Note: I do not own anything mentioned in this fanfiction. The world is inspired by many zombie franchises. However the world and outbreak is leaning towards 28 days later though I'll also be pulling creativity out of my ass for this one, some stuff will be completely fabricated and odds are not plausible. The two main characters (as well as others brought in here) are from the OUAT franchise.
Characters: They are not their characters as known in OUAT, so they have none of their memories. This is an AU. Also, relationships will probably be out of whack. It is a GOLDENQUEEN fanfiction. So they will be the main characters. Names used will be of the characters in OUAT though so you know who is who. I am giving additionals to their names, so like Weaver has a first name here.
Rating: M. For sex, cussing, blood, violence. Also, There will be gore, of course. If details are going to get gross, I'll warn a paragraph ahead with two **. So you can know when to skip. Then a paragraph after when the gore is over, i'll Place a ##.
Chapters: I have no idea how long this story will be as it is not completed.
This note will be in every chapter.
After Outbreak: Day 123.
"I just think it's a ridiculous idea." Mulan interrupted, eyes searching everyone in the room around her as if trying to get them to join in. "You are our leader. Putting yourself in danger puts us all in danger."
"Why is that? I'm no different than any one of you."
"You give structure to this house. You took all of us in when you didn't have to. You had the weapons, not us."
"And? You can do just fine if I ever get infected."
"No we can't. You should stay behind."
Weaver shook his head, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth, trying to remember that this team of his was worth his patience. He had been cooped up in this house for far too long now. Having listened to everyone about staying inside and keeping the safe house..well...safe. But it wasn't really, was it? Safe from the infected, from anyone, with him here sitting like a duck doing nothing but twiddling his thumbs. "I am coming and that's final. August's first time out, will be under my supervision. And from now on, this is how it'll be. Emma and David, when they are ready after their session, I'll leave with the group their first time."
Mulan gave a huff and resolutely sighed. No matter how hard she tried to keep him safe, she knew he wouldn't budge. Her need to make sure he was out of harms way came from him saving her life. It almost got him killed. She lifted the sword in her hands, always the weapon of choice in her eyes, and pointed it in his direction. "I'll follow close behind." This was a wink towards the first words he had said to her, which resounded in her head the nights she kept watch over the house on the roof. He had told her if she were to die, he would follow close behind her. So she needed to hang on. Which she did. Thanks to him.
He nodded simply, then turned to face August. The man was taller than him, so he had to look up into the eyes of yet another life he felt responsible for. "If I give you instruction, you will follow. If you get bitten, spat on, swallow anything the infected try to make you swallow - you will be shot, left for dead. If you wander off away from the group and take too long to meet back at an allotted location, you will be left behind. Is this clear?"
"Yes, very clear."
"Good. Suit up." The instruction was meant for all who were leaving in the group. Which today was only four. Graham, Mulan, August and Weaver. Thought suit up wasn't really as great as it seemed. One weapon per person and a bag that held bandages and a hunting knife in a separate pocket on the outside.
Weaver's weapon of choice was a simple .45 loaded with an entire clip of ammunition. Mulan loved the feeling of cold steel in a warm hand when she wasn't keeping watch on the roof, so of course her sword. August chose an older model of a semi-automatic rifle that Weaver had stolen from a local police station. Graham stuck to a .45 like Weaver.
"Will we get to join next time?"
"Yes, you will. Keep to your chores until we get back. No venturing off." Weaver answered Emma and instructions to everyone in the room who wasn't joining them outside of that door. "We won't be gone long, we'll try and be back before nightfall. If we aren't, stay inside - Make no sounds."
Hopper entered the room, giving everyone a farewell wave before adding "If the woman wakes up, what do you want us to do?"
"Give her food. Get Blu to run her a bath. Keep her calm." The woman had been unconscious now for longer than seven hours without waking for get a drink, food or even go to the restroom. Picking her up and moving her inside, laying her down on the cot, and dabbing her face with a wet cloth hadn't even jarred her from the state she had succumbed to before they could get any answers from her. But thankfully she didn't seem to have any blood or such in her mouth, meaning she wasn't forced into the infected state from that way of infection.
"Okay, got it."
"Good."
And with that the group exited the farm house, descended the stairs and headed down the dirt road. The sun had only been up for two hours, so they had plenty of daylight ahead of them. Which they needed since town was at least a thirty minute walk to and then another thirty minute walk back.
The group fell into one of their common hushed silences as they walked behind him. His eyes darting to the trees and beyond every few minutes as he made his way down the dirt road. Keeping out of the conversation, he allowed his mind to zone out as he began going through his check list in his head. Noises they weren't making, the view ahead, the view to either side of him and then onto what he wanted to get out of this venture. He knew where they were on their progress of the town down the road. Having marked each building with a red ribbon and put an x through it on his drawn map that he kept close on him.
His mind having kept him so busy he scarcely noticed the stop sign before he bumped into it face first. The look on his face causing a hushed set of laughter behind him, being a good sport he chuckled as softly as possible before pushing past the buildings marked with red ribbons, granted it wasn't many, before he rounded on a diner. Pointing across the street to a bed bath and beyond building, he gestured to Graham and August. "You two grab any fabrics we could be in need of. Towels, cloths, sheets. Nothing too heavy. No appliances or anything like that." They nodded and ventured hesitantly across the street.
Mulan glanced over at him before taking a ribbon from her bag and tying it around the diner's sign out front. "Ready?"
He nodded in return and squared his shoulders before bringing his gun up in the direction of the door. He took out a flash light front his jean pocket and placed it police style above his pistol.
**.
The thing with venturing outside of the farmhouse is the rush of adrenaline that courses through the veins when you're standing outside of a building. Said building is dark on the inside, usually, unless the lights haven't been cut. The problem with entering is the fear of finding a nest of infected on the inside. All guttural growls and sneers more animalistic than human. People like Weaver both relished in the rush and dreaded the confrontation. Though he had noticed a slight blood lust having built since this entire theatrical new life began.
Weaver felt his stomach churn as the door opened and an ungodly smell hit him smack dab in the face . "What the-" His gag reflex cut him off before he could finish his sentence. Mulan however had taken to moving forward without him. She took out one of the cloths in her bag and placed it over her mouth as well as her nose, Weaver did the same with a cloth from his own bag. Silently he praised Mulan for her stomach of steal as they moved past bodies that couldn't even be considered remains.
Skin had been pulled in directions it should never be pulled, revealing broken ribs mixed with organs that had been ripped apart, flesh gnawed at from the infected that had clearly wanted nothing more than to tear each human being in here limb from limb. "Are you kidding me?" Mulan spoke up, having checked as many bodies that weren't fully rotted away. "No infected but fuck. There's an entire intestine or two hanging from the lights over there."
He glanced in the direction from which she pointed. It was true. However, most of it had been ripped to shreds. Hanging there like a mocking ribbon of the infected's own to mark their maps with where they have been and not. "Fuck me." He choked out, the smell settled in his stomach like a one hundred pound weight. He was sure he would rather skip their meal this evening after this.
Stepping over more than a few unknown bloody human parts that seemingly had no shape whatsoever anymore, he followed her into the back of the diner. It was a mess, most things that seemed to have been knocked around in the rush for some inhabitants to run out the back. He lowered his weapon, flicking on the light. To his surprise it cast an eerily cold glow over everything in the room. He glanced around, trying to see exactly what they would need. Some condiments would be nice, so he grabbed a few of those along with the few canned goods they had that wasn't already opened. Then one of the medium sized steel pots that he could fit into his bag.
##.
"Weaver." Mulan called back to him from across the room.
He ducked behind the large shelves, through one of the side door frames and into where she was. She was standing in front of a large walk in freezer with a bloodied hand print smeared along the cold metallic door to the ice box. Weaver nodded, taking the handle in his grasp as she raised her sword. There was no little window to glance through - making it hard to gauge exactly how much danger they were in. But the lack of snarls or odd noises on the other side settled his nerves and, although he would deny it, sent a little shred of disappointment through his frame.
"I want a burger, if I'm being completely honest here."
He shot her a look of complete astonishment, having seen what they had in the front room and her appetite still being in tact. Turning the handle, he pulled the door open and leaped back, clutching his pistol as his side collided with the door to keep it open. His eyes were on a completely frozen couple. Ice clinging to their eyelashes, eyes hazy with frost, hair as stiff as a frozen steak. Blue skin as eerie as ever. They had used the freezer as a way of keeping away from the infected, or so it seemed, and it didn't have a handle on the inside to get out. "Damn." His arm fell slack at his sides, free hand running along his face. Mulan gave him a pat on the arm before she hurried to glance around at the contents inside.
Weaver stood there, holding the door open as Mulan grabbed as much frozen items as she could carry in one bag, ice on the bottom and the top in an attempt to keep it cold on their way back. Once they had cleared the entire building, they headed outside. Sweat prickling at his temples, his stomach finally settling as he took in August and Graham sitting on the side of the road with some sort of candy in hand.
"They have a ton of shit. We didn't mark it with the red ribbon, went with white so we can come back again. That shit is crazy." Graham guffawed, chewing off a large bite from a twizzler.
"You act like you've never been in one before." Mulan said while taking one of the twizzlers from Graham's grasp.
"I haven't! Small town guy here. I mean really fucking small."
"Okay, that's surprising." She nudged him, all three now walking along behind Weaver who had started back in the direction from which they came.
The entire thing seemed to them to have taken much shorter than it truly had. However, Weaver could guess that Graham and August had probably only went through the very front of the store before leaving and taking a seat outside. Which in his opinion would have been better than the two of them not being outside when they had completed looking through the diner. Going in there to search for the two of them could have taken hours. The store was a bit oversized for this little town.
Returning to the farm house took more out of them than they had bargained for. Weaver's legs were aching, head pounding and mouth as dry as it would be in a desert. He could only guess how his other three partners in crime were feeling. The safe house looked exactly as it had when they left earlier, nothing out of place - nothing blood soaked. It felt like a beacon to him, a light that could be seen as safe. Like they were boats heading ashore during the night. Only it was day and he thanked his lucky stars that the venture hadn't taken longer.
"Welcome back!" Blu hurled herself out of the house and into Graham's arms. "So happy you're all in one piece."
Graham just gave her a chuckle, before handing her one of his twizzlers. Blu looked at it as if she hadn't seen anything that beautiful in her entire life. And at this very moment, Weaver was sure she hadn't seen anything that beautiful in a long time. The infection spreading had robbed each and every one of them the little happiness that something as simple as candy brought them.
"Where's Ruby?" Mulan shot in Blu's direction. Noting that the long haired brunette hadn't come out of the house per usual to greet her.
"She went to the farm."
"By herself?"
"No, Emma and David went with her."
Weaver spun on the spot, closing the distance between himself and the one who had just spilled the details of where three people had went without his say-so. "Say that again?"
"Yeah, they left once you guys did."
"Did they? Huh." His tongue ran along his teeth, eyes glaring in the distance of which the farm was. Three shapes coming along the road, in his view. This would not do. Not under his roof. Not when they could have all died or put the safe house in jeopardy. He would allow them their victory for tonight since they all seemed to be carrying large sacks of foods, but tomorrow he wouldn't be so lenient. He just needed to decide what chore they would be stuck with for disobeying him and going out when they weren't scheduled to. Now the farm raiding later this week would need to be pushed to next week.
"Tell them to put everything away. Hopper is making dinner tonight - then. Since they disobeyed me."
Naturally it had been David's turn to make dinner, but now everything would need to be shifted in his notebook. The planning he had done ahead all fucked up, thanks to one little slip-up. Which he hoped would be their last. For now, he would put away his bag of stolen goods and check on that brunette who he guessed wasn't awake or they all would have stayed home to gawk at the stranger.