Apocalypse!AU

The gravel crunched under his wheels as they pulled into town. They had been on the road for weeks and they knew, based on the number of leaves on the road and the cool crispness in the air that fall would be ending soon and a vicious winter would be rolling in. They needed to find a safe place to bunker down for the season and this seemed as good a place as any.

Harry put the car in park and looked over at Ginny, "You ready?"

Ginny nodded and they simultaneously opened their respective doors and stepped out of the safety of the car.

"I don't hear anything" Ginny whispered; her voice carried on the wind.

"Doesn't mean anything, you know that"

Ginny nodded in acceptance. It was true, the inferi usually still and silent until they perceived a human nearby.

"Just keep your wand ready. We will clear the buildings one by one." Harry said as he looked at the small, decrepit town of twelve buildings.

Together the pair moved from store to store, apartment to apartment and cleared out any dead they found. Luck was on their side, and it seemed that the inferi had already left the town, clearly in search of food after all the human inhabitants had fled or been killed.

They silently moved in between the broken-down cars that had been left behind and walked towards the last building. The entered the lobby of the discount store and slowly walked up and down the aisles. Luck seemed to be on their side as they hadn't encountered any inferi.

The pair reached the back of the store without coming across anyone or anything.

"Only two places left. What do you think, storeroom or break room?"

"We could split up and hit both at the same time"

"No way. You know we don't split up, that's asking for trouble. Let's do the Storeroom first" Harry decided. He was shocked that Ginny could even think of splitting up. It wasn't like they were a large group that could split into two or three smaller ones to search. It was just the two of them now, they needed to stay together and watch each other's back.

"Harry, c'mon. You know that if there were any inferi here that they would have been on us as soon as we walked in. This is all just precaution. Let's split up, get the search done as quickly as possible, that way we can get started on building and barricading out shelter" said Ginny as she tried to reason with him.

Harry was still hesitant, but Ginny took his silence as agreement and scooted off towards the break room down the hall. Harry cursed under his breath and debated following her. He looked to his right, the storeroom, and then to his left, the breakroom.

His decision was made for him and he hear a crash and a high pitched scream.

"Ginny!" he yelled. Harry barrelled down the hall and slammed through the door into the breakroom wand at the ready

He saw a gruesome corpse with grey rotting skin that had a strong grip on Ginny. The skeletal arms were wrapped tightly around her torso and it's jaw was clenched tightly around her throat. Blood coated Ginny's front and Harry could no longer hear screams, just gurgles as she struggled to breath.

"Depulso" Harry cried out, his magic shot forward and knocked the monster away from his partner. Once she was no longer being held Ginny collapsed into a bloody heap and didn't move.

Harry ran forward and pulled Ginny as far away as he could before he cast, "Incendio"

The grey being caught flame and burned quickly, but Harry paid it no mind. He cried and he turned Ginny over and tried to stop the bleeding. His cries of anguish echoed through the ghost town. One more, added to its ranks.

Challenges:

Can You Make It to the End Challenge – Round 15: Write your NOTP during each season: Fall

If You Dare Challenge – Ghost Towns

WORD COUNT: 652