Stay Alive --Hamilton Apocalypse AU--

.:8:.

John

Life was better with cars, and John figured that out when their last car ran out of gas and they couldn't find more. The group had to resort to pushing shopping carts down the road as they tried to make their way away from the city. Nobody said a word for the most part, probably because there wasn't much to say. The only time they'd had apart was bathroom breaks in abandoned houses or in the trees. Nobody liked talking about those, though. 

John wasn't really complaining about the lack of conversation, anyway. It gave him time to get lost in his head and pretend that he wasn't one of the last people on the planet that wasn't interested in eating someone's brain. 

Slowly, his mind went away from the scorching sun and his aching feet to when he was a teenager and he found his first boyfriend, Francis Kinloch. 

They thought that they were the sneakiest people to ever exist and, who knows, maybe now they would be. They'd sneak out at night and meet up at an old park or go to a movie or something that their parents wouldn't find out about. Both of them came from politically powerful families, so they couldn't be anything less than the perfect heterosexuals their parents needed them to be. Of course, "perfectly heterosexual" didn't really describe what they did when they were alone. 

John had to wonder if Francis was still alive and, if he was, if he was still the same guy that Laurens loved. Maybe the end of the world warped his old boyfriend's sense of morality and maybe he turned into a murderer. Maybe his old boyfriend was one of the undead corpses wandering around the city and maybe he was already taken out by some other survivor. John really had no way to tell and, now that he was thinking about it, it was going to drive him insane. 

To take his mind off of it, John finally spoke out loud. "Who has the water?" 

Even as he said it, his voice was raspy and his throat was audibly dry. 

"Me," Lafayette answered. He picked up a water bottle out of one of his bags and threw it over to the other man, who stopped pushing long enough to catch it. 

"Okay, I can't take this anymore," Hercules sighed. He stopped pushing his cart and turned to look at his group. Everyone stopped. "Where are we going? Does anyone even know? Like, are we just pushing these stupid carts to the middle of nowhere?"

"That's a good question," Burr added. "We were supposed to be looking for more survivors but do we really want to without a car?" 

"We can't just stop looking because we don't' have a car! If anything, this would be better since we can fit more people now," Lafayette argued. 

For some reason, everyone looked back at John, immediately putting on the spot for a decision. He thought it over quickly, scanning his surroundings for some sort of environmental hint. 

"Let's sleep on it," he decided. "We can just sleep in this house over here and we can discuss after we get out of the open. It's getting dark anyway." 

Everyone nodded and followed John into the house. They left their carts outside and just carried in the bags and items. To John, it almost felt nostalgic to be coming in and setting grocery bags on the counter. He honestly felt like his younger siblings were just arguing in the other room or his parents were just about to come inside from the car. He could still practically hear the car doors shutting-- 

Wait.

Everyone's head snapped up at the sound of car doors shutting. 

"Y'all heard that too, right?" John asked, just to make sure the heat wasn't getting to his head. 

Everyone nodded and when they heard the voices coming from outside, they snatched their weapons from wherever they were sitting. The group stood at the ready, weapons raised and huddled together. Suddenly, the voices outside died. There was slight shuffling and John gripped his bat tighter. 

Panic had plenty of time to set in as absolutely nothing happened. The other side of the door remained silent and nobody inside moved. They all stood for as long as they could manage before John started creeping forward slowly. He brought his gun up a little higher and reached for the handle. Before he opened it, he looked back to make sure everyone was ready for the fight. He only opened after he was sure they were ready.

Once he did, he was immediately slammed in the head by. . . someone else's head?

He was knocked to the ground and the other person ran in, somehow avoiding getting hit by everywhere. People ran down the stairs yelling and before John even had a chance to process anything--which might have been due to a forming concussion, that guy had a really solid head--he and his group were huddled together, surrounded by near barbaric survivors. 

The one that knocked John to the floor was wearing zip ties on his hands, which explained the head attack. But the zip ties didn't explain why they were there in the first place. 

Laurens could only assume the worst. 

"What are you doing in our house?" One of the women demanded. She pointed her hunting knife directly at the group, slowly moving from one face to the next to show that she wasn't playing favorites; she would definitely cut all of them if need be. 

"It's dark," Burr explained almost annoyed. "We needed to get off the streets and, to be fair, how were we supposed to know that you lived here? It's the end of the world, no one lives anywhere." 

The woman didn't respond for a second. John couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she was thinking. He just hoped she wasn't thinking of killing them. 

"Well, you need to leave," she said finally. She yanked Lafayette up, who swore at her in French. Immediately, the man that knocked Laurens down started snickering. 

"What's so funny?" John and the knife woman asked at the same time. They turned to glare at each other for a second. 

"Nothing," he replied, letting a few giggles out still. "Just what he said." Then he cleared his throat. "But, y'know, maybe you shouldn't kick them out. It's dark out and they wouldn't survive two seconds." 

"Good thing it's not your house, rules, or life. If you don't shut up, it could be your life, though." 

"You don't know where the civilization is," he challenged. That caught John's entire group's collective interest. None of them said anything, though.

"Angelica, maybe he's right?" Another girl cut in. "You aren't a killer." 

'Angelica' groaned. "You four, over here," she muttered, guiding her group over to a corner where she could still keep an eye on John's group. Immediately after they were out of earshot, he turned to face his friends. 

"Okay, what's the plan?" he whispered. 

"I think we should try to stay," Hercules said. 

"Obviously," Laf scoffed. "but what about tomorrow? We need a plan if they decide not to let us go." 

Burr seemed to think it over in his head, everyone waited for some input and response, but he only shrugged. "We need to do what's going to keep us alive the longest." 

"Thank you, Burr, helpful as always." John rolled his eyes. "Okay, don't kill me here, but I think we should stay with them. You heard what Bilingual said, he knows where civilization is. So if we just stay with them, we'll find it too. Agreed?" 

Everyone nodded. They quickly turned to look like they weren't discussing anything. A few minutes later, their captors came back. Angelica didn't look very happy about whatever it is that they decided. 

"Fine," she said simply. Then, with a nudge from one of the other girls, she continued. "You can stay. But you abide by mine and my sisters' rules, you don't take any of our food, you don't touch any weapons unless absolutely needed and don't try any shit Deal?" 

"Deal," John said on behalf of his group. Angelica rolled her eyes and put her hunting knife away. Laurens had to wonder if she was always that hard of personality or if the end of the world changed her. 

Slowly the group got off the floor and hesitantly followed everyone to the living area. The girls, excluding Angelica, lit up some candles and pulled out books and board games. 

"Help yourself," the curlier haired sister offered, motioning to the entertainment. 

It was strangely domestic, but the groups sat down together and decided playing games, trading backgrounds, and making introductions was a good way to spend the night.