A/N: This is horror. Remember this.


No one had been keen on eating Matt's roasted arm, but Keith had made a valid point. Pidge and Matt were the least comfortable eating said body part, but rationally they both knew it was the best course of action. Nobody said a word to each other that night, preferring silence as they all reevaluated their sanity and life choices.

In their own corner of the gun shop, Keith and Shiro lied next to each other. Keith remained silent as his thoughts plagued his mind. Shiro knew Keith was most likely beating himself up over something that was actually a logical suggestion.

"Babe..."

Keith didn't move, just focused on the wall with mold growing on it.

"Keith, I know you're upset, but we did the logical thing. I won't say it's right or wrong, but right now... there's a huge moral grayness in the world right now. None of us liked the idea, but we all went through with it. It's a bad world out there, but we all know you're just looking out for our survival..."

Keith rolled over to face Shiro. He was looking down, not directly at him. "I... I know that, Shiro. But the fact that it was the first thing I thought of... I feel like I'm becoming a bad person, and I don't want that..."

"You're not a bad person, Keith. One of us would've suggested cannibalism eventually. You're just sharper with the survival instincts than the rest of us. After all, you did spend two years in a jungle with your mom," Shiro pointed out as he placed a consoling hand in Keith's hair.

"That was out of necessity though. Mom and I got captured by bandits in the Middle East that wanted to kill me and sell my mom. We escaped, and we survived..."

"Exactly. It's the same. This is all out of necessity, too. The world's fucked up because science finally went too far and mutated a virus that should not have been mutated..."

A moment of silence passed before Pidge, from across the room spoke up. "Do you guys think it's just America, or... did it spread around the World?"

"They did try to quarantine it when it first broke out in Georgia, but the quarantine was unsuccessful, and it spread, rapidly. I know once Canada and Mexico caught wind, they closed their borders and became aggressive. Shooting anyone that tried to cross. I don't know if it escaped after that, because the United States took a turn. Chaos erupted, and laws were no more, then our president got infected, and everything went to Hell... I can't say that the rest of the world isn't in a similar shape, but we won't know until we find out..." Allura looked at the ceiling.

"True. But, with everything in pandemonium, we don't have cell phones or the internet anymore, so we can't check anything," Matt sighed.

"I do know one thing, we're somewhere in the middle of Nebraska. We could head north for Canadian borders or head south to Mexican borders. I have a compass, but it'll take months to get to either place with how slow we have to move. If we could find a working vehicle, we could move a lot faster, though gas might be an issue..." Shiro pulled out his compass and looked at it, musing the possibilities.

"Well, if we head south, I know Spanish. Most of my family's in Cuba," Lance stated from his corner next to Allura and Coran.

"Allura and I are from the UK, so we'd like eventually to head there."

"Our parents recently moved to Italy to embrace their heritage, so that's a stop I'd like to take," Matt smiled as Pidge nodded, both of them thinking about the reunion. "What about you Keith?"

"My dad died a long time ago, but my mother was away on a South Korean business trip. I don't think she came back when the plague hit. But once it really spread, all flights to the US were canceled, so she might still be in South Korea," Keith looked up at Shiro, waiting for him to tell his story.

"I'm an orphan, but my parents raised me in Japan for a small chunk of my life before we moved to the US. My mom was a U.S. soldier stationed in Japan, but she was half-Japanese to begin with... Uh, what about you, Hunk?" Shiro looked over his shoulder at Hunk.

"Ah, I'm from Polynesia."

"That's part of Oceania, isn't it? How close were you to Australia?" Lance looked over at Hunk in interest.

"Actually, I was raised on the Samoan Islands, so I was closer to Hawaii than Australia. In fact, my family took a lot of vacations there! We grew up in a small port town called Taulaga-Uta, which was on one of the two main Samoa land, not the American Samoan Island. It was between Apia, the main port city, and Faleolo, which was more of a ferry-shipping port from that land to the other land, closer to Fiji."

"Hey! When we get the chance, we should see if Alaska and Hawaii survived since they aren't directly connected to the rest of the US by land!" Pidge announced as she sat up quickly with a happy smile.

"It is possible they survived." Allura mused.

"For now, though, why don't we all get some shut eye?" Shiro smiled wearily before everyone nodded and fell asleep, unaware of what the future had planned.

Everyone woke up to Lance leaning over a trashcan and puking his guts. Allura was immediately by his side and rubbing his back.

"Lance, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine... I, uh... I guess last night's, uh... dinner, didn't agree with me..." He looked to the side.

Keith frowned a bit. "We all ate the same thing, Lance. We all ate Matt's fucking arm. And I'm pretty sure everyone else is doing okay."

Lance remained silent before shaking his head and looking down. "I... I'm sorry. I couldn't do it. It kept waking me up, reminding me of what I did. It was sickening. I'm not as strong as the rest of you..."

Keith tensed but inhaled quietly. He wasn't going to say anything.

Shiro shook his head. "No, it's okay Lance. These things happen. But sometimes we have to watch for our own survival. And survival may mean eating another person. It's horrible and no good person would willingly want to do it, but every smart person knows they may have to. And you're smart, Lance. Don't let your good heart be your doom."

Lance nodded and stood up with a 'thanks' muttered to Allura.

Everyone packed up their things in silence, not saying another word to each other. By the time they head out, the mood had gone from sour to a better mood of somber.

They were able to make a little headway over the next couple of days, walking a total of 75 miles south. They decided they were Mexico bound. From there, they could charter boats to Cuba and Samoa. Now since they were trying to stick to the roads, so they could easily spot a shelter, they really only made about 60 miles south progress.

However, Matt also started coughing, immensely.

"Matt, you okay...?" Pidge asked after another coughing fit from her brother. He nods and looks at her tiredly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Pidge. Just got a bit of tickle in my throat..."

Allura frowned at him and went over, pulling off his bandages. "I need to rewrap your wounds. And this will also allow me to check for any sign of sepsis. I never found a cauterizing tool, so I have to make sure everything remains clean."

Matt nodded and let Allura check him out, laying his head back as they all sat down and took a small break inside of a small cabin. His head snapped forward when he heard the British woman gasp intensely. "What? What is it?!"

"Your arm! It's, oh my god. I was sure I was keeping it clean and rebandaged every day! How'd it get like this overnight!?"

Matt looked down and gasped, taking a step back - although that did nothing to actually get him away from the sight. The bottom of his arm was covered in yellow pus, the edges on the inside turning black from necrosis. His arm was infected with sepsis. "H-How do we cure this!?"

Allura was madly digging through her medical supplies. "I-I don't have any antibiotics! I don't even have base penicillin to help! We need to get to Mexico and fast!"

Keith was quickly scanning the area. "There! I see a car! Hunk, come with me to see if it's operational!" Hunk nodded and the two sprinted off.

With their luck, it'd be a no-go too. Thus far, every car they ran into was non-operational. Hunk immediately started checking it out first, he didn't want them to blow up because of it being rigged as a bomb instead. Once he found nothing out of the ordinary on the outside, he gave Keith a thumbs up to hotwire the car.

Keith immediately removed the plastic cover on the steering column, thankful it was an older vehicle, so this method of hotwiring would work. He located the wiring harness connector and, after looking in the owner's manual that was still in the glove box (thank whatever God existed), he pulled aside the battery, ignition, and starter wire bundle. He didn't have electrical tape so after stripping the insulation by peeling it back and twisting the battery wires, he replaced the insulation over top of it. He then connected the ignition and battery wires together before peeling back a half inch on the starter wire. He then sparked the battery wire with the starter wire to start the engine. Nothing happened.

"Hey, Hunk. Why isn't the engine starting?" He popped the hood, so Hunk could look inside.

"Dammit. Someone took out the battery and couple of the spark plugs. Unless we can find one in town, this thing's not gonna budge."

"Stay with the car, I'm gonna check that automotive shop. What size would it need?"

"Well it's a van so as long as you get something that'll fit in this spot and has a minimum of 800 cold-cranking amps, it'll say CCA on the battery, it should work. While you're in there, look for battery terminals, these ones got jacked, and-"

"I get it, look for some stuff for the car! Hey, Shiro! Come with me!" Keith hollered back to his boyfriend, who nodded.

"What's up, Keith?"

"We're ransacking that auto parts place," Keith pointed toward the building. "Hunk says the car's drivable it just needs a battery, some terminals, and couple spark plugs. Hey, Hunk, give me one of the spark plugs on it so I can match 'em up."

Hunk nodded and quickly unhooked the spark plug, tossing it to Keith.

Keith held out his gun as he took point, Shiro backing up his rear. "I hate how silent everything is. It spells disaster..." He kept his voice low, not wanting to make too many sounds. Shiro locked the door behind them. "First, let's clear out the area and lock everything down so we can spend a good amount of time finding what we need. Quick measurements say the base of the battery needs to be twelve inches by eight and a half inches long and no bigger than ten inches high with 800 CCA's..."

Shiro nodded in affirmations as they both swept the area for danger. When nothing came up, Keith locked every door and pushed a cart he'd found to the front. "I suggest grabbing as much as we can fit on that cart. Hunk was kind to jot down a list of stuff."

Shiro looked it over, "5W30 conventional oil, at least 8 spark plugs, spark plug wires, electrical tape, as many fuses as we can carry, two packs of wiring, a battery, battery terminals, heat-shrink tubing, conduits, fuel additives, a socket set, a hammer, a saw if they have one, a C-Camp, an alternator, a starter, the brightest bulbs for this car which he lists as H7 and H11 bulbs, a lug wrench, a tire repair kit, reels of hoses, a couple flex hoses, and hose clamps."

"He gave us quite a list..." Keith mused as he began matching up the spark plugs until he found one with the same thread count and height. He saw a gapper and yoinked that as well. He grabbed four boxes of four and dumped them on the cart as Shiro came back with a big enough battery. "He didn't say what kind of alternator or starter we need. I'll look for a book that specifies what kinda. This looks like an older store, so it might still use a bookkeeping system. Shiro, there's an electrical aisle over there, I think you'll find most of that list over there."

Half an hour passed by and Keith, thankfully, did find a book. He grabbed the alternator and starter based on VIN Hunk wrote down for them. Shiro grabbed all the electrical goods and the hoses. All that was left was fuel additive, the tools, and hose clamps. Another ten minutes and even that was collected.

"Hey, Shiro. They have snacks and a cooler. Let's see if any of it's good to take with," Keith pointed at the counter and then the cooler. "I'll look through the snacks if you wanna grab all the waters." Shiro nodded and with everything loaded onto that cart, they headed back to the car, that now had Matt and a few others loaded in it. "Here, Hunk. Do what you need to, Shiro and I are gonna load up the trunk."

It was another half an hour before Hunk got the car in working condition. Taking electrical tape to tape up the wires he'd fucked with earlier, Keith sparked the starter wire to the battery wire once again and the car came to life. Everyone piled in as Keith revved the engine, making sure not to stall it out. "Alright. Buckle up and let's go." Thankfully it WAS a van, so it could fit everyone plus their shit. Keith looked at the gas tank and sighed. "It's got three-quarters of a tank. It should get us pretty far before we have to find a place or other cars to siphon gas out of. Which, Hunk, I did grab a siphon and a few gas containers."

Hunk nodded in approval from the seat behind Shiro, who sat shotgun next to Keith. Lance and Coran sat next to Hunk in the middle row while Pidge, Allura, and Matt sat in the back row. Without another word, Keith put the car into drive, releasing the parking brake, and began driving south. "Shiro. Get out that map you always keep with you. We're on the freeway so it should be an easy route to Mexico."

Shiro nodded as Keith turned on the radio, hoping to hear anything from anywhere. But the radio waves were silent.

Everything was silent.


Sorry for the long wait in between chapters.
I had several things come up and I wasn't able to post.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it.

Your author,
Nova