in the city where it is safe and all, but Jesus Christ we are not one of those things! We still have our brains, our humanities!"
"Randal, calm down and look at this from a medical stand point, honestly what other choice do we have?" A woman sitting next to him with dark skin, and curly black hair responded. "Let the doctors finish."
Randal shook his head with the outmost defeat, and muttered, "What happened to a morality standpoint?"
The elderly man board member, ignoring the younger's remarks, continued with his own question, "And where on earth are we going to find such a willing participant? Who isn't scared to death of turning."
"We already have one, a young man, no extreme medical conditions, who was willing and signed off…if that is you allow us to precede farther actions and with the right founding we will not disappoint," the woman doctor spoke, as her husband support every word at his side.
They looked over the offered documents, the primary plans for the testing, the young man's consent, even budgeting. Everything was there write in black and white. It was almost too good, but much better than half-assed plea bargains they had been receiving.
The older woman made an exhausted huff, and glanced at all the tired face of his colleagues, "All in favor, raise your hand now."
The sight was one to behold to the doctor couple as a majority of the hands where in the air. Some going up slower than other's as the contemplated their own moral judgments, but in the end morality was something of a healthy world and this world was plagued with doom.
"It's settled. We will make more talks of the plan, but it will be put in motion. We will not allow any of this information to leave this room. The world is not ready for something as scandalous as this,"
He paused, and looked straight at the doctors, "Don't make us regret believing in this false hope"
"Trust me," The woman said, pushing the power button on her remote to turn off the projector,
"This nightmare will soon be long forgotten."
2 years later, Winter, Trost District, Germany
Trost district was made 2 years after the pandemic started to spread its deathly touch across all of Europe. As a safety protocol put in forth by the UN, a giant wall was put around the still unaffected areas, which at that time started from near Amsterdam (Netherlands) through Germany down to Austria and parts of Italy, back up north over Hungary, Slovakia and the west- plus middle part of Poland until it reaches the Nordic countries. Somehow the Nordic countries weren't as much damaged as other countries in Europe. Guessing from that they were much safer than District Trost was or ever will be since it was located close to the wall.
Still, people called Trost one of the safest places in Europe due to the high improvement on their security system due to the position of the military. It was one of the last places within the walls which had at least some of what you would call "humanity" left; no riots, no murder for food, no infected, just people who try to live on as they did before and survive…together. That's why they named it "Trost" which means translated from German "consolation" to make the people feel save.
That is, however all my parents told me.
My name is Marco Bodt and to be frankly honest, there is nothing special to say about me. I am just a 20 years old boy on his way to Trost.
Actually.
There might be one "special" thing about me…
…I am still alive.
I was starting to feel really uncomfortable being surrounded by all these abandoned buildings, standing like eerie shadows, and the grey sky casted over my head didn't make me feel any more secure. The farther I walked into Trost, the more silent it became. I can't really remember how long I've been traveling now, how far I got, and why I am still alone, but the whole thing scared me to be honest. There was no one around living, and it seemed like I was the last person on this planet.
Loneliness was embedded in me from the beginning…I just wished for someone, anyone to be by my side. What I didn't know was I was going to regret that wish soon.
I continued walking through those empty streets, feeling my pulse rising with my walking speed, which was rapid due to my fear and my thoughts about being alone forever with nothing but my thoughts. Soon, I was running without even noticing. I kept running and running and running, I wasn't even sure where to but I didn't want to stop, I was scared of what was behind me or what wasn't behind me.
What halted me from my exasperated sprint was when I "met", a substitute for running blindly into, him.
"Ouch-"
I heard a loud noise and snapped my eyes again to see cans rolling around on the ground in front of me. I looked confused at the ground, watching them rolling around, not quite sure what just happened until I heard something I was never expecting, a voice.
"Shit!" The word echoed the empty buildings next to me. I couldn't believe it, was it really, could it be-? I realized how silly of me it must have been to get excited over a shout of profanity.
I felt too embarrassed to even look at the one in front of me, so looked down at the ground, noticing the cans were going to roll away. That's when it hit me.
"Oh-!" I quickly bend over to pick them up. "I-I'm so sorry!" Trying to get a glance of the other person, yes person! I looked up.
"I didn't see you and –" But instead of a face my eyes met the shining blade of a knife. That picture didn't last long as in a snap of light I was flipped around. The other person pinned my arm behind my back onto my backpack and I felt the cold blade send shiver on my throat. It was only naturally that I didn't even think about struggling, right?
"I'll slice your throat, I swear it," He snapped. "What are you a part of a gang? Come here to nix me and take my supplies? Over my dead body you, asshole!"
I gulped and tried to swallow my fear as my mouth went dry. My legs were shaking and my arms were numb as I raised them and shouted, "I surrender! I have a backpack and supplies in there, there's not much but you can have them! Just don't hurt me!"
Suddenly I felt a pain in the back of my legs and I toppled to the ground. That guy had a really mean kick to match his voice, so when my eyes glanced up I was expecting to see a thuggish, sneering grin.
But instead my eyes went wide as they met the other ones. He was less threatening looking, and more silly looking to be honest than I had pictured him in my head. He had a long face that correlated with a slim, lanky body. His arms packed a few muscle, and were spotted with dirt. But for sure the weirdest part was his hair, which was bicolored. There was a bleached layer on top and a darker shaven undercut layer. He was probably one of those rebel kids that gave their parents a ton of grief, by the looks of him.
I must have stared at him for more than I should have….. I mean...I was afraid of THAT guy? Really? He looked more- well- how can I say it- `cute' than scary.
I have to admit, I let a small smile out due to my thoughts. The other man gave me a questionable look with his hazel eyes.
"What the hell was that just now?" He spat, his facial churning in an irritated expression. "Didn't I say 'don't move', you are damn lucky I didn't kill you for that!"
"I-well, I remember in crime movies and when you are in a stick up you should always put your hands up and offer what you have and your mugger will leave you be." I answered. I think I watched about 3 of those types of shows with my dad every day before dinner.
He spit out a bout of laughter, "Oh my-….Fuck…" and covers his forehead with his hands. I remember that people in the internet made a meme about that with Spock from star trek-…what was it again? Oh yeah- a "FacePalm".
So… he was pretty much Facepalming himself.
"How are you not dead yet?" he asked
"Ahh, luck?"
"A shit ton of luck, obviously."
And with that he started to ignore me, collecting his food cans from the ground. So I started to help him but he seemed unpleasantly surprised when my hand met his.
"What's your deal, man?"
"I'm not trying to steal this from you, honest. I only wanted to help," giving him a light, polite smile to round up my statement. He just shrugged.
"This is a lot of cans you have here, hibernating until spring?" I asked while looking at the dried peaches in my hand.
"You really are dense..." He rolled his eyes, "I'm storing up for the winter, it's safer not to handle this terrain when it's so deathly cold. Any human, would die of frostbite if they started venturing now."
He was walking now, and I started to follow him.
"Oh…I didn't know."
"Tch." He looked at me over his shoulder while he kept walking. "You're a wanderer? Haven't had people coming to these parts in a long time..." It seemed like he eyed me again before he kneeled down in front of a locked gate, placing his cans next to him and started to pick the lock on it.
I watched him, because it wasn't like I had something more interesting to do. Standing behind a guy who was picking the lock on a house which seemed like a supermarket felt bizarre. But it didn't seem like anybody would still live in this place anymore so it wasn't wrong, was it? ..Right?
I decided it was best to not think about it for too long.
"Well, actually I am on my way to Trost because my parents told me that it was the savest place to come, and since I lost them— I thought that they'd be somewhere around Trost district."
He laughed, bitterly which made me feel insecure again.
"What? Did I say something wrong?"
"You are hilarious. Trost? Safe? Ha ha that's a good one." He didn't even look at me still trying to open the gate. "Trost is history, and if your parents where there they might be too."
There was the sound of cans dropping on the floor again once again because of my doing. I let go of the ones I was holding, not even realizing that I lost them at the moment.
It couldn't be-…No… That- That couldn't be true. How was that even possible?
My hands started to tremble. We- my parents and I- we were having this conversation just some weeks ago. How can it be that a whole town, the safest of all of them, is suddenly "history"? My mind couldn't handle this information at this moment everything went into a blur till a voice pulled me out of my terrible thoughts.
"Hey- Hey I-I mean...they COULD have headed north to the safe zone already, that's where I'm heading." He finally managed to open the lock on the gate.
"The safezone?" I started to feel less tense and started to calm down.
"You really are obvious to what's around you, aren't you? Uhgh-" He pulled the gate up and kicked the cans on the ground inside which seemed not as easy as it might sound like. "Damn this is heavy. Give me a hand with that"
Without even thinking I helped him lifting the gate up, continuing the conversation.
"That's not it, it's… It's kind of complicated to expla- Argh-"
What the- The guy just let go off the door without any warning, forcing me to hold the whole weight. He went inside the garage and I heard a lot of loud noises. I couldn't see him anymore but luckily I still heard his voice.
"Complicated?" he said while moving something inside. It sounded like it was heavy.
I bit my lips before I continued.
"Yeah, ...well ...I- I kinda don't really remember much from when I traveled and-" suddenly an overturned refrigerator popped out from underneath the gate.
"You can let go now" I heard him say and it didn't even took me a second to follow his advice letting the refrigerator take the job of caring the heavy gate.
I crawled inside, standing in front of the other man in the dark room now. The only light in the room was coming from underneath the gate.
Still… I could see the disbelief in his eyes as he crosses his arms and raises his eyebrow at my story.
"You can't remember ….really." He shrugs "Why don't you just admit that you are dense."
"I'm no-" I took a deep breath. It doesn't matter. Whatever I say won't make him believe me, I was just a stranger after all.
I gave him a smile, holding my hand out to him. "I'm Marco," I tried to smile even brighter. "I didn't catch your na-"
"You're trying to team up with me, aren't you?"
"I—" I retracted my hand. The cold glance he gave me made me feel ashamed by myself. Why was he so- so- 'locked in' all of a sudden? I thought he wanted the same to be honest. I mean, why else would he let me follow him and make me assist him.
"I misunderstood, I thought maybe you want a partner, someone who had your back...at least that's what I thought you were letting on."
He stared at me and for a brief moment I could see some embarrassment in his eyes… or….was it fear? Whatever it was it soon disappeared and a grin started to spread over his face. He started to laugh. It was a fake one, I am sure about that, but still a laugh.
"Haha- Team up you say? Look "Partner"…" He made the quotation marks with his fingers in the air as he talks. "…do you really think these, one- two- three-…. These 7 cans of dried fruits and soup will get us both through the winter?" He rolled his eyes and picked the cans up, placing them in a bag he found in the edge of the room. "I really don't have time for this shit…" He turned around and walked towards the door which leads out of the room.
"You better get the hell out of here before I get uncomfortable…" Then he disappeared in the darkness of the next room.
"W-Wait!" I held my hands out, as if I was trying to grab him and pull him back. But I never did, I just stood there, watching him leave the room.
He was right. We weren't partners or anything even close to that. We were two guys who just met. In any other situation I would have said something like 'Ok fine, bye' with a smile on my face, while thinking how that was the strangest, rudest guy I met. I would have called my mom to pick me up, we would have traveled back home, I would be sitting on the couch and probably be watching TV with my dad or something.
…But these times are over. And it still killed me to think that they were.
I couldn't call my mom to pick me up nor could I walk back home and watch TV. I may not even see my parents again. I was scared.
Scared of being alone again.
Scared of being alone forever.
I sprinted to the other door, not thinking about what could happen to me when I did enter the next room.
Would he be standing there waiting for me to run directly into his knife? Even so, I really didn't care at this moment. I realized… I would rather die now with someone near to me than alone, choking up blood with no one to hear my gargled cries.
But no one was standing behind the door. Just the darkness to welcome me once again, like a stingy friend that wouldn't let you go from their abusive hold.
"Hey! Where are you?" I couldn't see a thing, my senses were blinded so I screamed even louder. "HEEEEY!" And then I got frantic, so scared.
I couldn't see, why couldn't I see anymore? This feeling of being lost to my sight was too oddly familiar and too scary at that. I kept stumbling through the darkness, hitting things on the ground with my feet, hoping I would soon hit into him again.
"HELLOOOOO?!" Still, no answer. I tried to get further into the room, but my foot snagged on something and I tripped to the floor,
"FUCK-" and the next thing I felt was the hard cold ground embracing me.
And I sat up….and just sat there….staring into the darkness.
This was it. I was always going to be alone now, wasn't I?
A bright light fell directly onto my face and I had to cover my eyes.
"WHA-"
"SHHH- Do you want to party with infected tonight or why are you screaming like that?" he still pointed his flashlight onto me while he walked closer to me. I couldn't see anything with that light blaring in my eyes.
"I- I just- !" I tried to find the right words. But saying 'Don't leave me' would sound a bit too desperate especially to someone I just met, wouldn't it?
"Didn't you listen? I said Shh!" He pressed a finger onto my mouth and now I saw his face again….he…smiled? Was it for real this time?
"Look at that!" He pointed his flashlight over at the middle of the room. It took me some time to actually see something since my eyes were still blinded by the flashlight in my face. I blinked sometimes till my vision got clearer and—
Then I saw it.
"Is that-?"
"Yup"
"Are that all-?"
"Yup"
"Are they still-?"
"Mhm" he took my arm and dragged me to a shelf in the middle of the room. I didn't mind the touch, but it was a weird sensation, human contact.
"Look. Dried meat, Soups, fruits in cans, and over there-" He pointed at a shelf on his right.
"- Water, some coke, …" Than he walked over to the shelf and picked up the bottle of coke, taking a sip of it. "Damn! I almost forgot how that stuff tastes… Too sweet! Here try some!"
He held the bottle out to me. I didn't know what to say and just took it without taking a sip. Wow, every sense of me was filled with bliss, especially my sweet tooth from that sip. I wanted to tell him how good it was to drink sugary sodas again, but he wasn't minding me, he kept 'dancing' around, acting like a little kid at Toys"R"us , so I just watched him. It was kind of nice.
It was just really strange seeing him with such a bright smile on his face.
Don't get me wrong, even if it was strange to me it somehow, well-… this- this fitted way better to him than that gloomy, long-faced look he usually had on. To me it seemed like I saw the real him for a brief moment. And that made me-
happy?
Haha- but who am I to judge, and say such things about his character, we just met. I shouldn't think that much about it or him.
I placed the bottle of coke on the shelf next to me.
"There is a lot missing, but still enough left….." He said.
"….I remember that place….the guy who owned this supermarket was a huge asshole. He probably just took food for himself and his family and closed this place up in case they come back someday…"
He just stood there for a moment, staring at the shelf next to him, and I decided to not say a word because there was nothing I could say. He bit his lips and stretched himself.
"Welp- Sucks for him."
"Why are you showing me all this?"
I couldn't help it. I had to ask, since didn't he just abandon me, tell me he didn't need a partner? That he was a solo act. The guy looked surprised all of a sudden. He took a deep breath in and ruffed with his hand through his hair.
"Well- "
It took him some time to finish that sentence.
"You don't really want to stay out in that cold with no supplies and- whatever the hell you're wearing right now, on."
I looked down at myself. It was true. Besides my long dirty-black jeans with many holes in it I was only wearing a grey shirt and a ripped apart, dirty hoodie over it.
Wow….I never noticed how much blood there was on my clothes…how exactly did that happen?
A hand suddenly waved in front of my face.
"HelloooOOooo! Earth to Marco. You still there?" He gave me a confused look.
I smiled back at him, one because he actually used my name and that was a nice comfort, and two I was making sure not to scare him away.
"Mhm! You're probably right! My clothes are not really 'seasonally in style'"
"Do you have a weapon?"
"A what?"
He gave me that look again and I felt like a child back in highschool being questioned by their most hated teacher.
"A weapon. Like a gun, a knife, a fucking baseball bat for fucks sake!"
"Haha- I- I guess not, no." I ruffed the back of my head. He made it seem like I had to be ashamed for saying that out loud.
"…..seriously….How the hell did you survive?"
I just shrugged and looked back at him. He seemed to regret his decision of even thinking to team up with me. I panicked; I didn't want him to kick me out of this place.
"B-But I am really good at hand-to-hand combat." I lied and immediately raised my hands and made them into fists like a pro-boxer.
"Hand-to-hand combat you say…" He raised an eyebrow at me again.
It took him a while to think and for a brief second it seemed like his eyes went dark and his grin, no, his whole expression seemed….different….terrifying to be honest.
My body felt frozen for a moment, that chill in his eyes spreading through me intensely. I can't really describe it, that feeling…I think- I was more than afraid. His expression changed into a bright smile within seconds, melting the frostbitten tension.
"Haha! That's good! Really good!" He fist bumped my arm. "And you know what they say. Better in numbers, yeah?"
"Yeah!" With that he really lifted my spirits, well as lifted as they could be in the given circumstances.
"Thank you so much I—"
"First rule, don't thank anyone in a fucking apocalypse, it's tacky." He sighed, "It's all about survival. Those manners you learned in grade school don't mean shit in this world anymore."
"I understand."
"Second rule, you don't complain, you don't ask questions, whatever I say you just do it. We might have to stay a long fucking while in this area, the winter is going to be hard since the summer was abnormally hot this year, and I really don't want to put up with any other people or/and infected."
"….I-…I understand."
"Good" He walked to the direction of the door again. "Now come on. We have to close the gate before anyone else does it…"
I nodded and walked right behind him. Together we closed the gate and blocked it with whatever we could find. I whipped the sweat off of my forehead. When I turned around he was gone…again.
"Hey!" I heard him screaming from the other room. "Get your ass over here!"
Remembering the second rule I followed his command, walking into the small room behind the cash desk from which the light of his flashlight was coming from.
"Look what I found" He was standing in the room, the flashlight placed on the table, with a big smile on his face.
It seemed like an employee lounge, there was a coffee machine, one of these water fountains and-
"A couch!"
"Nope" He pulled at the lower part of the couch making it turn into a king-sized bed.
"There you go"
He seemed pretty full- errr- I mean proud of himself, yeah proud of himself.…I didn't care at all what smuggish look he had on his face; there were more important matters.
I smiled brightly and jumped onto the 'bed'. There was a big cloud of dusk coming from it, it was really dirty and old but like I said I really didn't care.
"Wohoo!" I jumped up and down on it.
"I can't remember the last time I slept in a bed, this is perfect!" Then I let myself fall onto it, face first.
"Tsk" I heard the other one say and looked back at him. He shook his head, as he plopped down on a ratty bean bag chair in the other edge of the room which spilled little beads if he shifted too much.
"You have a weird idea of perfect, man."
"Hey," I set back up and turned around to face him. "You never told me your name."
He hesitated, "…Jean"
"Jean? Is that French?"
"Yeah...I lived in France for a while."
I put my arms around my pulled up knees like I always did when I was listening to a story my mom told me, ready to listen to his story.
"Where did you go after?" I asked.
"Here,"
… And with that the story time ended.
I took a deep breath in and smiled again.
I was a bit disappointed, like I said I was expecting like times with my mom, and how she told all kinds of colorful stories. Stories like how she met my dad in Belgium and stolen his heart back to Italy with her, or how they interned together at the same hospital, how her childhood was in Italy, all sorts of long stories that took hours.
I had to realize that Jean wasn't going to take the place of my parents no matter how much I wanted that gap filled.
"Well, nice to meet you, Jean from here'" I smiled.
He just rolled his eyes at me again, stood up took his flash light and walked out of the room, leaving me in darkness...literally.
"What is up with him…?"
I pulled my legs even closer to my chest, burrowing my face into them while leaning with my back against the wall behind me. I felt tired, too tired to even stand up and walk after him and being by myself gave me time to think again, time to think about what happened, time to try to remember, time to wonder…
"Mom…..Dad….Where are you?"
_- Death beyond the walls -_
_- Jean-_
Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing-!
"Come on give me something, god dammit you are the shittiest supermarket in the entire histor- AH There we go!" I pulled a box of candles out of the turned over shelf. "Jackpot"
I whipped the dust off of the pack and started to read the description.
"Erotic Massage Candles - Naked in the Woods: White Tea/Ginger"
…..Seriously…
Oh well….better than nothing.
They covered all the windows with wood and other stuff, I don't complain about that, makes it saver to life in but it's so damn dark, I can't see a thing without my flashlight….maybe I should take the covers off from at least the upper windows tomorrow.
I looked back at the candles and let the box sink down….but for some unexpected and unknown reason I found myself glancing at the description again, reading the next part.
"For a truly sexy massage, you need three things: candlelight, a sensual aroma, and warm massage oil. These candles provide all three. This candle has a very low melt temperature and melts into a warm luxurious massage oil. Set it by your bedside for the look and smell of an exotic ambiance, then reach over and pour a little on your spouse's body for the most sensuous massage of their life! Turn your home into a sexy, spa-like environment with this unique candle and massage oil in one. Light the Vitamin E, Soy and Hemp Oil candle for an aromatic delight and wait as it melts into a moisturizing massage oil perfect for massage or moisturizing dry skin. 100% natural, the candle is environmentally friendly and petroleum free. Burns for 60 hours…
….
…...
….. Well not tonight, buddy"
I put the box into my backpack and continued walking through that big room full of shit. It smelled like rotten meat, eggs, and everything which could expire when you don't cool it.
In another shelf I found a Flashlight, similar to mine.
"Perfect!"
I couldn't help myself. I had to grin at my luck.
"This idiot. He was an asshole till the end. He sure didn't share even a piece of bread with the other people living around him." I put the flashlight in my backpack. "Well good thing for me- err- us…"
That's when I remembered…
I wasn't alone anymore.
I turned around quickly hoping that he wasn't standing behind me.
That would have been awkward…..after that nice candle story.
It felt so weird. I haven't been around people for over 6 Months now or was it even longer? I was so used to talk to myself out loud that I didn't even realize it. I took a sip of the water I hold in my hands. It was weird being surrounded by so much food. I knew that there would be something in here but I didn't expect it to be that much.
After the infection started to spread around America in the year of 2013 the whole industry in Europe crashed.
Food got way too expensive. There were too many people and not enough food production companies in Europe. Coke for example was a luxury, and only some people were still able to buy it. Money wasn't worth shit anymore. It was all about trading stuff like batteries, electricity, medicine for food, water, weapons and ammo.
Crazy thing about that, weapons and ammo were even more expensive than food since we didn't have that many weapons in Europe, not as many as in America at least.
I took a deep breath in, smiling to myself.
"Good thing that I didn't lose the address of this place."
I still remember my first time working here.
Some years ago, after I finished my "education" (If you can even call it like that) I got a job as a security guard at 'Samuels-Sunny-Supermarket', the place we are in right now.
Sunny-my-ass…
It was hell on earth.
Samuel, the owner of this shop, was the richest person in this part of Trost district. He had the most food, water and supplies, enough to keep a person alive for a long time and was the only one in this area who still had his shop open… but not for everybody.
His prices were insane! Only the richest of all people, meaning people with a lot to trade, could buy stuff from him. That of course made people angry, and angry people do stupid things.
I had not one single night without someone trying to break in and I had to stop them by scaring them with shooting into the air, throwing empty cans and bottles at them, telling them I would kill them if they come any closer.
The people were scared of me; I had something they didn't have
…armor and a gun, which I could use.
It was terrible, it was disgusting, it was un-human, but well, it was my job. I got paid with food and water, and a lot of on top of that.
So was it really that wrong of me to do what I was doing?
No!
I had to do it to survive,
I had to do it to take care of myself,
I had to do it to take care of the others,
my friends…no…my family…
And in the end…
it was for nothing…
I felt how tears started to fill my eyes again. I whipped them away quickly.
"God dammit Jean, stop it! There is no place for that now."
Ah- well- anyways.
One day a little girl not older than five came up to me, she was really thin and dark circles were around her eyes. She asked for bread, just a little piece. How could I say no to that? Who could say no to that? So I sneaked in to the store, grabbed some bread and gave it to the girl.
After this night it continued like this every night. Kids came up to me, asking me for food and water. I knew they were sent by their parent or family members but what should I do? Kick them? Throw empty cans and bottles at them? Tell them I would kill them? Give them nothing?
Tsk-
Just try to tell a little boy to go starve in an edge. Doesn't sound that nice right?
So, I sneaked in again, every night, and stole more and more from the store to give it to the people… it kinda went in to a habit and it started to feel good. I started to know how robin hood must have felt. And let me tell you something...I loved it.
…Well- till Samuel found out what I did.
He wanted me to pay him back but haha-, you can't pay someone back if you don't own anything right? So he beat me up. He beat me up pretty bad, I think I still have some scars from that day- hell I was lucky that he didn't kill me.
That was the last time I saw this place before….Before the accident happened.
When I came back to this area it was completely empty, not one single person around. Of course….who would still be here after what happened? There weren't any hunters here to begin with…and well...I don't think that anyone would even dare to stay any longer at this shitty place.
It seems that the people were in a damn hurry after they heard about the incident. Most of the buildings I checked were still full with supplies…
"Tsk" I threw the bottle across the room.
Idiots.
They said they would be prepared if it did happen….….but they never were. Seems like the military was just good at one thing,
Acting.
I stretched myself, hearing my bones crack one after another. I felt pretty tired. Was it already night time? I didn't know. This place was so dark, it could be day or night and I wouldn't know.
I checked the gate again and the other doors, making sure everything are properly locked… I really don't want to deal with anyone or anything today anymore.
After that I went back to the employee lounge. I heard a loud snoring sound coming from the bed.
I placed my flashlight onto the table to light the room and looked at the already sleeping boy in front of me. He was lying across the bed, on his stomach; his face was turned towards me. He frowned in his sleep.
Oh…
….I was so lost in my thoughts that I completely forgot about him.
I walked closer to the bed and set down next to him.
Don't get me wrong… I did have my reason to keep this guy alive and with me. But was it really worth it?
He doesn't have any supplies.
He has no clue what's going on around him.
He doesn't even have a fucking weapon!
And still… There is so much blood on his clothes… something was clear off about him.
I don't think he was lying to me when he said he doesn't know about what happened to Trost. To be honest, I didn't even think he was lying when he said that he can't remember how he got here but-
If that all is true, if he really had no weapon, no supplies, no clue with what he had to deal with, how in God's, Buddha's or to whomever you should be praying to in the fucking apocalypse name is this guy still alive?
"Hng-h-…" He shifted around in his sleep, was he in pain? It seemed like it, but why? Did he have a fever or something?
I tried to feel his temperature by laying my hand on his forehead.
…He's ice cold…
Something was really really weird about this guy… Wait! Was he infected?!
I felt his pulse…. It was fast but still normal for a human.
No-… he would have turned by now already, and there were no bit wounds at his body, I already checked that when I was holding my knife against his throat back then….well…err- you know- the parts which weren't clothed of course.
No. I don't think he's infected. But still….something wasn't right.
The faster I get rid of him the better.
I took a deep breath in, picked my flashlight and his backpack up and set back down on the bean bag chair.
There was only shit in his backpack; two cans of beans and a small bottle of water and…..a blanket?
A fucking blanket?
Does that guy think he's going on vacation or what?
I shook my head ….what an idiot….pushed the backpack away from me, took my knife out of my own backpack, just in case, and turned the flashlight off.
After that I waited. Watching the other man on the bed shift around in his sleep, my hands had a tight grip around my knife. I did watch him, for a long time, just for the case that he might stand up after he thinks I fell asleep and murder me.
I wasn't paranoid.
No-
I just did trust humans as much as I did trust Infected.
And that was the reason I was still alive…
I could feel how I slowly lost the control over my own body…
My eyes were heavy, my limps were heavy, I couldn't even hold my knife up anymore.
I was too tired. And I slowly drifted into a slumber until a loud voice brought me back to this damn cold world.
"Noo…noo, why, why are you-? I can't, no!"
I jumped out of my uncomfortable chair and walked closer to the other man who was tousling in bed, screaming and mumbling words I couldn't understand.
"Shh! Hey! Hey man be quiet!" But he didn't listen, his voice was getting even louder, haling through the big rooms.
Fuck! If he keeps up acting like that he will get us in big trouble.
I deiced to cover his mouth with my hand to make him shut up. What else was I supposed to do? Till he-
"OUCH!" I retract my hand immediately.
…
Did he just….
Did that guy really
Bit me?!
What the hell?!
I was really tempted to punch him in the face but wait-…he did stop screaming.
He only kept mumbling to himself….
So I walked back to my bean-bag and set down, watching him at first till I looked down at my hand while listening to the quiet mumbling of the other guy.
I took a deep breath in…
"This is going to be a looong fucking month."
Fun facts from bounoromato:
1st: I copied the describtion of the Infected from Wikipedia because I am a lazzy bastard and english isn't my first language so deal with it.
2nd: These nice candles Jean found really exist... even the describtion is the same...check it out...I know you want to: ?zenid=e6658801300e9c67a950c12bb67d382c
AN: Please please please review, reviews will help us both get a better look at if people like it and continue on even farther. There will be more chapters, to be continued! Thanks again for reading~