Chapter Text
The zombie apocalypse didn’t happen instantly, unlike some may expect.
It started with a few people talking about the possibility on the news, though many took it as some overdramatic joke, not an actual threat.
Then it was released that there may be a chance of a zombie apocalypse happening, though people foolishly had faith in the system and the scientists to save them.
But people still prepared, fortunately, people stacked up more food and such.
Then it hit, so suddenly.
Tommy was in school, in the middle of a class, when an alarm went off.
The kids thought it was another drill, so everyone was playfully nudging each other or giggling and sharing jokes.
But then half an hour passed and the ‘drill’ didn’t finish.
The teacher told them to stay there and wait, and they left.
But the teacher didn’t come back.
It had been an hour since the alarm, and the kids took their phones out and checked the news.
“Holy shit. It’s not a drill. The zombie apocalypse has started.” A kid from the back announced, eyes on their screen like they couldn’t believe it.
Everyone scrambled to get their phones, and looked it up.
Horrible clips, recordings of the zombies, of them attacking people, of people in panic trying to retreat and escape
The class was in panic, people trying to figure out what to do, eventually some kids would get panicked calls by their parents, saying that they are picking them up.
“I’m- I’m going to go to my parents. They should be outside by now, they called a while ago.” A kid said, sounding scared.
“Bobby.. It’s too dangerous.. What if they were already infected?” Another kid said
“They won’t be! I’m not scared of any zombies, I’ll kill them myself.” Bobby insisted, getting up.
Tommy met Tubbo and Ranboo’s eyes.
You see, fortunately for them, they used to play a certain game, where they developed codenames for each other and made a silent language, with signals, a special sign language of their own.
It totally wasn’t used to help them steal.
“Follow?” Tommy did a hand signal to ask.
“You. Fastest.” Tubbo signalled back.
Ranboo nodded in agreement, “Report back.” He signalled.
Tommy nodded, getting up. “If you insist on going out and dying, fine. We can’t stop you anyways.” He said, trying to sound distant, though he was panicking for Bobby internally, “I’ll just see you to the door.”
Bobby nodded, looking relieved for the company.
Tommy and Bobby walked to the door, “See you in a bit.” He said to the class, looking back for a second. “Don’t take any risks, don’t move, I’ll see what’s going on outside and report back.”
They walked through the empty halls, he glanced at the other classes who seemed to have given up on going outside, starting to form together and find security in each other, some people came outside very briefly, but ran away back to their classroom the moment they saw anyone else who weren’t from their own class.
They finally reached the door, and Bobby opened it with shaking hands, walking outside to see if he could find his family or something.
Tommy peered outside, only a bit, the door was only narrowly opened.
The outside was not in good shape, it was just about the same as online predicted, zombies everywhere, panic in those who still lived and were running from the zombies, crashed cars scattered around.
It didn’t take long until a zombie spotted Bobby and the young kid found himself being attacked by the zombie.
Tommy froze, not knowing what to do.
Bobby was toppled over to the side, he tried to kick them away.
Tommy was stuck, did he close the door and leave Bobby, or should he go and help?
A loud scream cut him out of his internal conflict.
Bobby had been bitten.
Though Bobby was then able to kick the zombie away, and run towards the door.
Tommy quickly opened the door to let Bobby in, then closed it before a zombie could get in.
Oh, shit, shit, shit.
Tommy stared at the bite wound on Bobby’s wrist.
Bobby stared down at it as well.
Tommy didn’t say a word, instead grabbing Bobby by the hand (non-infected one, he wasn’t sure if touching the bite would infect him as well), and they started walking back through the halls.
“Hey! What are you doing?” A kid burst out of their classroom and stood in the two’s way.
“Going back to our classroom.” Tommy said.
“Not with that thing.” The kid pointed at Bobby and his bite wound.
“What? Thing?” Tommy muttered, “I mean- we might have a bit before he’s fully infected! What if, I dunno, it doesn’t infect him?”
Tommy finally got a look at the kid who stood in their way, he recognised them vaguely, their name was ‘Nacho’.
Nacho scoffed, “No. We aren’t letting it back in. We cannot risk zombies entering the school, the school must be a safe place. Haven from zombies.” He insists.
Ah, so that’s the deal with this person.
Tommy opened his mouth to protest, he couldn’t just leave Bobby!
Nacho continued before he could say anything, “Either we kill it now, or throw it outside and it doesn’t return.” He said. “You are lucky I am giving it an option.” He added.
Tommy looked down at Bobby, and Bobby returned a terrified look.
“It was a mistake going outside.. I’ll just leave..” Bobby decides with a shaky voice.
Bobby turned around to walk towards the door.
“I’ll escort it. Oh, and also, me and my class will be guarding the door now, checking anyone who enters for bites, keeping the place safe.” Nacho said, before walking to his classroom’s door, and tapping a few times, some sort of code.
Two other kids walked out, Tommy recognised them as ‘Bobinho’ and ‘Donnie’.
“Yes, Nacho?” The one called Donnie asked.
“We’re escorting an infected, and starting our first guard shift.” Nacho said.
The two other kids nodded.
Nacho, his two followers, and Bobby walked towards the door, opening in and shoving Bobby outside.
“Bye, Bobby.” Tommy breathed, barely able to believe what was happening.
Bobby waved back, “Good luck.. bye..” he turned, running off, he had learnt not to stand still for long.. Good.. Though the odds were that they would die out there, already infected.
Tommy looked at Nacho and his two followers, who had taken guarding positions at the door.
He recalled their class name, F2, that is what he could nickname them to.
Tommy took a shaky breath, before turning and leaving for his own classroom.
“Tommy! What happened?” Tubbo asked as soon as Tommy entered the room.
”Bobby is.. Gone.” Tommy said hesitantly.
Silence fell.
“Gone..? As in…” A young girl breathed, Clementine, one of Tommy’s friends.
“A zombie bit him. And class F2 wouldn’t let him back inside, they kicked him out off onto the streets to get infected alone, it seems class F2 decided to turn the school into a zombie-free haven, and so they are now guarding the door and checking anyone who enters for bites.” Tommy explained.
Silence fell, no one knew how to process this information, really..
Tommy took a deep, shaky breath. ”The other classes are organising into survivor groups, picking leaders, we can expect for them to start collecting food soon.”
“We should do the same.” Tubbo said after a moment of hesitation. “Tommy, you’re the leader.”
“What- but-“ Tommy protested
“Nope, you’re it. I trust you.” Tubbo said. “Everyone raise your hand for if Tommy should be the leader.” He turned to the class.
Almost everyone raised their hands, Niki, Shroud, Clementine, Micheal, Chayanne, Lullah, Ranboo, Tubbo, and some others.
Tommy facepalmed, “Fine.” He sighed in defeat.
The class organised and got moving, everyone instantly beelining it to the cafeteria to get food.
Another class interrupted them, already looting.
Fortunately, Tommy recognised the leader of said other class.
Eryn, Tommy and him were best friends, childhood friends, even.
Though Tommy found Eryn’s morality.. Questionable.
Definitely an immoral person, Tommy could tell, Eryn was quite willing to kill, actually threatening others before, he had no respect for anything considered ‘sacred’, and believed violence and murder was completely fine, he also wouldn’t understand other people’s morality.
Despite this, somehow Tommy was one of the very few people Eryn actually cared for.
“Tommy! I see your class came out of its little room at last.” Eryn greeted Tommy first.
“Eryn!” Tommy greeted, lighting up as he saw his childhood friend. He paused for a second, hesitating, “Soo… Heh… How’s the apocalypse going for you, so far?” He asked awkwardly.
Eryn laughed, “Good, actually. I quickly claimed the spot of leader and we were one of the earlier classes to leave, we made an alliance with Nacho’s class, F2, pretty quickly.” He explained, “And how is it going for you?” He asked.
Tommy laughed awkwardly, “Not too good, we only just all left the classroom when Tubbo elected me as leader, and… We’re already down a classmate. Bobby tried to go outside to see if his parents were there, he got bitten, and Nacho wouldn’t let him back into the school.” He explained.
Eryn nodded, though not seeming very surprised or unhappy at the news, “Unfortunate, from the sound of it Bobby was loyal and brave, it’s better to have more people like that, so a loss is just disappointing. Good that Nacho got rid of ‘em quickly though.”
Tommy didn’t respond, he was used to Eryn’s non-existent morality, but seeing people as just numbers was a bit much for him.
“Anyways, I guess we could form an alliance, and I’ll let your class have some food.” Eryn said.
Tommy nodded quickly, “Yes, please, that’d be great. Oh! And, uh, these are my classmates, Tubbo, Ranboo, Shroud, Clementine, Micheal, Chayanne, Lullah, Juorce, Batthew, Bruno, Henry, and Wiggles!” Tommy introduced his classmates.
“Ah, yes. I remember most of these. Chayanne and Lullah are mute, correct?” Eryn said. “A liability, but your choice, I guess.”
Tommy tensed, “They can still be useful.” He insisted.
“Anyways,” Eryn moved on, though he clearly didn’t believe that Chayanne and Lullah were anything more than a liability, “My classmates are Izzy, Bad, Skeppy, Sam, and Fundy.” He listed.
That seemed like a short list.. Too short..
Tommy was reminded by Eryn’s comment earlier about some people being a liability. He hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was.
“That seems like a short list..” Tommy prompted. “Did you have any losses?” He added, concern in his voice.
“No, we just exiled the liabilities or those who tried to question my leadership, y’know? Can’t have anyone disloyal.” Eryn said it so casually it concerned Tommy.
Tommy swallowed his unhappiness, “Alright.” He said, keeping his voice calm.
“Anyways, come get some food.” Eryn did a ‘come here’ movement, and Tommy’s class all moved forward into the food stores.
“We are taking and storing most of this separately, before the other groups get to them. Already moved most of it. But you are free to our stores.” Eryn explained. “And your classmates, I guess.” He added.
-
It had been a week since the apocalypse started, Tommy was slowly adapting to eating smaller portions, just enough to survive, and that he should never go outside.
Though, sometimes if the school was too loud, a zombie would try and get in.
—
“Damnit, Tommy, what the fuck was that?” Eryn demanded, grabbing Tommy’s wrist and forcing him to drop what he was holding.
“Sorry- didn’t realise it would be that loud.” Tommy apologised, glancing at the firecracker he had just used.
Eryn frowned, “Don’t use anything if you don’t know what it is.” He said, before sighing, “It’s fine, just.. No food for a day, reasonable punishment.” Eryn’s tone said something more along the lines of ‘that is a light punishment, my own class gets it worse, you are lucky it is just a day’.
Tommy already knew that Fundy wasn’t allowed to eat for three days after accidentally breaking a window.
Eryn moved towards the door, where the noise of a zombie banging on it was heard.
Eryn pulled out a gun.
Where the fuck did he get that?
Tommy was too much in shock to comment.
Eryn opened the door, quickly shooting his gun and killing the zombie, before closing it again.
“Nacho, keep an extra eye on the door, we may have called some zombies to our location.” Eryn told Nacho.
“Alright,” Nacho nodded.
—
Other than these unfortunate incidents, it was going well, no zombies got past the doors.
Sometimes people would try and visit the school, try and join the ranks for protection and such.
Though…
…
Very few were accepted, and some were infected and killed or thrown out.
—
Tommy shifted on his feet uncomfortably, it was one of his first shifts as a guard.
Fundy was there too, showing him how it goes.
“So, all you need to do is just wait here, sometimes I see the other guards play games while bored like rock paper scissors, but Eryn doesn’t like that. Just listen out for any noise, any knocking.” Fundy explained, before signalling to a small hole, “We made an eye hole so we can see if it’s a zombie or a survivor.” He explained.
Tommy nodded, “Got it.”
A few hours passed, before there was a banging on the door.
Fundy gave Tommy a look to deal with it himself, to prove himself.
Tommy looked through the eye hole, seeing it was just a frantic survivor trying to get in.
Tommy opened the door, “Hello there.” He said, silently so excited that other survivors exist and survive.
The survivor walked inside, “Thank goodness, thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me in..” The survivor repeated.
“Welcome to the school! But we don’t have classes- other than learning how to beat up zombies.” Tommy joked, laughing. “Anyways, you can take sanctuary here-“
“-If you do your part for work, and if we accept you and think you aren’t going to be a liability or waste of recourses.” Fundy added. “And, Toms, you are forgetting something, we need to check him for a bite.”
Tommy nodded, “Right!” He paused, “How do I do that..?” He asked hesitantly.
Fundy sighed, before moving towards the survivor to deal with it himself.
The survivor had a new light of fear in his eyes.
Fundy checked them for a bite, rolling up their sleeves and checking their arms, then their ankles and legs, then other commons places a zombie would bite. He was explaining what he was doing as he did it, before suddenly falling silent as he stared at a certain spot on the survivor’s arm.
The survivor pulled their arm back, panicking.
“That was a fresh bite, you got bitten on your way here.” Fundy said. “Now, Tommy, what does Eryn and Nacho say we do now?” He quizzed.
“Uh.. Don’t let them in.. Kick them back outside.. Or..” Tommy trailed off, taking a breath, “Or kill them, if they refuse.” He couldn’t help but be a bit scared at that, what if one day he gets bitten and then his friends kill them?
Fundy nodded, before turning towards the survivor, “Your choice, leave or die.”
The survivor took a few steps back, before opening the door and bolting away.
Tommy took a sigh of relief, he was so, so glad the survivor left, because he had heard from the other students that not all infected would go, and he had seen Lullah and Chayanne complain about cleaning up the mess afterwards.
It seemed that Eryn decided that Lullah and Chayanne are only useful for chores and cleaning since they ‘are not useful for anything else’ and they can’t complain.
That was just because Eryn didn’t know sign, he had been called some colorful things behind his back- or, right in front of him, he just couldn't understand it.