Zombie [Solby AU]

𝙻𝚘𝚜 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗 𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚝 𝟺:𝟹𝟾𝙿𝙼 𝚘𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑 𝟷𝟾, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽

They had been running and running for six months now. Los Angeles had fallen exactly at 4:38PM on March 18, 2017. Sam had that date memorized, but could only guess that it had been six months. He knew the trees were changing from a hardy green to the bright colors of fall. Maybe it was eight months?

"We should go check out that gas station," his partner in this apocalypse nudged his shoulder beside him.

Sam pulled his small pocket knife from his pocket, opening it up, and nodded to the brunette male. He swallowed as his eyes connected with the old sign of a 7-11 gas station, cars abandoned in their parking spots and overturned in the entrance ways, frozen in mid-accidents. He could smell the dull scent of burning leather from one of the blackened cars. But, there would always be that disgusting smell of rotting flesh from the dead bodies within them.

"Take the left," Sam nodded to Colby, "I'll go right."

The brunette nodded in return, understanding the assignment and always getting it done beautifully. Sam couldn't have asked for a better partner to survive this hell-scape with than Colby Brock.

He watched with a pained expression on his face and an ache in his heart as the brunette walked away from him to check out the other side of the gas station. Colby's own pulled knife was twirled between delicate fingers. Sam missed how they felt wrapped around his waist.

He swallowed and turned back to the gas station... where was he again in their story?

Ah yes... Los Angeles had fallen and it was left in a burning mess and hundred mile ditch. Sam and Colby would not have been alive if they had stayed in the Trap House that evening, but instead they were at an abandoned location in Nevada. They were driving back, hearing the news stories about people coming back from the dead and violent outbreaks at the hospitals and getting phone calls from their roommates still at their house, when the sky exploded in white. Everyone on the highway came to a screeching halt, Colby cursing up one side and down the other. Sam peered through the windshield as he watched the bomb go off, swallowing everything within the city of Los Angeles.

There were no survivors... Sam mourned his friends and his girlfriend. He and Colby didn't speak the rest of the day when they heard the news. Voicemail messages of their friends were all either of them had, and Sam stared at the photos of Katrina on his phone till the sun came up. Tears were shed between them, remembering all the good memories they had together, but Sam had to remind himself that Colby was still beside him... Colby was here... Colby was always here...

Word got out fast after that moment that a virus was starting to affect the rest of the country and overnight the nation went dark. Sam and Colby had been in a motel with others from the highway who were trying to get back to L.A. and saw the explosion. The TV station's were calling it a zombie apocalypse, but Sam wanted to laugh. This was just some freak virus and they would have the cure for it shortly. Wasn't history filled with pandemics and epidemics?

The pair quickly made a plan to head back to Kansas to their parents, and so they packed up the only things they had left (the rest burning in L.A.) that night and went back on the road. But, it seemed like others had the same idea. It was slow moving across Nevada, and the pair could hardly believe their eyes as they watched people tear each other apart, but eventually they made it to Colorado when they ran out of gas. They abandoned the red Corolla with heaviness on their hearts, especially Colby who (of course) gave it a kiss on the hood and left a flower under the wiper. As they walked away from the vehicle, making their longer trek now across the Rocky Mountains, that was this was a zombie apocalypse.

It was only a few hours later that they came across their first undead. Sam had his pocketknife on him, a habit from his exploration of abandoned buildings in Kansas and never knowing who he might find in them, and the pair were able to hold the undead person down as Sam stabbed them through the head. Blood went everywhere and socked the front of Sam's shirt.

That night was the first time that Colby held Sam as they fell asleep in the back of an old minivan. Sam could still feel the hand of a Barbie sticking in his ribs from between the car seats. But, the comfort in Colby's arms that night and his rhythmed breathing in Sam's hair made Sam feel whole. He hadn't killed someone. They were already dead to begin with.

But, that night became a common occurrence. Sam didn't need to ask Colby, for the brunette just opened up his arms and let the blonde settle against him.

Sam reasoned with himself that he wasn't gay... this was just seeking comfort.... Colby was a brother... this was just seeking comfort. But, Sam began to long for Colby in a way he never had before.

Watching Colby walk away from him to check out the other side of the gas station made Sam remember that at any moment one of them could get bitten by the undead. Sam didn't want to think about that-- about having to put a bullet through Colby's head or watching Colby do the same to him. That was enough of a motivation to keep going.