"Then you fold it like so, and crease it right here, and…" Bilbo held up the piece of paper and spread its little folded wings. "There you have it: an origami dragon."
Fíli frowned and held up his own dragon, which looked a bit more like a lopsided raptor. "I don't think I did this right."
Kíli, who had long since given up any sort of advanced folding, held up his seventh paper airplane and launched it at his brother's head.
"Hey!" Fíli crumpled up his dragon-raptor, hitting him square on the nose with it. They both leapt up and began running around the room, throwing whatever they could find at the other.
Bilbo smiled and sat back, though he kept a close eye to make sure they didn't throw anything particularly dangerous. It was nice to see them laughing and having fun. It had taken them a couple weeks to finally warm up to living in the apartment, and for all three of them to stop having nightmares from their trip into the city.
Now that they were acting their age again, he had become particularly aware of the fact that his apartment was not exactly meant for children. He had been the last one to grow up here, and all of his childhood toys had been sold or given away years ago. There was only so much time the boys could spend reading books or playing with his excess of printer paper.
He reached over and closed the origami book, then went to put it back on its proper place on the shelf. A lack of entertainment they could live without, but they were running low on food, too. He'd been putting off going out for fear of leaving the boys alone, but they only had a day or two before they would run out entirely.
"Boys?" Bilbo walked into the bedroom, where the two of them were jumping on the bed and whacking each other with pillows. "We're running low on food, so I—"
Fíli swung a pillow at his brother and it burst upon impact, sending a cloud of feathers fluttering down over the comforter. Kíli fell on his back, giggling, and Bilbo winced as he narrowly missed cracking his skull against the headboard.
Still holding the empty pillowcase, Fíli turned to Bilbo, his smile wavering. "Sorry…"
"That's...That's quite all right." Once, he would have been very upset, since those were rather expensive down pillows, but the end of the world had taught him that there were more important things in life. "I'm going out to find some more food. I shouldn't be more than a few hours, but if you could both straighten up while I'm gone," he gestured to the mess of feathers, "that would be much appreciated."
Fíli nodded and knelt down to scoop up the mess, gesturing for his brother to do the same. Kíli sat up and spat a mouthful of feathers at him.
Bilbo smiled and shook his head. "I'll leave you to it, then." He gathered his gun, his key, and his map from the kitchen, then headed down to his car.
His tank was nearly empty, and he tapped the meter with a frown. Gas had been getting particularly hard to find, and the last thing he wanted was to run out entirely and be stranded two towns over.
Though it seemed he would be going farther than that. Bilbo checked his map, where he'd already marked off all the areas he'd been to, and let out a grumble. Moving somewhere else was becoming less of a possibility and more of an inevitability, and he didn't even want to think about how that would work now that he had two children in his care.
That, Bilbo decided as he spend down the highway, was a question for another day.
It had taken a couple hours of searching, but Bilbo had managed to find a gas station with enough left to get him back up to half a tank. Not only that, but he'd dug through the storage room in the back of a grocery store and managed to find a whole unopened box of beans, as well as a few individual boxes of pasta.
The find had left him in good spirits, and he hummed a little tune as he deposited the food in his trunk and pushed it closed. The sun was getting closer to the horizon, and he had no doubt the boys were hungry and waiting for him.
Bilbo had his hand on the car door when a voice made him jump: "Oi!"
He turned to the other end of the parking lot, where three men—three rather large men—were coming towards him.
"You know if there's anything in there?" The one who had spoken gestured towards the grocery store.
"Uh, n-not much of value." Bilbo kept a hand on the door, considering the gun in his pocket. "Some paper towels, a few bags of flour."
"Yeah?" The three men continued their advance. They walked with loose arms and broad shoulders, like a group of bullies from the local school. "You got a camp or something? People you've been staying with?"
"No." Heis free hand crept into his pocket, fingers closing around the handle of his gun. His palms were already sweating. "I've just been traveling on my own."
They exchanged glances, and Bilbo clenched his jaw. "Well," the apparent leader of the group said, "we'll let you be on your way. You find any food, save some for us, eh?" He winked.
Bilbo nodded jerkily and slipped into his car, locking the doors immediately. He drove across the parking lot as quickly as he could, watching the men so closely in his rearview mirror that he nearly drove up onto the curb. Before he pulled onto the road, he saw them climbing into their own vehicle.
"Shit." He pressed hard on the gas pedal and took off down the road. There was always the chance he was being paranoid, but he couldn't afford to take chances. Whatever happened, he was not going to lead a group of dangerous men back to Fíli and Kíli.
He had to go north to get back home, but he took the highway east, hoping to throw them off his trail. The sun cast long shadows over the road, but he kept his lights off. Perhaps he'd find a quiet neighborhood with lots of winding streets and lose them there. Or, if things got particularly desperate, he'd bury his car in another crowd of dead people. The thought made him shudder.
The sun glinted more than once off the windows of the car pursuing him, though they stayed far enough behind that he lost sight of them more than once. Bilbo tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, muttering curses under his breath that would have made his father blanch. An irritated sort of anger was building beneath his sternum. A bunch of mindless dead people he could handle to a certain extent, but who were these men to try and stalk him and rob him of his food? He had children to get back home to, and it was absolutely inconvenient that he had to stop and throw off a bunch of robbers.
He took the next exit and sped up almost dangerously, determined to lose them as soon as possible. A sign on the right advertised one Wesley Street, and he turned into the small development.
It was quiet, shaded with trees that only allowed a few slivers of orange sunlight to illuminate the road. Bilbo picked a house a little ways down the street and drove up into the driveway, then steered around the house and parked his car there. A plastic lawn chair tumbled away upon impact with his bumper, and he silently apologized to whoever owned the house (and hoped they weren't currently in it).
Heart pounding, he turned the engine off and climbed out, creeping over to the corner of the house. He waited in silence, eyes and ears on high alert for another vehicle down the road.
Several minutes ticked by, and he heard nothing but the rustle of tree leaves. It was quite possible he'd successfully lost the men—none of them had seemed terribly bright.
Or perhaps they were lying in wait at the end of the road, ready to spring a trap on him and steal his car and everything inside it.
He stayed crouched at the corner of the house, fear and uncertainty keeping him frozen. It wasn't until it was almost completely dark that he reasoned it would be worse for Fíli and Kíli if he kept them waiting any longer, and besides, he did have a gun if things went wrong.
Bilbo crept back over to his car and turned it on, then drove back down the driveway and onto the road. Each movement in the shadows set him further on edge, but there were no cars lying in wait as he drove back out of the development.
He waited until he was back on the highway to turn on his headlights, and then drove a little faster than he was comfortable back to the apartment.
A dozen different apologies were running through his mind when he finally pulled into the parking lot, but they were soon forgotten as he spotted a strange white shape soar through the air before disappearing behind a row of bushes.
"What on earth…" He stopped the car and stepped out, leaving the food for now as he went to investigate.
There was a small patio on one side of the building, bordered by bushes for some semblance of privacy, and it was here that he found Fíli and Kíli.
"Ready?" Fíli called from the patio, dribbling a soccer ball with both feet.
Grinning, Kíli ran backwards, stopping a few feet away from a small grove of trees near the apartment building. Fíli kicked the ball as hard as he could and his brother lifted his hands to catch it, but it soared over his head and into the trees.
Bilbo put his hands on his hips, torn between feeling annoyed at their irresponsibility and guilty at his own. "Having fun, are we?"
"Um." Fíli looked at him and froze. It was quite clear he knew he had done something wrong. "We were just..."
"I'll go get the ball," Kíli said, probably as an excuse to flee the tense moment, and sprinted into the trees.
"Look," Bilbo said, walking closer to the elder. "I know I came back much later than I said I would, but that doesn't mean the two of you can leave the apartment."
"We weren't gonna go far," Fíli said with a shrug.
"Yes, well, if something were to—"
Kíli let out a scream. Bilbo and Fíli both jumped at the noise and ran for the trees. A moment later, the boy burst from the undergrowth, the soccer ball clutched between his hands. One of the dead lurched after him, clumsily reaching for the back of his shirt.
The soccer ball slipped from between Kíli's hands, and he tripped over it as it hit the ground. The corpse growled and lunged for him.
Before he even knew what he was doing, Bilbo threw all of his weight forward, ramming his shoulder into the monster's chest. His momentum sent both of them toppling to the ground.
"Get inside!" he shouted to the boys as Fíli rushed to help his brother up. "Now!"
The corpse let out another growl, and Bilbo almost gagged as its rotten breath washed over his face. He pushed himself away and tried to stand up, but its hands closed around his leg, pulling him down again. He let out a yell and kicked as hard as he could, striking its jaw.
It took a couple more kicks to finally get himself loose. He scooted away on the damp grass, breathing hard. The corpse rolled onto its stomach and pawed at the grass. Bilbo didn't know if it was able to stand, and wasn't willing to find out. He pushed himself to his feet and glanced towards the building. Fíli and Kíli were waiting just inside the glass door, watching him with wide eyes. He made a gesture that plainly meant Get upstairs, and the two fled down the hallway.
Bilbo managed to make it back to his car on unsteady legs, then collapsed in the driver's seat. He sat there for a moment and just breathed, letting the adrenaline of the moment fizzle out. And though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he bent down and rolled up his pants. The skin there was clear, not so much as a scratch marring the surface.
He let out a sigh of relief and leaned his forehead against the steering wheel.
Not dead yet.
As much as he would have liked to sit there for another twenty minutes, he had some food to bring in...and a couple of boys to scold.
Fíli and Kíli were in the the living room when he walked in. They stared at him, standing stiffly, and made no move to help as he set the box of food on the kitchen table.
Bilbo turned back to them and sighed, resting one arm on the doorframe. He really didn't want to do this, but they could have died. Poor Kíli had been inches away from being bit. The memory, the image of him struggling on the ground as a walking corpse loomed over him, was enough to tear his words from his throat.
"I-I don't know what you two were thinking. I really don't. I thought you would have realized by now that it's not safe to be outside on your own!"
He couldn't see much in the dimness of the room, but Kíli looked as if he were trying to hold back tears.
"Why on earth did you go outside in the first place?"
"We got bored," Fíli said, his jaw stiff. "We didn't know when you were coming back."
"Well, I honestly expected better from you. Look at what almost happened to your brother," he gestured to Kíli, who was clutching his brother's sweater in one hand. "As much as I'd like to, I can't be there for you every second of the day, and when I'm not, it's up to you to keep him safe!"
Fíli bowed his head. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice wavering.
Bilbo sighed, his shoulders slumping. That was about all the anger he had reserved for today. He walked over to his armchair and sat down, looking up at them. "I just don't want anything bad to happen. To either of you. A-And this is all new to me. I don't have children of my own, and I've never done anything like this before. But we'll figure this out, all right? Just promise me you'll be smart about this."
They both nodded and sniffled.
"Good." He stood up, and Kíli stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his waist. He stiffened in shock for a moment, then wrapped one arm around him. With the other, he reached over to squeeze Fíli's shoulder. "Now, I don't know about you two, but I'd rather like some dinner right now."
As if to prove his point, his stomach gave a low grumble, and Kíli gave a watery snicker.
Smiling, he released him and headed for the kitchen. "I hope you both like beans."
Bilbo folded his hands on the kitchen table. "There's something I want to discuss with you both. This is by no means something you're obligated to do, but I thought I'd bring it up."
It had now been a month since Fíli and Kíli had been staying with him, and he could tell they were both getting restless. They had been very conscientious about obeying his rule about staying inside, but there was only so much entertainment they could get from kicking the soccer ball up and down the hall or throwing paper airplanes off the fire escape.
"I need to go out to get food again, and I was wondering if you two would feel comfortable coming with me," he said, searching both their faces. "We could try and find you some toys and clothes while we're out. And I'd be able to keep a closer eye on you."
Kíli rested his elbows on the table with a frown. "Will we run into monsters again?"
"I-I can't promise that we won't." In truth, there were a lot of risks associated with bringing them outside. There were the dead, and even worse, the threat of men like the ones that had followed him a couple weeks ago.
"We know how to hide if there's bad men," Fíli said, straightening up. "We've done it before."
"Yes, well, hopefully we won't run into anyone. It certainly won't be as bad as the city. And you'll have me to look out for you. I just thought it would be good for the two of you to get out of the apartment."
Both of them brightened at that, and their cheer continued all the way down to the car once they'd agreed to go.
"I can't make any promises, but what sort of toys would you like to get?" Bilbo asked as he sat in the driver's seat.
Kíli immediately started rattling off about some Lego set he'd seen on TV and all the different things you could build with it. Bilbo had no idea what he was talking about, having been more of a bookish child himself, but seeing the boy happy and excited was enough to make him smile.
Forty-five minutes later, they were pulling up to a strip mall, which had a toy store, a clothing outlet, and a small grocery store among other establishments. Bilbo decided to stop at the former first, so the boys would at least have something to entertain themselves with while he checked out the other places.
There were half a dozen cars scattered about the parking lot, and he eyed each of them warily, but they all appeared empty and broken down.
"All right," he said, pulling to a stop. "I'm going to go in alone and check out the store, make sure it's safe. I want you two to hide down there in the back—I'll crack the windows since it is rather warm—and I'll come back and get you once I'm done."
"What if something goes wrong?" Fíli asked.
"Um." Bilbo shifted at the rather nebulous question. There were quite a lot of things that could go wrong, and he didn't have a plan for every single one of them. "Whatever you do, do not come out unless I say so. And...i-it'll be all right."
For a moment, he wondered if what he was doing was unnecessarily risky, if he was about to put the boys in danger. But driving them back would be a waste of time and gas, and it wouldn't do them any good to be cooped up in an apartment for...however long this apocalypse was supposed to take.
"Be good, the both of you," Bilbo said, then climbed out of the car. He watched them crouch down on the floor between the seats, then turned and headed for the toy store.
It was cool and dim inside, and eerily quiet. He found a few packages of candy behind the registers, and pocketed them to give to the boys later.
All things considered, the store wasn't as barren as some of the other's he'd been to. He supposed action figures and toy dolls weren't the most essential survival tools.
The aisles were all empty, save a few scattered packages, some strange scorch marks, and a particularly nasty-looking bloodstain that stretched down the aisle.
He took a moment to check the storage room in the back and the employee section off to the side, but those were both empty as well (though he was disappointed to find the vending machines in the employee lounge had been smashed and ransacked).
With that out of the way, Bilbo made his way back towards the entrance, excited to tell Fíli about a board game he'd found and Kíli that there were certainly Legos in the store, though he had no idea which one he wanted in particular.
He stepped outside, blinking at the sunlight after spending so long in the store's dim interior. As his vision adjusted, he could make out a man walking a few feet away. His heart stuttered.
There was a stranger walking across the parking lot, and his gaze was locked onto Bilbo's car.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Fíli and Kíli were in full view, sitting back on the seats and locked in some sort of heated argument.
That was all he had time to absorb before adrenaline pushed him into action. The man hadn't seen him yet, so Bilbo took a step forward, scrambling for some sort of plan. He wouldn't be able to overpower him even if he were to surprise him—the man was much taller than him, and his muscles showed through his dark shirt.
Without quite knowing what he was doing, he pulled the gun from his pocket and pointed it at the man. "Stop!"
The man started at the sound of his voice, hand reaching for the gun at his hip. The sight sent a spike of fear through him. If this man managed to kill him, there was no telling what he would do to Fíli and Kíli.
Half-instinctively, he pulled the trigger.
His gun let out a tiny click, and nothing more.
Seeing that his gun wouldn't fire, the man pulled out his own weapon and aimed it at Bilbo. He took a few steps forward, his arm steady, and there was no doubt in Bilbo's mind that this man knew how to fire a gun and would not hesitate to do so.
Nevertheless, he kept his own weapon level, or as much as he could with his shaking arms. At the very least, the man's focus was off Fíli and Kíli for now. "S-Stay back. Don't you dare go near them."
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't put a bullet through you." The man's voice was harsh, the lines of anger on his face clear.
The car door opened, and Fíli stumbled out. "Wait!"
No, no, Fíli you fool, get back in the car. Bilbo waited with a clenched jaw as the boy began running towards them.
"It's okay! Don't shoot!" He broke into a run, and a moment later, Kíli jumped out of the car as well. "He's not a bad man, Uncle Thorin. It's okay."
There he is! I've been kind of weighing this plot-wise, but would you guys be interested in seeing some scenes from Thorin's POV? Let me know.