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Tommy pauses and licks his fingers. The groaning outside is intensifying, signaling to him that it is time to abandon his pack of donuts. He pouts while he digs a pistol out of his bag. Slowly, Tommy moves towards the door of the convenience store.
"Mates! Buddies! Pals!", he shouts,"If you're human, you have about 5 seconds to leave. If you're a zombie, pretty please stay put. I enjoy shooting at you." A quiet giggle escapes him before he stifles it. He whispers to himself. "We're a big man, aren't we? Simply the biggest. One might even say gigantic." Another giggle.
Something shifts in the doorway and Tommy goes silent, rounding the corner with his finger on the trigger of his gun.
A green hoodie. Tommy barely has time to process that much before instinct kicks in and he shoots.
"W- What the hell mate?" The screaming mass of green fabric pulls an arm away from itself and there's red everywhere. Red-blood, gun-shoot. Oh. That was a human.
"I reckon I just shot you, that's what the hell that was. I did say I would.”
"Are you going to fucking do anything about that?" The man Tommy shot finally looks away from this wound, and into Tommy's eyes. And-
"You're ancient! A senior citizen! Oh god, I shot a senior citizen!" Tommy's screaming now, with clear disregard for anything but himself.
“I get it, Christ! I’m old! Now can I leave before the zombies come running?” The green- now green and red- clothed man puts his hand back over the bullet wound and turns to run.
Tommy quietly debates with himself whether to stop him, before running to catch up with him. The green hoodie guy gives him a half-questioning-half-knowing look, and Tommy gives him a lopsided grin.
“Fucking hell. Alright then, come along you trigger-happy gremlin.”
—
Their first night together is fairly quaint in Tommy’s opinion. The being on the run from a zombie horde part is slightly less so than the whole father-figure bit this old fuck has going on, but overall it’s nice.
What is not nice is the following days. All the old dude- his name is Phil, Tommy discovered while digging through his backpack- ever talks about is how much his side hurts, and how lucky Tommy is that he didn’t have his gun, because then Tommy would have been shot before he could shoot Phil, and it would just break Phil’s heart to have shot a kid. Tommy chooses not to mention that he very clearly has more experience with a gun than Phil does, as evidenced by the one time Phil attempted to shoot at a zombie (He missed, and Tommy had to snatch his gun back and shoot again).
Phil tried to lecture Tommy on gun safety after this event, but Tommy simply raised an eyebrow and left the older man “flabbergasted by the sheer attitude of children these days”. How a simple eyebrow could convey that much, Tommy knows not, but what he does know is that if this man doesn’t shut his mouth, then he might end up alone with that wound of his.
On the third night after Phil has had a- shall we say sufficient- amount of alcohol, Tommy breaks. Phil puts his hand on his shoulder and begins a lecture. Tommy thinks it’s going to be the usual, “you’re so lucky to have me” speech, but he changes it up tonight.
“Son,” he begins, and that sends a shiver up Tommy’s spine. Nobody has called him that since his dad died, and Phil certainly is not the one Tommy wants to be saying it to him now. “Son, I’m so glad to be here- with you- but-”, and then he sets a hand on Tommy’s shoulder, and that’s when it all goes to hell.
Tommy flings Phil away from him and begins screaming.
“Will you shut the fuck up, Phil? Seriously, at this point I would rather be bit than hear another word from you. I don’t need a dad. I don’t need a role model. I was getting along just fine before you, and I would still be getting along if you hadn’t shown up and decided you needed to play dad for a poor, lonely kid.”
“Oh, go to hell! Do- don’t you know it’s hard for all of us out here? The world’s a- a fucking wasteland, and I though you might appreciate the help.” Phil huffs and turns his back, but Tommy’s not finished yet. He grabs Phil and spins him back around for another go.
“Go to hell? Go to hell? I don’t know if old age has made you fucking blind, but we’re already in hell.” He gestures up at the sky, and then at himself and his intoxicated companion.” You? Me? We’re just the Big Man Upstairs’ playthings now!” Phil raises an angry hand to stop him but Tommy has to get his last words out. “Don’t you ever, ever, think that I need you. In fact, don’t think that anyone needs you! It’s a dog eat dog world now, alright?”
Phil’s hurt shows on his face immediately. He opens his mouth as if to say something and then thinks better of it. Tommy turns away and begins packing up his cot.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Phil suddenly breaks the momentary stillness.
“Far away, hopefully,” Tommy answers without looking away from his things. “I, for one, don’t want to be around when the horde gets here.” The young blonde sighs and looks back at Phil slowly. “Look man, you can still come with. But what I said still stands. I don’t need you, you don’t need me. This duo shit we have here, it’s not going to last. When that bullet wound heals, we’re back on our own. Deal?”
Phil hums discontentedly before sighing. “I suppose.” He takes a pause to run a hand over his face. “Listen, kid- if it’s still alright to call you that?” Tommy nods. “Cool. Kid, this sucks the whole way ‘round. This whole apocalypse thing? It’s only going to get worse. So I say that we make the best of the cards we’re dealt, and stop the bullshit. It’s not going to work.” Tommy tilts his head but allows Phil to continue. “So how about this for a deal- no more arguments, no more yelling. It doesn’t do us any good, and it keeps the zombies on our tail to boot. Can you agree to that, Tommy?”
“I guess I can deal with that. But it goes for you too.” Tommy turns to continue packing, and Phil scrambles up to start doing the same.
His belongings are meager, only a bat and some spare clothes, and so it’s no time at all before they’re both on the road again. It’s almost deja-vu, scampering along, struggling to keep up with a lanky, curly haired kid, but this time, Phil is determined not to get too close.