4 reviews? Seriously? You all fucking complain when I don't update for ages but when I do update, and i double update again in the same day, you don't review which is showing your appreciation for it. Especially when the stories almost over and it has 17 followers. Like what the hell. Seriously it doesn't take fucking 10 seconds of your life to review.

Gosh.

Sorry for the horrible start (again) and I will be putting this at the end of the chapter as well.

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

Chapter 24
An Old Face

Rocky still bent over forwards with his hand on his chest, gasping for breath from the heart attack the person from behind the trees gave him – along with Riker and Ellington of course. Them two might as well have died right on the spot because he's pretty sure if Ellington jumped up any higher in fright he would have been in the trees with the birds and squirrels. Even though Rocky should be use to this person giving him heart attacks, even though he hasn't had one off them in a very, very long while, his heart still can't take it. Rocky took a deep breath and faced the person.

"BRAD, I SWEAR TO GOD I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!"

Brad laughed, he knows he shouldn't because there was a slight chance Rocky could have shot him thinking he was a zombie but he found it hilarious that Rocky was dying. Then his laugh immediately sobered up "What do you mean I'm supposed to be dead?" Brad asked, confused.

"That's Brad?!" Riker asked, loudly and just as confused as Brad was about him supposedly being dead.

Brad smiled "Oh, so you didn't forget about me, you do actually talk about me to... whoever he is." he said, waving his hand in Riker's direction "or was it Ross? Speaking of Ross, where is he?" Brad asked, looking around and panicking slightly.

Ellington nodded "Yup. That's Brad." He said, commenting on how he worried for Ross. Which was something, as Rocky said and Ross shown without saying, Brad did.

"GUYS!" Ross shouted, coming running towards them all with his gun "What's going on?! Why are you all screaming?! Oh, hey Brad!" Ross looked at Ellington but did a double take when he realised Brad was there almost straight away. He furrowed his brow and pointed at Brad "You're dead!"

Brad huffed "I'm not dead! I don't know where you all got the idea from that I'm dead!"

Ross gave him a 'are-you-kidding-me' look, as if he didn't know what happened back at the base on the last day.

Ross pulled his arm away from Rocky's grip "I'm not leaving without him."

"Brad, listen to Ross and come on." Will said.

Brad shook his head. Ross had enough, he stepped forwards to go grab him and drag him with them – he was not letting him die to go find someone who was already dead. He knows it sounds harsh but it's true. If the roles were reversed, Brad wouldn't want Ross to go or he would go with him. So it was either Brad came with them or Ross went with him.

As soon as Ross took one step forwards, Brad took off through the door.

"BRAD!" Ross shouted.

"Oohhh yeah..." Brad said, in realisation. He then shrugged "Na, I lived."

"How?!"

"Wow, Ross. You seem so pleased to see me." He said sarcastically.

Ross sighed and rolled his eyes. He ran his hand through his hair as he didn't know what to feel right now. On one hand he was way too happy, even though he wasn't showing it, that Brad was here. But on the other hand, he was confused because he had pretty much lost all hope that he was gone and dead – along with Luke – and he was never coming back. He died when Ross watched him go back for Luke.

And now he's here.

Brad stood there waiting for an answer from him as it looked like he was either going to burst into tears or... do something else. So he stood there and waited. Slowly Ross edged his way over to Brad till he was stood right in front of him, which made Brad nervous because he looked kind of intimidating. Or maybe that's just because he's taller than he is and everyone who's taller than Brad looks intimidating.

But instead of hitting him or doing anything else Ross grabbed hold of him and pulled him into a tight, surprising hug. Brad let out a little noise, forgetting how strong Ross was because he was pretty sure if he hugged any tighter his rib cage would break. He looked at Rocky over Ross's shoulder as well as to the other two strangers sat on the floor, not being quite sure what to do or how to reaction to this.

Rocky stepped forwards and put his hand on Ross's shoulder "Ross, I hate to break this hug up, but erm... You're killing him. Oh my god, I think he's going purple! Ross let go!" he said, pulling off him.

Brad took a deep breath "Thanks."

"Sorry," Ross said, shaking his head. He gave him a small smile "Guess I'm just a little happy to see you."

"A litte?" Ellington question.

Ross pulled back the hammer on the gun and aimed it at Ellington "Shut up."

"You wouldn't..."

Ross pulled the trigger on the gun and shot the ground that was five centimetres away from where Ellington sat. Ellington jumped up from the floor and screamed like a girl "SHIT DUDE ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

Ross smiled at him and sat down where he was originally sat down before he got up to go to the tree, lets say. Rocky came over and sat down where he was, Ellington reluctantly sat back down next to Ross and Brad awkwardly sat down in the space that was left between Riker and Ellington. "Um... I know I just kinda crashed this thing," Brad said "but um... who are you two?" he asked.

"I'm Riker," Riker said, with a small wave. He pointed at Ellington "That's Ellington. But you can call him Ratliff if you want."

Ellington nodded "Yeah, I'm the one everyone likes to mean too and try to kill." he said, pretending to be happy about it.

Brad nodded "I can see that."

Brad went to go say something but Riker stopped him "No need for the introduction, we already know who you are," Riker said, like he was fed up of hearing about him "we've been told everything about you, some Luke guy who Ross seems to think is still alive like he did with you and some – I say this in the nicest way possible – dead guy called Ashton. Courtesy of Ross."

"Oh, fair enough," he said with a soft laugh. He looked back at Ross "You thought I was still alive?" he asked.

Ross shrugged "I didn't at first, but about... a few days ago I did."

"Why?"

Ross dug into his pocket and threw the bandana at him "You dropped this."

Brad caught it in his hands and looked down at it, wiping his hands over it "Ha, I thought I lost this thing for good. I can't believe I kept it, I wasn't going to, but I figured hey, why not it could be the last thing he gives me," he said, putting it on his head like he always use to "and I was right. Besides from a hug that almost killed me."

"When did you drop it?" Rocky asked.

"About a month ago? I decided I would try look for you both so I made my way to LA as best as I could, when I got there... couldn't find you. I even tried that store you both always went in on a morning before you came here to the base. Needless to say there was a very angry blonde and she held me at gunpoint for a little while before she finally decided to let me go."

Ross sighed, putting his head between his knees whilst everyone else either looked down or at each other. Brad looked at everyone "What? Did I say something I shouldn't have?" Brad asked.

Ellington shook his head "No... the girl who had you at gun point we knew her... she's dead now."

"Oh..." Brad said, taking a small pause. He left everything silent for a little while before speaking up again "Are you guys going where I think you're going?" He asked, directing it to Ross and Rocky.

Ross looked up "Maybe."

"The base?"

"Yep."

"Epoch?"

"Yep."

"Thought so."

"Wait a second," Ross said, smiling slightly as he brought out the map from his back pocket "you're the one who drew this for me to follow aren't you?" He asked "for me to follow."

Brad gave him a confused look "I didn't draw no map. I've never drawn a map... so... it must have been someone else..."

Now it was Ross's turn to have the confused look. He looked down at the map again and began to think.

Ellington sighed, looking at Brad slightly confused but yet with wonder and Brad noticed. He didn't say anything, he just looked at Ellington back slightly creeped out by the way he was being stared at by him. The others noticed too and started looking between them both before Ellington finally spoke up. "Say, Brad... Bradley... Bradders... whatever you like to be called," he said, moving into a more comfortable position "if you knew about this Epoch machine too... why haven't you used it yourself?" he asked.

Ross looked over to Brad "That is actually a very good question."

Brad sighed "Alright. You wanna know why I didn't use it yet?" Brad asked, they all nodded "I tried getting into the base but I couldn't. One, because there are a heck of a lot of zombies outside the place like they're guarding it. Two, the hole in the fence that me, you, Rocky and Luke climbed through has been sealed up. Three, I can't climb fences for shit."

Rocky laughed "Is that cos you're short?" he asked.

Brad rolled his eyes "Wow, dude. Wow. I haven't seen you in a year and a half and all you can do is threaten to shoot me and throw insults at me. You haven't changed one bit at all?" Brad asked "what would you have done if Luke was still alive and he was sat here right now instead of me? Would you have threatened to shoot his quiff off or cut it off? Remember the last time you tried to do that?" he asked.

"Shut up." Rocky said, becoming suddenly annoyed. Ross began laughing at the memory, so Rocky slapped him "You can stop too or I'll tell everyone about truth or dare night at the base!"

"You wouldn't..." Ross and Brad both said at the same time.

Riker laughed along with Ellington. Riker folded his arms "Oh, this just suddenly became interesting," Riker said through laughter "I don't know what I wanna hear about more. Rocky trying to cut this Luke guys quiff or truth or dare night."

"That Rocky, Ashton and Luke were involved with too!" Ross added quickly and defensively.

"Oh dear," Ellington said, with a grin as he rested his chin in his hand and brought his legs up slightly "I wanna hear about truth or dare. I mean, I feel like a teenage girl right now but I don't care. I haven't had this satisfying feeling in a very long time."

Rocky went to go say something, with a grin plasters across his face, but Ross stopped him and pointed at him "I will shove my fist so far down your throat I will pull out a kidney." Ross threatened.

Rocky slouched, falling silent at that threat. And if it wasn't for the fact he heard Brad slightly laugh, he would have stayed quiet. "I dared Ross and Brad to kiss and they did it." Rocky blurted out.

"Rocky and Ashton kissed." Brad blurted out next.

Riker slapped his legs, through laughter "Holy hell, I feel like I'm at a girls sleepover this is hilarious!" he said as he and Ellington were so amused by this.

"Plus, at least mine and Brad's was a little peck and that was it. It wasn't as awkward as yours and Ashton's, I mean... I dared you both to kiss for 10 seconds as making me and Brad peck, I didn't say make-out." Ross said, with a smirk.

"DUDE!" Rocky shouted.

Brad smirked "Man, I thought Luke was going to kill you. I mean if looks could kill you would have been dead."

Rocky hid his face in his hands, feeling his cheeks go red and he groaned feeling embarrassed which made everyone laugh. Ross calmed down his laughter and looked around at everyone, suddenly having a sad feeling wash over him as this was like a time when he, Brad, Rocky, Luke and Ashton all went camping in the woods. Something happened like this when they were all trying to embarrass each other, it just kept on getting funnier and funnier each time something was revealed about someone.

Almost like the time when Brad accidentally revealed that Luke and his 'ex-girlfriend' never even dated at all. By that point Ross and Rocky knew it was obvious and joined all the dots together and came to a conclusion of their own and understood why she did that for Luke.

Brad knew all along he just never told anybody till it accidentally slipped after Ashton died and Rocky suggested to go get his 'ex-girlfriend' to help cheer him up.

As they were so lost in whinding up Rocky as well as Ross and Brad, they failed to notice something in the distance slowly making their way towards them.

That was until Ross lifted up his head and looked behind Brad, his eyes widened "Oh, shit. Brad. MOVE!" Ross shouted.

Brad looked at Ross confused but looked up where he saw a zombie coming towards them about a metre away from him. He let out a small yell and jumped up from the floor and began backing away, even though it started moving slowly forwards at Brad. Ross picked up his gun from the floor and aimed at the zombie, pulling the trigger where he got a clear shot in it's head – sending it dead on the floor.

Brad took a deep breath "Fuck. Thanks. I thought I was dead there."

Ross nodded, putting his gun back down "No prob—DUCK!" He shouted at Brad, seeing another zombie behind him – this place was fucking crawling. He pulled the trigger to shoot the zombie in time before it got to Brad, but the gun was empty and he had no time to grab bullets from his or Rocky's backpack.

Brad turned around to see how far away the zombie was, just to see if he was better off running or if he wouldn't make it in time. But that was a mistake as the zombie swiped it's arm and Brad and got him "OW!" Brad cried out in pain, as he got knocked to the floor by it – after it swiped at him.

Rocky fumbled for his gun and bullets as quickly as he could before it went for Brad again and shot it straight in the head twice, because the first time he missed. The zombie collapsed on the floor. Ross jumped up from the floor and ran over to Brad who was laid on the floor, Riker crawled over to him as he was the closest. "Brad," Ross said, practically pushing Riker out the way "are you okay?" he asked, kneeling in front of him.

Brad groaned in pain, shutting his eyes tightly and re-opening them. He slowly sat up on the floor "Ow... that hurt... a lot."

"Did it get you? Did it bite you?" Ross asked, panicking.

Brad shook his head "No... but it... erm... yeah..." Brad extended his right arm where big three gashes were revealed, that were not there before.

"It scratched you..."

Brad nodded. At that point, Riker's face fell as he got a horrible memory. Ross sighed "It's fine, we'll wrap something round it," He said, hoping like hell he was going to be okay "n-nothing happens if you get scratched by a zombie right? You don't... you don't turn into one... do you?" he asked, looking round at Rocky and Ellington who just shrugged. But he noticed the horror on Riker's face "Riker..." Ross said "do you know what happens?" he asked, Riker nodded "what happens?"

"Um... erm... he er..." Riker stumbled for words, rubbing his head "it happened to Laura. She got scratched. She didn't turn into a zombie but the gashes were infected and she died a few days later, but that was only because they weren't that deep," he looked at the gashes on Brad's arms "them gashes are really deep... I tried everything I could to make sure it didn't infected but nothing works. I'm sorry... I don't know how long you're going to last for... I mean, I was going to cut off her arm but by then it was too late."

"You can fuck off, you're not cutting off my arm!" Brad said, suddenly becoming scared and defensive. He wanted to keep his arm, regardless if it was now becoming slowly infected and could kill him.

"Here." Rocky said, tossing over a roll of bandages.

Ross caught them and unrolled it "Wait a minute," he looked over to Rocky "dressing. I need that too you know? The bandage isn't going to stop it bleeding and protect it from infection you fucking fool."

"Alright then Mr. Nurse, calm down." Ellington said, taken back by Ross snapping as well as Rocky who looking through the two backpacks "do you even know what you're doing?" he asked.

Ross nodded "Yes," he said, catching the dressing as Rocky threw it too him "the base had different jobs. You had to pick one depending on what you knew about the most and were good at. Apparently I was good at doing this, looking after people who were hurt with injuries and whatever so... I landed being basically a freaking nurse or doctor. Which came in handy, especially with these two, Luke and Ashton. God, the amount of times they cut themselves deeply. But I did other things too, if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to go over to Afghanistan with everyone. So basically I was part time nurse and part time guard slash soldier."

"What was everyone else?" Riker asked.

"Me and Brad were basically full time guards – or soldiers, I don't know they treat us like them though. We were good ones too," he said, smiling like he was boasting "Luke and Ashton were like Ross. They did two things. Spent half the week doing the guard slash soldier stuff and the other half doing whatever else they did. I think it had something to do with the Armory we had. You know? Looking after all the weapons, guns, knifes, bombs etcetera and making sure they worked okay. So they were both pretty handy with weapons."

Ross scoffed "And to think, if Ashton just stuck with doing the Armory and not the soldier stuff he wouldn't have had to go to Afghanistan and he would still be alive."

Brad frowned "How erm... how far back into the past are you planning on going with the machine?" he asked.

Ross shrugged "About a month or two,"he said, now wrapping the bandage around Brad's arm. He looked at him in the eyes as it looked like Brad had an idea about something "why?" he asked.

Brad shrugged "Don't know. Just saying. If you only go back two months, you'll save every one in the world but Ashton... he'll still die."

Ross tightened the bandage round Brad's arm a couple more times, staring him out whilst he done so – thinking about what Brad had just said. If he goes back to about three months, he can save Ashton. As at that time you were allowed to still take your name off the list, but if he goes back two months or even one month Ashton will still die because you weren't allowed to by that point as everything was set and ready to go.

Ross nodded "Right then," he smiled "three months it is."

After a night of a, almost, perfect sleep they were set and ready to go. They would make it to the base two hours from now if they were quick. Four if they were slow. Every hour of the night, last night, someone different would stay up and keep an eye out in case any more zombies came. And they did. Each time they were on duty. The maximum that came were three each time. But they managed to shoot them down.

Rocky was so glad he decided to raid that gun store back in LA before they came here.

When they made it out the woods, they felt relieved as they were now practically in the desert as Ross, Brad and Rocky could see in the distance – very tiny but it was there – the train station they always used to get here. It seemed about fifteen to thirty minutes to walk there. It took them an hour to get out of the rest of the woods.

Now it was warm. Though, they were in a desert.

"How fars the base from here?" Riker asked, looking down the road and trying to make it out as the sun was shining down brightly in his eyes.

Rocky shrugged "Don't know. But once we get to the train station it's forty five minutes."

"Does anybody even know what time it is?" Brad asked, rubbing his arm from where he got scratched by the zombie last night. It was starting to hurt him again and he could feel blood seeping through the bandage. The thing that gave that away was probably the big blood stain on it. If he was honest looking at it made him want to pass out. Or maybe that was just the effect of the gash starting to become infected.

Oh well, they were almost at the base now. He wasn't going to die between now and the journey to the base. Like Riker said. When Laura got scratched she died days later. It's only been about 6 or 12 hours since Brad has.

Ellington looked up at the sky "I'm gonna say about noon, maybe one o'clock in the afternoon."

Riker turned his head where he noticed Brad fiddling with the bandage on his arm "Is it hurting again?" Riker asked, Brad nodded "oh..."

"What does that mean?" Brad asked, starting to worry slightly.

Riker shook his head "N-nothing. Laura said her arm started hurting again a few... never mind."

Ross put his hand on Riker's arm "No... go on. Because if he's going to die before we reach the base, we need to know."

"Yeah," Rocky said, pulling the hammer on the back of his gun "I'll put him out his misery right now."

"NO YOU FUCKING WON'T!" Brad shouted, hiding behind Ross. Damn, the apocalypse really did make Rocky care very less for what he done and who he killed. Even his friend who he had known for years. Rocky Lynch guys.

Riker sighed "Her arm starting hurting a few hours before she died," Riker answered "when she got into her final hour she became really weak. I told you, it depends on how deep the scratches are. Hers weren't that deep, but Brad, yours are gashes. Deeper than scratches. I'm just saying, you better hope we get to the base before we get to your final hour." he said, sounding annoyed and pissed. And he was. He didn't want to go through something like this again like the way he lost Laura and he was about to.

Yeah, he'd only known Brad for half a day now and heard things about him from Ross and Rocky but he seemed like a pretty decent guy like Laura was a decent girl. He doesn't like seeing people like them die.

Ross sighed, seeing a small hut walking distance away "C'mon, we'll go in that hut and I'll re-dress your bandage." he said, beginning to make his way over to it but nobody followed. By the time Ross was at the door of the hut, he noticed nobody followed him. He turned round "What?! Come on!" He shouted "it'll take a couple seconds to get over here and a minute at the max to re-dress his bandage!"

Rocky, Riker, Ellington and Brad all glanced at each other and back over to where Ross stood outside the hut. That was when they noticed the hut door open, not Ross opening it, where someone with a hood over their head and face – hiding them – came out. Walking behind Ross. "Ross..." Rocky called "c'mon. Come back."

Ross rolled his eyes "Why? He needs to be seen too before his arm falls o—AHH!"

before Ross managed to finish that sentence the person in the hood grabbed Ross and began to pull him into the hut they came out of. "SHIT! ROSS!" Rocky shouted.

Immediately the four guys ran their fastest over to the hut. The hut wasn't that big to have different rooms. It was like the first hut Rocky, Ross, Rydel, Riker and Ellington all found on the outside of LA when they first found Riker after he scared the shit out of Ross and Rydel. But they still chose to wait outside the hut for a couple of seconds.

Rocky had his gun and Ross's too as he left it on the floor on the woods when he stopped to tie his shoe, but forgot about it. So Rocky picked it up. He gave the gun to Riker, as Brad wasn't exactly in the state to hold a gun right now with his arm. Ellington still had his big plank of wood he'd been holding for days now. "On the count of three, we go in there and if they don't let him go, shoot and hit, I repeat, shoot and hit." Rocky whispered. Everyone nodded.

On the count of three Rocky and Ellington both kicked down the door and the four of them jumped into the hut where the person, who still had their face hid, had his or hers arm around Ross's neck with a gun pointed to his head. Ross looked petrified. "Look," Rocky said, aiming his gun at the person "there's one of you, and five of us. Actually, four cos you've kinda got old of the fifth one."

"Not helping Rocky." Ross said, trying to keep calm. This was the first time ever he had been held at gun point like this. Well, with Rydel it was different. He knew she wasn't going to shoot him, he could tell by the look on her face and the way she held the gun loosely. But this guy – he knows it's a guy because he said something to him. Ross thought he recognised the voice, but he must have been hallucinating. The desert heat does that to people.

"Are you going to let him go?" Rocky asked "or do I have to do something I really don't want to do."

"What are you guys even doing here?" The guy asked, making Rocky and Brad glance at each other quickly and look back "you're not supposed to be here. Nobody's been here for ages. I've been here since day 1 of the apocalypse and everyone who's came for a purpose has never came back out alive."

Ellington shrugged "And? What are you trying to say?"

"Turn back now. It's not going to work, whatever you're going to do. It isn't going to work." The guy said. He couldn't even see who it was he had hold of let alone the people in front of him, due to the fact of the hood being over his eyes so they couldn't see him. But... three of their voices were really familiar to him.

Riker scoffed "What do you think we're going to do?"

"You're all going to the base that's about fifty minutes from here. I know it. Everyone who comes here tries to go there but fails." the guy said.

Brad furrowed his brow, listening closer to the person who spoke "Hang on... pull down your hood."

"No."

"Why not?" Rocky asked.

The guy shrugged "Don't want too."

"Answer this then," Ellington said "how have people died coming here?"

"Simple isn't it," The guy went on "the base is crawling with zombies. The people who have came here have always been in three's. You need more than a three. Two or three people to keep the gate shut so the zombies can't get in and the remainder of the others run into the base and do what they do. I've seen it many times and it's failed," he explained, his accent suddenly becoming clearer to Brad "you'd have thought by the amount of corpses the stupid bastards would turn around."

Brad furrowed his brow, cocking his head slightly. But then something hit him.

"Wait a fucking minute! I recognise that accent! Luke! Put the fucking gun down and let him go!"

And you all thought that Brad and Luke were both dead for good. Or that I would only bring one of them back ;) Idk if I surprised you or not. But the hints have been there throughout the story lol.

But anyway what I said at the beginning: 4 reviews? Seriously? You all fucking complain when I don't update for ages but when I do update, and i double update again in the same day, you don't review which is showing your appreciation for it. Especially when the stories almost over and it has 17 followers. Like what the hell. Seriously it doesn't take fucking 10 seconds of your life to review.

7 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.