Hungry (Zombie! Keith x Lance AU)

Chapter 7

"Spotted. Party of fifty plus. Half armed. Do not engage." Pidge called through the comms.

"Got it Pidge. Avoiding Canary Street now," Shiro replied, leading the large group away from the welcoming looking block. Pidge, Keith, Lance and Shiro were out to find more open buildings to scavenge from and to try and find another local band or survivors and form an alliance. So far, they were unsuccessful.

Pidge, once sniping from her secure location of the roof of a local house, slid down the drainpipe to join the other members. They neared a large beige building with a reflective sign that read, 'DRAYTOS MIDDLE SCHOOL' in large papyrus font. Pidge mumbled something about the font being painfully overused.

Lance reloaded his two handguns and played with a know in his hair while Keith scratched yet another design into his wooden bat. The handle was almost full of his carvings so he would have to move up onto the body. Lance sneaked a look at Keith over his shoulder, to which Keith returned. They stared. It would be a long mission.

Since their disagreement last night, whenever Keith would even look at a zombie Lance would have his eye on him the whole time, barely ever letting him take down one on his own. Keith was quite obviously annoyed by this as he sent Lance deadly glares whenever his kill was stolen. Lance only shrugged.

As they neared the middle school, Shiro and Pidge explained why this was such a good find as the school should have numerous supplies that would be good for them and their survival, especially the numerous medical kits and ADD's located throughout the building. They had agreed that they would enter the school from the back field and then go in through the cafeteria doors, proceeding to check all the buildings. As they neared the chain link fence, Keith was suddenly reminded of the discomfort he felt, placing it on not eating dinner or breakfast that morning.

The team scaled the fence together, and Lance was the first one to touch down on the other side, as he was eager to climb. However, as he landed on the unkempt grass a rotten figure lunged out from nowhere to attach itself to Lance's legs. He shouted and Lance fell onto the grass, face first while not wanting to shoot at his own feet to kill the zombie. Soon, many more came pouring out the doors and windows of the school, limping or crawling towards the fresh meat that had arrived. Lance had taken down the first zombie, but there must have been hundreds more inside the school, all set in feasting on the team.

By now Shiro was halfway up the fence, attempting to save his apocalypse child from the incoming doom, while Pidge and Keith stood frozen, ten yards back from the fence. "I should have seen them, I should have seen them, I should have seen them," Pidge chanted while looking up in horror to the school, but Keith was frozen for another reason. He didn't know what to do.

If he went in to try and save Lance, then he might turn and kill him instead. But if he stayed here, Lance would die no matter what. He made his choice.

Barreling up to the chain link fence, in one solid leap he cleared it, which was not what Keith was expecting at all. Because of that, he came tumbling down into the grass with a loud curse that was definitely not allowed on school grounds. Hastily getting up, he grabbed his bat with his mangled arm and charged into the field. Over the days he had spent with Lance, his arm became noticeably worse, most likely from getting no singing and being in contact with cloth all day. Now it was entire arm that was zombie-like, he was much more recognizable as one of their kind.

The first encounter Keith had with a zombie was a big and buff one, standing six feet tall with a fire extinguisher as his weapon. Keith made sure not to combat his bat with the red cylinder or else his weapon would surely break. The zombie came charging towards him with the extinguisher held high along with his head, so Keith ducked out of the way just in time for his head to stay on. While close to the earth below him, Keith struck a blow on the zombie's feet, both of them coming clean off with a spurt of blood. The zombie toppled to the ground and dropped his weapon, so Keith got up and whacked him in the chest with his bat, the sure way to kill any of the undead. After he was sure the big guy was down, Keith moved on to look for Lance in the bloodthirsty crowd of reanimated bodies.

Over by the baseball field he spotted a flash of green. Lance's jacket, Keith thought, while sprinting in that direction. As he neared Lance, clouds started to form overhead, giving the play field an even more eerie look, if that was possible. Lance was unknowingly backing himself up into the fence while shooting down a hoard of zombies around him, and once again his ammo ran out. He switched to his second handgun, but that once was empty once again. A sudden force of deja-vú hit him once again as a not-so-stunningly-handsome version of the zombie on the fire escape was with him once again.

"Hey, uh, buddy?" Lance tried while backing away, " How are ya old pal? Doing good? Good. Now can you backoffrightnowplease?" Lance pleaded, finally hitting the fence in back of him. The final trio of zombies came closer and closer, as Lance closed his eyes knowing this was the end.

Suddenly a battle cry rang through his ears as his knight in shining armor barreled into the fray, charging down the zombie to Lance's right, stomping on his chest to ensure his demise, before battering off the next zombie's head in one swipe. It fell down to the ground, puss and blood oozing from where it's head once was. Keith dropped the bat to the floor after following through with the blow, delivering a swift kick to the chest for the last zombie, breaking a few ribs along with its life force.

Keith panted, the battle having knocked all his energy out of him. The impending storm overhead worsened as the sun was blocked out of the sky, leaving the field a dark and dead place. Heaving, Keith placed his palms on his knees for extra balance, each coming moment becoming harder and harder to make his breathing even. He collapsed, choking on his own breath, sputtering on the sickly poison that entered his mouth, begging him to inject it into another living being. Now kneeling on the sandy turf of the baseball field, hands pulling at his raven locks of hair, he chanted into the floor, "I won't, I won't, I wont, I won't," Keith shot upwards, only to fall back down again, now facing the cloudy sky. His eyes darted around, trying to find anything to poison that wouldn't matter. Nothing. There was nothing. There was only one option left.

"Keith? Keith! Listen to me. You're going to be fine. Everyone is going to be fine, okay? You remember me, right? Lance McClain? The coolest survivor who you just saved? You wouldn't bite me. You won't bite me. I know you won't. Come here. You're safe." Lance attempted to calm Keith down, but Keith knew what he was really thinking.

"You're scared." Keith spat, staring up at Lance, gaze shifting from Lance's face to his outstretched hand. "You know I could bite you and end it all right now. You know that your life could end this very moment. You can't hide from me, Lance. You know why?" Keith waited for a response. Lance shook his head no. The shorter male had pinned the human up against the fence by now, staring into the other's oceans, now clouded with fear. Keith sighed. "Because I'm scared too. I don't want you to die. Why else would I have saved you? I-I want you to be happy, with me? I don't know why I feel like this, but I do. The worst part is," Keith was in tears, "I don't wanna die either! Isn't that something? I-" he sniffled, "I don't want to be left alone anymore." Keith buried his face in Lance's chest, dropping his arms at his sides and silently cried into Lance, forgetting about the zombies, the apocalypse, the want for the blood coursing through the other's veins to be spilled on the floor. The only thing that mattered was Lance.

Tanned arms snakes around Keith's torso as he silently cried into the other's chest, and Lance whispered sweet nothings into Keith's ear, cradling him. Then, Lance whispered something into Keith's ear he thought he'd never hear again after his mother left.

"I love you too, Keith, I love you too."