The long walk in the blazing streets of London didn't bother Ludwig as much as it should, he was used to spending hours in the sun and had been forced to walk for as long as he could remember whenever Gilbert dragged him from one place to another. Nowadays, there was no such thing as a car to transport them if he didn't get that campervan fixed like he planned to, and before the zombie apocalypse they didn't have the money to get public transport from one place to another.
But today he was on a mission. He had walked for far longer than he usually did and had not taken a break in over three hours, according to the way that the sun had moved. A few clouds floated along the sky. Surprising, since clouds were a rarely seen product of nature and even then, they rarely resulted in rain.
They were mesmerising as they sailed along the horizon and blocked out the morning sun for a few moments and drowned Ludwig's skin in shadows before the light sprung back from nowhere and once again the sticky heat assaulted him.
Gilbert had told him many times about how London used to be rainy and the weather used to fluctuate. Ludwig found it hard to believe, and according to GIlbert, they had spent most of their lives in the city.
On one hand Ludwig felt bad. He had left Gilbert without telling him where he was going and left nothing but a note, but he needed to go somewhere that he hadn't seen in at least twelve years.
Ten years ago was the last time that Ludwig had seen the streets of London bustling with life, full of cars hooting and the sounds of people talking that merged together into white noise as he focused on only Gilbert. He felt like it was another life, one that was never going to return.
Especially not because of Them.
Ludwig didn't know why he capitalised the the word he used for the zombies in his head, he must have picked it up from someone, but he wasn't sure who. He glanced towards his hand once again. The cut was small and should have healed within days but the teeth marks circling it told another story.
He didn't understand it though. Ludwig had never seen a person bitten by a zombie, nor had he seen one lose their spark of life and turn into a mindless killing machine. Gilbert had though, and told him that it was something that was not worth seeing. Watching the light drain out of someone's eyes, like the last of the water in a bathtub, took a bit of your own life in an odd way Gilbert had told him over the last quarter of a wine bottle that he had kept for himself with the excuse that it reminded him of a friend he had lost years prior.
The road was cracked more than usual and Ludwig had to be careful not to trip over any of the raised edges. He kept his eyes off the tar and reminded himself to pay attention. He had not seen one of Them yet and the more time that passed between sightings, the more jittery he got.
Like the string of a guitar was pulled too tight, Ludwig felt as if he was going to snap if someone tried to agitate him. His gait was calm and collected, but his fingers were stiff and he held them apart, like letting them touch would pull his attention away from his surroundings and render himself useless once he saw one of Them.
His stomach growled loudly. He ignored it. There was no use anyways, he wasn't going to be human soon so it wasn't worth wasting the two cereal bars that he had brought with. Maybe he would toss them somewhere and a survivor would find them after he was long gone from this world and trying to eat anything with more than cotton for a brain.
He snorted and immediately chastised himself for making such a loud and unbecoming noise. Ludwig didn't want to admit it but he had picked up the habit from Gilbert, the man whom he considered had more fluff inside his head than the stuffed dog that he had been given the previous day while they had been looking for supplies.
Aster the Second, as it had been lovingly dubbed by Gilbert, was in his bag. Ludwig felt a flush of shame wash over him, he was too old to carry a stuffed animal with him like a child. But there wasn't much else in his life that he held closed other than Gilbert, who had been left behind.
He didn't want Gilbert to see him like this, the idea of Gilbert watching him as he deteriorated make him feel sick and want to throw up the meagre serving of baked beans that he had eaten last night.
Even though he recognized the neighbourhood in a vague sense, the dried trees and brown lawns made it unfamiliar. The peeling paint and cracked windows cried in fear and his footsteps echoed loudly. There were a few apartments around him and Ludwig wasn't too sure which one was the one that he had spent the first few years of his life in.
Why he wanted to see his childhood home once more, he did not know, but he was still wished to see it. He wanted to see the banister that Gilbert slid down despite their grandfather yelling at them not to, he wanted to see the miniscule park that was a short walk away where they used to play make-believe games, where Gilbert would insist that he was the best pirate or pilot or explorer that there ever was and that Ludwig was his trusty sidekick that would always help him if he got in trouble (not that Gilbert ever got in trouble).
Ludwig knew the apartment when he saw it, the entrance door had no glass and the bricks seemed to crumble as he looked at them. There was something about this place that was familiar to Ludwig. He stepped through the door, not even bothering to open it and looked around the semi-dark room. It looked like the employees had locked up for the night and left.
His eyes were glued to the shadows, waiting for an arm to reach out and try to grab him and his ears focused on even the tiniest of sounds. Buildings were the worst place to be in. There were so many spots to hide and so few places to run since hiding was nigh impossible when it came to one of Them.
They lived on the fourth floor if he was correct and he began the slow trek up the stairs. His thighs burned when he stopped on the landing and looked around. It was so peaceful, like nothing was wrong. At the end of the hall was apartment 1D, the apartment that he and Gilbert had grown up in.
He could remember them running down the hall and down the halls as sunlight streamed through the windows and made it a lot brighter and happier than it looked now. It was dead, like any and all colour had been sapped out of it along with most of humanity's lives.
It was stupid of him to knock and even more stupid of him to wait for an answer before trying the door knob only to find the door open. He stepped inside the room, it was stuffy but not like the air outside. The air in here was unbearably hot and reeked of staleness. The curtains were drawn over the window but light still seeped in through the sun-bleached oranges.
The apartment was incredibly tidy, just like how Ludwig kept his and Gilbert's. He slowly turned in a circle until he reached the television. There were no photos of him and Gilbert like he remembered. Instead there were photos of a different couple and their young son that smiled madly in every photo. He looked to be elven, maybe even twelve. Making him twenty-two now.
Not that he was alive, Ludwig had this feeling that none of the people in the photo were alive. Something about the apartment just gave off the air that it was never abandoned and that the occupants had left, but not with the intention to outrun the zombie apocalypse.
A wallet thrown haphazardly on the table along with a set of car keys. A handbag on the couch looking defeated as the makeup inside it had not survived through the ages and lipstick leaked through the seam and had long since dried on the white couch.
Children's toys were scattered along the ground, action figures of Iron Man and the Hulk. A half finished Lego build was on the dining room table, a few pieces knocked onto the carpet and a empty glass of water with a ring were the water once was and a lipstick mark where the recipient had drunk from it.
Ludwig swallowed. There was just something about this scene that got to him, maybe it was the way that such a mundane and happy life had broken down over the last decade or how he clearly remembered Gilbert putting his feet up onto that exact dining room table and turning on the TV, a larger one that was as wide as it was tall and flickered every now and then instead of the flat screen that was there now. He remembered Gilbert's room, covered in maps and model airplanes that he had spent hours painstakingly building.
The door to Gilbert's bedroom creaked loudly as he opened it. Ludwig didn't remember walking there, but he didn't plan on turning back. The room was not like he remembered it. There was the same light switch on the ceiling, the one that needed to be turned on and off a few times before it would work, and the same bed sitting in a different corner. But nothing else was the same.
Instead of camouflage bed sheets that Gilbert claimed 'he was too old for' there were dinosaurs in bright colours prancing along the bedsheets and brightly coloured books on the shelves that he knew Gilbert would have given to him as he had long since graduated from 'kiddies' books to ones with fewer pictures and smaller text.
The walls felt like they were closing in on him and Ludwig fell victim the the spur-of-the-moment claustrophobia that put him in a chokehold that threatened him with black spots in front of his eyes. He barreled out of the apartment and down the four flights of stairs that led to the much welcomed outside world.
Once he was out in the street he found himself panting as he walked slowly with the intention to put as much distance between himself and the apartment as possible. Something about it gave him the creeps.
Ludwig knew that he wasn't ready to return home and knew that he would never be ready to face Gilbert and his too-tight hugs that he gave without warning. He walked idly, no longer as high strung as he had been in the apartment, nor as much as he had been before.
The setting was almost serene. The unnatural stillnes of everything was unsettling, true, but it was also calming once on get used to it like Ludwig had. It was very different to travelling with Gilbert and Ludwig found it a lot better.
It was just so lonely. One thing about traveling with Gilbert was that there was barely any silence from his side while they walked and often Luwdig would have to shush him so that he could listen to a sound he thought he had heard. But he missed it now.
Walking seemed to be a lot slower by himself. Ludwig was tempted to turn around and walk back to their apartment, but he knew that it was stupid of him. He didn't know how long it took before someone turned into one of them and he wasn't going to risk it while he was around Gilbert.
More clouds gathered in the sky like an army preparing for war and Ludwig found himself coming to a standstill as he watched the dark greys march across the sky. He shivered slightly under the sun, maybe it was finally happening. Maybe his body begun to shut down and he couldn't tell. For starters, he felt absolutely fine and did not feel a smidgen of a craving for human flesh.
He jerked himself into motion and began to listlessly wonder around the London streets once more. The buildings weren't as large or as expensive looking as they had been where Gilbert and he lived and he knew that it wouldn't be too long before apartments gave away to houses and then those gave away to rolling hills covered in dirt.
Ludwig stopped in his tracks and stared at the thin trail of smoke drifting upwards. His mind wanted to automatically assume that he was looking at a wild fire within the city, but it was too small and controlled for that. He walked towards it. There might be other survivors and Ludwig hadn't seen another human in a decade.
The idea sent chills down his spine and drove spikes of apprehension into his heart. He didn't know if they would be friendly, or it they would kill him on the spot. Maybe that's why they hadn't seen other survivors, they'd all been killed off. But Ludwig was willing to give these people a shot.
He had lost sight of the smoke as buildings rose up around him with the intent to block his path, but Ludwig wasn't going to let that stop him. He knew exactly were the smoke came from and he had his eye set on it. It was only a short distance away from the smoke that he heard footsteps
His own movements stilled and his hand made for the crossbow that he held only to find it missing. Without skipping a beat, his hand grasped the handle of the knife that he hooked into his belt and stayed there, ready to pull it out on a moments notice. It was his fault that he wasn't properly prepared and had left his crossbow with Gilbert, but he had thought that he wouldn't needed it.
"Hello?" Ludwig asked. He cleared his voice and asked it again, his voice now much crisper than it had been before.
The walking stilled and Ludwig slowly moved himself around the corner and found a man standing there as if he had seen Death itself. His face was as pale as a sheet and he shook like an old car as it struggled to turn on.
"Are you alright, sir?" Ludwig asked him.
After a few more moments the man calmed down and he spoke in a British accent, something that wasn't too uncommon in these areas.
"Oh hello. I er, I wasn't expecting to see another survivor. What are you doing here then? I'm sure I would have seen you before if your were from around here." The man seemed to be quite talkative, but Ludwig wasn't going to complain, it reminded him of Gilbert.
"I'm not from here." His mind sought for a reason in the pause. "I'm travelling — looking for a new place to stay." Ludwig shifted his weight on his feet. Late afternoon had arrived and he started to feel it in his feet and lower back.
"You are? Well that's excellent! May I ask what your name is?" the man asked. He was more than a bit excited and it contrasted greatly to the shock and fear he had seen a few moments prior.
"Ludwig—" He stuttered on the last name, he didn't really like it since he had taken it from Gilbert and didn't even remember his own.
"That's an interesting name. I met a Ludwig once, but that was years ago. I'm Arthur, Arthur Kirkland." The man — Arthur smiled and Ludwig found himself smiling back.
"Nice to meet you Arthur." Ludwig's fingers twitched around the handle of his knife and he loosed his grip and let his hand fall to his side.
"Likewise. Are you looking for a place to stay because Lovi and I could always use some company?" Arthur said and pointed his head in the same direction that the smoke had been coming from.
"I would like that," Ludwig said. He set off following Arthur towards the smoke.
Arthur seemed to stumble over a lot of the cracks, but Ludwig was long since used to it, and the tips of his shoes never caught on anything.
"So what brings you to this particular part of London?" Arthur asked. He walked a bit in front of Ludwig. He was a bit too trusting, maybe he had lost a bit of his people-orientated awareness since the apocalypse had begun?
"I came to visit my family home. They weren't there." Ludwig's shoulders pulled together as he walked. The smoke was closer now and he could easily spot the house that it came from and the chimney that caused it.
"It's not a surprise dear, you and Lovi are the only people that I've come across since it all began. At least you didn't get to see them as zombies and that counts for something, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but…" Ludwig felt uncomfortable saying what he had seen.
"But?" Arthur prompted.
Ludwig swallowed and pushed himself to walk faster until he was in line with Arthur. "There were no signs of them. The family photos were different and Gil's bedroom was—" He choked as the images of what was not Gilbert's room assaulted his mind.
"You mean it wasn't the right house? It's been ten years, Ludwig. I'm sure that what we remember has changed." Arthur smiled reassuringly and Ludwig felt himself calm down.
"No. It was definitely the right apartment. The layout was the same as I remembered it," Ludwig said. They were nearly at the front door of the house.
"Maybe it's the wrong number that you went to," Arthur suggested.
Ludwig shook his head. "I don't know."
They stopped in front of the front door and Arthur held out a arm to stop him. "A quick warning before we see Lovi. He's a bit of a firecracker and will say stuff he doesn't mean so please don't take him seriously."
"I won't," Ludwig said and stepped into the house after Arthur. It looked quite homey and even if he wasn't scrutinizing it he could see the clashing decorating senses that the occupants had. In one corner there were small potted plants with neatly trimmed leaves and on the wall hung emotional paintings with broad strokes and violent colours. The two things did not mix.
The house smelled wonderful though. Ludwig hadn't smelled anything that good in years, before they had lost the last of the produce to the ravages of the apocalypse and they had been forced to survive on virtually nothing but canned food and the odd potato that he managed to get to grow to full size before the plant gave up on enduring the overbearing heat.
In the kitchen a man stood, hunched over a stove. A ratty apron was tied around his waist and various spices were scattered around him on the kitchen counter.
"Hello Lovi," Arthur said. Lovi, the way Arthur said his name let Ludwig know that it was a nickname and not his full name, turned around slightly. Only far enough to see Arthur.
"What the hell took you so long? Did you decide to spend hours sitting at that poor excuse of a park again?" Lovino asked. He wiped his forehead and continued to stir.
"No," Arthur said and he smirked. He turned to face Ludwig. "I found someone else."
The spoon Lovi was holding clattered to the stove and the red sauce he had been stirring spattered onto it and the man's apron, which was clearly visible when he turned to face Ludwig.
"You didn't think to tell me before? You idiot, I made dinner for two people, not an entire army." Lovi gestured to Ludwig with his shoulder.
Ludwig frowned. He wasn't that large, was he. "Hello, I'm Ludwig," he said. His finger fidgeted with the lining of his pocket as he looked at the man.
"Lovino," Lovino said with the quirk of an eyebrow. "I do hope you're okay with eating baked beans because I'm not starting another batch of pasta just for you." He turned around and went back to cooking.
"We can share with him and if we're still hungry we can open up a can. I'm sure that there'll be enough. You always make a bit much." Arthur leaned over Lovino and snatched the ladle from his hand and stirred the pot a few times. "It's looking good."
"Like you're one to judge. Your definition of good is toast where you only have to spend three minutes scraping off the charcoal." Lovino grabbed the ladle back and put it into the pot.
"Like you're one to criticise me. You thought that putting the temperature higher on the stove would make the popcorn go faster," Arthur snapped back.
Ludwig stood a distance away from them and listened. It was interesting to see how other people acted, they were quite similar to him and Gilbert but without the throwing scathing remarks at each other like spitballs in a mathematics class like them.
"In my defense I was drunk at the time."
"When aren't you drunk?" Arthur picked up the wine glass that sat innocently next to him and swirled it. He took a sip from it before putting it down.
"I could say the same for you. Don't think that I haven't noticed you trying to be sneaky and taking the rum when I'm not looking. I still can't believe that you put it with Coke, that's flat!" Lovino wiped his hands on a cloth and haphazardly threw it.
A rumble of thunder shocked all three of them and left them standing there for a few moments.
"Was that thunder?" Arthur asked slowly, and looked at Ludwig.
Ludwig nodded. Glad that they finally remembered him and were not stuck in their own world that Ludwig did not want to interrupt. He didn't know if he was supposed to even just talk or leave them to be.
"What does it mean if it was?" Lovino asked. He abandoned the stove in favour of looking outside the window. A sharp breeze blew the curtains back and brought the smell of dust and wood into the kitchen
"Gil always told me that rain means good things," Ludwig tried. He felt so uncomfortable, not knowing what to say to them.
"It hasn't rained in years, of course it's a good thing," Lovino snapped at him, still looking out the window.
Ludwig moved closer and now he could see a large mass of clouds gathering overhead, their tumultuous mass tossing and turning like he did when he didn't complete everything he planned that day. It was frightening, Ludwig hadn't seen something like that in so long. He had only been ten when the apocalypse started and now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember anything after his sixth birthday and before his eighth.
He turned to face Arthur, a confused look causing his brows to knit together as he tried to figure things out. It was difficult to explain, even to himself. It was as if he had been reminded of a chunk of his life that was missing that he had never thought of. Like his mind had just glossed over it.
His eyes settled on Arthur's eyebrows. They were on the cusp of being familiar to him. They were something he should have recognised, along with the shockingly bright emerald eyes that almost glowed in the dark.
"Do you know Alfred?" Ludwig asked. A long since forgotten memory surfaced in his mind.
For a moment Arthur froze in place and his eyebrows rose in shock before he calmed down and looked Ludwig up and down for a few moments. "I do. Why do you ask?"
Ludwig did not know how to answer. One thought led the the other and he was being shot down with memories he did not know he had.
Memories of a small room with minimal lighting and barely okay food. A doctor with a large smile and too-innocent eyes apologizing every time that forsaken needle pierced his skin. He rubbed his upper arm, the place where he had been injected so many times before.
He could remember not knowing why he was there, he couldn't remember who he was while he was behind that locked door. Before the locked door with the keyhole in the left side, there was a sliding door with a glass window that allowed him to see into the world.
In those endless hours he spent behind the glass door he saw unfamiliar and threatening faces. Not like Alfred and his assistant that he had talked about so often. Ludwig's hand slipped down his arm and rested on the place where he had been bitten, hiding it from both Lovino and Arthur.
Their mouths moved but he wasn't able to hear them speak with the headache that pounded in his ears and caused spots to fade in and out of his slight. He felt a hand wrap around his bicep. It was too hot and he shrugged it off, unsure who it was that grabbed him.
He did not know how long he stood there for, waiting for the barrage of forgotten memories to settle. The images that flashed in front of his mind of other people like him, cowering behind the glass door and his solitary months behind the door with the keyhole on the left.
But eventually the buzzing noise settled down into a quiet drone and his vision refocused on Arthur standing in front of him, looking openly worried while Lovino stood behind him with his arms crossed in front of his chest but an equally worried look on his face.
"Ludwig are you alright?" Arthur asked. Ludwig didn't trust his voice at the moment and instead opted to nod before taking a step back. His finger still traced over the scabbed wound on his hand. He doubted that either of them would have noticed it, not that he cared.
He blinked a few times. "Do you know how long it takes for someone who's bitten to die?" he asked after a longer silence than even he felt comfortable with.
Arthur shook his head slowly. "Did someone you know get bitten?"
Ludwig chose not to reply to that.
Silence grew between them and stretched itself out before finally slacking and snapping like a piece of gum pulled too far. Lovino uncrossed his arms and looked up. "Once you're bitten. It's only a matter of minutes before you can no longer say goodbye to those you hold dear." There was a guarded look on his face and Ludwig knew immediately not to press the matter further with him.
"What if more than a day passed and nothing happened?" Ludwig shifted his weight uneasily from foot to foot.
"Well then, I don't know. I've only ever seen it happen twice." Lovino looked away from them and out the window.
Ludwig slowly uncovered his hand and showed them the mark. His throat was tight and his heart hammered against his chest. A rumble of thunder in the distance sent shivers down his spine and he jerked backwards when Lovino put a hand to his forehead.
"You're not burning up, but I'm not an expert in these matters. Just to be safe, you're sleeping in a locked room," Lovino said. It was the first time all evening that Lovino acknowledged that he would stay with them.
"Thank you." Ludwig smiled slightly. "But what about Gil?" Memories of Arthur unlocking the door with the keyhole in the left side and leading him to Gilbert who was locked behind a similar door entered his mind.
"If I know him, he's looking for you. He used to yell for you all the time. It's a shame that I couldn't have helped you guys earlier. But if my theory is correct, whatever that was done to you by the government before you were brought into Hetalia hospital is what has kept you alive."
"I don't know. Why are you even letting me stay when I could jeopardise your lives?"The clouds had covered a fair portion of the sky and the growls of thunder were growing closer and closer.
"I have a gut feeling," Arthur started, "And very rarely, is it ever wrong. And even then, you're the first living person we've seen in years. I think that's got to count for something." Arthur smiled at Ludwig.
Another roar of thunder stopped their conversation.
"Gil's out there," Ludwig said. He wasn't stupid, but Gilbert was. He knew that Gilbert would probably be looking for him, but he also knew where Gilbert might be. Gilbert could read Ludwig like a book and was waiting at their childhood home.
It was a shame that Ludwig had left it.
Lovino spoke, "Whatever. You can look for him once it's stopped raining. I would rather us not get all of our arses turned into the meal of the day for those bastards. Get into the kitchen now or else it's burnt pasta for dinner. Not that he'd complain anyways." Lovino gestured towards Arthur who didn't reply but glared back.
Ludwig followed after them just as the first drops of rain started to pelt against the roof and windows. The sound was unfamiliar but soothing at the same time. If it was still raining after they had eaten dinner, Ludwig would go outside to see what rain felt like. He didn't understand why they treated something so phenomenal as just a part of daily life, but still, he followed their lead.