Natsu's Guide to the Apocalypse:

Arc 1: The Essentials

Chapter 2: What's Up Danger?

(***)

Natsu stood about 20 Metres in front of 7 zombies, all of which were spaced apart unevenly, spacing from what Natsu assumed to be 1 metre to 5 metres. All he needed to do was kill them all and head back into the house… using the fence to help him get up on the roof before climbing into Erza's balcony.

"Easier said than done" Natsu said aloud as the zombies where approaching.

One of the ones that was closer to another snarled before breaking into a broken run.

Natsu tensed and readied into a fighting stance. "A runner huh? This makes things easier" Natsu monologue as he too ran towards the abnormal zombie.

"Good things about zombies is that they have little reactionary skills" Natsu said as he threw the wrench directly into the runner's head, at max speed it cracked the skull of the zombie.

Natsu slid over before stabbing it in the brains. "Double Tap… learnt that from Zombieland" he said as he picked up the wrench.

The next zombie was around 5 metres away.

"One down, Six to go" Natsu said as he readied himself for a battle.

Once again sprinting towards the Zombie Natsu used the knife to penetrate it's skull and therefore its brain, killing it.

"Five more" Natsu said while using the wrench to pulverise the skull of another zombie.

It fell down and Natsu stomped on its head, making sure it was dead.

"Four" He exhaled out while pulling the knife out of the other Zombie's head.

The next one was walking with its hands out, slowly though.

Running past this one Natsu shoved the knife deep into its head… letting it fall down with the knife in it.

The two opposing zombies where close to each other, going down the middle was not an option if Natsu wanted to come out alive. So he went to the left clobbering the left Zombie with his wrench, letting it fall down, but not dead. Which gave Natsu the opportunity to break the other one's brains with the wrench, killing it instantly.

Switiching his attention to the last Zombie he noticed something weird about it, nothing behavioural, rather its clothes… they were all clean. Shaking this off Natsu proceeded to dirty the Zombie's clothes with its own blood.

He turned around to see the one remaining zombie he hit it again with the wrench.

"Skip a few… Zero" Natsu said as he exhaled before walking towards the house, where he found Gray waiting outside with Erza's javelin.

"You're gonna need to sanitize ya know" Gray said as he opened the door.

"Yeah… get a fresh towel and some hand san" He ordered as he too entered the house before shutting the door with his elbow.

Gray came back with a fresh towel and hand sanitizer. "Come into the garage after… its where the girl is"

"Right" Natsu replied as he cleaned himself, and stripped the protective gear off him.

Natsu took off his shoes and then walked over to the garage where a light was shining in. He entered the room and looked at the girl who had broken into the house.

'She probably is still in shock, its best to confront her in a positive manner' Natsu thought as his firefighting training was becoming more and more useful in this law less land.

He crouched in front of her and took this opportunity to take a look at her, big chocolate brown eyes, a cute face all complimented by golden hair which was tied into a messy ponytail.

Natsu smiled a little. "I'm Natsu Dragneel, sorry for startling you earlier"

The girl snapped out of her trance and looked at Natsu.

"What's your name?" Natsu asked the girl, who smiled a little,

"Lucy Heartfillia" she said before breaking into tears.

"Hey Hey Hey, it's okay, you're safe now" Natsu soothed as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, it's just I haven't seen people in two months… I'm so happy!" she said in between sobs before hugging Natsu. "Thank you for being alive".

Natsu chuckled a little before hugging her back. "You're welcome"

The pair stayed like that for a few more seconds before Natsu broke it off. "Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?"

Wiping the stray tears from her eyes, Looked up and smiled "Sure".

Erza stepped in as Natsu sat back. "You haven't been bitten by anything?"

"No I haven't" Lucy replied

"Why did you chose this house to break into?"

Gray scoffed. "Jeez Erza, it's the apocalypse and you're worried about people breaking into your house?"

"Shut up Gray" the red haired woman sneered, and shut up Gray did out of fear for what the woman could do to her.

"Well… I was running away from that pack of zombies and I thought I had enough distance to lock pick my way into this house, which I did… it was just by coincidence that I chose this house" Lucy explained as Natsu furrowed his brows.

"You out ran a runner?" he asked the girl in front of him, who looked confused.

"A runner is what we use to describe Zombies that run to their targets" Erza clarified, getting Lucy to understand what Natsu was asking.

"Yeah… I'm pretty fast, plus they usually stop running if their target is more than 20 metres away… at least in my experience." Lucy explained, getting Natsu to nod.

"So they have some sort of higher thinking… like they want to conserve energy or something like that" Erza muttered

Then there was silence.

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Gray asked, to everyone's surprise Lucy shook her head. She reached into her pocket to reveal a flat-head screw driver and what seemed to be a sharpened nail punch.

"I use these to break into houses" she stated before putting them on the ground.

"Are you a serial killer?" Natsu asked with a bored tone.

"NATSU!" Gray shouted quietly. "What kind of question is that?"

Lucy giggled "I don't think I am"

"Well that settles it, she's no harm to us… lets go to bed" Natsu declared with a yawn. "Lucy can sleep with you Erza, Gray and I will take your parent's room.

(***)

"Oi Natsu, wake up!" Gray shouted to his sleeping friend, while shaking him.

"Fuck off Ice tits" Natsu groaned as he woke up. He slipped out of bed and got changed into a pair of black jeans and a navy blue T-shirt.

"Come down stairs when you're done, we're having breakfast and sorting out what we want to do for the day" Gray told the pink haired man as he disappeared out of the room.

Natsu looked around the room and noticed a sports watch on the bedside table. 'I'm sure Erza wouldn't mind if I wore this watch' Natsu thought as he put it on his left wrist, the clock face on the inside of his wrist.

Natsu put on some black socks and went down stairs.

The smell of pancakes greeted him.

"Pancakes?" Natsu asked, slightly drooling.

Natsu entered the kitchen area and saw Gray cooking the pankcakes, he sighed in relief that it wasn't Erza that was cooking.

"Yeah, Lucy had some in her bag" Erza replied from the table.

"Lucy had a bag?" Natsu asked, he didn't realise that Lucy has something besides her lock picking tools on her.

"While you were out there playing hero, we secured the house, and Lucy's bag" Gray chipped in as Natsu took a seat at the table.

Natsu now looked at Lucy in the daylight, he admired her face like he did last night before looking down to see that she was wearing a black singlet that stopped at her belly, and dark grey tracksuit pants to go. Not to mention the curves that the clothes hugged.

Natsu then felt a slap on the back of his head, courtesy of Erza. "Natsu stop staring and say something!" the red haired woman ordered.

"Sorry" Natsu said, rubbing the back of his head where Erza slapped. "Morning"

A blushing Lucy replied "Morning"

"So what's the plan for today?" Gray asked as he put four plates of pancakes on the table before sitting down next to Erza.

"We need new equipment, and transport" Natsu said as he started to devour his pancakes.

"Hmmm, the Warehouse has a camping store next to it… we could go there and get some gear" Erza suggested.

"We only have about 3 days' worth of food left in Natsu's bag" Gray added. "Tommorow we should focus on finding a base"

"Sounds good… any ideas of where we could set up?" Natsu asked in between bites.

"ummm… we could go to the Mansion on the top of the hill" Lucy added although in a meek tone.

"The Heartfillia Mansion? That's a great idea Luce!" Natsu replied with a toothy grin.

"Wait Heartfillia?" Gray mumbled. "Lucy what's your last name?" he asked the blonde.

"Heartfillia, why?" Lucy responded while finishing her pancakes.

"Wouldn't you have keys or something to enter the house?" Gray asked, thinking that this could go easier than planned.

"No" Lucy said, getting Gray to go into a depressive stance. "But I do know how to sneak in"

"Problem child eh?" Natsu asked cheekily but only to receive another slap from Erza.

"Manners Natsu" Erza disciplined before she stood up to retrieve a piece of paper and a pen.

Erza ripped the paper into two parts. "I think we should split into two teams, the people with the bags, Natsu and Lucy go into the warehouse and get the things on this list while Gray and I go into the camping store and grab ourselves some backpacks and other supplies from the group"

The other three nodded.

"Isn't there a bike store near the warehouse?" Gray asked.

"Yeah… I know how to get there" Natsu confirmed. "We should grab some gear from the warehouse to break into the store and steal some bikes"

"What would we need to steal some bikes?" Erza asked Natsu.

"They keep their good bikes behind a cage… but it's a code orientated lock so you wouldn't be able to pick it… some bolt cutters and even a metal saw would do the trick though" Natsu said. "The problem lies in the noise we make, too much and Zombies come, too little and we are in for a long night."

"How fast do you think you can get four bikes out of the cage?" Erza asked the pinkette.

"Onto the road? 15 minuets by myself, but about 7 with a helper" Natsu predicted.

"Cool" Gray said to fill the silence.

"It's about 4km to the warehouse… that will take us around an hour to get to by foot" Erza said while checking her watch. "Its 9:18 am right now…"

"Where are we sleeping tonight? Natsu asked, if they wanted to journey to the Heartfillia mansion tomorrow it would be easier to sleep closer to the warehouse.

"That's a good point… we could go to the motel" Erza suggested.

"No… not safe enough… a normal house would be good enough" Lucy said, the three nodded in compliance. "We can bring the bikes inside the house that we choose"

"That sounds like a plan" Erza said as she stood up. "let's get moving then".

The other three stood up and geared up for the day ahead.

(***)

The four stood in front of the warehouse complex.

Erza handed Natsu a piece of paper. "Make sure you get all of those"

"Its 10:23 now… meet back here at 10:50" Natsu said before the four broke off into their groups.

Natsu looked at the list as he and Lucy walked towards the warehouse.

Gloves x4, Construction glasses x4, half-face gas mask x4, bolt cutters x2, crowbar, pliers, shovel, swiss army knife x4, sharpening stone, sharpening oil x2, metal saw.

"That's a lot of stuff" Natsu said, pocketing the notes. "So Luce, have you ever killed a zombie before?" he asked.

"No" she replied, looking on edge.

"I have" Natsu said pulling the wrench out of his bag, just in case.

"How do you do it?" she questioned as they entered the warehouse.

"They aren't living… or if they are they're suffering… I think of it as putting them out of their misery" Natsu explained. "But wait, if you haven't killed a zombie, how are you alive?"

"I ran, and hid" Lucy explained.

"Wouldn't you be hauled up in the Heartfillia mansion though?" Natsu asked as he spotted the gas masks.

"We were on vacation in our lake house" Lucy explained as Natsu grabbed his switchblade out of his pocket and opening it.

"Then a horde of them came… father disappeared and mother drew them away so I could leave" she explained as a tear came from her eye.

"That must have sucked… sorry poor choice of words" Natsu said as he opened the gas mask packaging.

"That's okay" Lucy said as Natsu handed her a mask to put on. "Why the masks?"

"To stop the zombie germs from getting into your mouth and nose, and it helps hide your identity" Natsu explained as he put on his own mask.

"How did you survive?" Lucy found herself asking.

"Gray and I were in the city when the outbreak happened… we met Erza on the way here by chance" Natsu explained as he packed two more masks into his bag before moving onto the construction glasses section.

Natsu took off his ski goggles and chucked them onto the floor before putting on some clear glasses, Lucy put some glasses of her own on before packing two extras into her bag.

Natsu grunted as he looked at the glove section, he packed two into his bag before reaching into his bag and pulling out his mother's military gloves.

"Put them on" he told Lucy while handing them to her.

"Military gloves? I didn't know you served" Lucy said.

"I didn't… they were my mother's" Natsu explained as he put on a pair of black construction gloves.

"Oh… I'm sorry for your loss" Lucy exhaled. "Are you sure I can wear these?"

"They don't fit Erza or Gray or me… it looks like they fit you so yes" Natsu clarified

"Thanks" Lucy said as she put on the gloves.

"Let's get moving" Natsu said as the pair moved to the tool isle where they collected most of the things they needed.

As Lucy grabbed the crowbar she heard a familiar snarl.

Natsu and Lucy looked to the end of the isle and found one Zombie walking towards them.

Natsu looked at the fearful look on Lucy's face. "Lucy, don't run… you're going to kill it" he said as he grabbed a shovel from the rack and walked over to Lucy. "We're around 10 metres away… so it's not a runner"

She nodded, still in fear.

Natsu grabbed the crowbar from her and handed her the shovel. "Hold it like an axe" Natsu instructed as Lucy followed.

"Hands a bit further apart… there we are, now do a few practice swings" Natsu said as he watched Lucy become less stiff and practice her shovel skills as the zombie walked closer.

"You should be able to tell when you want to swing down and hit it" Natsu said as he readied the crowbar, just in case something went sideways.

The zombie came closer and closer, then Lucy struck, swinging the shovel down with enough force to puncture its cranium.

The zombie dropped to the floor, truly dead now.

Natsu grabbed the shovel as Lucy began to breath heavily. He noted that she was going though shock, he placed the weapons/tools down and then took off her mask, letting it fall down to be held up by the band that was around her neck.

"Hey Luce, look at me" Natsu said, putting two hands on her shoulders. "You're okay… I'm here with you"

She looked up at Natsu and her breathing turned to normal. "If you need a moment just tell me"

She nodded as she started to put her mask back on. "I'll be fine for now" she said with a faint smile… not that Natsu could see.

"Let's get all this equipment shall we?" she said with a firm look in her eyes.

(***)

An Extract from Natsu Dragneel's Guide to the Apocalypse, Book One:

"CHAPTER II: Safety in Numbers

As often seen in horror and thriller movies, safety in numbers is a real thing. Find yourself a group of friends or family that you trust and form a party with them, having more people will mean more mouths to feed yes, but it also increases the productivity of everything.

It is recommended that when starting off in the apocalypse you should have a group around 2-4 people big, where one can take shifts while the others are sleeping."

(***)

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