Chapter Text
Regulus walked along the road, frowning at the pavement. He was distracted, and during a zombie apocalypse, that was practically a death sentence. At least he had the others with him, so if anything happened they could protect him.
An arm slips between his, and Evan appears next to him.
"What's wrong, Lovely?" he asks. Regulus shrugs.
"Nothing, I'm just tired," Regulus replies. Barty pops up at Evans other side and holds his hand, swinging it between them.
"Tired as in you need sleep, or tired as in bored," he asks. He chews his gum obnoxiously.
"Both, I suppose."
Ahead of them, Dorcas and Pandora are walking with their heads close together, occasionally looking around for danger.
"Well when we get back to the warehouse, we can have a nap," Barty says.
There's movement in front of them, and everyone pauses. As one, they move towards a building on their right, hiding behind the crumbling brick. Regulus absentmindedly notices the moss and weeds growing along the stone, and once he notices that, he realises that all around him the weeds are growing in. Somehow he hadn't noticed before, too focused on surviving.
A group of people walk past. None of them notice the group peering around the corner at them. At first, Regulus thinks they're survivors. They're walking together and keeping light conversation with each other, even laughing at some point. But then he notices the injuries. Injuries that no human would survive, let alone walk around as if nothing is wrong.
There's one with a gaping stomach wound, the insides turning black from infection. Another has the right side of their hair ripped off, some scalp hanging off showing the skull underneath, clinging together with stringy bits of skin tissue. Regulus looks away with a hand over his mouth before he can look at the others. He feels light headed and has to lean on the wall for balance. Pandora shows up in his peripheral vision. He barley manages to supress a flinch when she places a hand on his shoulder, pink nail polish catching the light.
'You okay?' she mouths, and Regulus nods his head, clenching his jaw. Her hand slides down his arm and she slips her hand into his. Regulus squeezes her hand, smiling gratefully at her. The Zombies move slowly, leisurely. Thankfully they don't notice the group hidden by the building, all holding their beath as if that will stop the zombies from smelling them, hearing them. Regulus watches as they slowly walk away, still clinging to Pandora's hand.
When they finally turn the corner, everyone releases a collected breath before standing. They’re almost at the warehouse, so Regulus allows himself to relax a bit, still keeping an eye on the surrounding area for danger though.
When the warehouse appears in front of them, they all speed up, eager to get to safety.
The doors are open.
The doors are open!
Barty is at the front and holds his hand out to keep the others back, Pandora next to him.
"Shit," Evan mutters, and Regulus agrees. A survivor wouldn't leave the doors open like that, which means it was a zombie. Did they definitely close and lock the doors behind them when they left? Did they actually remember to lock up? It's an automatic thing that they do but what if they forgot this time? How did a zombie get in?
Barty and Pandora walk in, weapons at the ready. The two of them duck through the doors and Regulus grabs Evan's hand to stop him from following. After a tense moment, Pandora appears again.
"It's empty." Everyone else walks through stepping over the broken crate boxes that kept the food safe. All the food has gone and there's only one bottle of water left. Regulus feels his heart drop. The whole apocalypse they've had water with them, even when they didn't have food. How are they supposed to survive without any liquid? They've still got the food in their bags with them, which is better than nothing and a bit of water. They all stand, circling the room. Pandora looks like she's going to cry but Dorcas looks pissed.
Together, without speaking, they start to pack. Any food or water is pressed to the bottom of their packs, spare clothes folded on top. Then there's spare weapons, plus the weapons shoved into pockets and belt loops. Barty and Dorcas are at the weapon wall, taking down any that could be useful but are light-weight. Evan goes to a corner and takes the thickest blankets, rolling them up so everyone has one. After everyone is ready, a blanket tucked between the straps of their bags, and a weapon clutched in everyone's hands they leave.
Pandora has the shampoo and body wash in her thigh bag and she's twirling her butterfly knife around again. When she notices Regulus watching, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out an identical knife, handing it over. Regulus gingerly flicks it open. He had a practice one for years so he knows what he's doing, but it's different having a blade that’s actually sharpened. He winces when he blade thinly slices the skin across his knuckles, instead folding the knife back up and slipping it into one of his pockets.
"Where to?" Evan asks. Everyone shrugs.
"Maybe we could find the safe place that zombie was talking about," Regulus suggests. They need to find shelter or tonight, the door has been broken off its hinges, so they can't stay here. But in the morning they could have a look for this 'Order of the Phoenix'.
"I think we should wash up once we've found somewhere to stay, so we should stay by the water's edge," Pandora says. As soon as the words are out of her mouth, Regulus is aware of the dried blood covering him from the zombies they had to fight on the way back here.
"Good plan," Evan says, picking at the dried flakes of blood on his clothes. The group walk out and head back traveling. Pandora heaves out a sigh as she leaves the warehouse, waving good-bye to it.
They walk along the water's edge, looking for any houses or buildings that might be safe. There's a few houses, but almost all the doors or windows are destroyed. After over an hour of walking they find a small school. A couple windows are cracked, but not fully broken so it's not that big of a deal. The main door is thick and barley damaged, and still closes and locks.
The five of them walk inside, staying close together. There are other doors, but all of them are closed and look secure. The corridors are a mess, paper and mud cover the floors, but there doesn't look to be any zombie-caused damage. There are hundreds of rooms, but the only one they all feel safe staying in is the janitors storage room. There are no windows, yet it's big enough for them all to be comfortable laying on the floor.
There's a metal shelving unit hiding the walls, some of them empty, most with cleaning supplies and chemicals in containers. Evan leaves the room, coming back a few minutes later with a set of keys in his hand. When everyone is in the room, he locks the door with one of the key. Grinning, he turns and gives everyone a key.
"Master keys. They'll work on every lock in the school," he says. When Pandora asks where he got them, he shrugs. "Receptionist area. There's always a set of master keys for the janitor to use, I was expecting maybe one or two not seven." Everyone places a key in their pockets and Barty throws his things on the ground, falling on top of them with an 'oomph'.
"I can't be bothered washing myself now," he groans.
"Well if I don't clean myself I think I might cry," Regulus jokes. Pandora agrees with him, running a hand through his hair, trying to separate the strands of hair that have stuck together with blood.
"Barty you stay here and we'll go wash up," Evan says. Dorcas sits down next to Barty.
"I didn't get much blood on me, I'll stay with Barty," she says. "Safety in numbers, and all that."
Everyone places their bags down and Barty starts rolling out blankets creating a bed for everyone. Regulus gives his blanket to Barty but keeps his bag with him. Before they leave, he ruffles Bartys hair and walks out the door, following Pandora and walking next to Evan, their arms brushing against one another. Regulus hates splitting up, they rarely left each other's sight since the apocalypse started, but there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Barty will be safe with Dorcas, and Regulus has Evan with him. And with the water being close to their new shelter, Barty and Dorcas should be able to hear if anything happens.
The three of them walk towards the water and place their things on the side. The wind has picked up a bit and it looks like the sun is going to set soon.
"There's not much shampoo left," Pandora says quietly.
"It wasn't that long ago we used some, we can just wash using water for now," Evan says. The shampoo gets placed with their clothes. The shock of the water wakes Regulus up and he takes a breath and dunks under, getting his hair wet. Pandora does the same and Evan keeps look out. The water around them turns cloudy with the blood that comes off of them. When Evan sinks under, Regulus keeps look out.
As soon as Pandora is clean, she dries off and lets Regulus know she's heading back.
"It's bloody freezing," Evan says and Regulus huffs out a laugh, wading closer in the water to wrap his arms around Evan's neck.
"If we get back, Barty could warm us up," he says quietly. Evan closes his eyes, leaning closer to the smaller boy.
"Do you think Pandora and Dorcas would leave us alone in the safety for the night?" he laughs. Regulus presses a kiss to his cheekbone, trying not to frown at how sharp it is, compared to a few years ago when it was soft, rounded.
"We could find a classroom on the higher floors. One that's empty," Regulus murmurs, trailing his fingertips along Evan's arms.
Opening his eyes, he feels his breath catch in his throat. Slowly turning, making sure Evan doesn’t realise anything is going on, Regulus makes it so Evan is by the shore.
"Evan I need you to do something for me," he says lowly. Evan tenses up, noticing the change from his teasing tone. "Go back to the shelter and get Barty. Go as fast as you can and stay quiet."
"What's going-"
"Evan please," Regulus interrupts, keeping his voice quiet. There must be something in his eyes, because he slowly moves back to where their things are. Every movement he makes causes the water to splash, and every ripple causes Regulus' heart to clench in his chest.
As soon as Evan is back on land, Regulus looks down to the hand he can feel wrapped around his ankle. There's a body under the water. It's hidden by the blood clouding the water, but all the blood must have been what had drawn it to them. If he focuses down, he can see the hair swirling around, the pale skin. The hand wrapped around him feels swollen, almost as if she's been under the water for too long.
There's some faint ripples in the water and Regulus starts shaking as more figures crawl towards him. One of them raises his head out the water, his eyes milky white like cobwebs, his lips a pale blue. By the time Evan and Barty come running back to the water's edge, there's more zombies clinging to Regulus' legs, hundreds crowded around him in the water, but only a few above the surface. Regulus knows how this is going to end. He turns to see his boyfriends, tears slipping down his cheeks.
"I'm so sorry," he whispers, knowing they can't hear him. He doesn't have any weapons on him, his knives are with his clothes. He knows if he moves then he's dead, the zombies will rip him to pieces. Surviving the apocalypse this long lets him know exactly how he will die and exactly what will happen to his body. He's watched it happen to other people, he's listened to the pain they were in when it happened.
"What do we do?" Barty asks, hands in his hair. Evan is frantically pacing back and forth, biting at his nails.
"I don't know," he says quietly. Regulus just watches them. There's nothing they can do. Please look away he begs them, not daring to utter the words out loud. He doesn't want them to watch what's about to happen. If they leave now, they might get far enough away so they can't hear his screams. Luckily Dorcas seems to have the same idea. She comes up behind the boys, gently turning them away. Pandora is standing at the distance, crying.
Regulus gasps as the hands in his legs dig in, nails slicing his skin and tearing at the muscles. He feels the water of the lake seep into the wounds and tries to swallow as nausea takes over. The water around him is red now, and Evan is sobbing. His vision fades at the edges, and he wills himself to pass out. He won't feel it if he's not awake.
Without warning, one of the zombies above water jumps at him. And as if all the zombies were waiting for that signal, they drag him down under. Regulus fights back automatically. He knows he's going to die but that doesn't mean he wants it to happen, he doesn't want to die this way. He's survived the apocalypse long enough that he doesn't want to get taken out while bathing. He water burns as he swallows it down. He fights the zombies blindly, bloody water getting into his eyes. His movements are sloppy, there's no technique no power behind his punches, just instinct and pure fear keeping him going. He punches, kicks, scratches the zombies.
His body is shredded, his skin flapping open, gaping wounds exposed. His body is weak, he can't keep doing this. He can faintly hear screaming, but he can't tell who it's coming from. He doesn't know how long he's been fighting or but he knows that he can't breathe with the water filling his mouth and nose. The sound of the zombies splashing about the water when they had been so silent just a few moments ago messes with Regulus' head, and he knows he won't be able to fight for much longer. He just hopes that Barty and Evan turned away.
Just as his vision starts to black out, just as he starts to feel the zombies bite into him, there's a warrior cry from above and Barty charges into the lake, a shovel in his hands. Regulus tries to follow what happens as best as he can, but his vision is fading in and out. Barty cracks the shovel against the zombies heads, fighting them back. There's hundreds of them, he won't win.
Evan joins, farming blades in his hands, slicing at the zombies, screaming at them, tears pouring down his face.
The next time Regulus is aware of anything, he's lying on Barty's chest with Evan and Pandora inspecting the damage done the zombies did to his body. There's the bodies of the Zombies scattered in the water that's now red. The pain hits him all at once, and he curls up into himself, sobbing when that makes it worse. Barty runs a shaking hand through his hair, shushing him.
"You're going to be okay, you're okay," he whispers. Regulus can't tell if he's reassuring Regulus or himself. Dorcas appears at his side with towels soaked in water. She uses them to gently clean his cuts, wiping away the blood that comes pouring out. He's lost too much blood, there's no hospital to help him. The bandages are in a pile next to Pandora but there won't be enough. Every whimper that escapes his lips is replied with a cry from Barty, a soothing touch from Evan. There's ringing in his ears and he can't focus on what anyone's saying to him. The bandages are wrapped around him tightly, yet blood still seeps through. The world tilts when Barty tries to help him stand and he throws up, watery bile dribbles down his chin onto his feet.
"Sorry," he mutters, not even sure who he's apologising to.
"Hush, lovely, let's get you somewhere safe," Evan says gently. With Barty on one side and Evan on the other, they walk back to the school they found earlier. Dorcas rushes forward and opens the door for them and Regulus pretends that every step isn't agony. His nails are digging into the skin of his boyfriends' arms, but they don't comment. His vision is fading again, but he finally makes it to the bed they lead him to. The room smells of antiseptic, and Regulus barley notices that it’s the medical room before closing his eyes again.
His bandages are soaked in blood and sweat, slipping away from him. His body is shaking violently but he can't seem to stop. Barty piles blankets over Regulus, keeping him warm. Regulus immediately pushes them off, moaning in pain as the fabric irritates his skin.
"Regulus we need to keep you warm," Barty says gently. Evan is looking through the medical supplies, pulling out different tablets and wipes.
"Is the shaking good or bad?" he asks, and Barty glares at him.
"How the fuck am I supposed to know?! He snaps.
"I don't know, Barty! I'm just trying to figure out a way to keep him alive!" Evan snaps back. Regulus closes his eyes, turning away from them. Their voices raise higher as they argue, until Dorcas rushes over, pushing between them.
"Do you want to attract more zombies?" she asks, frowning. "Your boyfriend is lying on the bed in pain, stop being pricks, shut up, and look after him." She re-joins Pandora, as she comes in holding Regulus' bag and Evan sighs, dropping down next to Regulus again.
"Sorry for snapping, I'm just so fucking scared right now," Barty says. Regulus closes his eyes, he's too tired to keep them open and the adrenalin has started to fade, making the pain almost excruciating. His body stops shaking, and both boys go silent, looking at him.
"I don't think that's a good sign," Evan mutters.
"No shit," Barty snarls, then immediately apologises. Then the world goes dark as Regulus passes out yet again.
The rest of the day is a haze. Regulus is often shaken awake, some tablets forced down his throat that don't do anything other than make his stomach hurt. His vision is blurry when he has the strength to open his eyes. His body is in constant pain, his head is pounding, his chest hurts when he breathes. He spends the majority of his time sleeping, kicking off the blankets and covers that the other pile on top of him. There's some clean bandages wrapped around him, the older ones binned.
"What if he gets an infection?" he hears someone ask through the fog, though he can't tell who it is.
"Try not to worry about that right now," is the response.
Regulus fades in and out, not paying attention to anything around him. Someone walks into his line of sight.
"Sirius?" he asks, groggily. The face comes into focus and Regulus frowns. "You're not Siri," he whispers.
"I'm serious about you needing more sleep," the person says.
"'m not tired though," Regulus complains, ignoring how his eyelids feel heavy, slowly closing as he speaks.
"Sleep, Reg. Let us take care of you."