Decimation (Ianthony Apocalypse AU)

morning two

zombies seen: about a hundred
zombies killed: 0
near-death experiences: 1
human deaths witnessed: 0   

"How stupid are you two?!"

I looked up at the man sitting across from me, raising my eyebrows. I was still catching my breath, watching as the truck tore away from the mob of zombies behind us.

"Uh..." Anthony muttered, glancing over at me. 

I wanted to like these people; they had saved out lives, for crying out loud. But calling someone stupid right away wasn't exactly the best first impression.

"Sorry, that came out wrong. Just meant walking around completely unarmed the first night of a zombie apocalypse isn't exactly the best idea." The man shrugged. He had dark skin and looked a few years younger than Anthony and I. 

"We have knives," I countered, not really liking this guy. 

He held his hands up in defense, leaning back against the edge of the truck. "Whoa, didn't mean anything. Just trying to help." He leaned back forward, nodding at Anthony, then me. "I'm Jonah."

"Ian." I shook his hand.

"Anthony." He did the same.

"Where are we going?" I asked Jonah, relived when we made a turn and the hoard of zombies was completely out of sight.

He shrugged. "I don't know, man. Out of here, that's for sure. My buddy Ken up there said we were gonna drive until we found a safe place. I didn't argue."

I glanced at Anthony, swallowing. He read my mind.

"Hey, I mean, thanks for saving our asses back there, really, but we can't leave quite yet. We have families-"

"Hey, look. I know, man, I know. I wish we could go back and pick up the whole town. But it's insane out there. I guarantee you not a single one of us would make it out if we went back for your families."

I sighed, hating to admit that he was right. It was near impossible to think about, but my parents were fighters. They'd be fine. Chances were they already left town, anyway. And if they knew I risked my life to go back for them, they'd never forgive me.

Jonah leaned foward again, his voice lowering. "Picked these two up right before you. They were just sitting outside their house like they wanted to get attacked. Had to just about force them to get in the truck. Haven't said a word since."

My eyes swept over to the man and woman; they looked like a mid-forties couple, huddled together and the woman was sobbing softly. I made eye contact with the man and he tried to smile at me, but it was nothing more than a slight twitch of his lips. 

The five of us were all silent for a few moments. Jonah leaned over eventually and knocked on the window leading to the inside of the truck.

"Slow down, we lost 'em," he told the driver, Ken, who nodded and let down on the gas. I noticed a woman sitting in the passenger's seat. Ken's wife, probably.

"Anyway, where do you guys come from? What were you doing strolling around town with a bunch of corpses?"

"We live a few miles down that way." Anthony pointed with his thumb, glancing over at me. "We were gonna pick up my girlfriend and our families and get out of town, but we didn't exactly make it that far."

Jonah shook his head. "It's a messed up world, man. I'll tell you that much." He opened his mouth to continue, then closed it. He then opened it again, and I decided then that I liked this guy. He was opening up to us, and we'd known him for not even five minutes. "I live on the other side of town. When this all went down, my fiancee was at the grocery store. I went out right away to go get her and bring her home, but I was attacked as soon as I got into town. I got away, luckily, and got over to Ken and Martha's just as they were leaving." He looked down. "I had to leave her behind."

 "My girlfriend left without me," Anthony responded, not looking at him. 

It was silent, as if it was my turn to share my sob story. The truth was, I was only planning on saving my parents. And Anthony, of course.

"What about you? You said you had a family," Jonah asked me, directing the conversation away from Anthony.

I shrugged, somewhat embarrassed. "Just my parents."

Jonah smiled sadly, then laughed softly. "Well, maybe we'll all find zombie girlfriends out of this. Who knows."

I chuckled, more at the irony of the situation than the joke. I was sad for Anthony. I was. I knew how happy Kat made him, and despite how awful it would've been to go through the end of the world with just the two of them, I'd rather third wheel a happy Anthony than go alone with a sad Anthony. 

I was so glad I had him, though. I couldn't believe just minutes prior I was actually going to tell him. I still wanted to, but it would be too awkward this early. But the truth was, he probably already knew. I hadn't had a girlfriend in years, and it was because I realized he was the only person I wanted to be with. And, honestly, I didn't try too hard to hide it. I was sick of living each day pretending I didn't have feelings for my best friend. So I laughed when people made jokes about us together and sat a little too close to him on the couch. And maybe it was just me being blinded by love, but he never seemed to mind. I was certain he used to have some sort of feelings for me, but chose to ignore them. I was positive. 

But, it was the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. Who knew what would happen?

"Anyway, I don't think we'll keep going for all that much longer. Wanna save our gas. Just gonna go a town or two over and scope out. No one really knows what's going on out there." Jonah shrugged. "Pick up any more stragglers on the way and find somewhere safe when we can."

The sun was just barely beginning to rise. I hadn't slept in a long time, and it was just starting to hit me. I yawned, leaning back against my bag. 

Despite everything that was going on, I laid down, forced myself to think about absoluely nothing, and fell asleep.

~

I slept for a few good hours; I woke up as the truck slowed to a stop. I blinked as my eyes adjusted, and decided it must had been late morning by the position of the sun in the sky.

We had picked up two more groups while I had been out. I'd woken up briefly, but fell back asleep soon after. There was one whole family: a couple similar to the other one that still hadn't said a word and two boys. An hour or so later, we'd stopped for a mid-forties man and his teenage daughter.

"Well, would you look at that. Sleeping Beauty's awake!"

I rolled my eyes at Jonah, glad for his enthusiasm. I'd learned that the zombie apocalypse is better with a positive attitude.

We had stopped in the middle of what looked like an abandoned neighborhood. All the houses looked similar and it vageuly reminded me of our street.

"Where are we?" I asked, taking in my surroundings.

"Haven't seen a zombie in a while. Getting low on gas. I have no idea where we are, but I bet Ken does. Gonna take over one of these houses, set up camp for a while. Maybe explore some and see what we can find. Hit the road again soon."

I nodded, sighing. The fact that we hadn't stopped sooner only meant one thing: it had already spread to the surrounding towns. Nowhere was safe.

Jonah stood up and hopped off the back of the truck. Everyone else stood up and he helped them down one by one.

"What do you think?" I muttered to Anthony. "Can we trust these people?"

He shrugged, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I think they're our only hope."