When There's No More Room In Hell (2/3)

[geranosaurusfic]

Master Post
Part 1
Part 3

They got to Monroeville a little after noon. The roads all the way there were an absolute mess, crashed cars piled and burning along the side of the road, and hordes of zombies stumbling their way out of the cities and suburbs along the way.

Monroeville itself was not any better. The streets were littered with cars and bodies. There as a strong smell of burning- especially a thick, suffocating smell that Gerard thought must have been burning bodies, and they could see hints of the fire that must've been burning at the other end of town.

"This doesn't look promising," Frankie said as they drove into the town.

"He's okay. He has to be," Gerard said.

Frankie sighed. "Where's the house?"

"Turn here, it’s right down this street," Gerard said.

Frankie turned down the street without a word.

"Right there, that blue house," Gerard said, pointing to his house. Frankie pulled the car over in front of the house.

The house appeared normal, at least from the outside. The door was shut, the windows intact. It was in a lot better shape than most of the others.

Gerard got out of the car and ran right into the house. He could hear Frankie follow after him.

Gerard was already frantically searching the rooms, just stopping in the doorway and looking through before going on to the next one. They were all empty, and all seemed perfectly normal and intact. But then Gerard got to the next room and froze.

On the floor in front of the couch lay his mother's headless body, her head sitting on the cushions, staring at them with still moving eyes. On the floor next to the body there crouched Mikey, eating the intestines out of her stomach like he was eating popcorn from a bowl.

"Mikey?" Gerard said, quietly. He was devastated. Mikey had to be alright. He had to be. This couldn’t be possible.

Mikey looked up. He let the intestines just fall right out of his mouth and hands, a chunk of it dripping down his face. He stood up and started walking right towards Gerard. Gerard couldn’t believe there was anything wrong. He knew what he was seeing, but it was Mikey. Mikey had to be okay.

Before Mikey could reach him, suddenly a bullet flew from behind him and hit Mikey directly in the forehead. Mikey's body fell to the floor.
Mikey was dead.

Mikey was dead. And Frankie had killed him.

Almost deadly calm, Gerard said, "You just shot my brother."

Then he turned around and faced Frankie. Frankie had killed Mikey. He wanted to kill Frankie.

"He was already dead. You know that," Frankie said, sounding nervous.

"You just shot my brother," Gerard repeated just as calmly. He grabbed a hold of the front of Frankie's shirt and slammed him into wall. Frankie dropped the gun in surprise.

"Shit. Shit, fuck, Gerard," Frankie pleaded. "Dude. I'm sorry. I had to!"

Gerard let go of him and then punched him in the stomach, hard, twice. "My brother. My baby brother!"

Frankie fought back tears, clutching his stomach and falling to the ground.

Gerard then started to kick him, over and over, screaming, "You killed him. You killed him." Finally, he stopped, and after a few seconds picked up the gun.

"Gerard," Frankie said, his voice weak with pain. "Put that down."

"You killed him," Gerard said, putting the gun up against Frankie's head. He had killed Mikey. Gerard was going to kill him too.

"If...if you kill me, you'll die too. You can't make it on your own, you need me, you know that," Frankie reasoned.

Gerard didn't say anything, nor did he move the gun. He had killed Mikey.

"That wasn't Mikey I shot. Mikey's dead. That was a monster in Mikey's body, you have to know that. He wouldn't have wanted that monster to hurt you. He would've wanted to be shot."

"My baby brother," Gerard said. Mikey couldn’t have gotten bitten. Mikey couldn’t have become one of the dead.

"It wasn't really him," Frankie said.

Gerard hesitated, but he finally pulled the gun away. At first Frankie seemed alert, like he was ready to defend himself if Gerard decided to attack again. He didn’t need to be. It hit Gerard suddenly that Mikey had been bitten and Mikey was dead and that Gerard had almost killed somebody for no reason. Gerard dropped the gun and fell to his knees, sobbing.

After a few seconds he felt Frankie crawl over next to him and put his arms around him. Frankie rubbed his back, obviously trying to comfort him. Gerard cuddled close to Frankie, sobbing into his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Gerard gasped out. "I knew it, I knew it, I just...just want my brother back."

"I know, shh, it's okay," Frankie said, his voice sounding strained and awkward. He patted Gerard’s back.

"He was my best friend," Gerard said. "I just talked to him last night."

"Just last night Bob gave me a piggy back ride home," Frankie said. "And now he's gone too."

Gerard looked up, the corners of his mouth went up, just a bit. "Piggy back ride?"

"Yeah," Frankie said, giving Gerard a smile.

"We need to get out of here," Gerard said. "I have some clothes here, I'm going to change. Could...could you cover the bodies for me? Like you did with Bob's?"

"Of course," Frankie said, letting go of Gerard.

Gerard left the room and stumbled his way upstairs, still not quite coming to grips with what had happened. He went into his room and took off the clothes he had on. It was dirty and covered in blood, and he realized, some of that blood could be Mikey’s.

He found old clothes of his that still fit and put them on. He grabbed his old backpack and put some extra clothes in there. He was sure what he had on would get gross again.

He zipped the backpack shut and slung it over his shoulders. He went downstairs and back into the room he had just left. The bodies were now covered with the curtains, but Gerard tried not to think about it and instead suggested to Frankie, "We should get some food, too."

"Yeah," Frankie said. "Got anything good?"

"Well, I know we have a pretty good alcohol selection," Gerard said. "Not exactly food, but..."

"Sounds good to me," Frankie said with a laugh.

Gerard laughed, a little. "And we have some good meat, but that won't last anyway, and besides you're all..."

"Vegan?" Frankie said.

"Yeah. And meat's kind of a lot like...people...you know?" Gerard said, shuddering a little, now that he actually thought of it that way. Seeing the dead eating someone sort of ruined things with meat, at least for a little while.

"Yeah," Frankie agreed. "So alcohol. And we need canned fruit and such."

"Okay, but don't forget the can opener," Gerard said, laughing, starting down the hallway.

"We can just pick up a new one at the store," Frankie said, following him. "I think there's a sale. Everything 100% off."

/////

By the time they filled the car with food and shot the few zombies that wandered over, it was already dark, so they decided to spend the night, even though Gerard was very hesitant to. He didn’t want to stay in the house where his mother and brother’s bodies were.

At first, Gerard went into his room and sent Frankie over to go sleep in Mikey’s room, but Gerard just couldn’t sleep alone. He was too afraid. Too nervous. So he got up and went into Mikey’s room. Frankie was still awake too, just laying there and staring at the ceiling.

"What's up?" Frankie asked, sounding worried.

"Can you come into my room? I just...I really don't want to be alone right now," Gerard said. "I mean, uh, please?"

Frankie hesitated, but finally he nodded. "Okay." He got up and followed Gerard to his room.

"Watchmen?" Frankie asked, obviously noticing one of the posters that Gerard had on his wall. "Cool."

"Dude, yes," Gerard said, and he couldn’t help but give Frankie one of his biggest smiles.

"I guess you're cooler than you look," Frankie said, jokingly, but Gerard frowned. He had tried to kill Frankie earlier.

"Um, so..." Gerard said. "I kind of tried to kill you."

"Dude, it's...it's not like you really meant to," Frankie said.

"If I were you, I would've left me here," Gerard said, quietly. He’d tried not to think about that, but it’s what he would have done.

"I thought about it," Frankie admitted.

Gerard kind of twitched nervously at that, the thought of what could have happened to him cross his mind, but he forced himself not to considering that. Instead, he wondered why Frankie had stayed after what had happened. "But why didn't you?"

"I don't want to be alone," Frankie said.

"Oh," Gerard said. "Yeah. Me neither. So...so don't change your mind about and abandon me."

"I won't," Frankie promised. "Let's just decide...we're in this together. That way we will always have someone."

"Okay," Gerard agreed. "But you know I'm depending on you way more than you are me, right?"

Frankie smiled. "I can't be alone."

"Okay," Gerard said, again, quietly.

"We need to get some rest," Frankie said. Gerard nodded and turned off the light. They both just sort of stumbled awkwardly into the bed. At first they each stayed on their own sides of the bed, but after a few minutes Gerard shifted over until he was basically cuddling into Frankie. "You don't mind?" Gerard asked.

"Nah," Frankie said, putting his arm around him and pulling him closer. Gerard snuggled in closer and could finally get himself to fall asleep.

/////

The next morning they ate breakfast and headed out just as the sun came up. There were quite a few zombies standing around the house, so they shot the one's closest to the car and the door and then ran through the rest of them. Gerard was getting to have pretty good aim, getting their brain around more often than he was missing.

They set off on the road with no plans and no ideas where they were going except, "like, towards the country, there's less people," which Frankie had decided. It was kind of scary, not knowing, but also kind of exhilarating.

They had to stop for gas, which resulted in Gerard pumping it while Frankie stood kind of far away and shot any zombies that got too close while being paranoid he was going to hit the gas tank.

Once it was full and they were back in the car, Gerard made Frankie stop in front of the store so he could run in and grab a candy bar.

"I was really torn about this, you know," Gerard said, unwrapping his candy bar as they drove away. "Because Milky Ways are the best, but they remind me of my brother, which sucks."

"They remind you of your brother?" Frankie asked, sounding very confused.

"Oh, yeah. Cause our last name is Way," Gerard said.

"Mikey Way!" Frankie said, laughing.

"Exactly. So they were automatically his favourite," Gerard said. "Besides the fact that they are, like, epically delicious."

They drove on for hours more, through towns that were more like ruins. It was mostly uneventful, save the stray zombie that decided to walk into the front of the car.

It continued this way for the entire day, with only a few frantic gas stops and bathroom breaks.

They were driving through another town, this time with Gerard behind the wheel and Frankie starting to nod off in the passenger seat, sleepily watching out the window.

Suddenly, Frankie sat up and yelled, "Stop the car!"

Gerard did, and then he looked to see. There was a woman coming towards the car, and she seemed to be walking too quickly and normally to be a zombie.

"Is...is she alive?" Frankie asked.

"I think so," Gerard agreed.

The woman reached the car, hands held up as a gesture of peace. Gerard gasped as he realized he knew who she was, and he quickly opened the door and got out of the car. "Lyn-Z?" he asked, running over to her.

"Gerard?" she asked, and then she laughed. "Oh god, this is great!" She pulled him into a hug.

"I didn't think I'd ever find somebody I knew still alive," Gerard said, hugging her back tightly.

"Me neither!" Lyn-Z said. "It's awesome to see you, dude! And who's this?" She smiled at Frankie, who had in the meantime gotten out of the car.

"Frankie," Gerard explained. "He's helped me."

"Frankie," Lyn-Z said. "Hi, Frankie."

"Hi," Frankie said.

"Well thank you for keeping Gee alive. I can't imagine it was the easiest thing to do," she said. Then, she hesitated, "So, uh, where's Mikey?"

"He didn't make it," Gerard said quietly.

"Oh, Jesus," Lyn-Z said. "Shit, I'm sorry."

"It's...it'll be okay," Gerard said. "So how have you been keeping alive?"

"I'm staying with these people, actually. Soldiers and like this gangsta guy. They have food and this awesome barricade and some fantastic zombie killing skills," Lyn-Z explained.

"Isn't that, like, always a bad idea in zombie movies?" Frankie said.

"This isn't a movie, honey," Lyn-Z said, smiling. Then, more seriously. "It’s all I could do."

"Why?" Frankie asked.

"Well, I was staying with some friends- Kitty, Amanda, Brian, all them. Do you remember them, Gee?" she asked. Gerard nodded. "We were all staying at Amanda's, thinking it was safe. That's how we lost most of the group. Zombies got in one night, killed everybody except me and Kitty. Then Kitty died yesterday, got mauled by a zombie in a grocery store."

"Oh," Gerard said. "Wow."

“Yeah,” Lyn-Z said. “So come on. We have a place to park this at the base, come on.”

They all got in the car, this time with Lyn-Z getting in the driver’s seat. They drove up to a tall brick building that looked like it had once been a school. It was surrounded by barbed wire and tall fences. There were zombies tangled up in the wires, some still twitching, some completely still. Behind it the fences were basically barricades built out of desks and other random objects. "They have a gate set up in the back for the cars,” Lyn-Z explained, driving around to the back of the building.

They went around the building and pulled up to the gate at the back. From a look out above them, a voice asked, "Who's there?"

"It's Lyn-Z," she yelled out the window. "And I found two more survivors."

A helmeted head appeared, looking down at them. "You sure they weren't bitten?"

"They're clean," Lyn-Z said.

He fiddled around with something out of view and the gates opened. "Get your asses in here already before you become zombie food."

"That's Blackinton, he's one of the only ones who's not a total jackass," Lyn-Z said as they drove in and the gate closed behind them.

"That doesn't sound very promising," Frankie said, grimacing.

"Yeah, well, what do you expect? It's the fucking zombie apocalypse," Lyn-Z said with a laugh. "Nice guys get eaten first. 'Cept Gerard. Not sure how he made it this long."

"Me neither," Gerard agreed.

Lyn-Z drove through a small stretch of pavement up to what looked like a few delivery gates on the building. One of them was already open, so she drove through that and into a plain concrete room full of several other cars and trucks.

They got out and walked through a set of doors into the building. The halls were all barren and white, except for the black lockers that lined the wall and the few blood stains all along the floor.

Almost immediately a tall guy came down the hallway to them. "New guys?" he asked, looking them over with a frown.

"Yeah. Gerard and Frank," Lyn-Z said.

"Saporta," he said, as an introduction. "Give them the rooms by yours. And make sure Suarez double checks them. Even if they aren't infected, they could still have gotten something out in the streets."

"Can't...can't we just share a room maybe?" Gerard blurted out, grabbing a hold of Frankie's arm almost involuntarily.

"Sure," Saporta said, raising his eyebrow. He started down the hallway, and they could hear him mutter, just loud enough they could hear him, "Faggots."

Gerard blushed and let go of Frankie's arm immediately. "Uh...uh, it's not like that, you know, of course, I just don't want to be alone, like, at all..."

"I know," Frankie tried to reassure him.

"I really don't want you to think this is weird, or anything, I just...I'm afraid, like, I'll get attacked in my sleep, or what if I have a nightmare, or, or..." Gerard was babbling and gesturing wildly. He even started pacing down the hallway.

"Gerard," Frankie said, grabbing a hold of Gee's shoulders and holding him still. "It's okay. I don't want to be alone either. We agreed we'd stick together, remember? It's fine."

"Oh," Gerard said, staring at Frankie kind of wide-eyed. "Okay. So, uh..."

"You guys need to check in with Doc Suarez, then I'll show you your room?" Lyn-Z said, smiling slightly. "Gee, you are still such a spaz, you know."

Gerard just laughed nervously.

Lyn-Z started down to lead them through the hallways to the infirmary.

"Dude, this is probably going to be fucking high school again here. Like, guys calling us fags and stuff just cause we're kind of weird," Frankie said.

"I hope not," Gerard said, cringing a little. "When I was in high school these jocks super glued my pants to my chair. The teacher had to cut them off, and I was stuck standing there in my pink unicorn boxers."

Frankie stared at him. "Really?" Gerard nodded, blushing. "Oh. Fuck, wow. That...that's horrible."

"Yeah," Gerard agreed. "The worst part was I had been, like, daydreaming in class, and I kind of had this epic boner..."

"Oh, wow," Frankie said.

Gerard sighed. "It's kind of sad that I think the zombie apocalypse is going to end up being better than high school," he said.

"Yeah, well," Frankie said. "At least the zombies can't, like, call you gay and break your Batman action figures before they eat you."

"No, man, it's like this comic book I read!" Gerard said, suddenly enthusiastic. "There were zombies, but they were like, talking, non-flesh eating zombies. But they destroyed this one guy's Star Trek action figure set. All he had left was a headless Uhura."

Frankie laughed, surprised. "Oh man," he said. "Now that would be the worst."

"Definitely the worst," Gerard agreed, with a grin.

When they made it to Dr. Suarez, he quickly declared them both perfectly healthy without hardly looking at them- “He’s trying to make a cure for the infection, like he doesn’t know it’s impossible,” Lyn-Z explained- and they were shown their room.

/////

Gerard woke up once during the night from a nightmare, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. He used to have them a lot as a kid, and of course something like this would be enough to trigger them back.

He managed to fall back asleep and was still mostly asleep when Frankie suddenly jumped right onto his bed.

Gerard didn't even bother to open his eyes, but he did flip Frankie off.

"No, wake up!" Frankie said cheerfully. "We're going shopping!

"Not sure if you know this, but it’s kind of the zombie apocalypse," Gerard reminded him, still without even opening his eyes.

"Dude, Travis, he's like one of the gangsta guys, he's driving out to the mall with some people. Mostly getting groceries and shit but I asked them if we could like come along, drive one of the trucks. I want to get some new clothes that's not all covered in zombie guts," Frankie explained.

"We?" Gerard asked, frowning. He opened his eyes just so he could glare at Frankie.

"It'll be fun," Frankie promised.

“I want to go back to sleep,” Gerard protested. “And I don’t want to get eaten.”

“But I thought we were in this together!” Frankie said, pouting.

“Shut the fuck up, making me go to the fucking mall with you is not part of the agreement,” Gerard said, but he got out of bed anyway.

Frankie grinned.

Gerard pulled on some clothes and then let Frankie grab a hold of his wrist and drag him out of the room and down the hallway. They went down a set of stairs and down the hallway until they reached the door to the garage and Frankie pulled him through it, pushing the door open with his hip. When they got inside they could see that sitting on the back of one of the truck was a man and a very pretty girl, and another guy was standing next to it.

“About time you showed up,” the man sitting on the truck said.

“Sorry, I had to get sleeping beauty here,” Frankie said, letting go of Gerard’s wrist but hip-checking him when he finished talking.
The guy laughed. “I see,” he said. “So you’re the other new guy. Gerard, right?” Gerard nodded. “I’m Travis. This lovely lady here is Victoria...”

“Vicky-T,” she said, interrupting. She was staring at her nails and sounded bored.

“Vicky-T,” Travis amended. “And this is Blackinton,” he said, gesturing to the guy standing next to the truck. “We’re considerably less douchey than the rest of the people here, besides Lyn-Z, of course.”

“Which is why you’re taking us to the mall!” Frankie said excitedly. He sounded like a little kid at a toy store.

Travis laughed. “Yeah, exactly. Come on, hop in, I’d like to go so we get back before sundown. Those dead fuckers are worse at night.” Travis got into the driver’s seat, and Vicky-T took the passenger seat, so Gerard and Frankie piled into the back seat with Blackinton. Once they were all in the car Blackinton pulled some guns out from underneath the seats and handed them all one.

Travis started the truck and turned it around. The gate that had been open before was still left opened, and Gerard thought that maybe they kept it open in case they ever needed to leave quickly. Travis drove through the gate and then through a small stretch of road that led to the gate at the back of the school, which somebody in the tower opened for them. They drove through and started through the city.

“So the nice thing about the mall is that it’s relatively safe. I mean, there’s some dead around it, and occasionally one will find its way in, but we’ve barely had any problem with them,” Travis said as he drove. “So you don’t have to be that worried. Like, always be worried, it’s the fucking zombie apocalypse or some shit, but don’t be too worried.”

Gerard was pretty sure he wouldn’t stop worrying. He didn’t exactly want to become food.

“So Frankie, I was wondering, how exactly is it that somebody so ridiculously short like you managed to survive this long? How do those tiny little legs run fast enough to escape the living dead?” Travis asked. Gerard could see his smirk through the rear view mirror.

“Actually, what I do is if one of the dead come for me, I just like hide inside of mouse holes and shit where they can’t reach me,” Frankie said. “Or climb into somebody’s pockets and have them carry me around.” They all laughed.

It didn’t take them very long to get to the mall and they only had to kill a few of the dead to make it inside. Inside was strange because for the most part the mall looked like it had been unaffected by the dead rising- a few stores had been looted, a few bodies were lying on the ground, but other than that, it looked more or less untouched.

As soon as they were inside, Frankie grabbed a hold of Gerard’s wrist again and started dragging him through the mall. After about a minute of this Frankie exclaimed, “Fuck yes!” and ran over to a store, pulling Gerard along with him. It turned out to be a Hot Topic. At least he would be able to get some skinny jeans.

Frankie had to go back and get a crowbar out of the truck in order to get into the store, but once he was in started grabbing clothes right away. Gerard followed, a little awkwardly, looking at some clothes. He didn’t really want that much, just something new that wasn’t blood stained.

Frankie grabbed a few t-shirts and then he went over to the jeans. “I don’t remember what size I wear in this brand,” he said thoughtfully, looking at a pair. “I guess I’ll try them on!” He sounded very excited about this, and he practically skipped over to the dressing room.

Gerard kept looking at the clothes and found a few things he liked. He happened to look up right when Frankie was strutting out in the jeans. Which fit perfectly. And looked really awesome.

“I don’t know, do these fit?” Frankie asked. And great, now he was like inviting Gerard to stare.

“Uh. Um. Yeah. They look like they do,” Gerard said.

Frankie grinned. “Okay, sweet!” He turned around to walk back over to the jean section, and Gerard tried really hard not to stare at his ass.

It didn’t take much longer for them to find all the clothes they wanted. They both changed there and left their old clothes in the store. Gerard found a shopping bag to put his clothes in, and Frankie took a unicorn backpack that he stuffed full of clothes.

They went back to the first floor to find that Travis, Vicky-T, and Blackinton had just finished getting food, and that they had somebody else with them- a tall skinny guy with the meanest looking expression on his face.

“Hey guys! Good timing, yo,” Travis said.

“Who’s this?” Gerard asked, gesturing towards the new guy.

“Oh, we found him in the store. His name’s Ryan and he seems pretty clueless,” Travis said.

“Fuck you,” the skinny guy- Ryan- said.

“And he’s a little bitch,” Travis said cheerfully. “We’ve only known him for about three minutes and we already want to leave him here.”

“I think we should,” Vicky-T said.

“Now, now, children,” Blackinton said. “We can’t just abandon him. He’ll just have to yell at the mannequins then, and that would just be depressing.” Ryan just glared at him.

They went back out to the truck and Ryan went right up and sat in the passenger seat before Vicky-T could. She looked like she wanted to go up and pull him out of the truck, but she just squeezed into the back with the rest of them.

“Is that a unicorn backpack?” Vicky-T asked suddenly, staring at Frankie’s lap where it was sitting.

“Yep!” Frankie said proudly.

“I am totally getting one of those next trip,” she said.

“No way, dude, it’s my fashion statement!” Frankie said laughing. She rolled her eyes and shoved him. Gerard just watched with a smile and tried to will himself not to start to crush on Frankie.

////

A few more days passed at the base and they started to get pretty comfortable there. They had a lot of fun hanging out with Travis, Vicky-T, Blackinton, and Lyn-Z. For the most part there wasn’t that much that they had to do. Frankie spent a lot of time trying to learn fighting technique from Travis and Blackinton, and when he was doing that Gerard would talk to Lyn-Z. They would share stories about Mikey and their old friends, and how life had been since they had seen each other last. And before this had happened.

Saporta still was harassing them occasionally, but getting called a faggot a few times at meals wasn’t really anything new for Gerard, or probably Frankie for that matter.

About the second day or so, Frankie figured out that they could go up onto the roof, so he would drag Gerard up there for a while each day and they would watch the dead outside the fence and talk and maybe snuggle a little.

One day they were sitting on the roof, just watching and talking, when Gerard noticed that Saporta and one of the other guys there, Novarro, were walking in from the gate, and it looked like they had another person with them. He looked more closely and he realized they were dragging along one of the dead with them.

“Frankie,” he said. “Frankie, look.”

Frankie did. “Wait, is that...is that one of the dead?” he asked, his eyes widening.

“Yeah,” Gerard said. “What are they doing?”

“I have no idea,” Frankie said. They both watched as Saporta and Novarro dragged the dead man over to the flagpole in front of the school.

They tied the dead man to the pole with a rope that was like a leash, so that he could only walk a little away from the pole. Then they taunted him by walking closer but then running away so he would strain against the pole.

Gerard watched in horror as they then cut off the dead man’s arms, one at a time. Then they cut off one of its legs, and laughed as it tried to hop towards them and just fell, flailing on the ground.

“Frankie...” he said, trying to say something about how horrible it was, but he couldn’t get anything out because was choking up.

Frankie put his arm around Gerard and gave him a half hug. “Oh, honey,” Frankie said. “I know, it’s awful, but the man’s dead. He can’t feel anything. He doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

“It’s still sick,” Gerard said, venomously.

“I know,” Frankie said sympathetically, rubbing Gerard’s back.

Saporta and Novarro left the dead man like he was, still flailing on the ground, trying to stand back up and not being able to.

Later Gerard heard a gunshot and saw that Frankie had gone out and killed the man. Saporta and Novarro called him a pussy, but Frankie just flipped them off and told them if they did that again he’d shot them in the head instead.

They didn’t do it again.

/////

Frankie was practicing karate or something on the roof while Gerard just watched from where he was sitting, leaning against the wall next to the door inside.

“You know you should do this too, right?” Frankie said, in between some weird ninja move he was doing.

“I’m okay, thanks,” Gerard said. He didn’t want to stand up, let alone anything that actually involved moving.

“You look bored,” Frankie said, raising his eyebrow.

“I would rather sit here than do that,” Gerard said. “It’s like fucking gym class.”

Frankie laughed. “Dude, being a zombie-killing ninja is not the same as gym class.”

Gerard was just about to argue why it was just like gym class when the door opened and out came Ryan. He seemed pissed off, but he also had had that expression the entire time so far. He crossed his arms and just stood bitchily by the door while he waited for Frankie to stand still.

“Saporta says we all have to do help get supplies,” Ryan said. “It’s our turn or something.”

“Awesome,” Frankie said sarcastically. “Right now?”

“Yeah,” Ryan said “Right now.”

“Tell him we’ll be down in a minute as long as he gives us guns,” Frankie said.
“Although maybe not you. I don’t want you to like accidently shoot me in the foot or something.”

“It wouldn’t be an accident,” Ryan said, glaring at him and then going back inside. “And it would be worse than your foot.”

“He’s a little bitch,” Frankie said, reaching his hand out to Gerard to help him up. Gerard took it and Frankie pulled him up.

“Yeah,” Gerard agreed.

They went downstairs and to the garage. Saporta was standing there waiting, looking even grumpier than usual. Ryan was standing next to him, arms crossed, glaring at the wall. And Lyn-Z and Blackinton were there as well, sitting on the bed of the truck and talking.

"Okay, since those assholes finally decided to show up, you guys can go get some fucking food," Saporta said. He kicked a box that was at his feet. "Guns and shit are in here. Hurry up because otherwise we're not fucking eating tonight." Then he stormed out.

"Jesus, what's up with him?" Lyn-Z asked as soon as he was out the door.

"Who knows," Frankie said, going over to the box of guns and ammo and opening it. He handed a gun to each of them and then ammo for all of them. "Let's just get this done so doesn't like, piss in our food or something."

Lyn-Z snorted. "We'd have to bring food back for him to piss in anyway."

They all got in the car. Blackinton took the driver's seat while Ryan took the passenger seat after practically knocking Lyn-Z over to make sure she didn't get to it first.

"Thank you Ryan. I wasn't going to take your seat anyway, but great job on being a five year old and making sure I didn't," Lyn-Z said sarcastically as she piled into the back with Gerard and Frankie. Ryan didn't even bother to reply.

They drove to the mall and got inside without having to shoot very many of the walking dead, and it didn't take very long for them to get all the supplies gathered and into the truck either, even with Ryan just sulking like a bitch and refusing to help. As soon as they were finished, Lyn-Z decided she wanted to try and get some new clothes and Blackinton wanted to get something too, so they went off to the do that while Gerard, Frankie, and Ryan waited downstairs for them.

Ryan decided to go sulk in a corner. Gerard didn't really feel like letting his guard down, because it felt sort of weird that it had been such an effortless trip, so he told Frankie this and they decided to try and kind of keep guard.

It was only a few minutes into this when Gerard was scanning the area and he suddenly noticed that one of the dead, a skinny corpse of a guy, had creeped up within inches of Ryan. Ryan was too busy sulking to have even noticed.

Gerard ran over and knocked Ryan out of the way before the zombie could reach him. Ryan fell over, landing on his arm in a way that sounded very painful.

Gerard had used too much momentum running over, and he started to lose his balance. He could feel himself starting to fall too. He sort of windmilled his arms to keep from falling, and he managed to keep himself up. It took so long to regain his balance that before he even had the chance to react, he could feel the dry, crusty hand of the dead man on his arm.

He tried to pull his arm away, but the guy had a firm grip Gerard managed to pry the fingers off just as the guy’s mouth nearly bit into his flesh, and Gerard had to push it away. It grabbed a hold of Gerard’s hair and tried to pull him in closer again, but Gerard pulled away and before he had to do anything else, a shot rang out and the dead man’s head blew apart into chunks.

Gerard pried the fingers out of his hair and stepped away, wiping the blood off his face from the shot.

He turned to Frankie, and Frankie was just staring at the dead man, gun lowered. Suddenly Frankie seemed to come back to focus and he looked over at Gerard with an expression of absolutely fury. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he demanded, putting the gun down at his side and storming over to Gerard.

“What?” Gerard asked, confused.

“Why the fuck did you do that, dumbass? You could have gotten yourself killed! You could have shot the fucking thing, why did you have to walk over there? And great job almost falling over, what is actually wrong with you?” Frankie yelled.

“I...Jesus, Frankie, I just saved Ryan’s fucking life!” Gerard said.

“Yeah, well you almost lost yours!” Frankie yelled. “Why did you have to be so careless?”

“I wasn’t...I just lost my balance! I didn’t do anything wrong! I’m okay!” Gerard yelled back.

“But you could have gotten killed! What are you so fucking stupid?” Frankie yelled.

“Stupid? What the fuck? I didn’t realize saving somebody’s life was ‘stupid!’” Gerard yelled.

Suddenly Lyn-Z ran over. “Whoa, whoa! Guys, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“Fucking nothing!” Frankie yelled. “Are you guys done yet?”

“Yeah,” Lyn-Z said, sounding concerned. “I...come on, guys, let’s go back.”

They drove back in silence, and when they got back to the school, Frankie stormed away without saying anything else to Gerard.

/////

Gerard was up on the roof of the school, sitting on the edge and just watching the zombies down below. There was one particularly pathetic looking one, a little girl in a pink sundress, trying to fight her way out of the barbed wire she was caught in.
He heard the door to the roof open and then footsteps walk over. He wasn’t surprised when it was Frankie who sat down next to him, letting his feet dangle over the edge too. “Gee?” Frankie asked, nervously.

“Are you going to yell at me again?” Gerard asked bitterly, not even looking over.

“I’m sorry!” Frankie said. “I was scared, okay. You almost died, Gerard. What would I have done if you had?”

Gerard didn’t say anything.

“Anyway, if you can stop being mad at me, I have a surprise for you,” Frankie said.

Gerard looked up surprised. Frankie smiled at him and then reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a black iPod with earbuds and handed it to Gerard.

“Does it work?” Gerard asked, looking it over in his hands.

“Yeah,” Frankie said. “I mean, probably not for much longer. But I thought, you know. We could listen to it before it died.”

Gerard laughed. “But what if it just has like pop shit on it?”

Frankie laughed. “I found it in a bag with an anarchy sign drawn on. I think we’re okay. Cause, I mean, even shitty punk is better than pop music.”

“Okay,” Gerard said, turning it on. “Come here.” Frankie moved a couple inches closer, and Gerard put an earbud in Frankie’s ear and then the other in his own.

The music started right away, guitars blasting in their ears. It was weird, because Gerard hadn’t realized how much he had missed music until now, but he had. He couldn’t help the silly grin that grew on his face, and Frankie’s face pretty much matched.

“This is awesome,” Frankie said, starting to laugh.

“I know!” Gerard agreed.

They both just looked at each other and kept smiling. “Thanks,” Gerard said, finally, blushing a little.

“Dude,” Frankie said, laughing. “No problem.”

Gerard wasn’t even sure how it had happened, but they seemed to be sitting closer than they had been before.

“I…” Gerard started to say, but then suddenly Frankie was leaning forward and their lips were meeting. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Frankie pulled away and gave a nervous laugh.

“I’m sorry,” Frankie said, looking down at the zombies.

“Don’t be,” Gerard said.

Frankie looked at him, surprised. He just stared at Gerard for a minute, like he was searching for something, and then he leaned over and kissed him again. This time it was longer, deeper.

The music kept playing and Gerard and Frankie just held each other and let the music wash over them.

/////

Gerard hadn't been sure if anything else would happen after the kiss, and he hadn't wanted to get his hopes up, but it was only a few days later when they were in their room that they somehow ended up making out. And after a while the making out progressed to more things, and Gerard was very pleased but very confused. He certainly wasn't complaining, however.

But he was a little worried.

He didn't want to end up screwing things up and causing them to stop, but he also didn't want it to end up that Frankie was just using him or something. So one day when they were done fooling around and were just snuggling, Gerard shyly asked, "So...uh...just. You had a girlfriend before this."

Frankie seemed to cringe or freeze or something weird like that. "Yeah."

"You're not gay," Gerard said.

"Nope," Frankie said. "I'm straight. Well, I thought I was."

"Is this because you're desperate?" Gerard asked, and he couldn't help how he sounded hurt even though it was just a question. "Because Lyn-Z might like you, you know, if you tried or something."

"No," Frankie said. He sat up and looked Gerard in the face. "I swear it's not because I'm desperate. I like you, Gerard. I mean, I wooed you with an iPod. Do you know how hard iPods are to find nowadays?"

Gerard blushed. "It wasn't...it wasn't wooing."

"I say it's wooing," Frankie said. "And look, I mean, maybe if it weren't for this whole end of the world thing going on, maybe I never would have ended up with a guy, but that isn't, like, anything personal. I might have. I don't know. But now I have, and I got to say, it's actually not that different and it's about a billion times less gross than I was expecting it to be."

"That sounds totally encouraging," Gerard said sarcastically. "So it's still gross."

"No!" Frankie said, sounding slightly exasperated. "No, that's not what I meant at all. It's not gross. That's the weird part. But I genuinely like you, Gee."

"Okay," Gerard said. He didn't believe it.

Frankie sighed and laid back down.

After a few minutes, Frankie said. "Wait, so are you actually gay?"

Gerard laughed with surprise. "I thought that was kind of...obvious."

"Not really, dude," Frankie said, laughing. "I thought you were just like me or something. Just realizing it didn't actually matter."

"No," Gerard said. "Um. Definitely gay."

"Oh," Frankie said. He laughed again. "But I swear, like. You and Lyn-Z, right? You guys totally dated once, didn't you?"

"Yes, and then I realized I was gay and broke up with her," Gerard said. "You're, like, really oblivious, aren't you?"

"No!" Frankie said. "Maybe. A little."

Gerard laughed. "Okay." It lulled into a comfortable silence.

A few minutes later, Frankie sat up again. “So I’m not just with you because I’m desperate. I totally get that this might sound bizarre, but I wouldn’t do that. I mean. Like you said, if I wanted to do that, there’s always Lyn-Z or something, right? So I’m not.”

Gerard didn’t say anything, because he still didn’t know, and eventually they both fell asleep.

/////

A few days later Frankie somehow got a hold of a box of chocolate and left them in the room for Gerard with a card that he drew a really badly drawn picture of them on and wrote “I love your faces” in.

And Gerard decided maybe Frankie wasn’t just doing it because he was desperate.

/////

The room was completely dark except for the sliver of moonlight that came in through the window. Gerard usually didn’t mind that they didn’t have electricity anymore, except for nights like these.

He had woken up shaking from a dream where he had been being eaten alive. He could feel his legs, his arms, his chest, everything slowly and painfully being ripped off by teeth, he could see them being devoured even as his eyes were plucked out and chewed up.

It had taken him at least an hour just to calm himself down. Frankie was still sleeping peacefully next to him. Sometimes Gerard was so jealous. He could only manage a full night’s sleep when they had been running all day. Otherwise the nightmares would wake him up.

He had thought about waking Frankie up, but he hated doing that. Frankie did a lot more work than Gerard did to help out, and as a result he was usually exhausted. Gerard didn't want to add any more to that.

Gerard laid back down and tried to will his mind to shut down. Instead, he just kept on remembering how the teeth had felt in his dream as they tore his body apart. He moved over closer to Frankie and cuddled in closer to him. They had always cuddled before, but ever since this kiss it had become a habit. In his sleep, Frankie moved his arm and wrapped it around Gerard. Gerard snuggled into him, starting to feel better with the warm comfort of Frankie's body next to him.

He had nearly calmed himself back to sleep when suddenly the door of the room slammed open and someone ran in, holding a flashlight in front of them. "Gee! Frankie!" the voice yelled, and Gerard realized it was Lyn-Z.

He untangled himself from Frankie and started to shake Frankie awake. "What?" he asked as Lyn-Z came closer.

"They're in. The dead. They've gotten inside somehow. We need to leave right now!" Lyn-Z said, obviously out of breathe.

Frankie blinked his eyes open, and then after a few seconds bolted upright. "What's going on?" he asked, suddenly alert like he hadn't just been asleep seconds ago.

"The dead are in the building. We have to leave," Gerard explained, getting up off the bed. He had been sleeping in just his boxers, so he quickly found some clothes and started putting it on. Frankie got up too and started to get dressed.

"What happened?" Frankie asked as he pulled a t-shirt on over his head.

"I don't know. I was up in the cafeteria talking with Travis because I started guard duty next, and suddenly two of the dead just shambled in through the doors from outside. I grabbed my flashlight and ran right up here. I think Travis was grabbing food and then heading to the garage. He said he'd try and wait..." Lyn-Z explained while Gerard and Frankie finished putting on their clothes.

Gerard finally pulled on his jacket and Frankie finished tying his shoes and then almost instantly they grabbed their backpacks. It had been Frankie's idea to keep them ready in case of an emergency. "We're ready," Gerard said, as he pulled out his flashlight and turned it on. Frankie did the same.

Lyn-Z nodded and started out the door. There were still no dead in the hallway. As they started down the hallway towards the stairs farthest away from the cafeteria, the emergency alarm system finally went off. "Travis must have done that," Lyn-Z said, and she sounded guilty. "Shit. I should have done that right away."

"Not like we'll miss any of those guys," Frankie said. His voice sounded like he was indifferent, but Gerard could tell that the infliction of the words was all wrong for that. Frankie was just trying to make Lyn-Z feel better, but he really did care. "C'mon Lyn-Z. We have to take care of ourselves first. You know that."

"Yeah," she agreed half-heartedly as they reached the stairs. She pushed through the stairwell doors and started down them, Gerard and Frankie following right behind her. They reached the bottom and turned down the hallway. They were a few yards down the hallway when suddenly a bloody body appeared in the sliver of light from Lyn-Z's flashlight. They stopped and shone their flashlights on the area around it only to realize with horror that the entire place was filled with the dead.

Lyn-Z gasped and dropped her flashlight. She bent down to get it, and Gerard went forward to try and pull her back, to just make her leave it, but before he could one of the dead had a hold of her arm. He ran forward and kicked it off of her, but it was already too late, because by then another one had bitten into her side, and there was blood gushing out everywhere. "Go!" she yelled, even as her eyes filled with terror and tears. "Get the fuck out of here!"

He shook his head even as he started walking away backwards. He knew there was no point in staying and that there was no way he could save her now, but he didn't want to leave her. Still, he turned around and grabbed a hold of Frankie's hand and then took off in the opposite direction, forcing himself to ignore her screams of pain as her body as torn apart.

He reached the stairwell again and didn't know what to do. The only way to the garage was down the hallway that was filled. He wasn't sure if he should go back upstairs and try to other stairwell in hopes it had cleared out, or, well, something else that he hadn't figured out yet.

He started towards the stairs just because he had no other option but suddenly a flashlight appeared from a door nearby and the door swung open. "Who's there?" a voice asked, and it took Gerard a few seconds to realize it was Ryan.

"Gerard. Gerard and Frankie," he explained quickly.

"Oh," Ryan said. "What the fuck is going on?" he asked.

"The dead got in. Obviously," Gerard said.

"No shit. I saw Saporta get torn in half," Ryan said. "Do we have a plan?"

"We need to get to the garage. There's cars. And maybe Travis," Gerard said. "But the hallway is filled with them."

Ryan sighed snootily. "Well alright. We can just go through the janitor's closet in the bathroom."

"What?" Gerard demanded.

"The janitor's closet in the bathroom has two doors. The other one leads to the hallway where the garage is," Ryan said, obviously very proud he knew something that Gerard didn't. "Come on." He went a few feet up the hallway and turned into the bathroom.

Gerard made sure he still had a tight hold on Frankie and then followed him. They quickly walked past the stalls and into the janitor's closet. The closet was crowded and full of mops and garbage cans that Gerard kept tripping on, but they made it through to the door on the other side, and then out into that hallway.

Ryan scanned his flashlight down the hall. There were only two dead, and both of them were on the left side, knelt over a body that looked suspiciously like it had once been Vicky-T.

Ryan turned his flashlight off and then gave them a look to do the same, so they did. They crept over to the right side and slowly, being careful not to make much noise, walked down the hallway and right past the two dead without being noticed.

They kept walking until Gerard ran into Ryan and realized that they had reached the garage. Ryan turned his flashlight back on, so Gerard and Frankie did too, and then they pushed through the doors into the garage.

This time Gerard and Ryan scanned the area with their flashlight. There were no dead, but there was Travis, sitting on the hood of the big pick-up truck. He turned on his flashlight too and pointed it at them. “Yo! Gee and Frank and...Ryan? Nice to see somebody else made it out alive as well!”

Gerard walked over, pulling Frankie with him, and Ryan followed. “Same man, same. Glad it’s you especially,” he said.

Travis smiled. “I have to agree there. You guys think anybody else is coming?”

“Saporta’s not, I saw him get torn right in half,” Ryan said. “And of course Novarro didn’t make it, as it’s drunken incompetence that caused this whole thing. And...and I’m pretty sure Vicky-T didn’t make it either.”

Travis just nodded, his face emotionless. “Suarez got bit helping me set off the alarm. I shot him in the brain by his request.”

“Lyn-Z didn’t make it,” Gerard added quietly.

“Damn,” Travis said, his voice starting to crack. He quickly recovered, though, and said, “I guess we’re all out of pretty ladies now. I can see why you two have your whole gay thing going on.” It sounded like he was only joking so that he wouldn’t start crying.

“So Blackinton?” Gerard asked.

Travis sighed. “I guess he’s on his own if he even makes it out alive. We have to get the fuck out of here. There’s like a stampede of those damn zombies out there.” He hesitated. “I mean, he knows where the cars are. We should go.” The last sentence sort of came out as a question.

“We have to,” Gerard agreed, making the decision for him. They couldn’t wait and risk getting overrun, especially when the chances of Ryland still being alive were pretty slim.

“Okay, man,” Travis said, sounding relieved. “Let’s get in the fucking truck!” Travis climbed into the driver’s seat and started the ignition. Ryan climbed into the other front seat, and Gerard and Frankie got in back, Frankie cuddling in close to Gerard right away.

They pulled out of the roofed part and into the open air. There were many dead against the fences on the side, but as they reached the gate outside, it was practically clear.

“Hey Ross, you want get that gate open for us?” Travis asked. “Front seat gets gate duty.”

Ryan huffed, obviously annoyed, but he opened the door and climbed out onto the ground. He walked over to the gate, unhooked the hinges keeping it shut, and then quickly pushed it open, knocking over one of the dead who had been standing close and getting it tangled up in the fencing.

Ryan ran back to the truck and jumped back in, slamming the door shut. “Get us out of here, McCoy.”

“It’d be my pleasure, Rossy boy,” Travis said, and he slammed his foot down on the gas.

Part 3