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"Can you tell me again, Uncle Joe?"
~~**~~
The one rule at their base: don't go outside during the night.
But what did Patrick do?
Went outside at night.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's back track shall we?
The year was 2017 and the virus had just started. How did it begin you may be asking? Rats. A rat in the New York City sewer system ended up being the downfall of humanity. A construction worker had been fixing a few pipes when the rat bit his finger, passing on the virus.
By the next month it had spread to every major city and wiped out the entirety of Chicago.
Except, for ten people. These ten were Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Ashlee Simpson, Elisa Yao, Lindsey Ballato, Gerard Way, Frank Iero, and Jamia Nestor.
Long story short they found a building to establish a base, and they had all somehow been born with an immunity to the airborne zombie virus, which ended up disappearing completely a few weeks after they found their place. So they were fine as long they didn't go out at night and get bit, as the zombie couldn't be in the sun for whatever reason.
But Pete had gone on a day mission, and Patrick didn't think he had made it back, so he snuck out to find his boyfriend. Pete returned two minutes later and heard the news, immediately going out after Patrick. But he was too late.
By the time Pete found Patrick, the latter was fighting off two zombie and didn't see the one come up from behind him and bite his left shoulder. Pete shot all three right in the head consecutively, the only way to kill them, and ran over to Patrick. "Trick come on you'll be okay," Pete told him, wrapping one of his arms around Patrick's waist. Patrick draped the right one over Pete's shoulder as they managed to make it the twenty yards back to the base without any more creatures coming for them.
So here they are now, in the part of the building they'd set up as the infirmary, with Frank, who was a doctor before this whole zombie business, wrapping bandages around Patrick's bite.
Frank sighed, "That's all I can do for now, I'm sorry. You know the deal Patrick," he choked out.
"Two weeks to go until no more Patrick," Patrick muttered bitterly. He looked across the room at Pete, who hadn't said anything the whole time, and was biting his thumb nail, looking anywhere but Patrick.
"I'll leave you two alone," Frank murmured, leaving the room.
"Pete --"
"Please don't," Pete choked out, voice cracking on 'please'.
Patrick's eyes softened, "Pete please, if I've got two weeks left, I don't want to spend them with you mad at me," he whispered.
Pete didn't say anything but nodded slightly, looking at the ceiling and blinking rapidly for a few seconds. "Well there's always hope Brendon finds the cure, right?" Patrick nodded along, staring at his lap. "And he said if he does he'll send someone to bring it here so we can become fully immune and finally leave the city."
"How close is he?"
"Very. So far it's only working on people freshly bit, but he said he's almost found a way to make it work for anyone within the two weeks before they turn." Patrick nodded in agreement and Pete walked over and sat next to him, wrapping an arm around his back. "Hey, it'll be okay," he whispered. Patrick nodded again, but Pete could see the tears in his eyes. Pete pulled the smaller man into a tight hug, being careful of his shoulder, and let Patrick cry into his chest.
"I don't wanna die Pete," he whimpered. "I'm not ready to die yet, I -- we -- the two of us were gonna have a great life together."
"I know Trick," Pete muttered. "We can still do that. For as long as we can."
"We were gonna get married," Patrick whispered, pulling back from Pete's chest to look him in the eye. "I-I found the ring in the dresser drawer. I wish you would've asked. You know I would've said yes."
"I know, and I was going to take you out to dinner and ask that night, before the city realized it was here and was not as contained as they thought. I-I lost that ring. And I may not have much time, or a ring, but--" he choked after that and starting shaking.
"I'm still going to marry you," Patrick told him. "Noth-Nothing is official anymore, but after this whole business it will be. So, let's get married now, and once we make it out of all of this, we'll get married in the eye of the law, yeah?"
"Yeah," Pete whispered. "Ray was a minister, he can marry us."
Patrick smiled slightly, cupping Pete's cheek. "Let's go get married then." Ray agreed wholeheartedly when they asked him a few minutes later, and they planned the 'ceremony' for that night.
~~**~~
Elisa walked Patrick down the 'aisle' for their ceremony that night. They had used a small table as a make shift altar and Joe and Andy were on either side, as they were asked to be Patrick and Pete's best men respectively. Neither one wrote any vows, and the ceremony only lasted about five minutes; it was simply Ray having then repeat the standard vows and say their "I do"s and slide the rings of string they had made for now. Both of them beamed, and Patrick stood on his toes to kiss Pete gently.
The other eight all cheered and they grinned.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Frank started, "But you might not want to do much more than kissing since...well the disease could transfer. I'm so sorry." "
Hey it's okay," Pete told Frank. "We're just happy to be married."
"Yeah, we are," Patrick repeated, smiling widely up at Pete.
~~**~~
Nearly two weeks later, and it was the day of Patrick's deadline. Pete had just gotten a radio message from Brendon, saying they had found the cure, and it worked as long as they weren't fully turned, and that he was sending someone via helicopter, who should arrive by sun down. "That's cutting it close," Patrick muttered. I only have until sundown. And then..."
"Let's not think about it, yeah?" Pete whispered. Patrick nodded and Pete pulled him into his arms. "I love you, you know that right?"
"Of course I do," Patrick replied. "And I love you too. And I love your pretty pink hair," he giggled.
"And I love your pretty blue eyes," Pete replied.
Patrick smiled, and hugged him tighter. Pete could feel Patrick's breathing start to slow, until it was extremely slow, like a zombie's usual respirations. There was a slight green tint to his skin that they had noticed that morning. Patrick gulped, "Pete it...it's getting dark out."
"I know," Pete muttered. He pulled back enough to smash his lips to Patrick's, tears sliding down his cheeks as he did so. He could feel Patrick shaking against him, as his arm stiffly moved to the back of Pete's neck. There was a pounding on the frog door of their building and they pulled back from each other. "Brendon's guy, he's here," Pete beamed, running out of the room. A tall guy with brown hair (Derek or Dave or something, Brendon had said) was standing there, holding a brown paper bag. "Hurry!" Pete shouted, looking out the window and seeing the sun slip below the horizon. Derek/Dave handed him a vial of blue liquid, and Pete ran back to the room he shared with Patrick. "TRICK I GOT IT!" Pete beamed, before stopping dead in his tracks as Patrick looked him dead in the eye. Patrick's eyes were yellow. "No..." Pete whispered. "Tricky no."
Patrick -- the zombie; that creature wasn't his Patrick anymore and never would be -- growled and moved after Pete as he ran from the room. Andy froze as he saw what was happening and he grabbed Pat -- the zombie -- from behind. The creature growled and spun around to face Andy.
~~**~~
He didn't know where he was, all he knew was there were creatures, and he was hungry. He could remember his name from before he was like this, but that was all. He was Patrick. Was. But still at the same time, he still is Patrick. He looked at the ginger man with the arm designs and grinned, moving to bite his arm.
He heard a click and turned around long enough to see a beautiful man holding a gun. The last thought Patrick had was that the man had pretty pink hair.
~~**~~
Before he could be stopped, Pete raised the gun to his own head, and put a bullet through his skull.
~~**~~
"And that," Joe Trohman, or 'Uncle Joe' told the fifteen year old Bronx with tears in his eyes, "Is the story of your extremely brave dad, Pete Wentz, and the man he would do anything for."