Decimation (Ianthony Apocalypse AU)

day fifty-four

chompers seen: i'd say about a thousand

chompers killed: 6

near-death experiences: 7

human deaths witnessed: 5

friends left behind: 6

camps infiltrated: 2

dead friends: 2    

"Holy shit!" Jenna yelled from up ahead, and I watched as Aaron shushed her, but he was smiling himself. Besides, there definitely weren't any chompers around. We hadn't seen a single one since leaving the field.

"What?" Anthony yelled back, a smile already forming on his face.

We rounded a turn in the road, and, sure enough, there it was. Just ahead. Civilization.

"That's definitely Sac," I said, glancing at him. A wave of relief and happiness filled me like a tsunami. We were home. Well, not home home, but pretty damn close.

He squeezed my hand as we continued on. We'd been walking almost nonstop for two days, and hadn't seen a single thing. No people, no chompers, no buildings. It was truly like we were in the middle of nowhere. I was scared everything had really vanished and we'd never make it home. Or we were lost. Because, honestly, I had no idea where we were, and Aaron admitted to having lost track.

"What do you think's gonna happen when we get up there?" I asked, lowering my voice a little. "Like, are we all gonna split up and go home and never see each other again?"

He shrugged. "I really don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

~

Approaching the first row of houses was incredibly eerie. It looked like home, it felt like home, it was home. The environment was familiar. I knew we couldn't be too far from our neighborhood.

Everybody else trudged on a little ahead. I knew I shouldn't have, because as soon as you started feeling safe, the worst was probably yet to come, but I did. I felt safe. I hadn't seen a chomper in what felt like forever, I wasn't scared to kill them anymore, I was part of a secure group, and we were just about home. Things definitely seemed to be shaping up.

Suddenly, everyone stopped up ahead.

I glanced up at Anthony; he only squeezed my hand, speeding up to catch up to the rest of them. They all stared at something to the left. I looked that way, instantly squinting my eyebrows. 

A perfectly-spotless window sat on a completely normal-looking house. Inside, what looked like a perfectly happy family sat around a table, passing around a few bottles of water and some sort of packaged food. They all looked healthy, clean, and were laughing. Like the complete opposite of a zombie apocalypse.

"What the hell?" Rico asked, a hint of laughter in his voice.

Just then, footsteps ahead. We all turned, Aaron poking his knife out towards it.

A man walked toward us, his arms full of groceries. He stopped when he saw the knife, raising his eyebrows at it.

"I take it you folks just blew in," he commented, his eyes scanning over all of us. 

Aaron lowered the knife, his face contorting into confusion. "What's going on here?"

"What's going on with you?" The man blinked. "They turned the YMCA a few blocks over into a trauma center. I'd suggest you find your way over there." And with that, he turned and walked right into a house a few down from where we stood, locking the door behind him.