I'm gonna say now, this chapter moves along very fast and it has time skips. Like in one bit will be one day and the next it will be the next day, you know? Kinda like one of quick montages that shows key parts that happen and what not until... well... you get to the end of the chapter. There's not gonna be very chapters left of this story. I'll say six at the most. (y)

Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island and Capitol Records!

Chapter 21
The City & The Bright Lights

Day 5

Las Vegas.

From the pictures and videos they had seen on TV and movies and on the internet before the apocalypse, it was a beautiful place filled with bright lights, cars, people, shows, people getting drunk out of their mind and accidentally married. Big hotels, big buildings, big replicas of things from different countries. Basically anything any other city could ask for really.

Now?

It's a dump.

Cars are over turns, windows are smashed, the big flashy things are gone, tipped over or destroyed. Las Vegas... it ain't Las Vegas anymore.

It took them four hours to walk from the apartment building they stayed at over the night to get to Las Vegas. Which meant the state they were in was Nevada which meant the next state was Utah. And the desert wasn't that far in to Utah either, so once they were in Utah that was it. It would take them a day or so to get to the base in the desert and it would finally be over. It only took 8 days and a couple of hours by foot. Ross and Rocky know that from having to walk from Utah to LA when the apocalypse first started.

You'd think starting from now it would take them a day or so to get to Utah. But no. they had at least 3 days and a half left before they reached it.

You're all probably wondering what they all did with Little Ashton as well. After debating over it for about half an hour with each other, whilst Riker sat with him and made sure he was okay, they decided to bring him along with them as they couldn't leave a child on their own during an apocalypse. But when Ross stepped forward and offered him to go with them the kid got scared as he didn't know them and didn't trust them and he ran off. They then chased after him to try get him but by then it was too late.

He had disappeared.

Meanwhile they had stopped in the middle of a road right in the heart of Las Vegas, taking in their surroundings and keeping a close eye out for any zombies. They knew the closer they got to Utah the more that would be around and appear. Which was why they were dreading getting to Utah because god knows if any of them would even make it to the base. That's how many zombies there could be.

Ellington sighed, looking around "Well, this place is a shit hole. Not gonna lie."

"Everywhere's a shit hole," Riker said, looking round and sounding slightly fed up "but we've all gotten use to it."

Rocky looked down on the side of the pavement from where he was stood and saw a dead body lying on the floor. Either that or a dead or sleeping zombie. Do zombies even sleep? That was the question. They'd been living in an apocalyptic world for a year and a half now and they still didn't know. "Has anyone ever thought about killing themselves during this?" Rocky asked, referring to the apocalypse.

Everyones heads turned to him. But they knew where he was coming from. "Too many times..." Riker said.

"Same here." Rydel said, with her arms folded across her chest and now staring into space.

Ross nodded "I can think of a few times."

"Nope." Ellington said shaking his head, causing everyone to look at him like he was crazy. "What?" Ellington asked "c'mon. I didn't or have never thought about killing myself because i've always known that no matter how long I, or we, have to wait there was going to be something that would end this damn thing. Whether if it was the sun swallowing the Earth or the zombies finally dying out or something like this... I've always had that bit of hope."

Ross stared at him blankly "That... that was deep."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Lets keep on going before we end up as food."

Day 6

To say they never ran into any zombies whilst walking through Las Vegas and that part of the state would be a complete and utter lie. They were attacked by at least fifteen trying to get out of Las Vegas and through into the next part of the state which was Lincoln – they were very lucky they lived that. But that was mainly because that's how many zombies they faced that day. Ellington almost ended up dead due to the fact he lost what weapon he was fighting with and nobody noticed the zombie backing him up against a wall with no escape.

But then Riker turned around, saw, and well... bashed it round the head and it died.

Ellington took deep breaths "Oh, thanks man," he said, bending over and putting his hand on his heart "jesus. I think my hearts about to give out..."

Riker shoved Ellington in the direction of where Ross, Rocky and Rydel were, struggling "Shut up and be some help!"

After they finally took care of that they started quickening their pace by running and walking at different times. They weren't very tired but they ended up walking through the night to get to Lincoln, because if they had of stopped to sleep that night it would have only added to the hours of the journey. They arrived in Lincoln at around noon and that was when they all collapsed on an abandoned shop floor and fell asleep. They were out of it.

Nobdoy spoke to each other they all fell fast asleep and woke up hours later.

Ross was the first to wake up and he saw it was still light outside which meant it wasn't night time just yet. He sighed and got up from the floor, deciding to stretch as the floor wasn't very comfortable. As he was stretching he saw a piece of paper on the floor by the door. He furrowed his brow and walked over to it and picked it up. He saw a drawing on it. It was a drawing of the state they were in now and the Utah state where the Escalante desert is.

Basically a map someone drew.

He turned it over where there was a note on the back of it.

Go the way I've put on, if you go the way you're going you won't make it there.

The worst part was he recognised that handwriting as well, but he couldn't decide on who's it was. The line that he or she had drew led from where they were now and up to the boarder of Utah. And it looked like a much quicker way to go as well.

Once everyone had gotten up they all began to continue their journey, talking, laughing and what not. Ellington had finally found a way to stop being an insensitive bastard and calm down with Rydel wanting to kill him. It was great. Though everyone became confused when Ross started guiding them in a completely different direction, so he showed them the map that he was given and at first they were reluctant about it but when Ross went on without them anyway they followed him.

They didn't want him going off on his own and getting into trouble he couldn't get himself out of.

Day 7

They did the same as Lincoln. Travelled through the night until they ended up in White Pine. Though this time they never slept when they got there, they decided to keep on going because sleep wasn't important right now at that minute. They felt they had enough energy to keep going. Just maybe not to fight zombies if they came across any, but at the moment they didn't seem to be coming across any.

That was until they were walking down a road and saw a big group of them huddled together. Everyone froze. "Oh shit, what do we do?" Rocky asked. He had no energy what so ever to fight any of them. They were so close to the border line that separated Nevada and Utah.

"Um..." Ross stumbled to figure something out "walk very slowly like a zombie?" he suggested, everyone gave him a funny look "hey. Have you watched Shaun Of The Dead? It worked for them. Hopefully it might work for us." he said, beginning to walk ahead.

"Ross! Are you crazy!" Rydel said, in an angered whisper.

Ross shrugged as he continued to walk. Once he got closer to the zombies he slowed down and began to walk around them, and they took no notice of him what so ever he was being that slow. He continued walking until he found himself round the corner. He took a deep breath and peered his head round, signalling for the rest to come. And they did.

They were doing so well up until Ellington accidentally kicked a can on the floor. "Shit." he muttered. He turned his head where the zombies were looking at four of them.

"RUN!" Rocky shouted.

They did. They ran as fast as they can on the energy they did not have that Rocky stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face. Ross had to find a way for them to hide inside something but all there was, was an alleyway so as soon as the first person who turned the corner – Rydel – he grabbed hold of her and threw her down there along with the rest who came. They hid in the alley until the zombies had passed.

Once they were certain they were gone they made their way to wherever Ross was leading them.

After finding their way through the city they were in, in White Pine. Of course, they were no where near to Utah still. So they ended up collapsing on a wheat field. Which was good considering there was wheat that would hide them whilst they slept incase zombies some how managed to get into the field. And on that field they slept like babies – deciding not to share any stories of their lives.

They'd already heard Ratliff and Riker's story. They shouldn't have but they laughed.

Basically what happened was Riker and Ratliff eventually became good friends, along with Ellington's friends Tristan and Connor and Riker's friend Laura, and after about three months of being friends there was a party. Of course they got drunk and they had a one night stand which made things very, very awkward. Riker would have happily forgot it ever happened but Ellington couldn't, so he decided to be an ass about it and completely ignore Riker. Mrs Hayes noticed this and asked Ellington what was going on and he refused to tell her, but she wouldn't give up and eventually he ended up screaming it at her as Connor and Tristan walked through the door. That didn't go well. They don't have a problem with gay people or stuff like that, they were just pissed that Ellington would keep something like that from them again – as he has always kept secrets from them. From that day forward, nobody would speak to Ellington at all.

The day that Ellington went to go apologise to him was the day the zombie apocalypse spread to Los Angeles, of course he didn't know that.

He did when he crossed the road and a car came zooming at him at over 100 miles per hour and nearly killed him. When he woke up he found himself being taken care of by Kelly in a dark room and she told him everything that had happened and what was going on. He'd been out for three days and the apcalypse was bad. Really bad.

"So yeah," Ellington said, looking at Riker like he was about to burst into anger and tears "that's why I never said sorry to you, that's why I didn't speak to you. Because when I came to apologise to fix things, I got ran down by a fucking car. Did anybody help me? No. The only reason Kelly helped me was because she didn't want to be alone in the apocalypse but she died anyway a couple months later."

Ross puffed his cheeks, trying to relieve some of the tension he could feel. Rydel rubbed Ellington's back as comfort to calm him down. "I'm sorry," Riker said, starting to feel guilty.

Ellington shook his head "It's fine. I should be saying sorry for not fixing things sooner."

"Yeah, but to be honest... is our problem as big of a problem as the zombie apocalypse?" Riker asked, with a smirk and Ellington shook his head "then why are we still fighting?"

Ellington shrugged where he ended up smirking himself.

Day 8

The last full day they would ever be together, as of tomorrow they would only have a couple of hours left together and that would be it. There would no longer be a Ross, Rocky, Rydel, Riker and Ellington. They wouldn't see each other ever again. That would be it.

For Ross he found it depressing because he had actually grown to like Rydel, Riker and Ellington. They seemed like pretty cool people. Even though they suffered with problems that could have been easily fixed. Heck, even Ross would be able to fix them if you gave him the time and day. And he's not very good at fixing problems.

Every day he would take the bandana out of his pocket and looked at it, where he was reminded of Brad. And Ashton too because he wore bandanas as well. But being reminded of Ashton also reminded you of Luke. And again Ross sighed. He couldn't believe he had given up hope on Brad and Luke being alive when he knows for a fine fact they're both dead, he's just been too scared to admit it.

Even though he knows that in 24 hours, he'll be reunited with them again.

As they started getting closer and closer to the border of Utah, the more zombies appeared and the more they had to hide and fight them. It was actually starting to become an hourly thing now. And when they get to Utah it might end up being a minutely thing.

But night soon came. And they took camp in an open space in the woods surrounded by trees on their last night together. "Even though we've all been a pain in the ass in some way," Rocky said, sitting on the floor, nowhere near where the fire was "I've gotta admit, it's been... fun." he laid back and looked up to the night sky that was between the trees, staring at the stars. It was a really beautiful night.

Riker nodded "Yup. It's a shame we haven't got another day or so."

"Who's staying on guard first?" Ross asked, looking round at everyone "because I think it would be ideal for one of us too incase a zombie comes and eats us all during the night."

"I will." Riker offered, Ross nodded.

Rocky continued to stare up at the sky "Oh my god! There's a shooting star!" he said, like it was something he'd never seen before.

"Where?!" Rydel asked, looking up.

"Come lay down! You'll see it!"

Rydel got up from where she was and laid down on the floor with her head almost touching Rocky's head, she looked up at the sky where she saw it trailing across the sky "Oh my gosh! I've never seen one before!"

Ellington got up from the floor "Whoa! Neither have I!" he said, crawling over and getting the space that was between Rocky and Rydel. It was a large space. He looked up and saw it "Whoa... cool..."

"Hey, I don't wanna be left out!" Riker said, crawling in on the other space between Rydel and Rocky.

Ross sighed heavily, rolling his eyes. "God, I feel like I'm recreating that scene from the Lion King when Timone, Pumba and Simba are all laid on the grass looking at the sky," he said, lying down between Rydel and Ellington and looking up where he seen it too "or I'm in some fucking cheesy movie."

Rydel elbowed him "Oh, shut up and make a wish."

Ross rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky and made his 'wish'. When the star was gone, Ross sighed "Is that it? Are we done?" Ross asked "can we go sit by the fire again because I feel queer as fuck."

"You look queer as fuck." Ellington commented, only to be shoved harshly by Ross.

Rydel stared up at the stars, looking at each and every one of them as she suddenly became depressed and had an empty feeling inside of her "Do you remember that saying that your parents always told you about stars?" Rydel asked "that each one represents someone who's no longer with us, looking down on us."

Riker sighed "If that's the case then there should be a hell of a lot more stars up there."

Ellington let a small smile form on his lips and pointed up "See them two stars there that are close together?" he asked, everyone looked and nodded "if what you say about that star things true, Rydel, then that's Tristan and Connor. They never left each others side. Always togethter 24/7."

Riker looked around where his eyes landed on a bright star "You see that one?" he asked "that'd be Laura. Just for the fact she was always smiling, happy and basically stood out from the crowd out of everyone else."

Ross let out a soft laugh "Loving how we all have meanings for these."

Rydel smiled slightly and lifted her arm to point "See those two that are almost touching?" Rydel asked, they all looked "that would be James and Taylor. Pretty much for the same reason as Ellington's. Stuck together like glue and cared a hell of a lot about each other, even if Taylor was only four."

the other four stayed silent. Not knowing how to respond to that, but figured they needed too before Rydel started questioning them. "So c'mon, Ross," Ellington said "tell us which ones Brad, Luke and Ashton."

Ross looked around in the sky, trying to find a star "Them three there!"

"That's Orion's belt."

"Oh," Ross said, loosening his shoulders "I don't know then."

"That ones Ashton," Rocky said, pointing up to a star in the sky that was almost as bright as the one Riker said was Laura. "Just for the fact it's bright and he was always chirpy, laughing... and well... him really."

Ross continued to stare up at the sky, letting his eyes scan all the stars that were there. He shook his head "I don't know what two could be Brad and Luke..."

Rydel shrugged "Maybe it's a sign."

Ross sighed, sitting up and putting his head into his hands "No, Rydel. We've been through this. They're gone. They're dead. Nothings bringing them back." he took a deep breath and laid back down.

Rydel shuffled a little "Sorry."

"Rydel, it's your turn." Rocky said.

"My turn for what?" she asked.

"It's story time." Ellington said.

Rydel let out a laugh "Alright then. Story time it is."

Riker felt relief "Finally."

"But I'll tell you now. It's a heck of a long one."

So yeah, the next chapter should be interesting. Woo. Sorry for moving it along so fast I had to before I started getting bored with the story and I think I'm gonna do the same with My English Love Affair AKA Somebody To You :)

Oh my god. Who's seen the NEW popstar! magazine holy fucking shit ALL IT IS, IS FULL OF R5, THE VAMPS AND 5SOS AND THIS IS LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE BUT SO FRUSTRATING AT THE SAME TIME BC POSTERS AND THEY'RE ALL ON TE BACK OF ONE ANOTHER AND OH MY GOD. I haven't got it yet, but I've seen pictures. Holy shit. This issue of the magazine might just be the death of me.

ALSO: I FINALLY made a video this story. The links at the top of my profile because it won't let me post it here. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch it bc I actually managed to add in Ashton & Luke as equally as I did with Ross, Rocky, RYdel, Riker and Ell. So lemme know what you think.

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