Chapter Text
The light flickered green as the tourist pushed the final pump in. He left the small building, closing the door behind him. The darkness of the old jazz park seemed to consume everything in sight. It wouldn’t be long until more walkers came, so the tourist made sure to get back to the bus swiftly. Even though the tourist was a tough, seemingly emotionless man with a strong build and a sharp brain, he still shared the same feeling of fear everyone else did every time he stepped outside. Constantly peeking behind his shoulder, some would call him paranoid, most would call him smart.
He entered the bus and promptly spoke into the radio.
“Casey…come in…it’s go time.”
Casey’s excited voice chimes in and makes the tourists heart skip a beat.
“Awesome tourist! Never doubted you.”
“That’s good Casey, it’s a mistake to underestimate me.”
Although the tourists tone never seems to waver, Casey knows he is being sarcastic. The tourist likes joking with Casey, but his heart sinks knowing he’ll be leaving soon. At least he’ll get to see the man behind the radio before they split paths.
“Oh, believe me…I know…” Casey replies.
He continues.
“Guess we need to be prepared for anything. Ok here goes, fingers crossed.”
The tourist sees a large light turn on in the distance, panic starts to crawl up his spine.
Casey, oblivious, is overjoyed.
“Yes! It’s working! What a fucking relief! I can hear the pumps firing up overhead.”
“Oh shit.” For once, a slight tremor can be heard in the tourists voice.
“What? What’s the problem? Something going on out there?” Casey replied with concern and fear in his voice, it was of a similar tone to when they first spoke. Filled with such confusion and caution.
The tourist replied immediately.
“Yeah, St. Vincent’s church just lit up, can see it all the way from here. The location of the reserve is no longer a secret Casey. Fireworks, a marching band and a big neon sign flashing the reserve might have been more subtle.”
The fear in Casey’s voice picks up, the tourist can almost feel him shaking.
“Both sides are going to descend on this place like flies on shit. I need to get the fuck outta here NOW.”
A brief pause.
“Goddamn it tourist. I still can’t open the door. Ok ok, uhhh, think Casey think. Uhhh, alright…I think I know what’s going on. The doors won’t open until the pump system knows where to redirect the water. There’s a manual flow control inside the church. You need to get over here quick, open the valve to one of the rooms so the water has a place to go. Then the doors will unlock and I can get the hell out, tourist. Please! I don’t want to be stuck in here when a bunch of nuts with guns show up…and neither do you.”
No more words must be exchanged. The tourist promptly sprints through the catacombs to the churchyard, adrenaline blocking out all fear. As he sprints up the slope that opens up to the churchyard he can hear gunshots. Fuck. they’re already here. he thinks to himself. That’s when he is stopped in his tracks by the mound of corpses that lay before him. Exiles. They must have been caught and mowed down by the tower.
That’s when he heard faint sobbing in the shed next to him. He entered slowly, gun drawn. There was a woman. She squinted at the light of the flashlight in her face, she was sitting in a pool of her own blood holding a wound on her side. The tourist spoke.
“What happened here?”
The woman replied, words all over the place and eyes growing distant as she lost blood.
“Ambre…she…she ran after her mum as they were taking her away…”
She coughed and then hissed at the pain from her wound.
“Right into the middle of everything…the crossfire…We were so desperate to get back into the tower…We thought if we turned May in, they’d take us back…We fucked up.”
The exile woman wheezed and huffed, the tourist thought about giving her mercy, but decided not to waste the bullets. He turned to leave the shed, that’s when he heard a faint patter outside. Like something from a video game, perfectly queued on time, there she was. Ambre. But she wasn’t Ambre anymore.
Her skin now sickly and grey. Her eyes, blank, yet greedy. Her jaw gnashing as she trudged closer to the tourist, groans growing more feral. Yet despite the feral rage of her infected brain, her frail body swayed, threatening to fall. The tourist switched out his gun for a knife, and swiftly pierced Ambres head with it. She softly thumped to the ground, her small body blending in with the others. Merging into the background of chaos.
Although on the outside he looked unbothered, the tourist tightened his grip on the knife. She was only a kid.
He sighed and walked further into the churchyard, he needed to get to Casey. A tower soldier flew past him, it was lucky he killed JB for the tower and consequently was, for the moment, on the same side as them. Turning the corner, he swapped his knife for his shotgun. Nova pump action, 8 shots. That’s all he needed. The gunshots grew louder, and shouting emanated throughout the air. His heart pumped ferociously as he trudged through the tower soldiers standing guard. A gunshot pierced the air and a tower solider fell down in front of the tourist; the reclaimed spilled from every passageway, but despite their efforts the tower outnumbered them. The tourist did his part, ripping holes in the reclaimeds chests with his shotgun. He ran through the corpses, shooting his way past the other reclaimed soldiers. There was no time to brain them, the tower folk would probably handle that anyway.
He spotted a ladder slanted against a van, it looked like it led to a small courtyard where he could then climb into the church. That’s my way in, he thought to himself. A reclaimed solider appeared out of nowhere and attempted to tackle the tourist, he quickly countered, throwing the solider to the ground. He held her down with his foot and quickly brained her with his knife. Hopefully that’ll be the last of reclaimed encounters for me. More shots rung through the air and the tourist pulled himself up the ladder before he was sighted.
The tourist ran through the small courtyard and climbed up the wall to an opening with haste. As soon as he entered the attic area he could hear Casey’s worried voice ring through the walls, quickly climbing down he dashed into a small room. Before him lay the controls: a large lever, a valve wheel and a keypad. The lever was able to be pulled downwards or upwards three ways, next to the lever read ‘comms room’, ‘armoury’ and ‘flood all’. A simple mechanism really. There was no time to catch his breath. He promptly spoke into the microphone.
”I’m here Casey, I’m at the controls.”
Casey promptly replied.
”Oh thank god! Ok I’m not sure how much time I have left before my room is under water, activating the pumps it just, it fucked everything up. The room is filling up fast. Look I need you to redirect the flood flow to the armoury, and quick.”
Caseys voice changes to have a slight somber hint and he continues.
”Look. I know I promised you all the weapons you’d ever be able to carry but I…I’m sorry. We have to let them go.”
Although the tourist had already made up his mind, he was still confused with what happened with the pumps. It took him a lot of effort to get those.
”What happened with the pumps? I went through all that trouble for nothing?” He tried not to sound mad at Casey, it wasn’t his fault. But the tourist put his life on the line for those pumps.
Casey replied sounding even sadder than previously, he felt the tourist was going to let him drown.
”I don’t know what happened. Maybe the system was already pushed too far. Point is, you need to redirect the flow and now, or I am dead. I know I sold you a bill of goods that I cant deliver on anymore and that sucks, I’m sorry. But this is my life were talking about here.”
Caseys pleas grew stronger, trying to convince the tourist to let him live.
”Tourist. Flood the armoury…please.”
Little did he know, the tourist didn’t need convincing. The tourist moved the lever down one so it was next to the armoury label and quickly turned the valve. It made a thud, and you could hear the purr of the mechanism working. Casey chimed up.
“It worked! Holy shit! Thank you tourist! For a second I thought…oh never mind…the door unlocked! I’ll head up and meet you in the church. Fresh fucking air!”
Casey wailed with excitement as he left the comms room. The tourist furthered his descent into the church, he heard the tower soldiers shouting outside. They thought they’d be claiming the precious rewards the reserve had to offer. Little did they know.
The tourist passed through a small room littered with bodies. I suppose these are some of the bodies from the massacre. He resisted the urge the kick them to see if they were really dead, they definitely were, and it’d only be disrespectful. Despite the horrors of the massacre, the tourist felt relieved knowing they hadn’t turned. No body wants that.
Suddenly, the church bell rang. It’s hollow eerie sound bouncing off the wooden walls. The tourist heard chatter from outside.
”Who the fuck rang the bell!”
another soldier spoke.
”Shit! Herd is close.”
It was true, the battle between the tower and reclaimed wasn’t the only threat lurking outside. A large herd of the undead slowly trudged through the streets right round the corner, if that bell were to be rung again…
He heard more soldiers chime in, panic clear in their voices.
”They’re just up the fucking street!”
”Voices down! We draw their attention, were gonna get slaughtered…”
“We gotta get the church open.”
”Relax! Everybody shut up!”
The bickering stopped and one of the doors in the hallway began to shudder. The soldiers were trying to break in.
The tourist soon found himself in the center of the church, on the ground in front of him he saw a blue fishing hat covered in blood next to two bodies. Is this…the hat Casey mentioned? Suddenly his thoughts were broken by close shouting. It was May.
”Back off! Take even one step towards me and I will really ring the bell! Every walker within a five mile radius will descend upon this place and tear everyone apart!”
The tourist snapped his neck to the left, May wasn’t shouting at him. He made out another figure next to her. Shit. Must be Casey.
Caseys arms were raised in an attempt to calm the situation. He spoke with caution.
”You don’t wanna do that! Just because we’re safe in here, doesn’t mean you can ring that bell and kill all those people!”
The tourist swiftly walked closer to them.
Casey caught him in the corner of his eye.
”That you tourist? Oh thank god! You have to talk some sense into her! If she rings that bell…”
May interrupts him, her voice thick with anger yet also sounding like she could break down crying any minute.
”Didn’t you hear them out there? Needlessly slaughtering each other when they should be unified! They have always been stupid and cruel, even before the world went to shit. Their fucked up philosophies. Their petty treachery. Even the innocent, their pathetic desperation. They all twisted my priorities! Blinded me to the truth! I should have been looking after me and mine. All along! I allowed them to take her away from me! They are the reason my daughter is dead!”
The tourist chimes in.
”May, you shouldn’t do this. It won’t bring Ambre back and you’re not a murderer.”
Unsuspectingly, Casey pulls a gun on May.
”Tourist, she’s lost it listen to her. We can’t let her ring that bell! One of us has to kill her…please, don’t force me to do it.”
The tourist slowly slides his gun out of it’s holster, keeping it close to his body. May continued speaking, but her words buzz through his head. The tourist had a choice to make, and he made it. Swiftly, so she didn’t notice and pull the bell, the tourist shot her. Clean in the forehead. Her body crumpled to the ground with a thud and she lay motionless as blood dripped down her face.
Silence.
Casey turns to the tourist, his pale face clear as day. The tourists mind was whirling too fast to think about how nice it was to finally see him.
“Thanks for stopping her tourist. I’m not sure I could have brought myself to do it…”
“I was not about to let her kill innocent people, she was too far gone anyway.”
“You did the right thing…I’m just sorry it had to happen.” Casey paused and looked to his left. He continued.
”It’s eerie. All this going down right here, this church. The same spot as…before. I know it doesn’t really mean anything, there’s no connection but…it still has my skin crawling. Knowing all those bodies from the massacre are right over there. A part of me wants to confront it, pay respects…the other part of me wants to run out the door.”
He sighed.
”I’m sorry about the reserve tourist, I made a promise…I couldn’t deliver. There might be a few things down there to scavenge. But anything really valuable? It’s gone. I’m…gonna head my own way, been cooped up so long I feel I just need to get moving. Get outta this swamp and head back north. Hey, thanks again tourist…you saved my life, I won’t forget it.”
“I don’t care about any of that Casey, what’s important is that you made it out. I’m gonna head down to the reserve, see what I might be able to scrounge up.”
The tourist paused. He was looking for something, anything, that would act as an excuse for Casey to stay, even for just a night. But alas, he said what he thought would be his final words to Casey.
”Good luck to you, hope you make it north safely.”
Casey nodded and smiled slightly, but remained silent. He was afraid that if he spoke now he’d end up asking the tourist to come with him. The tourist took one last glance at Casey, but he knew he would forget his face in time anyway. The tourist sighed, is it bad he found Casey kind of cute? Yeah, it probably was. Shoving strange feelings down, he walked past Casey and disappeared into the darkness.
He descended down the stairs into the reserve, the change in scenery was drastic. From an old church to a cramped hallway lined with heavy metal doors. It didn’t take much walking until he was at the comms room. He entered, a bunk lay on his left, shelves with boxes of canned food sat beside it, climbing the wall. Metal desks lined the walls, the radio sat on the desk in front of him. The tourist picked up a few ammo boxes and guns that he found. Stacks of paper stood tall. I would have lost my mind the first day I found myself stuck down here. He thought to himself.
Then he spotted a note sitting on the desk, he picked it up. It read:
‘Casey, don’t listen to your mother. You’ll go far in life. You’ll amount to many things.’
It was a short and simple note really. The tourist remembered Casey mentioning something like this. Guess he forgot to take it with him…I…should give him this if he hasn’t gone already.
This was it, his chance. His opportunity. The one thing he was looking for. An excuse. The tourist dashed back the way he came hoping Casey was still there. He was. Casey abruptly turned at the sound of someone running up the stairs and almost jumped out of his skin when the tourist emerged.
”Tourist! You scared the shit out of me, what are you doing up here? I’m pretty sure there’s a ladder out of the reserve that way. I hope you found something of use down there.”
The tourist spoke no words but held the note out in front of him. Casey paused for a moment, confused, before taking the note from the tourists hand. He read it swiftly and his eyes widened. How the hell did I forget to take this!?
“Thank you tourist! I guess I was so glad to get out of there I forgot all about it, this note means a lot to me so thank you. Ha, yet another favour I owe you huh?”
Casey paused, and looked at the ground nervously.
”To be honest, tourist. I’m…a little afraid.”
”Of going alone?”
”Yeah…I guess. I’ve spent so long cooped up... I’ve never even seen the undead, tourist. I don’t know if I have what it takes to survive out there. Yeah I have military training, and I think if you didn’t do it…I would have killed May. But I don’t think I’d ever get used to the feeling of killing…I suppose that’s a good thing. A sign one’s still human…but, in this world you can’t be human. From what I’ve heard over the airwaves anyway.”
He sighed and shoved the note away in his jacket pocket. He looked up at the tourist, who was only a few inches taller than him, and continued talking.
”Do you…feel bad? When you kill. I mean you must have killed right? Tower, reclaimed and…others. Have you killed innocents tourist? I promise I won’t hate you if you say yes. I just…I need to know…what it feels like. Did you get used to the guilt? Did you ever have any?”
The tourist paused and seemed to stare blankly for a moment as he tried to jog his memory. To be honest, it’d been a long time since he felt guilty.
“It’s different for everyone Casey.”
Casey scoffed.
”Short answer as always.”
”We can talk about it another time.”
”Huh? Another time?”
The tourist hadn’t even realised what he had said.
”I mean uh. It kinda slipped out but. If you wanted…”
He trailed off, but then he saw a slight glint in Casey’s eyes. Did he want the tourist to ask him to stay? What’s the worst that could happen if I just asked him?
The tourist shuffled his feet a bit. Was he…nervous? The tourist?
“I mean uh. If you’re scared of going alone, then…why don’t I come with you? You can, you know. Spend a night at the bus. We’ll pack up a bunch of stuff and head off on the boat for as far as we can until we have to walk.”
Casey was silent, although only for a short moment. The tourist continued.
”I mean. If you don’t want to, I don’t blame you. It’s just…I could teach you the ropes and stuff. I’ll do all the killing for you. Won’t let anyone get within ten feet of you. I don’t know about you Casey, but I consider you a friend…”
The tourists heart dropped when Casey didn’t immediately respond, he didn’t even have the strength to look Casey in the eye.
”I consider us friends too.”
The tourist looked up at Casey. Although not exactly smiling, Caseys spirits looked lifted. Then, they fell silent again.
“I…I would like that tourist. But I don’t want to get in your way. You’ve done so much for me already. I’d just be a burden.”
The tourist clenched his jaw. No, he wasn’t going to let Casey go, not like this.
“No.” He said firmly. “You wouldn’t get in the way Casey. You’ll never be a burden to me.”
Maybe the tourist was laying it on a bit thick, but that’s how he felt. He continued,
”I want to come with you.”
Although Casey felt undeserving of the tourists kindness, he almost lept out of his skin with joy.
He smiled slightly, making the tourists heart flutter.
”I’d like that.”
————
The tourist gestured to the thin mattress on the ground.
”If you don’t wanna share with me, I’ll take the armchair. I promise I won’t spoon you in my sleep though. Won’t even face your direction.”
”You always this nice to your guests?”
”Don't get any.”
Casey chuckled and headed over to the mattress.
”I don’t mind sharing, but if you think the armchair looks more alluring then go ahead.”
“I think I’ll take my chances on the mattress.”
Casey started untying his boots, when the tourist suddenly took his shirt off. Casey couldn’t help but stare for a moment, the tourist was well built after all, but then he noticed a scar that looked like a scratch on the tourists side. Alongside other, smaller scars of course.
”What happened?” He said, pointing at the scar.
The tourist ran his fingers over it.
”So you noticed this one, but not the massive one on my face?”
”This one just looks more interesting.”
It was true. Although the tourist had a large scar that ran from his cheek to his jaw, cutting up his freckles and taking the attention away from his dead brown eyes, the one on his side was far more fascinating.
”Walker. Snuck up on me whilst I was washing myself, tried to grab me but I dodged, still swiped me though. Gotta be careful with their scratches, you don’t know what kinda shit they got on their hands. I’ve seen people get infected that way too. Lucky I had clean water by me. Splashed some antiseptic on it too when I got cleaned up. Just to be safe. Closest to death I’d come.”
Casey slid his boots off and the tourist did the same, throwing his blooded shirt into a bucket of water and ringing it out. He hung it on the armchair to dry overnight.
”So that’s what you call them huh? Walkers. I mean, I heard they don’t run, so it’s only fitting.”
The tourist sat beside Casey on the mattress and Casey continued talking.
”Not that I’m a fantasy nerd or anything…but don’t you think they’d make good fictional monsters? You know, like vampires. I think they’d be pretty popular actually. Too bad they’re real. I’m surprised no one came up with the idea though.”
The tourist slipped half of the thin blanket over him, and laid down, facing the opposite way of Casey.
”You’ve got an interesting mind Casey, I’ll give you that.”
Casey did the same as the tourist and laid down. There was silence for a few minutes as the moon moved slowly across the sky. Until Casey spoke.
”It doesn’t feel any different.”
The tourist cranes his neck to look at Casey, who was still facing away.
”Huh?”
”I thought…being out of the bunker. I’d feel…a bit better, I suppose. It’s still crushing me tourist, the guilt. I still…I still can’t get it all out of my head. Every time I close my eyes. God, I’m gonna be like this forever arnt I?”
The tourist fell silent, he wanted to comfort Casey but he didn’t know what to say. Casey didn’t speak for the rest of the night, and the tourist drifted into a slumber.
The sun shines through the hatch in the bus, and the tourists eyes fluttered awake. He looked over to his right, to see the mattress empty. Slight panic built up inside of him. He didn’t…leave right?
”Casey!?” The tourist shouted, and he stood up and ran outside.
Casey was sitting against the fence, round by the boat.
”Jesus Casey, I thought you’d left.”
“Sorry.”
Casey looked tired.
”You didn’t sleep, did you?”
”Couldn’t.”
The tourist held out a hand, Casey grabbed on and tugged himself up.
”Come on, we should get moving. Get out of the city before nighttime so we don’t get caught up in the horde.”
The tourist went inside. He put back on his white formal shirt and rolled up the sleeves. His outfit wasn’t very fit for the apocalypse, but it almost made him more threatening in a way. He put on his boots and started gearing up. He scrapped everything he could while Casey took inventory of the ammo. They both racked up all the weapons, scraps, food and meds they could carry. With a couple explosives for good measure of course.
”We should stop by some stores on the way if possible. Grab some stuff.”
Casey nodded.
“I really appreciate you doing this tourist.”
”Hey, I’m not going out of my way for it remember? I’m doing this all because I want to.”
They loaded their packs onto the boat and got in. The tourist looked behind him at the graveyard one last time. Thanks old man, your bus served me well. I’m sorry about May.