Random Fandom Imagines 2

Riley Abel

Riley woke up, feeling restless and uncomfortable as usual. After all, it was the apocalypse. She never expected to feel safe or cozy.
At least she knew being a Firefly would bring her some sort of protection. Not that it made her feel too relieved.
Rubbing her eyes, the girl stood up and looked around her.
No one seemed to be up yet in the building. Which allowed her some freedom to go out for a chance, she hated being locked indoors.
Knowing she had a gun was the only thing that kept her mind from remembering all the infected people out there who could bite her. And then everything would be over for her.
As she walked out, Riley wished she could see someone from her past for once. Like Ellie, a friend that reminded her that everything that stayed in her memories actually happened.
Because that apocalypse definitely made her feel like it happened in a dream. It all felt so unreal and far away now...
Once outside, she took a deep breath to try and take in as much fresh air as she could. Or at least how much of the outside world as she could.
Everything felt peaceful around her. And most importantly, quiet, with no signs of infected people anywhere near.
Then, as she thought about that, Riley got startled by a sudden near sound.
Scared, she pulled out her gun and prepared to shoot if necessary.
"Who's there?" She called out, knowing that there was still some possibility that it was someone not infected. Perhaps a new member of the Fireflies.
"I'm not infected, don't shoot!" A voice announced somewhere not far.
Riley noticed how a figure appeared from behind a tree, the hands held up in the air in surrender.
It was Y/N, her best friend from school. Way before the world went to shit.
She looked exactly the same, just how she remembered her. She hadn't aged a day.
"Holy shit!" Riley exclaimed, still breathing heavily from the scare. "You're alive!"
Y/N stood there, mouth wide open as she observed her old friend.
"Riley, oh my god!" She run to hug her, glad that she wasn't dead as well.
Riley chuckled in disbelief, having a hard time believing it was actually Y/N. She had made it through it all, she had made it so far!
"How are you?" Y/N asked her, observing her with curious eyes, just as her friend did.
None of them had changed that much in all that time.
"I'm swell" Riley replied sarcastically. "Enjoying the fucking apocalypse, Y/N"
The girl grinned in amusement.
"You haven't changed"
In response, Riley smirked proudly.
"Who are you hanging out with?" She asked after a short pause.
"These guys I knew a while ago. A woman and a grumpy man" Y/N shrugged. "You?"
"The Fireflies" Riley told her as if revealing a secret.
"What?!"
Riley laughed at Y/N's reaction and patted her back.
"Come on, let's go take a walk" She suggested. "We have to catch on"
*
They told each other what they had been up to during all those years. Where they were when it all started and how they had survived until then.
It was exhilarating for them both to have a lively chat for once. So they enjoyed that banter as they walked.
Excitedly, Y/N slapped Riley in the arm as she chuckled happily.
"I can't believe it!"
The girls slowly walked into the shopping centre they had watched from across the street. They couldn't hold back the urge to go in as soon as they spotted it.
Riley was happy to have found that place too, but Y/N was just out of herself in pure excitement.
As the two of them walked through the place, letting her eyes wander around it, a wave of memories rushed them. That place had definitely seen better days, but it was to be expected.
It used to be so full of life and so bright, always lit with flashing ads in big screens or playing music through the whole place.
Still, they tried not to think about its current poor state.
Riley suddenly gasped at the thought of something great.
"Our spot!" She exclaimed, grinning widely and passing on her eagerness over to Y/N.
The two girls sprinted to the set of stairs that led to the second floor of the mall. At one side of it there was an old graffiti that they never quite figured out what it said, just that it had colorful paint.
That was their spot.
"I completely forgot this spot existed" Y/N commented, fascinated by the rush of memories.
That shopping mall was the place that Y/N and Riley used to hang out at every day after school. They would just walk out of class and run there, backpacks and all, to spend hours chatting and telling jokes.
"Remember our puns competition?" Riley grinned at her, nudging Y/N's ribs softly.
"Yeah!" Y/N closed her eyes in concentration and clicked her fingers as she tried to remember. "Have you ever tried to eat a clock? It's very time consuming"
Riley clapped and threw her head back as she laughed loudly.
"A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired" She said back, starting one of their old pun competitions.
"The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference" Y/N giggled at her own pun.
"I'm glad I know sign language, it's pretty handy" Riley clapped for herself while Y/N held her stomach in laughter.
"So what if I don't know what apocalypse means!? It's not the end of the world!" That one used to be one of their favorite puns back then, but it wasn't funny anymore.
The world wasn't what it used to be. Nothing had never been the same.
Now it was all just surviving. Seeing violence, seeing infected, seeing blood and death all around. And struggling to stay alive and safe another day was just exhausting and discouraging.
Immediately, they stopped laughing. The good and cheerful mood soon vanished and the silence settled heavily between them.
Y/N plopped down in the floor, crestfallen, and sighed.
Wanting to regain the joy of the moment, Riley sat down next to her and thought of something that would cheer her up again.
She hated to see Y/N sad. She had always hated it, and memories of her making efforts to make her friend laugh brought a tiny smile to her face.
That was how she thought of a way to cheer her up again.
"Remember when we sneaked in here and the guard went fucking crazy?" Riley dared to break the restless and eerie silence.
Y/N looked up, still a little sadness present in her eyes.
"Because thanks to you we weren't allowed in here..." She mumbled with a pout, knowing what Riley was trying to do.
"Hey, that mess wasn't my fault" Riley defended herself with a mischievous grin. "That guy overreacted"
"He would go crazy whenever he saw us walk in and would chase us all over the place"
"But he was too slow, so it would only make him angrier" Riley smiled bigger, already giggling.
Y/N, on the other hand, was already laughing at the top of her lungs with the memory. Those moments were so funny to her that she couldn't stop laughing.
"And you... and you..." She managed to say between fits of laughter. "You shouted at him to taunt him and he went nuts every time"
Riley felt much better seeing as Y/N was cheerful again. It put a big smile on her face.
"I'd tell him 'Hey, big guy! Why don't you come and get us?' and he'd growl like a mad dog and yell 'I'll get you, punks!' and it was hilarious" Riley laughed a little too, amused by the thought of it.
Y/N was laughing so hard that genuine tears were forming at the corner of her eyes.
"Stop, I can't breathe!" Y/N pleaded while she tried to take in some air.
Riley friendly shoved her as she chuckled at the sight of Y/N crying from laughter.
"He was a dick" The girl mumbled, grimacing as she remembered the guard.
"He was" Y/N agreed, slowly recovering herself from the laugh attack.
To be fair, that man used to be rude and disrespectful to everyone. In fact, the day he told Riley and Y/N they weren't allowed in there anymore made a lot of people talk about it.
What the girls did wasn't so bad, and it wasn't certainly worth being banned for life.
Yet he banned them.
"Damn!" Riley suddenly whispered in awe. "The secret hiding place thingy!"
Y/N gasped startled as she remembered what her friend was talking about.
The both of them stood on their knees and softly hit the tiles of the floor with the edge of their hands.
"Found it!" Y/N screamed happily, pulling the tile off and revealing a hiding place that contained a transparent bag filled with candy.
"Man, our snacks!" Riley laughed. "They're still here!"
"This is awesome!" Her friend said as she took the bag and held it before her eyes to observe it.
"I dare you to eat one" Riley smirked as Y/N observed her with annoyance.
"I'm not gonna eat one!" She complained. "This probably tastes like shit!"
"Chicken?"
Y/N threw her a death glare and picked one candy out of the bag.
She watched it carefully, estimating how bad it could be.
"Go!" Riley encouraged her. "Go! Go! Go! Go!"
Y/N closed her eyes tight and shoved the candy in her mouth.
"Uuuugh" Riley grimaced in disgust.
"Shit!" Y/N spit the candy out and made weird faces, wiping her tongue with the inside of her shirt. "Fuck you, Riley!"
The aforesaid was laughing so hard that she was lying in the floor, hitting it with her fists in pure happiness.
"I hate you!" Y/N threw the bag of candy at her friend, who didn't stop laughing.
But the fun soon was over when a loud noise interrupted their nice time.
During the apocalypse, there was a small chance you could encounter nice people that were genuinely kind. But that wasn't one of those times.
"Y/N, run!" Riley got out her gun as she watched a group of five men barging into the shopping centre.
They carried weapons, and looked very determined to use them.
"Let's see if they have something" One of them said, smirking evilly.
The girls were already on the run, but that only made them fire their shotguns.
Riley ran as fast as she could, firing her gun over her shoulder every once in a while. Her elaborated breaths filled her ears along with the terrifying sound of gunshots.
Her heart beat crazily on her chest as she hoped they would escape them soon.
When suddenly, Y/N screamed behind her.
When Riley turned around, she saw her friend bleeding on the floor.
That sight shocked her and she stood there frozen, staring at the fallen Y/N with wide eyes.
The group of men was getting closer.
"Run!" Y/N pleaded, choking out the words in pain. "Before they get you too! Save yourself!"
Riley frowned as she felt tears on her eyes. She didn't want to leave her, she wouldn't even have time to say goodbye to her! Not even to stay with her in her time of dying.
A gunshot sounded really close to her, startling her and getting Riley back to reality.
She may never forgive herself for doing it, but she ran away.
Before she left, however, she mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' to Y/N. The girl just nodded and sent her a sad glare mixed with the expression of pain in her face.
Riley then proceeded to run, leaving Y/N there even if she hated to do so. It was either that or be killed, and although she preferred to be killed just to be with her friend, she wanted to be true to Y/N's last wish.
So she ran. She ran faster than she ever ran as she furiously fired against those evil men that only wanted to steal whatever she was carrying.
And Riley managed to escape the building and run through the empty streets.
*
When she was too tired to keep on running, Riley collapsed to the floor crying and hurting.
She still couldn't believe Y/N was gone. After finding her again, when years passed without seeing each other to the point that Riley almost forgot she had a best friend so great as Y/N... When she got her back it was cruelly taken from her again.
After going through the pain of losing yet someone else dear to her, Riley thought what she could do to get over that sorrow.
Nothing seemed good enough, nothing at all. Nothing would stop the pain.
Everything felt like a nightmare because the loss of Y/N was weighing her down and threatening to break her completely.
But suddenly, Riley remembered something that could make things better. Even if it would be just a little bit as the pain was too strong.
But she remembered someone that she loved. Someone that she missed.
And trying to leave all that behind, Riley went to look for Ellie.