Chapter Text
1 week earlier…
Bruno stared boredly at the sand in his room. He felt the urge to do something, anything, but he wasn’t sure what. He just instinctively knew that something bad was going to happen. Call it his Bad Luck Bruno sense.
“Brunito, come down for dinner!”
He huffed angrily. He wasn’t hungry, so he figured just having a vision would let him off the hook for a little. And he always worked up a huge appetite after a vision. How harmless could one vision be?
“I’ll be down in ah- a few minutes!” More specifically, around half an hour.
Bruno sat down in the sand, bringing the materials he usually needed for his visions. The dry leaves, the fire. He took a deep breath and let the sand encase him in a hard dome. He closed his eyes, trying to peer into the future to see what was going to happen, what was the root of that bad feeling he had.
“Not bad, not bad.” He first saw a couple of stray cats lying around a village. Then a destroyed house. Wait, was that seriously all that feeling was? A small house that crumbled a little?
He opened his eyes, seeing as there's little to focus on. He looked into the flying sand around him, trying to see if he was missing anything. And sure enough, from the corner of his eye he saw something. A hand.
Bruno felt fearful. Things like these, when they pop up in the vision always end badly, be it a death or an accident. And it would always end badly for him.
“Shit, when did this happen?” He started to look around for something to signify a date, but to no avail. He desperately tried to prolong his vision for one of the few times in his life when he really wanted to. He failed, and emerald pieces scattered across the sand. He tried to gather them but he swore that he saw-
“Brunito!” Julieta now sat cross armed at his door. “You need to eat something, no visions appetites allowed.” She peered over his shoulder to try and see the emerald tablet, but he blocked her vision.
“I’m going!” Bruno took one more look at his vision in the sand before mustering a chuckle to Julieta.
“What was that vision, anyways? Looked strange.” She eyed his pockets suspiciously, and he swore her hand almost hovered to reach it.
“Just the usual! Don’t worry about it!” Bruno forced a grin and stuffed his hands in his pockets to fill them up.
Julieta stared at him for abit, but let it go. She made her way downstairs and Bruno heaved a sigh of relief.
“What even is the usual for visions, though?” Bruno froze in his tracks as Julieta continued to casually walk towards the dining hall. She didn’t even bat an eye.
Bruno went quiet as he tried searching for an answer. Visions were really vague to him, and it’s hard to tell. Bad mostly, but still, they did help in warning those that were involved.
“Drugs, that kind of thing.” Damn, he was pretty bad at lying.
“Right… we’ll make sure to eat at least a full plate during dinner, anyways.” Julieta was seemingly used to shenanigans like this, so she just changed the topic. When they finally arrived at the dining room, Pepa ran up to them, panting and gasping for air while laughing.
“I should not have taken Camilo’s food, hermanos!” And then she continued running.
Present…
Running.
They have been running, for how long again? It’s been so long since it started.
Well, ask the zombies. They appeared a week ago and had no clue why, but for now all they could really think about was
- Keep running
- Why the hell was Osvaldo chasing them, of all people? (people?)
Mirabel looked back to the horde as she ran, shouting over the rest as she told them to hurry up. They had no clue of where they were heading too, only to get away and as far as possible from the incoming horde.
“Don’t get left behind, idiotas!” Camilo desperately shapeshifted in different forms to navigate through this forest they were in.
Now, the encanto was naturally small, they had nowhere else to go. Combine that with a pack of hungry zombies in an enclosed area, they had little choice but to leave their home. It was pretty bittersweet, because the only piece of Casita they had left was a tile Mirabel took from its walls. Casita was family, even if she was still a house.
Luisa picked up a stray branch from the forest floor, lingering back to fight some of the zombies.
“Be careful!”, Dolores warned her, looking back to make sure that she was alright on her own. “You don’t want to be bitten like Abuela!” Luisa cringed at Dolores’ out of pocket remark.
“She wasn’t bitten, we don’t know, at least!!”
“Same thing!”
Luisa nodded curtly, running off back to the approaching horde, looking back once to her family. With each passing day, you’d never know when it would last. She heaved the branch towards her shoulder, pushing it through the horde as they got impaled. If she’d got a strong gift, at least she was going to use it to help her family.
She swung the branch to her right, knocking some of the zombies backwards as they laid dead on the floor. Pushing the branch down a hill, it knocked a wave of them down as she punched a zombie that was going to bite her.
She tried fighting off as many as she could, but once she felt that she was almost overpowered, she snapped an old tree and it fell on the horde, killing them as their groans fell to silence. Luisa looked back and saw that her family was out of sight.
“Lucky me…” She grumbled. It really was a better day than most. First, she lived, and her family didn’t see her ruthlessly killing their former friends and colleagues! Great day, she said. “Guys, we can relax a bit now. I got them.” She was more careful now to not yell for Dolores now.
Luisa then ran in the direction of where her family went. “Did you see Abuela?” Mirabel gently nudged her and spoke as quietly as she could muster.
“No, I’m not even sure where she was.” Luisa whispered back.
The family was now jogging. Surprisingly Agustín had little to no injuries, maybe being in a zombie apocalypse heightened that guy’s senses.
“Wait! Let’s take a break, let’s take a…” Camilo panted heavily and sat down, almost collapsed on the floor. “…break!”
“It’s just a light jog!” Luisa tried reassuring him, but it was clear that she was tired too, from carrying all of Antonio’s weight.
Dolores looked at them. It was instinct by now, to do a headcount. Although her heart was pounding loudly in her ears, she took a deep breath to ease her breathing. Camilo was on the ground, that’s one. Luisa was next to Mirabel and Antonio was sitting down, looking back at the forest. That was four. Tío was busy checking himself if he had any major injuries. “Wait, where Abue- '' Dolores managed to stop herself midway through the sentence, and suddenly the headcount went silent.
Isabela came up behind the crumbling Dolores and gripped her shoulders. “Hey, let’s find somewhere to rest for a little before we freak out.” Yes. Rest would be quite nice.
Isabela guided Dolores to a tree nearby and sat her down.
“There are all 10 of us, Dolores, it’s gonna be alright, Isabela said as she made a vine nearby, no thorns, and used it to tie up her hair into a makeshift bun. “Camilo, everything ok?”
His stomach growled at the perfect timing. “Sorry, didn’t eat for a couple days.” Isabela pursed her lips and tried to maybe grow some vegetation, but she only knew how to do broccoli and onions. “You know what, it’s fine. I’m not hungry anyways.” They didn’t know, but months later, anyone would kill for some broccoli and onions.
Back at the adult group, Pepa was busy pacing to and fro as Bruno eyed his hermana worriedly. Julieta was deep into thought.”
“Pepi, are you alright?” Félix asked as Pepa stopped and looked his way, before nodding. The cloud above her head told him otherwise.
“Yes, mi vida, of course.” She smiled nervously while snow started to form overhead. Well, not started, it was like that for 2 days.
Félix shifted closer to Pepa to snuggle with her. “When we get to Bogota with Agustín guidance, we are going to rest a lot more. Please be patient.”
Agustín perked his head up at the mention of his name as he chuckled weakly. “Yes, I’ll make sure we get there safely!” He said mechanically. Truth was, he hadn’t been there since he was a little boy, and he barely remembered what direction it was even in.
Julieta seemed to have read his thoughts. “I know we’re all trying to stay optimistic, but I’m not even sure if we can even get out of the Encanto in the state we’re in.”
The weather dropped several degrees as Camilo shivered. Pepa apologised hastily and walked away several metres from the main group, practising breathing techniques that were supposed to help her calm down.
Doing so only made the snow spread farther and farther, unfortunately. She tried to stop it by desperately brushing her braid and chanting her mantra of clear skies, as it was once taught to her by her mother. But the snow still spread.
“Pepa!” Felix jumped next to her, surprising her enough for the snow to completely stop. “Don’t be scared, see? There is nothing here!” She supposed his words were supposed to be comforting, but it didn’t really help her. She wished there would just be a lumber seller or gatherer somewhere to show that there was still life.
Camilo’s stomach grumbled louder and Mirabel huffed as Camilo smiled meekly. The adult jumped in fright, having been on edge for days, to the fact that even a stomach grumble could sound like a zombie growl.
“Tía, you don’t know if you have any more food on you, right?”
Julieta shook her head sadly. The last one went to Mirabel when she tripped and sprained her ankle while running.
Camilo nodded and sat back down, closing his eyes in hopes that he could sleep the hunger off, even for a little while. It did seem that they were about to be here for a while.
“Hey, please be quiet. We’re trying to sleep.” Dolores huffed at Camilo. He couldn’t sleep, and was just tossing and turning because his stomach was empty and his head was spinning.
“Yeah, and we don’t want any zombies to hear us-”, Mirabel snapped back, her body aching as she lay on the uneven ground.
“Zombies. Oooo so scary!” Camilo rolled his eyes.
“It would be a shame if one of them…” Luisa hid herself behind her large frame for a second. “…ate us!” She yelled in Camilo's face, earning a yelp from him, and a chuckle from the other kids.
“Imagine if Osvaldo was the one to eat us!”, Mirabel said as Camilo laughed, clutching his stomach. Laughing on an empty stomach did hurt.
The silence quickly died though, as the reality of it quickly came crashing down. “Wait, what’s that noise, anyways?”
“Don’t scare us, Isa.”, Luisa interjected. Dolores sat upright, looking around, hearing if there were any threats incoming.
A branch cracked, and the rest of the villagers that they didn’t see before paraded in. “Shit…” Luisa scooped Antonio into her arms, ready to move.
“It’s been, like, an hour…!” Camilo groaned while he got ready, too.
The adults made their way to the kids, crouching near them as they stared at the direction the horde was coming. If they were quiet enough, maybe-”
A zombie jerked his head in their direction, and Mirabel slapped a hand to Isabela’s mouth to keep her quiet as she yelped. But the damage was already done.
“RUN!” Bruno’s condition suddenly jerked up from adrenaline, and he moved at a rapid pace to allow Luisa some room to start fighting. “I’ll take Tonito, just get them away!” He yelled into Luisa’s face before she started to fight them off with nothing but a sharp branch.
Pepa looked up to her cloud and back. “Keep running, no matter what!”, she screamed as she readied her hands. If she was going to snow, at least make it useful. At least to help Luisa.
Pepa immediately got to Luisa’s corner as she focused on her fear and turned her snow into heavy hail. She stretched her fingers and waved it to one wave, knocking back some zombies as the hail pierced their skin. She could make it colder, freeze them in their tracks. It would take a lot, but Pepa had to try. A bead of sweat unexpectedly fell down her temple despite the rapidly dropping temperature from exertion.
She focused on the heat of her palm and channelled the cold to it and directed it to the horde, the hail immediately freezing parts of their body parts and slowing them down.
“I didn’t know you could do that.”, Luisa gasped.
“Me too Luisa, me too. Now let’s hurry!”, Pepa said as they turned back.
They broke out into a run once again, but even faster than before this time. Frozen zombies can still easily chase you down once they become even a little thawed. “How far is Bogota, again?!” Felix yelled as he almost repeatedly tripped while speeding up.
“Should be around 15 miles from here!” Agustin yelled and almost stopped midair from a slight jump he made on a shallow downhill.
Back at the main group, there was still the threat of the zombies from the front. Camilo shapeshifted into a tall guy, one that he knew was a fast runner and picked up Antonio from Bruno. The group saw that there was a roadblock.
And a group of zombies.
“Oh no, guy’s slow down slow down!-” Mirabel shouted.
“We can’t afford to stop!” Pepa shouted back as she blasted a few more rounds of hail to the back.
Luisa saw the speed they were moving and did the unthinkable with even more speed than before. She took some branches for protection and crashed straight into the horde.
“Luisa!” Antonio yelled from Bruno’s shoulder, but she was fine. She wasn’t bitten. She threw several zombies out of her way and proceeded running towards the mountain everyone had their eyes on.
“Guys-Right ahead!-” Everyone looked to the front where Camilo shouted and the horde of zombies from the roadblock caught sight of them. They hissed and growled and charged straight towards them.
“Whatever you do, don’t stop running!”, Felix commanded.
“Yeah, well we can’t run if we’re dead!” Camilo turned into a smaller kid so he could evade the hordes. “Man, fuck it.” He cursed under his breath and transformed into Luisa instead. He already had fairly good physical ability, so Luisa's large build let him punch through them more easily.
Dolores closed her eyes for a bit and shouted over them. “There’s about 58 zombies! If we try, we can take them down!”
“On it!” Isabela stepped in front of her as her main source of protection and threw all the thrones vines she could muster at them.
“Wow, gee, great help…” Camilo spat out a leaf that got into his mouth.
“You’d be dead without me, primo.”
The horde was still clawing through the wall of plants that Isabela made as they continued running. “We might need some more Luisa over here!” Isabela nervously screamed when she started feeling overwhelmed.
“You’re making me look bad, sobrina.” Pepa said from a few metres back, as she was a slightly slower runner at the moment.
“Mi amor, what are you doing?”, Felix shouted as he threw a left hook at a zombie that lunged at him.
Pepa reduced her speed to a slow jog; she needed to catch her breath if she wanted to do this correctly.
“Mami!” Camilo said as he turned around to help her, but Julieta tugged him back as Camilo screamed back at her. “Keep running!” Julieta screamed.
Pepa calmed her breathing down and closed her eyes, focusing on regulating her breathing. She could still hear the incoming horde of zombies from the front and the back, mostly from the back as she was closer to them.
Isabela screamed as a zombie broke through the plunge of the wall, and Luisa immediately cut its hand out while Isabela patched up the hole. Luisa climbed a thick plant that was a part of the wall and began throwing heavy boulders at them.
“Dolores, if you can hear me, how many zombies are there at the back?” Pepa whispered as she slowed down even more.
There was no answer from Dolores, but after a few seconds Pepa could hear her shout over the rest. “72!”
Seventy two. Pepa could do it.
She stopped completely, digging her shoes into the sand to anchor herself. Felix looked back and looked in horror at what his wife was going to do. “Pepa what are you doing!”
Pepa gave a small smile and Felix’s face only grew more distressed as he turned back and ran towards her, Camilo still struggling from Julieta’s grasp as he tried to run back.
“Come on Pepa, for once, do what you’re supposed to do-”
Pepa felt her breathing slow down to normal, and she dug down, deep inside her, to find raw, hurt emotions. The weather was still cold from the hail, and changing the weather abruptly, it didn’t usually fare well for her.
She thought about her mama, thought about Casita, thought of the days where she was beat up to make it rain, days where mama neglected her, days where she would come back beaten and bruised from the fields.
The group looked up as the weather turned dark, dark thunder clouds covering the sun as the looming threat of lightning hovered across them. Dolores looked back and screamed when she saw the zombies that were about to approach Pepa.
Felix ran faster, wanting to get Pepa out of the way, but at the rate he was going, he was never going to make it. The zombies were so close, they were lunging for her already, about to bite her. Pepa felt the usual humidity around her hands and whispered.
“Get down.”
“GET DOWN!”
Dolores repeated as a lightning bolt struck Pepa from the sky, her hands out as lightning shot from her arms and struck the zombies around her, knocking back so far that all they were was a burnt crisp of flesh. Pepa looked livid, her eyes slightly glowing blue as the lightning danced from one zombie near her family to another, it was so fast that if someone blinked you would have missed it, and so bright that if you looked at it you would be blinded.
Camilo watched the flesh of his former friends burning, and he smelt it, too. It smelled like the pork Julieta made for birthdays, and it smelled so shockingly good it disgusted him. ‘Gross…’ He ran towards a tree that Isabela grew a vine from to make a sort of base. “Mamí, hurry!”
Pepa stormed from her original position to take Camilo’s hand and help the others get up. “Once Isabela comes can you strike the vine with lightning?” He chattered anxiously and pointed to the straggling zombies that tried to hunt them down.
“I can try.” She rolled her eyes jokingly and grabbed Mirabel and Isabela. “Isa, cut the vine.”
Isabela nodded affirmatively and cut the zombies off from them.
“Man, I'm never eating meat again…” Camilo gagged and held his stomach.
“That is, like, so random…” Isabela said while growing the branches wider and taller to make something like a treehouse.
Mirabel sprawled out and closed her eyes from the true darkness at once. “Why can’t we just stay here?”
Isabela rolled her eyes menacingly, if she thought that was a good idea she would’ve done it. “You saw how strong those things were.” She pointed down to the destruction caused by zombies alone. “A tree like this isn’t safe, and I can’t do anything else to provide for us. This is just a rest stop.”
All the kids seemed pretty bummed they had to keep moving, to the point where Camilo even asked for some broccoli to eat. “I need to get the meat scent out of my nose.”
Isabela looked at him worryingly. Why didn’t he like meat anymore? Actually, stupid question. She gave him the broccoli, which he basically inhaled both ways. And once Camilo mentioned it, it looked like everyone else was starting to grow discouraged about meat, even Julieta, who’s passion so greatly included it.
Felix remained undaunted and optimistic, and even got Agustin to join in with him. “Let’s not worry about that. Looks like we only have a few miles to go before we hit Bogota. Let’s get going tomorrow.”
The Madrigals rest was… not restful. Isabela had to secretly stay up to maintain the treehouse they slept in, everyone jumped to wake up at every last noise, and everyone was plagued by nightmares of the village, especially Bruno.
“Ugh, let’s get to Bogota and restart there…” Luisa groggily got up to walk again. Bogota was around 5 miles away, which wouldn’t have been a lot if everyone wasn’t sleep deprived and starving.
The first mile, everyone was fine. They were able to walk properly for some time and didn’t complain, just pushed through with sheer willpower. The second mile was pretty mediocre, with exhaustion beginning to seep in. It was by the third mile when things took a turn to the worst.
“Guys, stop. I hear something…”
“Not again-”, Bruno mumbled, digging a hole in the sand on the road to bury his head in and end everything.
And Luisa didn’t have the energy for this. Whenever someone woke up because they thought they heard a sound, she’d be the first person their hand grazed to wake up, too, which translated to no sleep. “Just-just run.” Her voice and feet were equally heavy, and if you looked closely, you could see she had already lost weight.
Usually she would have the privilege to work out for hours at a time and eat as much as she needed, but now she was running purely on adrenaline and starvation. “Come on, I see the mountains!”
Everyone’s eyes lit up at seeing the mountain, and their paces sped up a little bit. The adults that ran without a single ounce of energy, the ones that couldn’t even bear to run on adrenaline, had to be dragged by their children, and just like that, mile 4 out of 5 was over.
The freedom of the mountains felt so close that the Madrigals could almost taste it. (They wished they could taste some real food, too.) The final leg hit them like a truck. No one could even afford to talk, so as to not waste their faltering breath, but eventually Luisa touched the rock of the mountain, and they knew they had made it.
The mountain cracks were huge, and the group found themselves rubbing straight in between, not bothering to look back at the disaster that traumatised them.
“This rock looks pretty delicious right now…” Camilo and Mirabel laughed in unison using the little brain power they could pull together.
“Seriously Camilo?” Dolores weakly punched Camilo.
The air felt different when they passed through. It was as if they entered a whole other realm. The group slowed down to a walk. It was still pretty desolate, yes, but it was calm.
“This weather feels… weird. I can’t explain it but it definitely is.” Pepa brushed off some dust from her shoulder and tried to figure out what felt different from outside the mountains.
“That’s the wind, Pepi.” Felix kindly led her forward while eyeing the ground to look for a nice place to sit.
“It’s almost night. We should find some proper shelter-”, Mirabel side-eyed Isabela.
The stretch led to an abandoned town, possibly one that was looted from the raiders back then, and no one went back to live there. The shops were run down, signs hanging off from its hinges and carts left astray and broken.
“Ahhh, Bogota?” Agustin sheepishly looked at the abandoned storefront, and Isabela just rolled her eyes.
“This does not look like the Bogota in books.” Agustin continued smiling and silently ignored his mistake. They were off by at least 3 miles.
“Agustin, I love you. But for god’s sake-”, Julieta sighed as she sat down on the floor, rubbing her feet in pain. They were all at the end of their ropes and patience. “Is there any food here?” She composed herself and stared at the various shops that possibly held food.
“I checked. No there isn’t.” Isabela swung back in from her vines and sat down pitifully. Broccoli and onions sprung from the ground. ‘Not even a food source of food…’ Nobody there really liked either of those foods raw.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to look again.”, Pepa came back down from a miniature cloud platform, letting a light drizzle from her cloud on the crops. “There are some shops that are locked, maybe some leftovers are in there.”, Pepa noted as she pointed to a rundown supermarket
Camilo immediately sprinted to press his face and hands against the dusty glass windows. “It’s empty, I can’t see a thing!” His energy and brain felt so worn and empty that he laid down on the ground. “Why is there no food?!”
Luisa took a step back and slammed onto the door, making the doors shatter and fall to the ground.
“In these kind of times, smart people would know how to hide food well”, Julieta said as she took a step inside.
They desperately looked around, in even the storerooms, but not even a crumb could be found. It was empty. “Just try and make a fire now. I’ll cook something up.”
“I swear I can smell an area somewhere-”, Mirabel said as she clutched her stomach.
“I don’t know. I’m gonna throw up behind the dumpster now.” Dolores said as she looked underneath a stand.
“Throw up? At what, an arepa?” Mirabel questioned as she dug through some shelves.
Dolores rolled her eyes and scurried off to the dumpster to relieve her stomach. Well, not like anything came up, but she was still queasy. “What the fuck is this junk?” She shuffled around for a trash bag to more comfortably carry around, but with one plastic bag she hit the jackpot. Stale, but not quite mouldy yet, and it was enough to last at least a full day, or just a good meal for a family their size.
“BREAD!”
Pepa was near the back of the supermarket with Bruno when she found a hatch near some sacks of goods. “Bruno get here-”, she pulled Bruno over. Bruno knelt down and inspected the hatch, but coughed and covered his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.
Pepa used a light breeze to blow away the dust, and Bruno helped to open the hatch although with some difficulty.
“Mamá! Can you get everyone? I found something.” She held up her bag of bread proudly and rushed outside. Julieta could definitely do some cooking now!
“Wait hold on alright?” Pepa answered as she looked down the hatch. It was dark, and the sound of dripping water could be heard.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Bruno peered behind her.
“I’ll be fine!” Pepa answered as she dropped down the hatch.
She searched through the dark by using some lightning to occasionally illuminate the passage. Bruno followed soon after, although having a rough landing. He picked up a stray rat that scurried near him.
“That’s new…” He saw a bundle of blankets at the dead end they met and searched it. “Maybe there’s food?” He opened the blanket, but violently flinched and covered it again. “Actually, we should leave.”
“What was that?” Pepa got closer as she squinted at the bundle.
“I don’t wanna know, but I think it’s…” Pepa gasped as she backed away, too. “A person?” They chattered in unison.
Pepa turned around and went to the other side of the bunker, feeling around in the dark for something. “Aha!” Pepa exclaimed as she grabbed a tied up bundle from underneath the sink. Unwrapping it, she found that it was some cans of food. Not much, but anyone would kill for it.
“Found anything?” Bruno asked.
“Ah nothing,” Pepa answered back quickly as she shoved the bundle back underneath the sink. She did feel guilty for hiding it, but something told Pepa that food was going to be much more important in the future.
And then the body groaned. It was obviously not from Bruno, because Bruno was next to her now.
“Shit, what was that?” They jerked their heads to the bundle of blankets, and they saw it beginning to move.
“Pepa, that looks like one more person, right?” 4 arms punched through the fabric, and the entire world felt as if it crashed down on them.
“Run Bruno, let’s get out-”, Pepa replied as she grabbed Bruno’s arm and turned to the opening of the hatch, only to find it closed shut.
“PEPA, MAKE IT SNOW!” Pepa looked at him like he was crazy. “TRUST ME AND MAKE IT SNOW NOW.”
“DO I LOOK LIKE SANTA CLAUS TO YOU?” Pepa screamed back.
Bruno growled frustratingly and banged his hands on him with all his small might, and he successfully forced it a crack open.
“Make. It. Snow. Trust me.” Bruno looked back at her.
Fighting in low visibility was hard enough for them, but fighting in the snow was even harder as Pepa’s fear shone through.
“IT'S ALMOST OPEN!” Bruno excitedly screamed and pushed Pepa above him as a priority.
Pepa willed herself one more time as snow emerged out of her cloud, the temperature dropping drastically.
“You’re almost out! Come on!” Bruno forced her through the half opened hatch while trying to kick away one of the zombies in the hatch. “Fuck, come on…” He cursed through his teeth and punched the zombies wanting hands, but he pulled away, just in time.
The snow was slowing them down, pushing them back into the snow as the siblings tried getting it open.
Pepa screamed as she felt one hand grab her by the leg, pulling her down.