#apocalyslpse au

[katie-lyn]

Infected - Chapter 1

Summary: Dan and Phil have been best friends for their entire lives, but now as teens, how will they survive when the dead begin to rise and the world falls into madness? How will they live in this brave new world? Will they be able to do what is absolutely necessary to survive and face the consequences of this harsh reality? 

Warnings: mild violence

PG-13

Word count: 1,632

Note: The Walking Dead takes place in a world where zombie media never existed, hence why they call them walkers among other things instead. I am going to take that page from their book because I think it is a good choice story-telling wise. Title also based on an episode title from TWD.

Note 2: This is my first fic on this blog. My first fic in a long time. I’m excited and nervous and I hope people enjoy this! Please, please give me feedback and let me know what you think!

Also, I had this whole thing typed on my phone then tried to post it and my tumblr app crashed so yay I rewrote the whole thing on my laptop and hopefully this posts. It was probably a little better the first time, but whatever. I’m still happy with this. First chapter below the cut!

Phil is a seventeen year old boy. He has a fairly normal life. He goes to school. He has friends. He’s pretty deep in the closet. He’s in love with his best friend Daniel, whom he’s grown up with since they were tots. Okay, perhaps his life has had a few small hiccups or inconveniences, but all of his problems were peanuts compared to what he woke up to today. He walks downstairs and hears the news channel on in the living room. There seems to be mass panic happening. He walks into the room and finds his parents full attention on the horrific scene on the television. The dead were rising. It was beginning not all that far away from where they were. Currently, they were being told the CDC was working on something and to just remain safely in their homes until further notice. Phil’ s mind went straight to ‘this has to be some kind of joke. April fools? No, it’s September. Well, there has to be some logical explanation’. But he saw it with his own eyes. The shot of the dead in the street. The footage of one of them attacking a woman and several of them ganging up on her, biting at her, her falling to the ground afterwards, and them continuing to tear her apart, pulling her apart, inside out, quite literally. He’s never seen anything so graphic and disturbing. Phil is a horror movie fan. This was not faked. There was nothing like this and he knew what special effects looked like, this was not it. This was real. It was on every channel, probably across the world. It was estimated to be a worldwide epidemic in only a few short weeks if a solution wasn’t found very swiftly. The military was going to take action very soon if need be. This was real. He was not dreaming. He checked by pinching himself very hard.

Naturally, the first thing Philip does is exactly what the professionals are telling everyone not to do. He goes outside. They aren’t sure how this has started, if it’s airborne, some sort of disease, contagious, etc.. Plus, the dead could be anywhere. They were confirmed in certain places, but of course they could be anywhere and maybe just not reported there yet. However, Phil makes a direct beeline to Dan’s house. Dan lives just right next door. Phil just goes straight in since he knows he is always welcome there. “Oh, dear, have you heard the news?” Dan’s mother asks him as she looks over when she hears him enter. “Yeah, I have. Is Dan still in bed?” Phil asks the woman who is truly like a second mother to him. “Yes, he is,” she replies before turning her attention back to the news, wanting all the available details. Phil rushes up to Dan’s room. He doesn’t know why he’s relieved to see that Dan is okay. As if he already would’ve been outside long enough to have been bit. Yeah, right. He’s still asleep, of course. Dan always sleeps in. Phil lays down beside him in bed. After only a few minutes, Dan begins to open his eyes, already unconsciously shifting closer to Phil for warmth and cuddles. “Morning… When did you get here?” Dan mumbles sleepily. “Only a few minutes ago,” Phil whispers. “The world has truly gone insane. You’ll never believe what’s actually happening right now,” Phil murmurs. “I dunno, Phil. Trump is president in America. Lemme guess; nuclear war that we are now a part of?” He glances up at Phil, truly half expecting to be correct. “That’s a valid guess,” Phil admits. “But no. Literally, you will never guess.” Phil takes out his phone and just shows Dan the captured footage of the woman being attacked that has been all over the news from the YouTube app on his phone. Dan’s jaw drops. There is no denying the reality of that clip. The bloodcurdling scream of the woman, the way they scratch and bite her, the way they tear her open and apart alive, until she isn’t. There’s no faking that. Phil slips his phone back into his pocket once the clip ends. “They’re telling us all to stay indoors until, like, they figure out a way to deal with them. But it’s spreading quickly and the military could possibly be getting involved if it comes to it.” He doesn’t even really realize it, but he holds Dan closer as he explains. He’s just always had this compulsion to take care of the younger boy. Dan was two years younger than him and they’ve been inseparable since Dan’ s birth, basically. Their parents are very good friends, and they are next door neighbors. They’re closer than could be. “Holy shit,” Dan mumbles, instinctively nuzzling closer to Phil. “Wait- Does this mean that school is canceled?” Dan asks, glancing up at Phil, small smirk playing at his lips. “It actually does!“ Phil tells him. “Yes!” Dan laughs. It wasn’t real yet. It hasn’t truly hit. It hasn’t affected them directly yet. It was just a few small occurrences happening elsewhere. They could still laugh and have fun for now. But the threat was growing and spreading and getting closer to everyone, everywhere. It had only just begun.

-

Fast forward two weeks and things have truly gotten bad. Shit has officially hit the fan. There is no cure. There are more walking dead people than the military know how to deal with. People are dropping by the dozens. It is no longer safe anywhere. People are locking themselves indoors, boarding up their windows, barricading their doors. People who haven’t stocked up on months worth of food in the last weeks are surely about to regret it because good luck getting to the store now. No one will probably even still be working at the store now, you’d just have to loot it. Phil hasn’t been outside in a while now, but he knows the outside world is insane these days from the news that still runs on television and the radio. Phil and his parents have all moved themselves into the Howell’s home. It’s bigger, so they have more space to spread themselves out. The Lester’s have brought all their food and resources over as well. Everyone is now very, very afraid. Dan and Phil still feel quite secure, though. They have a good thing going here. They had stocked up on food, so they have plenty still. They feel they’ve protected the house quite well, did a good job boarding it up. The only concern was: how long would this go on? What if it went past when they do run out of food? What if one somehow breaks in through a boarded up window? No one is really sure how to kill these things, or how to protect themselves against them yet, so would they all just die if one got in? What would they do? All Phil knows is that he will die before he lets anything hurt Dan. Soft, sweet Dan. He would 100% protect him with his life. If something wants to get to Dan, it will have to go through him first. 

-

Dan did not take any of this seriously at first. But now that his house has essentially become a bunker, well- there’s only so much denial you can have. He’s now been with his own parents and the Lester’s all cooped up in his home that is all Fort Knox-ed out for a full eight days now. On the bright side, he would never complain about spending so much time with Phil. They have always been closer than platonic teenage boys typically are. They cuddle, sleep in the same bed when they spend the night together, even the odd kiss to the cheek or forehead sometimes. It probably has a lot to do with how they’ve been close since they were in diapers, but also they were just madly in love and the only ones who couldn’t see it were each other. This is a very scary situation, but Dan feels safe and secure where he is. Their home feels safe right now, Phil is always beside him which always brings a feeling of security, and all four parents are here. They both truly feel as if they have two mothers and two fathers. They both grew up with each others parents so much that they even call the others parents mom and dad. The parents all feel the same about both boys, caring about the other as much as if he were their own. They’re all one, big, loving family. Dan is very worried, though. He’s always had some severe anxiety. What are they going to do when the food is gone? What will they realistically do if one of those things gets in through a window or something? It is actually quite likely that it will happen. Whenever they make a loud sound, they can hear the dead banging on the glass of the windows, It already sounded like the glass was beginning to crack the other day. Sometimes it sounds like there’s only one out there, sometimes it sounds like more, sometimes it seems like all is fine outside their home. But how long will it take for a large enough group of them to gather around and cave in a part of their sanctuary? How long do they have here? Phil seems to sense Dan’s nerves because he holds the boy closer to his chest. “It’s going to be okay, Danny, okay?” He whispers and presses a small kiss to the top of his best friends head. Dan nods very faintly and nuzzles close, taking solace in his friends calming words and aura. They were safe for now.