Apocalypse Grumps

Coming Out

Danny held Arin back with all his strength as he struggled and reached out for Jack, the fires of rage fueling his every action. Jack was slowly backing away with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Do you have any idea who Jon was to me?! Do you?!" Arin shouted. "Him and I were gonna fend for ourselves together. We were gonna fight the power together." He calmed down, and Dan let go of him. One after another, tears cascaded down his cheeks as he held his head. "The fans used to think Jon and I hated each other. The fans used to think that Jon stopped doing Grumps cause he had to move to New York for a job offer." Everyone then fell silent. "And when Dan joined, they asked even more. Kept saying that Grumps was better with Jon and that Dan wasn't good enough. And even when they did start to accept Dan, they kept asking." Arin's tone was more somber than it usually was, and that made me uncomfortable. "That day I saw him on the ground, dead... I just..." he whipped his tears away with the bottom of his palm. "I could've shot myself that day... I was seriously thinking about it..." he chuckled. Suzy gasped and hugged her husband tight. "I... I need some time alone... sorry..." He slowly walked towards the elevator while Suzy followed him.

"I hate it when he gets like this. It just doesn't suit him." Danny said absentmindedly as he gazed at the doors of the elevator. I walked to his side, and he intertwined his fingers with mine. He seemed so spaced out, that I think he forgot that we were keeping our relationship a secret. I almost refused his hand, but I felt like he needed me. I leaned on his shoulder.

"What the fuck are the two of you doing?"

We both spin around, our hands coming undone. Everyone was staring at us. 'Oh fuck... Did we blow it?'

Jack, who was the one to call us out on our actions, stepped towards us. I could hear Danny's breath quicken. "Why the hell were you holding hands?" he asked. Danny's breath quickened. Danny started to back away from the group, his eyes darting in all directions. The group started walking towards him slowly, which I felt was the reason Danny was close to hyperventilating. "Danny..." I tried to calm him down. He started to mess with his hair in a panicked way.

He finally hit the corner of wall that he was backing into, and sunk to the ground. I sat next to him and offered to hug him. He grabbed onto me, as if for dear life, and I comforted him. After a few minutes, he lifted his head to face me, I wiped one of his tears with my thumb and gave him a smile. He smiled back at me and I planted a final kiss on his forehead.

We then stood facing the crowd, hand in hand. "Alright, alright. We tried to hide it, but I guess that failed already." I joked to try and lift Danny's mood. I guess it had no effect. "I know I should've told all of you, but I... I just didn't want to lose your guys' respect I guess..." Danny mumbled. Barry came forward and took Danny's shoulders in his hands, "Dan, there is nothing that would ever change the way we see you. Just because you and Mark are together doesn't mean we're gonna kick you off the team. Besides, you two look fucking adorable together." he smiled.

Tears started to form in Dan's eyes as he tore his eyes from Barry and looked at me. I gave him a reassuring smile, which made him break out into a large grin. He enveloped me in a hug and kissed me on the lips quick, but passionately. I heard Ross give a small cheer in approval, making the two of us blush.

The elevator doors then opened and Arin and Suzy walked out of it hand in hand. "So uh," Ross walked over to the two while pointing his thumb towards the two of us. "Oh we know." Arin said blankly. Ross stopped and stared for a second. "What do you mean you know?" he demanded. "Yeah, mark and Dan are together." "You didn't know?" Suzy asked. "No!" he shouted. "It was kind of obvious." Arin said, which made Dan blush and look to the side in embarrassment.

"Well anyway," Suzy clapped her hands together. She went over to a folded slip of paper inside the jeep's glove compartment. With some difficulty, she unfolded the paper and revealed that it was a large map of the country. It was a little tattered on the edges which meant that they probably have had it for a while. She called for Barry to get her some tape so she could hand the poster on the stone walls of the tunnel for everyone to see more easily. When it was tapped to the wall, I could see some faint pencil lines alongside the dominant red line showing what I assumed to be our route. They probably mapped this plan out multiple times over the years.

"Now, how we're gonna do this is we'll go into Nevada a bit, through Utah, stop for a break in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, stop in Illinois, then Indiana, Ohio, some West Virginia, actual Virginia, and then we're in D.C." she concluded.

"...We'll be going through Utah...?" Jack asked, sounding slightly frightened. Suzy nodded yes in confusion, "Oh no..." he mumbled. "That's where they are. That's where they all are." Everyone looked at each other oddly and then back at Jack. "What's there?" Kevin asked.

"I was deployed a couple times to keep them under control. You have to, otherwise this apocalypse would be ten times worse with all them running around." he spoke. "With what running around?" I asked once more, a bit disgruntled.

"They were an experiment that went wrong. Felix tried to make an army with them, but they started to eat the other guards, making them one of them." Ross chuckled a bit, "It sounds like you're talking about zombies or something." Jack turned towards him with a completely serious look, "I am."