Chapter Text
Chapter 1
~*~
Sun filtered through the leaves overhead, a soft breeze kissing what skin you had left exposed and pulling away the sweat that had built up on your body. Your footsteps nearly silent as you stalked through the trees, your sights set on what you hoped would be your dinner tonight as well as for a few days to come at the very least. A branch snapping in the distance had the head of the buck shooting up, his antlers fuzzy with the spring velvet as he looked into the thick of the trees where the noise had come from.
Honestly, you debated on your chances of hitting the buck while avoiding the predators that stalked through the forest with you. You had survived this long because you had the foresight to expect something like this, prepping your base long before the shit hit the fan. Though that didn’t mean you escaped everything unscathed, people you cared about had not been lucky enough to survive as long as you, though for the most part you lived a rather peaceful life considering the walking corpses that wandered the earth now, even if you were on your own now.
Okay, that was a rosy way of looking at the state of things and you fucking knew it. Though if you didn’t enjoy the little bits of peace and happiness you were bound to go crazy… or crazier than your forced isolation was driving you. You can’t even remember the sound of your own voice, having no one to talk to for… fuck it had to have been at least a year since this was the second spring since the last of your fellow survivors had been captured while out on a foraging run. Though captured was probably too nice of a way to put being ripped apart by the hands and teeth of a horde of walking corpses that had no semblance of who they once were left.
Shaking your head, you focus back on the buck as you pull your bow up, the arrow nocked as you draw the string back. The feather on the shaft tickling your cheek as you breath in to steady yourself, your eyes locked on your target as you breath out and loose the arrow to let it fly across the clearing. The tip digging deep into the neck of the buck, the shot meant to keep it from bellowing and drawing the attention of any unwanted guests to your little hunt. The blade of the arrow tip cutting through the flesh of the buck’s neck in just the way you had hoped.
Blood seeped passed the arrow, the buck staggering a bit before falling to his knees on his front legs as his hind legs struggle to try and keep him upright, big brown eyes wide as breath pants from its open mouth, blood frothing from his muzzle. While you didn’t like hurting animals, always being one to love the fluffy and feathery creatures that you lived on the planet with, killing the buck was down to that line between you and starvation, well… okay you had to admit that your base had a decent set up when it came to food and water, though having the extra meat from the buck definitely would help you in building up your fledgling little farm.
With the buck down, you strained your hearing to see if you could catch any sign of the thing that had caused the branch to snap. There were a few things that could be lurking out there, though most of them were not a good thing to run into. Nothing stired other than the breeze rustling the spring leaves in the trees, a few bees buzzing not too far away as the scent of flowers tickled your nose and mixed with the hot iron of the blood of your kill. Filing away the sound of the bees for later, you heave a sigh before taking action.
Strapping your bow to your back, you slipped your knife from the sheath strapped to your hip, the long blade hissing as you drew the wickedly sharp steal from its home to get to work dressing the deer. Padding through the long grass, you kneel beside the buck with a quiet thank you to the spirit of the animal that would feed your stomach and offer you so much more. Pulling the viscera sack from your hip pouch, you turn to the buck and get to work slicing up the carcass. Your knife gliding through muscles and tendons as you follow the pattern to remove the organs, not wanting to risk contaminating the meat with the guts of the deer.
With the possibility of other things in the woods, things that you did not want to run into, you make quick work of cutting out the guts and stuffing them in the bag. Tying the sack to your hip before swiping the flat of the blade of your knife on the fabric of your cargo pants, slipping the blade into its sheath before turning to heft your kill onto your shoulders. Grunting, you sling the buck up and over your shoulders, lifting with your legs as you turn and trudge your way back towards your base. Images of all the yummy things that you planned to make with the meat filled your head, a smile spreading over your lips as you slipped between the traps strewn through the woods to make your way back towards your base of operations.
The trek home wasn’t all that long, though it felt far longer with the weight of your kill on your shoulders. Luck was on your side, not only with finding and downing the buck, but also in the absence of any undead freaks showing up on your walk back. Slipping through the wall of woven logs and branches, carful to not get snagged on any of the spiked sticking through the defensive structure, you tossed the buck onto the ground of your homestead. Turning to pull the leaver that would set the gate to your sanctuary back into place, the grind of metal over the packed earth and gravel giving you a strange sense of security.
With the gate closed, you hefted the buck back onto your shoulders and headed to the little shed you had set up with your blades and other items to butcher your meat. Growing up on a farm had left you in a unique position that a lot of other survivors didn’t have the luxury of, the land that you had been prepping for this sort of possibility was well appointed with land for crops, buildings for storing supplies, even an area that had been set up with the few animals you had managed to get together before the world went to shit. You even had two wells that had really good filtration, on top of your rain collection efforts. It hadn’t been cheap, but you were extremely thankful that you had also invested in having both wind and solar generators set up.
Reaching your shed, you tossed your kill onto the counter before washing your hands up and pulling your blades out. The rasp of the whet stone over the well-honed steel sang in your ears as you checked the edges before getting to work, you blade gliding between the hide of the buck and the muscle below. The cape coming away easy as you set it aside to prosses it for later use as leather, the ever present debate between keeping the fur on the hide or simply shaving it down being one you didn’t want to deal with at the moment.
As you worked, you took stock of everything you had at hand. You were able to do quite a bit in the way of preserving your crops and the meat you hunted or butchered from your small heard or flock, though you could use more salt soon. Also with spring being here, there was a lot out in the forest that would be useful for your continued survival. While you didn’t like the idea of going farther afield than you do for your hunts, you knew that there was a lot that you could still find out in the world if you tried.
A soft trilling meow drew you from your thoughts as you smiled at the arrival of your best helper, the little calico cat that had slipped past your walls and found a home in your home and your heart. You hadn’t named her yet, though having her around was doing wonders for the loneliness that had been a heavy burden on you since your last companions had gone out and gotten themselves eaten.
Shaking your head at the little cat, you hurry through slicing up the buck in preparation for storage as you realize the beast was far too big for you to eat through in a single day. Even the few weeks that your refrigerator would offer wasn’t going to be long enough to eat it all, though you could freeze some for later. Slicing a strip of meat from the buck, you glance down at the fluffy cat winding her way through your legs with a smile. Clicking your tongue, the cat looks up at you with a meow as she watches the meat dangling between your fingers.
You had a bit of a rough winter with the infestation of mice getting into your grain stores, though the little cat showing up in the middle of a snow storm had been a blessing in many ways. She had gotten to work on the vermin that were trying to keep you from having enough to make it through winter, her smug expression every time she would drop her kill at your feet always brought a smile to your face. Passing the cut of venison to the cat, you watch as she daintily sniffs at it before taking a lick of the blood dripping from the flesh. Her little fangs plucking the morsel from your hand before she trotted off to devour her prize, a chuckle bubbling up in your chest as you finish up your work on stripping the muscles from the bones of the buck.
Wrapping the meat up, you turn your attention to the bones as you pull out the bone saw you had for breaking them down to something more manageable. The bones would work well for a nice broth, though you would need to add a few things to make it even better. Getting to work, you let your mind wander back to the things that you could be doing in your quest for comfort in your survival.
You had enough of a base to make it through the year if you were carful, though you found your body aching each day after working your ass off. Pfft, you really had managed to trim the fat, both from the deer and yourself. Looking down at yourself, you don’t know if you should be happy about how much weight you lost since the beginning of the end, or if you should be worried that you had slimmed down so much. Being plus sized all your life, seeing yourself being half your former weight was… honestly a bit disturbing. The muscles that had built up under the layers of fat from just existing before the end were now peaking past the slightly sagging skin that was left, not like anyone would be looking at you… but a distant vain part of you wished that your slimmer figure would have happened when you could have still had something done about the extra skin. A pang of self-consciousness going through you at the way you must look to others, if you ever ran into more survivors again.
Shaking off the thoughts, you finish up with the basics of getting the buck sorted out. Cleaning your tools before putting them back on the little hooks on the walls before bundling up everything you had harvested from the deer, heading out of the shed and into your home with the meat, bones, velvet, and fat from your prize in hand. Turning to the right, you step into the kitchen and put the meat in the fridge and freezer, filling a pot with water to boil the velvet with a few of the bones to make a healthy broth to help boost your system after the long winter. Another pan being added to the stove to render the fat that you managed to get from the buck, thoughts of preserving the substance for different uses filling your head.
~*~
Stalking through the woods near the cabin that he and his brother had found after the barrier had finally crumbled, Sans trailed quietly behind a buck that had his mouth watering as he thought about what Papyrus would make from the meat. While it was a shock to come to the surface finally, the scrawny kid having managed to push past the last bit of magic that held the monsters captive in the underground, Sans had not expected to find the world above to be… just as broken as the underground. Honestly, Sans felt bad for holding such a grudge against the kid that left, finding out that the day they came above the world had started to fall apart.
Sure, Sans could remember some of the resets, well not the details but that they were a thing. He even remembers that it was the first kid, the one that he couldn’t picture the face of for the life of him. Finding out that them never coming back was probably cause they ended up eaten, by the walking corps of one of their own… Sans could forgive them for not coming back. Though learning from Aliza that the way they ended up in the underground had been from falling through a hole while running from one of the walking dead… Sans had a whole new level of guilt on his soul for how he treated her. She went from running from human corpses wanting to eat her, to being surrounded by monsters that also wanted to eat her… damned if you do damned if you don’t for the poor kid.
Once the monsters stepped foot on the surface, all that time starving underground had been worth it to some degree, their instincts honed enough that they had managed to carve out a little spot for themselves on the surface. Toriel had taken in Aliza, the two were doing pretty well with a fortified cottage with enough of a stock of food that both of them were eating properly now. Grillby had opened up a post, a place where the monsters were able to still do business, Muffet joining him as the two took in any monster that wanted to stick close to their own kind. Sans and Papyrus had been the only ones to be too adapted to living on their own, leaving the other monsters behind to find a little place of their own.
Honestly, Sans was relatively happy with the way things were, even if the walking dead seemed to also have an interest in the monsters and their magic, just as much if not more than the living humans that still dotted the surface. Sans had only crossed paths with a couple of living humans since he and his brother made it to the surface, though the encounters had been a bit strained. As a whole, most humans tended to avoid the little spots that the monsters carved out for themselves, not wanting to fall to the claws and fangs of monsters that gave up what dignity they once had to fight for survival. It wasn’t that Sans hated humans… not much anyway. Sure, he still held a resentment that humans had once locked the monsters under the mountain, he even still held a sliver of resentment for the first kid… only a sliver though after learning that they had their reasons for not saving the monsters like they once seemed so set on.
Creeping closer to the buck he had been trailing, Sans summoned Bethany, his weapon of choice from his inventory, his body hunched as he readied to strike out at the unsuspecting deer. The sunlight dappled on the soft brown of the buck’s hide, muscles twitching under the soft looking pelt that would make for a fine addition to the bedding Sans used, or maybe a new set of armor for his cool little brother. Holding his breath, Sans jumped, his blade coming down on the back of the buck’s neck. A trumpeting below leaving the animal as it kicked out, just missing Sans as he shifted to straddle the back of the beast. The body under him twitching as the nerves in the deer’s neck were severed, falling to the ground where Sans made quick work of shifting to slice through the animals neck, blood gushing over his phalanges, staining them red as it watered the forest floor. Steam lifting from the heat of the animal in the chill of the early spring morning.
As the buck breaths its last, Sans raises his hand to his teeth as his tongue slips between them to lick the blood from his phalanges. The magic muscle glowing softly as it wraps around the bones of his fingers, the flavor hitting him as he sighs before hefting the beast onto his shoulders. Marching off in the direction of the little homestead he and his brother had carved out for themselves, a few distant groans of walking corpses reaching his nonexistent ears as he slips silently between the trees.