Chapter Text
The zombie apocalypse started just over a year ago. The infection started almost two years before that. At first it was almost like a flu - just a fever, nausea, coughing… but then came the hunger. People started eating as much as they could. Stores ran out of food quicker than anything else, with the meat being sold faster than ever before. After almost a year of this fever, people stopped cooking the meat.
Regulus saw it with his own eyes, his father was one of the infected. One night, a few months before the apocalypse started, he was staying with his parents for the week. He walked down to the kitchen in the middle of the night for a drink. His father was there, raw meat stuffed into his mouth. Orion had eaten it so fast, so hungry for it, that it had gotten all over his face. The meat was so fresh that blood dripped from it, covering his clothes and face. Orion hadn’t noticed Regulus - who had almost thrown up, frozen in horror - and continued searching through the cupboards, fridge and freezer looking for more meat.
Regulus had gone back to his home the next morning, not wanting to be in the same house as his father for any longer, trying not to show how uncomfortable he was. It was all over the news when they first started eating people. Everyone was instructed to stay indoors, don’t leave the house for anything. But of course not everyone listened. The streets were covered in dead bodies, soaked in blood. The government called it an infection, an illness. But everyone just called them Zombies - because that's what they were. If you were lucky, you died quickly and the zombies ate you. If you weren't lucky, you got infected as well. Even now, years after the virus started, no one knows how it spreads. At first people wore face masks, thinking it was airborne. That didn’t last long.
Now, a year since people started eating each other, almost everyone was infected. Regulus and his boyfriends Barty and Evan are some of the few survivors, someone not infected. They were quarantined together when it started and they managed to stay together when everything got worse. They watched from the windows of their flat, people running in the streets getting chased. People screaming for help. Their door rattled with people trying to get in.
They never let anyone in, learning their lesson after trying to help a young girl. The infection hadn't shown itself until after a few days, and then she attacked. That was the first time Regulus had killed anyone, even if she wasn't fully human anymore.
Whenever they ran out of food, they would leave the flat together, each carrying a backpack with water, food, torches and a spare change of clothes. They aways stayed together, watching each other back.
That’s what they were doing right now, the three of them walking down the street, the smell of blood and rot filling the air. Each of them had a weapon clutched in their hands, and spare knives in their pockets. It was quiet today. The only noise was the slight scuff of their shoes as they walked. They hadn't eaten in almost three days, and it was starting to show, all of them moving slightly slower than usual.
Most stores they came across had already been emptied. They still searched through them though. Every so often, Barty would pocket some lighters, throwing deodorant or other aerosol cans into his bag, keeping one in his hand.
"A make-shift flamethrower." He had explained when Evan and Regulus had given him a look the first time he did it. They never questioned him again when that homemade flame thrower saved their lives a few days later, setting a zombie on fire and burning it to a crisp. The smell of burning flesh clung to their clothes and hair for days after, but at least they were alive.
Regulus walked slowly through the isles, hardly breathing. The lighting was terrible with the electricity not working and the windows being at the other side of the store. He didn't want to use his torch, trying to save the battery in case of an emergency. Speaking of batteries, in front of him was a stack, exactly the kind his torch took. He quickly opened his backpack as silently as he could and shoved the packs in, closing it quickly.
A noise behind him startled him, before he gripped his dagger tighter, turning in the direction the noise came from.
"Shit." He heard someone whisper to themself. It was a feminine voice, one he didn't recognise. But he still couldn't trust that she wasn't infected, some zombies could still speak perfectly and hold entire conversations before lunging and trying to rip your face off.
Regulus quietly moved back to where Evan and Barty were. Once he was in their eyeline, he signalled that he heard something. Barty nodded his head in understanding, flicking open his lighter and holding a can up to the flame, his finger over the pressure button ready to shoot. Evan raised his bat and the three of them moved towards the noise. They all got to the opening of the isle at the same time and watched a woman around the same age as them, maybe older, searching through the medical supplies. There wasn't much left, just the odd plasters or pills. The woman slipped on some blood on the floor and she cursed under her breath again before freezing. Slowly she turns around, facing Regulus, Evan and Barty.
"Oh," She whispered, "hello."
And then she turns runs.
"I'm going to give a wild guess and say she's not infected," Barty says, rolling his eyes. Evan huffs out a laugh, swatting Barty on his forehead gently.
"Come on," Regulus said quietly. "There's nothing left in this store. We should go find shelter before the sun sets."
The three of them left, none of them putting down their weapons. They moved down the street, sticking to the middle of the road and avoiding any open buildings where a Zombie might be hiding.
They had been walking for almost an hour, Barty kicking a stray pebble every now and then, when they heard the sound of running behind them. They turned round to see the girl from the store running towards them.
"Run!" she shouted as soon as she got close enough, without asking questions, they all ran.
Even after all these months, the adrenalin still got to Regulus. The fear of what was happening pumping through his veins. They had only been running for five minutes when there was a scream behind them, revealing what the girl was running from.
Silly really, what else would it be other than a zombie?
The scream made Regulus run faster, gripping onto Evan's arm to pull him along when he stumbled over his feet. There was an abandoned truck in front of them. The door was open, and Barty jumped in, Regulus and Evan following. Regulus closed the door after the girl, all of them crawling to the back, hoping the zombies didn’t see them climb in. There was an old blanket in the back that they threw over the top of themselves, hiding them from view if someone was to look through the window. After a moment, Regulus slid his hand out the blanket to click the button on the door to lock the truck.
"How do you know they won't smell us?" the girl asked once she got her breath back.
"We do this whenever we have to hide from a herd. We noticed that their senses haven't really changed since when they were human," Evan explained. "It's not like the zombie movies they used to make. They don’t have super strength, they can't smell us out. They're just like humans except… cannibalistic."
"And also they scream and screech," Barty added.
"Shut up," Regulus whispered harshly. He heard the shuffling of feet outside the truck. If he could hear them walking around outside, then they could hear them speaking inside.
The four of them sat in silence for almost an hour, breathing as quietly as they could. Regulus lost all feeling in his legs, and he could tell Barty was starting to get restless. Evan carefully lifted the blanket from his head, peaking out the window.
"They're gone, but it's dark outside now," he said, pulling the blanked back over his head.
"Should we stay here for the night?" Regulus asked, shuffling into a more comfortable position, wincing when pins and needles burst along his legs.
"I don't know… it would be safer, but this isn't the most comfortable of places to spend the night," Evan said. Regulus reached out and found the lever under the front seat of the truck, pushing the seat away from him. The girl next to him copied him, creating a bit more room for them.
Barty shifted a bit closer to Evan, before freezing.
"Are you seriously hard right now? I know where in a bit of a tight spot, and if this girl wasn’t with us I would totally have sex, but come on man, there's a time and place."
"What?" Evan asked, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
"I can literally feel your dick poking into my thigh."
"Dude that’s my baseball bat." Evan laughed. Barty flushed in embarrassment.
"Is that a bat in your pocket or are you just happy to see me," Regulus muttered under his breath. The girl next to him snorted loudly, then quickly covered her mouth. "Seems like we're going to be here a while, unless you want to leave," Regulus said to her. "I'm Regulus. That's Evan and Barty," he pointed to them as he said their names.
"I'm Dorcas," she said, smiling at him. "Are those two always like that?" she asked, nodding towards Evan and Barty who were bickering with each other, digging their elbows into each other, while their faces got closer, smiles across their lips.
"Yeah, they've been like that ever since we met. Most people think they hate each other. The looks on some peoples' faces when they found out we were dating…" Regulus chuckled to himself, shaking his head.
"I used to have a girlfriend like that, everyone thought we hated each other, and then we'd kiss and they'd be like 'what!'," Dorcas said laughing along with him.
"What were you looking for? Earlier in the store?" Regulus asked. Dorcas was surprisingly easy to get along with.
"Oh, I was just stocking up. My medical supplies was running low, just bandages or painkillers. In the morning we can go to where I've been staying and I can pack a bag. If you guys are okay with me joining you, of course!" Regulus quickly nodded his head, he'd love for Dorcas to join them. "Great!" she grinned. "There was someone I bumped into a few months back, I was so happy I found someone who wasn’t infected, but he insisted he was a 'lone wolf' or whatever, said he didn’t want a woman slowing him down."
"Misogynistic asshole," Regulus said, causing her to laugh again.
They fall silent again, all four of them shuffling around to get more comfortable.
"Do you have a weapon?" Evan suddenly asked Dorcas. She pulled a small kitchen knife out of her pocket.
"This is all I have. I used to have a gun, but the noise would just attract more zombies so I gave it up."
"Here." Regulus opened his bag and pulled out a spare dagger he had, handing it over handle first. "I've got loads of spares." While his bag was open, he threw a pack of batteries to Barty and Evan, who both shoved it into their own bags.
"Do you have any food at your place?" Barty asked after Evan's stomach gave a quiet gurgle. Dorcas grimaced.
"No, sorry. I haven't been able to find any food for a while. I ate the last of it this morning," she explained, looking apologetic.
"We'll just have to find some food together then," Regulus said, smiling at her. He tried to ignore how his hands shook from hunger, how he felt weaker than usual and the running they did earlier didn't help at all. The pain in his stomach had gone the day before and Regulus couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. He wrapped his jacket tighter around himself, and shuffled round so he was leaning against Evan. "Anyone going to take shifts to stay awake, or do we trust the locks of this truck enough to all sleep at the same time?" he asked, closing his eyes.
"Well I haven't had a complete night of sleep in months, so I'm sleeping," Dorcas said, curling up into a ball, clinging the dagger Regulus had given her to her chest.
Regulus fell asleep relatively quickly. After spending so long in the apocalypse, you get sleep when given the chance. The last thing he was conscious of was Evan wrapping his arm around him, pulling him closer, and Barty whispering a "Goodnight."