Chapter Text
The clouds had rolled in quickly, casting a dark shadow over the small town that the group had found themselves in. While Jayesh and Andy (as the designated group leaders) typically made sure to not be in previously populated areas, as to not risk meeting more zombies, they hadn’t had a choice this time.
The storm that was coming was a bad one, it was easy to tell. There wasn’t a patch of blue anywhere over their heads and thunder had been becoming louder by the minute. Finding a stable building was a challenge, considering that most of them were falling apart and completely unsafe to be in.
“Are we actually going to get into a shelter or just walk around out here for hours?” Andy scowled at Jayesh. He was sick of this, they were running out of time before being completely soaked and Jayesh was being picky about the space they would be in.
“If you want to be crushed by a building after it collapses on you, be my guest” Jayesh responded snarkily. “It would actually be better for all of us, so why don’t ya?”
October glared daggers at Jayesh, and opened his mouth to defend Andy, but was interrupted by fat raindrops falling from the sky. Just their luck, they had gotten pretty far from the buildings behind them.
“We go to the next building and stop there. No exceptions!” Sam yelled over the pounding rain, annoyed.
The group took off running to the nearest structure.
———
“Oh fuck this” Andy muttered, flowering up at the building towering over them. Of course they had to stop at one of the most unfortunate places ever; a warehouse.
“We- we can’t stay here! There’s definitely going to be zombies inside!” Owen cowered at the thought, voice small due to the stress.
“Oh my god, relax” Jayesh quipped, gazing at Sam. “You said the next building, no exceptions, right?” He yanked on a door to the side, but it didn’t budge.
“Yeah, and I meant it.” Sam gritted out, and kicked in a small nearby window. “Here’s our entrance”
She gestured with her hand then slid through the opening, and was quickly followed by Jayesh, Corey, and Roman. Owen hesitated, despite Jayesh’s lead, but quickly scampered in after a flash of lightning got a bit too close for comfort. Everybody who remained outside followed suit, albeit with some uncertainty.
The room that they had entered into was large and had very little light, making it difficult to see clearly.
“I can’t see a thing” Emma huffed. Rachel reached up to a light switch above her head to see if it would work, and much to everybody’s surprise, a dim glow filled the room from a few lightbulbs hanging high above.
“Holy shit” Andy breathed. “This place still has electricity?”
It was shocking to everyone, as places still being functional enough to keep and use electricity were scarce after the apocalypse started, but they all were thrilled. Corey’s eyes lit up, and she tried to scamper off with her Uncle Roman’s hand tightly in her grasp, but she was stopped.
“Corey,” he gently explained. “Before we can go have fun, we have to check for zombies around here. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah! Can I help look??” Corey asked, even though she already knew the answer. She wasn’t allowed to be near zombies if the adults could help it, as they knew it would be unsafe. Roman looked down at her, slightly sad.
“No honey, sorry. We need you to stay here. You can watch the entrance we came through and make sure nothing comes in, okay?” He gently responds. Sam had already boarded up the entrance with some spare materials lying around, but it wouldn’t do any harm to make the youngest two watch it while the adults looked around. Corey nodded her head in understanding, and everybody decided to get into a group of twos to cover the incredibly large area in a decent time. While it was expected to run into a few zombies here and there, it was unnaturally quiet inside the warehouse. That meant it was unlikely for there to be a large horde of zombies; they would be too loud.
October walked over to Andy, to ask him to be his partner, but was quickly intercepted by Emma, as she reached Andy’s side first.
“Hey Andy,” she asked “would you mind being my partner while we search? There’s something I wanted to talk with you about.” Andy eyed her sceptically, but ultimately agreed with a nod of his head. He wanted to know what she wanted to talk about, and call him curious, but he also wanted to know if it had to do with October. He had been eyeing the two for a while as they had talked, annoyed at how quickly the two had seemed to… click. After he snapped that one time, October had asked if he was jealous, and of course he wasn’t! But that didn’t take away from him being intrigued, so he ultimately decided to go with her.
October looked between Emma and Andy, wondering when they had gotten closer. Last time he checked, he had thought something about Emma had made Andy upset, but, he guesses, that had gone away by now. He looked around for another partner, as it was obvious that Emma had wanted a more… private talk with Andy, and saw the only one standing by herself, Rachel. He glanced around at the other partners; Owen with Sam and Roman with Jayesh, but Sam caught his gaze.
“October, join Owen and I” she called to him. Rachel glances at her, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Shouldn’t he go with me? I don’t have a partner.” She asked, bristling. Sam looked tense; or at least tenser than usual, and replied:
“No, you are staying here with Corey.”
Rachel began to argue, and the discussion quickly became heated. Sam was talking about how it was safer for her, and Rachel was getting mad at being treated like a child, despite being one. October could feel the tension in the air, and as it looked like nobody else particularly wanted to, he stepped in.
“Rachel, can you please stay with Corey this time? We can’t just leave her alone, but we really don’t want to take her with us just in case we run into trouble..” he trailed off, unsure of what else to say, but it seemed like Rachel was convinced, albeit begrudgingly. October let out a quick sigh of relief, and joined Sam and Owen.
With all that settled, the groups began getting ready to set off. It would likely take them hours to comb through the whole area, despite being in 3 separate search groups. Rachel and Corey had been situated on a little ledge 6 feet off the ground which was large enough for both of them to lay comfortably, but not much bigger than that, it was accessible by ladder, which they had lifted up to themselves and placed on the ledge.
Each person grabbed their respective weapons, and a flashlight Roman had found while looking through a few open crates (just in case the power had gone out or there were no lights in a specific room) and planned where they would go. There were multiple sections of the warehouse, likely focusing on different supplies, but that wasn’t their main objective. Search for zombies was the top priority, then keeping an eye out for canned or stored food was secondary. Andy and Emma were in the furthest section, followed by Jayesh and Roman in the middle section. October, Sam, and Owen were closest to the girls who were on lookout. They all headed out.
———
Andy was sick of this already. Him and Emma had begun traveling to their section at least 10 minutes ago, and they hadn’t said a word to each other the whole time. Andy was endlessly curious as to why she had wanted to partner with him in the first place after saying she had something to talk to him about, but she wasn’t even trying to start the conversation. By the time they had reached the outline where they were supposed to clear through, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“So,” he led with. A very strong start in his opinion. “What did you want to talk with me about?” It was hard hiding the slight bitterness, or maybe it was annoyance in his tone, but he managed.
Emma glanced toward him, surprised. It was obvious that she had not expected him to initiate the conversation first, but she quickly recovered.
“Sorry, I was just trying to think of how to word what I wanted to say without causing an… issue” Her words had confused Andy even more, and it was clear on his face and the slight furrow of his brows. What would they have an issue with? It’s not like the two had had any outward problems, and Andy was pretty sure the negative feelings he had towards her were not actually her fault, but rather in his own head.
“An issue?” he asked. “You don't have to voice what you want to say perfectly. I won't get upset by it, whatever it is.” With that assurance, Emma let out a small sigh, then took a deep breath, preparing what she would say next;
“Did I do something to offend you?” She asked abruptly, breaking away from Andy’s gaze. “Because I noticed you looking at me sometimes, and you seemed a bit… upset or something.” She glanced back at him, meeting his eyes again, and he looked a bit conflicted. Seeing Emma’s eyes back on himself, Andy quickly responded, if only to relieve the awkwardness in the air.
“No, you didn’t do anything. Sorry if I came off as rude or something, I just don't like people very much.” That was definitely not the full truth, and they both probably knew it, but Emma felt relieved nonetheless. She didn’t usually pay attention to whether people liked her or not, but she knew that Andy was important to October, and she also wanted to get along with the people who she was stuck with in a literal apocalypse.
“Oh! I totally get that! I usually don't really care about people I don't really know, but there are just some people I can not stand!” Emma said, a bit more excitement in her voice after it was confirmed that she didn’t have any major issues with Andy.
“Like Jayesh?” Andy asked, gazing at her knowingly. It was no surprise to anyone who had ever seen her interact with Jayesh to realize that he annoyed the shit out of her.
“Exactly! Like Jayesh!” She exclaimed, already pissed off at the mere thought of him. “He is literally the worst, right?”
Andy agreed with her, and they spent the next while talking shit about him and discussing things that were on their minds. Obviously, they were also looking out for zombies as well, but Andy found that he wasn’t entirely focused on that at the time. Emma was nice to talk to, and though he usually doesn’t talk about himself to other people, especially if he doesn’t know them well, he felt surprisingly comfortable around her. He also now understood how October had clicked with her so easily.
And with that thought, Andy immediately circled back to thinking about a particular guy who wormed his way into Andy’s life.
“Say, Emma” He started. “What do you think about October?”
Emma gave him a knowing look, and said with a full smirk on her face: “Your boyfriend? I like him, he’s funny and easy to talk to.”
Andy sputtered, the tips of his ears turning red even as his mind skidded into a halt because… what? October? His boyfriend? He wasnt…
“He’s not my boyfriend!” His mouth blurted out on instinct, face growing multiple shades darker. Emma still had a knowing look on her face, until she looked at him a bit closer.
“I know, I'm just teasing you!” She quickly covered for herself, because Andy looked genuinely lost at the moment. “Do you not like him or something? I thought for sure you did.”
Andy’s face shifted into something more contemplative, as if he wasn’t sure what he was thinking about, and Emma realized something.
Andy had never actually thought about his (obvious, if you’d ask her) feelings about October. She continued studying his face as he thought, watching him become more red by the minute.
“I don’t- I mean, do I? I guess I never- I never thought that…” Andy buried his face in his hands, hiding from the world surrounding him. “Holy shit- do I like October??”
Andy unburied his face from his hands and stared back at Emma with a certain panicked intensity. Did he really? His thoughts were a jumbled mess; he knew that he felt… differently about October than he felt about most other people, but was never able to figure out why. At least, not until now. He desperately needed time to process what was happening, but he couldn't right now. Not when he was supposed to be patrolling for zombies. He had a responsibility, and was not going to give Jayesh any more reasons to flame him for making a mistake.
“I don't know dude, do you?” Emma distracted Andy from his thoughts, and brought him back to the conversation at hand. This certainly was not the conversation that she had expected to have when Andy first brought up October, but she wasn't complaining about it. She was mostly glad that he had opened up this part of himself to her, even though it could have been an accident.
“I don’t know!” Andy dragged out the last word a bit, trying to figure out what was happening. “How am I supposed to tell??”
Emma spends the next few minutes directing Andy through the usual signs of having a crush, and he feels even more lost than he did before because- does he really like October like that? It would make an unfortunate amount of sense, as painful as it is to think about. Andy isn’t used to feeling this way about, well, anyone, and just the thought of liking someone romantically makes him a bit overwhelmed.
“So yeah, that's typically how people feel when they like someone.” Emma wraps up what she is talking about, and looks back over to Andy.
He looks a bit strewn out- like he is stressed while trying to figure out his feelings, so she continues;
“You don’t have to figure out what exactly you are feeling towards October right now, think over this carefully. You have all the time in the world, or, at least you have plenty while we are still trapped in this damn warehouse.” Andy huffs a laugh at her crassness, and nods.
“Okay, this was- thank you.” He looks at Emma gratefully. “I probably need a bit of time to figure everything out up here, but I appreciate it” He gestures up at his head while he talks, and unceremoniously trips over a small box that he hadn’t noticed before.
“Of course, happy to help!” Emma replies and offers her hand. Andy takes it, and Emma pulls him up as they continue on their way. Nothing had been spotted yet, and it was very quiet aside from their low voices and the sound of their shoes scraping on the stone floor.
Andy felt himself loosen up little by little as they talked. He was always closed up around people, but found that he actually enjoyed talking to Emma. It was easy to keep a conversation going, and they bonded over their mutual annoyance towards Jayesh and other things that they both enjoyed. Emma told Andy about what she used to do before the apocalypse came around, and he found himself telling Emma about his love of astrology and favorite foods. The last person that he had talked to about simple things like this had been Marlie, just before she had died. Maybe her words had more of an effect on him than he realized– she had told him that he should open up more to others, and wasn’t that exactly what he was doing?
Despite being a bit reluctant to share details about himself, he found Emma was a good listener, and never pried to learn more than what he said. He could trust her, and that didn’t come easily to him.
The duo reached the last area they would have to search before heading back to all of the others. It was a large room that had a decent sized entryway, and was filled with stacks of storage containers. The whole search so far had been simple; too simple, and both Andy and Emma were both a bit on edge as to what they would find in this area. There were no lights above them, so they both had to take out their flashlights to see.
As they entered the room through doors big enough that large machinery could enter through, Andy put an arm out to stop Emma from proceeding.
“Do you smell that?” he whispered to her. Something was in this room– he was sure of it.
“Yeah, it's awful.” She responded quietly. Even though they both didn't say it out loud, it was obvious what the awful stench intoxicating the air was. Death. It smelled like rotting flesh, which they both had become all too accustomed to in their time facing zombies.
“Should we grab the others and come back, or look at what we're facing?” Emma asked. She knew what Andy would choose, as it was the most logical answer before they picked a fight. They would have to size up the zombie before they got the others. If there were only a few, it would be manageable, but if there were a lot in this area, they would definitely need help.
Andy voiced her thoughts.
“Lets look and see how many there are then decide if we want to kill them or get help. We just have to not get spotted then, and we’ll be good.” He gestured forward, and they both began creeping around the room, careful of where they were shining the flashlights. A large scraping sound quickly jerked both of their heads to the right corner of the room, and they inched that way. Emma reached the area first, and her breath caught in her throat as her flashlight illuminated what there was.
A horde.
A massive one.
There were at least 30 zombies scratching at the walls of the warehouse, and blood pooled at their feet. From the looks of it, some of these zombies were also mutants, and there were a few hounds sprinkled in the undead mix.
“Well shit.”