promises made, kept, and broken

Chapter 5: Didn't plan for this to happen

They are gathering material for some barricades since the sun has risen, and Tubbo is grateful for it. It takes his mind away from always looking down the main street. Ranboo said he'd be here in five to four days. But that was six days ago. He's a bit worried, but it's a zombie apocalypse. Not all of the roads are good enough to walk on them. Or free enough to do so. And Ranboo has the kid to take care of as well.

"Guys! There is something big over there. Like really fucking big!" Tommy shouts out from where he is on the lookout.

"A horde?" Phil asks, looking up from the little barricade he's building.

"I reckon yeah. But it looks like they are focussing on maybe a person or two. I can't really see it from here," Tommy says, putting the binoculars aside.

"We go check it out," Phil decides and grabs his weapon.

"WIL, TECHNO! Grab your weapons and come over to us! We're going after a horde!" Tubbo yells down the street and straps his scythe onto his back. It's way easier to run like this.

The group carefully closes in on the horde. All of the zombies seem to force someone up against a wall. What are they supposed to do? It's a whole lot of these fuckers against the five of them and whoever is trapped inside. "We can just try to take them out from here and hope these fucks didn't eat whoever is inside," Phil says after looking at the horde.

"Let's go then," Techno says and immediately beheads the zombie closest to him.

A pained cry from inside of the horde causes all of them to freeze for a second. Then Tubbo takes his scythe and bolts into the horde. Tommy tries to get a grip on Tubbo's shirt but fails miserably and lands face-first on the ground muttering some curses under his breath. Then the realization hits him like a truck at full speed. "That was Ranboo! We need to hurry!"

Tubbo rushes through the horde, only killing the zombies in his way. He ignores the slimy handy grabbing him. He totally has to scrub himself after that to get the nasty feeling away. As he is almost through the horde a zombie grabs him tight enough to stop him in his tracks.

"Let me go!" he yells before he cuts off the hand holding him and rushes forward again.

As he reaches Ranboo he gives him a quick once-over. Both of them know they don't have the time to reunite properly. He sees Michael behind Ranboo, hiding in an old barrel. 'Wow, that kid is really tiny.' He lets out a relieved breath after seeing Ranboo didn't get bit, but all of the relief is blown away as he sees Ranboo's left thigh. His pants are soaked with blood and he sees a big cut.

"We looks at that once these fuckers are dead," he decides and goes back to killing zombies. He is fucking relieved to see that Ranboo is alive. In a different situation, he'd probably just hug him for a long, very long time. But right now both have to fight their way out of this horde.

As Tubbo notices the rest of the horde going after Phil and the others he carelessly drops his scythe and tackles Ranboo in a hug.

"You're here. You're alive," he mumbles into Ranboo's chest. "This is real."

"Yeah. I'm here now. And I'm not leaving anytime soon," Ranboo answers softly. Michael quickly joins their hug again, clinging more onto Ranboo's legs. And after a while, there is just a pile of people around Ranboo. The pile is also the only thing holding him upright because his leg started to give in after the exhaustion.

"It's good to have you back, mate," Phil says, and the others hum in agreement.

"It's good to be back," Ranboo answers exhaustedly.

"Then let's get your leg patched up and get you home. You've got a lot of stories to tell, kid," Techno says, helping Ranboo to sit down.

----

After they somewhat stop the bleeding they walk back to their haven. It goes slowly because Ranboo refuses to get carried, so Wilbur supports him while walking and Tubbo doesn't let go of him while carrying an exhausted Michael.

Everything is fine until Michael sees something on Tubbo's shoulder.

"Bite," he states calmly, not realizing the extent of his observation.

Tubbo starts to panic.

When did that happen? How? He is so dead.

He carefully sits down Michael and while his mind is still going faster than he can comprehend he looks at his shoulder to see the rather deep bite. It's slightly bleeding. 'The Horde, the Zombie grabbed me, another one bit me.' His mind supplies. He squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. Then he looks at his shoulder again. The bite is still right there where it shouldn't be.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuuck!' Why is this happening right now? Right when he got Ranboo back. Why is this happening?

He takes a few steps back not looking at the others. He's too scared of what he might see. His mind screams at him to run. Because he knows exactly what happens to zombies or people who get bit. But he doesn't run. It feels like his feet are made of stone.

He kind of expects the others to just leave him here, to go on. Because there is nothing that could save him from becoming one of these monsters. No one has ever found a cure. But nobody moves. It's like time stands still. His mind is still going way too fast though.

Then Ranboo frees himself from Wilbur's stabilizing grip and slowly limps towards him. His mind tells him to run over and over again. It also supplies other cruel things Tubbo does not want to talk about at this very moment. But all of this gets stopped as Ranboo pulls him into a tight hug.

"I'm not letting you go now."

"You have to. I don't want to hurt any of you when I turn. Please just let me go," Tubbo begs him quietly but Ranboo just tightens his grip on him.

"We made a promise. Remember?" Ranboo asks him, taking a shuddering breath.

"You broke it first," Tubbo answers quietly, holding back tears.

"I didn't have a choice. You're just running away. We don't know how long we have left," Ranboo reasons.

Tubbo is quiet for a while, weighing his options. He can just run away and either roam around until his body is not able to do it anymore or be shot by a total stranger. Or he can go with Ranboo and have the person he trusts the most end his suffering.

"Okay. I'm coming with you. But just if you still know the end of the promise," Tubbo decides, and Ranboo nods, not being able to give a proper answer.

Because the last part of the promise says:

"If one of us turns into a zombie the other has to kill him."