Hell's Reign (Patrick Stump/Fall Out Boy Fanfiction)

Chapter 29 - Abandoned

            First thing the next morning, Tori was behind the wheel of the truck. She had woken up a still sleepy Patrick at the break of dawn, and had promised him he could go back to sleep inside the truck on the way back into the city. He did just that, curling into her side with a blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders as she drove them back to the venue they had left. As they got closer to the city, they began to see more and more zombies milling about. Tori carefully avoided them, trying her best to keep the ride smooth enough for Patrick to sleep.

It was about an hour later by the time they finally reached the venue, and Patrick was still snoring softly into Tori's neck. Almost immediately as she parked the truck, a sense of foreboding fell over her. The van was gone, nowhere to be seen, and certainly not where they had left it. She hesitated to wake Patrick, but she knew she had to. "Trick," she breathed, gently shrugging the shoulder that his head was leaning on. "Baby, we're back. Wake up."

Patrick stirred slowly, groaning as he pressed his face further into the side of her neck. She felt a sigh leave him, and then his lips pressed gently against her skin. "Five more minutes," he mumbled, relaxing against her once more.

She frowned, still staring out the windshield. She could see the door from where she had parked, and it was still boarded up, as if whoever had last walked out had blocked it back up. Somebody must still be inside, she decided. She wondered if they had simply left for a supply run, or perhaps to look for the two of them. Either way, they would be confused to come back and find a red truck sitting beside the door. She settled back in the seat, letting Patrick nuzzle into her as he tossed some of the blanket over her. They might as well stay here until the boys returned, Tori thought, at least then they would know who left the truck.

She fell asleep after a moment, and it was a while before she woke up again. When she did, she still didn't see the van anywhere. She sat up as much as she could with Patrick still practically on top of her, and looked out the window. The sun was high in the sky, blazing down bright and white over Chicago. It was mid-day, and the boys still weren't back. At first, Tori worried that something had happened to them when they went out for supplies. Yet still, something nagged at the back of her mind that she was wrong. She woke Patrick again, this time pushing him fully off of her so that he couldn't fall back asleep. He groaned in annoyance, pushing the blanket off of him and stretching his arms over his head. He looked around for a moment, unaware of Tori's rigid form beside him.

Finally, he looked towards the door, his eyes focusing slowly. "Where's the van?" He asked, his voice low and raspy from sleep.

Tori shrugged. "I don't know. It wasn't here when we got here, and it's been hours."

"Come on," he said suddenly, sliding to the passenger side door and throwing it open. He stumbled out to the pavement as Tori lifted herself carefully out of the other side of the truck, quickly making his way to the door of the venue. He pulled at the boards, barely taking any progress until Tori was there to help him. They dropped one board at a time to the ground, neither of them bothering to put them back up as they rushed into the building. Patrick was ahead of Tori all the way through the building, nearly running across the stage to the stairs that led up to the apartment. Tori jogged after him, a sudden sick feeling in her stomach slowing her down. She stopped for a moment at the bottom of the stairs, which Patrick had taken two at a time. He left the front door open and she looked up at it, catching her breath and trying to calm her stomach. She attributed the sickness to the fear of what she might find up there. She didn't want to find any of them dead of course, but if something worse had happened, if they were changed, she would never be able to forgive herself. Sullenly, she finally made her way up the stairs, pushing past the door and looking around the empty living room. She looked to the kitchen, where every cupboard and cabinet had been left wide open and empty.