Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His head is still ringing as he stumbles through the trees. His right side feels like it’s up in flames and through his watery eyes he can see the sun beginning to set. His feet finally give and the boy crumples to the floor, chest heaving as he drags himself under a tree. He can hear the quiet moans of the dead rustle through the woods. It takes all he has not to sob loudly and speed up his death.

He misses his brothers, misses their annoying laughter and stupid jokes he kept refusing to fall for. He misses his mentor most of all, god he’d be so disappointed in him right now…

Something shuffles closer. He tries to reach for his knife but his hand refuses to move. With the amount of pain he’s in, he doesn’t blame it. Something crackles over him. This is fine. He’s accepted his fate. Something feels…

Soft?

Something feels… warm. A cool breeze blows against his face and he shivers, curling up tighter. Jeez, give him some of the blanket you hogs- a sharp pain runs through his right arm and he gasps, eyes snapping open and sitting up. He hisses as his right side goes up in flames once more, head swiveling around in panic. He sleepwalks sometimes, but surely he didn’t go out that far right??

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” a voice amusedly warns and the teen turns around immediately, squinting at the crackling fire at his back. There’s a person on the other side of the flames, sitting on a fallen branch and slowly sharpening a hatchet, grating sound methodical and ominous. The figure looks up, smiling white mask glinting in the firelight and dark, hollow eyes boring into him. He scurries back a bit before wincing and clutching his side “Told you” they hum, smile clear in their voice

“Who-“

“The hell’s your group kid?” they interrupt, setting the hatchet aside but still within reach. Smart. “You out here alone?”

“No.” he mumbles, slowly turning around. He sees his stuff over by the stranger, meager supplies sprawled out neatly on the floor. Welp. That’s as good as gone.

“Separated then”

“They think I’m dead” he spits, and he knows it because in their shoes he’d think the same thing. The explosion had gone off too soon and there was a flaming Horde after him. Any sensible person would think him dead. “They left me” A part of him wishes they had stayed to at least look for his corpse.

“Oh” the human says, tilting their head a little “To be fair, I thought you were dead. I was trying to see what I could get off your corpse before you re-awoke” the teen snorts a little at that “Guess you’ll be wanting your shit back then”

“Yeah” he nods “That would be nice thank you” he blinks and barely catches the canteen tossed his way “Wha-”

“Drink. You sound horrible” they chuckle. The teen stares at them suspiciously, eyeing the water warily “If I wanted you dead I’d have left you back there instead of patching you up” the boy flinches at the accusation, taking a sip before chugging half of the contents

“Why did you save me?” he asks, wiping his mouth and tossing the canteen back. The stranger shrugs

“Dunno. Bored” they huff, fiddling with their sharpening file casually

“You saved me”

“Yup.”

“Because you were bored”

“Pretty much yeah”

“Kinda weird if you ask me, not that I’m ungrateful or anything” he quickly adds “But you know… weird.”

“I’m a weird kinda guy” the stranger tells him, grin obvious despite not being visible

“And building a fire in the middle of the night is reckless, you’ll attract zombies to us”

“Probably~” he hums, pulling out a knife and throwing it at the boy, tip imbedding into the ground right next to his hand “I’d like to see the fuckers try biting me”

The two sit in silence for a while, stranger sharpening a new blade and the teen putting away his returned knife. He picked at the messy bandages wrapping his right arm and side, blood beginning to seep through. The Band-Aids on his face itch.

“You got a name kid?” the man asks. The teen hesitates. When was the last time he gave someone his real name?

“Ranboo” he says, looking away from the curious and unsettling head tilt

“Cool name”

“What’s yours?” he asks

“Dream.”

“That’s not a name, that’s a noun” he argues

“So then what’s your real name Ranboo?” Dream questions. The teen looks away once more

“Nice to meet you Dream.” He mumbles. Dream wheezes softly, sounding almost like a tea kettle. Something whines and crackles and Dream is lunging for his own bag, taking out a battered walkie talkie coming to life.

“Shut the fuck up I’m in the woods” he hisses into the mic, lowering the volume. Crackling garble answers back. The man groans and presses a button, letting out a small series of beeps. Ranboo recognizes it as morse code, noise too fast for a newbie like him to translate. Piercing beeps return. “Copy that.” He mutters, clipping the device on his belt and slinging the pack over a shoulder. He scoops the items on the floor and shoves them in the backpack before tossing it to the boy. “Question. You want to get that better patched up?” he nods to the wounds on Ranboo “I know someone who can do a much better job than me. If not, you’re free to go kid”

Ranboo gets up slowly, trying not to whimper as he picks up his things.

“I got nothing else to do” he jokes weakly. Dream seems to perk up

“Great! You ever ride a horse before?”

“What??” he covers his ears as Dream lets out a shrill whistle with his fingers “Are you insane??! Every walker within a 5-mile radius will have heard that and see the fire!” Dream only chuckles, glint of a smile visible under the mask as something thunders towards them “Whoa!”

“Hey, hey girl easy” Dream hums, taking the horse’s reins and letting it trot around him to slow down, patting her muzzle gently “You have fun out there?” the grey and white speckled horse nickers softly, shaking out her mane. “Glad to hear it” he hopped up on the saddle and looked over at Ranboo  “You comin’ kid? You’re right, that whistle definitely woke some zoms up”

“This is a bad idea” Ranboo told himself under his breath, but hopped up into the saddle anyway, grunting in pain as the man helped him settle in the front “Shouldn’t we put out the fire?” he fretted, glancing behind him at the adult settling in

“Nah” Dream laughed, snapping the reins “YAH!”

Ranboo holds back a screech as the horse takes off into the dark, his hands gripping the saddle’s horn as hooves pound against an invisible trail

The horse finally starts to slow as the sky begins changing from pitch to navy, a warehouse off in the distance

“There we are” Dream hums, urging the horse on ahead. Ranboo can feel the anxiety start rising as he sees the fenced off building. This was a stupid idea why did he come with a complete stranger he was better off alone like usual-

A particularly sharp jostle has him hissing softly, clutching his hip in pain.

“Sorry” Dream mutters, slowing down a bit.

“I’m fine” Ranboo grits out “It’s fine”

“A bit more and you’re good” he soothes “Don’t worry”

“Mmhmm” Ranboo grunts as the pain became more and more obvious and it became harder to sit up

“Shit.” Dream hisses, snapping the reins and deciding to speed up their ride instead. He finally slows as they make it to the gate “Hey!” The man at the fence jolts and looks up, grinning widely and pushing his bangs back, tightening the white strip of fabric acting as a bandanna

“Shit dude!” he laughs “Thought you were dead!”

“Fuck off and let us in” Dream snaps, horse pawing impatiently as it trots in circles. The man looks at Ranboo and frowns, rushing over to the gate and talking into the walkie talkie on his shoulder strap

“Someone wake up Ponk” the stranger barks as he pulls open the gate enough for the horse to slip through “Dream’s got a stray”

“Again?” A voice sleepily whines through both of their devices

“Go back to bed you stupid British fuck” Dream snapped into his own mic, the man next to him cackling as he jogged alongside them “Sapnap I am this close to letting Spirit kick in your skull”

“You love me too much” Sapnap snickers, banging on the door. The massive entrance is opened and Dream rides in, hopping off and helping a nearly unconscious Ranboo off “Shit, what happened to him?”

“Not sure” Dream admits, scooping up the boy into his arms “Bad, you mind taking Spirit?”

“Sure thing” the new man agrees, adjusting cracked glasses before taking the reins and leading the horse over where a group of supplies were.

“Ponk” Sapnap calls, kicking one of the sleeping people “Ponk come on we have a new person” the man sits up with a tired groan, white bleached hair sticking up messily and blearily staring at the weakly shifting Ranboo

“Great, another broken white boy for me to fix” he grumbles, tossing off his blanket and slowly getting up with unhappy mutters “Kick Eret off the cot and put him there, I’ll go get our med stuff”

“Love you Ponkie~” Dream drawled, chuckling when he was met with a middle finger

“What’s happening?” another person yawned as he approached, rubbing his eyes and clout glasses perched on messy brown hair

“We got a new one!” Sapnap hummed, happily going over to the cot by the wall and dumping out the human in it

“Hey!” the man squawked, long limbs flailing as he tried to catch himself “What the hell Sapnap?!”

“Doctor’s orders” Sapnap grinned, pointing over at the approaching Dream

“Oh shit, what happened out there?” Eret asked, getting to his feet and stepping aside for Dream to deposit the boy in his cot

“Found a body” Dream shrugged, tugging at bleeding bandages “Figured I’d loot it before it re-awoke and found the lucky bastard still alive” he gestured to the boy “Now I have a child.”

“He’s a tall child”

“Jealous George?” Dream teased, yelping as his mask was snapped on his face “Dick”

“Take off the mask if you don’t want me snapping it” George retorted with a grin

“You little-“

“Move it” Ponk snapped, shoving them aside and putting down the med kit “Make yourselves useful and go heat up water” he waved the small crowd away “Go on! Get!” the four scurried off and let their doctor get to work

Grey and blue eyes feel sticky as Ranboo opens them, staring up at the sunny metal rafters above him.

“Not a dream” he whispers, slowly sitting up and groaning. His right side felt incredibly sore and he looked down at the marbling bruises under neat, tight bandages wrapping around his side, arm, shoulder, hip and knee. He winced at the waste of resources used on him, feeling guilty at the amount of supplies used to patch him up

“Oh! You’re up!” a kind voice exclaims, making him look up. The man before him had on a black and red hoodie, fashionable grey and black scarf around his neck and cracked, golden rimmed glasses “For a while there we weren’t sure you were gonna make it”

“How-” he croaked, swallowing thickly “How long was I out?”

“Mmm, about a day?” the man guessed with a shrug before handing him a canteen at his waist and sitting down in front of him “Here, you sound like you need it, plus you lost a lot of blood” Ranboo takes the water and chugs, humming delightedly at the liquid quenching his throat

“Thank you” he murmured, handing it back after a few gulps

“You can have more” the man chuckled “We have plenty, trust me” Ranboo hesitates before being spurred on by the man’s nodding and drinks some more

“Thanks, um…”

“Bad” the man supplies with a mischievous smile “You can call me Bad. Or Halo, either one works, though people typically call me Bad”

“Huh” Ranboo mumbled, looking down at the canteen. What was it with these people and weird names?? “I’m Ranboo”

“Nice to meet you mister Ranboo” Bad nods “There’s some extra clothes by your head, your old stuff is kinda a lost cause but it‘s under the bed if you want it” he shrugs “For sentimental reasons or whatever, better off burning it if you ask me” he got up and dusted off dark pants “Come get breakfast when you’re ready” he invited as he walked off. Ranboo’s stomach rumbled at the idea of food and he gingerly began slipping into the spare clothes given him. A white tee, much too big orange Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts he needed to tighten with a belt.

“I look like a tourist” he mumbles, groaning as he slowly gets up.

“Oh come on” Dream laughs “Who gave him that?!” the group laughs along, multiple accusations being thrown around as Ranboo limps towards them. He pauses at the outskirts of the circle and waves a little before shuffling over to where Dream was beckoning, the man wearing a comfy looking green hoodie and jeans “Hey kiddo, how you doing?”

“Good” Ranboo replies stiffly, unused to the amount of attention everyone was giving him

“Gave me a scare” Dream whined playfully “Thought I lost you there for a bit”

“No I-I’m fine” he mumbles, taking a slow seat next to the man “Thanks again for saving me”

“Don’t mention it!”

“Actually don’t” a man with bright green hair warned “He’ll never let it go, trust me he needs no reminding”

“Shut it Samuel” Dream huffed, yelping when his mask was smacked with an apple slice. “Oh right, should probably introduce you to the gang” he chuckled, taking off the white mask and lowering the black cloth one over his mouth. Ranboo stared at the now uncovered face, entranced by the gleaming green eyes staring at him. Dream had a spatter of freckles coating his cheeks and dark blond strands of hair falling in his face, mouth covered in little nicks and scars. “You know me, I’m Dream” he looked over at the man on his left

“Sapnap” the raven-haired man introduced through his food, bandanna gone and bangs pinned back by multiple colorful clips

“I’m Eret” the person next in the circle greeted, adjusting their sunglasses and grinning “Any pronouns for me”

“Oh shit are we doing pronouns?” Sapnap panicked, looking around

“It’s fine. Both he and Dream are He/Him’s” Bad dismissed “You know me, Bad or Halo and also a He/Him”

“I’m Skeppy” the man next to him in a bright blue hoodie and a streak of blue in his brown hair introduced with a nod and a bite of his apple “Also a He/Him”

“I’m Samuel” the man in cropped green hair said with a small wave “I go by Sam. I’m a He/Him.”

“I’m Puffy!” the woman sat next to him grinned, thick white hair up in a high ponytail and highlighted with multiple strands of color “But I also go by Captain! I go by any pronouns, but typically She/Her to keep it easy”

“O-oh I’m next” the smaller woman next to her realized, this one with shoulder length, bright pink hair. She waved sheepishly “Hi. I’m Niki. I’m a She/Her please”

“Last one is Callahan” Dream said gesturing to the last person, a brunette wearing a Captain America shirt under a reindeer onesie. Callahan waved tiredly, clearly still half asleep “Goes by He/Him and hasn’t bothered to correct us so we assume we got that right. Do you know sign?” Ranboo shook his head “Shoot. Okay, well Callahan here doesn’t talk so he writes, either in a notebook, morse code or a text-to-speech machine if we have the batteries” he explains “Make sure to pay attention, he’s real good at this survival shit got it?” Ranboo nods fervently “Last two are our doctor, Ponk, the white-haired dude that saved your life, and our resident pretty boy George. They’re both still passed out and will not be getting breakfast at this rate”

“George won’t anyway” Sam huffed, snatching another metal bowl of oatmeal, no doubt to save for Ponk

“And what’s your name Kiddo?” Puffy asked, handing Ranboo a paper plate with warm oatmeal on it

“Ranboo” the teen told the group, taking the plastic spoon offered him by Bad “Um, He/Him too I guess.”

“So how’d you get so fucked up in the first place?!” Skeppy blurted out, grinning at the offended gasps and choking sputters from the group

“Skeppy!!” Bad screeched

“What?! We were all thinking it!!” the man defended, blocking the light punches Bad was giving him “He nearly died and wasted all our resources!!”

“Skeppy that is so rude!” Bad scolded as Ranboo shrank in shame

“But he didn’t die so therefore not a waste” Dream hummed, popping an apple slice into his mouth “But as Skeppy so eloquently put it, how did you get so fucked up?”

“Language!” Bad chided

“Yeah, and what’s a kid like you doing alone?” Puffy added “You got a group?”

“I did” Ranboo admitted, now poking at his food “But um, I kinda got left behind. They thought I was dead so I don’t blame them-“

“If he’s not gonna eat that can I have it?” Sapnap stage whispered to Dream, getting a smack in the process. Ranboo chuckled and ate a spoonful of the bland mush

“Does your group have a base or meet up location?” Sam questioned, handing a bowl of food to a half-awake Ponk dragging himself over. “Any way to communicate?” Ranboo shook his head

“We move a lot, so no base” he sighed “And the meet up place is… maybe a week on foot? They’ll have moved on by then” he glanced up at the adults staring at him “B-but I can head there anyway. Maybe my friends will stick around a bit longer just in case I show up…”

“Well” Dream grinned “Looks like we have our next destination guys!” the group perked up immediately, wild grins popping up on their faces “Alright finish eating, start burning and we’ll get packed”

“Aw I just woke up” Ponk whined, still bundled up in a blanket and leaning on Sam

“Tough luck Ponkie” Puffy taunted, punching the man in the arm before getting up to wash her dish “Niki, babe. Try not to burn too much of our stuff on accident this time”

“No promises!!” Sapnap cackled, getting up from his seat and racing for the supply pile

“What he said” Niki agreed with a sharp glint in her eyes as she followed the younger man

“So you just burn everything?” Ranboo puzzled, eying the small pile of flaming trash a gleeful Niki and Sapnap stood next to

“Pyromaniacs, the both of them” Ponk huffed, refilling Ranboo’s canteen “Oi! Fire nuts!” he crushed the now empty plastic bottle and tossed it at the duo. Niki caught it and threw it into the flames, the two grinning wider as the bottle melted

“Everyone got their shit packed?” Dream yelled

“Almost!” Skeppy called back, other similar cries coming from the frenzied members

“Well hurry it up!!” Dream announced, grabbing two metal bowls and clanging them together loudly. Ranboo covered his ears in a panic as the others laughed. Didn’t they know noise attracted zombies??! “Come on Gogy!! Up an’ at em sleepy fucker we’re leaving!! Get up!!”

“Five more minutes” George groaned, burying himself under his blanket

“No five more minutes!!” Dream scolded, snatching the blanket away “Get! Up!” George whined and curled up tighter “Right. Niki, get your hairspray-“

“I’m up!” George cried, kicking the man in his leg before sitting up “I’m up! I’ll pack my shit, fuck off!!” he glared at an eager Niki and pointed at her warningly “Get that flame thrower anywhere near me and I’ll toss all your lighters in a river”

“No promises” she sing-songed, heading over to her sleeping area to finish packing.

The warehouse was a flurry of activity as Ranboo took inventory of his own pathetic supplies. They let him take pick of the spare clothes and he’d ended up with two new tees, a flannel shirt and a pair of jeans that were a size too big. Aside from the clothes he had also taken a metal mess kit, a new can of propane for his stove, some packets of instant oatmeal, two granola bars, a water bottle, can of baked beans and a handmade trail mix bag. It filled up his typically empty backpack, his weapons, meager ammunition, fire kit and small first aid box the only things he’d still had from the explosion.

He picked up the bloodied and burnt clothes they’d left him. He remembers getting this shirt, he’d squabbled over it with one of his brothers, ultimately winning the fight and taking it for himself. It was ruined now, but Ranboo didn’t want to let it go

“You need me to get rid of that?” Sapnap asked, playing with a metal lighter

“Um-“

“I mean that’s beyond repair” he laughed “And I don’t think Ponk can scrap it for bandages-“

“I don’t want that bloody burnt thing!” Ponk yelled from his spot

“So yeah” the man grinned, a hand on his hip “I can get rid of it, use it for Molotov’s or something-”

“No!” Ranboo cried, clutching the shirt closer. Several adults stared at him with puzzled looks, Sapnap one of them

“But its ruined” he pointed out with a tilt of his head “No point having it take up space in your bag”

“Yeah but” Ranboo sputtered, looking at the shirt “I- I had to- It’s… special.” He finished pathetically

“It’s a shirt.”

“Yes but-”

“You’re getting attached over a shirt?” Sapnap snorted, rolling his eyes

“Lay off him Sap” Puffy scolded quietly as she came up, crouching down to where Ranboo sat “You really wanna keep it kid? It’s not much use you know”

“I don’t want to get rid of it” Ranboo whispered “What if… What if it’s my last, you know. Part of them.” She nodded, patting his head

“How about you keep a piece of it” she suggested gently “That sound okay?” Ranboo nodded

“That could work” he agreed softly, Puffy pulling out the knife at her waist. He held out the part he wanted and watched as she cut out the strip, handing it to him and cutting out two more equal parts “I only-”

“To braid” She explained, holding up a tattered cloth bracelet on her own wrist “Keeps it from fraying”

“Thank you” Ranboo breathed, taking the three scraps and holding them close with a bandaged hand. Puffy tossed the ruined shirt to Sapnap

“There” she snapped

“I was just saying” the man shrugs, walking off “Not good having attachments you know”

“Yeah yeah I know” she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck before turning back to Ranboo “Need me to braid it?”

“It’s okay, I can do it-“

“Let’s move people come on!” Dream called, sat on top of Spirit and looking out over everyone “Mask up and let’s get going!” Puffy scurried off to grab her bag, Ranboo hurriedly putting away the scraps into a pocket and slinging his backpack on. He limped over to Dream, giving a startled cry when something small and furry popped out of a makeshift saddle bag. The man grinned under his cloth covering “That’s Patches, she keeps an eye out”

“Hello” Ranboo greeted with a fond smile “I used to have a cat”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhmm” he nodded “My friend should be taking care of him for me”

“Let’s get you back to that cat kid” Dream hummed, ruffling tangled, light brown hair “Mask?”

“Lost mine while running”

“It’s fine, I have a spare” Dream reassured, digging into one of his packs before pulling out a half black, half white gas mask, filters glowing a soft purple “Brand new actually, one of Sam’s prototypes I never got to try” he tosses it to Ranboo “You can keep it” he slips on the plastic, smiling disk “I have my own.” He snaps his reins and moves his horse forward “Sap! Why aren’t you saddled up yet?!”

“I’m loading the gear asshole!!” Sapnap yells back, adjusting a bag over a brown horse of his own

“You guys have pets?” Ranboo asked, slipping on the mask and finding it fit him perfect

“Oh yeah” Eret hummed, red cloak over his shoulders like a cape, blue, purple and pink gradient gas mask tucked under his chin and a plastic crown nestled crookedly in their curls “As long as we can take care of them, Dream lets us take whatever animals we want” he whistled and a flurry of white came down from the rafters to land on his shoulder “This is Birb. My cockatiel” he introduced, letting the creature nuzzle his cheek

“Bird?” Ranboo questioned. Eret shook his head

“Birb” he corrected “With a ‘b’. Its name is Birb. That over there is Lucy” he pointed to the small white dog running circles around Bad’s feet “We call her Rat though. That there is Fran” they gestured to the boxer mix sitting patiently at Sam’s side “Fat bitch” he pointed at the fluffy collie by Ponk “Niki somehow managed to tame baby foxes” they pointed at the satchel the woman carried, two furry heads nosing out “Fungi and Mushroom”

“How did I not notice all of these animals??” the teen marveled

“Well, we do a good job of keeping them quiet” Eret chuckled, falling in line with the rest of the group filing out of the warehouse “And they can be useful if you train them right” they both turned as they heard hoofbeats approach

“You can walk, right kid?” Sapnap asked as he rode up to them

“I’ll be fine” he reassured, watching how Sapnap patted his horse “So I can’t be attached to a shirt which takes up a little space, but you guys are allowed to have pets that you have to feed and watch?? How does that work?” Sapnap frowned under his own flame patterned mask

“Clothes can be replaced” the man huffed, sitting up straight “People and pets can’t.” And with that he rode back, rounding up the group members at the rear. Ranboo looked over at Eret in disbelief, getting a shrug in response

“He’s right” Eret agreed, adjusting their sunglasses “No need to get attached over something you could lose and replace the next day”

“Huh” Ranboo muttered, fiddling with the scraps in his pocket “Never thought of it that way…”

“…take one down, pass it around- 42 bottles of beer on the wall!!”

“If I have to listen to 42 more verses of this I’m gonna kill something” Sam snarls “Most likely Skeppy.” Said man pauses in his singing and glances back before shooting Sam a shit-eating grin

“42 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 42 BOTTLES OF BEER!!”

“THAT’S IT! HE’S DEAD!!” Sam screamed, rushing forward to try and tackle the much shorter man still singing loudly as he ran around

“Why the fuck would you encourage him??” Puffy whines, the rest of the group groaning in agreement

“I’m trying to shut him up!!” Sam yelled back, getting Skeppy in a chokehold even as the man continued to sing “I swear to whatever pathetic god you believe in Skep I will fucking end you right here right now” he growls

“Bite me.” Skeppy shoots back before taking in a deep breath

“Don’t.”

“39 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL, 39 BOTTLES OF-“

“Skeppy I will slit your throat if you don’t stop” Dream warned darkly as he trotted past them “I mean it.” Skeppy’s mouth snapped closed with an unhappy mutter “Sam. Drop him.”

“But-“

“Now.”

“You’re lucky” Sam hissed, releasing the once singing man. Skeppy stuck out his tongue childishly and flipped him off

“Geppy” Bad scolded, tugging his friend away “Stop.”

“He started it” he mumbled back, visibly drooping as Bad began an entire quiet lecture to him about behaving properly

“Sorry about that” Niki chuckled, walking up next to Ranboo and startling him “They’re not usually this… how do I put it…”

“Loud?” Ranboo offered, making a pained face. He wasn’t used to traveling with humans that apparently didn’t know when to shut up for their own good. It was a miracle zombies hadn’t descended on them yet. Niki laughed, not giving the boy much reassurance

“Oh no, they’re always loud” she giggled, adjusting her pink, flower patterned gas mask “I meant we usually get along better than this” she explained “I promise it’s not always arguing- well…” she thought about it “No, we argue a lot actually. But it never gets too bad!” she quickly amended, seeing the wary look on Ranboo’s face “Dream always stops it before anything gets out of hand”

“So he’s the leader?”

“I guess you could say that” she shrugged “I like to think of us as more of a group of traveling individuals” she chuckled “Every person watches out for their own, but Dream helps pull us together when we need to. Like when Horde hunting, or dealing with other humans”

“Ah” he nodded, eyeing the little foxes peeking out of her bag “You guys must really respect him then”

“We do!” she agrees “He’s kicked all of our asses at some point and has saved out asses even more” she looked over at the man paused on the road, watching the group walk by as if doing a head count “He’s a good person” she looked Ranboo in the eyes very seriously “He might not always seem like it, he can be extreme sometimes after all, but he’s a good person. Okay?”

“O-okay” he agreed, unsettled by her strange tone. She stared at him a little longer before nodding, seemingly satisfied before fussing over the wiggling fox kits trying to escape her bag

“If you guys make it to the tree line we’ll take a break” Dream told them, the group letting out a weak cheer and picking up the pace a bit

“A break in the shade this time” Puffy grinned, the others snickering a little

“That was one time!” the man whined

“’.-- . / .- .-.. .-.. / --. --- - / ... ..- -. -... ..- .-. -. –‘” Callahan beeped out, making several people stifle laughter

“Callahan, shut it!”

“Did you ever think about making a wagon?”

“A wagon??” Dream repeated, the boy sat in front of him nodding vigorously. Ranboo could only go so far so fast on his bad leg before feeling faint and when the man had noticed, he’d told Ranboo to hop on to speed up the group

“Yeah” he grinned under his mask “Like the westward expansion days! A covered wagon so you can keep more supplies, or have people take walking breaks and even nap on the road! You have two horses, even one I’m sure would be enough to pull it”

“We can try building one” Dream hummed thoughtfully “I’ll ask Sam about it, see what materials it would take"

“I think it would be cool, like cowboys!”

“Someone say cowboys? Sapnap interrupted, riding up alongside them with a big grin

“You get another hat and I’ll burn it myself” Dream warned

“It’s useful!” Sapnap argued “Cowboy hats are both fashionable and useful, they keep the sun out of your eyes, dust out of your face, rain off your head-“

“You’re not getting a cowboy hat”

“I’m getting a cowboy hat.”

“I will abandon you on the side of the road”

“Dream! I want a cowboy hat!” Sapnap whined

“No!”

“Why not?!”

The two continued bickering over the hat, George eventually joining the argument and claiming he wanted one too. Then hopped in Puffy saying if they were getting hats she wanted a pirate one and soon the entire group was clamoring and arguing for new headwear, multiple disagreements breaking out and chaos descending as they walked

“I will scalp you if you get a fedora” Eret said with visible disgust

“I still think I’d look good” Ponk argued

“Ponk, you get a fedora and I’ll kick you out of the group myself” Sam chimed in

“Cowards! Fedora’s get bitches!” Ponk cackled

“They don’t!! They do like the exact opposite!” Sam cried exasperatedly, the three breaking into a new argument over the hat

Ranboo laughed as he listened in to the different chaotic conversations. It was nerve-wracking to be surrounded by so much noise, but there was something comforting about having the bustle of human life all around him not muted into hushed conversations and secretive talks like he’d had before. He liked this, he realized, relaxing in his seat and leaning back against the still arguing Dream. He liked being here.

“Alright where we droppin for the night bois?” Dream chuckled as they arrived in an abandoned shopping center, group pausing in the nearly vacant parking lot.

“Holy shit” Sapnap gasped, pointing at one of the larger buildings “Guys it’s a fucking arcade please can we stay in the arcade pleaseeeee.”

“Anyone want to stay in the definitely haunted arcade?” Dream asked. They all cheered “Sweet. Have your stuff ready” he told them, gently shaking the sleeping Ranboo awake “Hey kid, we found a place to stop for the night okay?” Ranboo mumbled blearily and sat up, gripping on to the saddle’s horn as Dream slipped off to lead his horse by the reins

“Where?…” the boy yawned, stretching out his good arm

“Arcade” Dream hummed, tying Spirit to a post on the sidewalk, Sapnap doing the same with his ride. Other people made their pets wait by the horses, Niki gently setting her pack with Sapnap’s horse and Eret’s bird flying off to the roof. Ranboo slipped down and grabbed his bag from the back, giving Patches a few pets as he walked over to the group slipping masks on and readying weapons.

“So you guys scouted this one out already?” the teen asked, somewhat impressed by their quickness. The adults all looked at each other

“Did we what??” Skeppy puzzled. Ranboo’s heart dropped. Surely they didn’t-

“Alright guys! Ready up!!” Dream announced, practically buzzing with excitement as the other shifted impatiently “Weapons ready!”

“You guys didn’t scout it?!” Ranboo whisper-shrieks, looking around frantically as he pulls out his own handgun “You have no idea how many are in there??!”

“Nope!” George shrugs, plopping his clout glasses on

“Alright, since new kid is feeling antsy lets go over the rules again” Dream sighed, getting groans in response “Come on guys. Rule number one!”

“Don’t die!” they all chorus

“Rule number two!”

“Watch your back!” several pairs of eyes are rolled

“And rule number three?!”

“Stick with your buddy!”

“Great!” Dream kicks in the door with a loud bang “Let’s rock and roll bitches!!” The group cheers as they stream in after him, splitting off and eventually excited shouts and firing guns can be heard echoing in the empty space “Ranboo! You’re with me and George!” The teen quickly rushes off after the men, head swiveling wildly as he looked for hiding zombies.

“You’re so tense” George snorts “Why’re you so tense?”

“Oh I don’t know” Ranboo snaps back, jumping a bit as something farther off is slammed “Maybe because there could be zombies anywhere and none of you thought it would be a good idea to scout the area we’re apparently going to sleep in??”

“Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the horse” Dream chuckled and Ranboo yelps as the man fires into an approaching undead’s head. The three gingerly step over the corpse and continue on “Relax, no zombies are gonna get us”

“We’ll be fine” George nodded, raising his rifle and taking out a zombie shambling on farther away “It’s not that bad in here”

“There are so many bodies” Ranboo whined, widely stepping to avoid a corpse

“Yeah, we’ll have to clean a bit before we completely settle in” Dream agreed with a hum “Shouldn’t be too hard with all of us-“ Something reached out from between two machines, snagging Ranboo’s foot

The boy let out a frightened shriek, kicking frantically and accidentally dragging the frenzied zombie attached to his leg out from hiding. He fumbled for his knife, not wanting to risk shooting himself in the foot when he tripped and fell backwards. The moving corpse immediately tried clambering on him, drooling mouth wide and gnawing on the boot Ranboo had kicked in there so he wouldn’t get bit. One gunshot later and the body slumped over, splattered remains all over the floor. Dream and George stood over the boy, George clearly worried and Dream’s pistol smoking.

“Shit, you okay?” George breathed as Dream kicked the corpse away “Did you get hurt? Bit?”

“N-no” Ranboo managed out, taking George’s offered hand and shakily getting to his feet “Just a bit rattled, that’s all”

“He’s fine George” Dream soothed, ruffling the teen’s hair “You’re fine, it’s okay now yeah?” Ranboo nodded silently “Good, good. You’re good, it’s okay you’re okay. Just watch your step next time alright?”

“Y-yeah” he agreed, trying hard not to lean into the reassuring pats both men were giving him “I’m okay, let’s finish this up” Dream nodded and gave his hair one final ruffle.

“All good!!” the man shouted, “Close call!!” a few other shouts of encouragement returned. Ranboo stuck close to the two after that, prepared for the next zombie that came shuffling towards them.

“I think we’re all cleared on this side” George panted, pulling down his blue mask to breathe better and resting his glasses on his head

“I think so too” Dream nodded, leaning on a machine and his masks off as he drank from his canteen, Ranboo quietly cleaning his knife in the corner. All three picked up their heads at a scream, gripping weapons tightly

“GUYS!!”

“Sapnap.” Dream muttered, he and George putting on their masks back on and the three raced to the sound, others in the group also emerging from the games as they all arrived

“What? What’s wrong??” Niki panicked, stepping forward with her shotgun gripped tightly

“He’s fine, we’re fine” Eret reassured the worried group, flinching as the doors Sapnap was pressing against rattled “He just got a bit excited-“

“I found a Horde!!” Sapnap exclaimed, grin obvious under his mask. “If everyone’s done, these should be the last ones!”

“Jesus christ man” Puffy groaned, the group visibly relaxing and beginning to grumble “We thought you got bit or something”

“Tell us next time we think you’re being murdered” Dream sighed, putting away his gun “Has everyone finished their areas?” a mixed assortments of agreements responded “Great. Who’s up for a Horde hunt?” the group broke into excited chatter, swapping out weapons and setting bags aside as they readied themselves

“You guys are gonna fight a Horde?!” Ranboo hissed in disbelief

“It’s only a small one” Sapnap shrugged, throwing a glare at the doors behind them after a particularly harsh rattle “We can handle it”

“Ranboo you stay back there with Ponk” Dream told him, swinging a hatchet lightly as he joined the waiting group “You’re still injured, don’t want you overexerting yourself or else Ponk will kill me”

“I will also kill you if you even think of joining them kid” Ponk warned, setting a warning hand on Ranboo’s shoulder “You should be resting those wounds, not risk getting infected”

“Told ya” Dream snickered

“I’ll sit this one out” Sam hummed “Go look for supplies or something”

“Got it” Dream nodded “Alright Saps! Open up the gates of hell!!”

Sapnap’s eyes crinkled with a hidden grin, something in them glinting dangerously as he threw open the doors. He brought up the spiked, gore-stained bat at his side and smashed in a zombie’s skull

“Bring it you fuckers!!” the man cackled as more monsters came rushing out towards them

“They’re insane” Ranboo sputtered as Ponk led him to a table nearby, over at the snack booth “They’re taking on a Horde??”

“Yup” Ponk sighed, bringing up Ranboo’s right leg to rest on the bench “They’ll be fine, they’ve done bigger. Did you get attacked?”

“Wha- oh, yeah. I did” the boy admitted, wincing as Ponk began undoing the muck-stained bandages wrapped around his knee

“I probably should’ve told you this before,” the man huffed, pulling out new rags from his bag and a bottle of water “But as long as your wounds are open you cannot- and I mean cannot get your bandages dirtied from walkers and the sort. If you do, take them off as soon as possible and clean your limb off or else the sickness will get into you and… well, you know what happens then” Ranboo nodded solemnly, hissing slightly when Ponk poured a trickle of water over his cuts. He stayed quiet as Ponk worked though, watching in fascination at the group making their way through the Horde.

They worked well together, calling out warnings, watching each other’s backs and even competing with one another to see who could get the faster kill. It was impressive, if not chaotic and messy and in Ranboo’s opinion, unnecessarily reckless. The final shambling zombie is decapitated and smashed just as Sam comes rushing out of a storage room

“Hey!” He calls, dragging a machine behind him and smiling widely “Guess what I found?!”

“Oh my muffins!” Bad gasps “Is that a generator?!”

“Sam. Sammy, Samuel, Samster” Skeppy rushes out, stumbling towards him “Sams, Awesamdude. Our friend, our amazing, awesome friend. If you can connect that to the store…” Sam’s smile grows

“Well~” the man drawls “If you can get all the entrances boarded up and get rid of the bodies before it gets too dark…” the group waits eagerly, visibly excited “I guess I could start up the generator and get the games running-”

“LETS GOOOOO!!” Dream shouts, jumping in the air as the others cheered around him “LET’S FUCKING GO!!”

“That is the most motivated I’ve ever seen these people be to clean up” Ponk scoffs, Sam snickering as well as the team rushes off excitedly. Ranboo laughs with them, getting up from his seat now that his bandages were freshly changed

“Guess I’ll go help too” he chuckles, jogging off to find Dream

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not??” Sapnap whines

“Because that is disgusting!!” Eret shouts, backing away from the wriggling creature in Sapnap’s arms

“I say do it” Dream grinned, George nodding alongside him

“I wanna see that” George agrees with a snicker

“You are not punting that thing!” Bad exclaimed

“But it’ll be funny!” Sapnap whined

“He’s right” Skeppy nodded, munching on a granola bar “It would be funny”

“Don’t encourage him!” Sam yelled from the storage room

“I’m gonna do it.”

“Don’t!” Several people chorused

“That is a literal child” Ranboo hissed “You are arguing over kicking a child.”

“Relax Ranboo” Niki dismissed, popping a stick of gum in her mouth “It’s a zombie anyway”

“That just makes it worse!!” he shrieked “You are trying to kick a human child’s corpse!!”

“.-- . .-.. .-.. / - . -.-. .... -. .. -.-. .- .-.. .-.. -.-- / .. - .-..-. ... / -. --- - / .- / .... ..- -- .- -. / .- -. -.-- -- --- .-. .” Callahan points out

“Callahan has a point” Dream nods “Do it dude”

“No!!” Ranboo squeals “Why is this even a discussion we’re having??!” more yelling and arguments filled the room

“Fine!!” Sapnap yelled “Puffy!” he turned to the woman sitting by the wall sharpening her cutlass “You used to be a therapist right? Ethically would it be fucked up if I punt a zombie child?” he held up the snarling, wiggling, most likely once toddler thing, dressed up in a cutesy, blood-stained pink dress and a big bow on a balding, green-tinted head. Ranboo face palmed as the woman looked up, making a face at the zombie held out at arm’s length.

“The psychology major part of me is saying yes, that is very much fucked up” she told him “…but the other side of me really wants to see how far you can kick it”

“Nooooooooo” Ranboo groaned as others cheered, spurred on by Puffy’s decision and following Sapnap into the parking lot

Turns out, one can’t kick a child’s corpse very far, as a now very disappointed half of the group discovered.

“They’re playing soccer with it” Ranboo wailed, sprawling out over the table full of supplies lit by a lantern “They’re playing soccer with a child’s corpse!”

“They cut off the jaw, it won’t bite them” Skeppy pointed out, sipping flat soda they’d found in one of the soda machines out of an arcade cup. Ranboo stared at him. “Oh! Are you jealous because Ponk said you couldn’t play since your wounds could get infected? Sucks to suck dude” Ranboo thudded his head on the table as the man walked off. He was beginning to regret volunteering to organize the supplies they’d found, especially since he now had a front row seat to the messed-up game before him. He flinched as the jawless zombie child was kicked around in a circle, the adults cackling and chatting as the growling creature tried in vain to get to them.

“Sorry about those muffin heads” Bad sighed, dropping off more scavenged supplies and flicking off his headlamp

“This is so messed up” Ranboo muttered

“Well it is the apocalypse” Bad shrugged, leaning on the table “Most ethics are kinda just thrown out of the window”

The lights above flickered and buzzed to dim life. Everyone cheered, battered zombie forgotten as the adults rushed off to power on the machines of their favorite games

“Sorry mister Ranboo” Bad chuckled, tipping an invisible hat “But I must go beat Skeppy at Galaga” the man rushed off, grabbing his friend by an arm and dragging him away

“Hey kid!” Dream yelled, waving Ranboo over “Two-person game! Come on I need to beat Sapnap and George!!”

Ranboo looked over at Ponk for approval, grinning under his mask when the man nodded. He got up and began limping over as fast as possible

“Sure! Wait up!” he called back

“I never thought we’d be able to play videogames in an apocalypse” Ranboo laughed, firing at the monsters coming at him on screen

“I know right?” Puffy grinned “Surreal- combo blaster use the combo blaster!!” She and Ranboo yelped, screaming in panic as they tried to get the targets fast enough

“Yeahhh!!” they cheered as the main boss got taken down, Ranboo high-fiving Puffy’s held out hand

“You’re pretty good kiddo!” she praised, leaning back as the next level loaded “I don’t think I’ve ever made it this far!”

“Me either” Ranboo admitted, flexing his injured hand “This is awesome”

“Alright!” Puffy stretched out her limbs quickly “Let’s kick some more kraken butt!”

“Yeah!”

“Go awayyy!!” Niki shrieked, tapping buttons frantically as she tried to escape the ghosts on the dim but giant screen before them

“Not again!” Ranboo cried, now moving his little character away from Callahan’s, groaning in defeat as he was eaten and watching with glee as Eret and Niki also tried to escape with no success

“How??” Niki baffled, a silently giggling Callahan scribbling in a notebook before holding the paper up

“'I'm cracked at pac man”' it read “I used to play for hours”

“I’ve been scammed!” Eret mourned, sprawling out over the controls “Absolutely scammed!!” Callahan grinned fiendishly, holding up a finger. Eret frowned and straightened up, fixing their lopsided crown and shaking his hands a bit “Yeah I’m up for another round. You’re going down onesie man”

“Team up!” Niki cheered, all of them slipping in a token to continue “Take down Callahan!”

“Best of luck” the man wrote, swooping in for Ranboo’s avatar while they were distracted reading

“Ack! Cheater!!” Ranboo squealed, the three of them rapidly moving their characters away from a grinning Callahan

“Are you sure you’re actually good at this game?” Sam snorted as his friend got yet another split “This isn’t even the real thing this is the kiddie version!”

“Sammy.” Ponk warned with what was probably a sweet smile under his yellow and red mask, clutching the mini bowling ball tightly “I’m not above throwing this at your head.”

“If you can even hit it with your shit aim” the man retorted, laughing and avoiding the swipe made at him

“Yay! I got a Spare!” Ranboo cheered, hopping up and down excitedly “Your turn Sam!”

“Watch how it’s done Ponkie” Sam hummed, tossing his ball into his lane. He got a Strike

“Oh screw you!” Ponk huffed, throwing his next ball at the pins. It rolled into the gutter.

“Do you need me to put up the bumper lanes?~” Sam teased, yelping as a bowling ball narrowly avoided hitting his side “Hey!”

“Hold still you bastard!” Ponk yelled, grabbing another ball and chucking it at the cackling man who lept out of the way once more

“Maybe we should find a Wii to play bowling on” Sam hummed “You might have better aim”

Ponk shrieked in offence, reaching over and snatching Ranboo’s ball out of his hand before chasing after the already retreating Sam

“Come here so I can hit you on the head!!” he shouted, weaving among the machines as Sam laughed. Ranboo picked up one of the forgotten balls rolling on the ground, ignoring the dark stain it had and rolling it towards his pins. Strike.

“Oh! Are these lanes open?” Skeppy questioned, pointing at the game Ponk and Sam had abandoned. Ranboo peered over at the two men on the other side of the arcade, Ponk climbing over a console to tackle Sam

“Yep” he nodded. Skeppy picked up a ball from the floor with a grin

“Sweet!”

“You realize these things are scams right?” Ranboo pointed out as Bad failed once again at getting a plushie from the claw machine

“I know” the man hummed contentedly, slipping in yet another token “But it’s still fun”

“I guess” Ranboo shrugged, watching with bated breath as the plush got close to the drop before groaning in disappointment with Bad as the toy fell before getting that far. The two flinched as they heard a smash, reaching for weapons before turning to see a triumphant Sapnap walk over broken glass and pick up a huge stuffed panda from inside the giant claw machine

“Hey Bad!!” the man shouted, holding up the toy with a wild grin “Look what I won!”

“That’s cheating!!” Bad yelled

“These things are scams anyway!” Sapnap retorted, making Ranboo giggle at the disappointed look Bad shot the man

“Well I’m doing this the right way” Bad huffed, focusing on his game

“Hey Ranboo” Sapnap panted, having jogged over with a giant plush and two bats “Wanna see me get rich?”

“Sure” the boy shrugged, grunting as he was handed the giant bear

“Bad, hold Mars” Sapnap told the other, handing him the spiked, wooden bat covered in barbed wire and picking up the other, normal wooden bat “This is a job for Beckerson”

“You named your bats?” Ranboo snickered as the man swung the weapon a little

“Yep!” he laughed “Mars for the zombies, Beckerson for the humans” Ranboo stopped smiling, staring warily at the stains darkening Beckerson’s wood “Batter up!” The man pulled back and smashed the bat through a claw machine, the other two yelping and shielding themselves from the spray of glass. Sapnap cackled as cups came tumbling out of the hole, scooping up a few and holding them up “Starbucks anyone? Drinks are on me” Ranboo started laughing at the ridiculousness of the idea, making Sapnap smile wider

“You know what? Give me the bat” Bad huffed, swapping weapons with Sapnap “I’ve been at this for almost an hour!” he raised the bat and smashed it through the case, Sapnap and Ranboo cheering him on. Bad smiled and reached in, shaking off the glass from a small plush duck he’d been trying to snag for so long before giving it a tight hug “I’m gonna go give this to Skeppy” he decided, skipping off happily with his stolen prize. Sapnap turned to Ranboo

“You wanna give it a go?” he asked, extending the bat towards the teen. Ranboo shook his head

“I’m good” he chuckled. Sapnap waved the bat tantalizingly

“Come on” he goaded “Even Bad did it! You know you want to. How many times have you wasted your money on one of these things?” The bat was beginning to look inviting “You really wanna waste a bunch of tokens to get them the old-fashioned way? Live a little kiddo! Smash a claw machine! Steal a prize! Who’s gonna stop you?” he snorted “A zombified mall cop?” Ranboo wavered, eyeing a machine a bit down the circle of machines “It’ll be fun! Get some anger and energy out too!” the boy caved

“Fine” he agreed, taking the bat and handing Sapnap his panda before marching over to the claw game he wanted his prizes from “Just hit it?”

“Hard as you can” Sapnap agreed, squeezing his bear in anticipation as the boy stanced himself “Spread your legs a little wider- yeah that’s good. Okay dig in, raise the bat a bit more aaaandddd… swing for the fences!!” Ranboo closed his eyes and swung as hard as his injured arm allowed him, feeling the bat connect with the glass and shatter the wall, stumbling a bit. “Nice!” Sapnap cheered, slapping the panting teen on the back “That was awesome dude!” Ranboo gripped the bat a little tighter, turning to another machine. His wounds hurt. He didn’t care. He simply grit his teeth and smashed another glass box. “Whoa! Okay!” Sapnap blinked, stepping aside as the boy marched past hit to another claw game “Clearly we’re working through some stuff-“

Ranboo shouted as he swung at another case, glass flying as the bat went through once more. He stood there shaking, breathing hard under his mask and bat clattering out of his hands. Sapnap approached him carefully

“You good?” he asked quietly, looking uncomfortable as tears began to well up in the teen’s eyes

“Y-yeah” he nodded, quickly wiping at his face “I um, my arm hurts” he offered weakly “That’s all. I’m fine.” He couldn’t cry, crying was a waste of water and he definitely didn’t want to cry in front of a stranger, that would make him look weak. It didn’t stop a few tears from slipping out though. His brothers would be mocking him right now.

He wished they were here to do it.

“Of course” Sapnap nodded understandingly, patting his uninjured shoulder “You should go talk to Ponk or Puffy if it gets too bad okay?”

“Okay” he agreed quietly, sniffling a little. Sapnap picked up his bats, resting them on a shoulder and tucking his massive panda under an arm

“I’m gonna go crack open the candy claw machine” he told him “You want anything?”

“Gummy bears?” Ranboo requested hopefully, rubbing at his eyes. Sapnap grinned

“Sure thing” he hummed, heading off for the machine “One bag of gummy bears coming right up!” the boy smiled a little at the idea of candy, walking over to the machine he’d originally smashed.

He reached in and gently wiped off the glass on the small, plush bee, holding it close. He dug a little more and smiled as he snagged a racoon plushie he’d spotted as well. He tug out a stuffed pig from a different machine, laughing a little when he found a plush crow in a third game. He hugged the soft animals tightly, burying his face in the comforting fabric.

“We need one more for the racing battle royale!!” Puffy shouted “Anyone up to get their asses kicked?!”

“Language!” Bad yelled from his game

“Right. Bad you’re banned from the tournament!!”

“What??!”

“I’ll play!” Ranboo called back, jogging over to the people lined up at the row of racing games and smiling as they all cheered excitedly.

“What are you idiots up to?” Dream asked, masks off and leaning on Ranboo’s console “Who’s winning?”

“Eret somehow” Skeppy griped, focused on his turning “Which doesn’t make sense! He’s bi!!”

“Bad driving rule only applies if you’re gay!” Eret cackled, slamming digital brakes and drifting “Callahan is on my ass though, he’s scarily good at this” Callahan waved at Dream from his seat, smiling happily when Dream waved back

“We’re on the second to last lap” Puffy informed him, squealing as Niki passed her up “Oh come on! How??”

“I’m just that good” the pink-haired woman grinned. Dream peered over at Ranboo’s screen, raising an eyebrow at the teen’s bad driving skills

“How the hell are you in fourth??” the man wondered

“I have no idea” Ranboo admitted with a nervous laugh, spinning his wheel frantically and slamming into a barrier “Oh! I got you this” he picked up a small, green axolotl plushie from the pile of toys in his lap and held it up for the man to take “It reminded me of you. I won it from the claw machine”

“By won he means smashed open a claw game to grab it” Ponk snorted, cursing and swatting at Sam trying to distract him “Puffy! You can’t use Sam against me that’s cheating!!”

“Nothing’s cheating in the apocalypse!!” the woman laughs

“Those things are scams anyway” Dream huffed, taking the toy and cuddling it a bit before resting it on his shoulder “Thanks Ranboo”

“No problem” the boy hummed, spinning off the track and getting right back on. Dream leaned over and bent down to look at the game

“How many nitro’s have you used?” he asked quietly

“Uhhh, none I think” he admitted, making little noises as he tried to make the turn. Dream glanced over at the others focused on their own games and each other. He crouched down next to Ranboo with a grin, fingerless gloved hand hovering over the blinking blue button “What are you-“

“Shhh” the man hushed, pressing a finger to his lips and winking “Trust me. Just keep the car straight”

“Okay?” he shrugged, catching up to Niki in third.

“Aaaaand one” Dream drawled, pressing the button and boosting Ranboo ahead “Get to Eret and Callahan” Ranboo pressed down more on the gas, gripping the wheel tightly “Okay, slow a bit to make the turns” he slammed the brakes and managed to drift around the final corner “Straighten out, right between the gap that’s it” Eret was shouting at his screen, Callahan grinning and trying to pass him up before the quickly approaching finish line “Pedal to the metal Ranboo!” Dream cheered, slamming the boost button and cackling as the boy went zooming past. Eret let out an offended cry, even Callahan looking shocked as they put aside their grudge to try and catch up.

“Wait!” Niki cried, now noticing her 4^th place position “Since when did you pass me??!”

“Go! Go! Go!” Skeppy laughed, looking over at Ranboo’s screen, the others screeching as they realized what was happening

“It’s a straightaway! Gun it!” Dream shouted, getting up and slamming that final boost. Ranboo cheered as he zipped across the finish line first, Eret groaning good naturedly as he came in second and Callahan thudding his head on the steering wheel, third. The adults broke into excited chatter, Ranboo and Dream high-fiving as the leaderboard came up on screen “Oh look! You’re in fifth overall!” he pointed at the flashing name slot

Ranboo grinned, punching in his name with the keypad as others did the same.

“Ert” Sam laughed at Eret’s name on the leaderboard

“Ert!” the man repeated happily

“I think Ran will work” the boy hummed, RAN flashing on the leaderboard. Dream ruffled his hair

“And that’ll stay there until these things are wiped” he chuckled. Ranboo felt something soothing about that, having left a permanent mark somewhere, saying he existed while the world was ending

“Oh yeah” Puffy piped up, leaning back in her seat “What’d you come over here to tell us Dream?”

“Right!” the man exclaimed, clapping his hands to grab everyone’s attention “I cleared out the area and George managed to hack into the system so…” he grinned fiendishly “Who’s up for a game of laser tag?”

After several chaotic rounds of laser tag and one close call with a zombie that had escaped Dream’s sweep, the group was finally settling in for the night. Sam had switched off the generator so the group had to navigate their way into the “safe area” in pitch dark

“Dude” Sapnap groaned, dropping his giant plush and plopping down on it “It’s like two in the morning right now”

“Less talk, more sleep” Eret mumbled, curling up under his blanket and using their backpack as a pillow

“Good night muffins” Bad yawned, Skeppy already passed out and draped over him

“Night Bad” Puffy replied, letting Niki use her stomach as a pillow

“Night guys”

“Goodnight”

“Good morning”

“Whoever said that, shut the fuck up.”

“Language!”

“All of you go to sleep!” Dream hissed, making a few giggle quietly.

Ranboo made himself as comfortable as he could on the carpeted floor they were sleeping on, adjusting his backpack and laying on his good side. He clutched his quartet of plushies tightly, curling around them protectively.

“Goodnight” he whispered into the dark silence

“Goodnight” everyone whispered back

For the first time in months, he slept soundly that night

Ranboo woke up to shouting, groggily sitting up and rubbing the gunk out of his eyes as he yawned. He groaned a little as he popped his joints, body sore from both his wounds and his bad sleeping position. He looked around at the few empty sleeping spots and panicked for a moment, worried he’d been left behind when the shouting outside finally registered

“Hey” he whispered to the people still sleeping “Hey!” he shook Bad and the man sat up with a gasp, looking around before rubbing his eyes tiredly “Guys!” Others woke up, several blindly reaching for nearby weapons as they sat up and looked around

“What’s up?” Bad yawned, slipping his glasses on

“Something’s wrong” Ranboo muttered, clutching his bee plushie tightly

“What’s all that noise?” Niki frowned, getting up and stretching out. Others followed suit, Ranboo tagging behind them once he’d slipped his mask back on.

The front doors slammed open, Sapnap and Sam dragging in a struggling masked stranger and throwing him to the floor. The two of them looked pissed while the new person seemed ready to wet himself at any second.

“Sapnap. Sam.” Bad started cautiously “What’s all this?”

“Yeah man” Eret yawned, Ranboo peeking out curiously from behind him “We were sleeping” Dream came storming in a few seconds later, mask on and definitely fuming. The team was immediately on edge, murmuring amongst themselves as their friend dropped a duffle bag and new backpack on the supply table.

A supply table that seemed to be severely lacking.

“Oh I know that bitch didn’t just try to steal from us!” Skeppy fumed, Bad chiding him with a quiet ‘Language’

“Not only that” Sapnap snarled, grabbing the man by his collar and dragging him to where Dream sat, dumping him on the tile “But he tried to take off on Spirit” This got several unhappy mutters from people, even Ranboo knew the importance of taking another man’s pet. Especially a horse.

“Shit- is Fat Bitch okay?” Ponk fretted, rushing towards the door, a worried Bad on his heels

“If anything happened to Rat you’re a dead man walking” Skeppy hissed, pointing warningly at the stranger before chasing after the two

“Where are Fungi and Mushroom?” Niki panicked, looking around for her kits “I set them loose last night and if he got in-“

“We’ll find them” Eret soothed, grabbing one of her hands to calm her “Come on Puffy” The white-haired woman took Niki’s other hand and the three rushed off, calling for the foxes. Ranboo, Callahan and George were the only ones remaining aside from Sam and Sapnap, taking a seat on the table Dream was at.

“What’d he try to take?” George questioned, voice cold and demanding as he slipped his glasses on

“Let’s have a look shall we?” Dream hummed, throwing open the duffle bag and taking out the stolen food the man had tried to steal “So. I take it you’re alone?” Sam harshly nudged the man with the butt of his rifle when he refused to answer

“My group sent me out to scout” the stranger spat, glaring at Sapnap and Sam standing over him

“Oh?” Dream questioned, tilting his head in that eerie, unsettling way “And they didn’t think to send you with backup~”

“Please” the man whispered “You can have your stuff, just let me go back”

“I don’t know” Dream drawled, pulling out a knife and spinning it “You tried to steal from us” he leaned forward “I don’t take kindly to thieves.”

“Not only that” Sapnap continued “You put our animals at risk”

“That’s right” Dream remembered “You tried to take my horse” he hopped down and lifted the man’s chin with the blade in his hand to look him in the eyes “No one touches my horse.”

“Oh you’re fucked” Sapnap snickered, grinning at how the thief trembled

“They’ll come for me” the man tried “If I don’t come back they’ll come look for me, just let me go and we’ll leave you alone-“

“You really think I give a shit about your group?” Dream laughed, hopping back up on the table “Let them come, they’ll meet the same end as you if they try anything”

“Has anyone seen Fungi?!” Niki called, looking close to the verge of tears as she held a squeaking Mushroom close “Fungi?!”

“If something happened to her fox because of you I’ll kill you myself” Sapnap growled, grip tightening on his bat.

“The animals are okay” Bad sighed as the group walked back in, leading the horses through the doors and other pets trailing after them “I’m gonna go feed them”

“Niki we found your child outside” Ponk said, holding up a snuffling fox kit. The woman let out a cry of relief, rushing forward and scooping up the creature, cradling the two foxes gently. She leaned into Eret as the man led her towards the tables, murmuring quiet reassurances to her pets.

“Luckily for you, everything seems to be accounted for” Dream hummed, running a gloved hand over his cat’s fur, Patches having trotted over at the sound of her owner and curling up at his side “So we’ll take it easy on you… what’s your name?”

“…Luke” the man answered warily, unsettled by the change in demeanor. He glanced around and his eyes found Ranboo. The boy flinched and hid behind Dream more, holding his stuffed bee tightly as he peered out warily at the man

“We’ll take it easy Luke” Dream nodded, waving away Sam and Sapnap “No one got hurt, no need for you to as well” he leaned back casually, seeming almost as if he was talking with a friend rather than a hostage

“I’m gonna go get breakfast” George muttered, seemingly bored now, Callahan getting up to follow him “You want something kid?”

“M&m’s” Ranboo grinned

“You’re not having candy for breakfast” Dream scolded, whacking him lightly on the head “Get him a granola bar or something” he told the two digging through the supplies

“It’s the apocalypse, I should be able to eat what I want” Ranboo grumbled but took the jerky and granola bar offered him anyway. Ranboo munched on his food quietly, chatting with the other people sitting at the tables next to him as Dream continued his interrogation

“So tell me Luke” Dream purred “How many people are you with? Must be a lot with the amount of food you were taking”

“There’s… 12 of us-“

“I call bullshit!” Puffy yelled from her seat “He hesitated!”

“Come on Luke” Dream tutted “I thought you were better than that”

“Fine. There’s five of us. Six with me.” He huffed “We have weapons but we’re starving to death”

“As most people are” Dream nodded “So they sent you to scavenge?”

“We saw the stores and they sent me to see how much had been looted” the man shrugged “We really needed to find something”

“Of course of course” he agreed “But you see, I have a lot of people on my team.” He gestured to the group having breakfast behind him, a few having wandered off to play more video games “We need a lot of supplies to keep us alive and unfortunately I can’t have you taking all of that” he leaned forward a bit “You were rather greedy with your stealing. Where would that have put my poor people if I let you take half of our supplies?” he whined, leaning back again and twirling his knife “I’m sure you know how… disagreeable humans can get when they’re hungry and that simply can’t happen with these maniacs”

“Love you!” Skeppy cackled, giggling when Dream flipped him off without a glance

“Hey Ponks” Dream called “Random question, but do you know how to cauterize a wound?” the man looked up from his oatmeal, mask tucked under his chin

“Small ones yeah” he nodded, mouth full of food “Bigger ones? Eeehhh” he tilted his head back and forth “In theory.”

“Cool.” He turned back to the kneeling Luke and clapped his hands “Well. I think I’m going to let you off with a warning this time.” He told the man cheerily, Luke visibly relaxing in relief “Send a little message back to your group not to take our shit and stuff. Sound good?” the man nodded “Great! We will be keeping your backpack though” the man looked ready to argue “Don’t worry!” he soothed sweetly “We’ll give you a weapon and even refill your canteen for you! That’s plenty gracious for someone who tried to steal from me!” he tilted his head innocently “Isn’t that right Luke? You should say thank you” Luke glared at him. “Fine, be rude” he shrugged “Before you go though, I simply have to ask... are you right-handed or left-handed?” Luke blinked in confusion at the random question, face scrunching a bit

“What??”

“It’s an easy question Luke” Dream sighed, shaking his head as if disappointed “Do you primarily use your right hand or your left hand? Or maybe you’re ambidextrous?”

“Hell yeah” Skeppy muttered “Love who you want”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that” Eret sighed, others laughing around him

“I’m a righty myself” Dream continued, ignoring his group and flexing his gloved right hand “You?”

“Left-handed” Luke answered, still confused

“Oh wow!” Dream exclaimed “I haven’t met a left-handed person yet!” he hopped off the table and took out the hatchet strapped to his waist, examining the blade “Cut off his right hand.” He ordered coldly, not even looking up as Sapnap and Sam immediately appeared and slammed the man to the tile, Sapnap pressing a boot on the man’s back harshly to keep him pinned.

“Wait what?!” he panicked, trying frantically to escape and wrestle his wrist away from Sam’s iron grip “You said you’d let me go!”

“I said I’d let you go with a warning” Dream corrected, tossing Sam the hatchet. He hummed a little as he picked up Patches, scratching her behind the ears “Consider yourself warned.”

“You can’t do this!!” he screamed, eyes wild as he searched the group for help “You can’t just- no!!”

“Did you really have to do this during breakfast?” Niki complained, watching on unsympathetically as she ate her trail mix “I’m eating”

“This is fucked up!!” Luke shouted, right arm now pinned under Sam’s boot “You’re letting him do this??!”

“He’s quite loud” Eret huffed, blowing a lock of hair out of their face “Why are they always so loud?”

“Dream” Ranboo fretted, looking over at the writhing man “Dream is this really necessary? He wasn’t going to hurt you guys”

“He stole our stuff” Dream replied smoothly “We need that to survive.” He looked over at Luke “If I let him go scot free, what’s to say he and his group won’t try again? They’ll learn that as long as they don’t get caught, we’ll let them do whatever. It’s him or us.” He sat on the table, Patches purring in his lap “Best regards to your group” Dream sneered at the man as Sam raised the hatchet high “Next time, I’ll personally deliver the warning to them with your decapitated body.”

Ranboo turned away and closed his eyes.

“I’ll go get my med stuff” Ponk sighed over the agonized screaming, putting down his food and wandering off.

“You good kiddo?” Puffy asked the dazed Ranboo sitting in his sleeping spot “You seem a bit out of it”

“I just saw- well heard, a man get his hand cut off!” Ranboo snapped “Yeah I’m a bit “out of it” I would think!”

“He’ll be fine” Puffy soothed “Ponk made sure he didn’t bleed out and he has some water and a weapon” she reminded “He’ll get to his team soon enough” Ranboo shuddered at the reminder of a limp body being tossed out on the sidewalk, bloodied stump wrapped haphazardly with gauze, nothing like his own, neat bandages covering his wounds.

“I just don’t think he had to go that far” he mumbled, hugging his pig plush this time “None of you even tried to stop him”

“Well” Puffy started, taking a seat next to him “He had a point.” Ranboo turned to stare at her in disbelief “He did!” she defended “I’ve seen that guy’s type before on my own, and they used to let thieves like him go all the time, I mean we have plenty of supplies” she pulled up a knee to lean on “But they just kept coming back. They took their kindness as a weakness and they were in danger for it.” She let out a quiet sigh “The first time Dream did it in front of me, I was as much in shock as you were. I was outraged. How could he do something like that?” Ranboo nodded in agreement “I thought a simple scolding would have done just as well, but the rules out here are different now. Violence is the only thing people seem to understand, the only thing to get through their stubborn heads and sometimes someone losing a hand is better than us losing a group member” she looked over at the boy “Does that make sense? I don’t like it happening, but its necessary if we want to drive the point home not to mess with us” Ranboo stared over at where Dream and Sam were talking, the white masked man dutifully cleaning blood off the blade

“My… teacher.” He mumbled “He had a saying like that. “Violence is the only universal language” or something. He’d always tell me it when he got into a fight with another human, or when he threatened someone and I didn’t approve of it.” He leaned back a bit and stared up at the ceiling “Guess he was right.”

“Don’t think about it too much” Puffy told him, ruffling his hair before getting up “Trust me, it helps you sleep better at night”

“Hey guys!” Dream called, Patches perched on a shoulder “I think it’s time to pack up” The group looked up from their food and games sadly “I know I know” he sighed, rubbing the back of his head “I’d like to stay too. But there’s another group out there most likely heading this way and we probably just don’t want to deal with them” he clapped his hands “So come on! Grab your stuff and load up, we’re leaving in a few” the group groaned and muttered unhappily, packing up their gear

“Damn” George sighed “This place would’ve been a good base for us”

“You guys are looking for a base to set up?” Ranboo questioned, shoving his new toys into his bag, deciding he wasn't going to leave them behind

“Yeah, it’s been a bust so far though” Bad admitted “But we’ll get one someday!” he said optimistically “A settlement of our own where no one can kick us out!”

“Yeah!” George laughed “We’ll do the kicking out this time!”

“You guys have gotten kicked out of a community?”

“Multiple actually” Skeppy chimed in proudly “For lots of things! Being a general annoyance, stealing, vandalizing, hoarding supplies, mass murder, keeping animals, tax fraud-“

“Wait what?!” Ranboo panicked

“I know right?! How can one commit tax fraud in an apocalypse?!”

“That’s not what I-“

“Sapnap drop the panda” Sam coaxed as he followed the young man, trying to take the giant thing from him

“No!” the man shrieked and snatched it out of reach “This is comfy! I’m keeping it!”

“You’re gonna carry that thing with you??”

“Yes.”

“Just leave the bear” Sam groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose “You can take a smaller one-“

“But I want this one” he whined “If George gets to carry around a fancy pillow I get a stuffed panda”

“Why.”

“Saps just leave the damn panda” Dream groaned “You’re gonna get tired of carrying it within an hour just leave it”

“Nooooooooo”

“Leave the panda!”

“Nope. It’s mine.” He huffed, tossing the plush onto the back of his horse and tying it down “Joffery can carry it for me! Problem solved!”

“I pity your horse.”

“Oh fuck off dude!” he yelled, chasing after the cackling man

“I’m surrounded by crazy people” Ranboo suddenly realized “I’m gonna die.”

“You say something Ranboo?” Bad puzzled

“Nothing” the teen dismissed, heading for the apparently only sane person of the group

“How fast do you think this stuffed snake plushie will burn?” he heard Niki ask Eret. The boy turned right back around and headed for the door.

How on earth was he going to survive the trip to the meet-up house with these lunatics for company??

Chapter Text

“You know, I really miss Wi-Fi and electricity" Niki sighed 

“Why's that?" Eret puzzled, munching on some chips they'd found at the bottom of their bag 

"Because then everyone would be on their phones and I wouldn't be stuck listening to the 52nd verse of the never-ending song" she gritted out, glaring holes at the singing group in front of her 

"I have an mp3 player radio thing from the arcade" Ranboo offered, holding up the plastic device “It doesn't work though, there's no radio stations and nothing is downloaded on it” 

"I'll take it." She immediately replied, snatching up the earbuds “Even static would be better than this” she sighed contentedly as the white noise filled her ears “Much better” 

"I just wore earplugs” Eret shrugged, tapping the bright colored pellets in his ears “I have no idea what people have been saying this whole time" 

"No fair” Ranboo whined, making a gesture to his own ears "Give me some" 

"Got them from Callahan" Eret told him, pointing to the onesie wearing man “You'll have to ask him" Ranboo walked up next to the man reading while on the move 

"Hey mister Callahan" he tapped him on the shoulder. Callahan jumped, startled and looked up from the book in his hands. He seemed to relax when he saw it was only Ranboo and lifted his chin a bit as if to say, 'what's up?' "Do you have any extra earplugs?" He asked, pointing to his ears "Eret said you had some?" Callahan squinted as if trying to tell what he was saying before his eyes widened. He pulled back his hood a bit and pointed at the orange pellet in an ear. Ranboo nodded "Yeah! You have more?" He pointed to himself. Callahan smiled and nodded, swinging his backpack around and digging through a pocket, tossing the teen two earplugs "Thanks!" He popped one of them in and put the other one in loosely so he could still hear if someone shouted. 

"So what are you reading?" Ranboo questioned curiously, pointing at the well-worn and battered hardcover. Callahan lifted the book to show off the cover " 'A Christmas Carol??" He puzzled as Callahan nodded "But it's almost summer. At least it should be if my timing is right" 

The masked man stared at him blankly before gesturing to the wilderness around them they were traveling through 

"Okay valid" Ranboo admitted, smiling as Callahan nodded in smug agreement "Is it any good?" The man nodded again, pointing at the book and holding it out a bit towards him "Oh, when you're done?" He nodded again "Oh sure! I need something to do to be honest..." Callahan held up a finger and patted himself over, eyes lighting up triumphantly when he found his small notebook 

He quickly tucked his book under one arm and flipped his notebook to a blank spot, tugging the lid off the pen with his teeth in order to scribble 

"Next bookstore we see I'll help you find something good to take along" he wrote, grinning as he held it up for the boy to read. 

"Seriously?!" Ranboo exclaimed "Thank you!  That'd be awesome!" Callahan gave him a thumbs up and slipped the notebook back into a pocket "I'll let you get back to your book now, thanks again!" 

Callahan nodded, waved a bit and opened his book, flipping back to his spot as Ranboo went back to Eret, now “listening” to Sam about something. 

"Oh, hey Ranboo" Eret greeted, Sam nodding in acknowledgement "Did you get them?" 

"Yup!" He nodded, tapping the earplug "Doing much better now" 

"Aw where did you get those?!" Sam cried "Who has them?! I need names Ranboo it's been an hour!" 

"Callahan" the teen replied, pointing to the man "I think he has a few extra-" 

"THATS IT!!" Niki shrieked, ripping out the earbuds and startling the group. She pulled out the knife at her waist and began marching towards the now silent group of singers "It has been 78 verses of the same damn song!! One of you is losing their vocal chords today!" 

The singers shrieked in amused terror as she charged them, cackling, continuing the song and avoiding her as she slashed, Niki cursing fervently at them in German as she chased them around

"Should we stop her?" Ranboo fretted. 

"I'm not getting in the middle of that" Sam immediately rejected, Callahan and Eret shaking their heads rapidly 

"She's doing us a favor" Eret huffed, grinning sadistically as George was tackled, the first of no doubt many to fall

"How are your wounds holding up?" Dream asked, both he and Ranboo sharing a ride again 

"Ponk says they're healing pretty well considering it's really easy to get infected out here" the teen hummed, currently changing his bandages and pouring a thin trickle of water over his arm to clean it "At this rate it'll only take about a month or so before they're healed enough to completely take off the wraps" 

"That's good to hear" the man hummed, passing Ranboo a small tube of antiseptic cream "Here. Use this." 

"O-oh!" Ranboo sputtered, shaking his head "No, it's fine. I don’t want to waste any more of your resources" 

"Just take it" Dream huffed, dropping the medicine in his lap anyway "We still have another tube in the kit" 

"But-" 

"If you really think it's a waste, you can help us find another one when we hit a store" he suggested, leaning back in the saddle some "Hey Bad!!" The man looked up, fixing his glasses a bit 

"What's up?!" He called back, jogging over and alongside the two on the horse 

"When's the next town?" 

"Let me check" he said, pulling out a battered map from his bag and opening it up "There's a small city coming up soon in a couple miles. We should reach it by tomorrow at the latest" 

"Perfect" Dream nodded "Thanks" 

"No problem! Happy to help!" Bad chirped, skipping off back to Puffy and Skeppy 

"See?" Dream drawled "You can help us find some more cream in the city tomorrow to make up what you used, how's that sound?" 

"Deal" Ranboo agreed, slowly re-wrapping his arm beginning to fully scab over

"Dinner's almost ready!" Eret called, grinning as the group quickly scurried over to the fire and took a seat. Ranboo quietly sat himself between Niki and Dream, looking around at the circle of people chatting quietly in the abandoned building they'd decided to set up camp in 

"Mmm" Puffy sighed "Lentil soup- that's Eret's specialty by the way" she informed the teen with a wink, others chuckling as said man grinned 

"Really?" Ranboo innocently wondered "So they make it often?" 

"Only on special occasions" Eret replied mischievously, Dream holding back a laugh as he lifted the plastic mask over his nose to only cover his eyes

"Go on then" the blonde chuckled "Tell him. It's been a while since we've had a story" others murmured excited agreements, settling in place as they impatiently waited for Eret to begin the tale, Ranboo leaning forward eagerly 

"Well." Eret began, stirring the pot a bit "This was back when I was with my old group- a real bunch of dicks I'll be honest. They never really liked me" he shrugged "To be fair didn't like them back but hey. Its the apocalypse, you take what survivors you can get" Ranboo nodded in sympathy "Anyway, we were traveling along oh- maybe about 20 or so of us?" He guessed, Ranboo's eyes widened and Eret nodded "It was a big group. Back in the early days when this all kicked off and there were more people alive. But as I was saying, my old group and I were moving along, looking for supplies and stuff when we met Dream's group back then" he looked around "Pretty much everyone here. So now we're two groups working together and yes they were just as wild back then as they are now" 

"Old habits die hard!" Sapnap cackled, several people throwing pebbles and trash at him to shush him 

"So Dream's group was getting a lot bigger scores than we were" Eret continued "Niki and Puffy let me have a few supplies, introduced me to the others and I liked hanging out with them more than my group." He leaned back a bit, lost in memories "My group never really treated me the best. They didn’t like how open I was about my sexuality and often gave me the most dangerous jobs. We really didn’t like each other" he huffed a bit "And then while fighting our way through a horde I pretty much got flash banged right in the face by one of my own" The man removed his sunglasses and blinked rapidly at the sudden firelight. 

"You got blinded?!" Ranboo gasped, staring at the pale blue, almost white, eyes of the man 

"Not quite" Eret chuckled, slipping the glasses back on "I can still see just fine but it definitely fucked something up. Now I'm super sensitive to light, hence the glasses. Even low light hurts" he tapped his eyewear with a grin "Needless to say, we definitely weren't on good terms after that. So when Dream came to me with an offer..." He stirred the pot a bit and began ladling out portions for the others "I was all ears." He dropped a hearty portion into Ranboo's bowl "It was simple. All I had to do was ditch my group and join them when they left in the morning, easy right?" Ranboo nodded slowly, stirring his food to cool it off "Ah, but see. It wasn’t that simple" Eret hummed with a smile "I had to prove myself, prove I was loyal and wouldn't turn them over. As if getting flash banged wasn’t evidence enough I wanted out" 

"Hey, I needed to make sure" Dream hummed, pulling down his cloth mask to blow on his food 

"Paranoid~" Puffy sing-songed, laughing and squealing when the blonde started swatting at her 

"Anyway" Eret continued, ignoring the two "All I had to do was help them steal the supplies and get away. So that night, I offered to make dinner." He stirred the pot a bit more with a hum "One little thing they always did at meal times, especially when I was serving, was they would always make sure I would get a nice small meal" he ladled himself a big portion with a bitter smile "They always had food but when it came to me 'oh sorry Eret, we thought you ate' or 'don’t worry, there's still some left at the bottom' and of course the old 'we need to ration, you know how it is Eret" he scoffed, taking the crackers Niki tossed him and dumping a handful into his bowl. 

Ranboo silently noted how much food was left in the pot, even after everyone had their share. He guiltily wondered if there would be seconds as he gnawed on his plastic spoon. It had been so long since he'd gone with a proper full stomach 

"So when I made dinner" Eret went on "Everyone got themselves plenty, leaving me with scraps of my own meal" 

"Rude" Ranboo mumbled, taking off his mask to blow on his soup 

"It was" they nodded "I'm glad they seemed to like it so much though, I've had to adjust the recipe since then" he looked up at Ranboo with a faint smirk "That first batch had way too many sleeping pills" 

The teen paused mid-bite, spoon inches from his mouth as he stared at the man before him 

"What?" He blurted, Eret simply smiling sweetly back "Oh. I get it" he chuckled "It’s a joke, you're messing with me" he continued eating 

"Yeah, I told you to put in half the contents" Ponk huffed, his own mask down and mouth full of lentils "You went and poured in the whole damn bottle" 

"My hand slipped" Eret shrugged as food went spewing out of Ranboo's mouth, the boy pounding his chest as he tried to save himself from choking 

"We all know it was intentional" Ponk sighed with a shake of his head, the whole group cackling at the sputtering teen 

"Oh calm down Ranboo" Eret laughed, shaking the spoon at him playfully "I didn’t add any this time" 

"Probably" George muttered, grinning as Ranboo whipped his head around in horror 

"Probably" Eret agreed, giggling a bit at how Ranboo now warily stared at his food "Relax kiddo. I wouldn’t drug you, you haven’t pissed me off yet" 

"Food's safe" Dream chuckled, patting the teen on the back "Eat up, you'll need your strength for tomorrow." He gestured back to Eret "Finish the story dude, I'm sure Ranboo here would love to know how it ends" 

"I'm good actually" the boy mumbled, nibbling on the crackers handed him, knowing those at least weren't laced with anything. The group laughed a bit at that, Eret settling back to finish their tale 

"So I basically drugged them all to high heaven that night" the man boasted proudly, handing out seconds to the starving crew chattering around him "I took first- and technically the only watch that night" he looked quite smug of himself as he ate his dinner "Packed up all the stuff I could get my hands on- food, water, weapons etcetera" they wiggled their eyebrows mischievously "If it wasn’t on them or in their sleeping bag it was fair game" 

"Oh that's a lie and you know it!" Sam laughed, the others bursting out into arguments "You took their blankets and sleeping bags too!" 

"I did not!!" Eret screeched indignantly, hurling the spoon at Sam's head, which he caught and licked "I'm not that messed up, I have morals! That was Skeppy who took their bags!!" 

"You didn’t see shit!!" Skeppy yelled back, getting an offended 'Language!' from Bad and group growing louder as they argued over who took what. Callahan casually leaned over, not looking at Ranboo as he held out his notebook for the boy to read 

"Sapnap and Niki stole the pants right off of someone as they slept" the page read, Ranboo snorting and trying to stifle his giggles at the mental image of the two dragging the pants off of some poor sleeping fool. 

"Aw now that's just messed up, taking another man's pants" he snickered 

"CALLAHAN YOU SNITCH!!" Sapnap shrieked from across the circle, Niki turning bright red as she read the note 

"You said you wouldn't tell!" She whined, hitting the silently laughing man 

"So you guys just took their stuff and ran?" The teen questioned, hungrily finishing up his soup 

"We robbed them blind and were long gone by dawn!!" Eret cackled triumphantly, others cheering with him 

"And we've been having awesome lentil soup since then" Dream chuckled, stretching his arms out and completely taking off his plastic mask as he yawned "Anyway. When you all finish up go wash your plates and get some shut eye. We're hitting a city tomorrow and I don’t want anyone falling asleep on the job" he got up and dusted his pants off "George, I'm looking at you" 

"Oh come on!" the man sputtered exasperatedly as others laughed around him, ears visibly red in the firelight "That was one time!" 

"And you almost got monched Gogy" Sapnap teased, getting up as well and slapping his friend on the back 

"Screw the both of you!" He shot back furiously 

"Gladly/Anytime" Dream and Sapnap retorted at the same time, the two of them winking and laughing themselves silly at George futilely opening and closing his mouth as he tried to give a comeback. 

Ranboo quickly finished up his meal, limping over to where they were rinsing off the plates with water bottles 

"Pro tip" Skeppy whispered as Bad and Callahan rinsed their plates "Licking your dish makes it easier to clean" 

"I will... keep that in mind, thank you" the boy chuckled, not wanting to admit he already had. Skeppy nodded solemnly and patted his shoulder before going over and snatching the water bottle from Bad, the man shouting in offence as he gave chase. 

"Did you eat enough?" Eret rumbled, startling Ranboo 

"Wha- oh. Y-yeah I did" he nodded vigorously 

"You sure?" They fretted "You didn't get seconds. A kid like you needs to eats lots" 

"I'm fine" Ranboo reassured "Really. I think I've eaten more these past few days than I have, well. Since everything started" he admitted with a sheepish smile. Eret frowned 

"That's not good, you need to eat more" he decided firmly 

"Yeah, you're nothing but skin and bones" Dream chuckled, ruffling Ranboo's hair "Cant drop you off to your group half-starved now can we" 

"Ah, right" Ranboo mumbled, remembering why they were traveling in the first place. He felt a twinge of guilt at his full belly, knowing his family never had food to spare like this. He hoped they had enough to eat now that there was one less mouth to feed for a bit.

“You look tired” Dream noted, nudging the teen a bit and taking his dish to wash for him “You should go to sleep”

“I will” he nodded, heading for his bag marking his sleeping spot “Thanks for dinner, good night guys”

“Good night!” Eret and Dream chorused, starting a different conversation while casually breaking up the fight between Bad and Skeppy. Quiet chatter and soft laughter surrounded Ranboo as he settled down to sleep, draping a tattered, borrowed blanket over himself, pulling out his quartet of plushies and feeling his eyes sink closed with the combined warmth of the cover and the crackling campfire

Something in his chest squeezed painfully as he listened to the comfortable ambiance. He fiddled with the braided cloth on his left wrist, knowing soon he’d go back to his own family and guilt clawed at him for even thinking that way. He immediately shoves all emotion down to a place he refused to touch, drifting off into a restless sleep

Ranboo yawned loudly as they walked, rubbing his mismatched eyes and stumbling a bit over a rock in the road.

“Are you okay?” Puffy questioned with a small laugh as Ranboo flails for a moment to keep himself from falling

“Rough night” he replies, stretching out his good arm and wincing as the healing wounds on his side pull taut “Kept waking up”

“Ah” she nodded “Happens to the best of us” she grins a bit under her skull and bones bandanna she wore as a mask “You’re not too tired to travel though right? I can make Sapnap give you a ride if you need it”

“Nah, I’m fine” Ranboo chuckled, looking over at the giant plush taking up the back of Joffery’s saddle, Sapnap still carrying the ridiculously oversized toy with him “I don’t think he has the room”

“We can kick George off” Puffy suggested with a wink, making Ranboo laugh. George was currently passed out in Spirit’s saddle, sprawled against a singing Dream’s back, snoring softly and clout glasses crooked on his face

“That can’t possibly be good for his back” the teen snorts

“Oh it’s definitely not” she cackles “He’s totally gonna bitch about it when he wakes up”

The two talk for a bit as they walk, cracking jokes that leave Ranboo almost breathless and Puffy leaning on a joined in Sam

“We’re close!” Bad calls out, poking his head up from the road map his face had been buried in for the past half hour “Just over this hill!”

“Close to wha-“ Ranboo started, yelping as Dream and Sapnap went streaking by, a freshly awakened George screaming profanities as they raced to a stop at the peak

“Let’s go!!” Sapnap cheered, horse pacing around as Dream wheezed in his saddle “I win!!”

“YOU SUCK!” George shrieked, shakily getting down from the saddle to yell at his friends “You both suck!! You’re awful!! I hate the both of you!!”

“Aw come on Gogy~” Dream cooed, leaning down from his seat as he followed the fuming man around “You told us to wake you up when we arrived!”

“You dick!!” George yelled back, swinging at the laughing, hoodied man “Wake me up not give me a heart attack!!”

“You’re just mad you two lost the race” Sapnap snorted, grinning at Dream’s offended posture

“I totally won that” he argued

“Like hell you did!”

“I totally won that I got to the top first!!”

“You’re going blind dude I so won that”

“You didn’t!! Admit defeat panda boy!!”

“Who you callin’ panda boy you communion cracker lookin-“

The two broke out into a loud, heated squabble over who’d won, George still complaining and shouting at the two about his interrupted nap as the rest of the group slowly caught up on foot

“Yeah well you didn’t have George squeezing your guts out while riding and screaming into your ear like a banshee-“

“Excuses excuses! All I hear are excuses you lost suck it up-“

“Are you two muffinheads done?” Bad snapped, folding up the map and looking ready to beat the trio over the head with it

“Yes.” They grumbled, kicking at the ground a bit

“I still say I won” Dream muttered

“OH MY GOD YOU ARE SUCH A SORE LOSER-“ Sapnap yelled, immediately starting another fight and the two hopped down from their horses

“Uh oh” Puffy noted, watching Callahan calmly approach the duo grappling and exchanging insults. The man silently pulled out his notebook and smacked the both of them on the head with it.

Hard.

“Owww” they whined, clutching their heads and fight forgotten in their pain “Sorry Callahan…”

“Ha!” George said with a smug look, leaning on a horse “That’s what you two idiots get-“ a flying notebook promptly slammed into his head as well, knocking his glasses off “Ow! Oh come on!!”

“You lot finished?” Sam snorted, the rest of the group hiding snickers at the thoroughly scolded men

“Fine. Yes we’re done” Dream huffed, running a hand through his hair as he straightened up and brushed himself off “Get ready guys cause we’ve hit a pretty big loot spot” Sapnap whistled a bit as he looked over the horizon

“Yo we are gonna be stacked after this” the young man said with a grin. Ranboo took those final steps to the top and his stomach churned as he looked down.

“You’re joking” he gaped, staring at the overgrown road heading straight for a small city, abandoned cars littering the pavement. The sea of crashed cars loomed like an ominous wall in front of the city farther off, things shifting among the wreckage and in the streets

“No way” Puffy exclaimed, almost disbelievingly as she stared at the teen “Why would we joke about an awesome hit like this?!”

“Dude!” Skeppy cried “Do you have any idea the type of loot we can get from a score like that?!”

“This isn’t a video game!!” Ranboo argued back, gesturing to the shambling figures further off “This is real life!! Going anywhere near there is suicide!!”

“It’s a gamble yeah” George shrugged as they began their way down “High risk, high reward and all that right?”

“Yeah except the risk is your lives!” He hissed, limping after them and sticking close to Dream “The safest thing to do is go around, you can find stuff somewhere else”

“How else do you think we have all this stuff” Dream scoffed, ruffling his hair reassuringly “Everyone takes the easy safe way, we get the best supplies by taking the risk no one wants to take” he dug around one of the saddle bags and pulled out binoculars “But it is getting late into the day so we’re gonna go for an easier score” he hopped up into the saddle and scanned ahead, pointing at a building down the road “Take your pick guys. We got gas stations, I think a restaurant, CVS-“

“CVS!!” Ponk yelled “I NEED MORE SUPPLIES! YOU IDIOTS KEEP USING THEM ALL UP GETTING YOURSELVES HURT AND CVS’ HAVE CLINICS SO THEY HAVE GOOD MEDICAL SHIT”

“CVS it is” Dream decided with a grin, putting the binoculars away and hopping down “Alright then, same formation as last time?”

“Can I be a Runner this round?” Eret asked, raising their hand up

“Eret’s a runner” He nodded “Anyone else wanna switch up?” No one spoke up “Okay then. Niki and Sapnap you guys are Fire Front so get your stuff ready” the two older teens grinned and high-fived, chatting as they took down a bag from Sapnap’s saddle “Puffy, Sam and Bad you’re on Extinguishing”

“Yes sir!” Puffy said, all three saluting as she did

“Callahan and George you’re watching the back”

“Like always” George nodded, pulling out a stick from his bag and stringing it, Ranboo realizing it had been a bow all along. Callahan pulled out a crossbow from his bag and began assembling it with practiced speed

“Ponk you’ll be taking Ranboo on Cleanup, keep an eye on each other”

“Got it” Ponk agreed, hatchet in one hand and waving at Ranboo with the other

“And Runners will be Me, Skeppy and Eret this time correct?”

“Yep!” Skeppy chirped, popping the ‘p’ “We fast as fuck boi!”

“Alright then, did I miss anyone?” Dream questioned. Everyone shook their heads and happily reassured him of their jobs “Great! Callahan you get Spirit, George take Joffery”

“How come Callahan gets Spirit?” George whined as they all began their way down the hill

“After last time?”

“He’s got you there George” Puffy snorted, several people snickering as George’s ears turned red

“You’re with me kiddo” Ponk cheered, slinging an arm around the teen “We’ll be out of the main fight for the most part but that doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. You got any melee weapons?”

“Um, just a small knife” he admitted “I used to have a different one I was better with but I… lost it a while ago.”

“Hmm. I don’t want you to get that close. Any other weapons you’re good with?”

“Um-“

“No matter. SAM!” He called. The green-haired man looked over “Weapon bag!!” Sam tossed over a big, dark-green duffle bag, Ponk catching it with a small grunt. He slung a strap over a shoulder and unzipped it for Ranboo to see “Take your pick”

“How’d you get all this??” Ranboo muttered, carefully rummaging through metal bars, golf clubs, pipes, bats and blades with his good hand

“Perks of taking risks” Ponk said with a wink, grinning under his yellow and red facemask. Ranboo finally settled on a golf club, swinging the pitching wedge back and forth to get a quick feel of it “A club? You sure?”

“Yeah, I’ve used one before” he nodded, Ponk zipping the bag back up

“Alright. Just be careful, those break easy”

“I will” he murmured, suppressing a shiver as he remembered what happened to his last golf club

The group kept up their easy banter and chatter as they walked, Ranboo anxiously scanning around more and more as they neared the first of the gas stations, all of them carefully weaving through the wreckage on the street

“Okay guys” Dream began as they approached the CVS, calmly driving his hatchet into a lurching undead’s head with as much effort as if he were swatting a fly “We have an injured with us so let’s keep it quieter than usual okay?” They all murmured agreements

Ranboo could feel his heart speed up at the amount of zombies surrounding the store, some clearly fresher than others. Half-eaten corpses of unlucky travelers littered the overgrown parking lot, staining the asphalt a sickly maroon. His grip on the club tightened, breathing shallow in his attempt to keep quiet but mainly so he wouldn’t breathe in the stench.

“Oh that’s definitely untouched” Skeppy whispered giddily as they all pulled up their masks, Niki handing her satchel of kits to Callahan in the background “The doors aren’t even broken. We hit the jackpot with this one”

“New food” Sapnap wistfully added “Chips! Soda!”

“Granola bars and canned food” Sam grins “Water!”

“Some proper medical supplies” Ponk cheerfully hums, the whole group in a gleeful mood

“We’re getting this score” Dream resolves, Callahan and George riding off across the street and setting up

The air thrummed with anticipation, the adults looking restless as they waited for something. To Ranboo it felt a lot like waiting for the thunder after a lightning strike.

“We’re good on this end” George’s voice crackled through Dream’s walkie talkie “Let’s get this show started” Callahan raised a thumbs up from atop the horse

“Sapnap. Niki. You’re up to bat” Dream announced, the two stepping forward with a wild look in their eyes and resolved grins under their masks.

Ever since the accident a few days ago, fire was a source of unease for Ranboo and rightfully so, flames too dangerous and terrifying for him to be comfortable around anything bigger than a campfire. Fire was ugly, destructive and anyone who told you otherwise had clearly never been burned.

Niki and Sapnap’s flames were beautifully horrifying.

The two raced forward with bags at their sides clinking, Niki with a can of Febreze and lighter and Sapnap with an unlit Molotov. One quiet flick later and fire is spewing over everything, flames licking over the pavement and lighting up the shambling bodies. The corpses lit up like human sized torches, letting out inhuman shrieks as they turned towards the fiery duo.

It was disgusting. It was fascinating. Ranboo couldn’t look away.

“EAT FIRE ASSHOLE” Niki screamed, spraying an approaching zombie with a deadly mixture of flame and aerosol freshener, kicking the fiery creature away with a cackle

“Heads up!” Sapnap called, throwing another Molotov over Niki and letting the unlit contents spray the crowd “After you milady!” Niki grinned and sprinted past the puddles, small, dark cloak fluttering behind her like wings as she swiped her lighter over a puddle and darted off before she could catch flame. The wall of fire was a haunting and stunning backdrop for the maniac woman, a perfect contrast against her pink hair.

The two worked their way through the frenzied Horde, reaching the glass sliding doors and each slamming a hand on the metal

“First!!” Sapnap cheers, fixing his crooked bandanna as the two laughed giddily, eventually turning back to the group and swinging their weapons into the flaming zombies “Get a move on!!”

“Puffy. Sam. Bad.” Dream turned to the three and nodded towards the burning crowd. The trio gripped their weapons and raced forward, Rat and Fran launching themselves at their owners sides. Sam raised his handmade spear and swung, connecting with a rotting skull and smashing it open, splattering its contents all over the pavement and kicking another one into a flaming puddle. Fran made quick work of another zombie, little Lucy nipping at undead heels to lead them towards the humans.

“WHOOOOOOO!!” Puffy yelled, slicing down corpse after corpse, eyes as wild as her hair flying behind her. Even Bad let out a small, slightly terrified laugh as his knives sank in between empty eye sockets.

“Ponk.” Dream ordered, gesturing to the approaching zombies hurriedly shuffling towards the commotion “Keep an eye on the kid”

“Let’s go” Ponk said, dragging Ranboo by the wrist after him, Fat Bitch trotting after them obediently

“What are we-“

“You and me are clean up” Ponk hurriedly explained, spinning the metal pipe in his hands “We make sure the rest don’t get surrounded and take down any escaping ones.” He swung into a lurching monster, whacking it several times to make sure it stayed down “Can you handle that?” Ranboo nodded, gripping his golf club

“I think so” he breathed, watching from the corner of his eye how Dream and the other two ‘Runners’ paced impatiently on the street

The task was simple enough, even in his injured state. It was almost… boring. Ranboo snorted a bit at the idea of this being boring, slamming his club into another rotted skull, grimacing as bits of bone and gore went flying. He heard Fat Bitch bark warningly and turned, frozen in horror as a zombie shambled way too fast towards Ponk, the man too focused on battling a different monster.

“Ponk!!” the teen yelled, yelping as he batted away another zombie “Ponk it’s a Sprinter!!” The man turned, eyes wide as he tried to bring up his pipe in time to at least block the bite

Two quiet ‘thunks’ and both the Sprinter and zombie gnawing on Ranboo’s club went down with a wet thud, an arrow protruding out of both of their heads. They turned and looked over at Callahan and George, the two men already reloading and aiming at zombies getting too close to the others

"Watch yourselves" George's bark crackled through Ponk's walkie talkie. Ranboo suddenly realized the man had been calling out warnings and instructions through the devices the entire time. 

"Thanks boys!" Ponk hollered, getting a quick thumbs up in return before returning to his task "Don't worry Ranboo" he reassured with a wink "They got our backs. So long as our sharpshooters are watching, it's very unlikely that we'll get bit"  The sharp display of accuracy actually did reassure the teen, relaxing ever so slightly as he bashed a zombie's leg to bits. 

"Go! Go! Go!" Dream called out, catching Ranboo's attention. Dream, Skeppy and Eret weaved their way through the haphazard path the others had carved through the Horde, running up to the once automatic doors 

"It’s locked." Skeppy informed with a curse, flinching as a locked in zombie slammed against the glass. "Eret use your crowbar" 

"On it" they nodded, jabbing the flat end of their weapon into the crack and yanking. 

"Bitch!" Skeppy snapped as a rotting hand shot out between the small gap to try and grab him. He smashed his hammer in-between the corpse's eyes, cursing vehemently under his breath. 

Eret grunted as he managed to pry open the doors some more, enough for Dream to jab his foot on the side of one and kick them open enough to slip inside. The white masked man kicked aside the body blocking the entrance and the three darted in, doors left slightly open. 

Ranboo kept backing up Ponk, focusing on making sure nothing could sneak up on them again. His right side was beginning to ache a bit too much to fully ignore and Ranboo was about to inform his partner of this when Dream’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkies

“Clear!!” he yelled “Inside! Everyone!! George and Cal get down here!” Ponk grabbed Ranboo by his uninjured hand and tugged him out of the way as George and Callahan came sprinting by, hopping off the saddles and in one fluid motion, hurriedly leading the horses through the path and in the building. Ponk dragged the teen after them closely, slipping behind and quickly scooting aside as other members ran in after them, Eret and Skeppy sliding the doors closed.

“Is everyone okay?” Sam panted, kneeling next to his dog and checking her over

“Role call!” Dream announced “Fire Front?”

“Here!” an exhausted Niki and Sapnap piped up from the floor, sprawled out next to each other and weapons still clenched tightly in their hands “All good!”

“Extinguishing?”

“All here” Puffy groaned, raising one hand and lowering her bandanna with the other “Bad hurt his ankle though so we need Ponk to make sure he didn’t mess it up too much”

“Noted” Dream nodded “Speaking of which, Clean-Up?”

“Both here” Ponk told him “I’m fine. Kid?”

“My side hurts” Ranboo admitted “But that’s normal”

“Ponk can have a look after he’s done with Bad” Dream decided “Back Guard?”

“Fine” George told him, calming down a huffing Joffery as Callahan let out an unhappy Patches from her saddle bag. Dream picked up his pet and pulled his mask to the side

“Runners?”

“Both here and fine” Eret nodded, he and Skeppy creating a quick barrier of wire shelves in front of the doors now that they knew no one was stuck outside

“So all accounted for!” Dream grinned, the group cheering at their success “Sap. Niki. They’ll be burnt out by morning yes?”

“Yep!” Niki hummed with a thumbs up “We’ll be set to leave tomorrow”

“Great!” the blonde laughs “Well, first come first serve-“

“Dibs on the candy aisle!!” Skeppy shouted, shoving past the hoodied man and skidding around the corner

“Soda!!” Sapnap exclaimed, rushing off as well as the rest of the group scattered with excited chatter

“Bad and Ranboo this way” Ponk gestured to the back of the store “I’ll have a look and then you two can go off and fill your stash”

“Sure” Bad hummed, he and Ranboo limping after the man

A newly re-bandaged Ranboo was currently doing exactly what Ponk had ordered him not to do

“Go away!” the teen screeched, perched up on a shelf and clinging to a several family sized bags of peanut MnM’s

“Share!!” Sam screeched, trying to grab the cackling teen kicking off boxes at him as he jumped around above him “I’m not fighting an injured child!!”

“No.” Ranboo replied, mask off and sticking his tongue out “Get the normal ones like a loser”

“You little-“

“Preemptive language!” Bad shouted from the other aisle, helping organize the food they’d all found. Sam narrowed his eyes at the smug child and turned it into a burning glare

“You win this one” he hissed, snatching a bag of normal MnM’s from the shelf. Ranboo only cackled in triumph, hopping down once Sam had made it to the end of the aisle before running with a fearful scream as the man immediately turned to give chase.

“Sam he’s like 12” Eret sighed as they watched the two run circles around Dream “Let him have his candy, there’s more at the front counter”

“Yeah Sam!” Ranboo panted, peeking out with wide eyes from behind the amused blonde now helping shield him “I’m just a little guy! A little guy who’s done nothing wrong!”

“You’re a goblin” Sam huffed “I got those first and you stole them-“

“I would never-“

“You did too!”

“I’m injured” Ranboo decides, sticking his tongue out at him again “Are you really going to take candy from an injured minor mister Samuel?”

“He’s got you there” Dream chuckles, grinning at his friend’s sputtering

“Oh that is unfair!” Sam complained, throwing his hands up in the air as he heads for the front counter “He can’t pull the minor and injured card at the same time, that’s cheating!!”

“It’s OP that’s for sure” Eret agreed, wandering off to look for more stuff as Ranboo began to slink away

“And where do you think you’re going?” Dream snorted, grabbing the boy by his collar “Protection fee.” He ordered, holding out a fingerless gloved hand expectantly “Pay up”

“Fine” Ranboo huffed, pouring a handful of colorful chocolate into the man’s hand “But only because I like you” Dream laughed and ruffled his hair, popping a few candies in his mouth

“Wanna see if we can find anything fun?” he offered, slinging his arm around the grinning teen “You also need some basic toiletries”

“I want a rubix cube” Ranboo decided

“I think we can do that. Let’s go shopping!”

The two walk around the small store finding various trinkets and chatting with the others excitedly. Niki and Puffy are sorting out what cheap jewelry they want to swap out for, Dream swiping some new earrings for himself and a headband for Ranboo. Skeppy is in the hair aisle with boxes of dye scattered around him, arguing with Sam over which colors to take. Dream tosses Ranboo some shampoo and conditioner, Skeppy offhandedly handing the duo a hairbrush, which the teen desperately needed. Callahan is in the next aisle over, looking at the rows of nail polish. He tosses Dream a couple bottles and the blonde pockets them, nodding silently. The toys and “clothes” is where George and Eret are and once Dream hands them each a bottle of paint, the four get into a sword fight with the foam toys, chasing each other to where Ponk is shoving bottles of pills in a duffle bag and sweeping the doctor up in the chaos.

Once Ranboo gets his beloved rubix cube and an off-brand handheld arcade, they all head to where Bad and Sapnap are waiting with a pile of collected food and other supplies, a fire made of grilling charcoal they’d miraculously found in one of the aisles

“We hit the jackpot” Skeppy purrs contentedly, plopping down on a stuffed animal he’d found “I mean, the alcohol was barely touched!” He held up a bottle of cheap wine and the adults cheered, bottle getting passed around immediately as dinner was started on

“That’s how you know a place still has good shit” Dream informed the teen quietly with a wink “If the alcohol is still around, chances are the more important things are too”

“Good to know” Ranboo laughed, going through his pile of loot. Soaps, hair accessories, a new brush for his hair and teeth alike, toys, other random items and more candy and junk food than he’d ever had his hands on since the apocalypse started.

“So what did everyone get?” Dream hums, popping open a lukewarm beer and grimacing at the taste before handing it over to Sam

“I got more rings and bracelets!” Puffy grins, holding up fingers and wrists littered with glittering bands “I’ll only take a couple with me though”

“Callahan found me some nail polish remover and more paint!” Niki tells them, holding up several colorful bottles “I’m set for a while!”

“I got new earrings” Sapnap hummed, showing off the studs in his ears “And hairbands, hairties-“

“Hair dye!!” Skeppy cheered, reaching over to high-five Niki and then Sam “I’m set!”

“I got some more spare glasses” Eret told them, holding up a few pairs of sunglasses “And a bunch of candy”

“I restocked our soap and other cleaning stuff” Sam informed “Oh, and I also filled up your guys’ duffle” he told Niki and Puffy “Feel free to go through that when you want, I kinda just cleared the shelves”

“You’re an angel Samuel” Puffy chuckled as Niki applauded happily

“What’d you get Cal?” Dream laughed. The man held up a box of Captain Crunch his arm was currently buried in and patted the stack of paperbacks by his side “Shitty drugstore novels, nice. Ranboo?”

“Soap” the teen shrugged, currently playing with a metal hand puzzle “And junk food”

“I got a shit ton of drugs” Ponk cackled, dumping out his bag full of bottles as everyone cheered “Anything we might need- painkillers, allergies, stomach pain, Band-Aids, gauze, rubbing alcohol, charcoal tablets- I even have iv bags!” he cried, grin clear under his mask “Do you know how useful all this stuff is?! As long as none of you idiots do something too stupid we’re set for months!!” he held up another bottle “I mean, I even have vitamin gummies! Come on!!”

“We’re also set food wise” Bad informed them happily as Eret stirred a pot of something “We’ll be perfectly fine without having to stop for weeks, some of the cans were looted but we have a lot still” he took a sip from his can of alcoholic lemonade “I even got cake mix so expect muffins someday”

Ranboo laughed as everyone dissolved into happy chatter, leaning on Dream a bit as he fiddled with his rubix cube and they all talk and drink while waiting for dinner to be finished.

“You are nineteen young man!” Bad snapped, snatching the bottle of beer from Sapnap

“It’s watered down Bad come on” he whined, gesturing at Niki “She’s also nineteen and she has vodka!”

“Niki!!”

The pink haired woman flipped him off, managing to chug a good amount of alcohol before the bottle got snatched by Sam, the young woman giggling and leaning on Puffy

“Let him drink” Dream laughed with a wave of his hand, tossing his excited friend a bottle of wine “Who’s gonna stop us? Cops?” most of the group got into an argument over the ethics of letting someone underage drink in the apocalypse, Ranboo content on listening on the sidelines and watching the dogs and fox kits run around begging for scraps.

“Didn’t peg you for a smoker” George notes as he hands the teen a Styrofoam bowl of soup

“I’m not?” Ranboo puzzles, taking the food from him

“Then what’s that for?” he asks, pointing to the incriminating gold pack of cigarettes in his loot pile. Ranboo stares at the box, flushing a little as he hurriedly tosses them out

“Habit” he mumbles, awkwardly running a hand through his hair

“Habit?” Dream pipes up, letting the argument continue without him as George took the seat next to him

“Yeah, uh one of my groupmates always make us get him that brand whenever we go into stores and stuff” he explained with a small laugh “I guess I got it without thinking”

“…keep it then” Dream shrugged, taking the food handed him “A gift for when you get back” Something panged in Ranboo’s chest. That’s right. He was going back to his family wasn’t he.

“Right” he nodded, grabbing the box and slipping it into one of the pockets “For when I get back.” Dream stared at him, as if noting something was off but before he could comment-

“Ayo Ranboo!” Skeppy yelled from across the fire “You drink?!”

“Hell yeah!!” Sapnap encouraged, handing the teen the bottle in his hand “Wait, how old are you?”

“S-sixteen” he sputtered and Sapnap immediately yanked the alcohol away, Skeppy drooping in visible disappointment

“Never mind” Sapnap panicked “You’re a baby, you can’t have this yet”

“Hey!!”

“Holy shit” Dream laughed “You’re like an infant!”

“I am not!!”

“Wait! I’m not the baby of the group anymore lets goooooooo!!” Sapnap cheered

“You will be again in a few days” Niki reminded with a grin

“FUCK”

“Language!!”

“Here!” Eret handed down a different bottle, people laughing as they saw what it was “He can have that so he’s not left out”

“Sparkling cider” Ranboo read with a faint smile “So basically fancy apple juice”

“Cheers” Dream snickered, clinking his own bottle of now rosé against the soda, Callahan also leaning over to tap his beer against Ranboo’s glass. The teen popped the cap open with a shake of his head, sipping the sweet liquid and grinning as the bubbles burned his throat in that familiar way he’d missed

“Cheers” he agreed

Ranboo curled around his plushies for another night, dwindling fire replaced with lanterns as a few people got ready for bed, some deciding to stay up and talk more, all of them drunk aside from Ranboo. He looked up as something was draped over him, frowning at the plush blanket on him and yelping when his face was pelted with a travel pillow.

“Bag’ll leave marks” George murmured, swaying a little “And is still bit cold out.”

“Thanks” Ranboo whispered, pulling the blanket over himself and stuffing the pillow between him and his backpack

“ ‘s no problm” he giggled, walking off and draping himself in a laughing and still wide awake Sapnap’s lap. The teen slept soundly that night, stomach full of warm food and bubbly sugar, quiet chatter and laughter in his ears.

“And this is why we don’t get drunk” Dream groaned, chugging the rest of his coffee as he wearily led his horse to the exit, tossing the now empty paper cup on the floor “Alcohol bad. Alcohol very bad” Several hungover people painfully agreed with him “Okay, city time today” he yawned “We already lost a lot of daylight sleeping in and I want to get to the other side of town before we stop for the night”

The group carefully made their way out, bags packed and full as they walked, several with some of Eret’s collection of sunglasses on. Ranboo noticed an overturned wagon on the street, a simple red one everyone saw in in books or movies. It was still in good shape, so the teen righted it and began pulling it back to the main group making their way down the road

“Yo is that a wagon?!” Sapnap exclaimed, looking very excited as he handed Bad Joffery’s reins

“Figured we could put stuff in it” Ranboo shrugged

“Uhh, with this hill??” the older teen sputtered “No way dude, we’re putting that sweet baby to use” he dug around in one of the bags, pulling out a bottle of WD-40 triumphantly and jogging over to grease creaking wheels

“Sapnap I just re-stocked our supplies” Ponk snaps “Do not make me use them this soon, especially on the only actually injured person we have-”

“We’ll be fine Ponkie, relax” he huffed, taking off Ranboo’s backpack for him and handing it to Niki “See you guys in a bit!” he began pulling Ranboo and the wagon to where the road began to dip

“Do not die!” Sam ordered after them

“What are you doing?” he younger teen fretted as they came to a stop where the street started to incline

“We’re riding down to the bottom” Sapnap announced and Ranboo stiffened

“What?! No way, we’ll die!!”

“You’re right” he agreed “There’s too many cars, we’ll crash” Ranboo sighed in relief “So we’ll go on the sidewalk!” he pulled the wagon over the curb and onto the path, grinning maniacally

“What?!!”

“Live a little!!” Sapnap teased, shoving the taller child into the wagon and handing him the handle to use as a steering wheel “Think of it like sledding! Except if you crash us we’ll be roadkill”

“Wait-“

“No take backs let’s go!” He whooped, ignoring Ranboo’s panicked sputters as he shoved the vehicle forward, running with it a bit before hopping in and letting gravity do the rest. With long legs curled up to his chest and white-knuckled hands gripping the handle, Ranboo did what any sane person would in his situation.

He screamed.

Sapnap laughed and whooped as they picked up speed, pointing at obstacles up ahead and yelling at the freaked-out boy to steer. In his panic, Ranboo managed to swerve around most of it, screeching as they hit a bump and went flying, Sapnap screaming with joy as he gripped the metal sides and braced for the rattling landing, still grinning as their bones were jolted. Ranboo got a little more comfortable with the steering, now focusing on trying not to die rather than his fear when a zombie staggered up onto the sidewalk, both teens screaming in terror now as they rapidly approached the shambling corpse

“Turnturnturnturn-“ Sapnap panicked, gripping Ranboo’s good shoulder with a hand “TURN!!” the boy yanked the handle, sending them swerving onto the grass and narrowly avoiding crashing into the zombie and streetlamp. The grass was a much rougher and somehow steeper ride, wagon rattling and bumping up and down as Ranboo frantically tried to steer straight. “Abort!” Sapnap yelled over the noise “Bail dude bail!!” the wagon swerved around a bush, Sapnap jumping out and rolling down the hill some “Ranboo!!” he shouted, grunting as he kept stumbling trying to get up and chase after him “Ranboo!!” a curse as he tripped and rolled “Jump out!!” he hissed as something jabbed his side “Kid you gotta jump!!”

Ranboo clung to the handle tighter, knowing Sapnap was right about abandoning the wagon and getting out before it was too late. He didn’t though, staring straight ahead at the bushes and crashed cars hidden among the tall grass. He swerved around the obstacles, focused intently on not crashing before drifting to a stop at the bottom of the hill, wagon tipping and threatening to topple before righting itself. A rattled Ranboo sat trembling in the metal carrier, shaking hands clasping the handle so hard some of his wounds had reopened. He looked over at the battered and now scraped up Sapnap rushing over, worry clear on his face

“Holy shit Ranboo” he panted, doubling over to catch his breath “Fuck man, you okay?”

“I- yeah” he breathed, slowly taking his hands off the handle “That…”

“Oh my god Ponk and Dream aren’t gonna kill me” Sapnap rushed out, falling on the ground in relief and chest heaving

“That was fun” Ranboo realized quietly, shakily getting out and legs giving out under him “I mean I think I wet myself but… that was actually fun!” he laughed, sounding a bit hysterical “What the heck?! I almost died! But that was still fun somehow!!”

“I take it back” Sapnap groaned, covering his face with his hands “I broke you, they’re gonna kill me” Ranboo only laughed, sitting down in the grass to catch his breath and dazedly watching as Dream rode down to them

“Holy fuck!” the hoodied man exclaimed “That was one hell of a wipeout dude”

“You saw that?” Sapnap bemoaned

“We all did, I’m surprised neither of you didn’t break anything” he admitted, hopping down from Spirit “Nice skills Ranboo, that was impressive”

“I think I blacked out for a minute there” he confessed, letting Dream help him up “Might have been possessed by Vin Diesel for a bit I have no idea how I’m still alive”

“I’ll say” the blonde chuckled, helping the more injured teen to his feet “That was some Fast and Furious shit right there” Ranboo laughed a little, leaning against Spirit as the adrenaline began to wear off

“Can we never do that again?” he begged Sapnap

“Yeah” Dream snickered, brushing some dirt off of the dark-haired man “Let’s not give Sam, Ponk and Bad simultaneous heart attacks next time okay?”

Once Sapnap had gotten patched up and Ranboo rebandaged by a livid Ponk, the group came to a stop right at the first of the towering buildings.

“Okay” Dream coughed “So I’ll stick with the kid and animals this time, you guys take the roofs?”

“Should we hit up a store?” Eret asked, everyone beginning to stretch out and adjust their packs

“Might as well” the blonde shrugged, fixing his mask “If anything looks worth your time, take it. Clothes, ammo, basic stuff you know?” the tall man nodded, adjusting their mask a bit

“Where do you want to meet?”

“I think we can make it to the other side” Dream sighed, looking up at the sky “If we’re not close enough by sunset I’ll radio in and we’ll figure it out from there”

“Got it” Eret agreed “We’ll lead them on ahead so make sure to hurry”

“Sure thing” Dream chuckled, eyeing how Ranboo carefully got up on Joffery “Sam and Cal are in charge, if Ponk needs anything get it for 'em and if something needs to burn get Niki to do it, Sap is too hurt so also make sure to slow down for him- if anything he should be coming with us-“

“I’m fine!” Sapnap snapped “You worry too much you mother hen!”

“Stick together” Dream ordered as his team began making their way to the smallest of the buildings “You see any humans you avoid them, we’re not picking a fight today, just passing through. Got it?”

“Yes Dream” they all chorused, waving as they jogged off

“See you in a bit” Eret promised

“Be safe muffinheads!” Bad called back

“Don’t die!!” George helpfully added

“What are they doing??” Ranboo puzzled, pulling up next to the blonde in his borrowed ride

“We’re speedrunning the city” Dream explained, leading his horse and the dogs running around on the ground forward “Typically one person goes around with the animals and the rest of us walk through the more urban areas to loot but we just stocked up on supplies so they’re going to parkour to the other side while we cut through” he glanced over his shoulder “Make sure to stick close, I don’t know how infected it is over here and we need to make sure we can make a quick getaway” he tossed Ranboo the rifle in his bag “You know how to use one of those?”

“Y-yes”

“Good.” The man nodded, scanning the road ahead as he pulled out an honest to god battle axe from the bag as well and strapped it to the side of the saddle “Only use it if you have to, one stray shot and the whole city will be on us okay?”

“Okay Dream”

“Atta boy” he chuckled, weaving around stilled cars “Tell me if you see anything interesting- zombie, human, cool thing in a store” Ranboo snorted “Anything is fair game”

“Got it”

Ranboo wasn’t used to talking in such a cluttered area, having been taught over and over to keep quiet while walking. But Dream was endless chatter, rambling about one thing or another and only ever falling silent when one of the animals got agitated, signaling an undead was nearby. It was comforting. He’d never liked having to remain dead silent while scavenging the outskirts of towns, always making him feel like the world itself was dead. The company was nice, even if how Dream always managed to fall silent at all the right moments was a bit unsettling.

They’re busy scrounging for junk food in a random store for lunch, snickering about keeping it a secret from the others when Fran begins to growl. Both Ranboo and Dream go quiet, sneaking out to the horses and riding on ahead as a straggling zombie manages to crawl out of a car. They’re ready to breathe out a sigh of relief when they hear bone and flesh crack behind them, whipping around to see a masked human shaking off excess gore from their bat. The human looks up at them, eyes narrowing in what might be confusion as they stare at the abundance of animals the two have with them

“Run!” Dream hisses, leaning over and smacking Joffery’s side, the two taking off down the road as the human shouts after them, skidding around corners and racing down winding streets. They finally slow, pulling up next to a cleared enough area to calm down and take a head count of the animals, only relaxing when all are accounted for.

“Did we lose them?” Ranboo whispered, lowering his mask to drink from his bottle

“I think so” Dream muttered, biting into the candy bar he’d managed to swipe “I’d rather not bump into anymore strange humans if we can, we’re the ones with most of the gear right now so we cannot afford getting robbed” he tosses the wrapper on the floor, beeping out a quick message on his radio to warn the others “We need to hurry, last thing we need is a horde or worse, humans finding us” Ranboo nodded, following after the blonde and keeping quiet. They barely make it down a block when they come to a halt once more, Dream tensing and reaching for the revolver at his waist.

“Dream?” the teen questioned, silencing when the man holds up a hand

“Does your side still hurt?” the man whispered back

“Uh, yeah. Of course-“

“Great- play into that” he ordered “Look defenseless and when I tell you to, use the butt of your rifle to land a blow before running”

“What-“

Dream straightened up, his very presence changing into something deadly as he rode forward, just as a group of about seven people came walking around the corner. They all raised their weapons, faltering a bit at the sight of two horses and their riders. Ranboo immediately cowered, going on the other side of Dream to try and shield himself from sight.

“Afternoon!” Dream greeted, friendly enough to show he wasn’t an immediate threat

“Who are you?” one of them snapped, raising their gun and Dream held up his hands pacifyingly

“Whoa there” he chuckled, subtly inching forward “My brother and I are just passing through, we don’t want no trouble, we just want to get back to our dad”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” another asked suspiciously “Where’s your group?”

“You mind putting down the guns?” Dream asked instead “You’re spookin’ the horses and I don’t want my brother more hurt than he already is” they looked over at Ranboo who shrunk even more and waved his bandaged hand shyly. They slowly began to lower their weapons, clearly not seeing the teen as a threat “It’s just us and our dad now” Dream lied “They kicked us out when Ran here got his ass handed to him by asphalt” he laughed a little and shrugged “Idiot decided it’d be a good idea to skateboard down a freeway ramp without a helmet and- well you see how well that went for him. Teenagers am I right?”

“Dre” Ranboo hissed, immediately playing along as the role of an embarrassed younger brother as the adults laughed a little, relaxing further as Dream slowly began to walk forward

“Not my fault you’re a dumbass” the blonde snickered “Anyway, we came in here looking for some Advil or something so he’d quit whining but it’s a bust” he looked around a bit “We saw some other people around and figured they’d looted before we arrived so we decided to book it. We can’t go around getting into a fight with Ran the way he is you know”

“That and dad would kill us if he found out” Ranboo added “He doesn’t like us fighting survivors. Says we’re too young for that, but I’m already fifteen and Dre is a legal adult now!”

“Your father sounds like a smart man” the first one piped up, apparently the leader with how they held themselves “You said there were other people out here?”

“Yeah, like right down the block” Ranboo told them “Are they one of yours?” the adults looked at each other worriedly

“No” the leader said “There must be another group out here”

“Shoot” Dream groaned “Alright, looks like we’re taking the long route out buddy” he huffed, glancing over at Ranboo, mask smiling unsettlingly

“We’ll help you” another offered “Safety in numbers right?” others nodded and murmured agreements “Besides, it’s not safe out here for you kids if there’s another group.”

“Thank you, but I can take care of me and my brother just fine” Dream huffed, straightening up to make himself look childishly intimidating

“At least until we find your dad kid” one of them reassured “We don’t know what that other group is like and if there’s more of us they’ll think twice before trying to attack you

“I don’t know” Dream hesitated, subtly gesturing for Ranboo to ride up ahead a bit “We don’t know you”

“Stranger danger” Ranboo agreed quietly, as if reminding Dream and trying to be unheard

“We’ll stick to ourselves” another promised “We’ll just sort of be… walking in the same direction you know?”

“Well…”

“Which way did your dad say to meet up?” The leader asked, leaving no room for argument

“I think-“

“Where the fuck are you two?!” Skeppy crackled over their walkie talkies, Dream stiffening and Ranboo facepalming as an outraged ‘language!’ was heard in the background “Cal can’t see you guys and it’s getting late-“

“Sapnap won’t stop touching my shit!!” George yelled over him “Dream make him stop-“

“You fucking snitch!!”

“Language!”

“Will you all stop acting like children for five seconds?!” Sam shouted as the group stared at the devices in shock “Where are you two, because I’m going to kill one of the idiots at this rate. Don’t ever leave me in charge again”

“…so which one of those is your dad?” the leader asked, reaching for his weapon as he glared at the two

“Idiots.” Dream spat, snatching up his radio “You’re all dead to me.” he hissed into it as Ranboo immediately took off down the road, snapping his reins and following after the teen “GO GO GO!” He yelled, ducking a bullet that went over his head “Oh my god!!”

“Wait” Sam puzzled “What happened-”

“Shut up!!” Ranboo screamed into the radio he snatched from Dream, turning it off and shoving it in a bag. They wind down more streets, Dream hopping down and prying open a pair of doors he quickly leads Ranboo and the animals in, all of them ducking out of sight. Dream curses as he slips off his axe from the saddle and decapitates a zombie coming towards them. The two wipe out the few zombies in the hotel lobby, plopping down on dusty sofas tiredly when they’re done. They sit there in mutual silence for a while, straining to hear human activity outside.

Finally, Dream turns his radio back on, beeping out a quick message and shoving the device in his hoodie pocket.

“You think we’re good?” Ranboo asks

“I hope so” Dream murmurs, peeking out the doors and seeing the street clear “I think we can go, just be real quiet” Ranboo nods, the two practically tiptoeing out into the road before continuing on their way

“Oh my god are you two okay?” Puffy frets the moment Dream and Ranboo arrive at the designated building

“We’re fine, just tired” Dream sighs, letting down Rat and Patches from their saddle holders and handing Niki her bag of foxes “You morons almost got us killed”

“Sorry” Sam winced “Didn’t know”

“Did you at least get something useful?”

“We found a hunting store” Eret offered “So Callahan and George got some more bolts and better weapons. Most of the guns were gone but we found some ammo so we took that and oh! We got you something Ranboo” Niki tossed the teen a pill shaped thing, about the size of a small pillow “We were all getting new sleeping bags and got you one too since you don’t have one. It’s purple by the way, and it’s a hiking one so it should fit in your bag”

“Oh!” the boy exclaimed, examining the stuffed sleeping bag “Thank you! You really didn’t have to-”

“Don’t mention it” Eret dismissed with a smile “Are we taking shifts tonight?”

“Yes” Dream huffs, taking down his battle axe to clean the dried gore off “There’s at least two groups out there so I want a barricade and no fire tonight. Use the stoves if you have to and headlamps if you need light” People begin doing as he ordered, carrying over shelves to put in front of the doors “Is the place clean? I don’t want a zom coming in while we’re sleeping, someone get a barrier in the hall”

“On it” Niki nodded, jogging over to drag tables in front of the gap, Skeppy going over to help her

“We’re having three hour double rotations tonight” Dream continued, pacing around and helping drag barriers in place “I want us up and ready to go by dawn, no fucking around in the morning. George you’re taking Deadman’s shift again, can you do that?”

“Sure thing” the brunette nods, adjusting his sunglasses as he pulled out a few blankets. The group finishes barricading the area to Dream’s satisfaction, huddling together as they settled down for the night. Ranboo noted how most of them didn’t bother taking out anything more than a blanket and maybe pillow, everyone’s weapon within reach and everyone clearly skittish.

“It’s dark out” Dream notes, hollow eyed plastic smile somehow looking even more terrifying in the light of the single lantern in the middle of the room “I doubt people will try to break into places at this time so we should be good for now”

“I say we should keep going” Sam says, quietly sharpening his spear “No one will go out, we can use that to our advantage”

“There’s a reason people don’t go out at night” Bad hisses, tucking his scarf around him a little tighter “Including us.”

“He’s right” Dream nods “Under different circumstance I might have agreed with you Sam, going at night might be worth the risk but there’s too many variables in the city, especially with humans around. There’s risky and then there’s plain stupid. No, we’ll leave at daybreak”

“Fine” Sam shrugs “Who’s taking first watch?”

“I will” Skeppy pipes up, raising his hand a little “I’m not tired yet”

“Same here” Puffy agrees, pulling out her hair from its ponytail and finger combing it “I’ll stay with him”

“Wake me and George up when your shift is over okay?” Dream tells them, the two nodding “Alright… everyone else get something in your stomachs and go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow”

The group murmurs agreements and begin laying down, a few pulling out granola bars or jerky or something similar. Ranboo takes out a bag of trail mix, eating a couple handfuls as he curls up against his backpack, using his new sleeping bag as a pillow and leaving his borrowed blanket at his waist to make it easier to kick off if need be.

He only sleeps with one plush that night.

“Keep it down” Dream whispers, quietly leading his horse out of the building and the rest of his group trailing behind him “Callahan, about how far do you think we are from the city limits?” Callahan tilted a hand side to side and held up a finger “About a mile?” the man nods “We can manage that on the ground right?” The group nodded and murmured, quickly hurrying down abandoned streets and dodging most of the straggling zombies trying to get to them

The group seems to let out a silent sigh of relief as they passed final skyscraper, talking growing a little and relaxing as the buildings got more and more scarce

“Okay mister Boo” Bad hummed, pulling out the map and quickly scribbling something on the city they’d just been in “Which way?”

“It was out in the woods” Ranboo murmured, peering over the man’s shoulder to look at the paper “And it was still around this way so maybe over here?” he gestures in a direction “I think?”

“Good enough!” Puffy shouts, tackling Sam and getting into a grappling match with the man. The group breaks out into loud laughter and chatter, walking down the middle of the road and keeping an eye out for zombies.

The next two days are fairly uneventful, filled with long, serious conversations about the existence of aliens and one too many games of Chicken with zombies that left Bad in a panic and Dream doubled over wheezing in his saddle. The group is trekking through a field, hopping around and chattering as the sky darkens

“It's gonna get dark soon" Sam noted, looking over at the sun beginning to dip lower and lower "Should we really be going in right now?"

"You wanna set up out there in the field be my guest" Puffy scoffed "I'm sleeping in the trees- out of reach of the zombies please and thank you"

The group laughed a little at that, slipping off from the main road and onto the trail leading deeper into the forest. They walk for a while, chattering with each other and searching for a place to set up camp.

"Okay, its gonna be dark soon" Dream sighed, slowing down his horse a bit "We need to stop for the night-"

"Wait!" Ranboo exclaimed from the seat in front of him, looking around "These trees are... familiar. I've been here before..."

"We probably walked in a circle or something" Sapnap shrugged "It happens all the time"

"No, no" the boy shook his head, pulling on the reins to stop the horse "I've been here. Before you guys, back when-" grey and blue eyes lit up with recognition, hurriedly clambering off the horse, much to everyone's concern

"Whoa hey kid!" Dream warned, calming his horse down as the boy took off down the trail "Ranboo!! You're gonna reopen something!!"

"The safe house!!" The teen shouted back "It's down this trail I know it is!!"

"Ranboo!! Ranb- son of a bitch-" Dream and Sapnap pushed their horses forward

"How is he so fast with that fucked up leg?!" Sapnap shrieked, carefully maneuvering through the fallen branches after the brightly colored Hawaiian shirt wearing teen.

Ranboo took off his mask to better breathe as he ran, long legs vaulting him over fallen trunks and adrenaline making it easy to ignore the excruciating pain his entire right side was in. He nearly cried with joy as his feet found the familiar dirt road his family always told him to take, somehow speeding up as he saw a maroon roof peeking through the branches.

"I'm here!!" He cries, leaping up on the porch and swinging the unlocked door open "I'm here! I made it guys I made it!!" He looked around expectantly, smile beginning to falter as he stepped into the cabin's dusty living room. "Guys?!" He called out "I-I'm here! It's me, Ranboo!!" He searched the rooms, heart sinking lower and lower as each room met him only with more dust and silence

"RANBOO!!" Dream shouted, boots thudding on the wood as he runs in "Kid!!" The teen slinks out from the hall, rubbing at the bandages on his arm. "Oh my gosh" Dream panted, rushing forward "How are you so fast jeez" he paused, noting the crestfallen look on the teen's face "What's wrong?" He fretted, checking the boy over "Did something re-open? Do you need Ponk?"

"They're not here" Ranboo whispered, starting to tremble "My family isn't here."

"Maybe they're out on a supply run" the blonde tried, beginning to panic at the teen looking on the verge of tears "It’s gonna be okay, we'll wait for a bit yeah?" Ranboo nodded, looking up as Sapnap walked in

"Yo!" He shouted, looking around warily as he held up a paper “I found this out on the porch with a cool knife-”

“My knife!!” Ranboo cried, rushing over and taking the blade from the teen “I lost in the explosion, I thought it was gone for good!”

“Oh, well I guess if it’s yours you can have it back” Sapnap muttered, clearly disappointed at not being able to keep the half silver, half black weapon. Ranboo clutched the knife to his chest tightly, eyes watery

“My teacher gave this to me” he sniffled “He was almost like a brother-”

“Here’s your note” Sapnap blurted, shoving the paper into his hands and quickly backing away “I’m uh, I’m gonna go get the others and show ‘em where we are okay?”

“Sure” Dream nodded, waving a hand as Ranboo unfolded the paper “Be safe”

“Got it bro”

Dream looked over at the boy beside him, casually leaning over to try and peek at the words on the weathered paper. There’s a small hole in one of the four paragraphs, no doubt from where the knife had held it in place

The first paragraph is written in hurried, messy scrawling

Boo boy

We're sorry. We wanted to wait for you, I swear but Will Jack and Fundy well. They think you're dead. Phil isnt sure but Will definitely thinks you're dead. Theyre idiots btw. Me Tubbo and Tech dont think so, you're too damn lucky to die so if you're reading this just know we tried to make them wait. I'm sorry.

The second is equally messy, if not more, full of grammar and spelling mistakes and littered with random capitalization

Hey Boo. you better Still be alive to read thiS oterWise otherwise I owe JaCk a sniCkrs and I alredey ate it .Me and Toms knOw your still out there you have to be. Blade is watching jjjjeffry (hOw the fuCk do you spell that asshole??) so dont Worry abOut him, I know you Worry a lot. We miss you, all of us. Put that nagging to good uSe and taKe care of yourself. Sorry We couldnt maKe them wait. I'll KeeP waiting though. I'll always Wait for you.

The third, although shorter, is much neater, words straight and almost elegant with how they curled at the ends

Don't die. The student never dies before the teacher and I'm still kicking so you have to be too. We'll see each other again, some day, somewhere. I know we will. Stay alive main character.

The final paragraph is only three words long, scribbled almost as if it was a last minute decision

Be safe m8.

At the bottom of the note where signatures should lie are 4 scrawled doodles, simple in design. A messy raccoon, a blocky bee, a pig in a crown and a heart with two small lines in the middle that almost looked like eyes.

Ranboo re-reads the note, flipping it over to see if there was anything else before desperately reading it once more

“No no nonono” he panics, flipping it again “No this, this can’t be it I- No, no they wouldn’t- they wouldn’t-”

“Ranboo?” Dream murmurs, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder “Kiddo are you okay?”

“I’m- no I-”

“Breathe Ranboo, breathe” the blonde soothes, moving his mask to the side before putting his other hand on the boy’s shoulder, leaning down a little to look at him “Deep breaths kid, easy. Just take a deep breath for me, can you do that?” Ranboo nods, even as he starts to hyperventilate “Hey, focus Ranboo. Breathe in for eight, hold it for seven and let it out for four. Come on, just like me. Breathe in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8-” he takes a deep lungful and the teen shakily mimics him “Hold it, hold it- 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 aaaand let it out 2, 3, 4. Again. In 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Hold- hold 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and out 2, 3, 4.” They take a couple more measured breaths, Ranboo gripping sleeved arms to keep himself grounded and working himself down from a full-blown panic attack. “There we go. Now, what happened? Where’s your family gone?”

“They… they left me” the boy manages out, opening his mouth to further explain before breaking down crying, collapsing into Dream’s arms as he hiccups and sobs. The blonde stands there stiffly for a few seconds, very much unprepared for the wave of emotion before awkwardly sitting the both of them down on the dusty floor. He pats Ranboo’s shuddering back soothingly, rubbing gentle circles as the teen continues hiccuping words incoherently into his hoodie

“Hey, hey it’s okay, it’s okay” he coos, looking up as the door creaks open and Eret pokes their head in

“Is this a bad time?” They whisper, a few others also peeking in and wincing at the emotional mess in Dream’s arms. The blonde nods with a grimace, now running a comforting hand through tangled, light brown hair

“Just give him a couple minutes” he whispers back, nodding at Ranboo’s unintelligible rambling “I know buddy, I know, just get it all out kiddo, we’re right here”

Eret eventually comes over and pries Ranboo from Dream, letting the boy latch onto them and continue crying as he leads the both of them to the more comfortable sofa.

“What the hell happened??” Sam hisses, watching Ranboo curl up beside Eret and sniffle pathetically as the adult draped his cape over the teen and murmured quiet comforts

“Kid got left behind” Dream sighed next to him, handing him the note “So called family ditched him I guess” Sam frowned as he read the note, handing it over to the curious Puffy once he was done

“What the hell?” he huffs, running a hand through bright green hair “I swear if I ever see those assholes-”

“Language” Bad chides, reading the paper over Skeppy’s shoulder “But yeah, that’s kinda mean. He said they were his family”

“Probably not biological” Dream points out, fiddling with his mask “But I’m sure it still hurts the same for him, he called them brothers after all”

“So now what?” Skeppy pipes up, ignoring the punch on his arm from Puffy “I’m just saying what we’re all thinking” he snorts “None of us actually planned on keeping the kid, hell we don’t even know what he can do. If he’s gonna be a permanent addition then he needs to start pulling his own weight, injured or not”

“Kid is probably going through the five stages of grief right now Skeps, lay off him” Puffy snapped with a glare

“Yeah, so are most of us Cara he ain’t special” he argues back “We’ve all lost people. But he needs to be able to move on enough to help with the load, harsh but true” he adds before Puffy can protest

“Enough.” Dream interrupts, rubbing his face “Let’s just get settled in for the night and start on dinner, we can figure this out later. Got it?”

“Got it” the group mumbles

“Ranboo, we’re gonna set up here” Dream informs “Do you think they’ll mind if we stay for the night?” Ranboo shook his head, burying closer into Eret’s side and mumbling something “What? Can’t hear you bud”

“He says its fine” Eret translates, hugging the boy a little “And apparently there’s food and water in the cabinets”

“It’s true” George pipes up from the kitchen, water bottles in hand “But not enough for all of us to have a decent amount. More like a snack to be honest”

“We’ll half and half it” Dream decides as Bad and Niki head over to start on dinner “In the meantime let’s set up to sleep and start a fire”

“I’ll stay here” Eret tells him, nodding towards the still dazed Ranboo

“Sounds good”

“Soup’s ready” Niki announces, pulling bowls out of the cabin’s cabinets and styrofoam ones from one of the bags “Note to group, next time we’re in a sports gear store or something lets get some more of those meal kits for everyone so we don’t waste space with disposable ones”

“Yeah, I lost my cup” Sapnap whines, sharing a seat at the table with Sam ”I’ve had to use my bowl to drink out of” several people laughed at him or agreed, chiming in about lost plates and broken forks

“Ranboo, you gonna eat?” Puffy asked, looking over at the boy frantically scribbling in a notebook on the couch

“Wha- oh, uh I’m not really hungry” he admits, curling up a little more as he tucks the journal back into his bag “No thanks-”

“You’re eating.” Ponk orders, mask down and eyes burning “Your wounds wont heal properly if you’re malnourished, get over here”

“But-”

“Food. Now. You can skip meals later”

“O-okay” he mumbles, shuffling over and taking a free chair, staring at the table as Niki puts a bowl of warm broth in front of him and ruffles his hair.

“You’ll feel better if you eat” she tells him quietly, a sad smile on her lips and a knowing look in her eyes “Trust me” he simply nods, taking up his spoon and starting on his food, the adults getting into various conversations and discussions as he sat there in silence.

Once everyone is done and the dishes are washed and put to dry, the group starts exploring the small cabin, dividing up the two beds and arguing over who got to sleep in them. Ranboo merely stays by the fireplace, the fire’s glow illuminating the paper in his hand. He absently twirls his knife, movement familiar and soothing after all this time

“It sucks huh”

Ranboo startles, looking up to see Bad smiling at him gently

“I’m sorry?” he puzzles, watching as the man tosses a few sticks into the flames and sits beside him

“Getting left behind” Bad clarifies, staring into the fire with a faraway look, glasses flickering in the light “It really sucks”

“Oh” the teen blinks, looking back down at the note in his hand “Yeah, it does”

“Well, at least they had the decency to leave you a note” the other shrugs, pulling a knee to his chest “Better than most.”

“I guess” Ranboo mumbles, leaning against the wall and the two are silent for a while “How did you join Bad?”

“Hmm?”

“How did you join this group?” he repeats, looking over at Callahan, Niki and Dream arguing over something “Eret poisoned his old group, what did you do?”

“Nothing like that” Bad chuckles, rocking a little “How did we join actually? Its been a while...”

“We?”

“Me, Skeppy and Puffy” Bad informs with a smile “We all got adopted at the same time”

“Really?”

“Yeah” he nods, eyes turning glassy as he looks over at the two laughing and joking “...We also got left behind.”

“What?” Ranboo sputtered “But you guys are like super helpful and nice”

“Shocking, I know” Bad laughs bitterly “...Skeppy had gotten injured while on a supply run” he gestures to his own arm, Ranboo noting the jagged scar running across Skeppy’s left forearm, faded but recent enough to still be prominent “He’d twisted his ankle too and instead of waiting, they decided to go on without him. I mean, it makes sense, I can’t blame them for that” he sighs, rubbing a hand over his face “But I was so mad. He was my best friend you know? We’d been together since the start, you don’t leave someone like that behind” he sighs and cracks his neck a little “I said I wasn’t going on without him, that I would stay too if they left.” he scowls a little “They just said ‘Fine with us, two less mouths to feed’ ”

“Are you kidding?”

“I wish I was” he chuckles, now gripping his scarf tightly “Sure enough, we both got dumped on the road with only the supplies we had in our bags”

“I’m sorry Bad” Ranboo murmured “That’s terrible”

“Yeah” he nods “We didn’t know if we would make it, we barely had enough rations for about a day or two. That’s where Puffy comes in” he smiles warmly, looking over at the woman currently having both Sam and Dream in a headlock, wrestling the two with a big grin “She was sort of new and didn’t like how quickly our group had ditched us so she stole some supplies and ran back. Because of her, Skeppy was able to heal pretty fast and we set out as our own group, people who wouldn’t leave each other behind” he turns to Ranboo, smile turning soft “And then we found Sapnap and he brought us here and we’ve stayed ever since” he stretches his arms towards the flames, warming his hands “And despite being a “group of traveling individuals” we haven’t ever left anyone behind, not for any reason”

Ranboo met his eyes, silent before looking back down at his paper

“That sounds nice” he admits, hearing Bad stand and brush his pants off

“You should set up your bag, or claim the sofa while you can” the man encourages, heading to break up the fight Puffy was clearly winning

“...sure”

“Adult meeting” Dream announced, glancing out the hall before closing the bedroom door

“Literally all of us except Ranboo” Sapnap snorted, crossing his arms and leaning on the bed “Hurry up, I wanna sleep on one of these sweet sweet mattresses and you’re not stopping me from getting a good rest on one of them”

“Sapnap has a point” George nods, earning a swat from Dream

“I’m serious guys” the green-hoodied man huffs “New kid. What do we do with him?”

“Ultimately that’s up to him” Puffy sighs, rubbing her neck “Stay or go, we can’t really force him”

“Oh there’s no way he’s going” Bad argues “He’s injured! He won’t last a day out there on his own!”

“I have to agree” Ponk mutters “Its a slow and painful death if he decides to head out by himself. But I wouldn’t put it past him to try and find his old group”

“He’s also a drain on resources” Sam points out, wincing at the glares and mutters he gets “Listen, I like the kid, honest. He’s nice and aside from candy doesn’t steal my shit like you guys”

“Language.”

“But he’s injured” Sam continues “Badly injured. We kept him moving to try and catch up with his group but he needs proper rest to heal, time I don’t know we can find to stay put” he crosses his arms and stares at the floor “And until he heals, he can’t really… do much. He can’t go out on big runs with us, he can’t walk more than a mile without having to get a ride, he can barely defend himself! Not to mention the medicine, antibiotics and bandages he’s using up, stuff we need if our track record is anything to go by.”

“But he’s resourceful” Eret points out, leaning on one of the walls “Kid has a sharp eye and I hate to admit it, but we’re not always the most careful of people. We need someone watching out, telling us when we’re too loud, pointing out supplies we might have missed” The group murmured at that “Someone as careful as him could be useful in the long run. ‘sides, he surprisingly doesn’t eat much”

“And that’s another thing!” Niki pipes up “He’s way too skinny, even for an apocalypse. Clearly that other group can’t take another mouth to feed, he’ll starve if he goes back”

“I can put him on watch” Callahan holds up on his notebook “See how he does as a watcher. That should give him a good enough role for now”

“What, give him the Deadman’s shift with me?” George snorts, adjusting the clout glasses on his head “Yeah sure, have two fucked up sleep schedules”

“You have a better idea?” Callahan scribbles back with a glare, earning a middle finger from the brunette

“George. Cut it.” Dream snaps “Callahan, whatever you’re about to beep I’d encourage you to hold it back” Callahan huffs but puts his walkie away “Skeppy, you’re unusually quiet about this. Care to share with the class?”

“I agree with Sam” the man sighs, running a hand through his hair and fiddling with the fading blue streak in it “He’s a drain and it’ll take a while for him to get well enough to actually start pulling his weight like the rest of us”

“Geppy!” Bad admonished

“It’s true” he tells him “We hate to say it but its true. Long-run speaking, yes, he could be very helpful and he’s a great guy to have around. Present time though he’s taking more than he gives. So unless he starts making himself useful, we might need to find his old group to drop him off” he leans back a little, rubbing at his arm and picking at the bright blue hoodie covering his scar “But whatever, at the end of the day it’s your call Dream.” the blonde blinks as everyone turns to him

“Wha- why am I making the decision?!” he sputters “I called you all in for a democratic agreement!”

“Yeah but you’re kinda in charge dude” Sapnap snorts, patting his friend on the back

“Since when??!”

“Since forever?” he laughs “Besides, you were the one to find him. Only fair you get to choose his fate”

“And you all agree with this??” he baffles, looking around at his group

“You always make the right call Duckling” Puffy teases lightly “Whatever you decide we’ll go with” the others nod and say similar sentiments

“Jesus” Dream groans, rubbing his face “Just give me some poor kid's future I see how it is” he pinches the bridge of his nose, silent for a few moments before taking in a deep breath “If he decides to stay, he needs to pull his weight.” He decides, green eyes now cold as he stares at the floor “When he gets healed enough to make it 3 miles on his own, I’ll see whether or not he can handle more.”

“And if he can’t?” Niki asks quietly

“I’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

“Why can’t we stay?” Skeppy whines, the living room a busy mess with everyone packing up and talking “It’s the perfect base!”

“It’s not?” Sam chuckles “There’s no towns to easily access manufactured supplies for emergencies, there’s not really a lot of game I’ve seen so we can’t hunt and-”

“I’M NOT SHARING A BED WITH FIVE OF YOU AGAIN!” George yells over the noise “I WANT MY OWN BED!”

“And there’s not enough room for all twelve of us to be comfortable” Sam nods

“And I wanted a freshwater source” Puffy adds “With a boat!”

“And this kitchen is way too small, we can’t feed all of us in this space” Niki huffs, putting back borrowed plates “Plus there’s no place to make a working oven”

“Also, I specifically wanted a walk-in closet, have you all forgotten my walk in closet?” Eret reminds, cape trailing behind them

“And there’s no place to store food” Bad adds

“--- .-. / .-- . .- .--. --- -. ...” Callahan beeps

“This place is borrowed remember?” Dream snickers “And where are we supposed to keep the animals?”

“I need a barn!” Sapnap shouts “Joffery needs a place to stay!”

“A better vantage point would be nice” Ponk hums “We could get ambushed out here-”

“Okay okay I get it!” Skeppy snaps, snatching up his blanket “God why are you all so picky?!”

“Probably why we haven’t found a place to settle yet” Dream shrugs with a grin “What about you Ranboo?” The boy looks up from his packing, startled

“Wha- I’m sorry?” he flusters

“In your ideal base” Dream hums “What would the best place to settle have for you?”

“Oh!” he blinked “Easy! A garden!”

“A garden?” Dream repeats, raising a curious eyebrow. Ranboo nods, smiling sheepishly

“I’ve always wanted a garden” he admits shyly “I used to grow plants on my windowsill before all this, and I mean, having fresh vegetables and fruits would be pretty useful right?” Dream nods, humming appreciatively

“A garden” he says “I could get behind that. Add that to the list!”

“Stop making it harder!!” Skeppy shrieks “How the fuck are we supposed to find a place with industrial sized ovens and a walk-in closet?!!”

“LANGUAGE!!”

“Everything okay?” Dream asked, waiting at the doorway

“Yeah” Ranboo mumbled, fiddling with the paper box of cigarettes in his hand “Yeah it’s fine, just give me a sec”

“If you say so” Dream shrugs, heading to the porch “We’ll be waiting outside for you”

“Okay” the teen nods, standing there silently

“What’s up?” Sam questions, seeing Dream walk towards them “Where’s the kid?”

“Needed some time to say goodbye I guess” Dream hummed, loading up his bags. Sure enough, Ranboo came out a few moments later, shouldering his backpack and closing the door behind him, carefully making his way down the stairs. “You ready?”

“Yeah” he nods, shuffling his feet and pulling his mask up “Let’s go”

“Alright then” Dream says, patting Ranboo on his uninjured shoulder and hopping up on his horse “Let’s head out gang!!”

The group yelled back a chorus of agreements, dissolving into different conversations as they started down the trail in the direction they were heading

There is a gold pack of cigarettes left on the kitchen counter.

Chapter Text

“It’s literally vomit! Its actual vomit that’s disgusting-”

“Just because you were an idiot as a kid and got traumatized doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy honey!” Puffy argues, Sapnap sputtering defensively next to her “Also, if they kept stinging you, they were probably wasps! Leave my honeybees alone!!”

The two kept loudly arguing over honey and insects, eventually leading to a full on discussion about stick-bugs for some reason

“Hey guys?!” Bad calls out, currently on Joffery and binoculars up “Town up ahead!”

“What kind?” Eret asks, the group squinting to try and see further ahead

“Suburbs” Dream announces, handing his own binoculars down to Callahan walking next to him “Looks gated”

“You wanna risk the run?” Sam hummed, taking Bad’s spyglass “Could be some good shit past the gate”

“Could also be humans” Skeppy points out with a frown “And this late into the end of the world? That’s risky”

“It’s literally only been like six months dude, calm down” Sapnap scoffs, stealing the binoculars from Sam “But yeah, you guys wanna run it?”

“I see no reason why not” Puffy shrugs “We scope it out and if there’s living humans we bail, dead ones and we clean up. Rest for a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan” Dream nods, other’s agreeing “Alright, ready up. We should get there at around noon-ish”

“You okay?” Eret asked, tilting their head a little “You’ve been real quiet”

“Just tired” Ranboo murmured, adjusting his mask a bit and making sure the wagon he was tugging along didn’t hit his heels “Um, Eret?”

“Mm?”

“Is it just me” he starts hesitatingly, glancing at George and Dream joking not too far off “Or are people kinda, y’know, ignoring me?”

“Oh! No, you’re just off the Free Trial period” Sapnap interrupts, patting him on the back, Eret nodding solemnly “Now you have to pay for your subscription”

“The… what?”

“Free trial” Eret repeats, straightening up a little as they continue wisely, Sapnap nodding along “Every new member goes through it.“

“Think of it like initiation!” Sapnap adds

“Basically for the first week or so, you’re like a...guest of sorts. You’ll get the full benefits, the jokes, food, protection. But after that? You’re on your own kiddo” Eret continues, pushing up his shades “You have to look for your own food, own place to sleep, own supplies” he shrugs “I mean, we’ll lend you a hand if you need it, of course-”

“But trust me” Sapnap warned “You do not wanna be racking up a debt with these guys” Eret nods gravely “IOU’s and ‘favors’ are high currency out here, and it could be the only thing between you and being the first one by the door to sleep”

“More likely to get eaten or shot” Eret explained quietly at Ranboo’s puzzled expression. The younger teen paled at that information

“I-I see” he mumbled, clutching the straps of his backpack tighter

“Don’t worry” Eret reassures, patting his head with a soft smile “It’ll be tough the first few weeks, but once you prove yourself capable, people will open back up when they know you won’t die easy”

“Helps with our attachment issues” Sapnap hummed “If you’re less likely to get bitten or starve, or you actually choose to stay rather than hop to the next group, the bigger the chance is to actually form a friendship with you”

“Oh” Ranboo realized “That makes sense I guess”

“Of course it does” Sapnap huffs, standing up straighter “We came up with it”

“But we are sorry for acting colder than usual” Eret apologized with a sheepish laugh “Trust me, we’d love to go back to how it was-”

“We just don’t wanna lose someone close to us again” Sapnap murmured, looking away and falling quiet, lost in memories. Eret nods sadly, giving Ranboo one last head pat before heading over to Niki to start a new conversation, leaving Ranboo alone with his own thoughts.

“Well shit” Dream curses, hopping off his horse to inspect the thick chain and lock keeping the automatic gate firmly closed “Skeps?”

“Masterlock?” the man hums, walking over

“Yup”

“Easy open” Skeppy grins, pulling out a few thin bits of metal from his pocket “Give me a minute”

“I’m just gonna hop the fence” Sapnap scoffs, pulling his horse next to the brick wall as Skeppy jimmied the lock open “Anyone else?”

“Let’s rock n roll” Puffy grins, hopping up on the saddle and helping boost the teen over the stone

“Up and over!” Niki laughs, pulling herself up and climbing up on Puffy’s shoulders to clamber over. Puffy and Eret drop down soon after, Ranboo stifling a laugh at Ponk’s muttered threats next to him daring the teen to try such a thing in his condition. Dream simply takes a running start up the wall before vaulting over, rolling to the ground and brushing himself off, high-fiving Sapnap after landing.

“Show off” George complains, using Spirit to awkwardly get up on the wall and hop over, Callahan following after him in a similar fashion to Dream

“You guys are so impatient” Skeppy grumbles as the lock finally pops open, scowling good-naturedly at nearly half the group already on the other side grinning back at him “Seriously?”

“You take too long” George shrugs, pushing his glasses up on his head while Sam unwraps the clinking chain, tugging the gate open enough to get the rest of the people and animals in.

“Alright, lock it back up” Dream orders, taking out his battle axe “Locks mean humans, so let’s get a feel of the place before we find somewhere to settle for the night” Sam nods and shuts the gate again, chaining it back up

“This place looks pretty new” Ranboo notes, pointing at the multiple for sale signs littered in now overgrown lawns “I think some of the houses aren’t even finished yet”

“Perfect” Dream hums, heading for the first house on the street “Most likely means no one was inside-”

“Less risk of zoms” Bad finishes with a smile. The group seems in a much brighter mood at that revelation, everyone waiting impatiently on the porch as Skeppy picked the lock open, cheering when he finally manages it

“I’ll go open the back gate to the backyard for the horses” Sam offers, laughing a little as the dogs come racing inside under him

“Wow this place is bare” Eret notes, scratching Birb under it’s chin as it lands on their shoulder, Niki letting out her kits to run “Can we get a furnished house?”

“Maybe later” Dream snorts, dumping his bag on the kitchen counter along with Patches “Sapnap, Callahan and Puffy, you mind doing a quick sweep?”

“Will do boss!” Puffy salutes, the three taking their melee weapons and heading deeper into the house

“An actual house!” George whines, dropping his stuff on the “living room” floor before sprawling out. Ranboo parks his wagon of supplies in the corner, setting down his bag to stretch out “No sleeping outside tonight!”

“I don’t think hardwood floors are much better to sleep on” Ranboo snorts “At least dirt is somewhat soft-”

“Nope. I’ll take floor over sticks in my damn back any day” George interrupts as everyone sets their things down as well

“House is clear!!” Sapnap shouts from upstairs “We can unpack!” The group cheers tiredly, taking out cooking items and sleeping things, already arguing for sleeping spots

“No beds though!!” Puffy adds “Or carpet!!”

“We can move later” Dream chuckles

“Can one of you idiots come help unpack the horses?!” Sam yells from the back hall. Eret’s words pop back into Ranboo’s mind and he gets up from his spot

“I can do it!” he offers, rolling his injured shoulder “As long as you carry the heavier stuff Sam!”

“Deal!”

“Bad, you mind helping them out?” Dream suggests

“Sure” Bad agrees, getting up and following Ranboo to the backyard

“Niki, you’re with me” the blonde continues, strapping his axe over his back and quickly checking the revolver at his waist “I wanna do a quick sweep of the street. Eret and the rest, you mind getting lunch, dinner or whatever started?”

“Sure” Eret nods

“Coming” Niki confirms, jogging over with a metal pipe stained with blood in fingerless-gloved hand “How far you wanna go out?”

“Just the block today if that’s alright”

“Fine with me boss” she chirps

“I’ll come too” Skeppy says, walking over and twirling his hammer “So we can properly check the houses”

“Sounds good” Dream agrees “We should be back ‘fore dark, keep your walkies on but don’t radio unless its an actual emergency, got it?”

“Got it!”

“Everything checks out” Dream tells them, everyone and their animals sat by the fireplace, enjoying their chili and cornbread “At least on this block”

“The community is pretty big” Skeppy adds, shoving a piece of cornbread in his mouth “Good couple blocks from what we could see. A couple stragglers on the streets here and there too, so no guns if you can help it”

“Nothing too concerning yet” Niki adds “And all the houses we checked were empty like this one so I think it’s safe to say there’s probably not humans out here”

“And if there are, they’re cowards” Skeppy scoffs “Seriously, there’s not that many zombies, easy pickings”

“So we’re staying?” George asked, everyone looking a little hopeful

“For the night” Dream sighs “But not for long. I’m getting bad vibes from this place for some reason, don’t wanna stick around if we can help it”

“Shame” Sapnap mumbles, stealing Callahan’s soda and getting whacked on the head in return “Ow! Seems like a nice place, plenty of room”

“Easily defendable” Puffy agrees, blowing on her chili “Got a gate and everything already”

“I know” Dream says sympathetically “But I’m going with my gut on this one”

The group splits into a different conversation after that, talking late into the dusk and then into the night before spreading out to sleep, everyone choosing to sleep downstairs together. Ranboo barely registers the blanket pulled over him a little more before passing out

“Alrighty” Dream announced, clapping his hands to capture his team’s attention “Once everyone’s done eating let’s get packin’. I wanna be out on the road in at least ten minutes-”

“Nope!” Niki interrupted, slamming the door as she marched in and plopped down by her stuff “We’re not moving.”

“What-”

“Not. Moving.” She repeated, angrily yanking a blanket back out of her bag and curling up on the floor with a huff

“Oh come on” Dream groaned and slumped where he stood, others setting down their stuff and starting to re-unpack “Again?!”

“If you want to know what it’s like I will gladly help you with that” Niki snarls, making Dream hurriedly raise his hands in surrender

“Okay okay” he concedes, carefully taking a step back “Change of plans guys! Make yourselves comfy, looks like we’ll be here for the next week” the group murmured unhappily but overall stayed quiet

“Damnit Niki!” Puffy complained from her bags “Already?!”

“Shut up and get me painkillers” the pink-haired woman hisses, curling up tighter under her blanket “They’re starting to kick in”

“Ponk?” Puffy sighed, the doctor already rifling through their duffle of medicine bottles

“Caffeine or naproxen?” Ponk offers, holding up two bottles

“Yes.” Niki huffed, groaning pathetically “Whatever the hell works faster”

“Ibuprofen it is” they nod

“What’s happening??” Ranboo puzzled, looking around

“God has decided it’s that time of month to hate me for a week” Niki muttered “Shit. I was hoping it’d skip this month. Fuck.”

“She’s on her period” Sapnap explained quietly to the still confused teen while Puffy knelt by the poor woman to give her the pills and a water bottle, rubbing soothing circles on Niki’s back “And since Puffy is synced up or whatever that is, they’re both gonna be out of commission for the next week or so”

“Ah… are they gonna be okay?” Ranboo worries, eyeing the way Niki squirms unhappily

“We’ll be fine” Puffy reassures with a small smile “Niki gets really bad cramps but this happens about every month-”

“BECAUSE GOD HATES ME!!”

“We have medicine this time, she’ll be fine-”

“UTERUS’ SUCK I’M NOT EVEN USING IT!”

“Just stay out of their way and don’t bother them for the next couple days” Sapnap whispers, nudging Ranboo over where the rest of the group was taking refuge in the kitchen

“Also, if you have sugar hand it over immediately” Dream adds, the other men nodding solemnly, wincing at Niki’s agonized groans in the corner

“Well, since we’re stuck here we might as well explore” Sam shrugs, looking at the crew “See if any of the furnished houses have cushions or mattresses, food, weapons, stuff like that”

“I’ll stay” Bad offers with a raise of his hand “I think I have brownie mix in one of the food bags”

“Oh thank god” Dream breathed, the whole group sighing in simultaneous relief “Right, Bad. You, Cal, Ponk and Ranboo stay, keep an eye on things, organize supplies and stuff. The rest of us will go look around, clean up the stragglers some”

“Sounds good” Bad nods, Callahan giving a thumbs up to agree “You guys have your walkies?”

“Yup!” Dream reassures, the exploring group heading for the door “See you all in a bit!”

“Be safe!” Puffy calls out, Niki mumbling something unintelligible

“Will do!”

“Niki?” Ranboo checks quietly, slowly crawling closer to the human sized blanket bundle that was mysteriously squeaking “Uh, I found some Oreos in my snacks” he offered, fiddling with the blue, snack-sized pack “They’re the funsized ones, you know the really small ones- oh!” a hand slips out of the blanket, blindly making grabby motions. He carefully puts the bag in her hand, stifling a yelp as the hand snatches the food out of sight and back under the covers terrifyingly fast

“Thank you” came the muffled reply, bag crinkling “You will be safe on the day of reckoning”

“I- no problem??” he baffles, quickly scurrying away back to where Bad was trying to eyeball oil measurements for the brownies “Bad, what’s the day of reckoning?” the man pushes up his glasses with a solemn look and nods

“The second day.” he replies vaguely, going back to his baking and leaving Ranboo even more confused than before

“Here” Ponk gives Ranboo a mug of fresh smelling tea “Go give that to Niki, It’s already got honey in it and everything”

“Why me?!” he hisses, looking back at the shifting bundle in the corner

“You fed her, you’re safe for now” Ponk explains, nudging him over “Just go give it. If she asks, it’s raspberry leaves and ginger”

“Raspberry leaves??”

“Helps with cramps” Ponk shrugs “I dunno, she likes it, it’s warm and she says it helps.” he gestures to the rows of bottles surrounding him “I have to organize all of these properly and see if I can figure out how to make a hot water bottle-”

“FUCK!” came Puffy’s shout from upstairs

“...Or I can make more tea” Ponk decides, turning the tiny stove back on

“Brownies are ready!” Bad announces, poking a little at the now cooled cast iron skillet, looking quite proud as he walks over to the now two miserable women. He sets the pan on the floor and carefully slides it over, fidgeting with his hands as if awaiting judgment. Niki pokes her head out from her blanket, red-eyes looking at the pan before slowly dragging it towards her and under her covers out of sight

“Your sacrifice will be remembered in the final days” Niki mumbles, curling back up on the floor

“Thank you for the generous offering” Puffy nods, resting her chin on Niki’s shoulder and waving him away “You will be safe on the day of reckoning”

“Thank you” Bad nods, quickly backing away and heading back to where the other three waited anxiously

“Well?” Ponk fretted

“We’re good” Bad informs, the others sighing in relief “And they’re in a good mood to boot. As long as we can get them to eat dinner without issue we can sleep safely tonight”

“Good. I don’t want another Dozen Decap Incident” Callahan scribbles “I can still see it when I close my eyes” Bad and Ponk shudder at the memory

“Decap? You mean decaf?” Ranboo puzzled

“No I mean decap. As in short for decapitation.” the man held up with a haunted expression

“Oh my god.”

“Guess who’re the best fucking teammates in the entire apocalypse?!!” Skeppy shouts as he practically kicks in the door

“We are!!” Eret cackles, keeping the door open for Sam, Dream and Sapnap to carry in a plush looking full-sized mattress

“You’re welcome!” George huffs as the trio set it down in the corner, Niki and Puffy immediately climbing on it with happy exclamations

“You guys really are the best!” Puffy cries, taking her pillow and curling up with it on the bed “Where did you get this?!”

“Stole it” Dream shrugs with a slightly crazed grin

“Yeah, there’s also like five other mattresses out on the lawn” Sapnap points out “Sooo… we should probably bring those in too”

“I already called dibs on the twin!” George yells, racing back out the door “No one is sharing with me!!”

“He’s absolutely sharing” Dream snorts, heading back out with Sam to drag the rest of the mattresses in. Everyone helps pull in the beds, spreading out the varying sizes all out in the living and dining rooms and people quickly claiming spots on them with their sleeping bags

“Mattress~” Ranboo groaned, spreading out long limbs on the softness “It’s been so long~”

“Oh this definitely beats hardwood floors” Sam whines, plopping down with a delighted sigh and wiggling happily. He grunts as Fran jumps on him, laughing a little as his dog hops around on the soft surface “Yeah Fran! A proper bed again! You like that?” the boxer-mix barks excitedly, Fat Bitch running over to join the two

“We got rice and fried Spam!” Eret announces from the fireplace “And lentils! A score like this deserves to be celebrated!!” Everyone cheered in agreement, Niki and Puffy looking much better than before as everyone got a heaping serving of food to enjoy on their new beds.

“Sapnap, are you sure you fit?” Dream snickers, watching the teen struggle with George over room on the twin

“I would if George moved his fat ass” he snaps, taking his pillow and now trying to suffocate his friend with it, ignoring George’s offended and muffled British screeching

“Ponk and I will move our mattress over just in case” Sam chuckled, scooting his bed to make one big one with George’s twin

“Ranboo, you good sharing a bed with us?” Eret frets, Dream peeking over their shoulder in concern

“It’s fine, I’ve had to share a bed with people before” he reassures “If anything, this is more room than what I used to have to split” he laughs, patting the queen under him “Do either of you kick in your sleep?”

“I mumble a little” Eret admits

“I turn a lot and kinda end up in weird positions” Dream adds “So, sorry in advance guys.”

“Better than a foot in my gut and face” Ranboo snorts “I also talk in my sleep and I might sleepwalk so just, lead me back to the ground or something if I wake you guys up”

“Done” Dream nods, giving him a thumbs up “Bad? Skeppy?”

“Callahan’s already passed out” Skeppy informs, pointing at the softly snoring human curled up on their mattress

“Doors are locked so… night!” Dream exclaims, plopping down and wiggling into his sleeping bag, other’s following suit

“Here, you can be in the middle” Eret tells the boy, swapping spots “That way if you go sleepwalking it’ll wake one of us up and we can get you back in bed”

“Thanks” Ranboo murmurs, yawning and burying deeper into his sleeping bag, already falling asleep at the comforting familiarity of having two other presences in bed with him “night...”

“Goodnight...”

Ranboo sleeps well that night.

The youngest wakes up groggily, feeling warmer and more comfortable than he ever had since his accident. Eret is half fallen off their shared mattress, still snoring softly and a drooling Dream has managed to wiggle out of his bag while sleeping, one long leg on the floor and an arm draped over Ranboo’s chest. The teen yawns and sits up to stretch, biting back a pained noise as his healing wounds are pulled taut, rubbing at the scabbing burns and scrapes on his right cheek that went down his neck and past that to his shoulder and chest.

“Mornin’” he murmurs, waving blearily at the already awake Callahan by the fireplace making himself breakfast. The man looks back at him and smiles, waving back and gesturing him over. Ranboo tugs his blanket out from under Dream and carefully heads over, making sure he didn’t wake anyone in the process. “How’d you sleep?” Callahan only smiles in response, swaying a little and giving a quiet shush sound “That good huh?” the man nods and points at the teen “Oh, I slept great” Ranboo tells him, curling his knees to his chest to lean on, pulling the blanket tighter around him “I think I missed sleeping with people in the same bed like I used to. It felt so nice and safe being surrounded that close again.” he stares at the frying Spam Callahan was making “Best sleep I had in a long time, considering I didn’t wake up with a foot in my face and a knee in my side like usual” Callahan snorts and nods before flipping his food, the two sitting in comfortable silence, slowly waking up together. It was strangely domestic, and Ranboo filed away a note to write this calm moment down in his journal later.

The rest of the group got up in similar slow fashion, people stretching and yawning, several staying in bed a little longer as they chased those few last moments of sleep.

“Breakfast” Dream hums, carefully sliding over two mugs of tea and a plate of leftover Spam rice for the girls

“Thanks” Puffy yawns, already rubbing Niki’s back “I’ll try to get her to eat” Dream gives her a thumbs up and heads back to the rest of the group

“I wanna go out and explore the neighborhood some more” Sam tells them “We can probably get some more mattresses or at least pillows, two to a bed would be nice I’m sure”

“I’m gonna go look for food” Skeppy decides “Bound to be something useful out here, and it never hurts to have extra food”

“We’ll split up” Dream nods “Who’s staying here for the day?”

“I can” Eret offers, raising a hand “Been meaning to mend up some clothes”

“I can stay again” Bad added, Ponk also raising a hand “Our main bags really need organizing”

“I think I’ll go out to search today” Ranboo murmurs “At least help keep an eye out”

“Sounds good” Dream yawns, stretching out “Everyone head out when you want, make sure to take a buddy and weapon. Remember, no guns unless its an emergency. We still don’t know how many zombies are out there”

“Sam!” Ranboo called out, rushing over to the man gearing up at the door “Sam wait up!”

“You gonna be my exploring buddy?” the man chuckles, finishing lacing up his boots. Ranboo nods, grip tightening on the rifle slung over his shoulder Callahan let him borrow for the day

“If that’s okay?” he asks, suddenly worried he wasn’t actually needed or worse, wanted

“Fine with me” Sam shrugged, putting his gas mask back on and gesturing for Fran to trot over, patting her head “You got a melee?”

“I can go get my golf club-”

“An actual melee, my god” Sam snorts, looking the scrawny teen over “Don’t tell me you intend to do damage to the undead with a golf club” Ranboo shrinks a little in embarrassment, feeling his ears burn

“Maybe?”

“Oh my god, here” Sam laughs, although not unkindly. He takes off the machete at his hip, tossing it sheath and all to the teen “Which arm do you use to swing?”

“Usually my right, but my left at the moment” Ranboo explains, unbuckling his belt to hook the weapon on

“Put it on the right side then” Sam nods, making a slashing motion as he drew an invisible blade from his right hip “Easier to start swinging”

“Okay” Ranboo hums, tightening his belt and patting the new weight at his hip “This good?”

“Perfect” Sam chuckles, opening the door and letting Fran out ahead “Don’t lose that” he scolds lightly, pointing a the boy in mock threat “I want that back later” Ranboo salutes and pulls up his mask, following after the man

“Sure thing mister Sam!”

“Yo!” Dream greeted as he popped his head inside the house, seeing Sam and Ranboo struggling to get a mattress down the stairs “Need a hand?”

“Or two” Sam grunts, feet skidding as the mattress starts sliding “Ranboo! Ranboo the frame! Grab the frame!!” he panics, the teen pulling back on the wooden frame with all of his might, shoes slipping on the floor

“Hold on, I’ll help!” Dream yelps, rushing over and bracing against the furniture, stopping it from going further. The blonde helps the other two bring the bed down the stairs, sat exhaustedly on the porch to catch their breath. Ranboo at the top, Sam on the middle and Dream on the bottom step

“How are you not hot in that thing?” Sam mutters, chugging his water

“Who says I’m not?” Dream groans, shaking his collar to air out his hoodie, white mask on the porch next to him

“Just take it off” Sam snorts, gently bumping his head “You’re gonna get heatstroke, we don’t have enough water for that”

“Nooooooo” Dream whined under his black cloth mask “My thiinngggggg”

“Your what?” Ranboo snorts, taking a water break of his own

“My thing” he repeats “Puffy has her cutlass, Eret their crown, George his glasses, Callahan and his onesie” he gestures to his sweat-stained hoodie “And me with the green”

“I would think the mask is more your thing” Ranboo points out, handing him his canteen for a drink “That sticks out more

“Fine I guess” Dream grumbles, putting the water down to peel off the sweatshirt, shaking his head a bit to cool his face “That actually feels a lot better to be honest” he admits

“Gross, put it back on” Sam laughs, wrinkling his nose “You reek”

“Fuck you!” Dream shouts, flipping him off “I bathed!”

“What, a month ago?” Sam cackles, pulling his mask back on “You know the cat-bath you took yesterday does not count as a real bath right?”

“Close enough jerk” Dream snaps, now airing out his black tank top, tossing his hoodie on the step next to him “We do need more laundry though.”

“I’m down to rob some houses” Sam shrugs, pointing at the mattress behind them “After we take that back to camp-”

“You have a tattoo?!” Ranboo blurts in amazement, flushing at having interrupted them “Sorry, I just… sorry”

“Oh, you mean this?” Dream hummed, rubbing the left side of his neck where a simple little smile was inked on his skin “Forgot I had that honestly. Funny story about that” he chuckles “It actually matches the one I have with my sister-”

“YOU HAVE A SISTER?!”

“She’s my twin” Dream laughed at Ranboo’s shock “And technically I have two sisters”

“TWO??!”

“To be fair, this is the first I’m hearing about a twin” Sam scowls, kicking Dream lightly with a foot “Since when are you a twin??”

“Since birth?” Dream scoffed, swatting Sam’s leg “But yeah, we had this stupid little ongoing competition growing up” he shrugs, tapping the tattoo “We would try to draw a smiley face on each other in the most obvious of places and see how long it would take the other to notice. This is her record, took me about 3 weeks before I noticed.”

“And yours?” Ranboo asked curiously

“3 and a half weeks” Dream said proudly, tapping his chest “Right on her collarbone” he snickers “She didn’t even notice until she wore a tank top and by then it was nearly faded off” his eyes gleam with pride at the memory “When we left to go to our respective colleges, we went behind our parents backs and got each other’s records sort of like a reminder.” he smiles softly “It was kind of our thing y’know?” he sighs and rubs at the spot with a hand “We were gonna take my younger sister to go get one too once she was old enough, she wanted hers on her wrist, I remember that” he chuckles, now looking sad “But since all of this” he gestures to the abandoned neighborhood “Never really got the chance. No clue where the younger is at the moment, never got in touch with my twin when it all went down and I was too busy trying to literally survive college to follow up”

“Busy lines?” Sam asks knowingly and Dream nods

“Yeah. I left a message” he sighs again “Hope she got it, and at least I know one of them is alive”

“Mmm” Sam hums, ruffling his dog’s ears “Somewhat of a same situation with me. I was working at the shop when it happened, had to beat off my own dead coworkers with a wrench” he grimaces at the memory “Busy line signal when I tried to call anyone, no clue if my family is alive or dead” he glances over at Ranboo listening wide-eyed “And you? What’s your first apocalypse day trauma?”

“If you want to share” Dream reassures, shrugging a little “We kinda detached ourselves from the whole thing to make it easier, but apparently its a super sensitive topic for some *coughweakcough* people”

“Dude. People died” Sam snorts “A lot actually. Very traumatizing.”

“It’s fine” Ranboo laughed nervously, picking at the cloth braid around his wrist “I don’t remember a lot of it but it’s your pretty typical story. I was at school, got lucky enough to get out. I think I made it back to my apartment, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get inside. Wandered for like a day before I joined my first group of survivors.” he taps the ragged scar on his left cheek running horizontally from the side of his mouth to nearly his earlobe “Got this trying to break up a fight among members and they split after that.” he leans back and takes another sip of water “My memories get fuzzier after that, I never had the best memory to begin with but...” he furrows his brow, trying to remember “Something happened during those months alone that made it worse” he shrugs, making a noncommittal noise “Probably just some head trauma, no biggie”

“No biggie he says” Dream wheezes, laughing at the casualness “Oh yeah my head got messed up but hey its fine now, nothing to worry about!”

“Well it’s not like I can go to a hospital!” Ranboo protests, making the two men laugh at his offended tone “It’s the apocalypse! My face got stitched back up by some lady who’s only previous experience was sewing buttons on shirts! She passed out twice while doing it!!”

“Well at least Ponk knows how to do sutures” Dream chuckled, raising his shirt to show off a neat, healed gash on his side “See? Rebar while running.” he tells the teen proudly “Luckily I had my tetanus shot a few years ago so I was fine”

“Yeah, thank goodness” Sam huffs, rolling up his right pant leg “Ponk nearly had a heart attack, you know tetanus kills right?” Dream shrugged and Sam rolled his eyes, showing Ranboo the still pink scar on his right calf half hidden by his boot “Was trying to get out of an apartment we were raiding and snagged my leg on the broken window” he grins at Ranboo’s expression of awe “There was blood everywhere, getting in my shoes, dripping on the floor-”

“We thought he hit an artery” Dream snorts, punching him lightly on the knee “And he would not stop bitching about it”

“I did not bitch!”

“Yes you did! The whole time you were like ‘my leg hurts’ ‘ I feel dizzy’ ‘can I have water?’” he mocks, making little mouth movements with a hand while Ranboo tries not to laugh “And you wouldn’t stop crying for Ponkie the entire time you dramatic muppet-”

“I had an infection!!” Sam screeches, flushing crimson as he whacks Dream on the arm repeatedly as the blonde kept mocking him “I was delirious, you know this! I couldn’t even stand for a week!!”

“Pathetic.”

“I’m gonna break your legs you little shit-”

“Is it just me” Ranboo interrupts, tapping Dream on his shoulder as he stares down the road “Or is that zombie walking really weirdly human towards us?” Both Sam and Dream perk up, straightening as they try to get a better look at the thing walking down the road

“Check in” Sam says into the walkie-talkie “Is anyone currently going down the middle of a road alone? Over.” The figure doesn’t seem to move to respond, still getting closer

“Uhh no? Over.”

“Nope. Over”

“We’re still at the house. Over.”

“It’s not us. Why? Over.”

“No reason” Sam replied calmly, not taking his eyes off the person “Just be careful, we might not be as alone as we thought. Over and out.” he clicks off the radio and clips it on his belt, pulling out his axe to have at his side

“Definitely human and definitely not one of ours” Dream hisses, putting his white mask back on and unhooking his own hatchet from his waist “Shit, I knew I had a bad feeling about this place-”

“How do you wanna play this one?” Sam asks quietly, stiffening as the human seems to pause and notice them. Ranboo silently takes off the borrowed rifle and sets it at his side, easy for any of them to grab

“Desperate but not too desperate” Dream responds, taking a small file out of his pocket to sharpen his hatchet “We have a few wounded members and just needed a place to stay for a little to recover and take stock. Just enough food for one meal a day but still ridiculously optimistic about that fact. About nine of us total. We don’t want their help, we don’t want to intrude, we just want to camp out for a bit” He glances back to the bandaged up teen on the porch “Ranboo you’re one of the injured, look in pain.”

“I’m always in pain” he mumbles, but leans on the porch railing all the same, pulling his mask up

“Perfect, you’re already doing great” Dream nods, going back to sharpening while Sam takes another drink of water “We should probably get that mattress back to the others” he notes casually, looking over at Sam expectantly

“Right” he nods slowly “It’ll be nice to sleep on a bed again, although we’ll have to take turns with it”

“What?” Ranboo started “Didn’t we-” both men shoot him a glare, Dream flicking a casual finger at the human within hearing range. Ranboo clears his throat “I mean yeah! Floors suck!”

“God you’re bad at this” Sam groaned

“Hey, not my fault. I literally slept on rocks the night before” Ranboo lied “Your back cracking old man? You need those orthopedic soles for your boots?”

“I’m twenty-two??” Sam baffles, taken aback by the sudden switch in character

“And?”

“Old” Dream agrees with a snicker, laughing as Sam turns to him with betrayal

“I’m literally only a year older than you!” he screeches

“You’re both old” Ranboo nods

“I was still in college!!” Dream exclaims, now offended “That is not old!”

“It is when you’re my age” the teen taunts with a grin under his mask “Careful now, you’ll get wrinkles like that”

“You’re not even drinking age you little shit-” the blonde hisses, lunging at the child

“Hey hey hey I’m injured you can’t do this that’s against the rules!” Ranboo squeals, scooting away to Sam’s side of the stairs “You’re gonna make me reopen something and we don’t have anymore gauze!”

“I’ll take my chances” Sam snorts at the blatant lie, reaching back to snag his ankle and make Ranboo scream a little

“Stop! Stop you guys are mean!” Ranboo whines “I still have a good leg, I can kick you!”

“Sure thing toddler” Sam snickers, now shielding himself from Ranboo’s furious but still light kicks

“Oh! Hello!” Dream greeted brightly at the stranger now not too far away, waving at the person. Ranboo and Sam pull apart, warily watching the stranger approach

“Afternoon” they reply, tilting their cowboy hat a little and walking over “Haven’t seen you gentlemen around here”

“We just got here last night” Dream half-lies, leaning back on the stairs casually and tilting his head “Horde on our tail and we needed to hide out for a bit. This your area? You don’t mind us hanging out for a bit, right?” he casually scrapes his file against the hatchet in his lap, silent warning in the movement

“Depends” They hummed, hand trailing to their waist as they look over Sam and Ranboo “This your group?”

“Part of it” Dream admits “Got about five more back at camp? Five or six, right?” He turns to Sam who nods

“Nine? Last headcount?” Sam agrees, pinching Ranboo’s calf to keep him quiet about the truth

“Yeah, got a couple wounded while running” Dream sighs, gesturing to Ranboo who shyly waves “Kiddo here’s the only one healed up enough to help out here”

“That bad huh?” the stranger asks sympathetically “Well, I’m Jackson. Pleasure to meet you”

“Dean” Dream lies with a smile in his voice, reaching out a fingerless-gloved hand for the man to shake “This is Bo and Sam” he gestures to his companions who nod in reply “Hope you don’t mind us borrowin’ a bed”

“We’ll put it back” Ranboo tells him quietly “Just wanted to sleep somewhere that didn’t hurt for once” The man’s gaze seems to soften slightly at the boy’s young voice

“You can borrow it” Jackson reassures kindly “Plenty more in the neighborhood. Speakin’ of which, why don’t ya’ll come on down and meet the rest of us?”

“There’s more?” Sam asks, sounding interested as Ranboo ducks a little behind the man

“Yeah!” Jackson nods “Got a nice little community here” he looks back at Dream “I’m sure they’d like to meet you and your group. Bring them down later this evening for dinner”

“Dinner?” Ranboo repeats, perking up

“Yeah” Jackson chuckles “When’s the last time you ate son?”

“We’re doin’ fine” Dream replies quickly, puffing up a little

“Yesterday” Ranboo replies at the same time “Does this mean we get two meals today?!”

“I don’t-”

“Sure thing kiddo” Jackson hums, gaze turning a bit pitying as he looks over at the slouching Dream doing a very good impression of someone embarrassed “Come on down to the community center at around sunset” he points over where he’d come from “It’s over past the pond and fountain, the building with all the streamers on it”

“Building with streamers, got it” Sam nods, kicking Dream none too discreetly “We’ll be there for sure, right?”

“Sure” Dream shrugs, standing and tying his hoodie around his waist. He shakes the man’s hand, charming once again “Thank you for the offer, can’t wait to meet everyone”

“No problem” Jackson reassures, smiling brightly as he tips his hat and turns to walk off “Pleasure meeting you folk, hope to see the rest of you later”

“Thank you!” Sam says with a wave, Ranboo waving as well “Alright! Let’s get this back to camp and tell everyone.”

“He was nice” Ranboo notes, eyeing the man whistling as he walked “I don’t like it” he muttered quieter

“Pretend you do” Dream hissed, helping Sam heft the mattress “Come on” he said louder “I’m sure everyone will be happy to hear”

“I’m not going to that murder dinner!!” Skeppy screeches, others voicing similar, angry concerns, voices overlapping in loud arguments

“I really hope I don’t have to go” Ranboo tells Niki quietly, the young woman sat on her mattress next to him sipping her tea quietly as she watches the chaos unfold “I had social anxiety even before the apocalypse, I don’t wanna meet with strangers who may or may not kill me”

“Technically we’re strangers who may or may not kill you” Niki points out casually with a shrug

“Yeah but that’s only like, if I steal food or something from you guys” Ranboo huffs, eyeing how Niki quickly pulls an arguing Puffy back down to sit on the bed when she tries to get up to properly yell “And I’d like to think of you as friends at least. Acquaintances maybe? We’ve been together for a bit now” Niki stares at him, blinking a little “I mean, I do anyway. Eret and Sapnap told me you guys might feel a little different-”

“You want to be our friend?” she asks quietly, eyes shining “Really?”

“I mean yeah?” he tells her “You guys are cool-”

“Awwwwww!!” she squeals, quickly wrapping the teen up in a hug “We can be friends Ranboo!” she tells him, now crying “We can be friends”

“Yay” he manages out from the crushing grip around him “Puffy. Puffy help” he croaks. Puffy looks over and snorts, gently pulling on Niki’s shoulder

“Niki, sweetie, you’re gonna break him” Puffy tells the crying woman softly “Come on baby, let go”

“He wants to be our friend” Niki sobs, Ranboo awkwardly patting her head as her grip turns into something a bit easier to withstand

“And that’s great!” Puffy reassures, trying not to laugh “However, you are getting snot and tears all over him-”

“New friend, baby boy” Niki sniffles

“I’m sixteen” Ranboo mutters

“Newborn” Puffy teases, grinning at the scowl Ranboo gives her.

“If I’m a newborn then you’re a grandma” he huffs, which only makes Puffy grin wider

“Grandma at 20, oh how will I ever cope?!” she gasps dramatically, twirling a strand of bleached hair “Well at least I don’t look old- Oh no! My hair’s already white!! I really am old!!” she falls back on the mattress, extending a hand to the ceiling “The light! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!” she cries “Paw-paw?! Is that you?! I’m coming into the light-”

“ARE YOU DYING?!” Niki shrieks, letting go of Ranboo “PUFFY-”

“Nononono I was joking I was joking I’m fine” Puffy panics, quickly sitting up to reassure a panicked Niki. Ranboo sticks his tongue out at her, grinning at the glare she now sends him over Niki’s shoulder

“L” he taunts, laughing and scooting away from the kick aimed at him, getting up to rush over to Callahan

“Okay, okay” Dream grits out, trying to rub away his headache “There’s twelve of us total, we said nine so that’s already three we don’t need and can stay behind” he looks around at the group he’s managed to calm down “We can’t bring all nine because I said they were too injured so that’s another two or three we can leave behind bringing the party to seven or six, three of which are myself, Sam and Ranboo leaving three to four spots open.” he lets out a sigh and crosses his arms “Is there anyone who wants to go? Incentive, free food.” No one raises their hands “Right, so it’s come to process of elimination then.” he groans “Puffy, Niki, Ponk. You’re out.” The women cheer quietly and high-five, Ponk looking extremely relieved and stepping away “Eret, you’re too tall and intimidating, out.”

“Oh thank god” they mutter, stepping back

“Skeppy, you’re too likely to say something stupid and blow our cover, out.”

“Fair” he nods, stepping away.

“I need one sharpshooter to keep an eye on the house” Dream sighs “George and Callahan, rock paper scissors over who stays” the two do and Callahan wins “Right. Callahan, out.” Callahan slumps in relief, heading for his mattress “Sapnap and George, rock paper scissors.” Sapnap wins “Sap, out.”

“Bring me back food” he requests, stepping out

“Okay, so this leaves me, Sam and Ranboo- obviously, with Bad and George” Dream says, the remaining four looking unhappy but silent about the decision “The “injured” three of us stayed back at camp” he tells the four. “They fell through a floor, scaffolding, cliff- doesn’t matter. Just as long as they know none of us are bit. I said my name was Dean, Sam is the same and Ranboo is Bo, any other changes?” George shakes his head”

“I’ll go with B” Bad tells them “Less weird nickname I guess”

“Everyone got that?” the group nods “Alright, go clean up. Look like you made an effort but still something pretty worn” The group splits to change, Eret helping Ranboo into a faded yellow shirt and tattered grey flannel with ripped jeans they’d found in one of the bags. Ranboo tries not to look too hard at the maroon spatters on the pants and flannel.

“It’s about time” Ponk hums after a while, peeking out one of the windows at the dipping sun “You guys leaving?” Dream checks his revolver and hides it in his waistband, tucking his hoodie over it and slipping his plastic mask on

“Yeah” the blonde mutters, watching the rest of the party line up at the door with their own weapons, both hidden and visible “We’ll try to be back in at least three hours” he nods over to Eret in the corner “Eret, you and Cal are in charge. Keep away from the windows and lower the lights” Eret gives a small salute while Callahan loads his crossbow with a threatening click.

“Be safe” Puffy tells them quietly “Don’t be stupid”

“When are we ever?” Sam jokes, earning a strained smile from the woman

“I’ll make sure to bring the muffins back in one piece” Bad promises, pulling Skeppy into a quick hug as Dream opens the front door “We’ll be fine”

“If they have barbeque bring some back!” Sapnap calls out, waving as they all slip out “I want meat!” George flips him off.

“Later!” Dream tells the people staying behind “Remember, no windows and low light!”

“How long has it been?” Niki worries, watching Ponk pace around

“An hour” Skeppy sighed, peeking out of the closed blinds into the empty street “About”

“Wish they could radio in” Sapnap muttered, playing a game of Speed with Puffy

“I’m gonna go check on Cal” Eret decides, getting up from the mattress and heading upstairs, snatching the rifle in the hall “Cal?” they call “Callahan?” A whistle comes from one of the rooms and Eret looks in. Callahan pokes his head in the open window, waving Eret over “Oh, there you are” they hum, walking over and poking their upper half out the opening “Nice night?” Eret asks, Callahan shrugs and leans back on the roof, gesturing to the dark, moonlit street. “Any movement?” Callahan shakes his head, holding up his crossbow “Well, that’s a good sign I suppose”

Callahan huffs, puffing a lock of hair out of his face and waving around

“What? You bored?” Eret chuckled, clambering out on the roof to sit next to him. Callahan huffs again, patting himself over before frowning “Forgot your notebook?” Eret guesses, smiling a little as the man nods and blows an annoyed raspberry. He taps his throat and makes an almost gagging motion, scowling “Yeah, I bet it does suck. Sorry man, I’ll get the signing down eventually but after we lost the book...” they shrug “Hard to practice when you’re busy” Callahan tapped the side of his head and flicked his hand down

“”Yeah, I know””

“We’ll get it down, don’t worry” Eret reassures. Callahan puffs a little and smiles, thudding his head back on the roof, pointing up to the starry sky

“”Stars are pretty tonight”” he signs, waiting for Eret to mentally translate

“They are” they finally laugh, pointing out constellations “There’s Orion’s Belt I think, you can see more than just three now. Big Dipper, Little Dipper-” they squint and wave vaguely in a direction “Cassiopeia, is that what that one is called??” Callahan shrugs “You know what?” they gasp “We should get a constellation book! So we have something to look for at night” the man next to them nods eagerly “Aw, yeah that’d be awesome. We could find all the planets and stuff-” Callahan sits up and shushes him, peering down into the road. Eret also sits up, warily looking around “What? What’s wrong?” he whispers.

Callahan motions for him to be quiet, carefully crawling up the roof and peeking over the top, Eret popping up next to him.

“What?” he asks

“”Human””

“Shit. Where?” Eret hisses, ducking down. Callahan points and raises the binoculars up to his eyes, watching a shadowed figure sneak over to their house. “What are they doing?” Callahan shrugs, taking off the binoculars and handing them over. “Are they trying to spy?”

“”Maybe”” he signs one-handedly, picking up his crossbow and aiming it at the person. Both of them silently watch the stranger get closer, Callahan following with his bow, waiting. A foot steps over the sidewalk and onto the front lawn.

Thwick.

The person startles back, seeing the quivering arrow that nearly missed impaling their foot embedded in the ground instead. They look around, freezing as they spot Callahan up on the roof reloading his bow. Eret skids down and slips back into the room with a thud, racing down the stairs and skidding into the living room

“Away from the windows. Now.” he orders, rushing over and closing blinds still open “Everyone in the hall, go go go”

“What’s going on?” Puffy panics, taking her blanket and pulling a bleary Niki up from their shared mattress, dodging Callahan sprinting past them with his crossbow and slamming the front door open “Cal?! What-” Callahan runs out on to the porch, silently scanning the lawn

“You heard Eret, let’s go” Ponk says as Sapnap drags a curious Skeppy away from the door “In the hall, now” The group anxiously waits in the hallway, a disgruntled Niki the only one not seeming too worried as she started to fall back asleep on Sapnap’s shoulder, fox kits held close in her arms

“What happened?” Sapnap hisses, taking a slipping fox to put in his hoodie pocket and peeking around the corner to see Callahan with Fat Bitch pacing around by the door “I thought you went up there to check on him”

“There was a person on the lawn” Eret explains quietly, also watching Callahan “I think they were trying to look in the house, Callahan gave ‘em a warning shot”

“Trying to spy on us huh?” Ponk mutters, patting Fat Bitch’s head when she happily comes trotting over and starts licking his hand “Not good”

“Anything?” Skeppy asks as Callahan finally closes the door and makes his way over. The man shakes his head and huffs, pointing up “Stay upstairs?” Callahan nods

“They can’t look in the windows upstairs” Puffy agrees “Not without making noise”

“Second floor it is” Eret decides, leading the group upstairs

“I hope the others are having a better time than us” Skeppy muttered

“I want to go back to camp.” Ranboo hisses, thudding his head on Sam’s shoulder

“Be polite” Sam chides, nodding and smiling politely at a person across the room

“Bad vibes~” Ranboo tells him, although smiling at Rat happily being chased by giggling children

“Really?” Sam hums, bending down to pat Fran’s head since she was sat obediently at his side “I think they’re pretty normal so far”

“I don’t trust new groups” Ranboo mutters “Never ends well for me”

“What about us?”

“...” Ranboo looks away

“Wow, okay” Sam snorts, elbowing Ranboo lightly “Tell us how you really feel R- Bo”

“Can you blame me?” Ranboo huffs, lowering his mask to reveal his scars “First group sliced my cheek, and I got abandoned by all others”

“Good point” Sam admits, ruffling his hair “But you should still go socialize”

“With who?” Ranboo grumbles “The kids here are like ten and everyone else is an adult

“Bo.”

“Fine” he complains, rolling his eyes and carefully making his way over to Dream, smiling politely as he joins the group “Hi”

“Hey Bo!” Dream exclaims, much brighter than the teen expected “We were wondering when you’d come over bud” he slings an arm around his shoulders and pulls him in close “You good?” he whispers, mask hiding his words from the group

“I’m fine” Ranboo whispers back “Yeah, Sam told me to stop being anti-social and have fun” he says louder to keep up the ruse “Have you tried the bread rolls yet? They’re really good, I had like five”

“You’re gonna eat these people out of house and home!” Dream scolds lightly, the others laughing as Ranboo shrinks

“I was hungry” he mutters, which was true. They were skipping dinner to make it to this one

“Oh let the boy eat” one of the women encourages, smiling sweetly “I’m glad to hear someone enjoying my special rolls, made ‘em just for today”

“They’re amazing ma’am” the teen praises, turning to Dream “If they have leftovers can I take them to the others?” he asks quietly, as if trying not to be heard

“I don’t know-”

“Of course! Of course!” another allows “Your poor friends, scaffolding you said?”

“Yeah, we weren’t being careful” Dream nods solemnly

“Scaffolding caused that?” one of the men gestures to Ranboo’s half bandaged body, suspicious. Ranboo mentally noted to redo his purposely messy wrappings later, some of the cloth beginning to fray or become discolored

“No, I fell off a cliff… sort of” he half-lies with a sheepish laugh, rubbing his injured arm “Basically scraped up my whole right side on the rocks, thought for sure that was the end since we barely had enough” he sighs a little “I was lucky not to break anything, not sure how we would have fixed something like that”

“Low on medical supplies too?” Jackson asks

“Yes.” Dream and Ranboo chorus, very much not mentioning the fact they had an entire bag dedicated to just medicine back at their camp

“Yeah, we’ve been thinking about heading out and trying to find more supplies” Jackson hums, others nodding in agreement “But there’s a couple of zombies walking around even inside the gates”

“We can help with that” Dream offers “Got a rifle or two, take ‘em out-”

“They’re humans!” one of them exclaims, taking Dream aback “That’s basically murder!”

“They’re… already dead?” Ranboo tells them

“If anything we’d be doing them a favor” Dream scoffs “There’s not that many from what I’ve seen, real quick just pap pap pap-”

“Thank you for the offer” Jackson says, not sounding very thankful “But we’d prefer to leave them alone, it’s one of our rules. No hunting the re-awoken.” Ranboo can tell from the ever so subtle shift of Dream’s feet the man was not a fan of that rule

“I see” the blonde hums “Any other rules we should know of?” he asks innocently

“Well, no hurting the re-awoken is a big one” one of the others tells them “If you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone” Ranboo can see Dream roll his eyes behind the safety of his mask, wishing he could do the same

“Food is shared in the community center” Jackson continues “So ya’ll are welcome to come down for breakfast and dinner, and we go out hunting for supplies about once a week”

“We’ve been meaning to get some more people on scavenging trips” bread lady hums “Once you guys are healed though, I don’t mean to push, but, well, we all gotta pull our weight at the end of the world” she jokes, the others laughing a little “Common courtesy among people, don’t go breaking into homes or anything like that, although feel free to get furniture from the unused houses. We don’t touch the places people have lived in though, to pay respects and such” Ranboo internally winces at the very much lived in houses they had raided earlier. Whoops.

“Oh, one last rule” Jackson adds on “All weapons, especially firearms, are kept in the armory for safety reasons.” Dream immediately bristles, straightening up as his calm demeanor slips

“Excuse me?” he growls, Ranboo’s fingers twitching at the reminder of the knife hiding in his pocket

“Everyone is perfectly safe within the gates-”

“Save the near dozen zombies meandering around” Dream interrupts, making the small group flinch at the ‘z’ word “Is this why we were told to leave our weapons at the door?” he huffs, towering height making him even more intimidating “Were you even planning to give those back?”

“My machete was borrowed!” Ranboo blurts in a panic “I-I have to give that back to them!” the group relaxes a little at the childish reasoning, Ranboo flushing at how he sounded “I really need it back” he mumbles, kicking at the floor a little

“Blades will be returned for the time being” Jackson reassured, straightening up a little to match Dream’s posture “But we will need rifles and such- just for safe keeping” he quickly adds as Dream begins to protest “You can have them back if you go outside the gate, but really there’s no need for them in here”

“This is ridiculous” Dream says with an annoyed click of his tongue “How long until you take the rest of our stuff too?”

“It’s just common sense” Jackson replies smoothly with a friendly smile “Your blades will be returned, for now” he looks over at Ranboo for this before turning back to the blonde “But we will keep the shotgun. That’s how things are done here.”

“For safety precautions” Dream scoffs

“For safety precautions” Jackson repeats “We have little ones running about, wouldn’t want a gun to go off on accident would we? Or accidentally shoot a person thinking it’s a re-awoken person.” he tilts his head a little, challenging “So, will your group abide by the rules?” Ranboo is very aware of the eyes on his badly bandaged half, remembering they believed a good part of their group was out of commission. Dream stays silent, calculating, fingers twitching and Ranboo is reminded once again of the revolver the man had hidden in his waistband.

“Fine” Dream grits out, hand stilling at his side “I’ll drop off the guns tomorrow.” he told him, carefully restrained “Without ammo.” Jackson looks about to protest “It’ll be safer that way” he says sweetly, mocking smile clear in his voice “No risk of it going off and if it’s just going to be kept for safe keeping, there’s no need for it to be fired.” he reminds “Right?” a challenge of his own, one Jackson meets with a calm smile

“Of course, makes perfect sense” he agrees, the two shaking hands “Lovely meeting you folk, hope we can all get along”

“Sure” Dream says, pulling his gloved hand away as soon as it’s let go “Well, we really should be getting back, can’t leave the rest of our friends alone for too long, thanks for the food we had a nice time- George!!” he shouts, tugging Ranboo along behind him, the teen having enough sense to wave goodbye so he seems polite. George looks up from where he’s hiding in the corner, whistling a little and making Sam and Bad turn from their conversations. Dream hurries for the exit, snatching his hatchet from the person already waiting there for them.

“You’ve been informed of the firearm rule-” the man starts as Dream snatches the shotgun Sam had brought

“Yup” Dream snaps, quickly emptying the gun of it’s shells and stuffing them in a pocket before shoving the emptied weapon back into the man’s hold, making him stumble a little

“Whoa, wait that’s my gun” Sam protests, managing to grab his own ax as Dream drags him out after him, Fran happily following her owner “Dude!”

“Rules” Dream hisses and Sam immediately glares at the poor man holding his shotgun. George and Bad hurry out after them, quickly strapping their knives back on

“What happened?” Bad whispers, Rat running through his legs and nearly tripping him “I thought things were going good, they didn’t seem particularly murderous-”

“Rules are shit” Dream grumbles, flicking on his flashlight to illuminate the road leading back to their base “Like always. They’re already trying to put us in on a rotation and we’re not allowed to kill zoms because ‘they’re still human’ or whatever” he mocks

“Oh god not those types” George groans “They’re already dead!”

“I wanna set a horde on them” Sam snorts “Let’s see how quick they throw away that ‘no kill’ rule”

“It’s only a matter of time before they realize we’re not as bad off as we say” Dream mutters “We need to go hide our shit”

“Language” Bad chides quietly “But yeah, let’s hurry back”

“They want us to what?!!” Puffy shouts, others looking equally pissed “Absolutely the fuck not, that’s basically begging for an ambush!! We almost had one while you guys were out!!”

“How many are there?” Eret asks, leaning on the wall with arms crossed, scowl over their face

“I counted thirteen adults” George informs, sat up on the kitchen counter “Plus about four more kids, all under twelve if I had to guess”

“We could take ‘em” Skeppy mutters, the group looking at their weapons with an expression Ranboo did not like

“What if we just follow along?” the teen hurriedly suggests “We do what they want, follow the rules, even if they are stupid. No point picking a fight, you guys weren’t planning on staying anyway”

“He’s got a point” Ponk sighs “No point picking a fight.”

“They want our weapons” Eret repeats “They already know where we’re camped, it’s a matter of time before they start asking questions”

“Dream didn’t say how many guns you have” Ranboo bargains “Who says you have to give up all of them?” the group murmurs, settling a little at that “And they’re still letting us keep the rest, probably shouldn’t give them a reason to ask for those as well”

“Fine” Dream sighs, running a hand through his hair “We’ll play nice for now. Niki and Puffy, how fast do you think you guys will be ready to go?”

“It’s the third day, so about two or three more” Niki huffed “We can go now if you want, however I will bitch about it for the remaining time”

“Three days?”

“Give or take” Puffy nods, taking the tea handed to her “So we’re staying?”

“...yeah, we will” Dream huffs “Callahan, I need you to look around and find where that stupid armory is in case we need to steal our shit back.” Callahan nods and carefully unloads his crossbow “I’ll try to get back in good graces and find weak spots we can use in case of an emergency. In the meantime, we need to hide our stuff. Food, weapons, medical stuff, anything they might try to make us give up for ‘the good of the group’ or whatever”

“They want my shit, they can pry it out of my cold, dead, zombie hands” Sapnap sneers, heading for his pack “Time to stash!”

“Time to stash!” Skeppy agrees, everyone splitting to hide their belongings out of sight throughout the house

“Good job kiddo” Sam hums, placing a hand on Ranboo’s shoulder “They can get a little trigger happy when it comes to people trying to take our stuff. You calmed them down pretty fast, I’m impressed. Especially Dream.”

“I don’t like people fighting” Ranboo mumbles, starting to hand Sam his machete but the man shakes his head and pushes it gently back

“Keep it” he tells the boy “I have a feeling you might need it soon” Ranboo hesitates before nodding, holding the sheathed weapon tightly

“I hope not”

“There’s someone at the fucking door!!” Eret groans, throwing his blanket over his head “Door!!” he shouts as the knocking continues, waking others up

“It’s too early for this bullshit” Dream grumbles, shuffling over to the door with a blanket draped over his shoulders and tiredly putting on his mask. Ranboo sleepily rolls over and peeks over Eret’s still form, seeing the blonde unlock the door and peek out “Hello??”

“Mornin’!” Jackson greets cheerily “So, about what we discussed last night-”

“Fucking hell man” Dream groans, thudding his head on the door exhaustedly “Yeah. Yeah I’ll get that- Where did we put the guns?!” He shouts back at his team, closing the door a little so the man on the porch couldn’t peek in

“Here” Bad yawned, stumbling over with a backpack that had a couple muzzles poking out “You left it in the kitchen.”

“Thanks” Dream hummed, shoving the bag out the door “Here. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“The sun’s been up for a while” Jackson chuckled as he takes the bag “You’d probably be able to tell that if you hadn’t covered up all the windows, it’s real dark in there”

“Keeps the room from getting too hot” Dream lies “No ac this close to summer? No thanks.”

“I suppose you have a point there” the man agrees “If your friends are up, you’re more than welcome to come down to the center, you can make it to breakfast if you hurry” Dream glanced back to his still half-asleep crew, most of them shaking their heads in silent protest while the others buried tighter under blankets and sleeping bags. He can see Niki throw up a middle finger from where she lay, clearly telling him to make the man fuck off.

“We will definitely try” Dream tells him, now shutting the door slowly as to not seem too rude “We’ll be getting those back when we leave right?” Jackson’s smile doesn’t slip

“I’ll see you folk soon then?”

“...sure” Dream nods “Bye.” he closes the door and loudly turns the locks, sighing a little before heading back to his shared mattress and plopping down “Wake me up in thirty minutes” he grumbles, laying back down and throwing his pillow over his head

“Should we hide the horses in the house?” Ranboo asked, helping Sapnap brush said creatures down in the backyard

“I dunno” Sapnap shrugs, glancing back at the covered windows “Maybe. They already managed to drag Sam, George and Dream out on a patrol, I wouldn’t be surprised if they made us share the horses. They’re real big on the whole sharing thing”

“Well yeah, you share resources to survive” Ranboo points out, taking care to untangle Spirit’s mane “Everyone gets an equal share, that way it’s fair”

“Bull” Sapnap snorts “If I find something good I’m not handing it over to the others, they can get their own. Or starve.”

“But what if someone can’t find food?” the boy argues “Or you took it all?”

“Sucks to suck then” Sapnap shrugs with a grin “And that’s what the main food stash is for anyway, if you want a better meal or extra food, find it yourself. You want the better gear, you grab it for yourself” he flicks Ranboo’s forehead playfully, making him yelp “Got it? No sharing. Trust me, people take advantage when you share” Ranboo rubs at his head and nods, remembering all the squabbles over snacks the group had gotten into

“I guess” he mumbles “My other group always split what we found, that way we all got a share”

“And how did that work out?” Sapnap asks with a knowing look. Ranboo focuses back on Spirit

“...not very well” he admits

“Told you” the older teen grins, patting Joffery’s side “Speaking of food, let’s go see what we can steal from Eret”

“I’m always down for a little crime” Ranboo laughs, Sapnap laughing with him as they head back inside

“I think I can leave the shoulder bandages off” Ponk mutters, sat on the stairs with Ranboo to re-do his wounds “Those look done enough”

“Really?” Ranboo hums, currently shirtless as the doctor inspects the healing half burns, half scrapes all on his right side

“Yeah, most of these can come off actually” they nod, poking at the dark scabs “Some of them were a little deeper, like the ones on your upper arm, elbow and hip” he moves the teens head and brushes back a lock of hair to inspect Ranboo’s right ear, peeling off the bandages there “Your ear seems to be fixed up enough, I think I can take the stitches out now”

“There were stitches?!” the boy exclaims, instinctively reaching up to feel. Ponk swats his hand away, pulling out a pair of tweezers and small scissors from the small kit next to him and quickly wiping them down with rubbing alcohol

“Yeah, whatever blew you to kingdom come took off a top part of your ear” they explain “I managed to stick it back on” they hum proudly, leaning in close and dabbing the stitches with a cotton ball doused in more rubbing alcohol “Okay, this is gonna feel weird and there might be a little tugging but it shouldn’t hurt. You tell me if it does, alright?”

“Okay” Ranboo agrees quietly, letting Ponk tilt his head a little to better see. The doctor swiftly pulls and snips at the string holding the shell of Ranboo’s ear together, finishing within a few seconds

“Aaaaand done and done” he announces proudly, putting the tools down and examining the ear “I’ll cover this up just in case, so there’s no chance of it getting infected” he reassures, pulling out a bright purple bandaid and covering up the healed skin. Ranboo tentatively reaches up and rubs his ear, feeling puckered and scarred skin between his fingers

“Is it supposed to be that… rough?” Ranboo asks hesitantly, unused to the feeling on his skin

“Well, considering your ear is still intact save a little bit of burning and a chunk getting sown back on” Ponk snorts, rubbing the shell of Ranboo’s ear himself “I’d say you’re good. It might feel or look bad now, but you’ll honestly barely be able to tell once it’s fully healed, don’t worry” he takes Ranboo’s hand and inspects the wounds on the back, Ranboo wiggling scabbed fingers “Probably find you some gloves or something to cover these up” Ponk mutters “Anyway, I’ll leave the deeper wounds still covered but as for the rest they’ll be fine as long as you don’t pick at them”

“They itch” Ranboo admits, automatically going to rub at his arm before his hand is swatted away again

“We’ll find some lotion” Ponk tells him, bundling up the ruined bandages and getting up “In the meantime, help me wash these”

“Okay” Ranboo agrees, following them down the stairs and to the kitchen “Do we have enough water for that?”

“No” Puffy scoffs, already in the kitchen and organizing their spare clothes “We need to find a new source. We have enough to drink and cook for now, but wash?” she sighs a little and runs a hand through her hair “Clothes are next, we can’t wash our stuff and y’all are starting to smell”

“We bathe!” Ponk squawks, Ranboo glancing down at his own grass stained cargo shorts and wincing

“Cat baths and dry shampoo are not enough” she snorts, gesturing to the two’s greasy hair “Water. Clothes.”

“Fine” he grumbles, handing Ranboo the soiled gauze “Fold those and stick ‘em in a bag, we’ll wash them later. I have to go call Callahan and tell him to look out for any water bottles and clothes that might fit us. Fuck man, we have to go shopping again” he turns back to Ranboo “Make sure to put something on your scabs” he reminds before heading back down the hall

“Your bandages are off” Puffy notes casually as the teen drags over a chair they’d stolen to furnish the house and a bag of supplies

“Ponk said my wounds were healed enough to take most of them off” he explains, digging through the medical bag and pulling out a bottle of aloe vera “The rest are covered just in case”

“I’m no wound expert, but I’d say you’re healing up pretty well” Puffy hums, smiling a little. Ranboo smiles back thinly, putting some of the gel on his skin like he’d been ordered to “Lucky”

“Do you think they’ll scar?” he asks quietly, flexing his injured hand and frowning how healing skin pulls painfully taut

“I don’t know” Puffy admits “Maybe. Why?”

“...its nothing” he dismisses, wiping off his gel covered hand on his shorts and now trying to fan the stuff on his scabs to dry faster “When are the others getting back?”

“Soon, I’m sure” she shrugs, tossing Ranboo some clothing “Make yourself useful” Ranboo sticks his tongue out at her but obeys all the same, nodding and listening as she starts on a story about the world before to pass the time

Ranboo frantically pats his right side up in flames, breathing fast and frantic as he kicks and tries to get up

“...boo. Ranboo!” A voice hisses, shaking him by his uninjured shoulder. The boy grabs hold of the hand, worried pale eyes meeting his terrified grey-blue. “Hey, hey it’s okay. It’s just a nightmare, you’re okay.” Ranboo looks back at his right side, phantom pains and the ache of hard tile the only thing on his skin instead of the heat he so vividly remembered. He looks around the pitch dark room, realizing he was on the kitchen floor.

“I- my bag” he croaks, shaking off the hand and stumbling to his feet “I need my bag”

“Whoa, hey, easy” the person tells him, gently grabbing his left elbow as he trips “Easy kiddo. Easy, just sit” Ranboo shakes his head “No, no. Sit. I’ll get your bag, I’ll get it- hey. Look at me” they order, turning his chin a little “Ranboo, I need you to breathe okay? Breathe” Ranboo shakes his head again, chest tightening as dreams melted into reality, hot and cold on his face and he needed his bag he needed his journal please- “I’ll get it for you buddy. Just sit, okay?” The floor under him feels a lot closer as it presses against his legs and hands, helping him focus. The person is back after a while, gently pressing a backpack into his hands

Ranboo immediately digs through it, breathing becoming erratic again as he searches. He finds his journal, tattered and well worn and nearly weeps for joy as he frantically flips pages, scanning his own scrawled handwriting in the dark for help. He can feel the person’s presence sat next to him, cooing soft reassurances as a gentle hand cards through his hair.

“Everything okay?” they- Eret asks quietly, sunglasses off for once and their near white eyes almost glowing in the dark “You were screaming”

“Y-yeah” Ranboo breathes, tucking his legs up and rocking himself “E-Eret?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up” the teen mumbles, relief washing over him at being able to correctly remember the name to the face

“It’s okay, happens to all of us” he reassures “Do you wanna stay here in the kitchen a little longer or do you want to go back to sleep?”

“I-I don’t know” he sniffles, wiping away tears “I don’t wanna be in the kitchen, but I don’t want to go back to sleep”

“Mmm, Callahan is up on the roof” Eret yawns “And so is George, you wanna go sit out there with them for a while? They’re not very talkative at this hour”

“...yeah. Yeah, I think that’ll work” Ranboo nods, letting himself get pulled up and led back into the living room

“Eret?” Dream mumbles, sat up in bed and looking ready to pass out “Hey, where’s- where’s kid?”

“Nightmare” Eret explained quietly, gently pushing Ranboo along “He wants to go hang out on watch for a bit if that’s okay”

“Mmn” the blonde nods “ ‘s okay?”

“I’m fine” Ranboo whispers, unable to help the small smile at the other’s sleepy concern “I just don’t wanna sleep”

“Youse okay” he says with a big yawn “Imma goes sleep. Night” and with that, Dream plops down on the mattress, snoring softly within seconds. Eret snorts and the two head upstairs, Eret knocking on the windowsill as he pokes his head out

“Hey. Hey!” they hiss, startling the two men up on the roof “Ranboo can’t sleep, mind if he hangs out here for a bit?”

“I’m good” George shrugs as Callahan gives a thumbs up “Just as long as he doesn’t fall off”

“Cool” they nod, slipping back in the room “Alright, see you in the morning. Don’t fall off”

“Thanks Eret” Ranboo mutters as he starts clambering out “I’m sorry again”

“No problem” the man says with a tired smile “Good night Ranboo”

“Good night” Ranboo repeats, looking up at the two eyeing how he climbs up “Hi”

“Do you know how to play Slapjack?” George asks quietly, holding up a pack of playing cards. Callahan huffs and shakes his head from his perch a few feet away, making a rotating motion with his hands

“’Too messy”’

“Well it wouldn’t be messy if you weren’t such a sore loser!” George snaps, Callahan looking deeply offended as he points at the man and taps his right hand twice between two fingers

“’You cheat!!”’

“I do not!” George shrieks in nearly a whisper, clearly familiar with the sign. Ranboo wonders how many times its been thrown at people during games to be so easily recognizable, unsettling feeling creeping on his skin from the half-forgotten nightmare lessening as he chuckles to himself at the idea. Callahan huffs again, now quickly tapping on the roof

“... .--. --- --- -. ... ..--..”

“Yeah fine” George shrugs “We have three people now, it’ll be easier” he turns to Ranboo carefully holding onto the window’s tiny roof, George himself on a much safer looking ledge “Do you know how to play Spoons?”

“Yeah” the teen hums as Callahan expertly makes his way over and sits close by “Do we have “spoons” to play with?” Both Callahan and George hold up an arrow “...That works”

The three play round after silent round, only ever talking to bicker over the game and even then it was usually a one sided-conversation between George and Callahan’s furious Morse code. Ranboo likes the quiet, likes that his presence isn’t ever questioned and is simply accepted to be there.

Ranboo blinks and squints at the morning sun coming up over the roofs, George and now Skeppy using his back to play War on. He quickly apologizes when he scatters the cards by sitting up and the two screech at having their game interrupted. Ranboo didn’t recall falling back asleep.

He realizes he doesn’t quite mind.

“Hello??” Ranboo puzzles as he cracks the door open and peeks out, still a bit drowsy “Can I help you?”

“Hi sweetie” the bread woman from a few days ago greets, looking into the dim hall “It’s real dark in there, why are all the windows covered up?”

“AC or something” Ranboo lies, remembering what Dream had said “Is something wrong??”

“Oh I was just checking in on you folks” she laughs, holding up a foil covered bowl “Brought some of those rolls I promised and-” she pats the satchel at her side “I just wanna check in on your wounded. We haven’t seen anyone else come out of the house and were just wondering if maybe you needed some help-”

“Oh, that’s really nice of you” Ranboo starts, looking over his shoulder in a panic at the mess in the dim living room “But, uh, we really don’t want to impose or anything, we’ll be fine-”

“Oh it’s no problem at all sweetheart” she reassures, nudging the door a little and Ranboo quickly holds it still “Just the right thing to do-”

“They’re changing right now” Ranboo blurts “Just uh, give me a sec-” he quickly shuts the door, ignoring the surprised cry on the other side as he skids inside “Guys!!” he hisses “Guys there’s someone at the door!!” he runs up the stairs, pounding on every door “Someone at the door, someone at the door!!” he warns as loud as he dares, Eret, Skeppy, Sapnap, Ponk and Puffy poking their heads out as he runs by

“What do you mean someone’s at the door?!” Sapnap panics, currently in his boxers “Dude! All our shit is downstairs-”

“Yoo hoo!” the bread woman calls out from downstairs, making everyone freeze “Knock knock!”

“I didn’t lock the door” Ranboo groans, racing back to the stairs as everyone scrambles to hide “Hi! Hey!” he calls out as he practically slips down the steps “Uh, why are you inside-”

“How do you see in this light?” she huffs, pulling down makeshift curtains and flooding the room with sunlight “It’s not good for your eyes you know”

“Again, why, inside” Ranboo sputters, racing over and scooping up the bag of food someone had left by the fireplace, tossing it under the kitchen counter and throwing a couple blankets over it, quickly dragging a chair to further hide it. Ranboo straightens as she turns to him, smiling awkwardly as he tries to look casual

“Even the living room” she tuts, carefully making her way over scattered blankets and clothes as she continues taking down window coverings, Ranboo frantically cleaning up and hiding things behind her back. “Quite a lot of mattresses” she notes “How many people were in your groups again?”

“I-”

“What is going on??” Niki yawns as she exits one of the rooms, hugging her bare arms and blinking tiredly at the woman in their camp “I do not know this woman- why is there a stranger in the house?” she asks this to Ranboo who helplessly gestures his arms and makes a strangled noise

“Hello, I’m Susan-”

“Why are the windows uncovered?” Niki asks, squinting at the light and subconsciously pulling down her pajama shorts “Dream-”

“Dean!” Ranboo quickly corrects “Dean said to keep the windows covered. So… yeah”

“...bit of a mess here” Susan sniffs, looking around and Ranboo quietly sneaks over to his wagon in the corner to throw a blanket over it “We usually throw our trash over the gate, I can show you-”

“We just burn our stuff” Niki tells her, now fully awake and aware of the situation “Sorry, Susan you said? May I ask why you’re here?” she asks, going over to the mess and beginning to pick up after her team, slipping a hoodie on to make herself more decent for company “I apologize for the mess, we weren’t expecting company”

“Oh it’s fine” Susan chuckles “I completely understand, organization probably isn’t the main thing on your mind right now-”

Rat comes barreling down the stairs, nails skidding on the floor as she runs up to Ranboo excitedly, sniffs Susan and runs over to Niki who quickly scoops the pet up, holding on to the wiggling dog

“Sorry, you guys don’t mind pets right?” Niki laughs awkwardly

“Not at all, she seems like a sweet little thing” the woman reassures “Your animals are well trained from what I’ve seen”

“They are” Niki agrees sweetly, setting the dog on the stairs and gesturing up for her to run “So, how can we help you?”

“I was just checking in” she relays, watching Ranboo frantically pick up bottles and blankets “You’ve been here for a good couple days and yet we’ve barely met any of you. It’s so nice to see another woman here”

“It’s nice to meet you too” Niki says with a smile “However, you really caught us at a bad time-”

“Yes, some of you are injured right?” Susan nods sadly before brightening “No worries! We have some supplies we’re willing to share. Are they upstairs?”

“Oh that’s quite alright” Niki interrupts hurriedly, trying to stop the woman heading for the stairs “Really ma’am, we’re okay-”

“It’s okay to ask for help” Susan presses on, Ranboo following the two and sputtering protests as well “We’re all in this together sweetheart-”

“No!” Sapnap yelps, tripping out of a room as a fox kit goes running past him “Fungi!”

“Sap!” Niki shouts, trying to grab her squeaking pet “I told you to watch them!”

“I know, I’m sorry!” he whines, completely giving up on being quiet as his cover is very much blown, now running down the hall. Ranboo notes the man was at least wearing pants now, shirt halfway on as he chases the fox “Hi! Sorry! Fox on the loose- FUNGI!!”

“Well hello!” Susan greets, surprised at the energy and lack of injury on the teen “And you are...”

“Busy! Very busy!” he shouts, swinging a random door open to herd the kit inside

“Hey! Watch it!” Eret exclaims, practically falling out of the bathroom they were hiding in

“Sapnap!” Ponk shrieks from inside, things loudly clattering and Fat Bitch letting out an excited bark

“Sorry!!” he panics, shoving the tall human back in and shutting the door “You didn’t see anything!”

“I’m going to kill him” Niki hisses, Ranboo hiding his face in his hands and groaning as a stunned Susan watches the mess unfold, Sapnap tripping over Rat and thudding to the floor. Skeppy’s laugh can be heard from a different room before quickly getting silenced. “Yeah, bad time” she mutters, quickly taking the woman by the elbow and dragging her back downstairs “Thank you for visiting, it’s very nice of you unfortunately we’re very busy at the moment and honestly we’re a mess okay thank you bye bye now” Niki all but shoves the still confused woman out on the porch “Please don’t come back” she says in a painfully sweet tone, right before she slams the door and locks it. She slumps against the wood, slowly sinking to the floor and looking nearly a decade older

“...Should I put up the “curtains” again?” Ranboo suggests quietly, crouched next to the older teen. Niki nods tiredly

“Please do”

Dinner is loud and energetic, almost as if making up for the disaster that had happened earlier that day.

“I’m thinking we bolt” Puffy calls out over the noise, raising her canteen to catch Dream’s attention “Me and Niki are basically done and we as a group need to go shopping”

“I’ll say” Dream snorts “Did you see the shit “share” of haul we got on scavenging duty today? Bitch, we were the ones taking the biggest risks and getting most of what they have now!” Sam, George and Bad agreed loudly, raising utensils as they shouted similar sentiments

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand!” Eret cheers, others cheering with him

“We’ll leave in the morning, so make sure to pack up your shit tonight so we can leave these weirdos as soon as we can-”

There’s a knock at the door.

The room hushes in a second, everyone staring at the door as they hold still. There’s another knock.

“Shit” Skeppy curses, throwing his hands in the air “Back in the hall?”

“Back in the hall” Ponk groans, grabbing their food and heading to go hide “Fat Bitch, come on” they whistle a little and the collie comes trotting after obediently. Puffy and Skeppy also follow, peeking out from the stairs

“We already got seen” Sapnap shrugged, gesturing to Eret and Niki in the room “No point moving”

Dream groans and mutters a curse under his breath, managing to shove some food in his mouth before popping his plastic mask back on and heading over to the door

“I’m coming I’m coming!!” the blonde shouts. He yanks the door open and glares at the person on the porch “What?” he snaps “Don’t tell me we have patrol at this hour, we’re kinda in the middle of dinner right now”

“Oh no, not at all” Jackson reassures “Just doin a routine check on ya”

“You guys tend to do that a lot” Dream huffs, casually leaning on the doorway “But since you’re here, might as well tell you now that my group and I are leaving tomorrow morning” Jackson seems a bit surprised but nods all the same “So, thanks for letting us stay”

“I see” he says “Well, it’s a shame you folk couldn’t stick around a little longer”

“Yeah” Dream sighs “So, we’ll just go and pick up our guns on the way out-”

“About that” Jackson starts, friendly smile not quite reaching his eyes “I’m afraid we can’t do that-”

“And why the hell not?” Sam demands, peering out from behind Dream “You said we could have them when we go outside the gate, and I’m pretty sure leaving counts as that”

“Your group is very well off” Jackson tells them, looking into the house at the people staring back at him “Much more than what you said.” he turns back to stare at Dream’s unblinking mask “Did you even have people injured, or low on food?” he accuses “It was strange how you refused to accept any sort of help”

“Didn’t want to impose” Dream sneers, towering over the man “We just wanted to be left alone and we would have been out of your hair within a week. But instead my group has been spied on and stolen from- don’t think we didn’t notice you take a bigger “equal” share of the supplies we helped you get” he spits “And now you’re trying to steal our weapons, weapons we need outside that gate so we don’t die. Do you know how hard it is to find any sort of gun nowadays? Those are ours, and we will be given them back before we leave”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that” Jackson sighed, subtly gesturing outside the house. Dream looks over and stills, seeing the group of people starting to circle the house with bottles in hand, bottles he knew much too well from Niki and Sapnap. Callahan comes stumbling down the stairs, waving his arms frantically and pointing at the covered up windows

“’Outside!!’” He all but screams, others peeking out and beginning to panic at the strangers around their camp

“Dream?” Niki worries, clasping Puffy’s hand tightly “Dream they’re all around the house”

“I don’t know if we can all make it out in time if they set us on fire” Sapnap hisses, holding back George from grabbing one of their hidden rifles and killing the people outside “At least not without losing a lot of our things”

“You motherfucker-” Sam starts, Dream holding out his arm to keep the man from strangling Jackson

“We want our guns, and we want to leave.” Dream says much too calmly, slipping a hand behind his back

“We won’t stop you from leaving, but we can’t give you those guns back. We need them more than you” Jackson tells him “You have more than enough supplies to survive” he continues “You could probably spare a bit with us-” Dream pulls out his revolver from under his jacket and aims the barrel right between the other’s eyes “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” he warns, holding out a hand to keep the men behind him from moving suddenly and triggering Dream to fire “You know that. You shoot me and this house goes up in flames. and I would really hate for that to happen to you folk”

“I also know that I can make sure you go up in flames right with us” Dream snarls, pulling back the hammer and letting a bullet load “I’ve shot people for less, and I’ll drag you right down to hell alongside them fucker. Piss off.” Jackson stares down the smiling mask, silent for a few seconds before waving a hand

“Let’s go” he orders his group, Dream waiting until Callahan and Eret gave him the all clear before putting his gun down, letting it hang at his side. Jackson tips his hat and nods “Glad we could come to an understanding” he says, walking off the porch and back to where the rest of his group waits in the driveway. Dream seethes and starts to raise his gun, Sam grabbing his arm and wrestling it back down

“Stop. Stop it.” he snaps at the livid man “It’s not worth the waste of ammo Dream, come on.” Dream wrenches his arm free with a curse and slams the door closed with all of his strength, hands trembling with rage

“What next?” Ranboo whispers, clinging to Eret rubbing his back soothingly “Are they gonna let us leave?”

“Oh they fucking better unless they want me to burn this damn place to the ground” Niki snarls, marching towards her bag “They want a fire? I’ll give them a fucking fire. Sapnap?”

“Damn right” he agrees, grabbing another bag “I’ll blow this place sky high-”

“They think they can get away with threatening us?!” Skeppy hisses, pulling out a pipe from the weapons bag “I’ll fucking show them a threat!”

More and more voices began to rise as the fear was quickly replaced with rage, spitting out insults, threats and curses as they pulled out weapons. Ranboo covers his ears at the violent words and furious shouts of everyone filling up the room, arguing over what to do next and how to make the other group pay. He pressed his hands tighter as the arguing grew louder, curling up in the corner and trying to breathe properly.

Why did it always end up like this?

“Enough!” Sam barked, the group settling but still clearly seething under the surface as they turned their attention to him “We need to be smart about this. Getting mad and burning shit isn’t gonna help us get our weapons back. Stop acting like children throwing a fit, we’re better than this” they slowly put down their weapons, looking thoroughly scolded. Sam sighs and runs a hand through green hair, turning back to Dream still calming himself down in the hall “Dream? What do we do?”

The blonde takes a deep, calming breath before marching over to his group, disarming his gun before shoving it back in his waistband

“We need those guns” Dream grumbles, crossing his arms as he looks over his expectant crew “Not just for zoms, but to hunt and to defend ourselves” He turns to Callahan “Cal, remember when I told you to find their armory?” Callahan nods “Did you?” he nods again “Do you think you can make it over there without getting spotted?” Callahan nods again, slower this time and with a puzzled expression as he pulls out a walkie talkie

“- .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / --. ..- .- .-. -.. ...” he beeps out “.- -. -.. / .. - ... / .-.. --- -.-. -.- . -..”

“That’s fine” Dream dismisses with a wave of his hand “You’re not gonna be fighting anyone. Skeps” he turns to Skeppy, startling the man a little “How fast can you pick a lock? Like, on average”

“Depends on what type” Skeppy admits “But maybe 2-3 minutes if its basic enough. Why?”

“You and Cal are gonna break into the armory tonight” Dream casually informs him, as if telling the two to make a run down to the store for bread

“Wait what?!”

“Tonight?!” Bad blurts, everyone looking equally confused “Right after they threatened to burn down the house with us still in it?!”

“Yup!” Dream laughs “They won’t think we’re stupid enough to pull something off like this so soon”

“They’re probably watching us right now” George points out

“Take the backyards, there’s a gate to the yard behind us” Dream tells the two “All you have to do is get to the armory, unlock it and then come back. Easy” Callahan snorts and Skeppy looks unimpressed “All you need to do is unlock it. That’s it. Don’t take anything, don’t rig something, just leave it open”

“Fine” Skeppy huffs, running a hand through his hair “Why though?”

“Part of the plan” the blonde reassures “It’s gonna make more sense tomorrow”

“Whatever you say dude” Skeppy shrugs and goes over to Callahan in order to discuss their route for the night. Dream hums a little, gesturing for everyone else to huddle close, all of them leaning in as Dream pulls Puffy and Sapnap near him

“Alright” he starts “Here’s what the rest of us are gonna do...”

“Do you think this is gonna work?” Ranboo frets, loading up the last of the supplies and slinging the bag over his back

“Dream’s plans usually do” Eret reassures, heading for the front door with the others

“I don’t know about this” Puffy hisses, currently in one of Dream’s green hoodies and wearing his smiling mask “We’re not even the same height! I’m tall but I’m not that tall, he’s got like four inches on me! Not to mention these!!” she gestures to her chest wildly, hands gloved with a spare pair of fingerless-gloves like Dream always wore “How the fuck am I supposed to explain these if they start asking questions??!”

“You’re the closest thing to a tall blonde we have and you’re wearing boots” Eret snorts, pulling on the hood over her head, white dyed hair seeming sort of blonde in the shadows… if you didn’t look too hard “Once you’re on the horse and slouch a little you won’t even be able to tell, the hoodie hides everything”

“This is a terrible idea” Puffy complains, letting herself get led to where George was saddling up Spirit

“Just let Sam do the talking” Eret soothes, helping her up “Remember, hood low and try not to fidget too much”

“I’m going to kill him-”

“Look alive guys” Niki crackles over the radio “Looks like we have a sendoff party. I count three at the moment”

“Shit” Sam cursed, rushing past the group to stand out on the porch “Niki, buy us some time and distract them”

“I've got just the thing”

“I see you’re all heading out” Jackson notes as he arrives Sam standing ominously up on the steps

“Yep.” Sam replies curtly “We’re just finishing up right now”

“A shame you couldn’t stay longer” Jackson sighs “We’ll miss the extra eyes on patrol”

“The audacity of this guy” Eret mutters to Bad, Ranboo pausing to glare at Jackson still talking to Sam “I’m considering hitting him with my crowbar and running”

“Aim for the knees” Bad huffs, the two snickering a little. Jackson now seems to be talking to “Dream”, Puffy simply nodding along or tilting her masked face to continue the conversation. Something red falls out onto the driveway, a loud burst of popping and smoke erupting from the paper package and making everyone jump

“What was that?!” Jackson exclaims, the other two men with him also looking around. Another package drops from the roof, followed by loud cackling inside the house

“Oh, you’ll have to excuse miss Niki” Sam tells him, hiding a smile as the men swore and avoided more tossed fireworks Niki kept throwing at them “It’s that time of month for her”

“Ah, of course” Jackson replied with a nod, as if that was a perfectly reasonable explanation. Ranboo and the others bit back laughter, Puffy practically shaking to keep from laughing.

“Everything’s ready to go” George announces, hopping up on his horse “Sam?”

“We’ll be leaving now” Sam informs, following his group out into the street. The team hurries down the main road, heading for the gate on the other side of the community. Bad pulls out one of the radios and quickly turns it on

“We’re good to go Cal” he says into the mic, Ponk giving him a thumbs up. A few moments later a loud explosion rings out a few blocks away, snapping and popping as a plume of smoke rises over the houses.

“That’s our sign to get out” Eret huffs, all of them speeding up as shouts can be heard. Further off is another explosion, flashes of color barely visible and more panic quickly following

“Hopefully that gave them enough time” Sam mutters as they keep walking. Callahan slinks out from a backyard and subtly joins as they pass by, brushing himself off and smelling vaguely of gunpowder “Everything go okay?” Callahan nods and gives him a thumbs up, taking his bag from Niki. Sapnap casually jogs over and slips into the group a few streets later, grinning and high-fiveing George as he throws his backpack on

“One more block and we’re home free” Sapnap relays, Callahan beeping out the information on his walkie talkie “The gate should already be open-” A loud pop explodes in the sky, a blue blur rushing towards them

“Bail! Bail! Bail!!” Skeppy shouts, flagging them down “I fucked up! I fucked up by listening to Dream!!”

“What did you do?!” Bad shrieks

“You know how they don’t kill any of the zombies?” Skeppy pants, shoving his friends ahead “So turns out they kept them all in one house and I maybe sort of kinda let them all out at once”

“What?!” Eret shouts others starting to yell in equal concern

“Dream told me to!!” Skeppy whines over the noise “It was another distraction but they’re gonna pin it on us really soon if we don’t hurry!”

“God fucking damnit Dream!” Sam curses, urging the group along as frightened screams start to echo only a few streets away “Where is he?!”

“He told me to go on ahead” Skeppy grumbles, holding up the small plastic bag he had “I only got a couple of them, he’s grabbing the rest- ah shit.” he points out a group of not quite fully rotted zombies heading towards them at an alarming rate “Of course they’re all sprinters”

“Okay we run! We run!” Bad yelps, all of them taking off towards the gate and ignoring the chaos in the streets as yet another explosion goes off

“How many fireworks did you guys set up?!” Ranboo cries, awkwardly dodging around a car with his wagon in tow

“Who cares, let’s go!!” Sapnap shouts, everyone slipping out of the half open gates and racing down the street “Where’s Dream?!”

“He was supposed to meet us at the gate!” Sam groans, looking over his shoulder at the mess of a community behind them “Did they catch him??”

“Just go!” Eret snaps, hurrying them all on ahead “He can take care of himself, we need to get out of the way!” They head down the road and up the hill, pausing to look down into the neighborhood they had basically doomed

“Does anyone see him??” Puffy frets, taking off her borrowed mask to better scan the community

“Where is he?” Sam mutters, starting to pace anxiously “I knew he should have had back up-”

“There!” Ranboo yells, pointing at a green figure darting down a sidewalk with a duffle bag over a shoulder “I see him!!” The group quickly crowds to where Ranboo is, pointing at the blonde racing over lawns with a group of human chasing after him. Sapnap hurriedly pulls out binoculars and tries to follow his friend “Is he okay?!”

“Yes, but the people behind him are pissed as fuck” Sapnap tells them, the group shouting encouragement at their friend as he tries to make his getaway. “Oh shit, they’re getting close- scratch that, zombies got in the way” Dream zigzags down the street, his team screaming from up the hill

"He's not gonna make it" George panics

"He's gonna make it." Sapnap snaps, focusing his binoculars 

"He's not gonna make it"

"He's gonna make it" Sapnap repeats firmly, gripping the binoculars tighter

"He's not gonna make it!" George cries, covering his eyes as their friend stumbles before quickly righting himself 

"He's gonna make it!!" Sapnap yells, Callahan swatting the back of the Brit's head to shut him up

"They're gonna catch him" Ranboo worries, barely able to see the bright green dot making it's way down the street and narrowly avoiding getting tackled

"Hang on, hang on" Bad says, holding up a hand to quiet everyone as he watches Dream through his own binoculars "He's got about a block to go- yes! He's kicking it in high gear!! He'll make it!!" The rest of the group cheers, Ranboo watching in astonishment as Dream miraculously manages to get faster, full on sprinting for the brick wall and leaving his pursuers in the dust. 

The blonde takes several long strides, throws the duffle bag over the border and practically vaults himself over the wall after it, his chasers coming to a screeching halt as the young man cackles and rolls to the ground. He scoops up the bag and takes off to where his group waited. They all flinch as a gunshot cracks in the air and a bullet kicks up dirt where Dream's feet had been split seconds prior, but Dream keeps running.

Sapnap rides down halfway and scoops up the now exhausted man to carry him to the rest of the group, everyone cheering and congratulating him on his escape. Dream hops down from Sapnap's horse and gets up on Spirit, giving Patches in her saddle bag a few pets before the group finally takes off down the road, laughing and talking as they finally leave the accursed community behind

"I didn't know you could run like that" Ranboo admits, handing the heaving man a canteen as Dream rips off his mask to breathe "That was incredible!"

"I was on a sports scholarship for school" Dream pants with a proud grin, guzzling a good amount of water before stripping off his hoodie to cool down "Track and Field since I was too stupid to be good at anything else. The 200 and 400 meter sprint was my specialty, personal record of 18.3 mph" he coughs a little, drinking more water "Turns out, being able to run really comes in handy in an apocalypse"

"It was incredible!" Ranboo exclaims, Dream straightening up with pride "It was like you were practically flying down the street!"

"Feels like it" Dream chuckles, rubbing at his thighs "Although my legs are gonna kill me come morning since I didn't really get to warm up"

"Still pretty cool" Ranboo mumbles, yelping a little as Dream leans down to ruffle his hair

"You should have seen me on a track" he snorts "I was way faster on that compared to concrete and dirt"

"I say we just set up our permanent base in the forest" Skeppy complains as they trek through the woods again for the second day in a row "We can build like, a frickin treehouse city or something. Both zombie and human proof, boom. Can we do that so we at least have a DAMN FUCKING REASON TO BE IN A FOREST AGAIN?!"

"Language!!" Bad yelled from the back "Sam?!"

"On it." The man said with a grin, smacking the back of Skeppy's head and making him screech

"Knock it off guys!" Puffy ordered as Skeppy began chasing a cackling Sam around, trying to repeatedly kick his ankles

"Speaking of base" Dream starts, pulling to a halt as they reach a small clearing "We need to set up camp for the night, it'll get dark soon"

"I call dibs on the spare!!" Skeppy shouts, lunging for one of the duffle bags

"Don't you dare!!" Sapnap shrieked, trying to grab the bag Skeppy ran away with triumphantly 

"Sam and George, you guys can go get us wood" Dream continues, ignoring the two screaming and running around in the background "Callahan, you're on kindling and tinder, Bad and Eret clear out a space for us. The rest of us will make camp, Niki keep an eye out"

"Aye captain" Niki says with a small salute, Callahan, Sam and George heading off together into the trees

The rest of the group starts unpacking their things, Eret and Bad going around chatting while picking up branches and rocks to clean up the area.

"I call dibs on these!" Puffy calls out, running up to two trees and tossing off her backpack to dig through

"Why is everyone climbing trees??" Ranboo puzzled, watching Bad start to scale a tree of his own like Puffy

"Hammocks, to sleep out of reach of any straggling zombies" Dream explained, already high up in his own tree "Or you can tie yourself to the trunk if you don't want to sleep on the ground"

"Do not recommend" Sapnap muttered, dumping out his bag on the floor, Skeppy clearly having won the fight since he was busy tying a hammock up in the branches "Your back and legs will kill you in the morning." He pauses and stares at his sprawled out sleeping bag "Then again, kinda don't wanna be a midnight zombie burrito- fuck it, I'm sleeping in the trees again" he scoops up his things and starts climbing Dream's tree, yelping as the blonde playfully attempts to kick him off when he tries to climb past 

“Do you have a hammock?” Niki asks the boy, tying a rope between two trees

“No” he replies with a shake of his head “I don’t think I can get up there without reopening something anyway”

“Yes, please don’t do that” Ponk huffs, setting up his own things next to the fire ring Bad and Eret were making “You’ll be fine on the ground, the dogs usually alert us of anything and we have people on watch all night. Just keep your bag open so you can run in case of an emergency”

“Taco, not a burrito!” Sapnap agreed from above “Also, next time we go shopping I need a new hammock! Skeppy always takes the spare, he might as well just keep it at this point!”

“Sucks to suck!” Skeppy taunts, happily swinging in his “bed” several meters off the floor, to which Sapnap promptly flips him off with both hands. Ranboo sets up his sleeping bag and pillow, starting to unpack his wagon when Sam, Callahan and George finally return with arms full of wood, sticks and pine needles. They dump them in the middle with the rest of the supplies before going to set up their own hammocks.

“Ranboo” Eret calls out, waving the teen over as he sits next to the wood “You know how to make a fire?”

“In theory” he admits, kneeling next to the man snapping off thin sticks from the thicker branches “My old group taught me, but one of my brothers always ended up doing it instead so I’ve never made one”

“Well, you’re doing it now” Eret hums, handing him a piece of wood “Snap off all the little sticks and put them in this pile” he gestures to the pile of thin, barely pencil-wide sticks “You know about kindling and tinder and all that right?”

“Start the fire with something easy to light and then slowly feed it, right?” Ranboo guesses, carefully snapping off twigs

“Pretty much” Eret nods, the two settling more comfortably as they snap off twigs “Okay, so there are different types of fire-”

“Isn’t fire just fire?” Ranboo mutters, breaking a branch to make it smaller

“No, and Callahan or Dream will kill you if they hear you say that” the adult snorts “They were very… outdoorsy before all this, Callahan in particular. He’s the one who taught most of us this stuff, and now it’s your turn.” Ranboo felt his chest grow warm, despite the evening beginning to cool and he sat up a little straighter “As I was saying, different fires. Usually we go for a cooking one, which will give you coals that make it easier to cook and then later build it into a heat one for the night. Pine and Birch burn fast because of the sap, Oak takes a while to catch but it’ll burn long, hardwood or something like that. Not good for starting, but good for night burning. Pine and Oak are usually the stuff we have, as well as the occasional Magnolia and Walnut or Pecan but Magnolia burns pretty quick as well, and the other two are hard to find when wandering around. So, Pine. Oak. Got it?” Ranboo nods, waving a little as Sam comes over and silently starts helping split branches “Now, fire types”

“You’re giving him a full rundown huh?” Sam chuckles, taking out his axe to go cutdown some of the bigger pieces

“Important life lessons Samuel” Eret tuts

“Well hurry up with the life lessons” Sam warns, dragging off a big branch “It’s getting dark”

“Right, right okay” Eret huffs, seeing that it was indeed getting dark rather quickly “Okay, cooking fire, easiest to make honestly. Fires need three things, what are they?”

“Uhhh, wood??” Ranboo tries, trying in vain to remember what his old group had taught him

“Fuel” Eret corrects “Fuel, oxygen, heat. In other words, don’t suffocate the damn thing otherwise you have to start all over.” he takes a handful of twigs and pine needles, putting them neatly in the fire ring “Log cabin and platform styles are simple and once they get going you’re good to go” he gestures Ranboo over, the teen watching carefully as branches are stacked on top of each other in a criss-cross fashion, a layer of pine needles placed between each layer “Pine needles catch fast, so it’ll help keep heating the wood as the fire sinks down” he explains, making a downward trickling motion “And with this sort of Jenga stacking there’s plenty of space to feed it oxygen so it won’t die” he takes the bundle of tiny toothpick thin twigs and more pine needles and sets it on top “Grab the pencil sticks real quick?”

“What are these for?” the teen asks as he grabs a handful of the small twigs

“We build up to the bigger stuff” Eret explains, letting Ranboo hold onto the sticks for now “Right now think of the fire as a baby, we don’t want to kill the baby.” he looks up to where Puffy and Niki were carefully trying to put small tarps over their hammocks “Niki!!” the woman looks up “Lighter!!” Niki digs in her pocket and pulls one out

“Catch!” she yells, tossing the lighter and Eret barely snagging it from mid-air

“Thank you!” they shout, turning back to Ranboo “Okay, we’re gonna cheat here because I suck with a flint and steel fire starter” they admit, peeking over their shoulder at Callahan busy helping Sapnap tie his things down “Callahan is better at that so ask him for tips because that’s actually important to know- anyway!” he clears his throat “Having a cotton ball or wood shavings is best to start it, or dryer lint for some weird reason” he flicks on the lighter and runs it under the bundle of needles he quickly sets back on the stack of wood “Make sure it doesn’t die” they tell him, gently blowing over the flame and letting it blaze up “Sticks” they order, pointing at the small blaze “Hurry!” Ranboo quickly scoots over and hesitantly drops a few of the twigs in the fire, Eret adjusting them as needed while Ranboo carefully feeds more sticks “There we go” they hum proudly, settling back a little as the first of the twigs catches fire

“That’s it?” Ranboo asked as Eret blew over the fire some more. “It’s okay?”

“Yup!” Eret nods, tossing a few more pine needles and twigs for the fire to blaze up again “Okay, keep giving it needles and sticks if it starts to die and try not to blow it out”

“Wait, what?!” Ranboo sputters as the man gets up and brushes himself off “You’re putting me in charge?!”

“My eyes are killing me from staring into an open flame for that long, even with the glasses” Eret snorts, rubbing his watery eyes “Try not to inhale too much smoke, I have to go set up my sleeping spot”

“Eret!”

“Ask Sam if you need help” Eret offers unhelpfully with a grin and a shrug as they start walking off “Remember, fuel, air and heat!”

“Fuel, air, heat. Fuel, air, heat” Ranboo mutters over and over, watching over his new responsibility almost obsessively “Fuel, air, heat.” he carefully builds up the fire, recalling how others had done in the past.

“You want a fan?” Dream offers with a laugh after Ranboo accidentally got a lungful of smoke in his face while blowing the embers like Eret had done

“Please” the boy chokes out, coughing and eyes watering as he waves away the ash in the air

“Hey, that’s going pretty good” the blonde compliments, handing him a flattened cereal box he’d dug up from somewhere

“Eret started it” Ranboo mumbles, fanning the fire and sending up a plume of smoke and ash

“Lower! Lower!” Dream yelps, coughing as he got hit with the smoke

“Quit fanning it over here!!” Skeppy shouts, rubbing his eyes, Bad and Puffy coughing next to him and Niki laughing at them from outside the blast zone

“Sorry!” Ranboo panics, letting Dream take the cardboard back

“Try to aim for the wood, not the fire” Dream chuckles, demonstrating with small, precise but still strong waves he made at the crackling base “Less ash”

“Oh”

“Here” he sighs, handing him the cardboard back “You’ve got a pretty good handle on it, just try not to inhale too much smoke. Eret wouldn’t have left you to watch it if they didn’t trust you could do it”

“Thanks” Ranboo nods, unable to help the small smile on his face when Dream ruffles his hair

“You’re doing good, keep it up” he tells him, heading over to pester George over stolen rope. 

Ranboo shivers happily, the genuine compliment making him feel lighter than he had in ages. He has a feeling the warmth in his chest doesn’t just have to do with the fire he tends to.

“Someone pass me the salt-”

“Has anyone seen my fork??”

“No no I borrowed it-”

“Like hell you did!”

“Did you take my stool again?!”

“Where the fuck are the drinks-”

“I’m going to spoon out your eyes motherfucker-”

Ranboo laughs as a terrified Sapnap scrambles past him, holding his bag of minute rice out of the way as the older teen screams, a furious Puffy chasing after him while holding a spoon threateningly in one hand. Ponk curses as his plate is nearly knocked over, grabbing his food before one of the dogs can, Sapnap and Puffy now running around the group

“You’re gonna trip!” Bad scolds, stealing a piece of jerky from a distracted George’s plate “Sit down you muffinheads!” 

“I kinda want to see what spooning out an eye is like” Dream drawls, snatching up the bag of chips Sam tried to hand over to Callahan and getting whacked in the process

“Dream!!” Sapnap yelps in betrayal “What the fuck man?!”

“That’s so gross” George snickers, ignoring his friend’s pleas of mercy as Puffy manages to finally pin him down

“Pasta?” Eret offered Ranboo while Bad went over to split the two up “I have extra”

“Yeah sure” Ranboo shrugs, letting Eret put a good amount in his rice bag “Thanks”

“No problem” they grin “By the way, since I'm sleeping up in the trees tonight, you wanna take my cot?”

“Really?!” Ranboo gasps and Eret nods “Yes, yeah that would be great!”

“It’s over in the supplies” they inform, gesturing to the pile of assorted junk people had left under a tree “You have to set it up but it’s better than the ground”

“Thanks Eret, my side will appreciate it” Ranboo snorts, falling into a comfortable quiet as everyone ate and chat, Callahan occasionally tossing in some more logs to keep the fire going

“I’m bored” Ponk complains, stretching out their arms “I wish we still had that guitar”

“You had a guitar?” Ranboo questions

“We did” Ponk huffs, glaring at a much too quiet Sam “Up until someone used it to bash in a zombie and broke it”

“I panicked okay?!” Sam protests, several people beginning to shout as accusations are thrown around

“I caught it bad yesterday” Sapnap starts, grinning as the others quieted down “You hit me with a call to your place. Ain't been out in a while anyway, was hoping I could catch you throwing smiles in my face-”

“Romantic talking? You don’t even have to try” Dream continues with a smirk and a wink as he points to Sapnap “You cute enough to fuck with me tonight” Sapnap beams at someone joining in “Looking at the table all I see is weed and white. Baby, you living the life, but baby, you ain't livin' right”

“Not this again” George groans as the rest cheer

“Cocaine and drinking with your friends, you live in the dark boy I cannot pretend” Sapnap drawls, leaning back dramatically 

“I'm not fazed, only here to sin” Dream responds, running a hand through his hair “If Eve ain't in your garden, you know that you can-”

“CALL ME WHEN YOU WANT, CALL ME WHEN YOU NEED” The group choruses, Ranboo breaking down laughing as they continue to sing despite several being out of tune “Call me in the morning I’ll be on my way!!” Puffy drags Niki up and starts twirling her around, the two laughing as they sing “Call me when you want, call me when you need!! Call me out by your name, I'll be on the way like-”

They began humming, occasionally breaking into giggles as Dream and Sapnap dance around with the girls, Ranboo clapping along with the rest of the song as people take random lines to sing, coming together to scream the chorus. The impromptu karaoke goes on for a while, eventually dying down into quiet chatter and Ranboo takes this time to set up the cot Eret had offered him. He throws his sleeping bag on top and sits, yawning a little as he curls up tiredly

Sam tosses a couple more logs to stoke the fire, Callahan and George arguing quietly in the background about watch rotations. Ponk is brushing out his dog, scolding her quietly about the amount of twigs and burrs in her fur. Niki and Puffy whisper softly from their hammocks to Bad walking below them, Skeppy and Sapnap bickering as Sapnap ties himself securely against the trunk

“Good night Ranboo” Eret hums as they walk past to climb up to sleep

“Night” Ranboo yawns back

“Don’t let snakes get in your bag” Dream taunts as he settles in his hammock “They like warm sleeping bags to sneak in for a nap”

“Why would you tell me that?” the teen snaps, sitting up and glaring at the cackling blonde above “Why? There was no need for you to provide me with that information”

“Sleep tight” he laughs as Ranboo buries his face in his hands “Don’t let the snakes bite!”

“I’d be more worried about the spiders” Eret mutters as they settle into bed "Those crawl in your mouth"

“I hate all of you.” Ranboo groans

Even despite the warning, he falls asleep rather fast with the sound of the crackling and popping fire in the background.

“Your turn” Skeppy mumbles, shaking Ranboo awake. The teen wakes up and blinks around blearily, stretching out with a quiet whine

“Wha?”

“Your turn on watch” the man explains with a yawn “You, Dream and Puffy”

“Oh, okay” he nods. He knew the day where he’d have to pick up on shifts would come eventually, but that didn’t make him any less tired “I got it, I got it” he agrees, sitting up and slipping his legs out of his bag to stretch

“Mmkay” Skeppy mutters, heading for his tree

“Any snakes?” Dream asked as he walks over, grinning at the tired glare Ranboo shoots him 

“You’re terrible for that by the way” he yawns, Dream chuckling as he throws in a couple logs to the glowing coals, waiting for them to catch “I lost so much sleep over that” he says sarcastically

“It’s true though” Dream tells him, taking a seat on the cot beside him “Technically you’re supposed to have garlic with you when sleeping in the woods, keeps the bugs and snakes off of you. Most animals too”

“Wonderful. I could have died to a bear rather than a zombie. What a lame way to die.” Ranboo grumbles, running a hand over his scabs to alleviate the ever present itch. Dream laughs a little at that, laying back on the cot, hair dangling over the edge “Anything happen tonight?”

“Nah” Dream huffs, blowing a bang out of his face “One or two stragglers got pulled in from all the noise we made a couple hours ago but aside from that nothing major. Bad and Sam handled it”

“Great, that means I can go back to sleep right?” the teen jokes, earning a snort from the blonde. They sit there for a while, Puffy silently sharpening her cutlass under a tree, Ranboo watching the logs catch flame and Dream humming quietly beside him

It’s Hallelujah, Ranboo thinks.

“Where are we going? We don’t know! Where are we going?? We don’t know!” Skeppy chants as he packs up, a few others replying to his call “Where are we going?!”

“We don’t know!” Ranboo laughs with a few others, putting the portable cot back in it’s bag to take along

“Where are we going actually?” Bad wonders, looking over the road map with Dream “Been going east for a while now, I think. Wanna switch it up? Head uhhh north maybe?” Dream pulls out a compass from under his shirt, popping it open

“I guess” he shrugs, looking over his group packing up “It’s already summer, it’ll probably be a little cooler north… maybe.”

“You guys wanna head north?” Bad asks, Sam peering over his shoulder at the map

“We have nowhere else to go” Sam huffs “Might as well”

“Okay then” Dream nods, snapping the compass closed “Everyone packed?!”

“Ayo!!” Sapnap shouted, hooves thundering closer. He comes to a stop in the clearing, Joffery pacing a little as Sapnap calms him down “Guys! Jackpot!”

“You found a road?” Puffy guesses, hefting her bag over a shoulder. Sapnap shakes his head and grins, pulling his bangs out of his face

“I found a creek!!”

“Right down here” The young man tells them, carefully leading his horse by the reins down the steep incline “It’s pretty fast-running too-” 

Callahan takes a running start and dives in, wading into the cool water and dunking his head. He turns to the group with a wide smile, splashing his arms and gesturing for them to follow

“Water!!” Skeppy cheers, hopping out of his shoes and running in after him. The group quickly drops their bags and take off their footwear, ‘whooping’ and shouting as they wade in. Ranboo laughs from the shore, taking off his shoes but not wanting to risk getting his bandages wet.

“We can finally wash everything properly!” Ponk says happily, pants rolled up to their knees as they kick water around “Where did we put the bin?”

The adults spend a while splashing around before eventually dragging themselves out to dry, laughing, wringing out shirts and shaking out dripping hair.

“Looks like we got a wash day today” Dream notes with a hum, tossing his sopping hoodie up on a branch to dry “So we’ll camp here for a few days-”

“Filter!!” George shouts, the chant getting picked up by others as they followed Callahan like annoying ducklings “Filter! Filter! Filter! Filter!” Callahan rolls his eyes and huffs good-naturedly, picking up a couple pebbles from the shore and throwing them at George. George ducks and cheers as Callahan waves him away, wading to the other bank “Yeahhhh!! Dirt! Dirt! Dirt! Dirt!”

“What is happening??” Ranboo snorts, watching Sapnap and George throw rocks and pebbles at each other while Bad dutifully scoops up sand from a small pocket with a cup

“Water refill” Dream explains, Sam and Eret chattering as they head back up the forest to drag wood down “Obviously you can’t just drink creek water, that’ll get us all sick”

“Oh, so you boil it” Ranboo nods, remembering his brothers doing that when they ran out of clean water to drink, which honestly wasn’t often. Guess living in a cramped RV had its perks, even if privacy wasn’t one of them. 

“Filter and then boil” Dream agrees with a nod, helping Niki unload the horses “It’s a whole process-”

“It’s super long and boring” Niki agrees with a chuckle, Ranboo going over to help the nearby Ponk unpack “So that’s gonna take us at least half the day”

“After we fill up all our water containers, we can put soap in the creek” Dream jokes, patting Spirit’s side and letting Patches clamber up on his shoulders “Usually we just get new clothes instead of washing them”

“But we’re out in the middle of nowhere” Niki continues “So unfortunately laundry is a thing we have to do- WHO THE FUCK TOUCHED MY CHIPS AHOY?!” She screams at the people still in the creek, slipping around the horse and marching into the current to drag some poor soul in to waterboard information out of “YOU’RE DEAD!!”

“Oh shit I thought those were mine” Ponk panics quietly, Ranboo and Dream giving him identical looks of pity “Don’t tell her”

“Pay me” Dream immediately demanded “Three Snickers bars and the rest of your Folgers” Ponk scowls but nods

“Fine.” he mutters as Dream elbows Ranboo excitedly “Better than getting killed in my sleep I guess”

“Score!” the blonde cheers quietly “What were we talking about?”

“Filters” Ponk reminds “Wash day”

“Right!” he recalls, snapping his fingers “So once we filter enough water we wash our clothes and ourselves, finally”

“You really take running water for granted until the apocalypse” Ponk sighs wistfully “Hot water especially”

“It’s warm enough now that it’s not too bad” Dream chuckles “But back in the beginning?” Ranboo shudders at the reminder of chill, late-winter winds and not enough layers “Yeah, at least now its summer-” Dream turns back to Ponk with a worried expression “Shit. Dude, it’s summer.”

“Uh, yeah” Ponk snorts “It’s been like five, six months now? What about it?”

“No. It’s summer” Dream repeats and the concern finally sinks in for Ranboo

“It’s gonna get super hot” The teen blurts. Ponk groans and runs a hand through his hair, looking over the supplies they’ve taken out so far “Now that you mention it, I’m surprised it hasn't been too bad so far”

“Of course I didn’t think to grab any sunscreen from the CVS” the doctor mutters, making silent calculations “We really do need another shopping trip soon”  he looks over at their scattered clothing, everyone currently enjoying themselves “We need to make a massive run.”

“List?” Dream guesses, waving Callahan over.

“We should start one, yes” Ponk agrees, handing Ranboo their medicine bag to hang up on a tree to keep animals out

“‘What’s up?”’ Callahan gestures, looking over Ponk and Dream’s worried expressions. He makes a ‘Y’ with his hand and taps his chin twice. “‘What’s wrong?”’

“We need a shopping

list” Dream explains, figuring out what was being asked from Callahan’s furrowed brow. Callahan’s eyes widen in understanding and he nods, looking around and making a scribbling gesture before going off to find his notebook. He comes back a few moments later, blank page open and pen at the ready

“Sunscreen and hats” Ponk starts, Callahan dutifully writing it down ”More water, duh. Gatorade or sports drinks in general, those are gonna be heavy though”

“You can get the packets” Ranboo suggests, finally speaking up after a while “They have like, powder stuff you can put in your water”

“They do! Thank you!” Dream exclaims, Ranboo straightening up proudly a little “Yeah, we’ll get those to save space. Probably switch up our outfits”

“New bags” Ponk adds, gesturing to the well worn backpacks carrying their supplies “Ours have been through hell”

“More guns, or at least ammo” Dream hums “Maybe some more knives?”

“Can never have too many knives” Ponk agrees while Callahan snorts

“Sapnap said he wanted a hammock” Ranboo reminds, now helping Puffy build a fire ring in the sand

“New hammocks” Dream nods “I think we’re low on duct tape so add that too”

The group continues adding onto the list, more and more people chiming in with ideas that Callahan writes down.

“Why does this take so long?!” Sapnap complains, poking at the coals with a stick. Callahan whacks the back of his head lightly “Ow! What?” the older huffs and makes a grabby hand “Jesus, stop hitting me when you want stuff" he grumbles, handing him the rubber band he wanted “Rest of the charcoal’s almost done, give it a bit to cool so it won’t catch the filter on fire” Callahan nods and walks off to finish off one of the many filters he’d made

“This actually works??” Ranboo mutters, helping fill a large gallon bottle with sand and pebbles

“Surprisingly” Sam hums, stuffing grass in another and passing it to Puffy to hang up with the others they’d created, pots under them to catch the water filtering through the bottles “I mean, you can’t drink it right away and it takes forever to clean since you gotta run it a couple times but it works” he points to the creek water Bad was carefully pouring into a filter and came dripping out clear into the pot underneath

“How??” the teen puzzles, examining his bottle “It’s just a bunch of dirt and rocks and cotton-”

“Add cotton to the list!!” Puffy shouts, Eret screeching in the background as he slips and falls into the water “We’re running low again!!”

“Literally rocks and a coffee filter” Ranboo snorts, passing Sam his bottle

“Well” Sam starts, bundling up grass to put in “The grass and rocks filter out the big bits in the water, then the sand does the smaller bits. And the charcoal-” he points over to Niki crushing up charcoal in a bowl, filtered mask on as black dust rises out “Is supposed to like absorb all the bad stuff that makes you sick or something, I don’t know. Callahan didn’t really explain he just showed us how to build it” Callahan sticks his tongue out at the green-haired man and shoves more cotton into his bottle “And then the cotton and coffee filter take out the charcoal and anything else left and then we boil out the bacteria” Sam finishes, handing his basket to George passing by 

“More grass?” he guesses, snatching the basket and slinging it over an arm as he heads back up the bank

“Yup”

“Oh I need more sand too” Ranboo tells him, handing him a bowl which George tosses over to Skeppy

“Sapnap needed more sticks” Skeppy tells him, catching the bowl and following after “We need more charcoal-”

“Yes we do!” Niki coughs, waving away the ash Sapnap was fanning in her direction

“Burning low!” Dream agrees, sat next to her with a charcoal bowl of his own

“On it” George says with a salute “Be back in a bit!”

“Tossin’ clothes in the river, tossin’ clothes in the river, tossin’ clothes in the river til they’re clean!” Puffy sing-songs, hurling an armful of clothes into the creek “We’re tossin’ clothes in the river! Tossin’ clothes in the river, tossin’ clothes in the river til we leaveeeee!!”

“STOP TOSSING SHIT IN!!” Ponk screeches, managing to snag a pair of jeans drifting away

“Tossin’ clothes in the river!” Puffy cackles, throwing in a balled-up shirt in as Ponk wades in to grab the rest of the clothing floating down stream, Fat Bitch “helpfully” splashing around by his side

“I’m gonna smell like smokeeee~” Eret groaned, setting up a line between trees

“Mmm smoke” Dream taunts, tossing more logs into the fire to kick it up full force “Where’s the detergent?”

“We have detergent?” Ranboo baffles, surprised when Skeppy sure enough pulls out a tupperware full of powder and washboard from a bag “How the heck are you guys carrying so much stuff?!” 

"George is a descendant of Mary Poppins" Sam told him seriously as he helps Eret set up the lines

"It's true. I am" George agreed with a solemn nod, slinging his quiver over his shoulder "We have magic bags thanks to me" 

"I honestly have no clue" Dream whispers to Ranboo "Logically we shouldn't be able to fit everything but we do" 

“I think it's our tendency to always lose stuff” Bad hums, carrying a tub over to the creek and Rat running around at his feet “You’ll always have room if you always drop stuff and forget to get it back” Ranboo snorts a little at that, pouring their cleaned water from their pots into containers to better carry

“Callahan and I are heading out” George informs, Callahan slipping his crossbow into its holder over his back “Gonna try and get something to eat that isn’t friggin crisps or canned corn”

“Corn is good” Sapnap mutters as Dream waves the two away

“Sure, keep an eye out for stragglers and be back before dark” the blonde hums, fanning the fire “Take Niki with you as backup”

“Niki you coming?” George asks, looking over at the young woman dragging herself up the bank and rolling down her pants from where they were at her knees

“Yeah, let me grab my shoes” she nods, slipping her boots back on and hopping down the trail after the men

Ranboo spends the next few hours helping everyone wash clothes, laughing at the stories they tell while washing and at Skeppy and Sapnap trying to hit each other with wet shirts. People take turns bathing while it’s still warm out, some choosing to use a tub to heat water while others simply strip in the creek. Ranboo is drying his freshly washed hair over the fire with Bad when George, Callahan and Niki come back, dusk beginning to set in

“Good news, we managed to snag something to eat” George announces, holding up two plump pigeons and a squirrel, Niki handing the catch on her belt to Callahan before going over to her bag

“Bad news?” Sam snorts, untangling his dog from the lines

“We lost three bolts trying to get a rabbit” the Brit huffs, going over to the fire “And we didn’t even get the rabbit”

“‘Zoom”’ Callahan agrees, setting down his dove and possum before brushing himself off “‘Bath”’ he signs, grabbing his bag and heading upstream to bathe

“Take your radio!” Bad reminds, wincing as an ember lands on his hand and he shakes it off

“Meat!” Sapnap cheers, rushing over “Score!!”

“Too many birds” George complains, stealing Dream’s popup stool and snatching up one such creature “There’s gonna be feathers everywhere”

“Suck it up” Niki teases, picking up a bird herself and tossing Sapnap a squirrel as she sits and starts plucking feathers “Food is food”

“Food is annoying and burnt feathers smell terrible” George shoots back, the two starting a friendly bickering session as they dress and clean the food they’d hunted, Sapnap humming quietly by Niki as he helps

“Oh my god that’s delicious” Ranboo praises, swatting Eret away as they try to take his can of beans “I haven’t had fresh meat in months- stop trying to steal my beans!!”

“Beannnnnnssss” Eret cackled, practically crawling over the teen to try and grab the can

“Dream!!” Ranboo shrieked, getting pinned under the taller human “Help!!”

“Beans” Dream chuckled, snatching Ranboo’s food “Mine now”

“Traitor!!”

Niki hands out bread she miraculously managed to make over the fire, everyone ignoring the squabble Eret and Ranboo had gotten into as they continue their meal and conversations. They pass around food and drinks, Eret and Ranboo eventually coming to a truce to gang up on Dream instead, animals curled up by their owners to beg for scraps.

“Anyone up for a round of hide and go seek in the dark?” Skeppy asks as people are finishing up, holding up his headlamp and twirling it “Sam, no hiding in the hammocks and dropping on people again”

“Okay but it was funny” the man snorts, not ashamed in the slightest “And Callahan did it first”

“No, Cal popped out of a ditch” Dream corrects, currently pinned under Eret’s legs “Different kind of nightmare”

“Says the one who literally drops out of trees and roofs to tackle people” George retorts, poking at the fire. After a lot of bickering and arguing over past games and jumpscares, a group is put together to play and headlamps are passed out, the fire being decided as home base

“Okay, who’s seeker?” Puffy asks, flicking on her flashlight “Not it!”

“I can be seeker” Bad offers sweetly as others quickly repeat the ‘not it’ 

“Oh god” Skeppy mutters, others starting to look concerned as well “I regret suggesting to play now”

“It’ll be fun!” Bad giggles, looking much too excited as he covers his eyes “Twenty seconds! One… two…three…” the small group immediately bolts into the trees, screaming in fear as they go hide. Ranboo jogs off as well, careful not to trip over roots or holes and not quite sure why everyone sounded legitimately scared

“Where are you muffins?~” a creepy high-pitched voice sing-songs through the trees “I just want to playyy~”

Ranboo presses himself closer to the roots he was hiding under, trying to control his erratic breathing as he hears quiet steps get dangerously close. Since when was nice, sweet Bad so freakishly terrifying??!

“Where are you?~ Come out come out wherever you are~” the man hums, giggling to himself as his flashlight shines around. He stops in his tracks and goes deathly silent, Ranboo’s heart thumping in his ears at the sudden pause “Found you~”

Ranboo flinches as Niki screams in terror nearby, Bad’s maniacal laughter growing faint as he chases after her, crashing through the brush and Niki swearing up a storm in German. Ranboo pops his head up from his hiding spot, scanning the pitch dark before crawling out and scurrying along, not daring to turn on his headlamp despite the dangers of tripping. Niki’s screams are abruptly cut off farther off, making Ranboo speed up despite the dark.

“I hear you~” Bad taunts in that creepy voice, much closer than Ranboo had thought “I see you mister Ranboo~” the teen swears softly and breaks into a run, Bad’s crazed laughter ringing in his ears as he gives chase. Ranboo trips into a bush and bites back a pained groan as he scrambles to hide behind a nearby tree, Bad’s flashlight scanning over his hiding spot. 

He doesn’t dare to breathe until he hears someone else meet their unfortunate end further off.

“And now you know why we don’t let Bad be seeker ever” Ponk laughs, seeing the look of fresh horror on Ranboo’s face as the boy stumbles back to the group around the fire, limping a little and covered in scratches “Did he get you?”

“Yes.” the teen whimpers  “I think I fainted” he admits, not quite remembering the moments after Bad had popped out from behind a tree with his flashlight and a toothy grin

“Yeah, you wouldn’t think Bad to be all that scary” Eret hums, handing the exhausted child a water bottle “But there’s a reason for his nickname-”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!! DREAM HELP!! HELP HE’S DOING THE VOICE AGAIN!!”

“Oh Skeppy~! Come here~!”

“FUCKING CHRIST ON A CRACKER!!”

“o7 Skeps” Puffy says solemnly as an offended and normal ‘Language!’ rings out in the dark “Cursing only makes him go after you more”

“Dream also isn’t allowed to be seeker, or be ‘it’ if tag is involved by the way” Sapnap adds on, getting the gash on his arm caused by falling down the creek bank patched up by Ponk “He’s somehow ten-times scarier”

“I can imagine that actually” Ranboo snorts, chugging a good amount of water “Maybe it's the mask?”

“Oh it is absolutely the mask” Puffy agrees, combing out pine needles and burrs from Niki’s hair “We’ve all had nightmares about it after playing tag in the dark one night. Those hollow eyes just popping up out of nowhere?” she shudders “Never again”

“The smile also makes it worse” Sapnap huffs “Like, the mask as just the eyes is creepy enough, but then he went and carved a smile into the plastic and sharpied it! It’s way too wide, I feel like it’s gonna move any day!”

“What’s gonna move?” Dream asked, making all of them jump as said smiling mask pops upside down from a tree. Sapnap falls over and scrambles away with a stifled shriek, everyone cursing in surprise as the blonde gracefully sets himself down on the ground “What?”

“How long have you been up there?!” Ponk nearly shouts as Dream casually plops himself next to a frozen Ranboo

“It was my hiding spot” he says with a shrug, white plastic reflecting the flickering fire ominously “I got bored waiting to be found so I fell asleep. What were you guys talking about??”

“How your mask is creepy as hell dude” Sapnap grumbles, crawling back to his spot. Dream tilts his head a little, mask somehow portraying confusion

“What do you mean??” he puzzles “I think it looks kinda cute! Makes me look non-threatening, y’know?”

“You look like a serial killer who just escaped an insane asylum” Eret snorts “Especially when it’s covered in zombie blood and bits” Dream sputters in offense, trying to defend his mask as others quickly shoot him down with their own points.

Bad screams out in the woods, followed by a flash and a loud bang. Everyone falls silent, scrambling for weapons as they stand and try to see into the darkness. Ponk’s radio crackles to life

“Sorry, I thought a zombie was George” Bad apologizes, the group immediately calming down “My bad, I’m okay”

“Please be more careful you muffin” Puffy scoffs into the mic “Thought you got bit or something”

“Yeah, that’s on me. Sorry” he admits, Skeppy’s worried voice bleeding through the speaker “Oh. Caught you Skeppy-”

“MOTHERFUCKER!!”

“I don’t wanna be on watch” Sapnap complains as he drags himself from his sleeping bag, Dream tossing in some branches to start the fire back up “Make Callahan take my place for another shift” Said survivor flips the teen off as he exhaustedly tumbles into his hammock 

“Suck it up” Dream snorts, watching his friend drag himself over to Ranboo’s borrowed cot and sprawl out in the younger’s lap, Ranboo blinking in bleary confusion as he sits up

“Whas happenin?” Ranboo yawns, rubbing his eyes to get the rest of the sleep out of him

“We’re taking a nap on your bed” Dream hums, plopping down on the other side and staring up at the trees “...the stars are really nice out here”

“Mmm, they’re better away from the fire” Sapnap mutters, pulling his blanket tighter “You can-” he yawns loudly “You can see the milky way or somethin….”

“That sounds pretty” Ranboo agrees quietly, looking up at the sky as well “At least the apocalypse is good for stargazing huh?” Sapnap snorts a little in amusement, Dream wheezing quietly beside him “Nothing like good old stargazing at the end of the world”

“Good old fashioned stargazing” Dream laughs, reaching up towards the sky as if trying to snatch a couple stars for himself “Makes you think huh? We’re literally at the ‘end of the world’ or whatever and the stars are still there. They don’t care what’s going on down here, they just keep shining, even after we’re all dead and gone”

“That is hopelessly depressing” Sapnap mumbles and Dream laughs some more

“I find it funny” the blonde admits “In some fucked up sort of way. The universe keeps going, even when we don’t”

“Can we not have deep, philosophical talks at two in the morning while we watch for literal zombies?” Ranboo complains, yawning and flinching a little as the fire pops

“...Are centaurs insects since they technically have six limbs?”

"..."

"..."

“What the actual fuck Dream?” Sapnap blurts

"Last call for haircuts!!" Puffy shouts, trimming Ranboo's wet hair back up to his ears rather than where it had been at his chin "George! You keeping it long?!" George looks up from the shore, midway through tying back his hair into a small ponytail 

"Actually yeah! Can you cut it?!" He asks, letting his hair down

"Yup! Go dunk your head in the creek, I'll start on you after I finish up Boo here!" She agrees, turning back to the child sat in front of her and taking another wet lock of hair to saw at with a knife "Okay, hold still"

"I still can't believe none of you have scissors aside from the ones in the first aid kit" Ranboo scoffs, kicking his bare feet a little from where they dangled over the creek, he and Puffy perched on a wide branch over the water so the current could sweep discarded hair away. "How??"

"Knives work well enough" She says with a shrug, cleanly slicing off a lock of light brown hair and dropping it into the water, combing his hair a little with her fingers. She pulls out the plastic razor at her waist and starts shaving the nape of his neck to clean it up "Okay, you're good to go, just ask Sam to finish up the back, I don't trust myself with close shaves" she admits, handing him the razor

"Thanks Puffy" he nods, carefully walking back to the bank and hopping off the branch

"Any time!" She replies with a wide smile, kicking her legs over the water "GEORGE!!"

"LET ME FINISH WETTING MY HAIR WOMAN!!"

"Looking good Boo boy" Dream compliments, clean shaven and toothbrush sticking out of his mouth as he walks by "It looks more uniform now, though I kinda liked the little mullet thing you had going on"

"You think so?" Ranboo chuckles, running a hand through his much shorter hair "I was always told it looks better short, so I never really let it get past my shoulders"

"I think it'd look good long, maybe try growing it out?" Dream suggests, lightly tugging on the boy's bangs "You can always chop it off again if it gets annoying, that's what I did"

"True" he laughs "Anyway, I have to get Sam to trim up the back some more"

"Sure thing" the blonde hums, patting his shoulder "Make sure to brush your teeth before we leave too, there are no more dentists if you get cavities"

"Oh god I forgot about that" Ranboo muttered, wincing at the thought as he makes his way over to where Sam was knelt by the water

"If you cut yourself with this water there is a good chance of infection" Ponk argues, standing over an exasperated looking Sam trying to shave the scruff off his jaw "We literally cleaned water yesterday you can use!"

"I'm going to cut myself if you keep distracting me!!" Sam retorts, washing the shaving cream off his razor in the creek "Just let me finish!!"

"Fine!" Ponk snaps "But don't come crying to me when you have a fever and dysentery from cutting yourself"

"You can't get dysentery from a shaving cut!!" Sam protests, Ponk crossing their arms stubbornly

"You don't know that" he huffs

"Oh my god-"

"Uhh, Puffy said to come over here to get my hair trimmed?" Ranboo interrupts, holding up the disposable razor Puffy had given him

"Oh, yeah I'll get that for you" Sam reassures, shaking off his own razor "Just let me finish up real quick-"

"I'll do it" Ponk sighs, taking the blade from Ranboo and turning him around, pushing his head down a little so they could better see "Jeez, why are you so tall this is unfair. How tall are you anyway?"

"Mm 6'1 last time I measured" the teen guesses, holding still as Ponk carefully neatens up the hair on his nape, avoiding the sensitive skin and bandages still left on his neck "Maybe 6'2?"

"Almost as tall as Dream" Sam notes, washing his razor off "You need to shave your face too? I have some cream left over in my bag"

"Not much to shave yet" Ranboo laughs, feeling hair get blown off his neck "And I still have all this" he gestures to the healing scars on the right side of his face "Don't wanna risk opening these back up"

"Good call" Ponk snorts, brushing off what was left and handing Ranboo the razor "Alright, I cleaned that up so you're good to go"

"Thanks Ponk" Ranboo hums, running fingers over the trimmed hair and shaking out his shirt "I'm gonna go pack my stuff-" 

George and Puffy let out a simultaneous shriek followed by a loud splash, George sputtering as he sits up in the water and Puffy clinging to the branch so she doesn't fall in after him

"You okay?!" Bad calls out, Sapnap and Skeppy cackling from the shore as Puffy sits herself back up and a drenched George manages to stand

"I'm fine!" Puffy groans as George wades to shore "Slipped!"

"Now I need to change againnnn" George whined "I just got my clothes dry too-"

"We forgot to pack our clothes!!" Eret shouts, bolting back to the half put away camp "We almost left without them again!!"

"Again??" Ranboo baffles

"That's happened to us too many times" Sam admits with a pained expression "Don't ask how, we don't know either"

"Road time!!" Skeppy cheers, hopping up onto the asphalt "Smooth walking at last!!"

“Do we want to keep following the creek?” Dream asks, gesturing to the stream running under a small bridge “Or take the road and try our luck with ruined civilization?”

“Can we please take the road?” Ranboo groans, leaning on his wagon’s handle “It’s very hard pulling this thing full of water over dirt and tree roots”

“Also, I think there are some gas stations down there” George adds, peering through his binoculars 

“We can probably find something useful and stock up” Puffy agrees  “And who knows when we’ll find another store out here in no man’s land” other murmur in similar thought, a few muttering about concrete being an easier walk than forest

“Road it is” Dream chuckles. They pass up a few looted gas stations as they walk, nothing particularly of worth sticking out to try and grab

“Well, at least out here there’s only stragglers” Niki points out, running a hand through her recently re-dyed bright pink hair as Callahan lodges an arrow between a zombie’s eyes and Eret bludgeoning another zombie stuck under the crashed car in the road

“We should find a place to stay” Sam suggests, looking over at the setting sun “When was the last building we passed?”

“Like half an hour ago” Bad informs, looking over his roadmap as they walk “So either we find something now or we’re sleeping outside again”

“Next building then” Dream agrees as everyone groans at the idea of sleeping out in the open. They’re getting ready to call it quits and try to head back towards the previous rest stop when George comes riding back from where he’d ridden on ahead

“Gas station coming up!” he informs with a grin, his friends cheering excitedly “It looks okay enough and maybe a fifteen minute walk? Couple zombies out and about though”

“It’ll work” Skeppy manages out, stretching his arms “What’s a little more exercise before bed?”

True to George’s report, they arrive at a gas station about fifteen minutes later, abandoned zombies excitedly shuffling towards the new arrivals

“Well at least it’s not a horde” Eret notes, casually smashing in a rotted skull with their crowbar

“This is not much better” Ranboo huffs, wincing as Niki and Puffy brutally cut down a trio of undead

“Sure it is!” Bad hummed, easily kicking a board off the store door and opening it “Groups like these are annoying, but much easier than a horde- oop!” he quickly backs away as a snarling, ravenous undead comes lunging out the door. It barely makes it a single step out before it drops with an arrow in its head, Callahan already reloading his bow “Thanks Cal!” Callahan nods in acknowledgement, turning around to where other zombies were shambling from the few stores across the road 

They all make it inside and barricade the door, Sapnap hopping over the teller counter to rifle through the lottery tickets and other things, animals scattering and running around

"Anyone want a scratch off?!" The young man calls out, holding up colorful tickets with a grin under his mask

“Wow.” Skeppy snorts looking around the nearly emptied store, trash scattered on the floor and blood staining parts of the linoleum “There is jack shit in here”

“Language!”

“I found a bag of sugar” Ranboo offers from one of the mini aisles “And a thing of pet food so there’s that I guess”

“There’s some granola bars left” Sam pipes up

“I found a thing of charcoal” Niki informs, holding up disposable baking pans “And cake pans so we don’t burn the place to the ground, as fun as that would be”

“We still have some cooked meat left over from the woods” Dream reminds, finding two cans of chili under a shelf “Let’s set up a fire and see what we can make” Eret and Bad set up the fire out of charcoal while everyone else did their best to clear out the small area to fit everyone

“There’s room in the ‘beer cave’!” Skeppy informs, waving from behind the glass “Granted, all the fucking beer is gone except like this crappy box of diet beer and honestly? I don’t blame the looters for that-”

“Uh, guys?” Niki says, peering out a window “There are people coming this way.” Everyone immediately scrambles out of view, several ducking behind shelves or crouching low out of the window’s view

“How many?” Dream hisses, slipping his plastic mask back on and pulling out his revolver to check the chamber

“Like four??” Niki guesses, shrugging helplessly “I didn’t really look. They were all on horses though”

“Oh that’s weird” Puffy mutters “I don’t like that”

“Are they coming our way?” George whisper shouts, peeking over a shelf. No one dares to check “Guys! Are they coming our way or not?!” Eret rolls his eyes under his glasses and carefully looks out the glass, squinting as he tries to make out the other people coming down the road

“Oh! It’s Punz!” Eret exclaimed, popping up from where they were all hiding under the window “Guys! It’s okay, it’s just Punz’s group-” Dream goes flying past them and out the door, waving the group down

“DRIS!!” Dream shouts as a tiny, mint green blur hopping off it’s horse and tackling him by the middle, shrieking as he spins the smaller human around

“DREAM!!” the young girl laughs, swatting at the taller blonde as he tries to coddle her more “Stop it!! I’m fine!!”

“See? Still in one piece” the blonde man in a white hoodie snorts from his own horse, pulling up to a stop before hopping down himself “Hey man, how are you?”

“Yo Punz!” Dream greets, pulling the man in for a half hug “Glad to see you’re all good, nothing major?”

“Nah” Punz chuckled as the two other riders rode up with the fourth horse in tow, a blonde teenage boy in a purple hoodie and a young woman in a pink cardigan, pink ribbons and paper flowers woven into her long, brown hair. “You seem to have lost a couple, dropped a few floaters?”

“Here and there” Dream nodded as the rest of his group came out to say hello “Oh! We do have a new face though” he waves over to Ranboo who was currently hiding behind Puffy “Guys, this is our new kid Ranboo. Ranboo, these are our friends Punz” Punz waves “Grayson”

“It’s Purpled, thank you” the blonde teen huffs

“Hannah”

“Or Rose” The young woman hums, waving from her ride “I’ll answer to both”

“And this is my sister, Drista” he introduces, showing off the child clinging to his hoodie. Drista has an identical mask to her brother, big, hollow black eyes with her ‘smile’ a little more curved in the middle like a soft ‘w’, a few stickers littered over the white plastic, no doubt to give it a cuter style but it honestly freaked Ranboo out more. Her hoodie is a pastel green and goes down to her thighs, jean shorts and grey leggings peeking out from under the bottom. Her hair is short and messily cut, as if hacked at with a knife, half of it pulled up into a ponytail.

“Hi” Ranboo mumbles, cautiously approaching the new people

“Not much of a talker huh?” Punz snorts as Purpled and Hannah get down to lead their horses inside the store the other group was hiding out in “What happened to your arm?”

“Explosion” Ranboo tells him, taking the bag casually Purpled handed him “Got blasted down a hill”

“That’s actually pretty cool” Hannah tells him, ruffling Sapnap’s hair “You guys have anything good this time?”

“We found shitty beer” Skeppy offers as they enter the gas station “So, we have that at least”

“Did you get kicked out again?” Purpled grins

“No.”

“Yes.” Sam contradicts, the group falling awkwardly quiet

“It was a mutual decision” Dream explained “...It’s complicated”

“So how did you guys all meet?” Ranboo asks, mask off and trying to take a bag of stale chips from Eret. Everyone pointed to Dream currently getting his nails painted by his sister

“Wha-” he looks up at the people staring at him “Oh. We met abouuuuutt one- one and a half months in? Give or take?” he looks over at Punz for confirmation. The man nods, golden medallion around his neck glinting in the setting sun streaming through the boards on the windows

“I’d say so” he agrees “Back then it was just Dream, Drista and George.” he gestures over at the half-asleep George nodding off in Callahan’s lap “I was on my own looking for my brother” he nods over at Purpled shoveling his mouth with spaghetti and is promptly flipped off by the teen “We’d gotten split before it’d all happened and I’d managed to find out where he was hiding before everything went to shit”

“I ran away” Purpled explains before Ranboo can ask, pointing over at Punz “Foster brother”

“Anyway” Punz continued, not put off by the casual reveal “I’d gotten a hang of him and then a community got in the way and we got split again. Dream found me and offered to help find my brother in exchange for a favor later on” he glares at the fellow blonde “Turns out said ‘favor’ was babysitting in the apocalypse” Drista flips him off with a freshly painted nail, white fingerless gloves flecked with nail polish

“Eat shit” she snorts “I’m gonna make your life hell now”

“We cut a deal” Dream corrects with a smug grin, lightly swatting his sister on the head “I help him find his brother, he watches my sister for me when we go our separate ways” Punz throws an empty soda can at his head

“Why split though?” Ranboo puzzles, taking the drink handed him “If I lost and found my sibling in the apocalypse I’d keep them with me”

“Dream and I got mixed up with the wrong crowd” Drista says as she keeps painting, unmasked brow furrowed in concentration, identical to the faces Dream would make “They knew what we looked like, we had to split to keep each other safe. Most of them would go after Dream since he’s the biggest pain in the ass to ever exist for those psychopaths, and I’d be free to deal with just flesh-eating zombies with a chaperone”

“We didn’t want to split” Dream admits, looking at his sister with the fondest expression Ranboo had ever seen him have “But it was better for us both if we did”

“I ended up with a pretty good deal out of it anyway” Punz shrugs “Ranboo, right?” the teen nods “You’ve heard of ‘Floaters’ right?”

“Those are people who wander on their own right?” Ranboo tries to remember the new terms commonly used by survivors “They’ll travel with groups for protection but leave when they want?”

“Yup” Punz confirms “And Hoppers are people or small teams who go from group to group and kinda get handed off at each community”

“So you guys are Hoppers?” Ranboo guesses

“More like Floaters For Hire” Hannah tells him, tucking a lock of hair behind an ear “New age mercenaries”

“We offer our zom-killing services to groups who want to make a risky supply run or just need the extra hands” Punz continues “In exchange we get a good chunk of their supplies and food for helping. It’s risky, some people don’t want to pay and when that happens-”

“Bang.” Purpled casually says, firing an invisible gun at Ranboo’s head “Don’t ask for help you can’t pay for.” Ranboo stiffens, glancing over at Dream chuckling and shaking his head

“We cut a deal” Dream explains “He takes care of my sister and in exchange every meet up I give them her rations, that plus he got a horse. Two actually. And that necklace, and half of my weapons back then, and my ammo, and a refilled first aid and she helps them on runs-”

“And for that I don’t turn your ass in to anyone who wants to kill you” Punz points out with a snort “It’s a fair deal”

“I still say I got scammed” Dream muttered, laughing a little as his sister yanks at his hair a bit

“I see” Ranboo says, nodding “So you guys get good hauls?”

“The best!” Sapnap pipes up, tossing out tiny liquor bottles he’d stolen from behind the counter. Punz catches one before Purpled can snatch it, ignoring the glare he receives from the teen “They get tons of good shit and never share!”

“We share!!” Hannah cries in offense

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Sometimes” Punz chuckles, ignoring the two now attempting to kill each other in the background “But enough about all that, what’s for dinner?”

The two groups spread out in the abandoned gas station linoleum to sleep, friendly conversations going on around the store and fire as Ranboo sets up his things.

“You sure you don’t want to sleep in the ‘beer cave’ with some of the others?” Niki asks, pointing over to the cleared out section behind the glass, long cleaned out of any alcohol by other looters “You can lock yourself in if we get swarmed”

“I doubt we’ll get swarmed all the way out here, and it’ll get too hot with everyone in there too” Ranboo rationalizes, eyeing Hannah setting up her spot in the corner behind the glass, chatting happily with Bad beside her. Niki follows his gaze and gives him a knowing smile

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay” she reassures, startling him a little “This isn’t like the other groups, Punz and his team are friends” Punz has a sputtering Purpled in a headlock, Sapnap cheering on the brothers fight and Drista yawning from her spot curled up next to Dream “If anything, we’re safer with them here.”

“Are they going to be staying with us?” he questions. Niki pauses, nose scrunched as she thinks about it

“No clue” she finally says with a shrug “They don’t travel with the same group for too long, last time they only stuck around for two weeks before splitting.”

“You meet up often?” Ranboo wonders, pulling out one of his plushies and setting it by his bag

“When we’re within radio distance, yeah” Niki tells him “I’ve only had like two travels with them, and one time was only for a couple days”

Sapnap yelps and topples over into an empty rack, Purpled cackling in triumph at having kicked out the legs from under the older teen. Dream, George and Drista all start laughing as well, mocking the outraged Sapnap now chasing the smaller boy around his unimpressed brother.

“...They seem nice” Ranboo admits quietly, snorting a little at how Dream and George start chanting for blood “New company might be fun”

“That’s the spirit!” Niki chuckles “By the way, do watch your stuff. Purpled has a tendency to steal our shit”

Punz and his team fit right on in with the others, adding a whole new level of chaos that makes Ranboo constantly look over his shoulder ready for a horde to be chasing after them from all the noise. Being all the same age, Sapnap, Hannah and Niki get along like a house on fire. Literally. Dream and Punz have to keep dragging the trio away from buildings the older teens kept trying to explode. Purpled is more reserved and quiet, mostly keeping to himself but Ranboo spots him chatting amiably alongside Ponk on occasion and is often messing with the adults or his brother. Punz, like Purpled, is withdrawn but is kind enough, joking with Dream and others while keeping an eye on their team. Drista clings to her brother’s side most of the time, going on endlessly about one thing or another. But even Ranboo gets pulled into her shenanigans, the younger making him help her with pranks and the two giggling to themselves as they run off from the mess they cause. It reminds Ranboo a lot of the trouble he and his… friends used to get into.

It’s nice.

“How did you even catch that?!” Ranboo baffles, staring in fascination at the garter snake wiggling in Drista’s hold, said child covered head to toe in grass stains and dirt. Her plastic mask is set up on the side of her head, revealing her crooked grin and messy hair as she holds the creature up proudly

“I almost squished it!” She informs, blowing a golden lock out of her freckled face “I thought it was a lizard, but a snake is way cooler” she holds it out towards him “You wanna hold it?” Ranboo hesitates

“Is it venomous?”

“Nah” she reassures with a shrug “I mean it can still bite you, but you’ll be fine” She tilts her head cockily, gaze turning challenging “It's just a little snake. What, are you too pussy?”

“I am not!!” Ranboo squawks, immediately falling for the dare “I was just making sure I wasn’t gonna die first!” Drista cackles at his indignation and hands over the creature, the two cooing in wonder and adoration as it slithers over his hands

“What are you looking at?” Purpled asks, trying to peer over Ranboo’s shoulder “Did you find something?”

“Drista caught a snake” Ranboo tells him, the young girl puffing up proudly beside him as Ranboo turns and shows off the reptile

“I caught a snake!” she repeats excitedly, grin turning evil as Purpled makes a face and backs away

“Ew, put that down” he yelps, shuddering “Gross”

“It’s just a friend” Ranboo chuckles, holding out the snake some more as Purpled quickly steps back “A slithery friend!”

“Yeah, whatever, just don’t get it near me” he huffs, trying not to look uncomfortable and failing miserably

“I’m gonna stick it in your bag.” Drista decides with a deranged laugh, sounding much too similar to Dream as she takes the snake and runs after Ponk borrowing Purpled’s horse to ride

“Don’t you dare!!” Purpled shrieks, taking after her and Ranboo quickly following to try and stop him

“Stick it in his bag! Stick it in his bag!!” Ranboo encourages, tripping Purpled and catching up “Stick it in the bag!”

“In the bag!!” Drista laughs, Ponk looking increasingly concerned as the children rapidly approached 

“WHERE DID YOU GET A SNAKE?!” Dream yells, Ponk now horrified at the fact the small, blonde gremlin running full speed at him was, indeed, holding a snake “PUT THAT DOWN YOU’RE GONNA HURT IT!!”

“In the bag! In the bag!!” Ranboo and Drista chorus, Purpled sprinting after them

“Ponk stop them!!” he shouts. Drista screeches to a halt and does a quick 180, Ranboo skidding past her as she now runs at Purpled

“Snake in your shirt!” She threatens, Purpled nearly tripping over his own feet as he turns and bolts in a different direction “Snake shirt!!”

“STOPPPPP!!”

“Can you stop terrorizing Sapnap and Callahan for like five seconds?!” Dream scolds as Ranboo, Drista and Purpled gallop by with a torn out sign post they’d picked up from somewhere, holding the pole between them as they chase down the two men on their own horses and the dogs hot on their heels “Dris! Don’t drop Ranboo! He’s already hurt, slow down!!”

“He’ll be fine!!” Drista cackles, patting Ranboo’s arms clinging around her waist

“Most likely!!” Ranboo corrects, the three kids screeching as a zombie comes stumbling out from behind a car on the road. The pole they’re carrying clangs as it smashes into the shambling corpse, the trio looking behind them at the body dropping to the ground with a squelch “...Can we drop the pole now?”

Purpled and Drista immediately let go of the metal, letting it clatter on the pavement under them and slowing to a trot, Sapnap and Callahan far off ahead weaving through stalled cars

“...Wanna race back?” Purpled offered, pulling the reins of his horse to turn back around

“ONYOURMARKGETSETGO!” Drista rushed out, Ranboo almost falling off the back as her horse rears up and she takes off back to the group

“Cheater!!” Purpled shouts

“Slow down!!” Ranboo yelps at the same time, holding on tighter as bounces in the saddle, both horses galloping back full speed, dogs once again giving chase “You’re gonna kill a horse!!” Their group scatters as the three riders zoom past, Purpled and Drista arguing over who won as they keep going and Ranboo holding on for dear life

“Is the new kid okay?” Hannah snorts, watching Drista take off her hoodie to try and snap Purpled in the head with it while Ranboo kept screaming, half fallen off the saddle

“...I’m sure he’ll be fine” Sam says, seeing the pain in Dream’s eyes “Probably.”

“Anyone wanna hang out at the dollar store for the night?” Skeppy asks, pointing out a Dollar General coming up the road “Might have something to eat inside”

“I’m down” Punz agrees, Purpled asleep against his back in the saddle behind him “Road doesn’t look too busy. Dream?”

“Yeah, why not” Dream shrugs, pulling his horse and passed out George along down the road. The large group easily cleans out the few stragglers wandering around in the nearby streets, breaking into the nearly empty and very dark building.

“My bones” Ranboo groans, popping his joints and laughing a little at the look of disgust Sam shoots him while others barricade the front doors “You got crackly bones Sam?”

“Probably” the man snorts, still looking a bit unsettled by the not-normal noises the teen had managed to produce “Is there a broom anywhere? There is just stuff all over the floor”

“I’ll go look for one” Bad offers, pulling out his flashlight and heading down an aisle “If you hear me screaming, please come help me!”

“No! Commit to the death!!” Hannah shouts, everyone beginning to take down bags and take out food for dinner

“Cool wagon” Drista hummed, peeking around Dream’s side and under his arm to watch Ranboo take down the water and other supplies he was in charge of wheeling around “Where’d you get it?”

“CVS” Ranboo replied, flipping bangs out of his face “Some other group had it” he grimaces a little, remembering the charred bodies he’d dug it out from “But uh, they didn’t really need it anymore, y’know?”

“How kind of you to take that off them” Drista snorts, whining a little as Dream drags her around by the shoulders “Go away!!” she shrieks, Dream wheezing as she struggles “I’m gonna bite you!”

Bad eventually returns with cheap, plastic brooms and hands them out, Puffy and Eret setting up a little cooking area while the others clean up the main aisle and set up sleeping bags. Callahan manages to dig up some food looters hadn’t found, tossing out cereal boxes and soup cans to people

“Ayo they have gushers!!” Sapnap shouts from another aisle, Skeppy practically trampling Ranboo trying to beat him to the candy

“Sam!!” Ranboo screeches “Skeppy’s bullying a minor!!”

“Am not!!”

“He is!!” Drista yells, currently climbing up a shelf to tackle the blue hoodied man “He’s bullying us!!” Sapnap is up on a different shelf, holding up a box of fruit roll-ups he’d managed to snag out of reach from the people in his aisle. Drista practically body slams herself onto Skeppy, wrestling the box away from him and biting his arm when he tries to get it back

“OW! DREAM!! YOUR GREMLIN SISTER IS BITING ME!!”

“Drista!!” Dream hollers from the front of the store “Spit him out, you don’t know where he’s been!!” Ranboo bursts out laughing, curled up on the floor gasping for air at the insulted look on Skeppy’s face

“YOU FUCKER!!”

“Hey!! Language!!”

After much arguing and shouting, the groups finally settle down enough to eat, passing around the food they’d found and lanterns scattered around them to illuminate the area. Ranboo happily settles against Niki, enjoying the 2-liter bottle of root beer he’d miraculously found as people talk and joke, listening intently to the endless stories Punz and his team had about various jobs and other groups.

“I think I still have some fireworks from that actually” Drista pipes up after a particularly chaotic story that left everyone in shambles, her head in Dream’s lap and Patches curled up on her stomach as her brother carefully combs out her shorn hair and braids it “They’re somewhere in my bag-”

“Sapnap no.” Sam and Dream chorus without even looking up, the teen’s face immediately falling

“What?! Why?!” he whines, Bad holding him by the collar to keep him from grabbing Drista’s bag

“Niki that goes for you too” Dream adds, Drista giggling away as Niki looks as equally offended as Sapnap

“We’re not gonna do anything with them” Niki protests “And we used up all of ours!”

“I mean, we can’t really use them for anything” Punz starts, poorly hiding a smile at the glare Dream gives them “Might as well use them now, we already cleaned the area”

“Please don’t encourage them” Dream begs, even as Hannah drags over one of the backpacks and spills out its contents “I already have one previously exploded child under my care, I don’t need two more” Ranboo nearly spews soda from his nose, Niki laughing at him as he chokes on a laugh of his own

“Punz’s got a point” George hums, sprawled out over Eret’s legs “We cleaned out the area and there’s no horde or anything nearby. And if there is we can probably handle it. Might as well”

“I wanna explode something” Ponk agrees, taking the box of snappers Purpled tossed him “We can set them off on a roof or something” Several others chorused similar excitement and Dream sighed in defeat, shoving his sister off of him

“I’m probably going to regret this but fine” he concedes “Let’s go blow shit up”

Sapnap yelps and scrambles away from the bottle rocket, running back to his friends and cheering as the firework shoots up, exploding in the sky in a tiny ball of red and blue. Sam, Ponk, Puffy and Skeppy are running around in the cluttered street with sparklers, having a mock magic wand battle as they wave sparks around. Eret is having the time of his life with Hannah as they light tiny cardboard bees and watch them zip up into the night sky. Even Dream is enjoying himself with a roman candle shootout between him, Purpled and Punz.

“Sparkler?” Niki offers Ranboo, holding out the colorfully wrapped stick of gunpowder. Ranboo shakes his head and steps back, lips pressed in a thin smile under his mask

“Not a big fan of explosions anymore” he admits, flinching as another bottle rocket explodes and Drista cheers with Sapnap

“What about Pop-pops?” Bad suggests, holding up a little bag of sawdust and snappers, throwing a few at Niki’s feet to make her yelp and jump “Pretty harmless”

“Or a smoke bomb!” Niki encourages, digging in her jacket pocket “I’ll throw it if you don’t want to, you can just light it” Ranboo hesitates, rubbing at the still healing wounds on his hand, remembering phantom burns and ringing ears.

“If you don’t want to it’s okay” Bad reassures quietly, noting how uncomfortable the boy seemed “It’s fun to just watch too” Niki clearly doesn’t agree with that but nods anyway

“Yeah, you can just watch if you want” she tells him “More for me that way”

Ranboo looks back at the rest of the group, Callahan with a wild grin, George doubled over in laughter, Dream shrieking and ducking, colorful lights all around. He grits his teeth and steels his resolve, holding out his damaged hand

“I’ll try a smoke bomb if you throw it” he decides, Niki brightening up under the moonlight as she fishes out a lighter and hands it to him.

The flame flickers in his trembling hand as he carefully lights the fuse, hissing and spitting sparks reminding him for a split second of searing searing pain, and fire and fear-

and golden sparks spin in the warm night air, rolling to a stop by Eret’s boot. And for a moment Ranboo panics, half-expecting the firework to explode and to be lost in a blinding light like he had not too long ago. But Eret only yelps in surprise as the little ball spews thick, purple smoke, surprise turning into laughter as he and Hannah cough and twirl in the color, sending out clouds of violet with every step. Niki and Bad cheer with pride, the young woman holding out another smoke bomb for Ranboo.

He lights it.

The trio laugh as they run around throwing colorful plumes into the street, Ranboo even growing the confidence to light and throw one by himself, laughing as deep cobalt engulfs a sputtering Skeppy. He takes a bag of poppers and soon he and Drista are engaged in a furious snap war, cackling and shrieking as they try to hit each other’s feet, hopping over rubble and climbing up abandoned cars to avoid the other. Hannah sets off a spinning firework, fiery flower causing people to yelp and hop as it spins recklessly. Ranboo and Purpled topple over laughing as a shrieking cardboard chicken Callahan lights shoots out little colorful “eggs” from behind. Niki and Puffy write their names in the air with sparklers, Dream and Sam set off a couple packets of jumping jacks and curse when the fireworks go off too early, George laughing at their incompetence as they run from the popping colors. The whole street is soon filled with smog, the smell of gunpowder thick in the air, clinging to their hair, clothes and lungs.

“I like these ones” Drista whispers excitedly to Ranboo as she pulls her knees up to her chest, others settling down on the sidewalk with them as Punz places down a small, cardboard can in the street “We don’t have any of the real ones they use for shows, and even if we did I doubt we could light them without letting the whole world know where we are” Ranboo snorts, watching Punz quickly scurry back from the sparking canister “But these are basically the same thing, just small” she pulls up her hood and smiles as a stream of fireworks fly out from the can, looking, as she said, like a miniature fireworks show.

The group cheers as the fire explodes with a final fizzle, Punz rushing back over to light another. Dream sits himself next to his sister, patting her head before leaning over and ruffling Ranboo’s hair

“You have fun?” Dream asks, face lit up with colors as he smiles “I saw you guys trying to kill each other with pop-its”

“Ranboo started it” Drista muttered, yawning as she leaned on her brother’s shoulder tiredly “I had to defend my honor”

“To be fair, she challenged me first” Ranboo argues, yawning as well and taking the off-brand soda can Sapnap hands him as the older teen takes a seat by him “But yeah, I had fun”

“I really hope we’re not swarmed tomorrow morning” Sapnap chuckles, eyes glowing with flashes of pink and green “That would suck”

“...worth it” Dream mumbles, glancing over at his friends completely enraptured by the fireworks, all of them looking tired as the adrenaline wears off but content all the same “We need to pick up more fireworks in case of an emergency though”

“Yeah, no shit” Sapnap snorts, the two laughing a little. Ranboo chugs half the soda before passing it to Drista, pulling up a knee to rest his chin on

“Alright, last one before bed guys!” Punz announces, catching the final can Purpled tosses them “Please remember where you parked your cars and take any trash you have with you as we conclude our apocalyptic show!” They all laugh, murmuring excitedly as Punz lights off the final firework.

Gold, pink and blue fly up into the air, trails of smoke and sparks floating away into the already smoky air as each fiery ball blazes out of existence and burns instead into Ranboo’s memory.

“Which way?” Sam asks as the groups come up to a fork in the abandoned road, Bad pulling out his map and Hannah digging up a compass, discussing quietly which way to take

“...There’s a fire” Punz notes, pointing to a faint trickle of smoke rising over a line of trees further away on the right “Probably means a group is out there”

“Another job?” Purpled asks, fiddling with the reins in his hands. Dream trots over Punz’s side, staring at the smoke as well

“So this is where we part ways again” Dream sighs, shaking Punz’s hand “It was nice hanging out with you guys these last couple days, take care out there”

“You too” Punz hums, leaning over to hug the man and pat his back “Don’t be too stupid”

“You think so little of us” Dream snorts, the two laughing a little before turning to their groups “Time to split guys”

“Aw, I’m gonna miss you muffins” Bad mourns, patting Hannah’s horse and handing her another paper flower for her hair “Be safe you guys”

“As long as you idiots are too, keep your radios tuned” Hannah chuckles, the two groups saying their goodbyes to each other and exchanging final goodbyes and supplies, Ponk talking to Purpled about the new supplies he’d added to their med-kit

“They were fun to have around” Ranboo admits to Puffy as things are quickly swapped and walkie talkies adjusted “I think I’m actually gonna miss them”

“Same here” she agrees, reaching up to hug Hannah goodbye and smiling at how George and Sapnap manage to corner Purpled and drag him off his horse for a proper farewell noogie “But we’ll see them again, we always do”

Ranboo looks over at where Drista and Dream are clinging tightly to each other, Drista’s face buried in her brother’s chest as Dream murmurs something in her ear, lovingly brushing a lock of identically shaded hair behind one of her ears. Dream kisses the top of her head and pulls away a little, Drista quickly wiping at her face as the older gently pulls her near identical mask over her face and flicks the plastic, the two giggling a little.

“We’ll see you again” Dream promises, helping his sister back up into the saddle “You’ll always have a place with us, even when we get a base of our own” Purpled and Punz share an unreadable glance, Hannah smiling faintly

“A base to come back to would be nice” Punz says in a strange, almost wistful tone “I’ll keep you to that Dreamer, you better not back out on me”

“Not in a million years Punzie” Dream taunts, shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket “Keep your radios on-”

“Channel three, always” Punz nods, waving to the group and all of them waving goodbye back “See you in a bit”

“Bye!!”

“Later guys!!”

“Stay safe!”

“Byeeeeee!!”

“Take care!”

Punz and his team head down the road towards the smoke, Dream and his group heading in not quite but almost the opposite direction, towards another town Bad had pointed out on the map past the hills. Dream slips his mask back on and hops up into his saddle, sitting up straight as he nudges Spirit forward

“Okay guys” he sighs “Time to move”

“Is Dream alright?” Ranboo asks as they take a break, the blonde stood on the outskirts of the group with a walkie talkie in hand “He seems a bit… out of it”

“He’ll be fine” George reassures, eyes hidden under his glasses as he stares at his silent friend “He always gets like that after Punz and his group leaves. He’ll be okay after a few days, just give him some space” Ranboo nods and digs out his canteen from his bag, talking with others about random things and taking the trail mix Ponk offered him. He heads over to Dream after a while, quietly sidling up next to him

“Everything okay?” Ranboo presses carefully, Dream’s face covered by his double masks. The radio in Dream’s gloved hand beeps before returning to static, crackling softly in his palm

“We’re finally out of radio distance” the man says quietly “They’re gone until next time” Ranboo stays silent, rocking back on his heels awkwardly as the two stare out over the vast expanse of grass they’d already traveled through

“I got you some water” Ranboo finally says, handing him his canteen “You’re probably hot under your hoodie” Dream looks at him, hollow eyes staring the slightly shorter teen down “Ponk also gave me trail mix, if you want some. I kinda picked out the raisins though, they’re in my pocket” Dream snorts a little, taking the food and water offered him

“Thanks kiddo” Dream mumbles, taking off his masks and fanning off his sweaty face “It is pretty hot huh?”

“Yeah” Ranboo chuckles, looking back over the swaying grass as Dream drinks “...I hope we see Punz’s group again soon, they were fun with the fireworks and stuff. Puffy says you guys always end up finding each other somehow, so I guess I’ll just have to wait” Dream pauses, slinging his backpack to his chest to rifle through it. Ranboo tries to peek into the bag, wondering what the man was trying to find “What are you looking for?”

“This.” Dream says, holding up a slightly crushed bottle rocket “My sister gave it to me” he looks up at the relatively clear sky, a thick cloud momentarily blocking the sun “I wonder if they could see it from out here if I lit it”

“You can try” Ranboo shrugs as the blonde inspects the firework “We’re kinda up a little, so they might. Like a flare or something”

“Or something” Dream agrees with a small laugh, smile fading into something faint “...We should find a base of our own, a proper home. Someplace for all of us”

“That sounds nice” Ranboo hums, something small and dare he admit, hopeful, stirring in his chest at the idea of having a permanent base. “I think I’d like that.” Dream clearly feels the same, straightening up ever so slightly at the thought.

Ranboo heads back to the rest of the group, stealing some of Eret’s snack and taking drink from Sapnap’s water, the team starting to walk off at Bad’s instructions, Puffy and Skeppy arguing over which way to take.

“I’m starting to think neither of you know which way we’re supposed to go” Dream snorts, jogging over to his team and joining the crowd. He hands Ranboo back his canteen before heading over to Bad to look over the map “Just pick a direction, we have nowhere to be!”

“Thank you!” Geroge cries “Can we please just go in a direction, either way we’re out in the middle of nowhere!!” Puffy and Skeppy start sputtering defensively, yelling both at George and each other as the others laugh. Eret dodges the furious Puffy, swatting at a terrified George trying to use them as a shield since Puffy has somehow managed to take off her boot in record time and is now threatening to beat George over the head with it. It takes several minutes and a couple fruit snacks to calm the adults enough to get into a different argument, Ranboo now heatedly explaining to Sapnap that ghosts were absolutely a thing and this is how every horror movie is started-

Dream wheezes loudly as people start picking sides, shoving his lighter in a pocket as Callahan of all people starts up a ‘shun the nonbeliever’ chant, Bad looking absolutely miserable as he leads the chaotic clusterfuck behind him in the vague direction of a town.

A lone bottle rocket in a field explodes without an audience to watch

Chapter Text

“Take it back now y’all, cha cha real smooth” Sapnap and Ranboo chorus, performing the moves as they walked “Turn it out!”

“How do you both know the entirety of the Cha Cha Slide by heart beat by beat??” Eret baffles as the two laugh

"School dances" they chorus once again, grinning at each other from under their masks "To the left, take it back now y'all. One hop this time! Boom. One hop this time! Boom. Right foot two stomps- boom boom. Left foot two stomps- boom boom. Sliiide to the left! Dun." They both skidded to the left before turning "Sliiide to the right. Dun. Take it back now y'all. Cha cha real smooth"

"This is so stupid" Puffy snickered, joining the duo in the dancing

"I think its rather impressive" Dream admits, watching the two teens "In a really really weird sort of way"

"Says the guy who memorized entire songs in perfect Italian" Eret snorts

"You know Italian?!" Ranboo exclaims, Sapnap continuing the song without him

"He doesn't" George interrupts giddily before Dream could explain himself "He doesn’t know any Italian he just memorized the songs!"

"Listen! Listen!" Dream sputters "It’s not my fault I got fixated on Italian songs and ended up listening to nothing but Italian music for like a month straight!"

"It kinda does sound like your fault" Eret taunts, laughing as the blonde continues to try to explain his reasoning while Sapnap grows louder and louder with the Cha Cha Slide in the background

"How fast do you think we can go in a shopping cart?" Skeppy asks, a skip in his step as they approach a grocery store

"I want to crash the shopping carts!!" George agrees, several people already pulling out their weapons as zombies began to shuffle towards them from other, shattered stores

"Just like, ram em" Sapnap says with a vigorous nod, loading his pistol "We can make bumper cars out of them!"

"Can we get inside first before you plan any destruction to the innocent shopping carts?" Sam sighs, eyeing the car and undead filled parking lot "Usual formation?"

"We don't know how many are inside" Dream admits, hopping off his horse and helping Ranboo down as well "We'll try to clean up a little inside and lead them away from the entrance"

"Gotcha!" Bad agrees, beginning to load up things on the horses for George and Callahan to take "Niki, do you guys have enough to burn them out?"

"Nope!" The young woman replies much too cheerily "But I can explode some cars!"

"Please do not!!" Ponk yells from the back

"Okay, George and Callahan are Backup, as usual" Dream announces, the two already heading off to find a good place to set up where they wouldn't be in too much danger "Niki and Sapnap, Fire Front. Just try to clear a path or lead them aside this time"

"On it!" Sapnap agrees, saluting as he and Niki sling slightly lighter bags over their shoulders

"Bad, Puffy, Sam. You guys good with Extinguishing again?" Dream asks

"No problems here Duckling!" Puffy assures with a salute of her own, the other two nodding in agreement

"Ranboo, you okay helping Ponk on Cleanup again or do you wanna switch?"

"I-I'm fine" Ranboo yelps, a bit startled at being addressed

"Cleanup! Whoo!!" Ponk cheers beside him

"Alright, we know the drill" Dream hums, stretching a little "Let's rock n roll bitches!!"

The group lets out an excited shout, Skeppy slapping Ranboo's back and surprising the teen into weakly cheering along.

"You remember what we did last time?" Ponk asks as George and Callahan give the all clear and the Fire Front duo go streaking by with exhilarated cackles.

"Yeah, pretty easy" Ranboo nods, catching the golf club Sam tosses him with a wink while he and Ponk make their way towards the back "Keep an eye out and don't let the group get surrounded"

"Bingo! You remembered!" Ponk confirms before wagging a finger at him "But just because it's easy to doesn't make it any less important. Hell, we probably have the second most important role aside from George and Callahan"

"Wait what?!" Ranboo sputters, wincing a little as he swings his club into a shambling corpse's leg and Ponk finishes the job with their pipe "Why?!"

"Number one cause of survivor death these days is getting outnumbered and overrun" Ponk shrugs, viciously slamming down another zombie his dog then rips apart "Don't get me wrong, all jobs on a raid are important in their own way, but if we mess up we could basically doom the entire group" they smash another half-rotted skull “So, no pressure!”

"Yeah" Ranboo grimaces as he dodges a skeletal hand reaching for him "No pressure."

The duo run back and forth between the back lines, knocking out as many as they could with Fat Bitch barking excitedly as she ran alongside them. Sapnap and Niki split this time, herding zombies into little groups before dousing them in gasoline and setting them alight, cackling before running off to do it all again. The Extinguishing crew bat flaming zombies away from other people, keeping the path clear as Skeppy, Dream and Eret wind their way through and slip into the store. Ranboo keeps swinging for a few more minutes before the radio on Ponk’s hip finally crackles

“Front of the store is clear” Skeppy relays “There’s only about a group’s worth left in the back, come on in”

“Oh thank god finally” Ponk groans, dodging a zombie and tripping the corpse up. Callahan and George go speeding by and lead the horses in. “Our turn” Ponk says, grabbing Ranboo by the wrist and whistling to recall Fat Bitch “Go go go” the two race to the doors and slip in, Puffy, Bad and Sam falling in line after them

“Niki! Sapnap!” Sam yells, waving at the two still running around “Stop playing with the undead! Get inside!!”

“Hang on!” Sapnap shouts, trying to turn on a lighter “One more-”

“NIKI AND SAPNAP INSIDE NOW!!” Bad bellows, startling the teens “DO NOT MAKE ME COME OUT THERE!!”

“Yes dad!” Sapnap groans, shoving the lighter in his pocket and snatching Niki by her cloak “Come on, before muffinboyhalo grounds us again”

“I’m a legal adult!!” Niki screeches as she kicks away a charred body while being dragged “You can’t ground me!!”

“Yes we can!!” Sam retorts, shooting down a straggler too close for comfort to the two “I will remove your gasoline privileges!!”

“Sam you bitch of a traitor!!”

“LANGUAGE!!”

“We’re already back!!” Sapnap whines, shoving past the adults at the door and depositing a pouting Niki by Puffy “We didn’t even have any close calls!”

“Good, because Dream would have killed you” Sam snorts, ruffling Sapnap’s hair and grinning as the young man squawks, trying to pull away

“Speaking of which” Puffy pipes up, pointing over her shoulder at the shouting and cursing a few aisles away “We should probably help them with that right?” Skeppy can be heard swearing fervently, followed by loud crashing, clattering and Dream’s wheezing laughter

“Let’s go help the idiots” George sighs, pulling out another arrow and Callahan loading his crossbow

“I’ll barricade the doors” Ponk offers, already dragging mangled shopping carts to where they came in from “Ranboo you wanna go with the others?”

“I probably wouldn’t be much help” the boy admits, watching the others head to the back of the store with their weapons out, looking much more professional than him

“Perfect. Get your noodle arms over here and help me pull this damn thing” Ponk snorts, trying to tug a metal shelf

“Pretty sure that’s bolted down” Ranboo snickers, going over to help anyway

“Shut up and pull” Ponk orders, the two yanking at the shelf “And keep an eye out for stragglers, you’re my bodyguard”

“Why am I the bodyguard?!” Ranboo laughs, straining against the metal “You just said I had noodle arms!!”

“You’re like six foot two!” Ponk argues “You have noodle arms but the zombies don’t know that!! You can scare ‘em off!! Just stand there menacingly!”

“I am most certainly not scaring anything off looking like this” Ranboo cackles

“Oh you totally could long boy”

“Is that an insult or a compliment??”

“Yes.”

“BEEP BEEP GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!!” Dream screams, Ranboo barely sidestepping in time for Dream to go clattering past with George in a shopping cart and Sapnap perched on the front, the trio skidding around a corner “GET FUCKED SKEPS!!”

“YOU TRACK STAR BITCH!!” Skeppy yells after him, also pushing a cart with Puffy and Eret on it and also narrowly avoiding running Ranboo over “THIS IS CHEATING AND YOU KNOW IT!!”

“GET GOOD!!” The other trio chorus, laughing maniacally out of sight

"Ranboo!" Sam called out, waving the teen over "Come here!" Ranboo dumps the boxes of food he'd scrounged up by Bad, who looked at the race with nothing but disappointment, and headed over

"Yeah?" He questioned "What's up?"

"You clean your blade yet?" The man asks, holding up a metal file "You need to sharpen it?" Ranboo blinked quizzically at him

"Did I what??"

"You haven't sharpened your blade?!" Sam practically screeches, looking offended

"Am- am I supposed to??" Ranboo flusters, pulling out the machete at his side still splattered with sickly blood. Sam stared at him in disbelief before burying his face in his hands "Mister Sam?!"

"Get over here" Sam sighed, gesturing him closer "First rule of weapon upkeep. Always keep your weapon clean." He tells him, handing him a damp rag that was at his side. Ranboo sits next to him on the floor, scrubbing off the blood from his machete and knives "Rusted weapons are no good, always clean your blades as soon as you can" he holds up his file "Do you know how to sharpen a blade?" Ranboo gives him a blank stare in reply "Right. Okay." Sam huffs

"Sorry" the teen mumbles, shrinking a little

"It’s fine" Sam dismisses, smiling a little in reassurance "I forget not everyone knows this stuff. Okay, so technically you're supposed to have a block or something to hold your blade" he explains, holding up his hatchet by the neck “However, none of us do that despite it being safer so you’re just gonna do it how we do it and hopefully you still have all your fingers by the end of it.”

“Wow. Wonderful teaching skills Sam” the teen deadpans

“It’ll be a learning experience” Sam retorts with a grin “Builds character” the two laugh a little and Ranboo scoots closer to better see “Alright, here’s a file. Now, you see how there’s two sides right? One is a little rougher and the other is smoother”

“Yeah” Ranboo nods, flipping the metal over to see the different grits

“Alright, you always start with the coarse side first” Sam explains, pulling out a round, stone looking thing and splashing it a little with water before holding it up “This is a whetstone. Same thing as a file, you just add a little water to it beforehand. Puffy uses these, she likes them better than files. I have no preference but you’ll learn how to use both”

“R-really? You’ll teach me??”

“Yeah, you need to know this stuff” Sam snorts, bapping him lightly on the head “Did you only ever use guns with your old group or something?”

“Someone else was in charge of sharpening the weapons” Ranboo admits, fiddling with the file in his hands “I was supposed to learn like my “brothers”- um, friends but… I guess he was always too busy”

“…Well, you’re learning now” Sam murmurs, a strange glint in his eyes “Better now than after a mishap”

“Mmm” Ranboo hums, holding up the file “Rough side first right?”

“Yup” Sam nods, popping the ‘p’ and angling the edge of his blade to the whetstone “Okay, you put your file in your dominant hand, blade in the other” Ranboo mimics Sam, scarred hand clutching the file shakily “You can use your knee” Sam suggests, pulling up his own knee to demonstrate “Helps keep the damn things still” Ranboo does the same, resting his knife on his bare knee “Okay… just- don’t cut your leg. Please.”

“Probably not a good thing to do with shorts huh?” Ranboo chuckles, earning another quick rap on the head “Ow!”

“Focus” Sam snorts, slowly running his whetstone over the edge of his hatchet “Coarse grain helps grind out all those chips and scratches and bends your weapon gets while swinging into zombie bone, because yes your blade will get chipped after a good couple swings. Chips can lead to your weapon breaking, hence why sharpening regularly is important”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that about you guys” Ranboo says, looking over at Bad currently filing his knives a little further off “You’re always sharpening your knives and stuff”

“It’s important” Sam repeats “Treat your weapons well and they’ll treat you well in return.” he sets down his things and leans over to take Ranboo’s hands “Alright, there’s like a specific angle or something you’re supposed to angle this but fuck it eyeballing it works just as well” he holds up the blade and file to eye level “You see how the metal sort of angles to a point on the edge?”

“Mmm yeah” Ranboo nods slowly, squinting at the blade

“Okay, press the file right along that little edge, parallel to it” Sam instructs, letting go and picking up his own again “Got it?”

“I think so?”

“Good” Sam hums, starting small little swipes in his hatchet “Now, you’re going to run the file over the edge in one direction- not back and forth! One direction. Run it along the edge, just swipe” Ranboo mimics the long swipes Sam makes “Make sure you’re at the right angle, otherwise you’ll end up dulling it, which kinda defeats the purpose of sharpening in the first place” The two sit in quiet for a while, simply scraping away and Ranboo occasionally pausing to check his angle “When you’re done with one side you can go to the other” he tells him, flipping his own hatchet

“Mine is double edged” Ranboo points out, holding up his half and half knife

“Rinse and repeat” Sam shrugs in return “Do all four sides. This is the rough grain so you don’t need to do that much, just enough to get the chips out and smooth the edge” Ranboo nods and goes back to filing, Sam peeking over every once in a while to make sure everything was okay

“Alright, I think I got it” Ranboo tells him, handing over the knife for Sam to inspect.

“Yeah, you haven’t fucked up your knife so I’d say you’re good” the man snorts, handing it back “Now, fine grain time” they both flip over their file and whetstone “This is how you get that razor sharp edge. Usually this is the one you use for a quick touch up every once in a while after using it for stuff in general. Same thing as before, run it one way only and make sure to angle it correctly”

They sit together in silence again, Ranboo focused on his favorite knife and Sam switching over to his other axe to sharpen. Bad finishes up his own knives and starts cleaning his gun, the trio content in their tasks

“Yo, is it knife time?” Sapnap asked, headband crooked and a darkening bruise growing on his arm “Y’all have a spare file I can borrow?”

“Go ask Bad” Sam snorts, inspecting Ranboo’s knife by flicking a thumb over the edge and handing it back “You’re good to go on this one”

“Baddddddd”

“Go check the weapon bag” Bad immediately replies, smiling a little at how the older teen groans

“Sharpening time?” Puffy wonders, hair half out of her ponytail and lip bleeding as she walks over “Are you guys having sharpening time without me?”

“Puffyyyyyyyyyy” Sapnap whines “Do you have a spare file I can borrow?”

“Check the weapon bag” she replies, looking confused when Sapnap flops over with a loud groan and the others laugh

“I was teaching Ranboo how to sharpen a blade” Sam informs as the woman takes a cross-legged seat next to him with her cutlass out

“You don’t know how to sharpen a knife??” Puffy baffles, setting her blade on her knee to work on

“Well I do now” Ranboo huffs, currently staring down his machete.

“Lemme see” she demands with a grin, Ranboo handing over the blade for her to inspect “Oh shit!” she laughs, whistling a little as she runs a thumb over the edge “That’s a butter knife my man, how the hell were you doing anything with that?”

“I’m fixing it!” Ranboo argues, taking his weapon back grumpily

“You’re gonna be here for like an hour” she snorts, tossing her whetstone a little before wetting it, starting on her own sword. The two continue to bicker with each other, Sam stuck in the middle and ignoring them both

“Okay! Good news!” Niki announces as she walks over with arms full of supplies she dumps on the floor “I found milk! Bad news, it’s all plant based-”

“I CALL DIBS ON THE SOY MILK!!” Sapnap yells, leaving his knife on the floor and shoving past a bruised George coming back to the group to get to it first

“Do you have coconut?” Sam asks, setting down his things to grab something before Bad can take it

“Yes but only vanilla, no unsweetened” Niki informs, snatching a box of oat milk before Sapnap can try taking it

“Ew.” Sam makes a face “I’ll take it.”

“Hey, has anyone seen Ponk?” Dream asks, one of Skeppy’s arms over a shoulder to help him walk, the two looking like they’d been through hell

“What the actual fuck dude?” Sam blurts, haggling with Sapnap over the best cartons to keep

“We crashed” Eret helpfully pipes up from behind them, hair a mess and missing one of the lenses in their sunglasses

“I can see that” Sam snorts, eyeing them up and down “You okay?”

“No, clearly I’m dying here” Skeppy snaps, gesturing to his beat up body “Where’s Ponk-”

“What in the actual fuck.” Ponk grits out, supplies in arms and Callahan poking his head out from the same aisle. He starts shaking his head at them frantically

“’Run.”’ he signs, Dream immediately throwing Skeppy off of him

“On second thought, I’m miraculously recovered!!” the blonde yelps, bolting back the way he came from “Hey Eret wanna go find supplies?!”

“You know what? I think I do” Eret agrees, racing after him and the two skid out of sight

“TRAITORS!!” Skeppy screams, throwing himself behind Bad to cower

“Sorry!!” Eret yells

“Your sacrifice will be remembered!!” Dream adds, now far away

“What did you idiots even do??!” Ponk rages, marching over to Skeppy trying to hide behind Bad “How?! How??! I left you alone for ten minutes!!”

Puffy, Sapnap and George slowly start inching away as Ponk begins their rant on Skeppy about being less reckless and to stop wasting supplies on useless shit.

“Faster!! Faster!!” Ranboo cheered, screaming as they skidded around an aisle and banged his body around on the shopping cart’s edge

“George we’re gonna lose!!” Sapnap screeched, Dream cackling as he picked up speed and pushed Ranboo on

“How do we stop?!” Ranboo suddenly blurted, looking back at the blonde pushing him. Dream flashed him a grin “Dream?? Dream how do we stop?!!”

“WHOOOOOO!!” The man yelled, coming to a sudden halt and sending Ranboo flying into the pile of packaged napkins and toilet paper on a wall. “First place losers!!” He shouts, jumping in after him as Sapnap and George go crashing into the pile

“Why do we keep doing this?” George groaned, clout glasses crooked on his head as he sits up “Ponk nearly skinned us last night for crashing into each other”

“Because it’s funny” Sapnap snorted, puffing a lock of hair out of his face as he pops up “Besides, there’s not much else to do while we take everything we can from the store”

“One of us is gonna end up breaking something” Ranboo chuckles, yelping as Sapnap pelts him on the head with a roll of napkins

“Worth it” Dream snickers as he gets up before brushing himself off and righting the cart “Another lap?”

“I’m too tired” George whines, flopping back down on the paper and waving a hand “Go have fun being idiots”

“You were the one pushing me moron” Sapnap reminds, jabbing him in the side and squealing when George starts wrestling him “No! NO! Get off of me!! Dream! Dream help!! Make him stop!!” Sapnap frantically kicks his legs, starting to laugh and turn red as George tickles him “Unfair! Unfair!! GEORGEEEE!!”

“DIE SAPNAP!!”

“Ranboo?” Dream offers, ignoring his screaming friends as he holds a hand out to help the teen up. Ranboo takes it

“Lap around the store?” he hums, shaking his sore limbs out and picking up the other cart despite the ache in his ribs from being rattled around

“First one back” the blonde agrees, readying himself “On your mark”

“Get set!”

“GO!” They chorus, whooping and yelling as they take off down the aisle, screaming at others to move out of the way as they run. They’re making their way around the third corner when Ranboo slips and goes skidding into a shelf, groaning as several little packets fall on his head.

“Nice wipeout!” Dream laughs, leaning on his cart’s handle to do his now familiar tea-kettle wheeze “You okay?!”

“Fine” Ranboo grits out, stumbling a little as he gets up “What’d I hit?”

“Some shelf” Dream shrugs, wiping away a giddy tear. Ranboo manages to grab a little paper packet that slips off his shoulder, flipping it over to examine “Ran?”

“Hey, these are seeds!” Ranboo exclaims, forgetting all about the race as he starts digging through the scattered packets “Look! Carrots, peas, sunflowers, lavender, melon, marigolds- they have corn!” he starts picking up as many packets as he can, smiling widely under his filtered mask as he sorts through them “Basil, Zinnia, tomatoes- there are so many! Oh my god they have alliums!!”

“You gonna take them?” Dream asks, going over and crouching next to him to help pick up packets “You did say you wanted to start a garden one day” Ranboo pauses, slowly setting the packets back down

“No… no it’s, it’s stupid” Ranboo mumbles, hands lingering over the colorful envelopes “I know it is. Everyone always said it was a dumb idea, I won’t waste storage-”

“If you want the seeds I’m not gonna stop you” Dream says with a shrug, handing him a packet of Honeysuckles, which Ranboo hesitantly takes “You wanted a garden right? Might as well start now. You can carry what you want, it’s your bag” he tilts his head a little and smiles gently under his own black mask “Do you want the seeds?” Ranboo nods slowly, feeling his cheeks flush as he picks up the packets again “Have at it then.” he chuckles, rocking back a little as the teen grabs seeds “Don’t know who told you wanting a garden was a dumb idea, you’re over here thinking long-term man. Good planning skills”

“I just like growing things” Ranboo mumbled, shoving the little parcels in his pockets “I like being able to help something live, to take care of something”

“Huh” Dream hummed “Never thought of it like that” he ruffles Ranboo’s hair suddenly, making the teen squawk and pull away from the blonde “That’s kinda cute”

“Shut up” Ranboo snickered, ears burning bright red as Dream teases him “My garden is going to be the biggest most not cute garden ever and only I will be allowed to eat from it” he pauses, thinking “Me and Ponk, because Ponk deserves better”

“Oh no!” Dream mock wails, tipping over and knocking down Ranboo as he drapes over him dramatically “Have mercy mister Boo! You’ll make me live off canned food for the rest of my life?!”

“I’m gonna use you as fertilizer!!” Ranboo screeches, pinned under the taller adult.

“You can’t do that, that’ll make you indirectly a cannibal” Dream snorts, looking over his shoulder with a smug grin at the wiggling child “Are you a cannibal mister Boo?”

“No, but I’m starting to see why other people are” Ranboo grumbles, laughing at the offended gasp above him

“Ranboo is a cannibal!!” Dream shouts with his hands cupped around his mouth “He’s gonna eat us, he said so!!”

“I did not!!” Ranboo yells “He’s lying!! I would never!!”

“Take Eret first!” Niki calls out from another aisle “More meat!!”

“IF YOU EAT ME THAT MAKES YOU HOMOPHOBIC!!” Eret shrieks “TAKE SAPNAP, PRETTY SURE HE’S STRAIGHT!!”

“WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!”

“LANGUAGE!!”

Dream and Ranboo stay curled up on the ground, giggling together until they’re out of breath as people keep yelling their arguments across the store over who should get eaten first

“Again” Sam sighs, trying to dampen the headache he knew he was about to get “There are still zombies outside so we are moving quick. Which means no breaking into cars, hot wiring cars or playing with the shopping carts outside. Understood?” Niki politely raises her hand and Sam lets out another little sigh “Yes Niki?”

“I can still siphon gas from said cars right?” she asks, holding up an empty wine bottle “It’ll be quick, promise.”

“...Dream?”

“Keep it to two cars” the blonde hums, saddling up his horse and putting Patches back in her compartment “You have until Callahan and George find all their bolts, we will leave you behind once that’s done”

“Aye aye cap’n!” she salutes with a grin.

The team pries the store doors open and trails out, helping Callahan and George locate as many arrows as they could while Puffy, Niki and Sapnap fill as many bottles as they can for the Fire dufflebag. Soon, Niki is back to having a full, clinking bag and happily skips along with the rest of the group as they make their way down the abandoned street.

“I just realized she’s a literal walking fire hazard” Ranboo notes, taking a plastic cup of diced peaches Bad hands him

“I- yeah. She is” Bad agrees, looking a bit concerned “Well, at least she didn’t try to blow up a car this time”

“That was awesome” Callahan holds up in his notebook with a giddy grin under his navy mask, mimicking an explosion with his hands and making a breathy little ‘boom’ noise with it “Fireball”

“It also got us kicked out of our 5^th community” Skeppy reminds “Cool boom, not so cool results”

“Well how were we supposed to know people were still out there?” Sapnap snorts, happily drinking a little carton of chocolate soy milk “They should have moved”

“Yeah, it’s not like anyone even died” Skeppy agrees before pausing “...Did they??”

“Yes.” Bad groans, Ranboo now wide-eyed as he listens “Four people died- did you all forget that??”

The silence between them answers for them.

“Kinda” Sapnap shrugs, slurping away “Not my problem y’know?”

“Oh my god the bar for us is so so low” Bad groans, running a hand over his face

“They weren’t even nice people to begin with!! If anything I did them a favor!!” Niki argues, having overheard the conversation “And I warned them well ahead of time I’d blow it up!!”

“That is not the point I’m making here!!” Bad screeches, all of them getting into an argument over the incident as Ranboo slowly backs himself away

“What happened??” Puffy puzzles, looking over at the squabbling group

“Something about a car explosion that killed four people?” Ranboo says weakly, eating his peaches and trying not to think too much about it

“Oh? Which one??”

“...HOW MANY DEADLY CAR EXPLOSIONS HAVE YOU GUYS CAUSED?!”

“...”

“Puffy.”

“I lost count after twelve”

“Oh my god.”

“These are the woods that never endddd~ they just go on and on my frienddddddd~” Skeppy sings “We started walking in them about a day ago. And we’ll continue walking it forever just to show- that these are the woods that never enddddd~ they just go on and on my frienddddddd~”

“Murder is still frowned upon, murder is still frowned upon, murder is still frowned upon” Sam chants quietly to himself, Ponk patting his shoulder soothingly

“What do you have against the woods dude?” Eret snorts, interrupting the singing for the sake of Sam’s sanity “You have like a personal vendetta against them or something?”

“Yes. I have a pebble in my boot and we haven’t stopped in like two hours” Skeppy complains, leaning dramatically on Bad “Pleaseeee can we take a break? Pleaseee? PLEASEEEEEE-”

“OH MY FUCKING GOD FINE!!” Dream shouts, Sam nearly crying with relief right then and there “Everybody take ten before I fucking eviscerate Skeppy!!”

“Oh thank god I have to take a piss” Skeppy groans, rushing off into the trees while people dumped their stuff off and plopped down on the forest floor

“One of these days” Sam grits out, leaning the back of his head on a tree trunk “I swear, one of these days he’s going to go missing and none of you will be able to prove anything.”

“Sam!” Bad chided, handing out a couple Oreos from the pack in his bag “Come on”

“I mean it!” Sam rages “I’ll do it Bad!”

“Yeah but how would you hide the body out here?” George asks, Ranboo chugging a pouch of applesauce next to him

“I’ll make it look like an accident” Sam huffs, taking a Slim Jim from Sapnap “I can do it. None of you would know.”

“But you told us all your plans so if something happens to him we’d all blame you first” Niki points out, fanning Puffy laid on her lap with her hand

“- .... .- - .----. ... / - .-. ..- .” Callahan beeps, nodding “-. --- .-- / -.-- --- ..- .----. .-. . / ... ..- ... .--. . -.-. - / -. ..- -- -... . .-. / .----”

“Damn.” Sam mutters “Now I can’t kill him”

“You can’t kill who?” Skeppy asks, walking over and taking a seat next to Bad “You guys are having casual discussions about murder without me?”

“Your murder” Bad informs, handing him a small bottle of hand sanitizer

“Oh. Valid” Skeppy nods “Be creative with my murder though, is all I ask. Something that would get talked about on true crime podcasts or Buzzfeed Unsolved and shit if it were done before the apocalypse”

“Skeppy! Language!”

“I have permission to kill him!!” Sam cheers, throwing his arms up in the air “License to kill!!”

“Sam!!”

“If I can come up with a cooler way to kill you can I do it?” Eret asks excitedly, leaning forward “I’m thinking something with shower curtains”

“Sold” Skeppy agrees, ignoring Bad’s agonized groan

“What?! No!! I already called dibs on killing him!!” Sam protests, throwing his canteen at the cackling Eret “You can’t take my kill!!”

“I can use silly string, can I do it?” Ranboo asks, raising his hand and grinning as Dream chokes on his snack

“That does sound promising...”

“Stop trying to take my kill!!”

“If you’re committing murders make sure its permanent” Ponk pipes up “I’m not gonna try fixing a half cleaved body back to life-”

“I can remove all your limbs, take off your face, stuff your chopped up body into a barrel and send you down a river” Niki suggests, causing everyone to stare at her “What? I heard about it on a podcast once”

“Okay, Niki is no longer allowed to kill me” Skeppy decides “And also she’s not allowed to sleep next to me from now on” Niki only grins back

“Bold of you to assume that will save you”

“Well that’s not ominous in the slightest!” Eret chirps brightly, tossing some mini marshmallows up in the air to catch in their mouth “So we’re all in agreement if Skeppy goes missing it was Niki’s fault right?”

“Yep”

“Yeah”

“Definitely.”

“Oh absolutely”

“AGAIN. YOU’RE ALL STEALING MY HARD EARNED MURDER!!”

They’re jogging, Dream wouldn’t admit it but they are.

“It’s gonna rain hard” Ponk notes, looking up worriedly at the grey sky

“I am not sleeping on the wet ground” Eret grumbles, trying to keep their curls relatively neat in the wind “I’m not doing it. Not this time”

“Is there anywhere we can stop?” Sam frets, looking around at the endless woods they were walking through “Literally anywhere.”

“I hope” Puffy groans, covering her head with her hands a bit as it begins to drizzle “I really don’t wanna fight zombies in the rain if push comes to shove”

They all look up as hoofbeats approach, a damp Sapnap getting closer to them

“I found a house!” He announces from his horse “It’s not too far but we have to hurry, I can literally see a wall of rain coming”

They pick up the pace, eventually breaking into a dead sprint as the drizzle turns into rain. They’re all laughing and cursing as they hop up onto the house’s wooden porch, pets shaking off the water and taking off their bags to stretch sore limbs. They watch in hushed quiet as the wall of water arrives, the pitter patter on the roof turning into a thundering roar

“That was a close one” Bad sighs

“Oh god my armmmm” Ranboo whines, gently rubbing the healing scars that covered his right arm before bending down to rub at the bandages on his right knee, equally marred as his arm “And my leg-” Sapnap kicks off his boots and socks and races out into the rain with a whoop.

He spins around laughing, arms out and face up to greet the rain. A blue blur darts by and tackles the man into the grass, clout glasses going flying at the impact. George is laughing hysterically as he gets up, slipping in the forming puddles and screeching as Sapnap snags his ankle and drags him back down. Dream is soon among them, taking down the both of them into the mud and staining their clothes with grass.

“Children. I swear” Bad tuts as Niki quickly joins them, Puffy and Skeppy following in playing around in the rain

“You gonna join?” Eret asks with a chuckle, slipping off their own boots to run around as well. Bad shakes his head in response

“Won’t they catch a cold?” Ranboo frets as he sits on the porch steps, the air quickly growing sticky and clinging to his skin in a way he knew was making his hair frizz. He and his brothers- friends, had never been allowed to play in the rain, lack of medical supplies and room in the RV making his “family” quite keen on staying inside and dry during storms

“Eh, they’ll be fine as long as they dry off” Ponk shrugs, laughing as Callahan body slams George into the ground, mud and water splattering everywhere

“You don’t want to join?” Bad asks, finding a key under the welcome mat and using it to enter the house

“I don’t want to get sick” Ranboo mumbles, rubbing at his scars “It’d be bad if I wasted any more medicine” Bad gives him a strange look over his shoulder but shrugs

“Alright then muffin, your choice” he says, propping the door open “But since you’re not doing anything at the minute, come make yourself useful and help me with lunch” he squints at the rain darkened sky “Or dinner?? Food. Come help me with food” Ranboo immediately perks up and he whips around to stare at the man incredulously, eyes glinting with something hopeful

“Me??” He baffles, pointing to himself “You want me to help with lunch??” Bad gave him yet another puzzled look, waving a little with his hand in confusion

“Yes?” he huffs “You can cook...right?”

“Wha- Yes! Yes, I can help!” Ranboo sputters, quickly scrambling to his feet and following Bad “I can cook! B-basic things but I can heat up stuff and I’m really good at following instructions-”

“I need this energy from the others when it comes to helping out” Bad laughed, the teen practically vibrating next to him “Let’s open up the blinds to get some light in and then we can figure out what to make. You mind getting the living room lit up?”

“Y-yeah! Sure!” Ranboo agrees, possibly setting a new record with how quickly he opens up blinds, Bad examining the house’s small kitchen to see what he could work with. Ranboo brings over a couple of lanterns and places them on the counters to better see, patiently hovering at Bad’s side as the man explored the cabinets and pantry.

“I have no idea how to make most of this stuff, or if its still even good” Bad admits, looking over the shelves “You wanna pick?” Ranboo scrutinizes the dried food in front of them, reaching out and grabbing an unopened bottle of pasta sauce

“Spaghetti?” he suggests, smiling awkwardly under his mask. Bad snatches a box of spaghetti from one of the shelves

“Spaghetti it is” he agrees with a nod “Now help me find a gosh darn pot in this place”

Ranboo and Bad spend several minutes figuring out where everything in the kitchen is, Ranboo clearing out a spot in the living room to dump all of their bags while Bad makes the ones playing outside to set out pots, pans and buckets to collect water. Ranboo puts out their larger portable stove on the counter, the one everyone took turns on when they needed to actually cook or ran out of things to burn for a fire

“Did you salt the water?” Bad asks as he keeps ransacking the pantry

“Yep! Yep! Did that!” Ranboo calls back, quickly dumping in salt they’d found in one of the cabinets into the pot of heating water “Did you find anything else?”

“Not really!” the man complains “I found some rice and a couple cans of beans!”

“Yay, more beans” Ranboo muttered

“...Ranboo, you know how to make a fire right?”

“Umm, yeah” he replies, stirring the pot to dissolve the salt

“You wanna make dutch oven cookies?” Bad offered, holding up bags of sugar, flour and other ingredients “I can show you while we wait for the water to boil”

“We can make cookies?!” Ranboo exclaimed, eagerly hurrying over to Bad’s side

“Yep!” Bad laughed, dumping the ingredients on the counter and pulling out bowls he’d found in a cabinet “We don’t have butter, but I found shortening and that’s close enough. And eggs can be replaced with… guess”

“Fake eggs??”

“Applesauce!!” the man tells him, laughing at the look of surprise on Ranboo’s face “Weird right? Niki showed me! In most baking recipes you can replace one egg with a quarter cup of unsweetened apple sauce” he holds up a few little foil covered cups of applesauce he’d found in the pantry “It’s gonna taste a bit like apples, obviously, but they’ll be edible” he shrugs “Can you get me the measuring cups?”

Ranboo helps measure out ingredients according to Bad’s instructions, mixing them all up in a bowl while Bad chatters about one thing or another. Bad eventually greases their cast-iron skillet and pours the cookie batter in, pressing out the dough to make an even layer

“You mind making a fire in the fireplace?” Bad hums, setting the pan aside “Once you get a good couple coals going tell me and I’ll show you how to make a dutch oven to cook”

“Got it!” Ranboo agreed, making a fire like he’d been taught and carefully tending to it while Bad finished cooking. Bad is showing him how to scoop flaming coals over the cast iron lid to evenly bake the pastry inside when the door slams open, a dripping Sapnap and Dream holding on to each other as they dramatically lean on the doorway

“JUST ONE LOOK AND I CAN HEAR A BELL RING!!” they sing, pointing at the startled Bad and Ranboo “ONE MORE LOOK AND I FORGET EVERYTHING!!”

“WHOA WHOA!!” George shouts, tackling the two singing into invisible mics from behind

“MAMMA MIA!! HERE I GO AGAIN!!” Niki and Eret chorus as they stumble in, grinning from ear to ear and covered in mud and grass “MY MY! HOW CAN I RESIST YA?!”

“You’re all muffins!” Bad shouts, although smiling as the rest of the muddy group make their way inside, still singing ‘Mamma Mia’

“YESSSS I’VE BEEN BROKENHEARTED!!” Skeppy borderline screams as he slides up on a counter “BLUE SINCE THE DAY WE PARTED- Come on!! I know you know it!!”

“Why why! Did I ever let you go?!” Bad continues, Ranboo laughing and clapping as everyone cheers

“MAMMA MIA!! NOW I REALLY KNOW!!” Everyone sings “MY MY!! I SHOULD NOT HAVE LET YOU GO!!” Skeppy topples off the counter with a loud thud and curse, causing all of them to laugh and start to recover their air, Callahan going over to help the poor man up

“What’s for dinner?” Dream asks, freckled face flushed and out of breath as he clings to Sapnap and George

“Nothing with you all smelling like wet dogs” Bad snorts, Ranboo still laughing a little as he goes over to drain the pasta

“Nah, that’s just the wet dogs” Sam corrects, gesturing to the dripping mutts next to him. Dogs that promptly started shaking, spraying everyone with water and causing multiple shrieks. “Okay… maybe not just the dogs”

Callahan managed to find towels somewhere in the house, people drying off in front of the fire Ranboo had made as they settled down enough to eat.

“You’re all taking a proper bath after you eat” Bad huffs, making a face as Dream tosses his filthy hoodie off to dry on the back of a chair near the fire “There’s plenty of rain to take a shower”

“Yeah sure” Sapnap agrees, ruffling his hair with a towel “What’s to eat or are we fending for ourselves again?”

“Luckily” Bad sniffs, swatting Puffy’s hand away from stealing the serving spoon “Mister Ranboo was nice enough to help me find food and also helped me make enough for all of you muddy muffins, so you’re not fending for yourselves tonight. So everyone say thank you to Ranboo and then maybe I’ll let you eat”

“Thank you Ranboo!” the group choruses, making the teen flush

“I-it’s no problem!” he sputters “It’s the least I could do”

“Don’t let them take all the food” Bad tells him, ruffling his hair and handing him a bowl “We made it, we get first servings”

“Oh! Cool!” Ranboo blurts, happily taking his food and making sure to scoot back a safe distance before the rest of the group descended on the rest.

The group happily chats and eats, complimenting both Bad and Ranboo on the food and stealing extra from each other’s plates.

“Soup soup soup” Ponk chants, taking another ladle of broth for themselves “Ranboo you want more?”

“Absolutely” the teen nods, handing over his bowl for seconds and snatching a couple stale saltines from the middle “Oh! Bad! Are the cookies ready yet?”

“THERE ARE COOKIES?!” Sapnap shouts, looking up from where he was valiantly guarding his spaghetti from George “WHERE?!”

“We made dutch oven cookies” Bad confirms, nodding towards the fire “They should be ready by now” Sapnap whoops excitedly, Niki managing to drag out the pan with a poker she found next to the fireplace and setting it in the middle of the circle to cool

“Alright, I’m gonna go take a bath” Puffy says, stretching out and heading for her bag “It’s still raining pretty hard so I’ll take a shower in the backyard- If I see any of you looking out a window-”

“Yeah yeah we all know what happened to Sapnap” Skeppy scoffs, shoving crackers in his mouth

“It was an accident!! I have explained this multiple times!!” Sapnap squawks, turning red as others snicker and tease him

“I’m actually gonna go grab a bucket from outside and do the same” Sam says, also getting up “Anyone else want warm water?” Callahan raised his hand “Gotcha Cal”

More and more people split to take some form of bath to get the remaining mud off their skin and hair, coming back in fresh clothes to dry by the fire Ranboo was dutifully keeping going.

“Yo, these are good” a freshly bathed Dream hums, mouth full of cookie and towel over his bare shoulders “You make these Bad?”

“Yep! Apple cinnamon! Ranboo helped” Bad tells him “And put on a shirt, you’ll catch a cold”

“They’re really good” Dream compliments, giving Ranboo a thumbs up “You did awesome kid”

“Thank you” Ranboo replies, flushing once more, this time with pride.

The warm feeling in his chest only grew as the compliments from others kept coming, several people huddling by the fire and chatting as they dried, thanking Ranboo for keeping the flames going for them. He stays curled up by the fireplace as people talk, content with his third bowl of soup to listen to stories others were more than happy to share with someone who hadn’t heard them before. He vaguely registers someone prying the empty plate slipping out of his hands as he starts to drift off, gently being laid down on the floor and a dry towel rolled up under his head as a pillow. He feels warm from head to toe, belly full and sleep weighing him down into blissful nothing.

“You’re a literal lifesaver” Niki whines, tossing Ranboo a dirtied pair of jeans “Thanks for helping me wash all this”

“I don’t mind” Ranboo chuckles, dunking the pants in the tub of soapy water “I was always stuck on laundry duty with my family- well, old group.” he quickly corrects “So I’m used to it”

“Laundry sucks” Niki complains, setting a shirt out on the porch railing to dry “At least we only have to do the first batch. I think George and Skeppy are doing the next group, so, who knows how well that’ll go” She sits down on the porch stairs next to Ranboo, looking out at the two horses trotting around in the drizzling field “I used to like the rain” she hums, glancing up to the grey clouds above “Now? Not so much”

“Really?” Ranboo chuckles, scrubbing pants against the washboard “Why’s that?”

“Traveling in the rain is annoying as hell” she grumbles, blowing a lock of bubblegum hair out of her face “Walking in mud is also annoying and waiting for everything to clear up enough to move gets boring pretty fast” something crashes and someone screams from inside the house “Well, at least not with these idiots anyway, so I have that going for me” she takes the pants handed her and dunks them in her own bucket to rinse them off “What about you?”

“Mmm?”

“Rain” she clarifies “Yay or nay?”

“Big nay” Ranboo huffs, now washing a shirt “If I wasn’t getting soaked to the bone walking around, I was cramped in a tiny space with like seven other people trying to stay dry” he gestures to the house with soapy hands “So this is honestly an improvement”

“Good to know” Niki giggles, taking the shirt to rinse and hang up to dry “Hey, I think there’s enough ingredients left inside to make either cake or more cookies. You wanna make some once we’re done out here? If there’s not we can steal mix from Bad”

“You wanna make cookies with me?” he puzzles, Niki looking a little confused as she smiles “Really?”

“Sure! You’re not a terrible cook” she laughs “It’ll be fun and we can bribe people with the results! What d’you say?”

Ranboo beams from ear to ear

“I’d love to!”

“Sapnap. Sapnap we’re friends” George pleads as a grinning Sam sets down another +2 onto the pile “Saps. Please.”

“Sorry Georgie” Sapnap winces, setting down a yellow +2 “It’s up to Dream now”

“Dream.” George begs, now turning to the man next to him “Dream don’t do this to me. Dream.”

“Do it.” Puffy demands as the blonde bites his lip “Dream do it, this motherfucker hit me with a +4 when I had Uno, do it.”

“I-” he looks over at George “George.”

“Dream please”

“Don’t you dare” Sapnap hisses “Don’t you dare simp and take the bullet for him. I know for a fact you have a +2 in your hand”

“Dream!!” George wails “Please!! That’s twelve cards I’ll have to take!!”

“George” Dream starts slowly “You know I love you-”

“Yes!!” Sam cheers as George’s face drops, Niki cackling maniacally as the one who started it off “Do it!! Do it!!”

“Dream don’t you dare” the Brit hisses “Dream I swear to god-”

“Listen-”

“Do it! Do it! Do it!” Sapnap chants, others joining in as Dream looks close to either crying or laughing

“I’m really sorry buddy” Dream sighs, finally setting down his green +2 much to the amusement and cheering of the rest of the players. George stares at the card and then at Dream in utter betrayal, defeatedly reaching for the deck

“Just say you hate me” George despairs, Dream sputtering and protesting “Just say you hate me!”

“George!!” Dream cries “George come on!!”

“No.” the man huffs, now refusing to look at him “We are no longer friends. You are an evil evil man”

“Georgeeeeee” Dream whines, trying to drape over George’s shoulders and getting aggressively shoved off

“Suck it Lore-Nottfund!!” Puffy cackles with glee, setting down a card “That’s what you get!! Karma is a bitch!”

“Uno.” Ranboo informs, putting down his cards

“Wait when the fuck?!” Skeppy exclaims, earning a ‘Language’ from another room. Ranboo grins in a way that can only be described as vicious

“You fools!” the teen yells “I’m the master at Uno!! You’re looking at the three time apocalypse tournament champion!! While all of you were busy with your petty fights I was planning my strategy and now I’m one card away from victory and getting out of this accursed two hour long game!!”

“Turn it around! Turn it around!!” Sam exclaims, everyone frantically searching their hands for a way to screw Ranboo over

“I don’t have anything” Eret groans, putting down his card and Niki shakes her head as she puts her cards down next. More and more people set down their cards, Ranboo laughing more and more as his turn neared.

“WHY WOULD YOU SKIP ME?!” Puffy screams “GEORGE!!”

“IT WAS THE ONLY BLUE I HAD!!”

“HOW?! YOU HAVE HALF THE FUCKING DECK IN YOUR HAND!!”

“UNO OUT!!” Ranboo cheers, slamming down his final card and everyone groaning good naturedly “I’m free!!”

“You guys wanna play for second?” Sapnap suggests, George immediately tossing his cards into the pile

“Whoops” he monotones as the others laugh “Guess not”

“New round!” Skeppy demands, tossing his cards in the middle and others following suit “Callahan!! We’re finally starting a new game!” Callahan comes running in, socks sliding on the floor and sending him crashing into the sofa

“Holy shit!” Dream laughs “You okay dude?” Callahan gives them a thumbs up, brushing himself off as he gets up

“’It’s been almost three hours”’ he signs, puffing a lock of hair out of his face and looking somewhat annoyed

“Yeah, it’s been brutal” Eret snorts, patting the spot between him and Ranboo “You ready for another three hours of torture?” Callahan grins and enthusiastically holds up both thumbs

“’Bring it.”’

It’s dark. Dark and cold. Ranboo can’t see but he knows what’s beyond in the dark, pain and fear and danger. He knows it as he knows the warmth running down the weapon his hands is not his blood, not his not his not his helphelphelp-

“...boo? Hey, Ranboo-” a voice hisses. The teen gasps and his hand shoots out, latching onto his knife and instinctively bringing it around. A firm hand grabs his wrist, stopping the glinting blade inches from driving into an eye “Whoa! Okay buddy, let’s not take my eye out yeah?” Ranboo kicks and wrenches his hand away, immediately backing away from the friend stranger and looking around the darkened room in a panic, feeling his chest tighten in fear

“Don’t touch me” he begs, shielding his face as he struggles to remember “Please don’t hurt me, I don’t want to fight leave me alone leave me alone please-” where was his family they were here right- no they left him- they wouldn’t leave him- who was this- where is his group- where is his book

“Ranboo?” the man questions softly, making him flinch because how did he know his name that was his name right? Oh god what was his name- “That’s your name kiddo. Your name is Ranboo. You need to breathe okay?”

“What’s going on?” another voice mumbles “Ranboo?”

“Leave me alone leave me alone why do you know my name?” Ranboo rambles, curling up against the wall “Why do you know my name why am I here don’t hurt me please”

“Oh muffin” the new voice coos so so gently “Ranboo, can you take a deep breath for us? Please?”

“Just one deep breath” the first agrees “Can you do that?” Ranboo nods and complies, taking a shuddering gasp “That’s good, that’s perfect. Again?” he takes another “Awesome, you’re doing awesome. Again” he takes another, over and over as the voices ask and eventually his air steadies out, finding it easier to breathe

“Hey, Ranboo” the new Bad says quietly “I’m gonna touch your shoulder okay?” Ranboo whimpers and nods, shivering a little as the man rests a warm hand on his shoulder. He peeks up and Bad smiles warmly at him, the stranger Sam looking concerned next to him “Hi mister Boo. Bad dream?” Ranboo nods frantically, wiping at his face and trying his best not to cry as the two slowly scoot over to him, Bad rubbing reassuring circles on his back

“Yeah, those suck” Sam hums, running his hand through Ranboo’s hair soothingly “I’ve had my fair share these past couple months. Everyone has. You wanna talk about it?” Ranboo shakes his head rapidly and the two nod “Alright, that’s fine too.”

“What matters now is this is real, you’re safe” Bad croons, letting Ranboo lean on him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders to hug him “Okay? You’re real, you’re here, you’re safe.”

“I’m safe” Ranboo gasps, curling up even more to Bad “It’s okay, I’m okay”

“You’re okay” Sam repeats, gently prying the knife out of the boy’s hand and replacing it with his own hand, squeezing firmly “You’re here and you’re okay”

“You’re okay” Bad sighs, ignoring how Ranboo shuddered with silent sobs and tucked him under his chin, Sam pressing up against the two of them “It’s okay, we’re right here” The two keep murmuring quiet reassurances as Ranboo calmed down, talking about random things until he exhausted himself back to sleep.

Neither of them mentioned anything about it the next morning when Ranboo woke up curled between them, cutting off his sputtered apologies by simply ruffling his hair with kind smiles and moving on with their day like normal.

“I’m going to commit homicide!!” Eret yells, trying to grab a cackling George “Dream!! Make him give me back my crown!!”

“I am king now!!” George laughs, stomping in a couple puddles on the road as he places the silver plastic over his head “King of the new world!!”

“Dream!!”

“He’ll get bored eventually” Dream sighs, watching his friend jump around in more puddles like a child “Just wait until he gets tired of it”

“This is mutiny!!” Eret screeches, pointing at the fellow European “Birb! Get him!!” George screams as his face is engulfed in a flurry of white feathers, Eret now the one laughing maniacally as his pet yanks at George’s hair

“I am surrounded by children” Ponk huffs, watching Sapnap and Niki try to capture the rogue cockatiel “All of them. Every last one-”

“Fran! Fran no!! That’s not yours!!” Sam panics, trying to grab his dog “Bad girl! Drop it!”

“Is that my plush?!” Ranboo yelps, swinging his bag around to see it was open and his stuffed bee was close to falling out, quickly shoving his remaining toys back in and zipping his pack up “Did it fall out?”

“I’m sorry!” Sam apologized on behalf of his dog, trying to get in Fran’s way to take the plush crow out of her mouth “She probably thought it was a free toy or something- bad girl! That’s Ranboo’s!” Fran perked up her ears and turned to the teen, happily trotting over and wagging her tail excitedly as she noses his hand “Fran!”

“It’s fine” Ranboo sighs, taking the slobbered toy from the dog and patting her head. Fran yips and bounces around a little, looking at the toy and then Ranboo expectantly, clearly waiting for him to play. Ranboo looks down at the dirtied toy and shrugs, throwing it up ahead and smiling a little as Fran excitedly races off after it, Rat and Fat Bitch running as well now that they knew a game of Fetch was in session.

“You don’t have to do that” Sam pants, coming up to the teen to walk alongside him “Fran has a tendency to kill all her stuffies”

“I don’t mind, I still have three more” Ranboo admits, taking the toy back from Fran and throwing it for the dogs, watching them take off again “Besides, they were taking up space to be honest”

“Well, if you say so” Sam nods, taking the toy from Fat Bitch this time and handing it over for Ranboo to throw “Don’t let the dogs bully you though, they will take advantage of you”

“Aww, they’re just puppers” Ranboo cooed, shaking Fran’s floppy ears and grinning at the dog shoving his toy in his hands impatiently “Yes you are, you’re a baby. Aren’t you? Yeah you are- Fetch!” Fran wiggles away and runs after the plush, wrestling a little over it with Fat Bitch, Rat hanging off of it in between them, little paws kicking. Ranboo laughs at the sight, Sam also holding back a snicker as Rat stubbornly swings there. They play Fetch for a while, Fran eventually turning it into tug-of-war with Fat Bitch when they finally stop to take a break.

“Do I need to take the crown away from all of you?!” Dream yells, turning Ranboo’s attention back to the quite honestly forgotten Crown Saga “Eret!! Call off your bird already!! Niki! Give Eret back his crown for the love of god!!”

“No mercy!! No surrender!!” the young woman shouts, up on Sapnap’s shoulders and valiantly fending off Birb with a stick as she clings to the plastic accessory in her hair

“The Flame Empire takes no prisoners!!” Sapanp agreed, running around with Niki holding onto him “We fight ‘til the death!”

“I’m going to kill all of you” Dream groans, plastic mask conveniently hiding his obvious disappointment “Callahannnnn”

“Shit!! He called in the cavalry!!” Niki yelps “Sapnap go! Go go go!!”

“Yeah!!” George cheered up on Eret’s shoulders, apparently having come to a truce and temporary alliance “Go Callahan!!”

Niki and Sapnap scream as the onesie-donning man takes off after them, the two running off the road and hopping over a ditch to race for the abandoned cars in the road next to them for shelter. They vanish behind an eighteen-wheeler and Callahan slides under the truck out of sight. Their screams are quickly silenced and Callahan walks back around holding up the crown victoriously.

“Oh my god they’re dead” Skeppy blurts “Fungi and Mushroom are orphans now RIP”

“You make me a widow Callahan?!” Puffy mock wails, pretending to faint “How could you?!” Callahan only smiles under his mask, slowly setting the crown on his own head. A battered Niki and Sapnap poke out from behind the truck and grin, saluting proudly

“All hail king Callahan!!” they chorus, laughing at Eret and George’s offended protests

“CALLAHAN YOU TRAITOR!!” Dream yells “YOU WE’RE SUPPOSED TO STOP THEM, NOT JOIN THEM!!”

“.-.. --- -. --. / .-.. .. ...- . / - .... . / -.- .. -. --.”

“Ooh! Thrift store!” Bad exclaims, pointing at the stores coming up on the road “You guys wanna go thrifting?”

“Yeah, I need a couple new outfits” Eret agrees, already heading for it “It’s too hot, I need skirts”

“Why would you purposely wear skirts?” Puffy scoffs “They’re impossible to run in”

“I am simply built different” Eret boasts, sticking his tongue out at her

“Ooh! I can get a sun dress!” Niki squeals, twirling around excitedly and cape fluttering “It’ll look so pretty- Sapnap you wanna match?”

“If you can find something that’ll fit me” Sapnap snorts

“New clothes!!” Skeppy cheers, walking through shattered doors “Whoo- FUCK!!”

“Language!” Bad scolds, driving a knife into a zombie’s skull to permanently kill it, ripping out the blade and letting the body thud to the ground before stepping over it

“Don’t get the clothes all dirty!” Ponk shouts from the back, spotting the stumbling creatures coming towards them

“Free clothes!!” George cheers, shooting down another zombie with his bow

“I can finally get shorts” Puffy agrees, simply dodging a zombie in the aisle and sweeping its half rotted legs out from under it to get past, Skeppy killing it as he follows.

Ranboo almost wants to laugh at how nonchalant everyone is with the creatures wandering the store, treating them as nothing more than annoying shoppers with how they simply dodge or effortlessly kill the zombies in their way. He does laugh when a zombie tries to bite Bad in the utensils aisle and the man simply swings a frying pan into its head before setting the dented pan back on the shelf, complaining about quality.

“So do I trust the hats or no?” Ranboo asks, Ponk inspecting the rack of second-hand hats and scarves up on the wall

“I don’t know” they admit, casually kicking away the upper body of a zombie trying to nip at their ankles “I mean a hat would be useful in this heat, but if you get lice I’m just gonna shave your head”

“I’m not gonna trust the hats” Ranboo decides, inspecting the belts instead “I should probably get myself some new shorts”

“That’s over there, on the men’s side” Ponk informs, pointing over where Sam and Dream were walking “I’d recommend getting some new shoes too while you’re at it” Ranboo looked down at his beat up sneakers, more blood and duct tape than actual shoe. He can practically feel the linoleum under him through the soles

“Yeah, I probably should” Ranboo agrees, heading off to the shoe aisle to get a better pair. He manages to find a decent pair of boots that fit him, walking around a little with them on to see how comfortable they were to walk with

“New kicks?” Dream notes, plastic mask off on the side of his head to reveal his eyes, mouth and nose still covered by his second mask. His green hoodie is tied around his waist like it had been the past week or two during the daytime, usually only wearing a tank top or shirt to fight the growing heat

“Mmhmm. My shoes were gonna fall apart any day” the teen chuckles, gesturing to the pair in his hands

“Yeah, you’re better off dumping those” Dream nods, scanning over the shoe racks “You find anything cool yet? I heard Niki and Eret arguing over skirts a little while ago”

“Nope” Ranboo shrugs, following the blonde as Dream turns to walk back to the clothes “I usually wore whatever I could find, so I never really picked something cool out for myself. Saw some weird clocks though. And a game station from like the 70’s or something”

“Aw man, that sounds awesome! Too bad we don’t have anything to hook those up to” Dream complains, occasionally pausing to take some clothes off a rack and toss them at Ranboo

“To be fair, I don’t even think they’d work” the boy retorts, stifling a shriek as a rotted hand tries to grab his foot “Jesus christ!!”

“Oh, that’s where you went” Dream hums, snagging the zombie and dragging it out into the aisle. He pulls a hunting knife out from his waist and cleanly drives it through the already shattered skull. “Lost track of the little bastard a while ago. It bite you?”

“N-no, I’m fine” Ranboo tells him, shuddering a little as Dream cleans the knife off on a random sleeve “Thanks”

“Now, back to shopping” Dream continues, ruffling the teen’s hair “You have an idea what you want? Like a certain style or something. A vibe, aesthetic, etcetera etcetera”

“A style?” Ranboo snorts

“Yeah! Everyone’s got their own style they stick with” the man encourages “I have like a parkour-thief type vibe, Eret is like medieval-royalty, even Niki has sort of this weird grunge-cottagecore thing going for her. Speaking of which- NIKI!! THERE ARE CHANGING ROOMS FOR A REASON!!”

“THEY’RE ALL BLOODY!!” the half-dressed woman a few aisles away yells back “STOP BEING A BITCH, YOU’VE SEEN ME IN LESS WE LIVE TOGETHER!!”

“She has a point there” Dream admits, going back to picking off random things from the racks “So, what’s your aesthetic mister Boo?” Ranboo looks down at his current outfit of bright orange Hawaiian shirt and ripped jeans

“...lesbian on vacation?” he tries, making Dream burst out laughing “All I have is this Hawaiian shirt and flannel, I dress like a divorced dad” he smooths out his shirt a little “Honestly it’s kinda growing on me, it’s pretty comfy”

“Divorced dad shirts and flannel, got it” the blonde snickers, leading him down a new aisle “Let’s see what we can do”

The two collect a few different outfits that fit the teen, laughing over weird tees they find and Ranboo eagerly keeps. Eret convinces him to get a skirt, the boy admitting after a while that the swishing purple fabric was quite comfortable at his knees and better than pants in the heat. Puffy drapes a couple necklaces over him, her own wrists bedazzled with bracelets she’d stolen from the jewelry counter. Dream finds him a weird, fancy golden hair clip in the shape of a three pointed crown, two little “rubies” set in the metal with an “emerald” in between the two jewels. He uses it to pin back some of the bangs that kept falling over his right eye, Sam complimenting him on the new accessory.

Everyone takes turns putting on a fashion show, laughing at each other’s ridiculous combinations and booing their terrible tastes. After a while of mocking each other and trying on new clothes, the group finally starts filing out of the store. Ranboo catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror, cracking a smile at the weird outfit he wore. A swirling purple chiffon skirt swished at his calves just above “brand new” hiking boots, a simple grey shirt with just the word ‘GAMER’ printed on it was tucked into the waist and a bright blue Hawaiian shirt covered in pink flamingos that was a size too big draped over his frame. Add to that his black and white filtered mask, bandages and new hair clip, and he looked like something out of an apocalyptic Sims game.

“It’s missing something” he hums, spying a rack of glasses. He takes a round, golden rimmed pair, left lens green and right lens red, putting them on. They’re weird to see through, but his colored reflection with them on makes him grin as he strikes a pose before rushing out after the others.

Perfect.

“How the fuck do you see out of those?” George asks, popping some trail mix in his mouth

“Like I’ve been cursed by some Christmas clown” Ranboo replies, making George snort “You always wear clout glasses, why can’t I wear my Christmas demon ones?”

“Good point” the man nods, dropping down his sunglasses onto his nose and fist-bumping Ranboo “Cool glasses gang”

“Okay, hear me out” Sapnap interrupts, slinging his arms around their shoulders and bringing them in close “Ranboo, you go distract Sam and Bad while George helps me and Skeppy hotwire one of these cars on the road” the older teen starts, shushing them before they can protest “Now now, listen. Listen. We get the car, we pick Ranboo up before anyone figures out what we’re doing and we drive it to the nearest parking lot where Skeppy then teaches us how to do donuts” he grins at the two, eyes gleaming with mischief “It’ll take us like ten minutes tops and we’ll be back before Sam can even say anything. Come onnn~ What do you say?”

“I say you’re an idiot” George snorts “What car are we stealing?”

“Yes!!” Sapnap cackled, turning to the younger teen on his right “Ranboo? Come on man, I need you for this to work before they can sic Callahan on us”

“I don’t know, that sounds dangerous” Ranboo worries “What if you crash?”

“Airbags exist don’t they?” Sapnap scoffs, shaking Ranboo a little “Relax! It’ll be fine! I can probably convince Puffy to tag along too if you want a “responsible adult” with us”

“...I’m not sure if that’s the issue I have with this plan” he admits “Also, why do you need me to distract Bad and Sam?? Why not get Niki or Ponk or someone else?”

“You’re the least suspicious” George pipes up, Sapnap nodding vigorously in agreement “No one would think you were up to something”

“I still don’t know...”

“Donuts Boo boy, donuts” Sapnap emphasizes “You ever done donuts in a parking lot?” Ranboo shakes his head “Then you are missing out on life! You gotta do it at least once, cross it off the apocalyptic bucket list or something!”

“I can’t even drive!” Ranboo sputters

“Perfect learning opportunity!!” the other replies “It’ll be fun-”

A low air horn blows from somewhere nearby, making the whole group freeze in the middle of the road and listen. The sounds of a crowd can be faintly heard in the breeze, the familiarity of the sound turning Ranboo’s blood to ice. Sapnap immediately lowers his arms, uncharacteristically quiet as George goes deadly still next to him.

“Dream?” Sam calls out, the blonde frozen in place at the front “Is it...”

“Arena” Dream confirms, pulling his horse back a little, closer to his group “Ready up, they can’t be too far out” Everyone immediately reaches for a weapon, the unnatural silence of the usually rowdy crew only adding to Ranboo’s growing worry.

“We’re going around, right?” he asks, looking at the stone-faced adults around him “Guys?”

“Dream” Bad speaks up, nodding towards Ranboo “It’s his first time, let’s make a detour this time”

“He can guard the supplies” George snarls with such viciousness it makes Ranboo flinch “I’m going”

“George” Bad snaps “We can leave this one-”

“Absolutely not.”

“George-”

“I’m. Going.” George repeats, tone leaving no room for argument as he strings his bow “With or without you guys”

“George” Dream warns, holding out a hand “Don’t go rushing into things-”

“No. You promised me Dream” the man hisses, snagging him by the hoodie and almost dragging him off his horse to bring him down to his level “You promised.”

“And I will keep that promise” Dream snaps back, hefting George by the collar a little “But you’re not going in there right now. Go shoot some targets.”

“I-”

“Target. Practice.” Dream snarls, shoving him away “Go.” George mutters something and angrily stomps off to the line of trees a little further off

“I got him” Sapnap mumbles, rushing off after his friend

“Fuck” Dream breathes, running a hand through his hair “Okay. Okay.” he hops down from his horse and strokes her muzzle, turning back to rest of his concerned group “What do you guys wanna do?”

Ranboo quietly sharpens his knife as he sits up on a car, unable to clearly hear the argument the adults were having a little further off, although judging by the scowls, unsheathed weapons and angry hand gestures he could guess it wasn’t going all too well. He looks up as something clatters, watching Eret walk over to him

“Hey” the man greets, leaning on the car and looking over at the squabbling group “You okay?”

“They’re arguing over me, aren’t they?” Ranboo mutters, pulling up his legs and resting his chin on his knees

“What? No-”

“It’s okay” he mumbles, hugging his knees “You don’t have to lie, I know when people argue over me”

“...yeah, okay. Maybe.” Eret admits, fiddling with his shirt “But I promise it’s nothing bad, alright? It’s your first time when we’ve hit an Arena, and we don’t know where you stand on those”

“I don’t want anything to do with them” Ranboo spits, nails digging into his legs “There’s a reason people avoid them.”

“Yeah, most people anyway” Eret snorts, looking back at the still bickering group “Most of us have had bad experiences with Arenas, so its a bit... personal. George in particular, he has more reason than most to hate them, so I’m sorry for how he acted” they sigh a little, rubbing at their face from under their glasses “I don’t know if you’ve realized this by now, or if we’ve done a better job of hiding it, but we’re a very… vengeful group of individuals” they scoff “I, personally, don’t want you seeing that side of us. Of me. It’s not pretty, anger really brings out the worst in people” he waves vaguely in the direction Ranboo very much wanted to avoid “Arenas bring out the worst in us. It’s an attempt at revenge, that’s all it is. One of the worst coping mechanisms, but we all do it anyway. Helps us deal, y’know?” Ranboo huffs a little, eyes growing a bit vacant

“...after my first group split” Ranboo starts quietly “I got picked up by some… not so nice people.” He doesn’t react to the side-glance Eret throws him “I- I don’t remember most of my time there I don’t-” a hand comes up to grip at his hair, whining a little as he winces “My brain won’t let me remember, and I don’t think I want to” Eret hums sympathetically at that, nodding a little “It only ever comes in bits and pieces, or dreams I end up forgetting when I wake up.” He pulls up his shirt a little to reveal a healed slash running across his chest, raised and a little older than the burns and scrapes littering his skin as well “All I know is that I didn’t have this before, meaning I got it during that time somehow” he drops his shirt and smooths out the fabric “The only thing I do remember, the one good clear memory I have, is escaping.” he barks a wry laugh “Escaping. My best memory. So yeah” he leans against the car’s back windshield, fiddling with his knife “Not too fond of Arenas”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, even if you can’t remember it.” Eret murmurs. Ranboo simply nods, making a little noncommittal sound. They both look up at Dream approaching them, Eret subtly straightening up a bit “Well?”

“You already know what their decision was” Dream snaps at him, running a hand through his hair tiredly “Everyone’s decided to run it, can’t say I’m too surprised” he lifts his mask a little to spit to the side “Fuck Arenas.” he turns to Ranboo, crossing his arms as he tilts his head a bit, painted smile scrutinizing the boy “So?”

“So.” Ranboo repeats, blinking at him in confusion

“Do you want to stay behind and guard the supplies?” Dream offers before nodding towards the group behind him “Or do you wanna come fuck shit up with us?”

“What do you mean?” he asks nervously, glancing over at the impassive Eret

“You got two options buddy” Dream sighs “You stay behind and watch the stuff for us, or you tag along and help make a mess of things”

“Is anyone else staying behind?” Ranboo questions, a gnawing pit of anxiety growing in his stomach. They wouldn’t leave him behind...right?

“Nope! Everyone is coming on the run” Dream informs much too cheerily “It’d just be you watching the supplies”

“A-and the other option is what exactly?”

“Honestly? You’d probably just run around and cause distractions, break stuff, cause a fire” Dream tells him with a shrug “Stay out of the main fighting, hell you won’t have to fight at all if you don’t want to” he pauses “You ever been involved with an Arena before?”

“Yes” he mumbles, twirling his knife in a soothing motion “I’m pretty sure”

“Perfect chance for some payback” Dream informs “If you want. Arena runs are dangerous and completely voluntary. If you want to stay the hell out of it that’s totally fine too. Whatever you want.” Ranboo bit his lip under his mask, spinning his blade over and over until he could taste blood in his mouth. He didn’t want to go anywhere near the Arena, there was a reason his mind wouldn’t let him remember a majority of it.

But he was much more terrified of being left alone.

“I’ll go” he decides “But I don’t want to fight anyone. You said I can just cause distractions right?”

“Yep, yep totally” Dream reassured with a nod, Eret also nodding “Whatever you’re comfortable with, we’ll handle the rest”

“I can do that I think” Ranboo murmurs

“Alright! Sounds good!” Dream agrees, visibly relaxing “We’re gonna make these bastards pay for all the shit they’ve done” Dream nudges Eret a little, motioning towards the group “Make sure you guys are ready to go by sunset”

“Will do” Eret hums “Come on kiddo, let’s go see what shit the others have planned for this” Ranboo nods and slides off the car trunk, following after the two. “Time to burn those fuckers to the ground” Something small and resentful flickers in Ranboo’s chest for a split moment at the thought of getting even the slightest form of revenge. It’s gone nearly the second it’s there, replaced instead by a growing dread of what was to come.

He hopes he wouldn’t come to regret this decision.

“Everyone ready? You all know where the meet up is right?” Dream asks, others nodding in agreement and pulling up their masks “Ranboo, the minute you’re in there you’re on your own, so make sure not to lose track of us and keep one of us in your sights at all times so you know when to get the hell out of dodge”

“Wait, what-”

“You’ll be fine” Dream reassured with a thumbs up “You can handle yourself, and if you can’t then just go hide in a corner away from everything until its time to go, yeah?”

“Yeah, sure” Ranboo mumbles, rubbing at his face and already exhausted at the mess he was about to willingly throw himself into

“Everyone have a weapon?” the blonde questions, everyone holding up their blade or gun “Packs?”

“We’re fine” Skeppy huffed, but hefts his backpack anyway “We’ve done this before, it’s not that hard”

“Okay then” Dream nods, clapping his gloved hands and slipping his plastic smiling mask over his face “Let’s roll!”

A few people manage to hot wire a pair of the stranded trucks on the road, everyone piling into the beds and speaking only in hushed whispers as they drove in the direction of the Arena. Bad nudges Ranboo, startling him out of his swirling thoughts as he hands him a small snub nose revolver

“Bad?” Ranboo puzzled, cutting off as the man shakes his head and continues to press it into his palm

“You don’t have to use it” he explains, jostling a little as the truck turned off the road “It’s just a precaution. It’s not very accurate from long range, so only use it if you have to, got it?”

“Okay” Ranboo nodded, carefully slipping the firearm into his cargo shorts and surprisingly feeling a little more confident with the added weapon “Thank you”

“I want that back” Bad huffs, ruffling his hair “I expect it hand delivered mister Boo” Ranboo smiles a little, adjusting his hair clip to make sure it was secure

“I will” he chuckles, understanding what the man really meant “In perfect condition”

They fall quiet again, Ranboo trying to enjoy the warm wind on his face and keep his new glasses from falling off. The dread in his stomach rises as the trail suddenly goes dark, trucks turning off their headlights at the sound of a garbled announcement from further off. The cars stop and Ranboo hops out with the rest, following the small team and slinking through the tall grass towards the structured mess of wired mesh and sharpened poles. It vaguely reminded Ranboo of ancient Roman colosseums he’d learned about in school, if the Romans had mixed their designs with some sort of apocalyptic MMA ring. Either way, there was only one purpose to these monstrosities, and Ranboo could see a ring of flattened dirt and grass past cobbled together bleachers that showcased that very purpose.

The arena was illuminated by dozens of torches and lanterns, casting a bloody glow over the two “gladiators” currently trying to fend off a pack of stray dogs. The audience cheered and roared with each successful dog bite or swipe of a pipe, the humans clearly not wanting to be fighting and the dogs sharing the sentiment, if the way they kept trying to run out of the ring only to get jabbed at was any clue.

“Ranboo” Ponk hissed, making Ranboo jump a little “Come on, let’s find a back entrance” Ranboo follows Ponk around the edge of the Arena, trying not to feel sick as he hears a pained yelp followed by a raucous cheer from inside the fence. They come up to a small gap in the chain link fence, just big enough to maybe slip through and shadowed enough that it would be hard to spot people coming in through. That is, if it weren’t for the two guards up at the top, probably supposed to be watching the perimeter but much too distracted by the fight to be paying too close attention “Well, we found our way in” Ponk hums

“What about the guards?” Ranboo whispers, flinching as a human scream is quickly drowned out by violent shouting and pounding of feet.

“They’ll be too busy in a second” Ponk chuckles vaguely “Stay here, I’ll go get the others and don’t get spotted”

“Not a problem” Ranboo mutters, sinking lower into the grass as Ponk slinks off. The man comes back a few moments later with Sam, Puffy and Eret in tow, all of them crouching near the edge of the clearing and looking up at the guards messing around above “Now what??”

“We wait for the show to start” Eret snickers, slowly poking up and pointing out a silver truck driving with no headlights and blasting Cola Song out of its speakers as it barrels full speed towards the opposite side of the Arena. Ranboo can barely spy Sapnap inside the vehicle, the older teen diving out of the car and into the grass a few seconds before it goes careening into the fence and goes up in an explosion much bigger than Ranboo was expecting

“What the hell?!” Ranboo yelps, feeling the heat from the fire even from where he was hiding

“Ranboo!” Puffy calls out, already slinking through the fence Sam was holding up to allow the others to wiggle through, guards very much distracted with the raging fire and gaping hole in their fence “Hurry up!”

“Wait! Wait for me!” he cries, scrambling to his feet and racing over. He holds the mesh for Sam to get through before slipping in after him, frowning as his shirt gets momentarily snagged on the metal. He manages to yank himself free and stumbles under the bleachers but the others are long gone, blending into the chaos and shadows “Crap crap crap” he panics, mentally hitting himself as he takes off under and over haphazard wood and metal keeping the seats up “What was one thing thing Dream told you not to do you idiot?! Don’t lose track of the others!” he skids around a corner and stifles a shriek at a shambling zombie wandering around under the bleachers with him “Of course!” he shouts, pulling out his machete and quickly taking it down before it can do anything to him. He notes three other monsters trying to get to him a little further off “What crazy Arena isn’t complete with a horde of zombies?!”

He decides it’s not worth it and turns around, wiping off the blade on his shirt and sheathing it as he crawls over the supports. He can faintly hear the song Blow getting closer, confused for a moment before a second truck goes crashing into another part of the fence, people scattering and screaming from the bleachers as the car goes up in a fireball.

Ranboo keeps moving.

He scurries into a back corner, watching the chaos unfold as he hides out of sight. He crouches down and pulls off his bag, digging through the supplies he’d brought with him and pulling out a glass bottle Sapnap had given him. He sees Niki run past with a lit Molotov of her own, throwing the bottle into a small crowd and spraying the area with flames. He looks down at the bottle of gasoline in his hands and the spare rag he’d been given along with it.

“Welp. That’s one way to cause a distraction” he scoffs, unscrewing the bottle and stuffing in a rag like Niki had explained a few hours ago. He takes out the matches in his pack and slings his bag back on, shakily lighting a match and setting the rag on fire. Ranboo immediately regrets this idea, looking around for a way to put it out.

“Hey!!” a voice shouts, making the teen whirl around. A woman stands there under the bleachers, blood dripping down her forehead and a rifle in hand “Who are you?!”

“I-”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she snarls, loading her gun “Are you the one of the ones behind this?” Ranboo panics and without thinking throws the flaming bottle in his hand, rushing off as he hears it crash and feels the surging heat at his back, pounding heartbeat in his ears drowning out the furious curses behind him. He runs out into the middle of all the chaos, dodging people brawling out in the open ring and slipping between the crates and cages in the back to catch his breath. The crate next to him starts rattling and shaking, making him scramble back as furious barking is heard from inside.

“What the-” He peeks inside the crate, quickly pulling back as a dog tries to bite him. He looks around at the other cages and immediately feels bad at the whining, pawing and barking animals he’s surrounded by “Oh. You poor things” he murmurs, one dog licking at his hand through its cage bars. Ranboo absently scratches it behind the ears, counting up how many boxes there were “...I have time” he decides, crawling over and unlatching the crate “You guys gotta promise not to kill me okay? I’m trying to help” he warns, popping open more cages to set the animals free. Several dogs bolt out of the cages the minute their doors are opened, Ranboo having to dodge a couple and shoo them off when they try to bite him. A few others sniff and lick his hands before running off, earning them a couple pets before they vanish into the night. “Okay, last one” Ranboo hums, coming up to the last crate “Please don’t bite me~” A scrawny doberman comes barreling out immediately, growling at the teen quickly backing away “Whoa hey calm down” he soothes, holding his hands up “I’m not gonna hurt you”

The dog seems to inspect him, pointed ears perking up a little as it warily sniffs the fist Ranboo holds out. It snorts, shakes its head and trots off before pausing to look back at the teen and bark. Ranboo dumbly stares at it, unsure of what the dog wanted. It comes back, sniffs him and then trots off again, once more pausing to stare at him and bark, pacing a bit as if growing impatient.

“You want me to follow you??” Ranboo guesses, getting up and taking a step towards the animal. The dog barks and takes a few more steps before looking back, little stub tail wagging. “Right, right, gotcha” Ranboo nods, adjusting his pack and following the dog “Just following a dog, nothing weird or insane here in the slightest”

Ranboo follows his new four-legged companion around the edge of the arena, jogging when it kicks up into a run and starts sniffing a small shed, growling and pawing at it before looking over at Ranboo expectantly.

“What?” he huffs, looking at the barred doors. The dog pins its ears back and growls at the shed, barking a little “You want me to open it or something?” he assumes, taking out the wood plank between the handles and opening the door. A low, hungry groan and rotted hands greet him, a mass of dead eyes peering back and drooling mouths lunging for the teen. He quickly shuts the door, pressing against the rattling frame and glaring at the dog beside him barking at the monsters “Those are zombies you furry idiot! I’m not taking on a Horde by myself!!” he yells, struggling as he picks up the plank and barricades the shed, quickly backing away from the groaning, shaking building. He turns to the dog next to him, pointing at it accusingly “You almost got me killed! I can’t take on that many!!”

The dog is not impressed, sneezing at him and trotting off to another, bigger shed close by.

“Oh no you don’t! You’re not getting me bit!” Ranboo scolds, following the animal to keep telling it off “Those are zombies. Zom. Bies. That means, you stupid mutt, that they’re dead okay? Dead. They’re not-”

“Hello??” A voice calls out from the bigger shed and making Ranboo falter “Is someone out there?? What’s going on?”

“...Human” the teen finishes, a bit at a loss as he gets closer and warily knocks on the wall “Hello?? Is someone in there??”

“Yes!! Yes we are!!” the voice exclaims, several more rising up with theirs “Can you let us out, please?!”

“Holy- Yeah! Yeah, h-hang on!!” he sputters, rushing over to the doors and yanking, looking down at the quiet clinking of chains wrapped around the handles “It-it’s locked!” he shouts through the walls, tugging at the padlock futilely “Do you know how to open it or where the keys are?!”

“Someone should have them!” A different voice explains “That or they’re under the stands nearby, hanging on a post or something!”

“Okay, I’m gonna go look!” he reassures “I’ll be right back!!” he takes off to the nearby stands, inspecting the beams and woods before finding a key hiding up under a seat he snags before rushing back “I found a key, I don’t know if it’s the right one or not though!” It is, in fact, the right one, lock popping open after a twist “I got it!! It’s open!” he exclaims, unwinding chains and pushing heavy doors open. Inside the shed are people, tied together and covered in grime as they cower away from the light streaming in. The oldest he can see looks to be in their early 20’s, the youngest can’t be more than 10. “Oh my god”

“I- Oh my god!!” the voice from before cries, belonging to a young girl that seemed to be about Ranboo’s age, wearing a tattered skirt, orange shirt and plastic cat ears “Please tell me you’re not one of them”

“A zombie? No.” Ranboo scoffs, carefully making his way inside as the people inside start to sit up or stand “And considering I kinda helped crash a truck into the side of this hellhole I don’t think I count as the other people I think you’re concerned about-”

“Cup!” the other voice he’d heard exclaims, the doberman that had led Ranboo happily trots over to an older girl, licking her face and nosing her bound wrists “Hi buddy! Hey! Did you find the Captain yet? Huh? Where’s Jordan?”

“How do I get these off?” Ranboo asks, kneeling by one of the people and tapping the mess of wires, locks and zip-ties tangling the group together

“Someone has the keys” Cat-ear girl informs, tapping her bound ankle “Two sets of them, I- does anyone remember who has them??” she asks. Before anyone can answer a new person comes running in, making Ranboo reach for his machete as he quickly turns

“Ranboo?” George pants “Where-” he looks over the small crowd, falling silent as he takes in the scene “Where are the keys.” he demands

“Two sets” Cat-ears repeats

“Some guy in a trucker hat, big beard, dark green flannel” someone pipes up “Ugly son of a bitch”

“...Be right back” George tells them, walking back out of the shed “Get those zip-ties off of them Ran”

“Got it” Ranboo nods, pulling out his dual-colored knife and slicing through the plastics

“Hi” Cat-ears mumbles “Name’s Crumbington, but everyone calls me Crumb. That’s my older sister Toast” she nods towards the dark haired teen playing with the dog sticking by her side

“Ranboo” he introduces, cutting through the zip-ties on her wrists

“Cool name” she compliments, rubbing at her wrists and pulling a little at the bike lock on her ankle “Have you seen a guy? Scruffy, dark hair, pretty tall? Surprisingly buff?”

“Can’t say I have” Ranboo shrugs, moving on to the next person “Sorry-”

“Found ‘em.” George says, catching his attention. He barely manages to catch the set of jangling keys tossed at him, not commenting on the fresh splatter of blood on George’s cheek “Start popping the locks open” He and Ranboo hurry around trying to match keys to locks, swapping key rings back and forth when they ran out of keys to try on one lock. The freed people bolt as they’re let go, older kids scooping up the younger and dragging each other along as they escape. A loud crash rattles the shed, making Ranboo and George look up “We need to go.”

Ranboo fumbles for the last lock on Toast’s leg, muttering under his breath as he tries to find the matching key.

“Hurry” Toast huffs, anxiously looking around as the crashing and shouting gets louder

“I’m trying” Ranboo snaps, wiggling the stubborn key “It’s stuck-”

“Hey!!” someone shouts, George immediately turning his gun on the man in the doorway who hefts his rifle back. The man looks worn ragged, covered in grime and red flannel stained in maroon “Who are you?! Get away from her!! I swear if you even-”

“Captain!” Crumb exclaims, running over to the man and engulfing him in a tight hug the man returns with one arm, still not taking his eyes off George aiming a gun at him

“Got it!” Ranboo shouts in triumph as the lock clicks open, helping Toast to her feet “Got it! Got it let’s get out of here!”

“Jordan!!” Toast yells, rushing over to her sister and the man, Jordan, quickly getting swept up in the hug as Cup runs around them “Oh my god are you okay?! How- how did you get out??”

“Someone drove a truck through our cage” Jordan snorts, giving Ranboo and George wary stares “You boys have anything to do with that?”

“So what if we did?” George grumbles, hesitantly lowering his gun as Ranboo hurries to hide behind him “Who the hell are you?”

“Sparklez. Jordan Sparklez and yes that’s my legal name” he huffs “But people call me Captain”

“We got one of those too” Ranboo tells him “But her name’s Puffy” Jordan turns to him, tilting his head a little “Hi. I’m Ranboo, this is George-” another loud crash interrupts them and a flaming zombie goes flying by outside “And I would very much like to leave”

“Yeah” Jordan mutters, watching the body writhe around “Ditto kid” the small group hurries out, running under the stands to hide and George running off towards the fighting further away

“Wait!!” Crumb shrieked, turning around before Toast snagged her by the waist “Pancake!! We forgot about Pancake where are they?! Pancake!!”

“Who??!” Ranboo blurts out

“Pancake!” Crumb wails, looking around frantically “A little kid with brown hair, bandages on their face, seven years old! I promised I’d take care of them!!”

“Hey, hey we’ll find them” Jordan soothes, helping hold Crumb back from running into the bloody mess “We’ll find them, but right now we need to get out of here-”

“No! No!!” Crumb protests, kicking as she’s hefted over Jordan’s shoulder “Let me go I need to find them-”

“Where are they?” Ranboo interrupts, cutting her off and sheathing his knife

“What?” Crumb sniffles

“The kid. Cupcake or whatever” Ranboo explains “Where’d you see ‘em last?”

“Pancake” Toast corrects “They probably got swept up in the mess” she tells him while Jordan calms down her sister “Check behind the sheds or under the bleachers, they’re small so they’re capable of hiding just about anywhere”

“Great. Fantastic. Really narrows it down” Ranboo huffs, checking his pocket to make sure Bad’s gun was still there “I’ll be back, wait here” he orders, slipping out from under the seats and rushing back to the shed. He searches every dark corner he can find, poking his head in different places and almost getting bit by zombies on several occasions. “Hello?! Lost child anywhere?!” he shouts over the noise, ducking a crate being thrown and slipping into a small storage shed “Okay nope I give up, I’m gone-”

“Hello?” a tiny voice whimpers. Ranboo whirls around, stumbling a little at the sight of a small child curled up against the wall, one eye peeking up through matted brown hair and dirtied bandages wrapping their face “Who’s there?”

"Hello" Ranboo greeted quietly, holding out a hand and slowly approaching "What's your name?"

"...Pancake" the child sniffled, wiping their tears as best as possible from the makeshift bandages wrapped around their face "That's what my friend Crumb calls me"

"Hi Pancake" the teen hums "My name is Ranboo. I'm gonna help you get out of here okay?" Pancake shakes their head, curling up tighter against the wooden wall

"It's scary out there" they whimper "That's where all the scary people are"

"Yeah, it's pretty scary" Ranboo agrees softly "But it's not safe to stay here. Crumb is worried about you, she wants you to come with her where it's way better and nicer" Pancake sniffled and shook their head again, burying their face in their knees. Ranboo sighed, taking a seat on the ground and slipping off his backpack to dig through for ideas. He pauses as he spots his stuffed pig, hesitating for a moment before pulling it out "Hey, look what I found" he hums, holding up the toy and waving it a little. Pancake perks up a little at the sight of the soft plush, staring at it in wonder "This is Technoblade, the strongest, bravest warrior ever in the world. He's immortal, so nothing can ever hurt him, that's how strong he is"

"That's a pig" Pancake giggles, wiping away more tears

"Ah, that's just what he wants you to think" Ranboo retorts confidently "He's actually in disguise as a pig, because no one ever expects a pig to fight them right?" Pancake gives another little giggle and nods "You see, he used to have this magic crown that made him look human, but evil zombies took it from him and now he's on a quest to get it back!" He leaned forward a little and held out the toy towards them "His crown is out there somewhere, and he's promised that anyone who helps him find it will always be protected by him. And the Blood God never breaks a promise"

"Blood God?"

"That's what his giant army of... uh, wolves call him" Ranboo explains "So, will you help the great and powerful Technoblade get his crown back?" Pancake hesitates, but slowly nods and takes the toy, squeezing it tightly "Don't worry about it being scary, the world can be scary sometimes. But you've taken on this quest, which means you're already pretty brave." He gets up and dusts himself off, holding out a hand to help the child up "Now, you need a proper quest party if you're going to get the crown back, so let's go find Crumb and get them to join this mission, yeah?"

"Okay" Pancake whispers, taking Ranboo's hand and holding on tightly as he leads them out. He weaves through scattered debris, kicking aside broken wires and hurrying over to where the sisters and Jordan were waiting

"Pancake!!" Crumb cried, rushing over and scooping up the child, worriedly fussing over them "Hey my little flapjack, are you okay?"

"Mm okay" they mumble, clutching their toy as Toast equally worries over them and Cup licks their legs "I have a new friend, he lost his crown and I have to help him find it" Crumb looks over at Ranboo with a confused expression, the boy shrugging in response

"The crown is somewhere out past the fence, so you'll need to stick close to Crumb while we escape the evil zombie lair alright?" Ranboo hums, gesturing towards the bleachers "There's a hole in the fence we came in through, follow me" he orders, slipping past Jordan and out into the flaming chaos. "Hurry!"

"Come on!" The man barks, following after the teen and dragging Toast behind him. The small group races past unmoving bodies and dodges rolling fist fights, sneaking under the bleachers and crawling over the maze of metal and wood Ranboo had to get to the border.

"Here" Ranboo pants, pulling up the metal he'd held for Sam to get through "Right outside is a field, use the tall grass to hide of you have to. To the right are some kind of trees if you wanna take your chances with that. To the left, about a mile that way you'll hit the road. There's a couple stalled cars you can break into for some kind of supplies, maybe hot wire one?? I'd offer one of our trucks but we kinda exploded them-"

"Thank you" Jordan said, placing a hand on Ranboo's shoulder and squeezing "Honest kid, thank you"

"Be careful out there" Ranboo tells him, nodding curtly "I'd give you something more but-"

"You've done enough" Jordan reassures, helping pull the mesh to let Crumb and Pancake crawl through, Cup trotting out after them "You can come with us if you want"

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm good for now" Ranboo hums, handing Toast the last Molotov he had in his bag "This is a gasoline bomb. Either light and throw it, or use it for fuel it's yours now."

"Sweet" Toast grinned, slipping out after her sister

"Good luck" Jordan murmured, following the children and dog out the fence

"Good luck" Ranboo repeated, watching them vanish into the grass. He hears a scream and curse in German, whipping around to see Niki on the ground trying to fend off a stranger swinging a sword at her. She grits her teeth and parries another blow with her knife, crying out when the blade bounces off and slashes her arm.

"Niki!!" Puffy shouts, trying to get to her from the brawl she's currently caught up in. Ranboo takes off in their direction as the stranger raises their sword again, not really thinking as he slams into them and tackles the person to the ground.

"What the-"

"Leave her alone!!" Ranboo yells, refusing to let go of the person he was somehow pinning to the ground. Something hard and heavy slams into his jaw, making him see stars and taste blood as he's thrown off. He vaguely registers who he thinks is Callahan rush past, gunshots echoing in his already spinning head as George yanks him to his feet. "Wha-"

"Ow, okay I'm sure that was there before" George says with a wince as he sees Ranboo's face, helping Niki up next "Can you walk?" Ranboo nods, feeling sick at the head movement while Niki whimpers and also nods, clutching her right ear. She winces and pulls her hand away, freezing at the sight of blood dripping down her wrist

"Oh my god" she gasps, touching her ear again and flinching "Oh my god how bad is it?"

"How bad is what-" Ranboo starts, mouth going dry at the bloody sight. A good chunk of the shell of her ear is shorn, barely clinging on to the rest by a few shreds of tissue and blood dripping down her face, staining her already pink hair a darker shade of ruby. She hasn't seemed to notice the state her left hand is in either, pinkie finger looking mauled and barely hanging on.

"...I'm sure Ponk can fix it" George blurts, shaking his head frantically at the open mouthed Puffy to prevent her from saying anything "Just- don't move your head too much."

"Keep your hand there" Puffy tells her, taking a bandanna out of her pocket and wrapping up Niki's hand before she notices "I think it's time we bolt" they look around at the fires and multiple bodies strewn around, several fights still going on "Time to go?"

"Time to go" Niki agrees, sheathing her knife and leaning a little on Puffy "We need a different distraction" Ranboo hears muffled rattling and looks over to the sheds, one of them still barred and closed despite the racket inside.

"...I think I have an idea”

"Well, we're not dead" Skeppy grunts, stretching out as he leans back on his car seat "And most of us are in one piece"

Niki flips him off with her good hand, forearm heavily bandaged with clean rags. Ponk is sat beside her with a headlamp, cleaning up her hacked off ear so he can stitch it back on. Everyone else is in a similar state of patching themselves up, a bottle of disinfectant alcohol being passed around as well as a bottle of drinking alcohol Eret had found in the Arena

"Where did that horde come from??" Sapnap yawns, currently up on a car hood and bandaging his scraped up knees with a headlamp of his own

"They had a zombie shed" Ranboo explains from the front seat of another abandoned car, wincing and pulling away a little as Dream tries to clean his split lip, the warm sting of peroxide making his eyes water "I opened it up and just ran"

"Pretty good thinking" Dream hums, mouthing 'sorry' as he now wipes off a cut Ranboo had apparently gotten on his eyebrow "Gave us the time we needed to get out"

"I'm more surprised I didn't get swarmed in the process" Ranboo snorts, blinking as a band-aid is put over his wound "They shoved a lot more in there than I thought they could"

"That's what she said" Sapnap snickered, laughing as Ranboo throws a piece of scrap metal at him

"So are we sleeping in the cars?" Bad yawns, tiredly leaning against a Jeep

"We're too close to the Arena, or what's left of it anyway" Sam argues, although nodding off a little from where he was stood "I'd personally like to be a little further off before sleeping"

"Noooooo" Eret whines, draping over Sapnap's lap "I wanna sleeeeppp"

"Okay done!" Ponk exclaims, leaning back and taking off his bloodied rubber gloves as he sighs in relief "Why are ears so tough to stitch up?" He grumbles, running a hand through dyed hair and leaning against a tire "Okay, last order of business and then I'm passing the fuck out for at least the next three hours, god help you lot if you wake me up for something that isn't a life or death emergency. Now, let me see your hand" he orders, taking the swaddled up hand Niki extends and unwrapping the bloody mess. "So. Good news" he starts, looking up at her face "You're right handed and this is your left hand"

"Oh god how bad is it?" Niki groans, refusing to look at her hand as its turned over

"Your ring finger is okay, I think I can just stitch that" Ponk explains "But your pinkie is a lost cause, like bone poking out lost cause. I think I can salvage a knuckle, or I can take the whole thing off-"

"Please let me keep as much finger as I can- OW!" She yelps, wincing as Ponk keeps inspecting her hand "Ponk!"

"Suck it up" he huffs, waving at Sam "Go set up the tarp for her"

"Where are the pain meds?" Niki whines, flinching as her bleeding fingers are wrapped back up "I take it back, what can knock me out for this?"

"You're not allowed to black out drink!" Eret reminds with a grin, holding up the 3/4 empty bottle of whiskey

"Ponk!! I'm getting operated on I should be allowed to drink!" Niki complains, getting dragged over to where Sam was laying out a bright blue tarp and sanitizing it

"This isn't the civil war age!" Ponk screeches, Puffy sharpening and cleaning a knife, running a flame over the blade before handing it over to Sam. “Alcohol is a blood thinner, you know this!!”

Niki keeps protesting and complaining, still going even through the bit Bad puts in her mouth for her to bite down on.

"Is she going to be okay?" Ranboo worries as others hand over lanterns for Ponk to properly see

"She'll be fine, she's tough for a tiny thing" Dream reassures, stretching out his arms and popping them "Ponk knows what they're doing and as long as she doesn’t walk too much, keeps the bandages clean and drinks enough water she should be fine. I mean, you survived way worse, she'll be fine!" he pats Ranboo on the knee and gets up, popping his back a little "Alright, we'll take a quick break for Ponk to work his magic, let Niki recover a bit and then move to a better place for the night, morning, whatever. Sound good guys?" The group murmurs quiet agreements, Skeppy already passed out in the backseat of the car he'd been sitting in and Sapnap looking close to dropping dead right then and there.

Ranboo lays down the driver's seat he's sitting in as far back as he can, propping his feet up on the wheel. He spies Callahan crawling into the back seat of his car in the rearview mirror, the man giving him a tired, two-fingered salute before sprawling out and falling asleep. Niki's muffled whimpers and the aching pain covering Ranboo's body are nothing more than background nuisances as exhaustion washes over him, numbing him enough to sleep.

"Can we take a break??" Niki huffs, currently riding with Sapnap "Or can someone at least pass me my bag? I want a snack"

"You guys wanna stop for lunch?" Bad suggests, tired agreements rising up from the group

"Next proper building we find can we stay for a while?" George complains, tossing off his bag and stretching out "Walk walk walk that's all we do all day every day"

"I mean there's not much else to do" Eret snorts, helping Sam set up the stove while everyone else sets their stuff down "Walk and hunt, hunt and walk. Speaking of which, I think I saw a couple rabbits out in the field" they gesture to the grassy open plains surrounding them "So if you wanna try with that, go on ahead"

"Fine" George huffs, snatching up his bow and quiver "But just because I'm hungry and I think my stash is running low." Callahan gets up as well, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder and picking up his own quiver "Anyone else wanna go try your luck out in the grass?" He asks

"I'll go" Puffy hums, dumping off her pack and pulling out her rifle, slipping it over her back like Callahan "Been craving burgers lately and some poor little field animal is the closest I'm gonna get to that"

"'Mmm, burgers"' Callahan signs with a wistful look on his face "'I miss those"'

"Chili dogs, that's what I miss" Puffy sighs, the three wading into the tall grass and overgrown weeds "With cheese fries"

"Stop you're making me hungry" George whines

"Pizza."

"'Icecream."'

"Milkshakes."

"STOOOOOPPPP" George wails, Puffy listing off more and more foods as they walked

"I feel like at any minute some truck is gonna come by and run us all over" Ranboo chuckles, sprawling out on the pavement and squinting up at the sun blazing overhead, pulling his colored glasses down to help cover his eyes.

They're not much help.

"It's too hot" Dream whines, masks off and fanning himself "We're heading back into the woods first chance we get"

"Noooooo!!" Skeppy screeches, flopping back into the grass with a thump "You bastard!!"

"Language!"

"There is no shade!!" Dream argues, brandishing the knife he was sharpening "We're gonna burn!"

"Sucks to suck white boy!" Skeppy yells back, still laid out in the grass and throwing both middle fingers up “Burn bitch!!”

Ranboo ignores the argument the two get into, rolling over and crawling to where Eret is sat trying to cook. He and Eret chat for a while, Niki laying out over Eret's lap and occasionally chiming in. Ponk walks over and plops down next to Ranboo, making him yelp a little in surprise as the man takes his arm and starts poking at it

"What are you doing??" Ranboo puzzles, watching the doctor start taking off the bandages still wrapped around his elbow and part of his upper arm

"Checking your wounds" he replies, as if it was obvious "And I'm happy to say you're good to go Ranboo! Everything has scabbed over nicely and its beginning to properly heal" he unwinds the bandages around the teen's knee next, inspecting the healed up wounds and nodding "Yup! Everything's good!"

"Yeah! Congratulations!!" Eret laughed, slapping Ranboo on the back and Niki cheering as well "Clean bill of health my man!"

"Wow, I didn't even notice" Ranboo admitted, running his good hand over the new scars on his arm and leg, flexing his scarred hand a little "Looks weird"

"Looks badass" Sam corrects, currently the only thing keeping Dream from strangling Bad who was trying to keep Skeppy from kicking Dream "Like you're some sort of video game character or something"

"Yeah, a video game character a ten-year-old customized" Skeppy snorts, yelping when Dream's boot manages to hit him on the head "You bitch!!"

"Language!"

"Get wrecked!!" Dream cackles, lunging for the unsuspecting Sapnap and now wrestling with him on the road

"Children" Niki huffs, wiggling her splint hand and wincing when it inevitably hurts "We are traveling with actual children."

"Really?!" Ponk exclaimed with mock surprise, ducking as Sapnap's boots go flying over his head, their owner screeching in rage and now trying to get Dream's final shoe off, the blonde wheezing and trying to kick his friend off "What possibly makes you say that??"

"OW!! STOP BITING MY FOOT!!"

"LET GO OF MY LEG THEN!!"

"I want Callahan back" Sam groans, running a hand over his face

"DREAM!! STOP!! BAD SAID WE’RE NOT ALLOWED TO RUN WITH KNIVES!!"

OH SAPNAP~ COME HEREEEE~"

"BADDDDDDD!!"

Puffy, George and Callahan's hunting trip provides the group with two days worth of food to keep them going, Puffy quite proud of the partridge she'd managed to catch and roast over the fire. They find another patch of abandoned cars on the road to set up for the night, moving the cars into a ring to better shield them as they slept

"And then George ends up falling in a ditch!" Puffy retells, Callahan animatedly signing along with a wide grin as George sputters protests "He's got his foot stuck in the hole, the rabbit is still wiggling in his hands getting blood everywhere and now Callahan is telling us there's snakes" Callahan nods vigorously

"There was no snakes!!" George yells, ears tinted pink in the moonlight as his friends laugh and tease him "I'm stuck there, possibly with a sprained ankle or something, and he goes and tells me there’s a massive rattlesnake by my leg!!"

"So this idiot" Puffy gasps through her laughter "I'm sure you all heard the scream, that's how loud he was my god. Anyway, he starts screaming and throws the fucking rabbit at his foot, yelling something about a sacrifice while me and Cal are trying to pull him out and- I shit you not, the biggest snapping turtle I have ever seen in my life comes out of the hole George's foot was stuck in and takes the rabbit!!"

A loud chorus of disbelief and indignation rises from the small group, Callahan's breathy laughter hiccuping through the chaos and face red with glee

"Yeah! I know!!" Puffy exclaims "So now George is wrestling a fucking turtle over this stupid rabbit we spent an hour chasing- and losing might I add!"

"I was winning that fight and you know it!!" George protests "I totally won!"

"We only got like a leg back of the bunny!" Puffy retorts "Admit it, you lost to a turtle dude!"

George and Puffy keep arguing over the schematics of the turtle fight, others chiming in and side tracking them into different stories that have Ranboo clutching his stomach and gasping for air from laughing too hard. The group eventually settled down enough for people to sleep, Ranboo taking watch with Skeppy and Dream. The three take turns telling different stories to help keep each other awake, a still up Eret occasionally chiming in with side comments that make the outrageous tales even funnier. Skeppy hops up on the car Ranboo is perched on, laying down on the roof with him and making up constellations out of the stars above them so ridiculous it has the teen in tears.

Ranboo doesn’t even care that he goes to bed that night with a sore stomach and aching cheeks, still giggling to himself about a stupid dick joke Dream had made that thoroughly left him in shambles

"City!!" Bad cheers, pointing at the sea of cars leading out of a town "Shopping time!!"

"Finally!" Dream exclaims, others cheering as well "Cal do you have our list?" Callahan holds up his notebook and waves it "Perfect! Alright, we can finally stock up again"

"I think we still have a pretty good amount of supplies left" Ranboo murmured softly, looking over at the supplies in the wagon he was pulling that had barely dwindled

"Never hurts to have extra stuff Ranboo" Sam hums, slinging an arm around the teen's shoulder "And also we've had to cut down to two meals a day instead of usually three to ration food."

"That's still really good, like, better than most people good" Ranboo snorts "You realize almost everyone these days barely gets one meal a day right? And that's with smaller groups who eat less"

"I'm out of snacks!" Skeppy informed "All I have left are these gross yogurt raisins!"

"Skeppy's out of snacks" Sam nods solemnly "Which means so are most of us and we need snacks Ranboo, that's like the most important part of a roadtrip"

“Oh my god is this what being part of the 1% felt like??” Ranboo mutters to himself

"And you can't be complaining about more food noodle boy" Ponk scolds "You're skinny enough as it is, you need more meat on your bones. You haven't gained nearly enough yet"

"I've gained weight!" Ranboo protests "You can barely see my ribs anymore!!"

"You're not supposed to be able to see them!!" Ponk sputters, Skeppy and Sam exchanging a look as Ponk continues lecturing Ranboo about the nutrients a growing teen like him needed

"There he goes with the eating proper meals again" Skeppy sighs

"A BOX OF CHEEZ-ITS AND A 5 HOUR ENERGY BOTTLE IS NOT A PROPER MEAL!" Ponk seethes, turning on Skeppy

"That is absolutely a proper meal!" Skeppy argues "It is the best meal even!! Better than George's “5 cans of coffee” meal anyway"

"I hate all of you" Ponk bemoans, burying his face in his hands "I swear, one of these days when we can afford it I'm putting all of you on a proper meal plan"

"Noooooooo" Skeppy whines, leaning on Ranboo dramatically "Dream! Do you hear this traitor?! He's gonna put us on a meal plan!!"

"Fanta and a box of Triscuits are a valid meal Ponk!!" The blonde yells indignantly

"NO IT IS NOT!!"

Sapnap whistles lowly as the building comes into view, others slowing to a halt at the sight of the messy parking lot not too far off

"You think it's a good enough run to risk it?" Bad asks, pulling out his binoculars to better see "There sure are a lot of zombies, might not even be worth our time"

"It's a Walmart Bad" Puffy scoffs "There's bound to be something left inside"

"Not even food wise" Dream adds "I doubt anyone is too keen on taking- what's on the list again Cal?"

"'Cotton balls, hats, sunscreen-"'

"Yeah, any of that over the food inside" he nods “I say we run it”

"Whoo!" Sapnap cheers, others beginning to pull out weapons "I can finally get myself a new shitty hammock!!"

"Ugh, it's too hot to be fighting" George complains, begrudgingly stringing his bow “Do we have to?”

"Two words Georgie" Dream snickers, holding up two fingers "Coffee. Aisle."

“What are you all waiting for then?!” George snaps, pushing the cackling Dream on ahead of him “Hurry up and get us inside!!”

After managing to make their way through the undead crowd in the parking lot, the group gets into the store and barricades the entrance with a wall of shopping carts and vending machines.

“Alright!” Dream announces, clapping his hands “Welcome to Walmart, your apocalyptic one stop and shop! Buddy up and let’s clean this place out before we shop!”

“Shopping!!” Skeppy cheers, hopping into a cart Puffy immediately starts running with past the registers “Onwards!!” The two cackle as they run past zombies, Skeppy whacking the monsters as they speed by.

“Ranboo, George” Dream hums, clicking his tongue before gesturing down a different aisle with his head “Let’s go”

“Coffee coffee coffee” George chants, practically bouncing next to Dream and making Ranboo laugh

“Watch the coffee aisle be cleaned out when we get there” the teen snorts, startled when Dream shoots a zombie that suddenly came shambling out of a rack of clothes

“Don’t you dare jinx me” George hisses, shooting Ranboo a glare “I am down to my last two cans and scoopful of instant coffee, I will die.”

“He has an addiction” Dream hums, ignoring George's dark muttering of promised death if there was no coffee left behind "So! Your bandages are off"

"What?? Oh! Yeah" Ranboo nods, flexing his fingers a little and hopping a rotted hand that tried to grab his ankle. He kneels down and carefully drags the rotted moving corpse out, driving his knife through its skull and wiping off his blade before getting back up "Ponk says I'm good to go. It's weird, seeing it all healed up like this." he twists his arm a little to better examine his wounds "I’m not used to...this”

“What, the scars?” Dream questions, looking over his shoulder at Ranboo trailing behind them

“Mm” he nods, scowling a little at the marred skin and picking at the remaining scabs “I don’t like how they look” he admits

“Why? They’re pretty badass” George tells him, shooting down a zombie further down the aisle “And scars are a normal thing now”

“True” Dream agrees with a nod, casually reloading his revolver as he walks and taking down three more zombies “Everyone has a scar or two, no biggie. What so wrong about them? It’s not like they hurt or anything right?”

“I don’t want to remember” Ranboo mutters, rubbing more at his arm “I don’t like remembering how I got these” George and Dream share an unreadable look, the blonde looking back at Ranboo with concern

“I’ve been meaning to ask” Dream starts hesitantly “How exactly did you get those burns? Niki or Sapnap or any of the others I’d understand, but you’re the careful type. I can’t think of any reason for you to willingly do something that dangerous-”

“COFFEE OH THANK GOD I’M SAVED!!” George interrupts, flying down an aisle and stabbing multiple zombies in his way with an arrow “MOVE YOU MUFFIN FUCKS!!” He shouts, leaving his bolt in an eye socket as he skids in front of the rows of coffee “There is a god still out there” he sighs, falling to his knees and hugging the shelf still full of bags of coffee grounds

“Oh my god, remind me not to ever deprive you of caffeine” Dream mutters, peeking into the aisle and spotting the massacre George had single-handedly caused.

“Okay, I’m done” George hums contentedly, sprawled on the floor and clutching several cans of instant coffee “We can leave now, I have what I need”

“You are pathetic” Dream teases, taking a box of coffee pods and examining it before tossing it over to Ranboo “You want something?” he asks, spreading his arms out at the still full shelves “I’m not really much a coffee person, you wanna get tea?”

“Tea sounds nice” Ranboo agrees, heading over to the boxes of different flavors “You have any favorites?”

“Jasmine-Green is the best” Dream replies, heading over “It’s delicious”

“Cowards” George scoffs “Stop corrupting Ranboo with your leaf water propaganda”

“Shut it bean soup bitch!” Dream retorts, taking a random box off the shelf and hurling it at George, grinning as the man yelps in pain when it hits its mark “Leaf water is good!”

“The fuck it is!”

Ranboo ignores the squabbling adults, looking over the boxes of tea and making sure to pick out ones he’d seen the others enjoying.

“Do I get the mosquito net one or the cloth one?” Sapnap mutters, looking over the few hammock choices there were “Cloth would be warmer and comfier...”

“Puffy told me to get a mosquito netted one” Ranboo shrugs, snagging the red nylon bundle and examining the contents listed on the back

“Yeah, that’s a good idea” the older teen sighs, taking a navy blue one for himself “You know what’s weird?”

“What?” Ranboo hums, slinging off his pack to make room for the new item

“There’s a case for weapons” he says, pointing at the glass keeping pocket knives and other blades safely locked up “And then they just go ahead and sell hunting knives and hatches out here for anyone to grab” he points at the packaged weapons, sure enough out in the open for anyone to grab

“Walmart.” Ranboo snorts, Sapnap nodding a little

“Walmart” he agrees, tucking his bundle under an arm “Help me break into the ammo case- actually, how good are you with a gun?”

“I’ve shot one.” Ranboo replies curtly “Once or twice.”

“So you’re shit” Sapanp snorts, grinning at the dark look Ranboo shoots him “You are!!” He laughs, cackling loudly as he leans on the counter near the cases “Holy- you never learned how to shoot??”

“We never had ammo to spare for lessons” the boy mutters, examining metal cups and portable stoves on the camping supplies shelf “And I never really had a reason to learn before all this”

“True” Sapnap hummed, swaying his head a little “Tell you what, you help me find ammo for the guns we have and I’ll take you out back and let you have a couple rounds of practice with one of the pistols”

“Wait, really?!” Ranboo exclaimed, whirling around “You’ll let me shoot?”

“Yeah!” the older agreed “You need to know how to fire a gun, and there’s plenty of live targets all around for you to practice on” he pushed off the table and began digging around under the counter “I can ask Bad to give you some quick safety training and gun care before we practice too, he’s the guy in charge of all that”

“Thank you” Ranboo mumbled “I’d really like that”

“No problem!” Sapnap chuckles “Now come on, help me commit crimes and find stuff we’re definitely not supposed to have”

"You okay?" Dream asked, seeing how Ranboo kept flexing his right hand "Something wrong with your hand?"

"No, not really" the teen sighs, running a thumb over the healing wounds and scabs "It's just- my scars. It's not like they hurt or anything, well, they kinda do??" He makes a disgruntled noise and flexes his hand more "It just feels weird, and it aches all the time"

"Does it?" Dream wonders, tilting his head a little

"Yeah"

"What if we get you some gloves?" The blonde suggests, taking Ranboo by his good arm and pulling him along down the aisles

"Gloves?" Ranboo repeats, trailing behind

"Yeah, compression gloves" Dream explains, holding up one of his own gloved hands and wiggling his fingers "Mine are just driving gloves I picked up somewhere, but compression gloves are supposed to help with aching, and they also keep your grip when your hands are all sweaty"

"Useful" Ranboo snorts, looking around the destroyed aisle and pointedly ignoring the bloodstains on the floor.

"Oh! There we go!" Dream hums, coming to a stop in front of a rack of scattered gloves "Alright, let's see if these are the right size" he takes off a couple pairs of fingerless gloves and rips off the tags "Hand." He orders, Ranboo holding out his injured hand. Dream gently slips the glove on, tightening the strap around the wrist to tighten it "How's that? A little better?"

"A bit" Ranboo admits, flexing his hand as Dream puts on the other one for him "They're really snug"

"They're supposed to be" Dream chuckles, examining Ranboo's hands "Good?"

"Mmn. Better" the teen says with a shrug "They look cool"

"Yeah! Now we match!" Dream exclaims, pressing his right hand against Ranboo's and intertwining their fingers "Glove buddies! See?"

"Y-yeah!" Ranboo sputters, flushing a little at the genuine excitement Dream was showing "We match"

"Awesome!" Dream laughs, still holding Ranboo's hand as he drags him back to where most of the group was still milling around "I grabbed you a couple extra pairs of the same size, trust me, these things get lost like you wouldn't believe out on the road"

"I bet" Ranboo snickers, waving a little at Niki

"You have gloves!!" The young woman squeals, rushing over and taking Ranboo's hands to examine. She intertwines her good leather-bound hand with his, jumping in place a little "You match!! Cal!!" Callahan looks up from where he's taking out his things as Niki holds up one of the teen's hands "Glove gang!!" Callahan grins and gives a thumbs up, his own hands covered with dark, fingerless-gloves

"You pull those off pretty well" Skeppy notes, nodding in approval "You look good"

"He does" George agrees, wiggling his own archer-gloved hands "Gloves are hard to look good in like we do, Skeppy would know"

"He doesn’t look good in gloves" Niki stage whispers

"HEY!!"

Ranboo laughs a little, rubbing at his new gloves and examining them with a new sense of pride, becoming more comfortable with how they looked on him.

"We pull them off damn well huh?" Dream hums, ruffling Ranboo's hair before slinging an arm around his shoulder "Now, does anyone know if there's any blankets or pillows left to steal? I wanna make a pile-"

"Pillow fort!" Ranboo gasped, Dream and Niki's eyes lighting up

"SCRATCH THAT WE'RE MAKING A PILLOW FORT!!" Dream yells, dragging the teen after him by the hand and Niki holding onto Ranboo's other hand to get pulled along as well, all of them chanting about pillow forts

Ranboo snuggled lower into nest of blankets and cushions he’d made, his and Skeppy’s heads peeking out from where they were burrowed. The group was sat in a circle by the bicycle racks, lanterns littering the ground and battery-powered fairy lights strung up around them on shelves and bikes, casting a warm glow over the group setting up for the night.

“I can’t believe there were still marshmallows” Skeppy chuckled, wiggling happily as he turns his roasting marshmallow over the coals to evenly cook it

“I can’t believe you two fuckers are hogging all the blankets” Sapnap scoffs, quickly blowing out his flaming marshmallow and taking up his crackers and chocolate bar to make himself a s’more “You are single-handedly keeping an entire aisle of blankets and pillows for yourselves”

“Do you want to be in the pillow fort Sapnap?” Ranboo offered teasingly, seeing how the older pouted

“Noooo!!” Skeppy protested “There’s no room-”

“I’ll swap” Ranboo chuckled, crawling out of the nest much to Skeppy’s protests

“Comin in hot!!” Sapnap yelled, tackling Skeppy and half of the fort the second Ranboo is clear, muffled curses rising from the pile. Ranboo ignores the fight and crawls over to Niki, taking a seat beside her.

“Chocolate?” She offers, stealing a bar from Dream

“Yesssss” Ranboo cheers quietly, quickly taking it before Dream can recover his stolen goods

“You little thieves!!” the blonde screeched, trying to grab his candy while Niki held him back, laughing brightly while Ranboo frantically shoves what’s left of the bar in his mouth “Spit it out!!”

“Noph” Ranboo cackled, scarred cheeks puffed with chocolate and a marshmallow he’d also shoved in there “Mimph nhow”

“I’m going to feed the both of you to zombies” Dream spits, now wrestling Niki trying to pin him down, although taking care to avoid her injured hand

“Guys!” George yelled, skidding to a stop outside the circle “Guess what Callahan found!!” Callahan runs over with a small bag at his hip and holds up a white Polaroid camera, smiling widely. The camera flashes and begins to whirr, the front printing out a photo.

“Yo!! Is that a camera?!” Sapnap exclaimed, looking up from where he was sitting on Skeppy. He gets up and rushes over, peering at the photo George held “Take my picture! Take my picture!”

“Are there any more?” Bad asked, looking up from where he was roasting a marshmallow

“’Only one”’ Callahan signs, turning the camera on Sapnap who pulled George in close

“Rest were looted or broken” George informs, slinging an arm around Sapnap’s shoulder and setting his clout glasses down over his eyes “Cal managed to find literally the only working one” The camera flashes and the two hurry over to Callahan to get a look at the printing photo

“How much film do you have??” Puffy questions, throwing up a peace sign and leaning on Sam and Eret as Callahan snaps their picture

“’A lot”’ He tells her giddily, opening the bag over his chest at his hip to reveal boxes and boxes of film. Everyone began excitedly clamoring at the sight, all of them asking for a photo and eagerly surrounding Callahan

“I never liked taking photos” Ranboo hums, spearing another marshmallow to roast as Callahan happily takes everyone’s photo

“Same” Dream chuckles, managing to snag a bag of graham crackers for himself “I’m not very photogenic”

“Oh that is a lie and you know it” Niki scoffs “There’s no way you’re not photogenic you freaking model”

“I’m not!” Dream laughs “Honest! I always look weird in photos!”

“I don’t believe you” the young woman snorts “Bet. CAL!! PICTURE!!”

“DON’T YOU DARE!!” Dream screams, trying to bolt only to get dragged back by his hood, Niki also snagging Ranboo by the arm and pulling him in as a grinning Callahan approaches with his new camera “NIKI NO!!”

“Smile!!” she laughed, pulling the two in close to her as the camera flashes. Ranboo yelps and frantically tries to pull his mask up in time, Dream wiggling around in her hold as the camera whirrs “Lemme see!” she giggles, rushing over and snatching the printing photo

“Burn that!” Dream seethes, scrambling to his feet and running after her, chasing her in circles around the fire while others watch on and laugh “Niki!! Burn it!”

“No! Let it develop!!” she squeals, trying to hold it out of reach from the taller blonde “Let it develop!”

“Never!!” Dream shouts, wrestling the cackling woman for the photo. The two bicker and fight for a while, photo slipping out of Niki’s hand. Ranboo manages to snag the photo before it flutters into the fire, examining the Polaroid in his hand.

All three of their faces are washed out by the blinding white of the camera's flash, nearly whiting them out completely. Dream has a few visible crumbs around his mouth, wide green eyes partially red with the light's reflection and freckled cheeks squished where they were pressed against Niki. Niki's own eyes are happily squinted, mouth open in a beaming smile and the flush on her face slightly visible despite the camera flash. Ranboo is practically nothing more than a blur from getting dragged in last minute, looking startled and mask scrunched up awkwardly at his nose from trying to quickly pull it back on, hand still up by his face as he's pulled close into frame.

Niki manages to snatch the Polaroid, holding it up triumphantly and away from Dream

"Got it!!" She laughed, looking at the photo and brightening at the captured moment "Awww!" She cooed "We look so cute!!"

"You can't even see us!" Dream argues, peeking over her shoulder "You can keep that one, I'll get a better one"

"This is a good one!" Niki squawks, batting at him "I like it!"

Ranboo ignored the argument, going back to making a new s'more for himself, watching the two bicker and squabble as he enjoys his snack.

He pays no mind to the click-flash of Callahan's camera.

A scream startles Ranboo out of the deep, comfortable slumber he’s in, instinctively reaching for the weapon by his side as he sits up and scans his dark surroundings

“Wha- whas happpenin??” he slurs, trying to take in the situation and other newly awoken people sitting up in a panic “Where- zombs??”

Another scream is let out, Ranboo realizing it’s coming from George. The man is curled up into a ball in his sleeping bag, shaking hands gripping his hair and body violently trembling. Dream sleepily curses and rushes over, kneeling in front of his friend and gently prying the hands away from his face

“George? George it’s okay, it’s okay” Dream soothes, others beginning to relax and slump back down on the ground when they realized no one was getting attacked “Hey, hey. Buddy look at me- look at me.” he orders, cupping George’s terror-stricken face and forcing the man to stare at him “You’re okay. Nothing’s hurting you. You’re not there anymore.” George’s breath hitches and mismatched brown-blue eyes well up with tears, the man letting out a broken wail as he clings to Dream’s hoodie

“What’s happening?” Ranboo mumbles and rubs his eyes. Sapnap goes rushing over to help comfort the man, long hair a mess as he coos and whispers to the stammering and frantic George trying to hold onto him

“Nightmare” Puffy yawns, laying back down on her pillow and draping a blanket over herself “We all get ‘em, just try to go back to sleep”

“But-” he starts, pausing as a gentle hand is placed on his shoulder. Ponk shakes his head silently, nodding over towards Dream and Sapnap calming a weeping George down with quiet reassurances and holding him tightly.

“They got this” Ponk whispered, tucking himself back into his sleeping bag “Sleep” Ranboo reluctantly lays back down, trying to slip back into that peaceful nothingness

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” George gasps out “I didn’t mean to- it should have been me, I’m sorry-”

“You did the best you could” Sapnap hums quietly, rubbing his back as his friend breaks down into a fresh wave of hiccupping sobs “They know you tried. They wouldn’t blame you”

“I’m so sorry”

Ranboo curls up tightly and presses a pillow over his head to muffle the crying, knowing all too well the man probably didn’t want people hearing his breakdown. Linoleum digs into his bad hip but he refuses to turn around in order to give George some semblance of privacy, eventually managing to slip back into a fitful sleep after a while.

Nightmares sucked.

“I swear, if you don’t get the flamingo shirt I’m getting it for myself” Eret threatens “They’re flamingos!!”

“Yeah but this one has corgis!!” Ranboo argues, holding up the light blue Hawaiian shirt covered in little poolside corgis and palm trees “Come on! They’re in little inflatable tubes!”

“But flamingos!” Eret whined, gesturing to the navy Hawaiian shirt patterned with bright pink birds Ranboo held in his other hand

“Screw it, I’ll get both” Ranboo huffs, kneeling down by his backpack and sorting stuff around “Dang, I have like no room in here”

“Is there anything you can swap out?” Eret asks, looking over a rack of hoodies “Make some room?”

“Not really” Ranboo grumbles, digging around some more and pulling out wrappers and bits of trash. He pulls out the stuffed raccoon he had down at the bottom, fluffy toy definitely taking up much needed space. He stared at the plush creature for a while, debating on whether or not to keep it “I don’t really need you, I need new clothes.” he sighs, setting the toy aside and shoving the multiple Hawaiian shirts and cargo shorts he’d collected in its place

“You’re keeping the weed button down right?” Eret asks, leaning out from behind the rack

“Obviously I’m keeping the weed shirt!!” Ranboo cries, almost insulted as he holds up the white button down printed with little marijuana leaves before shoving it in his pack “This is the best thing I’ve found in the entire store!!”

“I thought the banana one was the best”

“Banana shirt is third place, after the corgis” Ranboo snorts, zipping up his pack and slinging it over his good shoulder “Did you find socks?” Eret tosses him a ten-pack, the teen easily catching it “Sweet” he chuckles, tucking it under an arm and kicking up the raccoon toy to catch “I know where you can go buddy” he hums, heading back out to a main aisle and snatching a belt on the way. He walks down to the toy aisle, finding the stuffed animals and gently setting his toy next to another, larger plush raccoon. “There.” he nods, patting the arcade stuffie on the head “Now you’re with your family-”

“Ranboo!!” Sam exclaims as he nearly collides into a shelf in his excitement, holding up a massive Lego box “Do you wanna help me, Callahan and Sapnap build this Jurassic Park Lego set?! We also have like a Batman car thing and a few Star Wars sets too if you wanna build those”

“You had me at Jurassic Park Lego set!” Ranboo quickly agrees, rushing over and falling in step with Sam “How many pieces is it? Can we build the dinosaurs?!”

“You’re all nerds!” Puffy teases as she walks by with a Lego bonsai tree set of her own tucked under an arm “Where’s the fishing stuff?”

“Past the paint aisle” Sam informs, turning back to Ranboo and excitedly chatting him up about Legos, both of them eager to spend the next several hours building.

Ranboo doesn’t even notice when it starts to get dark, too busy arguing with Sapnap over a missing 1 x 4 to care that it was dinner time. Besides, he wasn’t all that hungry anyway, he’d eaten his fair share of snacks while building and finishing this last portion of a Tie-fighter was much more important- yes Bad I know eating real food is important but the 1 x 4 piece I need is missing and I’m about to have an honest to god aneurysm trying to find it- yes I’m perfectly okay why do you ask-

“I’m just saying” Dream hums, catching the football Puffy hurled at him “You’re gonna want a hat for the sun- Sam go long!!” he throws the ball down another aisle, Sam running back and leaping up to catch the ball with a whoop

“They’re all so boring though” Ranboo complains, perched up on a shelf and kicking his legs a little as he watches Sam throw the ball over to Sapnap in another aisle “I mean I found some bucket hats I kinda like over in the craft aisle but they’re so plain and I mean look at me!” he waves his hand in a flourish to show off the multicolored Hawaiian shirt he wore that day, pastel green pleated skirt “borrowed” from NIki, mismatched glasses and split mask only adding to the chaos of his outfit “I have a standard now, a ~style~ if you will”

“More like a blinding walking fashion disaster” Skeppy scoffs, yelping as the teen pelts him with a box of Kleenex from above “Seriously, If we ever get split we can use Ranboo as a homing beacon- Ow! Okay, that’s it you little shit! I’m coming up- OW! STOP HITTING ME WITH KLEENEX BOXES!!”

“No.” Ranboo chuckles, hefting another box of tissue paper threateningly

“You’re gonna get your eye poked out Skeps” Dream warned teasingly, jumping up to catch Puffy’s throw

“He’s trying to kill me!!”

“I would never do such a thing” Ranboo says solemnly, smiling a little as Dream stifles a snort “Dream, he is a liar and not to be trusted”

“Of course, of course” Dream agrees, nodding very seriously before throwing the football over to Sam again “How dare you make such baseless accusations about our dear beloved Ranboo Skeppy” he’s visibly shaking from trying not to laugh as Ranboo manages to hit Skeppy again on the head with another box “You’re clearly imagining things.”

“This is blatant favoritism and you will be hearing from my lawyers!” Skeppy shouts, marching off down the aisle “BAD!! I’M GETTING BULLIED AGAIN!!”

Sam takes a few steps forward, leans back to get a good look at where Skeppy is before pulling back his arm, taking aim and-

Whap

“OW!! SAM YOU FUCKING BITCH!!”

“HEY! LANGUAGE!!”

Dream has to lean on the shelf to hold himself upright from wheezing so hard, Ranboo curled up clutching his stomach with laughter on the shelf above him. The two dissolve into a further fit of glee when Sam gives a panicked yelp and takes off, a livid Skeppy gripping a lacrosse stick hot on his heels a few moments later.

“Whatcha looking at?” Puffy asks, thoroughly startling the teen “Whoops! Sorry there bud” she chuckles as Ranboo whirls around clutching his chest

“Jesus Puffy!” the teen whines “I nearly had a heart attack!”

“Sorry” she apologized again, rubbing her neck sheepishly “Niki asked me to come find you and Dream said you’d probably be out here” she looks around at the dead plants littering the gardening area, tilting her head a little “Why are you out here anyway?? There’s not really anything out here that’s useful, and there is still an entire Horde’s worth of undead right outside this fence area- which isn’t barricaded may I add”

“I was getting some more seeds for my collection” Ranboo explains, holding up a small paper packet with an eager gleam in his mismatched eyes “I have some eggplants, basil, kale, squash, heirloom tomatoes, snap peas- Oh! I even found these cool little like mini greenhouse things I can use for the seedlings- they even come with dirt pods!” he tells her, excitedly showing off the plastic trays before setting them aside “And I also got this mini trowel and shovel, which I mean I don’t really need right now but I have room in my bag so I might as well- and I went ahead and grabbed a pair of gloves which are always handy-” he shows off the items as he rambles, practically vibrating with excitement “And they have like these biodegradable pots too! I can just stick the plants in the ground without having to re-pot them it’s so cool-” he cuts himself off, visibly shrinking at Puffy’s stunned silence “Sorry, sorry” he mumbles, fiddling with his shirt anxiously “I know it’s annoying when I ramble, I-I’ll put it all back, sorry-”

“Wha- No! No god no I-” Puffy quickly stops him “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable it’s just-” she laughs a little, rubbing her arm awkwardly “It was like you were like a whole different person when you talked about all this stuff” she chuckles, picking up the plastic tray “It was interesting, you really like this gardening stuff huh? Your eyes like lit up while you were talking and shit”

“Sorry” Ranboo says with a wince, refusing to look at her “It’s weird, I know-”

“Hey, Boo boy” Puffy says sternly, placing a hand on his shoulder “I don’t mind if you ramble about all this, I mean I’ve listened to Bad and Niki go on an entire three hour lecture about the different ways to bake a muffin for god’s sake” she snorts, smiling gently as Ranboo tentatively looks up at her “I just meant that I admire you having something you’re so passionate about” she tells him “We all have our special interests, just ask Eret to list embroidery stitching or Sam about how shit Subaru engines are- actually, don’t do that. It’ll set him off for at least the next hour” Ranboo laughs a little at that, relaxing a bit

“You- you really don’t mind?” he asks

“Course not!” Puffy exclaims “This is important to you right?” Ranboo hesitantly nods “Well then I don’t give a shit! Go ahead and tell me everything you want! Can’t be worse than Dream talking about fire lays for five fucking hours. If you like it then go ahead and do it, we won’t judge” she shrugs “Not like I can stop you or anything, go fucking bonkers dude”

“...I really want to start a garden one day” Ranboo admits, fiddling with the mini peat pots “And I figured, y’know, I could get some seeds so I can have a decent head start on stuff” he shrugs, smiling a little “I really like growing things, it’s so cool to see it all progress and then actually have something pay off all your hard work. All that care and time actually becoming something, like, tangible, y’know?” he waves a hand dismissively “I’m rambling again, sorry-”

“What are you gonna grow?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you want to grow?” Puffy repeats, picking up more trays and the gloves Ranboo had picked out, heading back towards the main store “In your garden, what would you go for? Start me off” Ranboo collects the rest of his things and hurries after her as he shoves seeds in his pockets

“Probably some leafy greens, like cabbage or lettuce” Ranboo hums, eyes growing distant as he got lost in thought “Potatoes are supposedly easy, maybe some beans- ooh! Tomatoes are a garden classic, obviously, and maybe peppers? Corn is a staple crop so I might try my hand at that. I’d want fruits too, so like berries and stuff- and melons! I could grow watermelons!!”

“Cantaloupe?” Puffy suggests, Ranboo nodding eagerly

“Yeah!” he agrees “Maybe I could even start an orchard- how hard would fruit trees be to grow?? I could probably do it”

“Hell yeah, apple time baby” Puffy nods

“I was thinking peaches?”

“Oranges maybe” she hums

“Mmhmm!” Ranboo grins “My garden would be so cool, it would have every edible plant you would want and like flowers or something!”

“I used to work at a flower shop making bouquets, can I open up a flower shop with your flowers?” Puffy asks, Ranboo somehow smiling wider under his mask

“What flowers do you want, I’ll grow them” he promises, practically skipping at her side “Roses? Lilies? Daffodils? Tulips?!”

“Sure! And hydrangeas and violets and poppies” Puffy adds with a smile of her own, the two going back and forth about plants and Ranboo going on and on endlessly about growing things, chattering to Puffy with an infectious excitement that draws Niki and Ponk into the gardening conversation.

Not once does Ranboo feel like they wanted him to stop.

“Okay, let’s turn the safety off this time-”

“Shouldn’t I be starting off with like cans on a fence or something??” Ranboo points out, carefully flicking off the safety and raising the rifle back up to aim at the straggling zombies stumbling around in the field “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Hey, George might be the best archer of the team but I’m the best marksman” Sapnap huffs “And cans on a fence? Nah, you might as well learn on the job” he shrugs with a cocky grin, blowing a dark lock of hair out of his face “Alright, fix your stance” he instructs, nudging Ranboo’s legs apart to shoulder width “Brace the butt against your shoulder- yeah like that. Okay now straighten up, keep your eye on the sights, hands here and here” he fixes Ranboo’s position and squares the younger’s shoulders “Loosen up a little man, you’re gonna hurt yourself”

“Sorry” Ranboo mumbles, shifting a bit and taking a deep breath before raising up the rifle to take aim once more

“Okay, pick a target- don’t put your head too close you’ll blast your eardrums even with the plugs” Sapnap sighs, fixing the gun again “Stop overthinking it! Just aim, brace and pull the trigger!” Ranboo squeaks and fires, yelping as he staggers back at the recoil of the rifle slamming into his shoulder. None of the zombies fall, a flock of birds scattering up from the grass at the resounding crack of the gun “Wow. That was shit. Again.”

“Wha- but I missed-”

“Go again, we got the ammo” Sapnap tells him, making him stand properly “Use the sights, like that” he encourages, watching Ranboo shakily aim at the zombies lurching towards them “Brace yourself this time” Ranboo takes another deep breath and tenses this time before pulling the trigger, only taking a small step back when the rifle recoils against his shoulder. The bullet grazes an arm, not slowing the zombies in the slightest

“Sapnap-”

“Again” the older teen ordered “You’re not stopping until you kill one or they get close enough that you can’t miss. Go.”

Ranboo fights back nervous tears and takes aim, firing again and again and feeling each recoil in his chest. He grows more and more panicked as each bullet only seems to stray further and further from its intended mark, hands shaking so hard he can barely hold the weapon straight.

“Stop overthinking” Sapnap snaps, taking the gun and reloading, hefting it up and taking aim. “Just focus, take a breath, clear your head and-” he inhales sharp and quick before pulling the trigger, barely moving from the recoil. A zombie’s head snaps back and it goes down into the tall grass, another beside it also snapping back and falling, a third taking two hits before finally going down. Sapnap straightens back up and rolls his neck, holding the rifle back out towards Ranboo “Deep breath. Shake your jitters out. Try again.” Ranboo does as he’s told, shaking his hands and head, giving a quick full-body wiggle and drawing in a deep breath before taking the gun. “There we go, steady breaths” Sapnap hums, stepping back a little to give him space.

Ranboo takes aim and takes a calming breath before pulling the trigger. A zombie lurches back, struck in the chest. Ranboo fires again, squinting through the scope and this time hits the shoulder, perking up a bit but refusing to move from his position so he wouldn’t lose the mark. He shakes his shoulders a little to loosen up, drawing a sharp breath like Sapnap had and firing.

Headshot.

“I DID IT!!” Ranboo shouts as the zombie falls out of sight, jumping up and down in excitement “OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY HIT IT DID YOU SEE THAT I HIT IT!!”

“HELL YEAH!!” Sapnap cheers, holding up a hand “Up top Boo boy!” Ranboo eagerly high-fives him, going still in surprise when Sapnap pulls him in for a quick hug “Yeah! That’s what I’m talkin about!!” he laughs, slapping Ranboo on the back “Alright! Wanna see if you can get a few more down?” Ranboo nods eagerly, still high on the adrenaline and joy of his first successful kill with a gun, the smell of gunpowder lingering in the air

“Thank you for not yelling at me” the boy mumbles, getting ready to shoot again “I know I’m pretty useless when it comes to stuff like this”

“...Yeah, no problem man” Sapnap hums after an awkward pause, shaking Ranboo’s head a little and making him squawk “New zombie hit record let’s go!”

Ranboo manages to take down two more zombies before it’s time to go, Sapnap praising him on how quick he’d picked up shooting once he got into the zone and others congratulating him on his first kills. Ranboo is in a good mood for the rest of the day and nothing can ruin it, not even when George steals his chips and he has to spend half an hour chasing the man up a tree to get them back.

He wakes up and can’t breathe. He looks around in the dark, clutching his heaving chest and mind spiraling. He’s surrounded by bodies. Dead? Sleeping? About to re-awaken? Where is he?

Who is he??

He vaguely remembers a book, a book he has safely stored away but he can’t remember where. He needs that book, that’s all he knows. He looks around frantically, dragging a dimly familiar bag to himself and tearing it apart, frantically searching.

He can’t breathe. His chest is too tight and he doesn’t know where he is. He wants to leave.

He should leave.

He doesn’t know these people, he doesn’t know where he is or why he’s here. Wasn’t there another group? No- where was his house? His parents? He had school in the morning but no school was gone, classmates dead- he had a test- the world was burning- did he do his homework- corpses on the move after him- what project did he forget- did he barricade the door-

He hears something calling a name. Is it his? It must be. Right??

What was his name again?

Panic hits him as his mind draws a blank. What was his name? He had one surely. What was it??

He can’t remember.

Something was there, something was watching and he didn’t like it. An ominous smile stares at him, too happy and bright in the dark.

“Please don’t hurt me” he gasps as the thing comes closer, curling up tightly to defend himself. Where was his group? Where was his family, his parents, his house? Where was he?? “Please. Please go away. Please. Help me. Help me someone-“

“Can you hear me?” a voice coos, soft and soothing. He manages to nod weakly, something about the sound relaxing him. “Good. Good that’s good” he whimpers a bit. He was good? Was he really? “I need you to do something for me, can you do something for me Ranboo?” It questions. He nods again. Anything to keep the voice happy. Anything to keep him from getting hurt. “Great, that’s great kiddo. I need you to tell me 5 things you can see”

He slowly looks up and glances around

“A window” he whispers, staring at the moon outside the dingy and cracked glass up on the warehouse wall

“That’s good” the voice hums, pleased “That’s one. Four more.” The boy’s eyes go over to the flickering, dying orange

“A campfire.”

“Yes, that’s right. That’s two, three more.”

“People sleeping.”

“Yup. That’s three, two more”

“My bag.” He mumbled, clutching the backpack at his side tighter

“Good job” the voice murmured “That’s four, one more. Tell me one more”

Ranboo looks over to the sound. The smiling face is gone, replaced by a freckled human one staring at him with what he thinks might be worry in their bright green eyes.

“You.”

The stranger blinks in surprise, eyes crinkling slightly as they smile under the black mask over their mouth.

“That’s right” they hum, gently grabbing Ranboo’s hands in his own fingerless-gloved ones and squeezing tightly “Can you tell me 4 things you can touch? Something you can feel?”

“Blanket” he replies, looking down at his lap “Warm.”

“Okay that’s good” the other nods “That’s one. Three more.”

“Draft” he says with a shudder as a breeze blows against the back of his neck “Cold.”

“I’ll fix that in a bit” they chuckle “That’s two, two more”

“Floor. Hard.”

“Good job. That’s three buddy. One more”

“You.” He murmurs, reaching out and pressing a hand against his chest “Heartbeat.”

“That’s right” he presses the hand tightly against his hoodie “I’m alive, I have a heartbeat. Can you tell me three things you hear?” Ranboo takes in a shaky breath and nods

“Fire crackling”

“Yes. That’s one, two more”

“Cicadas buzzing” he looked over at the window “Outside.”

“Good” the blonde nods “That’s two, so one more”

“Breathing” he shakily lets out “I hear breathing”

“That’s right” the man agrees, taking in a deep breath that Ranboo instinctively mimics, feeling the chest move under his hand “Two things you can smell”

“Mmm…” he murmured “Smoke.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. That’s one, just one more”

“Blood.”

“Yup.” He squeezes Ranboo’s hand a bit “We’ve all got a bit of blood everywhere. Last one. Tell me something you can taste?”

“…bleh” he makes a face at the dryness in his mouth. Dream wheezes lightly

“Okay valid” he chuckles, Ranboo cracking a small smile “Are you okay now?” He nods, blinking blearily as he stares at the man sat in front of him

“Dream?”

“That’s me” he hums, and relief washes over the boy. He immediately tips into his arms, curling up a little as Dream hugs him gently, a bit startled by the sudden movement “You good kiddo? Did you have a nightmare?”

“Sort of” he mumbles, tiredly pulling the bag at his side closer and opening a secret pouch, invisible with how well it was hidden. The boy pulls out a worn journal titled ‘DO NOT READ’ and flips through it, Dream eyeing the frantic scribbles covering every page. “I don’t remember if I told you but…I have memory problems” he admits quietly. Dream nods slowly, staring at the scars running down the boy’s right side. Ranboo self-consciously rubs at them, pulling down a sleeve “It’s not from the explosion, I don’t think. I know I've had problems ever since my time in an Arena”

“You were in an Arena?” he asks quietly, running a hand through Ranboo’s hair

“Yeah, pretty sure” he sighs, flipping to the last scribbled page “I don’t remember most of my time there…I think I always had a bad memory, but it's gotten worse over the past couple months. I got banged on the head pretty hard in that Arena and ever since then I have more trouble remembering things.” He curled up tighter against the young adult and Dream could see the tearstained writing

MY NAME IS * wHaT iS My nAMe * RANBOO. THERE IS A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

I HAVE A NEW GROUP. I FOLLOW THEM.

THEIR NAMES ARE DREAM (Leader?) SAPNAP. GEORGE. SAM. PUFFY. ERET. PONK. NIKI. BAD. SKEPPY. CALLAHAN. THEY ARE FRIENDS.

THEY ARE VERY NICE TO ME.

THEY ARE SAFE.

YOU ARE SAFE.

“I forget important things” Ranboo whispered, pulling out the pen tucked into the spine and repeating the words onto a new page “I forget where I am. Who I am.” He looks up at the worried blonde “Who you guys are.” He feels Dream pull him a little closer “So I have to write it down to make sure I can’t forget. I forgot myself this time when I woke up” he tells him, writing his name over and over frantically “I don’t want to forget myself.”

“Well that sounds like it sucks” Dream huffed, adjusting the both of them to sit more comfortably against each other. Ranboo snorted, feeling Dream’s chest thrum against him as the man hums mindlessly

“Like you wouldn’t believe” he mutters

“Next time you forget, do you want me to give you your book?”

“Yes please” he nods frantically

“Got it” Dream yawns, resting his chin on Ranboo’s fluffy hair

“Don’t you have watch?” the teen snorts

“Technically” the man grins, watching where Ranboo puts his book for the next time “But I don’t think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon so I’ll stay here” Ranboo goes quiet at that, staring at the man holding him comfortingly “What? If you want me gone just say so-”

“N-no!” he exclaims quietly, remembering everyone else was still sleeping “I don’t mind it’s just…” he leaned his weight a bit more on Dream “It’s been a while since someone’s stayed with me after a memory glitch”

“Clingyyyyy” Dream teased, grunting when he gets an elbow in his side for it “Clingyboo”

“You’re the worst” Ranboo grumbled but made no motion to move all the same

“Sure”

“Oh my gosh” Puffy whispered, frantically waking up Niki and Sam beside her “Guys. Guys look at this. Look at Duckling and Boo”

“Oh my god that’s adorable” Niki cooed, others quietly coming over to see what the fuss was about

Dream was curled up almost protectively around Ranboo, a blanket half covering them and Ranboo sprawled on the blonde’s chest. The both of them were drooling a little.

“God I wish I could use my phone” Sapnap complained. Callahan snapped a quick photo with his polaroid, grinning triumphantly as the photo began to print. The duo stirred, Dream yawning as he began to wake up and Callahan quickly shoves the photo in a pocket

“The fuck are you all doing?” he mumbled, rubbing an eye

“Nothing!” they chorus, scattering to pack up as their leader fully woke up

“What’s for breakfast?” Dream yawns, stretching out as he gets up “Or is everyone fending for themselves today?”

“Sam’s making pancakes” Puffy informs, earning a bewildered look from the man next to her

“I am??” he flusters “Since when??”

“Since now” she orders, shoving him to the supplies “With chocolate chips!”

“Pancakes?!” Ranboo blurts, sitting up with a sharp gasp and squinting as he looks around “Nn??”

“Pancakes” Niki agrees, ruffling his already messed up hair as she passes “And Sam always makes the best chocolate chip pancakes”

“I guess I’m making pancakes” Sam sighs, catching the box of mix Bad tosses him “Give me a bit”

“Whoo!!” Sapnap cheered, bundling up a blanket and throwing it at George’s face to wake him up “Pancake day!!”

“Sam’s making pancakes?!” Ponk shouts, suddenly very much awake “Where?!”

“Since when do you all like my pancakes?!” Sam sputters, starting their fire back up to cook “I have no memory of you guys ever being this happy about my cooking!”

“That’s because your cooking is shit unless it’s breakfast” Eret chuckles, earning an offended gasp and laughing when Sam hurls a spatula at his head. Ranboo hums and sways a little, trying to wake up while everyone packs up their things and waits for Sam to finish the food. He manages to shove everything in his bag, combing out his hair and slipping his mask and glasses on before walking over to chat with Bad.

Sam ends up making an entire box and a half worth of pancakes, breakfast quickly devolving into survival of the fittest as everyone tries to steal each other’s food. Ranboo was currently taking refuge up on a metal shelf in the warehouse, hiding behind cardboard boxes to safely enjoy his well stolen earned pancakes.

“You wanna see a trick?” Dream whispers, clearly having seen the brilliance of Ranboo’s plan and hiding out where it was safe with the teen. The blonde ties string to a fishing hook, wraps the excess around his palm and spins the metal bit, throwing his legs over the edge of the shelf to look down over the chaos of the group below “Chocolate pancake or a normal one?”

“Chocolate, obviously” Ranboo snorts, looking down as well to see what Dream was up to. The man grins and tosses the hook, muttering quietly and having to toss it a couple times before finally managing to land the hook on George’s plate “No way.”

“Sorry Gogy” Dream chuckled, snagging a pancake and reeling it up, tossing it to the very much impressed Ranboo “I can do it a couple times before they catch on” Dream chuckles, spinning the hook for another go “Trick never gets old” He manages to steal five more pancakes through the chaos, sharing the spoils with Ranboo and the two shushing each other when they got too giggly

“I SWEAR TO GOD WHO THE FUCK IS TAKING MY FOOD?!” Sapnap shouts, looking around wildly and holding his plate over his head to keep out of reach “Seriously guys! I’ve only had like two pancakes I’m starving!!” Dream and Ranboo grin at each other, the blonde spinning his hook again and tossing it onto Sapnap’s plate first try. Ranboo watches on with bated breath as Dream mutters under his breath, trying to catch the hook on the fluffy flapjack as Sapnap keeps throwing around accusations. He snags one and with a practiced flick of his wrist sends it flying up, practically landing it into Ranboo’s waiting hands.

Niki is the first to notice, looking ready to burst out laughing while Ranboo and Dream silently shush her so Dream can get the second pancake off Sapnap’s plate without the young man noticing. She makes a ‘gimme’ motion and Ranboo tosses her half of the swiped pancake, Dream already trying for the second. This causes Puffy to look up, snickering quietly and catching Sapnap’s attention. He whirls around just in time to see his food get yanked up, Dream cackling as he catches the pancake mid air

“He fished it!” Bad exclaims, pointing up to the triumphant Dream “He took your food!”

“Let’s go!!” Dream cheered, holding up the pancake triumphantly

“GODDAMNIT DREAM!!” Sapnap screeches, snatching his plate away and seeing it was empty “GIVE IT BACK!!”

“Make me!” he taunts, taking a massive bite to add further injury to insult

“That’s it, I’m coming up” Sapnap seethes, rushing over to try and climb the shelf “You took my food!!”

“How do we always forget he can do that?” Sam mutters, watching on as empty cardboard boxes are pelted at Sapnap to make the shelf impossible to climb, Ranboo laughing hysterically from above as well.

“I stole all your food!!” Dream wheezes, kicking his legs in glee while the others tried to encourage Sapnap to take back what was his “The regular and the chocolate ones!”

“YOU ARE A JERK!!”

“Ranboo!” Eret called, whistling a little to catch the teen’s attention “Come here for a sec!” Ranboo carefully makes his way down from the tree he was setting up his new hammock in, everyone else setting up camp for the night in the forest they were currently in.

“Yeah? What’s up?” he asks, tossing hair out of his hair and fixing his hair clip as he comes to a stop below Eret’s hammock “You need me to get you something from down here?”

“Nope! Made you something!” Eret informs with a grin, tossing the teen something floppy

"What is this??" Ranboo puzzled, examining what he'd been tossed. It's a black and white bucket hat, stitched together from two different hats

"I heard you talking about getting a hat but that all of them were boring" Eret hums, swaying a little in his hammock "So I figured I could stitch you a new one to match your mask"

"You made this?" Ranboo gasped, eyes wide in awe "For me?"

"Yeah!" Eret chuckled, gesturing to the hat "I even added a little personal touch, both sides so you can flip it" Ranboo looks down and on the brim of the hat is a tiny, embroidered crown. A black crown on the white half and a white crown on the black half, one on each side of the bucket hat so the sides were interchangeable.

"You made that?!" He exclaims, peering at the little stitched crown that copied his hair clip "How??"

"Just some needle and thread" Eret said with a casual shrug, holding up a hoop with a half finished design stitched into it he was working on "I like to embroider, something I picked up to keep me busy during down time and sewing is a useful skill to know in general. Everyone here knows a basic stitch to do simple repairs, anything big and they'll give it to me or Niki to fix" he keeps working on his current project, long legs kicking a little to swing him "You know how to embroider?"

"No" Ranboo says with a shake of his head, putting his new hat on "My brother- um, my friend from the other group. H-he liked to knit. He was thinking about maybe starting up crochet as well. Said it was "calming"?? Somehow? Despite every time he knit he'd end up cussing his yarn out for tangling or skipping a stitch. If anything I think it caused him more stress"

"Oh yeah, definitely been there" Eret nods, chuckling a little "You wanna give it a go?"

"At knitting??" Ranboo puzzles

"No, embroidery! I can’t knit for shit!" The man laughs, swaying some more in their hammock. They scoot over a little in the fabric and pat the empty "spot" beside them, collecting treads and fabric to scoop into their lap "I have a pretty basic pattern sketched out, you can learn on that" they hum, yanking down their bag from the branches next to them to pull out a second hoop, smaller than the one they were currently working on

"You sure?" Ranboo frets "I don’t wanna ruin it-"

"Nonsense my good man!" Eret encourages, waving him up "Come on, I'll teach you! It's simple once you get into the rhythm"

Ranboo smiled a little and headed over to the tree holding Eret up, carefully climbing his way up and crawling across a branch in order to plop himself down in Eret's hammock. Eret hands him a half finished design stretched across a wooden hoop, along with embroidery thread and needle. They teach him a simple straight stitch and cross stitch, showing him how to follow along with the pattern before eventually turning back to their own project, humming quietly while Ranboo struggles along. Ranboo tries his best to follow the pattern on the fabric, injured hand making it hard to put the needle through where it was supposed to go and poking himself multiple times.

"Ow!" Ranboo hissed, yanking his hand back and sticking it under his mask to lick his poor finger, tears pin pricking his eyes “Ugh, forget it. It’s no use, my hands shake too much” he mutters, frustratedly holding out the hoop back towards the adult “Here. Sorry for ruining it” Eret takes the hoop and examines the messy stitches, threads placed over on the wrong places and small knots littering the small section Ranboo had worked on.

“...You know” Eret starts, resting the hoop in his lap and going back to his own while Ranboo scowls up at the sky beside him, blinking back tears “My first time after my accident wasn’t perfect either” he tells him, pulling thread through fabric with gentle tugs “I poked myself so many times I practically had permanent band-aids on my fingers. My eyes hurt and watered so much I couldn’t even see the pattern, let alone the needle.” He ties off the floss and snips it with a small knife, switching colors “Some days it’s still like that.” he admits quietly, Ranboo turning a little to look at him “Days where I don’t even want to open my eyes, where my glasses aren’t enough. Days where I get so frustrated I end up quitting and wait until it’s better, whether that be hours or even days.” He sets a knot at the end of his floss, starting on a new section “Other days I’m stubborn, and force myself to push through it no matter how much my eyes hate me for it. Either way-” he sighs, holding up the nearly finished design with a proud grin “The project gets finished” He hands Ranboo back the hoop in his lap, the teen taking it with a shaky hand “One way or another.”

Ranboo silently starts back on the pattern, wincing when he pricks himself but continuing on, actually completing a good chunk of it and hands steadying out as he focuses. Both he and Eret quit once it starts getting dark, coming down for dinner and joining in the conversation people were having about the best way to choose a watermelon, leading to multiple arguments and a fist fight between Puffy and Sam.

“Careful above you- Ranboo above you dude!!”

“Fuck you Ranboo!!” Sapnap whoops, shoving the younger boy off his shaky perch and easily climbing down the last few branches

“SAPNAP I WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN!!” Ranboo screeches, clinging to the branch he’d roughly managed to grab onto like a frightened cat “EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THAT YOU EVER HAVE!!” he threatens the older teen hopping down to the ground and running off with a manic laugh “I WILL EAT IT! I WILL EAT IT!!” He seethes, haphazardly half-climbing, half-toppling down the branches to get to the ground, the others in the group laughing hysterically as they watch “I WILL- I WILL ACTUALLY FORK AND KNIFE MEDIUM RARE EACH SINGLE ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN!! THEY’RE ALL-” he shouts, hanging on for dear life to a branch and desperately calculating the best place to fall “I’M- I- I’M EATING THEM!!” he lets go and falls with a quiet grunt to the forest floor, quickly brushing himself off and chasing down the older teen trying to lose him by winding around trees “JESUS CHRIST.”

“I’m sorry!!” Sapnap calls out, ducking past a wheezing, hysterical Dream that was barely being held up by an equally in shambles George

“I actually will!! I swear to god!!” Ranboo screams, tackling the teen trying to use a doubled over Sam as a shield “You jerk!!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!!” Sapnap gasped, out of breath from running and laughing, trying to stop the child from strangling him “Bro I’m sorry, I was mad I’m sorry-”

“Okay, okay Ranboo off. Ranboo off” Puffy snorts, trying her best to hold in her laughter as she picks up the kicking and incomprehensible shouting Ranboo, pinning him in place in her arms as he continues to seethe very strange and slightly disturbing insults to the amusement of the group “You got him, it’s okay-”

“I am going to staple your fingers together and throw all of your socks in the nearest creek you pathetic, dollar store, 3’ 4 version of the Human Torch from that one sorry marvel movie everyone decided to erase from their memory” Ranboo hisses, wiggling unhappily from the iron grip Puffy had him in

“Oh my god you already promised to end his bloodline” Niki cackles as the group breaks down into a new round of laughter, Sapnap looking thoroughly offended and slightly uncomfortable “You just up and murdered him right then and there”

“Wow you really dragged his height in there” Sam snickered, Skeppy curled up on the ground crying with laughter

“How is it my fault he’s freakishly tall for a twelve year old?!” Sapnap sputters

“I’m sixteen you college dropout!!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU NEVER EVEN GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL YOU LITTLE SHIT!!”

“I’LL SEE YOU IN HELL GRANDPA!!”

“YOU TELL THEM WHO FUCKING SENT YOU KINDER BOY!!”

“Aren’t we all technically college dropouts??” Ponk hummed, ignoring Bad and Puffy having to drag apart the seething teens “Did any of us get anything past our associates-”

“THREE MONTHS!!” Sam screams, burying his face in his hands with and anguished cry as others begin to groan, knowing what was next “I was three months away from graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering!! I COULD HAVE BEEN AN ENGINEER!!” he gestures wildly to the forest around them “Now look at me! Fucking Bear Grylls in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people I met no more than four freaking months ago!!”

“Look on the bright side!” Dream encouraged cheerily “No crippling student debt!”

“Fuck yeah!!” Skeppy cheers “No loans!! Thank you apocalypse!!”

“Easy for you to say Dream!!” Sam argues “You had a full ride with your sports scholarship!! You didn’t even have any loans to begin with!”

“Guess I’m just built different” Dream hums proudly

“Boooo!” Eret calls out “Boo the Jock!!”

“No one told you to take a gap year Eret, fuck off!”

“Shut up runner boy!!”

“Wow, the world really decided to throw a bunch of college kids together into the apocalypse and said ‘have fun don’t die lol’ huh?” Ponk snorts

“’Not only that but mostly computer coding nerds to boot”’ Callahan points out

“Wait. How many of us were doing something with coding?” George baffles, raising his hand. Dream, Callahan and Bad all raise their hands “Wow… how the hell are any of us alive??”

“’Luck.”’ Callahan writes

“Spite” Dream snickers “A lot of spite”

“No, its mainly luck” Bad sighs

“Spite has a part in it I’d say” Eret agrees “Spite, homicidal rage and a surprising will to live”

“Speak for yourself” Ranboo huffs, having calmed down “I lost all my will to live back in middle school”

“No one has a will to live in middle school Ranboo” Skeppy informs “A desire to live? In this economy??”

“There is no economy.”

“Precisely”

“Let’s start up a new economy” Niki suggests with a grin “Sapnap, I’ll trade you five leaves for a pine cone”

“Shut up business minor!” Skeppy groans, sprawled out on the ground and getting flipped off by Niki’s good hand

“Capitalism is a social construct and therefore I’ll give you a bottle cap for it” Sapnap hums, holding up a blue piece of plastic

“Since when is a bottle cap worth five leaves?!” Puffy argues “Bottle cap is worth at least fifteen, supply and demand”

“That’s not how it works-” Niki starts

“Fifteen leaves and a twig for the bottle cap!” Dream exclaims

“Fifteen leaves and- get this.” George offers “Two twigs”

“A whole stick and a pebble” Dream counter offers, starting off a bidding war over the useless piece of trash everyone immediately got way too invested in.

“I feel like this is watching a worse version of the stock market come to life” Ranboo notes, listening to people argue over the price of a branch “Or a game of Monopoly”

“’Monopoly gets SO much worse trust me”’ Callahan scribbled, watching the chaos with Ranboo “’Literal bloodbath. Banned game.”’

“Yeah, that checks out with their track record”

“Hey Ran, what are you up to?” Eret asks, peeking over the boy’s shoulder as everyone prepares for dinner

“Oh!” Ranboo startled, hurriedly wiping at his face “I was uh, I have a lot of cuts from falling out of the tree so...” he holds up a red-stained cotton ball and bottle of peroxide with a shrug “Yeah um, have to get that fixed up”

“Stings like a bitch huh?” Eret chuckles, kneeling beside him and taking another cotton ball and peroxide bottle, dousing the cotton and dabbing at a scratch on Ranboo’s leg. Ranboo nods and whimpers slightly, sniffling a little as he puts a band-aid over a cut on his arm

“Sorry” he laughs wetly, wiping at his eyes again “I- I know I shouldn’t be wasting water on tears over something like this, it’s stupid-”

“Hey, Skeppy still cries when we have to clean his wounds” Dream informs, having been listening in “Peroxide fucking sucks, no one will judge you for letting out a couple tears”

“I’ll go get Neosporin” Eret suggests, getting up to head for the medical bag “That hurts less”

“Thanks” Ranboo mumbles, examining his leg and wincing at the gash on one of his knees

“You good Ran?” Dream questions quietly, sounding worried “You didn’t break anything did you?”

“No, no” he reassures, shaking his head and frustratedly rubbing away more tears “I’m fine, just a bit banged up- god! Sorry, I just can’t stop crying for some reason” he grumbles “I need to stop crying over stupid stuff-”

“It’s not stupid” Dream hums, tossing him a water bottle “It’s the human body’s natural response to pain. Sometimes you just gotta let it out with a good cry you know?”

“Yeah” he sighs, drinking some water “Sorry, guess I’m still kinda not used to having water to spare on tears” he jokes, chuckling a little as he goes back to sticking band-aids on himself. Dream stares at him with a strange expression, opening his mouth to say something when Eret comes back

“Found it!” they cheer, twirling the little white and yellow spray bottle in their hand a bit “Also, Ponk found like a scar and itch cream he meant to give you and then promptly lost so he’s currently looking for that”

“That would be really useful actually” Ranboo says, looking over the puckered, raised burn scars littering his right arm “At least on my hands or something”

“Yeah, make sure you ask him about that before he forgets again” Eret tells him, settling back down in front of him “Okay, hold still this might still sting a bit-”

Ranboo yelped as the cool spray hit his skin, more out of surprise than actual pain and he gladly distracts himself from the growing sting and ache of his new wounds by talking to Dream, barely noticing when a few more tears trickle down his cheeks.

“You really got your ass handed to you by that tree huh?” Dream snickers, smile widening when the tired Ranboo throws him a glare over his shoulder as he makes his way down from his hammock for his turn on watch

“Listen” Ranboo huffs, hopping down and picking up a couple branches to toss into the dying fire Dream and the dogs were sat by “I was pushed alright? Sabotaged one might even say” he throws the branches into the coals and plops down next to Dream, scratching Fat Bitch behind her ears “Under normal circumstances I totally would have won against the tree”

“Totally” Dream agrees with a solemn nod “Squishy human body versus hard wood and gravity. No contest”

“Exactly” he hums, laughing quietly as Dream shoves his head lightly “Seriously though? Everything freaking hurts”

“Yeah no shit idiot!” Dream laughs, trying to keep quiet so no one would wake up “How many fucking branches did you hit on the way down?!”

“Do twigs count?”

“Oh my god” the blonde wheezes, Ranboo muffling his own laughs beside him “But for real, you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine” Ranboo is quick to reassure, absently rubbing at a band-aid “It’s nothing, and I mean compared to what Niki’s healing through at the minute? I really don’t have room to complain. There’s plenty of others out there worse off, no use making a fuss-”

“You apparently survived a literal fucking explosion less than two months ago dude” Dream points out, gesturing to the scars on Ranboo’s arm “If anyone has the right to complain about being in pain it’s you. Had it been anyone else they’d probably still be bitching about it today and yet you hardly say anything about it. You wouldn’t even take the pain killers we offered until Ponk threatened to drug your food!”

“It wasn’t that bad” Ranboo hurriedly tells him, even as his new bruises ached “Honest. I- I don’t even notice it anymore”

“You got fucking exploded Ranboo!” Dream exclaims “Which, I don’t even want to think about how that happened in times like these.” Ranboo winces at the reminder of the explosion that led him to where he was now, flinching as the coals pop in front of him

“It just doesn’t really seem all that big in the grand scheme of things” Ranboo mumbled, pulling up his knees to hug as he recited what he’d been taught “My older brother- …my old group leader used to say there was no need to make a such fuss over little things”

“Fucking hell Ranboo” Dream groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ranboo shrank away a little, worried he’d somehow upset the man “You nearly fucking died. You understand that right? If I had found you even a few minutes later I probably would have shot your re-awoken corpse without a second thought.”

“B-but I’m fine!” he weakly protested, viciously shoving down the darker emotions threatening to spill out “I’m alive and that’s better than a lot of people. I can’t be ungrateful about something like that-”

“Ungrate-” Dream sputtered, turning to the teen in concern “Getting upset about getting blown up and then left to die isn’t being ungrateful, It’s fucking logical! Who the hell wouldn’t be mad about nearly fucking dying and then actually being left for dead??”

“No point making a fuss” he repeats, practically hearing his brother’s voice in his head as he recites along “No need to bring everyone else down”

“Jesus-” Dream sighs, rubbing the back of his neck and looking pained “What does Puffy always say?” he mutters to himself, finally meeting Ranboo’s wide blue-grey eyes with his own green ones. He rests a hand on the teen’s shoulder, squeezing a little “You’re allowed to be upset.” Ranboo tenses, breathing becoming faster and shallower “You’re allowed to have ‘bad’ emotions, hell it’s the end of the fucking world I’m surprised any of us have ‘good’ emotions left!

“You’re allowed to feel as strongly or as little as you’d like, you’re allowed to scream at the sky until your voice gives out, you’re allowed to feel like punching something and being justified in that Ranboo-” he tilts his head side to side a little “I mean, you shouldn’t, punch something I mean. It’s not exactly healthy for your hand but you’re allowed to feel like that. To be happy or sad or angry or even just… empty.” he flicks a glance over at the hammocks hanging around them, gaze resting a split second longer on George’s before turning back to Ranboo “I know some of us still struggle with that...” he admits quietly “But you’re allowed to have emotions, good and ‘bad’. We’re human, we’re broken and fucked up. Our lives as we knew them were pulled out from under us only a few months ago. We’ve all been through our separate hells and so have you, even if you don’t think you have.

“You don’t always have to be happy, or compliant or feel like you have to hide your emotions because its unfair to other people or some similar bullshit. You’re allowed to feel bad, you’re allowed to feel angry even, just like the rest of us” he gently reaches up and rests his hand on Ranboo’s head, smiling sadly “You’re allowed- deserve, to grieve, Ranboo.”

And just like that, the dam holding everything back crumbles, every emotion Ranboo had forced himself to bury, to push down so he wouldn’t seem ungrateful comes welling up, spilling out in rolling tears as Ranboo chokes, taking off his mask to better inhale shuddering gasps of air

“They left me” Ranboo sobs, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes in the vain effort to stop the deluge, to push back every negative emotion like his “older brother” family old groups always said to “They. Left me. All of them, always. Every single group a-and I’m tired. I’m tired of not being good enough for people, I’m tired of not being worthy enough to even have around and I’m lonely” he hiccups out, taking in another shuddering gasp “I miss them. I miss them so much and sometimes I feel like I’m never gonna be okay again because I still love them and I thought they loved me too-” he chokes on another sob, barely registering Dream’s warm arms pulling him close and rocking him as he wails “I loved them and it hurts it hurts so stupidly bad and I’m- I’m mad!” he laughs in surprise at that confession, at being able to finally pin down and face the feeling that had caused him so many sleepless nights “I’m- I’m freaking pissed!! They left me!! They left me and didn’t even wait in case I showed up, they didn’t look for me they left me for dead and they never wanted me in the first place I’m not- I’m not stupid okay? I know he didn’t, I know he never liked me-

“And I hate him! I hate all of them but I love them and it hurts so bad and I miss my parents, I miss my life before, I miss so much and I can’t even feel bad about it because I’m alive!! I’m still horribly, stupidly still alive and everything hurts everywhere all the time and even now- now I can’t even yell or shout how I want because of course of all things to end this stupid world it had to be a zombie apocalypse which means there are freaking zombies out there that will hurt even more and I don’t want it to hurt, I wish it didn’t hurt, I wish it didn’t...” he keeps crying, body wracking with sobs as he buries his face into Dream’s shirt, the blonde gently carding through his hair and cooing soft nothings to soothe him as he continues venting.

Ranboo eventually settled into hiccupping breaths, taking in deep, painful gasps of air to further calm him down and shakily regain his composure

“Better?” Dream whispers, rubbing gentle circles on the boy’s back. Ranboo whimpers and curls up closer, nodding and going limp as the exhaustion from all the crying finally hit him

“Better.” he agrees hoarsely, deciding to close his burning eyes for just a minute…

Ranboo wakes up exhausted but somehow lighter, eyes sticky with dried tears, head throbbing and body aching from the weird position he had passed out in Dream’s lap

“Morning” Dream greets with a yawn, ruffling Ranboo’s hair “How you feeling?”

“Fine” he replies automatically, despite his traitorous body screaming at him otherwise

“Really? You slept in a super weird position” the blonde snorts “I didn’t think the human body could pretzel like that” Ranboo huffs in amusement and recalls what Dream told him the night before, fingers twitching a little

“...horrible, actually” he croaks, managing to pop his shoulder and crack his neck before sitting up “I feel terrible. Like I got run over by a train or something” Dream merely laughs and helps him up, letting Ranboo lean on him as the boy stumbles to his feet

“Do you want water?” he offers, leading them both over where Eret and Puffy were making food

“Yes please” Ranboo groans, feeling like his head and mouth were stuffed with cotton. Dream grins and pats his back

“Sure thing Boo”

“Soooo is anyone else concerned about the Horde about a mile or so behind us or is that just me?!” Skeppy calls down, perched up at the very top of a tree with a pair of binoculars

“What?!” Dream exclaimed as Sapnap scampered up to take a look for himself “How are they still on us?! It’s already been like two days since that barn!!”

“Yeah, no!” Sapnap confirmed, having stolen Skeppy’s binoculars and crouched on a separate branch “You know that field we had to walk through thirty minutes ago?! Yeah, they’re back there and they’ve picked up Stragglers so I’d say it's at about 30 right now?? Upper 20’s if we’re lucky!”

“Fuuuuuuuuuckkkkkk” Dream groaned, throwing his head back and others in the group groaning in agreement

“To be fair, sound travels far out here” Bad sighs, slinging his bag back on since their break was definitely getting cut short for this “You wanna get off the trail?”

“Like that’s gonna help” Puffy snorts, retying her hair before catching the can of sunscreen spray Sam tossed at her “You guys see anything that can help?!” she calls up to the two, putting on more sunscreen

“Not really!” Skeppy informs, looking around while Sapnap also scanned the horizon

“I see like a lake or something a little south!” Sapnap offers “The trees thin out after like a quarter mile? Give or take and there’s a couple houses I think past that!”

“You wanna try the water?!” Skeppy asks, flipping upside down to look at his friends “If we find a boat or something we can ditch our stalkers on the other side of the lake!”

“I’ll take Drowned over a Horde at this point!” Sapnap adds, sitting on his branch “Lake?!” The group discusses it a little, going back and forth

“Lake?” Dream questions, others shrugging and half-heartedly agreeing “Okay then. Lake.”

“Water yes or no?!” Skeppy shouts down

“Yes!” Bad relays, pulling out the compass “South Sapnap?!”

“Yup!” Sapnap confirms, he and Skeppy clambering down to join the rest.

The group heads down the trail Bad led them on, occasionally spotting a marker and finally coming to a grassy, overgrown field, shimmering blue lake shore gleaming only a little further off. The barely visible trail led to boating dock, various abandoned boats tied along the dock or to docks leading from lake houses higher up the hill.

“Boats!!” Puffy squealed excitedly, rushing forward and running along the shore “Guys there’s boats!! Damn, I haven’t gone boating in like a year! Not since last spring!”

“We could use a boat to get across” Sam suggests, gesturing to the many boats up for the taking “I’m sure there’s something big enough for all of us”

“Yeah but do any of them work?” Dream sighs “Most of these are speedboats, if we get stuck out there we’re fucked”

“Eh, I’m confident I can get something up and running” Sam hums, following after Puffy “I am a mechanic after all”

“Five pieces of jerky he freaks out over the engine within fifteen minutes” George snorts

“Ten minutes and at least three tears he’ll try to call sweat.” Dream snickers

“Deal.” the brunette agrees, the two friends laughing and heading down. Puffy and Sam argue over which boat to take, eventually settling on a small sailing yacht they found near the main dock and people start setting their stuff down for a break, chatting and waiting for Sam to figure out how to get the engine up and running

“So how long do you think we have?” Ranboo asked, making sure his wagon wouldn’t roll into the water and taking the sunscreen Ponk handed him “Before the Horde shows up I mean”

“I’d say about an hour at least” Bad reassures, smiling a little as Ranboo scrunches his face when Niki pulls the teen down so she can rub a stick of sunscreen over his already red cheeks “They’re slow so we’re good for now”

“Well since we have time” Eret hums, getting up and adjusting his cap “I saw a patch of dandelions somewhere and I want salad”

“Dandelions!” Niki cheers, wiggling her splinted ring finger and mummified pinkie stub before following after Eret “I can still pick those with my crappy hand”

“Ew salad” Skeppy scoffs, using a mini fan to cool himself off as he sprawled out on the dirt road, motor humming softly over the sound of lapping waves

“I think that’s what Callahan’s doing” Dream tells them as he comes over, pointing over to the man wading into the water “I’m gonna go help him get cattails, you guys are welcome to join”

“Stop getting vegetables!!” Skeppy complains, earning a glare from Ponk “Let me live off of junk food!!”

“Oh, George and I were gonna go see if we could get some ducks” Sapnap pipes up, slinging his rifle over a shoulder “Saw a couple floating around, might get some fish if that doesn’t work”

“Duck!” George agrees, Bad following the two

“Fine, I guess I could go fishing” Skeppy huffs, sitting up and stretching his arms out “But the second I see a Drowned in the water I’m bailing”

“I’m going to go break and enter lake houses” Ponk informs, immediately catching Skeppy’s attention

“Nevermind I’m going on a raid with Ponkie” he corrects, slinging an arm around the doctor “Raid time!!”

“Keep your walkies on!!” Bad reminds, both Ponk and Skeppy turning on their devices “Call if you need help!”

“Will do!”

The group splits into little teams to forage for food, Ranboo following Dream down to the water’s edge and kicking off his boots and socks to follow into the marsh. He squeals a little as he slips in, Dream also squeaking at the sudden chill as he rolls up his pants to his knees, Ranboo already hoisting his shorts up to keep them from getting wet.

“You find any good ones yet Cal?” Dream asks, masks off and scanning the water to make sure there weren’t any hidden corpses waiting to lunge. Callahan tilts a hand side to side a little in a ‘sort of’ motion

“Despite them looking like corndogs, believe me they don’t taste like them” Ranboo warns as Dream begins yanking at the base of a cattail

“I feel like you speak from personal experience” the blonde snorts, Callahan huffing in amusement as he wades over to help

“I do” Ranboo says with a solemn nod and haunted expression “So much fluff...”

“Yeah well-” Dream starts, splashing back a little as the plant comes out “You don’t eat the brown parts”

“’Everything but”’ Callahan signs, waving the teen over to properly help and pointing to a few leaves sticking out of the water “’Small ones. The shoots”’ Ranboo looks over to Dream for help translating

“He said uh, everything else?” Dream guesses, not having seen too much. Callahan make an ‘X’ with his pointer fingers and splits them “But! Everything but! Yeah that checks out, you can eat just about the whole thing except the brown part. Weird huh?” he taps one of the plants and tosses the one he’d pulled up over onto the bank “Even the pollen, although we’re a bit late in the season for that-”

“’The shoots”’ Callahan signs again, pointing to the tiny plants coming out of the water

“Oh! Yeah, the little ones!” Dream realizes, Callahan nodding in confirmation “You can also eat the shoots, the plants that aren’t fully developed yet, and also the stems if you want, although those are too slimy for my taste”

“’Picky”’ the other man huffs

“I’m just saying!” Dream argues, tugging Ranboo over to show him how to pick stalks “They’re slimy!”

“’Food is food”’ Callahan reprimands with one hand, yanking out little stalks and tossing them on the bank with the other “’Medicine”’

“I know food is food” the blonde fires back, signing the phrase along to get his annoyance across “Doesn’t make the food any less shitty to eat, even if it’s medicinal! That’s Ponk’s thing to deal with not me!”

“’Pathetic.”’

“How dare you” he gasps, throwing his plants at the man and continuing to protest as he worked, Ranboo snickering quietly to himself at the out of context retorts he heard from Dream. The trio continue harvesting cattails, Ranboo quite surprised at the cucumber-like taste of the plant he was told to take a bite of. They sit on the bank with their massive pile of shoots and stalks, feet still in the water as Dream cleans off the roots with his knife and Callahan shows Ranboo how to get to the soft core of the stalks.

“So you can just eat these??” Ranboo puzzles, taking the piece of root Dream handed him and popping it in his mouth. Both Callahan and Dream laugh at the face Ranboo pulls when he chews, looking puzzled as he pauses to form words “Why is it so… chewy?”

“Starch” Dream laughs “You can actually bake with these”

“Wow. All that from one plant?” he wonders, taking a shoot to eat and cleanse his palate with the more favorable taste.

“Cool huh?” Dream chuckles, rubbing some of the cattail slime over his reddened shoulders “Even out here with seemingly nothing there’s still food, good to know in case of an emergency-”

“Question for the wilderness survival nerds” Niki crackles through the radios, startling the three “Clovers are edible right?” Callahan starts flailing his hands and nodding rapidly, making Dream scramble for the radio

“Uh Cal is practically screaming yes at me so yes?” Dream relays, giving his friend a puzzled look at the blur of hands Callahan is “Dude that’s too fast, I can’t translate as well as Eret-”

“Okay, well what part do we get?” Niki asks, Eret asking something unintelligible in the back ground “Like, are there certain parts we need to get or is all of it good?”

“’All”’ Callahan frantically signs “’All is good. Say all”’

“Weird circle hands- ‘all’ right?” Dream tries, getting a nod in response “Cal says all parts, flowers, leaves and roots are fine to eat”

“Any specific flower colors?” Eret questions “Or all good as well?”

“I know pink ones are good to eat” Dream informs, looking over as Callahan taps the white half of Ranboo’s bucket hat “And apparently white too”

“Cool. If we die from food poisoning I know who to blame” Eret chuckles, making Ranboo laugh at the identical scandalized looks on Dream and Callahan’s faces. A shot rings out over the water followed by loud whoops, the trio spotting Sapnap diving into the water further down the bank while Bad and George cheered from the shore, starting to wade in a little after him

“Well, looks like we’re eating well today” Dream notes, picking up another root “Let’s finish these up and go see if Sam’s managed to get that boat up and running”

“God is testing me today” Sam grits out, upper half of his body gone under the boat deck to tinker with the engine and legs hooked haphazardly on a pole “I am but a piñata in this party called life. Are you sure we want this one?!”

“We’ve tried like three other boats!” Puffy argued, crouched on deck beside him “There’s not even any keys, that’s why none of them turn on!!”

“Uh, not to add any more pressure on you Sam” Bad pipes up from the dock where everyone was waiting “But we only have a couple more minutes before the Horde gets here-”

“I’M WORKING ON IT!!” Sam screeches from under the floor, flailing a rusted wrench angrily “JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE!! I DON’T HAVE ANY OF MY FUCKING TOOLS AND BOAT ENGINES ARE DIFFERENT FROM CAR ENGINES OKAY??!”

“Just saying” Bad huffs, holding his hands up in surrender as he backs away

“He already had like two hours” Eret whispers to George as they watch on “How hasn’t he gotten it yet?”

“Does it have gas?” Sapnap asked, helping Niki field-dress the ducks they’d gotten

“YES.” Sam snaps, cursing as he hits his head on the edge “Puffy can you pass me the screwdriver?”

“Flat or star?”

“You found a phillips?!”

“Yeah but I don’t think it’s the right size” she sighs, handing him the tool. It vanishes under the floor for a few moments before flying back out “Wrong size?”

“Wrong size” he confirms, taking the flat-head screwdriver handed him and muttering angrily

“Ponk, take over before he combusts from high blood pressure” Puffy orders, hopping off the boat and onto the dock, Ponk cheerily getting up onto the yacht and sliding over to sit next to the poor mechanic

“Hi Sammy! You doing okay?!” they laugh

“Ponkie, I love you, but I will drive this wrench through your skull”

“Gotcha” Ponk hums, pulling out Skeppy’s fan they’d stolen and using it to cool Sam off “Better?”

“Thank you Ponk.” Sam sighs, clanking around a little below deck “Very helpful, yes”

“Whoo! You got this Sammy!”

“Are we gonna be able to get out on the water?” Dream asks Puffy as the woman tries to fan herself with a hand, taking the water Dream handed her “Bad is right, we’ve only got a couple minutes before the first of that Horde gets to us”

“I mean if push comes to shove it’s still technically a sailboat” Puffy points out, looking over the sails and rigging

“Can you sail it?” Dream questions, eyeing the sails warily “I don’t think Sam is getting that engine anywhere near working at this point-”

"I could've been an engineer!!" Sam screams, still struggling with the engine

"Yeah I can get it going. There’s a good wind out today, can probably make it out a decent bit before nightfall" Puffy hums, tying her tank top into a crop top and re doing her messed up ponytail into a bun "Didn't spend half my childhood out on a lake in a boat with my mother and grandmother for nothing- Sam move! I'm taking over!!" she barks, marching over

"I CAN DO THIS ON MY OWN"

"TOO LATE WE'RE DOING IT THE OLD FASHIONED WAY IT HAS SAILS FOR A REASON"

"Second question" Sapnap piped up, others eagerly boarding the small sailing yacht and running below deck to explore the cramped quarters "How are we getting the horses on board?" Dream turned to their two forgotten horses quietly nibbling on the long grasses a little further off, ears pricked to listen for danger "Have either of them ever been on a boat before?"

"...shit"

"I'll go look for a ramp or something" Sapnap sighed, hopping off the boat and heading for a shed nearby

"Spirit you stupid bitch just get on the boat!!" Dream gripes, straining to pull his stubborn horse up the wooden makeshift ramp, bare feet slipping a little "You're gonna be fine!! Even Joffery did it! Come on!!"

Spirit snorts and shakes her head, making Dream stumble back as his grip on her bridle slips "Please" he begs, hands on his knees to catch his breath "Spirit I swear to god I will leave your ass here for the zombies to munch just get on the boat!!" Spirit nickers almost angrily, pawing at the dock and backing away "It’s a boat!! It's not gonna do anything to you, you stupid horse!!" Spirit merely flicks her ears and tail, turning her head away from her rider as she chuffs “That’s it, you’re going up for adoption young lady”

“Right, I’m gonna go look for something we can make blinders out of” Sapnap huffs, starting to move away from his own anxious horse

“Blinders won’t work” Dream groaned, running a hand through sweat-dampened hair “Remember last time we tried that?”

“Fuck, why’d you have to go and get the only horse in the apocalypse as dramatic as you dude?” Sapnap snorts, rubbing Joffery’s neck soothingly “We kinda need her too, there’s no way we can carry all our stuff if we’re down a horse”

“Shut the fuck up and help me figure this out” Dream snaps, glaring at his horse now grazing on the grass near the water “...Horses can swim right?”

“I don’t know dude, why are you asking me??” Sapnap sputters

“YOU’RE A VET!!”

“I ONLY GOT ONE YEAR IN OF COLLEGE THE APOCALYPSE GOT IN THE WAY!!”

“YOU ARE FUCKING USELESS”

“Horses can swim” Niki interrupts, pinching the bridge of her nose “They’re very strong swimmers actually”

“Thank you Niki” Dream sighs, turning back to his horse and crouching “Okay, she won’t get on the boat but maybe she’ll swim? Maybe??” he folds his hands in front of his mouth as if praying “Please?”

Spirit ignores him.

“I’ll take the boat out a little” Puffy tells him, untethering the boat from the dock and lowering the sails “If she swims maybe we can lead her behind us?”

“I’ll try” the blonde mutters, walking over to the shed down the trail a little. He comes back with several life vests, tying them to Spirit’s back into a giant makeshift horse life vest, her saddle and gear already up on the boat with the rest of the supplies. “Alright, here’s what’s gonna happen” he explains to Spirit, stripping down to his boxers, draping his clothes over her back and putting on a life vest of his own before leading her over to the pebbly shore “We are going for a little swim okay? Just a little swim, nothing too big yeah?” Spirit eyes him suspiciously, swiveling her ears in distrust as Dream starts to wade into the water “See?” he encourages, splashing her a little “You wanna go for a swim? It’s really hot out, I bet the water would feel real nice right? And also we are being chased by a Horde you really don’t have a choice here” Spirit sniffs the water, pawing a little at the edge and starting to pace anxiously as Dream keeps going in deeper

“She’s not getting in!” George yells from the yacht “Do we tranquilize her or something?!”

“She’ll get in!” Dream shouts, already chest deep in the water “Come on Spirit, you can do it” his horse whinnies unhappily from the shore, cautiously stepping into the water and pawing at it questioningly “There we go, good girl! You can do it! Just a nice little swim to get away from the zoms-”

“Dream the Horde is past the tree line!!” Bad informs “Hurry!!”

“Just pull her!!” Skeppy panics “Bro you can’t fight zombies in water!!”

“Look, see it’s fine” Dream soothes, paddling back to take Spirit’s reins, the horse snorting worriedly as she slowly wades into the lake “It’s fine, you’re doing great. Good job” he praises, patting her neck and keeping her distracted “See? Water is fun! Nice and cold when you’ve been out in the sun all day, feels good right?” Spirit lunges forward and starts kicking, chuffing a little as she starts swimming, Dream floating beside her “There we go! Atta girl, you got it!” Spirit snorts at him and nibbles his hair, making him laugh “Lots of sugar cubes after this, I promise. All the sugar I can find in my bag”

He manages to lead her over where the boat is waiting, taking the rope tossed him and loosely tying it to her bridle before paddling to the boat and hopping up on the back dock, sprawling out on the hot wood

“How close?” he pants, slicking back dripping hair from his eyes as an amused George peers down at him from the rail

“Sapnap and I were lining up our sights” he snorts, leaning on the metal bar “He turned off the safety on his”

“Wonderful” Dream groans, unbuckling his life vest and heaving for air “That horse will be the death of me.” George looks up at the now very calm and chill Spirit happily paddling a comfortable distance behind the boat as she’s tugged along by the rope

“Most likely” he chuckles, grin widening as Dream looks over at his horse and scowls

“You’re lucky you’re useful” he spits at her, sitting up and crossing his legs “And cute”

“Go put on clothes muffinhead” George snorts, whacking the back of Dream’s head and running off before the other can retaliate

“CANNON BALL!!” Sapnap shouts, taking a running jump off the edge of the boat in nothing more than his shorts, hair tied up into two space buns

“Why is it hot?!” Eret complains, coming back up from below deck “It’s hot below deck, it’s hot above deck-”

“Not hot in the water!!” Sapnap whoops, yelping as a giggling Niki goes splashing in next to him, dousing him in lake water and laughing as she pops back up, pink hair dripping as she treads in place

“Come on!” Niki encourages, floating around on her back beside the boat, plastic bag wrapped hand gleaming in the water “It’s really nice Eret!”

“It actually does help” Skeppy agrees, flopping back onto the deck from the rope ladder Puffy had made in case anyone went overboard, on purpose or on accident. “Trust me, you’re just gonna keep getting hot on the boat and I mean everyone’s already stripped down as far as we can go, next step is peeling off your skin”

“I think my skin actually peeling” George whines, rubbing more sunscreen on his red arms “Do we have aloe gel?”

“In one of the bags” Ponk shrugs, mask off for once and white hair sticking up everywhere as he relaxes on the deck, soaking up sun beside Sam who was still trying to figure out the engine next to him

“Screw it” Eret sighs, taking off their boots and shirt, setting their crown aside and hopping up on the rail “Incoming!!” they shout, leaping in and causing Niki and Sapnap to squeal as the wave Eret creates slams into their faces

“Hey Ranboo!” Dream starts, hooking an arm around the teen’s bare shoulders “You know how to swim right?”

“Y-yes?” he puzzles, setting his journal aside “Why?”

“So you can come swimming with us!” he exclaims as if it was obvious

“But Bad asked me to help him in the kitchen-”

“Wrong!” the blonde grins, Callahan coming out of nowhere and wrestling the shoes off of Ranboo as Dream holds him in place “You’re going swimming!!”

“W-wait! No!!” Ranboo shrieks, kicking as Callahan and Dream hoist him off the floor, George cackling as he plucks off the boy’s glasses and hair pin to set with his shoes “Don’t you dAR-” his protest is cut short as he’s sent flailing over the edge, ripping off his mask as he resurfaces to gasp in air, hat plastered to his head “YOU-” All three attackers jump in after him, resurfacing with wide smiles and hysterical laughter as they splash at each other “Really?!” he screeches, sputtering as he’s battered with the ripples

“Come on!” Dream laughed as Ranboo throws his drenched mask and hat back up on the deck “Loosen up!”

“I told Bad I would help him-” he starts, getting hit in the face with a wave from Dream. He spits out lake water, glaring at the blonde grinning impishly at him “Right. Get over here” he snaps, lunging for the man and dunking him under the water with a fiendish grin

“Get him!!” George screams, grabbing Ranboo by the arm and dragging him under as well

“Callahan!” Ranboo gurgles, valiantly trying to defend himself from the onslaught of waves the other two adults were splashing his way “Help!!” Callahan goes crashing into Dream, taking him down under the water. The four keep trying to dunk each other, setting aside their war when the boat leaves them behind in order to frantically paddle back.

“Land ho!!” Skeppy shouts, pointing to a small island in the water “Are we docking?!”

“It’s starting to get dark” Puffy muses, looking over at the setting sun “And Spirit is probably tired”

“Yeah, she’s just kinda floating there” Dream confirms, looking worriedly at his tired horse bobbing behind them, head resting on a pool floatie Sapnap had found on the boat to keep her head above water “Good thing I thought of those life vests”

“Alright, we’ll go to the island” Puffy decides, turning them towards the rocky shore and letting Ponk take over the wheel as she went to go fix the sails to get them where they needed to go. Once they’re close enough, Dream hops back into the water and unties his horse from the boat, leading Spirit to the shore and up onto land. Spirit nickers and shakes herself, licking her nose a little as her bridle is taken off

“You did good” Dream praises, rubbing her muzzle and taking off the life vests “You did so good, good girl Spirit- ack!” his horse shoves him with her nose, causing him to fall “Okay fine, I’ll admit that was a little deserved”

Spirit is tiredly laying out on the beach when the others get there, most people opting to hop off and wade the final distance as Sapnap struggles to get his own horse down from the boat. Puffy raises the sails and drops anchor before hopping over to swim, looking around at the barren spit of land they landed on. The island is very small, just big enough to comfortably hold all of them with only a few bushes and wild grasses poking out from the rocky surface

“Well I’m sleeping on the boat” she decides, plopping down next to Niki and taking the towel handed her to dry her legs off “Anyone wanna play marco polo?”

The next few hours of daylight are spent splashing around in the water and playing keep away with a volleyball someone found on the yacht

“How are you so good at this?!” Sapnap shrieks as Ranboo goes diving for the ball, sending it high up for Sam to pass

“I was on the JV volleyball team for my school” the teen pants, spitting out water as he scrambles to his feet to set the ball sent back his way, frowning a little “How do I know that??” he puzzles, hitting the ball towards Bad this time “Where did that random memory come from?” he mutters, yelping as he slips and falls under the waves.

“How are you so scrawny if you were on a sports team?!” Eret teases, headbutting the ball and nearly knocking off their glasses

“I’m not scrawny!!” Ranboo screeches, shaking off his own red-green glasses before putting them back on “It’s not my fault I technically was borderline starved for like six months!!”

“Yeah no that sounds like a you problem” Dream taunts, falling over as he’s pelted with the ball

“How is that a me problem?!” Ranboo laughed, dunking his warm hat to cool it off again

“You problem” Sapnap agrees, taking the ball floating towards him “Dream, you let it fall you’re in the middle-” Dream tackled the younger man and dunked him underwater, Sam laughing as he tried to separate the two wrestling each other.

“Wow, we lasted longer than I thought we would without a fight” Puffy notes, impressed. Ranboo sits down in the water, letting the waves lap over his shoulders as he ignores the squabbling that had become routine for him by now

“Swimming in an apocalypse” Ponk chuckles, taking a seat next to the teen and dunking his head to cool off, popping up after a few seconds and water up to his chin “Who would have thought?”

“It feels surreal” Ranboo agrees, rubbing a gloved hand over the scars on his arm “First an arcade, then fireworks and now boating on a lake?” he snorts a little, cracking his neck “It’s honestly super easy to forget it’s the end of the world sometimes, it feels like a weird summer road trip or something”

“I wonder it that’s a good thing or a bad thing” Ponk hums, laying back a little to float

“I think it’s a good thing” Ranboo admits, laughing a little as Sam body slammed Skeppy into the water and began going after Puffy next “...I like being able to forget”

“Mmm” Ponk sighs, floating peacefully next to him. They stay there in contented silence for a while, watching the rest now trying to pull off each other’s pants under the water

“Are you all finished trying to drown each other?” Niki asks, towel draped over her shoulders and large sunhat she’d found on the boat on her head “Food’s done and Callahan is going to eat everything without you guys” Ponka and Ranboo look over to the shore where Callahan is sat by the fire, mouth comically stuffed with greens and a duck leg.

“Hey!!” Ponk shouts, splashing to his feet and rushing out, Ranboo on his heels “Share!!” Callahan looks up, startled, and immediately starts shoving more food in his mouth

“Callahan’s stealing all the food!!” Skeppy realizes, pointing at the man from atop Puffy’s shoulders

“Food?!” Sam cried, throwing Sapnap off from his shoulders into the lake, Sapnap flailing as he crashes into the water

“Cal!! What the fuck?!” Dream shouts, all of them coming to shore to try and grab what food they can. Ranboo manages to snatch up a plate of something Niki had set out before booking it to the other side of the tiny island, cackling as he slips over pebbles and dodging hands trying to grab him.

“Guess what I found?!” Sapnap cheers, hopping up on the rails and holding up two large cans

“We can’t see!!” Niki informs, shining her headlamp over to illuminate the young man in the dusk

“Oatmeal!!” Sapnap cackled, hopping into the water and keeping the food over his head as he wades to shore “Joffery don’t ever say I never do anything for you ever you ungrateful bitch!!”

“Oh nice” Dream hums, currently leaning back on Spirit laid behind him and catching the can of oats tossed him “Look Spirit, actual food for you” His horse noses the can, nibbling his hair a little “I’ll go get you a bowl” he tells her, patting her muzzle and gently setting Patches aside before getting up

“Wow this is good duck” Ranboo mumbles through his full mouth, grabbing some more cattail cores for his plate “I don’t think I’ve had anything this greasy since the beginning of the apocalypse”

“Duck has lots of fat” Bad agrees, grilling some cattail shoots over the fire composed of washed up branches, dead bushes and charcoal “Which all of us really need to be honest, wouldn’t hurt anyone here to gain a couple pounds. Although you might need to slow down so you don’t make yourself sick with all the sudden grease”

“How’d you make it?” he wondered, slowing down from inhaling his food and taking the soda Ponk handed him that had also been found on the boat

“Just in the oven the yacht had” Bad chuckles “Seasoned it a little with what we had, roasted it for like two hours and you’re good to go”

“How is this cold??” Ranboo sputtered, looking at his drink in shock “Was there a fridge on board??”

“Nope!” Puffy laughs, holding up a dripping bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine “What you do is you find a cool spot in the water where there’s shade, stick your drink in there for a few hours and it’ll get chilled” she tosses the wine over to Eret who happily starts prying the cork out with a knife “It’s better with running water, but it’ll work in a lake. It’s what my mom would do when she took me out boating. She’d put her beers and a coke for me in a bucket, toss it overboard and bring it back up for lunch” She pops the cork of the champagne and takes a good swig before passing the drink over to Niki who pours herself a more civilized bowl before passing it down.

More and more lanterns start to litter the beach as the sun dips under the waves, Skeppy screaming in joy when he finds a still working boom box aboard the boat and hurriedly bringing it over to the others. Soon loud dance music echoes over the lake, Ranboo laughing as he’s pulled up from his spot by a now tipsy Dream, ignoring the sting of rocks under his feet as he sings along to the music. Eret dances with Niki, twirling the smaller woman to Timber and borderline screaming the lyrics while Puffy and Sam run around laughing with what alcohol is left, the dogs running alongside them. Callahan dances around stealing food from plates as everyone busies themselves, George and Sapnap spinning each other and too busy laughing to care when they topple over onto the rocky ground. Bad cranks up the music even more, grinning widely as everyone cheers over the blasting song

“ONE DAY WHILE MY LIGHT IS GLOWIN’, I’LL BE IN MY CASTLE GOLDEN” Dream sings along, hooking a startled George by the waist to spin him around and twirling Ranboo into the waiting Niki “BUT UNTIL THE GATES ARE OPEN-”

“I JUST WANNA FEEL THIS MOMENT!!” Sapnap choruses along, getting a cheer from the others as they join in “WHOA-OH-OH-OH! I JUST WANT TO FEEL THIS MOMENT!!”

“Nothing can get to us out here!” Niki yells at Ranboo over the noise

“What?!” he shouts

“Nothing can get us this far from shore!!” she explains, cheeks flushed with alcohol and winking as everyone screams half-intelligible lyrics at the top of their lungs “Don’t be worried about the noise!! They can’t get us!! Go on!” she encourages, ruffling his damp hair

One day while my light is glowin'

I'll be in my castle golden

Ranboo blinks, realizing what she was saying

But until the gates are open

I just wanna feel this moment

He laughs, spinning her around in glee before throwing his head back and taking in a deep breath

Woah-oh-oh-oh

“I JUST WANT TO FEEL THIS MOMENT!!” He screams as loud as he can up at the stars, in blatant defiance of everything he knew and was taught as if daring the universe to stop him. Daring it to even try stealing one single second of joy from him “WHOA-OH-OH-OH!”

I just want to feel this moment

“LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO!!” Sam yells, scrambling up to the top deck and slamming the hatch closed before doing a little celebration jig and squealing “Oh my god!! Who knew all I would need to fix this stupid thing would be to get absolutely shit-faced?!”

“Isn’t that how you got through college?” Ponk laughed, setting down his dog on board as everyone packed up the rest of the supplies back on the boat “Blacking out drunk and getting the equations you needed?”

“YES AND IT WORKED AGAIN!!” Sam cackles, throwing his fists up in the air, wrench still clasped in one hand “Drunk me tried to figure it out and he did!! Sort of! I fixed whatever he tried to do and ended up fixing the actual engine which means-” he goes over to the wheel and pulls out his screwdriver, jabbing it into the keyhole and twisting. People yelp and stumble as the boat rumbles to life, Sapnap and Dream having to calm down their panicked horses from jumping overboard after the hour long hassle it was to get Spirit onboard

“Sam I swear to god!!” Dream yells, wrestling Spirit down and rubbing her neck soothingly “I just got her on the fucking boat after promising her she didn’t have to be scared of it!!”

“Fuck your horse dude, I got a boat engine running!!” Sam retorts, flipping the two annoyed riders off “Which means we can actually go out faster and farther than yesterday, probably even to the opposite side of the lake”

“Yeah yeah whatever” Dream huffs, turning to his horse and cooing quietly to distract her.

They finish loading up and Puffy takes over the wheel once more, she and Sam whooping as the boat lurches forward at a much faster rate than the day before. It’s calmer today, with everyone choosing to sleep off their hangover below deck in the ac that had finally kicked on, only a few choosing to stay above deck with the horses, Puffy and Sam.

“Should I re-do my hair dye?” Niki hummed, examining her fading hair tips “I touched up my roots a few weeks ago, but maybe I should try a new color? Bleach my bangs?”

“Speaking of which, I need to touch up my own roots” Puffy notes, adjusting her borrowed sunglasses “They’re showing too much” she huffed, tugging at a brown-white curl unhappily “Sam definitely needs a new dye job too”

“Only my tips are still green” Sam complained, leaning on the cockpit and running a hand through clipped hair “Do we have enough bleach?”

“We should” Niki nods, searching her backpack “Anyone else up for a dye job while we have an endless supply of water at our disposal?”

“I wanna re-do my streak” Skeppy pipes up from the side, raising his hand and lifting his faded blue strip of hair with the other “Maybe I should go all blue?”

“Do not” Puffy begs “Trust me, you can not pull that off”

“Hey!!”

“Alright, so some touch ups. Easy enough” Niki decides before looking down at her bandaged hand “Ah. Right… I’ll walk you guys through it, you all know the gist” she shrugs, waving her good hand dismissively

“You better not dye my hair red again because you know I can’t tell the difference” Sam warns, pointing at the grinning Skeppy “I will ask George to double check”

“He’s as colorblind as you!!” Skeppy argues “It’s your own fault for asking Puffy to check last time you know she’s equally blind!”

“Okay, unnecessary-” Puffy starts to protest

“At least George can tell the difference between green and red!” Sam retorts, ignoring Puffy “And he won’t betray his fellow colorblind brethren-”

“Speaking of which, why do you always want your hair to look like piss??” Puffy asks “Is this because Ponk told you that your hair looked good in green that one time?” she snickers, grin widening as Sam’s face grew red and earning sputtered excuses from her friend “Oh my god it is you fucking simp!!”

“What, me and Ranboo don’t get a new hair color?” Dream snorts from where he’s sat near the horses, ignoring the flustered argument between Sam and Puffy

“You never join us!” Niki points out “And I don’t know if hair dye is Ranboo’s thing, it’s a big change. Not like clothes and stuff, this is permanent hair dye!”

“I’ve never dyed my hair” Ranboo informs, looking up from where he was solving his rubix cube next to Dream “I wasn’t allowed, waste of water-”

“He could look good with the right color!” Dream argues, snatching Ranboo’s bucket hat to reveal the fluffy, light brown hair under it “You wouldn’t have to bleach it too much, probably wouldn’t have to bleach at all with the right shade” Niki looked over at the younger teen skeptically, raising an eyebrow in disbelief

“Do you want to dye your hair?” she asks, looking Ranboo up and down almost scrutinizingly “Like, a full dye or just a streak?”

“He won’t” Skeppy snorted, tossing a tennis ball for Rat to go and chase “Maybe like a small piece but no way a full dye-”

“Can you do like a half and half thing?” Ranboo asked, now insistent on proving them wrong “Like, half one color half another?”

“I take it back, he’s got balls” Skepy corrects and Niki grins, wide and feral

“I will absolutely do a half dye for you” She laughs, giggling almost evilly as she heads below deck.

“Should I be concerned?” Ranboo asks, now worried for his safety

“Nah, she’s done split dyes before” Puffy reassured, pointing to her own faded rainbow streaked hair “I used to have my hair half brown half white before I went with the walking pride flag theme- I hope we sill have my rainbow colors, I need to also re color those”

Niki appears back on deck with a new bag, dumping out multiple bottles of dye all over the floor and looking quite proud of herself as the bottles roll around.

“Pick your poison” she offers, sweet and definitely not intimidating smile ever present

“I really hope I’m doing the correct side” Skeppy worried, looking down at his gloved hands and half bleached mop of hair in front of him “His right side was the one that was supposed to be bleached, correct?”

“Please don’t make me go bald” Ranboo pleads, starting to regret his impulse decision but too far into it to back out now

“Yeah” Niki confirms, looking over the well worn instructions as she holds a bottle of bright white dye she was getting ready to make “His hair is pretty light and we’re in the sun so it should only take about 20 minutes or so”

“It’s making my eyes water” Ranboo complains, blinking back tears the sting of bleach was causing him, mask and shirt in his lap to avoid the risk of them getting stained “Is that normal?”

“That’s normal” they all chorus, Skeppy going over to Sam next to bleach the rest of his hair to properly dye it.

“You look funny” Dream teases, flicking the tiny pigtails half of Ranboo’s hair is up in to keep from getting bleached “Pretty bold to do a full dye first time”

“If I end up looking weird I’m going bald” he huffs, drowning out the argument Skeppy and Sam got into over Sam’s hair

“You’re gonna look like a chessboard” Dream chuckles “You ever play chess?”

“A little” Ranboo hums “I’m not very good” The two get into a nice little discussion over chess, Ranboo going back over to the others to wash his hair out when the time was up

“Okay, since I got a split dye last time I’ll do it” Puffy informs, taking the bowl of dye Niki had prepared for her and settling behind the teen “It should be the opposite side of your mask right? Left side black, right side white?”

“Yes” Ranboo nodded, shifting anxiously as Puffy mixed the dye up a little

“Hey, relax kiddo. I’ll talk you through it” she reassured “I have a general idea what I’m doing and If I fuck up I’ll let you pick my hair color, okay?

“Neon orange.” Ranboo threatens with a fiendish smile “All of it.”

“Right, definitely not fucking up your hair” she muttered, making Ranboo laugh a little and relax ever so slightly “First, I’ll do the white side since its ready to go. I’ll start at your hairline and work my way back, that sound good?”

“Okay” he agrees, flinching a bit in surprise at the cool, thick goop Puffy starts dabbing on his hair, slowly relaxing as she carefully works the dye through his hair and pins back what she finished. It feels nice after a while, Ranboo starting to lean into the gentle way Puffy combs his hair as she dyes it

“Gonna do my roots real quick” she tells him when she finishes, easily working the leftover dye into her own bleached hair and combing it through as far as she needed. She sets the bowl aside and takes the next one Niki made “Alrighty, left side now!” she informs cheerily, going through the same process as before. Dream lets out a low whistle as he looks Ranboo over

“You look completely different and it hasn’t even set in yet” Dream tells him, making Ranboo smile nervously

“In a good way!” Niki encourages, giving him a thumbs up from where she was coaching Sam on how to dye his own hair since Skeppy had been “fired” from the job

“In a very good way” Dream agrees with a serious nod “You’re gonna look fucking amazing”

“Thank you” Ranboo giggles, quite happy with the praise he was getting.

He hold still as Puffy finishes up and wraps a plastic bag around his head, helping her get the parts she missed since they didn’t have a mirror and passing over the tiny amounts of multi colored dye for her to recolor her rainbow streaks. After waiting as long as he was supposed to, Ranboo finally conditions and rinses his hair in a bowl of heated lake water, which he desperately hoped wouldn’t affect his dye job too badly. He squeaks in surprise as Sam starts drying his hair with a towel they’d found in the bathroom below deck, laughing and protesting as the man dries his hair a little too furiously and probably tangling it all up

“Okay, ready?” Sam asks the small group, keeping the towel over Ranboo’s hair as if it were a grand secret despite how the teen struggled under it

“Ready!” Niki cheers, practically bouncing with anticipation

“Voila!” Sam exclaims, whipping the towel away to reveal the hair

“Holy shit” Dream blurts, all of them wide eyed at the reveal “Are you sure this is Ranboo??”

“Why the fuck do you look cool that is so unfair!!” Skeppy complains, blowing his newly dyed lock of blue hair out of his face

“Oh thank god it actually came out looking good” Puffy sighs in relief, leaning on Niki for comforting pats from the smaller woman “I didn’t fuck up his hair”

“Do you want to see?” Sam offered, handing over a small mirror they’d found. Ranboo quickly slips his mask back on, hesitating for a moment before slowly looking at the glass and bracing for that uneasy discomfort that came with looking at his face.

He almost doesn’t recognize his own reflection, his mismatched blue and grey eyes the only real evidence of what he was looking at was really him. His hair is now the opposite of his mask, just like he had wanted, one half a snowy, almost blinding white and the other a deep dark black. He runs a hand through his hair a few times, as if checking if it was really his and for the first time he can remember, Ranboo can’t look away from his own reflection, tilting his head for different angles and smile widening under his mask.

“Is this really my hair?” he wonders, still a little in disbelief as he hands the mirror back to Sam “Seriously??”

“Yeah” Dream confirms, walking over and tugging at a lock “Looks good on you, very fitting- ah, hang on” he digs in his pockets a little and pulls out Ranboo’s hair clip and glasses the teen had given him for safe keeping before all the hair dying. He gently tucks now white bangs behind Ranboo’s scarred ear and pins it in place with the crown clip, slipping the red-green glasses over his face and whirling the teen around to the others “Perfect right?”

“Perfect!” Niki agrees, clapping her hands excitedly as best she can without hurting herself “You look so cool!!”

“Like a totally different person!” Puffy laughs, giving him a thumbs up “Also, Sam you need to wash out your bleach before your hair falls out”

“Shit!!” Sam realizes, rushing for the bowl of water he’d set out ahead of time “Not again!!”

“Who the fuck are you??” Sapnap puzzles, groggily squinting up at Ranboo who had come down to steal a snack “Did Dream get a new stray without permission while I was passed out? And why are you wearing Ranboo’s shit? Surely there was someone else with a better sense of style you could have stolen from”

“Because I am Ranboo” the younger teen laughs, lowering his mask and raising his glasses to reveal his identifying scars and eyes

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Sapnap shrieked, stumbling back and making others look over in confusion RANBOO?!?”

“Yes” Ranboo wheezed, putting his mask and glasses back on “I dyed my hair”

“YEAH I CAN FUCKING SEE THAT DUDE!” He shouts “Holy shit man, you look awesome!!”

“What?! No way that’s the beloved Ranboo” Eret rumbles, grinning as he heads over and examines the boy’s hair “I like it. Very rebellious looking, fuck the system and all that”

“Thank you!” Ranboo chirps, puffing up with self-confidence as more and more people came over to check out and compliment his new hair, soaking up the attention like a sponge would water and relishing every second of it.

“Puffy says we’ll be docking in a few minutes” Skeppy relays from the ladder “So pack your shit and get ready to get off”

“Language!” Bad chides “I like your new hair too Geppy, it looks bright again”

“Thank you Bad, I did it myself” the man hums proudly “Although Puffy unfortunately talked me down from dying all of my hair”

“Thank fucking god” George muttered, unheard by Skeppy who went back above deck and earning a few snickers from the others.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Sapnap remembered, digging around in his pockets “Made you something Boo boy” he tosses Ranboo a bright purple paracord bracelet, Ranboo fumbling for it and managing to catch it

“I-”

“Everyone has one of their own and I figured you’d need one too. I kinda guessed at your wrist size though” Sapnap interrupted, shrugging a little “Should still be a decent amount of cord in case of an emergency so make sure to keep that on you somewhere, you don’t have to actually wear it. Rope is rope”

“Thank you” Ranboo murmured, carefully unbuckling the bracelet and clipping it on his left wrist, next to the tattered fabric braid he never took off “It’s awesome”

“...Purple is a nice a good color on you” Sapnap notes, perking up ever so slightly at the sight of Ranboo wearing his bracelet “And if you don’t like purple well tough shit”

“I like it” Ranboo snorts, just now noticing the matching, dirtied orange paracord bracelet the older teen wore on his own wrist “It looks cool”

“Maybe your taste isn’t as shit as I thought” Sapnap hums, nodding in agreement as Ranboo laughs. He slaps his back a little as he passes heading for where his things were strewn “Go pack before you’re left behind on the boat”

Ranboo chuckles some more but goes to collect his things anyway, putting away what little he’d taken out and eye catching on the new bright accessory on his wrist. He tries not to look at it too much, since every time he did, the frayed bracelet also on his wrist would peek out behind it and his giddy excitement at the gift would immediately dampen.

He stops looking at his left wrist.

“Shitty cabin yayyyyy” Skeppy sighs, looking up at the rundown cabin they’d stumbled upon “You realize this is straight out of a scary movie right? If we go in there we will die”

“Let’s just check it out first” Dream chuckled, hopping off his ride to approach the in ruins building “Might be something useful inside”

“This is why you white people always die first in horror movies!!” Skeppy yells, keeping a safe distance from the cabin alongside Ponk and a snickering Sapnap “Do you just not have big creepy house vibe instincts installed or something?!”

“It’s fine, you’re being over dramatic!” Dream retorts, heading up the front porch “Nothing’s gonna happen!”

“Famous last words” Sam mutters, flinching as Dream kicks in the door and goes inside

“Watch it be full of walkers or something-” George starts before getting cut off by Dream screaming inside the house “OH MY GOD I WAS JOKING DON’T ACTUALLY DIE!” He panics, everyone rushing forward with weapons drawn before coming to a halt as the shout turns into wheezing laughter, the blonde opening a shattered window and cackling as he pokes his head out

“Holy shit the looks on your faces!” he wheezes, leaning his head on the window sill and gasping for air “It’s fine you muffin heads, the only thing in here is like a family of possums and some spiders”

“You’re a fucking dick for that man” Sapnap huffs, others grumbling and putting away their weapons as Dream kept laughing at them. They enter the building and set their things down, Bad going back outside to collect branches to make a makeshift broom after Callahan goes into a sneezing fit from the floorboards.

“Yeahhhh, I’m sleeping outside tonight” Eret decides, barely stepping one foot inside before turning right back around.

“We’re going to be murdered in our sleep” Ranboo agrees, following him out “Or have the roof collapse on us”

“Ponkkkk do you have the medicine bag?!” Niki complains, digging through the supplies and very much keeping away from the cobweb filled corners of the room

“Is your hand hurting again?!” Ponk asks, helping clear rubble from the living room so people could set up their bags

“No, my stomach is” she whines, emptying out her bag and searching it “Like really bad”

“Was it something you ate?” Bad suggests, stopping Dream from catching a rat the blonde was going to inevitably throw at George

“Yeah, did you eat something weird?” Ponk hums, starting to pull out bottles “I think we have stomach medicine somewhere in here-”

“GOD FUCKING DAMN IT FUCK THIS PIECE OF SHIT BODY!!” Puffy screams from outside

“Hey!! Language!” Bad shouts out the window

“SHUT UP!!”

“...Niki, quick question” Ponk starts with a strained smile “How long has it been?”

“How long has it been since what??” She puzzles, all of them startling as Puffy barges into the cabin and throws her bag in the corner

“I am setting up a hammock out on the porch, popping multiple pills and passing out for the next 4-6 business days” she spits, marching back out with her hammock tucked under her arm and snatching the bottle of medicine Ponk was holding as she passes

“I think I know why your stomach is hurting” Ponk notes, Niki falling back with an unhappy groan

“This happens almost every month!!” she shrieks, covering her face “How do I always forget?!”

“To be fair, surviving day to day is quite distracting” Bad hums “So I assume we’re staying?”

“I hate your reproductive system” Dream complains, ducking as Niki throws a bottle of pills at his head “Why is it so meticulous?!”

“You think I had a choice in this?!” She snaps “I’m the one who has to deal with it every damn month!!”

“I’m gonna go make tea” Ponk decides, leaving the two to squabble it out

“So is anyone going to be sleeping inside or have we all unanimously decided to take our chances with the wild animals and possible stragglers?” Ranboo snorts, taking the dried meat Callahan handed him

“Yup.”

“Definitely.”

“You couldn’t pay me to sleep in that thing”

“No thank you”

“I’ll take zombies over black mold any day”

“That thing is barely qualified to be used for storage”

“Glad we all agree” Ranboo chuckles, pulling his pot of water off the coals to make his ramen “Puffy? You okay?”

“I’m fine, just let me die!!” the woman calls back from where she’s hanging on the rickety porch, swaying lightly in the warm breeze

“I am so glad for those pills” Dream muttered, snatching a pan from Sapnap so he could start on his own food “Well, seeing as how we’ll be here for about a week, anyone wanna go for a hike tomorrow?”

“Dude we walk every single fucking day” Skeppy points out, shoving instant mashed potatoes in his mouth “We get a week long break from walking and you want to go walking even more?? What, are you a dog? You need to go for your daily walks??”

“Fine but if I find something cool out there I’m not sharing it with any of you losers” Dream huffs, gesturing around with his fork “Cool treasure will only be for me”

“Yeah like you ever share stuff you find with us” George mutters, earning a swat on the back of his head

“There’s a road not to far out from the trail” Eret informs, sitting on his set up cot “We could see if that leads us anywhere interesting, maybe a town or something”

“I’m just gonna set up my hammock up somewhere over there” Sapnap hums, pointing to the line of trees not too far off “And sleep our whole week, no more of this getting up at the crack of dawn bullshit”

“How did you survive your 8 am classes??” Dream baffles

“I didn’t” Sapnap informs almost proudly “Skipped an entire semester of classes cause I kept sleeping through my alarms”

“Well at least school isn’t a thing anymore” George snickers “For the sake of Sapnap’s GPA at least” Sapnap scowls and pokes his friend with his spoon, shrieking as George tackles him and tries to shove said spoon down his throat to the amusement of others.

“Sleeping sounds good” Ranboo tells Ponk next to him, the two watching Sam have to break up the fight that had somehow gotten Dream and Niki involved, the four yelling and hitting each other to the point where Sam gave up and simply sat back to observe

“You’d have to find somewhere quiet enough to sleep first” Ponk snorts. They both duck as a pot goes flying over their heads, clanking somewhere behind them as George lets out an unholy shriek followed by the longest stream of swears from Sapnap Ranboo had heard so far

“Yeah, I can see how that might be a struggle”

“Whatcha doin?” Dream asks, Ranboo poking his head over the edge of his hammock to see the currently maskless man peering up at him

“Reading” he replies, holding up a good-sized paperback “Callahan let me borrow a trashy romance novel from his stash”

“One of the borderline porn ones?”

“I think it’s actual porn in a few chapters” The teen snickers, flipping a couple pages “Wait, how did you know that?”

“I’ve gotten bored enough and mistook plenty of them for a normal murder mystery” the blonde shrugs, climbing up the tree to sit in the crook of a branch next to Ranboo’s head “Some of them have decent enough plots, and they’re fun to burn once you’re done”

“How dare you deprive the world of-” He quickly checks the title of the book he’s reading “Line of Fire” he gasps, looking so scandalized it makes Dream laugh “It’s actually pretty good so far not gonna lie, as much as it shames me to admit it”

“Much shame, shame on you” Dream snorts, snatching the book out of Ranboo’s hands “You’re not eighteen yet, you’re not even allowed to read these”

“You guys literally offered me alcohol like a month ago”

“...I have no argument for that” Dream sighs, tossing him the book back and shoving the teen’s head a little as the boy laughs “God it’s fucking hot out huh?”

“Why do you think I’m in the shade?” Ranboo chuckles, swinging himself a bit “I’m sunburnt enough thank you very much”

“I’m peeling” the other laughs, examining his red arms barely beginning to tan “Legit might die of skin cancer rather than a zombie at this rate”

“What if you just flake away?” Ranboo suggests “All your skin just dusts off or something”

“Like in Endgame?”

“Exactly like Endgame” He agrees, eyes crinkling under his glasses “Just poof! No more Dream! Nothing but dust in the wind~”

“Mr. Ranboo I don’t feel so good” the blonde quotes dramatically, clutching his chest “I don’t feel so good-”

“Get off you’re getting your skin flakes all over me!!” Ranboo shrieks, trying to get out from under the man tipping into his hammock “Gross you’re all sweaty!!”

“I don’t sweat, I shimmer” Dream huffs, laughing as the teen tries to shove his face away, gloved hands attempting to push him out of the hammock “Just move over!”

“I got here first!” Ranboo protests, squealing as Dream starts trying to tickle him and fighting even more furiously to get the man back in the tree “Get off you’re gonna make us flip over!!”

“I’ll take my chances!” he cackles, fully tumbling in and the two screaming as they nearly fall out “Give me your porn book, I’m bored”

“You’re annoying, you know that?” Ranboo tells him with a halfhearted scowl, but hands him the book anyway

“So I’ve been told” Dream hums smugly, grinning at the unimpressed teen “Should I read it out loud?”

“Oh dear god no please don’t” Ranboo begs, face flushing at the thought and quickly grabbing his spare book as Dream flips through it a bit “It’s so cringe-”

“Who the fuck is this bitch Diana?!” Dream shouts, currently on a page in the middle of the book “You whore!! Hands off my male lead protagonist!!”

“Oh my god” Ranboo wheezes, unable to concentrate on his new story due to the random, out of context snide comments Dream keeps making as he reads.

It’s much more entertaining than the actual plot anyway

“Ranboo can you pass me the poking stick?” Bad hums, holding out his hand expectantly

“Yep” the teen handed him a long branch that was slightly hooked at the end. Bad moved around a couple coals under the cast-iron pot, carefully tugging it out from the fire “Flash light?” He offers, flicking on his light and shining it over the ash and coal covered lid “Do you think it’s ready?”

“Should be” Bad huffs, shrugging a little before using the stick to take off the lid “Oh yeah, that’s ready- Who wants cake?!” A chorus of cheers goes up from the group as they start taking the slices being handed out “That’ll kill you muffins’ sugar cravings for a while

“Mmn, you know what I’m really craving?” Sam asks “Weirdly enough, cheese. God I fucking miss cheese”

“Fuck yes” Eret groaned from their spot “I would kill for like- a grilled cheese or something. Any dairy product really, like ice cream, something cold for these warm nights”

“I’m going to be honest” Puffy pipes up from her spot on the porch “I love you all dearly, very much as my friends.” She paused and looked around at the group “I would bury a Bowie knife in any of your chests to be able to drink a chocolate milkshake this exact second.”

“Same!!” Dream wheezed, others crying out in offense as Puffy laughed in shame

“Bury it to the hilt just for a sip” she hiccups, hiding her face in her hands “I’m so sorry but there just would be no hesitation on my behalf”

“I think I would face an entire Horde on my own just for a slice of pizza” Dream admits, leaning back a little and fiddling with his fork “Hell, I’d fucking murder all of you for a whole one. With stuffed crust too, so know your deaths will absolutely have been worth it”

“Nice to know you can be bought out with pizza” Sapnap snickers

“Oh like you wouldn’t sell us out for like Taco Bell or something” Dream retorts

“Taco Bell is good!!”

“Really?” Skeppy scoffs “Taco Bell of all things? At least Puffy had a point with something cold and made of milk!”

“I would happily die for a milkshake” Niki agrees from her own hammock “Or maybe like sushi?”

“I’d kill for fries or something” Ponk sighs, eagerly taking a slice of cake “Like, real honest to god McDonalds type fries”

“All I want is icing to be honest” Ranboo shrugs, taking a bite of the cake he’d help make “Enough icing on this that it collapses on itself from its sheer sugary weight. A whole container of it”

“That also sounds good” Dream nods, stealing a slice of cake for himself “Just eat it out of the cup”

“Ew, who eats icing right out of the container?” George laughs

“Have you never eaten icing out of the package?!” Puffy gasps “Oh my god are you for real?!”

“Is this a normal thing??” George sputters “Eating straight icing??”

“Yes” Puffy, Dream and Ranboo chorus

“NO.” Everyone else replies

“That’s like a rite of passage!!” Dream cries “It’s like eating raw cookie dough or cake batter! You have to eat a spoonful of icing out of the container”

“Full offense but that sounds absolutely disgusting” Sam huffs

“Full offense taken, straight icing is good” Ranboo argues “I once used three cans of icing on one cake. Then again I was making a cake capable of killing god so...”

“THREE CANS OF ICING?!” Sam shrieks, others yelling in equal disgust

“Yeah no god is definitely dead after that” Ponk agrees and Ranboo beams proudly

“Success!!” he cheers “I caused the apocalypse!!”

“To Ranboo, the harbinger of doom!” Skeppy mock toasts, holding up his plate “Thank you for bringing about the end of the world!”

“You are quite welcome” the teen chuckles, taking a triumphant bite of his cake “Seriously though, who do I have to kill for icing?”

“You are no longer allowed in the baking aisle the next time we hit a store” Eret snorts

“Bold of you to assume I won’t help him kill god again” Dream taunts

“We’re gonna kill god!!” Puffy shouts, kicking her feet excitedly “Time for the apocalypse part two electric boogaloo you muffinfucks!!”

“I will be god of the new world!!” Dream shouts “You can’t stop me!!”

“If they actually cause a second apocalypse I’m just gonna off myself” George informs Callahan as the trio keep talking of their ideas to kick off a new end of the world, others trying to stop their plans of world domination. Callahan hold out his notebook towards him with a snort after scribbling something

“I’ll pull the trigger for you”

“Thank you Callahan, how very kind of you”

“I hate this heat” Sapnap complains, currently sprawled out in the shade of the cabin “Fuck summer man. You used to be my favorite season now you’re a dick!!” he shouts up at the few fluffy clouds floating overhead in the bright blue sky

“Language” Bad responds on instinct, frantically slapping down cards to beat George at Double Speed

“Just take the L Bad” George pants, hands a blur as he scans and puts down cards “I play on the regular with Callahan, there’s no way you can win”

“This is impressive, you guys have been going for like thirty minutes” Ranboo chuckles, watching the game go on with amusement

“Yeah, well you should see Callahan play War” George snorts, scooping up his cards and lining up a new row “That man takes no prisoners when it comes to card games”

“Speaking of games” Skeppy pipes up from inside the cabin, poking his head out the open window to look down at the small group “I found the forbidden fruit in here” he holds up a faded, well worn and borderline rotting box of Monopoly

“Fucking burn that” Sapnap orders, pointing at him warningly “We are not having a repeat of last time”

“Half the money is gone and most of the cards are missing” he hums “You wanna give it a spin?”

“Absolutely not” Bad scoffs “Again, there is a reason that game is banned”

“You guys are totally over exaggerating” Skeppy scoffs “How bad can one round be?”

“Monopoly is fun” Ranboo agrees, applauding politely as George finally empties out his hand and wins the game

“The only people who like Monopoly are people who are good at it” Sapnap grumbles, glaring up at Skeppy “Fine. One game only though”

“Whoop whoo!!” Skeppy cheers, clambering out of the window and toppling into the dry grass and dirt where the others sat. They set up the board and after arguing over who gets what piece for fifteen minutes, finally start to play.

“I was right, Monopoly sucks.” Sapnap groaned almost an hour later, having landed on George’s property “HOW DO YOU ALREADY HAVE HOTELS YOU ASSHOLE”

“How else am I supposed to get my money back after Ranboo borderline scammed me out of Boardwalk?!” George argues

“Hey hey hey it was not a scam it was a totally legitimate business deal” the boy retorts, taking the dice for his turn

“IT WAS A SCAM-”

“Can you muffin heads go already?!” Skeppy snaps “I’ve been stuck in jail for two turns already!!”

“You should have taken my get out of jail card deal” Bad hums, looking smug as Ranboo lands on his spot and the teen has to pay him “But you decided the Electric company card was worth it”

“No one ever lands on the utilities card” Sapnap muttered

“Just give me the dice!” Skeppy huffed, snatching the dice and rolling “GODDAMNIT I’M STILL IN FUCKING JAIL THIS GAME IS RACIST!!”

“Language!!”

“ITS BEEN THREE TURNS HOW HAVE I NOT ROLLED A DOUBLE YET?!”

“JUST PAY THE FUCKING FINE DUDE” Sapnap yells

“WHAT FINE?!”

“Oh my god where are the rules?” George groans, burying his face in his hands as Sapnap and Skeppy start shouting at each other

“You really think there are rules in that old thing?” Ranboo snorts, gesturing to the discarded box half under the cabin

“Probably not” George sighs, rolling for his turn while Bad separates the other two wrestling with each other “See, I knew there was a reason we don’t ever play”

The game is quickly forgotten, board going flying off to the side and cards scattering among the grass.

"Ranboo!" Dream called as the teen walked into the cabin "Need your help!"

"Yeah?" He questioned, poking his head into the living room "What's up?"

"I'm doing an inventory check" he explained, gesturing to the duffle bags strewn on the floor "You mind taking the random stuff bag and organizing it a bit? Take stock? It's an absolute nightmare and I'm already dealing with the mess that's the clothes bag. Why the fuck we have fifteen spare belts and never use them is beyond me"

"Sure" Ranboo agreed, picking up the duffle and slinging it over his shoulder "I'm gonna go do this on the porch where there's more room- I'll take my wagon too while I'm at it, I've kinda just been throwing stuff in there"

"Thank youuuuuu" Dream groans in relief "God you are an angel, everyone else bolted when I asked them to help"

"Yeah, it's no problem!" He reassures, snagging his wagon and leading it to the front door "It's the least I could do" he pushes his way out the broken screen door and takes a seat on the most sturdy looking part of the porch deck

"Hey boo boy" Puffy greets from her hammock, lowering her book a little to look at him "What are you up to?"

"Organizing stuff" he replies, shrugging a little before dumping out the contents of the duffle and wagon

"Oh shoot, I think I was supposed to do that" she groaned, swinging her legs over the edge of the hammock to get out "Sorry, I'll help-"

"It's fine, I don't mind" he reassures, picking up scattered travel tubes of toothpaste "I need something to do"

"You sure?" She frets, getting back in the hammock

"Yeah, I'm good" he nods, setting tarps aside while he worked. The two chat for a bit while Ranboo sets things into little piles, jotting everything down in a little notepad he found among the mess

"Hey, you got any cotton balls in there?" Ponk asks, coming over to sit on the porch steps with Niki

"Uhhh, I have one." He chuckles, tossing them the singular fluff ball in the mess "Why?"

"Checking stitches" Ponk responds, taking Niki's bandaged hand and unwrapping it, gently removing the medical splint and undoing the gauze there as well.

"So?" Niki questions, looking over her scarred hand with Ponk "Good?"

"Pretty good yeah" he agrees, tilting her head towards him to inspect her ear "Wiggle your pinkie?" Niki does as she's told, shortened finger wiggling and burn scar shining in the sun "Any pain or discomfort?"

"No, just feels weird" she admits, furrowing her brow as she moves the one knuckled stump "I swear I can feel the missing part of it moving, it's so weird"

"Well phantom limbs are a common thing in amputees" Ponk replies, peeling off gauze from her ear to inspect the stitches keeping her half ripped off ear together "And the burn on the other? How's that feel?"

"Fine now" she shrugs, running a finger over the burn scar running down her left ring finger before flexing it some "It's a bit sore when I move it, a-and I can't quite curl it all the way without hurting or tugging at the scab"

"Sorry" Ponk winces "I would have done stitches but it would have taken a while to do in the moment and I didn't trust myself to do that in the middle of the night when you were already bleeding everywhere. I'm lucky I already had experience with that idiot so I could do your ear" he snorts, gesturing at Ranboo who looks up in offense

"You think I wanted my ear blown off?!" He protests

"Either way, your stitches are looking good" Ponk continues, ignoring the annoyed grumbles coming from the boy and picking up a bottle of disinfectant to douse a cotton ball "I think I’ll leave them in for another week just to be on the safe side. Your hand should be good to go, just make sure to keep it clean, don’t move it around too much and as much as it bothers you do not pick at it” he throws a pointed glare at Ranboo before going back to cleaning Niki’s ear for her “You’ll slow down the healing process that way and I don’t want you with an open wound when there’s who knows what in the air”

“Yes Doc” Niki sighs, re-wrapping her ring finger with a thin layer of gauze and leaving her stump alone “It’s gonna be weird re learning how to hold things with this hand”

“At least it wasn’t an important finger” Puffy comforts “You’ll just have a little looser grip on stuff now”

“I swear if I ever see the idiot who did this to me again I’m going to make sure he dies agonizingly and re-awakens to wander the earth as an undead” Niki spits hatefully “He will not get the privilege of only one death”

“Remind me never to piss you off like ever” Ranboo blurts, looking a bit horrified at the venom dripping from the usually sweet teen’s words “You are a scary scary woman”

“Aww” Niki coos, suddenly chipper again as she smiles angelically “Thank you Ranboo! I try my best”

“You’re full of shit” Puffy laughs, feeling well enough to sit with the group for dinner that night and currently weaving tiny razors and blades into Niki’s bright pink hair, Niki herself laid in her lap as she ignores the chaos to sip her tea “That’s not how it happened”

“Uh, it’s my scar Puffster, I think I would know how I got it” Skeppy argues, holding up his arm to show off the jagged line running down it “No one can top that. Easily the worst scar gotten from another group out of all of you”

“You wanna talk about scars from shitty groups?” Eret scoffs “Have you forgotten I literally got flash banged in the face” he reminds, lifting his ever present sunglasses to reveal the pale eyes under it “Easy first”

“I mean that’s not really a scar per say” Ranboo points out, mask tucked under his chin and mouth full of cornbread “You wanna talk bad scars from other people just look at my face” he snorts, tapping his left cheek

“How did you get that actually?” Skeppy asks “I’ve been dying to know”

“Yeah, you never really elaborated on that story with me and Dream” Sam agrees “How the hell did that happen?”

“Scar story?” Sapnap asks hopefully “We haven’t had any new scar stories in a while”

“I mean it was kind of a stupid way of getting it” Ranboo admits, shrugging a little as he runs a thumb over the ragged line “This was months ago with my very first group. We were together for about a month? Give or take? Supplies were low and no one wanted to make the risk of going into a store so people just got hungrier and angrier until I guess two of them just snapped” he laughs a little, shaking his head “So two guys who probably never held a knife in their life aside from cooking pull out knives on each other for a fight. So yeah. It was like watching two knife wielding squids, arms flailing around and nether of them really close enough to land anything too bad” he waves his arms around exaggeratedly, making others laugh at the image “Either way I panicked and went over to stop them when one of the guys kinda does this big swing and-” he taps the scar with a huff “Next thing you know I’m on the ground clutching my face and everyone’s freaking out over me, so I guess I got them to stop in the end”

“Yeah by shoving your face in the way” George laughs, making Ranboo smile “What were you hoping to accomplish??”

“I don’t know man, I panicked!” he protests with a wheeze “I ended up getting my cheek stitched up by some random lady who’d only ever sown on buttons or something”

“Oh thank god” Ponk groaned, gesturing to Ranboo’s cheek with his fork “I had some very choice words for the doctor who allowed you to have such messed up sutures, good to know it was an amateur… It’s not actually- how did you not get infected??”

“Luck?” Ranboo guesses “She passed out twice while doing it-”

“Dear lord have mercy” Ponk breathes, Sam patting his back soothingly

“Then they kinda just slapped a couple bandages on it for good measure” he finishes, shrugging again “We all sort of went our separate ways a few days after that, bad group chemistry and I think they all felt too guilty about my face to hang around me”

“Well I would hope they felt guilty!” Bad huffs “Who is so unaware with a knife they cut up a by-stander?!”

“Yeah, not cool injuring someone outside your fight” Sapnap agrees “Keep it between yourselves, don’t drag others into your shit where they can get that hurt”

“Wait, so you just split??” Dream puzzles, unscrewing his canteen “Did anyone go with you or something?”

“Nope!” Ranboo informs cheerily “I walked around by myself for a while before I got picked up by another group, which I have now completely erased from my memory since I’m pretty sure I got tossed into an Arena after that”

“Whoa whoa whoa” George blurts “Hang on- you were part of an Arena??”

“Yeah, I think it’s where I got this” he lifts his shirt to reveal the scar running over his chest, making several people clamor and Dream choke on his water

“What the actual fuck did you get stabbed or something?!” Sam shouts

“Can’t remember for the life of me!” Ranboo hums “It’s all a big blank spot in my memories, the next thing I remember after getting picked up is escaping with some weird guy and hanging with him for like a week? Two? before getting separated by a Horde.” he pulls out his notebook from his bag and flips through it “Uhh after that I managed to get into a base but got some bad vibes like they were about to start fighting each other so I bounced, wandered for like two more weeks and then met my last group” he smiles a little “Well, more like two of them tried to rob me on sight”

“Ah yes, robbing future members” Skeppy snorts “How’d you get them not to rob you?”

“Oh no they still robbed me” Ranboo tells him “But the weird guy from the Arena was there and vouched for me so I got to tag along.” he slows down in his flipping, gaze growing sad as he reads over written memories “They weren’t really well off in the food supply department, and having an extra mouth to feed definitely didn’t help. But they were nice, and they didn’t argue over stuff like everyone else had so I stayed” he fiddled with his pen “I-I mean I pulled my weight, or at least I tried to but everyone kinda already had their own role in the group. I wasn’t good with traps, or weapons and I couldn’t fix the RV we traveled in when it needed maintenance… I think I got more in the way if I’m honest” he admits quietly “So I usually got stuck with the chores no one else wanted y’know? Uh, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floors, taking care of the dogs we had- stuff like that”

“So ‘rid-of’ jobs basically” Eret muttered to himself, Skeppy nodding a little in agreement next to him

“The what jobs??” Ranboo puzzles, tilting his head a little

“Ah-” he flusters, wincing as Niki punches him in the leg “This might just be coming from my own experiences, so try not to think too much of it” he sighs, running a hand though his hair “But it sounds to me like they gave you the ‘rid-of’ chores.” Ranboo stares at him in confusion “You know, the jobs you give people you’re trying to “get rid of” to make them leave on their own”

“What?” the teen sputters “No! No they- I wanted to help! Th-that’s all-”

“Did they give you any choice about it?” Eret presses “Or did they guilt you into it?”

“I-”

“I mean that’s just what I immediately jump to cause of the shit I was put through” Eret continues, raising their hands a little “I’m sure they were plenty nice, not like they left you out of stuff or ignored you or anything like that I’m sure”

“They were busy a lot” Ranboo weakly defends, stomach twisting with dread as doubt begins to worm into his chest, flipping through memories “I was the new guy”

“Were you ever on the receiving ends of jokes? Pranks were always done on you?” Skeppy tries “Dismissed a lot?”

“My brothers just liked messing around with me a lot, that’s all!” he panics, reading through countless jokes played at his expense and “funny” comments he can’t quite remember the full context of “They- He didn’t mean it-”

“That’s another thing I’ve been meaning to ask” Dream hummed, seemingly not taking notice of the mess Ranboo was devolving into “Were they actually your family??”

“No- I mean, not biologically” Ranboo chokes out “My older brother- the group leader. H-he uh, he always said calling each other by like family titles would make us closer or something like that-”

“Yeahhhh we can all agree that’s kinda cultish right?” Puffy asked, getting several agreements “I’m not the only one getting culty vibes from that?”

“Yeah no that was definitely a cult you were a part of my guy” Skeppy informs “I would know, I was part of one”

“It wasn’t a cult!!” Ranboo shrieks “I wasn’t part of a cult guys, what the hell?!”

“That’s exactly what someone who was part of a cult would say” Sam pipes up “And again, me, Skeppy, Ponk, Puffy and Bad all got dragged into one so I think we would know. You were part of a cult bud”

“What cult makes people treat each other like family??”

“Literally all of them dude!” Sapnap exclaims “That’s like check box number one when making a cult, have everyone call each other brother and sister and stuff. That’s how they get you”

“Jamestown? Manson family?” Dream offers up “Hello?? It even has family in the name!”

“No! No. It- it wasn’t a cult okay?!” Ranboo seethes “Okay so I called the others around my age my brothers and we had a sort of “dad” and my “older brother”- leader, whatever was a little weird and he’d go off on long speeches about how we were going to survive in the new world and outlast everyone as a new, superior generation and- oh my god I was part of a cult.” he realizes, eyes growing wide as he digs his hands in his hair “Wi- he was a cult leader! Oh my fricking god! I was part of a cult!!”

“Not sure if this is a bright side, but pretty sure they were trying to get you to leave?” Eret offers halfheartedly, getting a disbelieving stare from the teen in return “I mean the whole getting ignored, ‘rid-of’ chores, constant guilting you into making you feel like a burden? Classic textbook passive aggressive tactics in getting someone to leave”

“...How the hell is that the bright side?” Ranboo hisses, throwing his arms in the air “A cult didn’t want me around?! CULTS ACTIVELY TAKE IN MEMBERS!!”

“Well I mean at least they didn’t try to kill you on “accident” or anything like they did with Eret” George supplies “Not like they repeatedly put you in harms way or made you do stuff where you’d get hurt”

Ranboo doesn’t reply.

“...Ranboo” Dream starts warily, the boy flinching as he absently runs a hand over the burns on his arm “How exactly did you get caught up in that explosion?”

“Okay no” he argues “That- that wasn’t his fault! Honest! I-I mistimed the fuse, it was on me-”

“How did you get caught up in that explosion?” Dream repeats, something cold edging his tone

“It was an accident” he whispers desperately, almost like he was trying to convince himself more than the concerned group of adults around him “I should have been paying attention-”

“Ranboo.”

“Th-there was a horde, a big one” Ranboo mumbles, shrinking in on himself “There were so many and we needed to get past so- so we led them all into an abandoned building our leader had rigged with explosives. The circuit had to be finished inside, and then after the minute mark it would be set off from outside and wipe them all out. No one wanted to go inside to finish the circuit so they-” he chokes a little, taking a shuddering gulp of air “They said I should do it. It- it was a joke, I’m pretty sure but-but I wanted to be helpful. I just wanted to help so I agreed and- and I must have mistimed it. I must have because the charge was set off too early, I wasn’t fully out of range yet and it was my fault I should have kept better track of time-”

“A charge that’s set off from the outside?” Niki asks softly “That just so happens to go off with you still inside a building full of zombies?” Ranboo nods stubbornly “Ranboo… that’s not how that works sweetheart...”

“As a fellow explosion expert, I’m afraid I have to agree” Sapnap sighs, running a hand through his hair “If I knew someone had to go in to complete the circuit there’s no way I would have left something like that to chance.”

“It was an accident” Ranboo repeats “It was an accident, they didn’t mean to-”

“Alright, say we give them the benefit of the doubt” Dream snaps, getting to his feet and pacing “Let’s say despite clear rigging issues and a terrible mistime, it really was all an accident.” he turns to Ranboo, eyes blazing “Why didn’t they come back for you?” Ranboo can feel his eyes burn with unshed tears, Callahan reaching out to hold his hand “Why didn’t they come at the very least for your body, to at least try to give you the dignity to die like a fucking human!”

“Dream” Bad warns, getting waved off by the blonde

“They didn’t look for you, they didn’t bother waiting at that safe house for you” Dream continues scathingly “All they left was a half-assed note admitting they weren’t even going to waste their time to stay and wait for the mere fucking chance you were still alive. So either they really and I mean truly thought you were dead that so much as looking for your re-awoken body to confirm it wasn’t worth their fucking time, or they didn’t want to risk having to face the consequences of their own damn actions of sending a goddamn sixteen year old boy into a building full of zombies that was rigged to explode!!”

“It was an accident!!” Ranboo insists, shaking his head vigorously as he claws at his head “It was my fault!! It was my fault I should have been more careful-”

“Oh that’s bullshit and everyone here including you knows it!!” Dream shouts “You?! Smart, painfully cautious Ranboo miscounted something that would kill him in a second?! Don’t give me that complete and utter lie Ranboo I know you! You would never let yourself get caught up in something like that!!”

“They- they cared about me” Ranboo sobs “They did! I should have been faster-”

“IF THEY CARED ABOUT YOU THEY WOULDN’T HAVE SENT YOU ON A FUCKING SUICIDE MISSION!!”

“I just wanted to help” he weeps, shuddering as Callahan pulls him into a comforting hug while others clamored equal sentiment as Dream “All I ever wanted to do was help” he chokes on another sob, flinching when warm hands cup his face and looking up to see Dream kneeling in front of him

“I know you did” he murmured gently, brushing a lock of black dyed hair out of Ranboo’s face “You’re kind like that. That’s what we love about you”

Ranboo lets out another heartbroken wail, throwing his arms around Dream and sobbing loudly when the man squeezes him back, pressing him tightly against his chest as if shielding him from the cruel reality shattering his world around him.

“They- they were tr-trying to kill me” he jerkily manages out, taking in great heaving gasps between sobs “They were trying to-to kill me. A-And I was-as too stu-stupid to no-notice-”

“This is not your fault Boo” Eret soothes, coming up beside him “Do you understand? This is not your fault” they insist, taking one of Ranboo’s hands and squeezing almost painfully “Those assholes don’t deserve you, and you certainly didn’t deserve the shit they put you through okay? This was not your fault, and it never will be”

“Yeah, even I draw the line at repeated attempted murder on a minor” Skeppy adds, throwing a branch into the fire “That’s fucked up Ranboo. You’re better off away from those psychopaths”

“I don’t want to remember” Ranboo pleads, burying his face in Dream’s shirt “I don’t want to remember them. I don’t want to remember”

“Who says you have to?” Dream says quietly, reaching over and taking Ranboo’s notebook from where it lay “You said you keep track of all your memories in this right?” Ranboo nods, eyeing the journal “So without it, theoretically, you’d forget about everything. A fresh start.” the teen carefully takes the book and flips through it, tears replaced with a furious scowl as he skims page after page of memories of his so called “family” “You could move on” he suggests softly, carding a hand through Ranboo’s hair “If you want-”

“To hell with them” Ranboo spits, staggering to his feet and viciously ripping out page after page of memories, crumpling them up in his fist and throwing them into the flames “You. Tried. To kill me!!” he yells, giving up on singular pages and instead throwing the remains of the journal into the fire.

An old photo flutters out from among the few pages left, Ranboo catching a glimpse of gold and dark brown next to his own once sandy hair before it floats into the flame. Sweet, cruel satisfaction curls deep in his chest watching the film warp and melt in the blistering heat, burning down to nothing but blackened ash. He runs into the cabin and returns within seconds, backpack in hand and dumps out the contents to search for what he wanted. He scoops up that stupid, traitorous letter full of empty promises and rips it to shreds, watching them go up in flames in such a satisfying manner. He picks up his final plush and without a second thought tosses the bee into the fire as well, not even watching it burn as he now claws at the braided fabric around his wrist, taking the knife his mentor friend traitor gave him, restraining from throwing the knife into the blaze as well to at least give himself enough time to slice off the cord. He hardly registers the way people reach out in a panic with the blade so close to his wrist, skin stinging from a careless graze before tossing the knife aside and holding the bracelet over the fire.

He hesitates.

He slowly retracts his hand, cradling the severed cord close to his chest. What was he thinking? To burn such a precious thing- he startles as a fingerless-gloved hand wraps around his own, flicking a glance over to see Dream beside him.

“It’s okay” the blonde reassures with a soft smile, squeezing Ranboo’s hand a little before releasing it “We’ll be here” He looks around at the people sitting around the fire, all of them looking expectant, a few even looking proud.

Proud of Ranboo.

“You’re right” he admits quietly, extending his hand back over the fire “It’s time for me to move on.”

Ranboo opened his hand and let go.

Chapter Text

“Hey” Dream greets quietly, hands in his pockets and hoodie wrapped around his waist

“Hey” Ranboo murmurs back, flicking a glance up at the blonde and scooting over a bit to give him space to sit down

“Thanks” he hums, taking a seat on the log Ranboo was on. Ranboo fiddles with the knife in his hand, half-and-half metal in his hands practically mocking him with how it shines and yet he keeps turning it over despite his desire to throw it. They’re both quiet for a minute or so, neither saying a word as the birds chirped a little further off and faint laughter from behind them carried over in the wind.

Dream is the first to break the silence.

“...so” he starts

“So” Ranboo agrees, letting out a long sigh and staring up at the thin clouds drifting overhead

“You kept the knife” Dream notes, neutral and unnaccusing despite Ranboo’s expectations

“Yeah” he murmurs, scowling a little as he thumbs the edge “I wanted to get rid of it with everything else” he says quietly “But it’s a pretty decent knife to waste by throwing it in the fire” he twirls the weapon in a soothing fashion, made habit after all this time

“True, it’s a really cool looking knife” Dream nods “And I guess it can serve as a little reminder not to trust them if they ever show up, a literal knife in the back so to speak”

“...about that”

“I’ve sort of come to the realization that in hindsight it probably wasn’t a good idea to encourage you to get rid of the one thing that keeps your memory in check” Dream admits, rubbing the back of his neck in a mix of awkward shame and Ranboo snorts in amusement “But! To be fair, I didn’t expect you to burn the entire thing so you can’t blame me there”

“Yeah, didn’t really think about that either until after” the teen sighs, drooping his head a little “I really screwed myself over with that, as good as it felt to do in the moment. You think we can hit up a store with office supplies or something? Even like a stack of notebook paper would work”

“Actually!” Dream exclaims, lighting up excitedly “I came over here to give you something for that!” Ranboo immediately perked up, making Dream smile at the blatant enthusiasm. He unties his hoodie and something plops out into the grass, Dream picking it up and brushing it off. He holds up a leather-bound notebook, tightly shut and folded over with a leather strip twice wrapped around the pages, jagged handmade paper edges giving it a medieval-style feel. ‘DO NOT READ’ has been carefully carved into the cover with a knife, inked in with a pen and a bit lopsided despite obvious efforts to keep it neat. “Here” Dream says, holding out the book towards Ranboo

“What?!” Ranboo sputters, staring at the notebook being gently pushed into his hands “Where- why-"

"I had the massive luck of hitting an abandoned renaissance festival way back in the beginning of all this” Dream explains “It’s where I got my axe and a couple of other really helpful things including that notebook.” He shrugs a little as Ranboo carefully unwinds the cord keeping it closed and flips through the rough pages “I tried my hand at journaling but turns out I do not have the patience or willpower to keep up with one and gave up, that’s why there’s a couple pages missing. I tore them out for you” he gestures to the ragged evidence left behind “It’s been knocking around in the bottom of my bag for a while and honestly I completely forgot about it until now. Figured you probably need it more than me” he fidgets with his hands a little as Ranboo examines the journal “You uh, is it okay?”

“Wh- yeah! Yeah it’s awesome!” Ranboo blurts "Thank you so much" he murmured, running a hand over the soft cover almost reverently and fiddling with the rough paper.

"Here" Dream hums, handing him an intricately decorated silver pen "It came with the book. Give you a head start on writing down what memories you want to transfer over" Ranboo nods and flips to the back of the first page, Dream heading back to the others as the teen twists the nib out and starts to write

MY NAME IS * I t dOE sN’t M atTeR * RANBOO. THERE IS A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

I HAVE A GOOD GROUP.

THEIR NAMES ARE DREAM (Leader) SAM. PONK. BAD. SAPNAP. GEORGE. NIKI. PUFFY. SKEPPY. CALLAHAN. ERET. THEY ARE YOUR FRIENDS.

THEY ARE VERY NICE TO ME.

THEY CARE ABOUT ME.

THEY ARE SAFE.

YOU ARE SAFE.

Ranboo smiles at the familiar words, anxiety settling down as he reads over the lines and engraves them into the deepest parts of his memory he can. He taps the pen a little as he thinks about what to write on the page next to it, finally deciding what to put down

YOU CAN TRUST THEM.

DO NOT TRUST OTHERS.

OTHER GROUPS HAVE *tried to* HURT ME

THEY WILL NOT HURT YOU (on purpose)

THEY ARE MY FRIENDS .

GOOD FRIENDS.

THEY WILL NOT LEAVE ME.

*OTHERS HAVE LEFT YOU*

YOU WILL BE OKAY.

Ranboo hums contentedly and flips the page, starting on the long process of writing down all the important memories he could recall in his new journal, going back and forth to add new annotations and side notes about details he'd suddenly remember.

"Civilization!!" Puffy cheered as they passed stores, more buildings getting closer as they walked "Let's go!!"

"What civilization?" Sapnap snorts as Callahan shoots down a Straggler with a bolt "Civilization is dead"

"Good point" she agrees, pausing to peer into a store window "You guys want to break into houses?"

“Ah yes” Sam chuckles “Desecrate the places people once lived in for some quick loot”

“Sam, you’re the type who would purposely kill an NPC for the shits and giggles” Puffy retorts

“How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”

“I’m down for a little trespassing” Dream hums, hopping down from Spirit to look around at the houses they were walking past “Might be something interesting-”

“First person back with a bottle of alcohol wins!!” Eret shouts, promptly dropping the duffle bag they were carrying and long legs carrying them frighteningly fast towards a house, practically vaulting over the fence, backpack and all

“If any of you find rum I will literally die for you!” Puffy adds, taking off towards another house

“Take a buddy!!” Dream screams, seeing his group split on their own “How many times do I have to tell you guys this?!”

“Wow, they’re gone fast” Ranboo notes, only he and Callahan left with the very disappointed Dream in the middle of the street “Um, are we leaving all the stuff out here?”

“No” Dream sighs, eyes clearly being invisibly rolled under his mask as he picks up a bag to sling over his shoulder “Let’s go move these somewhere” The trio collect the abandoned bags and put them on the driveway of a house, tying the horses to a fence post to graze before heading inside to explore

“I found a bottle of rosé, do I win the competition?” Ranboo calls out from the kitchen, pulling out cans of food from the cabinets he was searching, bitterly noting in silence that nearly half of said cans were beans

“ROSÉ?!” Dream yells excitedly from a bedroom he was tearing apart “Really?!”

“Yeah” Ranboo confirms, examining the dusty bottle hidden away on a small wine rack “And some-” he reads the new bottle he finds “Gin??”

“-.. .. ... .. -. ..-. . -.-. - .- -. -” Callahan beeps from the living room “.--. --- -. -.- / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .-- .- -. -”

“Dream?!” Ranboo yells helplessly “I need to study Morse code more” he sighs as he waits

“Ponk can use the gin!” Dream translates, heading upstairs “It’s really strong, can be used as a disinfectant! If you find vodka take that too, for the same reasons!”

“--- .-. / ..-. --- .-. / -... --- -- -... ...”

“Or bombs!” Dream agrees, loudly sighing “Niki and Sapnap can use them- FUCK ME!!” he yelps, loud crashing, thudding and cursing muffled by the floor between them. Ranboo quickly scrambles to his feet, Callahan skidding into the kitchen with worry written over his face

“Dream??” Ranboo panics, he and Callahan running towards the stairs “Dream?!”

“I’m fine- FUCKER!!” He curses, another loud thud hitting the ground “Sorry! Owner was home or something! Opened a closet and the bastard fell on me- WHY ARE YOU UNDER THERE GO BACK TO BEING DEAD YOU BITCH-”

“"He’s fine”" Callahan signs with a huff as Dream keeps cursing and thudding around, turning back towards the living room

“Do you need help?!” Ranboo worries, anxiously fiddling with his knife

“No! I’m okay!” Dream reassured, a loud thud following his statement “All good! Find me more alcohol!!”

“Yeah, he’s fine” Ranboo snorts, heading back to the kitchen to continue searching.

"Hey Boo boy!" Sapnap calls out

"Hello Saps!" Ranboo greets back, grinning when the older teen pauses to register the nickname

"I'll let that one slide, it's not bad" he decides, coming over to Ranboo and hooking an arm around his shoulder "Anyway, you wanna come play Swipe with us?"

"What is Swipe and who is us?" Ranboo questions, squinting at the shorter with suspicion as he's led away from his job of unpacking bags in the abandoned store they decided to take refuge in for the night

"Me, George, Niki, Eret and Skeppy" Sapnap hums "Maybe Dream if he's in the mood."

"See, I trust Puffy and Eret but I do not trust the rest of you" Ranboo huffs "So I'm not sure how I feel about whatever I'm getting dragged into. What is Swipe?"

"You wound me Ran!" Sapnap mock wails, pretending to faint and leaning on Ranboo dramatically "You really think so little of me?!"

"You literally shoved me in a wagon and pushed us down a hill into an obstacle course of cars and zombies at like 90 miles per hour while I was still recovering from a near death injury."

"...alright you got me there" he admits with a wild, not in the slightest guilty, smile "Swipe's a game Callahan came up with, basically one person has to go out into the street and steal something without getting bit. Can be off the street, in a store or for bonus points, right off a zombie" he explains, heading up the roof access ladder "Open up muffinfucks!" Sapnap barked, pounding on the hatch

"Well well well" Puffy drawled as she opened the door "Look who decided not to chicken out this time"

"Again, who brought back that sweet family sized bag of fun sized Kit-Kats from the middle of a Group" Sapnap retorted, taking her hand to help pull himself up "Sup guys, I brought the baby"

"I am three years younger than you" Ranboo hissed, thanking Puffy quietly as he's helped up

"Exactly." Niki nods "A baby"

"You are all dead to me."

"You playing with us Ran?" Eret asks, hair a mess and bloodied, neon pink rimmed sunglasses crooked on his face

"Maybe" he snorts "What happened to you??

"My Swipe" Eret chuckled, tapping the glasses proudly "Took them right off some hippie looking zom" he points down to the wandering zombies, one of them face down on the pavement with their head bashed in

"Ah" Ranboo snorted "Sapnap said you were playing something stupid?"

"It's not stupid if it's fun!" George announces

"Yeah it is!" Skeppy contradicts "And stupid fun is the best kind of fun!"

"You up for a round?" Niki challenges with a smirk, blowing a couple bubbles out of the little bottle she held

"Sounds super dangerous" Ranboo muttered, warily looking down at the small crowd of undead wandering around in the street

"Oh yeah, for sure" Puffy agrees, slipping on a pair of shades "Watch how it's done Boo boy"

"Jeans and leather" George grins, pointing out a bag a zombie kept stumbling over "See the tote?"

"Easy" Puffy drawls confidently, rolling her neck and cracking her knuckles "Give me a sec" she jogs over to the fire escape ladder and leaps over, Ranboo watching in amazement at how easily she slides down. She hops off onto a dumpster before sliding into the alley, slinking her way to the sidewalk where she pauses to scan the undead crowd.

"The whole point is to try not to get noticed and have them swarm" Sapnap whispered to Ranboo, everyone watching as Puffy carefully edges the road to sneak her way to the bag.

After a moment's pause, she seems to mentally say "screw it" and bolts for the tote, body checking the zombie near it, scooping up a strap to sling it over her shoulder and racing back for the alley with a cackle. The zombies shriek at the sight of a meal running away from them, starting to shamble towards Puffy before stopping as something shatters further off. Ranboo looks over and sees Skeppy perched up on the roof edge hoisting a vase, throwing the fragile vessel over the building for it to break and draw attention away. Puffy slips back into the building without any more issues, roof access hatch banging a few moments later and a triumphant Puffy pulling herself up once it's opened.

"Suck it losers!" She laughs, throwing the bag at George's feet and spilling its contents "Easy point right there!"

"Not bad" George admits as he dumps out the rest for Niki and Sapnap to excitedly rifle through, the teens a bit disappointed to find nothing but textbooks and papers. They do, however, argue over the smushed Snickers bar at the bottom, George casually hopping over them as they struggle "My turn"

The group plays for a while, going for riskier and riskier steals while Ranboo watches on. The close calls were nerve-wracking but entertaining, Ranboo keeping quiet when needed and cheering with the rest after a successful steal. He finds himself having fun watching the others go down among the now confused Horde, gaining enough confidence in their evading skills to jeer and taunt from above like the rest of the viewers

"I think Ranboo should have a turn" Skeppy suggests, Ranboo looking up from the biology textbook he'd been skimming

"What?"

"Yeah" Skeppy nods "You're talking all big while safe up here, let's see you put your money where your mouth is long boy"

"Alright bet" Ranboo huffs, crossing his arms confidently as others whooped in encouragement around him "My first Swipe, what'll it be?"

"Okay, okay boo boy" Skeppy says with a grin, peeking over the roof down below "Mmm, lamp store down there, bring back a lamp"

"Come on Skeppy" Ranboo drawled, leaning on the wall to look down "Make it hard for me"

"Oh you want hard do you?" The man laughs, others teasing and chattering excitedly at the challenge "Okay then. Hat." He points down to the center of the Horde where a zombie wore a blood stained trucker's hat

"Don't be petty Skeps" Puffy scolds lightly before turning to Ranboo "You don't have to do it if you don't want to kiddo"

"Nope" Ranboo shrugs "I said hard, so that's on me"

"Wait you're actually going for it?!" Sapnap exclaimed, catching the bucket hat Ranboo tossed at him and others protesting as Ranboo started to stretch out his arms a little "Dude!"

"I can do it" Ranboo nods, jogging over to the ladder and hooking a leg over the rungs "Back in a bit!"

"There's no way" Skeppy sputters, everyone rushing over to the edge to watch the teen carefully clamber down and hop into the alleyway

"Dude you're gonna get him killed with that Swipe!" Eret hissed, smacking the back of Skeppy's head "It's his first time!!"

"I didn't mean it! He could have backed out!!" The man snaps, watching as Ranboo came to a stop at the sidewalk and jumped a little in place as if hyping himself up.

"Welp. He's dead" George sighs, stringing his bow in preparation

"Dream is gonna kill us" Niki groaned, covering her eyes but peeking through a gap to watch.

Ranboo slinks around the Horde's edge, ducking behind cars and making his way towards the target. He pauses, peeking over the hood of his current shield and scanning the best path to take. There's a moment of tense silence, everyone watching Ranboo creep around the car, freeze and bolt forward

"Oh my god he's doing it!" Puffy exclaimed, Sapnap and George readying their weapons to fire

"I can't watch!" Skeppy moans, covering his face in despair.

Ranboo dashes through the crowd of undead, hardly stopping as he snatches the hat off the target and keeps running, a panicked giggle escaping him as he dodges the now outstretched rotted hands trying to grab him. He loops back around on the sidewalk, vaulting over cars and shrieking as he rips his shirt out of a zombie's grasp, stumbling a little but quickly righting himself as the Horde starts shambling after him. The whole group is screaming now from the roof, waving and pointing at different paths while the teen ducks and weaves

"Take the ladder!! The ladder!!" Sapnap shouts, banging on the fire escape that led up "Come on!!"

Ranbo makes a sharp turn, skidding into the alley and quickly jumping up on the dumpster to reach the emergency ladder. Eret and Puffy help the boy over the edge when he gets up, everyone crowding him as he tumbles to the roof and sprawls out on his back, heaving for air.

"Ranboo!" Skeppy panics, rushing to the front "Are you okay-" the teen cuts him off by thrusting the hat up in the air, ripping off his mask to grin triumphantly at the man

"I win" he gasps out, laughing as others pull him up and slap his back "See? Easy swipe"

"You're terrible" Skeppy snorts, pulling him down to hook an arm around his shoulders and give him a noogie "You really had it in you huh?"

"I put my money where my mouth is" Ranboo crowed proudly, squawking when Skeppy snatches the battered, bloodied hat from his hand and shoves it over his head "EW!! THAT'S COVERED IN BITS!! MY HAIR!!"

"SUCK IT UP" Skeppy cackles, now mock wrestling with the half blinded child to the amusement of others.

"So" Eret hums, everyone having calmed down now that Ranboo was back in one piece "Who's topping that one?"

"How is this place still intact-" Puffy starts, looking around the abandoned store but getting cut off as Ranboo zooms past her

"DOLLAR BINS!!" He cheers, beelining for the trashed metal wire bins and excitedly searching them "Come on tiny pots where are you?"

"Right, the little dollar grow packs Target has" Dream snorts, watching Sapnap and Ponk join in searching for cool stuff "I'm hitting the liquor aisle. Anyone coming?"

"Alcoholism!! Whoo!!" Eret cheers, Niki happily tagging along

"I FOUND LAVENDER AND BASIL!!"

"He does realize there's an entire gardening aisle right??" Puffy snickers, passing the excited teen holding up very small, cracked clay pots

"Ah, let him have this" Bad hums, following Puffy towards the rest of the store

"Bubbles!!" Sapnap exclaimed, holding up a long tube of soap and cracking the bottle open to blow a few "Ponk, did you find anything?"

"A hand" the doctor replied, tossing aside a severed hand in one of the bins with a grimace "I found some chalkboards, that's cool I guess. Bunch of travel games, that'll be useful- Ranboo you good?"

"Fantastic" Ranboo assured, mask tucked under his chin to grip a small metal pail in his teeth, arms full of various pots, candles and boards

"You concern me sometimes" Sapnap snorts, holding up a pink bottle of soap "Bubbles?" Ranboo nods happily, balancing the new item on the pile already in his arms and contentedly following after the two. They deposit their things in a heap in the middle of a main hall where other backpacks and bags were dumped, brushing themselves off and checking their weapons as a few gunshots go off on the other side of the store

"So now where?" Ponk hums, looking down one of the side aisles full of scattered toiletries "Do we need any more detergent-"

"BAKING AISLE!!" Ranboo shouts, taking off before either of them can grab him

"RANBOO I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU EAT A CAN OF ICING IN FRONT OF ME I'M THROWING YOU INTO A HORDE" Sapnap threatens, chasing after him and vaulting over upturned shopping carts in his way "RANBOO!"

"You can't stop me!!" The boy cackles, stifling a shriek as a zombie charges at him. He runs past, ducks its hands, draws his knife and cleanly drives it through the monster's skull in one smooth motion. He shoves the body into Sapnap's path, grinning widely as the older teen screams when he runs into the corpse "You'll never take me alive!!"

"Get back here long boy!!" Sapnap shouts

"No surrender!!" Ranboo laughs, disappearing down another aisle "Oh, hi Eret!"

"Ranboo put the icing down."

"Bye Eret!"

"Ranboo!!"

Ranboo sits up on a shelf while others prepare their dinners, halfway through a can of icing much to the disgust of others.

"In my defense-" the teen starts

"There is no defense for the sin you've just committed in front of us" Sam huffs

"You're just jealous" Ranboo hums, swinging his legs out of the way with a grin as Skeppy tries to yank him down "Jealous that I still have a fast metabolism"

"Low fucking blow Ranboo!!"

Ranboo only laughs giddily in reply, scooting over for Puffy to sit beside him and handing her a spare can of pure sugar

"Mere mortals cannot comprehend the amazingness of this experience" she says with a solemn nod, ripping off the foil and exaggeratedly licking it "We are gods among men Boo boy!"

"Yeah!" Ranboo cheers, catching the box of triscuits someone throws at him "I am your god now!!"

“Great, Dream’s god complex has rubbed off on you” Sapnap groans, trying to do an ollie on a skateboard he’d found and grabbing a shelf every time the board slipped out from under him

“It’s a superiority complex, there’s a difference!” Dream shot back as he zooms by on a scooter “But if you want to call me god I’m not opposed!!”

“Definitely a god complex” George snorts, grinning as he pops open a bottle of champagne “Warm booze anyone?” Bottles of cheap, warm alcohol are passed around, Ponk tossing up some sparkling juice for Ranboo to drink with them.

“If you had to get a tattoo, and like had to” Skeppy started “What would it be and where?”

“Frog. Thigh. Easy.” Niki immediately replies, knocking back a swig of fireball “Next.”

“Already have one!!” Dream shouts from another aisle

“Pick another one!!” Skeppy yells

“I’d get like, a ship or the Jolly Roger or something” Puffy hums “Maybe like my arm? Add to the whole pirate vibe”

“Creeper” Sam decides, leaning back on the beanbag Ponk was sat in, head between Ponk’s legs “Maybe my side or something”

“The monsters from the video game?” Ponk snorts, looking down at him

“Hell yeah” Sam laughs “A cute little fluffy Creeper”

“Cute?! Those things were hell to deal with!” Sapnap cries, snatching a cookie from Eret “Do you know how many levels I failed because of those things dropping on my head?!”

“Tell me you suck at Mines of Mojang without telling me you suck at Mines of Mojang” the green haired man snorts, yelping as a pillow is thrown at his face “How is it my fault you suck?!”

“Bitch!!”

“Language!!”

“Sapnap sucks at video games!” George taunts, screeching as he’s tackled by the teen

“Let’s gooooo!!” Puffy cheers, throwing her drink up in the air as the two start fighting, Niki getting dragged in as they roll by “Kick their ass baby!!”

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Skeppy chanted, Callahan snapping photos and Eret cheering along, waving a bottle of sherry around

“I’m surprised it took that long” Bad sighs, chugging some more wine “Who’s first watch?”

“Ho-ly cow” Sapnap gasped, pointing at the metal highway sign nearly buried in overgrown weeds and grasses “Guys. Please tell me we’re making a pit stop at Buc-ee’s please please please pleaseeeee”

“What the hell is Buc-ee’s??” George snorts

“Only the best place in the world while on a road trip!!” Sapnap exclaims, gasping in offense “Which means it’s worth, like, double the points in the apocalypse” He turns back to see their blank expressions, jaw dropping a little “Have none of you ever been to one?!”

“I stick with 7-11’s” Sam shrugs

“I try not to go to gas stations on road trips unless for gas if I can help it” Puffy adds, a few nodding solemnly alongside her

“I’m not even from this country!” Niki reminds, Eret and George raising their hands

“Same here” the other two Europeans agree

“We are going to Buc-ee’s” Sapnap decides, turning his horse towards the ramp exit “Get ready for the best gas station experience of your lives”

“I guess we’re going to whatever the hell a Buc-ee’s is” Dream sighs, the rest of the group following the excited teen leading the pack. Within an hour they arrive, Ponk letting out a low whistle as the store sized “gas station” comes into view

“Yo, how come I’ve never gone to one of these??” Ponk wonders, carefully sliding down the hill after climbing over the road rail “I’ve taken tons of road trips”

“That does look rather impressive- he said this was a gas station??” Skeppy says in awe as they approach

The parking lot is surprisingly nearly empty, most likely due to being out in the middle of nowhere, so they have no trouble clearing a path to the store. It takes a while to pry the doors open, which then Sapnap proudly strides forward and stretches his arms out as if to show off the massive gas station.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" He says, turning to face his friends. He barely blinks as George fires an arrow that narrowly misses his head and sinks into the zombie at his back "Thank you. Now! Ladies and gentlemen!! I present to you the best place at the end of the world, the one road trip stop for all your needs, the safe haven of the beaver- BUC-EE'S!!"

"Question" Ranboo pipes up, raising his hand "Are we doing anything about the Group's worth of zombies headed right towards us?" he points behind the older teen

"You are ruining my moment!!" Sapnap yells at the corpses shambling towards them hungrily, pulling out Mars from his bag and marching to the closest one. Rotted brain matter and blood goes splattering on the already dirtied tile within seconds.

"Welp. I guess we're cleaning first" Ranboo sighs, drawing his machete and trailing after Eret and Sam.

"This is my new favorite place we've ever raided” Skeppy decides, up on Puffy’s shoulder to snatch bags of jerky from a wall of the stuff “I fucking love this beaver”

“Bro there is so much food here, I love this place!” Ponk laughs, holding up jars of canned peaches and some sort of jam

“So many snacks!!” Eret agrees, arms full of chips and Callahan behind him juggling multi-colored Buzzballzs

“I’m taking like five of these” Ranboo decides, clutching multiple pillows with sayings all over them and George climbing the shelves to get funnier ones down “These are awesome-”

“I FOUND THE ‘LIVE LAUGH LOVE’!!” George shouts, holding up a board

“GIVE!!” Ranboo demands, whirling around “Please that’s like my favorite one!!”

“They have decent supplies too” Bad hums, taking the bags of charcoal from one of the shelves while Sapnap takes down a rifle bag from behind him “Lots of camping and hunting gear. Good job Sappy Nappy”

“Yeah, you did good on this one Saps” Dream agrees, examining the knives hung up on the wall while Sam looks at the soft coolers “Not a bad haul for a secret level”

“I just wanted jerky” Sapnap admits with a lopsided grin, wincing as Puffy and Skeppy bring a rack of packaged meat down on them

“I think we have enough jerky for the rest of our lives” Dream scoffs, looking over at the second wall of dry meats “Wish the slushee machines worked though, I’d kill for an Icee right now”

“All I can offer you is coke” Niki tells him, popping into the back aisle

“The drug??”

“The drink” she snorts “If I had the drug I sure as hell wouldn’t share with you lot”

“So meannnn” Sapnap whines “You know Bad is an avid coke user, you’d do that to him?!”

“LANGUAGE!!” Bad screeches, whipping around in horror “I do not!!”

“Yeah you do” Sam teases “You snorted a whole line of the stuff when we first met”

“NO I DIDN’T!”

“Bad, it’s okay, you don’t have to be ashamed of it” Dream soothed “I was given micro-doses of meth as a child and I didn’t like them but if coke is your thing-”

“Language and I don’t do drugs!!”

“How is meth language?!”

“Dream!!”

“Wait, when did you do meth??” Sam sputtered

“ADHD meds.”

“… that explains a lot actually”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean Samuel?”

“No further comment.”

“Right, I’m gonna go get a bag of the pretty rocks” Niki decides, leaving the four to bicker with each other “My job here is done”

“My arms are gonna kill me in a few days” Ranboo groans, looking over at his little wagon stacked with firewood and water they’d collected “Why are you making me carry everything?!!” he complains, leaning back and sprawling on the floor

“We can get a bigger one if you want” Eret offers, gesturing over to the now barricaded front doors further away where store branded wagons were packed away, glasses gleaming in the firelight “They have wagons here”

“Yeah, but are the cloth ones as durable as mine?” Ranboo huffed, sitting back up to take the root beer handed him and cracking it open “We go over a lot of rough ground”

“One way to find out” Sam snorts, leaning back in the camping chair he’d gotten from the front, everyone grouped around the decent sized fire in a metal fire pit with new chairs of their own

“I hate you.”

“I’m just glad we could stock up” Ponk hums, organizing the new medicine he’d snagged, ignoring Callahan and Sapnap fighting over a cup of ramen next to him

“We heading back on the road?” Bad asks, pulling out the map and turning on a lantern to better see in the darkening gas station “I mean this isn’t too bad a place to stay for a while-”

“I want beds please” George begged, curled up weirdly in his chair so that his legs draped over one of the fabric arms

“Well yeah, I didn’t mean like a permanent base- Rat, not now” Bad huffs, trying to nudge the small dog pawing at his foot “Rat!”

“Whoa! Patches!” Dream yelped, holding his food up to keep the cat from knocking it out of his lap as his pet hopped into his seat “What-”

“Fran?” Sam puzzled, reaching for his axe as the dog’s floppy ears perked up, Fran staring off to the other side of the dark store and Fat Bitch doing the same, hackles starting to rise

“Did we barricade the other side of the store?” Ponk whispers as the group falls silent and reach for weapons

“Callahan and I did, yeah” Ranboo whispers back, Callahan signing in confirmation

“Shhshshh” Puffy hisses, holding a hand out and gripping her cutlass tighter “Listen.”

The group is dead silent, Sapnap, Dream and Niki getting up with weapons drawn as something shuffles off in the dark. There’s a quiet clattering over where the doors would be, the sounds of something climbing over the barricade quietly bleeding across the store

“Zoms?” Ranboo whispers, scooting back to hide behind Callahan and clutching his knife, Callahan slowly and quietly loading his crossbow.

“Is it just me” Skeppy starts, knuckles white as he grips his hammer a little tighter “Or does that sound a lot like humans?”

They all strain to listen, hearing soft, deliberate footsteps skittering around, something that sounds an awful lot like a curse being hissed in the dark and flashlight beams scanning the store, still far enough that they hadn’t noticed the campfire, but that was sure to change soon enough

“Dream?” Eret murmured, everyone looking over to the blonde for what to do next

“...shit” Dream spat, shoving a final bite of food in his mouth before snatching up his plastic smiling mask next to his seat and putting it on, tightening the strap so it fit snugly “No sudden movements, be chill”

“They pull a gun on me and I’m out” Skeppy hisses, others warily sitting back down but keeping an eye on the lights getting closer. Dream and Sam swapped seats, the blonde keeping watch on the outside and battle axe laid across his lap as the lights came to a halt a few aisles away.

“Judging from the lights there can’t be too many” Ponk murmurs “At least not in the store”

“We could take ‘em” Sapnap huffs, going back to trying to make his noodles “Pass me the pot Cap?”

“That better not be my cup of noodles” Skeppy snaps as Puffy hands Sapnap a pot, conversation resuming at a quieter level, although everyone still on edge

“"They’re not leaving”" Callahan signs, having gone over to crouch next to Dream and gesturing to the converged glow of flashlights "“Threat?”"

“Dogs will alert of anyone sneaking up” Dream murmured back “I think they’re trying to figure out if they should approach us” he turns his head a little as something shuffles and a light starts to move again “Oh?” he hums, Callahan immediately picking up his bow with a scowl “Let’s see how stupid these fuckers are”

The hushed chatter goes completely dead when footsteps near, everyone watching with trepidation as a man steps out of the dark into the ring of firelight, looking a bit surprised himself if how he blinks in confusion is any clue. His clothes are filthy and a bit too large on his lean frame, messy scruff running over his jaw as he takes in the group before him

“Uhh, hi?” he greets, waving awkwardly with one hand, the other tightly gripping a crowbar and flashlight. Dream tilts his mask in a way Ranboo knew from experience was downright unsettling, silent for a beat before responding

“Hello. You need something?” the blonde drawls, shifting in his seat slightly and making his much more dangerous weapon clearly visible

“We were just looking for supplies” the man explains quietly, gesturing to the people carefully coming into view, all of them looking ready to run at the slightest hint of hostility “...you mind?” Dream seems to consider it, looking over the few strangers before shrugging and turning back to his own group

“I don’t own the damn place” he replies with a dismissive wave of a hand “Just don’t touch our shit” Ponk pulls one of the bags closer as if to drive the point home, glaring at the intruders carefully edging around them

“Thanks” the man nods, stepping forward a little but pausing as the movement makes Dream clearly bristle, eyeing the way Callahan moves his bow warningly into view “Name’s Diego”

“And we give a shit why?” Skeppy muttered under his breath, earning a swat from Puffy. People start going back to their meals, occasionally eyeing over where the strangers were scrounging around and whispering amongst themselves

“Dream.” the blonde says curtly, thumbing over his axe blade “Small party?”

“Yeah, there’s only six of us” Diego sighs, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly “You’re a pretty large group huh? Must be hard”

“We get by” Dream hums, flicking a finger and Callahan goes back to his spot, scooping up a cocktail ball in the process

“So you guys headed anywhere in particular?” Diego tries, clearly uncomfortable with the feigned disregard Dream’s group was treating him with and trying his best to make light of the situation “Been hearing the east coast is doing better”

“Eh, just wandering around” the blonde says casually, waving a hand “Drift here and there, anywhere the road takes us. Trying to find somewhere that’ll take all of us in”

“Yeah, communities are real picky these days” he agrees “We’ve been turned away our fair share of places too-”

“There’s nothing left on the fucking shelves” a woman snarls, marching over to Diego. She wears a black leather jacket, brown hair plaited down nearly to her waist as she shoots Dream’s group a suspicious side glance “Someone must’ve wiped most of the stuff out before us”

“Yeah, there wasn’t much left when we got here either” Eret drawls, flashing the two an innocent smile “Bummer.” he holds up a bottle of Fireball “Alcohol?” the woman glares at him but catches the bottle tossed at her anyways, the rest of the small group coming over with what they managed to scrounge up

“Shame” Diego muttered, clearly not buying their story “This is Carol by the way” he introduces the jacket lady “She’s kinda my co-partner out here”

“I’m the person keeping your idiot self alive” she corrects, popping off the lid and taking a swig as she storms off to try and find more supplies

“Yeah” he chuckles “Um, this is James or Jaime” he gestures to a scrawny, freckled, red-headed young man, clearly the youngest of the group and probably not much older than Sapnap or Niki “Jocelyn” a woman with clipped, dark hair nods, giving a small, polite wave Ranboo returns with a wave of his own “Marcelo” a taller man wearing a tattered vest hums in acknowledgment, following after Carol once introduced “And Samantha or Sam” a blonde woman smiles and waves, matted golden hair pulled up into a ponytail

“First one of you to make a joke and I’m using you for target practice.” Sam hisses at his friends, shooting a warning look at Skeppy

“Damn Sam” Skeppy immediately jokes “You look good- SHIT”

“YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!” Sam shouts, lunging from his seat and chasing after Skeppy racing into the dark

“What??” Samantha puzzles, smile still frozen confusedly on her face

“His name’s also Sam” Puffy explains, looking quite done as Skeppy shrieks in the aisles behind her “And the other one is a menace”

“That’s gonna be confusing” Jaime chuckles “Two Sams-”

“What the hell is that!?” Ranboo chokes, spitting out bright pink liquid and flaring the campfire as Niki doubles over laughing with Callahan “Why does it burn?!!”

“Stop giving the child alcohol!!” Dream scolds as Eret cackles, holding a red Buzzballz as Ranboo whines and sputters “And you!” He points at the miserable Ranboo chugging the rest of his soda “Don’t take drinks you don’t recognize from these idiots!!”

“It looked pretty and smelled good!” Ranboo protests, stealing Bad’s drink to help wash the remaining taste away

“Ranboo wait-” Bad panics, trying to grab the can but not fast enough as Ranboo takes a swig and immediately spits

“WHY IS THIS ONE GROSS TOO??!” Ranboo shrieks, shaking the can accusingly at Bad “IT SAYS LEMONADE!!”

“Oh my god” Dream groans, burying his masked face in his hands as Bad sputters out an explanation about the difference between regular lemonade and “hard” lemonade “Stop letting the minor drink shitty booze, please!”

“We’ll uh, we’ll leave you to that” Diego decides as Ranboo starts a rant about alcohol, the remaining four slowly backing away from the chaos the group had dissolved into “We’ll, um, go look for more stuff-”

“I GOT YOU NOW FUCKER!!”

“DREAMMMMMMM!!”

“I think we should just go” Jocelyn suggests quietly, turning around

“Yeah- yup, let’s do that”

“It’s dark out” Carol announces, making the group setting up to sleep look at her in confusion “We’re setting up over there” she informs, pointing over her shoulder with a thumb “I’m supposed to tell you”

“Okay??” Sam puzzles, sharing a bewildered look with Puffy “We need to know why??”

“Courtesy” she shrugs, crossing her arms “So you don’t try coming over later and be surprised when one of us panics and tries to shoot you”

“Thanks for the warning” Puffy scoffs, plopping down on her sleeping bag “Bye.” Carol shrugs and walks away, leaving the group even more confused

“We’re ditching them in the morning right?” Skeppy huffs, yanking his blanket out of his bag and going over to sleep next to Bad

“Definitely” Dream yawns, stretching out “We’ll take double shifts tonight, wake us up if any of them get too close too comfort” Callahan holds up a thumb and George nods “Who’s first watch?”

“I’ll stay up, I have a lot of sugar in my system” Ranboo offers, leaning against his wagon and tossing another log onto the low-burning coals

“I’ll take it with him” Niki hums, tossing Ranboo a watch she’d picked up from one of the cases “Three hours?”

“Yup. Who’s got second?” Dream asks, Eret and Sam raising their hands “Third?” the group figures out the rotating shifts, George getting up in the middle to go get another can of coffee from the glass fridges so he’d be prepared for his usual Deadman’s shift while Ranboo fixes the watch to make it easier to tell when three hours had passed.

The group begins to fall asleep, soon Niki and Ranboo the only ones awake and keeping watch over their friends. Niki gets up after an hour and takes a seat next to Ranboo, leaning back on the wagon with him.

“Color by Number or Sudoku?” Ranboo asks, currently scribbling in a coloring book he’d gotten from one of the racks

“What?”

“Do you want a Color by Numbers or a Sudoku book” he repeats, holding up more books “Or a Connect the Dots, I have one of those too”

“I’ll take Connect the Dots” Niki decides, taking the packet and stealing one of Ranboo’s crayons to start on a puzzle “Sorry about the cocktail thing earlier. Although you have to admit... it was kinda funny”

“It was disgusting” Ranboo shudders, elbowing Niki lightly when she laughs “But you’re forgiven I guess”

“Yayyyy” she drawls with a giggle, resting her head on the taller’s shoulder as she tried to make out the numbers from the dim light of the lantern between them “...Where should we go next?”

“Hmm… it’s not really up to me now is it?” Ranboo says softly, focusing on coloring a hat “I don’t have the map, that’s Bad’s job”

“You know what I mean” she scoffs, humming a little “In general, which way should we go?”

“Well… the road we’re on is leading to a city” he murmured “So a city I guess. There might be some cool stuff in there, or maybe- nah, that’s stupid. Nevermind”

“Tell me!” Niki presses, poking his side a bit and grinning as the boy flushes “Come on, where do you wanna go?”

“You can’t laugh”

“Ranboo my beloved boy I would never” she swears solemnly, crossing over her heart before breaking into a sly smile again “So?~ Where?”

“...I haven’t been on a swing set in a really long time” Ranboo admits, shrinking a little as the tips of his ears flushed “Like, years before the apocalypse even started and I dunno...” he shrugs “Coloring with crayons again made me want to go on some swings” he mumbles

“...That is the most adorable thing I have ever heard in my life.”

“Niki!!”

“I’m sorry!” she giggled, petting one of her foxes that had come over to snuggle in her lap “But it is!” she leans back a little, staring up at the ceiling “When was the last time I was on a playground?” she wondered quietly, tapping her crayon thoughtfully “It’s been years...” she connected a few more lines in thoughtful silence “What was your favorite part of the playground?”

“Like the equipment?”

“Yeah” she nods “Mine was the little metal web thingy, or the parallel bars”

“Oh the jungle gym!” Ranboo exclaimed, Niki nodding enthusiastically “I loved that thing!”

“Yeah!” She agrees “I would play King of the Hill all the time with my si-” she falls silent, looking away and tapping her fingers on her knife “...I liked the jungle gym” she mumbled, smiling sadly “I have a lot of good memories of that”

“...My favorite of all time was the carousel” Ranboo confesses, deciding not to press “I would make my friends spin me until I threw up” he chuckles

“Oh my god! Yes!” Niki gasped, flapping her hands a little “I would spin so fast I had to hold on to the bars for dear life!”

“Yessssss that thing was the best!” Ranboo laughed, waving his hands a little to paint a better picture “We would basically spin each other so hard that once you let go you’d go flying off, oh my god how did I never break a bone doing that??”

“Nonono I’d lay down,” Niki explains with a wide grin “and then as we were spinning we’d try to get up and the first person standing and stay standing would win”

“Did you ever throw up?”

“So many times” She admits, the two laughing at nostalgic memories “I hardly see them these days- well. Before the end of the world I mean”

“I think they got banned or something” Ranboo agrees, grinning lopsidedly from under his mask “Can’t possibly imagine why”

“Maybe the like millions of kids who broke an arm on those things?” Niki guesses with a snort “Or the kid I knew who wrung his head on it”

“Weak. What has become of this generation?” he huffs

“Kids these days” Niki nods “Why, when I was your age-”

“You’re literally three years older than me”

“When I was your age...”

“Niki!!”

“This couldn’t be worse.”

“We just started walking” Sam snorted, glancing over at a fuming Skeppy walking beside him “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t care. I wanna go home.”

“What home??” Sam laughed, looking over his shoulder “Is this about the new people?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we can’t exactly ditch them now” Eret sighed, coming up to the two and also sneaking a glance at the six strangers walking a little behind their larger group.

When packing up that morning to leave, the two leaders had come to an arrangement of sorts. Meaning that the two groups would be traveling alongside for the time being, which of course no one in Dream’s group was too happy about and made clear in the way they avoided talking to the newcomers.

“Dream’s too nice” Skeppy huffed, kicking an empty soda can down the road “He should’ve just told them to fuck off”

“At least we can take on bigger scores now” Sam offered up with a half-hearted shrug “The extra hands might come in handy-”

“Eighteen fucking people, christ” Puffy complained, slipping in beside them and running a hand through wild curls she was trying her best to manage while walking “Let’s just make a fucking community while we’re at it huh?”

“Not a fan?” Eret snickers, puling a twig out of her hair and careful not to nick their fingers on any of the many little razors hidden in the mess as they helped pull out leaves

“They keep trying to talk to me” she hisses with a pained expression “And like, really weird questions. Like, ‘where are you from, how old are you, is Puffy really your name’ like-” she waves her hands around a little “Mind your damn business?? Hello??”

“I’m pretty sure those are normal questions-” Sam starts

“Nosy fuckers” Skeppy agrees “No you don’t need to know my real name or birthday, why is that of any importance?? You want my fucking social security number next or what?!”

“Yeah, they’re asking for too much” Eret hums, nodding “Take us out on a Horde hunt first, damn”

“You guys are being paranoid” Sam huffs “Be nice-”

“One of them asked me if you were single.” Puffy deadpans, Sam’s ears starting to tint red

“Okay- no. I-” he sputters “Why does that matter?! I don’t need them knowing my private life like that! I take it back, they are not to be trusted.”

“...are you? Single I mean” Skeppy asks, waggling his eyebrows suggestively and laughing as a red-faced Sam swipes at him, ducking out of reach and taking off, Sam hot on his trail

Ranboo quietly steps aside as Skeppy goes barreling past him, pausing in time for Sam to vault over his wagon before continuing walking. He hoped Sam wouldn’t be too rough this time when he inevitably caught Skeppy. Although a break to patch up new scrapes and bruises would be welcome after hours of walking, Ponk’s long lecture afterwards was definitely not. He absently rubs at his right arm, huffing at the twinge in his elbow that had been bothering him the whole morning. He’d have to ask for some ache cream to put on it, the sharp smell of menthol already making him wince in memory.

“Hello”

“Jesus!!” Ranboo yelped, jumping a little as he whips around to look beside him. One of the new people, Joyce? Josie??, he honestly didn’t think them important enough to write down so he’d forgotten all of their names. Well, except Samantha cause- he snorts as he hears his Sam shout a creative string of threats- yeah. Sam.

“Sorry” the dark haired woman chuckles, shouldering her backpack a little more “Didn’t mean to scare ya kiddo”

“It’s fine” Ranboo sighs, looking down a little to better take in the stranger who decided to interact with him. She’s fairly short, although almost everyone was compared to Ranboo, with dark eyes and clipped hair, wearing thick pants, a maroon tank top and an army green flannel tied around her waist. “Just took me by surprise, that’s all”

“You’re lucky I wasn’t a zombie” she jokes, although the way her eyes dart to the sides as if looking for the undead confuses Ranboo a little. They were perfectly safe out in the open at the minute, able to see any zombie coming from literal miles away, even with the occasional piles of cars they passed obscuring their vision “Don’t think I ever caught your name kid. Well, anyone’s name really” she holds out a hand for Ranboo to shake, which he tentatively does “I’m Jocelyn”

So close!! He was right with the ‘J’ at least!

“Ranboo” the teen introduces, pulling his hand away and shoving it in his pocket once released

“Cute name” Jocelyn hums “You come up with that yourself?”

“I don’t remember my real name anymore” Ranboo replies, staring blankly at her “I have memory issues. Ranboo is the only name I remember” Jocelyn stares back, blinking in shock before looking mortified

“Wait. For real??”

“Yes.” he huffs, glaring at her a little

“Oh my god I’m so sorry, I didn’t-”

“Whatever” Ranboo mutters, pulling his shoulders up a little defensively “I guess I didn’t really think how weird it is when the guy who rescued me is literally called Dream”

“I’m really sorry” she apologizes, wincing a little “I didn’t mean anything by it-” Her rambling was cut off by Skeppy running past screaming his head off, Sam still trying to grab him

“Your group is pretty rowdy huh?” another person asks as he comes up to them, rubbing a stick of sunscreen over his freckled face, fishing hat flopping over an eye

“I guess” Ranboo shrugged, snickering a little as Sam now has to try and get past Bad, Sapnap cheering on the fight while Skeppy tries to use a wiggling Rat as a shield/hostage “I mean, I’m sure he deserved it, he usually does”

“So this” the newcomer gestures vaguely to the fight starting to get out of hand “Is normal??”

“Yeah?” Ranboo puzzled, looking over at the red-head “It’s just a little friendly squabble, nothing bad. They’ll get over it in a bit- AIM FOR THE SHINS!!” He shouts, startling the other two as he throws a fist in the air in support of Sam picking up Skeppy by the waist “YEAHHHH!! GET ‘IM! GET ‘IM!”

“Stop encouraging him!!” Ponk yells, swatting at Sam hoisting the smaller, kicking and screaming man in the air “Sam! Put him down!!”

“He’ll be fine” Ranboo reassures as Skeppy is tossed over the rail and sent rolling down the grassy hill, stream of curses getting fainter the farther away he gets “...probably. Hopefully.”

“...You’re not at all worried about… y’know?” the young man questions, Jaime? Jane?? He should really try to remember “The zombies?”

“Not really” Ranboo snorts, rolling his eyes a little. They weren’t even that loud at the moment, trust him. They could be a lot louder “A Straggler or two won’t do much, it’s fine.”

“If you say so. Name’s Jaime by the way” Jaime, thank god, introduces. He and Ranboo also shake hands

“Ranboo” the teen tells him, eyes narrowing warningly as the other’s lips start to quirk up

“Ranboo huh?” he repeats “How old are you?”

“Sixteen” he replies curtly, not liking how both Jocelyn and Jaime stare at him

“Really?!” Jocelyn exclaims “You’re tall for a sixteen-year-old”

“Thank you??”

“So you’re the wagon puller?” Jaime hums, gesturing to the little vehicle Ranboo was tugging along “They couldn’t have, like, tied it to a horse or something? Or a dog?”

“I don’t trust them with my wagon” Ranboo huffs “Knowing them, it’ll probably get used as a race car… or a bomb.”

“Somehow I believe you” Jocelyn mutters, watching Niki and George play wrestling as they walked “So, did you know any of these guys before the whole end of the world thing happened? How’d you all meet?”

“Yeah, what happened that you ended up here bud?” Jaime agrees with a laugh, making Ranboo rub at his scarred arm anxiously. He didn’t want to be spilling his whole story to people he’d just met and had no previous connections to anyone else in his group “How long have you been with them?”

“Umm” he stammered a little, tugging on his bangs to hide his face “I don’t-”

“You seem pretty friendly with them” the woman notes “You probably know them really well. They take good care of you?”

“I-I-”

“Ranboo!” Dream exclaimed, slinging an arm around the teen and making him sigh in relief at the familiar presence “Just the man I needed! Listen, Callahan is a lost cause at this point so I need you to stop Ponk from killing Sapnap because you’re the only other person he’ll listen to”

“I thought he was a doctor” Ranboo points out, letting himself get pulled away from the other two “No harming people and whatnot”

“They never took their oath.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad but he listens to you so I was hoping you could- aaaaaaanndd I think we’re good” he groans, tipping his head back “Was that subtle enough?”

“Huh??”

“You looked miserable talking to them” Dream snorts, poking Ranboo in the side a little and making the teen giggle “I graciously came to rescue you, you’re welcome by the way”

“Thanks” Ranboo snickers “I’ll be honest, I think I liked Punz’s group better”

“Punz is a lot more fun” Dream agrees, patting his shoulder sympathetically “They ask anything weird?”

“Aside from making fun of my name-”

“What.”

“And asking some personal questions about my whole backstory” he continues, practically able to feel Dream’s burning glare from under the mask “I guess they were normal?”

“Bunch of pricks” Dream muttered “Nosy motherfuckers huh?”

“They are” Ranboo nods “Anyway, since you don’t need me for Ponk-”

“Oh no, I wasn’t lying about that” Dream chirps cheerfully, pointing over at Ponk pulling out a piece of rebar and starting to heft it “I actually do need you to help with that”

“Oh god” Ranboo panicked, shoving his wagon’s handle into Dream’s hands and slipping out of his hold as he rushes forward “Ponk!! Let’s think this through first buddy!!”

“Oh believe me!” Ponk seethes “I have!!”

“Ponk, we can talk about this!!” Sapnap pleaded

“Ponk, think about the mess!” Ranboo rationalized “It’s going to be a pain to clean up if you beat him to death!”

“Listen to Ranboo Ponk!”

“True...” the doctor muttered, putting the metal back in his backpack. Both Sapnap and Ranboo sigh in relief.

Ponk pulls out a handgun from his bag instead.

“PUT THAT BACK!!”

“LESS MESS RANBOO”

“THAT IS JUST NOT WHAT I MEANT!”

“Where should we go for lunch?” Eret hummed, taking a look over the town they were entering “What’s gonna have the best stuff-”

“Costco.” Ponk demands, pointing at the store down the crowded street “Bulk food here we come!”

“They sell like sofas and stuff there too” Sam agrees, slinging an arm around Ponk and dragging them around a little despite their protests “We can take a break as well”

“Everyone good with Costco?” Dream asked, drawing his axe in preparation

“That’s a lot of zombies don’t you think?” Diego frets, his group warily looking at the stumbling, groaning monsters weaving around crashed cars “Why don’t we try that gas station instead?” He suggests, pointing out a clearly looted and shattered gas station, although visibly much less crowded.

“Laaaaameeeee” Skeppy hoots, high-fiving a snickering Sapnap “You guys can do the tutorial level, we’re getting the big time loot”

“What he means” Dream sighs, shaking his head a little “Is that there’ll probably be more supplies in the Costco than the gas station. Less people have probably managed to make it inside which means more stuff for us to grab than someplace that’s definitely already been raided. It wouldn’t take too long if all eighteen of us work together”

“That down there is a suicide mission!” Jaime exclaims “It’s not worth it, we should just go to the gas station”

“There are juice boxes in Costco, it is absolutely worth it” Puffy scoffs, resting her cutlass on a shoulder

“Maybe even some candy bars” Niki adds with an excited grin, pulling up her mask as she bounces in place “Or more pans!”

“I honestly just want a scooter or something” Sapnap shrugs

“I really don’t think we should be taking that risk” Carol warns, eyeing the horde blocking the entrance warily

“Oh my god can we pick somewhere already?!” George groans, sprawling out over Spirit’s neck from the saddle “If they still have energy drinks in Costco I want to go to Costco or wherever the hell we need to go”

“How about this?” Dream suggests, clapping his hands to stop all arguments “You guys,” he gestures to the other group “can go to the gas station if you want, I’m sure you can handle that on your own right?”

“Well, yes” Diego starts, looking nervous “But it would be easier if-”

“Wonderful!” Dream interrupts, talking over him “So while you guys do that, we are heading down to Costco to stock up”

“Juice boxes!!” Puffy cheers, the group already heading down the street in the direction of the store

“Meet you guys… wherever we can, yeah? Maybe the Ulta or whatever that orange building is?” Dream hums, not really waiting for an answer as he follows after his friends with a wave “See you in a bit!”

“Should we follow them?” Marcelo whispers over to Diego as they watch the rowdy group walk away

“Those idiots are gonna get themselves killed” Carol scoffs, crossing her arms “Remind me why we’re traveling with them?”

“Safety in numbers” Diego sighs, rubbing at his headache “Or something”

“Whoever came up with the whole ‘safety in numbers’ thing clearly never thought about having to travel with lunatics like them” she snorts, heading towards the gas station “They’re all gonna die for taking unnecessary risks”

“RANBOO GET DOWN FROM THERE THAT THING’S NOT BOLTED DOWN!!!” Ponk screams, looking ready to pass out as the teen happily climbs up on the playset built up high on one of the metal shelves “SKEPPY YOU TOO OH MY GOD ARE YOU TWO TRYING TO SEND ME INTO AN EARLY GRAVE?!!”

“It’s fine!” Ranboo laughs, waving down from his perch on the dock before clambering over the rail to get on top of the monkey bars “It’ll be a cool way to die!”

“Hell yeah!!” Skeppy agrees, swinging on one of the sets and grin growing as the platform starts to rock with him “Cool death!”

“Oh my god I did not sign up for this why am I with these people I don’t get paid nearly enough to deal with this I want normal groupmates that don’t try to kill themselves in weird ways every five minutes-”

“Ranboo! Skeppy!” Dream shouts up, letting Sam deal with their near hysterical doctor “Please get down from there before you kill Ponk and myself of a heart attack!”

“Aww” Ranboo complains, hanging upside down “But it’s fun!”

“Yes, but Ponk might genuinely pass out at this rate!” Dream informs, warily looking over at the man hyperventilating and listing off possible injuries at a rapid-fire pace under his breath “Get down before you hurt yourselves!”

“Fine” Ranboo sighs, flipping right side up, crawling back up on the platform and taking the slide down. He yelps as he nearly goes flying off, Sam and Dream starting forward to catch him before he manages to grab onto the shelf “Ow.” he groans as his ribs slam into the metal “Bad idea” he whimpers, now carefully climbing back down and dusting himself off once on the ground

“Thank you” Dream sighs, running a hand under his mask “Skeppy! That goes for you too!”

“But whyyyy?!”

“Do you want me to go get Bad?!” the blonde threatens, checking over Ranboo for major injuries and ruffling his hair when he found nothing too concerning

“...no”

“Get down!”

“Ugh. Fine” Skeppy grumbled, slowing to a stop and hopping off, getting down easier than Ranboo did “There. Happy?”

“Very” Dream nods with a smile in his voice “I think there might be some Oreos in aisle 7-”

“Later losers!!” Skeppy cackles, shoving past Ranboo and taking off

“I thought cookies were in aisle 15?” Sam points out, helping Ponk through some breathing exercises

“Yeah but I don’t want him taking all of them” Dream snickers, snatching Ranboo by the hand and racing for aisle 15 “Let’s go Oreo boy!!”

“That’s a new one!” Ranboo laughed, letting himself get dragged along “Is it the hair??”

“Absolutely the hair!”

The two race down the concrete floor, skidding into aisle 15 and grinning up at the crates of bulk Oreo boxes. Sam and Ponk arrive a few moments later, starting to try and take down some boxes of other cookies.

“Right. Help me up” Ranboo ordered, starting to climb the shelf

“WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND CLIMBING THINGS YOU CAN FALL OFF OF?!” Ponk shrieks, Dream hurriedly boosting the teen and scrambling up with him, the two laughing as they crawl up on the wide shelf. They slice apart the wrapping covered pallets and push a box to the edge, Dream poking his head over the ledge to peer down at the floor

“TIMBER!!” He shouts, he and Ranboo giving one big shove and sending the box crashing to the ground, boxes of Oreos scattering all over the floor as the big box practically explodes. “Watch your heads!!”

“Famous Amos!!” Ranboo squealed, making quick work of the pallet “I am so taking these!!” another box crashes to the ground, Ponk and Sam simply watching the two scramble around above since they knew it was a futile effort to get them to be more cautious about their methods.

“Can you get me a box of popcorn?!” Sam calls up, catching the box of packaged popcorn thrown over the edge a few moments later “Thanks!!”

“DREAM YOU FUCKING LIAR!!” Skeppy screams from the end of the aisle “THAT WAS KITCHEN APPLIANCES!!”

“Oops” Dream hummed, throwing down a plastic jug of peanut butter-filled pretzels that Ponk barely caught before it exploded all over the place “You want some Cracker Jacks?” he offers, holding up a red box “Or Biscoff?”

“Biscoff is mid” Ranboo huffs, digging through a new pallet “What flavor is it even supposed to be??”

“Yeah but George likes them” Dream shrugs, kicking over a box of the cookies “Skeppy do you want something or not?!”

“Do you have any Milano up there?!” he asks, trying to see through the plastic covering everything as he gets closer

“I think so” Ranboo nods, crawling over pallets “I’m sure I saw them over here...”

“Ooh! Shortbread!” Dream noted, ripping open another box to get the snack

“Found ‘em!! You want milk chocolate or dark?!”

“Let’s go!!” Skeppy cheers “I’ll take either!”

“Watch your head!!” Ranboo warns, kicking off a box and grinning at the deafening crash that follows

“Fuck yeah!!”

“I’m so glad people don’t work here anymore” Dream says through a mouthful of shortbread cookies, swinging his legs over the edge as he takes a seat, plastic mask in his lap “I’d hate to be the one to clean all this up”

“We should hit bulk stores more often” Ranboo hums, taking a seat next to him with a snack package of Milano cookies for himself, both of them lowering their masks to eat “Everything’s almost gone on the lower shelves but there’s tons of stuff left on the top. I honestly don’t think we’ll need to get food for a good while”

“Get some clean clothes too” Dream agrees, kicking his feet a little “Been meaning to get new hoodies, maybe some sweatpants too”

“I do want pajamas” Ranboo mused, popping a cookie in his mouth “And I can get an actual pillow too-”

“Sam and I are gonna go get canteens!” Ponk yelled, the two looking down at the doctor “My water bottle has a dent and it’s covered in scratches so I want a new one!!”

“Oh! I want a new water bottle too!” Dream says, looking for a way to climb down “I’ve been meaning to get something in a different color”

“I want one of those fancy Hydroflasks I could never afford!” Ranboo laughs, following him “With all the accessories!!”

“Your canteen is fine!” Ponk argues

“Yeah but I can get a new one for free” Ranboo retorts

“...Can’t argue with that” Ponk shrugs, walking behind Sam “Also, our little Group of store zoms was seen down in aisle 3 so watch your backs”

“I was wondering where our new undead friends went” Skeppy chirps, skipping down the aisle with a box of Milanos in his arms “They’re still all clumped together? No stragglers wandering around?”

“Shouldn’t be” Sam confirms, radio crackling and all of them quieting

“Group’s down in 13” Niki informs over the speaker “Who was making a racket down there?”

“Whoops” Dream panics, starting to hear the shuffling and groaning nearby “We should pick up the pace”

“Very good idea” Ponk agrees, the five of them speeding up into a jog to avoid the wandering corpses headed their way

“Are those slippers??” Jocelyn baffles, staring down at Eret’s fluffy clad feet in surprise

“Yeah!” he laughs, pink fabric shifting as he wiggles his toes “They’re super comfy, although not too good for running” he admits, shrugging a little “But I like ‘em, so they’re keepers” he decides, pulling the soft, matching robe he wore a little tighter and skipping off to his group

“Hey, how’d your run go?” Dream asks, bag of charcoal over his shoulder “You find anything good?”

“A few cans here and there” Diego nods stiffly, seeing how much food Dream’s group had gotten “And a couple supplies. You?”

“Eh, not bad” the masked man shrugs “I was hoping to find my favorite chips in there but I guess they didn’t have them” he sighs sadly “But! I got Doritos out of it so-”

“NO! SHE MADE FUN OF ME FOR GETTING CAPRI-SUNS, AND SHE’S ALREADY DRUNK THREE OF MY CAPRI! SUNS!!” Puffy howled, gesturing at Niki hiding behind Callahan and sure enough, sucking down a Pacific Cooler

“Puffster, love, you’re twenty and you’re arguing over Capri-Suns-” Niki starts

“Dream.” Puffy turns to the blonde and drawing her cutlass “Either, you make her give me back my juice or I duel her to the death for my honor. So there's two options and my sword is already drawn.”

“Why are you dragging me into this??!” Dream yelps, using his charcoal as a barrier “Take it up with Cal, he’s her shield at the minute!!” Callahan turns to Dream with a burning glare, Niki looking betrayed as Puffy rounds back on the two

“Callahan just walk away” Puffy orders, getting closer and sword aimed at the man “You don’t have to get involved”

“”Sorry Cap”” Callahan signs with a shrug before scooping up Niki in his arms and taking off, the smaller woman shrieking in delight as Puffy chases after them

“For the honor of my fucking juice!!” Puffy screams, dodging Sam trying to grab her and skidding around the makeup filled racks as she tries to kill her friends

“I hate them.” Dream hisses, as he goes over to his group trying their best to ignore the screaming further away and set up their camp “So much. Every last one of you.”

“Love you too Dream” Sapnap snickers, pockets stuffed with undefended Capri-Suns

“You in particular.”

“WHAT! WHY?!”

“Wow, you guys really got a lot of stuff” Samantha notes, gesturing to Ranboo’s piled up wagon “Maybe we should start going with you guys on runs”

“Why don’t you?” Ranboo asks curiously, swapping hands to flex his fingers and shake out his aching right arm, elbow twinging some

“Ah- well-” she sputters, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly “It’s just- You guys are kind of… a lot and it doesn’t feel safe. At least that’s what Diego and Carol say, and I kinda agree. You guys just run on in with all your stuff and no plan”

“We do have a plan??” Ranboo puzzles “Some of us thin it out and make a path, some stay as back up and a few others run in to clear it out so we can get in without being swarmed at the entrance” he explains, drawing a little in the air with his finger to better visualize the basic formations he’d memorized at this point “We don’t take more time than we need, and we barricade to make sure no more get in while we’re exploring. We only kill the zombies we have to so we don’t waste energy, cause they’re slow and stupid enough to avoid most of the time if you just pay attention to your surroundings”

“...That’s not really a clear plan” she says softly “I meant like, actually plan out how to get in, what to do if you get swarmed, go over the plan again and again so no one gets left behind- stuff like that. You guys literally just run in without saying anything”

“I mean, we have this pretty much figured out at this point” Ranboo tells her, confused at her version of a “plan” since it was basically what he and his group did, just more detailed “And it’s worked well enough in the past. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it right?”

“I suppose” she agrees, shrugging a little “And you do have more supplies-” her stomach rumbles a little, making her laugh awkwardly “Case in point” she mumbles, shouldering her backpack a little “Our resources aren’t much, must be nice to have that many back up rations.” the silence that follows is awkward, Ranboo side glancing to see her hopeful stare.

He did have a lot of food in his stash, and it’s not like he’d be running low anytime soon...

“Well...” he starts hesitantly, slinging his bag around to rifle through it “I have an extra thing of baked beans in here somewhere and I swear if I have to eat another can of this stuff I might just throw myself into a Horde” he huffs, pulling out the accursed food that had quickly become his least favorite meal of the whole apocalypse. He hands her the can without much fanfare, and half a small bag of leftover uncooked rice that was threatening to spill all in his bag and make a mess “You can have that too, I’m terrible at making rice anyway. I tend to stick to the microwave stuff I can stick in a pot to “cook” for a reason”

“Really?” Samantha gasped, taking the food with surprising reverence “I can have all this??”

“Sure” he hums “I don’t really need it, I have enough to spare a little.”

“Oh, but I don’t have anything to trade” she frets, looking worried “I’ll feel bad-”

“Eh, it’s fine” Ranboo dismisses “It might go to waste if I keep it-”

“Thank you so much” she sighs, hurriedly putting the food in her bag before Ranboo can finish “You’re an actual life saver” She reaches up to pat the teen on the shoulder, smiling widely before rushing off to her own groupmates and excitedly talking to them while they crowd around her bag. Ranboo looks over at his own friends and is surprised to see so many of them watching him. Sapnap raises an eyebrow questioningly, waving his hands around a little and lowering his flame-patterned mask to mouth

‘what the hell was that?’

Ranboo shrugs in reply, starting to feel like he did something wrong when the older teen just shakes his head and sighs, going back to chatting with George. The other adults do something similar, giving him looks that he can translate into varying and confusing degrees of mixed disappointment and amusement. He quietly sidles up to Dream up on Spirit, a small tilt of the plastic mask showing he’d caught the blonde’s attention.

“Why is everyone looking at me weird??” He asks, anxiety digging into his chest and crawling out from the back of his mind “Did- did I do something wrong? I-I’m sorry-”

“Hey, it’s your food” Dream says with a nonchalant shrug, reaching over to roughly ruffle Ranboo’s hair to soothe him “We’re not gonna tell you what to do or not do with it. Not our business y’know?”

“...So why does it feel like I failed some sort of test?” Ranboo mumbles, kicking aside an empty soda can on the road. Dream hums a little, still messing with Ranboo’s hair some before finally letting go

“Do you know why we always tell you not to feed the dogs your food?” Dream asks instead

“...because they’ve already been fed and they’ll get fat?” Ranboo guesses weakly, not quite understanding what this had to do with anything

“Well, yes” Dream snorts, shaking his head a little “But also because once they realize they can get a free, easy meal out of you,” He pats Ranboo on the back with a grin in his voice, sharpied smile and hollow eyes boring into him at him “They’ll always come back begging for more scraps”

“...they’re not dogs Dream.” Ranboo huffs, bristling a little “They’re people too”

“Maybe so” the man laughs, leaning back and cocking his head as if he knew something Ranboo didn’t “But you’d be surprised”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean??”

“...You know what? I think I’ll let you figure this one out for yourself” he chuckles “You’ll learn one way or another”

“Furniture storeeeee” Sam drawls, pointing out the big glass building they were approaching “Let’s go there for the night!”

“Looks looted” Marcelo sniffs “It’ll be hard to barricade with all those big broken windows”

“Ah, but also couches” Sam retorts, grinning under his gas mask as the man falters under his flawless logic “Nice soft comfy couches to sleep on, mattresses even!”

“It would be nice to sleep on something other than the floor” Jocelyn agrees

“Yeah” Jaime nods “I can’t believe it’s come to this, but a couch to sleep on sounds pretty damn good”

“Marcelo’s right about it being hard to defend” Diego starts, watching the other group happily start their way to the store and already arguing over which furniture would be best to sleep on “But they were right last time about the Costco… and I really want to sleep on a bed again”

“A bed sounds nice” Carol reluctantly admits, starting to trail after the rowdy group in front of them “And if it’s too much we can always back out”

The smaller crew cautiously make their way behind Dream’s group, carefully avoiding wrecked cars in the parking lot and quickly putting down any stragglers the larger group had missed in their massacre. The windows are very much shattered, making them wary on stepping inside to the dark, open floor plan of the main lobby. Dream’s group has no such reservations, Sapnap and Niki hopping over the crashed car in one of the displays and Skeppy banging on the door with a laugh to torment the poor zombie trapped inside the locked vehicle.

“Holy shit!!” Puffy exclaims, voice echoing down the store “Let’s go!!”

“Second floor or first?” Dream asks, currently helping his horse around broken lamps and overturned couches

“I am not a fan of getting my wagon up the broken escalator” Ranboo grumbles, stretching out his arms and plopping down on the nearest chair, limbs flailing in surprise as the plush seat rocks back

“Yeah, I doubt I can make Joffery go up those” Sapnap snorts, looking around and snatching up a stray lamp to swing “So, first floor anyone?”

The two groups quickly make themselves comfortable in the back of the store’s first floor, piling up couches by the large entrances to make a low barrier. They make a second ring of chairs and tables around the little camp as another barrier, finally dealing out the remaining furniture to sleep on

“I already called dibs on this couch!” Eret screeches, kicking off Puffy

“It’s a massive sofa you prick!!” she retorts “There’s like five sections!!

“I have long legs! I’m not curling up tonight!!”

“Just let me sleep on the little end bit!!” she argues, throwing herself back on the end piece that jutted out in an ‘L’ shape

“Puffy!!”

“I’m surprised no one wanted this couch” Ranboo noted, popping out the recliner from a surprisingly plush leather couch, flopping down with a contented sigh and bag tossed beside him as he leans back as far as he can

“I’m taking the other end before someone else does then” Niki snorts, hopping to the other side and doing the same, giggling as the footrest pops out with a jolt and she can lay down

“That looks cozy” Bad hums, popping up from the love seat he’d claimed beside them and resting his chin on Ranboo’s armrest, Rat happily curled up in his lap “Comfy mister Boo and miss Niki?”

“Very” Niki chirps, taking out her blanket and leaving it in her spot to claim it before getting off to make her dinner “Where’s the stove?”

“Ah, I’ll get it” Bad tells her, also getting up and Rat following at her master’s heels “Boys! Either share the bed or split up!!” he shouts over at the bickering trio trying to kill each other on a king-sized display bed

“Tell George to stop being a pillow hog!!” Sapnap shouts, yelp muffled as Dream slammed a decorational cushion into his face

“You stop taking all the damn blankets!!” the blonde retorts, snatching the sheets back from his friend and screeching as George tries to smother him with a pillow “GEORGE!!”

“I ALREADY CALLED THIS BED GET OFF!!” The Brit argues angrily “Let me sleep by myself-” his protests are quickly cut short as Dream and Sapnap tackle him with the comforter, wrapping up the furious man and laying on top of the wiggling bundle with identical shit-eating grins as George screams and shouts from his blanketed prison

“Are they always this loud?” Jaime chuckled, taking a seat in Bad’s spot and startling Ranboo who was beginning to doze off

“Wha- huh-” he sits up and rubs at his eyes “Sorry? Could you repeat that?”

“I was just saying you guys are pretty loud before bed” the man snorts, looking over at George furiously writhing from his confines and cursing out his cackling friends “Really hope there’s no zombies in the building, otherwise we’re sitting ducks”

“Mmm” Ranboo yawned “I’m sure it’ll be fine, how many people could have been left in a furniture store when the world ended?”

“True” Jaime nods, looking back at his own group huddled much more quietly around their own campfire, sitting on cushions and looking a little more relaxed despite the anxious glances they kept looking at the rowdy crew behind them with “...By the way” Jaime starts, fiddling with his shirt a little “Um, I was just wondering if you could spare any more rice?” he asks sheepishly “J-just like a cup, half a cup even!” he sputters, waving his hands as he flusters under Ranboo’s tired look

“I already gave some to one of your groupmates” Ranboo points out, glancing over at Dream who was too busy keeping George contained to notice what was happening “What happened to that?”

“We have enough to make do, but it’s hard to fully feed six people on two cups of rice you know?” he explains

“...”

“I-if not that’s okay” Jaime sighs, looking mournful as he picks at his nails “I understand you have your own people to feed-”

“It’s fine, I’m taking this out of my own stash” Ranboo mutters, shoving down the selfish part of him that protested as he pulled his bag over and dug through it. He pulls out another small bag of rice, this one unopened and a full two cups worth. He hesitates momentarily, knowing that much could feed him for at least a few days if he kept it, but eventually thrusts it out at the young man “Here. Should keep you guys going for a meal or two” he says curtly, underlying warning in his tone telling Jaime not to push for anything else

“Oh my god thank you so much” Jaime gasps, fumbling for the plastic bag a little “Um, if you want, you can join us for dinner-”

“Actually, I should probably go use the stove before people start crowding” Ranboo interrupts with forced cheer, getting up and slinging his bag over a shoulder “It’s gonna get messy soon so...”

“Oh! Oh yeah of course!” he nods furiously, getting up himself “Yeah, don’t want to keep you- thanks again Ranboo”

“Uh huh. Sure” the teen hums, heading over to where Ponk was using their own personal camp stove, the doctor carefully balancing a small pot over the canister’s flame. He takes out his own little stove, screwing it on to his personal gas container and stealing a lighter from Niki while she was distracted arguing flame sizes with Callahan

“Yo Ranboo” Ponk pipes up, digging through his backpack while Fat Bitch naps next to him “You have rice right? I’ll trade you a noodle pack for some so I can put it in my soup”

“...I don’t” Ranboo winces “Sorry Ponk” he pulls out his own mess kit and a box of mac and cheese “All gone”

“Damn” Ponk groans, leaning back a little “I thought you had like five bags of the stuff with how it kept falling out of your bag, guess not. You eat it all?”

“I guess” he lies, looking over at the other group excitedly chattering around their shared pot and feeling a pang of guilt “I have a can of tuna if you want it?”

“Ew” Ponk huffs, yellow and red mask crinkling as he wrinkles his nose “No thanks, I can still afford to be picky” Ranboo laughs a little, getting his own food ready “Tell you what. Half of your macaroni for half my soup?”

“Deal” Ranboo agrees with a grin, shaking the man’s hand as Ponk also laughs “What type is it?”

“Chicken something” they shrug, pulling down their mask enough to fluff up white-dyed hair “Heya Sammy! You need a stove?”

“Looking for tea” Sam whines, carefully stepping around the little stoves to sit next to Ponk and Fran trotting beside him “Do you have any Chai left?”

“Only decaf” Ponk informs

“I’ll take it” he sighs, leaning tiredly on his friend’s shoulder and humming a little as his head is patted. Fran rests her own head in Sam’s lap, looking quite happy herself with the absent minded head scritches she gets “Not too hungry tonight, I think I’ll just cozy up with a drink, Fran and knock out before my watch”

“Oh I can’t wait to sleep in a bed again” Ponk agrees, Ranboo nodding along as he pulls out his bowl and cup for his food “I really hope we’re not swarmed by morning though, we did not clear this building before settling in”

“Eh, I’m sure we’ll be fine” Sam yawns, smiling as his dog mimics him “Honestly, with so many of us, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Wake up!”

Ranboo is quite rudely shaken awake, limbs flailing a little and instinctively reaching for the machete always kept at his side

“Wha-”

“We gotta go!” Niki hisses, shoving her things haphazardly in her bag as others hurriedly did the same around them “Group- maybe even a Horde’s worth heard all the racket and are coming in through the windows we didn’t cover”

“Crap!” Ranboo panics, now wide awake and with a practiced speed, shoves what little he had out into his bag, snatching up his boots and yelping as a milky eye pops up from beside him “Oh shoot!!” he rolls out of the way of a rotted hand and stumbles to the floor, quickly scrambling back up and following Niki in hopping over the couch. He bangs his hand on one of the occupied beds, startling the people sleeping in it “Guys! Time to go!!”

“Shit!” Dream curses, throwing off sheets and kicking Sapnap awake “Sap! Up and at ‘em dude!!”

“Oh fuck me!!” Sapnap yelps, rolling out of the bed and scooping up his bag on the floor “Back exit?!”

“Back exit!!” Eret confirms, sunglasses crooked up on their head as they leap over a couch and take off running where the rest of their group was escaping towards, body checking a zombie to the ground in the process

“I told you this store was a bad idea!” Marcelo shouts over the chaos, half dressed and pack open as he runs “This was a stupid decision!!”

“BEST FOUR HOURS OF SLEEP IN MY LIFE!” Sapnap cackles right back, vaulting over a dining table, scooping up a chair and smashing it over a zombie’s head

“Was kind of worth it!” Ranboo agrees with a near-hysterical laugh of his own as he goes sliding over the same table with Dream, choking a little as the blonde snags his collar to drag him across the last few feet he’d come to a stop at.

They burst out of the building and into the warm, summer night air, Ranboo ignoring the muted sting of his socked feet on pavement as he runs as fast as he can after his group. He slows to a stop and doubles over to clutch the stitch in his side, groaning softly as he recovers.

“Oh jeez” Skeppy pants, hands on his hips and leaning back to catch his breath “Haven’t had a rude awakening like that in a few weeks huh?”

“At least we got some sleep out of it that time” Puffy groans, stretching out her arms and joints popping “What’d we leave behind this time?”

“I think a few blankets” Eret yawns, rubbing a pale eye tiredly “Definitely lost my pillow, damn.”

“I have my foxes” Niki hums, letting out her adolescent kits to run around a little after the scare

“Wait! Did anyone grab my wagon?!” Ranboo cries, popping back up “That had almost all our water and wood-”

“Callahan grabbed it” George reassures, a very tired looking Callahan coming over and handing off Ranboo’s wagon to the teen “Don’t worry”

“Oh thank goodness” he breathes, doubling back over in relief “Alright then I’m good, I don’t think I left anything too important” he hums, sitting down on the ground to brush off his feet and put his boots back on

“Fuuckkkk” Dream groaned as he approached his friends, Patches curled up on his shoulders as she’s carried around “Okay, role call. Who are we missing? Fire Front?”

“Here.”

“Present!”

“Extinguishing?” he yawns

“Here!”

“Out!”

“Unfortunately awake” Sam grumbles, nodding off a little where he stands while Fran noses his hand

“Backup?”

“Present” George pipes up tiredly, raising his hand as Callahan snaps his fingers to announce his presence

“Clean-Up?”

“I made it out this time” Ranboo snorts, struggling to untie his boots in the dark

“I wanna sleeeppppp” Ponk complains, tugging the comforter around his shoulders tighter and burying himself away in the fluff

“And finally, Runners?”

“Alive” Eret sighs, raising his hand

“Present”

“Okay!” Dream says much too happily for nearly three in the morning “So we’re all alive, I see both horses so the animals are out and no injuries you guys are complaining about so I think we’re all good. Did anyone leave anything actually important inside?”

“I left the saddles back there” Sapnap whines, starting to pull his hair back up into space buns to get it out of his face “Too heavy to grab. And my big panda” he mourns, Niki patting his shoulder sympathetically

“We’ll get that in the morning” Dream decides, clapping his hands “Alright, let’s go find a new place to sleep and get moving”

“Is the other group okay?” Ranboo asks, getting up and tugging his wagon along as his group starts to move on towards other buildings, ignoring the screeching wails of the undead behind them “I saw one of them get out”

“Yeah, I think they’re fine” Puffy yawns, pointing over to the rattled, smaller crew pulling themselves together a little further off “I think the ginger lost his shoes though”

“Oof, that always sucks” Skeppy said sympathetically “Eh, he can get them back in the morning with the rest of us”

“Where to?” Bad asks, flicking on a flashlight to lead the way down the dark and empty street

“Anything at this point” Eret groans, slipping under Ponk’s sheet and walking hunched to keep the cover over him

“Anything it is”

Diego and Carol freeze in their tracks as Sapnap and George race past them, whooping and laughing as they hop into the creek they’d stumbled upon. It’s really more of a stream than a creek, water only about four feet wide and barely a foot deep but fast and clear.

“I ever mention how much I really fucking hate the woods?” Skeppy grumbles, pulling off his boots to shake out the pebbles in them

“I’d be more surprised if you didn’t” Sam snorts, setting down his bag and stretching out

“Come on Skeps!” Dream encouraged, rolling up his pants “We get a wash day out of it!”

“Are we taking a break?” Jocelyn puzzles, seeing everyone in the other group unpacking their things and getting in the water “I thought we were going to try and hit a town to camp in for the night”

“It’s actually probably safer out here” Bad explains “Hardly any stragglers and a source of running water to stock up on”

“We do need water” Marcelo admits, looking over at Diego scowling at the little stream “Should we start boiling?”

“...Yeah” the other sighs, somewhat reluctantly “We can probably scrub ourselves off a little too-”

“Take that!!” Eret cackles, practically body slamming Niki into the water and splashing away as she resurfaces with a gurgling screech of fury

“ERET!!”

“If anything I did you a favor!!” he fires back, slipping over stones and falling into the water right as Niki caught up and shoved him under

“Again.” Carol mutters to Jaime as Eret and Niki keep trying to drown each other, pulling Puffy into their fight “Why are we traveling with such loud people?”

“I don’t even know” the man sighs, shrugging defeatedly “They’re bound to split in a different direction from us at some point right?”

While Dream’s group make themselves comfortable washing their clothes and getting the filters set up, the other team quietly make their camp nearby, pretending the loud yelling and splashing wasn’t bothering them.

“I’m just saying” Ranboo huffs, struggling to haul a tub of water out of the stream without slipping and falling “If an electrical socket has that many plugs then its basically worthless- ACK” he drops the bucket and doubles over, clutching his right knee with a hiss of pain

“Shit- Ranboo?!” Sam frets, rushing over “What happened?? Did something reopen?”

“N-no” he grits out, rocking a little “It’s just a cramp or something, happens all the time in my leg and arm”

“Okay, come here” Sam worries, helping the teen limp to shore and sitting him down “How long has this been happening?”

“Since the accident” Ranboo admits, rubbing at his knee with a wince “Before it just, y’know, hurt and was sore while it healed from all the cuts and burns. Recently, I’ve been having to put like muscle pain cream on them but they’ve really been acting up for some reason” He flexes his right arm with a frown “It’s getting hard to pull the wagon with my right, they hurt like my hand did” he sighs a little “I dunno, maybe I pulled something or bruised it?”

“Alright, I don’t think that’s normal” Sam notes “I’m gonna go get Ponk and have them take a look at you”

“You really don’t have to trouble them-”

“Bad! Watch the baby!!” Sam yells as he walks off to look for his friend

“I’m not a baby!!” Ranboo shrieks, pouting as Bad comes over and pats his head “I’m not.”

“Sure thing mister Boo” Bad chuckles, picking up the tub from where it had fallen and setting it up on the bank “What happened?”

“Sam wants Ponk to check my leg and arm since they hurt” Ranboo huffs, now rubbing at his arm “But they always hurt so it’s not that big a deal-”

“I’m pretty sure healed limbs are not supposed to hurt.” Bad points out with a little frown “You said it’s been like that for a while?”

“Yeah-”

“What did you do this time?” Ponk huffs, wading over and Sam trailing behind him “What did you break?! I swear if you have an infection somehow I’ll kill you myself!”

“Nothing!!” Ranboo protests “I just got a cramp in my knee again, it’s not that big a deal”

“Good, because I’d hate to do an amputation out here” Ponk complains “Honestly at that point just die and make my life easier.” Sam bites back a laugh, shoulders shaking a little in the effort “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m fine-”

“His knee and arm have been hurting since the explosion” Sam pipes up, ignoring the glare Ranboo shoots him “That’s not normal right?”

“Well… depends” Ponk sighs, kneeling down next to the teen and taking his arm “What kind of pain has it been?”

“Uhhh…”

“Is it like on your skin, the scars” Ponk further elaborates, tapping Ranboo’s arm “Or is it under, inside”

“Kinda both?” Ranboo replies with a shrug “My scars sort of twinge every once in a while, especially if I like flex too much. But, mm, you know growing pains? The type that are sort of in your bones, sort of not?” Ponk nods “Okay, sometimes it hurts like that too”

“All over or just on your right side?”

“Mostly the right” Ranboo confirms, tapping his elbow and knee “Mainly on my elbow and knee, although my ankle has also started acting up for some reason”

“Yeah, I noticed you’ve started to limp again after several miles of straight walking” Bad hums “Just a little though”

“Mmhmm, it just aches, not enough to stop or anything” Ranboo shrugs “It’s just cramps or something right? Everything’s fine?”

“I’m really hoping for that” Ponk mutters, prodding and poking at Ranboo’s side and arm “Okay, you might have some issues”

“Oh jeez.”

“The scar stuff is normal, I’m not worried about that” Ponk explains with a dismissive wave of his hand “If anything its a sign of healing, means your nerves are regrowing so there will be some discomfort with that. Possibly for years even”

“Yay.” Ranboo deadpans, huffing as Sam ruffles his hair playfully

“It’s your joints I’m worried about” Ponk continues, sitting down and taking off the top part of his face mask to run a hand through his hair “On the surface you’re all healed, there should technically be nothing wrong with you...”

“...But?” Bad worries

“But” Ponk sighs “You were blasted by who knows how much force, and most likely sent crashing into the ground. There’s a possibility you might have gotten a hairline fracture somewhere, multiple even. I mean, the stress from the blast force alone was probably enough to cause a few problems, plus apparently falling down a hillside afterwards? I was hoping for the best in that there was only bruising, maybe a sprained ankle at worse but you might have genuinely broken something a little”

“Okay… what do I do about that?” Ranboo asks, growing worried “How- how do I heal that? A cast?”

“It’s already healed” Ponk tells him with a furrow in his brow “Technically. There’s nothing to do about it.”

“So he’s fine?” Sam puzzles “Nothing’s wrong-”

“Let me finish!!” Ponk snaps “Yes you’re healed, no that doesn’t mean nothing is wrong. You heal a break or fracture by not putting any stress on it, and what have you been doing these past two and a half months?”

“Walking and carrying stuff” Ranboo mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose “Crap.”

“Exactly. It should be perfectly fine by now but by putting so much weight on your right side I’m guessing it’s sort of… healed wrong.” the man leans back a little with a tired sigh “Fuck. I should have seen the signs!!” he punches the pebbly shore under him angrily “I’m sorry Ranboo, I should have picked up on it faster. I might have been able to do… I don’t know, something! Something to help with the pain-”

“No no it’s my fault too for never saying anything” Ranboo consoles “I didn’t want to seem like I was complaining so I just sucked it up.”

“So now what?” Sam asks, Bad patting Ponk on the back to comfort them “He’s just gonna have to pop some pills and live with it?”

“I don’t know” Ponk admits, curling in on themselves a little in shame “I’m sorry. I’m a fuck up of a doctor.”

“It’s really not that bad now that I’m used to it-”

“I’m supposed to take care of people!” Ponk cries, throwing his hands up in the air “I fucked up okay?! And now you have to deal with my mistake for the rest of your life probably!”

“To be fair it probably won’t be a long life” Ranboo snorts

“Not the time Ranboo” Sam snaps “Come on Ponk, you can’t think of everything. Fractures were probably the last thing you were worried about in the moment. You’re technically not even a real doctor!”

“I’m the closest fucking thing! I should know better!!”

“You’re twenty-fucking-one dude!!” Sam yells “None of us know what the fuck we’re doing!! The fact that none of us have died of sepsis or blood loss out here is because of you! Okay sure Ranboo is now permanently screwed-”

“Thank you Sam.” Ranboo monotones “Very insightful.”

“But he wouldn’t even be alive to be screwed if you didn’t patch him up that night! You saved his life!!” Sam continues “You’ve saved all of our lives at some point probably, god know how many times our sorry asses have nearly gotten killed”

“I feel like this pep talk could go with a little less language” Bad mutters

“Point is” Sam sighs “Give yourself a little more credit okay? You’re a former med student, you’re still learning right?” Ponk nods silently “Exactly. There’s nothing we can to about the wrong bones unless we re-fracture them-”

“Please don’t.”

“So, what’s your prescription for Ranboo?”

“Yeah, do I get drugs out of this?” Ranboo asks, laughing as Ponk punches his shoulder lightly “Stop abusing your patient!!”

“Never took my oath” Ponk teases, eyes crinkling as he smiled under his mask “Alright, I guess we can try compression sleeves?” he tries, shrugging a little “They’ve been working alright for your hands right?”

“Yup!” Ranboo nods, wiggling his fingers “So the same for my bones?”

“I think a light brace for your knee, since that has the most stress on it for most of the day” Ponk mutters, looking over Ranboo again “A sleeve should work okay for your elbow, we can upgrade to a brace if it doesn’t work and you said your ankle also hurts?” Ranboo gives another nod “Alright so a compression sleeve there too, that’ll be hard to find” He takes Sam’s hand to get up, Bad helping Ranboo stand and the four heading up the bank to the little camp Dream and Eret were setting up “I think we have a knee brace or sleeve somewhere in the med bag, but not an elbow one I’m pretty sure.”

“Don’t we have some Ace bandages knocking around somewhere?” Bad reminds

“Yeah, we can use those until we get a proper sleeve” Ponk nods, picking up the bag he needed and digging through it “Got it! Ah, it might be a bit small” he admits, tossing Ranboo the package “Since you have hella long legs”

“Thank you” Ranboo hums, unboxing the black sleeve and stealing Dream’s pop-up stool to sit on

“What’s going on?” Dream asks, flicking Ranboo’s forehead for stealing his chair “Why is Ponk head first in the med bag?”

“I’ve got funky bones” Ranboo snickers, slipping on the sleeve and trying his best to figure out how to tighten the straps

“…I’m just not gonna question that” Dream mutters, kneeling down to help the teen “You sprain your knee in the water?”

“More like two months ago” Bad chuckles, helping Sam and Ponk rifle through the bag “And then continued to walk on it without realizing

“...oh. Oh.” Dream winces “That’s not good is it?”

“Nope! So now I’ve got achy bones like my hands!” Ranboo tells him cheerily, swinging his free leg as he and Dream try to wrap up his other knee

“WHERE THE HELL ARE THE BANDAGES?!” Ponk screeches, muffled by the bag “I PUT THEM IN HERE I KNOW I DID!!”

“Did you check the first aid kit?” Sam suggests

“WE HAVE LIKE FIVE OF THOSE!!”

“This might take a while” Dream snorts

“I think George might pass out” Sapnap notes, pointing at his friend stumbling over cracks in the road and repeatedly yawning “Has he taken a nap today yet?”

“Nope” Dream groans, wincing as George blearily walks into a trashcan and mumbles some apology “I’ll take him off Deadman’s for tonight”

“He’s gonna be pissed about that” Sapnap mutters

“He can go talk to management” Dream huffs, Sapnap laughing a little “He still has coffee right?”

“He should” Sapnap shrugs, glancing up at the sleeping Callahan sprawled over Joffrey to make sure the man didn’t tip over “Might need to get him and Cal some more energy drinks-”

“Dream!” Eret called out, waving to catch his attention before pointing to a store down the road “I think they have towels in there, you wanna make the run?!”

“Might as well, the only place we can get George more caffeine would be like a store or gas station and we need to swap out towels” Dream sighs, giving a thumbs up to relay his approval

“You need a gas station?” Ranboo pipes up, startling the other two as he seemingly appears from nowhere

“Fucking hell!” Sapnap yelps, jumping a little “Where’d you come from?”

“Magic” Ranboo snorts, adjusting the compression bandages wrapped around his elbow to keep from twisting “There’s a gas station across the street from where we’re going, I can go pick something up if you need me to”

“Sapnap you mind going with him?” Dream asks, turning to the man next to him

“Sure” Sapnap hums “It’s a pretty easy run though, I’m sure he could do it on his own-”

“I can!” Ranboo agrees, nodding excitedly “I could totally do it on my own, in and out!”

“See?”

“I don’t know...” Dream hesitates, looking over at the bouncing teen “We have a buddy system for a reason...”

“Dude, it’s literally a corner store run” Sapnap scoffs, gesturing to Ranboo “He’s a big boy, he can handle it”

“He is a child.”

“I’m sixteen!!” Ranboo screeches “I can handle it!”

“Baby’s gotta take his first steps somewhere” Sapnap agrees, tying Joffrey to a post as they all come to a stop in front of the outlet of shops Eret had pointed at. He points over at the seemingly abandoned and clearly looted gas station across the street “It’s a low risk run, probably no more than a few Stragglers if anything. Let’s see how he takes it” Dream is silent for a few beats, seemingly examining Ranboo under his mask before sighing

“Fine.” he gives in, Ranboo breaking into a wide smile under his own mask. Dream cuts him off by holding up a finger “You get one chance at this. You fuck up and nearly die and you’re not allowed anywhere without supervision from now on, got it?” Ranboo nods vigorously “I mean it Ranboo. If there’s anything more than Stragglers inside you come right back for back up, don’t be an idiot”

“Got it” Ranboo agrees, clearly eager “What do you need me to grab?”

“Energy drinks if you can find them mainly, you can grab a snack if you want” Sapnap tells him, taking an empty satchel from the saddle and pulling out the pistol from his holster, handing both of them over to the younger teen after checking the safety was on for the gun “Take my gun in case of an emergency”

“You have your weapons right?” Dream frets, handing over his walkie-talkie as well “I set the radio to Sam’s channel, so if anything happens just call in and we’ll come over to help”

“I’ll be fine” Ranboo chuckles, putting the handgun in his waistband and clipping the radio to his belt before rolling up the bag to stuff in his cargo shorts pocket “I can handle a straggler or two, I’m Clean-Up remember?”

“Just be careful not to make too much noise” Dream reminds, clearly concerned even as Sapnap messes up Ranboo’s already shaggy hair even more “You get twenty minutes before I go in there to drag you out”

“Take the bolt cutters too” Sapnap suggests, shoving the tool into Ranboo’s backpack “Might find something cool in the backrooms-”

“Do not go into the backrooms” Dream panics, even as Sapnap drags him away to the rest of the group waiting for them “Those usually have zombies inside! Don’t-”

“Dude chill! You’re acting like Bad and Puffy!!”

“I have good reason to!!”

Ranboo snickers a little, a bit annoyed by the over-protectiveness although also quite touched at the worry. He shoulders his backpack some and checks his mask to make sure it was snug, fixing his hair out of his face as best he could and hopping out into the street. He checks down the road out of habit, humming a little song as he makes his way over to the corner store and weaves around stalled cars. There’s a few quiet moans from inside the crumpled vehicles, Ranboo quickly speeding past them as quietly as possible. The door chimes softly as he enters and he makes a face as he hops over a body near the entrance

“Gross” he mutters, scanning the bare shelves for what he’d been sent to grab. The warm freezers are nearly empty but there’s still a small row of classic Monsters near the bottom of one of them, the teen hurriedly shoving them in his bag “Let’s go!” he cheered quietly, slinging the clattering satchel over his shoulder. He can see a few boxes behind the racks, debating silently for a few moments before deciding to head to the back door. It takes a while to find the employee keys behind the counter, Ranboo swiping a few other things that had fallen under the table which included some 5-hour energy bottles, disposable lighters, a few stray pieces of candy and several tiny liquor bottles he knew he could use to trade snacks from the others.

He takes the keys and heads for the back door, pausing to scan the shelves for anything useful. There’s some soap he takes on a whim, finding a bag of peanuts, a small thing of charcoal he fits into his backpack and some cans of dog food he pockets for the pets. He checks the bathrooms to see if there was anything he could grab, startled when one of the stalls starts rattling

“Christ!!” He yelps, drawing his machete and pointing it at the shaking door “You scared me! All good in there?” A more than familiar inhuman groan answers, Ranboo rolling his eyes and heading for the exit “If you’re too stupid to realize that’s a pull door not a push you kinda don’t deserve to bite me” he taunts the monster trapped in the stall, humming to further aggravate it at the possibility of such an easy meal and leaving the poor zombie there to suffer “Alright, time to do exactly what Dream said not to and go to the back”

He heads over to the door leading behind the fridges, having to shove a little to open it enough to walk through. He gags a little as he finds out why the door had been so hard to open, a corpse with it’s jaw blown off working as a doorstop behind the entrance and creating a foul stench. The body twitches and writhes at Ranboo’s intrusion, a rumbling groan coming from its rotted throat as it tries to get up. Ranboo quickly stabs his blade through the skull with a wet squelch, chanting ‘ew’ over and over as he yanks it out in a dark spray of coagulated blood. He hurries away from the now fully dead body and draws his knife from his waist, using the smaller blade to slice open what few boxes were in the storage room and search through them

“Alright! Awesome!!” he cheers, finding a half emptied box of Red Bulls and putting as many drinks as he could in his satchel, also taking the coffee jars and bangs he discovered while digging through the mess. He takes a surprisingly unbroken glass bottle of some sort of apple soda he found for himself, tossing a bottle of root beer also for himself in his own backpack

“Okay! Pretty successful trip I’d say!” he huffs, nodding in satisfaction as he looks over the trashed mess he only worsened in his search “Time to go back-” something shuffles behind him and he whirls around, machete up and at the ready.

A second zombie he hadn’t noticed in the room had unearthed itself from the boxes and pallets it had been resting on. It was still in relatively good shape, almost human looking if not for its dead, milky eyes and rotting bite on its arm, meaning the second its feet found balance it lunged at an alarming speed towards Ranboo.

“Crap- Sprinter!” Ranboo realizes, dodging its swipe and scurrying around it, kicking a box at its legs to make it stumble. He practically throws himself at the door, yanking his backpack free as it snags on something and tripping as he squeezes out the gap. He falls to the floor but wastes no time in turning and grabbing the handle, slamming the door closed just as a green-tinted hand reaches for him.

“Oh my god” he pants, getting to his feet and pulling on the door to make sure it stayed closed while he re-locked it “Don’t go in there again, damn.”

He looks over at the second storage room a little further off, still on an adrenaline high as he recalls Dream’s warning.

“This is a very bad idea” he warns himself even as he approached with the employee keys in one hand and weapon ready in the other “Very bad idea Ranboo” he repeats as he slots the correct key into the handle “Dream would be very disappointed in you” he scolds as he twists and slowly opens the door, bracing for another Straggler to lunge at him.

Instead, he covers his mouth to choke down the bile threatening to come up as he’s greeted by the sight of three corpses rotting on the floor, all three with their heads blown off. Ranboo tries not to look at what had happened as he gingerly steps into the room, leaving the door open for some light to come in.

He definitely doesn’t think about the corpse closest to the door, hand out reaching for the exit with the back of its head split open and splattered all over the back of the door. There are a few boxes that might have contained food at some point, but they’re all emptied now, wrappers littering the tiny room and small table.

Something catches in the dim light, gleaming and drawing his attention. Over by one of the bodies sat in a chair, down on the floor next to it as it it had fallen out of their hands is a hunting rifle, bloodstained and without a scope. Ranboo puts away his blade before he picks up the new weapon and checks it, pleasantly surprised that aside from not having any ammo, seemed to be in decent shape as far as he could tell.

“I’ll let Bad have a look at it” he muses, wrinkling his nose as long ago dried blood flakes off from the stock in his hand “Maybe we’ll have some bullets for it-” a shadow crosses over the floor and he turns “Oh come on!!” he cries, seeing another, albeit different zombie from the one behind the fridges stumbling towards him.

He hefts the rifle and swings as hard as he can, ignoring the resounding wet crack as wood meets flesh and the zombie drops to the ground. He slams it one more time in the head for good measure, hurriedly hopping over the body and rushing for the front door

“Wow, that’s a really well built gun! I’m gonna keep you for sure!” he exclaims, slipping the bloodied weapon over a shoulder and happily skipping out of the store. He pauses as he passes metal cages next to the ice machines outside the store, backtracking a few steps and eyeing the lock keeping the container tightly shut

“I do have bolt cutters” he remembered, grinning a little “Would be rude not to use them…”

“Oh my god you’re going to wear a path into the floor” Sam gripes, watching Dream anxiously pace back and forth while the rest of their friends explored the store, other group trying their luck down at another shop “Do you get like this with all of us??”

“Of course not” Dream snapped, still pacing “I know you guys can handle yourselves but Ranboo hasn’t had a solo run before, he’s always had one of us and oh fuck what if he gets bit Sam I’ll never forgive myself I should go check-”

“Does he have a melee?” Sam interrupts

“Of course-”

“And he has his backpack”

“Yeah-”

“And you gave him your own radio” Sam reminds “And Sapnap gave him a gun, and it’s only been like fifteen minutes”

“Well yes, but-”

“Nope.” Sam cuts him off, shaking his head “Ranboo can take care of himself, we can’t keep treating him like a child.”

“He is a child” Dream grumbles, crossing his arms with a huff

“He’s an apocalypse survivor” Sam corrects “A young one, yes. But he knows what he’s doing, he can hold his own pretty well by now and he’s not stupid enough to pull the type of dumbass shit we do. He plays it safe, he’ll probably be too scared to do anything besides walk in, grab what you told him to and walk out. He’s a very responsible young man-”

“Hello?” Sam’s radio crackles “Can you guys hear me?”

“I take it back he’s an idiot and should never be left unsupervised again” Sam panics, he and Dream racing for the entrance as he unclips his radio “Ran?! Are you okay?! What happened?!”

“I need someone to open the door before I explode again” Ranboo informs, Sam and Dream sharing a confused look

“I beg your pardon??”

“The door- sh-” the line cuts off, the two adults close enough to the entrance to hear the rest of the swear coming from outside. They burst out from the store, coming to a surprised halt to see Ranboo perfectly fine a few feet away, waving as best he can from carrying a big propane tank, smiling widely under his filtered mask “Look what I got!!” he proudly announces, hefting up the grey can a little in his arms “Bolt cutters came in handy!”

“Where the fuck did you get that?!” Sam laughed, going over to take the tank from the teen “Jesus! This is heavier then I thought it would be...”

“I got it outside, next to the ice boxes” He informs, quite pleased with himself “It was really annoying to get out, I had to cut out like a whole panel to open the door”

“Did you run into any trouble?” Dream asks, worriedly checking over the teen for any scratches or bites “Stragglers?”

“One in the bathrooms that was stuck in a stall” Ranboo tells him, letting himself be fussed over and enjoying the attention he was receiving “And one and a half behind the freezers”

“Half??” Dream puzzles, taking the satchel Ranboo handed him and letting out a surprised little noise at the weight “Damn! You really cleared out the store huh?”

“One of them was on the floor already sort of taken out, the other was a sprinter” Ranboo explains “I got out before it could do anything though, closed the door in its face” he gestures to the bag Dream was going through, puffing up a little as Sam lets out a low whistle when he too looks at the contents “I managed to grab a decent amount before I left though, got some other drinks in there and a few cans of food for the dogs too”

“Holy shit, this is actually a lot” Dream notes, punching Ranboo in the arm lightly “Not bad Boo boy, I take it back. You really can handle yourself, that’s a relief”

“Yeah, for you mother hen” Sam snorts, nudging Ranboo with an elbow and smiling at the teen “Good job Ran, that’s impressive”

“That’s not even the best thing I found!” Ranboo crows, practically on cloud nine at this point from all the praise as he slings off the rifle from his back “Check what I got now!”

“Okay, what kind of stupid fucking luck do you have?!” Dream shrieks, opening the door for Sam to walk through “That was in the store??”

“Yep!” Ranboo nods excitedly “I killed a zombie with it so it’s a bit bloody at the minute. I’m hoping Bad can tell me if it’s any good and if so I’m gonna clean it off, see if there’s any ammo for it in the weapons bag”

“I cannot believe he went into a gas station for energy drinks and came back with a fucking rifle of all things” Sam snorts, shaking his head “Clearly the universe has favorites”

“I’m the beloved boy!” Ranboo cheers, squawking as Dream pulls him into a headlock and starts noogieing him

“Don’t get cocky you little shit” the blonde cackles, keeping Ranboo locked in place despite his escape attempts as he drags the younger around roughly, Dream teasing and taunting the sputtering Ranboo the whole time

Skeppy whistles a little at the sight before them, scanning over the mass of zombies weaving in and out among abandoned cars and blocking their entrance to a large mall in the center of the parking lot.

“How many?” Puffy asks, looking over his shoulder at the mess

“I’d say at least a small Crowd’s worth between here and the entrance” Skeppy hums, turning around to walk back to his friends “Maybe even a Mob if we fuck up and get the ones on the other side over here”

“It’d seriously be easy to get swarmed” Eret sniffs, rocking back on his heels “We definitely can’t run it on our own, we don’t have nearly enough people for that” He looks over at the second group quietly discussing something a little further off

“Oh you can’t be serious” Sam hisses, realizing what Eret was silently suggesting “Them?? They’re not used to big runs like we do, they’ll stand on the side useless while we do all the work at best and get in our way at worst.”

“It’s true” Niki agrees, crossing her arms “Can we even trust them to watch our backs on something like this? One wrong move and we’ll get swarmed. And then it’s game over for us”

“But eighteen people is still better than twelve” Bad sighs, cleaning his glasses “They need the stuff in there just as much as we do, maybe even more. Who knows, they might be up for it”

They all turn to Dream currently trying to hide himself with Spirit.

“They’re gonna say no” the blonde complains, throwing his head back with a groan even as he’s dragged out of hiding by Puffy

“It won’t hurt to ask Duckling” Puffy chides, pushing him a little towards the other group “If not then we can all move on instead of waiting around”

“And maybe we can finally ditch them” Skeppy mutters under his breath. Dream flips off his friends and casually strolls over to the other team, waving a little

“Yo! Diego!” Dream greets chipperly “You guys down to raid the mall?”

“What??” the man baffles, staring at the taller incredulously

“Mall raid” Dream repeats, pointing at the building not too far away “Got some pretty good loot in there, and there’s a hunting gear store in the north wing”

“Absolutely not!” Carol exclaims “That’s a suicide trip!!”

“I mean on our own yeah, for sure” Dream shrugs “But I think we have a pretty good chance if we work together. The gear inside would definitely be worth the shot and with nearly twenty of us all together it’ll be easy to divide and conquer”

“I’m not sure...” Diego admits “I don’t think we should just go in without some sort of plan”

“Of course” Dream reassured “My group have done plenty of risky runs, they’re pretty experienced with this type of stuff-”

“IT’S ONE TWO SEVEN THREE! THREE!!” Skeppy shouts from behind them, looking distraught as Sapnap and Ranboo grin at him “WHERE IS THE TREE COMING FROM??!”

“One, two, seven, tree” Ranboo nods “That’s how the song goes. Because tonight is showtime-” he sings

“ONE TWO SEVEN TREE, TELL THE ROCK I FELL ASLEEP!” Sam and Sapnap chorus “LIFE IS MARCHING ON DO YOU FEEL THAT?!”

“WHAT FUCKING VERSION OF THE LYRICS DID YOU TWO LEARN??!” Skeppy screeches, frazzled as Ranboo and Eret join in with the singing and dance movements

“ONE TWO SEVEN TREE, TELL THE ROCK I FELL ASLEEP! LIFE IS MARCHING ON DO YOU FEEL THAT?!” the four laugh as they dance “ONE TWO SEVEN TREE-”

“RUSSIA’S GREATEST LOVE MACHINE!!” Puffy interrupts, all of them immediately switching songs

“RA RA RASPUTIN!!” They all clap in sync “LOVER OF THE RUSSIAN QUEEN! THERE WAS A CAT THAT REALLY WAS GONE!!”

“Are we really all skipping over the fact you guys sang the wrong lyrics to a song literally called Rockefeller Street?!” Skeppy sputters “Hello??”

“...I swear they’re fully capable” Dream promises, ignoring the arguing and singing of half remembered lyrics behind him “Honest.”

After moving away from the parking lot to a safer spot due to the shouting over lyrics drawing the zombies towards them, both groups gather around their two leaders

“I just don’t know if risking my people for a run like this will even be worth it” Diego argues, crossing his arms

“Look, if you don’t want to do it that’s fine” Dream scoffs “But at the very least make up your mind so I don’t waste my time trying to explain what we can do to get in with minimal issues”

“It would be a really good run” Bad murmurs, kicking at the ground a little “Shoes, clothes, camping gear, probably ammo too”

“Well if its that good” Carol snaps “Why don’t you guys do it on your own?”

“Oh please” Sam snorts “We’re not that stupid to take on a Crowd with at least a 1-to-4 human to zom ratio. Hell it’s probably 1-to-5 to be honest”

“Six people aren’t going to make much of a difference when it comes to that many” Carol reasons

“It actually would” Ponk pipes up “It’d knock the ratio back down to a solid 1-to-3, 1-to-2 if we’re smart about it and make sure we don’t get swarmed”

“Exactly” Dream nods “1:2 with all of us at best and 1:4 at worst, which isn’t impossible per say. It’d absolutely fucking suck, but it’s doable. We can just speed our way in and if it’s that crowded out in the parking lot it probably means everything inside is most likely untouched and free for the taking”

“Diego you can’t possibly be thinking about going along with this” Carol huffs, turning to her friend who seemed to be considering it

“There’s stuff in there we need” the man admits “Our gear is practically falling apart at the seams and there might be food and water inside we can grab too” He nods a little, still looking hesitant but more resolved “How exactly would we get in? Like you said, I’m not looking to get swarmed either” Dream’s group seems to shift, straightening up a little and suddenly looking much more serious despite the deadly grins they shared

“Pretty easy, we can base it off what’s worked for us so far” Dream hums, clearly pleased as he takes up a stick and starts doodling on the ground “How we usually do it is we break into five groups with different jobs. Fire Front is the first” he explains, Sapnap and Niki raising a hand “Typically they run in first to weaken or group up the zombies to make it easy to take down, usually with fire and/or explosives.” Niki and Sapnap give identical sharp smiles, making Samantha scoot a little further away

“Coming up behind them are Extinguishers” Dream keeps explaining while Puffy, Bad and Sam wave a little “Like the name suggests, they take down the zombies and essentially cut a path through the crowd for the next team, the Runners” Skeppy nods and Eret raises their hand “This team is the first to enter the building. Depending on how many zombies are inside they’ll either clear out the entrance for everyone else to follow, or move them away so the rest of the group can get in and out of the way without too much interaction”

“So everything is pretty melee and hands on huh?” Jocelyn questions “Wouldn’t that make it easier to get swarmed?”

“That’s where Back Guard-” George huffs and Callahan nods “And Clean-Up come in” he continues, Ponk and Ranboo waving a little “Back Guard are our sharpshooters and stick to the outskirts, but they typically use bows so they cause less noise and don’t attract attention. They make sure no one gets snuck up on and keep an eye out to warn us if a new group of zombies decide to wander over. They also make sure we can handle the situation and make the call to pull out if too many are on their way. Clean-Up works at the back, keeping everything spread out to make sure nothing separates the group or swarms.”

“Alright” Diego nods “So how would that work with this many?”

“We’re currently on the side with the least amount of zombies near the entrance” Dream further explains, tapping the little mall drawing he’d made “Cal did a full perimeter scan and the easiest places to get in would be the side entrance and emergency exit”

“Why not go through the department store entrance?” Marcelo asks “It’s less walled in and more open. That’d be easier to get into”

“Too many hiding spots inside a store” Sam tells him “Zombies could hide among the clothes and shelves and we’re gonna be tired from working through that crowd. It’d be better to have immediate access to the hall and more escape routes than getting tangled up” Marcelo nods in understanding

“So. Two entrances” Dream continues “Back Guard will be on the outskirts like usual and the rest of the groups will be trying to lead most of that Crowd out of the way. Once the Runners get in, they’ll clear out that emergency exit for Back Guard to get in. Once that team is in they’ll have the horses so it’s up to them to find a store that can be easily protected while everyone else gets in”

“And what do we do about the zombies inside?” Carol huffs “To go all that way just to get swarmed once we’re actually in there?”

“Runners will deal with that” Dream patiently repeats “They’ll lead zombies away for everyone to get in and bunker down before doubling back to rejoin us. So whoever wants to join the Runner team’s gotta be fast”

“It sounds so easy when you say it like that” Jaime sighs “But a lot of things could go wrong. What if we get separated?”

“That’s what the radios are for” Eret shrugs

“Okay, well what if we get cornered-”

“Back Guard makes sure that doesn’t happen” George replies, almost offended “And you have your teammates as well”

“Run out of ammo-”

“No guns to begin with” Niki quickly shuts down “Too much noise, stick with melee”

“Get tired?”

“Be fast and save your energy, so be efficient. Take the thinner route” Skeppy says casually “If everything works out we should have plenty of stamina for once we’re inside”

“What if we get scratched or bit?” Samantha pipes up quietly “That’s a possibility right?”

“...Oh yeah I forgot that’s a thing” Puffy laughs “I mean we all have masks so nothing gets in our mouths and I’m sure we can find glasses or goggles somewhere”

“Wear long sleeves?” Dream offers with a none too concerned shrug “We have duct tape and we could find magazines or padding somewhere for armor. I prefer going with only a little so I don’t trip up”

“I’d feel a little better about doing this if we had a few more details” Diego admits “Can we run it through a few more times before doing it?”

“Oh we’re not doing this today” Dream blurts “Tomorrow maybe, just to get everything ready to run”

“Thank god” Jocelyn muttered “But yeah, can we go it through again?”

“Sure”

“I have fucking Rockefeller Street stuck in my head” Sam grumbles, tossing his spear from hand to hand nervously

“Out of all songs” Puffy snorts, touching up her cutlass and adjusting the leather jacket she donned to make sure it stayed zipped “Let’s get this over with, I hate having to wear layers during a run”

“I am definitely okay with layers today” Ranboo shuddered, wearing one of Dream’s sweatshirts and jeans rather than his usual shorts and button up

“I’m not!” Ponk complains, sleeves flopping over his hands from the oversized, black Supreme brand hoodie he wore “I’m hot enough with my stupid mask on all the time so I don’t inhale zombie virus, I don’t need to get heat stroke on my way to get new shoes!!”

“Yeah but think of the drip Ponkie” Sam teases, poking his friend in the side and laughing as he’s swatted away “All that Supreme merch inside free for the taking?”

“Lotta good that’ll do me when I’m passed out from heat exhaustion!!” Ponk screeches, elbowing Sam

“Who do you guys have on your team?” Ranboo asks to change the topic and keep Ponk from swinging his rebar into Sam’s knees “We got the red-head”

“Jaime?” Puffy snorts

“That’s the one.”

“Carol and the Marcelo dude are with us in Extinguishing” Sam hums “Which is good because we need more hands, it gets messy cleaning up after Niki and Sapnap”

“Speaking of which, I think Jocelyn is helping them right?” Puffy asks “I saw her helping drain cars yesterday. And Sam’s name doppelganger is with Cal and George”

“I don’t like that she gets a gun, even with a silencer on it.” Ponk huffed “I don’t trust a rifle at my back”

“Well she’s their best shot” Puffy shrugs “Not much we can do about it now”

“Their leader is with Dream and the Runners” Sam finishes “Hope the guy is fast otherwise he’s getting left behind by the others-” They all turn as someone whistles, Dream waving them over

“You guys ready to go?” he asks over the radio

“Just about I think” Puffy replies on her own mic as they walk over “You? I think one of your teammates is about to piss himself”

“I’m okay” Diego wheezes, looking very pale as he nervously pats the magazines covering his forearms over his sweater “I’m fine, just a little jumpy that’s all”

“I feel like he’s gonna have a heart attack” Ranboo murmured to Ponk

“He better not” the man huffs back “We don’t have a defibrillator”

“You guys do runs with this many zombies?” Diego baffles, taking in a deep breath from under his mask “How are any of you calm about this??”

“Denial.” Sam answers immediately

“Memory repression!” Ranboo offers cheerily

“I’m in a constant state of panic so I feel nothing anymore.” Ponk admits

“Knowing it could be worse!” Puffy says much too happily

“This is actually a lot more than what we’re used to!” Dream laughs, slapping him on the back “First time for everything right?”

“...None of that makes me feel more confident about this working”

“Well too bad cause the Guard is in place which means it’s our turn” Dream informs, shoving the man forward and the rest of his friends splitting into their different groups “Alright guys! It’s time to rock and roll bitches!!”

“Fuck yeah!!” Sapnap cheered, he and Niki taking off down the small hill and towards the zombies, a startled Jocelyn jolting in surprise and trying to catch up

“Wait- We’re going now?!” Marcelo sputters, watching the trio throw the first of their bombs into the crowd

“Yep!” Bad confirms, starting down after them “Keep up Muffins!”

“Oop, that’s our cue” Ranboo notes “Let’s go Jaime boy!”

“Wait- hang on-”

“No waiting hurry up!” Ponk orders, following after the teen “Don’t want to get swarmed do we?”

“To your left!” Ranboo calls, dodging clawing hands he quickly bats away with the flat of his blade, jabbing his knife into the monster’s skull and yanking it out before jogging over to the next “The right now!”

“There’s so many!!” Jaime cries, yelping as he dodges a toppling zombie “Are we there yet?”

“Almost!” Ponk pants, drawing a few away and getting around the creatures for Niki to toss a gasoline bomb onto before she runs off again “I think the Runners should be going inside in a bit-” he startles as a zombie goes down next to him, arrow still quivering in its head “Shit that was close”

“Ponk, we’re not moving fast enough” Ranboo murmurs, taking care that their third didn’t overhear “We’ll be swarmed at this rate.” he extenuates his point by kicking down a zombie and hacking its neck enough that it couldn’t move, still growling and gurgling on the ground as Ponk stomps its skull in.

“We have a third” Ponk hushes back

“He’s kinda not doing much.”

“Better than nothing” they shrug, knocking arms aside and shoving another rotted corpse away from grabbing him. Ranboo zones out after a while, used by now to the monotony of hacking his way through zombies and going on auto pilot as he takes down more zombies than he knows he should be

“There’s another Group coming!!” Samantha’s voice echoes from the radio on Ponk’s hip “Get out-”

“Do not leave.” George snaps “They’re far enough, you have time. Everything is fine, we can make it”

“There’s more?!” Jaime exclaims, now panicked as he looks around

“We’re almost there, don’t go backing out now” Ponk orders fiercely “Do not leave the back line or we really will get swarmed”

“It’s literally right there” Ranboo huffed out, pointing at the doors less than 50 yards away before snatching his hand out of the way from snapping jaws “Runners already went in-”

“There’s a bunch of them coming guys seriously we need to leave- hey!”

“Do not try to fight your way back out you will not make it she’s just paranoid-”

“You’re going to get them killed-”

“Then fucking fire you idiot don’t just stand there!!”

“That’s not good” Ponk muttered, turning down the broadcasted argument

“There’s too many” Jaime panics “We’re not gonna make it”

“Well if someone pulled their killing weight” Ranboo hisses “We would be there by now.”

“I can’t do this” the other hyperventilates “Guys we need to leave while we can-”

“If we leave we’re leaving the others to get swarmed” Ponk snaps “Hold the line, that’s all we have to do- BEHIND!”

Jaime whirls around and shrieks, quickly backing up but instead of using his pipe, fumbles for the gun at his waist

“DON’T-” Ranboo and Ponk start, reaching out to stop him but much too late as a resounding ‘bang’ echoes over the parking lot, zombie dropping to the ground

“I SWEAR TO GOD IF THAT WAS A FUCKING GUN I HEARD OUTSIDE I WILL PERSONALLY SKIN YOU ALIVE” Dream shouts over the radio

“WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKING IDIOTS FIRED A GUN?!!” Puffy yells through the speaker

“Well now we’re definitely fucked!!” Ponk gripes, snatching Jaime by the collar and dragging him out of the way while Ranboo spears a monster with his machete “We said no guns!!”

“I-I- panicked!” the young man sputters “What is one gunshot going to do with all of this noise already-”

“That!” Ranboo exclaims, pointing at the zombies down at the end of the parking lot slowly turning, attention drawn to the commotion by the much louder reverberating gunshot

“Guys. Inside. Now.” George orders, unsettingly calm “Get inside as fast as you can- what the-”

“RUN!!”

Ranboo can spot Samantha turning heel from her other two teammates, waving at the groups trapped in the middle of the mess and taking off over the hill

“SHE FUCKING BOLTED ARE YOU KIDDING-”

Ranboo can’t hear the rest of George’s rant because he’s sent sprawling to the ground by a frightened Carol rushing past him and swiftly weaving her way through the thinned line of zombies in the same direction Samantha had

“Fuck! We lost our backup!!” Sam curses as Ranboo scrambles to his feet, ducking rotted hands trying to descend on him “Both of ‘em bailed on us!”

“What the hell James?!” Ranboo screeches, Ponk cursing up a colorful storm of swears and insults as they watch the red-head also leave them. A string of profanities from the radio informs Diego has also left, no radio needed to pick up the creative and violent German expletives from Niki further off

“Ranboo we need to move!” Ponk manages out through labored breathing, the two of them now trying to get to the rest of their group “We can’t afford to get separated now!”

“Crap crap crap the line is breaking!” Ranboo whimpers, seeing the now excited zombies start to cluster and push towards them “Ponk-”

“Fuck it, get inside” Ponk hisses out, shoving the teen towards the remaining Extinguishing crew doing their best not to get surrounded “We can’t fight our way back out, just get inside and block the doors”

“There’s too many!” Bad cries, swinging his wrench in a wide arc to keep the corpses at bay “We’re not gonna make it to the doors!”

“Wait for a gap!” Puffy yells at them, hair now wildly messy up in her bun as she elbows and kicks to keep the zombies off of her, snatching up her radio “Niki and Sap we need you to move a couple so we can squeeze past!”

“Already on it!” Sapnap confirms “Give us a minute, might whip them into a frenzy though!”

“Oh like this isn’t already a frenzy!” Ranboo snarks, snatching his sweater away from ragged fingers and burying his knife to the hilt into a skull

“It is not looking good in here guys” Eret admits, Skeppy faintly swearing in the background “We’ll double back now but we might have to bail out the back door”

“Shit- Ran! Ponk!” Puffy yelps as a zombie lunges through the group and the two leap back to avoid it “Guys!”

“Fuck fuck fuck this cannot be happening right now” Ponk rambles, pressing up against Ranboo as more zombies took the opportunity to try and grab the humans, fully separating the two from the others “This is a nightmare. An actual nightmare. I’m gonna wake up any minute now perfectly fine with my dog and Sam and none of this will be real-”

“Ponk we need to get back” Ranboo warns, instinctively grabbing the man’s wrist and squeezing as their backs press together “We can’t be split off like this”

“Right. Right yeah” the shorter nods furiously “Count of three and we push through”

“Between Metallica and Nike shirts?”

“Yep. One.”

“Two.”

“THREE!!”

The two shove themselves at the creatures, using an arm each to shield their faces as they push past the slightly weaker part of zombie wall and towards their friends slowly edging their way to the mall entrance. Ranboo nearly trips but rights himself, Bad catching him before he can fall right back into the opposite wall of zombies. Ponk also stumbles, arms flailing to balance himself but something else catches his hand.

That something else being a rotted jaw crunching down on warm flesh and bone.

Time seems to stop for a split moment, Ponk’s eyes widening in pure horror as bone snaps and flesh tears under powerful jaws. Sam is the first to move when Ponk starts to scream, practically bowling over nearly five zombies as he spears the biter with a furious roar, impaling two more with the same weapon in the process. Fat Bitch is barking frantically, biting and lunging at zombies trying to get to her master and Fran quickly following in the chaos

“PONK!!” Puffy shouts, the doctor still hyperventilating as he stares at his ragged left hand in terror as she lunges past to keeps the blood frenzied zombies at bay

“Nononono this can’t be happening” he sputters, gasping for air as Sam pulls him close, Fat Bitch whining and pawing at his leg “Nonono please. Please no-”

“Ranboo give me your belt” Sam orders, Ranboo too dazed to argue and obediently handing it over. Sam yanks up the blood soaked hoodie sleeve and wraps the belt just above Ponk’s elbow, slipping the end under and tightening as hard as he could

“Wh-what are you-” Ponk starts, Sam remaining grimly silent as he draws his machete “Sam. Sam that’s not clean-”

“I haven’t used it out here, it’s clean” Sam informs, gripping Ponk’s forearm tightly in a shaky hand as he holds it out in front of him

“That’s not what I mean- Sam! Think about this!!” Ponk panics, trying to tug away in alarm as he realizes what his best friend was about to attempt, Ranboo grabs Ponk’s dog before she can set on Sam, holding the wiggling mutt back and distracting her with more zombies to attack “Sam this isn’t a movie, it might not even work!! Think about it! Think this through!!”

“I have” Sam grits out, breaths becoming shallow “And I’m not fucking losing you.” He brings the blade down on Ponk’s wrist with a crack and spray of blood, Ponk screaming in pain and fear as his already mangled hand dangles half attached to his arm. Bone juts out through bloodied flesh, broken and splintered as Sam brings his blade up again.

“Fucking hell” Puffy whispers as Sam swings a second time, this time managing to sever the limb and mutilated hand dropping to the cement with a wet thump. Bad kicks it away in disgust, zombies clawing each other for the hand and shredding their own kind with sickening screeches and wails in their frenzy

“Staunch the bleeding” Sam murmurs, Ponk stone still and silent beside him “I need to staunch the bleeding, he’s bleeding too much”

“Shirt.” Ranboo says, yanking out one of his spare shirts from his backpack as he kicks away another zombie and throwing it at Sam. The cloth is quickly soaked maroon as its wrapped around Ponk’s gushing arm and Ranboo silently vows to burn the thing the second he can

“Sapnap where’s that distraction?” Bad asks into the radio, sounding far too calm to actually be it “We need to get inside. Now.”

“Give me like thirty seconds!”

“Belt’s a shit tourniquet..” Ponk mumbles softly, eyes glassy as he stares at his dripping arm “Not enough pressure… need to twist… no pulse...”

“Ponk. Ponkie stay with me okay?” Sam begs, bending down a little to try and get Ponk to look at him “Ponk please. We can fix this. It’s gonna be okay. Ponkie please. Please Ponk.”

“Too much blood… shouldn’t be any… hit an artery...”

“Where is that distraction?!” Sam yells, on the verge of tears as he gently picks up Ponk and cradles him “Bad!”

“Sapnap!!”

“Fuck!! Okay done! Ten seconds to duck!!”

“Fuck it, just make a break for it” Puffy pants, exhausted from keeping her friends from getting eaten and Fran circling her legs. A massive explosion rattles their bones, making Bad stumble and Puffy yanks Ranboo against her to shield him from the wave of heat and scattered debris flying from the fire ball.

“One hell of a distraction” Ranboo mutters, spotting a flaming car through the mess as curious zombies start to approach the flames

“GO!!” Puffy barks, the four of them and the two dogs rushing towards the doors now only a few yards away, Ponk still mumbling in Sam’s arms. Dream and Callahan are at the entrance keeping the doors open, Callahan firing into the mass of undead as fast as he can reload while Dream snags each person to yank them through

“What the fuck happened?!” He shouts, seeing Ponk curled up in Sam’s hold, seeming so small compared to the taller

“H-He got bit” Sam gasped out, clutching Ponk a little tighter “I- I managed- I cut off the bitten part but-”

“Shit. Fuck!!” Dream swears, seeing the blood dripping on the floor “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!!” he kicks at one of the metal detectors hard enough that it rattles and makes Fran whine and duck away

“Guys!!” Skeppy yells from down the hall, head popping out from behind the corner “Move it! Now! They’re coming!!”

“Eret! Get the tarp out!” Dream orders as they race after Skeppy “Cal you bring in Niki and Sapnap-”

“We’re here!” Niki pants, covered in soot and too dark blood as she heaves for air “What-”

“Move!” Puffy relays “Ponk got bit!”

“Oh shit” Sapnap curses, chasing after them. They follow Skeppy across the hall to a small, already abandoned store in the corner of the intersection, Eret already pulling down the security grates as George keeps stragglers at bay with his bow, shots being very limited if the way he let them get as close as he did was any clue. They all rush inside, Sapnap leaping up to slam the second grate down as everyone scatters to look for the supplies they needed.

“Ponk. Ponk hey” Dream nervously tries as Sam sets the man down, ripping off his plastic mask “Ponk, come on man. I need you to work with me. What do we do?”

“No point.” Ponk huffs, smiling bitterly under his mask “At this rate I’ll bleed out in a few minutes, my adrenaline is the only thing keeping my body from shutting down at the moment.”

“Ponk please” Dream urges “There has to be something we can do! Cauterize it maybe?”

“Again, I’ve lost too much blood” Ponk repeats softly “It doesn’t matter what you do, my body will shut down anyway at this stage”

“We have IV bags don’t we?!” Bad remembers “What- what if we did like a blood transfusion?! Quick! what’s everyone’s blood type?!”

“Fuck me.”

“A??”

“I don’t remember”

“AB I think?”

“Won’t work” Ponk mutters, shaking his head and slipping a little against Sam “I’m O-. Universal donor”

“So any blood will work right?” Dream guesses “You can take any of ours?”

“Universal donor, not receiver” Ponk corrects “I can only take O- otherwise my body will self-destruct. And O- is only found in, like, 7% of people-”

“The IV’s are in the med bag right?” Skeppy asks, rolling up his sleeves “How do you hook them up?”

“I already said I can’t take any type of blood” Ponk snaps “I’ll reject it and die”

“I know” Skeppy nods, smiling weakly as he pats his chest “Lucky for you, I’m also a universal donor. Up to date with my shots and everything. Well, as up to date as I can be.”

“Oh my god” Sam gasps, thudding his head against Ponk’s “Ponk, please tell me that’ll work”

“I’ve lost a lot” Ponk murmurs “More than Skeppy can provide without dying himself”

“Can we use anything else?” Dream tries “Some kind of fake blood, a substitute??”

“...Just leave it guys” Ponk whispers “Please. I don’t want you wasting supplies on me-”

“We have a chance at saving your fucking life asshole!” Sam yells

“AND I MIGHT END UP DYING FROM THE BITE THREE DAYS LATER SAM!” Ponk shouts, voice cracking “I am nothing but a fucking time bomb, so do us all a fucking favor and put me down while I’m still human”

“...Ponkie”

“Don’t fucking Ponkie me Sam.” he hisses “You made a promise. We made a promise. Keep up your damn end of the deal.”

“Please” Sam begs “Please don’t.”

“Ponk.” Dream cautiously starts “There is a chance. Fucking microscopic, yes. But a chance” he gestures over to Ranboo standing wide-eyed next to Eret in the back of the store “You brought Ranboo back from such a chance, don’t you think you should give yourself a shot too?” Ponk doesn’t reply “...You don’t really want Sam to do it, do you.”

“...I don’t wanna die” Ponk whispers, choking on a sob “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna it’s not fair I don’t wanna!” he wails, sobbing into Sam’s chest

“Then what can we use as substitute blood?” Dream asks, firmly this time “Surely there must be something. Water? Saline maybe?” Ponk shakes his head “Come on Ponk, think. Skeppy can buy you some time for me to patch you up, can you think of anything at all?”

“...er”

“What?”

“I… I reasd somewhere” Ponk sniffles, words beginning to slur “Coconut waters can be useds… I think...”

“That’ll work” Dream nods, straightening up “Bad, help Skeppy draw blood with the IV bags. Sam, help me clean off the tarp and put Ponk down, we need to stop the bleeding ASAP. Puffy I’m gonna need you to hand me stuff for whatever the fuck I’m gonna have to do. Everyone else-” he looks over at the anxious group grimly “See what you can find.”

“Radios on at all time!” Eret orders as they race down the main hall, skylights illuminating the halls in an ominous, dim, blue hue “Do not split up from your partner unless you have to or I swear to god I’ll kill you myself!!” They pull up to a directory board and Eret points out sections “George and Cal, you guys take Fran to the west wing all the way to the JC Penny’s. When we’re all done we’ll take the north section together down to he movie theater, got it?”

“Got it!” George nods, Callahan saluting as they take off down one of the halls, whistling for the dog to follow

“Niki and Sapnap to the south side” Eret points at the highlighted part “Get to the Macy’s”

“Yes sir!” They chorus, wasting no time in running down their designated hall and Rat under Sapanap’s arm

“Ranboo, you and I are gonna take the east hall” Eret tells him, the two heading in a different direction from the others, Fat Bitch trotting after them since she was the most familiar with Ranboo “Tell me if you see anything that might possibly contain fucking coconut water”

“Shouldn’t we worry about the dead people in the halls??” Ranboo sputters, seeing how the collie growled and raised her hackles at the shuffling corpses

“Just keep moving and they won’t grab you” Eret reassures, dodging around a pair of zombies.

They scan several stores, even breaking into a few backrooms to see if any employees had brought the surprisingly now rare drink on their final days. Nothing.

“We might have to try the food court” Eret grumbles, kicking a rack of clothes over as they escape empty handed once again “Fuck-”

“Snack booth!!” Ranboo shouts, pointing at a booth that had once sold chips and candy, a small, silver fridge on the counter

“Holy- Go! Gogogo!!” Eret yells, the two of them running for the booth and ignoring the creatures they slipped past “Check the fridge!” the man tells him, rounding the other side to look over the shelves

“I got one!!” Ranboo exclaims, yanking open the glass door and snatching the tall white bottle with a bright green coconut on the front “Uhhh is it supposed to be pink??”

“Pink?!”

“I don’t know man, it’s pink!!” Ranboo panics, holding up the bottle full of, sure enough, pink coconut water

“Well check the ingredients!” Eret sputters, going back to their own search “What’s in it?”

“Just organic coconut water” Ranboo shrugs, Eret popping back up “This is the only one in the fridge.”

“Only one in the booth” they correct, looking over at the group of zombies coming towards them from all the noise and blocking their way back to the main hall “...Good enough?”

“Good enough” Ranboo agrees, slinging his backpack around and gripping it in front of him like a shield. Eret does the same and they both run forward, simply slamming into zombies and knocking them aside before heading back towards the store they were based at, Fat Bitch warningly snapping at a few they passed

“Guys we found some, and by some I mean one.” Eret relays into the radio “Heading back to the store now but zoms really aren’t happy about getting woken up- shit!” both he and Ranboo screech to a halt at the wall of undead blocking their way, Ponk’s collie nearly double in size with how she fluffed up “Uhhh might have to do a drive by”

“I’ll be at the entrance” Puffy crackles over the speaker “Just fucking chuck it”

“Copy that” Eret huffs, clipping the radio back on his bag “Alright, I’ll keep them over here and you run over to where Puffy is.”

“You said not to split up!” Ranboo shrieks

“I know what I said but the two of us aren’t making it past that!!” Eret snaps, gesturing at the approaching monsters “Think of it like Swipe! Just get around without getting tagged!”

“I hate everything~” Ranboo complained, tightening his backpack and edging for the wall, Fat Bitch trailing after him with surprising quietness

“HEY FUCKERS!!” Eret shouts, hopping up on some little platform with overgrown and dead plants, shaking the miserable little tree growing in the center of it “COME ON!! OVER HERE!!”

Ranboo bolts the second there’s an opening, slipping past the distracted zombies and cursing quietly as he saw a second wave of the creatures also coming down the hall. Puffy stands outside the store, gate half up as she frantically waves blood-stained hands

“Throw it!!” She yells, anxiously checking behind her at the approaching zombies “Ran just throw it!!”

“There’s a reason I never tried out for the football team” Ranboo whined, mainly to himself as he tightened his hold on the bottle before pulling his arm back and throwing it as hard as he could. The bottle flips in the air, Puffy having to leap up to catch it and fumbling for it a little before finally securing it, cheering at the catch and slamming the grate back down before vanishing inside.

He ignores the sting in his elbow, clutching his arm with a hiss as he pivots for a hidden hall between two stores, snagging the collie by her collar before she can try to maul more zombies. “Meet you at the food court! I have the dog!!” He calls out to Eret still up on the island of plants, managing to catch a thumbs up over the rotting heads before Eret too vanishes in a different direction.

His boots slip on sudden tile, making the teen grunt a little as he accidentally slams into the wall before correcting himself. Fat Bitch also skids a little, claws skittering as she tries to run and eventually adjusting to the new floor

“Scuse me, coming through” he mutters at the corpses wandering in the corridor, hopping over half eaten and rotted bodies littering the floor Fat Bitch widely avoids when she can. The secret passage dumps him out on the opposite side of the mall, Ranboo looking around in confusion as he tried to figure out where he was. He jogs over to a blood splattered directory board and tries finding what section he’s in, skin crawling as he hears soft groans and shuffling feet get closer, Fat Bitch growling warningly as she noses one of Ranboo’s hands.

“I’ll figure it out” he decides, picking a direction and kicking himself up into a brisk jog. He glances down to check on his furry partner keeping pace beside him “I really should’ve borrowed a radio before I went out, huh girl?”

“Okay, shit what do I need?” Dream rushes, yanking the Med bag closer “Puffy I need clean towels, shirts- anything that’ll help me staunch the bleeding and isn’t currently covered in zombie bits”

“I’ll try my best” the woman huffs, making sure the gate was fully closed after Eret and his team had left before dumping out several bags of supplies, snatching any clean fabric she could find

“I need a bandanna or something” Sam frets, pulling on the belt still on Ponk’s arm “This is a really shit tourniquet”

“Puffy, need a bandanna quick” Dream relays, still rummaging through the bag of supplies “Get them out of that hoodie, I need to make sure they’re still breathing while I’m doing whatever the hell I’m going to do fuckinghellwhatamIdoing”

“Need to stay warm” Ponk weakly informs “Low blood makes the patient cold. Low oxygen too, raise legs”

“Sam can you work on that?”

“Sure. Sure yeah” he nods stiffly, briefly resting a hand on Ponk’s shoulder before getting up and looking for what they needed. He props a backpack under the man’s feet and a bundled up sweatshirt under Ponk’s head

“Bandanna” Puffy says as she drops the fabric in Sam’s hand “Dream I’ve got everything clean I could find”

“Lay it out on the tarp” Dream tells her, tossing aside a cleaning rag from where he’d wiped down a second, folded tarp and laid out nearly every possible medical instrument he could find. She obediently drops the pile of mismatched fabrics and kneels down in front of them, grimly staring at the daunting amount of supplies “Okay… Ponk. I need you to talk me through this. What do I do first?” He turns over to the pale doctor currently getting cut out of his hoodie, bright yellow bandanna twisted tightly where the belt had been in a much better makeshift tourniquet. Ponk weakly nods, whimpering quietly as he shifts and Sam gently tugs off his mask to better breathe, white hair stuck with sweat plastered to his forehead

“Have- have to- clean wound” Ponk tells him, chest rising and falling shallowly “Stop bleeding, clean wound”

“Okay. Okay I can do that. I can do that” Dream nods, making sure his second mask was on snugly before putting on gloves from the box that had been tossed in the med bag a long time ago. “Cap, I’m gonna need you to start handing me towels”

“Got it” she nods, quickly tucking stray curls behind her ears and getting ready

“Alright Ponk, this is probably gonna hurt for a while” Dream warns, gently tugging at the blood soaked shirt already sticking to Ponk’s arm. Ponk hisses in pain, free hand scrabbling out for purchase and finding Sam’s, squeezing tightly

“It’s okay, it’s okay” Sam soothes, pulling a spare blanket he’d stolen from someone’s bag over Ponk’s chest to keep him warm “I’m right here, I’m right here Ponkie. It’s gonna be okay”

“Holy shit.” Puffy blurts softly, gaping at the hacked limb in disgust “Oh my god there’s so much blood-”

“Stop bleeding” Ponk manages out, grimacing and refusing to look at his arm “Stop the artery”

“Which one is that one??” Dream freaks, hurriedly pressing down with a bundle of cloth to stop more blood from oozing out “How? Do I cauterize all of it??”

“Sh-shit” Ponk swears, staring up a little before blinking rapidly “I need to see it.”

“Are you sure?” Puffy asks worriedly “It’s bad-”

“Only way to tell” Ponk nods, gripping Sam’s hand harder “I might go into shock, I probably already am so you need to keep me awake.”

“Sam, you can focus on that” Dream orders, carefully holding up the limb for Ponk to turn and see. Where the hand once met arm is now a bloody, shredded mess, two splintered bones poking out sharply through the flesh

“Ohhhh this is gonna suck so much” Ponk muttered, taking a deep breath “You’re- you’re gonna need a saw.”

Dream pales almost comically, Puffy’s jaw dropping and Sam going stone still

“I’m sorry.” Dream blurts “I’m gonna need a what now?”

“Bone needs- needs to-ah... be eve-evened out” he explains, taking another deep breath “It’ll get... infected d-during healing left- left like that… Even out the b-bone and- and muscle and sort- sort of-” he makes a face, struggling to get the right words out “Fold. Fold skin over… like-like burrito but stitch ends together”

“Oh fuck me I am nowhere near qualified for this” Dream breathes out, letting out a small hysterical laugh “Okay. Yeah. Sure. Why the fuck not?” He keeps pressing down on the arm as he looks over the tools “Puffy...”

“Yeah- yep” she says with a stiff nod “I’ll go find it”

“Make sure it’s sanitized too” he reminds, grabbing a few alcohol pads and tearing them open to wipe down the skin near the wound “I just sort of trim? Your arm??” the blonde guesses, looking very lost

“Is… broken?” Ponk murmurs, Sam repeatedly tapping his cheek to keep him focused “Bones. Clean break or… cracked?” Dream takes another peek, using the bloodied shirt to push back some of the flesh and see the bone under it. Ponk kicks a little at that, biting down a whimper as Sam coos soft nothings and strokes his head

“Cracked” Dream confirms, grabbing the tweezers and starting to pick out little shards of bone “Sort of splintered everywhere so I’m digging out what I can-”

“Cut about- about t-two or th-three inches off.” Ponk tells him, Dream fumbling for the tweezers “Bone frac-fractured. Jus a lil I thinks, jus a few inches”

“...alright” Dream nods, swallowing thickly “Okay. I’ll do that-”

“Oh my god just put it in the vein!!” Skeppy shouts, clutching his left bicep “Dude I’m gonna be pricked to death!!”

“I’m trying!!” Bad cries, looking on the verge of tears “I don’t know how to do this Geppy! I’m not Ponk!!”

“Shit, okay you guys deal with that-” Puffy huffs, gesturing to Ponk and setting down the bowsaw she found “I gotta go help Skeppy get his blood out- Bad! Let me do it, you gotta tie his arm first”

“Help” Bad whimpers, stepping aside as Puffy takes the IV needle and wipes it down with an alcohol pad, also wiping down Skeppy’s forearm which makes him flinch at the sting on his already punctured skin “Do you know how to do this?”

“Sort of. I saw it on med shows” Puffy snorts, taking her bandanna from around her neck and tying it up on Skeppy’s arm, patting the crook of his elbow to find the right spot “Also, I volunteered part time at blood drives so I kinda know what to do...I just hope you didn’t cause him massive internal bleeding while jabbing him”

“WHAT?!” Skeppy and Bad chorus

“Yeah, you’re gonna hurt in the morning” Puffy confirms, bending down to get a better look and pulling the skin taut before plunging in the needle “Alright, gravity should do the rest” she nods “Bad I need tape to keep this in place” Bad hurries off to find some “Each “unit” or bag should be about ten minutes to fill, give or take” She informs Skeppy, who was now worriedly staring at his arm “I’m only allowed to draw up to two-”

“Make it three.” Skeppy mutters “We have three bags, make it three.”

“Skeps, if I take that much-”

“A human can lose about three pints” Skeppy interrupts “I read that somewhere. Ponk needs it more.”

“...Two and a half” Puffy compromises “No more. We’re not losing you either” Skeppy nods silently, uncharacteristically quiet when Bad comes back with masking tape, Puffy pinning the needle in place.

“Guys we found some, and by some I mean one.” Eret crackles over the radio, sounding out of breath “Heading back to the store now but zoms really aren’t happy about getting woken up- shit!” Puffy hurries over to the walkie-talkie and scoops it up “Uhhh might have to do a drive by” the man rushes out, now stressed

“I’ll be at the entrance” Puffy informs, hurrying to the mesh gate and looking out for signs of her friends “Just fucking chuck it”

“Copy that”

“They found a bottle” Puffy tells Dream, clipping the radio to her belt “I think we have another IV line I can hook up, I’ll swap it with blood once Skeppy’s done draining”

“Got it” the blonde huffs, currently making sure the saw was sharp and clean. There’s a commotion outside and Puffy raises the gate enough to duck under. Eret is shouting and yelling from up on some structure, shaking a half-dead tree as Ranboo runs full speed in her direction, Fat Bitch at his side snapping and nipping the zombies they dodge.

“Oh come on” Puffy hisses, checking down the hall behind her and seeing more zombies coming “Throw it!!” she yells, waving as the teen keeps looking over at the creatures getting uncomfortably closer “Ran just throw it!!” Ranboo stutters to a halt and hurls the bottle, overshooting a little and Puffy having to jump to catch it. It nearly slips out of her hands but she manages to grab hold “FUCK YES!” She cheers, seeing Ranboo grab Fat Bitch and head down a different hall right before she slammed the gate back down, hurrying back to Dream and holding the bottle up triumphantly

“They got one?” Sam asked, not quite looking like he believed it

“They got one.”

“Sapnap!” Ranboo calls out, hopping over a booth and rushing towards the older teen “Oh thank god I found someone with a radio” he pants, pausing to catch his breath and clutch the stitch in his side “Eret was supposed to meet me here-”

“He told us not to split up!" Sapnap griped, Niki ignoring the two and rushing for the kitchens "Come on, help search the restaurants for the damn water"

The three ransack every fast food booth they can, hopping counters and dodging zombies they didn't want to waste time killing. Rat and Fat Bitch did a good enough job distracting the creatures anyway, snapping and snarling at the monsters while the humans slunk around the back

"Anything?" Niki gasps out, wiping her brow and lowering her filtered mask to better breathe, looking like she immediately regretted that decision as the smell of rotted food hit her nose "Oh ew, I forgot how bad spoiled food smelled" she gagged a little, pulling her mask back up "Again, find anything?"

"Nope" Sapnap huffs, also heaving for air although wisely keeping his mask on “Nothing. Ran?”

“Nuh uh” the teen groans, shaking his head “Where else can we try?”

“Maybe the Ross we passed??” Sapnap suggests, rubbing at his forehead to soothe his headache “They have random stuff in there”

“Or a health store” Niki tries “There’s bound to be a smoothie place or something like that in here right?”

“Where else can we try-”

“Guys!!” Eret exclaims, jogging over with a wave “Thank goodness I found you all” he gasps out “Did you-”

“Nothing” Sapnap cuts off, shaking his head with a grim expression “You?”

“No” they groan “Just the one Ranboo sent back a while ago. Let’s head over to George and Callahan’s wing, they should nearly be done too. Maybe they had more luck”

“Does anyone hear beeping??” Ranboo puzzles, looking around in confusion “Like a repetitive beep-”

“CALLAHAN!!” The other three realize in a panic, raising the volume on their lowered radios

“... --- ... / ... --- ... / ... --- ...”

“Shit! Cal what’s wrong?!” Eret asks, the small group already running towards where the other two should be

“... .-- .- .-. --” beeps back

“Oh fuck” Sapnap breathed out “That’s not good”

“Where’s George, is he with you??” Eret continues, all of them looking for the signs that could lead them to the area they needed “Cal??”

“-.-. --- -- .--. .-.. .. -.-. .- - . -..” he replies after an agonizing pause “-- --- ...- .. .”

“They’re already at the movie theater??” Niki puzzles “Cal why are you down there already?”

“.-- .- - . .-.” he seems to admit, faint rattling and inhuman moans also coming over the radio “..-. .- ... -”

“Yeah, we’ll be there in a bit” Eret reassures, going down another hall that would take them to the theater

“What’s going on?” Ranboo asked, unable to keep up with the rapid fire code “What happened??”

“Cal and possibly George are getting swarmed” Eret explains as they all run

“Possibly??”

“I’m not sure where George is” Eret huffs “He said ‘complicated’ which could mean any number of things-”

“They’re getting swarmed” Sapnap blurted, sheer panic and worry clear on his face “George in a swarm and it’s ‘complicated’- oh god” the teen somehow manages to go faster, full on sprinting despite his friends warnings to stick together. It’s a mess in the plaza outside the theater, movie theater grates down and Fran’s furiously barking on the other side of the metal and writhing wall of corpses rattling the bars, trying to get past

“Callahan!!” Niki shouts, all four of them coming to a halt a little further off “Cal?!”

A gloved hand pokes up from behind the metal, waving frantically as the man hops to be seen over the swarm. Niki lets out a small whimper of relief, pacing anxiously and swinging her metal pipe while Eret tries to see over the Horde. Ranboo hurries off with Fat Bitch to a nearby store to look for something that could help

“Callahan where’s George?” Sapnap asks into the radio “Is he with you?”

“-.-- . ... / -. ---” he reluctantly beeps back. Sapnap curses a little, pacing in a small circle before talking into his radio again

“Are you two safe?”

“-.-- . ...“ Callahan confirms

“Is George with you?”

“.. -. / -... --- -.. -.-- / -.-- . ...” he beeps “-... . .... .. -. -.. / -- .”

“Well at least we have that going for us” Eret mutters, giving Sapnap a thumbs up as a quick translation before unclipping his own walkie-talkie “Alright, Cal? We’re gonna try to get you two out of there and get back to the rest of the group together. You said you found coconut water right? Once for no, twice for yes”

“..”

“Okay perfect” Eret sighs, watching Niki take down a zombie that had split from the main swarm to come towards them “Can you get the wall up by yourself in under a minute?”

“..”

“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do okay?” they start, adjusting their hold on their crowbar “Niki and I are going to make a distraction to get them away from you guys so I need you to be quiet, Fran too understood?”

“..”

“Great. While we do that, we’re leading them to our left, your right, so take the grate at the furthest opposite end and wait for Sapnap. He’s gonna get the rest out of the way and help you with the wall, okay?”

“..”

“Ranboo should be watching out backs during that so no other zoms come in from down the hall- wait-” Eret cut himself off and looked around “Guys?? Where’s the kid?!”

“What?!” Niki and Sapnap panicked, looking around as if they’d simply misplaced a set of keys

“You lost Ranboo?!” Eret shrieks, ignoring Callahan’s frantic questioning beeps “How the hell do you lose a tall ass child like him and his dog?!”

“I don’t fucking know!!” Sapnap sputters “He’s your partner, you should have kept an eye on him!”

“Don’t you fucking turn this on me! You two weren’t doing anything, you should have watched him!!”

“Guys can we please focus on the actual fucking swarm that is about to turn on us?!” Niki shouts, stabbing one of her hunting knives into a zombie’s eye socket to kill it “This plan is already going to shit and we haven’t even started!!”

“What plan?” Ranboo pipes up, making them all jump “What are we doing?”

“Oh thank god” Eret says, practically deflating in relief “Dream was gonna have my head if I came back with anyone missing”

“What’s going on??” Ranboo puzzled, hefting his arms full of toys “I found these over in the toy store nearby and thought we could use them as a distraction so we don’t have to split again”

“...That’s actually a good idea” Eret admits, startled as Niki curses and swings her pipe with a crunch against rotted shoulders

“Any day now Eret!!” she grits out

“Right! Right, go turn all those on and throw them as far left as you can” Eret orders the boy, Ranboo rushing off to do so “Sapnap, get ready to run in and grab Callahan and George when the swarm thins a little, I gotta go help Ran”

“On it” he nods “Cal, I’m gonna be there in a bit. Try to keep it down while we split them up alright?” he informs into his mic

“..”

More and more zombies start to stray away from the theater as Ranboo and Eret turn on the mass of obnoxiously loud and annoying toys, further adding to the cacophony of shuffling feet and hungry moans. As the swarm starts to move, the two humans and dog trapped behind the metal barrier can start to be seen. Callahan has a firm hand around a wiggling Fran’s muzzle to keep her quiet and George is curled up near the ticket booth, face tucked away between his knees and shaking arms shielding his head. Sapnap makes quick, nearly silent work of the few stragglers still over on the right side of the gates, kneeling down in front of Callahan as they both grab the barrier from their own sides

“Count of three” Sapnap whispers, Callahan shouldering his backpack and nodding furiously “Ready? One, two, three!” they both stand and yank at the gate, hefting it up for Callahan to slink out under and Fran goes bolting out, snapping and snarling as she runs over to the retreating horde “George!” Sapnap hisses, Callahan drawing his hatchet and burying it in a zombie getting close “George come on, we gotta go!”

George makes no motion to move, simply staying sat on the floor without acknowledging him “Oh for-” the teen looks around for something to help, simply grabbing Callahan by the bag and yanking him over when he finds nothing “Hold this. I gotta grab him” he hands the grate off for Callahan to hold, ignoring the man’s sputtered protests as he ducks under and hurries over to his friend

“Sapnap what are you doing?!” Niki shouts “Get out from there!!”

“George.” Sapnap huffs, ignoring Niki and reaching towards his curled up friend “George, come on man. We need to go-” George flinched and moved away “George.”

“Don’t touch me” he whispered “Don’t. I’m not going out.”

“Dude, It’s not safe in here” Sapnap tells him, quickly retracting his hand “We need to go, Dream and the others are waiting on us remember?”

“I’m not going back out, you can’t make me.”

“Last fucking chance George” Sapnap hisses “You leave with me now or I fucking drag you back” A brown eye peeks up in terror, shuffling away from Sapnap “We need to leave.”

“No.”

“Okay then.” Sapnap sighs, leaning back “Cal?” Callahan looks over, clearly stressed and looking like he wanted to be far away from everything “Get ready to run”

““Why-””

Sapnap lunges forward and snags George by the arm, yanking him up to his feet as the older starts screaming and struggling.

“What the fuck?!” Eret yells as the zombies start getting riled up at the screaming “George-”

“He’s in his head again!!” Sapnap yells back, straining to pull the kicking and screeching George away from the ticket booth he was clinging onto for dear life “George let go!! We don’t have time for this! We need to run, you’re going to be fine!!”

“LET ME GO! LET ME GO! DON’T TOUCH ME!!” George screams, terror stricken and brown-blue eyes blown wide as he digs his nails into the booth’s counter, scrabbling for purchase “I’M NOT GOING OUT!! I’M NOT! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!! I WON’T FIGHT!! I WON’T DO IT!!”

“Fucking hell you twig why are you so strong” Sapnap grumbles, groaning as he’s kneed in the stomach “George, don’t make me do this bud! Last chance-”

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE HAVING AN EPISODE NOTTFUND” Niki shouts, getting caught up in the frenzy and swinging her pipe everywhere to keep grabby hands away while Ranboo rushed over to get her out “WE HAVE BIGGER ISSUES RIGHT NOW! PULL IT THE FUCK TOGETHER!!”

“Alright, Ponk doesn’t have time for this.” Sapnap muttered, looking up a little as if sending a prayer to some deity above “I’m so so sorry George- LET GO OR I’M PUTTING YOU BACK IN THE CAGE!” He barks, George immediately going limp with a whimper, nearly causing Sapnap to topple over with now quickly he’d complied “Fuck fuck fuck I’m so sorry man” Sapnap apologized, dragging the much more subdued George behind him as he ducks under the grate. Callahan lets the metal drop with a rattling clang, racing over to help Ranboo the second he didn’t have to hold the wall anymore.

“Sapnap just go!” Eret shouts, throwing off a zombie and grabbing Ranboo by the sleeve to yank him forward “Take George and head back, we’ll be right behind you!”

“Hurry!” Sapnap calls back, tugging George along by a backpack strap to avoid touching him while the man covered his ears and muttered under his breath, practically curled in on himself as he blindly stumbled after Sapnap

Callahan reaches past the snarling creatures and grabs Niki by her bag, the teen already hysterical at this point and screaming as she’s yanked through the wall of zombies, clinging to Callahan once she’s freed. Callahan keeps an arm around her shaking shoulders as they follow after Ranboo and Eret, Ranboo rushing on ahead with the dogs to lead them down the fastest path back to camp.

"Niki?! Is everything okay?!” Eret asks as they run, Niki shaking her head frantically and clawing at her bloodied sleeves, choking on a sob as she runs. Callahan tries his best to soothe her, clearly lost as the only thing he can do is keep her close “Shit. Okay, we’re almost back, can you hang on until then?” Niki nods with a sniffle, tucking her mask up a little “Okay. Okay. We’re gonna be okay. We can make it back.” he mutters, pulling his radio out and switching channels to contact the other half of the group “On our way back and fair warning, it’s gonna be a bit of a shit show.”

“I managed to get the water in the bag” Puffy informs, carrying the pink plastic bag over to where Dream was now cleaning off a scalpel with an alcohol wipe “Ponk?”

“Mm” they nod weakly “IV in?”

“I’ll do that” she says quietly, kneeling down and giving Sam a strained smile as she finds the vein she needed and plunging it in after disinfecting everything “Sam, hold this up while I tape it down” she huffs, handing the bag off into shaking hands before ripping off more masking tape to keep the needle pinned down, pink liquid dripping steadily into the line

“Ponk, I’m gonna start to clean up before the whole bone thing” Dream warns, fingers twitching anxiously “Anything I can do to make it hurt less?”

“Hah” Ponk croaks “Nope. Go for it before I pass out.”

“Alrighty. Try not to move” he warns, plunging the small blade into skin and swiftly cutting a neat line down two inches above the actual wound on one side of the arm, doing another identical cut on the opposite side “It’s like skinning game, like skinning game” Dream mumbles, trying to steady his trembling hands so he can work without slipping. He carefully peels back bloodied skin, separating skin from muscle with the scalpel as he goes. “It’s just meat. Not your friend’s arm nope just meat, you’ve done that before right Dream? Yeah, yeah it’s fine, everything is fine” he quietly reassures himself, wincing as a splatter of blood hits his face “Do not throw up don’t you dare throw up oh my god” he scolds, Puffy and Sam refusing to look at the operation and instead focusing on Ponk

“Everything’s going fine” Sam soothes, running a hand through Ponk’s hair “It’s going fine Ponkie, you’re gonna be okay-” he flinches as Ponk whimpers and jolts, Dream cursing and apologizing in the same breath “I know it hurts, I know. I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry”

“You ever- t-take my arm a-again” Ponk heaves out, hissing as Dream starts slicing away mangled flesh “I will fucking kill you. Where you stand Sammy. Dead. Fuck my nonexistent oath.”

“I won’t. I won’t” Sam whispers, bending down to press their foreheads together “Never again Ponkie, I swear it. I’m sorry-” Ponk jolts again and cries out, making Dream have to pin down the arm he was working on to keep from messing it up more “God Ponk I’m so sorry. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t lose you. I’m sorry, I’m sorry-”

“Not helping Sam” Dream hisses, trying to speed up cutting away flesh and exposing more of the splintered bone “I need you both calm so I can finish this part”

“I’m perfectly calm” Ponk grumbles, eyes starting to droop “Jus hurts a lot”

“You're gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay" Sam sputters, cradling Ponk's head in his lap and running a hand through their sweat dampened hair "It’s gonna be okay Ponkie, I swear. You're gonna be fine it-" he chokes a little and quickly wipes the tears out of his eyes "It’s gonna be okay"

"Sam, I need you to focus, you can break down later" Dream snaps, hands trembling ever so slightly as he works “Keep him conscious"

"Hey, hey" Sam gasps, patting Ponk's cheek a little "You- do you remember how we first met?"

"Y-yeah" Ponk grits out, lips pulling up a little into a strained smile as he wakes up some "You- you nearly took my head off with a w-wrench you bitch"

"I did" Sam agrees with a watery laugh "I thought you were a zombie. Turns out you were just an idiot with an injured dog"

"Don't- don’t insult my do-nnn!" He cuts off with a pained whine and kicks his legs a little in the instinctive urge to escape the pain. Dream chants sorry as he cuts away more injured tissue "Good times" Ponk pants, eyes growing a bit glassy "More. Keep- keep talking I'm blacking out."

"You hadn't eaten in days but when I cooked for you, you immediately insulted my food and insisted on taking over" Sam rambles "I was literally cooking over a modified car engine yet you still had the balls to say you could do better"

"I did do better" Ponk argues with heaved breaths "You can't cook for shit"

"Yeah, I really can't" Sam laughed, pressing his forehead against Ponk's again "You have all made that very clear to me"

"Your... your pancakes redeem you Sammy" Ponk wheezed lightheartedly "Do-do we h-have mix left over?"

"We should" Sam nods "You want me to make you some?"

"A whole fucking stack" Ponk coughs with a strained smile "J-just for me."

"Of course, of course" Sam promises "Anything"

"I'm almost done" Dream mumbled, snipping away the final pieces of flesh with surgical scissors “I’m almost done Ponk”

“I’ll go get another unit” Puffy announces, getting up and heading over to Skeppy and Bad to take one of the warm bags of blood carefully set aside.

“On our way back and fair warning, it’s gonna be a bit of a shit show.” Eret warns through the radio left in the center of the room

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!” Dream cries, a little hysterical as he looks up from his bloody workstation “Eret what the fuck?! I can’t do shit show right now I have shit show in my hands!!”

“I think we’re about to find out” Puffy says, peeking out the mesh wire and hearing the small group getting closer down the hall “Shit. Okay, let me set this up and move our bags” She quickly swaps out the bag of coconut water with blood, handing it to Sam to hold up before hurriedly scooping scattered bags up to set aside

“If one more thing goes wrong I’m going to commit mass murder” Dream hisses under his breath, now trying his best to measure out how much ragged skin he had to cut off from the fleshless section of Ponk’s arm.

The dogs are the first to arrive at the gate, barking and pawing at the metal as an exhausted Ranboo comes up behind them.

“I’ll put them in the back” the teen pants, picking up Rat as Puffy opens the gate and snagging Fat Bitch by the collar before she can run over to her owner and contaminate the area “Fran! Come here girl, back with the horses!”

“Fran no!” Sam orders, frantically trying to keep his dog away from licking his or Ponk’s face “No Fran! Down! Follow Ranboo! Bad dog! Back!!”

“MOVE!!” Sapnap yells as he bursts into the store, dragging a blank faced George behind him “Dream?!”

“What happened?!” Dream worries, seeing the state of his friend and gesturing helplessly with his blood soaked hands

“He had an episode and I don’t know what to do now!” Sapnap cries, setting George down by the wall before hurrying over to scoop up Fran. He dumps the wiggling dog in the store’s back room and slams the door, ignoring the muffled barking and scratching from behind it “Dream what do I do??”

“I’m kinda busy at the minute Sapnap!!” Dream exclaims “Just do what we usually do-” Niki comes stumbling into the store, hyperventilating and quickly stripping off her bloodied pullover after throwing her bag aside “Now what?!”

“Niki?!” Puffy yelps, still holding the gate up for Eret “Sweetheart, what’s wrong-”

“Swarm” she whimpers, rubbing frantically at her bare arms and trying to kick off her pants, which was severely hindered by the fact she’d forgotten she still had boots on. Callahan rushed over to calm her down after also dumping his gear in the middle of the floor, hands out worriedly as he tries to stop her from clawing at her arms “Swarm got me it got me I know it did I can feel it I got scratched-” she takes in a shuddering sob of air and keeps trying to search herself “I got scratched, I got scratched I need it gone Puff I- I can’t- WHERE IS IT?! WHERE THE FUCK IS IT?!” she screams, shaking her head frantically and trying to wrestle her wrists away when Callahan grabs them “No! No!! I got scratched I know I did let me go!! Let me find it!!”

“Bad timing-” Skeppy piped up, swaying a little while Bad hurriedly tried to cover up the needle wound “But I’m not supposed to feel like passing out after drawing blood right?”

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO DRAW THREE UNITS YOU FUCKER!!” Puffy shouts, letting the gate drop the moment Eret skidded under

“SKEPPY YOU SAID THREE WAS OKAY!!” Bad shrieks, looking horrified as his friend smiles sheepishly and nearly topples off the counter he’s sat on “What do I do?!”

“Well shit! Put it back! Put it back!!” Puffy panics, sliding over and scooping up one of the nearly full bags of blood “Where’s the fucking needle?!”

“Stop! Stop it!!” George yells, covering his ears and curling up as Sapnap tries to move him out of the way “Shut up!! Leave me alone!!” His shouting only makes the dogs in the backroom bark louder, door rattling with scratching paws and making the already distressed man scramble away with a frightened shriek.

“Why is everyone yelling?” Sam says over the noise, looking more stressed as he holds up the blood bag “Ponk? Ponk!” he taps Ponk’s cheek frantically as the man starts to nod off “Ponk wake up!!”

“Skeppy don’t you dare fall off this table-”

“George I swear to god dude you’re safe-”

“I AM!!”

“Niki, sweetheart, I’ve checked every inch of you. There’s no scratches-”

“Guys, I think there’s a Horde coming our way-”

“THEY’RE INSIDE-”

“Bad, my head hurts...”

“Skeppy goddamnit I can only deal with one thing at a time-”

“CAN EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP I CAN’T FUCKING FOCUS!!” Dream roars, whirling around on his group and nearly startling Sam into dropping the blood bag. He points a latex covered finger dripping with blood at Skeppy and Bad who’d frozen out of fear “STOP PASSING OUT OR AT THE VERY LEAST STAY QUIET ABOUT IT.” He turns to a wide eyed Callahan, Puffy and sniffling Niki “GET YOURSELF CHECKED OVER BY THE LIGHT AND THEN PUT YOUR FUCKING CLOTHES BACK ON.” He looks over at Sapnap stone still and crouched defensively by a trembling and crying George “GET HIM TO BE QUIET.” A loud bark and rattling door catches the attention his raging fury next “AND SOMEONE SHUT THE FUCKING DOGS UP ALREADY!!” he snarls, going back to snipping off bloodied skin as the store goes deadly quiet at his outburst.

Ponk’s pained whimpers and George’s muttering are the only sounds in the store for several seconds, even Niki trying to cover up her sniffling.

“I need to swap blood bags” Puffy says quietly in the stifling silence, tugging a half-dressed Niki to a more private corner “Callahan is gonna look you over and double check you’re not scratched or bit, okay?” Niki nods, silent as Puffy kisses her brow reassuringly and Callahan carefully takes one of her arms

““One limb at a time”” he explains, patting her head when she nods in agreement ““We can do this””

“Okay George” Sapnap murmurs, slowly kneeling in front of his friend clearly having melted down into a full blown panic attack “We’re gonna do this nice and easy alright? I need you to take a deep breath for me Georgie, just a breath. Just one okay?”

“D-don’t-”

“I won’t touch you.” He promises, hands up to prove it “Not unless you say so. Just breathe...”

“I can’t believe you Geppy” Bad sniffled, scowling as he holds up the blood for it to drip back into his friend and wiping at his eyes “You’re a jerk.”

“I’m sorry” Skeppy mumbled, leaning against him tiredly “I thought it’d be okay...”

Ranboo sits down by the door and cracks it open, whispering softly to the animals trapped inside and offering head scratches as they start to calm down. Eret leans over him and does the same, quietly calming down the pets from their frenzy and humming a little.

“You’re scary” Ponk chuckles, dazedly watching Puffy swap out the empty IV bag with a full one “Very… scary”

“Sorry” Dream mutters, running a flame under a new scalpel and sealing off the vein that was still trickling out blood despite the tourniquet. Ponk only winces a little, too dazed and in pain for it to fully register “I just want to get this over with.” Ponk nods a little, leaning into Sam’s hand stroking his head. Dream sighs and leans back a little, wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist “Okay… All I have to do now is saw off the broken bit and stitch you up right?”

“Fun” Ponk huffs with a nod, shifting a little while Dream swaps out his gloves for a new, not blood-slicked pair. “Bone… Hurts. A lot. More- more than this”

“Do I need to hold you down?” Dream asks, scooting the pile of cut off muscle, bone shards and blood covered tools further away on the tarp

“Probsly” they admit, chest rising and falling slowly as he stays quiet, Dream equally silent as he seems to stall by organizing the tools.

“Okay.” Dream resolves, flexing trembling hands “Sam-”

“Yes?” he looks up sharply, eyes red and clearly scared

“...I’ll need you to hold down his arm” Dream sighs, looking away “You’re the strongest, I can’t afford to slip”

“O-okay” he stammers, carefully pulling his legs out from under Ponk’s head and handing Puffy the blood, pressing a quick kiss on Ponk’s knuckles before prying his hand from theirs and kneeling next to Dream

“Cap, grab his other arm” Dream tells her, Puffy nodding solemnly and carefully kneeling her weight on the uninjured arm, still holding the blood up so it could drip properly “Eret and Ranboo!” Eret straightens, Ranboo looking up with a start from petting Patches behind the door as Dream hesitates

“I’ll do it.” Eret offers, stepping in front of Ranboo

“What’s going on?” Ranboo asks, looking around worriedly “What-”

“Just go keep an eye on the animals Ran” Eret hums, ruffling his hair “You won’t want to see this, trust me”

“But-”

“Go” Eret urges gently, nudging him with a boot and Ranboo reluctantly crawls into the backroom, peeking out a little before softly closing the door.

“Thanks” Dream mumbles as Eret makes his way over, picking up someone’s pillow and setting it under Ponk’s head before walking around to his friend’s legs “Can you handle both?”

“We’re about to find out” Eret snorts, sitting down on Ponk’s legs with a huff

“Scoot, I’ll help” Sapnap sighs, also walking over “I left George with some counting exercises and Callahan’s keeping an eye on him” he responds before Dream can protest “He’ll be fine for a few minutes, let’s just make this fast” he grabs hold of one of Ponk’s legs and pins it down, staring straight down and looking like he was trying not to cry

“This is really weird” Ponk admits, trying to wiggle a little and barely moving

“Wait, hang on!” Bad blurts as he rushes over “Here.” He slips a rolled up pair of socks into Ponk’s hand and holds up a belt “Do you want something to bite?”

“Fuck it.” Ponk nods “I think I’m gonna need to” Bad complies and folds the leather strip before putting it in Ponk’s mouth. He hurries back to Skeppy to make sure he was still keeping awake.

“Alright Ponk, final words?” Dream tries to joke, getting an unimpressed stare from the doctor as he huffs around the makeshift bit in his mouth “Right. I’ll count down okay?” he takes up the bowsaw with shaking hands and takes a deep breath “Sam? Arm?”

“Right. Right.” Sam flusters, pressing the limb down and slowly leaning his weight on it “Ready.”

“Okay” Dream sighs, gently touching down serrated teeth on red stained bones as close to the remaining flesh as he can, quickly moving back the flaps of skin to keep them out of the way. Ponk flinches a bit, looking like he was mentally bracing and muttering something under the bit “I’ll count you down. Three… Two...” Everyone tenses as Dream angles his arm and they all hold on a little tighter “One.”

Ponk immediately tries to kick, yelp muffled by the belt as his eyes go wide at the first push of the blade, shaking his head frantically and trying to buck them all off. Dream narrows his eyes and keeps the saw steady as he pushes and pulls, Sam cursing quietly as he has to hold his full weight down on the arm to keep it from moving.

“Holy shit he’s strong” Sapnap grunts, practically curled up on Ponk’s leg and his feet skidding as he tries to keep the leg down from kicking anyone

“Fuckfuckfuck” Puffy chants quietly, tears pooling in her eyes as Ponk keeps screaming in muffled agony but dutifully keeping her designated arm down and unmoving against the tarp “Fuck and shit, I never wanna do this again”

“Same” Eret wheezes out, having slipped a little and gotten a boot in his stomach before wrangling the leg still. Dream keeps silent, focused on his own task as he methodically saws the two bones off, grating sound of metal scraping bone terribly loud in the store

“Almost” Puffy soothes Ponk with a shaky smile as Ponk keeps screaming and gasping for air “He’s almost done Ponk, almost there. You’re doing so well buddy. So so well. Deep breaths. Try to breathe bud”

Ponk most definitely curses her out, unintelligible through the belt in his mouth but he tries to take a breath in all the same.

“Almost. Almost.” Dream mutters, resisting the urge to speed up and possibly snag the saw for the final stretch. He nearly falls forward as the two bones clatter together when they fall against the tarp, immediately tossing the saw aside and backing up “Done! God- fucking-” he throws his head back and gasps for air “I’m done! It’s done! No more.” he picks up the nearly three inch bone fragments, splintered and cracked on one end, and tosses them onto the human flesh scrap pile behind him “Just gotta stitch, just stitch” he pants, Ponk whining and moaning pitifully as they also go lax, everyone scrambling to get off of them.

“I’ll do the stitches Duckling” Puffy offers, going over to Dream and kissing the top of his head “Rest now, you did good” Dream whimpers and nods, leaning into the touch as he rips off his gloves and shakily staggers to his feet. Sapnap hurries to his side to help him up, the two leaning on each other as they go over to George still curled up fearfully by the wall and sit next to him together. They quietly start talking to the third, Dream cooing softly while Sapnap carefully takes his hand and squeezes.

Puffy picks up the suture kit Dream already had pulled out, putting on a pair of gloves before expertly getting the needle ready and threading it. She has to trim a bit more of the skin to better wrap it around the peeled muscle and bone, but eventually starts stitching the flaps together with a relatively steady hand. Sam shakes out his arms and shares a look with Puffy, the woman simply nodding and letting him move back up towards Ponk’s head, focusing back on methodical stitches.

“Ponk?” Sam whispers, carding a hand through Ponk’s dripping hair “Hey... hey Ponkie” he greets as Ponk’s watery eyes flutter open “Do you think you can pop some pain killers? Anything that’ll help” Ponk whines a little and spits out the nearly bitten through belt, flexing his jaw some before nodding “I’ll go get some-” Ponk weakly grasps his sleeve before he can move, fingers digging into the fabric with a vicious desperation

“D-don’t-” he gasps, a few more tears slipping down his nose “Don’t leave me Sammy...”

“I won’t.” Sam promises, immediately kneeling back down and clutching Ponk’s remaining hand tightly “I won’t Ponk. On my life, I swear it”

“Hmm” Ponk hums tiredly, smiling faintly through his tears “Wake me up in an hour… Love you Sammy..”

“...Love you too Ponkie”

Ranboo looks up, startled, as the door cracks open. He clutches Patches a little closer, relaxing when Eret pops his head in

“Hey” the man whispers with a tired smile, looking exhausted and years older than before “You okay?”

“I’m fine” Ranboo whispers back, starting to get up and putting Dream’s cat down “Is everything okay? Is Ponk...”

“He’s alive” Eret confirms, Ranboo slumping with relief “For now. We’re keeping an eye on things” he props the door open a little more, a silent invitation for Ranboo to come back out. Ranboo happily takes the exit, slowing to a stop as he sees the disarray everyone is in.

The store smells sickeningly of cloying blood and sweat, Ranboo grateful for his mask that somewhat helped block the scent out.

Niki, now freshly clothed, is curled up asleep in Callahan’s lap, Puffy practically wrapped around her waist while Callahan himself silently keeps watch. Skeppy and Bad are behind the counter and dozing, well, Skeppy is anyway. Bad is bandaging up Skeppy’s arms and keeping him close, head resting on his friend’s shoulder as he works. George is over by the wall still, now asleep and Sapnap silent as he fiddles with the brunette’s hair, mumbling something quietly under his breath and nestled up against the man so closely Ranboo fears George might disappear if Sapnap moves. Ponk is still out on the tarp, shorter arm bandaged in bright white gauze and Sam tightly clinging to the other, puffy red eyes staring at Ponk’s face with hardly a blink. There’s bottles of coconut water at his back, an IV bag connected to Ponk’s good arm up on a backpack to keep it elevated and flowing.

“It’s a bit of a mess” Eret murmurs, sounding broken as he quietly picks up scattered supplies and sets them in a pile to properly organize later “We’re a bit of a mess… I wanna sleep...”

“I’ll clean up a little” Ranboo offers, nudging the tired Eret towards a wall “Go sleep” Eret nods and yawns, taking off his bloodied jacket and tossing it in the corner before taking a random backpack and using it as a pillow as he huddles into a tiny ball, quickly dozing off.

Ranboo makes his way over to Dream, very much ignoring the small pile of bloody mush on the tarp he does not want to think about as he shuffles up next to the man digging through one of their duffle bags.

“Hey” he greets quietly, getting a hum from the blonde “Can I move the tarp from under Ponk?” he asks. Dream nods, pulling out a round device on a string lanyard about the size of his palm and fiddling with it.

Ranboo ignores the quiet beeping from the machine as Dream does whatever he does, choking down his bile as he carefully tugs out the blood soaked tarp from under Ponk while trying not to wake him. He picks out all the metal tools and sets them in a bloody pile before folding up the blue plastic so nothing leaked. The gate is a lot harder to lift than he expected, struggling for a bit before managing it and jogging out into the hall.

There’s a lot of zombies wandering around, all of them turning towards the teen with the bloody package. He quickly dumps the tarp in some generic clothing store before hurrying out and jogging back to the base, slipping back inside as quietly as he can. Ranboo is picking up scattered shirts and towels soaked in blood to throw in a corner, resolving to get them out of the store later when Dream finally stands and walks over to Sam.

“Sam.” Dream coughed, holding out the little device and letting it drop, swaying on the lanyard

It’s a stopwatch.

“Fuck off dude” Sam croaks, glaring at the blonde as he sits up “Seriously-”

“I don’t give a shit.” Dream rasps, tossing the device in Sam’s lap “72 hours.”

“After all that?! You fucking asshole-”

“He got bit Sam.” he hisses, taking a step forward that has Sam flinching back “I saved him from dying from one thing, not a bite. I can’t stop a bite. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t.” He straightens up, Ranboo carefully backing away in muted terror as Dream stares Sam down with the coldest expression in his eyes the teen has ever seen. “72 hours, that’s the protocol.”

“...and if he does show symptoms?” Sam asked, staring down at the ticking timer in his hands

“Then that’s between you and Ponk.” Dream replies stiffly, stone faced as he heads towards George and Sapnap

“Fuck you Dream.” Sam spits, wiping tears threatening to fall before laying back down next to Ponk, burying his face in his friend’s shoulder as he cries.

Ranboo stands awkwardly by the counter, quietly setting down his picked up rags and slinking over to where Eret lay. He watches Dream take a seat next to Sapnap, mumbling something Ranboo can’t pick up and the two practically pile themselves on top of George in a tangled, shuffling mess of arms and legs. Ranboo sits down by Eret and starts peeling himself from the crusty sweatshirt already a shade darker, hating the sticky feeling of dried blood all over his hands but too tired to do anything to fix it aside from absently rubbing them on his jeans.

“Ran?” Eret mumbles, tiredly blinking up from where he was resting “Everything okay?”

“Shoot, yeah I’m fine” Ranboo reassures “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you”

“It’s alright, hard to sleep anyway” Eret chuckles, sitting up “This backpack makes a shit pillow.” Ranboo snorts a little, amusement quickly dying from exhaustion and the tense atmosphere of the store. “...Do you want to talk?”

“Not really” he admits, slowly starting to loosen his boots “I’m just tired Eret, that’s all”

“We did run around a lot” the man nods with a yawn “That’s to be expected” he scoots around the bag and holds his arms out invitingly “Come on, we both need sleep”

Ranboo hesitates for only a split second before letting himself fall into the embrace, practically melting in Eret’s arms as he feels them wrap around his shoulders securely. He returns the hug and clings on tightly, snuggling against the man’s lean frame as they lean on each other to sleep.

“Thanks Eret” he mumbles, tucking his face away in the crook of their shoulder and pressing a little against the gentle hand carding through sweat matted hair

“Sleep well Ranboo”

The store is still stifling quiet come morning, no one really wanting to make noise as a Horde of zombies wanders around outside the gates, shuffling and snarling as they try to find a meal. Ranboo winces as he reluctantly pulls himself from Eret’s sleepy hold and his joints audibly crack, groaning a little as his neck snaps. He carefully stands and limps over to his wagon behind the counter, yawning and rubbing his sticky eyes as he pockets his mask. Skeppy and Bad are still passed out under the table, the teen taking care not to wake them as he takes a water bottle from his wagon and cracks it open to get rid of the cotton in his mouth. He heads over to where Callahan sits in the center of the abandoned store, half-heartedly stirring a pot of something over the portable stove.

“Morning” he greets, sitting down across from him. He glances over at Sam sat against a shelf, looking like he hadn’t slept all night with the stopwatch clenched in one hand and Ponk’s remaining hand in the other “You doing okay?”

““All things considered”” he signs with a tired shrug, flicking a look up at the teen ““You?””

“Eh.” Ranboo also shrugs, pulling his knees up to rest his chin on “Can’t complain I guess” he yawns again

““Can you wake up Niki for me?”” Callahan asks, pointing over where Puffy and Niki were still sleeping together

“Who’s ““Niki””?” Ranboo asks, signing the name the way Callahan had by running a lock of hair through the letter ‘N’

““N-I-K-I”” the man snorts, smiling a little as he spells it out ““Niki is how I...pronounce it in a sense”” he explains ““I ‘give’ names to everyone so I don’t have to always spell it out””

“What is ““Pronounce””?”

““Say. Speak.”” he tries, Ranboo nodding a little since he got the gist those signs

“So you give- what is it again?” the teen asks, trying to remember the sign

““Name?””

“Yeah that!” Ranboo exclaims, mimicking his hand movement of tapping two fingers over two on his other hand ““Name”” “What is that?” Callahan huffs a little, tilting his head side to side as he tried to come up with a way to explain without his notebook nearby

““I’m C-A-L-L-A-H-A-N. That’s my name. You are R-A-N-B-O-O, that is your name””

“Name?” the teen guesses, breaking into a proud smile as Callahan nods “Oh! So it’s like a nickname to make it easier to call us!”

““Yes! Exactly!”” Callahan confirms excitedly, happy the teen had picked it up that fast

“So Niki is ““Niki”” right?” Ranboo signs “If you wanted me to wake up Puffy, how would you say it?”

““She is Puffy”” Callahan shows, making a ‘P’ and tapping his fingers together as he mimicked Puffy’s curls coming down to his shoulders

“The hair?” Ranboo laughs

““Puffy hair”” Callahan nods with a breathy laugh of his own ““Guess who ‘Eret’ is”” He makes two ‘E’s with his hands and places them over his head before switching to ‘Crown’

“That’s an E” Ranboo mumbles, squinting at the sign “And you put it on your head...”

““Eret”” Callahan repeats with a grin ““It’s easy!””

“Oh! Eret!” Ranboo realizes, snapping his fingers “Cause of the crown!” Callahan nods and applauds

““Okay, try this one. Dream.”” he signs, making a ‘D’ with one hand and flexing his finger as he swipes it in an upward curve over his mouth ““Also pretty easy to figure out. Dream.””

“Mmm that’s a ‘d’ and you’re saying... smile?”

““Technically dream”” he signs the word properly up by his head ““But yes, smile”” he also signs that one correctly

“Smile, ‘D’ and head space thoughts” Ranboo puts together, making Callahan snort a little at the teen’s interpretation of the word ‘dream’ “Smile… Dream! That’s Dream!”

““Yes yes! Good job!”” Callahan nods, unable to help his grin at Ranboo’s enthusiastic want to learn ““This one’s hard. Skeppy.”” He makes a fist with both hands, crosses them over in front of himself as if signing ‘Fight’ and turning them into ‘Y’s when he splits them. Ranboo blinks, a bit taken aback by the lack of visual clues ““Skeppy”” Callahan repeats with an airy chuckle as Ranboo tilts his head, looking very confused

“Okay, you use a ‘Y’, at the end I think?” he tries, the man nodding in confirmation “I have no idea what that other word is. Break? Curtains??” Callahan starts coughing with laughter, wheezing a little “What?! It looks like you’re opening up curtains!” He mimics the motion of throwing curtains open, Callahan laughing harder and still strangely almost soundlessly as he realizes the word does sort of look like that “I don’t know, it’s hard to figure out without knowing words”

““S-K-E-P-P-Y”” Callahan shakily signs, still wheezing away

“Ohhh, Skeppy” Ranboo realizes, slapping his forehead “It had an ‘S’ and a ‘Y’, duh”

““Not bad”” Callahan reassures with a huffing giggle

“Do you have one for me?” Ranboo asks, curious. “Or do you just spell it? It’s pretty easy to spell it out, Eret taught me” ““R-A-N-B-O-O”” he spells out proudly. Callahan stops laughing and flushes a little, refusing to look at the teen “Did you forget?” he teases, making the other huff and shake his head “Oh? What is it?”

““Child.””

“Basketball??”

Callahan bursts out laughing again, coughing after a while and rubbing his throat as he smiles

““It’s Ranboo”” he admits, making an ‘R’ and tapping it on both sides of the top of his head “Or R-A-N or B-O-O since its also easy””

“My hair” Ranboo realizes, chuckling a little “What would you do if I dyed it one color?” Callahan shrugs, tapping the ‘R’ once on both cheeks “Ah. My mask also works” he snickers, pulling out his covering from his pocket

““I also considered doing it like this-”” he runs the ‘R’ diagonally over his left cheek, mimicking the scar on Ranboo’s own face ““But I didn’t know if that’d be okay so Ranboo-”” he taps his head again ““It was””

“Oh” Ranboo says softly, absently running his fingers over the faded scar for a moment. “...You can use that version too”

““Are you sure?”” he frets ““I won’t if you’re not comfortable with it””

“Nah, I don’t mind” Ranboo hums, smiling softly as he realized he didn’t mind having the scar as part of his sign-name “Won’t make sense with my mask on all the time though”

““Damn”” Callahan huffs, playfully annoyed

“So you do this for everyone you meet?” Ranboo questions, leaning back on his palms. Callahan shakes his head, hands hesitating for a second

““Only people that are close”” He explains, slowly signing the words so Ranboo could translate properly and making the appropriate reactions with his face to get his point across ““You earn a name, you don’t just get one.””

Ranboo blinks rapidly, stunned as it sinks in for him. He pulls his hands back in his lap and fiddles with his shirt as he blushes, looking down

“Oh...” he mumbles ““Thank you” he says while signing the word. Callahan chuckles and reaches over to ruffle his hair

““You’re welcome””

The Horde has finally passed through, leaving only a few stragglers out in the hall in its wake. The store is still horribly quiet though, silence somehow worse now that it was due to the mood and not out of necessity. Ranboo feels like so much as getting up to clean the mass still scattered around would be making too much noise, most of the others still keeping to their corners or sleeping. It’s the only thing keeping him from taking out his handheld arcade game from his bag, not wanting to disturb the others with the clicking and beeps.

Ranboo is sat over by the wall, bored out of his mind and hating the stifling, crushing doom weighing down the store. He taps his knife anxiously against his thigh, watching Callahan over by the gate keeping an eye out and Eret shuffling around in the back trying to organize their backpack as quietly as they can. Ranboo considers going over to Sapnap to see if the older was up for a game of cards, but a quick scan of the store found the young man fast asleep in Dream’s lap, Dream himself busy quietly talking to an exhausted looking George.

He sighs and taps his knife some more, huffing a little as he stares up at the tiled ceiling, dark lights reflecting his warped appearance back at him

Ranboo needs out.

He stands with a small groan, stretching out sore limbs and wincing as his back pops. He goes over to his abandoned wagon in the corner and pulls everything out, swinging on his backpack from the floor as he pulls the rattling, emptied container behind him and walks over to the grate. Callahan knocks on the floor to catch his attention, gesturing to the wagon with a puzzled expression

““Where are you going??””

““Out”” he replies, bending down to pick up the gate “I wanna go take a look over at the store across the hall, the Marshall’s?” he hums

““Are you sure?”” Callahan asks, now starting to get up. Ranboo smiles and pats his backpack

“I’ve got my gear and there’s barely anything outside, I’ll be fine” he reassures, pulling up the creaking, clattering wall up to head level “I just kinda need to get out for a bit, y’know?” Callahan pauses and sits back down with an understanding nod “I’ll be close enough that you’ll probably be able to see me, and I’ll yell if I need back up”

““Okay, be safe”” Callahan huffs, waving him away ““Keep an eye out for Stragglers””

“Will do!” He chirps, saluting before ducking under the gate and pulling his wagon through. Ranboo sets the gate back down and walks across the hall to the Marshall’s without drawing too much attention from the few stragglers still lingering around.

The store, like the rest of the mall, is dark, barely illuminated by the main hall’s skylights and casting ominous shadows throughout the already creepy and messy store. Ranboo keeps quiet, the only noise coming from his softly squeaking wagon as he explores the aisles and dodges undead former customers. It’s brighter at the back of the store, or front depending on how you looked at it, due to the glass doors leading to the outside streaming in bright afternoon sun. Ranboo pauses to peek outdoors, regretting his decision when he sees the shuffling crowd shambling around just a few meters away from him.

He quickly steers away from the entrance, making a mental note to keep clear of windows from now on.

“Where are all the flash lights?” he grumbles, peeking down the electronics aisle and annoyed when he finds nothing helpful. He eventually finds a flashlight among the mess, spending another ten minutes of close calls searching for the AA batteries for it. “Finally” he sighs, wide beam of light scanning over the darkness. He explores some more, looking over the racks of clothes and picking out a few things for himself, tossing them without much care into the wagon.

The toy aisle is next, the teen looking over the assortment of games and plushes in the hopes of finding something that can distract his friends. Nothing really seems to catch his eye though, everything seeming too loud and overly bright for the somber mood they were all in. He does take a Simon game though, a weird swiping, circular version that lights up and entertains him for a few minutes. A few pillows and plush blankets from the furniture aisle are thrown into the wagon next, knowing now uncomfortable it was to sleep on the tiled floor.

“Anything edible here?” he wonders, scanning the kitchen aisle. There’s a few bottles of flavored oil and seasoning, which he takes for the hell of it and so he can show them off to Bad. He also swipes a few bags of off brand candies scattered on the shelves, ignoring how dusty and melted they’d gotten after all this time untouched.

“Huh” he notes, seeing a tea kettle hanging on the rack and taking it down to examine, brushing off dust “Have any of us eaten anything for the past day?” he questions, stomach rumbling a little and startling him “I guess not” he chuckles, letting the kettle drop into the wagon and a plan forming in his mind. He hurries over to the next aisle after snatching some bowls and spatulas, taking as many mugs as he can find and plopping them into his wagon.

Ranboo exits the store and scans around the hall, grinning as he finds what he needs next. The vending machine is hard to crack open, but the bolt cutters in his bag and sheer stubbornness allows him to finally open the case with a pop. He ignores the sodas spilling out and opts for the warm water bottles instead, stealing as many as he can fit into his bag and remaining wagon space before happily heading back to base.

The teen parks his wagon by an empty shelf, hurrying off to find the bag he needed. Bad sleepily looks up from his spot as Ranboo digs through the main food duffle, confused as the teen takes a box of chamomile, a box of cake mix and the stove. He tucks everything under an arm and swipes a spare can of propane, rushing off without a word

“Ranboo??” he puzzles, rubbing at his eyes with a yawn “What are you...”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Ranboo replies cryptically, sliding back to the center of the little store where there was the most room and taking a seat.

People start waking and looking up confusedly at the noise, silently watching as the teen clicks on the camp stove and cracks open multiple water bottles to dump into the kettle. The pot gets set on the stove to boil and Ranboo goes over to the food bag again, opting to just take the whole clanking thing back to where he’s sitting and pull out what he needed.

“Everything good?” Eret asks, towering over Ranboo’s shoulders and peering down in confusion “What are you doing?”

“Eret! Perfect timing!” the teen chirps, pointing to the empty spot across from him “Can you start a fire for me? I need cooking coals”

“Uhhh, sure?” Eret agrees, confused but following along anyway. Soon, Eret is quietly nursing a bag of charcoal to life, looking like he was going through the motions as he fanned the flaming paper under the coal in the little chimney he’d pulled out.

Ranboo pulls out Bad’s cast iron skillet from the bag and dumps in the cake mix, checking the back of the box for measurements.

“That is a lot of water” he grumbles, digging around for the measuring cups and eventually dumping the correct amounts of water and cooking oil into the pan, adding a little extra of both to make up for the fact he had no eggs. Niki had once secretly informed him eggs weren’t even necessary for box mixes anyway, just water, so he didn’t feel too bad about not making an effort to substitute them. He stirs everything up as best he can with the spatula he stole from the Marshall’s, making sure there were no dry spots like Bad had always warned him before smoothing it out and covering it up with the lid.

“Eret when those are ready can you put this on top?” Ranboo asks, pushing over the pan with a scrape. Eret simply gives him a thumbs up, getting up to get some wood and build a proper fire while he was at it.

Ranboo sets out all of the mugs he’d collected, carefully counting out 12 cups before him and popping open the box of chamomile to take out some of the little packets. He digs back through the food bag some more and pulls out the container of sugar they had and a half empty bottle of honey, as well as some plastic spoons he found scattered in the mess. Tea bags are opened as the kettle starts to softly whistle, a few going into the cups before Ranboo pours in a generous amount of steaming water into the mugs. He refills the kettle and sets it back on the stove to heat up again, carefully dipping the tea bags to properly steep.

“Do you want tea?” the teen asks, startling Eret from their spacing out

“Wha? Hmm?” they blink, looking over. Ranboo helpfully holds up a steaming white mug patterned with navy polka-dots

“Tea.” he repeats, getting up and walking over, handing them the mug before they can say no “It’s chamomile”

“...Oh.” Eret realizes, taking the cup with a small smile “Thanks”

“Yup!” Ranboo hums, nodding before turning around and scooping up another mug, this time snatching a pillow from his wagon before heading over to Callahan “Cal.” The man looks up, confused at the colorfully striped cup the teen approached him with

““What is that?”” he questions, startled when it’s shoved into his hands and pillow dropped in his lap

“Chamomile” Ranboo explains, pointing over to his little kitchen station “There’s sugar and honey if you want, or I can make you a coffee”

““Tea is fine”” Callahan snorts, smiling tiredly as he gets up to go get sugar ““Thank you””

“Sure thing” he nods, going back and picking up two more mugs before walking over to Bad and Skeppy, the two now fully awake and confused by the rapidly approaching child “Tea?” he offers, holding out the mugs

“What kind?” Skeppy asks while Bad takes the cup given him

“Chamomile” Ranboo relays, smiling brightly when Skeppy nods and takes the bright blue mug “Sugar and honey are over by the stove”

“Thanks Ran” Skeppy yawns “I appreciate it” Ranboo nods and goes back to his stove, picking up some more pillows and blankets to take over to Sam and Ponk. Sam looks up with a dead stare when he hears Ranboo approach, bags under his eyes dark and heavy. Ponk stirs slightly, eyes starting to crack open tiredly

“Do you guys want tea?” Ranboo offers, handing Sam the cushions and blankets before he can argue “I have chamomile, or I can make you coffee”

“Tea sounds wonderful” Ponk croaks out in barely a whisper, startling Sam and chuckling raspily at scaring his friend “I’ll have one please”

“I’ll have a coffee if that’s okay Ran” Sam asks quietly, fussing over Ponk trying to sit up “Hey, hey, hey- you shouldn’t be up-”

“I can sit for some tea” Ponk scoffs, swaying a little “I need water in my system anyway- chamomile you said Boo?”

“Mmhmm” the teen confirms, smiling at the sight of his friend finally awake “Sugar and honey too, I have it out by the stove”

“Good. Sam can go make it for me” Ponk snickers, shoving a startled Sam away “Go on”

“I-”

“You need to get up” he huffs, weakly smacking his shoulder “Go on Sammy, make me tea. You remember how I like it right? One-”

“One spoon of honey with a drizzle” Sam sighs fondly, lips twitching up into the ghost of a smile

“And-”

“And four drops of lemon juice” he snorts, shaking his head “No more, no less.”

“Damn right” Ponk nods, humming contentedly as Sam leans over to kiss his forehead “Tea. Now.”

“Sure thing Ponkie” Sam chuckles at the demand, getting up and wincing as his back cracks loudly “Oh god- my fucking back” he groans, Ponk and Ranboo laughing at him a little as he continues to stretch out sore joints.

Ranboo heads back to his mugs, pleasantly surprised when Callahan holds up three mugs ready to go. He takes them with a grateful nod and another blanket and pillow, heading to the trio at the back of the store. Dream seems surprised when Ranboo strides over, Sapnap still dozing in his lap and George resting against his side.

“Hey Boo boy” Dream greets with a gentle smile, although a bit confused “What’s up bud?”

“I made tea” he tells him, holding up the mugs “You guys want some? I can make you coffee if you want that instead”

“What kind of tea is it?” George asks, voice still ragged sounding from the day before and bags under his eyes nearly as dark as Sam’s

“Chamomile” the younger informs, handing a mug over to Dream who was tiredly reaching out “Do you want coffee? I know you don’t like tea that much”

“...I like chamomile” George murmurs, sitting up a little and rubbing at an eye “Do we have sugar?”

“Yeah, over by the stove” Ranboo tells him, letting Dream take another mug

“I’ll get it” he offers, carefully taking Sapnap out of his lap and setting the older teen’s head gently against the tile “Just a little, right George?”

“Mmm” the man nods, mumbling a quiet thanks as Ranboo hands him a blanket to replace Dream’s warmth. Sapnap jolts awake a few moments later, eyes wide with panic as he looks around before visibly relaxing when he sees George and Ranboo

“Whas happen??” he slurs, yawning exhaustedly and running a hand through tangled raven locks covering his face

“Tea” Ranboo hums, handing Sapnap a mug and pillow “If you want”

“Oh” Sapnap sighs, taking the pillow and laying back down, setting the cup by his side “Thanks Ran… I’lls drinks… in bit...”

Ranboo only laughs a little and goes over to the final duo, Puffy smiling wearily at him as she gently pats Niki’s head resting in her lap, Niki herself fast asleep.

“Hey boober” Puffy greets, smile growing a little less forced at the face Ranboo makes at the nickname “What’s going on?”

“I’m making tea for people” he explains yet again “Do you want some? Or coffee if you don’t want tea”

“Coffee would be amazing right now” she admits, carefully tucking a pink lock of hair out of Niki’s face “I think Niki would like some tea, if that’s okay?”

“Coffee and tea, got it” Ranboo nods, starting to head back “Do you want a blanket or something too?” Puffy perks up some, now a little less tired looking

“Yes please”

“Coming right up” he confirms, giving her a thumbs up.

Eret has finished with the charcoal, Bad having come over to help set coals and wood over the covered pan to properly cook the cake, Skeppy sprawled out by his side as he aimlessly chatters about one thing or another. Ponk has managed to convince Sam to let him move, the two having a quiet little talk with Callahan while Ponk rests against Sam and enjoys his tea.

Ranboo takes the bottle of instant coffee Sam had pulled out and sets on making a cup for Puffy, letting a bag steep for Niki as he mixes up the drink. He goes back with a fluffy blanket over his shoulder, handing both cups to the curly-haired woman and setting the blanket next to her

“You’re an angel” Puffy murmurs gratefully, setting down a mug and gently shaking Niki by the shoulder to wake her “Darling. Niki, wake up baby. Ranboo made you tea”

“Blessed beloved boy” Niki yawns out as she wakes, making a small little noise in the back of her throat as she stretches her arms “Ranboo my beloved. The beloved boy.” Ranboo laughs a little at the title, heading back to where the others were starting to wake up, waiting patiently for the cake to finish.

“Oh, Boo” Dream says, pausing before heading back to his friends “How’s Niki holding up?”

“She’s okay I think” he reassures, taking a fern decorated mug for himself that Callahan hands him “She just woke up. Something about me being her “beloved”” he chuckles

“Ah yes” Dream snorts, nodding sagely “Ranboo the beloved”

“Stop” Ranboo huffs playfully, sipping his hot drink despite the uncomfortable warmth of the store. He stumbles a little as the blonde presses his forehead against Ranboo’s shoulder, practically leaning his entire weight on him for a moment before pulling away

“Thank you” Dream whispers, and only now does Ranboo realize how tired and strained Dream looks, smile too exhausted to be real and eyes dark with something the teen can’t quite name but understands all the same. He shakily returns the smile and does the same head-nudge thing, hearing Dream hum contentedly in his chest.

“Not a problem Dream”

Ranboo cheers quietly as he cracks open another vending machine, grinning under his mask excitedly as he pulls out drinks to set in his wagon.

“I’ve gotten pretty good at this” he crows proudly, twirling a crowbar he borrowed from the weapons bag and yelping when it clatters out of his hand and onto the carpet under him. “It’s fine. No one saw that.” he reassures himself, but looks around anyway despite knowing none of his group had come out with him to scavenge. It was weird to be wandering around alone, despite Eret having cleared out most of the west wing earlier with Bad and Dream, so he knew he was relatively safe. “Dream’s buddy system has gotten way too drilled into me” he scoffs at no one in particular, tugging his wagon along behind him.

He wanders down the main hall some more, pretending like he was window shopping like he might have done before everything instead of looking for supplies. He briefly wonders how easy it would be to break into a display case, considering just swinging at it before deciding the flying glass shards wouldn’t be worth the outfit. He mentally notes a mattress store, keeping in mind where it was before moving on

“Maybe we can move everything there” he hums, swinging his crowbar and subtly keeping his head on a swivel “It’ll be better than sleeping on tile, my bones are not built for this- god I sound old... I hate this bit, moving on.” he ponders some more “Geese. What’s up with them?” he blurts “Such long necks and for what? And they have teeth, what bird has teeth??” he notes “Ostrich necks are too damn long now that I’m thinking about it, now that is a too big bird- wasn’t there a war on ostriches? No- there was another type of bird in Australia right? I should ask.” he nods, satisfied with the change in topic

He heads back to the camp and pulls up the grate, heading inside and going over to his corner where Eret is to start unpacking his newest gear. It’s ominously quiet in the store, much quieter than when he left and he looks around for Ponk. Ponk seems fine, asleep in Sam’s lap since he’d finally upped himself to three-hour sleep intervals rather than one. He looks over to where Dream should be and snorts when he finds the trio, George buried under Sapnap and Dream and looking mildly annoyed as he stares blankly ahead.

“Is there a reason why Sapnap and Dream have decided to pile on George again?” he snickers, setting down the supplies he’d collected from his west wing mall trip “Or is he just their new bed...” he trails off as Eret grimaces next to him, the sad look on others faces as they refused to look at him quickly dampening his mood “What happened?” he whispers, now concerned “A nightmare again?”

“Sort of” Eret sighs, peeking over at the exhausted looking George and running a hand over their own bedraggled face. Now that Ranboo is paying attention, he can see tear tracks staining Sapnap’s cheeks as the teen clings to George’s shirt like a lifeline, the small twitch in Dream’s hand as George shifts informing him the blonde was only pretending to sleep.

“Is he okay?” The teen frets

“Yes. No. I don’t know...” Eret murmurs, taking a container of peach rings from the wagon and opening them, clearly wanting a distraction “We had- ah- an incident while you were out” he admits softly, fiddling with a now hardened gummy “...let’s just say George isn’t going to be allowed near guns or sharp weapons any time soon.”

“...oh. Oh.” Ranboo realizes, cold terror seizing his throat as it dawns on him what Eret was implying “...shit.”

“Yeah.” Eret laughs without humor “Shit.” Ranboo keeps taking things out of his wagon in silence “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you properly curse” they blurt, looking over at the teen

“Seemed appropriate” Ranboo shrugs and Eret huffs in mild amusement

“Yeah, “shit” worthy situation” he agrees. Ranboo hesitates for a few moments, clutching another blanket he dragged out from the wagon

“...If I can ask” he starts, low so no one can overhear “How long… you know. He just never- of all people, George- I dunno” he finished lamely “Has this happened before?”

“Once. That I’ve witnessed.” Eret tells him honestly “Months ago, back when we lost-” he cuts himself off, taking a deep breath “We were all in a bad place. Mentally and emotionally and I guess he got in his own head again, like now. George...” he pauses, clearly trying to think of the right words “George has been through a lot since the beginning. I don’t know the full story, only bits and pieces he and Sapnap or Dream have let slip and I’ve managed to put together. And even then it’s not my story to tell. But he’s probably been through more than your average survivor, definitely more than me. Not that I’m trying to compare traumas or anything” he quickly corrects “We all cope in different ways but George… George is a two steps forward, one big step back kind of guy.” he explains, running a hand through his hair “According to Dream it was more common back when it was just them and Sapnap, and he’s gotten “better” in a sense. But, you know” he gives another half-hearted shrug “Healing isn’t linear. And sometimes it just seems like the easier option than having to deal with everything.”

“Yeah” Ranboo agrees with a tired sigh, rubbing at his aching arm “That sucks”

“It really does”

“Has anyone seen Dream?” Ranboo asks, looking over the group with some worry as they all ate and stepping over lanterns lighting up the dark, night having fallen a few hours earlier

“I think he said he was going out on a walk?” Skeppy offers with a shrug, trying to refuse the extra food Bad kept insisting he take “Sorry man- Bad! I have enough!”

“You lost blood!” Bad argues “You need food!!”

“Yeah but not that much!!”

Ranboo sighs and takes his meal somewhere else, heading over to Ponk and Sam to see if they would be more helpful.

“Hey Ponk” he greets “How do you feel?”

“Like absolute shit” Ponk snorts, trying to hold up his bandaged stump and wincing before giving up “I need opium level type stuff for this, Advil is just not doing it for me.” he sighs a little and looks up at Ranboo clearly concerned “It’s fine, I’ve at least hit the 48-hour mark” he holds up the stopwatch around his neck, still ticking down the crucial 72 hours “So I have that going for me” he mutters, scowling down at the device “Haven’t had symptoms yet… I think.”

“You’re going to be fine” Sam reassures, pressing his forehead against Ponk’s and getting pushed against in response “Nothing is gonna happen.” he pulls away and shoves some more pasta into his mouth “Anyway, were you looking for something Ran?”

“I can’t find Dream” the teen admits “And I don’t think he’s eaten today”

“He’s not with George and Sapnap?” Ponk puzzles, looking over where George and Sapnap sat, Sapnap keeping one hand hooked in George’s belt loops while they ate and Dream sure enough nowhere to be seen “Huh. That’s weird. He never lets George out of his sights after- well. He doesn’t leave either of them alone on the best of days” he huffs, popping a piece of jerky into his mouth “Bathroom maybe?”

“He probably went out on patrol or something” Sam suggests

“By himself??” Ranboo frets

“He can handle it” Sam soothes, not seeming too concerned “He has his stuff, probably just wandered off for a while”

“Yeah, he does that” Ponk agrees with a nod “He’ll be back in a bit”

“Mmkay” Ranboo concedes “If you say so”

The teen goes off to grab his bag, certain he’d left a bag of Sour Patch Kids somewhere inside and angrily digging through his things as he searches

“I swear if Niki stole my candy again I’m gonna heimlich her-” he starts, something in the corner of his eye catching his attention. He flicks on his flashlight and sweeps it over, stomach dropping as he recognized the bag hidden away in the dark corner. He quietly crawls over, confirming the bag was indeed Dream’s, turned off radio laying inconspicuously beside it and even his precious axe resting against the pack.

Ranboo realizes with sickening dread that Dream’s revolver is nowhere in sight.

He scrambles to his feet and snatches up his machete, fumbling to slip it on as he rushes for the gate, flashlight shoved in a pocket.

“Ran?” Puffy calls out as he races past “Where you going bud?!”

“Uh- bathroom!” he lies, yanking up the grate and slipping under “Bye!”

“Guess he really has to piss” he can hear Eret murmur, ignoring the faint snickers and chatter as he takes out his flashlight to scan the hall.

It is terrifyingly dark out, faint moonlight trickling in from the skylights illuminating the shuffling corpses wandering about in an ominous silver hue. He immediately hates it, but hurries along anyway despite the anxiety making his skin crawl and hair on the back of his neck rise. He goes the first direction he sees, scanning his light over stores in the hopes to find the blonde in one of them and calling out as loud as he dares.

“Dream!” he hisses, slipping past confused zombies and padding along the carpet path with a practiced caution “Dream!! Hey, you’re missing dinner!” he tries, finding it harder to breathe the longer he goes without seeing the man.

“Maybe he’s just at the bathroom” he rationalizes anxiously, picking at his nails as he decides which direction to take at the fork “You’re just freaking yourself out Ran, he’s probably fine!” he laughs nervously, opting for the left “He’s Dream! Of course he’s fine, you’re just making a big deal out of nothing and you’re gonna look so stupid when you get back-” he screeches to a halt and hastily backpedals, shining his light into a Bed, Bath & Beyond entrance.

There, in that beautiful bright neon hoodie, stands Dream, not having noticed Ranboo as he seems to sway in the store’s hall. His masks are off, plastic one perched up on the side of his head as he walks, fiddling with the revolver in his hand. Ranboo races over, panic seizing his throat as the worst possible scenario comes to mind.

“Dream-”

The blonde lets out a stifled shriek of surprise, Ranboo’s world spinning as he’s whirled and slammed into the ground, air knocked out of him as his back hits the tile and he’s pinned in place. That creepy as fuck hollow smile towers over him, Dream’s fist raised and Ranboo squeals, covering his face in anticipation and curling up protectively

“Oh god!! It’s me! It’s me!!” he screeches, closing his eyes and bracing for the blow “Please don’t kill me!”

“Wh- Kid??” Dream sputters, pulling his mask aside to reveal his confusion “What the fuck are you doing?! Jesus man, I nearly punched your skull in!” he quickly gets off the teen, Ranboo going lax in relief and gasping for air as he tries to calm his skipping heartbeat. “The hell are you doing out here??” he puzzles, helping the boy up and worriedly brushing him off, checking to make sure he hadn’t actually hurt him “You’re not supposed to be out after dark, it’s dangerous out on your own at this hour” he scolds “You could’ve gotten bit… or I could have shot you!”

“I couldn’t find you” Ranboo mumbles, now a bit ashamed “And I saw you left without telling anyone and all your stuff was left behind even your radio and axe which you never go outside without which meant you only had your gun and with everything that happened and what George almost did I thought- I mean- I was worried a-and it’s fine now! Cuz you’re okay and I’m sorry I’m rambling I was just-” he cuts himself off as a gentle hand cups his face, making him flinch and look up. Dream stares at him with such sorrow and concern, making him feel like putty as unbridled relief washes over him “I thought you were gonna- I-”

“Oh Boo, beloved” Dream coos, running a hand through his hair as Ranboo chokes back a sob, melting into the hug Dream pulls him into “No. No I’d never do that. No matter what, okay? I’m not leaving any of you, I promise you’re stuck with me” he soothes, chuckling a little “Not to mention Drista would kill me herself if she ever found out. I’m not going anywhere Ran, not if I can help it. Okay?”

“Mmkay” he sniffles, burying his face in Dream’s hoodie and clinging on tightly, still hiccuping some as the blonde rubs gentle circles on his back “Mmsrry”

“It’s okay” Dream hums, stroking his hair “It’s my fault for scaring you, I should have told someone where I was going.”

"I'm sorry" Ranboo mumbles, frantically rubbing at his face as he pulls away a little "You probably came out here for some privacy, I'll go-"

"Hey, it's fine Boo" Dream reassured, patting his shoulder "I don't mind the company, I guess I was just kinda used to people not coming after me when I wander off. Forgot you're not used to that" he chuckles "Anyway, how are you doing? We haven't had a chat in a while, how are you holding up?"

“Okay I suppose” he admits, letting Dream lead him down an aisle and take a seat, the two leaning against a shelf “I’m mainly worried about Ponk, but they’ve hit the 48 hour mark, so that’s good at least”

“Yeah” Dream sighs, thudding the back of his head against the shelf and running a hand over his face “No symptoms yet, right?”

“No, none” Ranboo shakes his head “...do you think he’ll be okay?”

“I hope so” Dream murmurs “Losing Ponk would essentially also be losing Sam, one can’t exist without the other y’know?” Ranboo nods. He did know, he’d seen for himself the absolute devotion Sam had for Ponk, some deep, primal part of him craving something even remotely similar despite the risks “I’d have to put him on watch like I did George and even then he might end up dying of a broken heart” he rubs the back of his neck anxiously “Ponk should be in the clear, but I’ve also heard stories of people that didn’t start showing until the final three hours. Some didn’t even show until hour seventy-one and by then it was just an instant spiral those last moments til-” he swallows, and takes a deep breath “...I don’t like not knowing, not having control in moments like these” he admits quietly, staring down at his hands “Every time I lose my control it just all goes to shit, every time. Without fail. And all I can do is just pick up what’s left behind and- I- I told myself I wouldn’t let it happen again, I wouldn’t let anyone get hurt again and-” he sighs, low and tired as he pulls his knees up to his chest “And I fucked up. Again.” he rubs at his eyes, resting his chin on his knee “Sorry. Sorry I- I shouldn’t be telling you all of this” he apologizes, smiling weakly “Trauma dumping on someone all of a sudden is bad enough, but you’re still a kid and I’m an adult so,” Dream raps the side of his head a little “Like, double points-”

“How old are you?” Ranboo asks suddenly, surprising Dream a little with the question

“Me?” he points to himself in confusion

“Yeah” Ranboo hums, pulling up his own knees to lean against “How old?”

“Mmm I don’t think August has passed yet” he calculates “So I think I’m still twenty-one. If it’s passed then twenty-two, but I’m pretty sure still twenty-one. Why?”

“With how much you call me a child I was wondering if you were secretly like thirty or something” Ranboo huffs “Old man.”

“Oh fuck off” Dream scoffs, nudging him a little “You’re all fucking children, I can’t leave any of you without other adult supervision for five minutes before Sapnap or Niki try to burn down the damn building”

“Sapnap and Niki are 19” Ranboo snorts “They’re children too?”

“Of course!” Dream nods “Not as baby as you but still babies-”

“You’re only two years older than them.”

“...your point?” Dream asks, and Ranboo knows he’s walking a dangerous line with his next response

“I just-” he hesitates a little “I feel like you’re too hard on yourself sometimes and you’re not even much older than us.”

“I-”

“I’m sure there’s other, actual adult adults out there who think you’re too young to be dealing with this mess” he continues “I mean, I never graduated high school, you never graduated college and here we are. Wondering if our friend is gonna be infected in a few hours and having to put people on suicide watch-”

“Stop.” Dream whispers “Don’t-”

“None of us were prepared for this Dream” Ranboo tells him “We’re only five years apart… you’re still a bit of a kid yourself”

“I know” Dream whimpers, tucking his face away in his knees “I-I’m just kid, I shouldn’t be dealing with all this- it’s not fair-” he hiccups a little, full on crying now “It’s not fair! I’m a kid! I don’t want to be an adult, I don’t want to be in charge but I have to be because one of us has to and I- I’m not an adult!” he laughs a little, almost hysterically “I don’t know the first fucking thing about being an adult!! I never learned how to file taxes, I can barely cook for myself, I only just recently learned how to patch up my own fucking clothes!! Fuck!” he slams a fist against the floor angrily “It’s not fair!! I was supposed to graduate, get a job, see my sister go to college, see my twin graduate with me, see them get married- I get none of that! None of it now and it’s so fucking unfair!!” a sob rips out of his chest “I’m young, I am. I’m still little, I don’t feel like a grown up. I don’t feel like an adult at all...” he admits through his tears

“We’re just kids” Ranboo mourns with him, this time being the one to pull Dream into a hug and letting the older cling to him, still shuddering and crying “I’ll never get to graduate high school, or fill out college applications. I never got to go to Homecoming or Prom-” he lets out a wet laugh, burying his face in Dream’s shoulder “I didn’t even want to go, but I never even got that choice. It’s not fair, I know it’s not” He feels Dream’s hand dig into his hair, starting to cry harder when he realizes the blonde is still trying to comfort him despite his own grief “It’s not fair” he sniffles, Dream sobbing into his chest

“I’m sorry” Dream weeps “I’m sorry I can’t fix it, I’m sorry I can’t make it better”

“I’m sorry too”

Ranboo loses track of how long they sit there on the floor, maybe minutes, maybe hours as he mourns his lost innocence and stolen youth, Dream grieving something similar with him. He keeps sitting there as his tears finally dry, comfortable in the hold Dream still has him in and knowing the blonde probably needed the prolonged hug anyway. They eventually pull apart, enough to properly sit again but Ranboo keeps pressing against Dream’s side, feeling callused fingers run over gloved knuckles in a soothing pattern.

“We’re a mess huh Boo?” Dream chuckles bitterly, wiping his face clean with his free hand “Sorry, I think I got some snot on you”

“Same, so we’ll call it even” Ranboo snorts, also scrubbing at his tears and pulling off the mask that had slipped under his chin during his crying session. They sit in silence for a while, collecting themselves and steadying out their breathing

“Is it true?” Dream asks quietly, startling the teen

“What is??”

“You never went to homecoming.” he clarifies, picking at his hoodie strings a little “To be honest, you probably weren’t missing much unless you had like a date or a group of friends to hang out with”

“Pretty sure I had neither” Ranboo admits, awkwardly rubbing at his scars “Prom probably would have been the same huh?”

“Yeah” he chuckles, tapping his fingers on his knee “It’s just a bunch of people pretending to be cool and trying to get a slow dance. I just hung out with my friends all night, I don’t even remember if I brought a date or not”

“Well I can’t dance” Ranboo sighs, leaning back “So I guess I dodged a bullet there and saved myself the embarrassment”

“It’s not hard” Dream snickers “You just kinda move side to side and try not to step on each other”

“I would’ve absolutely made a fool of myself.”

“Nah, you wouldn’t. Here, I’ll prove it” Dream encourages, getting up and brushing himself off. He holds out a hand invitingly, flashing the confused Ranboo a cocky grin “May I have this dance?” he asks, smile growing as Ranboo tentatively takes his hand and is yanked up to his feet “Fuck. When did you get the same height as me??” he curses, Ranboo laughing as Dream tries to stand up straighter, measuring their heights with a hand “Stop growing you fucker, you’re not allowed any more growth spurts”

“I’ll tell my body that” Ranboo nods, laughing harder as Dream tries to push him down by the shoulders to his original height “No more growing”

“Exactly” Dream huffs “Alright, all you have to do is just- move your feet.” he orders, kicking at Ranboo’s boots to make him scoot “Okay. You take one of their hands-” he clasps onto Ranboo’s right hand, squeezing a little as the teen stands there stiffly “And then- do you want my shoulder or waist?”

“Shoulder please” Ranboo begs, already feeling his neck flush and stifling laughter. Dream sets Ranboo’s hand on his shoulder, gently settling his own hand over Ranboo’s waist and smiling proudly

“See?! Easy!” the blonde crows, taking a step forward and Ranboo stumbles back to keep from tripping “Then you just kinda move with the music, maybe add a twirl or a dip here and there if you’re feeling fancy” he explains, carefully shuffling them side to side

“This feels so weird without music” Ranboo giggles, hiding his burning face in Dream’s chest

“Welcome to the authentic high school dance experience!” Dream cackles, leading them into a small spin “’Shame For No Reason’ at no additional cost!”

“I hate this” Ranboo laughed, feet feeling awkward under him without any music covering the squeak of boots or shuffling of fabric

“Okay, this is kinda weird” Dream eventually agrees after a few more seconds of agonizing quiet, letting go much to Ranboo’s disappointment and relief. He scans the store a little, pulling out his flashlight to better search and tugging Ranboo along until he finds an aisle of radios, beginning to hit them at random “Come on, one of you has to have some sort of demo song” he mutters, Ranboo also starting to press buttons.

They both jump a little in surprise when one of the radios does start playing something, tinny and in terrible quality. Tinkling electronic piano notes cheerfully leaks out of the speaker, Dream laughing in surprise as a soft beat and bass join in. Dream presses the button again to restart the song, tapping his foot along to the notes and smiling softly as he turns back to Ranboo.

Once again, he holds out his hand.

“May I have this dance Ranboo?”

We get it almost every night

When that moon gets so big and bright

Ranboo laughs a little and takes his hand, somehow feeling more comfortable this time round as he’s pulled in

It's a supernatural delight

Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

“You may” he snorts, bowing a little in an over exaggerated motion. He settles in place and yelps a little as Dream suddenly pulls him forward, keeping his feet under him as best he can as they shuffle and step to the upbeat tune

Everybody here is out of sight

They don't bark and they don't bite

They keep things loose, they keep things light

Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

“Dancin in the moonlight” Dream hums along with the chorus, Ranboo unable to hide his giggle as he’s spun “Everybody's feelin' warm and right~”

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

Ranboo lets Dream keep his lead, stifling a shriek and hands scrabbling up to cling to the hoodie as a laughing Dream suddenly dips him

“No dipping!” he screeches, actually letting out a small scream as Dream promptly ignores him and swings him into another dip “Dream!”

“Dancin in the moonlight!” Dream only sings back, laughing as Ranboo struggles to keep from falling before pulling him back up “It’s such a fine and natural sight- come on!”

“Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight” Ranboo concedes, unable to help the smile on his face as the song starts to repeat, beat becoming a bit more prominent as the chorus repeats over and over.

He keeps following along, uncaring of how his feet stumbled or how embarrassed he still felt. He just sings and sways with Dream, some part of him laughing at the ridiculous scene they must make dancing to some old demo song in an abandoned mall store. Another part of him just doesn’t care.

Dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody's feelin' warm and right

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

“Your hair’s gotten long again” Eret notes, reaching over to tug at a black-dyed bang falling over Ranboo’s face “You need a trim?”

“Nah” Ranboo hums, pulling at a lock of hair himself “I think I wanna try growing it out a little, although it is kinda getting in the way”

“Mmm, I think its long enough to start pulling back a little” Eret tells him, gesturing with his head to where his bag is “Come on, I think I have a hair tie somewhere.” They go over to Eret’s bag and Ranboo patiently waits while he looks through his pack “You ever have long hair before, or do you usually keep it short?”

“Short” Ranboo admits, sitting down as Eret takes a seat and pats the spot beside him “But I want to try something new” Eret hums in agreement, slipping the tie on his wrist and holding up a brush

“Do you mind if I do your hair?” they ask

“Yeah sure” Ranboo shrugs “Go for it” Eret grins, clearly excited as they start on Ranboo’s hair.

The brush is soothing against his scalp, Ranboo nearly starting to doze off as Eret gently untangles knots and picks out leaves and twigs still stuck in there. The upper half of his hair is pulled back out of his face, swiftly tied up and Eret laughs a little as he flicks the tiny ponytail practically sticking straight out.

“So far I can only get half of it back” Eret informs, now taking a piece of the lower, loose half and starting on a small braid in the white side “But it should do a good enough job keeping most of it out of your way. Also, you need to start brushing it out now that it’s getting long. Trust me, you do not want to get your hair tangled” they warned, unconsciously blowing a brown curl out of their face “It’ll be a pain, so just make sure to keep it brushed alright?”

“Okay” Ranboo hums, pulling away once Eret ties off the little braid with a small rubber band and patting his new hairstyle, using his clip to pin back stray pieces “Thanks Eret”

“No problem!” the man reassures, handing him a few more hair ties Ranboo slips around his own wrist. The teen heads off to where Ponk is, Sam still dutifully at the doctor’s side but actually sleeping for once. Ponk is currently trying to unwrap his bandages, face furrowed in pain as he struggles

“Hey Ponk, how’s it going?” Ranboo asks, kneeling down and holding out a hand in a silent offer

“Shit” Ponk croaks, huffing a little as he sets his stump in Ranboo’s hand so the teen can finish peeling off the gauze for him “I woke up with a massive headache- like, migraine level type pain, my throat hurts for some reason and I’m fucking freezing”

“Freezing?” Ranboo puzzles, being able to feel the sweat that seemed permanently stuck to his skin from the trapped summer warmth in the mall “It’s like over 80 degrees in here, how are you cold?”

“I dunno man” Ponk complains, rolling their neck with an audible pop “I just don’t feel good. I think I might have an infection or something in my arm that’s making me feel like this-”

Ranboo finishes pulling off the bandages and they both stare down at the stitched up stump with confusion and concern. The stitches are still a little raised and red, but no more than they should be, no signs of pus or any discoloration on the skin that could explain Ponk’s symptoms. Ponk turns their arm over with a frown, flinching as Ranboo rips off one of his gloves and presses the back of his hand against their forehead.

“You’re burning up” he mutters, Ponk hurriedly reaching up at his neck to feel his pulse “Definitely a fever”

“My pulse is fast” he notes, now looking very concerned

“Heat stroke maybe?” Ranboo proposes

“No- no I’ve been drinking water” Ponk panics “I can still think clearly, minus my fucking headache. I mean maybe?” he whimpers, tentatively reaching for the stopwatch at his neck. He peeks at the time ticking away, sighing deeply as he thuds the plastic against his forehead

“Ponk?”

“Five hours” they murmur, knuckles white as they shakily clutch the timer “I only had five hours left. Five.”

“M-maybe it’s heat stroke” Ranboo suggests optimistically “We just have to cool you down and you’ll be fine-”

“And if it’s not?” Ponk interrupts, simply staring at his missing arm “...Fuck. What am I gonna tell the others?”

“Maybe I should wake up Sam-”

“No!” Ponk blurts, the two freezing as Sam shifts and mumbles in his sleep “Do not wake him up” he hisses “I just convinced him to take a nap and if you wake him up for this he won’t sleep for another day again”

“We have to tell someone” Ranboo hisses back worriedly

“I will, I will” Ponk huffs, pointing over to the small first aid box just out of reach for the teen to grab “Just- give me an hour. We can try the whole heat exhaustion remedy thing and see if that’s really it”

“And if it gets worse?” he asks, handing over the box so Ponk can clean his stitches

“If symptoms persist...” Ponk starts, licking his lips a little “If I don’t get better within an hour… I’ll tell them. Just… not right now. Okay Ran? Please?” Ranboo hesitates, meeting Ponk’s pleading brown gaze staring into his before dipping his head with a sigh

“Okay Ponk” he relents, letting the man pull him in and press a light kiss on his forehead, briefly hugging Ponk back

“Thank you”

Puffy dumps her bag by the gate, keeping the barrier up for Niki and Skeppy, who’d finally been taken off of bedrest to his relief, to slip under after her

“So when are we moving?” she asks, setting down the gate and heading over where almost everyone was clumped “The Macy’s is pretty comfy looking, although we’ll have to clear it”

“There’s a mattress store down in the west wing” Skeppy offers, taking off his bag and setting it on the counter to stretch “I’d suggest that one since it’s smaller and easier to keep defended”

“Yeah, but the Macy’s has more exits and hiding spots” Puffy counters “I’d rather not get cornered and swarmed”

“Maybe we could move the beds?” Niki compromises “The mattresses at least”

“We still need to pack everything up” Dream snorts, leaning on a shelf “All our shit is everywhere, and pick an actual place to move”

After some arguing and compromising, the group settles on the mattress store, deciding to move to a bigger store if it got too cramped or uncomfortable.

“Alright then!” Bad cheers, clapping his hands “Let’s get everything ready to go-”

“Um, guys?” Ranboo piped up, having been silent the whole discussion. He’s sat next to Ponk and Sam further off, Ponk in a tank top and shorts with wet rags over his shoulders and forehead, Ranboo fanning him off with a magazine “...I think Ponk is sick.”

The group is silent, Dream rushing forward and bending down to check Ponk’s temperature from where he lay. Ponk’s chest rises and falls shallowly, whining softly at the hand pressing against his forehead

“Shit.” the blonde curses, turning to Ranboo “When did he start?”

“A-about an hour ago” Ranboo stammered, shrinking in on himself

“An hour?!” Sapnap shouts, others beginning to stress “And you didn’t say anything?!”

“We thought it was heat stroke!” Ranboo exclaims “They didn’t want anyone to freak out if it was just that so they told me to wait-”

“Ran you should have told us” Dream stresses, running his hands through his hair and pressing them against his head “At least given me a heads up-” Ponk’s hand goes flying out to swat at Dream’s leg, the doctor glaring up at him from the floor

“I made him promise not to tell, don’t blame this on him.” They scold, breathing having grown more labored than earlier “We thought it was heat exhaustion or stroke” they weakly gesture to their dripping arms with a wry laugh “I guess not.” They hold up the stopwatch still on their chest, Dream taking it from them and scowling as he sees the remaining time

“Four hours” Dream sighs, running a hand over his face exhaustedly “Literally down to the wire.”

“Is there a chance it’s something else?” Eret asks, quiet and desperate

“Maybe” Ponk grunts, sitting up and Ranboo reaches over to steady him “It might be a normal infection from my wound, although it looks fine. I definitely could have caught something during surgery, the conditions for that were absolutely terrible sanitation-wise, but I’m not seeing any signs of it. Or, shit, I could just have a stress cold” he huffs, peeling off the wet napkin on his forehead “Or the flu. My body is recovering from all that stress it got put through and just couldn’t fight off a regular cold- it could be any of those things so close to the 72-hour mark… or...”

“Or it’s The Virus.” Dream finishes, mood in the store thoroughly killed.

“Or it’s The Virus.” Ponk repeats with a solemn nod “There’s four hours left so it’ll hit fast and hard if it is. Right now the symptoms have been relatively mild, much more mild than I’ve seen or heard about. It honestly just feels like a shitty flu virus”

“That’s what they always said, on the news” Puffy recalls with a huff “Flu-like symptoms that just get worse up until you’re coughing up blood and die.”

“Fun.” Ponk snorts, fiddling with his tank top as he stares at his lap “Um. I-if it is, you know. That. If it is that Virus...” he runs a hand over his face and rubs anxiously “God. I hate asking you guys this. If- If I die, and- you know… re-awaken.” he swallows thickly, looking over at Sam still peacefully sleeping away beside him, oblivious to the situation “Please.” he begs softly, carding a hand through bright green dyed hair “Don’t make Sam do it. Don’t let him live with that.”

“We won’t- if it comes down to that” Dream promises, hands shoved in his pockets “But uh, if you do. Do you want a grave or...” Ponk shakes his head

“Like- like we did with Alyssa” he requests, Niki flinching and reaching out to grip Callahan’s hand tightly “I don’t want my body to be stuck at some stupid mall, I’d rather go with the wind”

“We can do that” Dream nods “If.”

“If.”

“You’re gonna have to tell Sam” George warns, everyone starting to split off to their own corners to wait “You can’t just wait until the last minute”

“I know” Ponk sighs, still running a hand through Sam’s hair “I will. In a bit...”

Ranboo keeps offering Ponk wet towels to put on his neck to try and bring the fever down, going off to the wall where Sapnap is half-heartedly digging through his pack. He plays with the Simon swipe game for a while, he and Sapnap passing it back and forth to see who could get the higher score than the other. True to his word, Ponk wakes Sam up a few minutes later, quietly explaining the situation which Sam is understandably not a big fan of and makes very clear.

Sam, now wide awake, keeps careful watch over Ponk as the agonizing minutes pass by, everyone trying to keep themselves distracted and pretending like nothing was wrong.

Callahan and Dream went out to try and take the horses outside to eat, having found a grass patch near a mall entrance they could possibly try to sneak out to. Skeppy and Niki go to take the pent up dogs on a walk down the hall, slinging bags back over their shoulders as they head out again. Eret plays with Birb and manages to get George to give Patches attention, the cat very annoyed with the humans for having locked her away in the back room most of the time.

Sapnap has fully commandeered the Simon game, focused intently on the patterns to mimic while Ranboo blips away on his arcade, cheap plastic giving him something to do beside worry.

“Fuck you that was red not blue!” Sapnap seethes, smacking the device as it flashes his failure “Fucker!”

“Language!” Bad reminds from his own spot, cleaning their guns. Sapnap huffs and slumps against the wall, muttering more curses out of earshot as he furiously hits the restart button

“Hey Saps” Ranboo starts, keeping his eyes on his screen “Um, if I can ask- and feel free to tell me no if you don’t want to-”

“I’m not telling you how babies are made, that’s Ponk’s job.” the older teen snorts, making Ranboo sputter and flush “Maybe try Dream”

“What the hell?!” he cries as Sapnap bites his lip to keep from bursting out laughing

“Ranboo! Language!!”

“Sorry!” he calls back with a wince, elbowing the snickering Sapnap “That’s not what I was gonna ask dude”

“Alright alright what is it?” Sapnap chuckles, scowling as he messes up and has to start another round “Oh come on! I slid it all the way-”

“What happened to Alyssa?” Ranboo asks, Sapnap freezing despite the game flashing a pattern for him to copy “Or who’s Alyssa?” he looks back down to his video game “...You don’t have to tell me-”

“No, no it’s okay. You were gonna ask about her eventually.” Sapnap sighs, fiddling with his bangs as he stares up at the ceiling “Alyssa, or Aly as we liked to call her, is- was Niki’s sister. Twin, actually” he recalls, smiling a little at the memories “She, Niki and Cal were a trio when they found us. It was just me, George and Dream back then, our own little trio. Drista was gone by then, off who knows where with Punz and Purpled, no Hannah yet. So they joined and started traveling with us. Eventually we picked up Ponk and Sam, then Puffy, Bad and Skeppy- they had a Floater back then, uh, Anthony? I think his real name was? We just called him Ant, he was tagging along with Bad’s whole group and joined with us.” Sapnap snorts a little, grinning “He wore these ridiculous cat ears all the time and we could never steal them, he had like a sixth sense with them on I swear”

“I wouldn’t be surprised” Ranboo chuckles, Sapnap nodding in agreement

“Yeah. Ant was cool, bit of a badass. We picked up a solo Hopper who went by the name Hbomb, for some weird fucking reason. Like, think lumberjack but in a maid outfit.” Sapnap tells him, Ranboo laughing at the mental image “I don’t want to think where he got it from” Sapnap shudders “He and Niki got pretty close actually, he was a good guy. Hella weird, but nice. And then we stole Eret-” Ranboo snorts at the term “And found another Floater- Vikk? I think it was? He kept a lot to himself but was also a pretty decent guy. So yeah” he nods “That was us a couple months ago”

“That’s a lot of people” Ranboo notes

“It was” Sapnap agrees “Fifteen whole people to keep track of? It was a mess” he chuckles, fiddling with the Simon game “Alyssa was the quiet type, I guess that’s why she and Callahan got along so well. I think they were college friends before all this, so they had background together. But she could get loud” he admits with a fond smile “God, she could kick any of our asses, especially if we messed with Niki too much. Niki too, she was the more “extroverted” twin but if we got her upset over literally anything she’d sic Aly on us. They were close, siblings y’know?” he shrugs “Dream also got close to them, a “fellow twin” thing or whatever”

“Can’t relate” Ranboo hums “Only child”

“I can tell” Sapnap taunts, shoving the younger’s head a little as he squawks “But yeah. Fifteen people out and about got chaotic fast. And then we found a community.” Something in his gaze darkens as he pauses, something that makes Ranboo quiet down “They- they weren’t bad. As far as communities go they were okay, and they took all of us in so I can’t be mad at them for that but-” he lets out a sigh, game flashing as he loses again “We got split. The only request Dream had for the leaders was to let at least two of us go out with the hunting groups, no solo people out there with strangers. And it worked… for a while” he starts up a new game, staring at the flashing colors “There was a Mob. Out in the city the hunting group was in. They got swarmed and bailed. It was an “every man for themselves” type of situation, which is exactly why Dream had asked for us to be able to stick together outside, so we wouldn’t get left behind...” Sapnap lets the level fail “Alyssa was on hunting duty that day… and no one double checked to make sure one of us was on duty with her.”

“Oh” Ranboo breathed, unsure of what to say “So she...”

“She didn’t come back with the survivors.” Sapnap confirmed with a stiff nod “Niki and Callahan completely lost it, the rest of us were pissed I mean-” he sputters a little “We asked them to let us go out together, it was the only thing we requested! We followed all their rules, did all our duties and they just-” he takes a deep breath to calm himself “We left. We couldn’t stay there anymore and there was a chance Alyssa had bunkered down somewhere in the city. They wouldn’t send out people to find her, or any of the other missing members so we just left. Most of us anyway. Ant wanted to go, but he’d gotten himself a boyfriend and understandably his boyfriend didn’t want to leave. The guy had gone through some shit out there, so Ant stayed with him where it was safer. Vikk had met a guy in the community, Lazar he called himself, and the two wanted to start a business or something, I dunno. Vikk stayed.”

“And Hbomb?”

“He stayed too” Sapnap nods “Guy was tired. Like, tired y’know?” Ranboo hums in understanding “He wanted to but he just couldn’t handle being out there again. That hit Niki hard since, again, they were really good friends” he lets out another little sigh, this time mournful “We found Alyssa, after a day of searching. Well, she found us. Tried taking a chunk out of George. She’d re-awoken, probably had already turned days before.” he falls silent for a beat, face scrunching at the memory in a mix of grief and anger “Dream offered to do it but Callahan was the one to put her back to sleep. Niki couldn’t handle it, I think she had to be put on watch for almost a week after. Cal and George too, for different reasons.

“...that sucks” Ranboo says lamely, knowing offering apologies usually did nothing to help. Sapnap snorts a little, smile strained

“Yeah. Hella sucks” he agrees, finally starting back on his game “Niki didn’t want to leave her sister behind to rot, so we burned the body instead, sent her off properly and all that... I think Aly would have liked it. Pretty sure Niki still has some of the ashes, I know she and Callahan kept the knives”

“Knives??”

“Matching set Dream gave them from his renaissance fair loot back when he had enough to give away” Sapnap explains, tapping his thigh “Dual hunting knives, one pair had sort of a moon pattern on the hilt and the other was a sun patterned blade. It’s why Niki’s knives are two sizes, one is her original sun knife and the other is one of Alyssa’s moons. Cal has the final moon knife, he doesn’t use it often though.”

“I always wondered about those” Ranboo hums “They’re pretty”

"Yeah, they really are" Sapnap nods

"Thank you" the younger murmured "For telling me about her. She seemed awesome"

"She was" Sapnap chuckles "Thanks Ranboo"

"For what??"

"For giving me a chance to talk about her" he explains "For keeping her alive in a way"

"Oh... you're welcome then"

Dream paces anxiously in the small aisle, Ranboo handing Puffy wet rags she then places on Ponk's neck and forehead

"He's gotten worse" Sam stresses, soothingly rubbing the back of Ponk's knuckles "The fever isn't going down and he's getting more tired-" Ponk lets out a fit of wracking coughs, swallowing what he'd coughed up with a groan

"Two more hours" Dream bargains, biting at his thumb while he circles "He just has to get past hour seventy-two. No one makes it to seventy-three, he just has to make it there"

"Mm tiredddd" Ponk complains, leaning his cheek against Sam's thigh "Mwanna sleep..."

"I know, I know" Sam coos, running his other hand through Ponk's hair "But you gotta stay awake for a little longer okay?"

"Mm sick." Ponk grumbles "I need sleeps. Sleep helps."

"I know it does" Puffy hushes, fanning him off with a magazine "But not this time, this time you have to stay awake" she turns over to Ranboo, who was nervously wetting and wringing a washcloth over and over "Do we have any more Tylenol or something we can give him??" She asks him

"He's like borderline overdosed already" Ranboo snorts, shaking his head "I give him any more and he actually will overdose I'm sure"

"Shit." she curses

"Language" Bad mutters from his spot

"I'm allowed a couple naughty words here Bad" Puffy huffs, gesturing to Ponk on the brink of hallucinating

"...I suppose" he allows.

Time crawls by agonizingly, Ponk getting worse and worse by the minute, slipping deeper into delirium the longer he forces himself to stay awake.

"I don't think he's even speaking English anymore" Sam murmurs while Ponk mumbles away in a different language, already half asleep in Sam's lap. Sam checks the timer and sighs, looking even more exhausted "Bout an hour left..."

"Almost" Sapnap sighs, sat against the wall and playing a half forgotten game of Spoons with George and Callahan.

"Almost there" Eret agrees, braiding Niki's hair to distract the both of them.

"..mmy?" Ponk mumbles, weakly trying to reach up "S'mmy?"

"I'm right here Ponkie" Sam reassures "I'm right here, I won't leave"

"I wanna sleep" Ponk requests, barely audible "Let me sleep Sammy..."

"Ponk-" Puffy starts

"Okay Ponkie" Sam agrees with a mournful smile "You can sleep, but I'm waking you up in an hour, okay?"

"I can have three I saids" Ponk whines, making Sam chuckle

"I'm still waking you up in one, okay?" Sam hums, stroking Ponk's head comfortingly "Yes Ponk?"

"Fine" he grumbles, falling asleep almost instantly

"They're gonna be okay" Puffy reassures, changing out feverishly warm rags with newer ones "It's gonna be okay Sam"

"Mmm" Is the only response she gets.

Seconds bleed into minutes, minutes stretching into what feels like hours, terribly terribly slow as even in his sleep Ponk seems to get worse. His skin is pale and clammy, shivering uncontrollably for minutes at a time before going dangerously still for a while. Laboured breathing turns into weak, shuddering gasps, interrupted only by rattling coughs before going back to tired wheezes.

Sam curls up next to Ponk, humming soft nothings and half songs as he holds his friend's hand and tries to make him as comfortable as possible, managing to drift off himself from sheer exhaustion and stress. Puffy gives a quick whistle to catch Dream's attention, Ranboo now taking a quick snack break beside her

""Watch?"" Puffy subtly signs, pointing over at Sam. Dream nods, running a hand over his face and starting to pace again

""Time?"" The blonde signs and Puffy peeks at the stopwatch

""2-0""

"Twenty??" Dream hisses in surprise, wincing as Ponk lets out a particularly violent shudder and fit of coughs, gasping for air afterwards. Dream walks over and leans down to feel their temperature, face falling into something unreadable as he straightens "Ranboo. Bud, I'm gonna need you to go out for a walk real quick, I'll get Eret to pick you up later-"

"No." Ranboo says fiercely, shaking his head "I'm staying."

"...are you sure?"

"I'm sure" he nods " I want to be here. I'm not leaving."

"Okay then" Dream sighs, leaning on the shelf "You can stay."

It's silent in the store for a while before suddenly interrupted by another coughing fit from Ponk. This one seems worse, Ponk waking up a little as he hacks and gasps, falling back down while his body shivers.

"Is he okay?" Niki frets, people starting to get closer as Ponk won't stop shaking and wheezing like he would before "Dream, what's happening?"

"I-I don't know" He admits, also inching closer. They all freeze as Ponk suddenly stops moving, fingers twitching for a few more moments before his chest completely stills.

As if to mock them, only seconds later the stopwatch begins to beep, marking the end of the hour.

Puffy tentatively reaches out and presses two fingers against Ponk's throat, frowning a little as she feels around

"I can't find a pulse" she whispers, straining to feel a heartbeat "Guys-"

"Shit. Okay" Dream breathes, fumbling to pull out his revolver "Cap, get back"

"What are you doing?!" Puffy sputters "Dream!"

"I'm not making Sam do it!" Dream hisses back, clicking a bullet in place and aiming "And if either of them wake up we're screwed!"

"Just wait a minute!" She half-shrieks, still trying to find a pulse

"We don't have a minute!" Dream panics "When Ponk re-awakens he's gonna go for the nearest human which is either you or Sam!"

"Fuck!" She swears, reaching over to try and remove Sam's hand from Ponk's while he slept "Come on Sammy boy, you gotta let go-"

"Wha- what are you-" Sam mumbles, fully waking up as he realizes what Puffy was doing and he saw the gun he aimed at Ponk's head "Dream!! What the hell-"

"Time's up Sam. Off." Dream orders, pulling back the hammer

"No! Nononono don't do this to me Dropsby! Come on Ponkie wake up! Wake up!" Sam cries, holding on tighter as Puffy tries to pull him back. Ponk's head lolls limply to the side as he's jostled, mouth flecked with blood while Sam clings to him "No!! He's alive! He has to be! He is! Dream please!!"

"Sam. Let go." Dream says sternly "I don't want to accidentally hit you-"

"No!" He shouts, throwing himself over Ponk's body to shield him "No!!"

"Sam they're gonna re-awaken!!" Puffy nearly sobs "They'll bite you, you know this!"

"I don't care!!" Sam shouts, curling up protectively on Ponk's chest "At least let me-"

"Absolutely not." Dream shuts down "You're not doing this Sam, just let me handle it-"

"He's alive."

"Sam-"

"No dude shut up" Sam gasps, wide eyes and holding up a hand, pressing his ear down harder on Ponk's chest "For real shut- shut up."

"What-"

"Shhhshshsh" Sam shushed, everyone completely silent as Sam strains to listen. "...there's a heartbeat"

"There was no pulse and his chest wasn't moving" Puffy sputters "How-"

"There's a heartbeat" Sam practically growls "Barely, but it’s there. He's alive-"

Ponk lets out a low moan, raspy and slow as he starts to shift. Dream curses and shakily re-aims, Puffy giving up on Sam and instead flinging herself over towards Ranboo, shielding the frozen teen with an arm and pushing him back out of reach.

"Sam! Move dammit!!" Dream yells, trying to get a clear shot

"I'm not losing him! Not after all this!!"

The room erupts into clamor, people yelling at Sam to get away and both Sapnap and Bad starting to hurry over to try and get Sam off the body, Dream and Sam still arguing with each other.

"..tph off..."

The sudden silence in the store is almost comical, even Sam recoiling away in surprise.

"...did that zombie just talk?" Skeppy puzzles, pointing accusingly at Ponk's still form on the ground

"Ponk?" Dream warily starts, edging closer and kicking their side with his boot. Ponk lets out another groan and whines, once brown eyes now a strange, almost reddish maroon as they crack open to glare at the blonde

"Owww..." He complains, stump weakly jerking in an effort to swat at Dream "Yrr all too loud..."

"PONK!!" Sam screams, throwing himself back over the man and hugging him as best he can from their weird positioning "Ponkie!!"

"Nnnn S'mmy....heavy..." Ponk whines, nudging him a little "...off..."

"You're okay! You're okay you're okay you're okay!!" Sam chants through his heaving sobs, not getting off and only gripping on tighter "Oh my god you're alive, you're alive and okay-"

"I'd be better if you people would let me fucking sleep-"

"Language" Bad chides with a watery grin, pulling a hyperventilating Skeppy into a hug as relief sweeps over the room.

Sam only laughs and kisses Ponk's face all over, running a hand through their hair as he cradles Ponk close.

"Holy shit" Dream breathes out, legs giving out from under him and crumpling to the ground, sending his revolver skittering away from from as he buries his face in trembling hands "Oh my god he's alive. Oh god I almost killed him oh my god-"

"HE'S ALIVE!!" Niki shrieked, running over and tackling Dream in a hug, Sapnap and George quickly following in the pile and several tears in that group are shed

"He's okay" Ranboo sniffled, breaking down into tears as Puffy pulls him into a hug, Eret kneeling down to join in engulfing the teen "He's okay!"

"He's okay" Eret agrees through his own shaky breaths, letting Callahan into the cuddle pile "We're okay"

"It's gonna be okay…"

“I don’t want Spring! I want Summer outfits!” Niki shrieks, angrily gesturing to the floral patterned dress up on the mannequin “It’s Summer!!”

“You do realize the stores don’t magically stock themselves every season right?” Eret snorts, currently flipping through some skirts while Ranboo lies sprawled on a bench in the middle of the Macy’s, all of them exploring the new section of the mall they’d moved into. Everyone was trying to find new clothes, since everything they owned was dirtied and they had no way of washing their stuff while trapped inside the building “The employees did that”

“I know” Niki grumbles, slamming her pipe into the poor mannequin’s legs, sending it crashing into a clothes rack “I just want cute tops”

“I thought you already had Puffy?”

“Shut the fuck up!!” Niki screeches, face turning a bright red as she whirls around to face Eret doubled over in laughter “Shut- Shut! You! Silence!!”

“Oh my god you’re so gone aren’t you-”

“I WILL END YOU. I’M NEVER TELLING YOU SHIT AGAIN.”

“I’m gonna go vandalize something” Ranboo informs, rolling off his bench, flicking his flashlight back on and leaving Niki to continue sputtering while Eret teases her

Ranboo slides down the escalator rail, whooping a little as he kicks a zombie he passes on the steps over the other edge and grinning when he hears a shattering crash follow soon after. He hops off with a small stumble, peeking around the column to see the crumpled form of the creature twitching and groaning from a broken glass case, shards of glass digging into its body. Necklaces and earrings litter the ground and remains of the display, the teen walking over and quickly stabbing his knife into the zombie’s skull before having a peek at the latest loot.

The jewelry glitters with the beam of his light, Ranboo more than happy to pick up gleaming necklaces and bracelets to try on. He loops a pearl necklace over his throat, several golden and silver bands slipping over his wrists and making a satisfying clinking sound as he moves. The new weight on his arms is strange, but as he examines his reflection in a blood splattered mirror nearby, he realizes he quite likes the accessories. They match with his hair clip and golden-rimmed glasses, the teen taking a couple more to style on and having a good time simply trying on the once luxury items.

“I get why Puffy wears these all the time” he hums contentedly, slipping another necklace on since he decided the pearls were a keeper “I look awesome”

“Ran?!” Eret calls down from the escalator “Everything okay?!”

“I’m good!” Ranboo reassures, smiling at the clinking on his arms “Trying on stuff!”

“Ooh!! Anything good?!” Niki asks, followed by a loud crash and clatter that was probably another doomed mannequin

“Jewelry!”

“Score!!” Niki exclaims, boots thumping against the metal stairs as she rushes down “What’d you get?!” she demands, poking her head around the corner. Ranboo raises his mismatched arms with a shrug, jangling a little “Do they have diamonds? I want new necklaces”

“Pretty sure, yeah-” he ducks and shields himself as Niki swings at the nearest case with her pipe, shattering it. She picks through the glass and pulls out a sparkling diamond and sapphire on a chain, happily slipping it on before digging through the rest.

“Niki stop breaking glass you’re gonna cut yourself!” Eret scolds as they start to come down, tossing Ranboo fabric when they finally reach the bottom “That’s for you Ran” they inform, also beginning to dig through the broken display case “Figured they’re about your size and style” Ranboo unfurls the soft clothing and sees it’s two flowing skirts, one a light pink and gold and the other a swirling mix of sky-blue and white, similar to the chiffon style of his first skirt

“Oh sweet!” he cheers, holding them up in the mirror to get an idea of what they’d look like on him and quite happy to see them at the perfect ‘just below the knee’ level required for easy walking “These look nice, thanks Eret”

“No problem” he chuckles, putting in some fancy earrings while Niki swaps out pink studs for black topaz ones “Should I take these or the blue ones?”

“Take both, who’s stopping you?” Niki snorts, scooping up more earrings to inspect. Ranboo walks over and peeks into the case while Niki and Eret argue over a necklace, carefully picking up a dangling golden pair of cuffs and letting it flop over his fingers as he examines them. He can’t help but hold them up in a mirror up on the case next to him, glittering metal looking quite nice beside the black side of his mask as he slips the cuff part on as best he can. They reflect the soft glowing purple of his mask’s small filters, making them shimmer in his hold and captivating him in the best way possible

“I want earrings.” he blurts, Niki and Eret stopping their squabble to look over at him

“You can get them if you want??” Eret puzzles, tilting his head in confusion “These are technically worthless now”

“No, like-” Ranboo tugs at his scarred earlobe with a scowl, huffing a little “I want to get my ears pierced.”

“Really?” Niki asks, coming up beside him and looking at his reflection with him. She expertly fixes the cuff with a small smile, holding up the attached moon to where a piercing would be and humming in thought “I can see it” she nods, tilting her head a little as she mentally calculates something “But it’d be months before you can wear something this style, otherwise you’ll stretch out your ears or damage them. There are some cool studs you can wear in the meantime though, if you’re okay waiting”

“I mean I would be” Ranboo agrees, letting her take off the cuffs and put them in his hand “But where on earth am I going to get my ears pierced in this day and age??”

Niki smiles at him, sweet and feral as she pats his shoulder.

“Oh don’t you worry about that” she purrs

“Ponk!! I’m doing body stuff again, just giving you a heads up!!” Niki informs as she pops into the mattress store that was their current base, having moved in a few days ago “Sorry in advance!”

“...I’m too sick to deal with this bullshit” Ponk groans, weakly pulling a pillow over his head and nestling closer to Sam sat beside him reading one of Callahan’s novels “Just don’t do anything in the mouth, alright?”

“I’m getting a barbell.” Sapnap immediately pipes up with a shit-eating grin “On my tongue.”

“IF THE FOLLOWING INFECTION DOESN’T KILL YOU I WILL.”

“Fine, no mouth stuff” Niki agrees with a roll of her eyes, digging through her bag and pulling out a small booklet she shoved in her back pocket, as well as a small plastic box “If anyone else wants a new piercing then let’s go”

“Can I get bellybutton one?” Skeppy asks, raising his hand from his bed

“I can try-”

“Absolutely the fuck not.” Ponk snaps, muffled under his pillow “Niki I swear to god-”

“Fucking hell mom, fine” the teen complains, throwing her head back with a groan “I’m not even using a sewing needle this time-”

“YOU USED A WHAT LAST TIME?!” Ponk shouts, looking up and groaning as his headache grows from the sudden movement, rubbing at his forehead

“I think you should just go while you can” Sam encourages, rubbing soothing circles on Ponk’s back as the man whimpers in pain

“Will do Sammy boy!” Niki salutes, jogging back outside where Eret and Ranboo waited.

“Who’s getting a piercing?” Sapnap asks, he, Skeppy, Callahan and Puffy trailing out after her

“Ranboo is!” Eret announces, patting the boy on the back “First one!”

“Awww!” Puffy coos, elbowing Ranboo playfully “Baby’s first piercing! What are you getting? I think you’d pull off an eyebrow bar pretty well”

“J-just my ears for now” he stammers “I really like the dangly earrings but I don’t have piercings”

“Ooh” Puffy winces “Uh, you have to wear studs for the first couple months-”

“So my ears don’t stretch” Ranboo nods “Niki told me. I’m okay with that, they’ll still look cool”

“Another person in the pierced gang!” Sapnap cheers, resting his non spiked bat up on a shoulder “Who else is left to convert?”

“I think just George” Skeppy snorts “We can peer pressure him”

“And Sam and Callahan too” Sapnap reminds, Callahan turning with a puzzled look

““I have a piercing?”” he informs ““As does Sam, he just never wears it””

“He what?!” Eret shouts, dumbfounded

“What?! No way!!” Puffy exclaims over the clamor of everyone else “Samuel has a piercing?! Where, his ears are closed!”

““Somewhere”” Callahan replies vaguely “But it exists-””

“IS IT ON HIS DICK?!” Skeppy blurts, making everyone crack up and Callahan swat at the man “CAL PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW”

““No not there-””

“Please tell me it’s his nipples” Puffy cackles “Please Cal that’ll be so funny-”

“No no we’ve seen him change, they’re not there” Sapnap reminds “Also, where do you have a piercing?? I’ve literally never seen you-” Callahan lowers his navy mask, opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue, revealing a shiny, steel ball in the middle of his tongue “NO FUCKING WAY!!”

“Did you guys not know that?” Niki giggles as a smug Callahan shows off the accessory to a curious Ranboo

“He never talks!!” Sapnap shrieks, gesturing at the man “How was I supposed to find out, when he eats?!” He turns to Callahan “When did you get that?”

““Around last year?”” he guesses with a shrug ““Party dare””

“This is hilarious” Skeppy laughs “I can’t believe Cal of all people has a tongue piercing that literally no one will ever see” Callahan wheezes in amusement, pulling his mask back up “Okay, but where are we going? Surely we’re far enough for you to stick a needle in Ranboo without Ponk seeing us”

“We’re at a mall!” Niki exclaims, leading them down another hall “Which means if I followed the directory correctly, we should finddddd- There!” she points to a purple sign down the hall a little, Sapnap cracking up when he realized where Niki was leading them

“Oh I could totally get a belly button piercing here” Skeppy snorts as they enter the Claire’s, surprised to find it completely empty

“You can get any kind of piercing here!” Eret laughed, pulling down the grate just in case once they were all inside.

Niki heads off to the back to search for whatever she needed, the rest of them splitting off to look over the shelves of clothes and walls of jewelry. Puffy keeps to Ranboo’s side, the two of them looking over necklaces and chokers.

“So how many are you planning on?” Puffy asks

“Hmm?”

“Piercings” she clarifies, tapping her own decorated ear “One ear, both, one piercing each or more running up, mix and match” she lists off “Do you want to go up beyond the lobe to actual cartilage or stick with something easy?”

“Uhhhh… easy?” Ranboo tries, smiling nervously from under his mask “Well, I kinda want two in each ear, I think that’d be cool… unless it hurts too much, then I might only get one”

“Two is solid” Puffy hums, nodding a little “So do you know which studs you want? You’ll have to wear them for like two months straight”

“There’s a lot to pick from” he sighs, looking over the dusty packages “I’m not sure which ones to use”

The two go back and forth over the studs on display, Puffy explaining more in depth about the process and which ones would be best to start off with. They finally settle on four different pairs, one for each possible piercing. Silver and gold ball studs, as well as a “ruby” pair and “emerald” pair, to match his glasses. Ranboo nervously takes his choices up to the table Niki was setting up at, dumping the packages on the white surface. She looks at the jewelry with some surprise, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

“How many piercings do you want??” she sputters

“Ran’s getting four” Puffy tells her with a grin, slinging an arm around the taller teen’s shoulder “Two on each side” Sapnap lets out a low, impressed whistle

“Damn, now I want double piercings” he chuckles, hopping up on the counter “Niki, can I get another one?”

“Why not?” she shrugs, patting the stool next to her “You’ll be my test run”

“Test run?? For what-”

“I have a gun now!” she cackles, holding up a light purple piercing gun “Hold still-”

“No way!! I’d prefer a sewing needle again!!” Sapnap yelps, covering his ears protectively

“I do have actual piercing needles...” Niki muses, looking over at a wrapped parcel on the table

“I will take the needle!” Sapnap begs

“Ranboo, do you want the gun or needle?” Niki asks “Gun would be quick but I’d sort of be winging it since I’ve never used one. Needle I know how to do a little better, but you can’t move or else it’ll come out crooked”

“Like mine” Sapnap tells him, pointing at his black studs, the one on the left a little higher than the other

“Or we could try both” Puffy suggests, rubbing Ranboo’s back comfortingly “See which one you prefer”

“Or both” Niki agrees, picking up a marker and uncapping it, gesturing for Sapnap to bend down a little “I’ll show you how the needle goes” she marks a little dot on Sapnap’s left ear after wiping it down, a little behind and above the original before letting him see in the mirror “Like that or more?” she asks him

“There’s good” he agrees, handing her the package he’d selected. Niki ups her stool a little more, pulling on gloves and preparing a needle by wiping it down with an alcohol pad and running a flame from her lighter under it while Sapnap takes a seat.

“Alright Boo, here’s how its done okay?” Niki explains, tugging on Sapnap’s earlobe “I sanitized the area and then I mark the spot where I’m gonna put the earring in. You get the starter stud ready to go, clean that off too so there’s less chance of an infection” she wipes off the orange jeweled stud and sets it aside to be ready “Then comes the piercing part” she continues, holding up the needle to Sapnap’s earlobe “And its one, two, three- deep breath!” Sapnap inhales and braces, wincing a little as the needle is pushed through his ear but holding still all the same “There we go. Now, we put the earring in the needle,” she sets the stud in the hollow of the needle, carefully pushing it through and settling the jewelry against skin, pulling off the needle and popping in the back “Push it through, clean it off and viola!” She wipes off the new earring with a cotton ball and cleaning solution she had at the ready “New piercing!”

““Looking good”” Callahan compliments, making Sapnap smile proudly before he turns back to Niki and Ranboo

“It doesn’t hurt too much, it’s like a pinch” Sapnap reassures, checking his reflection in the mirror and tilting his head to better see his new accessory, pushing hair back for it to be clear “Just don’t touch it with your fingers or it might get infected”

“Just the one or both?” Niki asks him

“Just the one” he nods, hopping off the stool and patting it invitingly “Alright buddy, your turn”

“O-okay” Ranboo murmured, going over to take a seat, anxiously tying his hair back out of the way like Eret had done for him before and taking off his colored glasses

“Alright! He’s doing it!” Skeppy cheers, he, Eret and Callahan having come over to watch

“You got this buddy” Eret encourages, Callahan giving him two thumbs up in equal sentiment

“You said four right?” Niki hums, replacing her gloves with a new pair and tearing open a new alcohol pad “Two on each side like I have and Sapnap half has?” she taps a filter on his mask “Also, need this off too Ran, just in case”

“I have it too” Skeppy huffs, tilting his head so the silver ball and blue jewel in his left ear are better seen

“You’re only one ear, you don’t count” Eret snorts, smacking the back of his head lightly. The two start bickering while Niki cleans off the four earrings Ranboo wants, setting them aside to be ready to go.

“We’ll go with the gun first” Niki tells the younger, explaining her process once again as he nervously fidgets with his mask in his lap, flinching at the cold wetness of the alcohol on his ear “It’s already cleaned off and once we have these all wiped off-” she tosses the pad aside and uncaps the marker, drawing four little dots on his ears, two on each side “We mark the spots and line them up” She tilts his face up by the chin, inspecting her work before nodding, satisfied, and pointing at the mirror while she figures out how to load up an earring. “Make sure that’s where you want them”

“Yeah, that works” Ranboo confirms, both nervous and giddy as he sees the black dots on his earlobes, too excited to even care that his face was uncovered.

“I’ll start on your left ear first, so pick an earring” she orders, reading over the instruction pamphlet that came with the device. He points at the silver stud and watches her load it in, allowing Niki to move his head where she needed to line up the machine “Okay, ready?”

“I think so” he agrees, wringing his shirt anxiously

“Do you want Puffy to hold your hand?” She asks, looking at his worried expression “No shame in it, Bad did the same thing”

“Yes please.”

“Alright Boober” Puffy chuckles, leaning across the table and holding out a hand he immediately grabs “Just relax kiddo. You can back out whenever you want, there are some nice clip-ons you can get instead”

“N-no. I want to” he resolves, squeezing her hand in his own gloved one “I can do it.”

“Okay, I’m lining it up” Niki warns, hovering the needle over the first black dot “Ready?”

“Yes.”

“One, two, three- deep breath!” Ranboo shakily inhales and feels a sharp pinch thump against his ear with a startling ‘chunk’, exhaling as he feels the gun be pulled away “Good job Ran, you did lovely!” Niki praises, spraying the earring with cleaning solution and wiping it off “You held nice and still. Now is the needle version okay?”

“Okay” he breathes out, calming himself down. It wasn’t that bad, certainly not as bad as he’d imagined, just surprising. Niki cleans off a new needle from the package and pulls on his ear again, stretching out his earlobe

“Alright, same thing just a little longer okay?” Niki reassures, lining up the needle “Ready?”

“Yeah. Go for it.”

“Okay Boo. One, two, three- deep breath!” Ranboo inhales again, squeezing Puffy’s hand and forcing himself to hold still as the same sharp pinch pricks his ear, although surprisingly a little less painful this time. Niki quickly slips through the second stud like she had with Sapnap, putting the needle down and clipping the back on “And done! You did awesome!!” Ranboo exhales and shakes his head a little, earlobe throbbing with a dull ache. Irritating, but he’d dealt with worse. “You wanna see?” She asks, gesturing at the mirror.

Ranboo braces himself before looking, making sure not to stare at the jagged scar on his cheek as he looks at his new earrings. He can’t help the smile on his face though, tilting his head a little to better catch the sunlight streaming in from the hall, silver and gold glinting dully on his ear. It looks nice.

He looks nice.

“I like ‘em” he chuckles, unable to look away from the decorations and ignoring how the others snicker at his preening, carefully tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear “They look pretty”

“Yeah, they’re nice” Sapnap agrees with a nod “How was the gun?”

“I think I liked the needle better” he admits, pulling back and turning in his seat so Niki can do his other ear “It hurt a little less, and the gun was loud”

“Alright, needle it is!” Niki hums, cleaning the needle off again for good measure before pausing “Actually… Sapnap, am I supposed to-” she gestures to Ranboo’s right ear vaguely, Sapnap coming over to look

“Hmm? Oh yeah...” he mumbled, frowning a little as he sees what she’s referring to “I have no idea dude”

“What’s wrong?” Puffy asks, walking around to see what they were conflicted about

“I don’t know if I’m supposed to pierce scar tissue” Niki explains, running a gloved thumb over Ranboo’s ear, ringed with burns “It’ll be okay right?”

“I mean the actual earrings are on the tiny un-scarred part of of his ear, so it’s probably fine” Puffy rationalizes, pointing at the little dots among the small part that weren’t burnt or scarred over “Ran do you wanna try?”

“Mmhmm” he nods, shoving down the well of insecurities threatening to spill over, refusing to let his burns scare him off from something he wanted “I want them”

“Okay!” Niki chirps cheerfully, bringing up the needle again “Hold still!!” Ranboo yelps at the suddenness, hand shooting out for something to grab and latching on to the first hand he found, which happened to belong to Sapnap

“Bro, you’ve done this two times already” Sapnap laughed, but squeezed his hand anyway in a reassuring manner

“It’s only two more” Skeppy teased, playing catch with a ball he’d found on a shelf with Eret and Callahan “You can do that right?” Ranboo said nothing for fear of moving, simply glaring at the man as best he can from his position

“I wish I could take a picture of that” Puffy wheezes out, laughing over the table as Niki snorts

“Alrighty, ready?” Niki asked

“Yep!”

“One, two, three- deep breath!”

Ranboo does as he’s told, holding still as the needle pierces his skin despite the sting. Niki sets in the red stud first, humming quiet praise as she immediately starts on the other. Ranboo gets one more warning followed by another pinch and soon Niki is finished, peeling off her gloves and patting Ranboo on the head after cleaning his new pair of piercings off.

“You look dashing!” she compliments, holding up the mirror for him to see “Very cool”

“Ooh yeah, I like the colors” Eret agrees, having seen the new earrings “That’s actually really cool Ranboo!”

Ranboo puffs up a little at his reflection, for once not put off by the scars marring his cheek and right half of his neck since he was too distracted by the bright red and green glittering in his ear. They just feel right on him, tilting his head back and forth to see both sets of studs and adoring how they look on him.

“I take it you like them?” Puffy chuckles, seeing the wide-eyed expression of awe on the teen’s face

“I do” he giggles, beaming widely as he re-clips a white lock of hair behind an ear, still staring at his reflection “I like them a lot actually” He turns to Niki with a grin “Thank you, I really really like them”

“No problem at all!” Niki dismissed, waving a hand as she blushes “You can put your mask and glasses back on, just try not to snag them on your studs okay? I’ll show you how to take care of them so they don’t get infected and believe me it is very easy to do that.” she picks up a pair of clamps and turns to Sapnap with a feral smile of her own “Okay Sappynap! You’re gonna help me do a septum on myself!!”

“I’M GONNA WHAT NOW?!”

Dream hums a little tune as he heads down the tile portion of the main hall, hopping between the tile lines and lazily swinging his axe around as he skips. Ranboo trails behind him with his currently empty wagon, glasses perched up on his head so he could properly see in the terrible lighting the skylights provided.

“What are we looking for again?” Ranboo asks, peering into different stores they pass.

He shudders when something seems to peer back from inside one of the shops, too human eyes hungrily watching them pass and making the teen speed up a little to walk beside the unconcerned blonde. He suddenly misses Bad and Skeppy’s playful bickering behind him, much too aware of their absence since they’d stayed behind in a different section to loot.

“Anything edible, seeing as how we’re gonna be stuck here for the next two weeks at the very least” Dream replies, huffing a little in annoyance “Which is gonna suck, considering malls have very little food to begin with, let alone non-perishables”

“Are we gonna have to ration?” he questions, already calculating how much he had in his stash and how long he could make it last. He has not missed that habit, irritated by how quickly and easily it comes back to him.

“Probably” Dream sighs, running a hand through his hair “But we should have enough already and be able to scrounge something up from in here to keep us going until Ponk is strong enough to leave”

“Junk food binging, yayyyyy” Ranboo drawls, following Dream inside a store to steal all the front register snacks.

They wander around some more, swapping out clothes for new, cleaner items while dodging zombies hidden among the racks. Dream is trying on new shoes, Ranboo swinging the blonde’s battle axe around to try and get a feel for it. It’s a lot heavier than it looks, than Dream makes it seem. The teen wonders just how strong their leader is if he was able to effortlessly swing this weapon around without much struggle.

“Don’t go breaking stuff” Dream chides, lacing up the latest pair of shoes he was trying on “And don’t go cutting yourself either, I’m not doing another amputation”

“I’m not gonna break anything” Ranboo huffs, eyes going wide as his grip slips a little and he barely manages to catch in before it goes flying away, slamming into boxes of shoes instead “...oops”

“Okay, you’re no longer allowed to touch my axe” Dream snorts, going over and taking the weapon from him “You don’t even know how to fight with it”

“I could!” Ranboo argues indignantly

“Ran, you probably couldn’t even throw a solid punch with your limp noodle arms” he teases back “Let alone use Nightmare to kill something”

“...you named your axe?”

“Shut the fuck up.” Dream grumbles, tips of his ears flushing red as Ranboo stifles laughter “Good weapons get names okay? That’s like a rule”

“Sure Dream. Whatever you say”

“I don’t wanna hear it from you long boy” the blonde hisses, flashing a sharp grin as Ranboo squawks in offense “Seriously. Have you ever punched someone??”

“Have you??” Ranboo shrieks. Dream simply stares at him with a deadpan expression, gesturing to himself exasperatedly “Of course you have. Why wouldn’t you have?” he mutters, crossing his arms with a pout “I’m the weird one here not having hit anyone”

“To be fair, I took martial arts as a kid before switching to Track and Parkour, so I have a bit of experience with sparring” Dream snickers, shrugging a little “...but yeah I kinda used all of that in school fights” he admits with a laugh, holding up a palm “Come on, give me your best shot”

“Are you sure?” Ranboo worries, lowering his hands “I don’t think-”

“Just hit me” Dream sighs impatiently “I severely doubt you’ll be able to do any damage” Ranboo frowns and draws an arm back, hand curling into a fist before swinging.

It lands solidly in the center of Dream’s palm, Ranboo starting to smile proudly.

“See! I told you- Ack!” he yelps as Dream’s free hand lashes out and smacks the side of his head, making him stumble back more in surprise than pain, the hit not really hurting anything more than his pride “What the hell-”

“What?” Dream purrs, looking smug “You didn’t think I was gonna stand here and let you hit me right?” Ranboo scowls at him, Dream waving his left palm tauntingly “Try again” Ranboo carefully approaches the blonde, eyeing Dream’s other hand warily before slowly raising his fist again. Dream lunges forward and smacks his forehead, startling a cry out of him “Stay focused. Don’t just look at one thing or you’ll get blindsided by something else”

“This is bullying” Ranboo complains, stepping forward to try again and swinging “You’re bullying me-” He stumbles as Dream easily sidesteps him, pushing his fist aside and smacking his head again

“Think of it as character development” Dream chuckles, dancing to his side and grinning as Ranboo nearly falls “Come on, you can do it!”

Ranboo grumbles but turns again, aiming for Dream’s gloved palm once more. This time he’s ready for the side hand, bringing up an arm to shield his face and smiling when his arm is hit instead of his head

“Ha! I got it-” he feels something jab into his stomach, doubling over a little with a wheeze

“I told you to focus~” Dream sing-songed, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he takes this time to smack the back of Ranboo’s head “Never take your eyes off of me” he instructs, side-stepping so fast Ranboo can’t keep up and getting a playful prod in his side for it “And get off your heels, it’ll help you move better”

Ranboo mimics Dream, shifting his weight and hop-stumbling back as Dream swipes at him, surprised at how easy it was to re-gain his balance.

“Hands up, always” Dream orders, putting his hands up in front of his face and Ranboo awkwardly mirroring him “Always protect your head, you need that shit” He darts forward and tries to hit the teen, Ranboo instinctively blocking the blow and stepping back “There we go, keep moving. Make it an absolute pain in the ass for me to hit you” Dream encourages, swinging again and Ranboo dodges, ducking the hook and popping up a little further off, bouncing a little on his feet.

They go back and forth for a while, Dream trying to poke Ranboo and Ranboo doing his best to dodge, starting to get into a rhythm of hopping and weaving.

“Alright, now that you’ve got the important part somewhat down, time for the fun part” Dream chuckles darkly, lowering his hands and Ranboo doing the same “When you get in a fight, where do you aim? Above or below the belt?”

“Above?” the teen guesses and Dream makes a buzzer sound, making an X with his arms

“Nope! Everything you know about fighting fair? Throw that out the fucking window.” Dream orders sternly “These aren’t tournaments, they’re not boxing matches- it’s life or death. You aim for whatever the hell you can and if that means getting rid of someone’s ability to reproduce so be it” he huffs “You hit their weakest spots, go for anything you can. Hair, clothes, legs, scars or old injuries- it’s all fair game in a situation like that” he steps forward and taps Ranboo’s nose “Aim for their eyes, ears and throat, don’t worry about how gross in might be, just go for it. If you have your knife, go for the neck-” he taps the side Ranboo’s throat before grabbing his arm and lifting it, making a slashing motion under his armpit “Under the arm” he taps the inside of Ranboo’s thigh “Or inside their leg. That’s where the arteries are. One good cut and they’ll bleed out within minutes”

“Really?” Ranboo exclaims, looking under his arm in surprise

“Yep!” Dream confirms “Use your nails, teeth- anything to make them hurt or let you go. In a real fight it doesn’t matter about “rules” or whatever. Go fucking feral. Give them total hell, got it?” Ranboo nods “So! Where do you aim for?”

“Weak spots” Ranboo sputters “Um, eyes, ears and neck. Old injuries- h-hair you said?”

“Yeah, you just-” he reaches out and grabs Ranboo by the scalp, firm but not too harsh, pulling a little. Ranboo yelps as he’s dragged along, scrabbling at Dream’s hand to make him let go “Like that” he snorts, still pulling him around “They get your hair and they can drag you like a puppet. How do you fix that?”

“I don’t know!” Ranboo screeches, stumbling around and still swatting at Dream expertly keeping him at arm’s length “Stab them?!”

“You take away their power” Dream corrects, shaking Ranboo’s head a little “I hold you out like this I can do whatever I want, how do you turn that on me?” he keeps moving the teen around, Ranboo clinging to the hand in his hair to try and wrestle out “Come on Ran, you can do it. You’re out there, I’m over here. I control you, but you also control me, right?”

Ranboo pauses, thinking for a moment before rushing in close, Dream’s arm folding and unable to yank properly before Ranboo jabs an elbow into the blonde’s stomach, forcing him to let go.

“Like that?” Ranboo pants, rubbing at his head while Dream clutches his stomach

“That was fast” Dream chuckles, straightening back up “Yup! Get in close and hit, they’ll usually lose their control” he swats at the teen again, snorting as Ranboo dodges and backs away “Of course, the best thing to do in a situation like that is just run. But if you can’t, aim for weak spots, use everything at your disposal and never let them know you have a knife until the last second when you stab them. Okay?”

“Okay” Ranboo nods, following the blonde out the store, the two still play-sparring with each other as they head down the hall

Ranboo spots Puffy walking around in a jewelry store, examining displays and trailing a hand over dusty and bloodied glass cases. She looks up as she hears Ranboo approach, tense frown softening into a smile when she recognizes him and waves the teen over.

“Hey kiddo” she hums “What’s up?”

“Nothing” he shrugs, peering inside a glass case and eyeing the glittering necklaces on display. Wearing too many bracelets had started to bother him but necklaces? He was certain he could wear countless layers of them if Eret hadn’t begged him to take some off. It only got worse when Niki had foolishly introduced him to the idea of chokers, one such simple black band currently around his throat. “I’m supposed to come find people cause it’s dinner time” he looks up at the skylights, windows sure enough a slightly darker shade of blue than a while ago “Also, Skeppy thinks he’s managed to boot up the DDR machine outside camp, so we’re having a tournament later if he can, that or a Bop It marathon”

“Ooh!” Puffy exclaims “That sounds fun!”

“Mmhmm” he nods, calculating how to smash open the display “So what are you up to? More jewelry? You really are a pirate captain, you have so much treasure already”

“A-ah” Puffy flushes, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly “No- s-sort of? Um, I’m kinda looking for...something...for… Niki...” she peters off near the end, mumbling so quietly Ranboo can barely make out what she’s saying

“Oh, cool!” Ranboo exclaims “Like fancy earrings or something? I saw her looking at some pink ones earlier when we passed, although I like the pretty white rainbow looking ones- Opal I think they are? Those are also nice-”

“I wanna propose to her!” Puffy blurts, cheeks a bright scarlet “There! I said it! Oh god I finally got that off my chest…”

Ranboo blinks at her owlishly for a few moments, glancing down at the display Puffy had been looking at before he came over and finally realizing that the woman had been looking at the rings, rows of silver, gold and platinum glittering his stupidity back at him.

“...Oh” he says dumbly “You and Niki are...” he gestures vaguely with a hand

“Yes. No.” Puffy contradicts, burying her red face in her hands “Sort of? I think??” she lets out a muffled groan of anguish before peeking up at the teen “It- I don’t know. It’s complicated.”

“...you’re proposing and you don’t even know if you’re dating??” Ranboo puzzles, a little lost

“Not like proposing proposing!” Puffy panics, somehow turning impossibly redder at the thought “Neither of us are anywhere near that level of ready yet. I-I just wanted to give her a promise ring, f-for the future… if she wants...” She squats and hangs her head between her knees with a sigh “She’s gonna say no isn’t she.”

“I mean she likes you?” Ranboo weakly offers “And I know you two are close-”

“Yes but girlfriend close or just friendly close?!” Puffy groans “Ohhhh I’m gonna fuck this all up. Forget it. I was having a weak lesbian moment, this never happened. I am a strong independent butch. I don’t need a gorgeous, kick-ass, pyromaniac, bisexual girlfriend I would die for-” she fully flops down face first into the carpet, letting out a muffled scream “...god I’m hopeless...”

“Well, I mean if you think you have a chance...” Ranboo encourages gently “You should probably shoot your shot while you can” Puffy peers up at him, blowing a stray curl out of her face as she huffs “You might not get another chance after all” Puffy seems to consider it, biting the inside of her cheek a little as she ponders "...How old are you?"

"Twenty?" she mumbles into the carpet "Why?"

"Just making sure." He replies, not looking at her. Puffy snorts.

"What was your age limit??"

"I dunno, like twenty-six?"

"Alright valid" She huffs "What were you gonna do anyway if I was that old??"

“...do you want me to help you find a ring?”

“...yes please” she admits, picking herself off the floor. She uses her pistol to shatter open cases, Ranboo subtly swiping an opal pendant from a display and stuffing it in a pocket before turning back to the problem at hand

“Do you know what size her fingers are?” Ranboo asks, picking up a golden band to examine

“Of course I do” Puffy snorts, almost offended “I’m thinking something simple, not flashy. I-it’s just a promise ring after all, I can get a better one when I actually propose- I’m moving too fast. Focus Puffster, focus.” she scolds herself, shaking her head “Promise ring. Simple. Pretty. That’s it.” Ranboo snickers a little, handing over a wide platinum band with a single diamond in the center.

They go back and forth for a while, Ranboo picking out rings among the glass and Puffy examining them with a brutal criticism. They finally settle on a matching pair Ranboo had found in a different case, one band thinner with a solid heart on top, and the other it’s match, a wider band with a heart-shaped hole in the center of it. The rings interlock perfectly and Puffy can’t stop smiling as she stares at the silver accessories in her palm.

“It fits Niki’s style” Ranboo says, looking down at the rings with her “I think she’ll like it”

“You really think so?” Puffy frets, smile now a bit nervous

“Mmhmm” he nods, patting her elbow reassuringly “You can do this!”

“I can do this” Puffy repeats, carefully putting the rings in her pocket so she doesn’t lose them “Okay.” She takes a deep breath and seems to calm down, turning to Ranboo with a fond expression “Thanks Ranboo, I probably would’ve chickened out without you. You really are the beloved”

“It was no problem” he flusters, feeling his ears heat up “Really!”

“Well, either way, thank you” she hums “Now come on, you said something about dinner?”

“OH MY GOD I FORGOT ABOUT DINNER”

Ranboo has no idea if what he’s eaten can even constitute as a proper meal, certain that a bag of chips, half a can of corn and warm soda probably wasn’t the best thing to eat. But food was beginning to dwindle and he wasn’t about to complain about what he could get, especially when it meant he could eat candy bars as a “meal” since snacks were the only thing in abundance.

It was better than what he’s had in the past anyway.

Besides, food was the last thing on his mind at the minute, intensely focused on the Bop It in his hands so he wouldn’t mess up the streak they had going

“Bop It! Twist It! Twist It! Pull It! Bop It! Bop It! Pass It!” Ranboo practically throws the toy into Sapnap’s hands as it plays its little tune for only a few seconds while Sapnap fumbles “Bop It!” Sapnap slams a hand against the center, all of them screaming as he tries to keep up with the rapid fire instructions and not drop it. It goes through a few more people, George being the one to end it when the toy doesn’t recognize his hit “Aww! You lost!” the toy mocks as George lets out a furious screech

“I Bopped it you bitch!!”

“Better luck next time! New! High Score! One-Hundred! And, eighty- Nine!”

“Only one eighty-nine?!” Sam complains, for once actually interacting with his friends again instead of sticking by Ponk. “How?!”

“I still say it’s rigged” Ponk hums, finally feeling well enough to be up and about and leaning against the DDR machine Skeppy had actually figured out how to turn on and was currently battling Eret to ‘Stamp on the Ground’, both sets of feet a blur. Ponk’s injured arm is up in a sling fashioned out of a scarf someone had brought back, actual stump wrapped up in soft, clean white gauze as it stays up by his chest “You’re not getting past two-hundred”

“Another go!!” Puffy cheers from where she’s sat over by the wall with Niki, the two of them practically glowing with giddiness and wearing a new set of matching rings on their left hands, quite comfortable in the nest of blankets and pillows they’d made “You can do it!!”

“Yeah!!” Niki encourages, clapping a little “Two-hundred here we come!!”

“I want everyone to fucking focus” Sapnap ordered, the circle of people stretching limbs out and looking way too serious for a game of Bop It “Focus like your life damn near depends on it”

“Language!” Bad called from where he was watching Eret and Skeppy

“LET’S GOOOOO!!!” Eret whooped as Skeppy doubles over the bar, panting for air “I win!!”

“By seven fucking points” Skeppy whines, Eret also promptly doubling over to take in heaving breaths

“Geppy.” Bad warns

“Sorry, sorry-”

“Move over losers!!” Puffy cackles, getting up from her nest and rushing up to the game “Bad! You and me muffin boy!! I’ll kick your ass!!”

“Language!” Bad scolds, hopping up on the console as Skeppy and Eret stumble off with an almost cocky smile “And you can certainly try Captain”

“Oh it’s on!!”

A new song starts playing from the machine as they start up a new round, Eret chatting with Ponk as they both watched and Skeppy going over to recover with Niki, plopping down on a pillow she offered him to watch the chaos of the Bop It marathon. The game starts getting more and more intense, people shouting and yelling incomprehensibly as it gets faster and faster, toy getting passed around in a blur. It’s no longer calling out commands, only making the associated sounds for them to react to. Dream hurriedly turns the yellow knob when it whistles, looking horrified as he registers it was the wrong command mid-move

“Nooooo!!” he groans, crumpling to the floor as others groan in equal disappointment, holding up the talking Bop It in defeat

“Dream!!” Sam cries

“I’m sorryyyy” the blonde whines “It was an accident!! My hand slipped-”

“New! High Score!” The Bop It calls out, everyone quickly shushing as they wait for the score “Two- hundred! And- One!”

“FUCK YES!!” Sapnap shouted, grabbing the nearest person, Ranboo, and shaking him by the shoulders excitedly “TWO HUNDRED BABY!!”

“WE DID IT!!” Sam cheered as everyone celebrated, jumping around in pure satisfaction at having broken the goal of two-hundred

“Let’s go!!” Dream laughs, spinning George and Callahan around in glee

““Now to try and beat it”” Callahan signs with a huff and a grin

“YOU CAN BEAT BOP IT?!” Eret shrieks

““Did you not know that??”” he puzzles

“No?!” everyone choruses in amazement

“Guess what we’re doing tonight boys!!” Sapnap challenges, twirling the toy as Skeppy and Niki join the circle.

Ranboo has no idea what time it is when they finally beat the game, everyone so exhausted by their victory that they went straight to bed, most people simply plopping down on the nearest mattress without caring who was already on it. He already knows his voice will be sore in the morning, too tired and giddy to really care about that as he curls up closer to who he thinks might be Niki passed out beside him.

He certainly doesn’t care when an arm slips over his waist in what must be an instinctive move, the presence comforting and he quickly falls asleep.

“Thanks for coming out with me” Ranboo hums, hands behind his back as he hops over a legless torso in the hall, making sure the zombie didn’t snag his pink skirt before continuing “You didn’t have to”

“Nah, I’m the only one who probably knew what Ponk wants you to get” Sam snorts, throwing a tennis ball on ahead for Fran to go chasing after “And he’s right, I kinda need to get out of the store” he admits, running a hand through his hair “I’ve been so worried about him I’ve barely left. I think he’s starting to get annoyed with me to be honest”

“You have been clingy lately” Ranboo teases, easily dodging Sam’s swipe at him with a laugh “What?! You have!”

“You don’t have to point it out!!” Sam shrieks, currently maskless face flushing a little. He bends down to ruffle Fran’s ears, wrestling the ball from her mouth and throwing it again “Besides, Fran also needed to get out for a walk, poor girl has been stuck inside this past week or so”

“Yeah, she seems happier” Ranboo agrees, watching the excited pit bull run around with zoomies, darting in and out of stores.

The two keep chatting as they walk, eventually coming up to some sort of sport store, Sam heading to the aisle where braces and support gear was.

“Okay, I found the sleeves Ponk told me to get” Sam informs, snatching off boxes and ripping them open “Elbow, ankle and a spare knee. Has the brace been working so far?”

“Yeah, actually” Ranboo nods, taking a seat on the floor and pulling off his right boot “It’s helped a lot, but that also might be because I haven’t been walking like fifteen miles a day”

“That’s good to hear” Sam hums, taking a few extra to keep in the med bag “You need help putting anything on?”

“The ankle brace is a bit confusing” Ranboo grumbles, peeling off his sock and wrinkling his nose “Ew. Okay do not come over here, jesus christ”

“Yeah, we all desperately need a bath” Sam chuckles as Ranboo figures out how to strap on the sleeve over his ankle, half of his foot and part of his heel poking out. He wiggles his foot a little, flexing the limb and moving it side to side “All good? Right size?”

“Mmm. It’s tight” he nods, putting his sock back on over it and looking satisfied “It fits though, nice and snug” he pulls out the elbow sleeve and slips it on, wiggling his arm through and tight, black fabric snug over a good chunk of his arm. “That is already starting to feel better” he sighs in relief, slowly flexing his arm and stretching it

“Oh look! They have shoulder braces!” Sam notes “You have issues with your shoulder?”

“Not as much as everything else” he admits, making grabby motions anyway “But if it means being able to carry my backpack without my entire right side ready to collapse I’ll take it”

“One shoulder brace coming up” Sam snickers, tossing him the box. The two of them sort of stare at the fabric once its out, neither sure on how to put it on “I think you have to wear it under your shirts”

“Damn it” Ranboo groans, standing up to pull off his hawaiian shirt and sweat stained tanktop he wore under it. He quietly runs a hand over the burns and scars stretching down his entire right side, messy and puckered as they disappear below his waist where he knew deeper ones marred his hips and leg. He tries not to stare, hating how his ruined skin felt under his fingers and hurriedly pulling his hand away to fiddle with his necklaces instead.

“Oh thank god you’re not a literal skeleton anymore” Sam snorts, startling Ranboo out of his thoughts

“Hmm?”

“You can barely see your ribs anymore” he points out, gesturing to Ranboo’s chest “And is that a little muscle on your arms?” he teases, poking Ranboo’s bicep and playfully jabbing the teen’s side “I actually think you might be getting abs boober!”

“R-really??” Ranboo sputters, looking back down at himself. Now that Sam had pointed it out, he realizes he was a little more toned than before, gaunt form having shifted into a slightly healthier lean and sure enough, ribs no longer as clearly visible through his skin. Bruises he doesn’t quite remember how he got litter his torso, left arm and both legs dotted with bandaids and more blotches earned by being reckless. A strange sense of pride starts to take over the disgust he feels, smiling a little as Sam squeezes his left bicep

“Your arms aren’t as noodly” Sam muses, inspecting Ranboo’s arm “You might actually be able to throw a proper punch here and there if you need to”

“What is it with you people trying to get me to punch others?” Ranboo scoffs, rolling his eyes a little as he tries to figure out how to put on the new brace

“Who gave you the ‘fight’ talk?” Sam laughs “Puffy, Niki or Dream?”

“Dream”

“Let me guess. Bite them and don’t let go until you see the light die in their eyes- wait. No that’s Niki’s talk...”

“Why do you all have the same advice of biting people?!” Ranboo shrieks

“Oh, no, you got the tame PG version with Dream” Sam exclaims “He just tells you to scratch, bite, dodge and run. Go for the weak spots or whatever. Niki and Puffy will graphically give you a step by step tutorial of how to gouge out someone’s eyes or bite through their jugular in case of an emergency” he shrugs a little, helping the stunned Ranboo loosen up the strap

“...I think I prefer the “slash their necks, sides and thighs” lesson I got” Ranboo quietly admits, wiggling his arm through the brace and helping Sam as best he can to wiggle the fabric up over his shoulder

“I mean it’s solid advice” Sam hums, tapping Ranboo’s left arm to get him to pull it through the strap, Ranboo holding his necklaces up to keep them from getting stuck while Sam pulls the brace across his chest and tightens it “It definitely works- is that too tight?”

“No, it’s good” he replies, wiggling the strap to fit more comfortably and adjusting the sleeve covering nearly half his right bicep so it wasn’t twisted awkwardly. He rolls his shoulder some, getting used to the pressure “Not bad actually”

“Yeah?” the man presses, moving the taller teen around a little to inspect him “Can you move okay?”

“Yep!” Ranboo confirms, swinging his arm and bending his knee to test his joints out “Good to go!”

“Hmm… throw a punch” Sam tells him “Or pretend I’m a zombie, make sure you can fight” Ranboo sighs and swings his right fist at Sam, both surprised and not when the man easily dodges and catches his wrist “That was a shit punch, the hell was that?”

“I don’t really get into fist fights with humans” Ranboo snorts “I’m more of the back away and hide type when it comes to confrontation”

“Okay, no” Sam huffs, shaking his head “No one in my group is not going to know how to at least throw a punch that won’t shatter their hand” he extends Ranboo’s arm and opens up his fist “First thing’s first- Thumb? Always have that on the outside of your fist or you’ll break it” he re-curls Ranboo’s fingers and tucks his thumb on the underside “Next up, wrist.” He straightens out the teen’s wrist and hand, shaking it a little “Always have your wrist as straight as possible when hitting, you want one line from your elbow to your knuckles, okay? This’ll make sure you don’t sprain or break your wrist while fighting”

“That wouldn’t be good” Ranboo agrees, keeping his hand stiff and straight like instructed

“Now, to actually throw the punch” Sam continues, shifting one of his feet behind him to plant his legs shoulder-width apart “First off, never have your back or chest facing your opponent” he informs, swinging a leg back around to fully face Ranboo “Try to push me” he tells him, Ranboo squinting in suspicion as he remembers Dream telling him something similar the other day before smacking him “Go on, I won’t do anything. Just shove”

“If you say so” the teen shrugs, pushing hard on Sam’s chest and making the other stumble

“See? Easy to knock you off balance right?” he says, also shoving Ranboo on the chest and making him step back to keep from tipping over, arms flailing a little “It also gives them a bigger target to hit so stance yourself sort of sideways” he turns so his side is directed at Ranboo, legs still planted shoulder-width apart “Now try to push me” Ranboo obeys and Sam hardly budges this time

Ranboo allows Sam to move him around like he wanted, ending up in a similar stance before the man falls in place beside him

“So, this makes me harder to hit?” Ranboo questions, bringing his hands up like Sam had and how Dream had warned, fists half formed and curled like Sam’s

“Smaller target and better balance” Sam nods, waving his right hand a little to catch his attention “This part is the actual punch. What you want is to bring all your weight and energy from your leg” he taps his thigh as he pivots in slow motion “Up your body, into your arm and out your fist” he finishes his swing with his arm extended before pulling it back in “Elbow to knuckle should be straight, keep your other arm up to shield your face and as tempting as it may be” He punches the air again, this time at a normal speed and Ranboo can tell even without Sam’s fist hitting anything just how painful it would be “Don’t close you eyes. Never take your eyes off your opponent. Ever.” he straightens back up and crosses his arms “Okay, now you try”

Ranboo mimics Sam as best he can, feeling clumsy compared to the near graceful way Sam had thrown a punch. The man quietly corrects little mistakes as he practices, offering advice and fixing the teen’s posture where he can.

“Not bad” Sam hums, nodding a little “You’re getting the hang of it. Remember, try to hit with your first two knuckles so you don’t break your hand. Pretend you have Wolverine claws or something coming out of them, you’re trying to stab your opponent with them. And keep your wrist straight!”

“Sorry” Ranboo winces, fixing his form and hitting his hand against Sam’s palm

“By the way, when you punch someone?” Sam recalls “It is going to hurt. Both of you. So just expect that if you ever have to hit someone- Dream told you about weak spots already, right?”

“Eyes, ears and throat”

“Throat yes” Sam agrees “Sucker punching someone’s windpipe can usually buy you a good amount of time done properly and it’s soft so it won’t hurt your hand too much. But the face? For the face aim for the mouth or jaw, maybe the eyes. I wouldn’t recommend hitting the nose since, again, you can break your hand if you do it incorrectly”

“What I’m learning is that my hand is very fragile to be throwing around to hit people with” Ranboo notes

“True” Sam chuckles “If you wanna play it safe, you can hit them with the heel of your palm” he takes Ranboo’s hand and taps the bone down at the heel where wrist met palm “Now that is gonna hurt like a bitch to get hit with, and there’s a lower chance of you breaking something using that. If you really wanna make it hurt though, there’s always the classic knee between the legs or a liver shot, which, fair game at that point” He pats a spot on his right side, just below his ribcage “If you can hit that sweet spot of someone’s liver, they are going to be down and out for the foreseeable future. So! Throat, jaw and mouth with a punch or palm-strike, avoid the nose and cheeks, maybe the eyes and hit their ears to disorient them.”

“What do I do if I can’t kick between the legs?” Ranboo asks and Sam frowns a little

“Like you can’t or you’re fighting a woman?”

“Both”

“Well if you’re fighting a chick you’re already screwed” Sam says with a shudder “They will quite literally claw your face off and waste no time in kneeing you in the crotch. Also they go for the hair so just… avoid fights with them if you can. Niki is a testament that no matter how small or weak they might seem, they will find a way to beat your ass out of pure spite if you try to fight the wrong one” he thinks about it a little, blush creeping up on his cheeks “Well… they do have something similar to a kick between the legs, less effective but it might buy you enough time to properly hit her”

“Really??”

“Yeah.” he clears his throat “According to Puffy, a punch to their chest usually does the trick. Quick boob hit and run, because they’ll be pissed after recovering”

“Good to know” Ranboo flushes “So, palm-hit or punch the face, punch the liver if I can and don’t fight a girl if I can help it”

“Remember to pivot” Sam reminds, twisting to throw a punch “Get all that weight into it”

“Got it got it” Ranboo nods, picking up his shirts and putting them back on “You mind giving me some more pointers back at camp? I want to make sure I remember”

“Of course!” Sam exclaims, looking excited “I’d love to! Oh, and before we forget, we should grab some of those squishy boot liners to walk around in”

“Ooh! Those sound comfy!” Ranboo agrees, following after Sam to look for the jelly soles, one foot still only socked and boot in hand as he walks

"It's not even that far, there's a side corridor connecting to this wing!" George argues, throwing his arms up "Everyone is out or busy at the minute, I can go by myself!!"

"I already said no, you're not going on your own" Dream scolds, not even looking up from the gear he was organizing

"It's been almost three weeks and you still haven't even given me back my knives!! You do realize how hard it would be to kill myself with just my arrows right??" Dream looks up with an indecipherable glare "...too soon?"

"I don't want anyone going out that far without someone else" Dream sighs "That section is nowhere near cleared and we almost had a Swarm when Sapnap, Bad and Eret went out there the other day"

"I'll be careful" George promises "There's gear in there we need, food and water we didn't manage to grab. Not to mention the ammo that needs to be restocked. Cal and I need more bolts, we lost too many in that Crowd, and everyone is low on bullets." Dream seems to be considering it "In and out, easy run. I'll be back before the sun even sets!"

"...fine" Dream grumbled, running a hand through his hair "But you're taking Ranboo with you"

"You're making me babysit?!"

"Ranboo is perfectly capable and you need the extra hands to carry gear" Dream hisses, pointing accusingly at the man "And for the last time, no one is going out that far without someone else so either you take him with you or your ass stays right here at camp. Your choice."

"...I'll take the kid" George mutters, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking at the floor

"Alright then" Dream nods, satisfied "RAN!!" Ranboo looks up from his claimed bed, currently reading something Callahan had picked out for him from the bookstore "Grab your stuff! George needs to head down to that hunting camping gear store across the mall to steal some gear and ammo!!"

Ranboo lights up excitedly, quickly saving his spot before hopping off the bed to go collect his things

"He better not get himself bit" George huffs, going to go grab his bow and almost empty quiver

"Be nice" Dream chides, turning back to his supplies "He can handle himself"

"Sure" George mumbled, slinging his pack over a shoulder "Take an extra bag!" He barks at the teen as he heads off to the entrance to wait "And bring your rifle while you're at it, we're gonna see if there's ammo for it down at the store!"

"Sweet!!" Ranboo cheers, empty satchel over a shoulder and a backpack in hand "I've been wanting to practice with it!"

Dream meets George's side glance and grins, winking at him before nodding towards the teen bounding over.

'Be nice' the blonde mouthed

George flips him off.

"Alright Boo boy, let's go" George sighs, pulling up the gate for Ranboo to duck under "I have a radio, we'll call if anything happens. If we're not back by dark- well, darker, assume we're dead and eaten."

"Wait what-" Ranboo starts

"Okay byeeeeee" George drawls, letting the gate drop with a clang

George and Ranboo head down the hall and through the corridor, George complaining about the mess of bodies littering the path as they weave through it. They eventually exit on the other side of the mall, ducking behind a directory to avoid the walking zombies. Ranboo sets off a loud, yipping toy dog in one of the stores to attract the Stragglers wandering the hall, making their trip a lot easier as they snuck around the distracted creatures. They finally arrive at the plaza at the end of the hall, sneaking into the big wood decorated entrance of a Bass Pro Shop.

"Keep an eye out for wanderers in the clothes" George warns, stringing his bow and notching an arrow he then fires into an approaching zombie. Ranboo draws his machete and gets to work helping clear the store a little, pulling racks over to block the entrance at least.

"So what are we looking for?" Ranboo asks, following the man down the aisles and quickly taking out an approaching Sprinter while George yanks out one of his arrows from a downed zombie's eye socket as he passes

"Arrows mainly" he replies, looking around for the archery section and heading over when he finds it "Callahan and I are running low and the handmade ones aren't as accurate. Some broadheads would be nice, and some spare strings, maybe an extra bow just in case"

"We really need to come down here and properly loot the place" Ranboo mumbles, taking in the nearly untouched store and the vast hunting and camping supplies free for the taking

"...yeah" George agrees, also taking a proper look around "The last team came down here to pick up camping meals and water before almost getting Swarmed outside, but we definitely could do with some of this gear. New sleeping bags, boots, backpacks, more food" he adjusts the glasses up on his head "But for now let's focus on weapons and ammo, we'll get a proper team over here later"

"Sounds good!" Ranboo agrees, looking around at the archery section "Wow! What are these?" He puzzles, picking up a compound bow hanging on a rack and examining it

"Compound" George informs, going over to the stacks of arrows a little further down and slinging off his backpack to shove as many as he can fit in "It's a type of bow, mainly for hunting. Better accuracy than the more traditional style bows"

"Why don't you use one of these? They look way cooler" the teen snorts, trying to pull back on the string and struggling

"Eh. I don't like the feel" George snorts, carefully examining broadheads and tossing them in his bag "I like sticking with my longbow, it's what I competed with… although I could take a recurve one as a spare though, might take me a while to get a proper feel for it-"

"Wait. Hold on" Ranboo sputtered "Backtrack- did you say competed?"

"Archery competitions, yeah" George hums, not sounding too bothered as he looks over the rack of recurve bows "Got me a scholarship for being one of the best in the UK. Probably would've made it to the Olympics if it weren’t-” he gestures to the dark, emptied store “You know. End of the world and all that” he huffs, taking down a bow to properly examine and get a feel for

“...”

“...Okay, kid, you’re making me feel a little weird with the staring-”

“OLYMPICS?!!” Ranboo shrieked, startling George into nearly dropping the bow

“Y-yes??” George stammered, clutching the bow to his chest as he looks over at the stunned teen “What about it-”

“YOU WERE OLYMPIC LEVEL?!”

“Almost was” George corrects “I made it to nationals but I never got past that due to the apocalypse”

“That’s still super cool though!” Ranboo exclaims “I can’t believe you were almost an Olympian, that’s incredible!!”

“Yeah, funny how life works out huh?” George scoffs, fixing his glasses “One minute you’re at a tournament against American archers to see if you can go to qualifiers for the GB Olympic archery team, next thing you know you’re using your archery skills to keep a group of idiots alive and trapped inside a mall with said idiots”

“Is that how you ended up over here?” Ranboo asks, going back to looking at compound bows “In America?”

“Yep.” George replied curtly “Me and my br-” he falls silent, running a thumb over the grip he held “My brothers.” he finished quietly, staring off a little “They wanted to surprise me so they flew out to see me compete” he murmured “My parents and older sister stayed back home… I don’t know what happened to them, our calls never went through… I hope they’re doing better than we did”

“Were your brothers archers too, or just you?” Ranboo questions gently

“They knew the basics, dad liked to take us hunting on our grandparent’s estate” George chuckles, smiling a little “I was the only one that stuck with it...I liked it- not the hunting part” he quickly clarifies “I hated shooting animals back when it was for sport and not an actual meal. Now I mean-” he shrugs “Food is food. Nah, I just liked the satisfaction. Of pulling back the string and hearing that arrow fly, hearing it hit the target and see it sink in… gave me a purpose, something I was good at” he admits “Something that made me different from my siblings, gave my parents something to brag about” he fiddles with the bow in his hands, a bit pensive “I think a part of me is still like that. Still needs that...specialty to set me apart. Give me something to focus on instead of- of reality.”

“...what happened George?”

“People happened.” George spits, words laced with a bitter venom and eyes flashing with a deep fury and grief as he clenches the bow’s grip “We trusted wrong, followed empty promises from strangers and all of us ended up in an Arena.” His hand shakes slightly, glaring at the floor and gritting his teeth “It hadn’t even been that long since everything had happened, maybe a week since the first major outbreak hit the city. And already people- they-” he takes in a deep breath, running a hand over his face “My brothers, they… it should have them...” he whispers “But instead I was the only one to make it out. I met Dream and his sister about a day after and they took me in, they knew how bad it was, what a miracle it was to even escape” he says “I was there when we found Sapnap and helped get him back on his feet. I stuck with Dream when he had to let Drista go, to trust her life to someone else. Stayed when we picked up more people, dealt with communities, lost friends. I was a curse they just couldn’t get rid of, sticking through everything and death following my every step. Never for me though. It never came for me.” he gently sets the bow back on the shelf, picking up another “It always came for the people who didn’t deserve it”

“...that’s survivor’s guilt” Ranboo tells him softly, pulling a little at the compound’s string “Puffy says it’s not our fault, our brain just makes us feel like it is”

“I know, I know” George stresses “PTSD and all that, I shouldn’t blame myself for living-”

“But it’s hard not to” Ranboo hums, putting the compound back and taking a crossbow instead off the shelf to look over “You should be dead, so many others are and here you stand with the audacity to be alive” he snarks, sounding almost bitter and George snorts humorlessly “Lucky you.”

“Lucky me” he sighs, looking over at the teen still examining the hunting crossbow.

His eyes linger on the scars creeping under the compression sleeves Ranboo wore, crawling up the boy’s neck and marring part of his face under the ever present mask, dyed hair doing a good job of covering the still singed sections of hair behind his ear. He remembers the scar running across his chest, the small limp and wince Ranboo thought he did a good job of hiding after walking for miles straight.

George turns back to the recurve in his hands, bringing it up and pulling back the string to test it before lowering it, making sure not to dry fire. He notches an arrow and brings it back up, aiming at a shambling zombie a few yards away.

“By the way” George starts, narrowing his eyes as he focuses on his target “If we ever run into the assholes who tried to kill you, I will personally put a bolt between their eyes.” He fires, string twanging by his ear and arrow nothing but a whistling blur as the monster goes down

Bullseye.

“Thank you??” Ranboo puzzles, confused smile hidden under his filtered mask

“That’s a genuine death threat by the way.” George huffs, pointing at the teen seriously “I don’t do those often”

“Good to know you’ll kill for me” Ranboo nods solemnly “I’m now one step closer to complete world domination-”

“I take it back, you’d make a shit world ruler” George snickers, slipping the recurve over his chest as Ranboo gasps in exaggerated offense

“Hey!!”

“Take that crossbow with you, Callahan could use a spare” George continues, ignoring the teen’s insulted sputtering as he heads back towards the main store hall “Now let’s go find bullets, I think we can get a scope for your rifle too”

“I can’t believe this betrayal!” Ranboo mock wails dramatically as he tries to hook the crossbow onto his backpack, George laughing while the teen spins around like a dog chasing its own tail “This is high treason!!”

“Yeah yeah beloved boy” George teases “Hurry it up and I’ll show you how to use a bow”

“You are pardoned” Ranboo sniffs, finally managing to hook on the crossbow and jogging after the man

“Oh praise be, I’m forgiven”

“Why are there only twelve in this thing?” Niki grumbles, rifling through the tub of dehydrated meals a team had managed to bring back while properly raiding the hunting store “That’s literally only enough for one meal for each of us”

“Speaking of which” Sapnap pipes up “Is there any beef stew packets left?”

“Nope! There’s spaghetti in here though though”

“I fucking hate the spaghetti” Sapnap groans, sprawling out over his bed “It’s gross compared to the version we usually eat”

“Tough shit. Go eat grits then”

“I’VE HAD NOTHING BUT GRITS FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS!!” Sapnap shrieks, grabbing a pillow to strangle “I just want some meat- dehydrated or not!!”

“The best I can offer is granola.”

“I can go catch you the rat I saw at the Hollister” George suggests, currently eating his bag of re-hydrated rice and chicken “If you want fresh meat”

“If I ever get desperate enough to willingly eat rats just do me a favor and put me out of my misery.” Sapnap scoffs “I’d eat one of you lot before I eat a rodent that isn’t a squirrel or rabbit”

“Resorting to cannibalism, lovely” George snorts, now ignoring the younger muffling his screams into the pillow

“I hear some people have actually gone that far” Ponk says in a tone reserved for scary campfire stories, grinning a little as he waggles his fingers at the current small group. He’s balancing a bowl of risotto between his knees to eat, normal methods hindered by the lack of one of his hands but doing his best to feed himself “Practically zombies themselves now, they only crave human flesh” he continues, awkwardly shoving more food in his mouth “They hunt down other survivors and drag them away to their bases to chop them up and eat them alive~”

“Keeping people alive sounds impractical” Skeppy argues, making himself a cup of instant coffee over by the stove “Just kill them so there’s no way of escaping”

“No, cause then The Virus sets in and then you’re basically eating zombie flesh at that point” Niki points out, settling for a bag of fried rice and a Kit-Kat for dinner “By keeping them alive you’re keeping the meat fresh or something”

“I still say it’s impractical” Skeppy huffs “Humans don’t even have that much to eat to be honest”

“Good point, I’ll give you that”

“Yeah, everyone is too bony these days” Skeppy nods

“Maybe if you hunt people in a well-fed community? Niki suggests

“Ugh, but then you have to actually get them out y’know-”

“You are arguing the practicality of cannibalism!” Ponk shouts at them, making George laugh “What the actual hell?!”

“This is a very important discussion Ponk!” Niki scolds “What if we run out of food? We need a plan B!!”

“I’D PREFER A BACKUP PLAN WITH A LITTLE LESS CANNIBALISM PLEASE.”

“Yeah, humans are annoying prey” George adds on to Ponk’s immense disappointment “It’ll be a total pain to hunt them down”

“Sapnap I have Chicken and Dumplings” Ranboo finally speaks up, interrupting the argument the others had gotten into “Do you want that or-” he looks down at a different package in his other hand “Mac and cheese?”

“Dumplings” the older teen decides, sitting up to catch the bag thrown at him “With a side of human please and thank you”

“It’s already mixed in” Ranboo snickers, laughing as Ponk throws an empty cup at his head “I’m not tossing that back!” he warns, waving the cup tauntingly “It’s mine now-” he ducks as a plate goes flying next “Or that!!”

Ponk squabbles over his dinnerware for a while, Niki setting up a few more lanterns before opting to just build a fire with what remaining firewood they had

“You realize that’s the last bundle right?” George warns “And we’re down to two charcoal bags”

“We’re leaving tomorrow morning” Niki scoffs, lighting a bundle of ripped up rags on fire and carefully tucking it into the wood pile to catch the logs aflame “We can get more then”

“I cannot wait to get out of here” Ponk grumbles, rubbing at his bandaged stump with a small frown

“Same dude” Skeppy yawns “If I have to walk past the same freaking creepy Build-a-Bear again I think I might burn the store down-”

“We’re back!” Sam announces, knocking on the glass of the store while Callahan and Bad pick up the gate

“Don’t ever leave me alone with them again” Ranboo begs as Dream slips into the store “They started talking about cannibalism once you guys left”

“Cannibalism??” Dream puzzles with a small chuckle and he takes off his bags “I don’t think we’re that desperate for food yet. Also, that’s so impractical-”

“THANK YOU!!” Niki, George and Skeppy chorus

“They get that from you.” Ponk hisses, pointing accusingly at the wheezing blonde “You are a terrible influence”

“I do my best” Dream hums proudly “Anyway, I think we have officially managed to break into every vending machine, store, booth, restaurant and backroom to steal every last water bottle in this mall so-” he waves over to the wagon piled with different water brands Puffy excitedly tips over to spill everywhere, Sam, Bad, Callahan and Eret pulling out more bottles from their bags to add to the collection “I think we have enough to clean up before we leave. Thanks again for letting us borrow your wagon Boo”

“The Ranvan is available for rent anytime!” Ranboo reassures, catching the Snickers bar Eret tosses him

They start separating the water bottles into twelve piles, the six that had gone out taking the extras for themselves. People excitedly chatter while pulling out large bowls, pots and buckets collected from the mall, setting them over stoves or the crackling fire Niki had started

“I can’t wait to have clean hair again” Puffy groans, letting down her matted ponytail and wincing as she starts trying to tease it apart and dig out all the little blades tucked away in there while she waits for her water to heat up “I might just have to go sink method”

“Sink method?” Ranboo puzzles, trying to find a proper spot to set his own bowl to heat

“Yeah, you know when you couldn’t take a shower and you have to dunk your head under the sink and run the faucet to get it wet and you kinda have to stay under there to get it all wet before pulling it out and dripping everywhere while blindly reaching for your shampoo because you basically waterboarded yourself?” Puffy explains “And then you wash your hair above the sink as best you can before going back under the sink to finish rinsing all the soap out. Sink method!”

“...I have literally never done that prior to the apocalypse.” Ranboo responds, letting his own hair down to brush through

“Yeah well that’s what I gotta do” Puffy snorts, taking another bowl and a water bottle

“Oh my god I’ll do it” Niki snickers, yanking the bowl away “You’re going to get water everywhere”

“I would not!”

“You would and you have when you do your “sink method” Puffster” Sam pipes up

“I don’t wanna hear it from the guy who has his head in a bucket!” Puffy shouts, getting blindly flipped off in reply since Sam did indeed have his head upside down in a metal bucket to wash his hair

“The return of Sam Bucket” Bad laughs, patting Sam on the back and startling him, making him gurgle a little and hurriedly pull his dripping face out “Whoops”

The group starts to head down to the bathrooms to wash and properly “bathe” without spilling soap and water all over their camp one their water rations have heated up. Niki has Puffy’s head in her lap, hair in a bowl while she pours water over it before sudsing it up, the two chatting and giggling quietly while they wash. George has been cornered by Sapnap and Eret in the bathroom, pulled in to properly wash his hair and shrieking bloody murder as more shampoo gets dumped into his hair, protesting loudly as they violently scrub his scalp. Ponk has headed off to a more private corner, arguing quietly that he didn’t need help before eventually caving and allowing Sam to assist him.

“You know what I’d kill for right now?” Dream asks as he and Ranboo walk back to camp, both of them without the layer of grime coating their skin and fresh clothes, hair dripping a trail behind them

“Pizza?” the teen guesses, rubbing his towel over his face to finish drying it and mask tucked in a pocket

“Yes.” Dream hums, scrubbing at his hair with his own towel to dry it “But also a bath, a real one. With hot water and bath salts or a bath bomb” he sighs wistfully “Or both! Maybe pour some soap under the faucet to get bubbles and just sit there for an hour” he lets out another sigh “That’d be nice”

“That does sound awesome” Ranboo agrees, draping his towel over his shoulders

“I have fancy soap so I’m gonna use my fancy soap!” Skeppy faintly screams from the bathroom hall

“With a shit ton of fancy soap” Dream adds, laughing a little as more snippets of the argument bleed out from the bathroom “...Our base is having a bathtub, I’m getting that damn bath one way or another”

“With bubbles?” Ranboo teases, squawking as he’s yanked closer to the blonde by his collar, one flip-flop going flying as he kicks out for balance

“With bubbles.” Dream confirms, ignoring Ranboo’s sputtering as he aggressively towel dries Ranboo’s dripping hair “Lots of bubbles”

“DREAM! YOU’RE TANGLING MY HAIR! I JUST BRUSHED IT!!”

“Oh! I totally forgot I stole this while we were out!” Puffy realizes, picking up a guitar left abandoned on a bed and plucking a few out of tune strings

“You realize none of us can play right?” Sapnap snorts while Dream takes the instrument, notes twanging quietly as he tries to tune it “Last time we all just kind of strummed random stuff before Sam used it as a club”

“I already apologized for that!” Sam complains, curled up next to Ponk with a soda and with Fran in his lap, Fat Bitch at the foot of the bed “But yeah, none of us can play”

“I know a couple chords” Dream argues with a huff, twisting the keys until a string sounded relatively tuned

“Yeah, but do you know songs with those chords?” Sapnap snickered

“...one or two”

“Bullshit!” Skeppy calls out, others laughing when Dream angrily flips him off and Bad swats at him with a chiding ‘language’

“Well at least we know it can be used as a decent weapon” Puffy chuckled, hopping up on the bed and laying out while Dream starts experimentally strumming a couple quiet chords

“I can’t wait to leave” Eret whines out, rubbing at an arm before stretching “Literally anywhere but here”

“It could make a decent base” Bad suggests quietly, combing through Skeppy’s hair “If we completely cleared it”

“Hell no” George huffs beside Dream, grunting a little when Sapnap drapes over him “I want out of this purgatory”

“Same” Ponk shudders “I’ll take camping over being stuck in a mattress store for over three weeks”

“Yeah, this place has bad vibes now” Bad agrees.

The group falls relatively quiet aside from the crackling of the fire and soft plucking from Dream, a tired, contented silence filling the store. Puffy rolls over on her stomach and peers over him sitting against her bed, George and Sapnap leaning against Dream as he picked out stiff notes.

“I know that song” Sapnap yawned, wiggling closer to George and staring at the strings Dream pulls “It’s um- the, that one song… How’s it go?”

“A long, long time ago” Puffy softly starts, smiling faintly as Dream nods in confirmation “I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while...”

“But February made me shiver” Sam continues with a fond smile of his own “With every paper I'd deliver. Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step”

“I can’t remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride.” Puffy sings a little louder “But something touched me deep inside the day... the music... died...”

“So bye-bye miss American pie” Dream sings almost reverently, gently strumming chords “Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry. Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing “This’ll be the day that I die”...This will be the day that I die...”

He starts to speed up his strumming, playing louder and focused on the fret board to make sure he played properly. Puffy grins and sits up, hopping off the bed and pointing at a confused Niki sat on the bed with her