A/N: Rivetra Week 2014 Prompt Survive. This is inspired by Survey Corpse, the auidoplay. Zombie apocalypse. One-shot.
Live
There was a chill in the air, but they were sweating when they reached the front door of a local sub-shop. They had no sense of time except that the moon was high overhead and illuminated the cracked glass on the door that allowed them to reach through and open it. Limping and shuffling their feet, they headed inside.
Petra could move easiest. Her injuries were focused on her torso and head. Blood clotted in the tears of her green and white cardigan. One of her sleeves was missing from the elbow down and underneath she wore only a simple t-shirt. Granted, there had been no time to dress for the occasion. Everything had happened so fast she was lucky to be wearing shoes. Thankfully, again, they were a pair of electric blue sneakers and were comfortable. Her tiny jean shorts were another mistake, however, since her bare legs had gotten scraped and cut amidst the walking, running, fleeing, and fighting.
The building wasn't in bad shape. Just a week ago it had been filled with customers, teenagers spending their evenings after school snacking on fries or jalapeno poppers. Petra licked the roof of her mouth with her tongue, imagining warm, cooked food. Hot and salty. Fatty. Greasy.
Her stomach growled.
"I'm sure some of this is edible." She said, turning to look at her…friend? Partner? Ally? She didn't really know what to call him, actually, but he was there and that meant she wasn't alone so she was grateful no matter the official title.
Levi was sitting with his arms braced over one of the tables. He'd shattered his ankle badly earlier. They had found a place to sleep for the night hours ago, but a mob of stragglers had forced them to find somewhere else. There weren't many still alive in the contaminated area, Petra had to think, since every day they found less and less activity. The people that remained behind had clustered into groups to secure themselves amongst the destroyed cities, they staved off the hordes of…well, no one was ready to use that word, even now. None of them were friendly and most of them were after any supplies they could steal.
In a week their lives had condensed to include each other and getting from one day to the next. Safe zone after safe zone had fallen before they could even reach them. It had been like trying to reach the shore while the tide was slowly erasing the land. Just out of reach. They must have walked, drove, run nearly two counties by then. Around day five, when the comfort of her shoes couldn't save her from blisters, Levi had offered the small encouragement that the longer they survived, the more likely they would. She'd laughed at the time, amused that he was the one lifting her spirits for once.
"We should get something fast. I don't want to spend the night here." He was looking out the glass front of the shop, wary and alert. She hadn't developed that instinct yet. That "look over your shoulder" or "what was that sound?" type of thinking that came naturally to people like Levi. She'd thought it was a funny habit for the longest time. Like a cat who jumped and pounced as if they were still in the middle of a jungle instead of a modest living room. That, too, was something that was good to have in the current situation.
Petra tried the door to the back room, but it was locked. She sat on the counter and scooted her legs so she could reach the other side. The floor was slick and dotted with crumbs, yet it was untouched from how the owners had left it. People had fled this area too quickly to properly loot everything. Petra slid open the thin metal freezer next to the fryers. It contained nothing but fryer food that was soggy and starting to warm. She shut it and just past the rows of chips she found shelves of bread near the shop front. She grabbed a bag and picked out two flavors of chips then returned to Levi's table.
They ate quietly. Levi had his injured leg propped on a chair, the laces of his boots were thrown open to relieve some of the pressure and his dark pant leg was pushed up. Petra pursed her lips, recalling how stubborn he had been about the whole thing. In fact, he'd been growing increasingly sour as the days turned into a full week. His stand-offish brooding was going to have to stop.
"What?" He asked heavily, there was strain in his voice. She didn't understand the need to mask his pain in aggression. If they were going to survive this then he would need to trust her.
She answered between bites of bread. "We should have stopped at that pharmacy. You need a cast, but a brace would be better than nothing."
"To risky, it was too close to that mob. If they hadn't already cleaned the place out." He opened the bag of chips she picked out and sniffed. With a resigned huff he picked one up and bit off a tiny corner. "This tastes like shit."
Petra rolled her eyes. "Then don't eat it." When she was full of bread she picked at the chips, grateful for something with a little flavor.
"Did they have anything to drink back there?" He asked, looking toward the counter lazily.
"There's a pop machine, but I doubt anything would come out of it." She said. "I suppose I could go check if there are any bottles."
"Could you?"
Petra set her chips down on the table, crushing a few unintentionally. "Yes. Of course." She hopped over the counter, wincing at the effort, and returned a few minutes later with two bottles of water and two bottles of Dr. Pepper. "Here. And they're warm. Probably a little flat. So drink it or don't, but don't complain to me about it."
She took a long pull of her own Dr. Pepper, partly wishing it contained alcohol. When she glanced up, Levi was watching her and she hated that her cheeks flushed. She turned her face to better hide it, lips quirked in a tight frown.
She wouldn't even be with him right now if they hadn't been in that same car with their one mutual friend. There had been five of them all together, but circumstances had forced part of their group to separate and Gunther hadn't made it at all. She had no idea how the rest of them were, or if they were still alive. Somehow, it had been her and Levi always managing to come out on the same side and so they had stuck together with no other real choice but going it alone. They had been merely acquaintances before, but now…she still didn't know what to call it. He would probably say something neutral like 'allies.' But she couldn't say the same. Nor did she really want to.
"Something's on your mind." He said suddenly, making her jump.
"What?"
"You're blushing again, too." He provided with a tone that was completely devoid of tone.
Petra's fingers closed tighter around her bottle, the plastic beginning to dent. "I realize that. It's not usually something people broadcast when it happens."
"Fine." He took a sip of his drink and Petra was busy counting the scratches and dents in the top of the table. "Warm soda's better than cold anyway."
The corner of her mouth quirked. "You're just saying that. But I appreciate it."
"I prefer it flat." He took another drink, but she could tell he didn't truly enjoy it when he glared into the top of the bottle like it had betrayed him.
"We should probably get moving, if you really don't want to end up sleeping here." She said finally. She grabbed the book bag they'd found and started to fill it to capacity with the bread and water bottles.
"It's late." He shrugged. "If we're going to get any sort of rest we might as well stay."
Petra grinned. "You ankle is hurting too much, isn't it?"
She saw the trace of a pout before he was crossing his arms and regaining control of his features. "No. I said it's fine."
"You are such a liar." She scolded, but she couldn't keep from smiling. "Look, tomorrow I'll run out and try and find you something for the pain. Okay?"
"I said it's…whatever. If you're going to be stubborn about it."
Petra laughed then. There hadn't been too many moments where she could recently and she felt it in her stomach muscles. "You're impossible." She continued to giggle, exhaustion taking over. "And that face…like I'm supposed to take you seriously right now? Just—just admit that you're in pain and that you need my help."
Levi narrowed his eyes. "I'm glad you find this amusing."
Petra's laughter subsided, though she still felt the mirth tickle in her stomach. She held out her hand to him. "Come on. Let me help you up so we can at least be comfortable."
He stared at her hand until Petra was beginning to suspect that he wasn't going to take it. When he did she bit her lip as his fingers curled around hers and turned her face so he didn't notice.
Once he was up she realized she hadn't put much thought into this and he used the table for support while she looked for a place to sleep. Not that they had any hope of real comfort, but there had to be something more secure or better hidden.
"There's probably an office in the back." He suggested.
Petra helped him walk, but it was obvious he was trying to give her as little weight as possible.
"I can carry you just fine." She said. She left him leaning on the counter while she hopped over it to unlock the employee entrance from the inside. When it was open she went back to hook his arm over her shoulder.
"It's probably more serious than we think." He said quietly. "Either way, an injury that impedes movement cuts my chances. Tomorrow, you should continue. I can catch up—"
"Please." She huffed, pulling him along more forcefully than was necessary. "I'm not leaving you."
"Fine. Stay. But I can't outrun anything like this. You'll be stuck here for who knows how long. And that's if this damn ankle even heals properly." He stopped. "I wouldn't hold it against you if you left."
"Well, I would hold it against me." She snapped. "I'm not the kind of person to leave someone behind."
"That kind of thinking will get you killed."
She knew he had a point, and that he was probably right, but there's was no point in surviving if she couldn't live with the decisions she made. She smiled, though, moving again to be by his side and offer support. "But that's why I need you with me. We're the perfect team in this, I think. Like you said, the longer we live the better chance we get out of this somehow. If there is an out, anyway."
They reached the back of the shop and Petra tried the handle to the only door, but it was locked.
"Move." Levi dug around his pocket for a second and then bent in front of the door. It was darker where they were, the light from the windows didn't reach that far. When the lock suddenly popped open Petra's mouth fell open.
"Did you just pick that?"
"It's open, isn't it?"
She looked inside the office first, trying to get a handle on the room. It was small, there was a window but it was high on the wall, though big enough that moonlight lit the entire space. She went back to get Levi and when they both tried to fit through the door, which was considerably smaller than the first one, they nearly got stuck.
Their shoulders were pushed together and Petra tried to wiggle through first, but twisting broke the pressure and she fell against him. Levi's head hit the door frame and Petra was mumbling apologies before she could think to move.
"Sorry. I was just trying to get unstuck…um…" She swallowed. The line of her lips fell open, heat rising to her cheeks. She gently moved her fingers where they were pressed against his shirt. Why wasn't she moving? Why was she just sitting there, crushing him, when she should be making sure he was okay?
Move Petra. She screamed silently, but she couldn't. Or she wouldn't. She wasn't really sure which it was, but that being so close made her stomach flutter and her pulse was beating in her ears. Oh God, why couldn't she just move?
"I'm…" She grasped for words, trying to prolong the moment before he insisted that she get the hell off. "I—I'm…" Oh shoot, now she was babbling like an idiot.
When her sense finally started working she pushed against him, chancing a look up to gauge just how annoyed he was. However, as her eyes moved up the lines of his face, she felt both his hands suddenly around her shoulders. Her mind swam for the space of a second between him grabbing her and him lunging forward to capture her mouth.
Petra was too shaken to do anything but blink. His eyes were closed and he even tried fixing the angle once before he was pulling away.
"Could at least put some effort into this." He said.
"Wh—why did you just…"
She let her fingers graze over her mouth. Again she had ruined things. She should have kissed him back. She should have responded. Instead she was gaping at him like a moron.
"If you don't want to, that's fine." He said, though he was playing off embarrassment. He refused to meet her eyes anymore. And neither had moved from their place, jammed together in the doorway.
"I didn't say that." She said finally. He made that tsking sound he liked to use when he was annoyed. Petra hesitated and then chanced snuggling just a little bit closer. "Is your ankle okay?" She said softly.
"Yeah."
She used her finger to guide his face back to her. Petra was gentle at first, resting her mouth over his with a sigh. She was not going to pretend she hadn't thought about this for a long time. Before this whole mess, back when life was just about cashing paychecks and always having her cell phone in her pocket. So she savored it. She hummed and titled her head. Her fingers grazed up the curve of his cheek then behind his head.
The innocent rise and fall of their lips went on for several minutes. Until tentative became possessive. Until their mouths went from sensually parted to open, with teeth catching on tongues and sighs turned to moans. A full week of running and terror and watching people die, watching people being torn apart, this was the first moment since that had actually felt good. They'd been hungry. Thirsty. Tired. Bruised.
Between breaths and loud smacks of their lips drawing closed and then open, their hands wandered, pulling and yanking or gliding and caressing. It was a sloppy display, no better than inexperienced teenagers. They were loud and starting grinding—off pace and more needy than erotic—for the friction. Levi's hand pulled gently against her cheek to push her back and their eyes met over pants for air.
"Do you need to sit down?" Petra said, the tone of her voice layered with the stirred up adrenaline and lust. He nodded, fingers moving to gently twine with her hair and his eyes didn't leave her. The intensity of his stare nearly made her shudder, but she stopped to pry herself off him. In the course of groping blindly and half-attempted grinding, their position had slid out from the frame and she could see why he would need a break since most of his weight was no longer supported by the doorframe.
Petra pushed aside the pieces of furniture, grateful at least that the floor was carpeted, and helped him sit down. He let his head fall back against the wall and he closed his eyes briefly to catch his breath. Petra went back to shut and lock the door. She set the bag in the corner and tried to sit next to him, but he grabbed her wrist and guided her to his lap, pulling her down so that her legs were on either side of his waist.
It's not as if she had never done this before, but somehow the situation snuck up on her and she was blushing as her legs settled awkwardly, trying to fit around the floor and the wall. She felt his hands on her back, under the cardigan and before she could get fully situated he was reminding her of how euphoric a first kiss could feel, how blindingly sweet and how easily nothing else seemed to matter when he was kissing her like he'd been starving for months.
There wasn't much else to say that night. They only had a few more hours to try and fit a moment of actual rest in before dawn. For the foreseeable future, their lives would consist of enduring until the next day, making it to one more dawn. It wasn't much of a future, but together they stood a better chance. Especially since they could relieve a bit of that tension, soothe the trials of the day, and find just a few hours where they didn't have to feel like they were surviving, but that they were also continuing to live.