Hold Me While I'm Here
Zombie-Apocalypse AU
"Spot! SPOT!" David yelled. Spot sat up on his makeshift bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"Wha…?" He asked not fully awake.
"You have to come quick! It's Jack… he's sick."
Spot was up instantly after that.
"Is it…" He trailed off. He didn't want the answer to that. Not really. Spot knew what a positive answer meant.
"I think so."
"Have you done anything?" Spot demanded angrily. Over the past few years Dave had become their resident medic, knowing more about the medical field than anyone else in their group. He also had the most experience with the disease.
Fucking zombies Spot thought to himself. David kept insisting that the infected weren't zombies, but in essence that's what they were. Zombies, host to a deadly disease that killed who you were inside, killed any bit of humanity, and then used your body to spread its virus. He had seen the disease so many times.
Their group had been much bigger at the beginning, when all this disease stuff first started happening. But now it was just down to four of them. David, David's brother Les, Jack, and himself. Except from the sound of it they wouldn't have Jack much longer.
"I did all I could without getting myself exposed." Dave said. "I'm doing all I can."
Spot knew how much it hurt David to see Jack like this. David and Les had to sit and watch while their family succumb to the disease. David was only 12 then, and Les, six. Spot and Jack had found them and took them back to their group. That was almost four years ago. Instantly David bonded to Jack. They became best friends in an extremely short amount of time. That was something that Spot had always been a bit jealous of (for he could never quite deny how attractive he found David) but he never wanted it to end up like this.
Spot followed David to the small area of their compound that David had quarantined off for Jack. Jack looked awful. His skin was a sallow yellow color, and sagged unnaturally. His teeth looked like they were rotting. His hair was starting to fall out. He had seen the disease effect so many other people, but somehow it looked worse on Jack.
"How far along is he?" Spot asked.
"Still lucid." David barely breathed. "He knows what's going on." His voice sunk even lower. "What we have to do."
"If we don't do it now it's a danger to all of us." Spot said. David nodded.
"I can't… can you please?" David asked. Spot nodded solemnly and reached for his holster for his pistol (he couldn't believe that just a few short years ago, that same holster had been made for his sling shot.)
The end for Jack was quick. A single bullet to the brain at point blank level. Jack didn't even have time to react. A strange sense of vertigo came over him and he thought he was going to be sick. He had done it so many times. But this was different. Jack was the one constant for both of them. It had never occurred to them that Jack could get sick. It never occurred that they wouldn't always have Jack. It was a strange emptiness that neither boy could really quite grasp.
They stared at Jack's body together for a really long time. Hours passed and the sun came up.
"We probably shouldn't stay here." Spot said. "I mean even with—" He couldn't bring himself to say Jack's name "him gone, if any of those germs get into our blood stream we're goners."
David nodded.
"I'll go wake up Les."
The three boys walked out of camp slowly and cautiously, as if they couldn't figure out quite why they were leaving. Les walked between the two older boys, holding a small satchel with their ammo and a small handgun in his pocket (even if David didn't approve, Jack and Spot convinced him that Les needed a way to protect himself; he couldn't have David with him forever).
"Where are we going now?" Les asked a bit forlornly. He had looked up to Jack more than anyone.
David exchanged a look with Spot.
"I don't know Les." He said. "I really don't know.
