#{shamblin'in; plot}

[realmackross]

PARTIES: @zombiebabysitter, @realmackross TIMING: August 10th during the Prickly Pear Party. SUMMARY: Mack & Charlie run into each other amidst the chaos of the farm attack, only for Charlie to find out a devastating secret. CONTENT WARNINGS: Animal abuse tw (just because of the fire & the creatures involved who didn't make it)

What was supposed to be a fun night had turned into pure and utter chaos! People were running around screaming. The air smelled of burnt flesh from both dead and alive creatures. The animals were crying out. And Sellama was nowhere to be found. “Please…Please, if there’s anyone out there listening, let her be alive!!! I can’t lose her too!!!” Mackenzie’s face was pointed upward as she pleaded to the Heavens. She had to find Sellama. She needed to find Sellama safe and far away from all the danger.

But that’s not what she had found. No, instead, she had found her fellow zombies starting to rage out while people she assumed to be hunters put them down with no second thought. It had easily reminded her of being locked in the keep, and Mack almost wanted to drop to the ground in a panic attack as her mind flashed back to the zombie she had to put down. A woman her age with a past, but that entire life disregarded all because she was too far gone to save.

Turning on her heels, and running back towards the direction she had just come from, Mack hadn’t noticed there had been someone in her path, and when she plowed into them, she felt herself hit the ground with a thud. If it was a hunter, and they suspected something, she was dead. But when she looked up to see who it was, she realized it was a familiar face, “Charlie, I’m so sorry! I’m looking for Sellama, but I can’t find her!”

—

Everything was a fucking nightmare. People were being killed, fires raging, and zombies fucking everywhere. It was Charlie’s hell on earth. Worst of all, he’d been separated from Finn, and he was starting to freak the fuck out. Like, massively. He didn’t know if Finn was alive or dead, he didn’t know what was going on. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK!” Charlie began to curse, stomping around the farm in a failed attempt to locate his boyfriend. Instead, he came up with flames and distressed animals. 

Well, he couldn’t just let the livestock die, right? He wasn’t a fucking monster. So instead, he ran into the barn and started assisting the cows out of the barn before the flames became all-encompassing. It was exhaustive, he couldn’t breathe, and the flames were making everything unbearable. He got out as many as he could before it became too much to handle. When he got another cow out, he decided to leave with it, not expecting someone to ram into him at full speed. He fell onto his side, and quickly whipped his head around, hoping beyond hope that it would be Finn, but it wasn’t. It was Mack. 

Glad to see Mack was alright all the same, Charlie quickly jumped to his feet, dusted himself off, and offered a hand out to Mack to help her up. “I haven’t seen your llama, only a bunch of cows.” He replied with a frown. “Like, a fuck ton of cows.” He let out a cough, the smoke inhalation having done numbers on his ability to breathe correctly. “Have you seen Finn? We were separated, I can’t find him either.” Distress dripped into his voice, having half a mind to run back into the chaos to find him.

—

Taking Charlie’s hand, Mack climbed to her feet. She had seen all the cows running past her mooing out and stomping as they ran by, and now she knew who their savior had been. But still no Sellama and at this point the zombie didn’t know what to do. But her mind easily shifted, when she heard the distress in Charlie’s voice about Finn, “I haven’t seen him either or Winter! I just know that all of a sudden chaos broke out and everyone and everything started scattering.”

Mack dusted herself off as she let her eyes scan the area. The fire was raging brightly, and despite her sense of touch being weak most of the time, she could feel the heat being blown in their direction, which directed her eyes back to Charlie, “Are you okay? Do you need to sit down somewhere?” She was pretty sure she couldn’t do much for him if something happened, but she would certainly try her best. Charlie had already been through enough, and she didn’t want to lose him to the chaos that was surrounding them.

—

Taking a long, deep breath, Charlie shook his head at Mack’s suggestion to sit down. “I… zombies, Mack.” His words weren’t making much sense as he struggled to come to grips with the reality of the situation. “Honest to god zombies, I…” He put a hand over his mouth and dragged it downwards, shaking his head. “After my friends were attacked, I was convinced they were all terrible.” He looked at Mack, brows furrowing further. 

There were too many things to be freaking out about. Zombies, said zombies being violently attacked, Finn and Winter missing in action, and Mack’s llama. “This is a fucking lot, and I don’t… I’m…” Tears welled up in his eyes, and he blinked hard to make them go away. He couldn’t think about it, couldn’t allow himself to feel the emotions he’d been holding back since the night of the attack. He was close to a breaking point, but he just couldn’t allow himself to reach it. He had to keep moving even when moving felt impossible. He couldn’t let the grief catch him. 

But he couldn’t. Instead, the tears fell from his eyes as a sob escaped his lips. Charlie couldn’t stop it once it had begun. “They’re all dead, and it was fucking zombies that did it.” He shouted into the angry flames. “They’re all dead, and I don’t know who it was that did it!” Another sob racked his body. “And now there are good ones, and they’re dying at the hands of hunters and people I thought I would agree with.” He pulled off the wrapping that covered the scarred zombie bite, showing it to Mack. “I don’t want to be a zombie, Mack. I’m fucking… fucking terrified.”

—

The way Charlie said zombies had struck Mackenzie to the core. And it had been a quick reminder to her that not everyone at the party had been a zombie or was used to the concept of zombies. For Mack, it had been everyday life. Something she had to get used to on her own back in California after she died on set. And it was a damn hard and scary adjustment. One that she still was plagued with guilt about for how it had changed and even ruined her life forever. She had felt so alone, and that loneliness had easily carried into her life in Wicked’s Rest, but here sat Charlie making confessions to her about zombies, and about how he had been bitten…

Seeing the bite marks on his arms had easily sent Mackenzie back to the day of the convention when she had received her own bite unknowingly and despite wanting to be inconspicuous to her bite mark, she couldn’t help but rub her own arm, “Charlie…” Sitting down next to him, amidst all the chaos and screaming, the zombie leaned in, “I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but it’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.” Even Mack was having a hard time believing what she was telling him. But deep down somewhere inside, there was a glimmer of hope, if not for her, at least for him. He was surrounded by people who had lived with this and knew how to handle it. A grace she had wished she had gotten. If she had, her death might have been completely different, and Brody might have still been in her life.

“You’ve got so many good people here who love you, and know what you’re going through and know what to expect. They can ease you into this life, when that day comes, but that day could be years and years and years from now.” She looked up at him with a soft smile, a sadness lingering in her eyes. Mackenzie paused. She had wanted to tell him. To tell Charlie what she was, but just as he was afraid of becoming undead, she was afraid of revealing her status out of a fear of losing someone else in her life she had come to care about.

—

 Listening as Mack consoled him, Charlie knew something was off. He knew that she knew about them to a large degree, but just how he couldn’t be so sure. He took deep breaths, trying to even his breathing and stop the breakdown that wanted so badly to be set free. Once again, he stuffed it down, down, down. Far enough that he couldn’t access it again and wiped his eyes. “I’m cool, I’m good.” He spoke, trying to convince himself more than Mack.

Ever since his performance, he’d been struggling to pull himself back together when he thought too deeply about everything that had happened to him in recent months. But he couldn’t think about it, he had things to do, and fans to make happy. He couldn’t allow himself to fall apart for fear that he’d never get back up again.

“How do you know?” He finally asked, wanting to ignore the licking of flames growing closer to the two of them. “Shit, we gotta move.” Charlie finally relented, grabbing Mack’s hand and dragging her off toward safety, or at least, what could be perceived as safety. Before he could register what was happening, something tackled him from the left, throwing him to the ground as it snarled and gnashed its teeth next to his ear. “Fuck!” He shouted, trying to scramble away, but the zombie, which he was convinced that’s what it was, was too damn strong.

—

Mackenzie could tell he was in denial, because she had lived her own life in denial for so long, and it ended up causing a massive fatal mistake for the person she had cared about most in the world. She definitely didn’t want that same thing to happen to him. She wanted to see him be okay and to someday thrive as a zombie, if she was around that long to see the shift – which she knew would eventually happen. Not unless a cure came along, before Charlie died. But he was young and as long as he played it safe, she could see him living a long and happy life.

However, about the time she thought it, Mackenzie felt herself being tugged up and away from the fire that had grown closer. She wanted to thank Charlie for moving them and to continue the discussion, but before she could, Mackenzie watched as a zombie came out of nowhere taking Charlie down, “Charlie!!!”

Without hesitating, Mackenzie ran towards her friend. He wasn’t dying tonight. Not if she could help it, and with all her strength, she tugged at the other zombie, until it had finally freed itself from the man and started to attack her. The creature had been dead weight as it took Mackenzie down and started to scratch and claw at her skin. And just as she had done to other people many times before, the zombie leaned into the actress and bit into her shoulder, tearing out chunks of flesh, until Mackenzie could feel herself starting to drift into something more feral, “C-Charlie…run…” Her eyes shifted from the creature to her friend, “RUN!!!”

—

As Charlie was ripped away from the zombie, horror melted onto his features as he watched Mack begin to become something else, something that was exactly like the monsters he was so keen on running away from. His eyes were wide, brows pinched together and his mouth wide open. He watched as the zombie bit and tore at Mack’s flesh, and she didn’t howl in pain, she just took it and became something else. Charlie took a step back, then another. 

Before he knew it, he was running away from the scene as fast as his legs could carry him, far away from the scene of the party, far away from all the trouble. He didn’t take the car, he just ran. Ran and ran until he was so far away he didn’t know where he was anymore. He ran until he was out of breath, ran until he couldn’t keep running anymore. 

Finally in the middle of nowhere, the fire in the distance, Charlie kneeled down and let his head fall into his hands as he let out a sob. His friend that he had trusted was a zombie. Someone he’d known for so long, a killer. It was almost too much to handle, too much to take in. But she’d saved his life, so there was capacity for good. He couldn’t think about that in that moment, he had to allow himself to completely fall apart. 

He thought of his lost friends, of Gareth, which only caused him to sob harder. Everything wasn’t as black and white as he thought, zombies could be good, and those who hunted them could do great evil. And he was alone, alone without any idea if Finn was alright, if Winter was alright, and if Mack would be alright. Everything was falling to pieces around him, and finally, Charlie could no longer keep up.

[realmackross]

Time: August 10th at the Prickly Pear Party Summary: Beth, the farmhand, saves Sellama! Content Warnings: None!

The music was bumping and despite it having been a stressful past couple of months, everything seemed to be perfect, which was a relief for Beth, one of the youngest farmhands working at Monty’s farm. Her time there had been a sort of rocky road. Coming in completely lost and alone after a zombie attack on her entire family. She had been the sole survivor, but not in a way she had ever imagined. Alone and on the verge of losing herself completely to the innate call of the zombie virus, she was found by a fellow farmhand, her now boyfriend, who saved her and gave her hope in the darkest moments of her life.

Life at Prickly Pear Acres had almost been perfect, and embracing this new way of undead life was her saving grace. Plus, being around people like herself and animals, especially Sellama, had made zombie life the closest thing to perfect. It was just a bonus that Sellama’s owner was one of her favorite celebrities, and one she got to spend a lot of time around after Mackenzie Ross had come to spend her own time recuperating at Prickly Pears.

“Hey Mack! Have you seen Sellama yet? I washed her and put her favorite bow in her fur for the party.” The smile and the kind words from the famous zombie had made Beth giddy like a child picking out a new toy, and as she watched the woman go off to enjoy the party on her own, Beth made her way towards a different crowd for some snacks and time with her boyfriend.

“Tony, come on, one more dance before I go check on the animals again!” She held her boyfriend’s hand as she tugged on his arm trying to get him up, but it was no luck. Between their laughter and the music, everything seemed right in the world. People, smiling. Humans and zombies coming together to enjoy life and friendship. It was perfect, that is until the laughter turned into screaming and the faint smell of smoke followed by the sound of animals crying out caught the attention of Beth, Tony, and their friends.

It didn’t take long for her to turn around and see the barns burning and some of the animals fleeing. But as quickly as she saw the first horse run out, her mind automatically went to Sellama, and before Tony could stop her, she was running towards the barns, “Sellama!!!”

Mackenzie was nowhere in sight, but the young farmhand didn’t have time to look for her. Instead, she continued her trek to the barn dodging animals, zombies, and other people running. It was as if her mind had been set on overdrive and with nothing else in mind, she was going to do her part and save this llama. But at what cost?

With a loud blast, Beth felt the sting of the heat on her dead skin and faster than she realized, she was laying on the ground just outside the barn. She had nearly reached the entrance when everything had gone hazy, but it was the familiar sound of a famous llama that pulled her from her spot on the ground. And once again, she was headed into what most certainly could end her undead life, while Tony, who had managed to catch up to her, called her name trying to encourage her to stop.

“SELLAMA! Sellama, I’m here girl!” Smoke seeped in her nose and down her throat causing her to cough. Her eyes stung with the heat and she could feel the flames threatening to bite at her arms and legs. But with persistence and the hope of doing one great thing with her life to make her family proud, she managed to find the llama stuck in her pin, “It’s okay, girl! I’m here!” Beth coughed harder as she went to unlock the stall, but searing hot metal on the latch left her pulling back her fingers quickly. Frantically, looking around, she tried desperately to find something she could use to touch the latch, but when she realized there was nothing and time was running out, Beth reluctantly stuck her hand back onto the metal biting down on her lip as hard as she could to avoid screaming out and spooking Sellama, finally managing to open up the gate.

Once the gate swung open, she quickly grabbed Sellama’s halter with her uninjured hand and started to pull the animal forward. There had been some resistance, and it took effort and what calmness Beth was fighting to hold onto, to guide the animal to safety, but before they could make it out, part of the roof collapsed leaving Sellama to buck upwards knocking Beth backwards and into a burning pile of hay. Screaming out in pain, the young zombie crawled forward trying to put out the fire that was creeping up her clothes. Sellama, on the other hand, frantically paced back and forth letting noises of fear slip out, which was easily breaking Beth’s heart, despite how much pain she had been in, “Sellama…I’m not gonna let you…die…in here girl. We’re…gonna get out…somehow…”

As she pushed herself off the ground, Beth let her eyes scan the quickly enclosing barn, before spotting their way out. The way they had come had seemed to be clear. At least for a short amount of time, and though she wanted to give up, she knew she couldn’t. “Come on, Sellama! I found a way…” Her voice was hoarse and raspy and her body was growing tired, but she once again latched onto Sellama’s halter and pulled her forward with what little effort was left.

It was as if life had been in slow motion as they moved forward as quickly as they both could. The walls were crumbling, the stalls were non-existent, including the one Sellama had just come from, and the hay, feed, and other various things sitting around were making for an inferno threatening to consume them both, but just before it could swallow them up into the abyss, Beth and Sellama came bursting through the other side to freedom and fresh air.

“Beth!!!” The zombie looked over to see Tony running in her direction and without thinking, she stopped running, a smile coming over her darkened features from the smoke, but as she did, Sellama continued running forward at full speed and within the blink of an eye, ripped Beth’s arm off; her fingers still stuck in the halter as the llama hauled off into the night with her arm hanging from the side of Sellama’s face.

With a bloodcurdling scream, Beth looked down to find her arm missing, “Babe! Babe don’t move, I’m here! I got you!” Tony, dropping to his knees wrapped his arms around her gently holding her and with all his strength, managed to pick her up to carry her to safety, but before he could, the sounds of cracking wood and a shift in the structure behind them caused the metal roof of the barn to come sliding backwards like an avalanche of flames and debris crushing them both in the process.