Previously: Arthur meets Li who takes him to his uncle.

Character Reminder: Cillian = Northern Ireland; Siobhan = Republic of Ireland; Alistair = Scotland; Dylan = Wales; Xiao Chun Li = Hong Kong


Thread One: Part Three
Arthur

Arthur woke with a dry mouth and a sharp headache. He raised his hands to block out the too bright sunlight and found himself bound at the wrists. His sluggish thoughts snapped alert.

Why was he tied up? Who had tied him? And looking at Hello Kitty knick-knacks, where the fuck was he?

Arthur sat up slowly, trying not to jostle his injured leg. Looking down he found his thigh bandaged and, more worryingly, himself half naked.

"About time you woke up."

Arthur followed the voice to an Asian man sitting on a chair with a textbook in hand.

"Who the hell are you?" Arthur asked, his voice gruff and throat sore.

The man huffed and dropped the textbook onto the coffee table. "I'm the one who saved your life so show me gratitude, brat."

"Saved my life? You tied me up and stripped me; in what universe is that saving my life?"

"Without my help you would be outside with those monsters, dehydrated with an open wound waiting to be infected. You're lucky I decided to help you."

The words brought hazy memories to mind, something to do with a dead boy in an alley and a live boy on a bike.

Arthur peered around the room. The furniture was sparse and neat with a maroon colour scheme dominated by the plethora of tied coins, Buddha statues, golden cats, three legged toads, dragons, turtles and more that were strung across the walls and littered the shelves.

Then he looked back down at himself sat in only his boxers.

"Why did you strip me?"

The man turned up his nose. "Your clothes were covered in blood and ripped to shreds. If you're so desperate for them back you can pick them out of the rubbish on your way out."

"You're kicking me out?"

"This is my home, not a hospital for idiots my nephew brings back."

"Why did you bother sewing up my leg if you're going to make me leave."

"Because I'm a surgeon and I fix people. It's not my problem what happens to you after I've done my job."

"You ever hear of after care?"

"That's for nurses and care workers."

"You're not known for your people skills are you?"

"I'm known for my work with a scalpel."

Arthur dropped his gaze to his leg. His fingertips flitted over the bandage. "You're good then? At stitching people back together?"

"The best," the doctor said, a hint of pride in his tone.

"So my leg will be alright?"

"Yes, but there will be a scar."

Arthur shrugged. He'd acquired more than his fair share of scars during his punk phase.

The doctor stood up. "You can stay the night but no longer. And take a shower, you stink."

"A shower wasn't exactly my priority when I was fighting for my life."

"It is in my house. And I have yet to receive any gratitude, brat."

"Yeah, thanks," Arthur mumbled. "And my name's Arthur, not brat."

"Yao Wang. Go clean yourself before you stink up the entire house."

#

Arthur paused in the doorway to the bathroom. Bloody hell it was fancy, with its free-standing bathtub, two sinks, heated towel rail and walk in shower big enough for two. And it was huge, bigger than the bedroom he'd shared with Dylan and Peter growing up. Arthur hadn't seen anything like it outside of a showroom.

He entered the room and warmth seeped into his feet. It had a heated floor too? Obviously he should have gone to medical school instead of pursuing an English degree that had left him thousands in debt in a one bedroom flat above a corner shop.

Arthur limped into the room and stripped off his boxers inside the shower. He turned the temperature to near scalding and basked in the amazing water pressure for long, long minutes. As the dirt and blood washed away and the knowledge of the outside world faded into an unbelievable reality, Arthur could almost grasp a moment of peace. Almost.

When his skin had pruned and his leg ached too much to stand, Arthur made an attempt to clean his boxers before leaving the shower. He brushed his teeth using a dollop of toothpaste on his finger and was rinsing with mouthwash when someone knocked at the door.

Arthur spat into the sink and opened the door. Li stood on the other side with clothes in hand.

"Yao said you needed something to wear."

"Right, er, thanks." Arthur held back a grimace as he took the plain brown trousers, white shirt and ugly sleeveless jumper. "Do these belong to your uncle?"

"My dad," Li said.

"Oh."

Arthur gaze dropped to the clothes in his hands as an uncomfortable silence hung between them.

"Do you need anything else?" Li asked, his tone and face almost robotically devoid of emotion.

"Actually I don't suppose you have a phone charger, do you?"

"Yeah but you won't be able to call anyone – all the signals are down."

"I know but I'd still appreciate it."

Li shrugged. "You can borrow mine but charging it won't work."

"I know."

"Whatever. Yao said to go downstairs when you're ready and he'll redress the wound."

Li left the room before Arthur could thank him once more. Instead he sat down on the toilet seat lid and unravelled the soggy bandages on this thigh with ease. Cleaned of blood and the torn skin neatly stitched, the cut did not look as dire as it had the day before. In fact Arthur was almost embarrassed that the injury had given him such pain; that was until he shifted his leg and recalled in vivid detail how much it fucking hurt.

Arthur dressed, making a face as he put on his damp boxers warmed from the heated towel rail, and then making a face as he looked at himself in an argyle sleeveless jumper. It was like looking twenty years into the future when he'd given up writing and had become the secondary school teacher Alistair and Cillian always said he'd become. At least he could be grateful that with the dead returning to life his dreaded future was unlikely to come to pass. Although so was his future as a world famous novelist with Tom Hiddleston playing himself in an award winning biopic.

Arthur went downstairs to where Yao bustled him the dining room, fed him pills and bandaged up his leg once more. Almost immediately after, a meal was set in front of him of rice, steamed fish and vegetables. He ate alone at the table for eight and missed the company of strangers.

When his plate was licked clean and the jug of water drained, Arthur carried his plate and cutlery in search of the kitchen.

"Ah, let me do that," Yao said, his voice loud and sudden after the silence. He set about filling up the dishwasher and waved a hand at Arthur to stop further help. "Go sleep," he said. "Take the guest room, two doors down from bathroom. You need rest before you leave."

Arthur glanced out the kitchen window to the world of the dead with a heavy pit in his stomach. Then he thanked the doctor and left.

The guest room was small in comparison to the rest of the house yet still large enough to fit a double bed, chest of drawers and bedside table. It also lacked the trinkets that laced the rest of the house, which Arthur preferred over Hello Kitty and her toady friends watching him sleep. His gaze fell to his charging phone.

Arthur exhaled and smiled, a real smile even as he blinked back tears. He sat on the bed and unlocked his phone. Li was right in that there was no signal but he didn't care as he went straight to the videos and Peter came to life on screen.

"Hey jerk face, guess who figured out your dumb password?" Peter said and stuck his tongue out. "I told you I could do it and it wasn't even hard – I guessed it on my second go. Cillian and Siobhan owe me ten quid each and I'm gonna buy that water gun you said I couldn't have and then I'm gonna get you in your sleep. And I'm gonna hide it somewhere secret and you'll never find it ever."

Arthur smirked. They all knew Peter's hidey hole was the space between the broken board in his wardrobe and the floor. He liked to think he was so sneaky but didn't notice when the space had been hoovered or the broken board sanded smooth to stop splinters.

"What are you playing with?" came Dylan's voice.

The grin fell from Peter's face and the picture blurred as he manoeuvred the phone. "What? Nothing!"

"Is that Arthur's phone?"

"No."

"Peter."

"I was only borrowing it."

"You know you shouldn't borrow it without Arthur's permission."

"But I was, er, leaving him a surprise message. Because of his book."

"Oh," Dylan said. "That's very nice of you. I'm sure he'll be very happy to hear it."

The camera was angled on only half of Peter's face but it caught the guilty look.

"Hand it over and I'll say something too."

The picture blurred again before focusing on Dylan's face. "Congratulations on the book, Arthur. I'm looking forward to reading it when it's in the shops."

There was a movement at the door. Li stood in the frame.

"Thought I heard voices," he mumbled.

"Oh, sorry. I can turn it down if you want."

Li shook his head. "It's fine, better than the quiet anyway." He hung in the doorway as Alistair's voice joined Dylan. "What you watching?"

"A video my family left me."

"Is that why you wanted the charger?"

"Yeah."

Peter's whining for the phone back was interrupted by the twins making their début. Arthur's stomach lurched when Cillian spoke and then all he could hear was pained screams begging for help.

But then Li spoke again and broke through the memory. "Sounds like you've got a big family."

Arthur tilted his phone to Li. "That's Alistair," he said when his brother appeared on screen. "He's the eldest so he likes to think he can boss us around." He was also the one to take charge, to hold the Kirkland's together as he tried to find a way out of the city. It was Alistair who'd found the guns and Alistair who'd carried Peter on his shoulders when the stampeding crowd had threatened to crush the boy.

Arthur cleared his throat as his sister floated into frame. "And that's Siobhan. She's the second eldest and Cillian's twin. She's also the only girl and the real boss of us." Siobhan had packed them each a backpack of food, water, clothes and other supplies which Arthur had been forced to leave behind when the dead were grabbing hold of it. She'd also found them a route out of the city, one that would have worked if they'd been a few hours earlier.

"Cillian is the loudest and likes doing stupid things to piss Siobhan off. They fight a lot and get on each other nerves but then again they both went to the same university in Ireland and ended up living together for seven years so they obviously don't hate each other as much as they claim."

Arthur avoided thoughts of his brother and quickly moved on. "Dylan's the calm one who tends to stay out of things. He's kind of quiet too and we once forgot him in Wales while on holiday. He ended up playing with sheep all afternoon and when we came back for him he was sad to leave them behind and declared he wanted to be a shepherd when he was older." Dylan had been the one comforting them the night before they'd left. He'd turned the repeating news off and made them play Monopoly, which started off lacklustre and ended in the usual manner of tears and bruises and one of them gloating, a fitting final night for the Kirkland clan.

"Peter is the youngest and hates when we tell him what to do. He can be a devious little sod who wants to rule the universe when he's older but really he's just a child who likes Spongebob Squarepants cartoons and singing along to Disney films." Peter had been the last one he'd seen before the crowd had swept him up. He remembered Peter reaching out his little hands and crying at Arthur to grab hold but in seconds they'd lost one another. He prayed beyond anything else that Peter had managed to hold onto one of their siblings, that he was being looked after and not lost in the city fending for himself. The thought of it made Arthur's throat tight.

By the time Arthur had finished introducing Li to all five of his siblings the kid had moved from his position in the doorway to perching on the side of the bed. Arthur was a little surprised by Li's interest but he supposed human companionship in a deserted suburb at the end of the world was hard to come by.

The video ended with an irritated Peter snatching the phone back and telling Arthur that his siblings were stupid and he was going to spray them all with his water gun.

Without the video it was suddenly oppressively silent.

"What happened to them?" Li asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Cillian..." Arthur inhaled. "Cillian didn't make it. I don't know what happened to the others."

"Just because they're not here it doesn't mean they... didn't make it. You're here, you're alive, so, like, why shouldn't they be too? They're out there, somewhere, and soon you're going to find them and put your family back together." Li said quickly, his hands clenched in the duvet.

Arthur looked down at his clothes, those of Li's father. "You were looking for your parents, weren't you?"

Li nodded. "They got stuck in the city when everything happened and... I don't know, they must be trapped or something."

"Maybe," Arthur mumbled.

"They're not dead," Li said, louder, his tone tinged with anger. "Not everyone's dead."

"No, they're not."

"You made it back from the city."

"I did."

"So other people could too."

"They could."

Li frowned at the duvet. "My parents could. They're smart, like really smart. They're professors and the best in their fields and they're not going to get killed by some dumb mindless zombies."

Arthur didn't reply. Even the most intelligent people reacted poorly when encountering the hungry dead and intelligence meant little when cornered or fleeing a horde. He'd seen it first hand.

"Are you going back to the city tomorrow? To look for your family?" Li asked.

"No. We agreed beforehand that if anything happened we wouldn't go looking for each other, with the exception of Peter."

Li's eyes widened minutely. "But-"

"The city is vast and overrun by the dead. Even if I knew where they were it would be a miracle if I made it to them alive. It's pointless to even contemplate."

"Not if you know where they are."

"Your parents could be anywhere by now and I doubt they would want you risking your life looking for them."

Li turned away.

"You'll kill yourself before you ever found them, Li. You need to stop."

"Says you," Li said. He didn't give Arthur a chance to reply before he left the room.

Arthur stared at the closed door for a moment before his gaze fell to his phone. He set it aside on the bedside table. Watching his siblings was no longer so appealing.

He lay down on the bed, wiggling around until he found a position that didn't aggravate his leg and pulled the blankets around himself. Safe from the outside world and warm in his cocoon, Arthur let himself drift off.

#

When he woke the sun was a soft glow on the horizon. He'd slept surprisingly well, uninterrupted without nightmares or the sounds of screams and groans jolting him awake. Arthur took a few minutes to relax and let the drowsiness fade away before he pushed himself up. A dull pain stung his leg when he moved his aching body and then again when he stood up but it was nothing like the day before. He took a moment to check the time on his phone – six-fifteen – before he made his way to the bathroom.

Arthur wiggled his toes on the heated floor before using the toilet. He took another shower, not knowing when he'd next get the chance, and brushed his teeth with his finger and toothpaste once more.

Today he dared wiping the fogged mirror and meet his reflection. And he looked... he looked fine. Maybe a little pale but no worse than he did after binge drinking or pulling an all-nighter in uni.

Arthur blinked at his reflection. He should be worse, should be a mess after everything that happened, after losing Cillian. He shouldn't be normal.

#

No one was awake when Arthur ventured downstairs, stomach rumbling as he went in search for food. He ate an apple and stared out the kitchen window into the large but neat back garden. Were the dead out there? Lurking past the high hedge or skulking in the streets? Or were they still loitering around the hospital?

He would need a car for the best chance to get out of the damn city alive. Supplies too so he'd need a safe shop to loot, assuming there were still any around left untouched. And weapons, or bullets at the very least. How many was he down to now, three? Four? At least he still had that one for himself.

Movement sounded in the hall. Arthur froze, the apple half way to his mouth. He hadn't heard Yao or Li come down the stairs but there it was again, the sound of footsteps and rustling.

Fuck, where was his gun?

He did a quick sweep of the kitchen and when the gun wasn't made obvious Arthur found a substitute. He wielded the knife, long and thin and sharp, and slipped from the kitchen. Socks muffled his footsteps on the hardwood floor. Arthur stepped closer and closer until he was at the corner. The sounds were louder now, definite movement in the hall but not a peek from the two upstairs.

Arthur tightened his grip on the knife and turned the corner.

Li was crouched by the front door, completely dressed and packing a bag. The gun lay on the floor beside him.

Li haltered and lifted his head. Their gazes locked together.

"That's my gun" Arthur said, finally.

"I was gonna give it back."

"Have you even used one before?"

"What's there to it?" Li asked. "You, like, point at a zombie and pull the trigger."

"It's not as easy as it looks on the telly."

"Maybe not to you."

"That gun has a handful of bullets left," Arthur said, ignoring Li's on point comment. "How far do you think you'd get?"

"As far as I needed."

Arthur laid the knife on a table and walked towards Li. "Does Yao know what you're doing?"

Li shrugged.

"Did you even give any thought to your uncle? How he'll feel when he realises you're gone? About what he'll go through when you don't come home because you're dead?"

"And what about my parents?" Li asked, the tightness in his voice betraying his nonchalant façade. "Like, what about what they're going through right now? They need someone to care about them. They matter."

"They're dead."

Li sprang forward. Before Arthur could react he was flung backwards. He hit the floor with a loud thud and lay there sprawled out. Dazed and winded he blinked at Li standing over him. His narrowed brown eyes burned into Arthur's.

"What's going on?"

Arthur turned his head to Yao running down the stairs, hair loose and still in pyjamas.

"Why are you fighting? Did he attack you?" Yao wrenched Li away from Arthur.

Li shook his head and looked away.

Yao pushed Li behind him and confronted Arthur. "What happened?"

"Your nephew has been sneaking into the city to find his parents," Arthur said. He winced at the stab of pain in his leg when he stood up. "We were arguing about it."

Yao gripped Li's shoulders. "Is that what you're doing out there? You want to get killed, idiot?"

Li yanked himself free. "I'd rather die looking for my parents than sit around here doing nothing."

"That because you're a child. Your mother and father would never want you doing something so stupid."

"So what?"

"So you're not going out there any more."

"You can't stop me."

"I will drug you if I have to, Xiao Chun. Now give me the keys to your motorbike."

Li stared at his bag on the floor and the gun beside it.

"The keys, Xiao Chun."

Li dipped his head forward, hair covering his eyes as he slowly placed the keys in Yao's palm.

"Good." Yao tucked them away in his pocket.

"Whatever," Li said. He cast a look in Arthur's direction – his face once more blank – and retreated up the stairs.

Arthur breathed easier as the atmosphere picked up. It was a little strange to be witness to family drama that wasn't his own.

"Children," Yao said as he picked up the gun. "They think they're gods until they find their way to my OR."

"Taking his keys won't stop him," Arthur said. "He's determined to find his parents and threats won't hold him back."

"That's my problem."

"Right, of course."

"Come," Yao said and bustled him into the dining room. "Let me make breakfast and then I'll look at that leg."

#

By late morning the blue sky was cloudless and the hot sun promised a beautiful day ahead. Arthur pressed his forehead to the warm glass and told himself the weather boded well for him. Except he'd always been more at home in cool rain.

"Don't forget this," Yao said, distracting him from his thoughts.

Arthur took back his gun and held it flat against his palm. He traced the ridged grip with his thumb and was surprised by how much comfort he found in the weapon.

"Do you know where you going?"

Arthur looked through the small windows around the door. "Somewhere outside the city where its safer."

"This neighbourhood is safe. Why not take a house here?"

"Because when they lose interest in the hospital they're going to come this way. It won't be safe here forever."

"The army will be here before then."

"I watched the police and the army fall apart back in the city. There is no one coming."

Yao waved his hand nonchalantly. "This is an epidemic, a terrible one, but it is not the end of the world like those idiots running around would believe. There have been epidemics for thousands of years but we have survived and we will survive this one. The best thing we can do is wait it out until help comes."

"For how long? How long can you hold up in here until the food runs out, or the power goes down, or the dead start banging on the door? What if this cure you're certain of takes weeks or months to make? What if there's no one left by then?"

"What if I take Xiao Chun and we die looking for somewhere safer? We don't know what's going to happen so don't tell me what's best for my nephew and I."

Arthur opened and closed his mouth. Yao was right. Who was he to talk about what they should do? He'd already lost his family and nearly died in the city so who was he to say his decisions were right? He could walk out the door and be eaten five minutes later for all he knew.

"Fair enough," Arthur said and dragged a hand through his rough hair. "Just think about making this place safer. Board the windows and doors and keep the lights off at night. And stock up now while this neighbourhood is empty and there's time."

"Yes, yes, I'll sort everything out."

Arthur wanted to issue more warnings but he got the feeling Yao wasn't really listening. He supposed he'd said all he could and now it was on Yao to keep himself and Li safe.

Thinking of Li, Arthur glanced up the stairs. He hadn't come down for breakfast or when Yao had called up to let him know Arthur was leaving. Arthur wished he'd had a chance to say goodbye to Li. He supposed he owed his life to the kid; if Li hadn't been searching for his parents the day before, Arthur wouldn't have found his bike and a way out of the city centre. And he certainly wouldn't have found a doctor to patch him up and provide food, water and medicine.

"Tell him I'm sorry about what I said," Arthur said. "And that I wish him the best of luck."

Yao promised to pass his words on.

Then came the moment. The moment when the conversation fizzled out and the door was unlocked and the garden path lay ahead of him.

"Thanks for the help, and everything else," Arthur said as he shrugged on the backpack Yao had packed for him. Inside were pills and bandages, a change of clothes, snack food and two bottles of water. Arthur had already thanked him profusely, though Yao had seemed a little bemused and perplexed by Arthur's reaction.

"You stopped my stupid nephew from killing himself so think us even."

Arthur nodded. He tucked the gun into the back of his trousers, pulled the backpack straps over both shoulders and stepped outside. The sun warmed his skin immediately.

Yao and Arthur exchanged final goodbyes and then Arthur was walking down the path, pushing open the gate and leaving the house, Yao and Li behind.

The thought that maybe he'd made a mistake and the quiet neighbourhood was safe crossed his mind. But the dead were out there and when they swarmed here white picket fences weren't going to stop them. No, he had to leave, had to find somewhere truly safe.

If there was such a place.


A/N: As usual it may have been a while since my last update...

Things were a bit slow for Arthur in this chapter but it's gonna will kick off for him in the next part.