Suffering: Male Reader x TWDG (slow updates)

Chapter 60: You Must Be Lucky

You wake up and look around. You're not in your room at the school, you're sitting in a car, alone, the rain hitting the windows and rolling lazily off them onto the ground. You know what this is, where you are. You're dreaming, and this is the camp where it all started; where your father died. . . your mother too.

You haven't had this dream in years.

You sit up and open the car door, the weather instantly finding its way to you. Though, despite the wind and raining hitting you, you don't feel a thing. You take a deep breath before pulling yourself out of the car, readying yourself for what's to come.

Andrew, a man you haven't seen in years, trudges through the mud towards you, a smile on his kind face. He scratches his nose, one that despite his tall stature, seemed to dwarf the rest of his features.

"Hey Y/N, how are ya?" he asks, smiling at you.

"I'm fine." You shrug, not sure of what else to say.

"You should come 'round the fire with the rest of us," he says. "It surely beats sitting alone."

You shrug once more and follow him as he leads you to an opening, to the camp. . .

You forgot how makeshift everything was. RVs with their canopies pulled out, washing lines tied between them with wet clothes that had been cleaned in the nearby lake, and of course, a big crackling fire in the centre of camp, camping chairs strung haphazardly around it like an obstacle course.

Home. At least, for the first couple years of the outbreak. God. . . you were what, 11? 12? You're almost 18 now. Where has that time gone?

You take a seat by the fire, Nathan stands there, telling the story of how he caught the deer that's currently being seared and most likely charred to pieces if you remember Cindy's cooking skills. You chuckle at the memory. It's almost bittersweet being here and experiencing it again.

"So there I was, against a tree, pissing. . . " Nathan stops as he notices your presence. "Umm. . . peeing, I was peeing against a tree. When I saw something moving to my left, and well, I went to investigate assuming that it was one of the biters and then all of a sudden this huge beast," he points to the deer carcass, some of which is still being butchered as he speaks. "Well it just jumped out at me. Almost shi. . . I mean. . . uh."

"Shit yourself. . . " you say half heartedly, remembering what you said way back then. "You almost shit yourself, right?"

"Um, yeah, that's right," Nathan says with a chuckle, glancing over to the chair where your father always sat, but the spot was empty. Sadness crept in. It seemed tonight you weren't going to get to see him. What a dumb dream.

"Hey, enough of that!" Your mother's voice drifted from the trees. You turn to see a group of women returning from the lake with buckets of water. Your mother wasn't among them though; just her non-corporeal voice. They place the water near the fire and make themselves busy as Nathan continues his story.

Andrew leans back in his chair and tries to catch your attention. As you have nothing better going on, you give it to him. He walks over and pulls out a machete, your machete, from seemingly nowhere. "Take this," he says as he gives you a wink. "I have a feeling it will come in useful."

You don't remember that happening in real life, it was a chocolate bar he gave you, not a weapon. You look down and realise you're wearing your militia uniform, sheath and all. You carefully insert the blade in its sheath and thank him as he turns away and walks off back to his wife.

"Hey y'all," comes Cindy's very thick and loud southern voice. "Food's ready!"

You don't get up to grab a serving, this is a dream after all. You lean back in the chair and hope that you'll wake up soon. You'd rather not get to the end of this particular dream. It won't end well, and you don't want to suffer through it all again.