Chapter Text
Five remembered the sound. The earth-shattering screams of his siblings as they all linked their arms together, waiting for him to use his ability.
Five felt an incoming migraine as he tried his best to keep them all from straying as the sheer power of tearing through literal sheets of reality forced them to lose their hold of each other.
All he remembered was blinding pain. The burning sensation that spread from head to toe, like if somebody poured gasoline all over his body and threw a lit match at him. And then, just as suddenly, the burning sensation was replaced by cold. It was too cold.
Five wondered if he was dead at some point. It felt like forever before he saw the light at the end of the strange hot-cold void, which he assumed was a time pocket.
Wait a minute- why the hell was he even INSIDE the time pocket?
When he time travels, he never stays longer than a few seconds jumping through the time pocket. The only time he could remember being inside it was the time he jumped from the Academy to fucking Alaska.
AND EVEN THEN, it didn't take longer than half a minute to get out. Wherever it's taking him, it's someplace very, VERY far away.
That single thought fills him with immediate dread. Panic courses through him as he realized the fact that he had lost his entire family just right after he got them back. After literally 45 years, he got separated again. Five screams into the void, but predictably, no sound came out of his throat.
He stopped as almost all his energy seeped out of him. He stayed limp as the void takes him to the destination. It felt like being swept away by a river current, he was going WAY too fucking fast. This caused his migraine to worsen.
Again, Five wondered if they were okay. Five wondered if they were dead. He feels sick as he felt a little relieved at the notion of not seeing it if they were. He didn't know how well he could take it a second time.
It seemed he had reached his destination, as he felt the void try to push him out. Five braced himself, and he jumped. He felt the familiar sheets of reality tear as he forced both of his arms to wrench the metaphorical gate of time and space apart.
--- ---
Five falls on the gross texture of mud and dirt. It stuck to his kind-of-clean uniform as he sat up. He noticed this, and groaned out loud. He hates having to wear dirty clothes, ever since The Commission gave him God-given access to the laundry room.
Since he was currently sitting on mud and dirt (he didn't want to think about the possible insects that got stuck to the back of his shorts), he was probably in the middle of a forest at bum-fuck nowhere. Probably far out of civilization too. What an amazing start.
He stood up and walked off to see if he could find a river, only to get immediately stopped by the sound of unnatural wheezing. His heart rate picked up, it sounded exactly like the sounds his victims would make before dying during his job as an assassin. Except, this one is worse. It sounded, almost alive even. He could hear the faint rustling of whatever was making that noise.
'Why do weird shit keep happening to me all the time?' he thinks. For all he knows a zombie could be hiding in there. But at the same time, he thought that maybe a person was actually dying over there. Or maybe, he's losing his goddamn mind and it was actually an animal. Wasting no time, he pulled off a branch from the tree next to him, making sure to pull it downwards in order to create a sharp edge.
He holds it over his shoulder like one would a baseball bat, or an axe depending on the context. He slowly approaches the source of the wheezing, full-on alert. As he yanked down the bush hiding whatever it was from view, an honest-to-God zombie was staring back at him. His eyes widened as said corpse lunged at him, trying to bite his face off.
Five quickly blocked its mouth with the branch, and twisted to break the hinges of its jaw. It writhed on the ground, uselessly flailing its limbs to try and get at him. It was kind of pathetic, and he didn't have all day so he stabbed the sharp edge of his branch into that rotting head. He had the feeling of deja vu at having to do that, but whatever, it was self-defense, it didn't count, it really didn't.
Five pulled off the branch that was lodged into its head and swung around as he felt another one try to get at him. He smashed the branch onto the side of its head, snapping it clean off of its torso. He didn't take any chances as he immediately stabbed its head.
At the momentary peace, he took a moment to process everything that just happened in the span of one minute. First of all, zombies were real. He didn't know what time period he got himself into, but he's pretty fucking sure zombies has never existed in any timeline, or in any historical period. His job required him to jump through countless timelines, and he has never seen even a single one.
But to be fair, Klaus sees dead people all the time so this wasn't really that hard to believe.
A sudden realization struck him- the time pocket. Remember when he said the last time he got inside of it was the time he jumped to ALASKA? That must mean he did not, in fact, jump through time. Instead, he must've jumped from the concert hall into wherever this place is. He fears the utmost possibility of having jumped through a whole different universe.
It made sense! The way he was inside the time pocket for an abnormally long time, the feeling of getting dragged akin to floating on a river current. The time pocket was taking him to a whole other plane of existence, an alternate universe.
No, this can't be happening. What the fuck- he's currently stuck in an ALTERNATE universe, his siblings were practically as good as dead with the way they're literally unreachable.
He tried pushing through the sheets of reality once again, but came to a stop when he couldn't feel the pull of energy anymore. It reminds him of that time during the apocalypse, when he realized he couldn't jump through time anymore. It was as if someone made a cruel joke by giving his time-traveling ability a cooldown.
He navigated his way through the trees, trying to see if he could find a shelter for the night. It was getting dark out, and he sure as hell don't have night vision so things would definitely take a turn for the worst if he can't find a place to clear out his migraine soon.
He walked for about an hour, absent-mindedly killing off the zombies that lunged at him from out of nowhere. He was getting tired, easy as it was to kill them. The universe seemed to show a bit of sympathy for him as the faint outline of a shack came into view. It looked worse for wear, but he's had to sleep in literal sewage pipes infested with bugs and other things he didn't want to remember. He fucking hoped this place didn't have acid for rain.
Or maybe it did? This was a whole other universe, maybe it literally rains cats and dogs out here. Who the hell knows at this point. He walked up to the shack and patrolled around the area, trying to find an entrance. The windows were cracked, and the doors were barricaded. Somebody probably had lived here, and for whatever reason abandoned it.
Five took this chance to see if he still had his teleportation ability. He accumulated the molecules and electrons around himself, as he faintly felt the familiar power begin to grow. Blue sparks gathered around his hands like firework as he tried his hardest to pull through, but for some reason he couldn't find the strength to keep it in one place. The accumulated energy keeps seeping out the harder he tried, before it eventually fizzled out.
Sighing in frustration, he took a moment to construct a well structured plan that involved forcing his way through the windows using his bloody branch.
The glass shattered upon impact, and Five jumped inside, uncaring about the glass shards that could potentially cut him. He really couldn't give two shits about that right now as he carefully walked around the living room, trying to find a light switch. He could make out some basic furnitures; a sofa, a coffee table, and a broken TV.
He eventually did, but nothing happened as he flipped the switch. Figures, he guessed he'd just spend the night in complete darkness. With no ability to travel long distances in a matter of seconds, he pretty much can't do anything more productive but rest on the musty sofa. He plopped his head on the armrest, and focused on trying to ease the pounding headache that currently attacked him.
As he laid there, his chest tightened at the thought of never seeing his family again. He missed them already, and he hated the fact that he had brought this upon himself. If only he tried a little harder, maybe he and his family could've been in a timeline where they all lived a cushy life inside a big house with mom, and the old man dead at the side of a road.
Maybe Allison could've had Claire back, maybe Diego could've gotten back together with Patch. Maybe Vanya could've had a genuine relationship with somebody she deserves, and maybe Klaus could've gotten help. Maybe Luther could've lived a happier life without the old geezer around.
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. It's all just a bunch of maybes, but never wills. Five had gotten so tired of thinking about all the possibilities of getting a happy ending, but he could never quite reach that goal.
But maybe, it's different this time. No, he will make sure to find a way out of this mess, he will reunite with his siblings, and he WILL get them the life they deserve. No matter how long it would take, and no matter how impossible it sounded, he knows he would pull through. He'd survived an apocalypse all by himself for 45 goddamned years, he's not about to let an apocalypse inside an alternate universe stop him.
His eyes hardened in determination as he made up his mind. He's going to find out more about whatever the hell was going on in this world, and then he's going to find out what exactly caused this zombie outbreak, and how he's going to stop it. Were there even any living humans left? Or had they all been zombified? Infected?
Whatever, he's going to find out tomorrow anyway.
--- ---
And find out he did. He ended up mentally listing all the stuff he learned over the course of a few hours after dawn.
One, the zombies were indeed... Well, zombies. He knew this already but wanted to double check in case they were actually aliens that hatched from gross alien eggs carried by meteorites.
Two, the zombies could only detect sound, they were positively blind to quiet movement.
And three, you could mask your whole presence by covering your whole body with zombie blood... And their internal organs. Yuck.
He had incidentally found out about that one when he noticed the zombies walking past him when he got himself covered in zombie blood after he made the terrible mistake of skewering three zombies by the throat. To be fair, they tried to gang up on him by pinning him down and mounting on each other, but it was still gross nonetheless.
He hoped to find civilization soon, or maybe a river current. He desperately needed to wash everything off, he smelled horrible. He might have gotten used to the rotten smell of corpses, but that doesn't mean he could tolerate the horrible metallic odor from the drying zombie blood.
Five walked around quietly, trying to catch even the faintest sound of a water current. When he couldn't hear any, he was almost ready to accept the fact that he's going to smell awful for a while.
But then, he heard the sound of a twig snapping. He whirled around, new branch at the ready for more zombies, only to find nothing.
Well, almost nothing. He could see a hint of black fabric peeking out of the thick bush. He could also hear the sound of muffled breathing.
He darted forward and yanked on the fabric, which turned out to be one of the ends of a cloak, or a coat. The person wearing it flailed around, trying to escape his grip.
"God, have mercy! Someone HELP!" the person yelled out in a panic. Five immediately backhands him to shut him up.
"Keep your fucking voice down!" Five whisper-yelled. He really did NOT want to attract a horde of zombies and having to smell even worse with layers of dried blood painting every crevice of his skin.
On further inspection, the person looked to be a priest with dark skin and a bald head. He was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. He looked like he didn't know whether to gape or be relieved that he wasn't a zombie.
"I- you're- a human!" The priest exclaimed.
"Yeah, no shit." Five stepped away from him, making some distance.
"I- I apologize for screaming earlier. I assumed you were one of...the walkers." The priest gave him a shaky smile. Five raised an eyebrow at that.
"What the hell is a walker? Just call them zombies like a normal person." Five rolled his eyes. That might just be one of the dumbest things he'd heard anyone call them.
"I- I see! I-is that what children calls them nowadays? I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with the latest 'trends'." The priest attempted to joke, letting out an awkward chuckle.
Five just stared at him.
The priest coughed to hide how awkward he felt at that moment, so he opted to change the topic instead, "A-are your parents nearby? I could accompany you."
"I'm alone."
The priest's eyes turned sympathetic, obviously coming to the conclusion that Five had lost his parents to the unforgiving world of the apocalypse. Not that he would be bothered to correct him. The priest seemed to finally notice his dirty appearance, his expression contorted to one of concern.
"Are you injured? I- I have a few pain medicine and some canned food." The priest offered.
Five's eyes narrowed suspiciously. For all he knew, he could be a cannibal disguised as a timid priest to catch him off-guard. They're in the middle of an apocalypse with limited supplies, there's just no way anyone would be offering free shit just because, especially not to an equally suspicious bloody "teenager". He probably intended to lure him to his territory to strangle him when he's not looking.
Not that the priest could ever pose an immediate threat to him. He'd kill him before he could.
"Where?" Five asked him bluntly. If he did plan to lead him into his own "demise", then he better make it quick.
"I have a church nearby. It's just a five minute walk from here." The priest explained. He started walking to the direction where this supposed "church" would be.
At least it's not a warehouse. Five shrugs as he followed the priest, making sure to keep a few meters of distance.
They walked for about two minutes before the priest opened his mouth again to ask, "What's your name?"
Should Five give him his actual name? Not that it was an actual name, he's basically nameless.
"Five." He replied curtly.
The priest was silent for a few seconds, before he nodded his head. "Five.. What a- peculiar name." He sounded unsure whether or not he was telling the truth. But Five didn't really care, so he didn't deign him a response as they continued walking.
"I am Father Gabriel." Gabriel suddenly told him. Five didn't know when he asked, but that made interacting with him easier he guessed. They finally arrived at the church, and it looked somewhat decent. Surprisingly.
Gabriel unlocked the door with a set of keys, and ushered him in. The interior was... Normal. No hidden butcher knives in sight. Not even a speck of blood could be seen on the wooden floors. But Five was still suspicious, though, he doesn't think he could ever be not suspicious of everything.
Gabriel looks at the church in pride. He seemed to have taken care of this church pretty well, judging by how there's barely any dust covering the chairs.
"Do you have anyone else in here?" Five suddenly asked.
Gabriel tensed up at that. He looked strangely guilty, which skyrocketed Five's suspicions of him being a possible serial killer. A remorseful one at that. Not that he could judge him for it.
"N-no, it's just me. I'll go grab you some canned foods.. And- and pain medicine." Gabriel stuttered before he quickly entered what looked to be his office.
Five walked around the church, observing and trying to find anything that could back his cannibal theory up. So far, nothing. But everything would be revealed in due time. He sat down on one of the chairs, and looked up to see a statue of a man nailed to a cross. It would look creepy to him if he didn't know that was the religious figure that Christians follow.
Gabriel came back with canned peaches and a small pill bottle. He didn't know whether those were actual pain killers or a sedative, so he pocketed them in his awfully dirty shorts. His migraine was mostly gone anyway.
He opened the canned peaches and sniffed around it, trying to detect any trace of poison. The old man used to make him and the rest of his siblings play a guessing game of "is it poisoned or just terrible smelling food?" regularly, so he had become very good at it. And there were none, so he started digging in.
Gabriel watched him eat like some creepy weirdo, but he was too hungry at themoment to even give a shit.
Once he was done, he suddenly remembered that he didn't have any water to wash off the sticky sensation, and the dried blood for that matter, so he groaned in annoyance. Hopefully his unnaturally strong immune system could cancel out whatever virus the dry blood carried.
"Do you have a sink?" Five asked.
"W-well no, but we can make a small detour to find a current." Judging from his clean outfit, he was probably telling the truth. Or maybe he just stayed inside a lot, but Five would take anything as long as there's a chance to wash everything off.
This was going to be a long day.