rewind writing comp 2018!!

apocalypse | rewind au

this was so much fun to write wow. all characters belong to CJ_Adler

***this AU was written before the last couple chapters of Rewind, I wrote this as kind of an alternate ending. Some things didn't happen such as Jay's house collapsing, Troy and Jezel adopting a kid, etc***

an AU in which the ending of Rewind wasn't so pleasant. Instead, the gang deal with the growling of the undead walking among them and horrible, permanent losses. (yes this is a zombie apocalypse au)

The abandoned grocery store was near silent, with only the sound of quiet shuffling footsteps and the low, soft growls of the undead echoing throughout. It was dark, but not so that it was too hard to see. Some lights were flickering while others were completely off, making our vision uneven to the store before is. A horrific smell of rotting corpses drifted through the market and stuffed itself up our noses, I'm pretty sure I've heard AJ and Xavier gag more than five times so far.

"Oh Christ," Landon grimaces quietly, his face scrunched up in disfust as he, Jay, Xav, Emma, AJ, and I quietly raid the large grocery store for supplies, "it smells just like Xavier in here."

I hear AJ softly laugh to herself as Xavier shoots a glare at Landon. I bite my lip to keep on letting out a snicker and shoot Landon a wink. Even Emma and Jay crack a smile.

Landon grins in satisfaction and continues to lead us down the many stocked isles of the store. We all carry heavily cramped baskets of food and water and toiletries. They're practically overflowing with supplies. We hit an extremely rare jackpot.

Usually, whenever we go on supply runs we either hit a store that's already completely raided or already completely raided except there's still three boxes of Mac n' Cheese left.

I open my mouth to add on to Landon's amazing observation before his hand suddenly shoots up, silencing us as he stops walking.

We all freeze as the happy mood is silenced, like a noisy TV abruptly unplugged. Landon peeks around the shelves surrounding us and nudges his chin to around the right one. Walkers.

We wait as Landon quickly counts how many there are before holding up eight fingers. I exhale and close my eyes, turning my head up to the ceiling and shaking my head.

Emma notices my actions and nudges me softly, "We got this," she says under her breath to me with a timid smile. I try my best to return it.

Then, I notice Jay slowly but surely set his baskets down and tries his best to make no noise before he places his palm on his gun and knife. We follow in pursuit.

Landon signals our moves and begins walking again. I unsheath my knife with Jay, AJ, and Xavier while Emma and Landon take out their guns.

Together, we move in a sluggish clump towards the walkers. Our footsteps are agonizingly slow but we know it's the best way to stay cautious. I push a falling strand from my ponytail away from my face as I scan the aisles in front of us with focused eyes.

A small part of me gets that feeling everytime we do something like this. It's a small piece of fear that comes with every supply run or move we do. Throughout the months, it's dialed down lower and lower but no matter how hard I try, it always grows back up again and eats all hopefulness and courage that are required during these types of runs.