Chapter Text
"Good news, Tubbo!" Tommy rushed into his and his best friend's shared house. Tubbo was painting little doodles and designs on the walls with sunflower yellow and sky blue paint, he was using the few colors the scavenging crew found at an abandoned house last month. It's a bit difficult to keep yourself entertained post-zombie-apocalypse with the wonders of modern technology stripped from you, but they manage.
"I asked Will, well, more along the lines of ‘begged’ him, anyway, he said we can join him when they go scavenging tomorrow!" Tommy exclaimed with a smirk.
Tubbo's eyes widened, "What?! Oh my god, we're going outside the walls?! It's been months I, wow, okay. We're going tomorrow?"
"Yes! Aren't you excited? We can see what the outside looks like! We can fight some zombies like fucking badasses! Maybe meet some new people?" Tommy couldn't hide his excitement, though Tubbo seemed more hesitant.
"I don't know, Tommy, I mean, it could be dangerous, I know we've been training for this, but..." He shrugged.
Tommy thought for a second, then walked up to his friend. "Hey, we'll be okay, I promise you. We'll be helping the family," Tommy and Tubbo like to refer to their whole group of survivors as their family, because that's basically what they all are now. "It'll be fun, I promise you, plus Wilbur, Techno and Eret will be there too! We'll be safe." Tommy smiled at Tubbo, and he smiled back.
No one inside the walls had encountered zombies in months, not since the apocalypse started almost 16 months ago. Everyone had gotten comfortable in their little town they built for themselves. First it was just Wilbur, Techno and Philza, but after time their group grew. Eret had found Tommy and Tubbo right as soon as the zombies first appeared, and soon the two trios met at a hospital they were raiding. They joined forces and stumbled upon more people: Nihachu, Fundy, Karl. Long story short, they fixed up a deserted town, built a wall to keep out the undead and have been living here peacefully.
Even though there aren't too many people living in 'The Town of Minecraft' (The name comes from the words "Mine", as the town belongs to them, and "Craft", as they built it themselves, and is NOT named after a video game.), There's enough space for at least fifty more people. Maybe even a hundred. The village itself is about twenty to thirty 2-story apartments, one main road connecting all of them, all electricity solar-powered. There's a supermarket, a town centre with a modestly tall clock tower, and a huge field which is used for growing food. Due to the lack of citizens, there's enough space for each person to have their own bungalow, however Tubbo and Tommy wanted to be housemates.
To keep the undead out, they had built a tall brick wall surrounding the entire area, however zombies may still gather up, rioting against the wall and groaning for brains. To solve this problem, they have a dozen and a half guard dogs, their barking scares away the zombies and alerts the residents if there are zombies near.
Everyone has their respective jobs of course, Niki takes care of the farms (Techno helps her sometimes, though only with the potatoes for some reason), Philza looks after the town, making sure everything is in order, like a mayor. Fundy takes care of the dogs. Everyone had their place here. And there's the scavenging crew, Wilbur, Eret and Techno, who go out every month in search of general supplies, whatever they can find, they bring back. Sometimes they even stumble upon people, the ones that have survived over a year of living in fear, surrounded by zombies, and bring them home too.
Tubbo and Tommy have been taking lessons from Technoblade on how to fight; Techno has the job of teaching everyone basic self defense against the undead just in case of any encounters, as he's the best at fighting, but he's been training the two harder than everyone else, for when they join in scavenging.
Which is tomorrow, according to Tommy.
What could go wrong?
* * *
The duo sat in the back seat of the solar-powered van. Tubbo wore an olive button up, and Tommy wore a white shirt with short red sleeves. Wilbur, wearing his favourite mustard hoodie and black beanie, was sitting with them in the back, and Techno was driving with Eret in shotgun. Techno was wearing his usual renaissance-esque pirate shirt, his long, pink hair in a braid, and Eret was wearing a black shirt and a pair of sunglasses.
Tubbo had butterflies in his stomach, he was nervous to be leaving their safe space after so long, but still excited to explore the outside world. Tommy kept reassuring him it'd be cool, that they'd have fun and be home ASAP.
"It's not an easy job, you know? In fact, it's the hardest job of them all. But the most crucial. I really hope you two aren't here just because you wanted to leave the town and have fun." Wilbur told them, sternly.
"Nah, don't worry. We're here to help the family. Right, Tubbo?" Tommy said. Tubbo’s hands were shaking, but he forced a smile and nodded his head.
He gulped as they reached the Gate, Fundy opening the door, then closing it as they left, waving as they drove on the road that led to the forest. Tubbo had a bad feeling about this.
Though after maybe twenty minutes he was laughing with Tommy, they were playing car games with Eret and Wilbur, the tension in the air mostly lifted. They were still in the middle of the woods, it was quite dense, but it definitely kept the zombies out. Soon enough they were out of the woods, and in a clearing. The two looked outside the window, trying to get a peak of what the world looks like now.
Everything seemed so much more grey, even though the greenery was thriving, overgrown moss everywhere. They passed by a crashed car with ivy growing all over it, things just seemed so eerie, so dead. There weren't too many zombies around, a few very far in the distance, and they tried to walk towards the car as they saw it coming, but the vehicle was too fast for them. They both looked at the front window, and there was a zombie right there, standing in the middle of the road. They were heading right towards it. It wasn't moving. It looked directly at them as they got closer towards it, like a confused deer in headlights. The car was going faster. "Wait-" Tommy started, he could see the decaying face of the once a living-breathing person, he could see the fear in the zombie's eyes, but before Tommy could say anything more they crashed right into it, and ran over it.
Tubbo sat back down, hugging his legs. "I don't like this. Wait. I'm sorry. Can we please turn back? Please?" Tommy sat back down too, cross legged, he didn't know what to say.
"We can't, I'm sorry. We'll be off schedule then." Techno said.
Wilbur put his thoughts together, and said to the two kids, "Guys, remember what I told you. They'd kill you if given the chance. They aren't people. By killing them, we put them out of their misery."
"But he looked like a person. He looked like my old English teacher. What if that was him? We just fucking killed my English teacher?!" Tommy started panicking.
"The chances of that zombie being your English teacher are very low,". Techno said.
"Not helping." Eret started, "Guys, remember what happened to her ? When the virus first broke out, the lady who provided shelter to us,"
"Mary, I remember her." Tommy replied.
"I don't want to remember her." Tubbo added.
"She was so sweet, she went to help that man outside, but that man was not a man, it was one of them. She got scratched. Do you remember the day she attacked us? That wasn't her. That wasn't the sweet old lady who helped us. That part of her slowly died. I promise you," Eret looked at both of them, "These things are no human beings, not anymore. We're putting them out of their misery, as Will said, by... killing them."