Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text28 Days Later
Mrs. McCall was the first to leave. She had only managed to get someone to cover for her at the hospital for a few hours. So after an hour, she had to head back.
After that the rest of the pack's parents slowly trickled out of la casa de Stilinski.
Stiles wasn't sure when exactly Erica's parents had left, probably somewhere in the middle.
That had to be the only reason why he hadn't realised that they had left until they were long gone. Unlike the rest of the parents, who had pulled promises of being home early out of their kids, Erica's parents had left without even a goodbye.
It wasn't an immediate worry, but if he didn't find a way to help fix the rift between Erica and her parents it could become permanent.
"Well this had been very sickeningly heart-warming and lovey-dovey," Peter drawled once the last group of parents walked out the front door, "Now, that the puppies' parents are gone, Derek mentioned that you have a plan?"
The question was directed at Stiles. At least that's what he assumed from the slightly evil looking smirk plastered on Peter's face. That look always meant trouble of the Peter variety. Especially when Stiles was in any way involved.
Which, yay... he had a creepy pedo-stalker zombie-wolf in his fan club... he could deal with that as long as Peter kept his grabbie-paws to himself.
"Umm, yeah. You know about the virus right?"
Peter's eyebrows rose challengingly as if of course I know about the virus you measly human. Which knowing Peter as well as he did (and isn't that a scary thought?) was probably exactly what he was thinking.
Stiles rolled his eyes, "Of course you do, who am I kidding?"
Ignoring Peter, a sport which Stiles could probably get a gold medal in, Stiles turned to face Derek, who had moved to stand in the doorway like his usual creeper self (insert mental eye-roll here) "So are we going to bring the Argents in on the Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Plan or not?"
"We should," Scott immediately said.
Derek shot the Beta-turned-Alpha a glare which didn't even seem to faze Scott.
To be honest, not many of the pack were fazed by Derek's sourwolf glare anymore. That was the problem with using so much – they just got used to it.
"I agree," Isaac agreed, oblivious to the frustrated glare Derek shot the beta.
Stiles wasn't surprised with Isaac's statement. It was pretty much common knowledge in the pack, that if Scott thought something, Isaac would generally agree with him. There was also the fact that Isaac was besotted with Allison. But it was best not to mention that in front of Scott, it was something of a sore point.
"Alright, Isaac, if you could call Allison?"
The curly haired beta pulled out his cell.
"Sure."
~ 28 Days Later ~
Chris leaned against the doorframe while Allison found a seat on the couch between Scott and Isaac, "Alright, now what's this all about, Stiles?"
Stiles sighed.
"You're here because when the virus eventually gets through, we would rather have two trained hunters on our side then working against us. Plus, I think we all would have a better chance of surviving if we work together."
Allison leaned forward and the pack turned to look at her.
"I agree with Stiles, we should work together but there's not much we can do now... I mean it's not like infected are banging down our door..."
"But we can prepare," Chris interjected.
Stiles nodded. This was where he had wanted the conversation to go. "So I was thinking that-"
Before he could finish the thought, Allison interrupted, "What about the rest of Beacon Hills? Are we going to protect the entire town?"
Stiles drew a blank. To be completely honest, he hadn't been planning on protecting the town. In fact, he had only been planning on making sure the pack survived and if need be, abandoning Beacon Hills for somewhere safer. There was no feasible way that they could protect the entire town of Beacon Hills. He knew that ideally they would try... but realistically if the pack were to survive in the event that the virus reached Beacon Hills then they would have to let the people of Beacon Hills fend for themselves.
Stiles looked over at Allison and then glanced at Chris. Chris' face had shut down. He knew the reality of the situation while Allison seemed to be focusing on the ideal.
"No, there's no way that the pack could protect the town. The best we can do is ensure that we survive."
Allison looked between members of the pack in shock, "You mean we're not going to do anything?! We're just going to abandon the whole town?! Scott?" Allison whipped her head around to face Scott, "There's no way you can agree with this! We have to do something! We can't just abandon the whole town!"
Scott looked like he wanted to agree with Allison and was glancing at Stiles with a helpless expression.
Chris moved away from the doorframe, "Allison, Stiles is right. Ideally, if Beacon Hills were a smaller town in a more strategic position or had some form of natural barrier other than the Preserve then possibly we could protect the town, but realistically there is just no way that we could protect the entire town."
Allison stared at her father aghast, "So what? We just leave them to die? What about out code, 'We protect those who cannot protect themselves'? Have you just forgotten that?"
"No, but-"
Allison glared at her father and Stiles "Then why are you both suggesting that we abandon the people of Beacon Hills after all that we've done to protect this town?!"
Peter moved out of the corner of the room, "Because if we don't abandon Beacon Hills then we will die with it."
Everyone stared at Peter who sauntered into the centre of the room, enjoying the attention, "You've seen the news. Even with all their military power and political ties, entire countries have fallen and been overrun with infected."
Peter moved to stand directly in front of Allison, "You say we should stay and 'protect those who cannot protect themselves'. But are you willing to die for them? Are you willing to stand in front of a swarm of infected to protect a person you don't even know? Are you willing for people to huddle behind you in fear, doing nothing, while your friends and family die around you? If we try to protect the whole town then we will die. And I don't know about you, but I prefer living."
Biting her lip, Allison leaned back silently in her seat, obviously chastised but not wanting to admit it. Isaac wrapped his arm around Allison's waist offering comfort. Scott glanced over at the pair and then back at Stiles
"So there's nothing we can do?"
Stiles sighed. It's not like he wanted to leave the people of Beacon Hills to fend for themselves. But while Scott was the optimistic one, he was a realist. He knew that Peter was right. If they tried to protect the town, then they would die with it. The best they could do was save their families.
"No, we can do something. We can prepare and do our best to protect our families but I don't think we will be able to protect the whole town."
Erica leaned forward in her seat.
"So what's the plan Batman?"
Stiles glanced around at the people in the room – his pack members – and grinned. It was time to get planning.
~ 28 Days Later ~
The next two weeks were some of the busiest the pack had experienced. There was no 'enemy' or 'bad guy' for them to fight but every second from dawn till dusk was filled with preparation.
The Argents, naturally, were in charge of acquisition of weapons. The McCalls were in charge of supplying medical supplies and everyone else were in charge of food, camping and other survival stuff. Stiles had been put in charge of finding a place for them to move to if they had to flee Beacon Hills.
So far they had been using the tunnels under the old Hale house to store all of their supplies. Derek had even managed to find a few cots that had been set up in one of the underground rooms. It's wasn't homey by any means of the word, but it was the most defensible area in Beacon Hills, so they were planning on using it as their first home.
The plan was to move to the Hale tunnels at the first sign of infection and then, if for some reason it became unsafe to stay there anymore or they became overrun by infected then the plan was to head north up through Oregon, Washington and then maybe up into Canada.
But in the end they had only had over a week to get supplies before the first reports of infected within the United States were blasted over the radio and news stations.
It was pandemonium.
It was chaos, death and panic to put it bluntly.
You know how, on the news or in movies when a natural disaster is predicted to hit an area, everyone either tries to leave as quickly as possible or stock up on supplies to weather out the storm?
Well what happened in the first five hours since the report that infected had somehow gotten past the border was like that... but a million times worse. In a mere five hours there had been more car crashes reported than had been seen in the entirety of the previous year. The country was like an overturned bee-hive, buzzing with frantic, scared people who didn't know if the person coming towards them was just a normal human or an infected.
Over 150 people were murdered in those five hours. They were killed in car crashes (you wouldn't believe the amount of people who run red lights if they think the end of the world is following them), killed because they had something someone else wanted (grocery and camping/hunting stores became the most deadly place to be) or killed because someone else thought they might be infected and weren't willing to take the chance.
It was Hell.
Hell on Earth.
And infected weren't even really the cause of it.
Humans were.
Humanity's instinctive need to survive and 'screw everyone else who tries to stop them' attitude was the primary cause of majority of the deaths during the first wave of infection in the United States.
Stiles isn't even surprised to be honest. He knew something like this would happen. After all, it's basic human nature and after two years of fighting to survive – he's intimately aware of what humans can and will do to protect themselves and those they love.
That was why, when the first reports of infected inside the border flashed across social media sites, Stiles shot off a text to the rest of the pack; 'It's happened – everyone to the Hale House. Now.' and quickly pulled the half packed duffel out from underneath his bed.
Inside the duffel were clothes, sanitary stuff like soap and deodorant, an extra toothbrush and toothpaste, his 'magic' book and a translated copy of the bestiary, a notebook, some pens/pencils and some photos of his family and the pack. Stiles had had the duffel packed since the day the pack had told their parents about them. He had also packed a similar duffel bag for his dad, since his dad had essentially refused to.
In the last week of calm had also been weening himself off of adderall. Which was not fun – let me tell you – but it was better than eventually going cold turkey when he finally ran out. Because it's not like there's going to be a helpful chemist in every town during the zombie apocalypse.
However, during the week, Stiles had make sure to go to the chemist and get a refill on his prescription so at least when shit hit the fan he would have a full bottle of adderall. The lady behind the counter (Rachael, who had worked there for as long as he could remember) had given him a pitying look and told him to also grab two bottles of disinfectant and multiple packages of rolled sterile bandages.
Stiles had looked across the counter at her, gave her a faint smile and then went to do as she bid. Along with the disinfectant and the bandages, Stiles also grabbed a few packets of pain medicine and cold and flu tablets before walking back to the counter and putting them down to be scanned.
Rachael gave him a watery smile, turned and grabbed another bottle of adderall and placed it with the rest of his stuff, "It's on the house sweetie. Take care of your dad, you hear."
Stiles fumbled with the white plastic bag as it was pushed towards him, "I can't- at least let me pay you for the bandages and stuff."
Stiles pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and began pulling out the appropriate bills before Rachael's hand clamped firmly on his own, "No. Not this time, Stiles. I've seen you come in here since you were just a bub, held tightly to your momma's chest as she browsed the isles looking at baby stuff. When you were only three, you came in here with your hand clutched tight in your mom's as she pulled you in here to get some medicine for one of the worst ear infections I've seen in a long while – and boy did you know how to scream. And when you were diagnosed with ADHD you would come in here with your mom to get your adderall. But then your mum got sick and sometimes your dad would come with you to get your prescriptions and sometimes you would come by yourself and also pick up some medicine for your mom. You are a great kid, Stiles and I've watched you grow and you have a tendency to care more than you should in times like these – Your mom was like that. So you're going to take this stuff and you're going to say thank you and you're going to keep you and your dad safe and healthy, you hear me Genim Stilinski?"
Stiles stared wide-eyed at Rachael and numbly accepted the plastic bag full of medical supplies. "Thank you, Ms. Rachael – and I will, take care of my dad I mean."
Rachael gave him another watery smile, "You're welcome, Genim."
And he had turned around and walked out the door of the chemist before she could see the tear that finally escaped.
~ 28 Days Later ~
Scott was at the grocery store with Isaac when his phone started emitting a high pitched beep which signalled one of the pack was texting him. Isaac glanced over at him from the other end of the isle before his phone started emitting the same high pitched beep.
No one else in the store even noticed that anything had happened, which was exactly the point of the notification.
Thanks to Danny, all of the wolves in the pack had essentially programmed their phones to emit a beep at the same frequency as a dog whistle so that in situations, they would be able to know they had received a text without alerting anyone in the nearby area. It had become extremely useful when going up against the last group of hunters.
Scott and Isaac shared a look and each pulled out their phones.
Stiles: It's happened – everyone to the Hale House. Now.
Scott's eyes widened. Sure they had been preparing but that doesn't exactly mean you're ever ready for the moment when you're faced with the fact that the zombie that's been waiting on your doorstep, has gotten through the front door and was heading your way.
Scott jumped as a hand curled around his wrist. It was Isaac.
"We gotta go. Should we grab some more stuff while we're here?" Isaac asked.
Scott swallowed, "Yeah – you grab some more stuff while I text Stiles."
Isaac nodded and then grabbed the shopping cart and ran off, pulling things off the shelves and dumping them in the cart as he went.
Shit had just hit the fan and Scott wasn't sure the pack was ready yet.
Notes: Sorry for the long wait guys and thank you for your patience. Anyway, I hope you liked this most recent chapter and I hope you like the next one just as much. On a side note, this new season of Teen Wolf is looking to be INSANE! I can't wait to see what the characters do next! Marci
