It was only a cough

by West_of_the_train_tracks

Summary:

She first started to notice she wasn’t feeling well around a week ago, it’d just been a little cough then. Something easy to cover up, nothing to worry everyone else about.

Chapter 1: Grasping Vines

If Keyleth were to be caught by anyone, Scanlan would have been the last person she’d expect.

She first started to notice she wasn’t feeling well around a week ago, it’d just been a little cough then. Something easy to cover up, nothing to worry everyone else about. Keyleth surprised herself at how well she was able to hide it, even more so when it started to get worse, coughing harsher and her muscles starting to feel off, at first her muscles just ached a little but as time progressed they started to feel locked and agonized. Like some infernal beast bit into her flesh and left a slow and painful paralysis like venom into her body.

But she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could hide it forever. It was by pure luck that the group had stopped and taken over a motel in the middle of nowhere as a temporary base. It was better to fall and be immobilized onto the hard tiled floor of a motel bathroom rather than during a supply run surrounded by undead and gods know what else.

And this is where her anxiety and selfish want to keep the others calm got her. On the floor. Wheezing, brutally coughing, and the inability to move without every fiber of her very existence screaming, sending its agonized cries throughout her nervous system. 

Scanlan stares down at her wide eyed with a look of pure terror in his eyes. Gods she must be a horrid sight. He calls her name but she doesn’t respond, she can’t respond, at least not verbally and even though it hurts, gods does it hurt, she slightly tilts her head to fully look at him. Whatever he see’s must not be good, she can barely guess what he sees her mind is too enraptured with the agony welling in her very being, and yet she sees his features go pale as he turns and runs out the room. 

She is vaguely aware of shouting, shouting is never good not to mention it attracts attention. Gods she wishes she could move, she’s drowning in her own head, everything hurts. Every wheeze, every cough, jostling her body ever so slightly and yet even if the movement is not much physically it sends a painful feeling only akin to her nerves rupturing into an entanglement of thorny vines wrapping themselves around the leftovers of her nervous system.

Suddenly there are hands, or at least what she thinks are hands; everything feels so off, on her face tilting it up to look blurrily at a long haired man's face.

Scanlan was scared, scratch that no he was terrified to his very core. It had been hours and no one had seen Keyleth causing them all to go look for her. And oh lucky him he heard her coughing. 

Gods he was not prepared to see her looking like the human rendition of a dead spider's body still twitching even in death. She was sweating profusely and when she looked at him, gods she looked like she was in hell, her eyes looked sightless like even though she moved to look at him she only accomplished being able to comprehend the general area of his existence.

 So he did the only thing he thought to do, run, get the others and now here he is watching Vax frantically grab her face and call out to her as Vex and Pike try to check her over and figure out what has caused her body to suddenly be at war with itself.

She looks so out of it, he wonders if she can even feel all of the hands on her, fuck can she even feel the tears falling sliding down her face? Scanlan didn’t know and in all fairness he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. He knew she had a bad health record, they all did, they knew it was just a matter of time before she’d get sick. She even has before a few small illnesses and a few bigger ones here and there but nothing like this, never like this.

Scanlan couldn’t watch anymore, turning around he saw Percy frantically looking through a bag Grog must have brought into the room, said large man bringing in yet another bag of their supplies. But what draws Scanlans attention is the crate in the corner of the room, where he can see a paw reaching out and clawing at the bars that entrap her.

He walks over and crouches down to look inside the crate, two glowing green eyes stare right back at him. The two just stare at each other for a moment. Oh fuck it. Scanlan unclaspes the gate, scooping Minxie up into his arms and sits against the wall.

From there everything kind of blurs for him, he sees percy find something then hurriedly head into the bathroom and Grog going to stand by the door checking the hallways, one hand on the sledge hammer he keeps on him.

They have been making lots of noise and even if this place is in the middle of nowhere, they’ve learned by now that it doesn't guarantee safety. When Trinket walks over to him for once Scanlan doesn’t shoo him away if anything he’s grateful that the giant dog decides to sit next to him.

He’s vaguely aware of a scuffle happening in the bathroom before he see’s Vex and Vax carry Keyleth out and lay her on the bed. Vax crawls onto the bed as well putting the red haired woman's head in his lap. She’s still making those gods awful wheezing noises as well as a few coughs here and there but regardless she looks slightly better at least from what Scanlan’s brain allows itself to process.

Vex stays near Keyleth and Vax while Percy and Pike grab a few of the bags Grog had brought to the before. The white haired duo come over to sit near Scanlan, Pike giving him a sad smile.

The two begin to take out items and separate them into piles. It takes a moment but Scanlan realizes they are counting how much food they have left.

“We’re going to be staying here a while aren’t we.” He doesn’t bother to put his usual bravo into his voice, not with what he saw and with the anguished sounds coming from their friend piercing his brain. Percy just releases a hum in acknowledgment as Pike grimaces.

“Yeah, it’s not good but not the complete worst. I wish we caught this sooner, we probably could have stopped it from being this bad.” Pike says, looking at Scanlan with worried tired eyes. “If the meds work and we have enough of them we should only have to stay here for a week or two.” She gives him a weak yet hopeful smile and though Scanlan isn’t precisely feeling the most hopeful right now, he’ll try to believe Pike's word. 

Turning to look at the supply piles she and Percy are making, he slightly tightens his hold on Minxie.

 He isn’t a very religious man but he sends a little prayer to whomever is listening, that Pike is right.

Notes:

Don't worry you'll get more vaxleth moments soon XD Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

Chapter 2: Ocean whispers

Vax rests his hands on the sides of Keyleth's face, his thumbs brushing away her tears. He’s shaking and he can feel his twin’s gaze piercing into him.

“How the fuck did none of us notice something was wrong?” Vex’s words find a break in the fog clouding his mind but all he can do is shrug. “We all know this isn’t something that just spontaneously happens. You two are rather involved with one another and you didn’t see or hear a damn thing?” Though her words and tone are accusatory, Vax can hear the worry underneath. 

Keyleth has tried to hide the fact she’s got sick before but she was usually good at telling the group or him, Vex and Pike can tell if she started to worsen health wise. The idea that she’s getting better at hiding her discomfort is beyond worrying.

“She seemed fine.” His voice is shaking, he fears his trembling hands might cause Keyleth discomfort but he dares not take them away from her. “A bit more stressed than normal but I just figured it was because of that bad run you and Grog had in that gas station a while ago.” He’d rather not think about that event, though they made it out relatively fine, Grog got a new scar from it. 

They just stayed there for a moment, the only sounds in the room being the rustle of objects being moved around and the occasional noise of confirmation between Pike and Percy. After a sigh and quick squeeze of his shoulder Vex leaves him to go and do something. Vax doesn’t dare take his eyes off the woman he loves, who stares blankly up in his general direction. Her wheezes and coughs have lessened since they forced her to take some medication. 

She was so out of it, not responding to them in any form or fashion. The cursed image of Pike holding her in place, Vex keeping her mouth open while he gave Keyleth the meds Percy found, it’ll never leave his mind just like a great deal of many other things that have happened since the beginning of this living hellish nightmare. He cringes inwardly wishing he could erase that memory from his head but he knows it will greet him as soon as the darkened veil of sleep claims him. 

 

Keyleth feels like she’s been drowning in a dark monochrome sea for she doesn’t even know how long, the last she remembers is the vague feeling of someone grabbing her face. It takes her a while longer but eventually she’s aware that she is now laying on something soft as well as her wheezing and coughing has lessened, not a lot but some. Her muscles still scream though it seems to have at least loosened its grip so she is no longer anchored at the bottom of the dark sea of agony, not enough for her to float at the top of this ocean but enough to where her head just barely peeks through. Allowing her to finally focus. 

The first thing she sees is Vax’s face, twisted with worry and the sadly common anxiety that they all have had clung to them like a leech since the beginning. Next she feels his hands on her face, softly thumbing her cheeks. She gives him a small smile and even though it hurts, she reaches her hands up to encompass his own.

“Hey.” Her voice is graveled and worn from the constant strain her throat has been sustaining. Vax’s eyes widen, his whole face momentarily morphing into one of shock before his entire being goes soft and in but a whisper he responds.

“Hey.” He turns their hands, intertwining their fingers before bringing one set up to place a brief brush of a kiss onto her knuckles. For a moment it is just the two of them looking into each other's eyes and forgetting the horrors and current circumstances of their lives, that is till the others realizes she’s become fully aware again.

A cacophony of voices all go off at once and suddenly she feels as if the tether that had been holding her in place has been yanked, her head getting drowned yet again. Luckily though Vax was able to see her sudden descent into the depths.

“One at a time! She’s still sick and a whole lot of fuckers talking to her at once isn’t going to help!” He says loudly, the others reactions are a mix of frustration and of being successfully cowed but all understood the error and went silent. Eventually Vex steps forward, taking a seat on the bed, resting her hand on Keyleth’s knee. 

“You gave us a right damn scare there, Kiki. How are you feeling?” Gods isn’t that a question. “And for the love of the gods please, be honest.” Keyleth takes a deep breath in regardless of her body's protests and lets it out with a bit of a cough causing her and everyone else to flinch a little.

“Everything hurts, but it’s better than what it was.” Vex nods and does a hand motion to tell her to continue. “My body feels like it’s tearing itself apart.” At that comment Vex’s brow furrows.

“When did you first feel sick?” Percy asks, staring intently at her. Keyleth can feel the anxiety crawling upon her, she focuses her gaze onto Minxie who’s watching her from her spot in Scanlan's arms.

“Roughly a week ago?” As soon as the words leave her lips the room explodes into a rush of voices and exclamations. Causing Vax yet again to remind everyone to calm down. She wishes she could sink into the sheets and forget all that is happening. 

Vax releases one of her hands and returns his hand to her face, making her face him. His face is full of sadness, worry and something she can not place.

“Why didn’t you tell any of us?” Keyleth could almost feel the unsaid ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ in Vax’s voice and it breaks her just a bit more inside. A few tears leaking from her eyes as she starts to finally grasp a better hold on how much she might have messed up.

“It was only a cough. At least for the majority of the time.” She hears a few of the others curse and talk amongst themselves but her eyes stayed on Vax, who looked so despaired. Oh what she’d do to be able to grab his face and tell him everything's alright but it isn’t, she damn well knew she was a time bomb waiting for the perfect moment to go off and if the mood of the room plus the way her body feels was anything to go by it seems it might’ve finally gone off.

Eventually the group finally calms down and Vex takes a large breath.

“Well though definitely not ideal, we’ve already made the decision to stay here for a week or so. The meds we gave you seem to be helping.” Vex takes her hand off of Keyleth's knee and drags it down her face, before giving Keyleth her signature displeased glare.

“I also hope this serves as a lesson as to why you should tell us when you're sick, instead of letting it fester and set us off track.” Keyleth shrinks into herself as much as her body will allow and gives the woman above her a nod, Vex’s face softens. “I’m just worried for you, darling, we all are. I can understand that it might be annoying to tell us whenever you feel off but you are important to us and I’d rather you constantly tell me whenever you have a little sniffle then find you on the floor sweating and detached to the world around you.”

She gives Keyleth one last squeeze on her knee before getting up and stretching.

“Well I don’t know about all of you but I’m going to get some sleep.” Vex says before heading over to the other bed in the room, collapsing onto it. “Keyleth should take some of the meds every five or six hours but I believe you’ll have that covered, brother.” Vax just lets out a huff of a laugh at his sister's antics before returning his attention to Keyleth.

Keyleth felt a slight shift on the bed before she felt the familiar shape of Minxie curling into her side, looking down at the cat who stared back at her. Keyleth smiles, slowly and carefully placing her free hand on the felines back.

“Thanks, Scanlan.” The short man just shrugs in response.

“Eh, my arms were getting tired, plus I think she’d prefer your company to mine.” He explains, though Keyleth has known him long enough to see through him and she just releases a silent chuckle even though the movement hurts a little.

Eventually everyone settles down. Percy and Grog taking the night watch, usually only one stays up but they’ve made a lot of noise and no one wants to risk it. Vax eventually moved from his perch above Keyleth's head to lay down right next to her, the two of them looking at each other.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” She whispers to him but he just shakes his head.

“Believe me I wish you told me, or anyone for that matter but there is nothing we can do about it now. Just please promise me, if you feel off again after this that you’ll tell me first thing.” He begs.

“I promise.” Vax smiles, leaning forward and kissing her forehead before shuffling as close to her as he can without causing her discomfort. The two of them lay there gazing into each other's eyes till the dark caress of sleep overtakes them.

Notes:

Here's some vaxleth moments for ya!

Just a note feel free to critique me and tell me what I've done wrong and should work on to fix!

Chapter 3: Crown of madness

Notes:

Poor Vex is spiraling a little.

Vex can feel Percy's gaze burrowing its way into her as she watches the sleeping figures of her brother and his girlfriend. The night was rather uneventful, the only cause of disturbance was the occasional awakening due to Keyleth coughing her lungs out every few hours. 

She doesn’t know how her brother is dealing with it, with any of this. She cares for Keyleth of course, though it’d take a lot for her to admit it she thinks of her as family, but if anything worse were to happen to her Vex fears that Vax would never recover. Not to mention she can’t help but imagine how she’d feel if she was in his place.

She’d probably have gone outside and shot whatever wildlife she could find if Percy kept something like this from her. Gods they need to work on getting Keyleth some self worth. 

With a huff she finally turns her gaze to lock with Percy’s, who once eye contact is made walks over to her. Leaning against the same wall as her, the two just look at each other. 

Gods she didn’t even think about how this affects him, Keyleth is practically his sister in all but blood, his eyes look lost but yet still present and Vex is so grateful for it. 

“Pike and I counted last night, we have enough food to last us a week and a half. We can stretch it to two full weeks if we limit ourselves even more.” Vex inhales sharply at Percy’s words, softly knocking the back of her head against the wall breaking her gaze with Percy to instead stare blankly at the ceiling. They’ve already been limiting themselves with how much they could eat and none of them are at a healthy weight at this point but what can they do? “Pike and Grog are checking out the kitchen and storage rooms again just in case we missed something the first time but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” She just nods and rests one of her hands on her face.

“What of the medicine, as much as I do care about the amount of food we have it won’t matter if we don’t have enough medication.” She could feel Percy shuffling his feet once she asked the question. Vex pinches the bridge of her nose in preparation for the answer to her question, because judging by Percy’s reaction she is not going to like the answer.

“We should have enough as long as Keyleth gets better in the time you and Pike estimated but we’re not going to have much if any medicine afterwards. We’re lucky we have the amount we currently do.” Fucking shit balls. Vex curses in her mind, the resounding thunk of her hitting the back of her head against the wall ringing throughout the room causing Percy to flinch and for her poor brother to blot right up at the noise which consequently wakes up Keyleth.

Vex curses under her breath, watching Vax try to convince Keyleth to go back to sleep to no avail. Her brother helps Keyleth sit up with her back leaning against the headboard, Vex can tell her brother would much rather have Keyleth rest but also knows once she makes up her mind she won’t stop.

She teases the two a lot but to be honest she couldn’t have asked for anyone better for her brother. He’d been dancing around his feelings for so long till he finally confessed, which Keyleth couldn’t discern her own feelings at the time and then all this happened. Vex wouldn’t lie she was a little put off about her brother liking Keyleth at first, not because Vex didn’t like her, far from it actually she was one of the twins first real friends after all. 

No what's always scared Vex was Keyleth’s health, she isn’t constantly sickly but she does get sick more easily and when she does get ill; six out of ten times it’s bad or at least that used to be the ratio but now it’s starting to seem to have changed to nine out of ten times. It terrifies her for her brother, herself, and well everyone else's sake. Keyleth in a way is everyone's glue, she was the one who introduced everyone to each other, well minus those who knew each other before. If something happened to her, she doesn’t know how any of them would cope.

Suddenly she feels Percy grab her shoulder tightly which is when she realizes she’d just been blankly staring at Keyleth for an indeterminable amount of time. Her brother is looking at her with barely concealed fear. Oh great, good going Vex. You’re scaring the fuck out of everyone. 

“Just got lost in thought for a moment.” She says, seeing only a little bit of the tension leave her brother’s posture. Vex walks forward, Percy releasing his grip but thankfully following close behind her. “How’re you feeling?” She says to Keyleth.

It took Keyleth a minute to process that she was asked a question, being groggy from just waking up as well as her body hating everything.

“About the same as last night.” Keyleth coughed as the words grated her scratchy throat, the three others flinching at the hoarse and strained sound of Keyleth’s voice.Vax gives her a concerned look before getting up out of the bed and starts to look through their supplies.

“I’m taking you mean after we gave you the meds and just nod yes or no.” Vex says sitting on the edge of the bed. Keyleth thinks for a moment before finally nodding her head yes. Vex’ahlia sighs with some relief, her shoulders relaxing a little, as Vax comes back onto the bed rejoining Keyleth with a water bottle in his hands. “Well at least it hasn’t gotten worse. Have you ever been sick like this before?’

This gives Keyleth pause, having to think back to the numerous times she’s gotten sick. She shakes her head, she’s gotten bad before but not like this. Vax nudges her shoulder a little, unscrewing the bottle and helping her drink. Gods the relief her throat feels is heavenly but at the same time she laments how that relief will only last a few seconds.

The four of them stay in the room for a while, Vex asking Keyleth more in detail about what she’s feeling and what they all think might help. Till Vex tells them she’s going to check on Pike and Grog, Percy going to follow her after giving Keyleth a gentle hug. 

And then it was just Keyleth, Vax, and Minxie.

Keyleth rests her head the best she can onto Vax’s shoulder, he picks up one of her hands and gently plays with her fingers. The two of them taking in the comfort of having the other there as she lets her mind wander. 

Notes:

If you're wondering where Scanlan and Trinket are, they're on patrol.

This chapters ending feels a little off too me? But I can't think of a way to change it.

Next chapter will have a fair bit more Perchalia moments tho!

Chapter 4: Blazing arrow

Notes:

I don't think I'm very good at writing Percahlia and for that I am sorry. I'm also sorry this chapter took forever.

Percy keeps pace a few steps behind Vex as they make their way to the motel's kitchen. 

His mind is going to a million places at once, stress, fear, the ever present anxiety all balling up and becoming a giant lump over bearing his heart. Like someone attached and latched a chain around his heart and is trying to pull it down to his stomach. He’s always had a ever present worry for Keyleth and her health even before the world ended, for fucks sake the woman is like a sister to him, his best friend! And now she’s painfully ill for the time being due to her own lack of self care, which isn’t that just a kick in the gut. 

Percy, the man whom thinks of himself like a brother to Keyleth, didn't bother to think about how her own lack of self urgency might lead to her letting herself whittle away. Yet another thing to add to the list of his failings.

But there is nothing he can do now and all he can hope for is to keep a better eye on her from now on. For now though Percy keeps his eyes forward and on Vex, whom seems to have been lost to her own mind since the beginnings of this most recent crisis and he can’t blame her.

Percival can see the stress corrupting her posture, her shoulders knotted and stiff and her gait fast and snipped, the longer they walk the worse it gets. Till eventually he can’t handle it anymore and grabs her arm and takes her into what appears to be a janitor's closet.

“I know this is going to sound redundant considering everything but, are you okay?” Percival says looking into Vex’s eyes, to which she averts meeting. “Vex, please.” He begs her. She releases a long sigh and slumps against the wall.

“I don’t know, it’s just getting a bit much I guess. Medicine is so hard to come by and Keyleth needs it more than most even more so with the fact if keyleth is right soon everything's going to be encased in ice basically and she’s always done worse in the cold.” She says quietly trailing off at the end, Percy’s shoulders slump as he takes Vex into a hug which she gladly returns, holding onto him tightly.

“We’ll check the maps again, maybe there's a small clinic we missed that's on our way?” Even when saying it he doesn’t have much hope, they double checked every damn place they’d pass on their journey to be as efficient as possible. But the idea of going forward with no meds? Not a rather pleasant thought.

“We might need to visit that one hospital in the next city.” As soon as the words leave Vex’s lips Percy’s entire body feels drained of his blood, as if he’d been submerged in a glass cage full of mosquitos for days. 

Hospitals were the worst places to scavenge, not only because they usually are swarmed with the undead but survivors found at hospitals are never not hostile. Percy remembers a rather bad encounter they had during the early days, they almost lost Pike that day.

Noticing his sudden frigid posture Vex sighs. “I know it’s a risk but meds are a necessity not a want, fuck it’s not even just for Keyleth’s sake.” She releases him from their embrace to stare into his anxious eyes. “One bad infection and a person can die, and if it’s something that can spread? We’d drop like flies before we even were aware of it.” 

Vex watches as Percy processes the information before he releases a ever so slightly shaking breath, nodding. “Yes, you’re..You're right..Fuck I do not wish to visit another one of those gods forsaken places.” Vex agrees and she knows everyone else would too, but what choice do they have? In this world even the most mild of illnesses can speak death for anyone.

“I know darling, let’s just hope Kiki’s right and the in coming cold makes the dead slower.” And that the hospital isn’t already picked clean.

“She hasn’t been wrong about the weather's effect on things yet.” He says before he smiles a little. “On a lighter, less dreary point, did you notice what Vax grabbed during our last stop?” Vex knows he's trying to distract her-himself as well probably-, they should be going and seeing what the others have found and if it’s useful, but Vex can’t help but let him. She needs a damn break or she’ll finally lose it.

“Can’t say I did, he’s always grabbing something ridiculous.” She says with a fond roll of her eyes, Percy chuckles.

“He grabbed a damn fidget spinner, a bright and garish pink one with what seemed to be little daisies on it, pretty sure he gave it to Grog too.” Vex snorts before releasing a few chuckles at the pure absurdity of her brother’s antics, though sweet and good for morale it is still at times hilarious.

He smiles at her and gods does she love this man, she never thought that she'd ever end up with a man who looked at her the way Percival does. Love and admiration dance within his soft gaze which she can’t help but return. “Thank you, darling.” She says barely above a whisper but just loud enough for him to hear.

They’ve been through so much together even before the world ended and she’s not sure how well she’d have survived without his love and care. 

Vex raises her hand and cups his check to which he leans into the comforting contact before he reaches and takes her hand, bringing it up to lay a light kiss to her knuckles. 

She takes her hand out of his gentle grasp, letting his hand fall to his side as she cups his other cheek. Leaning forward and kissing him, his hands coming up to rest at her waist and kissing her back.

The two only separating when they need air, Vex’s arms coming to rest around his neck. “We should probably go check on Pike and Grog.” He says softly, gently rubbing his thumb along her waist in a comforting manner.

“I Think they’ll be fine for a few more minutes.” Vex says before leaning back in.

Chapter 5: Silvery barbs

Notes:

lil time skip

Vax is, Vax is a lot of things, he’s scared because the woman he loves is sick, he’s traumatized by both his past and the hellish present they all find themselves in, he’s revolted by the stench the undead has left on everything, he’s worried for their friends who aren’t traveling with them, but right now the most prominent thing that he is, is a horrific mixture of anger and terrified. The emotions coil around his beating heart in a desperate attempt to make it burst and release the carnage that is what’s become of his mental state onto the floor. He wants to scream, he wants to rage, he wants to punch whoever controls fate in the face for the hand they all have been dealt.

It was just a simple sentence, one singular sentence that spilled from his twin’s lips like a viper peeking its head out of its den, prepared to strike and kill whomever disturbed it.

“We’re going to have to stop at the next hospital.” That one fuckin sentence destroyed most of the slivers of whatever sanity Vax had left.

Keyleth has been getting slightly better but Vax didn’t know how low their med supplies had gotten. And god does that anger him, he was a damn EMT for fucks sake not to mention his girlfriends health is historically horrendous he SHOULD be the one keeping track of that the most and yet he let his mind slip. 

They have to go to a hospital.

His reaction to that news wasn’t the best , the only regret with that is that now Keyleth is even more stressed then she already was. To be fair he wasn’t the only one to react in outrage and fear to the notion of scavenging a hospital, Scanlans words spoke true about all the dangers involved but neither of them could fight on it when Vex and Pike pointed out they’d be doomed if they didn’t refill on meds. Even Vax had to acknowledge that they’d die like wildlife in an oil spill if they got sick without meds and that Keyleth would be the first to go.

He’s worrying Keyleth but he can’t bring himself to do anything about it and it sickens him. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands as she tiredly drapes herself onto his back, rubbing his arms lightly in a comforting gesture.

Keyleth’s sicker than Trinket after he eats a chocolate bar and yet she’s the one trying to give some comfort. He can feel the rattle of her ribcage when she turns her head away from him to cough into the empty space and all it does is tell him how screwed they are.

After a particularly harrowing coughing fit from Kiki, he takes his hands away from his face, grabbing her hands lightly.

“You should rest, Keeks.” He says softly yet, try as he might, he can not mask the stressed undertone his words take. She huffs and the next thing Vax knew he was being pulled down onto the bed. Vax’s eyes widen at the short and sudden display of strength from Keyleth as she now looms over him with a sad expression on her face.

“I’ve done nothing but rest for two days now, I’m not going to sleep if it leaves you stewing in misery alone.” She says with as much conviction her hoarse voice will allow. The two stare into each other's eyes for a moment then, taking in the silent words between them.

The fear, the anxiety, the uncertainty and the underlying care and love that despite all the struggles the world has been hurling at them has done nothing but bloom. Like a garden overtaking a mass grave, they struggle but have found a beauty to overcome the grotesque death surrounding them. 

Keyleth sighs, and collapses onto the bed facing Vax. She reaches up to take his hand, the angle making it a little awkward but like always they make it work. 

“I’m sorry.” She says it barely above a whisper but he still catches it. Vax’s face contorts into one of confusion.

“What for?” He says back. She looks at him for a moment before averting her gaze, he can see her expression morph to one of deep conflict and dismay. 

Suddenly it hits him. 

Oh, Keyleth . 

“It’s not your fault, Kiki. Most likely we would have had to stop at one sooner or later considering we only had basically a week or so’s worth of them.” He says as he rearranges himself on the bed to properly face, never letting their hands part as he does. Vax takes his unoccupied hand to cup the side of Keyleth’s face lovingly, as their gazes finally meet again his heart breaks at the burning fires of her committed self hatred dancing in her eyes like sick vipers of flame dancing in rage within a wooden crate.

“I’d agree if I most likely wasn’t the cause as to why we had so little medicine to begin with. I feel so useless.” She sighs but huddles closer to him, Vax now wrapping his arms around her.

“You’re not useless, Keyleth. We’d be lost without you. Who the hell would have been able to get the keys to the van after they fell through floor boards of that farm house? Who’d have come up with the idea to use email to safely keep in contact with everyone? Who the hell would have remembered the way to Zephrah?” He tells her with conviction as she holds onto him tighter with each word that makes its way out of him. “I couldn’t do this without you. I can’t do this without you.” 

At that statement she buries her face into his neck, he can feel the wetness her tears leave.

It’s a while before they move again, Keyleth refusing to rest, regardless of Vax’s pleas, is standing near the window peeking through the small opening in the curtains as Vax watches her from his spot sitting on the bed.

Minxie hops onto the bed curling up next to Vax’s leg and he can’t help but smile at the calming creature. He can’t help but remember when all of this started, the feline wasn’t particularly happy about have to get into their crate to go to the vet so Vax had volunteered to help Keyleth get the feisty feline until they suddenly heard a crash and the next thing he knew everyone was screaming. Gods is he lucky he had been the one holding the carrier so his first thought was to look out the window to see what was happening instead of just rushing down to help.

He’ll never forget seeing the undead tear that man apart, limb from limb like a clan of hyenas devouring a bloated carcass. The sounds and fear radiating off of everything sprung him and Keyleth to action, grabbing anything they could and getting the hell out of there while he called his sister. From there it was a blur, getting into Percy's car with the rest of the gang and high tailing it away.

They were aimless for a while till they were far enough away that they could stop for a minute and call people, that's when they learned the undead hadn’t hit Zephrah or Whitestone yet but both places were getting rapidly colder. At first they thought that meant they needed to head south, run from the cold, but Keyleth quickly corrected them. Better to deal with the cold in places with protections against it rather than places that aren’t.

He still can’t see how she thinks herself useless, she probably has saved the entirety of both Whitestone and Zephrah with her explanations and helping Cassandra and Korrin on how to keep the cities safe in frigid temperatures.

She’s done so much and yet the world only wishes to punish her.

 

Pike’s been watching Scanlan pace for the past few hours, the anxiety and frustration wafting from him in agonizing waves. Grog had been with them for the first two hours but decided to go on patrol when it started to reach the third.

She can’t blame Scanlan for not being particularly happy at the news that they had to scavenge a hospital for meds, he made a promise to his daughter at the beginning of all of this that he’d see her again whether it was crossing paths during travel or when they reached either Whitestone or Zephrah.

Hospitals are nowadays death traps, she’d know better than anyone how dangerous they are. She idly rubs her fingers over the scar that lay upon her eyebrow. And now they had no choice but to venture into one, otherwise they’re probability for survival is basically zero. 

As light starts to dim, Pike begins to ever so slightly shiver. She should probably go inside but she isn’t going to leave Scanlan out here alone. Hopefully they snag some blankets from this motel and that they’ll fit in the van, Keyleth hadn’t been exaggerating about how it’s getting colder and apparently it’s only going to get worse.

“Scanlan?” She calls out causing him to stop abruptly and snap at her.

“What!” Scanlan shouts, Pike flinches slightly at his tone and volume causing him to shrink back, head down, shoulders up. “Sorry.”  The two of them take a moment to see if his shout attracted any attention but it’s starting to seem as if they did actually kill everything in the area.

“We need to get inside.” She says walking over to him, he refuses to meet her eyes but gives a small nod. He lets her take his hand and leads him back inside where they find Grog sitting down on one of the waiting chairs, giving a happy Trinket some much appreciated scratches. “Hey, buddies.” She greets him with a small smile, Grog looks up from Trinket and she knows he heard Scanlan shout but can also tell he shouldn’t say anything about it so he just greets her back and goes back to paying attention to the large dog in front of him.

Pike takes Scanlan to one of the rooms the group has been using during their stay here that’s empty. Where Scanlan proceeds to collapse onto one of the beds and stare up at the ceiling.

The lack of jokes about them being alone in a bedroom together really pressed on how much everything is bugging him and in a way unsettles Pike. She’s gotten so used to him being one of the people who lighten the mood that she sometimes forgets he’s in this hell hole too.

She lays down next to him, not close enough to be touching but close enough to feel the other's presence.

“Are we doomed to die?” The question startles Pike, she doesn’t answer immediately, having to gather her thoughts.

“I don’t think we’re doomed to die, I mean we’ve made it this far? And we haven’t lost anyone yet!” She says but even she’d admit that her tone even with her trying isn’t the most convincing but hopefully the facts made some progress into relieving some of Scanlan’s stress.

Scanlan huffs and turns to face her. “We’re going to a literal kill box soon and yeah sure, I won’t be one of the people entering it most likely but if you all die in there, it’d just be me and Keyleth who. Gods she is a good friend but if everyone goes she’d go into shock and either die from an accident or from some random ass sickness, I’d probably die not that long after.” Pike’s eyes widened at his words, she reached over and grabbed his shoulder.

“Scanlan we aren’t going to die in the damn hospital, yes we need supplies but we also know when it’s time to retreat. I think out of everyone, I’d be the one to know that. We’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, you’ll see your daughter again Scanlan. Yes we should be cautious, maybe even a little scared but there isn’t a point in dwindling in what if.” Her voice rings with conviction as she stares Scanlan down. “We will live.”

He stares at her for a long while, particularly the scar marking her brow like some sort of unholy marker of what's before them,he gives her a nod. “Alright, alright.” She smiles and gives his shoulder a light playful push before a smirk slowly makes its way onto his face. “You know, we are alone.” He says with a playful rise of his eyebrows. There it is!

Pike groans and shoves his shoulder enough to where he falls off the bed with a loud thump, yet she can’t help but let a little blush and smile come to her face. Gods, I need a break.

Notes:

I don't write Pike a lot so sorry if it's a little off.

Chapter 6: Rage

Keyleth was restless. A tiger held in a cage far too small for its enraged size, pacing along the gate waiting for its sanity to snap and claw its way out of this infernal entrapment it found itself in. She knows her restlessness is both a blessing and a curse for the others, on one hand she able to walk, her muscles aren’t in as much agony anymore, she’s coughing less, she’s getting better but at the same time it means she’s refusing to stay in one place, refusing to rest, she’s a bit snippy, quicker to fall prey to anger, not letting herself get better quicker.

It’s a double edge sword, keep still while her skin buzzes begging to move, to do SOMETHING, staying in bed and recovering or move and relieve the burning desire to move but at the sacrifice of potentially halting her recovery or even worsening her state.

She’s been watching the majority of the group rearranging stuff in the van for the past few hours from the window in the room she’s been stuck in for the past few days. Vax has refused to leave her side, even when Vex tried to convince him to at least go outside for a few minutes he wouldn’t budge. Keyleth doesn’t know how to feel about that, on one foot she wants him to go get some fresh air, stretch, something to let him be free for just a little while but at the same time she doesn’t want to be away from him, she knows he’d never willingly leave her but if her past has taught her anything, it’s that people leave.

She can see him just out of the corner of her eye, looking over her shoulder to also observe their friends. He must have noticed her looking because his face turns from neutral to a warm soft smile, Keyleth returns his smile for a moment before letting it gradually fall with a sigh.  Oh, what a pair they make. A tiger and a bird in a cage, the bird refusing to go through the wide gaps between the bars to freedom.

Vax frowns looking to the ground in thought before he perks up, walking more behind her before wrapping her in his arms, pulling her into him. She lets him, soaking up the comfort he tries to give her. They’re leaving the day after tomorrow and once on the road it’ll only be a few hours before the majority of them will be walking into the lion's den known as a hospital.

Percy and Scanlan will be staying with her in the van while Grog, Pike, and the twins will head in. It was a tough call on who’d get left behind in the van with her, Vax wanting someone with medical training to stay with her, most likely thinking his sister to keep her safer as well, but ultimately they went with Percy staying behind with her and Scanlan, who chose to stay in the van, so that way he can snipe anything chasing after the scouting team if they have a rough exit from the hospital. 

The two of them jolt a little when they hear the door to their room open, both of them calming down when they turn slightly to see it’s only Percy. He gives them a small smile before closing the door behind him, walking towards them. He leans against the windows edge looking out briefly to their friends before returning his gaze to the couple.

“How are you two holding up?”  Percy asks them. Keyleth sighs and Vax tucks his head a little into her neck.

“I’m feeling better, fits are now basically hours apart and my muscles aren’t trying to kill me but I guess that part is kind of obvious.” She says and she relishes in the slight chuckles she gets from the two men at her last few words. She’s been driving everyone up the walls since her muscles have let her walk mostly unhindered.

“Vax?” Percy says when the other man doesn’t make a move to answer his question as well. Vax sighs and burrows his face further into Keyleth’s neck, before mumbling into her skin, yet still audible.

“I don’t like this Freddie, you know I don’t.” Percy gives a nod, folding his arms and returning his gaze to the window.

“Believe me none of us do but it’s not like we have much of a choice.” His brow furrows in thought for a second before looking back at Keyleth. “How many days of travel do you think before we reach ice or snow?” Kayleth’s own brows furrow at his question, it’s been getting colder just like she predicted and her father was able to tell her in their last emails, which now, that she’s thinking on all of this, was probably the last email any of them could send and receive.

 It’s been long enough that powerplants left on and alone have run out, run down, or been scavenged to pieces, the same can be said for the internet and other such things. It was already getting very spotted but they haven’t been able to do anything for a while now. Plus with the cold some might have just froze. They’ve only seen specs of snowfall so far but what that means is they're getting closer.

“A month or two’s worth of travel, I’d say before we reach snow. Maybe three or four before we start having negative temps during the day as well as night. But that’s only a guess.” She says, taking one of her hands and gently resting it on one of the arms Vax has wrapped around her.

Grog wasn’t that happy, not because he’s one of the ones going into the hospital when they reach it, hell no! He wants to fight something he’s been cooped up for too long but he also doesn’t want them to do what they did last time.

He hates it when everyone suggests they split up to cover more ground, all it does is make them get separated and hurt. He can’t protect them if they aren’t near him and it angers him but not in the fun angry way no it’s the fear anger way. Grog doesn’t like fear anger, he doesn’t like being useless and he doesn’t like his family getting hurt.

For now he focuses on putting things back into the van and rearranging them with the help of Pike and Vex, Scanlan perched on top of the van keeping a lookout. It feels like it should take long to bring all their supplies into the van, even more so with the fact they took a few things from the motel, but it only takes a two to three hours and then they head back inside, well all except him. 

Grog stays outside leaning against the van messing with the fidget spinner Vax gave him a while ago. This entire situation frustrates him, he likes fighting but doesn’t like killing. He wishes everything could be normal again, getting into bar fights, Pike patching him up, Vex rolling her eyes at him, Vax and Keyleth’s relentless awkward pining, Scanlan and him getting shitface drunk, and Percy making him and Keyleth little fidget toys. Most of that's gone now. Or at least the meaning behind them has, now Pike patches him up fast and worried instead of with a chuckling smile, Vex relies on him to do what's right and not goof off-no rolling eyes when you can die any minute, Vax instead of Percy giving him new toys because Percy’s too busy repairing everything, the only good change being that Keyleth and Vax finally got to together.

He gives the spinner a faster spin, staring at it as its colors blur together from the speed. Everyone’s so high strong and it’s starting to get to him, he can’t even go to Scanlan because he was one of the ones most high strung right now, Vax is worrying over Keyleth even though she’s getting better, Pike is already having to juggling just about everyone, Keyleth is frustrated for just about every reason, which only leaves Vex and Percy. Both are frustrated as well but better at managing it.

With a grunt he stands on his own and walks back into the motel, it takes him a while but he eventually finds Vax sitting down and staring down at their map, her head in her hands. She looks up to him when he takes a seat across from her at the small table.

The two just stare at each other for a few minutes. “No splitting up.” He says with no further explanation but he knows she knows what he’s meaning. She continues to stare at him for a moment before sighing, bringing her hands down over and off her face before leaning back in her chair, facing the ceiling.

“If we can we won’t but I can’t make any promises Grog. That depends on way too many things for me to give you a promise.” She says and all Grog can do is grunt in annoyance and frustration, his gaze turning to the map with a rage ever so slowly boiling underneath his skin. Not at Vex but at the damn world.

“I really am sorry I can’t promise you Grog, gods know I’d give anything to be able to give one of us some certainty.” Grog hasn’t heard her this exhausted since their first big scare and he can’t help but let some of the memories resurface. He’d never forget that day, he really thought he was going to lose Pike, his best buddy, covered in blood and wounds. In some ways they were lucky it was from other survivors and not zombies. Grog doesn’t like killing but that one had been one he didn’t regret. 

“Not your fault.” He tells the woman across from him, Vex attempts to give him a smile but in truth it was just a slightly upturned frown, not a smile but not a complete frown, a weird in between. “How big is it?”

“The hospital?” Vex asks, to which Grog nods. “Gods I wish we knew, I doubt any of us have been there. I mean there is a slight possibility Keyleth has? But I doubt she’d not tell us so if she has, only her father would know and we lost the ability to contact him and anyone else a while ago.”

Grogs groaned and dropped his head onto the table with a thud. “I’m tired of this shit.” He grumbles, Vex just gives him a tired smile, chuckling a little at his antics.

“You and me both Grog, you and me both.” She says just above a whisper.

The two of them stay there for the remainder of the day in silence, Vex getting up to leave once she notices the night taking over. 

The large man remains, his head still laying on the table with his eyes closed. He isn’t asleep just yet when he suddenly feels a soft blanket be draped over him, Grog waits a moment before barely opening an eye to see Vex leaving the room. “G’night.” He tiredly grumbles out, stopping her in the doorway.

She turns a bit around to face him “ Goodnight, Grog.” And then she leaves. Grog rearranges himself into a comfier position, taking one last glaring glance at the map before going to sleep.

Notes:

First time really writing Grog for longer then like two lines, lets go XD

Chapter 7: Feeblemind

Notes:

Sorry for the wait!

As Percy kept his eyes to the road, Vex kept her gaze on the rest of their group in the back of the van through the rear view mirror. Particularly her brother and Grog, the two of them have been the most antsy as of recent not to mention her brief conversation with Grog not that long ago keeping her thoughts hostage.

He is right, gods know he is, they shouldn’t split up once they enter the hospital but the more and more she thinks on it the more and more she realizes they won’t have a choice no matter what. Splitting up offers them a higher chance of finding what they need but it also increases the danger, but maybe there's a way to compromise. 

Split up but keep to a time limit, get in and come out in an hour or two depending on how big the hospital is and what damage it has sustained. It’s not the best and it’s not like she knows what to do if someone doesn’t come out when it’s time or how they’d even keep track of it without anything to help them. But just like everything else they do nowadays they’ll play it by ear.

Grog’s checking over his sledgehammer moving it side to side every so often to get a different look at it, what he’s looking for she isn’t sure but she’s come to not question the things the large man does when it comes to the group's blunt weapons. Her brother on the other hand stays close to Keyleth like he has been doing for weeks now if not longer, the two of them whispering to each other. With the angle from the reflection she can’t make out what the two of them are saying but she can see Vax idly fidgeting with one of his daggers.

With a sigh she finally averts her gaze from the small mirror and looks at her boyfriend. Percy keeps his eyes on the road but she can tell by the way he ever so slightly tilts his head that he knows she’s watching him. It remembers her of times before all of this.

The two of them went on road trips every so often to Whitestone after the two got together to go and visit Percy’s sister. Oh how something so mundane has turned into a treasured memory of a time that won’t return. It’s almost like the world has decided her and her brother aren’t allowed to have a moment of peace. Things had just started to look up for the both of them, Vex had a stable job as a doctor and had been secretly dating Percy for a while.

Vax’s job was stable and sure his and Keyleth’s relationship got a bit rocky after he confessed but the two had been working forward and Vex has no doubt that, even if the apocalypse hadn’t knocked down the door to their lives, Vax and Keyleth would have still ended up together.

But now isn’t the time to play what if’s or think on what could have been, no matter how much she needs an escape from their predicament. She’s very lucky all things considered, she still has her friends with her, this self made collaboration of a cobbled up family.

Keyleth coughs and Vex can’t help but cringe at the sound of it, granted it sounds better then it did before when it sounded like poor Keyleth’s throat had been eradicated with sandpaper. Thankfully she’s on the tail end of the illness at least as far as Vex and Pike’s combined knowledge can tell but even then Vex still wonders if it was a good choice to leave the motel as soon as they did.

Turning back to get a proper view of the red head, greets Vex with the sight of her brother looking straight at her. Vex freezes for a moment just staring back at her brother, his eyes to most would be unreadable but not to her. Vex can see the idly burning turmoil and selfless determination behind his gaze, it’s an expression that she used to only see back when they were kids scrounging around on the streets after they ran from their father’s home. It’s made an appearance a few times since this all began and everytime without fail it causes her stomach to twist in agonizing discomfort and worry. 

Scanlan watches as Keyleth groans, putting her head in her hands and idly pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. To be fair he can’t blame her, she out of everyone-besides himself-is probably the most frustrated with their current situation.

He’ll probably hear about it and get to even throw in his two cents about the rights and wrongs of this mission, or maybe he won’t now that he thinks of it. Usually it’s just him and Keyleth when they have those talks, talks of how utterly damned they are. The two of them are always expected to keep face majority of the time, him more so then her but regardless it was nice having someone else to talk to who’s experiencing the cut throat nature of being the one to cheer people up or to be the optimistic one. He can poke fun at their misfortune and make jokes and she can always find a thing to be grateful for but this doesn’t mean they don’t have a deep seed of anger and malice at their current circumstances. The group has seen Keyleth lose it a few times, releasing the anguish but they always try to placate it or in Grog’s way offer to fight it out. But sometimes it’s good to just argue it out with someone who agrees, who shares the dark seething hate and that's what the two do for each other.

It shocked him the first time they had a conversation about it, it by all means had been a lapse in mental strength on his part that started it but he had to get his thoughts out and the only person with him had been Keyleth and to his surprise instead of shying away, instead of trying to placate, find the optimistic side. She agreed, shared her own plight, her own disgust. The two then made it a habit that when it became too much the two would seek each other out and partake in their mutually viled discussion. But with Percy staying with them, he doubts they’ll be having their usual conversation. At the same time though Keyleth could surprise him and bring the topic up, Percy is her best friend and for all Scanlan knows she has similar conversations with him. It’d certainly add an interesting twist to the conversation.

Scanlan finally looks away from Keyleth after Vax leans to start whispering to her again, though it’s fun to tease the two now isn’t really the time. He looks around the van idly, Trinket lays at Pike’s feet along with Minxie in her carrier, Pike has her eyes closed and her hands clasped over her necklace. He just watches her for a moment and not for the first time does he think on how he wishes he had something to clutch at like faith, something to give him hope. Hope that they’ll make it through this, hope that at some point they won’t have to constantly be on the run from everything around them, hope that he'll see his daughter again live and well, well as well as one can get in nowadays time. 

He was so lost in his own thoughts that for a moment he didn’t notice the van slowing down till he heard Keyleth kick the bottom of the van in what he can only guess is anxiousness mixed with a subtle fury. He see’s Vax whisper something into her ear that makes her shoulders slump before the two of them lightly rest their foreheads together.

Pike rises from her seat, opening the back doors before hopping out and that's when Scanlan gets a good look at their destination, his stomach twists in vile blackened slicked knots, dread over taking him.

The building is dilapidated, nature obviously starting to reclaim the building but at the same time it’s struggling too, most likely from the damned cold. Windows are smashed open, ridged glass scattered around. Gods, that is a dead body impaled on the glass in that window, isn’t it? The place is the embodiment of  a mausoleum, the dreaded catacombs filled to the brim with death and long starter and freshly begun rot.

They are going to lose someone, there is no way in hell they aren’t.

At this point everyone but him, Keyleth, Vax, and Minxie have exited the van. He can see Vex and Percy talking to each other a little bit away, Grog and Pike both double checking their weapons and personal supplies. Scanlan makes sure to take good long looks at all of their faces.

Percy heads back into the van taking a seat next to him with a slight nod of greeting before Vex comes to stand right outside the van doors.

“Time to go, Vax.” She says, Vax doesn’t turn around to acknowledge her. Instead he gently grabs Keyleth’s face before kissing her and with one last hug between the two Vax joins his sister outside the van. And all that Scanlan can think as he watches more than half his friends make their way into this horror mansion of a hospital is how they are so utterly screwed.

Notes:

Hold onto your seat folks, next chapter is the hospital scene!

Chapter 8: Killbox

Notes:

Warning! I do try my best to describe the zombies so this chapter has descriptions of rotting corpses and gore!

Also I am so so sorry this chapter took forever!! I had a hard time writing it sadly even if I was excited too.

He told them , he fuckin told them. Grog was pissed, angry, enraged, whatever you wished to call it as he stared up into the slightly deflated eyes of the foul smelling zombie he’s struggling with. Grog grunts, he can feel the blood running free from his flesh where the living corpse had scratched him. He told everyone they shouldn’t have split up but they did anyway and look where that got them. With one last hefty shove he overpowers the zombie, its squirming flesh leaving a residue of grime, blood, and gods know what else on Grogs hands and body.

With a swift motion Grog grabs his sledgehammer from the floor where it’d fallen and with one quick swing, lobbed it onto the wretched things already dilapidated skull. With a resounding crack and thunk gray matter and gore flings about the tiles of the room Grogs in. He stands still and listens for a moment, he knows he’s rather deep within the hospital which means the others are too most likely. 

For a couple moments all he can hear is the moans and groans of the other zombies infesting this horrorshow of a building and just before he decides to go back to what he’d been doing he hears it. 

A blood curdling scream rings out like a beacon to summon death, the zombies in the halls responding in a rushed yet faltering sprint to wherever the sound originated. Like the undead Grog responds but unlike them, his muscles work and his determination comes from something else other than hunger. Grog runs, swinging his hammer around to clear a path, he’ll be littered with cuts due to how reckless he’s being. Fucking hell he can easily get bit by running through a hoard like this, but by the gods it’d be worth it if he can prevent a member of his family from dying by one of these wretched things.

Grog already had a hard time thinking of this place as a hospital and not just a glorified meat bag when he was sneaking around but now as he runs he can’t help but think of how it looks like a never ending hallway made of wriggling, worm infested, rotted flesh as everything blurs together.

As he rounds a corner his blood runs cold before relighting with fury. Vex was hunched behind Pike, clutching her side as blood seeped through her fingers. They're surrounded by zombies and no way in hell was Grog not going to change that. With a roar to rival that of a dragon he charges in, knocking the head off of one of the zombies closest to his friends, spraying blood and muscle around the room.

They needed to get out of this hell hole, now!

Vex is terrified. Everything had been going so well, as well as it can be in a hospital full of cannibalistic undead that is, they found quite a fair bit of meds and other supplies but of course something had to go wrong. It wouldn’t be them if it went without a hitch.

She should have been paying more attention, hell she should have brought Trinket with her instead of leaving him in the car with the others and now she got clawed by a zombie, screamed bloody mary alerting every single undead fucker in the area to her and Pike’s location, Grog’s rushed over to them and heavens know if his thoughtless run to them got him bit or not and she doesn’t know where the hell her brother is because he decided to be a dick and sneak off first chance he got.

Vex clutched at her side, it wasn’t a huge cut but enough to spill a fair amount of blood but she kept her hand pressed to the wound. Wouldn’t do them any favors if it got infected. She can hear the near silent choir of okays that release themselves from Pike’s mouth as she tries her best to keep any of the festering undead that haven’t gone after Grog away from them.

“Shit!” Pike shouts, swinging her wooden bat wide to whack a zombie that had been sneaking up on them away, a sickening crack signaling the crushing of the corpse’s ribs as well as notifying them of the bat's withering condition rattles the room. “Buddies, we need to find Vax and leave! Now!” The white haired woman shouts. Vex can feel her panic rising, like Pike said they need to leave but where the fuck did her brother go?!

Vex’s vision is swimming from panic and all she can hear is what she could only describe as a crusade of death, gnashing teeth, blood splattering onto the walls and floors, shattering of bone and the sickening gurgle of death finally claiming the bodies of the undead just like it did the souls before. 

It takes some time but eventually they are running, completely forgoing stealth they shout and yell for their missing member. Only takes a few unanswered calls to cause the dam to break, tears rain down Vex’s face with vengeance. She can not lose her brother, if she loses him she loses herself. They are two halves to a whole, not one without the other. 

Her calls more so resemble the shrill shriek of a mother who’s lost trace of her child at this point, yet she keeps at it. It takes what feels like ages but finally they get an answer, though not necessarily in the way she’d like.

Vax crashes through one of the windows of a room, quickly scampering up and proceeds to run to join them. Rotting hands emerge from the window trying to crawl their way out, only to get caught and impaired on the shards of class still attached to the window, like a sick experiment of rats climbing on the corpses of their kin they flop over onto the other side.

Which leads them now to their current problem. This entire time they’ve been running further into the hospital and now they have to run back, where a hoard of zombies have amassed. Vex clutches onto her brother’s arm, who does much the same to her. They’re all hurt and crazed and Vex just wishes they make it out of here alive.

With one quick glance at each other and a nod, they run.

Notes:

I def need more practice for intense and fighting scenes but for my first attempt I think it's at least alright.

Chapter 9: chromatic orb

Notes:

I'd just like to say first and foremost, huge thanks to Ravendruid for all the help they provided me with staying focused on this chapter and making sure it came out right!

Percy lay atop the van on his stomach, gun at the ready,  eyes trained on the front doors and windows for any sign of trouble. Yet his mind and ears remain focused on the two conversing below him. It’d started with whispers but gradually grew to a normal conversational volume after a while, to be honest, he reckons they’ve forgotten that he lay above them, easily eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Five bucks that Vax will be the one needing to get patched up.” Scanlan declares, where Percy would expect Keyleth to say something in defense of Vax or to tell the short man to knock it off she instead snorts.

“That’s not a bet I’d go against.” She says with a sigh. “He’s always more reckless after something happens to me, well, or Vex.” Scanlan just hums in agreeance, with the light clinking of what could only be him swinging his legs back and fore to where it’s hitting the bumper of the car. 

Gods does he wish he could see the expressions the two have on their faces, instead he’s left to play the game of context clues. The two of them have been hemming and hawing about how horrid everything has become and how they constantly have to be the ones to keep everything light-hearted, with a few nods to Pike at least attempting to do the same. 

‘Giving credit where it's due’ he catches Keyleth say. It’s truly mindboggling and eye-opening to hear their flow of discussion, it sounds both old and new like they’ve had this same conversation with slightly different words many many times. Which in all fairness makes sense, the two are almost always the ones left behind to guard whatever the group was currently calling home whether that's his van or some building they cleared. Doesn’t make it hurt any less that Keyleth goes to Scanlan with these thoughts instead of him.

It’s his shuffling that reminds them that he’s there, that he’s listening in, that he now knows some of their secrets. They fall silent once more. At least until Scanlan speaks.

“So, it snowed a bit last night.” An emotion that Percy couldn’t place takes hold of the musically inclined man’s voice. He hears Keyleth hum in agrenece before he hears the short man continue. “Think it’s going to again?”

Percival’s swears his confusion spreads to even his bones. Sure, Keyleth knows the weather better than everyone in the group but even he knew it was a definite probability to snow again. It’s too damn cold for it not too, not to mention it has been for the last week. Keyleth gives off a long sigh before silence reigns over them again.

He swears for a moment that they’d spend the entire time they waited for the others in silence till Keyleth speaks. “You don’t have to talk in codes, Percy is going to ask me the same question at some point regardless might as well answer it at the same time.”

“Okay. You doing okay? Like really, no stuffy nose, coughs aren’t hurting, no crippling pain or anything?” Suddenly it feels like Percy shouldn’t be hearing this, it’s unbelievably rare to hear such concern in the smaller man's voice that it almost feels like committing some sort of violation to be hearing it. “Cause I got to say. You scared the complete shit out of me when I found you. You looked like you were begging for death.” Percy is starting to regret Keyleth’s decision to forego the code words, as much as he wants to know if she’s okay the memory of what she looked like just a week or so ago is traumatizing in its own right.

“I’m okay, coughing a bit here and there but no pain. At least nothing more than the usual aches and pains.” Her voice is small but he doesn’t hear even a hint of a lie in her voice. “I know we joked about it a bit before but I’m more so focused on the others right now. I don’t have a good feeling about this, how about you guys?”

“I’m-” A loud rumble blasts through the air before Percival can finish even the first part of his sentence, rain starting to dribble down afterward. The two below him shift, knocking things about the van in their surprise, as Percy quickly finds his way off the roof of the van and into the back. A waterlogged gun would be horrific with them so close to what they're guessing is a hoard.

As they get resituated, Scanlan is more inside the van than before and Keyleth and Percy stay at the open backdoors, the rain starts to fall in sheets.

Pike is having a bad fucking time. The adrenaline in her body is helping her but gods will she be sore tomorrow not to mention it appears that it’s started to storm outside. Fucking great! Vex isn’t running as fast as her and Grog, Vax is purposely staying behind with her. Grog’s been doing a good job of clearing the path for them but it’s still not as fast as she’d like, to be honest, she has half the mind to have them break through another window to at least get outside. Actually, that could work. 

“Grog! If you see a window that goes outside smash it! We’ll get out that way!” She can tell he’s heard her by his louder-than-usual grunt. This plan comes with its own risks, Injuries caused by broken glass are no joke but at the same time, it’s better than being eaten alive by a hoard of debilitating undead.

If they don’t lose anything in their haste this will actually be a great haul, she isn’t too sure on how much the boys found but Vex and her hit the jackpot for painkillers and antibiotics. They will be using some of those as soon as they get back to the van but luckily that won’t actually put that big of a dent into the supply. 

Pike’s no stranger to anxiety, none of them are, but she’s starting to understand how Keyleth must feel close to a daily basis. Gods, how does she function like this? The last time they’d been in a hospital was when she almost died. It was excruciating. Being torn apart like a pinata but instead of candy it was flesh, if the others hadn’t gotten to her in time she has the feeling she would’ve figured out what her own intestines looked like. 

“Pickle!” Vax’s voice shatters the fog that’d started swirling in Pike’s head, she’d slowed down. She’s a hell of a lot closer to Vax and Vex now than she was. Head in the game. You’re well you’re not safe but you are mobile, so move! She shouts inwardly to herself with a shake of her head, speeding up again to catch up to Grog who’d suddenly taken a sharp turn.

She doesn’t have to wonder for long as to why he changed directions when the beautiful sound of glass breaking and cascading onto the floor reaches her ears. It’s a good break not much glass is left on the bottom meaning they’re less likely to stab themselves which is good cause they don’t have time to be cautious.

“Everyone out! Now!” She shouts as she jumps and tumbles out the window.

Thick mud, small glass shards, and deafening rain greets her as she hits the ground, her face and parts of her body hurt but she doesn’t focus on that as she rushes up to get out of the way as Vax leaps out. His landing is a lot more grateful than hers in the sense he doesn’t fall flat on his face but she doesn’t miss the loud hiss and grunt that leaves him as he hobbles back to the window to help Vex get through. Once Vex is out nothing happens for a second and Pike’s heart starts to drop before Grog bursts through the window, as soon as he stands up they’re running again.

It’s pouring and Pike can barely see in front of her face, it’s like having a perpetual waterfall in front of her, but she can see just enough to know where she’s going. In no way is it easy, she hears and in some cases feels the others almost slip occasionally.

It takes what feels like hours but most likely was only a few minutes till she sees the van, she commands her legs to run just a bit faster.

“Freddie! Start the fucking car!” Vax shouts and gods his voice is going to join her nightmares. He’s scared, gods when isn’t this poor man scared? First, his girlfriend gets sick which can be life-threatening for her but now his twin sister is hurt. Pike just wants to bundle everyone up in a blanket and put them in a safe, dry, warm bunker but she can’t and it hurts.

Notes:

Hey y'all long time no see, sorry for disappearing July is/was a very busy month for me and I might've had a few breakdowns.:'3 But with the month coming to a close I'm doing better, I'm a year older and I got a lot of attacks on art fight done! So I'm having plenty of free time again to work on all of my stories~

Chapter 10: Thunderwave

Vax is soaked, he’s pretty sure he’s bleeding from somewhere and he’s not only going to have nightmares once he finally goes to sleep but be massively sore when they inevitably wake him up. It takes what feels like hours but most likely was only a few minutes to get to the van. Luckily it seems Percy had heard him cause the first thing he hears after launching him and his sister into the van is the strong thuming pur of the engine coming to life. 

As soon as the backdoors close Percy hits the gas, it jostles them all, yelps and a bark from Trinket fill the air for a second before everyone is suddenly in motion again, like a bird desperate to move for standing still means death. It’s blurs of hands on people's bodies and items being thrown about. Someone shouts that Grogs fine, no bites, which is a miracle considering how the big man was holding off a good-sized hoard. Pike has his sister’s shirt pulled up, the wound looks grotesque but as she uses a towel to clean it up it looks nowhere as bad as he’d feared. His mind swims, it rushes back and forth between the now and the past, even going further than the hospital. His head is loud but simultaneously quiet, he doesn’t return to the present till he feels shaking fingers touch his side.

All at once everything snaps back into place and god did everything hurt, his vision threatened to blur again but he still feels those shaking hands on him, now more firmly grasping him with a sweet yet panicked small voice trying to reach him. Vax forces his breathing to calm, slowly but surely all his senses coming back.

“Vax?” Keyleth’s voice is shaking and it makes his racing heart still like a rabbit caught mid-run in a snare. Finally, he turns to face her. She's scared, panicked, her face is ravished with worry and anxiety. He can feel his few wounds ache but they don’t compare to the hurt he feels for Keyleth and his own sister. One is in mental agony and one in physical pain but they are alive. All of them are, it’s this notion this fact that lets him give her a true reassuring smile, one that she can tell is not just to placate her. It doesn’t calm her completely, she keeps her hands on him, more firmly on him if anything, still a slight shake to her but he can tell at the very least her panic has lessened. It takes a moment for Vax to drag his attention away from Keyleth, his gaze goes straight to his twin. 

Pike stays close to Vex, poking and checking over the bandage they’d put on her side, it’s not bleeding too much which is a good sign. Vex has been hurt worse before and luckily this time they have more than enough medical supplies that none of them will have any lasting issues from their current wounds. Vax would much rather forget about the time they had no supplies and Grog had taken a massive hit to his back, the scar still haunts them all. To be fair just about any scar nowadays is just another horror story waiting for them to notice again so its haunting lullaby may find them again in their sleep but at least these new ones they’ll get will be small enough that they’ll most likely not notice them as often.

A loud boom of thunder drags Vax out of his thoughts and causes everyone in the van to fall in a sudden hush, only the torrent of rain against metal and the lumbering roll of its aftermath fills the space with noise. The white noise leaves them all to look at each other, taking stock of each other's conditions. Vax almost missed the wince from Pike before she carefully maneuvered her way over to him, her gaze locked on some spot on his stomach. Looking down it suddenly makes sense why Keyleth was still shaking. Blood slowly trickles from the tares in his skin and around a few small specs of broken glass that must’ve dug their way into his skin from the ground when they’d made their grand escape from the grotesque-infested hospital.

It hurts and stings when Pike slowly and carefully extracts the small shards from his flesh, Keyleth moving her hands to take one of his, offering him the little comfort that she can provide in this moment.

It’s times like these that Percy wished he had contacts but just like every other time and every time to come he’ll have to make do. Even if he can barely see the road through the blinding rain and his fogging glasses. He desperately wants to turn around, to see if Vex and everyone else are alright but his attention must remain forward.

It’s so strange how just months ago he and Vex had been talking about going on a road trip to his hometown, just the two of them, and how after their return they’d finally tell the others about how they’re dating, have been dating for a while and now he’s driving his car in a hell storm away from flesh-eating demonspawns while his girlfriend is possibly injured in the back. Fuck, the only reason he knows she’s not gravely injured is because Vax isn’t freaking the fuck out.

Another rumble shakes the world around them. Percy’s very bones feel like tightly wound strings of copper full of static as if the storm outside has conducted all of its electricity into him. He’s going to explode, he’s going to scream, he’s-

A gentle, familiar, hand lays onto his shoulder before he can see the owner of said hand slowly and carefully manover herself into the front passenger seat. He keeps his main focus on the pavement that he can make out from his rain-painted windshield but he notices the bandages covering Vex’s side, some slight red bleeding through but not enough to be concerning. Not enough to be concerning? Gods what's happening to us? What's happened to us that any more blood than that released from a pin prick is not concerning? That the only time we are concerned is if they are bleeding out?

The gentle hand returns to his forearm this time, taking hold of it as she gently rubs her thumb across his skin. His body still buzzes with wild tension but the internal fog clears just enough, he lets out a long sigh, a barely noticeable shakiness finds its way into it but that's just for him and Vex to know.

“The roads are going to be icy after this.” Keyleth’s voice pierces the silence that had encompassed the van, filling the stagnant air with the seeping chill of dread taking its place. She isn’t wrong, they all know it but it also reveals a different issue.

“We’ll have to be careful with the van, it’s possible we might not be able to shut it off till it’s completely dry.” His voice is void of emotion but he just can’t bring himself to put anything into it and what would he? Despair would just hurt everyone, panic would scare everyone even more, so he just avoids it. He finds himself doing that a lot these days. Avoid the things that bring him pain, avoid till they slap him in the face or threaten to sneak behind him and rip his heart out through his back with a triumphant cry as if to mock him for his incompetence and inaction. He’s still reeling from how he didn’t notice Keyleth getting sick. If he’d just been paying just a smidge more attention he might’ve noticed, might’ve prevented his friends, his family, from splitting yet again, and half of them getting hurt in the process.

Logically he knows that no matter what they would’ve had to stop for supplies at some point before they hit the next middle-of-nowhere highway but he just can’t scratch this ever-present itch that he could’ve done something.

The rain continues to pelt down but luckily from what Percy can see the roads are completely cleared so he relaxes ever so slightly and as if they can feel the mood shift from him the rest of the group starts to idly chatter. Only three voices don’t join in, Vex, Keyleth, and his own. Chancing a glance in the rearview mirror reveals to him Vax softly talking to Keyleth, who has her head buried in the side of the long-haired man's neck.

Percy returns his full attention to the road, best not to intrude on a moment when they’re already forced to have it in the open. A lack of privacy has been one of the strongest most felt losses they’ve all been scrambling to get accustomed too. It’s to the point that whenever they reach Whitestone or Zephrah one of the first things he’ll do is just find a room to himself and scream. A slight slice of privacy just for him, is it wise? No. Is it selfish? Yes, but gods he feels everyone would want to do the same.

A cough brings a cold end to the little conversations everyone just started to have. Percy dares not take a glance through the mirror, avoiding yet again. His grip tightened on the wheel.

“I’m fine, it’s just from, well you know.” He hears Keyleth say just barely audible enough for everyone to hear. She’s still recovering, it’d be irrational to think she wouldn’t cough here or there but after the rush and fear they all felt and the fact she hadn’t coughed for hours at this point, it sends cold shivers up all their spines. Percy keeps his eyes glued to the road, as Vex’s hand goes from giving comfort to holding onto his arm in a firm grip. It’d better just be a cough.

Notes:

Well damn, it's done! I hope y'all have liked 'It was only a cough'! This story has been a little preview into my Apocalypse au! That at some point I'll write an actual long fic for, but for now, we just have this lil story and any and all prompts sent my way for little drabbles placed in this au! I hope you've enjoyed it! And thank you all who've read all the way to the end! It means a ton!!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Apocalypse au snip-its