Chapter Text
May 5, 20xx
Today would have been Aunt May’s birthday.
She never wanted a big party, instead she would always do something fun with Peter. From as early as he could remember, she would take him to parks, restaurants, movies, and so many other memories that Peter cherished. As he grew older, though, she became more swamped with work and had to go into the hospital even on her birthday just to make enough money to support Peter’s enhanced metabolism. Nevertheless, every year without fail, Peter would buy a confetti cupcake and wait until she got home so she could still have something small to remember the day. Though tired, she would laugh and kiss Peter’s forehead lovingly as they sat on their dingy couch to eat. Peter found that he treasured both the memories of Aunt May’s earlier birthdays equally to the memories they continued to make. The two almost never saw each other, and the cupcake tradition always brought them closer as a family.
Peter gently laid a confetti cupcake under a big oak tree, right at a park near his apartment with Aunt May. The sky was a bright blue, but smoke continued to rise and block out the sun. He turned around and sat down, leaning against the tree in the overcast shade. Everything was so peaceful now, which felt unnatural in the bustling Queens area. Places where kids played were now abandoned, restaurants silenced, movie theaters collapsed. The area was slowly deteriorating, but he wasn’t done with his home yet. Everyday, Peter was scanning for survivors and sending them to the safe zone run by the avengers in Westchester County.
New York city, and the Avengers Tower, was all overrun a long time ago due to the massive population. Queens had been hit hard too, but Peter had made sure to save as many people as possible so the amount dead was significantly lower.
He knew, deep down, that there were no more survivors left in the borough. It had been around a week since he last saw another living person, and logic argued that anyone else was either dead or turned. Despite this, he hesitated to finally leave his home.
Looking down at the grave beside him, he pulled off his mask and a single tear slipped loose. Aunt May would have told him that everything would be fine, to leave and get to safety as soon as he could. But she wasn’t there anymore to tell him that, all because he had failed her. Just like Uncle Ben, he had been right next to her when she was killed yet he couldn’t do a thing.
A low groan interrupted his thoughts, and Peter quickly pulled his mask back on and sighed. Ever since he had presented, his pheromones were more potent and the zombies always seemed to sense him quicker. In another life, maybe he would have been fascinated by this and run experiments on them to see how they functioned, but Peter could only look at these zombies and see people who should have been living their lives in Queens. They had their humanity stripped from them against their will, and now were slaves to the apocalypse just as much as he was.
His most selfish joy was that Aunt May had never turned, so he never had to kill her directly.
Two zombies slowly lumbered forward, their milky eyes fixed on his general direction. He had long learned that zombies couldn’t directly see, so he used that to his advantage and shot a web to a nearby building to get away.
Another thing that had changed since he presented was that he now had organic web shooters- an amazing development after the destruction of the apocalypse made delicate chemicals much harder to find.
He had webbed up to a fairly high building, and in the far distance he could see the Avengers Tower. Though he had never met the group, he knew they could protect the people much better than he could alone, and felt confident in the survival of the survivors he had sent to them. His next goal would be to get to the survival camp himself, and look for survivors along the way to help out if need be.
Turning around, he said one last goodbye to the place he had protected for the last 4 years. Midtown High had long been abandoned, and other places he had memories in were too destroyed to even look at. It was a shame he couldn’t finish his high school education, but the apocalypse had brought along much bigger problems than ‘where were all the teachers’.
Zombies at the start had been slow, careless, and much like the two Peter had seen down at the park. They moved towards anything they could hear or smell, but were so easily avoided that many underestimated them. The problem was that they just wouldn’t die. The only thing that could fully kill a zombie was fire or just fully cutting off their heads. Another problem was that eventually they began to change.
Some zombies began to experience changes, an evolution of sorts, and became much more powerful. Though still fairly rare, Peter has encountered a few zombies with superpowers of sorts and they were much harder to fight. Many survivors panicked and began lighting fires everywhere, trying to kill the zombies, and just ended up burning down multiple buildings and creating an ever present smoke cloud in the sky.
Aunt May had wanted to be buried next to Uncle Ben, but the whole cemetery had been burned down by people who believed that the long dead could also turn. He still remembered digging the grave and lowering her body underneath the big oak tree Aunt May would always bring him to for picnics. When he was younger and still believed everything adults said, she had told him magical stories of spirits who protected the tree and all who were near it. Though now he knew it was a lie made to keep him from crying after Ben’s death, he supposed there was a small element of truth in it as it was still alive and thriving despite the disaster around it.
Turning North, he jumped off the building and began swinging forward towards Westchester.
—
Despite being a newly presented Omega, Peter had nothing with him of Aunt May or any other loved ones. Everything had long since been burned down or lost in the chaos, and he constantly found himself longing for her scent of freshly baked bread and an undertone of chocolate. The urge to nest has grown stronger over time, and he knew he had to get to the survivor camp before his heat hit and he couldn’t defend himself against zombies.
The walls of the survivor camp came into view, and Peter smiled slightly at the sight of people- living people- patrolling the walls. Though he didn’t recognize any of them, he webbed up to the wall and landed gracefully before waving at them in a friendly manner. Before he could say anything though, the guards surrounded him and began pointing their guns while shouting instructions.
“HANDS IN THE AIR, DROP ALL YOUR WEAPONS” a burly man towards the front of the group shouted, while Peter could see a few others running off- probably to get backup or report his arrival.
“Hey guys, lovely welcome this is! I don’t have any weapons, but I promise that I won’t hurt any of you.” Peter smiled while raising both his hands in the air.
As the big guy in the front began stepping closer though, his radio crackled and came to life.
“Trey, bring him down to me unharmed. I need to talk to Spider-Man” A male voice spoke through the small device on the guy’s Trey’s hip.
Trey looked down at him, sighed, and put his gun away. As the other guards slowly began leaving the scene, Peter was beckoned to follow the big man towards a set of stairs to go down the wall.
“So who are we going to see?” The spider-themed hero asked, a slight bounce in his step as he walked after the grumpy guard. It had been so long since he had last seen other people, and the excitement was making him feel full of energy despite having just swung over an hour across New York. Trey didn’t answer, much to Peter’s dismay, so instead he entertained himself by looking around at the camp. They had emerged from the stairs, and Peter could see rows and rows of tents with people moving around them. There were a few buildings, but they seemed to be for things besides housing. Peter could even see a barbershop, and he had to fight back the urge to run his fingers through his hair that had grown a bit too long over the course of the apocalypse. He also recognized a few people from Queens, and Peter smiled softly as Trey finally stopped in front of a big building. The building looked to be two stories, the biggest building he had seen in the camp, and Peter could hear multiple heartbeats inside.
Trey scanned a keycard and walked inside, pulling Peter along, and they soon landed in front of a regular door. Trey opened the door, pushed him inside, and closed it behind him. He could hear the big guy’s footsteps as he walked away, and Peter slowly turned to look at the center of the room.
Sitting behind a desk was a fairly big man in a suit, with curly dark hair and a goatee. A pair of sunglasses laid on the surface in front of him, next to a name tag that said ‘HAPPY HOGAN’.
“Sit, Spider-Man, we have a lot to discuss. I’m the head of security for the survivor base, and I also work directly under Tony Stark.” Happy said, his beta pheromones of mint wafting through the air. Peter sat down in the chair across from the man, hands in his lap as he waited for him to continue.
“Quite a few survivors have told us about you, and on behalf of the avengers we would like to thank you for your help in saving innocent citizens. Despite that, I hope you understand that having an unknown superpowered individual roaming around the base is a major safety hazard. We don’t know enough about you to deem you harmless, but for now I would like to know what your plan is and why you have come here.”
“My home is in Queens, and I finished clearing it of survivors yesterday so I decided to come here. I know there are still people who need my help, and I was hoping to help the avengers in saving more survivors. I understand that I’m unfamiliar to you, but I promise I would never harm anyone here.”
Happy Hogan stared at him with an unreadable face and, for a second, Peter thought he could see straight through his mask. The beta gave off a calm and slightly intimidating vibe, but after a while he sighed and pushed back his chair to stand up.
“You're right about the avengers needing help, I’ll tell you what. To monitor you, you’ll stay at the avenger’s base and help them with whatever missions they need you on. You’ll have your own room and everything, so you should be more than fine. That sound good to you, Mr. Spiderman?”
“Sounds perfect, Mr. Hogan! But please- my name is Spider-man, not Spiderman. Mind the apostrophe.”
Happy rolled his eyes, grabbed his sunglasses, and walked past his desk towards the door. Peter followed wordlessly behind him, pleased by the conditions he had been given. A small part of him had been expecting to be locked up, but he was glad that the people here were nice enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. He wouldn’t take off his mask right away though, not until he knew he could trust everyone.