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topazy · 10 months ago

Text

Inside, outside

Pairing: 10k x reader

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of blood and brains

Chapter: 5.06

After bringing the quad bike to a complete stop when you spot a deserted-looking warehouse, 10k jumps off the back first, and immediately you’re missing the warmth of his arm wrapped around your waist. With the sling of his gun over his shoulder, he offers you his hand to help you climb off. If 10K wasn’t a gentleman before, people would probably be catching onto how protective he was being.

You, 10K, Warren, Murphy, and Addy had gone to find the source of bizkit’s and why they seemed to be low rations of it, while Doc and George headed back to Altura to keep an eye on Dante’s trial.

“Is that the bakery? The place looks abandoned.”

“It doesn’t mean nobody is home,” Warren points out.

The five of you stand on the edge of a small hill that leads down to the pathway into the building. The side of the hill was mainly covered in rubble, preventing any vehicles from driving on it.

Murphy looks lost in thought; a look of distress appears on his face. You lightly hit his arm to gain his attention. “Are you okay?”

“I smell brains.”

“This must be the place, then.”

When the five of you started making your way down the path, you were being extra cautious not to trip while walking on such a rocky surface. 10k stays in front of you and continues to glance back, ready to catch you if you do fall.

Murphy walks by you at a normal pace and scoffs, “You two make me feel sick.”

“Just keep walking, Alvin.”

“My biggest fear is losing you. When you were kidnapped, I realized how much I loved you and that there was nothing I wouldn't do to find you,” Murphy says mockingly. “You're my best friend, Tommy, and there's not a line I wouldn't cross to keep you safe.”

10k glares at him and warningly snaps, “Shut the hell up.”

Addy, who’s standing at the bottom, already looks up in confusion. “What is he talking about?”

“Nothing.”

In a high-pitched fake girly voice, Murphy says, “I knew our fates were intertwined.“

“I swear to god!” You knew Murphy was looking for a reaction, and usually you wouldn’t take the bait too easily, but he had been teasing you since you left for this new task.

“Don’t get wound up; he’s not worth the reaction,” 10k says calmly, but as soon as you reach the bottom where the others are waiting, he presses the long side of his rifle against Murphy’s collarbone, pushing him into the wall. “Lay the fuck off Murphy.”

“Jeez, lighten up, kid.”

10k steps back.

Warren clicks her fingers. “All of you, focus.”

Once you checked, nobody else was in sight. You round the corner, and Addy breaks the lock on the door, giving you all access to the building.

—

The inside of the building stinks of rotten meat, which is explained when you find human skulls and parts of rotten brains scattered across various baking trays.

The group had split up, but you could see both Addy and 10k going to check out the same area. It saddened you that they no longer had a close relationship, and you felt partially responsible for it, but then it was your sister who left. Since they last saw each other, Addy had lost an eye, and 10k had lost his hand, and they could have leaned on each other for support.

“Astra, I’m really sorry, but it looks like she left during the night.”

You shake your head, refusing to believe it. “No, no. Something is wrong; Addy wouldn’t just go without telling me. She wouldn’t do that.”

When you awoke in the morning to find Addy gone, you assumed she had gone hunting, but when she never returned, a couple of hours later, you, 10k, and Red went looking for her, but you couldn’t find her. You returned to your home to see if she had returned.

Red links her fingers with yours and gives you a sympathetic look. “All her stuff is gone.”

You squeeze your eyes shut to hold back tears. Addy only found you in the first place while looking for someone else. “She’s gone to find Lucy,” you say, clearing your throat. “We should go and let Tommy know; I don’t want him out there looking for someone who doesn’t want to be found.”

You aim your gun in the direction of something being crushed and slowly make your way over to a large mixer, which appears to have turned on itself. You look inside it and almost gag at seeing more skulls.

“You guys seeing this? This place is gross.”

When you don’t get a reply, you spin around to see Warren staring at something with a concerned look on her face. She notices you looking and waves you over. When you do, you see what the problem is.

“Eh Murphy, are you good? You’re practically drooling over a skull?”

“Yeah,” he quickly shrugs your comment off. “This place just gives me the munchies.”

All of a sudden, a man appears and starts firing at the three of you. Quickly, you jump out of the way to avoid being shot and accidentally scrape your stomach on something sharp. You duck behind one of the metal tables and, taking a few deep breaths, look down to see blood appearing on your top.

No, no, no.

Murphy crawls over beside you and says, “What the hell are you doing? We gotta keep moving.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know I just—fuck.”

“Did you get shot?”

“No, I’ve just cut my stomach.” The cut wasn’t deep, and you were sure it hadn’t harmed the baby, but it gave you one hell of a fright. Between deep breaths, you start mumbling to yourself, “Tommy is going to freak.”

Seeing how afraid you are, something clicks in Murphy, and he gives you a look of understanding. He knows. Quietly, he says, “Stay behind me; we are going to make a run for it.”

You nod, and the two of you manage to run behind a different spot without being shot.

—

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you try anything stupid.” You say, aiming at the man who was previously trying to kill your head.

While he chases Murphy and Warren off from either side, the man seemed to not care that much about weapons being so close to his head. “It looks like we’ve got ourselves a zombie standoff. You have me; I got him, and my brothers got all three of you.”

You glance around the room; it was more than likely that 10k or Addy had gotten to his brother first.

“We are looking for bizkits,” Warren says. “We have starving talkers that are starting to turn.”

“We are just trying to survive ourselves, and it’s crooks like you who have shut down the bakery and turned us into a bunch of dirty dogs. So lower your weapons and kindly waltz out of here, or we’re all going to be crawling brains.”

“Look, I don’t know who you think we are, but we aren’t them.”

“That’s what the last bunch said before they started shooting.”

You didn’t doubt the man’s story for a second; the bakery was covered in a red mist of blood. A door creaks open, and Addy and 10k bring out another man, whom you assume is the brother with a gun at his back.

“Listen,” you lower your weapon slightly, “your brother is still human, and I know you want to keep it that way. Just tell us what we want to know, and nobody else will get hurt.”

The man gulps down, “So, you're in need of some help?”

—

While the older man, Gilly, looks at his younger brother, Skull's nose, which was cut by your sister. 10K pulls you aside and grips a hold of the bottom of your top, “What the hell happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine; it’s just a cut.”

He holds your gaze. “Are you sure?”

“We’ll be fine.”

You return to your group just in time to hear Gilly explain that it was their mom who invited bizkits to save their brother, who had been bitten, but then the brother bit the mom when they ran out. And since the bombing, someone has been attacking the bakery so they won’t continue making them. Their mom had turned two weeks ago, and she was the only one who had the recipe.

You look up at the window of the office overlooking the rest of the bakery and see multiple talkers that have turned.

—

Murphy stands up a table, holds up a radio, and turns the music up to distract the talkers while Skull sneaks inside to get the recipe. The plan was going well until Skull tripped and fell and was bitten by their zombified brother right after their mom ate the recipe.

“I hate to say it, but the only way to keep them from turning might be to feed them actual brains.”

From the doorway at the far side of the room, multiple heavy footsteps can be heard, along with snarling and hissing. All the noise must have attracted the nearby Z’s from outside. Thankfully, only a small number of them came into the building.

You run up behind one of the Z’s and stab it in the head before shooting another two. You notice Addy and 10k working together to take out Z's, which makes you smile.

Warren cuts the head off one and tosses it to Gilly.

You stand behind 10k and bury your face into his back, not wanting to witness Gilly crushing the skull, then cutting up the brains, and then feeding them to the walkers.

When the talkers return to normal, the mom flirts with a creeped-out Murphy, kissing him on the cheek before continuing to help.

—

Sitting with your legs dangling over the edge of a table, you watch as the brothers bag up the last of the bizkits. Hearing a whistling noise, you look over to Murphy, who was trying and failing to be discreet by waving you and 10k over to him, then looking away.

You and 10k stand on either side of him. “What’s going on?”

“I just wanted to say...” he trails off while tracing patterns in the flour scattered across the table with his finger. Murphy's jaw clenches slightly. “I don’t like either of you, but I do think you will be great parents, even lefty over here.”

With that, he turns and quickly walks away. You share a confused look with 10k. “Did you tell him?”

“No, but I think he figured it out.”

Ultimately, you’d need to tell the others the truth sooner than later. 10k smiles and brushes strands of hair out of your face. “Go for it.”

“Uh, guys, we’ve got something we need to tell you.”

Warren and Addy step a little closer, and you try not to laugh, seeing the worried look on their faces.

“Tommy and I are having a baby.”

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topazy · 1 year ago

Text

Inside, outside

Pairings: 10k x reader, Addy Carver × sister reader

Warnings: Swearing

Chapter: 5.02

Doc follows behind George for a few miles as she leads you to Camp Altura. The camp was built around a college campus, which had minimal damage. As you stepped in closer, you were able to see different stalls selling blankets, hot food, hand-made soaps, and fresh fruit and vegetables.

“This place is pretty impressive.”

“Hey, guys!” George calls over from a fenced-off area. “You gotta go to quarantine first!”

She points you in the direction of a tent to revive a medical test that would determine if you were alive or dead. Then you could move onto the second stage and fill out forms to register as a citizen. The third part was being assigned a temporary job until they found a permanent one suited best to the information you’d given them.

Doc and Sarge passed with flying colors, but the doctor checking 10K seemed concerned. “I'm having a hard time finding a pulse,” she says, feeling his wrist. “Any near-death experiences? Going into the white light? Loss of appetite?”

“Sometimes everything’s in slow motion.”

The doctor gets 10k to remove his top half of clothing to scan his body with a UV light. You swallow hard, glancing over to the other side of the tent. You see Doc and Sarge watching with the same expression on their faces, no doubt fearing the same thing as you. What if 10K was still technically dead? The doctor pushes him forward to inspect his back and notices the mark on the back of his neck. “What is that? It looks like a healed-over bite.”

“Oh, that… that was me. I sometimes get a little carried away in the bedroom.”

10k looks mortified at first but then clicks onto your lie. Smiling, he looks up at her and shrugs. “I picked a biter.”

Unconvinced, the doctor begins to feel his neck and then his chest. She roughly pushes her thumb over where his heart should be, causing 10k to wince out in pain. “Any heart problems you’re aware of?”

“Not till you did that,” he says, trying to pull away from her, but the doctor only pushed her thumb in deeper.

After a tense few moments pass, the doctor finally smiles and says, “There we go; we got a pulse.”

When it’s your turn to sit in the chair, you hand the doctor the paper with your name on it. It felt so strange seeing your name in black and white on the medical form. 𝐘/𝐍 ‘𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚’ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐤. You were unsure whether to even include your first name since nobody calls it anymore, but you chose to in case Addy ever came looking for you.

She looks between you and 10k, who was putting his top back on. “Another Beck, siblings?”

“Married.”

“But not siblings?”

Sarge scrunches up her nose and says, “that’s disgusting.”

You nod in agreement with Sarge while opening up your mouth for the doctor to inspect your teeth.

“Anything can happen in the new world,” she deadpans.

“Ew.”

“Any zombie bites? Mortal wounds? Organ failure?”

You shake your head.

The doctor feels around the inside of your mouth, giving you a disapproving look. Considering how hard it was to keep hygiene standards up while running from the undead and trying to save the world, your teeth were in pretty good condition. The doctor narrows her eyes at you, then turns to tell Doc and Sarge they should start queuing to register because the lines were long. She asks you question after question without giving you a chance to answer. Frowning, she starts to feel around your stomach before moving her hands further up your body.

You swat the doctor's hands away when she feels your breasts. “Eh, excuse me!”

“Hmm,” she starts to scribble down on the piece of paper, shaking her head. “I’ll organize a scan for you. It will probably be later today so they can do a safety evaluation to figure out the best place for you to work.”

10k steps forward, his eyes wide with worry. “Why does she need a scan? Is something wrong?”

“No, just to see how far along the baby is.”

"I’m pre—” Before you can complete the question, you hear a thud. You look over your shoulder to see 10k has passed out. “I’m not…I cannot be.”

She hands you a small yellow tube to pee in and says, “Let’s find out then.”

Oh shit.

—

“Okay, so now that you’ve registered for citizenship and are certified alive, you’ll need to wait outside in the line on the left for housing and a work permit,” the doctor explains. She smiles at you. “Well, not you, mommy; you’ll be off work for at least a couple of days.”

This wasn’t happening; there had to be some kind of mistake. You couldn’t be pregnant. You glance at 10k, who was toying with the bandana on his head; he hadn’t said anything since two pink lines appeared on the stick the doctor dipped into your urine sample.

“I know this is a shock, but I do have more people waiting to be processed.”

You stand first. “Uh, thank you.”

Stepping out of the medical tent into the camp, you first spot Doc and Sarge, who are waiting for you both. “Fuck, we can’t tell them.”

10k nods in agreement, “we cannot tell them or anyone.”

You go over to retrieve your bags and weapons, which you made to hand over upon arrival. Soon as Doc waved over to you, you knew it would be impossible to keep a secret like this from him. 10k thinks the same because he says, “I don’t know how long I can be around him before I break.”

“We can tell Doc, but nobody else. I don’t want anyone to know anything until... I don’t even know.”

“Until we are finally sure things are safe?”

“Yeah,” you sigh. “Our team is our family; this affects them, and I don’t want to freak everyone out until it’s absolutely necessary. How are you feeling about it? Your head took a pretty hard hit when you hit the ground.”

10k Let’s take a deep breath. “I’m not going to lie; I’m terrified. But we’ve made it this far.” Seeing tears build in your eyes, he pulls you in for a hug and kisses your forehead. “We’ve made it through much worse; we just need time to get our heads around it.”

Taking his hand, you walk towards Doc and Sarge in comfortable silence. Just as you reach them, George appears with a large smile on her face. “Hey guys, I’m glad to see you made it in. Did you get your work assignments?”

“Sure did.” Doc replies. “You’re looking at a future intake examiner. I guess they liked my bedside manner.”

“I’ve been assigned gate duty with the volunteer militia,” Sarge pouts.

“So have I,” 10k says.

Sarge seems a little happier that she and 10K have the same assignment, but she struggles to hide her disappointment. George picks up on it as well, “it’s only temporary. Once the referendum passes, you’ll be able to work anywhere in New America. I personally like Pacifia, my home, but there’s something for everybody.”

You liked the sound of that. Personally, you either wanted to live in an open area like a forest or a farmhouse. You knew it would be a long time before that day came, but having that goal reminded you how worthwhile all the shit you’ve been through was.

George’s dark eyes land on you. “What about you? What’s your work assignment?”

“I don’t have one yet,” you shrug.

George nods her head; she looks like she’s going to say something but notices the nervous glance between yourself and 10K and changes the subject. “Well, if there’s anything I can do—one moment.”

You watch as George orders men who are guarding the fences to be less rough on a woman who’s the new type of zombie. She calls for Dante to hand her one of those little black biscuits and feed it to the women, making her much calmer. Without those biscuits, camp would be screwed; it was the only thing that stopped people who had died from turning completely Z.

—

After a quick shower and a hot meal, you go with the rest of your group while they are on gate duty. You didn’t want your first day in the place to be alone, especially since you’d got an appointment for a scan later on that day. Even though the doctor confirmed you were with a child, you didn’t feel any different; the only difference you felt now was a massive weight pressing down on you for keeping it a secret. But knowing so many things could go wrong, it was best to keep it quiet for now. At least that’s what you told yourself.

“Warren! Murphy!”

“Oh my god! Roberta! You are indestructible! Look at your hair,” Doc says, pulling a brunette into a hug.

It takes you a few seconds to fully register. Warren was standing in front of you. She was alive. You jump to your feet and rush towards them. “I can’t believe Murphy actually found you. I was so sure both of you were gone.”

Warren hugs you tightly. “I’m glad to see you. I’m so glad you guys made it this far; I was worried I’d never get the chance to see any of you again.”

Whatever happened to Warren when she supposedly died changed her hair back to its natural color. You liked it; she looked more like herself again. Murphy’s skin still remained bright red. Although Altura was the longest zombie-free outpost in North America, you couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that it could all change now that Murphy had arrived. Seconds after the thought crosses your mind, Murphy causes a scene by refusing to go for his examination.

Seeing Dante step forward, you jump in between them and say, “Listen, he’s got a phobia of scientists.”

Doc starts to try and defuse the tension but stops talking when Warren and George smile at each other. They walk towards each other and hug. It turns out they were old friends who saved each other's lives at the start of the apocalypse.

—

The outpost was more impressive than you first realized; it even had its own bar—not that you could drink for a long time, but it was nice that others could. When you first entered the bar, you were pleasantly surprised to meet Simon Cruller, better known as Citizen Z. It was crazy to think how many times he’d saved your asses without ever actually meeting you.

“Oh my god, what is that?”

You try not to barf as a citizen places down a large glass of green tequila before sitting down beside 10k and saying, “Do not let me drink this; I have a wife and kid.”

10k tilts his head and looks at you with wide eyes; you could already see the sweat gathering at his hairline. You had agreed to sit down with Doc and gently break the news to him that night, then, in a few days, tell the others, but the unknown elephant in the room had caught the attention of Sarge, Simone, and Doc, who were all staring at the two of you, waiting for one of you to say something.

Doc suddenly lunges forward, “Reds alive! She’s here with some dude, and they have a kid!”

Before either of you can answer, glass shatters from the other side of the bar, and two drunk men begin to shove each other while arguing. Sarge and Simone go to intervene, while Doc stays behind. A baby? How long have you been apart from her? Keeping track of time in the apocalypse was never easy.

“Sorry kids, I thought you would be over the moon to—”

10K suddenly lunges forward, downing the green tequila he burns loudly before wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. He looks at Doc and blurts out, “Astra’s pregnant, with a baby!”

Doc leans back into his chair and says, “Oh my god, I mean congratulations. You guys must be—”

“Terrified.”

“Nauseated.”

“What’s going on, gang?” Warren asks, walking towards you.

“Nothing, nothing,” 10k scrambled to his feet. “I need some fresh air.”

“Yeah, I’ll go with you.”

—

“You guys should go talk to her,” Sarge says, motioning her head in the direction Red was going.

While walking around the stall area, Sarge caught up with you and 10K; if she sensed something was going on, she never let on.

“Yeah, it would be nice to catch up with her and find out how she vanished into thin air.”

You start to approach her first, watching as she smiles brightly and talks to someone, but when a man hands her a baby wrapped in blankets, you quickly turn and head in another direction. It was too much. Starting a new life, finding out you were growing a new life, Warren coming from the dead, and now seeing Red with a family—it was too much for you to process at once.

“Astra! Astra, wait!”

You run until you start to feel physically sick and sit down on a patch of grass. Pulling your chest up to your knees, you quietly sob. You lose track of how long you’re sitting for; you only lift your head when footsteps approach from behind. “I’m sorry, Tommy.”

“No need to be sorry.”

“Red?” You wipe away your fallen tears and stand, saying, “You’re really here.”

“And you’re alive!” She rushes over and embraces you in a hug that you desperately needed. “I spoke to 10K; just to be clear, I’m not married, but here you are. Congratulations.”

You pull back and chuckle. “I’d say I wish you were there, but it was kind of chaotic.”

“Isn’t it always? What kind of wedding was it?”

“It was a spur of the moment, word-dying type of wedding.” She laughs, thinking it’s a joke. “Red, I’m so sorry about everything that happened before you left. I’ve missed you so much; I should never have left you and taken off like I did.”

She offers you a kind smile. “What’s done is done. Now we can only look to the future, and for the record, I’m sorry too.”

You squeeze her hand, “friends.”

“Fri— what was that?”

You both look over to the building the voting was going on in to see smoke coming out from the side of it. “I think a bomb just went off.”

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