Disclaimer-I don't own anything
Chapter One
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" he muttered over and over. His hands were clutching his head, tears streaming down his face. He left her, well not intentionally. But he left her for the dead. They were out there. Tris and Caleb out there, with those monsters.
He was stuck in a cooler in the back of an abandoned restaurant. He had been there for 2 weeks and lost his mind around day three. He wasn't sure if he was crazy or just guilty. His back was killing him, his eyes were bloodshot and teary, and he smelled like a sewer. Showers weren't a luxury that he could afford anymore.
The world was in the middle of the apocalypse, those vile creatures roamed the streets and hunted and preyed on the remaining living people. It started about 3 months ago. He was sitting with his fiance, Tris, when they heard the first scream. Caleb had taken Hudson to the movies. He had rushed out the door, begging Tris not to follow, in case there was a serious danger, much to his annoyance she didn't listen.
When they stepped foot outside they were hit with a nauseating smell and an even worse sight. The creatures subtle green and brown skin was torn, it's limbs were bent in an inhuman way. The only way he could describe them as was zombies, the kind you see in horror movies. The screaming was coming from a woman who was surrounded, her face red and clothes torn as she tried-futilely-to escape, to afraid to touch the once dead beings. Her usually long silky brown hair was now unkempt and knotted. Fear made a home on her face. She was their neighbor, the one Tris hated because she would always try to flirt with him. Her once pretty face was now covered in blood-most likely not her own. Tris and Four didn't know what to do, even if they tried to help her, there were too many of the undead for them to come out with their lives.
That was his first kill, well he didn't actually kill her, the zombies did, but he still didn't tryhard enough to save her.
His gun sat next to him, one bullet left. He twirled his engagement ring around his finger, his eyes flicking between the gun and the ring. What was the point of living if he had nothing to live for? Tris and Caleb are gone, they probably died hating him. He let their little brother die.
They were wandering looking for some place to stay after their home had been invaded and surrounded, they ended up shacking up in a clearing about a mile into the woods. They had all of their stuff in the middle while there makeshift beds were a few feet away. It was around midnight when Tris and Caleb went hunting for more food, their supply that they had stolen from the grocery store was long gone. He had been left with Hudson who clung to him in his sleep. Hudson surprisingly was taking this whole apocalypse thing very well. Because of all of those video games he played, he thought fighting for survival was fun. The three adults didn't want to tell him that the world was ending. Four had laid Hudson down on one of the grass beds. They had been alone for half an hour when Four started to worry, where were Tris and Caleb? Tris and Caleb knew how to kill- aim for the head and the heart. The only way they could have run into trouble would have been if they lost their weapons or if they were outnumbered. The worry dwindled into nothing as he was reassured. He was guarding the area where Hudson slept when he heard a ruffling of leaves.
"Took you long enough, how much food did you get?" he said, his back was still turned. "Did you run into trouble?"
His only answer was a hit in the head and the last image he saw was a sleeping Hudson.
"Four? Four wake up? Four! Where's Hudson!?" His head was in Tris lap when he woke. There was something wet pressed to his head, a cloth stained with his blood.
"Honey what happened, we came back and you were knocked unconscious and bleeding from a head womb, and Hudson was GONE!" Tris was on the verge of hysterics.
"I-I-I was-I was hit by someone...or something" he said looking around frantically. "Oh Hudson, oh god, oh god, he was sleeping right there!" his voice cracked as he pointed to a pillow and blanket on top of a pile of leaves made to make the ground-bed more comfortable.
"HUDSON" Caleb called into the silent woods.
"Shut up" Tris seethed. "If Hudson is here somewhere we don't want to make him or us zombie prey".
"Oh god, I'm so so sorry guys." he said, on the verge on tears himself, he loved that little boy like a brother.
"It wasn't your fault" Caleb said, Tris nodding in agreement. "We will find whoever did this"
Hudson was Tris and Caleb's little brother. Four met Tris After their parents died when Hudson was 11, he came to live with Caleb who lost his apartment to the hands of fire a year later. Caleb and Hudson then came to live with Tris and Four in Chicago in Four's inherited house. His father was the city mayor, he and his wife, Evelyn, lost there lives to a zombified assistant. Four loved his parents so much, they always showered him with love even when he went through that " I hate my parents they don't understand phase". When he heard the news of their death he was devastated. The five of them lived together lived together for a year and a half, they were a little close knit family. Tris would always complain about how hard it was to actually embrace living with your fiance when your brothers were always there. Looking back at those days, living together with your brothers and fiance was a luxury. Three weeks after Hudson's 13th birthday the watched their neighbor get killed by a zombie, that was when the world turned upside down.
"Oh Tris, I'll see you soon" he muttered as he brung his gun up to his head, hands shaking violently.
"1...2..." he shuddered, as he began to pull the trigger.
"Stop!" a shrill cry yelled. The person going to jump for the gun before it went off and a bullet made it's home in Four's head.
"Who are you?" Four yelled.
This person had interrupted his peaceful suicide. Seriously? He wasn't bothering anyone. All he wanted to do was die quietly in this former restaurant cooler, and be reunited with his fiance on the other side. What more did the world need from him?
"I'm Christina, these are my brother Zeke and Uriah" she motioned to the two people standing in the doorway he hadn't seen before. The two guys were taller than Christina, one was about as tall as him while the other was about an inch shorter. The three siblings had the same caramel complection, same nose, and hazel eyes. Their hair was a dark brown and curly. The one with the bulkier stance and black wife beater introduced himself as Zeke, the oldest. The shorter guy in the cami t-shirt introduced himself as Uriah. Christina wore all black, she looked to be the same age as Tris, but his mind could be playing tricks on him, he had been seeing variations of his dead fiance everywhere. That was when he knew he was losing it.
"Get out, this is my space, I've inhabited this cooler for two weeks" He growled. .He was started to get frustrated. Who the hell were these people?! How dare they come into his space and interrupt his suicide attempt. But maybe, just maybe, they would kill him instead. It wasn't uncommon for the remaining population to try and off one another. They would kill for food, territory, and other survival supplies.
"Well it is a good space, it would be such a waste to have your brains sputtered out all over this place" Christina said bitterly, her eyes were cold compared to when she tried to stop him from killing himself.
"We aren't here to take your space, we are on a food run. When was the last time you ate? I don't see anything edible here…" Zeke trailed off as he looked around.
The room was pretty bare. It wasn't very big and he didn't intend to make it his home. The walls were lined with empty food shelves. It was cleared out when he first found the place, someone must have been smart enough to take the food. He had blankets and a pillow in the corner where he slept, and week old wrapper littering the floor.
" I'm sorry had I known you were coming I would have tidied up a bit more" he said sarcastically. That remark got him a glare from Zeke.
"Hey, no need to be snarky man, believe it or not we are here to help you-" Uriah starts.
"Help me" he laughed humorlessly. " You can't help me! Everything I loved and cherished is gone, my house, my fiance, and my friends. Are. Gone." His voice cracked at the end of his sentence.
"Well I'm sorry to hear that" Uriah responded sympathetically. "But, we created a safehouse of sorts in the old Chicago Memorial Hospital, you should come with us we have everything you need, other people, food, even showers" he smiled. No doubt trying to politely say that he smelled like a sewer.
"How nice for you, but I don't want your charity" he spat.
"If the guy wants to die alone let him" Christina said. "What happened to the rest of your people anyway?"
He paused, his guarded facade saddened, Christina's cold face softened.
"Well we were...uh… looking for a new location to hide after I'd lost Hudson, we couldn't stand to be in that clearing anymore" he didn't want to relive this story through words, but he had to face the facts. "We walking a few miles before we were ambushed, I ran into this place thinking Tris and Caleb were behind me but they had ran a different way I guess, I tried to go look once the zombies cleared out, but they were gone...they are probably dead by now" He cried.
"Wait," Zeke says. "So you don't know if they are actually gone you just assume they are dead?".
"I-I- the odds of them surviving out there are slim to none, Tris is smart she can take care of herself but when she has an extra person to take care of it's just an extra burden," he responded.
"Well, you will never know if you don't get off of your ass and find out," Zeke argues back.
He bit his lip, he really didn't want these people to give him hope for his heart to be shattered into pieces again, but Zeke had a point.
"Okay, I'll come with you," he said.
Everyone has to hate me, I have put all my stories on hold, I have had the longest writer's block in the history of the world! My life is very busy right now and I will do my best to update as often as I can, but I wanted to know what you guys think of this plot/story, yes or no, I may continue it I have a few ideas. This story was inspired by a story for a different fandom on Archive of Our Own. Reviews and Responses mean alot to me. Thx so much
-mckayla