Darkened Stars | Shklance apocalypse AU

Ch 2: We just needed a laugh

On that day we made it to Pidge and Matt's house with their parents. Samuel had gone to sleep when we had all arrived, complaining of a migraine from work. It had been a very tense night, but despite it all we managed to fall asleep in the living room together, however I decided to take the job as look out. Peering out of the window, all I could see of the city was ruins. Thick black smoke raising in plumes towards the darkening sky. The faint screams we once heard in the distance have faded massively, and I can only think of two things. The people that made it out of the city to somewhere safer, and of the people that didn't. Like that family's house that lit on fire just outside of the city limits, their burning corpses lying on the grass. Or the man I shot in the alley, a man that used to be alive. Like, with a consciousness. Real thought to be able to tell that what he was doing was wrong. But the one that hurt me the most was the little girl being ripped from a car window by infected. I won't go any further on that though. You can guess what happened next.

My thoughts were interrupted however by low groaning, and I cocked my revolver, standing up from my spot by the window and walking in the direction of the sound. Yeah I know I'm pulling one of the classic horror movie stunts. 'Never go towards the bad sounds' kinda deal. And honestly I wouldn't have, I'd of hightailed it out of there as soon as I heard it. But I had friends here. People I considered family. My home away from home. I couldn't just leave them vulnerable while they slept. The groan repeated itself, along with a bang, like something fell to the floor. I now knew the exact area of the voice, and I carefully made my way up the stairs after making sure the doors downstairs were locked. Coughing accompanied the groans and when I made it to the top of the stairs, I froze in my tracks. Samuel, Pidge's father, stood in the hallway by the bathroom door. He was slouched over, and at occasional moments he would twitch. The bang had been a desk top clock that was knocked over.

I was stuck, breath hitching as I looked at Samuel. I knew he was infected, I'm not that oblivious. But before when I saw an infected, I only saw the monster. I think about the family they could have had after they're dead. But now, I know this man. I know he has a family, he has friends. I'm apart of that group of friends. Samuel is a good man, maybe there's some way to talk to him and to magically lift the infection so we can all live happily ever after. I chewed on the inside of my cheek and let myself take a deep breath before approaching Samuel with caution, gun readied with one hand while I stretched the other towards the man in front of me. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest, and just as I was about to tap Samuel's shoulder I heard someone stop behind me at the top of the stairs. I freeze, eyes locking onto Samuel to make sure he didn't hear the other footsteps before I turned around slowly. It was Hunk.

A weight lifted off of my shoulders in an instant because I wasn't alone with Samuel anymore. I could have a second opinion. However when I took a step towards Hunk to speak with him, I ended up stepping on the clock that was knocked over, cracking the glass. The reaction was in the blink of an eye. The groaning behind me turned into gurgled screams and suddenly a body was over mine, scrambling to get to the bigger source of food.

Hunk

The impact forced me face first into the ground, and the shock of the fall knocked the gun from my hand. When Samuel, if this thing could still be called that, rose off of me, he bolted towards Hunk, startling the man to yell in panic and wake up the others downstairs It was in this moment the world slowed down, time felt like it stopped. I couldn't move to help Hunk. My head was throbbing too bad from impact with the ground to do anything about the situation. I heard feet bounding up the stairs, but it all sounded like I was under water. Everything was so distant. But as quickly as it started, it was over, and the gunshot that sounded resonated through the house. The throbbing in my head subsided slightly and I scrambled to stand up, and I reached a hand out to Hunk to pull him back up onto his feet and into a hug. Only now did I realize the fast pace of my breathing, and I tried my best to calm my rapid heart beat. When I looked around, most everyone was upstairs, save for Allura and Coran downstairs keeping watch. I saw the smoking tip of the shotgun, and I followed the length of the weapon to it's holder.