Chapter Text
The world ended on a Tuesday.
Well, Eddie was pretty sure it had been a Tuesday. All of the days had started to blur together at some point, and the little notebook Eddie had that he kept a daily tally mark in was starting to lose space for adding more.
It was disorienting not to know. Better to just pretend he knew what day the apocalypse had started, rather than guess at the truth.
The constant circular cycle of survival had worn Eddie of a lot of the sensibilities he had once had. Telling time was one of those things. There had been a point in his life where Eddie could just stare at the position of the sun and make a pretty accurate guess to the time on the clock.
Now there were only five times left. Sunrise. Day. Afternoon. Sunset. Evening.
Sunrise meant waking up with Christopher in his arms, spending his time clutching onto his child and being grateful for another day alive and together. Day was spent searching for not enough food to fill their empty bellies, or continuing to walk with Chris towards nothing. Afternoons were for finding a house to stash his child in for the night. Sunset was the time where they would feast on what they had scrounged that day. And Evening…
Evenings were their time to live.
If you could call watching your child silently draw with crayons every night living. In another life, maybe it wouldn’t be, but the only happy memories Eddie had left were lying on a dead stranger’s couch watching his son color on printer paper and soundlessly hold up the pictures for his dad to look at and smile.
So when Chris’s drawings took on a particular theme, Eddie was helpless to not try and make his son’s dream come true.
He did what he had to do. He brought Chris to the thing he was asking for without words.
Eddie brought his son to Pacific Park.
Well, Chris hadn’t really specified Pacific Park itself, he had just started showing Eddie pictures of a boardwalk and a ferris wheel. Chris wouldn’t even know that the amusement park in front of them was named after the Pacific ocean, because he had never been told so, and Eddie couldn’t tell him now.
Eddie had barely spoken to his son since the world ended four hundred - no five - no six hundred - days ago.
But finally, finally , they had arrived.
Or at least, they were very close to arriving. Eddie had started smelling the salt a few miles back, and the map he had plucked from a gas station said that this was the way. Chris only knew the basics of reading and writing, the things Eddie could clumsily teach him at night before the sunlight faded too much, but he understood easily when Eddie had pointed first at the map and then at his drawings.
He had been ecstatic, or as ecstatic as a seven year old boy could be while staying silent. He had been wiggling in Eddie’s arms for the better part of an hour, and furiously tapping on his dad’s shoulder every time they passed a sign mentioning the boardwalk.
Eddie was happy to see his son so filled with joy. Chris had been so cut off since this all began, so subdued. He especially seemed to hate needing to be carried everywhere, screwing his face into a scowl every time Eddie held out his arms to pick him up. It had been so long since his son had used crutches, or even just walked on his own. It was painful, but it was necessary. It wasn’t safe for Christopher to use any aids or walk without his father’s arm carefully looped around his waist.
One stumble or fall could mean the death of both of them.
But none of that mattered now. Nothing that had happened mattered. Not losing his parents, or his abuela, or knowing he would never find Sophia or Adri. Not the end of the world or the monsters that seemed to notice every breath.
Watching Shannon die didn’t matter right now.
What mattered was Eddie’s son was safe in his arms, quietly napping as Eddie carried him closer and closer to the amusement park he had been drawing every night. Everything was wrong, and Eddie could never fix it, but he could give Christopher this joy at least.
He heard the ocean before anything else.
Eddie knew that once upon a time Los Angeles had been a loud, bustling, city, but it was almost silent now. No people, no cars, not even a bird to sing, which meant that the sound of the waves carried through the blocks and up to Eddie’s ears without interference. It was a beautiful sound, it married with the soft noise of Christopher snuffling in his sleep, creating a harmony that held much more weight than it would have in the life Eddie had before.
Eddie carefully climbed the wood stairs up to the pier, each step up slow and steady, careful of any creaks or sounds. There didn’t seem to be any monsters nearby, but Eddie didn’t want to test that theory with Christopher in his arms. Better to go slow.
Painfully, painfully, slow.
I should find something to eat when we’re in the park , Eddie thought to himself, hefting the weight in his arms further up his shoulder, ignoring the twinge in his back that begged for a break, We’re almost out of granola bars, and the last one squeaked as it opened. Maybe there’s some cans of vegetables or something in one of the food stalls. Or one of the muscle shops on the beach might have protein powders.
It was a familiar to do list - one Eddie thought about almost all day every day. Where was their next meal coming from, how was he going to make sure Chris stayed warm and dry tonight. Simple base needs that had to be met. Eddie was so in his head that he almost missed the park entirely.
Almost.
But not quite.
There was no missing this carnage.
Bile rose in his mouth, but Eddie grimaced, swallowing it down and forcing his breathing to stay even. They had come across many terrible scenes in their travels, and he had seen awful things in Afghanistan. Eddie was used to disgusting bloody displays of violence. This couldn’t phase him.
He was just glad Chris wasn’t awake. There were some things he still wanted to save his child from.
In his drawings, Chris painted a bright, colorful, happy, picture. There was a ferris wheel, big and bold with music notes trailing off of it. A carousel, a roller coaster, big cotton candy and popcorn machines overflowing with snacks. Kids and parents all around, with the two of them always in the center holding hands, and smiling.
Reality, like always, was not as kind. The ferris wheel was on its side, the water lapping at its great skeleton and making a metallic ringing noise as the waves crashed against it again and again. The rollercoaster was burnt half down, cars embedded into the pier below it. Bodies littered the ground with smashed glass popcorn cases glittering macabre rainbows across bloated bellies and bloodied faces.
It had been beautiful once. Eddie was sure of that. But now it wasn’t, and he needed to get away from here before his son woke up and lost that last bit of innocence he had.
Eddie turned on a dime, head held high and eyes opened wide.
There was a man standing behind him.
Eddie reared back on instinct, almost stumbling over the slats of the boardwalk and clutching onto Christopher tightly. The man also jumped away, both of them freezing at the new sound. It couldn’t have been louder than the waves around them, but it was still loud enough to be noticed. Eddie’s eyes darted frantically around as he looked for the monsters, the stranger man doing the same, clinging onto the straps of his bag.
No piercing shriek, no guttural growl. No monsters.
Eddie let out a shaking breath, watching the stranger do the same, even going as far as to shut his eyes and put both hands on his chest. Eddie could never imagine closing his eyes for that long around a threat, but to each their own.
The man opened his eyes after a moment, looking between Eddie and Christopher for a second before breaking into a smile and waving. Eddie did not wave back, his mouth turning downward as his eyes hardened. They hadn’t encountered many other survivors, and Eddie had no interest in changing that. He had no way of knowing what someone else’s motives or reasonings were, and he had no plans to roll those dice.
There wasn’t much Eddie had left that was in his control, but he could at least keep the rest of the world away from his son.
The stranger didn’t seem to realize Eddie’s shift, walking closer and starting to mime something. Eddie’s hackles rose with every step the man took, and he reached for his back pocket, hand closing around his weapon, fingers tightening against the steel.
The switchblade came out almost silently. The soft sccchhhtick noise was completely deafened by the ocean, but the sun glinting on the knife was message enough.
Eddie knew what was next. He would have to slash and run if it came to that. Go for the throat, but at least make the guy bleed, maybe even scream, then book it as fast as he could. Hide in an abandoned shop or in the ocean itself, wait for the monsters to go.
It wouldn’t be the first time he had done something like this.
But the guy finally seemed to get the message when the knife slid open, holding both his hands up high and taking a step back. A little bit of the steel in Eddie’s shoulders slipped away, and he sighed, lowering the knife slightly, but not putting it completely away. As he did, he studied the stranger.
The man was tall. Taller than Eddie, and broader too. He had sunkissed curls with baby blue eyes and a nervous little grin that probably used to make women swoon. There was some sort of birthmark above his eye, a pink splotch that only seemed to add to the man’s charm, rather than distract from it.
He was gorgeous.
That was dangerous.
The man mimed something again, but Eddie shook his head, gesturing with his knife for the man to go away. He shook his head, continuing to flap his arms about, trying to explain something but failing.
Whatever he wants, it doesn’t matter. You’re not getting near him. Not with Christopher , his brain demanded. Eddie nodded to himself, resolute. There was no way this guy was getting near his child, no matter how attractive Eddie found him.
The stranger grew frustrated with his attempts, his face an open book for Eddie to read. Annoyance, irritation, cajoling, pleading, all easy to see in his brow and mouth. The sun was starting to dip toward Afternoon by the time the man gave up, grabbing at his backpack and searching for something in it. Eddie stiffened, laser focused on the pack and suddenly switching back to hostile, holding the knife in front of himself and his son.
Was the man going for a weapon?
Was he going for a gun ?
Guns were loud. Guns could hurt him even if they ran. If it was a gun, Christopher was as good as dead.
But it wasn’t a gun in the man’s hand. It was a piece of paper. He raised a brow towards Eddie’s knife, a silently bitchy look that threw Eddie off his guard as the man began to scribble. When he was done he took the backpack off entirely, putting it on the ground and placing the note on top before starting to walk backwards. They held eye contact until the man was at the entrance of the amusement park, giving Eddie one last nod towards his pack before dashing off to the left.
Eddie watched him go, alternating between looking at the pack and the ghost the man had left behind.
The pack sat there, deathly and yet untainted. For all intents and purposes, it was just a regular backpack with a note.
But what if this was a trap? What if it was just a ruse to let Eddie’s guard down so the man could bring friends to kill him and take Christopher away for god knows what. What if-
Eddie’s stomach growled, interrupting the anxieties with a much more pressing thought.
What if there’s something for us to eat in that bag?
He was starving. His child was starving. The man had listened to Eddie’s unspoken threat, left without a fight, maybe the note was something important, some information about the area that Eddie would need to survive.
There was no getting around it. He needed to know what was in that bag.
The only thing to do was wait. The longer he waited, the less likely it was some sort of scheme to hurt them. So Eddie counted as he waited. He counted the cracks in the sidewalks around them, the leaves on the little tree in the corner of his eyes, and the number of breaths Christopher took against his shoulder.
Then when the sun was deep into Afternoon approaching Evening, and Eddie had reached his four hundred and thirty second sidewalk crack, he finally felt safe to creep closer and look.
The bag on the ground was spilled half open, packs of instant mashed potatoes and health bars staring up at Eddie, making his stomach cramp up just at the sight. On top of the stash of delicious carbs and proteins was the piece of paper, folded once and held in its place by a pen. Next to the paper was a stuffed turtle, smiling up at Eddie with a sewn-on grin.
Eddie took a look around the abandoned neighborhood, cradling Chris closer as he picked up the paper and glanced down at it, continuing to strain his ears for the slightest hint of the sound of an ambush. A soft black scrawl of letters looked back at him.
Hi!
My name is Evan Buckley, but everyone just calls me Buck. It’s nice to meet you.
I’m leaving this food here for you guys, so please enjoy it! I live on an island nearby with my group, and you can come with me if you want. It’s safe because the monsters can’t get there. They can’t swim. I don’t know if you know that, but I promise they can’t. I’ll be back here tomorrow, and for as long as it takes after. I don’t want to leave you here.
If you’re with a group, please bring the rest of them tomorrow. If you’re going to kill me, well, please just make it quick!
Buck
P.S. Your kid is cute! I hope he likes turtles. I was getting that for a friend’s kid, but I’m sure he will understand. What’s your kid’s name? What’s yours?
Eddie almost slipped and chuckled at the sudden sharp turns and twists in the short letter. The letter was short, but it oozed with authenticity. Eddie had no reason to even consider trusting the man - trusting Buck - but for some inexplicable reason…he did.
Buck , Eddie thought, his mouth curling up into a smile as he turned the name over in his head, carefully extracting two of the protein bars from the bag for himself and his son and grabbing the turtle in his free hand, I like the sound of that.