Summary: This is how it ends
Author's Notes: I've also got a playlist for the fic up on 8tracks that you should listen to you. /thequietones/and-we-will-never-be-whole-again. YAY PLAYLIST!
Anyway, hope you like it.
Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing!
"If the world wants you, it's gonna keep on coming till it gets you. And who am I that can fix it? Who am I that can change this if the world wants it so badly? Who am I to stop the end of the world if it keeps on coming?"
Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go
Chapter 10: I Stood By Your Side In This Dark Battle
"Okay, this is what we're going to do. We go in together, keep Dylan in the middle-We can't take the chance of leaving him out here alone-, clear each room like usual. No one wanders away! Michael, you take the easy, urgent shots and the three of us will handle the rest. And-uh, Dylan, I want you to keep that bat, just in case." Lassiter announces.
Juliet wants bitterly to laugh. There's something achingly macabre about the scene in front of her.
Lassiter trying to talk to them like they were some kind of put together assault team, like he was their self-assured leader. Really though, he was barely able to stand up straight, lines of pain around his eyes. And there was her and Shawn dark circles beneath their eyes, both too self-destructive, too ready sacrifice anything to save the other. And there was the man who wasn't even holding his gun properly and a child.
Lassiter looks over at her, asks if their ready. She nods, heartbeat thudding, thudding in her ears. This is it, this is it, this is it.
He moves first, marching ahead and it's admirable. She follows and Shawn stays close beside her, Michael and Dylan behind them; their mangled group.
Their heading for the back entrance, closer with every step.
Shawn touches her wrist, lightly, a brush, and whispers, almost too quietly, "Can you feel it?"
She remembers how people used to ask, wonder why Shawn and her were together. Weren't they too different? Juliet knows the truth though that they are far too much like each other. Because they are dangerous and broken and adrenaline has always been their favorite drug.
She thinks that they are going to die here. Shawn is right; there is no denying that. Their death is inevitable.
Maybe not today, not now, but it will come sooner than it should have. People don't survive the apocalypse, that's the whole point.
The thing is death has always been an inevitability, long before all of this.
Juliet keeps marching forward, finger on the trigger.
When Lassiter throws open the door there are only a couple staggering around. Lassiter kills one and Juliet the other. The sound of the gunshots must attract them because suddenly several are pouring out of the hallways and conference rooms.
She is careful not to look to closely at any of them as she shoots.
It's not like its been long enough for any of them to really decompose. They all look far too recognizable.
Lassiter and Shawn's gun, hers too, are too loud, the sound reverberating through her bones, disorienting.
She breathes, loosens her shoulders, and counts with each shot.
1 headshot, breathe.
Chest shot, breathe. Headshot.
Headshot, breathe.
One, to their left, crawling, clawing, coming too close. She tries to pretend she doesn't recognize the patterned clothing, Buzz, already dressed in his own clothing, preparing to leave the station for the night, to go home to his wife.
She doesn't shoot.
She doesn't shoot.
He's nearly at her feet now.
Hands trembling, she shoots. She doesn't realize until the body is sprawled motionless on the ground that she had had her eyes closed.
When she looks up Shawn is staring at the body too, standing a couple of feet away from her. He must sense her eyes on him because he abruptly looks up, making eye contact.
The look she sees on his face in that moment….
He would rather be dead, down on the ground with Buzz.
Lassiter nudges her then, signals them forward, distracting her.
They have to step over their dead for this. She watches Michael nudge at one of them with his foot before stepping over. Got to be sure the dead are dead. It doesn't keep the creepy feeling from crawling across her neck. She hunches her shoulders against it and fights the urge to look behind her.
No time, no time for looking back during the apocalypse.
A shot to her left. The three of them all turn to look at Michael. He's shaking, his entire body, gun still pointed at the thing in the side hallway.
"I got it," he gasped.
There's no time for congratulations either. And what would they be congratulating.
They move forward still.
It's too quiet. She didn't anticipate that. War scenes, battle scenes, in the movies are loud, crashing, too may things happening all at once. Here, it is quiet. Her ears are still ringing from the guns. Around the corner, she can hear a clawing sound and a whine like a dog trying to escape its' cage.
Don't forget the corner of your eye.
She jumps when Shawn's arm brushes against her.
"They're all in the basement. The morgue. With the dead bodies," Shawn whispers his sudden realization. The horror of what this means bleeds into their minds.
The door for the stairs to the basement is at the far end of the hallway. She can see it from here but it has never been further away.
They pass the chief's office, shoot a rookie that used to bring them coffee, pass Lassiter's desk, pass Juliet's desk, shoot someone else, pass the foyer. At the bathrooms they stop. Juliet goes first and Shawn follows behind leaving Lassiter to rest against the wall outside.
With Juliet's heart in her throat, she pushes open the door to the first stall. Empty.
The anxiety is a real, present thing causing her heart to beat so fast she's gagging on it. Even the feeling of Shawn close behind her is suddenly too much, the silent puff of air on the back of her neck sends goosebumps across her skin.
Battle is one thing, war, a shoot-out but Juliet has never cared for the too quiet game of hide-and-seek.
She pushes the next two stalls open in quick succession. Nothing.
The men's room only has one stall. Shawn checks it as if he knows the fear consuming her, sending tremors through her arms.
Back out in the hall, the others wait, wary. Shawn nods to Lassiter and confirms, "This floor is clear."