Chapter Text
Tommy admired the crisp coolness of the temperature these days. It always made him want to stay outside and bask in the sunlight as if it were his last. Of course… he never knew when the end would be for him anyways. No one could ever truly know in a dystopian world such as the one he lived in now.
Tommy made every day count as if it were his last. He tried to make people laugh and smile and he worked until he couldn’t work anymore. In terms of karma, he’d almost expected things to turn out well for him. It had been nearly a full year without a tragic incident. At least, not inside the walls of the camp he’d resided in for that time.
Outside, where the undead crawled like billions of ants waiting to devour its prey on site, was a different story.
Tommy went about his day as if it were normal. For that matter, he supposed, it was. He walked with his best friends in a chat that never failed to remind him of their closeness. Tubbo and Ranboo never failed to disappoint.
“What’s on your rouster today?” Tubbo asked and clasped his hands placidly behind his back. “Shoveling horse shit again?”
Tommy groaned under his breath. The very idea of such a thing made his skin crawl like maggots had been injected into his veins. “Don’t bring that up again. I’m on gardening duty.”
“I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“Ranboo,” Tommy silenced the man quickly without even bothering to glance up in the walking, talking giraffe’s direction. “Even in the apocalypse, you manage to be such an annoying nuisance. How have you not been eaten alive?”
“You have the survival skills of a hamster,” Ranboo shot back. “I’m surprised you haven’t gone out yet.”
“I will go out in style and prosperity,” Tommy insisted. “Guns blazing ‘n all that, yeah?” He raised his fingers in mini guns and threw himself forwards on the dirt to aim at the birds perching on the far tree, watching them.
“You look stupid,” Tubbo commented and walked by idly.
“I like badass,” Tommy corrected him.
“What did the birds ever do to you?” Ranboo asked, feigning offense, though he was smiling. “Honestly, Tommy, I thought better of you than to kill the innocent.”
Tommy scoffed slightly and stood up to better face his friends, his expression light and playful. “Well, if there were any zombies in here, surely we’d have to kill them. Rather, it’s a good thing I’m pointing at the birds and not something that would eat our face off, Ranboo.”
Ranboo fell silent at that and even Tubbo knocked his shoulder against his friends’ playfully. “He’s got you there.”
All three of them had all had their fair share of awful experiences with the mindless meat sacks that dominated the earth. They’d lost friends, family, and comrades in the strife of the past however many years. Honestly Tommy had lost count. While the peace at the Esempee Camp had been nice, the inevitable thought that it wouldn’t last forever had always weighed heavily in his mind.
It was at that point that the group moved to pass the gardens of which Tommy was to work. They said their goodbyes quickly before Tommy went off on his own to finish the day’s work before dinner. It meant more free time anyways.
As he neared the blooming plants of the summer, the confusion was quick to grip him at the absence of his ‘supervisor.’ He’d been put under careful adult surveillance after his one manned show with the tomatoes that one time, but he supposed the company wasn’t all too bad. Except when they weren’t present to supervise him, that was.
“Fucker can’t ever be on time, can he?” Tommy mused to himself and glanced down at his watch. They couldn’t get started any sooner? He didn’t want to miss another meal because people couldn’t be on—!
“BOO!”
Tommy lurched in place, the gasp scraping out of his throat as he whirled around, fists ready as if it would thwart any threats that came his way… only to find the smiling face of Dream staring back at him.
The man’s hood had been strewn over his head, as if the presence of it would ward away the ridiculousness of the bright green color it was made of.
“Jesus!” Tommy righted himself out quickly with a huff of frustrated breath. He pressed a hand to his chest to calm the crescendo his heart was doing.“Dream, you’re a child, did you know that?”
“Am I?” Dream pondered for a moment before a grin spread on his face. “Oh! No, you are!”
“Right…” Tommy sighed again, but was sure to keep his eye on the menacing trickster as the man rounded towards the tomatoes. “What’s the job today?”
“Same as every week,” Dream said. “But, I say we throw a wrench in that.”
“What?”
“Yeah, come on! We’ll switch it up!”
“What?” Tommy scoffed. “You pick the cucumbers and I pick the tomatoes? Is that enough switching it up for you?”
Dream snorted and shook his head, his hands already reaching for something in the leather bag at his waist. “Here,”
Tommy dropped the cucumber he’d been holding in order to catch the object that had been thrown at him. The vegetable hit the ground and Tommy gawked at the crisp, fresh apple that found its way into his palms. It was shiny, oh so shiny, with so little blemishes and such a fresh looking scarlet body. “What…?” He looked up at Dream in disbelief, eyes shining hungrily, but hesitantly.
“Think they’ll notice 2 missing as they dump them into the pressing machines?”
“This is against the rules,” Tommy stated, matter-of-fact. “Like… really against the rules! We need them to feed everyone else—!”
“Haven’t you ever indulged, Tommy?” Dream asked, his expression curiously demeaning. “It’s okay to be selfish once and a while, you know? We can’t base our lives fawning over others because then we tend to forget about taking care of ourselves.”
“Where’d you find that?” Tommy scoffed nervously. “Find a book on one of your runs?”
“Nah,” Dream waved a hand goodnaturedly and tossed his own apple up in the air before he chomped down a bite. “I’m just cool like that.”
“Please,” Tommy scoffed and, despite his earlier hesitation, he sank his teeth into the crisp flesh. It was fresh and sweet in his mouth, like the season of autumn had been condensed into a single bite. Juice dripped down his chin and filled his nostrils and taste buds with its rich flavor. “Oh, my god…”
“Good, right?” Dream had also taken a bite of his own apple and he took a moment to slurp in the apple’s juice before continuing. “I did this a lot when I was younger.”
“When you were supposed to be working?” Tommy deadpanned. “Is this why you’re barely let off the premise alone?”
“Maybe,” Dream shrugged and bit into the apple again. Even the sound was fresh. “Or, maybe I just don’t like being alone. Or, maybe I like it here!”
“Please,” Tommy huffed. “Who actually likes it here?”
Dream chuckled and he stepped forwards to ruffle his sticky, apple juice hand through Tommy’s matted, once golden hair. “People who need a home,” he explained. “Like, you.”
“The world is my oyster!” Tommy declared proudly and puffed up his chest to emphasize. He swallowed the next bite of apple to continue his speech diligently. “I live where I want.”
Dream’s careful frown didn’t go unnoticed, not even by a long shot. “Tommy,” he began carefully, as if considering his next words carefully. “Listen… the world today is dangerous and I don’t want you getting involved until you’re forced to.”
“I’m already involved,” Tommy replied sharply. “I’ve been out there for a bit, yeah?”
“You were barely old enough to remember,” Dream said. “Take it from me, kid. If you see a zombie, you run the other way.”
Tommy scoffed and rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to respond, but was suddenly cut off by the sound of a guttural scream piercing the air.
Immediately, all conversation, as well as the half-eaten apples, were abandoned. Dream’s hands quickly found their way to the gun, while Tommy's found their way just behind Dream’s shoulders. The shoulders hit the ground, a useless waste.
“That sounded like Niki,” Tommy gasped.
Dream nodded curtly once before he regarded Tommy with a stern loon. “You stay here,” he said. “I want you safe.”
And, just like that, he had taken off.
The thing was, Tommy had never really been great at listening or rules. They were made for breaking, after all! Why else would they be in place? Without another thought, Tommy sprinted down the street in which Dream had disappeared, the sly speed demon.
As he neared the area in which the scream had originated from, however, the louder the commotion grew. He could hear screams and crying, then eventually, gunshots.
Tommy turned the corner to chaos. Fires had sprouted in nearby buildings, including Niki’s Bakery Stand, where she had sold the best cookies. People were running rampant, to and fro directions of actions and vice versa. People were crying, screaming… but, what Tommy saw next was enough to make his heart stop beating.
There, running after a group of girls he knew in the courtyard, there was none other than a zombie cornering them.
Tommy couldn’t see anyone to help, he longed to do something, but his instincts ultimately failed him. His palms turned clammy and his mouth fried like the desert. His heart leapt into his throat to choke him and his lungs. Tommy thought no more. He spun around and turned the corner in which he’d previously ducked behind to aid. He moved to run, but suddenly something slammed into him from behind and, just like that, Tommy’s feet were out from under him. His face slammed into the dirt, but his ears didn’t miss the unmistakable sound of a guttural, undead growl poised over him.
He kicked back instinctively, desperate to protect himself against the intruder, and just barely managed to land a hit on the zombie’s face. Saliva flew everywhere, slamming into Tommy’s face as he flipped over and attempted to stand.
That’s when his foot was grabbed and, all of a sudden, Tommy was dragged back.
The zombie’s mouth was poised open over his ankle, ready to bite at any second, but Tommy forced his leg into its mouth at such a speed, it was thrown back. Again, the creature growled, but unfortunately, it wasn’t far enough dead to be considered brain dead.
It all happened in the span of a heartbeat. Tommy briefly saw as its lifeless eyes found him, as if carefully studying him before, all of a sudden, the zombie had lunged.
He screamed as its teeth dug holes into his arm— he saw and felt as the blood spurted out like a waterfall— gushes of red that stained the dirt beneath him, soaking the earth’s soul with one of many victims. But, he wouldn’t let himself be taken today, not now, not ever!
With his free hand, Tommy reached for the nearest blunt object, which just so happened to be a discarded brick and brought it down on the monster’s head.
He heard as it made impact, felt as the skull caved slightly, but when the pain didn’t let up, he brought it down in the malleable flesh again. A crack ripped through the already scream-filled air as the skull was broken and the diseased mush inside was hit.
The zombie fell limp almost immediately and Tommy shoved it off of him as quickly as he could. He brought the still-bleeding arm close to his chest as he scooted back away from the blackened blood of the zombie. He nearly committed right then and there, if not for the overwhelming burst of rage that overtook every emotion in his body.
Before Tommy was even aware of what was happening, he was lunging forwards, the brick in hand, to bring it down on the zombie once more. It slammed into the rotting flesh with a squelch, nearly going right through the rib cage, before Tommy lifted it and brought it back down again.
He tried not to think about the blood pooling out of his arm, scarlet mixing with the inky black of the zombie’s blood already soaking the ground as he brought the brick down and down again.
A hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist, mid-swing, and Tommy whipped around so quickly, he nearly pulled a muscle. He raised the brick in waiting, but quickly discovered the familiar face of Puffy to be frowning at him.
She didn’t bother asking questions about the blood he was covered in, or the tear marks streaking his cheeks, before she wretched him from the group and threw him forwards. She shoved a roll of bandages into his hands, and shouted something at him, but Tommy didn’t hear it over his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. Not to mention the screaming and gunshots of the painfully dying camp around him.
Within a second, Puffy was gone, leaving Tommy’s brick replaced with a measly roll of bandages. His gaze was then slowly drawn to the trickling of blood down his arm, to the drops of scarlet as they fell through the air and hit the ground. The wound looked so nasty, teeth marks were evident in his skin, as were the already blackening edges of his skin like an over cooked meat.
He’d been… bitten?
Bitten…
What did that mean?
Tommy’s mind was tired, sappy… like it was running on molasses. Bitten. Hatred. What… did that… mean?
He pressed the bandages against the wound, some instinctual thing that he realized he should’ve stopped the bleeding if he had a fighting chance. He pressed hard, but didn’t feel anything. There was no pain, it was just numb, as if his whole body had been paralyzed but he could still move.
Was this why it was like to be dead?
Tommy was saved from the struggle of having to answer before, suddenly, another pair of hands grabbed him from behind. He gasped in a breath as he was spun around, but it was quickly silenced as he found himself face-to-face with Tubbo and Ranboo.
“Holy shit,” Tubbo breathed and threw his arms around Tommy in a tight squeeze. He forced Tommy’s head down on his shoulder with a hand, bringing him further in, seeing as Tommy was really too shell shocked to do anything else. “I thought you were dead,” the boy whispered.
Tommy didn’t know what to say. What should he have said? Anything? That he was glad Tubbo was alive? Ranboo?
He opted for silence and to simply allow himself to sink into the embrace, even as death and chaos raged around them.
The hug didn’t last as long as Tommy would’ve liked though. It only felt like seconds before the two were suddenly wrenched apart by Tubbo’s own accord. The boy’s eyes were wide, as if he’d just remembered something.
It was when Tommy turned that he saw it. Or, rather, why was left of it. The zombie he killed was a mess of rotting flesh and black blood splattered around the ground. The scarlet had since been eaten up.
Again, what was he supposed to say? “I… I got him…” Tommy muttered.
Tubbo nodded quickly, his eyes darting quickly to the brick resting on the ground near them.
“You got him,” he confirmed, then without much warning, he grabbed Tommy’s wrist— the one that had blood still dripping down his forearm— and yanked him forwards. Tommy knew it must’ve hurt, but he barely felt anything. It was as if his body was already shutting down. Was it already shutting down?
He didn’t know.
Tubbo dragged him through the camp, Ranboo not falling far behind them. They rushed past corpses of friends and corpses of enemies, all of which made Tommy want to vomit. His eyes kept being drawn to the faces of the deceased in hopes that it wouldn’t be anyone he recognized too much.
His eyes were peeled for Philza, Techno, and Wilbur mostly - the ones who’d found him when this shit show had all started. They were really the closest thing he had to family besides Tubbo and Ranboo. He kept an eye out for Dream and for Puffy and Niki, who’d all always provided him with unconditional love and care.
There was also Bad and Jack to look for, and Ant, Foolish, Hannah, Drista, Punz, Karl, Skeppy—!
Tommy shook his head to force the thoughts out of his head as the list kept going on. He couldn’t think about them now. Whether or not they were dead, he may never have known.
He wasn’t sure how long they were running for. Only that the pain he’d most likely been feeling this entire time slowly came into fruition with his loss of adrenaline. He could smell burning flesh and smoke, a rancid stench that burned his nostrils every time he dragged in a breath in his run. He could hear their screams, his ears were ringing with the sounds of bullets… but, all in all, Tommy was useless to help.
It felt like forever that he and his friends finally found themselves on a clifftop, safe from the action. From there, however, they could see everything.
Dark patches of red stained the soil and buildings were engulfed in golden flames that reached to lick at the skyline. The trees and crops were burning or trampled, med tents ripped apart by desperate hands. The food shed was smoking, surrounded by bodies that had tried so hard to protect it.
And, here they were, safe. Away from the doom that plagued their friends.
“We… We have to go back…” Tommy insisted sharply. They had to do something. He moved to step forwards but was thwarted quickly by Ranboo’s hand grabbing his good arm.
“No,” Tubbo spoke for them. “We’ll regather at the emergency base camp. We’ll know who’s alive there.”
“But—!”
“No buts.” Tubbo held up a palm. “We’ll need to leave now to make good time. We have nearly a full day of walking.”
All Tommy could do was sigh and accept his defeat. Both Tubbo and Ranboo’s hands rested upon his shoulders, but there wasn’t much else to do besides to watch as the place they’d called home for so long went up in smoke and flames.