Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! The gunfire didn’t even startle Kent anymore. It was to be expected.

This war, this godawful war, had been going on for over twenty years now, and both sides had blown up and destroyed so many towns, so many cities. As he flew in planes, he noticed large pieces of landscapes burned to the ground, nothing but dust and ash. Wilderness or a thriving town was a rare sight. He was just glad his sons were safe in the little valley of Stardew, a place so small and insignificant war coming there was beyond his wildest dreams.

He’d been drafted for this war three times by now, each time surviving and being sent back in the next draft. He hated fighting this war; he wasn’t protecting his country, he was giving the military of the Gotoro another reason to attack them, to kill his sons and wife. The thought outraged him.

Then, the gunfire drew closer. Kent knew what that meant, and ran, but it was over in a matter of seconds. War had taken another victim.

Chapter Text

Shane was at home the day it happened.

He was in his room, usual for him on a Saturday morning, eating a breakfast sandwich and drinking a glass of milk, straight from the ranch. He was watching some crappy rerun of a gardening show to pass the time, until Marnie needed work done or until Jas wanted to play. All was well. Until it happened.

There was a quick clatter as the room shook from a loud boom, dislodging some objects from their positions. 

Must be a minor earthquake or something, Shane thought, putting objects back in place and going to check on Jas. Through some miracle, she’d managed to sleep through whatever that was, so Shane went back to his usual life. But, his gardening show was no longer on. Instead, it had automatically switched to what he assumed must be the news. He was in such a state of shock that he had a hard time absorbing all the words the news reporter was saying. All he took in was the wreckage and the carnage he saw on screen; buildings were collapsing, people were scrambling everywhere, mothers and fathers were running away with children clamped to their breasts…

Shane’s phone pinged as he got a notification from his news app that was automatically installed. Zuzu City bombed and under attack. Sources say that the bomb may have been dropped by opposing forces in the war. If you live in or near Zuzu City, evacuate immediately. Stay tuned for updates.

Shane felt the air leave his lungs. He knew there was a war; everyone in town knew, as one of their own was off fighting in the front lines. He was surprised it could ever come to this, though- He always thought this was some kind of war over fossil fuels, not anything that could warrant having a bomb dropped on Zuzu! He dashed to Marnie’s room, hoping and praying that she was there. They were both lucky, as Shane’s brown-haired aunt was still in bed, barely awake, checking her phone.

“You heard.” Was all she said, looking at her nephew dismally.

“I think everyone heard, that boom was loud. I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.” He then quickly added, “Jas is all right too, I went to check on her as soon as I heard the blast.”

“Thank Yoba for that.” Clearly Marnie wasn’t in a talking mood at the moment, and could Shane blame her? He didn’t really want to either, he just wanted to make sure that his aunt hadn’t taken an early morning trip to the city.

“I’ll tell Jas,” Marnie declared, braiding her hair back. “She sees you as her guardian angel, so I should be the bearer of bad news, for both of your sakes.”
Funny, seeing as how Shane thought his whole life was bad news, even if he hid that from Jas.

Breakfast (well, second breakfast for Shane) was awkward that day. Shane couldn’t speak for Jas and Marnie, but he was so terrified that his appetite had disappeared. Marnie just looked soulless, but Shane could see tears welling up in Jas’s eyes, threatening to stream down her face at any moment. Shane felt a twist in his gut, hating that this happened, and hating that it had already affected his goddaughter.

He was the first person to say anything.

“Jas, no matter what happens, Marnie and I are going to keep you safe, okay?”

That was when the floodgates opened. “But why did it have to happen at all?” Jas asked through tears.

“I don’t know.” That was the best he could bring himself to say, knowing that the concept of war and hatred was too complicated, and maybe too burdening, for a child to understand.

“But there’s a war.” Marnie butted in. “There’s been a war going on since before you were born, and since Shane was a very little boy. Vincent and Sam’s dad is off fighting that war- you remember Kent, don’t you?”

“But why does there have to be war?” She cried.

“I don’t know.” Shane said once again, and Jas nodded in solem acceptance, not wanting to press her uncle further.

Marnie checked her phone once again. “Lewis just texted me; he’s going to have a town meeting about all of this later tonight, which is probably a good idea.”
The mention of Lewis lightened the situation a little bit, as Jas gigged while looking at Shane, trying to stifle it with her hands. They both knew about the mayor and Marnie’s “secret” relationship, and Jas found it quite humorous.

Smiling at Jas with a twinkle in his eye, he turned to Marnie. “So, what are we going to do?”

Marnie seemed to be dreading the question. “I’m going to wait until after the meeting to decide, because right now, I have no idea. It’s not really like there’s anywhere we can go that’s safer than here.”

Shane hoped they wouldn’t need to go anywhere, because, honestly, he didn’t know what they’d do either.

***

Jodi had told her boys she’d be in Zuzu in the morning. She had a pretty bad sore in her foot, she said, and Harvey had referred her to a specialist in the city. Sam didn’t think much of it, just hoping that his mother could make the drive with her aching foot.

Sam was awoken the next morning by the sound that shook the world, sending Vincent into his elder brother’s room to hide. 

“What was that?” He asked fearfully. 

Still half asleep, Sam replied, “Dunno. Maybe Pam crashed the bus again.” Truth be told, he’d never heard a noise like that in his life. 

Upon getting the notification, a slurry of thoughts made their way through Sam’s head. 

A bomb! Oh, well, that makes sense. 

A bomb?

Mom was in Zuzu when it must have dropped!

If there’s bombing near here, things must be getting pretty bad in the war. I hope dad’s okay. 

We need to get the hell out of here!

“Vincent, we’re leaving,” Sam decided quickly. He texted his mom, letting her know they wouldn’t be home and asking if she was safe.

“Where are we going?” Vincent asked as Sam hurried him out the door.

“No time to explain!” Sam shouted, even though the real answer was I don’t know. 

And then, he bolted. 

Chapter Text

Nearly the entire town was gathered, which never happened outside of holidays. Lewis’s headcount did determine a few missing, though. 

“Has anyone seen or heard from Jodi, Sam, or Vincent?”

Upon hearing that the whole family was missing, the town seemed unsettled, especially hearing about Vincent. No one wanted the first casualty of a nearby attack to be a child. 

“Jodi left early this morning, before…” Emily, who was speaking, had no need to elaborate. “And almost right after the news hit, I saw Sam take Vincent and run.”

Sebastian had been listening to the news of Sam, his best friend and life partner, with bated breath. As soon as he heard Sam had run away, his hand shot up, his voice carrying above the crowd. “I’ll find them!”

“ Sebby ,” his mother immediately scolded. “Do you understand how dangerous that’d be?”

“At least it’d get me out of my room,” he whisper-snapped, which caused his stepfather to bring his finger to his lips in a silent shhhhhh . That shut Sebastian up, as the last thing he needed right now was for his mom and Demetrius to get into another fight over him. 

“That’s honorable of you, Sebastian, bur right now I think the best course of action would be to file a missing person’s report for each of them, which I’ll do as soon as this meeting is over.” Lewis stared down at the papers he was holding, looking nervous. “Speaking of action, I think the best course of action for the current situation would be a lack of it.”

This got all the townsfolk chatting like birds, but they waited for Lewis to finish before settling his case in the court of public opinion. 

“This does not mean that I am forbidding anyone from doing anything. What it does mean is that I am allowing you all the decision of what to do. I think it would be foolish and irresponsible of me to do it any other way. The only thing I will make a public statement on, though, is that we will be giving sanctuary to anyone who needs it. I expect a lot of Zuzu citizens will be coming here, weak, hungry, and injured, so treat any visitors with kindness. The meeting is dismissed.”

Immediately after, everyone started discussing their plans. 

Elliott, who Sebastian wondered if needed to be in the spotlight at all times, declared, “I’m going to build a sailboat, and take all who can fit with me across the sea to freedom! Any volunteers?”
Leah unsurprisingly volunteered, which led Elliott to look to Willy. “Will you come, my fine gentleman?” He asked, in his crispest accent. 

“You could bring along much younger people, laddy. There’s no need to let an old seadog like me be a barnacle on yer back.” 

Elliott raised a brow. “WIlly, we asked you to come. You will not be a burden on any of us.” 

He stood up, seemingly pleased with Elliott’s response. “All right, then. I’ll sail away with you and your lady-friend here.”

No one else volunteered to go with Elliott. Probably because no one else can put up with his prettyboy-ness , Sebastian thought with a snicker. 

A surprising amount of people didn’t seem to have any change in plans at all, with some even denying change. 

“I’ll die before I go live with that magical purple-haired freak!” Pierre snapped at his wife. “Besides, I have a store to run.”

Your loss, sucker, Sebastian thought as he went to bid farewell to Abigail, who was going to live with the Wizard with her mother. For the time being, at least. 

“Good luck finding Sam, if our mom lets you,” Abigail said, giving Sebastian a quick friendly hug goodbye. 

“I’m going to find Sam and his little brother whether mom likes it or not,” Sebastian said with a rebellious grin. 

“And when you find him, bring you two to the Wizard’s tower. Because I’m going to miss you two knuckleheads.”

⁕⁕⁕

“The mines ?”

“Yes! I can’t think of anywhere safer to stay,” Demetrius exclaimed triumphantly at dinner, with his wife’s nodding approval. 

“There’s monsters in the mines, though!” Maru protested. 

“We’ll be staying right at the entrance, maybe even only a few floors down,” Robin explained. “It’ll be safer than staying up here.”

“Can I go stay in the trailer with Penny instead?” 

“Pam is scarier than anything you’ll see in the mines,” Sebastian pointed out, which got him a stern glance from his mother once again. 

“Sure. But I expect you to return here or to the mines if anything goes wrong,” Robin said.

“So can I go out and look for Sam?” Sebastian asked hopefully. 

Another stern glance. “Heavens no! You have no idea where he could be! You’d get lost and we’d never hear from you again.”

“Well, I don’t want my best friend to die!”

“And I don’t want to lose my only son.” Robin’s voice was harsh, and she set down her fork and glared at Sebastian. 

“I’ll start packing for the mines.” Demetrius rose, clearly wanting an excuse to not have to participate in the argument, and Maru followed his lead. Sebastian found he had nothing left to say, though, a bile rising in his throat, knowing what he’d have to do. As he’d told Abigail, he’d find Sam and bring him home. No matter what.

Chapter Text

A week had passed since the bombing, and Lewis’s prediction had been right. People were coming to Pelican Town for safety, replacing the few that had evacuated or gone missing. Now there were four missing citizens, as Sebastian had gone AWOL off looking for Sam. Even though Sebastian’s family was in shreds because of his disappearance, Shane wished he could do something as heroic. Instead, he was still working at JojaMart.

 Everyone was stockpiling supplies, and Pierre must have sold out because even his most loyal customers had gone the route of Joja. It kept Shane busy at work, though. 

“Don’t you have family somewhere? Why aren’t you staying with them?” Haley asked nosily as she ran into Shane stocking more toilet paper, which had been selling like hot cakes recently. He found it darkly funny how, in the midst of war, people were still only concerned about their own asses. 

“Trust me, Haley, I’d rather listen to Caroline and Pierre bicker for the rest of time than have to go live with my family.” In the back of his mind, Shane had even considered it. The two main reasons he didn’t, though, was because they lived on the outskirts of Zuzu City (if they hadn’t moved, which Shane had no idea if they had or not), and Jas. Shane knew how his parents treated children, and Jas certainly didn’t need that behavior in her life. So, they stayed with Aunt Marnie, and Shane continued to be a corporate slave. 

When Morris wasn’t looking, Shane would sneak food into his backpack, the kind that would never go bad if he needed it. Mainly canned goods, frozen meals, and Joja Snack cakes which Shane had learned in job orientation kept longer than they should. A five year expiration date. Shane didn’t even know if he’d be alive in five years, but his JojaCakes™ would be. 

“Hi, Shane,” Shane heard from behind him. He turned around to see doctor Harvey, a sweet smile on his face and his hair combed perfectly down. Shane wondered how he could always manage to look so perfect and well groomed even in the most dire of situations. He had to admit that Harvey was quite a charmer. 

“Hi, Harvey,” he said with a blush. “Can I help you with anything?” 

“Oh, just going to pick up some medical supplies. I can handle myself, but thanks for asking.” Harvey walked away, standing tall as he strided gracefully. Shane wasn’t even sure if he knew just how immaculate he looked from every angle. Some of his confidence rubbed Shane’s away, making him too shy to speak to Harvey, and instead rushed off to the bathroom. 

He collapsed on the toilet, head in his hands. He hadn’t let himself admit it until this point, but he missed Sam. Even if all it seemed like he did at work was make messes for Shane to clean up, he kept him company.

And Jas. 

More than anything, he was worried about Jas. She was a sweet girl, and as soon as he found out that her parents, his good friends and saviors, had passed away in that terrible accident, he vowed he would give her the best life he possibly could as her godfather. A life he’d never gotten to have as a child. And now that stupid war was putting her in jeopardy, and she was too young to even wholly comprehend what was going on. 

Things are going to be okay, he convinced himself, zipping up his jeans. I’ll make them okay for her, at least. 

⁕⁕⁕

To clean off the grime that had accumulated, Sebastian splashed water on his face, and with it the memories of the past week flowed over him. 

As soon as his family was in the mines and unaware, he’d snuck out. It’d been night, that way they were asleep and wouldn’t notice him missing, and if they did he’d have the advantage and would be a good distance away from them. And it was easier to hide in the shadow of darkness. 

His escape had been a successful one, with no sign of his mother or father chasing after him. That was when he’d actively started his search, looking up and down the valley for his AWOL partner. He’d eventually come to a grassy field above the train tracks, that was nothing more than a sandy lot with tall, long grass sticking up from it, like stiff hair on the back of a frightened dog’s neck. He hadn’t found Sam yet, but his mom hadn’t found him. It was a lose-win, for the time being. Things would change pretty quickly, though. 

As Sebastian had taken a break from searching to wash his face, he was just thinking about life, when he heard… voices. For a second, he just thought he was going mad, but as he tried to tune out the voices, they didn’t disappear. Could they be… real?

“Sam?” He croaked, hoping he wasn’t just hearing things.

“Sebastian!”

Hugs were given once the two reunited, hugs and words of kindness and love and encouragement. Sebastian had found Sam, but the journey had only just begun.

Chapter Text

“The mayor! The mayor’s been shot!”

 Shane wasn't sure who was screaming at his door but he wasn't about to wait to find out.

“Jas! Marnie!” He cried, trying to fight back tears. Only when he left his room did Shane realize it was pitch-black outside.

“Yes, Uncle Shane?” Jas said calmly, dressed in a nightgown.

“Grab your clothes and anything else you need and put it in a bag or something! We have to go!” Shane was already scrambling and fitting all he could into a backpack. He checked Marnie's room, but she still wasn't there; he prayed that she hadn’t been with Lewis when he was assassinated. He didn't have time to find out, though; he needed to protect Jas, because at least he knew Marnie could handle herself.

Jas had listened, and had taken a bag of all her things.

“Get on my back, honey,” Shane pleated trying not to show how terrified he was.

Always happy to accept a piggyback ride, Jas obeyed, and as much as it hurt his aching back, like Sam before him, Shane bolted.

⁕⁕⁕

Alex was the one to warn the townspeople. Alex knew he couldn't stand around and do nothing as Pelican town was invaded not only by opposing war forces, but by hungry Zuzu City citizens who were blinded by need and desperation as they tore everything to shreds. 

 His grandparents had refused to leave, even after Lewis and had been shot and killed.

“ I grew up in this house, raised your mother in this house, and raised you in this house. I'm not leaving now,” George said. "Besides it's not like I could go anywhere anyways."

"And I'm not going anywhere your grandfather isn't going, “ Evelyn said.

"Grandpa, we can still get you out!"  Alex protested, as kindly as he could. "we could at least try!" But he knew that when George set his mind on something, you couldn't change that. So Alex did all he could to save everyone else, running through the carnage to save the lives of people in Pelican Town. Most people got out fine, but not all; Emily has been pinned down by a wooden beam and attacked, but Alex and Haley had pried her free. Pam hadn't been so lucky, though. Before Alex and gotten the chance to help, he found her with her head smashed open, with shards of glass stuck in her forehead: Someone must have hit her with a wine bottle.  Her blood dripped onto the pavement, her eyes were glassy, and Alex knew it was too late. He wasn't sure if you wanted Penny to know the fate of her mother or not, but he hoped she was at peace. Pierre was another unfortunate one; Alex could tell he was trapped inside his home with no escape, and there was nothing he could do to help him either. Each loss was like a punch to the gut, but he had to remember it wasn’t his fault.

Once he made sure everyone had evacuated, he went back to his grandparent’s house; 1 River Road, where he'd spent the last 12 years of his life, and where he figured his life would end. 

"No, Alex!”  Evelyn cried, seeing him come back into the house. "Save yourself!"

Alex's gaze was stony. “I saved as many as I could and if I can't save you, then I'm staying with you."

Alex stayed with his grandparents, comforting them, praying that the assailants wouldn't attack, if on the sole basis that they were an old couple (if you took Alex out of the equation). But, soon enough, Alex heard gunfire and smelled smoke, and he knew the end was near. His hand was clamped on Evelyn's and his other on George's; He felt awful for not being able to save them, and Pam and Pierre too. Tears streamed down his cheeks, unrelated to the smoke that was stinging his eyes. "I love you."

 “We love you too, Alex.” 

And soon, it’d be all over.

Chapter Text

Shane’s legs ached, his lungs and nostrils stung, and his back felt like it was going to snap in half. But he needed to keep going, needed to keep going, to protect Jas. He didn’t even know where he was going, but he needed to keep running. He’d already run past the Wizard’s tower, And then cursed himself for  not asking for a place to stay there. Too late now, though. He had to keep running.

"Where's Aunt Marnie?" Jas asked as he ran. “Are we going to find Sam? Where are we going?”

“I don't know, no, as far away from the valley as possible.”

 "Why? Is Marnie coming?”

 Shane panted, not being able to sigh, as he didn't really want to think about his missing aunt.

“It’s not safe there anymore, and Marnie is going to be fine.”

He must have been running for hours now, the most exercise has he gotten in ages. His legs felt like they were going to collapse under him and he'd go sprawling out like a baby deer. Finally, he was given a good excuse to stop.

“Uncle Shane, I need to go to the bathroom.” 

Shane let his daughter crawl off of his back, tossed her some toilet paper he packed, and let himself rest. His legs were trembling, his vision was swimming, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Not even to mention his poor back. but those weren't even the last of his thoughts.

What's going on in town? Is everyone okay? Is Marnie okay? Who the hell saved me? Are we far enough? Why didn’t I just stop with the Wizard? Should I have let Jas go on her own?

He got an answer to at least one of his questions, as Jas came back in one piece with no visible injuries. That didn't help his nervousness much, but it was a start.

“Are we going to do more running?" 

“Uncle Shane is exhausted, so not for tonight. I don't want to run out of energy."

Of course, Jas complained about her dress being muddy, so he let her change into clothing a bit more convenient than a dress for the wilderness, and adjusted her hair bow so it would be pretty and perfect again. He didn't mind, as long as it made Jas happy.

Shane opened his backpack to take out some of those JojaCakes™ he packed away, peeled the wrapper off one, and scarfed it down. Only after he finished did he realize how hungry he was. He gave one to Jas, and it disappeared just as quickly.

“It tasted like sand,” Jas said honestly, with not a hint of malice in her dainty voice. 

“Probably why they never go bad,” Shane suggested, which made Jas giggle.

“I bet Mr. Morris would be good in a sandcastle building contest,” Jas joked, giggling more. 

Shane smiled wearily, just happy that she was happy. “Maybe he would be.”

He took a long guzzle out of his canteen, and, like with the snacks, he only then realized how thirsty he was. He wished they didn’t need to ration the water. 

“This is just like camping!” Jas exclaimed, settling down on the forest floor. 

“Yeah… I guess.” Shane had never really been fond of camping, especially “camping” without a sleeping bag, which was what they were currently doing. 

As Jas fell sleeping, cradling a supply pack, Shane tried to drill his new motto into his head. 

If Jas is happy, I’m happy. And Jas’s happiness and safety is the most important thing in the entire world .

Chapter Text

Shane figured he must have ran far enough into the woods, because for the next few days, they didn't come across another living soul (although Jas insisted she saw little walking apples; how ridiculous was that! He entertained her imagination, though).  He and Jas just traveled, foraging for nuts and wild doods, although spring wasn’t the prime season for such.  The only trouble they ran into with Shane not properly rationing their water, leading to him having to stop by a creek and boil more.  He was admittedly very worried that he would catch something on fire, but the knowledge of the wilderness he picked up in Croc Scouts had finally paid off. He’d' always hated the Yoba-worshipping cult that was Croc Scouts, and his parents probably would have made him do Gator Scouts if Marnie hadn't taken custody.  another reason to love Marnie, and another reason to pray for her safety.

To take his mind off all the various reasons he hated Croc Scouts, Shane glanced at his cell phone, which somehow hadn’t died yet, to check if Marnie had ever replied to his text. Nope. She hadn’t even read it. He didn’t have service, so he hoped that was the reason for her silence. 

It was hot again, and Shane was sweltering in the heat. He hadn’t been able to bathe in days, and he’d never felt more disgusting and grimy, which was saying something. He was unbearably hot, on the verge of overheating, and he would have died for a way to cool down. He could splash some water on his face, but what a waste of resources that would be! He needed to conserve water. 

The sweat and heat was making it hard to move; every step felt like a massive effort, and his head was pulsing. Blast him for being horribly out of shape! 

As he continued on, his vision was getting dizzy, and his legs were teetering. 

“Uncle Shane, you don’t look so good…” Jas noted, coming to his side, holding his hand.

“I’m fine,” he said, not wanting Jas to be worried about him. He wanted water, just one sip of water… A cool oasis filled with cool, cold water…

***

Shane awoke to feeling a coldness on his head, which was relieving considering his last memory had been of unbearable heat. 

“You’re lucky I found you, you moron. When you’re about to die of heat stroke, it’s okay to take off your uniform.” 

Shane wondered if he’d been shoved into JojaMart again, until he opened his eyes and saw his second savoir. 

“Sam!” Seeing the missing man caused Shane to sit up and look around. They were still in the forest, and Jas and Vincent were sitting on the ground, playing with pebbles. 

“In the flesh. Here, take this. I’ve got so much of the stuff I can’t drink it all myself.” Sam handed Shane a Joja Cola from his bag, opening the can for him. 

Shane took a sip of the nasty drink, but was relieved to have something to drink regardless. “Everyone’s been so worried about you!” Shane found as if he had a million questions. “Can I ask you some things?”
Sam nodded. “As you wish.” 

“How did you find us?”
Sam shrugged. “Not that hard, really. We saw footprints in the dirt, and footprints lead to people, so Vince and I followed them and found you passed out and Jas screaming for help.” 

“Did you find your mom?”

Sam shook his head. “I haven’t really been looking, though. Vince and I just wanted to get away.”

“What about Sebastian? He left looking for you, you know.”

This question made Sam’s once friendly look turn hard and burdened. “Next question.” He changed his mind quickly, though. “Actually, it's my turn to ask a question. Has anyone died since I left? And why are you out here?”

“None that I know of, but we lost Marnie- as in, literally lost her.” 

Sam seemed relieved to hear that, so Shane felt bad for crushing him with his next piece of news. “The town was attacked. Jas and I escaped, but I have no idea who else made it out.” Then Shane remembered. “Lewis. Lewis died.”

The news hit Sam like a rock. “Well, shit.”

“That’s a bad word,” Vincent popped up, just to then go back to playing with Jas. 

“Yeah, kid. I know.” 

Chapter Text

Sam was glad he’d found his coworker, but the news he brought made him wish he hadn’t. If Lewis had died, who could say if the whole town, save Shane and Jas, had been massacred? His mom was missing in a war zone and his dad was off fighting in the very same war. And he’d lost Sebastian. The idea of the whole town being in shreds hurt his heart hurt his heart too much to bear. 

“We need to go back,” Shane said out of the blue. 

“Are you nuts?” As much as Sam wanted to go back, he knew they couldn’t. “It’s too dangerous.” 

“I know, but we need to go back. We need to look for Marnie. We need to look for your mom.”

“I want to look for my mom as much as you want to look for your aunt, but we can’t go!” He cried. “Sorry, I’m being rude. Usually that’s your job.”

“I understand, and you’re not being rude. I’ve been close to losing my temper a lot since we ran away, but…” Shane looked to Jas, who was still playing pebbles. “I need to set an example.”

He envied Shane’s self control. “I’ll be a lot more cheery soon, it’s just that it’s a lot to handle. So… you want to go back.”

Shane nodded. “I don’t want to stay forever, but it’ll be easier to find a safe place to stay from the valley rather than very far away from it, and I want to see if we can find our families. I can’t stop thinking about Marnie.”

“And I can’t stop thinking about my parents either. But before we go, we need to think of a safety plan first.”

An idea seemed to pop into Shane’s head. “If we’re all going to stick together, going to Stardew would be dangerous. You’re good with kids, so maybe you could camp out here with Vincent and Jas while I try to scout out a safe place to live back in the valley? I have really no will to live anyways, and it’d be better for conserving resources…”
Sam felt panic flare up in his chest, for reasons Shane didn’t need to know, but that didn’t prevent him from panicking. “No! No one is going to be leaving by themselves!”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Shane apologized. Sam could tell he had something to say that he was holding in from the way his eyes were looking off to the side, but looking at nothing. “Is there… Anything I can do?” 

Sam smiled, going back to his old self for what would hopefully be more than a fleeting moment. “Nah, I’m chill. We head for town in the morning?” 

“In the morning, we set sail.” Shane chuckled. “I sound like Elliott, don’t I?”

“A little. Much less pretentious.”
“Ah, give the guy a break! You’d sound pretty pretentious too if all you did was advertise your book.”

“No, instead you spend all day advertising overpriced Joja crap.” Sam smirked, finding himself having fun messing around with Shane. The feeling seemed to be mutual, as Shane was smirking right back, and that man nearly never smiled. 

“Hey, at least I’m not the janitor who also skateboards in the aisles, knocking over stock so my poor superior has to put everything back in place, AND take the blame when Morris comes around to do an inspection!” Shane teased. 

“C’mon, that was once !” Sam sighed playfully. “You’re killing me, Shane.” 

“Good.” 

The two bantered back and forth for the rest of the night (quietly, as to not wake the kids) and for once in the past two weeks, things didn’t seem too dark for Sam. Even if he, and everyone else, were in the biggest pickle any of them had ever seen. 

Chapter Text

“We want to be heading east, since we’re way far west of town,” Sam explained to Shane and the kids. “Although, Vincent and I camped up north, over the mountain and things were pretty nice. Mainly sandy fields, but plenty of water.”

“I wonder if the train’s still running. It doesn’t come by often, but if it does, we could get a one way ticket out of the valley.” Shane felt equally proud and stupid for what should have been such an easy conclusion to come to. 

“Worth a shot, and a very good idea. So, keep your eyes out for tracks! Human or train.” 

“What about animal?” Vincent asked curiously. 

“Earlier Shane and I saw a bunny rabbit!” Jas exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to let Marnie let me get a rabbit, but she says that we already have some in the barn. Bunnies are indoor pets!”

“Not to criticize my aunt, but she’s not wrong,” Shane whispered to Sam. “I want Marnie to move the rabbits indoors, or at least set up a section of the barn for them to free-roam in. Wire floors really aren’t good for their feet.”
“I thought you were the chicken man, not the bunny boy,” Sam teased. 

“I have room in my heart for all of Yoba’s beautiful creatures.”

“Aren’t you an atheist?”
“Shut up.”

Sam snorted with laughter. “You’re such a freaking character.”

The days went on like this for a while. Walking, talking, and eating; all they needed to do to survive. 

“We’ll get there soon,” Sam said hopefully. “I don’t really have much of an idea of what to do once we get there, but we’ll work out the kinks when it comes to that.” 

“Take a train or walk to the nearest safe town, whatever’s easier, safer, or fastest,” Shane reminded. 

“Maybe we should split up and each go a different way?”

The suggestion from Vincent made Sam stiffen and tense. Thoughts and terrible memories rushed their way to the front of his mind. A crumpled body, blood flowing onto grass, hot, crippling sobs upon seeing it…

“Sam… Sam!” Shane’s calls snapped Sam out of his flashback. He looked at the man and quivered. “What the hell’s going on with you?” Despite his wording, the tone in Shane’s voice and his sympathetic look revealed deep concern. 

Sam lowered his voice. “I was thinking about what happened to Sebastian.” Before waiting for Shane to ask, he continued. “We split up to go look for resources, mainly wood to start a fire. Seb went one way, and me and Vincent went another. By the time Vincent and I were done, we couldn’t find Sebastian anywhere. We called and called for him, but he never called back. We found him by the railroad tracks.” He sighed. “I won’t describe what happened to him, but it was obviously a murder. You know how I was with Sebastian…”

“I do, and I’m so sorry.” Shane put his arm around the blonde man, trying to comfort him. “That won’t ever happen again, not to any of us.”

“And I know it won’t, because I’ll make absolutely sure of it. Sebastian’s death… it obviously hurt a lot.” 

“I know, I know.” Shane bit his lip, not used to being the one doing the comforting. 

Sam lowered his voice even further, to the point of a whisper. “That’s why I really need to go back to the valley. I know where Robin is staying, and I need to tell her what happened to her son. It’s the one thing I insist  I do alone.” He held his head high, trying not to let Shane see the tears that were welling up in his eyes, and that his lip was trembling. 

“That’s understandable.” Was all Shane would say. 

If the kids had heard the discussion, they weren’t showing that they had. The silence was weighing heavily on both Shane and Sam, and every time the latter was reminded of his lost love, he shook for a reason he couldn’t describe; it was almost as if he was so upset it channeled the emotion into a shiver, like chattering teeth warming someone up in the freezing cold. 

Speaking of such, upon seeing Sam’s shaking, Shane spoke up. “Are you cold? You’re probably cold. Take my jacket.” 

They both knew that wasn’t the case, but Shane took off his ratty JojaMart jacket and Sam put it on reluctantly. Normally he would have seen this kind of gesture as a flirt, but Shane wouldn’t even look at him afterwards, his posture stiff as a board. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Sam took a deep breath, and tried to do what he was best at doing: cracking jokes.

“So I suppose you never really learned how to comfort people beyond your girlfriends in high school?”

“Sam, it’s okay to just mourn. I’ll leave you be if you want.” He then offered Sam a sliver of a smile. “But, no, not really. You probably don’t want to come to the walking ball of anxiety, depression, and alcoholism for moral support.”
“At least you’re someone to talk to, and someone who, on some level, understands how I’m feeling.” 

They didn’t talk much at all for the rest of that  night, but the two had come to sort of an understanding. Theirs was a symbiotic relationship, and they needed one another to survive. Neither of them wanted to be the next Sebastian, for two reasons. The first was because they wanted to save their own hides, and the second being that neither wanted to put the other in the pain that Sam was already in. 

Chapter Text

One day, Harvey, you’ll amount to something great! You will soar sky high!

That was one of the last things Harvey’s father had said to him before he was sent to the emergency room, never to return. Even though it had traumatized Harvey to emergency rooms, that was the day Harvey finally gave up on his dream of becoming a pilot and started considering a path in medicine. He didn’t ever think he would amount to a great doctor, but at least as a doctor he could protect people and save them from human illness and human stupidity, as he hadn’t been able to do with his father. 

When he looked up at the sky to see planes on that frightful night Pelican Town had been destroyed, he was overwhelmed by emotions. Fear, because his aviation knowledge told him those were war planes. Wonder, because he had never seen planes so close over his head. And a distorted sense of nostalgia, because the image brought to mind a song he hadn’t heard since he was a little boy. 

Did you see the frightened ones?

Did you hear the falling bombs?

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

Since that day, Harvey’s life had certainly changed. He was finally amounting something great, like his father had said he would. Even if he wasn’t a pilot. 

“What seems to be the trouble, Mr?” His patient had their face cloaked in black, a dusty mop of Joja-blue hair hiding his face even further. His wife, whose face was also hidden, seemed very worried as her husband pulled up his cloak to reveal a nasty infected wound on his leg. 

“Emmett hurt his leg real bad when that awful dog bit him!” His wife exclaimed dotingly. 

“That… doesn’t seem like a dog bite,” Harvey said, inspecting the wound. “Tell me the truth of what happened. I won’t be mad, and I’ll be able to treat the wound better.” 

“Beam of wood fell on my damn leg,” Emmett growled. “Fix it up, Doc.”

“I will, and you should really be glad you came to me. That really doesn’t look good.” The wound was oozing with pus, smelled of infection, and Harvey suspected there were still splinters in Emmett’s leg. “Hold still, this might hurt.” 

Emmett screamed in agony as Harvey drained the wound and picked the splinters out, and wrapped it in gauze. “Bastard!” 

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. My anesthetics burned down with my office, and it’s not easy to run a clinic next to a train station. He, Doctor Harvey, was helping people in the midst of war. He was more than just a doctor now, he was a medic! He’d set up a station and his personal camp next to… the station, hoping that a train would pass so these poor people could find safety. He’d wanted to use the bathhouse for his location, but the entire place was crumbling and smelled of Alex’s old socks, so it was out of the question except for its intended purpose of showering. For now, though, his heart and soul would go into his little clinic. 

Harvey opened a trunk he’d found after the town was destroyed, which he’d filled with all his salvaged medical supplies. “I’ll give you folks some extra gauze, in case you need to redress the wound, and some antibiotics to keep that infection from spreading. Because, well, if it spreads to your blood, you’re in trouble,” Harvey told the couple, giving them what they needed. “And of course, if you need to return, feel free to. Your safety is all I have in mind.”

“How much are we paying?” The wife asked as Emmett writhed in pain. Harvey wasn’t a judgmental person, but he felt like Emmett may have been playing up his pain, at least a little.

“You’re not paying anything at all. In fact, all I ask is that you keep an eye out for my assistant, Maru. She has pink glasses, brown eyes, brown hair with pink highlights, light brown skin, probably wearing overalls… If you see her, ask her if she knows me and tell her I could really use her help out here. You’ll have my eternal gratitude if you can bring her back.”

“Yeah, yeah, all right, we got it, Dr. Boring.” Emmett got off the ground, seemingly a lot stronger than he was before. 

Doctor Boring! Harvey rolled his eyes at the names his patients came up with for him, only to realize that Emmett and his wife had disappeared. 

“Nighty night, jackass.” 

Harvey didn’t know whether the husband or wife had wished him farewell, but he didn’t have time to figure out, as he felt his brain rattle in his skull as he was smashed over the head.

He let out a steam of curses, not something he usually did. He’d been tricked! He knew that someone would want to take him out for one reason or another, and he’d actually found the idea equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. The fact that he was important enough to someone that they wanted him to die… But, now that it was happening, he didn’t find it very exciting at all. On death’s door, he wanted nothing but to live. 

Curse you, Emmett and your perfect wife!

Chapter Text

“We’re home.”

Although, the valley didn’t look like home anymore. Almost none of the buildings in Pelican Town were left standing, as they were all made of wood, and the plant life was burned to cinders, leaving only stone structures and ash and dirt remaining, the landscape completely covered in black soot and dust. The only remaining buildings seemed to be the JojaMart and Pam’s trailer, which had somehow gotten flipped on its side. The Wizard’s tower was still intact, but Sam had insisted upon not going there. 

“She’s my good friend, but I’d rather not see Abigail right now. Her and her mom are probably having some…” Sam tugged at the collar of his shirt. “ Interesting discussions at the moment.” 

When Shane inquired further about what he meant, Sam wouldn’t comment. “You could probably put Pierre out of business with a secret like that.” 

Shane found himself losing interest in anything to do with Pierre when he saw what remained of the ranch. It had burned to the ground, leaving nothing more than a small pile of junk.

Shane felt a little one cling onto his leg, and he knew it was Jas. “Our home…”

I know, sweetheart.” He rested his hand on her back, trying to assure her. “I’m sad too.” More sad than he felt showing, even, because all his energy went into comforting a crying, tearful Jas.

“Where’s Aunt Marnie?” 

Shane checked his phone, still finding that he had no service. They must have destroyed the cell towers. “I don’t know. We’ll find her.” 

Sam had a similar experience with Vincent, as they passed the remains of their house. 

“Dad will come back home from war soon. Mom will come home too.” 

Although, in Sam’s eyes, Shane could tell he didn’t believe his own words. 

“So now we just have to wait for the train. Guess we should head up there,” Shane said, only to be halted by Sam. 

“This town isn’t a safe haven anymore. We need to be able to protect ourselves.”

“If there were any weapons, the town has probably been picked clean by now,” Shane argued. 

“So you’d rather go unarmed than look for something?”
Knowing Sam was right, Shane let him win. “So where do we start looking?”
“If I remember correctly, there was a department store that always had a sale on snow shovels. Even in the middle of spring.” 

***

As the group walked to JojaMart, they couldn't help but notice how deserted the whole town seemed. They all knew it was an illusion, though, and that there were people lurking in every nook and cranny. Shane held Jas close for that reason.

Don’t show your fear. That’ll make you look more vulnerable to attack. 

Shane had always found his place of work creepy, but it was even more so as the last surviving building (other than the trailer) in what was now a ghost town. 

The entire building was filled with lost souls, people who must have run from Zuzu into town hoping for safety, but only finding a shelled grocery store. 

Seeing the newcomers, they all had different reactions. Some hissed like cats, shielding their children, and some watched with wide, eager eyes. No matter how they acted towards the outsiders, Shane could tell that they’d lost their humanity. 

They were quickly stopped from exploring the store further. 

“None may pass without meeting our leader!” A guard hissed. 

“Who, Morris? What is this, a Joja-cult?” Sam asked, only half joking. 

“No! We killed that Joja scum a long time ago.” Then, one of them noticed the logo on Shane’s sweater- the Joja J. “Joja scum! Joja scum!”
“No!” He exclaimed, holding Jas close. “I used to work for Joja, and I hated it. I hated my boss, I hated the condition of this store, and I hated the company. I’m your friend.”

The mob that had been building backed off, and looked to Sam. “You got Joja ties?”
“Nope.” Shane supposed it was better for Sam to just lie rather than face persecution. 

“You may meet with our leader, then. Proceed.” The guard stepped aside and called, “Augustus! Your presence has been requested!” 

After a few moments, their leader, a pudgy man with a recognizable mustache dropped from the ceiling like an angel from the heavens. 

He didn’t even look different. It was just normal Gus, playing at god. 

“Nice cult you got here,” Sam snickered. 

“That was… not my intention.” Gus looked uncomfortably to his followers, almost as if to tell them to resist ripping Sam to pieces. “But Sam! Shane! Vincent and Jas! You’re alive and well.” Gus seemed cheery, as always. “I’m sorry you had to meet my entourage. They take my safety and my job very seriously.”
“Which is?”
Gus wrapped his arm around Shane. “What’s it’s always been, my favorite customer! Serving good food to good people, and this Joja-scholp is the best I have at the moment.” He shrugged. “Oh well, can’t cry over spilt milk. My charity work has gained me quite the following, though…” Gus eluded to his crowd. “I really need to come up with a name for them. I sometimes call them the little monsters, but that name’s taken. It’s not even that different from running the saloon. Just no pool, no alcohol, and no arcade games.” Then, he sighed. “And no Pam. No Emily either, but at least I know of Pam’s whereabouts. Poor woman was murdered coming home from the saloon the night of the attack.” 

Upon hearing this, Vincent broke into sobs. Sam shushed him, probably not wanting anyone from the cult to come near him. 

“Things aren’t the same without her, even if she never paid her tab…”

Pam’s unpaid tab was the last of Shane’s concerns, though. So many people just dropped dead like flies… he figured he’d just get to the point.
“Gus, we came for weapons, just anything to defend ourselves with. Do you… think you’d be able to provide that?”

Gus didn’t seem enthusiastic about the deal he was going to make. “Can someone grab me bag 242?”

One of his cult members did, hanging it to him and scampering back off into the crowd. 

“Don’t you two… four? Tell a soul about this,” he whispered warily, handing Shane the bag. He quickly peeked inside, letting Sam see the goods as well; two pistols with extra cartridges. 

“In return, all I ask for is any food you may possess that I may want.” 

“Gus, we need food to live , ” Shane reminded, feeling his backpack growing a little heavier. 

“And you can come to me for meals. I have an army to feed, and I need something in return for what I’ve provided you with.” Gus was usually much, much friendlier than this. Shane wondered if being worshipped had gotten to his head.

“You can have my pack. Or, the food, at least.” Sam volunteered, taking his drawstring bag off his back. Quickly, Gus rusted through it, taking out a few packs of peanut butter crackers, stale bread, and can after can of Joja Cola. 

“How much of this trash do you drink?” Gus asked, puzzled. 

Sam shrugged. “Guilty pleasure.” 

Gus sighed. “Well, fine, you win.” He then muttered under his breath. “Can’t believe I’m trading weaponry for Joja f-ing Cola…” 

Sam, Shane, and the kids tried to scuttle out of that place as fast as they possibly could, only for someone to cling onto Shane’s ankle, who was absolutely not Jas. 

“Hey, asshole, let go of me!” He snapped, kicking his leg. 

“Lewis, Pam, Pierre, Alex, George, Evelyn, Clint… Who knows who’ll be next!”

“You’re freaking me out, go away! What happened to Pierre and Clint and the Mullners?”

“Pierre went down with his shop, since the foolish bastard was too prideful to go live with the wizard. Same with the Mullners and their grandson; we found their bones. As for Clint…” Gus’s little cult member sighed. “We found him on the old farm. Someone smashed his head in with a bat.”

Chapter Text

Roasting a once frozen Joja Pizza over a campfire on the ruins of the ranch seemed appropriate after the events of that day. 

“Everyone is dead ,” Jas noted, trying to heat up her lukewarm pizza piece over the fire. 

“Indeed they are.” Shane scootched a little closer to her, feeling his dad instincts kick in. He was so overprotective daddy with Jas and such a bitter asshole with everyone else Sam found it kind of hilarious.

“At least they’re with Yoba now,” Vincent commented, which everyone just avoided. Talk of the dead made everyone feel crummy, and discussing religion wouldn't even remotely lighten the mood. 

“My main takeaway is that no one knows Sebastian is dead yet,” Sam said, eating his pizza as-is. “Probably because I gave him a proper burial when I found him.”

“You really shouldn’t blame yourself for that,” Shane said. “There’s nothing you could have done to save him.” 

“Bullshit. If I never left him to go alone, he wouldn’t have died.”

“And if you had stayed together, you all could have died.” 

Sam clearly didn’t want to talk about what was bothering him, so Shane just left him alone. Vincent had dropped his piece of pizza into the fire beyond all edibility, so Shane gave his piece to Sam’s little brother and let himself go hungry. Oh well. There could be worse things. 

***

Shane woke up to a noise he hadn’t heard in a good, long time: The crow of a rooster. 

“Hey, at least that means one of my birds is out there somewhere!” Shane exclaimed, trying to wake the rest of the group up with a little optimism. 

“We heading for the train station?” Sam asked. 

“It’s not like there’s anywhere else to go, so yeah. Hopefully we can find someone who can tell us if the train’s still in service or not.” 

As they walked, Shane felt the hand that wasn’t holding Jas’s drift down to an inconspicuous bulge in his pant pocket, that being the pistol Shane had received the previous day. He’d never even fired a gun before, so he hoped he wouldn't need to use it. As far as he knew, the only people in the valley who carried guns (before the war, at least) were Kent and Pierre. Pelican Town used to be so peaceful, no one thought they’d ever need guns. Sam seemed to have a little more confidence about him, though. Shane wouldn’t have been surprised if his dad taught him how to shoot.

When they arrived, things seemed a little too quiet for comfort. The quiet was soon broken with muffled screams, and that was when Sam noticed someone bound, gagged, and tied to the railroad tracks. It was almost like something he’d seen in the type of old western the saloon would play sometimes; a damsel in distress, tied to the tracks by bandits, and a cowboy would need to come and save her. But this was no damsel, and their savior wouldn’t be a cowboy, either. 

Before Sam had even gotten a chance, it was Shane who rushed to save the tied up person, taking a small pocket knife out of his bag and using it to cut the ropes. Shane knew exactly who this was, but he wouldn’t address the man with the broken glasses and slightly overgrown mustache until he had the privilege of freedom. 

As soon as his ties to the tracks had been sliced, Shane worked on the regular bounds that tied his hands and feet together, and then tore the gag off the doctor’s mouth. 

“Shane!” He cried, although his cry came out as more as a sputtery cough. “Water! Water!” 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you, Doc.” Shane handed Harvey his canteen, and didn’t complain when the doctor guzzled it all down in just a few sips. He was clearly very dehydrated, as someone had decided to put him through hell. 

“Anything else I can get you?”

Harvey sighed, still very much in a state of shock; he looked like a deer in headlights. “A clean change of clothes, if you can spare them…”   

Shane embarrassedly nodded in understanding, hustling the rest of the group away after he tossed Harvey some of his spare clothing. 

“What happened to Uncle Harvey?” Vincent asked curiously. 

Confused, Sam corrected, “Vincent, he’s not our uncle…” 

“I’m sure the doctor will tell us what happened when he’s done changing into his new clothes.” Then, almost a bit accusatory, Shane added, “So be nice.”
Sam looked even more confused than before, but the kids nodded in agreement. Shane felt a poke on his shoulder, as Harvey was trying to get his attention. 

“Feeling better?” Shane asked, turning around. 

Harvey nodded, still seeming a bit frazzled. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”

“So… what happened?”
“I don’t know!” He admitted. “All I remember is that I was treating some patients… I opened up a free clinic here by the tracks, you see, and then the next thing I know I’m tied up on the tracks with a terrible headache. Whoever did that seems to have also pilfered all my medical supplies…” he sighed again, looking at an ajar chest. “So much for amounting to something great someday.” 

Shane put his hand on Harvey’s shoulder. “Hey, you matter already! Even if you got set back, you’ve still helped a lot of people throughout your career, and I know you’ve saved at least one life.” He then gave Harvey what was probably the dorkiest smile ever, only to then look away, fervently blushing. “Uh, sorry.” 

“Hey, I was just doing my job, no need to apologize,” Harvey assured, missing what Shane was actually apologizing for. “I mean, even if it wasn’t my job I still would have helped, but you get what I’m saying…”

Shane felt his whole face grow hot with embarrassment, and he could feel his heart fluttering. Sam decided it was a good time to interrupt. 

“You know, Harvey, you’re not the first to suffer head trauma- probably why you had short term memory loss. According to someone in the Gus-cult, Clint was beaten to death with a bat. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same guy.” 

“Well, that’s a shame about Clint.” Harvey shrugged. “And I see you must have met Gus’s little monsters. He tried to hire me a while ago, but I insisted that I work alone. As my reward for that, when they saw me on the train tracks they just left me there.” He rolled his eyes.

“Do you have any lollipops?” Jas asked innocently, eyeing Harvey’s pockets. 

“I want one too!” Vincent yelled, pushing himself in front of Jas. 

Harvey smiled in a fatherly, loving way he did whenever he gave children checkups. “Maybe not lollipops, but let me see…” A quick dig through his pockets revealed two strawberry candies, and even the thought nauseated Shane. He hated those things. Vincent and Jas were less fussy, snatching up the candy. 

“Don’t choke!” Shane warned Jas, turning back to Harvey. 

“Do you want some?”
“I’m good, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my whole life,” Shane said. “I’m sorry, but those things are nasty.” 

“I agree,” Harvey replied. “I only give them out when I’m out of everything else, and I only buy them at all because Maru likes them.” The doctor’s demeanor changed, looking sorrowful. “Have you seen Maru anywhere?”

Shane shook his head. “I’m afraid not.” 

Harvey’s frown turned to a full-on sulk. “Well, thank you for saving my life. The little monsters weren’t going to, and other than that, the town seems to be completely abandoned.” 

“Well, Sam and the kids and I should be here until a train passes, because then we’re going to catch that train and go somewhere safe,” Shane told him. 

Harvey smiled warmly at him. “And I wish I could come with you, but my calling is here. Good luck, and if I find Marnie or your parents, Sam, I’ll make sure to let you know.” He gave Shane a hug, and wished them all well as the four walked “home”. 

Shane walked with an extra bit of pride in his step and a goofy smile on his face. 

“So, someone made a friend today,” Sam teased, elbowing Shane playfully. 

“I mean, Harvey and I have always been on good terms, especially after we saved each other’s lives and all,” Shane bluffed. “I just paid back the favor.” 

“Well, methinks you were hitting on him.”

Shane blushed. “I was not !” 

Jas giggled, and that was when Shane realized you were never going to hear the end of it. “Uncle Shane, you’re funny! Shane’s got a cru-ush!” 

He sighed with a smile on his face, tousling Jas’s hair. “You tire me out, kiddo.” 

“Sam’s the one teasing you!” She said, shifting the blame immediately, which caught Sam off-guard.

“I wasn’t the one giving Dr. Harvey big puppy dog eyes!”
That made Shane’s blush even worse. “I was not giving anyone-” he made air quotes. “‘Big puppy dog eyes’. Sam just likes giving me a hard time.”

Sam shrugged, not denying the statement, and even though Shane knew he was in for relentless teasing, he felt happiness open inside his chest, like a flower finally seeing the sun. It might have had a little to do with the fact he’d gotten a hug from Harvey, but it was just as much because he felt like he’d found a family in these hard times. It definitely beat being alone, which was what Shane had expected this apocalyptic future to foresee. Alone and dark, cold and terrifying. It was all of the above still, but Sam, his slightly annoying little brother, and Shane’s own daughter were lights in the darkness. He hoped with all his heart that they’d never be separated… and that maybe Harvey could be a new light in their entourage. 

Chapter Text

“If I eat another frozen pizza I’m going to kill somebody,” Sam said, lying on his back and looking up at the stars. 

“It’s not like we have much of a choice,” Shane said drearily. After a few weeks in the valley, waiting for the train, they were running low on food. Now they were down to nothing but frozen pizzas and cans of pears and corn. In a moment of desperation, Shane had even gone to the little monsters for help. They pulled up his shirt, poked his belly and his ribs, and declared, “You are not starving. We only help those who are starving.” 

Once the pizzas were gone, Shane knew they were in trouble.

“I’ll go out looking for more food.”
“We all will,” Sam reminded. “Since JojaMart is now home to the rat pack, and everywhere else burned to the ground, that only leaves one place left.” 

***

“You know, I feel guilty stealing from the trailer of a dead woman,” Shane mumbled.
“Pam’s dead, and it’s not like Penny is going to want to come back to this place, if she’s even alive. And if we do see her, we can give her a snack.” Sam smiled a little. “Penny and I were buds. Seb said Maru was staying with her, so I’m sure those two are taking good care of each other.” Sam’s smile turned to a teary-eyed stare. “Yoba, I miss Sebastian.”
“I know,” Shane said sympathetically. “I promise it’ll get easier with time.”

Sam didn’t seem to believe him, but focused back on the task at hand.

“Now, you don’t go doing this, Shane. We want to keep those hands of yours nice and pretty for the doctor.” Sam looked at the only window that was still exposed, and punched it as hard as he could. 

Sam grimaced in pain, his knuckles bleeding from shards of glass embedded in them. Seeming a bit defeated, he gave himself the courtesy to let out a whimper of pain that soon turned into a moan as the tears fell from his eyes. 

“What the hell, Sam? We could have just shot the window open.”

“Less… noise…” Sam picked the shards of glass out of his hand, whimpering and crying more. Sam usually put on such a strong persona, seeing him crying like a lost puppy was shocking, but sobering. He wanted to comfort Sam gently, but also knew that Sam would want him to get the job done first.

“Give me a sock or something,” Sam asked, trying to stop the blood flow with his sweater sleeve. 

Not having any clean socks on him, Shane gave Sam a pair of clean underwear and assisted Sam in dressing it around his wounded hand as sort of a makeshift tourniquet. 

“Don’t worry, that was my weak hand.”

“I’m still taking you to Harvey’s after, dumbass.” 

“Since I seem to have been wounded in battle, you can do the thieving- I mean, borrowing,” Sam instructed, tossing Shane a flashlight. “If you need help, just holler. I’ll be watching the kids.” 

Sam walked back to the pile of debris Vincent and Jas were hiding behind, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his hand. 

Both kids giggled upon seeing him. “You have underwear on your hand!” Vincent laughed. 

“Are they yours or Uncle Shane’s?” Jas asked. 

“Uh… Vincent, don’t touch!” He said, pulling his wrapped hand away. “My hand’s hurt, and this is stopping the blood from getting out,” he explained, as simply as he could.

“Sorry, big brother.”

Meanwhile, Shane tumbled into the trailer, feeling a sharp pain on his back. He figured he must have scratched it on the glass, and hoped his clothes were doing a somewhat decent job of covering the wound.

Seconds later, Shane found out he wasn’t alone. 

He heard shallow breathing, animalistic in nature. Thinking he’d just stumbled upon another hideout for Zuzu runaways, he tried to reason with them. “I don’t want to hurt you, and I’m sorry for breaking in. Now, I’ll just back out…” 

But what Shane found wasn’t human at all. A dog stepped out of the shadows, teeth bared and ears flat against its head. “Dusty!” Shane exclaimed. “It’s me, Dusty, I’m your friend. I gave you pizza once… Don’t you remember?”
Dusty didn’t care about Shane’s act of kindness years ago, but rather lunged at him, his white canines flashing at the man who had invaded his territory. 

“Sam! Sam!” Shane called, trying to scramble out the small window as fast as he could, not even caring about if he got torn to shreds by the window or not. Because at least the window couldn’t fight back. 

Sam rushed over to the trailer and grabbed Shane’s hand, pulling as hard as he could with one of his own hands being busted and wrapped in underwear.

“I’ve got you!” Sam assured. “You’re going to be okay!” 

His eyes were wide with panic, and Shane figured the expression was mirroring his. He felt Dusty breathing on him, his feet surrounded by the dog’s hot breath, so close to being bitten. He lunged again, and Shane felt teeth sink into his right foot, and the pain was excruciating… but he was wearing a shoe! 

Shane kicked his leg, letting his shoe fall off and leaving Dusty stuck. Sam pulled Shane free, but before he could relax, Sam pulled out his pistol. Only a few moments later, Sam had fired inside the trailer with surprising accuracy, and Shane no longer heard the dog’s growls and barks. 

“You killed him.” 

Sam looked down at the gun guiltily. “It was him or you-” he gulped. “And my dad used to take me hunting.” 

They decided not to tell the kids about Dusty, but they were aware that both of them weren’t in good shape.
“We should go see Doctor Harvey,” Jas said, looking worriedly at her godfather’s bleeding foot. “And get you a new sock n’ shoe.” 

“Maybe I’ll just wear an underwear shoe,” Shane joked, limping his way up to the train station and using Jas for support. 

“Then you and Sam could match,” she giggled.

Harvey examined both of their wounds, and bit his lip. “The scratches should be fine as long as you keep them clean, but Sam, you need to keep that hand wrapped up And Shane, that foot, especially considering you were bit by a dog, is going to get infected fast if you don’t wrap it up in something.”

So then Shane had to sit there in humiliation as Harvey wrapped his foot in underwear. Shane told him he could do it himself, but Harvey insisted. So he had a professionally wrapped underwear-foot.

“I’m sorry I can’t provide you with anything else. I would have been able to if those outlaws hadn’t taken my medical supplies!”

“And I’m sorry you had to touch my underwear,” Shane apologized, not meeting Harvey’s gaze out of shyness. 

He smiled. “Shane, my dear, I am a doctor. I have had to do much, much more disgusting things in my life. Not calling your underwear disgusting, but…” 

“I think that’s enough,” Sam said, noticing Shane seemed to be going into a total lockdown brought on by embarrassment. “Thanks for the help, Doc!”

“It’s no trouble at all! Come back if you need anything!”

No matter how cheery Harvey seemed about the situation, Shane still wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The combination of searing pain and burning embarrassment made it nearly impossible to go to sleep. 

Chapter Text

"There are people here: Not the little monsters, either.”

“How do you know?”

“Blood, footprints, trash… and it’s all fresh. If there aren’t any people camping around here, I’ll eat a hat. I’ll eat 20 hats.” 

“I’m holding you to that.”

The two thieves stalked through the night, tracking down their prey. No one had escaped from them yet. They didn’t plan on ever having escapees, either. The only place they hadn’t managed to steal from was the JojaMart, but could you blame them? The entire place was crawling with Gus’s “little monsters”, and they defended their leader so viciously that they’d probably need machine guns to take the place out, and they didn’t have that kind of ammunition. Only their bats. 

“See? Bingo.”

Their targets were a group of two over at what used to be Marnie’s ranch, sound asleep, not knowing what was about to hit them: literally. 

One thief, the one who was better at actual thievery (the brains, you might call them, if the brawn didn’t make extremely intelligent decisions on who to steal from and when), scampered over to one man, and their partner in crime to the other. They were about to smash his head in when they noticed what was curled up next to him. A little girl, in a purple dress with green bows…

“Wait, Haley, wait! They’ve got kids!” She whisper-screamed.

That woke up Shane, who was going to be leaving this encounter with an intact skull. 

His eyes were drowsy, but as he peeled them open, he quickly recognized who he was looking at. “...Emily?”

***

“Yeah, it’s me, Shane. It’s me.” 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, whispering as to not wake up Jas. That was when he noticed the bat in her hands, and got up angrily.

“You!”

The accusation came out louder and woke up Sam. 

“Woah, Haley, woah,” Sam said coolly, looking up at Haley, who was scowling. “If you wanted to wake me up, you could have just shook me awake.” 

“I was going to smash your brains into brain juice, idiot!” She snapped. 

“Woah, woah, woah, why don’t you two lovely ladies explain what’s going on?” Sam demanded, not being nearly as flirty as he had been seconds before. 

“What she said,” Emily shrugged. “We were going to knock you out and steal your stuff, but we have a policy of not stealing from anyone with kids. Sort of like how you’re not allowed to hunt does except for two days of the year because of the babies.”

“Oh, well that’s just lovely,” Shane mumbled sarcastically. “I suppose you were also the one who stole Harvey’s stuff and nearly let him get run over by a train?”

“Well, it’s not like we could do anything else with him,” Haley rolled her eyes. That comment made Shane mildly furious. Although, it didn’t even compare to the rage Shane could see building up on Sam’s face. 

“If you two so much as laid a finger on Sebastian, I swear-”
“What happened to Sebastian?” Emily’s eyes widened. 

“He died,” Sam spat. 

“I had no idea. Oh, Sam, I’m so sorry…” Emily tried to comfort him, but Sam wanted none of it. 

“And why should I believe that you didn’t kill him? He was found near the train tracks, and that was where we found Harvey, caught like a fly in a web!”

“How was he killed?” Haley asked. 

Sam shuddered at the memory. “I’m not a doctor, so I can’t tell what killed him, but he had a bullet through his head, and stab wounds everywhere…”

“To me, that sounds like someone who had intent to kill. Em and I never intend to kill, it just happened once by accident,” Haley informed. “I don’t mean to make your grief worse, but whoever murdered him seemed to want to cause him great pain. He was killed sadistically.”

That definitely made Sam’s grief worse, as he let out a heartbroken wail and crumpled to the ground, sobbing. 

Shane ran to his side, trying to comfort him by stroking his shoulders. “Gee, thanks,” he said to Haley. 

Sorry. Somebody was really into true crime before the whole world turned upside down,” Emily apologized. “We steal, but we don’t kill. Except for the one time.”

“Which was?” 

Emily sighed. “Don’t think I don’t feel bad about this, but I was trying to steal from Clint, but he woke up before I could knock him out. And you know how Clint is with me… So I got freaked out, and started whacking him over and over and over and next thing I knew he was dead.”

“Oh.” The entire situation made Shane uncomfortable, so he moved on. “I can’t think of anyone like this in criminal history.”

“Me either,” Haley admitted. “So many sadistic couples exist… The Ken and Barbie Killers, Bonnie and Clyde, Mitchell and Barzee… But we’re different. We’re just two sisters who don’t want to die.” She sighed. “This was all my idea, by the way, seeing as I was the star softball player senior year and Emily was my favorite cheerleader.”

Hearing that Haley was proud of this business they had going made Shane feel a little sick to his stomach. 

They’re just trying to find a way to live, just like us, Shane justified. They’re just doing it by stealing and beating people up.

Shane was snapped out of his thoughts by a snort. “Why are you wearing underwear on your foot?”

“Well, Haley, someone stole all of Harvey’s bandages, so when I got bit by Alex’s dog and Sam smashed his hand, we had no choice. We just had to make do with undies.” 

This threw Haley for a loop, and she reached into her bag.

“Your underwear is very high quality,” Emily noted, which made Shane blush with embarrassment a little. 

“Cut that out,” he said. 

“You look absolutely ridiculous- and hideous, for that matter,” Haley huffed, handing him bandages. “Take this, but that’s all you’re getting!”

Emily beckoned to her sister after she handed the bandages to Shane, and then they both ran for the hills, into the shadow of the night. 

Sam had stopped crying at this point, but he was still crumpled on the ground, crying into his knees. “Are you all right?” Sam didn’t even bother answering the question, because they both know the answer. 

“Why did he have to die?” Sam croaked. “I loved him, Shane. He took me up to the mountains on his motorcycle, and he said I was the first boy he ever had feelings for, and he kissed me under the moon. We spent all of our time together, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I know he and Abby had a thing, but it didn’t last long, what we had was different, it was special. I loved him. And they took him from me.”

“I don’t know how to help you, I’m sorry,” Shane admitted. “But what happened wasn’t fair, and I’m sorry they took him from you. And I’ll always be here.”
Sam hugged Shane someone unexpectedly, and Shane let him cry into his chest like a little kid all he needed to. 

“When are you going to tell Robin?”

“I haven’t found the words yet. When I find them, I’ll go tell her.” Sam escaped Shane’s grip and fixated on the roll of bandages. “You ready to get those underwear off your foot?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

So, the rest of the night was spent sharing memories of Sebastian and bandaging injured hands and feet. And they could both finally go back to not having the embarrassment of displaying their underwear for the world to see. 

Chapter Text

Harvey woke up to a bat hanging over his head. “Oh, not you two again!”

The figures were asked, but the bat told Harvey it was the same people who’d stolen all of his medical supplies. “I have nothing left for you to take. My only possessions now are these nasty strawberry grandma candies.”

Which was a lie” he had a stash of food squirreled away in the ground, as if he was some kind of gopher. But these two didn’t need to know that. 

“Come with us. You’ll save your life and that of many others.”
Seeing as the one who wasn’t talking was holding a bat over his head, it didn’t seem like he had much of a say in the matter, so he got on his feet and followed them to wherever he was going. He found out soon enough.

“The sewer?”

They both shushed him, so Harvey made his way down the latter, trying not to gag at the completely hideous smell.
“Hi, Krobus,” one of his captors said. Harvey wasn’t sure who they were greeting at first, until Harvey saw a little void spirit organizing… stuff. 

“What on earth is that?” He asked. 

“Our hideout-mate, Krobus. He’s a monster, but a friendly one. We’ve been trying to get him a spot on The Happy Junimo show, actually.” 

Harvey wasn’t sure if they were joking about the Happy Junimo Show or not, but after he stopped ogling at the void spirit (Krobus, he has a name, Harvey corrected himself), he realized that the sewe had become a store room, with piles of food and supplies just sitting there. 

“Take all your medical stuff. The people need it more than we four do.”
Harvey was too excited to question about a fourth thief. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” He cried happily, stuffing a bag they’d provided with him with as much of his medical supplies as he could. He made sure to get bandages, as Shane needed bandages, and Sam did too. Even the thought of Shane brought a bit of color to Harvey’s cheeks, making them rosy. He was a very foolish doctor to have fallen for one of his patients, but he would keep that secret until his death. That didn’t mean he didn’t get fuzzy thinking about Shane visiting tomorrow, though. 

Once everything was packed away, he was instructed to leave the sewer and never tell anyone of the thieves’ whereabouts, and never return. Since they didn't hesitate to kill him before, he planned on doing as he was told. He was a doctor again! He could continue saving lives! 

One day, Harvey, you’ll amount to something great! You will soar sky high!

Chapter Text

As the weeks went on, there was less and less food for the group. Dusty had devoured all the food in the trailer, so after the failure of that invasion, things were not going well foodwise. They still hadn’t gotten more, and they had to start rationing, even more than before. They had one meal a day, with equal portions of just one food. 

“But I don’t like corn!” Vincent complained. 

“Well, it’s what’s for dinner, so you’re going to eat unless you want to go hungry,” Sam told him, which got Vincent to eat his corn just fine.

No matter what was for dinner, Shane always broke Sam’s rationing agenda. Whenever Sam wasn’t looking, or if he went off to go relieve himself, Shane would sneak Jas about half of his food. 

“You’re not supposed to be giving me extra, Uncle Shane,” Jas whispered to him one night. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“Nah, I’m fine.” The truth was, Shane’s hunger ate away at him. He looked forward to mealtimes more than anything, because it was the only time he could ever feel not hungry. But then it went right through, and the cycle repeated. “And, Jas, you’re my kiddo. Dads care for their kiddos, so you can have a little of my food. It’s my food to give away, and it’s not like I’m stealing from Sam or Vincent, because that would be wrong.”

As time continued on, things didn’t get much better. They turned to the Gus cult again, but the same thing happened as before.

“You are not starving. We only help those who are starving.”

Shane had always been a bit on the pudgy side, so he figured that, even if it wasn’t the best situation, his body could live off that pudge. 

“I’m not hungry,” Shane said one night. 

“How can you not be?” Sam asked suspiciously. “I know you’ve been giving half of your food to Jas. You need to eat!”
“But the kids need to eat more.”

“Shane, not eating isn’t good for you! I don’t want you starving to death,” Sam fussed.

“I’m not going to starve to death,” Shane assured, lifting up his shirt. “See? I got a bit of a beer belly going on here. I can live off of that until we get more food.” 

“Fine!” Sam said angrily. “Then I’m not eating either!”

So, they came to an agreement. From now on, only the kids would eat. 

As leaves turned greener on the threes that hadn’t been turned to ash and sweet peas started to bloom when there was still grass, it must have been summer. Everyone found they were losing count of the days. Sam even decided to tear down an old rule they’d had since their reunion all those weeks ago.  

“We can split up now. One of us… one of the grown-ups,” Sam glared at Vincent and Jas. “Will go out looking for food. We’ll take turns. I’m a better shot than you, Shane, not to brag, so I’ll probably try to catch something hunting. The one who stays behind will look after the kids and try to catch something fishing.”
This plan worked well, except for the fact no one every caught anything or found any food. The closest they got was a handful of spice berries and a few clusters of wild grapes, which made a fine meal. But it was only that; one meal. Once again, they returned to Gus’s cult, and once again they refused them service. When asked to speak with Gus, they just told them to leave with a string of profanities that Shane had to tell Jas not to repeat. 

The weeks continued on. Eventually they were so low on food that the kids had to take turns eating on a given day. Every time Shane watched one of them go hungry, his heart shattered. He’d never thought of himself as a person who was good with kids, but he certainly had some parental instincts that kicked in hard. He just wanted to feed Jas, and Vincent too. He wanted to pull them close and keep them safe and warm and well fed. And he couldn’t give them that. It even made him question why his own parents had been able to be so cruel to him if this was what parents felt for their children, but it was probably best not to dwell on that. It’d just make him feel worse. Every night, he held Jas a little bit tighter. 

Chapter Text

“Uncle Shane, I have a tummy ache.”

Shane wasn’t enthusiastic about being woken in the middle of the night, but Jas was the most important thing in his life. 

“Honey, I think you’re just hungry.” 

“It’s not that.”

“Do you need to go potty?”

“I tried.” 

Shane sat up now that the two easiest explanations were out of the way. “Do you feel like you’re going to barf?”

She shook her head. 

Shane started to panic as he woke Sam up. “I’m taking Jas to go see Harvey. I think she’s sick.”
Sam nodded, too tired to do anything else, and Shane was honestly thankful. The last thing he needed was Sam making jokes about his alleged feelings for the doctor. Thinking about the doctor in that way in the moment just made Shane panic further. 

Right now, your focus is Jas. You can think about everything else after. 

He picked his goddaughter up in his arms and ran, almost like he had that first night. That night, he had been afraid for his life. Now, he was afraid only for Jas’s. 

He felt bad waking the exhausted doctor from his slumber, but it was a necessary evil.

“Is that you, Shane?” Harvey asked, fumbling for his glasses.
“Yes, it’s me! Please get up, I think Jas is sick!” 

Harvey put on his classes and immediately started an exam. 

“What hurts, dear?”
“My tummy.”

He asked the same questions Shane had, and Jas responded the same way. 

Harvey had Shane lay Jas down so he could press her stomach, as Jas couldn’t move on her own, being too weak and tired. 

“Tell me if this hurts.”

“That hurts! That hurts!” 

Seeing Jas in so much pain made tears come to Shane’s eyes. He cared for Harvey, but his body was telling him to do anything to help Jas escape pain, and right now Jas was in pain because of him. Harvey pulled away from her before Shane had time to do anything irrational. 

“Can you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten?”

“Ten.” 

Shane hurt even more upon hearing that.

Harvey continued doing more examinations, and turned to tell Shane his diagnosis. 

“She’s just hungry. Extremely hungry. Please try to feed her soon.” 

“Sam and I haven’t been able to find anything to eat for a few weeks,” Shane admitted.

“My food ran out a few days ago too.”Harvey took something out of his pocket- another nasty strawberry candy. “Crush this up and give it to her. At least it’s something, even if it has no nutritional value.”

Shane did as he was told, spooning the crumbs to Jas with his hand. “How is it?”

“It’s… sweet.” Her eyes began fluttering open and closed. “I”m tired, Uncle Shane…”

“No! Don’t go to sleep! Stay awake with me!”

But it was too late. Jas’s chest was still rising and falling, so Shane scooped her up.

“I’m going to JojaMart. I’ll kill someone for food if I have to.”

“I think I know somewhere where I might find food. I’ll get some, and bring as much as I can to you,” Harvey told him, running off. 

Shane ran after him, but they split off when Shane ran towards Jojamart. All the jostling must have woke Jas up, as he heard her say. “...Where are we going?” She sounded so fragile and weak…

“To food, honey. To food.”

He entered JojaMart to be greeted with snarls and hisses from the little monsters. 

“We don’t want you here!”
“Get out, Joja scum!”

“My daughter is starving!” Shane cried. “If she doesn’t get food, she’ll die!” 

“She’s not one of us!”

“Let me talk to Gus!” Shane demanded. “Gus knows me, he’ll feed her!”

“Didn’t you know?” One of the guards said. “Gus was laid off. Laid to rest, even.”  

“What?! Why?!” 

The guard grinned. “He was no longer necessary.”

By this point, a mob was forming. A mob of people levied against Shane, hungry and desperate. 

“Feed my daughter!” He screamed. “Feed my daughter, or I’ll… I’ll shoot!” 

Shane wasn’t the one shooting, though, as he heard a bullet fire through the air. 

“No! Please, don’t hurt my daughter!”
“She’s not one of us!” 

“Then take her!” His face was covered in tears, and his throat hurt from yelling. “Just keep her safe, please!”

The mob didn’t listen, and he heard more gunfire go off as he tried to escape. He felt a horrible pain in his shoulder, worse than anything he’d ever felt before, and he let out a blood-curdling scream and fell to the ground. The gunfire didn’t stop, though, and he ran to the door, dragging Jas behind him, as fast as he could. 

When they were outside, the mob decided to leave them alone; when they were off their territory, they ceased to be their problem. 

“Jas?” Shane checked on her gently, her breathing shallow and looking up to Shane with tears in her eyes. That was when he noticed the blood seeping through her dress, on her shoulder, on her back, on her side… her body was riddled with bullets. 

“They got you too,” she said, looking to the blood staining Shane’s back.”

“I know, I know, we’re going to get you to Dr. Harvey’s, and you’ll be okay!” Shane insisted, but knowing deep down it wasn’t true. “Come on, Jas, stay with me!”
“It hurts, Dad,” she cried. It hurts so much!”

“I know, I know. You’ll be all right, my little Jasmine.” It was the first time she’d called him dad, even though he was too heartbroken in the moment to remember. 

She didn’t reply, just breathed. Shane found that he couldn’t move, the bullet that had lodged itself in his back sapping away all of his strength. “You’ll be okay, Jasmine…” 

For a few moments, everything was silent, until Jas let out one more tiny cry. “Dad?”

Then she fell silent again, more than silent. Her breathing had stopped and her eyes were glazed over and glassy. 

“No…” Shane weakly cried, not having the strength to cry any louder than a squeak. “Jas…”

His memory was fuzzy after that. A figure loomed over him. His shoulder and back hurt- it hurt so much. Crying. People were crying. 

He dreamed that he was a little boy again, and his parents were fighting at the table. He spilled milk, and they’d hit him. He’d wet the bed, and they’d hit him. He didn’t get a good grade on his spelling test, they hit him. Then he was with Marnie… Marnie, the woman who was more like a mother to him than anyone else. The woman who’d probably saved his life. She’d made him rhubarb pie his first night with her. He’d spilled his milk, and she’d helped him clean up. He didn’t wet the bed in her home. She helped him practice his spelling words.

He then dreamed of the accident that had killed Jas’s parents, and the tiny little girl who’d run into his arms the night afterward. She was so small back then… just a few years ago he had finished high school in Zuzu City, where he went to a boarding school. He’d played on the gridball team, but had never been the best. He’d had a huge crush on both the linebacker and his sister, and both had hated him and beat him up in the halls. The linebacker, Rick what’s-his-face had once tackled Shane so hard he’d cracked one of Shane’s ribs. He was such a pushover he wasn’t even mad. But, he was just out of high school, and he was already a dad. Even though he promised that would never happen, it had. And he loved his daughter from the moment she ran into his arms. 

Then he was at the cliff which he stared down frequently. He wanted to jump off, but he didn’t. Something told him to live. So he went to Harvey’s, and his kindness had saved Shane’s life, just like Marnie’s kindness had before him. 

And then he was running. Running and running and running. 

And then Jas was dead. 

Chapter Text

“I’m so sorry, Shane.”

“There was nothing I could do.” 

“Here, let me redress your wound.” 

“Are you hungry?”

“No,” he finally replied, as Harvey offering him a boxed apple pie was the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

“Eat,” Sam demanded. “You should be glad you’re alive, the least you could do is eat. That’s all we’re asking of you.”
Shane refused again, continuing the cycle they’d been going at for days. Either Sam or Harvey would spoonfeed Shane, watching as he reluctantly swallowed. 

He’d passed out in front of the JojaMart, and Harvey had found him after finding enough food to feed them all for weeks. When asked he’d gotten it, he’d told Shane he’d bargained with a void spirit from the sewer for it. He was too depressed to question him. Harvey had painfully removed the bullet from Shane’s back and stitched him up. “You’re lucky; that bullet just barely missed your spine. If it’d been any closer, it probably would have killed you, or at least paralyzed you from the shoulders down.”

He didn’t tell the doctor what he was thinking only because of his feelings for him, but Shane wished he died. He wished he didn’t have to live with the pain of losing Jas. He didn’t believe in heaven, but he wished he was there with Jas rather than in hell on earth.

Sam, Harvey, and even Vincent tried to do their very best to comfort him. 

“I miss Jas too,” Vincent had told him. Shane just hoped the little guy didn’t get messed up from losing so many people in the span of a few weeks. 

Shane had insisted on burying Jas alone. He’d dug the grave himself with a shovel lended from Harvey, and put his little angel to rest with her favorite things. He made sure she’d been buried in her favorite dress, and not the one that had been soaked in innocent blood. 

“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry..” He apologized to her. It was the only apology he’d been willing to entertain, because Jas wouldn’t have died if he’d just done something differently.

“I know you wouldn’t have died if I packed more food. If I hadn’t drank so much. If we joined the little monsters. If I just left that damn JojaMart before they started shooting.”

She was buried under her favorite tree, the one she always skipped rope under. Somehow, that tree had survived the fire- maybe it was too old and bitter to go down so easily.

Shane remembered the time Jas had desperately wanted to try doing double dutch, which required three people. And so, Shane, Marnie and Jas had all gone out to the old tree and twisted the rope for her. Then he was the one that ended up doing double dutch, and he tripped and fell right on his ass. Once Jas realized he wasn’t hurt, she giggled like it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. She’d always found Shane hilarious. He could tell the worst jokes and she’d always laugh like she’d heard them for the first time. She also seemed to get quite a bit of schadenfreude from certain aspects of his existence, like the time he’d given her his phone to take pictures of their new baby chicks with, and she’d taken a picture of a chicken pulling down his pants, and then sent it to every one of his contacts. 

Little stinker, he thought to himself with a smile. It was the first time since he smiled since her death, but the smile soon went away as he got back to work. He put sweet peas on her grave, wishing it was fall so maybe he could find fairy roses to put there. Those were her absolute favorite flowers. He vowed to return with them at some point of his life, he then walked back to his new home, the train station. 

He couldn’t bear to live on the ruins of the ranch after what had happened, and Harvey was willing to welcome him with open arms. And he could never get Sam to ditch him, no matter how hard he tried. 

“I can’t imagine what you’re going through,” Sam said to him one night as he looked up at the night sky. He’d heard that before from him, but this time he actually answered. 

“Yeah you do.”

“Shane, your kid is dead. I don’t know what it’s like to be a parent, let alone what it’s like to have your child pass away.” He sighed. “At least I still have Vincent, and my parents might be alive. You’ve lost your entire family.”

“Marnie always said that she’d either die of old age or get struck down by a meteorite milking cows,” Shane said flatly. “I haven’t heard of any meteorite incidents.’

“Well, that’s good.” Sam rolled over. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know, okay?” 

Shane nodded, knowing he needed a shit ton of help but not feeling like talking about it. “So, when are you telling Robin?”

Sam looked intrigued. “Why do you ask?”
“You know why. How the hell am I supposed to tell Marnie I got her niece killed? What if she blames me?” 

Sam took a deep breath. “I’ve been asking myself the same things. Doesn’t help that Sebastian would have been alive if he hadn’t gone off looking for me. So unless Robin starts to be okay with me being her son’s boyfriend and her son being dead real fast, I’m totally screwed,” he told. “I suppose I deserve it, though. I did get her son killed.”

“Don’t blame yourself. People die.”

Sam frowned. “Maybe you should try telling yourself that.” He rolled back over, telling Shane he was done engaging for the night. 

“Night,” Shane said. 

“I love you, you know.” 

Any kind of relaxation Shane had accomplished went out the window. He wanted to say a million things, but took his time thinking about what to say. 

Apparently there was just enough light or Sam to see Shane’s shocked, blushing face. “Oh, not like that, dummy. You’re like family now, is what I meant.”

“Ah,” Shane let out a little sigh of relief. “Sorry, my little fragile heart nearly exploded because I can’t take any more stress or personal drama in my life right now. 

“Same here, buddy,” Sam said. “Same here.” 

Chapter Text

The weeks went by, and the pain kept lessening, at least a little. Shane had found a lighting among the food Harvey’d brought in, and had taken a great interest in it. Seeing the tiny flame pop up, flicker, and then disappear was fascinating. He could move his finger so close… and not burn it as long as he moved his finger away fast enough. 

“You better not start smoking,” Sam scolded. “Sebastian always smoked, and I always hated it.”
“I’m not a smoker,” Shane told him. “I’m trying not to abuse any substances. I’m just bored and playing with fire.”
Sam didn’t seem to approve, but as long as he wasn’t inhaling nicotine he would stay out of his hair. Harvey was more concerned about everything else Shane did, though. 

“Your heartbeat seems faster than usual,” Harvey noted, but not writing anything down.

“Well, no shit, doctor, you’ve been inspecting me every day for a week. Something must be wrong.”
“I’m concerned about your health.” Although the blush on Harvey’s face not only made Shane return the blush, but clued him into the fact that Harvey wasn’t worried about his irregular heartbeat. 

“Your hair is greasy,” Harvey commented. “When was the last time you took a bath?”
“Do you really want to know?”

Harvey shifted uncomfortably. “I know a way into the bathhouse. Meet me at 7. Or whenever Sam is asleep. 

Shane hated how he felt about his private appointment with Harvey. He knew him well before the war, and had admittedly liked him quite well, but now, this was more… bittersweet. His daughter was dead. There was a horrible war. The entire valley was destroyed. And hell, half of the town was dead. Even if Harvey returned his feelings, what was he to do?
He pushed it out of his mind, playing with his little flame. It would burn, and burn, and never die. Until the lighter ran out of fluid, of course, but that was another thing to be ignored for the ages. Or until he needed to face the issue. 

***

“You better not punch that window.” Harvey grinned. “Of course not. It unlocks.” 

He swung open the window, and climbed through. Shane blushed in spite of himself, trying not to stare. “You coming?” Harvey extended his hand to Shane, and he took it gracefully, allowing Harvey to pull him in. His smile was warm, and made Shane’s heart swell and his whole body tingle. Damn Harvey for being so charming! Damn him for causing him to let his guard down!

“Harvey, we both know this isn’t about my hair being greasy.” 

“It is, though. It’s fine the way it is!” He added. “You just… might want to take a bath when we’re done.”

“Done with what?” Shane sighed. “Just get to the point. We know what this is about.” 

Harvey looked to the floor. “Did I really make it so obvious?”

Shane cracked a smile. “Well, you’ve been giving me a checkup once a day for some reason. And, um…” Shane felt his whole body grow warm and tingly again. “You’re a heartmelter, Harvey.”

He blushed in shock, his mustache rising with his gasp, which Shane found humorous. Then, he got an urge he hadn’t gotten in a long time. He wanted to kiss Harvey. He wanted to hold him carefully and gently as Harvey laid under him… he needed to stop these thoughts before he reacted in a way Harvey probably didn’t want to see. 

“Since when?”
Shane studied his feet, trying to focus on anything but how he felt for Harvey. One, a worn sneaker. The other, still wrapped in bandages from the last time he climbed through a window. Harvey was a whole different beast from the one that had previously attacked him, but unlike Dusty, he was alluring. Shane wanted Harvey to bite and drag him into his grasp… but not literally. But the doctor seemed incapable of doing so, just standing dumbfounded and looking at Shane. 

“You’ve been a heartmelter since we met. Er, moreso since you helped save my life,” he corrected. “We were good friends after that, but I… Well, you were really sweet and kind to me, and no one who wasn’t family or social workers had ever treated me that way before, and my dumb ass was like, ‘Yes, Shane, let’s cling onto the first adult who’s not your aunt for dear life because they’ve treated you as more than human dirt…’” Shane paused, realizing he was dumping his entire heart on a plate for the doctor, and likely not making any sense. “Do you get what I’m saying? Sorry, I just sounded clingy as fuck.”

“No, no, I understand,” Harvey assured. “When I first moved in here, I met you and thought you were cute. And then I got to know you, and found you even cuter.”

That was when Shane lost it. His mind was scrambled and his body was not at all in sync with his mind. All his body cared about was Harvey, and his mind was stuck between him and a deep, deep sorrow. He felt his knees wobble, and he fell into Harvey’s arms, and started sobbing.

“Shh… It’ll be all right,” Harvey spoke gently and stroked Shane’s supposedly greasy hair. “What did I do to upset you so much?” He wasn’t accusatory, he just wanted to help. He was always a doctor, even off-duty. 

“Nothing, this is just… this is all wrong!” He took a deep breath so he could begin explaining. “I’ve felt this way about you for a while and I’m…” Shane looked to his feet again. “Overjoyed you feel the same way. But everyone is dead! Your nurse is missing. My aunt is missing. My daughter died. I’ve been imagining this moment for years, but… Not like this.” 

“I understand. Trust me, I wasn’t hoping for it to be like this either. I wish things could go back to the way they used to be too.  But… at least I have you.”

That made a pit form in Shane’s stomach. “I’m sorry, but right now I just can’t handle this. I love you, and I can’t have that. You’re just another person for me to lose.”
He pulled away from Harvey, wiping away his tears. Maybe he was being impulsive. Maybe he should stay with Harvey. But right now, he could keep himself safe, his heart safe, by running away.

“Shane, wait.” 

That damn doctor made him stop in his tracks. 

“We can still be together, if you want to. When this is all over, and it will be over eventually, we can be together, because I would wait until the end of the world for you. If you want to be.”

Shane smiled through tears, looking back to the doctor that made his heart soar. “How about just for tonight? Until things clear up?”
Harvey pulled at his necktie nervously, but with a nerdy little grin that Shane found drove him wild. “Just tonight, we can be together and do whatever we’ve wanted to do for all these years.”

“I’d love that,” Shane giggled. “First, though, I need to shower. So my hair isn’t greasy for you,” he teased. 

“Or…” Harvey looked at Shane a bit mischievously. “We could bathe together.” 

First, the two actually showered, but in different locker rooms to avoid the awkwardness. Shane had found the lavender shampoo some girl had left in the locker room, and it felt good to get clean after days, weeks of not washing. The warm water and aromatic scents of shampoo brought him peace and happiness. Even though he was quite upset before, he felt calm now, and almost hopeful. It finally settled in on him what had happened, and that made his heart fill with joy and embarrassment. Had he really broken down crying? Had he really blurted out “I love you” so quickly? Well, the past was in the past. But Harvey loved him! The thought made him fluttery. He needed not to let his emotions and feelings for Harvey get the better of him. This was only for one night, and he couldn’t let himself get attached to him more than he already was. He could just be another person to lose. But Shane wasn’t losing Harvey tonight. And that made him feel confident and excited to leave the shower and see his doctor. He put on his dirty clothes afterwards, hoping he didn’t smell too horrible.

Harvey had apparently finished showering first, as he was in the spa waiting, his hair still damp. His mustache was wet too, and Shane smiled and sat next to him. He smelled of soap, and was fiddling with his hands. He supposed that as a doctor, it probably helped to have something to do with his hands.

“Sorry I’m not talking much,” Harvey apologized, watching his hands, but grinning. “There are so many things I want to say, but I’m terribly nervous.”

Shane reached out to Harvey to take one of his fidgeting hands. “Oh, trust me, I’m nervous too. You can say whatever you want to.”

Harvey paused, and Shane thought he had something to say, but Harvey had other thoughts. He threw his arms around Shane and pressed his lips to his. Even through his shock, Shane happily followed Harvey’s lead, melting into the kiss and wrapping his arms around Harvey’s head and back. The kiss was sweet and long, with Harvey eventually slipping his tongue inside Shane’s mouth, and they sat back down to have a full on make-out session. Shane’s entire body was burning with a lustful fire as he kissed Harvey eagerly, trying to take in as much of the doctor in this one night as he possibly could. 

Neither of them were sure how long they spent kissing, but each kiss was worth a thousand words. It was passionate, sweet, gentle, fiery. 

“Let’s go take a bath, shall we?” Harvey took Shane’s hand and led him into the hot tub room, where his stomach started to stir. He wasn’t quite sure what the doctor wanted from him, but the possibilities excited him and made him nervous. 

What if he wants to… You know? He just confessed, and I’m super rusty! Either way, Shane followed him, and watched shyly as Harvey changed into what he would use as a bathing suit, which was just his underwear. The doctor’s torso was smooth and flat, and Shane couldn’t wait to embrace him under the water.

Shane stripped as well, and watched Harvey stare at him as he changed. “Like what you see?” He flirted. 

“Yes,” Harvey admitted, the color coming to his cheeks. “You’re… you’re so handsome.”

They couldn’t help themselves, and started making out again before even making it into the bath room, only this time Shane found his hands traveling up and down, feeling Harvey’s smooth chest as Harvey’s hands teased the small of his back and tugged at his hair, in which Shane returned the gesture. 

When they finally got in the bath together, the same routine continued- steamy kisses, exploring each other in ways they both wanted to do but hadn’t been able to. 

Shane felt his knees get weak. He wanted Harvey. He wanted him desperately. It would be moving things along too quickly, but the want consumed him. 

“Shane, may I…?” Harvey’s hands moved down to Shane’s underwear, grasping the cuff, and Shane knew what he meant. He knew what would happen if he said yes.

“I want to…” Shane admitted, kissing Harvey again. “But I can’t. Too fast. Too easy of a way to grow close to you. Tonight’s been wonderful, and I want to, but… Not tonight.”

Harvey quickly moved his hands, and hugged Shane. “You all right?”
“Yes, just… What if I lose you? After this, I never want to leave your side again.” 

“And Shane, I want to be with you forever too. And we will be, when things get better. I promise I’ll never leave you.”

Deep down, Shane knew Harvey couldn’t control whether he could pass away or not, but he was too in love with him to care at the moment. All he wanted to do was cuddle now, after getting all the other thoughts out of his head.

“You would look really cute wrapped up in a towel,” Harvey noted, stepping out of the pool to grab a fluffy white towel. “C'mere. I want to make you a little Shane-burrito.” 

And so he did, and the two men wrapped themselves in a towel (after putting their clothes back on, as to not get chilly), and started cuddling together, curling up on a bench together. Harvey was so cuddly and comfortable leaning on Shane’s shoulder, and Shane decided there was something that needed to be done. 

“Here, Harvey.” And so, Shane slipped his JojaMart jacket on Harvey, and the two continued to cuddle, with Harvey giving Shane gentle kisses on his jaw, and Shane returning the favor. 

“We should probably go back to camp now, so we can sleep,” Shane said late into the night as he caressed Harvey’s cheek. “If Sam wakes up in the morning or during the night and sees that we’re both missing he’s going to pitch a fit.”

Harvey yawned. “Both understandable.”

They both helped one another climb through the window and back onto the dusty lot, and back to their sleeping bags. Shane spooned and cuddled Harvey as they tried to go to sleep, their sleep being delayed by kisses, small talk, and more cuddles. Harvey fell asleep first, and Shane studied him as he slept. His quiet breaths. His mustache would twitch sometimes. He hadn’t removed his glasses. He was smiling. 

Chapter Text

Sam was no fool. He could see what was going on, even before it had happened. From the moment Harvey was found on the tracks, Sam could tell there were going to be flying sparks between Shane and Harvey, simply from the way they looked at each other. When he woke up early to pee, he wasn’t surprised to see Shane spooning his new friend ever so gently, with a dumb grin on his sleepy face and a hickey on his neck. 

When he’d finished his business, he realized that Harvey was wearing Shane’s jacket, the same one Shane had lent him a few weeks ago. As the rest of the day continued, the thought of them together rested on Sam’s tongue like a pill not yet swallowed. When he’d watch Shane gently awake Harvey from his sleep, and when they’d snuck off to have a bit of time to themselves to kiss, Sam groaned to himself. When they had a very sophisticated breakfast of beans, the two lovebirds were twittering and giving each other longing looks. 

“Excuse me, gentlemen.” Sam didn’t think he’d ever called his friends gentlemen unironically, but he excused himself, sat on the train tracks, and started to cry.  Why the hell did he feel this way? If anything, he should be happy for Shane; he’d found love in a dangerous time. He hadn’t harbored any romantic feelings for either of them, although that didn’t mean he didn’t imagine that. He’d imagined himself in a relationship with Shane plenty of times, in what he figured to be his brain’s way to cope with Sebastian’s death. If he couldn’t have one man, his brain could try (and fail) to cope with it by replacing him with another. 

Sebastian. He’d loved him with everything he had, given him his whole heart, and in probably less than a minute he was stolen from him. When Shane had lost Jas, he felt as if Shane could finally understand the mental pain he was in, the hurt that he carried around with him, like a stone on his back. But then he gained exactly what Sam lost. The dark shadow of grief was lifted from Shane’s eyes now when he was talking to Harvey. 

Again, he should be happy for his friend, not grieving over his newfound relationship by sobbing like a fucking idiot on the side of the tracks. No, not even on the side of the tracks: On the tracks. Was he hoping that damned train would finally come and run him over? He honestly didn’t know. 

“Peanut butter!” The voice was recognizable as Vincent’s to Sam immediately, but he had no clue what he meant. Even though he wasn’t in the mood to talk, Sam asked Vincent to elaborate. 

“You know, the poem mom would read to us! 

The peanut sat on the railroad track,

His heart was all a flutter

The train came by at 5 past 9

Toot toot! Peanut butter!”

“Vincent, it’s over!” Sam snapped, not even really knowing what he meant. “Mom’s dead, and I’m sure dad isn’t going to come home. And Sebastian’s dead. Nothing is ever going to get better. We’re fighting a useless, uphill battle. Fuck it if I turn into peanut butter. I’d be more useful as peanut butter than I am right now anyways.” 

He was too wrapped up in his own mind to notice Vincent’s reaction. He decided what he would spend the rest of the day doing. 

I have nothing left going for me in this miserable life. I have Vincent, but Harvey and Shane can care for him. I have nothing left to live for. So, it’s time to tell Robin. 

Chapter Text

Vincent was always ignored. He would try to keep to himself and play with his toys, which were sticks and pebbles Shane would pick up and give to him. Days earlier, he’d overheard a conversation between the adults. 

“I can’t wave a magic wand and fix him, Sam. He doesn’t need to be fixed, he needs help.”
“And we’ve been helping, and he’s not getting any better!” Vincent knew his older brother and the doctor were talking about Uncle Shane. Sam sounded frustrated. 

“It’ll take time. I thought you’d know that.” Harvey looked at Sam and walked away, hanging his head. 

Ever since Jas had died, the grownups were always having important conversations that Vincent was left out of. Uncle Shane would go off to cry, even though he thought no one knew. And then Doctor Harvey and Big Brother Sam would go off and fuss over Shane, and Vincent was always forgotten. His mom was missing, and he hadn’t seen Dad in years. He’d assured Vincent that he’d be okay. “See you later, squirt.” And those were the last words he’d ever spoken to his son. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye to his mom. He would always cry to Sam every night about how much he missed his parents, and he’d always get the same response. “I know. Now go to sleep.” 

He’d always been too busy with Sebastian to give Vincent his attention, and after he died he was too busy mourning. When Jas came along, Vincent finally had someone to play with and talk to. 

“Sam never pays me any attention!” He’d exclaimed angrily. “And when he does, he just tells me to be quiet or tells me I’m wrong!” 

Jas nodded. “Maybe he’s just busy. I’m sure it’s not personal. Back when Uncle Shane was more sad, he wouldn’t have time to play with me either, and he said it was because of something called ‘stress’.”

She was always worried about Uncle Shane, just like everyone else. “Uncle Shane used to drink lots and lots, before he went to Dr. Harvey for help. When I came home sometimes, he’d be passed out on the floor and not talking to me and saying random stuff. It was really scary, and I always worried it was my fault, and that he was going to leave forever or that he was gonna die. Things have been so much better since he stopped drinking. Uncle Shane told me that it’s not my fault, though. So that’s good.”

Before Jas had died, Shane would make a big effort to play with the children when he had time, which made Vincent think Shane loved Jas very much. But now Shane didn’t have the energy to play, and Jas was dead. The loneliness crushed him. His parents were missing too. He’d also laid eyes on Sebastian’s dead body. His only friend had died, but everyone had conveniently forgotten about his losses. He’d held it in, complacent with his role as the annoying, burdening kid. Until Sam told him the very words he feared. 

“Mom’s dead, and I’m sure dad isn’t going to come home. Nothing is ever going to get better.” 

Sam had gone back into his head, his mind of twisting and spiraling thoughts, and Vincent ran, not trying to hold back his tears that came out as wails. Nobody wanted him! No one cared! If he just disappeared, would anyone notice? Would anyone care, or would he just disappear forever?

Chapter Text

“Hey, where are Vincent and Sam?” Shane asked, finally realizing their disappearing act. 

“Dunno. He’s not one to go off without telling anyone… Sam, I mean. I’ll go look for them,” Harvey declared. 

“You sure you’ll be all right on your own?” Oh, look at him now. An overprotective boyfriend to another overprotective boyfriend. 

“I’ll be all right. They couldn’t have gone far, and if anything happens I can mend them up just fine. You should stay behind, just to watch the supplies, to make sure no one comes and steals our stuff.” Harvey gave Shane a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be right back.” He slung a supply pack over his back, and then he was gone. 

***

“Sam! You came back!” Robin came over to give him a hug. They’d remained in the entrance of the mine, like Sebastian had said they would. 

“Sam, you’ll never believe what I discovered!” Demetrius came over to him, always enthusiastic to discuss his work. “I think I’ve found a real life dwarf! There was no evidence of a live specimen, but I’ve found one! I’ve been studying the language of dwarfish, so I was able to communicate with them initially, but I’ve been trying to teach them English! Russel!”
Sam couldn’t seem to focus on the dwarf that Demetrius called over, who insisted his name was not Russel, but rather a dwarfish name Demetrius couldn’t understand. When he was done rambling on about his new discovery, Robin asked The Question. The one that had been laying on Sam since he’d arrived here. “Where’s Sebastian? Did he find you? Is he coming back?” 

Sam sighed, and got chills. He choked on his words, and broke down in tears. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” 

“Sam, what happened?” Her voice was firm. 

“I’m sorry… he died. I’m sorry.” His thoughts blurred in a way they hadn’t since Sebastian died, He felt a roaring in his ears, but it could have just been him. 

***

He couldn’t believe it had to happen now. The train chugged past, and stopped at the station. 

“Harvey! Sam! Vincent! Jas!” Shane had blurted out Jas’s name before he remembered that she was no longer alive. He called out desperately to his friends, but no one came, and a man stepped out of the train, well dressed in a crisp suit. “Are you ready to board, young man?”
“No, I have to find my friend, his kid brother, and my boyfriend…”
“It’s free of charge, son.”
“I’m not leaving without them! After all we’ve been through, I can’t leave them behind-”

The man in the suit smiled. “Sir, I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter.” 

He was pulled into a box car against his will, screaming, kicking, and cursing in protest, but he was put in a chokehold. This suit man was more strong than he appeared, because by the time Shane was loaded onto the train, he was completely out of breath, and couldn’t do much more than crawl onto a seat and lay down. His pants were loud, as all he wanted was air. Sweet, cool air. He wanted to run, but he was too weak to move. He would run. He just needed to breathe first. 

The train didn’t move for quite a while, and Shane watched as more people were loaded onto the train. He noticed a few familiar faces, but they weren’t friendly ones. A guard from JojaMart, one of the ones that had denied Jas the food she needed to live. He didn’t call him out- he was too tired. 

It was hours before the train started chugging along again. Shane didn’t get up from where he was laying, crying into his arm silently. He’d lost everything. His friend, who had always stuck by him. Loved him, even. And Harvey, who’d loved him in a way that Sam never had. He was heading to safety, but he immediately wished that the train had never come. 

Chapter Text

Shane was not permitted to move around on the train. He spent all day laying down, waiting. Food came, and he ate, but there was never any conversation between him and his captors. He wondered where he was going. What would his life be like? Without Sam? Without Harvey, and Vincent? The crushing grief of Jas’s death overwhelmed him again. His poor, innocent, perfect little daughter, who he’d loved more than anything else. All he’d wanted to do was make her happy… And he’d let her die. He broke into tears again. He’d let her die. An image of her tin, bleeding body, destroyed by bullets and starving from hunger. A wave of depression washed over him, swallowing him into the depths of the ocean of sadness. He would be content with this situation, with Sam gone and Harvey gone and all the others gone and him a captive on this train, heading off to a place he was unaware of, if his sweet Jas was still alive. 

He couldn’t tell anyone about his failure as a parent in his isolation, as none of his captors had time to talk to him. The thirst would burn at his throat, wanting water more than anything, but not being able to ask for it. And even when liquid did come, it was ginger ale, but not when you were dehydrated and drinking soda would just make him more thirsty. All he wanted was water, ice cold, delicious water. Hell, he’d drink JojaCola if they brought it. He’d drink anything cold at this point. He ate too, even though he knew he shouldn’t in an act of defiance. But, when meals were the only thing to look forward to on any given day, he couldn’t help himself. Although, when he got out, he’d never be able to stomach grilled cheese or yogurt ever again. He was able to keep track of the days, but only because of a tally he was making on a styrofoam cup. In a desperate attempt for attention, and to possibly end his life, he’d eaten a piece, and his captors did not care. He felt terrible afterwards, but he supposed it was his own fault to be such a fool to eat styrofoam. 

After eleven days and many stops, his compartment was finally opened beyond a food delivery. “You’re being moved to another location. You will not escape. You will not try to run away.”

Even if he wanted to, why bother? He’d never get out. He’d likely never see any of his family or friends again. Every loss sat on him like stones tied to his feet, so why bother trying when he had nothing left to fight for? 

So, he didn’t fight when they led him, and every other person off the train, and to what Shane thought was a boat: a ferry, more like it. His eyes wandered, surveying the crowd of wayward souls. Lots of hungry, starved people who looked as if they could have been a part of Gus’s cult before his untimely demise, and just as many people looked like they’d had all of their hope stamped out of them, like Shane. Some looked terribly ill, and Shane couldn’t help but pity them. If he was sick, and had no hope left, he would be even more miserable. Thank Yoba for grilled cheese. 

But, among these lost souls, Shane saw another familiar face. A friendly one. A friendly one who must have seen Shane’s face too. 

“Harvey!” He cried, feeling his heart flicker with a warmness he hadn’t felt since departing from the valley.

“Shane! Shane!” 

He pushed desperately through the crowd to reunite with his lost love, the doctor in glasses with his chestnut hair and beautiful brown eyes that made his heart sing. But it was all in vain. Before he could reach him, his captors ripped him away, not wanting anything to even possibly lift the dread and sorrow they were experiencing. But oh, had it been lifted! Harvey was alive. He was also being brought to wherever Shane was, which hurt him beyond all belief. But at least he was alive. At least he was alive. 

Chapter Text

Robin didn’t take the news well. Sam didn’t expect her to. 

“Bring back my daughter. If you want to make it up to me, please, bring back my daughter.” 

He set off to do just that. Vincent had disappeared, but Sam had found him, and apologized profusely for ignoring him over the weeks and saying some of the things he had. He was safest where he was, so Sam refused to speak a word about his whereabouts. He’d been a horrible brother to Vincent, as he’d expressed in anger when the two reunited, and Sam decided it was best to split ways. It was the best he could do for the child who he’d wronged so deeply. 

He’d missed the train that had come by, and was very hurt to see that Harvey and Shane had left without him. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He was nothing to either of them. Useless, useless, useless. He’ed  loved Shane as a friend, and that love hadn’t been returned. Fast freedom was more important. It took all of his willpower not to blame the doctor. 

While he was in the valley, he figured he might as well get business settled. So, he found himself knocking on the Wizard’s door, the knocker in the shape of some masked creature Sam didn’t recognize. The door swung open, and Sam was greeted by the purple-haired wizard  neither he, or anyone else, saw frequently. “What brings you here?”
“I’d like to speak to Abigail, please.”

Hearing Sam was a friend of Abigail’s, he was let in almost immediately. 

“Sam, my man!” Abigail said upon noticing his arrival, giving him a high-five and a bear hug, which he should have been expecting but wasn’t. “How’s it going?”
Suddenly, Sam’s entire story spilled out. How he’d run away with Vincent. How his mother and father were both missing. Sebastian’s death. Meeting up with Shane. The night the town was destroyed, the death of her father. The Gus cult. Whatever the hell Emily and Haley were up to. Harvey and Shane’s relationship. Jas’s death. How he’d traumatized Vincent. Robin. And the train.

By the end, Abigail was tearing up. “Sebastian and Dad? Why did they have to take Sebby? Why didn’t Dad just come with us?” Abigail bit her lip. “Actually, never mind. I know the answer to the last question.” Seeing as how she didn’t elaborate, Sam figured it was better not to ask.”

“So now you want to find Maru for Robin?”

Sam nodded. “I’m sure it’d make Harvey happy too, but he and Shane ditched me. Oh well.” He shrugged, trying to ignore how much that fact hurt him.

“Can I come with you? I’ve been with Mom and Rasmodius for months, and I want something new .”

Sam tried to warn her of the dangers, but Abigail didn’t listen nor care. “I laugh in the face of danger! I’ll kick danger’s butt!”

So, Sam had a new travel buddy. He felt strange, walking these same paths with Abigail that he’d walked with Sebastian with the hole in his heart not scabbed over yet- it was still a gaping wound- and he hoped Abigail could help heal that wound. 

But he was putting a lot of pressure on a person he’d just reunited with. 

Chapter Text

The ferry was the same as the train, and the transfer from the boat to the big, brick building was largely the same. 

“You’ll all be placed with a roommate of the same gender. Food will come.”

So, Shane was put into a room with a scruffier, elderly man. His eyes were so rheumy from crying and poor night’s sleep due to sea-sickness, his figure was almost blurry and Shane didn’t recognize him. His face was rested on his knees, fast asleep in the corner instead of on the cot provided. Shane was thankful for that, and went to sleep on the cot himself. He hadn’t slept on a real bed- er, well, at least something similar in days, weeks. Rest, even though it was all he ever did, was what his body craved. 

***

“Rummy!” Abigail blurted the three of diamonds from the discard pile to add to her run of diamonds. She’d brought a pack of cards on their trip, and loved consistently beating Sam at rummy. She would always beat Sebastian too, and he’d swear like a sailor. Sebastian’s specialty was pool, Abigail’s was video and card games, and Sam wasn’t particularly good at any games. He was content just getting beaten by his friends. 

“Damn,” he swore, looking at all the high value cards he had in his hand that he’d surely have to discard quickly unless he wanted to lose badly. He picked up from the deck; the four of hearts, a junk card he didn’t need. But it would subtract less point in the end than his ace of spades.

While Abigail made her moves, Sam’s mind wandered. It was relieving to have a new purpose after being abandoned by Shane and telling the news to Robin. They’d already traveled to the grassy plains above the train station Sam so loved. The windblown grass, dusty fields, the breeze blowing through his tangled mess of blonde hair… Maybe when the war was over he’d build a cabin on these mors. He’d settle down with a nice husband or wife, have a few kids… 

“Sam! It’s your turn!” Abigail cried. He mindlessly picked up and discarded the jack of spades, which resulted in Abigail winning the round by a significant amount. 

“So when we find Maru, are we just going to pack up and head for home?” Abigail asked, counting up her points. 

“Yeah, as long as Maru wants to cooperate. I’m… not sure how I’m going to tell her about Sebastian. I don’t want her getting mad. I hate being the bearer of bad news, but I hate that he had to die even more.”

“At least you yourself aren’t the bad news.” Sam was confused as to what she meant, until she elaborated with a disdainful shake of her head. “Pierre’s not my dad. Mom cheated on him with the wizard, and here we are. Mom’s dating the Wizard now, and now that Dad is dead…” She paused. “Well, it’s all rather depressing. I wish Pierre was my dad. I wish things were the way they were before the war.” 

Don’t we all? “I’m really sorry.” Sam wasn’t sure what else to say, not wanting to be insensitive. He wished he was just the result of an affair instead of losing everyone who was close to him. Maybe he was being unfair to Abigail. She was clearly struggling, and who was he to invalidate that?

You have nothing to complain about, a little voice in his head seemed to say. You just need to man up and stop whining. 

He let the little voice win, and shut up. No need to make anyone’s life any worse. 

Chapter Text

“Shane? Shane?” 

Shane was too tired to comprehend what was going on. Had he died and gone to an afterlife he didn’t believe in? Was he being welcomed by an angel of some sort?

He managed to peel his eyes open and saw- “...Willy?”
“Aye! You’re awake!” 

Shane hadn’t been this excited in days. “Willy!” He got up and hugged the old fisherman tightly. “Oh, you don’t even know how glad I am to see you!”

“You don’t need to tell me anything about the valley,” Willy immediately assured. “It’s all come up on the news.”
“You’re allowed to watch the news?” 

“Aye.” Willy pointed to a TV mounted on the wall, stuck behind plexi-glass. “Only connection to the outside world.”
Shane sighed, happy to not have to repeat his life story for the billionth time. That was the nice thing about Willy. He never asked questions, and he never pressed Shane to ask them. He’d have questions, and it was almost like Willy could read his mind. 

“I’m sure you’re wondering where Leah and Elliott are,” he said, placing his fork down after taking a bite of baked haddock. “ELliott died at sea. Poor laddy wanted to be a gentleman and let Leah and I more rations than himself.”
“We had rationing trouble too,” Shane said. “I kept sneaking rations to Jas. Until she died.”

Willy hardly reacted to the news. “Anyways, we gave him a burial at sea.” Willy looked down and sighed. “At least we didn’t go Moby Dick on him.”

Shane had never read Moby Dick, but if he remembered correctly, in the real life events Moby Dick was based on, black and dead sailors, as well as those who drew bad lots, were killed (if applicable) and eaten. Shane sure hoped that hadn’t been Elliott’s fate. 

“Leah’s somewhere here, though,” Willy continued. “We were hoping to take refuge on the Fern Islands, but they rounded us up before we could get there. A real shame.” 

Admittedly, being with Willy was much better than being alone on the train. The food was better, and entertainment was provided. Other than the news and weather channels, the TV seemed only to get shows about nature rangers from different areas and fishing shows. It was perfect for Willy, but Shaen thought he’d rather die than watch park ranger drama. Instead, he read bookends that were provided. Books about teenagers having their organs stolen from them by a corrupt government. A book about a mouse marooned on an island (Willy had recommended that one) and a book about a mouse who was the child of an average Zuzu City family- why were there so many mouse books? He’d even read a book about how minorities gained the right to vote over the years. But, the book that stuck closest with him was a book about a bleak society, and a man charged with passing down memories of a normal past down to a young boy. He wished there could be someone to pass down those positive, warm happy memories down to him, that way he could feel them with the same intensity that he had when they happened, before the war. Now, they were just wisps of tainted nostalgia, that while brought him temporary happiness, made him long for the past and made him feel even worse. 

Willy remembered the past, though. He knew what things were like before the war, unlike Shane. In a way, Willy was Shane’s Giver. 

“It’s Friday, Shane!” Willy said excitedly one day as Shane woke up. 

“What’s so special about Fridays?”

“We get to go down to the mess hall! We can see Leah at dinner!” Willy ran Shane down to the cafeteria as soon as they were let free. “We even get dessert if we go down! Leah is more important, but I want honey crepes!” 

Shane allowed himself to be dragged to a corner where a red-headed Leah sat. Her face seemed different, almost as if seawater had weathered and eroded it like a stone. She was sucking on an orange creamsicle, and nearly spit it out upon seeing Shane.
“Shane! Oh my god!” Leah hopped up, popsicle still in hand, and hugged Shane. “You old rascal, how did you get here?”
“I’d rather not say, but I’m here.” Suddenly, a thought struck him. “Are you rooming with anyone from the valley?”

She shook her head. “Sadly, no. I’m rooming with a girl named Gracelyn. She’s good fun, and look what she gave me!” She lifted two dog tags out from her shirt. “Her sister and father’s dog tags. Emma M- the rest of it is scratched out, and Ollivander Falco. Seriously, how cool of a name is Ollivander Falco?”

Shane sighed, trying not to show his disappointment. “That’s cool.” 

It was wonderful to be back with valley locals, even this odd pair. But his heart ached for those he had left behind. Marnie, Jas, Sam, Vincent. Harvey. Everyone, really. Other than Willy and Leah, he’d lost everyone. And he was going to cling onto these two for dear life, since they were all he had left in this miserable life. 

“Have you told him what this place is about yet, Willy?” Leah asked, looking to Shane with sorrow. 

He sighed. “They want us as soldiers. All of us. My training has started, and so has Leah’s. Yours will start soon enough, and we’ll have to blow up towns, just like our poor valley.” 

That made Shane not even want to touch his honey crepes.

Chapter Text

Yin and yang. When one redhead entered the life of one of the men, another entered the other’s, albeit in very different ways. 

Abigail had been trying to teach Sam to play check, which was basically Uno with different cards and Crazy 8s with different rules, to her frustration. “It’s like Uno?” Sam had asked in confusion. 

“No! Uno is like this game. Check came first,” she insisted. 

Then, Sam heard the click of a gun being loaded. 

“Abby, we need to get out of here! He whisper-screamed, taking her hand, preparing to lead her to safety. 

“Wait! I don’t want to hurt you.” Sam wouldn’t have believed that voice unless he recognized it: sweet, soft, gentle. Almost as if a lamb could speak. Oh, he knew this voice. 

A frightened, windblown girl in a buttercup-yellow dress with ginger hair in two messy buns appeared from behind the tall grass. She was holding a cocked gun in her hands, but she looked terrified, too afraid to ever actually shoot. “Samson…?”
Sam felt his heart beat faster in his chest. He was pretty sure it wasn’t related to the gun. He wanted to know why he was reacting this way to Penny, but was too excited by meeting someone else to think about it too deeply. 

“Pen-Pen!” It was Abigail who cried out the nickname Sam had affectionately given her before the town’s destruction, and Penny clicked the gun back to safety and embraced both in a hug. 

“Sorry I had a gun out!” Penny apologized, nuzzling Sam a little bit, which made his heart skip a beat. “So much has changed, and me and Maru have mainly been doing things on our own, and I got scared…” 

“There’s no need to be afraid,” Sam assured Penny. “It’s okay.” 

And so, in little to no time at all, Maru had been found alongside Penny. He explained everything to both of them, and Maru took a pact of silence for her brother, not wanting to speak to anyone. 

“I know an angry Maru, and she’s not angry. Just heartbroken,” Penny said to Sam. “Poor little Jas…” She sniffed. “BY the way, about Shane and Harvey?”
“Yeah?”

“It doesn’t make sense for them to run away without you or Vincent, especially because of how protective Shane was towards kids. Maybe they didn’t have a choice. Maybe they were taken against their will.” 

The idea gave Sam a shimmer of hope. “What makes you think that?”

“There’s a town not too far from here that was also destroyed, but the train still ran through. Maru and I met a lady who said that people were being dragged on the train to be taken as prisoners of war. We didn’t necessarily believe her, but after your story, I wouldn’t be surprised.”  

Of course Shane and Harvey were being kept as prisoners of war. Of fucking course. 

Him and Penny cried in each other’s arms that night, in a tent that had been all Penny’s but they now shared. After that, days passed as they walked back to the mines, and Sam and Penny made fast friends. Hugs turned to kisses, and kisses turned to long nights stolen underneath the stars. Infatuation had hit Sam hard and fast, and he quickly found himself letting things move quickly with Penny. In their intimacy, it felt like all his pain disappeared. Under Penny’s soft lips and over her beautiful body, he wasn’t thinking about everyone he’d lost and everyone who’d died. He was just living in the moment. Sure, it was a terrible coping skill, but it made him feel wonderful. 

But, he’d still take time to himself. He looked up at the stars in the night sky, wondering if anyone was there, if else was looking up at the same sky. Was Shane, perhaps? No matter how much Penny bandaged his heart, the wound was still there, gaping and open under the cloth. Maybe Sebastian had become a star. Maybe he was up there in the sky right now, and the only reason Sam couldn’t see his star was because the light hadn’t reached earth yet. Light years passed slowly. 

Chapter Text

“Don’t worry, we’re letting you out.”
Harvey hated how excited he was to be free, knowing Shane wasn’t. He was probably alone and afraid, and lonely, and cold… but at least he knew something that would make him happy now. He just had to find Shane and tell him that, and he would. As long as Shane didn’t get tossed into the military first. 

The entire military prison camp was freed, after opposing forces in the war had liberated them. Harvey was rattled. All he wanted was a hot meal. And to bring her to him. 

Later, he was approached by a man, one of the liberators, with an offer. It sat on Harvey’s tongue like a sugary sweet, melting slowly, slowly, when it had dissolved entirely, he made his decision. 

One day, Harvey, you’ll amount to something great! You will soar sky high!

***

Gunfire shook the entire building at Friday dinner, interrupting Shane’s bite of suspicious looking beef. All the guards seemed to busy themselves, trying to figure out the issue, and Shane noticed Leah grow especially attentive, like a squirrel with her tail turned bottle-brushed. “Escape,” she whispered to Shane and Willy. They followed her lead, like two foxes carefully stalking said squirrel as she moved closer to the wall of the mess hall. Closer to action. 

Suddenly the gunshots grew far louder than they were previously, and Shane heard many other sounds as well. Cracking plaster, shattering glass, loud booms, and screaming. 

“Run!” Shane commanded, dashing out the cafeteria door, Leah and Willy in his tracks. “We need to escape!” He tried to pull open a glass door, seeing freedom a few inches ahead of him, but it was locked. Damn! Freedom was so close… just one glass door away! Puffing, Shane tried to punch it open with his fist, like Sam had all those months ago. Either this glass was stronger or Shane was weaker, because his punch did nothing but bruise his knuckles. Fucking damn it!

Suddenly, the roof collapsed, glass and concrete crumbling down. Shane and Leah screamed in a panicked fear, but Willy cried out in pain, for he had been crushed in the debris. No part of him was visible. 

“No! Willy!” Shane cried, searching through the rubble, trying to recover the man who kept him sane for the past few weeks. “Willy, I’m going to get you out! Don’t worry!” 

“Shane, no.” Leah took his hand, trying to be gentle despite her panic. “Even if he’s alive, there’s nothing we can do to save him. We need to save ourselves.”

For once, he listened to someone else instead of instincts, and let Leah drag him outside, out on the pavement, glass piercing through his feet, blood on the ground… Bodies. Leah picked up a gun from a dead guard. “Here! Use this to defend us!” The gun faltered in Shane’s grasp, slipping from his fingers and onto the ground. “I… can’t.” He himself tumbled to the ground, lightheaded. “I’m tired of being complacent in this war. I’m tired of fighting. If there has to be death and war, let it take me.”

And then the whole world went dark. 

Chapter Text

He woke up to hear beeping and the smell of hospitals. When was the last time he’d been in a hospital? It was after his near suicide attempt. Opening his eyes. He saw an IV in his arm. He was too woozy to say much of anything, so he groaned. 

“Stay awake,” he heard a friendly voice say. “Please stay awake for me, Shane. I love you.”

But I want to sleep, Shane thought. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness, until he finally slipped into consciousness, permanently for the time being. 

“Tell me if you can feel this.” Shane felt someone squeeze his hand, and he nodded. 

It took a few hours for Shane to comprehend what had happened. He’d fainted. His blood pressure was dangerously low. He had three people who desperately wanted to visit, one of which already had. Did he want visitors? 

“Yes, please.” 

First was Leah, who just wanted to tell him that she was proud. And that Willy didn’t make it. With the little energy Shane had in him, he cried. Would he like Leah to leave? “No offense, yes please.” 

New visitor comes in. “Shane! I’m so glad you’re alive!” 

Shane looked up. Mustache. Glasses. “Harv!” 

Harvey looked to the nurses a bit giddy. “May I?”

The nurses gave their approval, and Harvey kissed Shane passionately, and Shane excitedly accepted it, adoring getting the feeling of human connection again. 

“I flew a plane! They let me fly a rescue plane, and when I saw you… I’m just glad you’re safe, sweetheart. Oh, but you’re not the only one who’s safe? You get on the phone with this long-distance visitor while I go get your last in-person one.”

A few minutes later, Harvey had Shane on the phone with Sam. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Sam admitted. “Maru, Penny, and Abigail are too! So is Vincent; I left him to live with Linus while I found Maru for Robin, since she didn’t take Sebastian’s death too well. Now she’s more happy with me now, though, since I found her. Abby helped, and we found Penny with Maru. And get this; Maru, Abby, and Penny are going to help me try to track down Sebastian’s killer!”

“So you got yourself a little harem,” Shane joked, for the first time in what felt like eons.

“Naw, that’s just Penny.” Then, Sam’s voice gained pride. “And guess what, Shane.”

“Dunno. What?”

“I’m going to be a papa,” he bragged. 

“Oh! Congratulations!” 

Sam’s voice grew warm and tender. “If it’s a girl, Pen-Pen and I are thinking of naming her Jasmine.” 

That warmed the cockles of Shane’s old, grumpy heart. 

“So, Robin doesn’t hate your guts now?”

“She's just happy to have one kid back. And I’ve been healing from the loss too, thanks to Penny and our baby that’s on the way.” Then, he lowered his voice. “Has Harvey told you the news yet.

Shane’s eyes widened. “Did they find your mom and dad?”
Sam sighed. “No. They found out Dad died just before the city was bombed, and Mom is still out there. Vincent thinks she’s coming home, but I’ve lost hope.” He paused. “So no, he hasn’t. I’m just gonna say it simple. Marnie’s alive.”

***

The reunion was tearful, as Shane threw his arms around Marnie. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he sobbed into her braid. “I’m sorry I let her die.” 

“I know. It’s not your fault, honey. You tried your very, very best.” Marnie assured with a hug. 

“Thank you,” he sniveled. “I did. I did my very best to save her, Marnie. But I couldn’t.” 

“You couldn’t,” Marnie agreed. “But think of how many other people you have.”