𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 // 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝

20. zombie house

hey besties i promise i'm not dead lol

emma gets a panic attack in this and it's based off of how i feel during panic attacks so like, for the 'her mouth felt numb' part that's something i experience and decided to throw that in so it sounded more realistic ig anyway i'm ranting and just read that chapter hahahhh i love you guys

tw: panic attacks, syringes, needles, mentions of death

-

The rest of the group had split up to find more people when John had ventured over the fence, so when they returned to the car they were quite shocked to see the General carrying an unconscious child.

Henry and Ted had just set an unconscious random girl they found singing in the trunk when the General came back. He lay the child down in the backseat and carefully retreated.

"Sir, that is a child, do you think we should use it on him?" Curt asked as John emerged from the car.

"If this kills him, it will be a much quicker and painless one than if the hive mind killed him. Think about it," John responded and looked towards the group. Owen had just shut the trunk with another boy in there with the girl.

Everyone decided it was time to head back.

-

Dragging two adult-sized unconscious bodies into a house was a surprisingly difficult task. Owen and Henry walked in first with the boy from the trunk and brought him down into the lab. Everyone watched from curiosity.

Next, Ted and Curt brought down the girl, not noticing the sour look on Paul's face when he saw her. They sat her in the lab as well.

John was the last to come in, the unconscious child in his arms. When they saw who it was, Paul immediately turned to stand in front of Emma so she didn't see. It seemed like he recognized the kid.

Emma would have none of this, of course, so she managed to weasel her way around Paul and to the General's side. Instantly, she regretted it. She felt like puking and crying at the same time.

It was her nephew, Tim.

She practically threw herself towards the boy, rubbing her hands over his face as she started to cry. Emma hated crying, and everyone knew it. She would rather die than cry in front of others. But when she held the boy's face in her hands and broke down, everyone else knew this apocalypse was getting way too personal.

-

It took ten minutes of Paul gently tugging her arm before Emma reluctantly moved away from John and Tim, who went down to the lab. She was still a mess, though, barely able to stand as she clung onto Paul.

Henry had met Tim twice. Both times were when Jane and Tom were out of town and nobody else was available, so Emma was forced to bring Tim to class with her. He knew Tim was a very quiet, well behaved boy, at least that's how it was when he was three. He assumed the kid was probably ten now, but it was hard to tell.

Henry pat a still very distraught Emma on the back and went down to the lab to give Tim the cure injection. It felt very, very immoral to inject anything that wasn't a vaccination into a child, but he knew this was a matter of life and death. But still, when he brought the needle up to Tim's neck, he hesitated.

Then he took a deep breath, and pushed the syringe into the skin.

-

Emma had been pacing back and forth in the same spot for an hour now. No word from Henry on the condition of Tim and she was losing her shit. She was completely zoned out and didn't respond when anyone spoke to her, so the group around her tried to make conversation as they sprawled out on the couches.

"What's Emma's deal anyway? She looks like she's dead or something," Ted asked Paul, watching as the girl once again turned directions to pace the other way.

"That kid, his name is Tim. He's Emma's nephew. He's been a lot more close with Emma since...his mom, she died last year. I've met him a few times before, he's a great kid. Video game nerd, good grades, loves computers. He's pretty much the only family she has left," Paul responded, anxiously tapping his leg, not taking his eye off Emma even for a millisecond.

"What about that other girl? You seemed pretty mad when she came in," Owen saw Paul was upset and quickly changed the topic of conversation.

"She's from GreenPeace. That's all you need to know, she advocates right outside of Beanie's every single day. She's so annoying, and also she's the first infected person I ran into."

"She's there every day. 'Do you want to save the planet?' Like, yeah, but I'm busy!" Bill nodded, making everyone laugh.

"Save the turtles, VSCO bitch," Deb whispered to Alice, who snickered.

Meanwhile, Emma could not stop moving. Pacing, shaking her hands, you name it. She felt like if she stopped moving, she'd be back in reality and Tim would be dead.

The only thing bringing her any sort of peace of mind was the fact that Tim wasn't dead that she knew of. Unless he was and Henry hadn't said anything.

Shit, her brain was loud. She could feel the hyperventilating building back up, even though she had just steadied her breath a few minutes ago.

She felt like she was completely losing it, and it terrified her. She hated having panic attacks more than anything. When she felt her bottom lip start to go numb and her legs going weak, she knew she was fucked. She was past the point of going back, so her best hope was that she could manage to get upstairs and lay down.

She fell to her knees, full-on hyperventilating. She felt like she was drowning. The only thing in her head was the phrase "Tim is gone. Your family is dead."

That's when she felt herself being lifted from the ground. Out of pure panic she started kicking, and she tried to yell but couldn't. Whoever was holding her didn't move though. She felt them start moving as she made weak attempts to struggle, until she accept her fate. If she had opened her eyes, her panic may have gone down, because she would've known it was Paul, who was bringing her up to their bedroom to lay her down and calm her down.

Emma flinched when she felt herself fall and hit something soft, which she immediately realized was a bed. She reluctantly opened her eyes to see a very, very, very, concerned Paul standing over her.

"Emma-"

"Paul- Paul, where's Tim? Where is he-"

"Emma-"

"Is he okay? Fuck, he's probably dea-"

"Emma, look at me!" Paul raised his voice, but not in a harsh way. He wasn't yelling, it was just in a way to grab her attention.

"Tim is with the professor. You're in our bed right now. You're safe. Tim is safe."

Emma did her best to keep eye contact as her breathing slowed a bit. After a moment, she was able to talk without stuttering over every word.

"I need a hug."

Paul was happy to oblige.