Chapter Text
“The Apocalypse is nigh!” Dean burst into the dorm room and thrust his phone into Cas’ face, thoroughly interrupting the laser focus he’d had on the spread of textbooks and papers covering the entirety of his desk. Cas leaned back in the standard issue dorm desk chair that had a bad wheel and threadbare fabric (the better of the two in their room) and dragged a hand through his already mussed up hair only furthering what Dean had internally dubbed “The Sex Hair Look”.
“Dean...”
“Nope, you’re not gettin’ out of it this year. Besides, you stick by me, you’ll make it just fine. C’mon.” Dean wiggled the phone in Cas’ face with an exaggerated pout, ignoring the way his stomach flipped at the no-nonsense glare being shot straight at him. “It’s one week, your precious study time won’t be interrupted, I promise. You also have one week to get ahead before it starts and besides, the library, dining hall, and dorm rooms are off limits.” Cas pursed his lips and Dean internally pumped his fist at the fact that he hadn’t gotten a straight ‘no’ yet like he had been given last year. And the year before.
Dean lived for this time of year. The Campus-wide Apocalypse was held every year at the beginning of October. Students who participated were tasked with surviving a zombie apocalypse and finding a cure for the infection. The whole campus was fair game so the ‘humans’ had to keep on their toes to make it through the week. They had to traverse campus without having one of the two socks tucked into their pants on either hip pulled out by the zombies. If they lost either sock, they then became a zombie and their new goal was to turn as many of the remaining humans as possible. Socks also acted as zombie deterrents; a thrown sock would put the zombie on time out for 30 seconds allowing the human a chance to escape. Dean already had a small arsenal of rolled up socks piled on the corner of his desk opposite Cas’.
Dean grinned as Cas begrudgingly took the phone and scanned through the announcement that had been sent to his school email. Technically Cas had received the announcement too but Dean didn’t trust his friend to have not immediately trashed the email since it didn’t directly relate to one of his classes. That had been the unfortunate cause of Cas’ shockingly cold shower one night when he deleted the notice about the building’s hot water heater being on the fritz. I h-had assumed that it w-was going to warm up-p-p eventually.
“‘Hallways in all campus buildings, including dorms, are fair play’? Dean, how am I supposed to get to class?” Cas grumbled as he turned his gaze back up to Dean.
“Keep reading, sour puss. Doorways are safe from five feet out so the zombies can’t camp. And you’re fast, you run basically every morning, you’ll be fine.”
“And you’ve repeatedly insisted that you hate running, why do you even enjoy this?”
“Hey, I don’t hate running, I just don’t do it unless I’m being chased, which in this case, I am,” Dean corrected, swinging his bag on to his bed as he collapsed into his own desk chair across from Cas, who swiveled to face him.
“I don’t know, Dean...”
“Don’t gimme that ‘I need to study’ bullshit. You told me last week that you were ahead in all your classes. And don’t give me that ‘that was last week, Dean’ bullshit either,” Dean said, cutting off Cas with what he thought was a decent impression of his friend’s low gravel-over-silk tone. “Besides, all the professors know it’s zombie week so they go easy because everyone’s on edge so why not actually have some fun this year.”
“Dean, I just don’t think it’s my kind of thing.” Cas said looking back down at the rules once more. But Dean could tell Cas was on the ropes, he saw the tiny tick up in the corner of his mouth that most people missed. People usually saw Cas as weirdly stoic, but Dean easily saw through that, though it wasn’t always that way. Dean and Cas had met when they were matched up for their dorm freshman year. After Dean blew up at Cas for ignoring him for the first month that they shared the tiny room, Cas explained that, in his words, ‘his people skills were rusty’ since he had been homeschooled by his extremely religious mother his whole life. Going to college was basically an act of rebellion in his mother’s eyes so he had been cut off from his family and he was still a bit torn up about it. Dean had instantly felt like shit and apologized profusely. Since then Cas and Dean were nearly inseparable, Cas even came home with Dean over the breaks and stayed with him, his mom, and Sammy in the guest bedroom of his childhood home.
Dean sometimes felt bad that Cas hadn’t seen or heard from his mom since he started college but at least his older brother Gabriel kept in touch since he was in a similar state of exile. Dean had even met the man early last summer when Gabe was passing through for some reason or another. The man was very secretive and the visit was an experience.
'Dean-o, thanks for keeping an eye on my baby brother', immediately followed up with, 'and I’m guessing hands and mouth and everything else, am I right? I’ve never seen him this laid back!'
Dean still remembers spitting out his drink and Cas poking his head around the corner from the living room with a questioning look on his face while Dean waved him off with a blush. Cas scolded Gabe for harassing his friend before disappearing back around the corner. Dean had quickly and quietly corrected that nothing was going on between them and Gabe had shrugged. If you say so. But wasn’t that just the biggest joke of all time. Gabe was at least partly correct, Dean definitely had a crush on his best friend.
When junior year rolled around and Dean and Cas were still sharing a room together, Dean had come to the conclusion that he was terrified that he was going to fuck everything up. This was no mere crush, Dean was full blown In Love. It certainly explained why he had turned down every offer for a date from the numerous men and women who’d approached him over the past two years. It was no secret that Dean was bi. He had joined the LGBTQ+ club early on in his first year at the college and that was where he’d met his other best friend Charlie. She had tried over the years to encourage Dean to get out there and date but Dean had eventually cracked and confessed that he kept turning them down because it wouldn’t be fair to date someone when he was in love with somebody else. Charlie had tried convincing him to tell her who the lucky person was but dropped it pretty quickly after Dean snapped at her. He’d felt horrible about it but was grateful when she backed off.
After that, Dean decided that the best way to deal with it was to just shove it deep, deep down because then, at least, even if he couldn’t be with Cas the way he sometimes fantasized about, he still had his best friend. Once he figured that out, things were almost exactly the same as the past two years had been. Cas was still hyper focused on his GPA and Dean was still a cocky flirt who hated picking up after himself (much to Cas’ frustration). And that was exactly how Dean knew he could get Cas to cave and participate in the Apocalypse this year.
“I’ll make you a deal. If you register for the apocalypse and actually participate, I’ll pick up my shit for the rest of the month. The rest of the semester if you manage to stay human,” Dean bargained. Cas cocked his head in that familiar Cas fashion that Dean loved so much.
“The rest of the year.”
“Deal,” Dean said without hesitation. Joke’s on him, would have thrown in next year too.
...
After a mostly unsatisfying dinner in the dining hall, Dean submitted their registrations for the apocalypse and began to mentally adjust his strategy for how to survive the apocalypse.
“Charlie, Benny, and Jo will be stopping by tomorrow for a planning session. You’ll be around, right?” Dean asked as he flopped back onto his bed, starting up a text conversation with the whole group. Cas quirked an eyebrow as he passed by to prep his bag for the next morning.
“You have planning sessions? Why do I feel like I’ve vastly underestimated what I’ve gotten myself into..?” He muttered under his breath.
“It’s safer in numbers, I barely made it through the week on my own the first year and Charlie got turned right away so we agreed that the next year, we would keep an eye out for each other since we were mostly in the same buildings for our classes anyways,” Dean explained. “Besides, it’s more fun this way.”
Dean turned his attention back to his phone and sent out a text to the group.
Dean 6:32 PM: We got one more human with us this year! Planning session at our room tomorrow at 7!
Dean chuckled when Cas sighed as he pulled out his phone to check the notification and saw it was just Dean. Immediately, a wave of texts came back in response.
Charlie 6:33 PM: YES!!!!
Charlie 6:33 PM: I can’t believe Dean managed to talk you into it this year Cas!
Jo 6:35 PM: 7 works for me
Jo 6:35 PM: i bet cas gets taken first
Jo 6:35 PM: no offense cas
Dean 6:36 PM: Hey! He’s got a reason to live, there’s a year’s worth of chores riding on his survival
Benny 6:37 PM: Cas, friend, you shoulda held out for more. Dean’s been moping about the very idea of you not playing this year
“Not true!” Dean sputtered to Cas as he furiously typed. He thought he heard a soft chuckle from Cas but he couldn’t tell for sure with him facing away from Dean at his desk.
Dean 6:38 PM: How dare you Benny. I don’t mope
Charlie 6:39 PM: You totally do, I’ve seen it
Cas 6:42 PM: Charlie, I suppose that I would have been talked into joining eventually either way. I plan to make the most of it. Benny, I appreciate the heads up. He was fairly quick to agree to the terms. And Jo, I understand your concern, but you’ve seen Dean’s side of the room. I feel I have a good incentive to avoid being ‘infected’.
Dean 6:43 PM: Way to write a novel there buddy...
Charlie 6:43 PM: I’m sure you’ll be fine Cas. You’ve got the zombie hunting master for a roommate, you’re already off to a better start than the rest of us!
Benny 6:45 PM: True, also don’t mind Jo, she’s just annoyed that she’s been turned first out of all of us the past two years
Jo 6:47 PM: am not
Jo 6:47 PM: shut up
Jo 6:48 PM: >:P
Dean 6:51 PM: Alright, wrap it up everyone. Charlie, bring the maps, Benny is on snack duty, Jo grab drinks. Cas and I will provide tunes and pizza.
Charlie 6:52 PM: You got it bossman
Jo 6:53 PM: 👍
Benny 6:53 PM: Can do
…
The next evening all five of them huddled on the floor of Dean and Cas' dorm around hand drawn maps on large poster paper that Charlie had purchased from the school store and then laminated so they could be reusable. Dean had a set of five dry erase markers, each color assigned to a different person and began marking whose classes were where and the best paths to get there.
“We’ve found that the buddy system works well so we’ll have to get a bit creative since we have an odd number this year,” Dean said glancing at Cas who was absentmindedly nibbling on a Twizzler while surveying the planning process with what looked like exasperated humor.
“Charlie and I have a majority of our classes in the same building and our schedules mostly line up on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Benny and Cas are in a similar position. Jo is the odd one out which explains why she keeps getting infected first.” Dean chuckled at the indignant look on her face at that remark. “But Cas has classes pretty close to yours on Tuesdays and Thursdays so you’ll have a buddy if you can make it through Monday.”
“Yeah, sure. Easy as pie,” Jo snorted but there was a definite smile under the snark. Dean added a few finishing touches to the map and capped the marker with a snap.
“Okay, Monday morning. Here’s the plan. Cas and I leave the dorm at 7:40. We meet Benny and Charlie by the old oak behind the humanities building. Charlie and I will continue to our classes while Benny and Cas swing by Jo’s dorm to snag her on the way to the other side of campus. We all have a longer midday break so we hang back for an extra couple minutes before leaving the classroom so the zombies go after the twitchy humans. Some are sure to hang back and grab the stragglers so make sure you’ve got plenty of ammo on you when you leave. We all meet back at the oak tree and head for lunch together. Rinse and repeat. We take different paths every day. I’ll send out texts with the new paths the night before, text me if there’s any issues.”
The whole group nodded and started pointing out various problem points in the routes, areas that led to pinch points or dead ends. Cas even mentioned a lesser used hallway in one of the buildings that may be able to be used for a quick getaway since it led away from the center of campus and Dean made sure to mark it. Charlie, Benny, and Jo also ran through the various spots they had gotten ‘infected’ in the past so they could learn from their past mistakes.
“Gotta watch out for stairways, lotta blind spots,” Benny said solemnly.
“Yeah, and that corner to the left outside your dorm entrance? Meg got me there last year.” Jo was still obviously annoyed by that particular infection.
“The whole quad is pretty bad too but sometimes the chaos can be useful,” Charlie added with a mischievous smirk.
“Now don’t you go pulling any fancy maneuvers, Chuckles. This isn’t Moondoor, the only rule here is ‘survive’,” Dean scolded jokingly.
“So how many of you have actually ‘survived’ besides Dean?” Cas asked, yet again breaking out the air quotes.
“Well, you know my track record,” Jo laughed, pulling another slice of pizza from the box behind her.
“I survived last year and got zombified the year before that. I think Dean made it his personal goal to hit me with as many socks as possible...” Charlie pouted as Dean chuckled at the memory.
“So many socks,” he added wistfully.
“I’m the opposite of Charlie here. Survived my first year and turned last year. But I’m also the closest any of us have come to turning our fearless leader here,” Benny added with a sharp grin.
“And Benny is the reason we don’t preplan our routes for the whole week ahead of time anymore,” Dean informed Cas with a wary look on his face. Cas nodded sagely.
“I suppose that makes sense. Since there’s no guarantee that all of us will make it even the first day, it’s strategically valuable to withhold that information until the last minute.”
“Exactly, we also go into this with an agreement to notify the group by text as soon as possible after getting infected.” Dean said as he glanced around the group to confirm that was still the case. The other three nodded back in confirmation. “Alright, six days left until the apocalypse.”