Chapter Text
Tubbo is sprinting through the city, making as much noise as possible to attract the zombies away from Tommy. After all, it’s his turn to play bait.
The last thing he expects on his madman run is to come across another survivor. He sees the survivor crouched over, hands moving quickly over a corpse they’d just looted. For a moment, he thinks of leaving him to the horde. A twisted thought that he knows he wouldn’t have had in the earlier days. And that enough is what makes him call out to him.
“Hey!” Tubbo shouts, raising his voice over the growling of zombies. “Are you alright?”
The survivor looks up with wide eyes, having been previously looting a corpse he’d fought off. “Are you the one that’s been making all that noise?” The survivor shouts.
Tubbo walks over, ensuring to keep a safe distance.
“Yeah but now I’m about to get the fuck out of here.”
The boy blinks owlishly, looking between Tubbo and the horde. His face drops when he sees the group of zombies, clambering over one another to fight to the front. A bloody battle of bodies forcing their way forwards.
“Do you take guests? I know where we’ll be safe” The survivor smiles awkwardly and Tubbo shrugs, ushering him forward. They meet in the middle and Tubbo extends his hand.
“I’m Tubbo, nice to meet you.”
“Ranboo.” He smiles, “We need to start running.”
Tubbo turns around, “Oh shit, yeah.” he pulls out his axe, carrying it and Ranboo leads the way. The two of them running through the skeleton of a building they once loved.
Tubbo’s chest rises and falls from the constant running exhaustion starting to catch up to him. Ranboo catches on, grabbing onto Tubbo’s hand and dragging him forward. They pause a little while down the street, Tubbo barely having time to catch his breath.
“Watch out!” Tubbo yells, swinging his down and cutting through the hand of a Zombie. Rotted flesh stings their noses, the smell being a putrid mix with the blood spraying out of the wound.
Ranboo gasps and falls back against Tubbo.
“Jesus!” Ranboo exclaims, dodging another zombie which lunges for him. He kicks it backwards, Tubbo making the delivering blow.
“We need to hide somewhere.” Tubbo puffs, blowing a strand of hair out of his face. “The path won’t be clear to my reach my base for a while.”
“It’s a few days journey to my apartment.” Ranboo admits, nodding to himself and working out a plan. The cogs in his brain churn as he thinks. Tubbo watches as he paces, deliberating an idea. “We can start heading to a safe house I’ve got. There shouldn’t be any zombies by then. And if there are, we can fall back to my apartment.”
Tubbo hums. He doesn’t want to have to be separate from Tommy for too long. Knowing the boy, he’ll probably stress out the minute Tubbo is late. But at least Tubbo will be able to radio him and tell him where he is.
Tubbos has never been one to turn down an adventure.
—————
“Tommy, what the hell are you doing?” Tubbo sighs, pulling the strap of his backpack over his shoulder and staring down at the boy. Tommy slouches on the floor with his legs crossed. Tubbo watches as Tommy takes one of his handful of nails and lines it up against the bat.
“I’m upgrading Clementine.” Tommy bangs a rock against the nail, forcing it into the bat and creating a spiked weapon.
“Where did you even get those nails?”
“Ranboo had them in his fence so I took the loose ones.”
Tubbo blinks, pauses, then looks over the ledge of the building. He stares down at the defensive fen— oohhh that’s awkward. The defensive fence sits on the ground outside the building in a heap, a pile of planks stacked against eachother and holding one another up haphazardly.
“Oh c’mon man! What happened to my fence!” Ranboo shouts from the concrete at the base of the building, holding a plank in despair.
“Shut up Ranboo!” Tommy yells back, focusing intently on his handiwork. “You are bald and dumb and I hate you!”
After successfully upgrading Clementine, they make their way down stairs to where Ranboo is.
Tommy swings his bat in boredom. “Let’s get going, man. Clementine is bored.”
Tubbo rolls his eyes. “Ranboo, lead the way.”
Ranboo shocks to life, nodding and turning to a direction they haven’t yet travelled in. The city groans with life, about a half dozen zombies are in sight from where they are now and hundreds more lurk in the shadows.
It’s not a safe journey, although Tubbo feels a little more comfortable making it with Tommy and Ranboo by his side.
After about an hour, Tubbo has readjusted to the usual dynamic of things. Tubbo knows that Tommy is still a little angry at Ranboo for the zombie bite. He knows by the way he has to keep playing peacemaker in between half of their conversation. But he’s sure Tommy needs to get used to Ranboo. And it’s easy to tell that Tommy is fond of Ranboo in a friend way. Despite the boys best efforts in making it look like he hates him.
And surprisingly, the three of them have a great dynamic together. Admittedly, Tubbo was a little worried to introduce the two, but they already got introduced on the journey over to the apartment.
It… well, honestly this whole thing might go really well.
————
“Are we there yet?” Tommy moans, dragging his feet against the gravel.
“You asked that like 30 minutes ago.” Ranboo responds, staring at his feet.
“And?”
“We’ve only been travelling for 40 minutes.”
Tommy gives an exasperated groan of dismay and uses Clementine like a walking stick.
“Tubz, how’s the leg?” Tommy asks after a short moment.
Tubbo shrugs. “Fine.” He says through gritted teeth.
He’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt. And it’s definitely slowing them down. Tommy and Ranboo keep glancing at him, matching their pace to his. It only makes Tubbo want to speed up.
He refuses to be a burden.
“Are you sure?” Ranboo gives a sympathetic smile. “We could probably find you a cane or a walking stick.”
“Oh, I’m the best fucking stick finder there is.” Tommy proclaims, placing a handover his heart.
Tubbo smiles, relieved in an odd sort of way that Tommy is able to break the tension so easily.
They continue down the street, Tommy jumping around trying to find a stick and Ranboo searching more calmly as they walk.
“FOUND ONE!” Tommy shouts, running down an alleyway and returning with a long metal pipe.
Tubbo snorts, “Thanks big man.” and grabs it from Tommy. The pipe is a little dirty, a few years of grime and a couple patches of rust but it’s just about perfect in length, if not too long, for Tubbo.
After a few hours, Ranboo stops walking and swings the bag off his back.
Tubbo looks around cautiously. Ranboo barely takes notice, digging through the contents of his backpack before pulling out a small metal and plastic mechanism.
“What the fuck is—” Ranboo presses a button marked with white ink and the piece of metal beeps.
Next to them, a garage door of an unknown building begins whirring to life.
Tommy shrieks and jumps back, watching the door wind in on itself, revealing a slightly comically small red car.
Tubbo fixes his gaze on the sight, a nearly spotless car. It doesn’t look aged or broken in any way. Ranboo walks up to it, pulling the door open and smiling awkwardly.
“Meet my pride and joy; Rancan!”
“Surprise?”
“Ranboo, you lucky bitch, where the hell did you get a car!” Tommy shouts, rushing over and taking a seat in front.
“How did you…” Tubbo stares in disbelief, mouth agape.
“SHOTGUN!” Tommy shouts, throwing himself into the car and pointedly ignoring his seatbelt.
Tubbo crosses the distance, running a hand over the front of the car. When tubbo gets to the side, he can see the words RANCAN painted on in a messy haste.
“Rancan?” Tubbo scrunches his nose in amusement. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yep! Rancan. The can part being the car.” Ranboo takes a seat in the driver's side, laughing as Tommy helps himself to pressing every button imaginable.
“No, no no!” Ranboo shoos Tommy away. “Don’t press that!”
Tommy continues to press all buttons within reach. He pulls things around and twists every knob.
“Yeah bitch! They call me the knobber!” Tommy cackles, at Ranboo’s muffled attempts to stop him.
“Nobody calls you that!”
“They do now!” Tommy exclaims, his eyes going wide when a button he presses turns the car on. “Oh my fucking god.”
Tubbo takes his seat in the back. “You are just full of surprises.” Tubbo shakes his head in disbelief.
Ranboo sucks in a breath, placing his hands on the wheel and slowly, ever so slowly, beginning to drive.
“I figured this is probably the fastest way to get to where we need to go, right?” Ranboo chuckles, adjusting the back mirror. “At the very least, it should get us out of the city.”
The car— sorry, The Rancan rumbles to life. It makes good speed, a big improvement to walking. Tubbo can’t help but feel a little spark of hope.
He glances down at his leg, the pain of a bite still throbbing beneath the bandages, and thinks maybe it’s not the end of the world.
“Please don’t press that.” Ranboo sighs.
“Boop!” Tommy makes a little noise, pressing another button. The radio switches on, playing static loudly in their ears.
“Stop.”
“Boop!”
“Tommy…”
“Booooop.”
“Alright, enough of that.” Ranboo reaches over, turning off the radio completely. Tommy frowns and turns it back on, sparking a war.
On. Off. On. off.
“Tommy!” Ranboo exclaims, turning it off and keeping one hand on the off button.
Tommy shoves Ranboo, the car swerving on the road with a “Woah!” and turns the radio back on.
“I’m not listening to static the entire drive!” Ranboo practically yells, turning it back off.
“I’m in shotgun! I pick the music!” Tommy yanks Ranboo’s hand off, the two causing quite a fuss. Tubbo rocks side to side in the back as the car swings around.
On! Off! On! Off!
Tommy cranks the volume to full and presses the on button, skipping through the channels so the static cuts in and out.
Ranboo retaliates by muting the radio.
“How did you do that?” Tommy wiggles the volume button to no avail and Ranboo smiles gleefully.
Tubbo sits in the back, knowing what’s coming. You can’t just gloat like that in front of Tommy.
Tommy smacks the radio with an open hand and before Ranboo even has time to shout at him, a voice begins playing.
“Hey Goopy Listeners! It’s your host, Mr Cicle on the one and only music channel! Coming up next, Hooked on A Feeling by uhhhhh..” The three stare at the radio in disbelief.
“Holy shit.” Tommy’s jaw slackens in awe.
“It’s by uhhhhhh,” There’s a quiet muttering on the other side of the radio. “I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea. Just play the damn song.”
The three of them continue listening when sure enough, a song starts playing.
Tommy gently turns the music up, as though afraid to break it. “This is fucking sick.”
Ranboo seems half drawn between focus. Half his mind focusing on the road while the other half seems amazed at the song beginning to play.
It’s a weird thing. Really, it should be a small thing. But it makes all three of them laugh.
They don’t recognise it at first but after about 30 seconds, the memories come back to them enough for all three of them to be able to sing along.
And then they’re smiling, driving down a road as though everything is fine. Tubbo can almost imagine there is no zombie bite on his leg or monsters outside.
And just as they round the corner, Tubbo hears the strangest thing. Something he only just started getting used to.
At first he thinks it’s part of the song but when he turns around to peer out the back of Ranboo’s car. He sees it.
“Uh. . . Guys?” Tubbo turns back to the front, grabbing onto their chairs.
Tommy and Ranboo stop their singing, the volume still loud enough they can barely hear their own thoughts.
A much larger car follows them, Tubbo thinks it might be a ford, he’s not too good with cars.
Tommy hangs off his chair haphazardly to get a good look.
“SHIT!”
There’s two people driving in the front, one leaning out the window with a large crossbow and the other intently driving. If Tubbo squints he can see a third man with a white sleeveless hoodie and a black long sleeve beneath holding another crossbow.
The sight sends chills down Tubbo’s spine.