Notes: Final part! Also I just realised that every time I write Fury I end up with the phrase 'stupid-ass decision' in there somewhere. So yeah, thanks to everybody who's read this, and reviewed, yep. :)

The security breach came in the early hours of what is supposed to be a spring morning, according to the calendar. Loki shoots out of bed rather quickly, but it takes Tony a while to realise what is happening. They get dressed and flee into the corridor, into a mass of panicking people, who are being told to evacuate into the lower levels. Tony grabs onto Loki's hand and fights to keep them together. Tony hauls Loki around a corner into a desolate corridor and out of the constant stream of people.

'I need to get to my workshop. There's equipment in there that could help. You go. Follow them, get to safety.' He doesn't really know what's going on, but he's thinking that it's a break in or something, and the weapons technology he's been working on could probably help.

'I am not leaving you, Tony.' Tony realises that arguing with the man will just make this take longer so he nods, and they take off down corridor and corridor, the compound getting emptier and emptier the further down they go. They run into Steve and, by this point, a heavily pregnant Peggy, on their way to the lower tunnels. Tony explains what they're doing but tells them to keep going to safety.

'No, you can't go there on your own. Who knows what's going on?'

'And you've got a six months pregnant girl there. Take her to safety.' Peggy is growing paler by the minute, and she's starting to sway. 'Go, Steve!' Tony orders, not giving him a chance to argue. 'And take him. Don't let him follow me.' He shoves Loki into Steve's chest.

'Wait, what? Tony, no. This is my-' Loki tried to protest.

'No, it's not. Go to safety okay?' Tony kisses him hard and fast. 'I love you. Now go.'

'I love you too.' Loki kisses him once more before being dragged away by Steve.

'You better be down there quickly, Tony.'

'Don't worry, I'm not planning on dying today, Cap.' He winks as he takes off in the opposite direction. He crashes into his workshop, gathering all of his work and equipment that he deems to be important enough into a bag that he swings over his shoulder. Tony hears an explosion, and now he is definitely confused – have the infected gotten smarter? He'd just assumed they were dying out, not getting better at surviving. He grabs the pistol that all purple citizens are given from his desk and sets out in the direction of the explosion.

Not clever, he knows. But people that he loves are down in the basement of this place, and he isn't letting them be trapped if he can help it.

'Tony!' He spins around to face Steve running down the corridor. 'Where are you going? We've got to get out of here!' Steve shouts over another explosion.

'Another couple of them and this whole place is coming down. There's no way of surviving in those evac tunnels, and you know it. If I can prevent this, then everyone might just come out of this alive.'

'You can't do it alone.'

'And I can't endanger you.'

'I'm practically invincible remember? Shall we?'

Tony nods and leads the way down another corridor. He doesn't like this, but there isn't much he can do to change Steve's mind, so he might as well go with it. They make it to the security room, and after a couple of quick system checks, Tony realises something.

'It's the self-destruct system. They're intentionally burying us.'

'Why the hell would they do that?'

Tony thinks back to a conversation with Fury he had a couple of days ago;

'I'm not getting a radio signal. We're too far underground.'

'We've had information from the terminal out west. The army is looking for survivors.'

'We don't know if that's recent though. It could just be a repetitive broadcast.'

'Isn't survival worth the chance though, Stark?'

'How would we even get their attention? We can't lead a charge out of here, it might still be too dangerous. Especially for such a big group of us.'

'None of our recon teams have come up against any infected in weeks.'

'Because they only go out during the day! Who knows what it's like at night?'

'It's a chance we might have to take.'

Shit. 'Because Fury thinks that blowing this place up will be some sort of beacon to rumoured army search parties.'

'But why? We were doing pretty well down here on our own.'

'Because, Mr Rogers, this place was only ever a temporary solution.' Fury steps through a side door, menacing look on his face.

'You don't have the supplies.' Tony realises.

'So you'll risk the deaths of hundreds of people?' Steve demands.

'If it has to be. It may be a stupid-ass decision, but it's the only one we've got.'

'You're risking your own life though.' It's clear that Steve cannot grasp the situation.

'Because you feel guilty. So you'll die up here and leave the rest of us without a leader.' Tony is fucking pissed off. 'No. You do not get to cop out that easily. You made this decision and you will lead our battered ranks in the aftermath.'

Fury shakes his head, but Tony is not taking any of his shit. Not today.

'No, you do not get to argue with me. Now we are moving out and you are taking responsibility for this. Steve.' Tony gestures at Fury, and Steve grabs him, using his awesome strength to haul the other man from the room.

They hurry along the corridors as fast as they can, but soon enough they're faced with infected who were not only attracted by the explosion, but allowed in by the ruined doors and failed security measures.

'Shit.' Tony says as he draws the pistol and starts shooting. Steve lets go of Fury to grab debris from the rapidly crumbling walls to use as a weapon. Tony and Steve fight like they were always meant to be partners in battling creepy ass, cannibalistic people. They move around each other fluidly, like some sort of twisted dance. It falters though, when they hear Fury curse and they turn to see blood flowing from his neck and his arm, where he's been bitten. Tony and Steve look at each other.

'Now is when we run.' Tony announces, and they take off in the direction of safety. Steve leaps over a pair of infected and Tony slides underneath them, being hauled up on the other side by strong arms. Explosions echo around them as they run as fast as they can, but even Tony's fastest can't keep up with Steve's impossibly long strides, and he's beginning to tire. He skids to a stop when he sees Peggy stumbling towards them down a corridor to his right.

And that is just about the most fucked up sight he's ever seen, her stomach a mess of blood and a hole where a baby used to be. She limps towards Tony arms raised, mouth already gnawing. Her skin is grey, streaked with blood. Hauntingly red eyes where once brown used to be. She's gone, he knows she has. Steve, realising Tony is no longer by his side, turns and runs back. But Tony won't let Steve see that, so he heads forward to meet him.

'What happened?' Steve is concerned and also looking around in a state of panic.

Before Tony can say anything, another explosion rocks the foundations, and Tony shoves Steve away just as the ceiling between them comes crumbling down. Staring at the mound of stone and dirt in shock, he doesn't reply to Steve calling his name. And then he feels teeth on his neck, and screaming, he jerks away, feeling the horrific feeling of his tendons being torn from his neck. He turns to see Peggy chewing on them and grabbing at his arms. Tony does the only thing he can think of and he swings the pistol up to shoot her. He would feel bad about it but fuck she just fucking bit him and he's going to die and at least she'll be out of her misery. Tony falls to the floor, back against the barricade keeping him and Steve apart.

'Tony! Can you hear me? TONY!'

'I'm here Steve.' His voice is croaky and already faint from blood loss, and he can feel the virus pulsing through his veins, and that might just be a phantom sensation but it fucking feels like it and he's fucking dying so he can think what he wants.

'Are you okay?'

'Not really, no. Your girlfriend just had half my neck for breakfast.'

'What? Peggy? No no no… she was supposed to be safe.'

'Cap. I need you to listen to me, because I probably only have minutes. Go. Find Loki and get out of here. Don't let yourself get trapped in those tunnels because you won't survive. Get out of here and just fucking survive. The both of you.' Tony's head is swimming, and the hand covering his neck is doing little to stop the flow of blood, and he can feel the liquid flowing over his fingers and down over his shoulder.

'Tony, I'm not leaving you.'

Tony is too weak to argue. He knows he doesn't have long and he just needs to make Steve promise. They won't survive in those tunnels, no one will, but trying to save everybody else is pretty much a lost cause now the whole place is coming down. 'Cap, please. I know I'm gone. Just- I love you both. Make sure he knows I loved him. And please just keep both of you alive. Please. Do this one thing for me, yeah, Steve?'

'I will, Tony. I promise.'

'Good. Now go.'

'No, I'm not going to leave you alone like this.' Tony can hear the tears in Steve's voice and he can feel the tears streaming down his face, and it's a sick sensation when couple with the feeling of his blood rushing out over his hand from the wound in his neck. 'I loved you too, Tony.'

'Past tense already? That hurts, Cap.'

'Always. I'll always love you.' His voice hitches as he responds, and Tony can feel himself getting weaker. His eyes are slowly slipping closed, and the last thing he sees before he loses consciousness is a photo of him, Pepper and Rhodey. It's fallen out of his bag, half covered in papers and there are even more blood stains than before, but it's still whole as he lays his hand gently across it. And then he goes limp.

Hungry. Very hungry. Food. Need food. Flesh. Smells good.

Flesh. Other side of dirt. Claw at dirt. Get the food. Smells good. Want to tear. Rip. Eat. Flesh smells strange. Different. Seasoning? Want to tear the food. Tear the human. Eat. So hungry. Claw at dirt.

Tony? Who is Tony? Flesh speaks. Is alive. Fresh. Want fresh food. Taste better.

Movement. Pause. Turn. No. Not tasty flesh. Dirty flesh. Old, broken food. Want fresh food. Other side of dirt.

Hungry.

Need food.

Want flesh.

Hungry.

'Tony? Tony!'

Steve lets the tears fall as he hears the voice that once felt like coming home groan as Tony comes back. But no, he's not Tony anymore. He hears him scratch at the barrier and he knows he should move but he can't. He's frozen in fear and despair. He's just lost his girlfriend, his baby and his love? best friend? in one fell swoop.

But Tony gave him a mission. So he pushes himself up and sluggishly at first, but eventually he moves faster, fast enough to dodge infected as he runs, he's screaming Loki's name now, not caring who or what hears him. He promised Tony, and he never breaks a promise.

'Steve?' He hears the tiny voice come from a room over to his left, and he carefully makes his way to the origin, seeing green eyes peering out at him from behind a door.

'Loki?' He throws the door open and Steve sees that he's covered in blood. His eyes widen, and Loki notices, looking down at himself.

'It's not mine. Don't worry. No bites. Where's Tony?'

Steve just shakes his head.

'Steve? Where's Tony?'

'He- He's dead, Loki. I'm so sorry.' There's no point in telling him the truth, it'll just cause unnecessary pain.

'What? No, he's not. Do not be so stupid. Tony wouldn't die. He wouldn't leave me.'

'I'm so sorry, Loki.' And Loki seems to realise that Steve isn't joking and he crumples forward into Steve's arms. He clutches at Steve's arms to try and keep him upright, but sobs are shaking his body. Tiny screams and curses and begs escape from Loki, and Steve's heart is breaking and he hates this whole thing with every fibre of his being. But even more than that, he loves Tony and he needs to keep this promise.

'Look, Loki. I know you're hurting, but I promised him that I'd keep you alive, so we need to move. Now.' Steve hauls Loki upright and looks him in the eyes. 'When we survive this, I'll tell you what happened. You can tell me what happened to Peggy. And then we'll grieve. But we have to get the hell out of here first.'

As if to emphasise his point, the whole compound shakes again, and they hear groans around the corner. Loki nods and allows Steve to pull him a few feet before he starts to move on his own. Steve is just making this up as he goes along though, so he stumbles through corridors until he's somewhere he recognises, and then they hightail it to the only entrance/exit to the outside world. And then he sees the sheer volume of infected that are milling around.

'We're going to have to fight our way out.' Loki whispers, already visibly steeling himself against the impending onslaught.

'No, it's too dangerous for you. We'll have to find another way.'

'Through the decon? It might just be worth a shot.'

'We'll have to try.' And Steve leads them around, through the medical bay and the red decon because that'd the one with the tightest security and is the least likely to be breached. They head through the medical office, the shower rooms and out into the empty antechamber before the steel door. On their way through medical, they grab anything heavy that can be used as a weapon, and Steve also swipes a whole bunch of medical supplies that he thrusts into an emergency medical kit in a messenger bag and throws it over his shoulder.

Steve insists that he goes first, because he's near enough invincible in the current situation, and a hell of a lot less fragile than Loki. So he storms out, wielding the leg of a bed, but the situation he finds is rather removed from the one he was expecting. There are four, maybe five infected lurking about in what looks to be a parody of being on watch. He takes them out fairly easily, then calls for Loki to follow him.

They make it out, back into the wasteland to see a scene not much different from the one he'd left behind when he'd joined the underground sanctuary – there's more greenery but other than that, the sparse wasteland is identical. He leads Loki out over uneven ground, supporting him over some of the trickier parts. Adrenaline is running thin now, and Loki is starting to sag from the exhaustion – he's been underground for most of these months, he's never had to run like this before.

Steve's first concern is finding them food, water and shelter. The food part is going to be the hardest – if Fury is to be believed, their scavenging teams have practically wiped out any remaining supplies from the immediate area. He does however find cars and bikes that had been restored to allow quick travel for the recon teams.

'Which way?' He asks Loki as he loads him into one of the more stable looking cars.

'West.' Loki says, slumping back into the seat. And Steve can't argue with that, remembering what Fury had said about the terminal in that direction, and maybe the army really are out there, somewhere.

Steve uses all his boyscout knowledge to work out which way is west, and he starts the engine, hotwiring it just like Tony had shown him to, all those months ago.

Ten minutes of silence later, and Loki starts to speak. 'I'm sorry, Steve. I tried to get her out of there, but there were too many of them. There was nothing I could do. I am sorry.'

'The ceiling collapsed between us. He shoved me out of the way. He was on one side with the infected, I was on the other. He told me Peggy bit him, I heard a gunshot so I'm assuming she's properly gone now. He spoke to me before… he told me to look after you. To tell you that he loved you. He told me that we have to survive.'

'He loved you too, you know. I do not think he realised it, but he did.'

'Yeah.'

'We have to survive now, don't we? For him. For Tony?'

'For Tony.'