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The world ended on a Monday.
Ironic, considering it’s Tommy’s least favorite day of the week.
School was pretty okay. They had a Spanish pop quiz, which wasn’t okay, but Clay had chosen to sit right beside him, enabling him to pass pretty easily.
Clay was mostly known as Mexican Dream, due to a) his and Dream's near identical behavior and b) his uncanny skill at Spanish. It was honestly terrifying. No one had been able to confirm whether or not he was genuinely Mexican, but he helped on the Spanish tests, and that was all that most high schoolers really cared about.
It wasn’t really special, all things considered.
Tommy spent all break looking over his shoulder, wondering if Wilbur would publicly yell at him from stealing the brunette’s hoodie earlier that morning, but he never did. Tommy spent all of Math being grateful for that, and also joining Tubbo in bullying Ranboo. That was always his favorite activity.
By the time Math finally ended and they sprinted their way to English (on the other side of the campus), Tommy was just about done with school - he’d done quite enough, thank you very much. It was time for some video games. Tubbo seemed to share his opinion, soon leading to the two of them in a heated argument about the game choice for their afternoon session. Ranboo half-heartedly interjected, asking them to study for the Chemistry test they had the next day instead of gaming. Tommy and Tubbo ignored him completely, as usual.
Suddenly, Tommy finds himself stumbling headfirst into a wall - the impact fills his head with a strange little buzzing, and it’s as if the volume of the world decreases. He can hear distant laughter around him, a concerned voice asking if he’s alright.
The cackling of two very obvious people: Wilbur and Tubbo. Apparently his brother had decided that fucking smashing his own little brother into a fucking wall was a real good idea, and his best friend had agreed, like a traitor.
‘Ranboo is the only good one here.’ Tommy declared, as he glared daggers at the two bitches who were still cackling like the cruel villains they were.
‘Weren't you trying to hold a competition with Tubbo to see who could insult me more, like, five minutes ago??’ Ranboo responded, confusion lacing his voice, but Tommy wasn’t an idiot. He could hear the undertone of amusement.
He scowled. ‘You’re bitches, all of you. Ranboo most of all.’ Tommy said, growling when all three of them started laughing at him.
Well, if anyone asked why he was late to his last class ever, Tommy would always blame Wilbur.
It wasn’t Tommy’s fault he could barely think straight with the pounding in his head! It was difficult to resist the temptation to smash Wil’s nose in on a good day.
On a bad one?
Well, at least Technoblade, his oldest brother, had appeared spontaneously from midair to prevent the fight from getting beyond bruises.
Real shame, too. Tommy really wanted to murder that son of a-
The world ended on a Monday, and the last thing Tommy ever said to his father was Don’t crash the car, or mum’s gonna do you in.
They were slowly making their way to the cafeteria for the routine “short break” this school always stressed when it happened.
Wilbur and Techno were with them, and to this day, Tommy thanked the gods he never believed in for that last stroke of luck.
Considering how things went after it, he’d wager Lady Luck harbored a grudge specifically on him.
Wil and Tubbo were arguing about the pros and cons of a country owning any number of nukes, and Ranboo was deep in discussion with Techno about the kingdom they had collaborated with Phil to make in Minecraft.
It was one of those very rare moments when Tommy was quiet - not because of any specific reason, really, but more because he needed a moment to just… be.
Sometimes, Tommy Watson walked silently alongside his friends and family, listened to the chatter around him and basked in the beauty of being able to exist without needing to constantly participate.
So, Tommy listened.
‘—we care about countries, anyway?’ Tubbo was saying, ‘I’ll just make my own nuke and store it in the basement for my personal use.’
Wilbur nodded his head vigorously. ‘Always good to be prepared.’
Just a bit behind them, Ranboo stopped his own rant on Techno’s pet polar bear, Steve, to stare incredulously at Wilbur.
‘Seriously?’ He said, ‘I expected Tubbo to say that, but not you, too, Wil. This is such a disappointing day.’
The brunette shrugged. ‘He makes a solid point.’
Ranboo stared for a moment more, before he shook his head and went back to his rant.
Tommy smiled; what a normal group of people.
When they entered the cafeteria, the place was chalk full of students. The amount of noise and conversations taking place in the echo of the large hall filled the entire place with a low, incessant buzzing.
A few seats away, he spotted Quackity and Sapnap murmuring with their heads together, the very picture of a perfect couple. Tommy rummaged around in the pocket of his jeans for a moment, pulled out an empty gum wrapper, and chucked it at Quackity’s head.
Said head snapped up as the wrapper fell to the ground, half-heartedly flipping Tommy the bird as he walked past them.
‘Where’s your little staaarboy, huh? Not invited to the flirting gang?’ Tommy taunted, dancing out of Quackity’s reach.
Sapnap, meanwhile, took it in stride. ‘Nah, it’s just moonlight and sunshine for now.’
Tommy gagged, and hastened his pace to catch up with his own group. Behind him, he heard Sapnap mutter to his boyfriend, you’ve just gotta out-weird him, or else he’ll feed on your discomfort.
With a smirk, he wolf-whistled at Dream and George and ducked the latter’s kick to the shins, quickly going up to Technoblade and holding his hand.
‘Techie,’ Tommy said, in a faux-scared tone, ‘They’re bullying me.’
Techno rolled his eyes fondly, but did not make him let go. There was a loud screech in front of them as Tubbo punched Ranboo in the back from his position over his shoulder.
Tubbo looked like a sack of potatoes, with the way he was thrown. Wilbur wasted no time in relaying this information to the boy, who swore at him as well as Ranboo.
Tommy laughed, savoring the moment.
It didn’t last long.
Ranboo had only just let Tubbo down when every single head in the cafeteria turned towards the field outside in unison.
A blood-curdling scream ripped the air apart and slashed through any sort of normalcy in the school.
Now, they’ve had their fair share of screaming, considering it’s high school . But there was something different about this one. Something hidden in the piercing high decibels, something which triggered the most ancient of instinct and told them to run .
However, they were children, and so they waited.
(Their biggest mistake.)
Glass shattered and a group of eight kids sprinted in at full speed, and they shouted and sobbed and screamed at them all to run.
Behind them, a grotesque figure walked on at a leisurely pace. At first glance, it looked like a normal girl in her senior year.
At the second glance, everyone could see the astoundingly clear bite marks on her neck, and the blood which poured out at an alarming rate.
What was arguably much, much more terrifying, was the way that same girl ran straight into Sam - a chill guy in Wilbur’s year Tommy really liked - and tore off a piece of his fucking skin .
That was what spurred them all to action, finally. It was as if the room had been hit with a bolt of electricity; suddenly, the air was filled with the horrified screams of the living, and the disgusting groans of the undead.
As Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s free arm and Techno tightened the hold he already had, he saw Sapnap let out a heartbroken noise, eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at something beyond Tommy’s vision.
Quackity was half-dragging Sapnap away, although he himself didn’t look too good.
Techno took the lead in their little trio, and they dashed towards the locker hall corridors. Tommy, who still felt as though he was trapped in some sort of daydream, dared to turn his head just the slightest bit.
A painful gasp fell from his lips.
In that single second of bravery, Tommy saw things he would never be able to forget.
The cafeteria was in absolute chaos. There were students, both alive and undead, everywhere . The floor was littered with bodies and blood and - Tommy gagged - pieces.
Tommy saw a lot of things.
He saw an emotionally wrecked Dream run past in a daze, his emerald eyes sparkling with some unnamed emotion as he ran further and further away from the man of his dreams, sprawled over the ground in a disgusting mix of blood and bodies.
He saw a determined Niki - Wilbur’s best friend - dashing towards something , the ghost of a name on her lips, as another figure (not alive) collided with her. A few moments later, the figure got up and went away. Someone yelled her name. Niki did not respond.
He saw Karl Jacobs, the brightest star in Quackity and Sapnap’s vast sky, praised to heaven and back, lying on his side under a bench, coughing up blood, a dangerously teeth-shaped mark on his wrist.
And finally, Tommy saw Ranboo, and that’s when the ringing started. His best friend was reaching out towards something- some one , a silent scream which tore out of his throat and surely made it sore, just a moment away from someone before he, too, was snatched away.
But what he saw-
On the ground-
Just a few feet away-
Tubbo.
His mind broke into pieces, and suddenly his soul caught up with the world, although it was still spinning too fast.
Tubbo and Ranboo. The names rang through Tommy’s head as he was pulled away by his oldest brother.
Tubbo and Ranboo.
What was he gonna do?
The world ended on a Monday, and Tommy never got to say goodbye.
They stopped running a few blocks away from the school, hiding out in one of the cleaner alleys of the area.
Tommy’s eyes burned with unshed tears when he realized it was theirs .
(The place where he’d first met both of his best friends.
The place where they slowly became his best friends.)
Wilbur settled himself down in a corner just behind a large destroyed Samsung fridge, which had been there ever since they had first discovered this place. He curled in on himself and hid his face in his arms, shoulders shaking with the force of his silent sobs.
Techno, too, sat down beside Wilbur, and Tommy decided to as well. They’re well hidden for now, in this alley, and will get an early warning if someone does come here, with their position behind the fridge.
So Tommy sat down, comfortably snuggled in between his two older brothers, just like he had been a thousand times before. This time, however, instead of butting in with a well-timed quip or burrowing into one of them and chilling, he sat stiff. Like some sort of army soldier, with his back completely straight and his eyes on the sky
The sky is a brilliant shade of blue, not a cloud in sight. The weather is great too, nestled comfortably in the reasonable temperature it’s been at for the past week.
The sky was blue, his best friends were dead, and Tommy cried.
They got up eventually.
A new virus outbreak, the man on the radio from Technoblade’s phone told them. The virus took over its host’s brain and corrupted every function, and left only one intact: to quench the thirst .
Tommy wondered where the man got all that information.
They heard a gunshot from the radio only a few seconds after.
Techno didn’t turn on the radio again after that.
There is a hole in Tommy’s chest, a hole which started when Tubbo and Ranboo-
A hole which started near the beginning, and only grew after neither Phil nor Kristin picked up their phones the hundreds of times Wilbur called.
The three of them hadn’t talked much since it all began, each lost in their own ocean of pain which only seemed to span on and on and on and on and on and on and shatter his heart into a million pieces and never gave him time to pick them up, only stomped on them and pushed him under the water and didn’t let him surface to breathe and it was all so, so hard to understand-
Only a few hours ago, Tommy had hugged his dad, kissed his mother on the cheek, heard Tubbo’s laugh, saw Ranboo’s smile. Only a few hours ago, he’d seen Karl fly towards his two boyfriends and trap them in a bear hug, as if not seeing them over the two days of the weekend were the most painful thing ever. Only a few hours ago, he and Wilbur had made fun of Dream and George, stole Bad’s homework, given Skeppy the IP of their Minecraft server, thanked Niki for the baked goods she always made sure to bring for them.
Only a few hours ago, everything had been normal and Tommy had been happy.
Now, Techno and Wilbur walked ahead in silence, Wil’s eyes puffy and red, Techno’s shoulders were slumped, and the town was swamped in an eerie quiet which wrapped around Tommy’s throat and squeezed .
The quiet was broken about half an hour later by his eldest brother.
‘What are we gonna do?’ Technoblade’s voice was hoarse and tired as though he’d just given a speech. His question was answered with a shrug and downturned lip.
‘Walk?’ Wilbur’s answer was short and clipped, and it cracked in the middle of the word. Techno sighed, and the silence swirled back in.
So they walked.
And they walked.
Sometimes they stopped for a rest, tried to scavenge whatever food they could find.
The hole in Tommy’s heart never got any smaller, and he was forced to watch the exhaustion and despair settle onto his brothers like a second skin.
Sometimes there were good days. Days where they spoke and argued playfully and smiled and shoved.
Those days were swift and rare, but they did sometimes happen. Tommy thought it was the only thing keeping him sane.
On one such good day, they discussed the pros and cons of visiting some sort of slightly populated area. So far they had stuck to the darkest, ugliest alleys, and it had been okay.
But all three of them knew they couldn’t last like this forever. They needed to find a good place, find some form of stability in this new life.
So, Wilbur suggested going to the small town nearest to theirs, taking weapons with them and just checking things out.
Techno and Tommy had agreed.
It was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made.
‘TECHNO-’
The world ended-
‘Please, please. For me, Tech.’
The town was full.
‘I can’t do this without you.’
No one was alive.
‘Techie-’
The undead-
‘You have to leave me here.’
The world ended on a fucking Monday.
He cursed the day every time he thought of it.
It was just him and Wilbur now. In the day, they tried to keep a steady flow of banter up, for their own sanity.
At night, they clung on to each other for dear life, reminding each other to breathe.
They were each other’s reasons to live. To continue. To push past the strong currents of the river of constant pain. Sometimes, the river overflowed and flooded the banks, but Tommy had Wilbur, and Wilbur had Tommy, and they taught each other to swim.
And so, before he knew it, a year had passed since Tommy had lost everything.
(Well, Wilbur was working his way up to becoming Tommy’s everything, and vice versa. It wasn’t that difficult when you had no other choice, and when you loved someone as much as Wilbur and Tommy always had with each other.)
Tommy did not know where they were anymore. They had walked and walked and walked for months , never daring to stay in one place for too long.
These past days, they had entered a countryside settlement, a few houses littered sparsely here and there. There was a lot of greenery here, considering it was:
- A rural area
- Probably not inhabited by any living people
Tommy no longer kept track of the number of days, but it had been long enough that they were considering the idea of finding somewhere to stay.
This time, it had been Tommy who introduced the idea. He’d done a great job with it, brought it up at just the right time, so Wilbur didn’t immediately get into a screaming match with him.
They were both very, very hesitant on the idea, considering what had happened last time, but here’s the thing.
Wilbur and Tommy had been on the move for years .
There’s only so much nomancy one can take, after encountering everything they had.
That day wasn’t a bad one, not by a long shot, but it wasn’t a good one either. Tommy wasn’t actively drowning in his emotions, and Wilbur’s eyes hadn’t become misty and distant, like it did on the bad days.
Tommy had a feeling the reason for their okay moods was the weather.
By their estimates, they were roughly half-way through summer, and the temperature had been climbing steadily with each passing day.
Today, however. Despite the absolutely spotless sky, it was at a reasonable temperature, a comfortable balance between hot and cold. There was a light drizzle, somehow, and it wasn’t the kind which greatly hindered their journey and forced them to stop.
No, it was the sort of rain which made you want to make a snow angel in the mud.
They’d collected a lot of the water, as much as they could carry, and were now conversing softly and stepping in whatever puddle that had the misfortune of straying in their path.
They had been debating about a game called Minecraft - something he had been absolutely obsessed with in the months leading up to Monday.
He had even signed up for some random Potato farming competition in the game, active rivals with an equally mad man named Squid Kid.
( Tommy sometimes wondered what happened to him.)
Suddenly, Wilbur gasped and stopped Tommy in his tracks. The blonde tensed, ripping out a stolen army swiss knife from his pocket, taking a defensive stance. His feet dug into the damp ground.
Wilbur was quick to reassure and apologize.
‘It’s nothing!’ He said hastily as Tommy breathed a sigh of relief, ‘It’s just- Look. Tommy, look at that.’
Tommy looked toward what Wilbur was pointing at, and his face transformed to awe.
Sunflowers.
There was an entire field of them. The grass tickled their feet as they trudged to it. The sun was up high, about mid-day, and the rain was still drizzling. There was a faint rainbow which stretched across the grassy landscape.
It looked like something taken straight out of Pinterest.
Just where the array of yellow flowers ended, there was a cozy little cabin. It wasn’t actually that small, and it looked plenty sturdy. Tommy hadn’t seen a house of any sort for quite a while before this.
Wilbur ran his fingers through the majestic, golden petals in a gentle way, the kind of gentle he no longer was with anything other than Tommy.
‘Let’s dance.’ He said quietly, a warm look in his eyes and a smile in his voice as he hummed the opening to an age old melody. Tommy smiled.
Sunflowers. (Kristin’s favorite flowers in the world. Phil had given her a necklace shaped like one for their final anniversary. Kristin had bought the same one for Phil. There is a certain emotion, hidden somewhere in the action of giving others things your love.)
‘Tommy, come on.’
Sunflowers. (A pretty little field just like this one. A family picnic.)
Tommy reckoned they wouldn’t be house hunting for long. For now, though, he put all those thoughts, all those worries, stashed into a safe far away and hid it. Now was for his brother, a moment for Wilbur and Tommy Soot.
A moment to breathe.
Zombies, sunflowers, and summer rain. What a spectacularly rare combination for a day so beautiful.
The world ended on a Monday, but maybe Tommy ’s one was still going.