ALMOST 5,000 WORDS WITHOUT THE AUTHORS NOTE WOO! Please don't fucking skip this chapter bc it's VERY important.

I wrote the first 900 words on my phone so sorry for any spelling mistakes. And sorry for any spelling mistakes in general bc my open office still thinks its French. Brilliant.

& as far as what everyone wanted to see in this chapter apart from seeing who's really dead and who's really alive, you all pretty much want the same thing. But I'm not gonna do it in this chapter bc this chapter is something different that you are all going to kill me for (y)

Disclaimer: I Do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury and Capitol Records.

Chapter 17
Crossfire

2 Days passed. Meaning that it was only 4 days until they reached Utah.

Those 2 days were practically the same as the other two had been. Rydel being her bitchy 'I-don't-trust-you' self, as well as caring less if anybody got hurt or in danger, Ellington and Riker snapping at one another, Ross being depressed and over thinking about Luke, Brad and Ashton as well as Rocky trying to keep everyone in control... Nothing much had changed.

Sure they all knew each other a tiny bit better. But that was all.

Oh.

And they lost Billy early this morning. (it was night now and they were all setting up around a fire to get warm and go to sleep).

That was Ellington's great heartbreak.

"Stay still!" Ellington whined, trying to keep hold of Billy in the rope he was tied in. He had been tied in that rope since Ellington and Rocky caught it. When they were sleeping, Ell had to find a tree with a strong branch so he could tie him to there and be certain he wouldn't move and eat any of them.

Right now, Billy was being a little restless fuck. He kept on moving around and wiggling. Ross sighed, watching as this was going on "Dude, I think he wants to go. His times up."

"No, he just wants out the rope. But I won't let him because he'll eat me for keeping him tied up!" Ellington said, struggling to hold on.

Rydel shrugged "So what if he eats you? One less person to worry about. Plus, I don't have a hostage to keep an eye on anymore." She said, remembering how she had said back in the truck that Ellington was her hostage for this trip.

"Oh, hush up! If I was a hostage you'd be holding a gun to my head!"

Suddenly the sound of the hammer of a gun clicked and Ellington felt metal pressed against his temple. Shitting himself, Ellington dropped the rope in panic and held up his hands. When he dropped the rope, Billy immediately took off in the opposite direction "BILLY!" Ellington shouted, stepping forwards, he turned around and faced Rydel who had the gun in her hand. She laughed before tossing it back to Ross. "You're a bitch, did anybody ever tell you that?" Ellington asked. Rydel shrugged. "No wonder you're lonely and have nobody but us in this stupid apocalypse." Ellington muttered going by her. He sat down on the floor in a strop and folded his arms across his chest.

Rydel rolled her eyes at Ellington and watched as the zombie went off into the distance.

"Oh, don't tell me you're still crying over your stupid little zombie." Rydel commented, walking by Ellington who was sat at the fire in the exact same stroppy position as he was early when the zombie when missing.

"Stupid lit-Excuse me!" Ellington said, getting defensive "you do not understand! That was the first thing I have ever had to look after that I found cool! Though, you wouldn't know would you? You've never had anybody or anything to look after because you're such a bitch everyone hates you and left you." Ellington sneered.

Rydel's mouth dropped open, she lunged forwards to go hit him but Ross quickly jumped in between them both "Nope," Ross said "you two. Keep your distance from each other and stop pissing each other off." Ross said, guiding Rydel over to the opposite side of the fire. He sat down beside her, seeing she looked really pissed "just ignore him," he said quietly "don't beat yourself up about it."

Rydel shook her head "It's not that... it's-Never mind." Rydel shook her head, deciding not to go into detail.

"No, go on..." Ross said, becoming interested.

Rydel went to go say something but was cut off by Rocky coming in through the door way. "Jesus it's cold!" Rocky commented, coming through with wood to keep the fire burning they had set up.

They had managed to get out of the woods the night with the whole BRRAL situation, but they found themselves in a field and camped there for the night. After that they got out of that field and found themselves in a small abandoned town - even though they were sure there was a couple people living there still. They hadn't seen that many zombies, even though the closer they got to Utah the increase in zombies they saw. They found an abandoned apartment block, once they got in there they went right to the top to find an empty room. Thankfully they did. There was nothing in there but a broken TV, over turned table and a couch. Nobody dared sleep on the couch as they thought they saw something crawl underneath it.

Hopefully nothing would catch fire in the room from the fire they made to keep themselves warm. They were praying.

Rocky put the wood down by the fire and stood back up again. When he stood up he caught Ross in his sight, remembering something "Ross, I found something outside written on the side of the apartment block... coming back in." Rocky said.

Ross sighed "Who's name was crossed out?" He asked.

"Luke's."

"Wait," Riker said "if you're finding more BRRAL's with Luke's name crossed out as well as Ashton's, doesn't that mean Brad's alive and not Luke?" he asked.

Ross shook his head "Not necessarily. We've found plenty of BRRAL's with Brad and Ashton's name crossed out. To be honest, I think I've found more with Brad's name crossed out than Luke's. It might be even," Ross shrugged "I don't know. We're never going to find out anyway. Chances are if either of them were alive they're probably dead now."

"You have such faith in them." Riker said sarcastically. Ross shrugged.

Rocky sat down between Ross and Ellington.

Silence fell over the five. It wasn't awkward silence they just didn't know what to talk about. "So, why don't we get to know each other a bit more?" Rydel asked, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Excuse me?" Rocky asked.

"You know... How you ended up here today." Rydel said "c'mon it'll be fun. And to make it more interesting... Why don't we take it in turns each night before we get to Utah? You know, one person this night, tomorrow someone else, the next day somebody else etc," Rydel explained, seeing everyone's blank faces "it's a suggestion guys. C'mon, we're all five strangers. We barely know anything about each other. For all we know brownie and blondie here could be taking us to Utah to murder us."

"Well, we're not." Ross said.

"Then what are you doing?" Rydel asked.

"I can't tell you that."

"Then why did yo-"

"Rydel! I can't. Not yet, okay? I promise when we get to Utah you'll find out." He snapped.

"Alright, I like Rydel's suggestion," Ellington said, Rydel smiled - being glad someone was going along with her suggestion "you go first Rydel. Tell us all why you're such a bitch to everyone you know."

Rydel's mouth fell open "I am not going first! You go first! Tell us all what it is with you and Riker."

"Rather not."

"Exactly."

Riker let a small smile creep up on his lips "Personally I wanna know more about this Brad, Luke and Ashton guy and why Ross keeps stressing over them."

Riker, Ellington and Rydel all turned their heads towards Ross and Rocky. "Oh, three against two?" Ross asked.

"Actually, four against one," Rocky added "You can do the explaining. You know more than me." Rocky turned round, legs crossed, looking at Ross like he was actually interested and that he didn't know what happened.

"Go on, Ross," Rydel said, in a girly voice, getting close to him as a joke "start from the beginning. Who be this Bradley, Lucas and Ashton you speak of." She said in a fake accent.

Ross sighed "Bradley Simpson, Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin. Very interesting people," he said with a small smile "Brad was... special. He was like... I can't explain it. He was like a kid and a teenager mixed into an eighteen slash seventeen year old's body. Luke... He was just Luke. He had a heart of gold, cared about everyone, had his funny moments and moments in general. If we had a problem for some reason we always went to him. Now, Ashton.. He was... Brilliant. He was so hilarious I'm surprised my ribs are still intact," He said, letting out a small laugh at the thought of how Ashton use to act "god. He was a man child," Ross then frowned "it's a shame all that went away when we got to Afghanistan..."

Ellington furrowed his brow "What happened in Afghanistan?" he asked.

"He's dead, Ratliff," Ross said "what do you think happened?"

"Irwin!" The Sergeant called, snapping him out from the trance he was in.

Ashton jumped from where he sat, looking over and seeing the glare from the Sergeant - he immediately looked back down. This was the fourth time today he had been caught, by the Sergeant and other soldiers, not paying attention to his surroundings and ending up in some sort of stare trance.

Currently they were out doing the patrol the five boys were dreading so much. Brad still wasn't on happy terms with Rocky after his comments and little outburst last night which caused Brad to snap at him.

That was fun. Not.

Brad still talked to Rocky, but it was only very small talk like "excuse me" or "can you pass me that" etc. And they were on a patrol where anything could happen to them, even though they were promised nothing would, and they and they weren't even attempting to talk.

Rocky was trying a little, but Brad was being a stubborn ass. The only reason he's acting like that is because he's finally became fed up of his stupid comments - and yet Rocky doesn't seem to be getting bored of saying them. You'd have thought that after almost a year of them comments he'd be fed up himself.

There were other soldiers scattered around the area which left Ross, Rocky, Brad, Ashton, Luke, along with three other soldiers and the Sergeant in this half destroyed, small, brick building.

Ross noticed Ashton sat over on a piece of large stone away from the group. He walked over and at down beside him "You look troubled." Ross said, commenting by Ashton's facial expression which made him look like a depressed kitten.

Ashton shrugged "I just wanna go home. Sleep... Eat..." He sighed "I just wanna go home in general if I'm honest. I hate this so much. I don't even know how the soldiers cope over here for a year let alone a month and a half."

Ross patted his shoulder "There, there. I know the feeling. I want to go home too. We all do." Ross said, presuming he meant back to the USA in Utah at the base.

Ashton shook his head "No, Ross. I don't mean that home. I mean home, home. Like, back to Australia home."

Ross's face fell "What? Why?"

Ashton shrugged, being unsure to if he really wanted to share with Ross why "I... It's complicated. Personal stuff... I... I can't explain it now."

Ross have him a small smile "It's okay. How about we talk later? After the patrol when we're back safe in our bunks with nothing to worry about. Then you can explain. I promise I'll listen."

Ashton smiled weakly, feeling a little better "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Hey, Irwin," The Sergeant called "make yourself useful and go look out over there," he pointed to an empty space a slight distance away where there was a broken down car along with some other destroyed buildings "if you see anything weird and suspicious, you know what to do."

Ashton sighed, deciding there was no point in going against it. It wasn't school. He couldn't refuse to do something. He got up from where he sat next to Ross and began to make his way out the barely standing building he was stood in.

"Wait," Ross said, getting up from where he was "can I go with him? You know, so he's not on his own?" Ross asked.

The Sergeant looked between the two boys and nodded "Sure. Four eyes are better than two."

Ashton waited by the doorway (if you could even call it a doorway) and waited for Ross. But he was stopped by Brad grabbing him by the arm "Be careful." Brad said.

Ross smirked "I'm only going over there. It's not like its gonna pour down with bombs." Ross pulled his arm away from Brad and playfully slapped him round the head.

"Hey, Ash," Luke called, making Ashton turn his head "you too."

Ashton nodded, turning round and leaving with Ross to go to where they were told.

Rocky, Brad and Luke watched Ross and Ashton where they stood, not so far from where they were. Nothing interesting was happening. The most interesting thing to happen was some giant bug crawling across the floor that Luke screamed like a girl at.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Luke asked, not tearing his eyes from where both boys were.

Brad turned round and looked over to them, seeing that neither of them looked happy. Brad shrugged "They're in the middle of Afghanistan, Luke. Just because they're talking doesn't mean that's the reason they look like they're going to kill th-"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Endless gunshot fires could be heard when a decent amount of Taliban that was uncountable came out of nowhere. Next thing Brad knew Luke had pulled him to the floor - having a bullet nearly put straight through his chest. Brad breathed heavily "Jesus Christ, thanks..." Brad breathed heavily, patting Luke on the arm.

"BRAD! LUKE!"

Brad turned his head, from where he laid on the ground, and saw Rocky lying directly opposite him looking at him from where he was on the floor. Trying to shout as loud as he could over the guns being fired.

"ROSS AND ASHTON!"

That was all Brad had to be told before he jumped up from the floor and turned round to where Ross and Ashton were. Luke knew what Brad was going to attempt to do, and even though he wanted nothing more than to make sure Ross and Ashton were okay - it was too dangerous. Brad would not survive all them bullets being fired at him. Luke reached his arm up to pull Brad back down, but failed to do so.

"ROSS! ASHTON!" Brad shouted, in the hope it would get their attention to run back to where the three boys were instead of standing out there like they were waiting to be shot. But they couldn't help it, if Ross or Ashton made one single movement they would be shot dead. They knew that. They couldn't even take cover. That's how bad they were getting fired at.

"COME ON!" Ross shouted at Ashton through the noise of the bullets "WE NEED TO GET AWAY FROM HERE BEFORE WE GET SHOT!"

Ross turned around to make his way back over to Rocky, Luke and Brad, and as did Ashton, but as soon as they made one move, Ross got shot in the leg - sending him to the floor. He let out a shout of pain. "HOLY SHIT! ROSS ARE YOU-" Ashton went to go make sure Ross was okay, but never got the chance as he was then shot too - but he was shot in the shoulder. Luckily he never got sent to the floor "OH SHIT THAT HURTS!" Ashton shouted in pain, grasping his shoulder as he could feel the blood seeping through onto his hands.

Once seeing Ross get shot down to the floor in the leg, that was enough for Brad to run out from where he was and over to both Ross and Ashton. "BRAD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Rocky shouted, going to get up from the floor but was tripped up by Luke grabbing his leg and pulling him to the floor.

"ROCKY DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!" Luke shouted "IT'S BAD ENOUGH WE COULD LOSE ROSS AND ASHTON RIGHT NOW, BUT NOW WE CAN LOSE BRAD. FOR FUCK SAKE DON'T MAKE IT A FOURTH." Luke really did want to get up from the floor and go help Brad, but he wasn't that much of an idiot to get caught in the crossfire. Though, he would do anything for Ashton and Ross.

And if he would do anything for Ashton and Ross, he would do this wouldn't he?

Ross attempted to get up from the floor and walk, but he couldn't. He saw Brad running towards them, dodging bullets like a freaking ninja as he done so, and by the time Brad was at least half way, Ross managed to pry himself up on both legs but he limped. Ross went to go fall back and grab hold of Ashton, not being able to walk properly, but instead he was attacked by bullets and he collapsed to the floor.

"ROSS!" Brad shouted, picking up his pace of running - now not being bothered if he was going to get shot. He already felt a bullet only just miss his head.

Ashton's eyes widened and he felt his breath get caught in his throat, seeing one of his bestfriends get gunned down - possibly dead too. He literally did not know what to feel in that moment. His mouth hung open slightly and his eyes moved over to where he could see Rocky and Luke watching the three of them, along with trying their best not to get hit too. They didn't have guns. Right now, it would be pretty handy if they did have some. Why the hell didn't the Sergeant give them any?

Oh yeah, that's right.

"Because this part of the area is the safest, there is hardly ever any attacks."

BULLSHIT.

Brad skidded across the floor and wasted no time picking up Ross's body off the floor. He had one of Ross's arms round his neck. Brad sat up on his knees, jumping each time he thought there was a bullet near him "Ashton," Brad said, looking up at his emotionless face "I can't take both of you. Are you going to be okay coming back on your own?" He asked loudly.

No answer. He just continued to stare out into space.

"Ashton?" Brad asked, trying to get his attention "ASHTON!"

Ashton snapped out of his trance when pain took over his face and he held onto his shoulder more and ended up on the floor on his knees. Brad sighed, not liking how this was going to turn out "Ashton, buddy, please hold on... I'll come back for you, or I'll get Luke too." Brad said, becoming desperate and sad.

Ashton nodded, with tears in his eyes as well as fear and pain being across his face "Yeah... Luke..."

Brad had a nervous feeling in his stomach when he lifted up to the floor with Ross "I love you bro." Brad said, down to Ashton.

Ashton nodded again "I love you too. NOW GO!"

Brad turned around, making a break for it as fast as he could with Ross. Ashton watched on as he done so, feeling his shoulder in immense pain. All he wanted was to get up and run over to where Luke and Rocky were. Where he would be safe. He took a deep breath, and used all the strength he had in his legs to get him to the floor. Once he was up, he began to carefully and slowly make his way over to the guys again.

When Brad got back to the others, luckily not being hit, he practically threw Ross into Rocky's arms. "Shit! The fuck happened?!" Rocky asked, taking him from Brad and beginning to panic.

"HE GOT ATTACKED BY UNICORNS ROCKY! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK HAPPENED?!" Brad asked, before turning round and running back out to go get Ashton who was slowly hobbling his way over, clutching his shoulder.

Luke knelt up as high as he could, looking over to Ashton and back at Ross who was bleeding to death on the floor - out cold.

Brad felt himself becoming short of breath, beginning to think he wasn't going to reach Ashton in time but there was no way in hell he was going to let him down "ASHTON! I'M COMING HOLD ON!" he shouted, seeing Ashton didn't acknowledge him "ASHTON! HO-"

BANG!

"BRAD!" Luke shouted in complete horror.

That was the last sound Brad heard before he was gunned down to the floor. He only got shot in the arm, but the bullet was that powerful it knocked him to the floor. When Brad hit the floor, his head also hit the floor which caused his vision to go funny and all he could see in front of him was a blurred figure of Ashton struggling and attempting to pick up his pace to get to Brad.

Ashton felt his chest getting heavier and his breathing getting faster. Everything was going so downhill right now. It was a complete chaos. "Brad..." Ashton said, quietly. He coughed, feeling his chest becoming tight. That tight he had to stop. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, re-opening his eyes and looking over to where Rocky and Luke were. Only seeing Luke as Rocky was further behind with Ross.

And that was the last ever face that Ashton Irwin saw.

Brad watched as Ashton's blurred figure crumpled to the ground, flat out. He shut his eyes tightly and re-opened them, blinking a few times to make sure he could regain his vision.

It was like this happened in slow motion.

Brad groaned, hearing the sound of the bullets going down. Or maybe he had just lost his hearing.

"ASHTON!"

That was Luke.

Brad did have his hearing thank god.

Brad slowly sat up on the floor, seeing that the firing had stopped. He held the upper part of his arm that had been shot, looking over to where Ashton laid on the floor. He groaned again, attempting to move and go over to see if Ashton was okay, messing around, pretending to have been shot down so the Taliban would stop aiming at him, or if he had passed out. "Ashton..." Brad said through a groan.

As he went to go get up properly, Luke ran by him faster than Brad has ever seen him run.

Rocky had been shoved away from Ross, so that others could try lower his risk of dying. He watched on, mainly focused on Ross, but took occasional glances over to where Brad was, where Luke had ran and where Ashton was.

"Ashton!" Luke called, skidding on his knees across the floor to where he was "are you okay?"

Brad stayed where he was, knelt on the floor a short distance away, and watched as Luke seen to Ashton. Luke shook Ashton "Are you okay?" Luke asked, feeling slightly panicked. He felt his face drop a little from panic to nothing "A-Ashton?" he asked "are you okay? Wake up..." Luke said, almost starting to beg. Brad felt his heart sink from his chest and down to his stomach, feeling butterflies in his stomach because of the nervousness.

Oh, please let this be one of Ashton's stupid games.

Luke shook him gently "Ash, dude... Wake u-" Luke looked Ashton's body up and down as he spoke, but stopped when he saw a huge blood stain in the middle of his shirt "Oh, no... no..." Luke said, feeling like everything had just collapsed on him. Pretty much his world, really. He felt tears coming to his eyes. He shook his head "No. Nope, no. Ashton, stop fucking about and wake up," Luke began to beg.

Brad sighed sadly and frowned, shutting his eyes.

No.

Luke slowly put his fingers to Ashton's pulse on his neck, feeling it. Soon wishing he never. "NO!" Luke began to scream, now starting to cry "ASHTON! WAKE UP! SOMEBODY HELP! ASHTON!"

Brad re-opened his eyes, having tears glistening in his eyes - eventually letting a tear fall down his face. Rocky was doing his best to pay attention to Ross's life being saved, but he couldn't. All he could hear was Luke's deafening and heartbreaking screams.

"Oh my god..." Rydel said, starting to feel something she had not felt in a very long time. Sympathy. "How the hell are you still alive?" Rydel asked.

Ross shrugged "Got lucky. None of the bullets hit any vital organs or any veins... The only way I'd have died was if I'd have bled to death. But I never. Everyone who was there did what they could to stop that before I was taken away to the nearest hospital."

Riker cocked his head "Were Luke and Ashton bestfriends?" Riker asked "because the way you're describing this, he had it the hardest."

Rocky nodded "He did. I can still hear his freaking screaming and crying today. It was horrible."

"I was just... dying on the floor," Ross said, shrugging it off like it was nothing - making the others laugh a little "but... I could still hear a little. That was it."

"So what happened after you left Afghanistan?" Ellington asked, leaning backwards with his legs stretched forwards and his arms behind him for support "because you said to Ashton, after Rocky pissed you, him, Luke and Brad off, that you only had a couple days to go home. Did anything interesting happen? You know, besides an obvious funeral."

"Ratliff!" Riker shrieked for him being insensitive like that.

"What?!" Ellington asked, his voice going pitchy "if somebody dies, you know a freaking funeral follows after!" he looked back at Ross and Rocky, who didn't seem bothered by what Ell had just said "seriously though, what happened?"

"Well... Hell broke loose." Rocky answered.

Rydel looked at them confused "What do you mean 'hell broke loose'?" she asked.

"We went back to the base, something wasn't right, we could feel it by the atmosphere along with the way certain people were acting. Like they knew something we didn't," Ross started to explain "but given the state Luke was in and the way me, Rocky and Brad were after Ashton dying and coming back from Afghanistan, our leader Will told us to go home and have a week off. So we did. We took Luke with us, saving him the trip to go back to Australia. So we did what Will said. Took a week off."

"Is that it?" Riker asked.

Ross shook his head, with a smile "Oh, no you're gonna love this bit, Riker, trust me, wait for it," he said, with slight laugher "no. We waited for the usual bus outside the train station. Only, the bus didn't come. So that meant we had to waste about half an hour to forty five minutes of our lives walking until we reached the Escalante Desert where our base is hid. We got to the top of the road, saw the base. Something was way, way off. There was smoke pouring from the roof and the fences looked like they had been torn down. We were worried so ran as fast as we could to the base. But we ended up splitting up when we got to the base to see what was going on. I went with Rocky, Luke went with Brad. Baring in mind - on the way there we saw a 'person' who looked like they had been beaten badly and were drink."

"Are you freaking kidding me..." Rydel said, in disbelief knowing where this was going.

Ross nodded, going back to the story "So we got in the base. Looked around where hell had basically descended because the unimaginable had began to happen."

Riker looked at them confused "And that was?"

"The zombie apocalypse my friend."

So... yeah. Just expect flashback chapters now like this up until we get to the important and fun stuff that I have been dying to write ever since I came up with it shfgjrkldsgbfhirejkm Your gonna LOVE it! But then you're going to hate it... Oh.

Thanks for reading!

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