Yes, I know, last chapter... emotional. I'm sorry. But if you think that chapters bad, don't even get me started on this one. Just saying.

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

Chapter 26
The Armory

The four nervously walked around the base until they came to a door, they didn't even bother to listen out for the gates smashing open because that only signalled Riker and Rocky were dead and that they had to rush to get into the base to save everyone. And with hundreds of zombies hot on your tail, you aren't guaranteed to survive that.

When they found a door that lead into the base, Brad sat on a box that was a metre away as he felt tired and he began to become dizzy. Ross had already re-dressed his bandage, but it wasn't helping him what so ever. No matter how tight he fastened it, blood was still soaking through and pouring out. He watched dizzily as Luke and Ross bashed in the door until it opened up. They both took a deep breath and turned back to Brad. "Brad," Ross said in concern, going over to him quickly "are you alright?"

Brad nodded "F-fine... just... dizzy."

"Here," Ross said, taking off his backpack and taking out his bottle of water "have some water." he basically had to put it to Brad's lift and help him drink it, Brad felt that weak. After letting him have a big drink of it, he screwed the lid back on and put it back into his backpack and helped Brad up off the box "c'mon, lets get inside."

The four of them all walked through the door and stepped inside the base, something Ross, Brad and Luke hadn't done in a very long time. Ellington shut the door behind him and looked around at how much of a mess it was, along with all the dead bodies that were practically skeletons now as well as the dead zombies people had successfully managed to kill before they died or left. Not to mention the rubbish and all the weapons that failed the people.

"It's been a while..." Brad said, looking around. They were only at the side entrance to where people signed themselves in and it was a mess.

Luke turned his head, looking round to try remember his way around the place "We need to go to the armory, find some more bullets, guns and whatever else. It's close to the science side of the base. Might as well stop on our way there in case any surprise zombies jump out at us."

Ross and Ellington nodded, Brad didn't have much of a choice to go with them. He'd manage to find enough strength to walk himself without anybody holding onto him and they followed Luke as they all walked off to go find the armory. Brad stayed at the back, looking out in case they were being followed. Ellington would have stayed at the back but he didn't know his way around the base and if he ended up lost he'd be fucked.

They came to a corner and looked round it, seeing a sign hanging off the top of the doorway to another hallway saying 'Armory' on it. Though it said 'Amor' on it as the other 'r' and the 'y' had fell off and faded away. "Guys," Ross said, looking down to Ellington and Brad "we're at the armory c'mon."

As they all went to walk, they heard a groan which sounded a lot like a zombie. They all froze in their places and looked in different directions to see what way it had came from. Ross looked straight ahead of him where he saw a zombie stumbling towards them, and he wasted no time pulling the hammer pack on his gun, aiming and taking off the zombies head with three bullets, and watched as it fell to the floor dead.

Luke patted Ross's shoulder "Good one. Guys, we need to be careful. Cos I have a feeling that's not going to be the only zombie."

Luke stood back and let Ross, Brad and Ellington go round the corner to the armory, keeping an eye out, before following them all. Ellington looked on the wall of the hallway and saw pictures of people on the wall either still perfectly hanging, on the floor or hanging on a slant. He didn't understand what they were until he found Ashton's name and a picture of him where it said:

Ashton Fletcher Irwin

July 7th, 1994 – March 25th, 2014

Ellington felt a little depressed after figuring it out. Then he felt a presence next to him. He turned his head where he saw Luke stood next to him, looking at Ashton's picture "He was only 19 when he died... coming up 20... he'd have been 21 today if he'd have made it home." Luke said sadly, but with a forced small smile.

Ellington rubbed his back "Hey, you'll see him again in a matter of hours. It'll be fine," he said with a smile "and hey. What better day to end the apocalypse on, right? His birthday. He'd like that, wouldn't he?"

Luke shrugged "If he was down here suffering with the rest of us, yeah. But he's not. He's dead. He's got no worries. He'll be having a party up there." he said, looking up at the ceiling.

"Or, he'll be awake in his bed waiting for you to wake up." Ellington said, referring to how Rocky said when the Epoch machine is used it feels like you've woken up from a weird dream. He had faith that they were going to do this. "Plus, just because he's up there doesn't mean he's forgotten about you and everyone else he loved and cared about. You are alive aren't you? So somebody up there's been looking out for you all this time. And from what I've heard from Ross and Rocky I can't think of anybody else you knew that's dead that would be."

Luke turned his head and looked at Ellington with a small smile, a real smile this time. He hadn't done that in a long time. "Thanks. Maybe he will. And Rocky too if he's already dead."

"Only one way to find out."

"Luke, Ellington," Brad called from the outside of the armory "c'mon."

Luke and Ellington glanced at each other and made their way down to where Brad was. They walked through the doors into the armory, seeing a complete mess. They weren't expecting it to be still clean as people probably panicked when the apocalypse first started and raided the place. But with hope they could probably find a few things.

Ross lifted up a piece of wood from one of the crates and let it land on the floor with a huge bang "Well... whoever was in here last sure did make a lovely mess," he looked over to Brad and threw him the gun he had in his hand, luckily he caught it with his good arm "stay at the door and watch out in case any other zombies make a reappearance. We'll search through here for some stuff."

Brad nodded, standing in the doorway. He jumped slightly as the lights began to flicker down the hallway. This place was finally running out of electricity after a year and a half. Man, this place sure did have money. "Guys, I think the lights are about to go out down here..." Brad said, sounding scared.

"Right be quick." Ross said, beginning to throw lids off boxes to search.

Luke looked in the places where he and Ashton had put weapons the last time they ever sorted out the room and rearranged it. That was a couple of weeks before they went over to Afghanistan. They were both bored and had nothing else to do. There were a couple of places where he found grenades, but they wanted to kill the zombies. They didn't want to kill the zombies and blow half the base up. He sighed and searched in the other corner of the room.

Ross looked through the boxes, finding barely anything. All the guns he did find were all either broken or were in no state to be used. It was so frustrating. Ellington walked over to a door that lead to a cupboard. He opened it up and smiled "Guys! There's guns in here!" he said.

Ross and Luke got from where they were and went to the doorway of the cupboard and smiled where they saw different types of guns on shelf's and in boxes that looked intact and had nothing wrong with them. "Haha, I knew me and Ashton weren't stupid enough to just stock things in boxes and little cabinets." Luke said, going into the room and looking at them.

Ross picked up a nearby gun and looked in one "Yeah, but they have no bullets... guns are no good without bullets."

Luke sighed and shut his eyes "Damn it. They're in next door. But it's okay, I'll go get them. I think Ashton hid a secret stash somewhere with his name on it. Back in a minute."

Brad looked out of the room, watching out for any zombies and watched as the lights continued to flicker on and off every minute. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned where he saw Luke. Luke laughed softly "Relax. It's just me. Are you okay?" Luke asked, Brad nodded "good. I'm going into the room next door, okay? I'll shout you when I come out so you don't panic and think I'm a zombie, alright?" Brad nodded.

Luke gave Brad one last smile and made his way to the next room but froze when the light bulb smashed above him and the lights on that hallway went out completely and everything was pitch black. "Oh god..." Luke said under his breath. He put his hands on the wall and made his way to the next room. When he got to the door, he opened it up and walked in, switching on the light to look for the bullets.

Ellington picked up a medium sized gun from the middle shelf and held it "Not gonna lie, this base has some pretty cool weapons."

Ross nodded "Yeah," he said, spinning one round in his hand "they have a lot of things others don't have. That's why it's so secret. Not a lot of people know about it. Only the people who work here and the families of the people who work here. It's like Area 51, I suppose. If you see it or drive past it, you have no clue what's going on in there. Most people just assume it's a gigantic abandoned warehouse. But if you try to get into it and don't work here, that's it. You 'disappear'."

Ellington's eyes widened, putting down the gun "Oh wow."

Ross went to go say something but was cut off by a noise.

BANG!

BANG!

Then he and Ellington heard a giant screech of pain come from, what sounded like, Luke's mouth. Ross and Ellington's eyes widened and they ran out the cupboard towards the screech.

Luke searched around the second room, looking for the stash of bullets that he remembered Ashton hiding somewhere but he was beginning to think that maybe somebody found them because it looked like this room had been raided too.

He looked up to the top shelf and saw a giant box with another box on top of it saying 'Ash' on it and Luke grinned. When Ashton put the bullets away as a secret stash in case they ever needed any, he wrote his name on it so nobody would touch or go near it.

Surprisingly, Luke had to stand on his tip toes to reach it. Even then he only reached the big box under the box with Ashton's name on it. Slowly he began to pull it towards the edge of the shelf and the boxes on top of the big one fell off the top and ended up landing on top of Luke's head, he let a small 'ahh' but he made the mistake of letting go of the big box that also landed on his head, causing him to fall on the floor from the weight of it.

"Ow..." Luke groaned, lying on the floor.

He opened up his eyes and saw Ashton's box lying in front of him. He smiled and reached for the box, grabbing it. He groaned in pain as every inch of his body hurt from all the boxes on the top shelf landing on him. Maybe a little too much of a groan because Luke was convinced he sounded like a zombie the way he groaned, but he couldn't help it. He was in pain. A lot of.

Slowly he got up from the floor and groaned in pain until he got on his feet. He slowly made his way towards the door, groaned, saying 'ah' or hissing in pain every time he moved. Maybe he should have asked Ross or Ellington to come with him to help him out.

Brad continued to be look out for everyone, waiting for Luke to come back and for Ellington and Ross to be done in the cupboard. As each minute passed Brad became more nervous, and also more dizzy to the point he thought he was starting to hallucinate. But that was probably because it was dark and the gashes on his arm were now starting to affect what he saw.

Which definitely wasn't good.

Every time Brad spoke to Ross and Ellington it came out like he was going to pass out from tiredness or dizziness. Ross and Ellington would both ask him if he was okay and if he wanted one of them to take-over but Brad told them he was fine and could cope.

That was when all thoughts of Luke started to leave his mind to the point he had completely forgot about him.

Luke opened the door to the hallway and groaned, still feeling achey from the boxes landing on him. He tried to speak to let Brad know he was coming, but all that came out was another hiss of pain and a groan. The pain from the boxes landing on him weren't even funny anymore. Whatever were in them boxes sure did have some weight in them. But surely if Luke slammed the door shut, Brad would know it was him and he was coming down the hallway. He slammed the door.

Brad jumped when he heard a door slam that wasn't the cupboard door Ross and Ellington were in. He brought up the gun and aimed it down where the slam had came from "W-who's there?" Brad asked.

All he heard was a groan – it sounded like a painful groan too.

Luke tried to speak as best as he could but all he could do was limp and let out noises, that's how heavy and painful the boxes were when they landed on him. He waved his hand up in the air, but remembered it was pitch black and Brad couldn't see him. That was when the lights began to flicker on and off again.

Brad couldn't see properly down the hallway, all he could see was a figure limping towards him slowly – letting out a groan each time it moved. "Who is it?" Brad asked, scared in case it was a zombie.

Another groan.

Brad began to panic as he realised it was another zombie and he was stood there with a gun doing nothing. Until he aimed as best as he could and pulled the trigger.

Luke felt like he had finally regained his voice back, and when he went to go speak properly. It was too late.

BANG.

BANG.

Luke screeched in pain and fell to the floor. Brad's eyes widened when he heard Luke scream in pain, suddenly remembering Luke had left the room to go to another. He dropped the gun out of his hands as the lights flickered back on and he saw Luke sinking to the floor.

Almost straight away Ellington and Ross came running out the room and looked at Brad, looking down the hallway where they saw Luke lying against the wall holding onto his stomach breathing heavily. Ross looked at Brad, seeing the scared and petrified look on his face. He was shaking too. "What did you do?" Ross asked, hoping like hell it wasn't Brad who did that to him and in disbelief.

"I-I... I forgot he'd left the room!" Brad said, shaking and through panic as tears came to his eyes "he came out groaning and I thought he was a zombie! I didn't mean to do it! I forgot about him! It's these stupid gashes from the zombie scratching me! It's making me not think straight and hallucinate!"

Ross sighed and ran over to Luke, kneeling down next to him, tapping his face a few times as he saw his eyes shutting "Luke, Luke, Luke, it's Ross, stay with me," He said, seeing Luke roll his head and opening his eyes where he gave Ross a weak look "it's okay, you're going to be okay. Brad never meant to shoot you, he thought you were a zombie."

Luke nodded "I-I know. I was... the boxes... they landed on me... they were heavy... it was painful that's why I was... groaning..." he said weakly, running out of breath.

Ross nodded "Alright." he looked down to where Luke's hands were across his stomach, and he moved them seeing a large patch of blood and he sighed as tears began to form in his eyes.

Luke saw the tears forming in Ross's eyes as he looked down at his wound. He let a small weak smile form on his lips "H-how... how bad is it... c'mon... you don't have to lie to me..." Luke said as Ellington and Brad slowly approached behind Ross.

Ross gave him a small brave smile, keeping his hand on Luke's shoulder "It's pretty bad, not gonna lie. But I might be able to keep you alive for a bit longer. You just have to stay with me."

Luke let out a small laugh "Basically no matter how much you try I'm a dead man..." he said, becoming weaker as the seconds passed. Ross didn't have a response, he looked at Luke with a sad facial expression. Luke sighed as best as he could "It's my own fault... I shouldn't have left the room by myself. We should have left together."

"I'm so sorry Luke." Brad said, his voice cracking as tears glistened in his eyes.

"It's fine, it's not your fault... we all... we all make mistakes... it doesn't matter though... I'll come back... I know I will."

Ross took a deep breath and looked down, trying not to let tears fall. He looked back at Luke with a smile on his face but tears hanging off his eye lids "It's going to be okay though. You know that right?" he asked.

Luke gave him a weak smile, finding it sweet how Ross was trying to sooth him "Ross... it doesn't matter if I die... what's important is that you get to the Epoch."

"I know, I know. It's just... I've spent a year and a half thinking I wasn't going to get you and Brad back," Ross said, letting a tear fall down his face "and now that I have I thought I wasn't going to lose you. I thought we were going to make it to the very end you know?"

"We did make it to the very end though, pretty much," Luke said, feeling the air in his lungs becoming limited "Lets face it though... only one of us is meant to make it to the very end of this." Ross nodded, putting his hand on the other side of Luke's neck where his pulse is where he felt it beginning to slow down rapidly. "Just... just do me a favour if the Epoch doesn't work..." Luke said.

Ross nodded "Yeah, sure, anything."

"Don't forget about me."

Ross shook his head "Nope. I won't forget about you. I promise I'll get the Epoch to work."

Luke smiled weakly "I know you will..." he said, letting silence fall over them both "just do it, Ross... for the love of god do it... save the world. Put an end to this... I'm sick of seeing pictures and images in my head of how everything use to be... I'm tired of only seeing Ashton's face on a photograph. Everybody who is still alive is sick of seeing their loved ones in their heads, all they want is to see them and hold them again. I know that more than anyone," he said, his voice cracking at the last part "please... do it... I've never said this before but... I believe in you so much. You're the only person who I think can do this."

Ross wiped his eyes to stop any tears falling, but it didn't stop them glistening in his eyes. He took a deep breath and smiled, even though it came out sadly "Hey, you don't have to worry about seeing Ash's face in your head anymore or on a photograph. You're going to see him again. I don't know when, it could be in a couple of seconds or a couple of minutes but you will shut your eyes and wake up next to him. Whether if it's up in the sky or in yours, Rocky's and his dorm where they're both waiting for you to wake up. He'll be there..." he said, stroking his face softly.

Luke smiled again where a single tear fell down his face. He scrunched his face up in pain where he felt it shoot through his entire front "Ow..." he groaned.

"Shh," Ross said, trying to comfort him from the pain. He frowned "Shut your eyes Luke. You can go now... Ashton's waiting for you..."

Luke smiled weakly, but happily and slowly let his eyes shut "Ashton..."

Ross held onto Luke's face until his eyes were fully shut and his head rolled away from him slowly. He lifted Luke's head and tapped his face gently "Luke?" Ross questioned "Luke? Luke... are you still awake?" he asked after a while. Ross put his two fingers on Luke's pulse for a heart beat.

Nothing.

That was when Ross let the tears fall down his face and he pressed his forehead against Luke's. He sighed and slowly let go of Luke, getting up from the floor. Ross faced Ellington and Brad "He's gone..." Ross said, making Brad sigh and put his head in his hands "Brad, it's not your fault."

"It is!" Brad said, taking his head from his hands "I should have been more focused! But these stupid gashes are infected and are messing with my mind! It's only a matter of time before I end up killing one of you two, too. I've already killed Luke, what's to say I won't kill one of you?"

Ross stepped towards him "Brad, calm down."

"No! I won't calm down!" He yelled.

"Okay, Brad. Relax. Calm down. The gashes... they're infected. Now they're making you think things you shouldn't," Ross said, grabbing hold of him by the wrists "please... try to stay sane."

Brad nodded, trying to keep himself together where he suddenly felt himself become weak "I... I can't go on. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. Like Luke said, you go. Both of you. Go save the world. Restore it. Put everything back to how it should be before all this crap happened."

Ellington sighed "What about you?" he asked.

Brad shrugged "I'm too weak to do anything helpful. My minds playing... tricks on me..." he said, suddenly feeling breathless "I'd be better off dead with Luke and Ashton."

"Don't be stupid."

Brad looked up, looking at Ross in the eyes "You're my best friend, right?" Brad asked, Ross nodded "and you'd do anything for me. Anything that I asked no matter what happened?"

Ross nodded "Yes, of course."

"Then can you do me one last favour?" Brad asked.

Ross nodded again "Yeah. What is it?"

Brad took a deep breath, putting his hands down to Ross's hand that held the gun he had been carrying with him. He lifted it up so that it pointed to his head.

"Kill me."

What kind of Satanist allowed me to open up a FanFiction account and let me do this to you all? I do not know. Oh gosh. I'm so sorry. I'm taking it you're all looking forward to the next chapter. Not.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

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