A/N: I like zombie AUs. Violence and zombie gore within, read with necessary caution. First person because I felt it added to the desperation.

"This is bad."

I don't even know how it happened. We were together, making a run for things we needed, and then there were walkers and we were split. The convenience store had been empty so many times before, maybe one or two walkers had made their way in every now and again but…nothing like this. We were already in and scouring the shelves when we had heard something fall and shatter near the back. It was then that we saw about eight of them, huddled in the back. We knew our exits, one in front and one in back.

But the front had become less of a viable option when the few wandering the street turned their attention to the source of the noise, and started to gather at the front entrance. The sound of them pounding on the glass brought the ones from back towards us, closing us in. The front door groaned as the monsters outside found purchase and were able to locate their opening.

The rest was a blur, with nothing but the sound of the monsters gurgling and him screaming my name, "LEVY!" over and over.

It had taken me a good twenty minutes to get my bearings again after the adrenaline subsided, and annoyingly enough I was farther from the safehouse than I would have ever liked. At least on my own. But I didn't have a choice. The sound of our struggle inside brought even more of them, and I had no choice but to take to the alleys and bolt, my heart in my throat.

I don't think I loosened my grip on the handle of my shovel since it happened, which stopped being a problem when I stopped being able to feel my hands.

I had managed to take down some of the walkers on my own and outrun the rest. Far as I could tell right now, by keeping between buildings and off the street, I had lost the remaining stragglers. There was a part of me I was actively keeping at bay that wanted to feed me the worse case scenarios on how he was doing and how he got away, if at all. Stop. If I made it then so did he, I berated myself.

I took a glance upwards, gauging how much daylight I had left. Enough, for now. But I needed to keep going and having to limit my time in the open was making it exceedingly difficult to keep checking where I was and how far I had to go still. Every time I tried to make my way out into the open to check a street sign, I put myself at risk of detection. And given how much I had exerted myself earlier, I really needed to conserve my energy.

A gurgle and a wet cough brought me back to the present. Looking to one side of the alley I saw a lone walker, ambling in my direction. It was funny how quickly we had become desensitized to it all since everything went to shit a year ago. The walker's crooked neck and left arm that persistently swung by just a few tendons hardly phased me. The smell was still something I was working on. A yellow scarf I kept around my neck helped.

I pulled my scarf up over my nose and took a full grip on my weapon again, lifting the shovel up and quickly closing the distance between he…it and I. With a quick and deliberate swing, I smashed it broadside in the side of its skull. Oh yeah, the sounds. That I still wasn't used to.

It collapsed, and as I went to continue forward, something yanked me back by what felt like my neck and for a moment I couldn't breathe. "AH," I croaked with a painful cough. I resisted immediately, pulling away furiously like an animal in a noose. I found myself turning, and realized whatever it was had a hold of my scarf. I felt it unwind as I turned again and finally it came loose as I swing wide, smashing the walker's face in. Another was right behind it and I backed up, but fell backwards over the first walker's carcass, swinging my shovel above me without direction.

I hit hard and saw spots for several seconds. Now four walkers were advancing on me from the direction of the first. I was trapped in a one way alley, with only two exits and walkers blocking both. With two hands clutching my weapon, I was able to shove the handle above me in time to stop the walker that dropped down from taking a chunk from my face. The heavy son of a gun had me pinned and outmuscled(which was entirely unfair, the thing is rotting for god's sake), and his kin were keen to take advantage, picking up the pace of their pathetic shuffles towards our skirmish. Why do I have to be so darn SMALL! I thought I saw more entering the alley down a ways, but it was hard to keep my gaze off the snapping creature above me for long.

My mind raced towards any sort of solution to get me out of this fast, but my arms started to burn and were slowly giving. I closed my eyes and forced a push that lifted the walker just enough to bring me close to locking my elbows.

What followed was a loud crack, and the sudden lifting of weight from my body. I opened my eyes in time to see the one walker rolling aside with a caved in cranium, and the next one preparing to drop down onto me. But a strong grip took me by the underarms and dragged me backwards and upwards simultaneously. Instantly I struggled with a strangled cry, my feet kicking to find purchase on the pavement. It was one fluid motion where I found myself not only on my feet again but behind something. Something large.

My mind took a moment to catch up before I realized who was in front of me, already plunging a machete with a downward swipe into the closest walker's head. My breath of relief escaped me like the air from a balloon, barely articulating his name. "Gajeel…!" He jerked his shoulder, pulling the blade free as the body fell, and I realized then by the fresh shine on one of his shoes that he had killed my assailant with nothing but a swift kick to the head. With the rest of the growing group a little further back, he spun to face me and after a quick but thorough once over I could see the immense relief beneath the wild look of adrenaline in his red eyes.

A dappling of blood across his face, mingling with those silver studs told of the struggles it took for him to reach me. Black locks had begun to escape the red headband tied over his forehead meant to contain the mane I loved so much. I felt my eyes burn, relieved tears threatening to spill, Oh thank god, thank god.

In one stride he cleared the space between us and took me by the arm. "I keep telling you the shovel isn't good enough." He admonished under his breath, voice rough and controlled.

He headed straight for the street, and once in the open I could see the walkers looming in both directions on the filthy, car-littered roadway. I was going to protest pulling us into the open, but a small portion of this looked familiar and he moved with purpose. Even when I fell into his pace and had no issue keeping up, he wouldn't let go of me. "Are you clean?" He asked, tone even but noticeably strained. It took me a moment to answer, my shock maybe taking a little longer to wear off. "Levy!" He snapped, "Answer me, are you clean?!"

"Yeah; yes, I wasn't bitten. Are you?" The question always left the most bitter of tastes in my mouth. Every atom of my being despised that it was a 50/50 question. No matter how many times we had to ask one another, programmed into our routines, it never got easier.

"'Course. I'm clean." He gave me a curt nod and I breathed again.

We entered another alley that connected perpendicular to another that ran behind a series of former businesses, and I started to realize we were closer than I thought. As we turned into the back passageway, two more walkers greeted us and I tightened my grip, ready to swing, but he was already on it. With one arm holding me behind him, he swung the other at the female's neck, bringing one down, and then raised to crash the blade down on the other. His motions were noticeably more frantic, and much more intense than usual. I could swear I could feel tremors in the hand that held me. Gajeel…

The farther we went, the more things started to look familiar and a second wave of relief hit me. We only had to cross one more street, and it was a small avenue, deserted for the most part. We had lost our tails, and navigating to another back alley I could finally see the fire escape that was our salvation of the day.

He stopped, set down his machete and finally let me go only to take a different grip around my waist that would lift me up. I knew the drill. Lifting my shovel, I slid it between the rungs of the ladder higher up and then turned the tool to lock it perpendicular to the rungs. I gave a downwards pull and he helped, sliding down the ladder of the fire escape.

I went first, he picked up his weapon before following and pulled the ladder up behind us as we slid through the window of the loft above a bar that had become our safe house. No sooner had I stepped in, dropped my shovel, and let out a loud sigh of relief did I hear his weapon hit the floor, a sounds that startled me. He took hold of my upper arms and put me against the nearest wall, just so he would have something to lean on.

I could see the adrenaline had worn off and his breath was much faster, shaky even. "Fuck, Levy, are you okay? You're sure you're clean?" He asked desperately, moving his hands now to hold my face as his eyes wandered everywhere, looking for anything alarming before pressing his forehead to mine. One hand left my face to thud a fist against the wall behind me. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Levy. I don't know how it happened."

"I'm okay, I'm clean. I promise, I wasn't bitten. I got away from them quickly." I assured him, but he still seemed unconvinced and I could see his uncontrolled worry running wild. "I'm fine, it was a fluke, it just got crazy." I couldn't tell if it was helping, but with arms shaking he pulled me into a hug and buried his face into my neck. With the important information out of the way I let go of my composure and grabbed hold of the back of his jacket, trying to pull him closer than he already was. I had begun to shake as well, the earlier tears running down my cheeks.

"Don't ever do that to me again, shrimp." The presence of that nickname lightened my heart a little. It was clear to me that he was only trying to cope. That was the first time we had been split up. Out there, we had always managed to keep close enough that our combined efforts kept the creatures at bay and we remained side by side. We were the perfect team. But today was the first time either of us had to fend for ourselves, and though both of us came out unharmed, that did not mean there weren't still damages.

"Right back at you, stupid Gajeel…" I mumbled into his chest. It felt like he would never let me go again, and to be honest, I was okay with it.