𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 // 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝

5. you're right about deb!

"Paul! Paul, this is important, wake up!"

Paul woke to Emma pulling roughly on his arm. He stirred a bit and tiredly sat up.

"What? I'm tired, Em-"

"It's important Paul! Come see!" She grinned and gave him puppy eyes.

"Ugh, fuck, can't say no to those eyes."

"Okay great! Come on!"

He followed her downstairs, practically running into the living room. Nobody else was awake, so he felt bad for making so much noise, but Emma seemed so excited that he couldn't say no.

"Look!" Her excited talking turned to enthusiastic whispering. She pointed on the couch and Paul looked over.

Ted and Henry were asleep, with Ted's head resting on Henry's shoulder, and Henry had his arm around Ted.

"Well that's...a twist!" Paul laughed, understanding Emma's excitement.

"Not sure if it's a welcome twist, but...At least he isn't pining over Charlotte anymore."

That was only partially a joke.

"Yeah. But it's sudden, don't you think?" Paul asked, but quickly shut up when he saw Henry stir a bit in his sleep.

They both immediately shut up and tip-toed out of the room. They made it to the kitchen and bursted out into giggle-fits.

-

Alice was upstairs listening to music while this all went down. She couldn't stop thinking about Deb, and if she was alive or not. Every part of her wanted to run away and look for her but she couldn't do that to her dad. She knew he disliked Deb and was already worried enough about her.

She listened to the playlist Deb had made her. It was a bit more alternative than she usually listened to, but it was Deb, and she still loved it.

Alice lay back on the bed and spread out, her earbuds blaring in her ears. Yesterday, at dinner, the Professor had banned music being played inside the house (unless it was in earbuds), as to not attract the infected. So she was confined to the earbuds.

She had texted Deb a few times, called and called, left voicemails, but nothing. She was worried, and expected the worst.

She heard people moving around outside her room and realized other people were awake. And then? She had an idea.

Sure, her dad wouldn't let her go out to find Deb and at least see if she was infected or not.

But maybe that weird Professor guy would.

She mustered the strength to sit up and take out her earbuds. She put her phone on the charger and headed downstairs.

By now, Henry and Ted had woken. The Professor was sat at the kitchen table, looking at the news on his phone. Alice walked over to where he was and sat across from him.

"Good morning, Alice, sleep well?" He asked, putting his phone down.

"Yeah, thanks for letting us stay here. It's beautiful."

"No problem, kid."

"I-" Alice hesitated. Henry gave her a minute.

"What's up?"

"I...wanted to see if we could look for one more of my friends- well, my girlfriend actually- oh fuck, I didn't mean to come out to you or anything I'm just saying- ah, shit-"

"Hey, Alice, it's cool. For the record, I'm gay. Don't worry. Hell, you can have my flag if you want."

"Wait- oh okay! Um, thanks!"

"But about your girlfriend, I'm afraid it'd be very dangerous. I don't...I'm not sure if it would be a good idea."

Alice sighed. She felt the tears prick at her eyes and tried to ignore it but couldn't.

"Hey, hey, don't cry," He put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry- fuck- I'm just worried about her. I've called her, texted her, nothing. I'm so scared."

Henry nodded. "I understand. What's her name?"

Alice wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. "Deb. It's short for Debora, but she hates it, and she hates being called Debbie too. I always told her it was a pretty name but she still hated it."

"They're both nice names. Tell me about Deb." He was doing everything he could to keep her calm while he turned things over in his head.

"Well, her parents were always assholes so she'd come over as much as she could. She was funny, and nice, and always told me she loved me, and was so sweet. She even dumped her dickwad stoner friends because they were rude to me, and it meant so much. She means so much to me."

Henry listened intently.

"She seems like an amazing girlfriend. Tell you what, I'll go get you that flag if you want it right now, I have to talk to Paul about something real quick."

He got up, and pat her on the head. He went down to the basement and when he came back up, he gave her a neatly folded rainbow flag.

She was ecstatic and thanked him over and over. He just smiled and said it was no problem.

Alice left to go hang it up, leaving Henry alone at the table. His thoughts went to Deb.

Her situation was so much like his, except Chad didn't make it out. Thirty-one years prior, Chad and himself were in their way home from a college party with Leighton, Stu, Greg, Steve, and Mark. They had a fun night of drinking and board games, but Chad was the designated driver. Henry was drunk off his ass, and Chad was a loving boyfriend, so he agreed to drive him back to their dorm. They were at an intersection. Chad was following all of the traffic rules too, and waited his turn for the red light to turn green. When he started driving, they got t-boned by a semi. Chad didn't make it. Henry did.

Henry didn't want Alice to go through what he went through twenty two years ago.

The reward outweighed the risks.

"Hey Paul? Would you be up to leave the house with me?"

Paul looked up from his book, the same one Alice had been reading previously.

"Uhh, maybe, why?"

"I want to find Alice's girlfriend, Deb."

-

An hour later, Henry, Paul, and Ted were gathered around the front door with guns and medical supplies. Alice wasn't aware of what was happening.

Bill came downstairs, seeing the men at the front door. "So you're really doing it?"

"Yeah, wanna go?"

"No, I-"

Paul frowned. "Come on, Bill."

"It's not safe!" He argued, "I don't think I should-"

"Bill, we could use all the help we can get!" Ted didn't know why he was being helpful.

"Think about how much Deb means to Alice!" Paul reasoned, giving him a look that said 'come on'.

"Do it for Alice?" Henry was practically pleading him. All of them were.

Bill was shaking, nervous, but he knew the men around him were right. He would do anything for Alice, even if it meant trying to find her possibly dead girlfriend that he disliked.

Eventually, he sighed and held a hand out.

"Yeah. I'll do it. Hand me a gun."