Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a normal day in South Park, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick were all waiting at the bus stop. Mrs. Crabtree was always late. Apart from that it was a cold Friday morning, as usual. Kyle was looking forward to getting home from school as him and Stan were going to have a movie marathon. He went back into reality as soon as the school bus came and parked in front of them. "Get on kids." Mrs. Crabtree said, she was more calm now then she was in the forth grade, they was a rumour going around saying she was taking medicine, to Kyle it seemed reasonable. Kyle and his friends climbed onto the bus, him and Stan always sat at the back, Cartman was at the front and Kenny was in the middle. Already on the bus was Bebe Stevens, the class hottie, Wendy Testaburger, the class smartass, Pip Pirrup, the kid who everyone hated and Kevin Stoley, the class nerd.

"So Kyle what movies are we watching later?" Stan asked curiously, Kyle was picking the movies tonight and had kept it a surprise to Stan. "I'll show you later." Kyle replied with a laugh. Stan wasn't so happy about this. Stan who was now talking to Wendy who was sat across from them left Kyle alone, he had nothing else to do except look out the window which he did. Nothing out of the ordinary, kids going to school, parents shopping, dogs running around. What caught his eye was a man, looked like he was in his forties, tall and slim, but his skin was a greyish looking colour and was cracking, his face showed no emotion either. The man just walked, ignoring everyone, Kyle couldn't get a good look at him since Mrs. Crabtree had quickly drove past. He wanted to tell Stan about it but decided not to as he would just think he was crazy.

About ten minutes had passed and Mrs. Crabtree parked the bus for the next two students to get on, Clyde and Craig, Kyle hated them. But as they got on Kyle noticed once again the person with the grey cracking skin, but this time it was a woman. Kyle shook Stan's arm and mentioned, "Hey Stan! Look at his skin." Stan stopped talking to Wendy who went back to Bebe and set his eyes to look at the figure. Stan didn't believe it, saying it was just some guy dressing up for a fancy dress party as it was nearing Halloween time. Kyle didn't think that though as another woman and a man were slowly following the first woman. He was sure he saw blood around the mouths of the 'people.'

Kyle bubble of thought was popped as soon as he heard Mrs. Crabtree shout, "CRAP, HOLD ON KIDS!" The bus started to swerve and ended up hitting someone until the bus came to a halt by crashing into South Park High School which was near by.

"Hey. Hey! Dude, wake up! You've been knocked out for like half an hour." Stan started to shake Kyle who was knocked out from the crash. Kyle's head was bleeding, really bad. He also was covered with bruises, "Damn, what the fuck happened?" Kyle asked forgetting that they had just crashed, "Dude, we like crashed or something, we're at school at least." Stan chuckled. Kyle wasn't up for the humour, he stood up to look around, Cartman was eating Cheesy Poofs, Kenny was reading his magazines, Bebe was trying to wake Wendy up, Pip was shaking, Kevin was trying to stop Pip from shaking, Clyde was crying and Craig wasn't doing anything. He had noticed Mrs. Crabtrees absence, he decided to take his mind of her by hoping she went out for help. Kyle pushed past Stan and started to make his way out of the Bus. "Hey Kahl, where are you going? Mrs. Crabtree said to not get of the bus." Cartman asked as he swallowed his Cheesy Poof. "Shut up a minute, our whole school looks like a wreck!" Kyle replied with the truth, the school looked like a mess, broken walls and roofs, furniture spreaded everywhere. Blood. Blood was splattered across the floors. "Holy shit." He whispered, "Guys, take a look at this." Kyle shouted directing everyone to have a look at the mess of there school. "Oh. My God." Bebe butted in, "Is that Annie Knitts?" She started to point at one of the bodies which was flung over a table. Kyle started to walk of the bus slowly, aswell as indicating for them to follow, "Kevin stay with Pip, Clyde and Wendy. They aren't doing so good. Keep Wendy safe." Stan whispered, Kevin nodded and went to try and wake up Wendy. Kyle, Stan, Kenny, Cartman, Craig and Bebe all walked off the bus to go and investigate.

"It is Annie." Craig whispered as he turned over the body which Bebe had pointed too. "Poor girl." He mentioned again, Craig stopped talking when everyone noticed that Stan was puking. It was pretty insane, Annie's gut's were ripped out and she was covered in bites. "Who would've done this?" Kenny asked, "Heh, some fucking monster." Cartman laughed, "Cartman you shouldn't be laughing at this." Bebe responded by smacking Cartman in the back of the head. "AY!" Cartman shouted. "Hey shouldn't we do something about your head Kyle? You are the only one who got injured badly, everyone else just got bruises and cuts." Kenny asked, now that he had mentioned it his head started to hurt even more, Kyle just shook his head in response, "We'll deal with it later, for now we need to have a look at what's going on." Kyle, Stan, Kenny, Cartman, Craig and Bebe walked down the eerie hallways of the schools they was broken chairs and tables everywhere along with some dead bodies, Rebecca Cotswolds, Terrance Mephesto and Jenny Simons were some of the victims. It was terrifying, no one alive was here, no students or teachers. "Where is everyone, and where is Mrs. Crabtree?" Bebe asked, Kyle had noticed she was scared of the silence. Everyone just shrugged, Kyle thought it was good question though. The thought of no one here was scary, first they had found three dead students who where once their friends."Hey. We should go to our classroom." Craig started, Kyle nodded taking his advice and walked over to the eight grade classroom. He put his hand over the door handle but quickly removed his hand and instead put his ear to the door. He had heard a small tapping noise, he picked up the leg of a chair which was nearby on the floor, the others followed what Kyle was doing, "This is going to be bad ass!" Cartman whispered. Kyle rapidly opened the door holding the chair leg in his hands, the others followed. But instead of a monster in which Kyle thought, it was his friends. Inside the room was Red, Nichole, Esther, Bradley and Token. "RED!" Bebe shouted, as she ran up to her, "SH!" Red whispered back, "They'll hear you." Kyle was confused by this statement, so he left Bradley and Token to talk to the guys while he went up and talked to Red, "Err. Red, what 'things'?" Kyle asked curiously, Red was shocked. "The things, them guys with the grey cracking skin, they got Peter Mullen and Jimmy Valmer as we were running from the Cafeteria." Red whispered back, Kyle's face dropped, the 'people' he saw back on the bus, he wasn't imagining them. It was all real. "Guy's come over here." Kyle demanded, "What is it you Jew?" Cartman asked. "Just shut up and listen, tell 'em Red." As Red told the story again, everyone was shocked except Cartman who thought it was pretty bad ass, "Well come on let's get out of here, if most of the school isn't here then we need to get everyone else from the bus and get to somewhere safe." Stan butted in as soon as Red finished. "You think! if you've been in the hallways and there is no-one out there then let's go." Token agreed running to the door. Everyone started to follow.

They were about to leave until they heard moaning from outside the door, "It's them." Red cried backing away, "What do we do?" Kenny asked shaking, before anyone could answer the door broke open.

Chapter Text

Them 'people' were in the room. Their fractured rotting skin, their bleeding bite marks, blank emotionless eyes, balding hair. It was petrifying. Kyle couldn't look, but Tokens screams made him. As he went back into reality he saw Token using all his strength to stop the rotting corpse from biting him. Another one wandered into the room and was going straight to Bradley who was flinching near the door. Nichole who was at the back of the wall grabbed the chair leg out of Bebe's hands as Bebe was standing and staring scared to do anything. Nichole ran up to the corpse that covering Token and bashed it across the face, it didn't go down, Nichole was able to get of the way before it got near her and quickly knocked the brains out of the corpse. Stan was dealing with Bradley's walker and before it could got near he stabbed it in the head using the chair leg, it went down in one.
Due to the event, Token and Nichole were hugging it out but Bradley and Stan just fist bumped. "We better get to the school bus." Nichole spoke up aswell as wiping away some sweat from her forehead. Everyone agreed and they all sprinted out the door and started heading to the bus.
While in the middle of running, Stan whispered into Kyles ear, "Dude, I guess we can't have that movie marathon later." Reminded Stan, Kyle gave him a glare which said: 'Not now dude.' Seeing this Stan backed off and went back to running.
They had finally returned to the crashed school bus and could see Kevin sitting at the front of the bus chewing his nails anxiously, he had noticed us and waved us over. Before Kyle could start talking to him Red pushed past him and pulled Kevin into a hug. They stood their for about a whole minute until she released, "You're okay." Red chuckled happy to see her friend, Kevin joined her laughing. "Okay dude, did you get Wendy to wake up?" Stan asked curiously, Kevin gave him little nod and indicated for him to go, " I also got Pip to stop shaking, he's okay but Clyde's still crying." Kevin added. Kyle patted him on the back and then followed Stan onto the bus, upon stepping on he could see Pip was reading a book from his bag and Wendy in a hug with Stan. Clyde was quietly crying into his sleeve, Kyle didn't want to bother with him so he let out a little sigh and went to talk to Pip.
"Hey Pip... you okay? Kyle questioned, Pips response wasn't what he had expected, he looked shocked. "Errr, you're, erm... you're talking to me?" Pip replied with another question. Kyle didn't see why this was such a big deal. "Yeah dude, why is that a surprise?" Kyle asked wondering why Pip thought it was so shocking. "Yeah, erm... you just never really talk to me much before." Pip responded thinking it was obvious. Kyle frowned at his answer, "Oh come on, just because I don't talk to you doesn't mean we ain't friends." Kyle said back, "Oh, Okay so we are friends. Well yeah I'm doing okay." Pip answered, Kyle nodded and went back outside the bus.
"Okay so everyone we need to get going, it's not safe here." Kyle stated, the school wasn't a good choice as Red said earlier that they were escaping from the cafeteria, Kyle thought that's where the corpses from the classroom came from, "Yeah. No shit Sherlock. But where are we gonna go?" Esther butted in, she had a point though, them walkers could be anywhere. The group stayed silent for a while until Wendy, Stan and Pip came off the bus. "Well, if we're gonna go anywhere, it might aswell by Jimbo's Guns, we're gonna need protection." Wendy stated, it was a good idea until Cartman said, "Wendy, for all we know that place could be overrun too, and we don't know what this fucking thing is yet, it could just be an illness." Wendy glared at Cartman.
"Okay, Cartman, that's the stupidest fucking thing I've heard all day, did you not see what happened to Annie Knitts, Terrance Mephesto and all the others." Bebe mentioned. "Guys! Stop arguing, I think Wendy's right, if we have any chance it's gonna be getting to Jimbo's Guns." Kyle yelled which quietened the arguing, Wendy smiled, "See, Pip go get Clyde of the bus, we're gonna walk there, I think the bus has broken down." Wendy added. "Right-O" Pip replied while jumping onto the bus to drag Clyde off.
After about five minutes of impatient waiting, Pip trailed off the bus with Clyde's arms around his neck, "Erm. Does anyone want to take him?" The English boy asked, Craig nodded and took away Clyde's arms from Pips neck and put them around his. It was actually quiet for once, but It didn't last for long as moaning was heard from a hallway near by. "Okay, we better get going." Token added as he started to run out the front door of the school, everyone agreed following quickly behind.
Thirty minutes of running had passed and everyone was exhausted, especially Craig as he was running for him and Clyde. They had only reached Bijou Cinema, "Guys... I am tired as shit... I think... I think we should stay here... while we rest." Bradley bursted out in-between breaths. Kyle had mixed feelings about the idea, "Do you think that's a good idea?" Kyle asked, "For all we know they could be more corpses." Token nodded and agreed, "Whatever." Bradley shrugged and went inside, even though they hated the idea they followed them inside. Surprisingly they wasn't any of them walking corpses here. Kyle decided to look around while the rest of his group piled up on the top row of the cinema seats. They were two dead bodies at the bottom of the row of seats, Kyle wanted to turn back but curiosity took over and he decided to take a look. He flipped over one of the bodies, it was a woman he didn't recognize. Her face had been bit and part of her cheek was ripped off, her head had a bullet hole in it. "What the fuck." Kyle whispered to nobody. He checked the other one, it was wearing a police officer uniform. Officer Barbrady read the name tag, "Poor dude. Probably too dumb to know what was going on." Kyle whispered and sighed, the whole city was probably a mess as the school and the cinema was overrun. Kyle decided to check his body. Jackpot. He had found two guns in two holders. One of which had been shot. Kyle decided to put one in the back of his jeans and decided to give the other one to Stan, his best friend and the person he trusted most.
"Hey Guys!" Kyle ran up to them aswell as interrupting their conversation. Everyone's attention was set on Kyle now, "I found guns." He explained showing them off. The boys, Bebe and Wendy thought it was incredibly cool. Unlike Wendy. Red and Nichole just scoffed thinking it was immature that everyone else thought it was awesome. Kyle quickly handed one of the guns to Stan, Stan looked amazed that he was getting one of the guns but Cartman, Kenny and Craig objected, "Dude! Why does Stan get the other gun." Cartman protested, "Yeah!" Craig and Kenny shouted together. "Well. Stan has had gun training from Jimbo. Clyde and Bradley won't even touch one. Pip hardly knows what they are or do. Red and Nichole don't like them. Wendy and Bebe don't want to use them and Kevin will probably only use knifes." Kyle started to speak and with this, Clyde, Pip, Red, Nichole, Wendy, Kevin, Bradley and Bebe all agreed nodding their heads. "And! Cartman and Kenny, I don't trust you two and Craig... Eh!" Kyle finished which was protested with nothing but glares, "Kyle you Jew! They're stupid reasons, just like you." Cartman objected once again with a chuckle. "Hey! what about me?" Token asked feeling left out. "I don't know. Your parents just don't seem like they'd want you having one of these." Kyle replied feeling kind of sorry for Token.
"Okay! Enough about the stupid guns. We'll all get guns as soon as we get to Jimbos." Wendy yelled, Red agreed, "Yeah. Now we better get going before more of them turn up." Ironically just as Red said that, the doors of the cinema bursted open. "Oh Shit!" Nichole shouted running to the bottom of the cinema stairs, she was quickly followed by Token, Pip, Cartman, Kevin, Craig, Clyde, Kenny, Wendy, Bebe, Red and Esther. "HEY YOU FUCKING JEW KILL THEM!" Cartman shouted which had raised more annoyance to the situation. Kyle ignored him and pulled out his gun, Stan next to him doing the same. Before they started shooting Bradley pushed past them and shouted, "I can do this!" Raising his fists he ran into the herd of walkers, they was about eleven of them. "BRADLEY YOU IDIOT GET BACK HERE." Stan shouted but it was too late, Bradley punched the one in front sending it back but before he could punch another one, a corpse got behind him and bit hit neck. Screams and shouts could be heard from him until it stopped, Bradley had fell to the floor covered in blood and bites. "YOU ASSHOLES!" Kyle yelled at the top of his lungs, he started to shoot the walking corpses, Stan doing the same.
After about two minutes all of the walkers had been taken down. Kyle fell to the floor, "I just killed them and they killed Bradley." He whispered, the thought of him killing someone was terrible even if they had came back from the dead. "Dude are you okay?" Stan asked sitting next to Kyle, the rest of the group stayed at the bottom of the Cinema. "Stan. How am I gonna cope with killing them? I couldn't even cope with TPing our art teachers house in fourth grade." Kyle sniffed, a single tear running down his cheek. "You won't, pass me your gun." Stan replied, Kyle gave his gun to Stan and he got up and left. Kyle got up aswell rubbing his eyes and cheek so his friends didn't know he had cried, well not exactly cried, shed a tear.
Kyle could see Stan giving the gun to Kenny, Kenny put it in the pocket of his orange parka. Stan said something else but Kyle predicted it was Bradley's death as Pip and Token had sad looks on their faces and Red was crying into Wendy's shoulder.
Kyle walked back down to them, Kenny gave him a little a nod which Kyle returned, "Okay guys, we can't mourn over Bradley, it's sad I know but we have to get to Jimbo's so lets go." Kenny and Stan took the lead with guns in hand, Craig and Clyde following behind, Clyde had seemed to crying and could walk himself, Pip was talking with Kevin presumably about Bradley's death, Token and Nichole behind them hand in hand, Red still crying in Wendy's shoulder beside Token and Nichole, Esther with her arms folded following slowly behind. Kyle and Bebe were at the back, "Its been a rough day, hasn't it?" Bebe asked, Kyle looked up not wanting to talk so he just nodded, "Look, I know it's painful, I haven't killed yet and I don't want to, but It's what we're gonna have to do to survive." Bebe replied, Kyle looked down at the floor not knowing what to say, Bebe finished with a smile, "We're gonna survive together."

Chapter Text

It was becoming dark, Kyle and his group had been walking for a while, everyone now and then a walker would spot them, Stan or Kenny would shoot it each time. Kyle was exhausted and so was everyone else, Nichole was asleep on Token's shoulder, he had to hold her up to keep her walking. "Hey guys, should we stop here for the night?" Stan asked, "We'll keep searching for people in the morning." His response was a couple of groans and nods. The Store he had pointed too was Tweek Bro's. Coffee. Kenny went in first with his gun pointed, it was clear until a corpse jumped up out of nowhere. Kenny yelled and jumped back in time for it not get him, he shot it square in the head. Kenny looked over to Craig, Craig was the one who always checked the bodies since he didn't mind the smell. Craig ducked down to check it while everyone else went inside and sat at the tables. "Oh. My. God." Craig said loud enough for everyone else to here, "What is it dude?" Kyle asked wondering what was such a big deal, he checked all the other bodies before, how come this one was a surprise. "This is... This is Mr. Tweek." Craig replied. Token and Clyde ran over to were Craig was kneeling, no wonder Kyle thought, they were best friends with Tweek. "Then where is his wife or son, Tweek?" Esther questioned, she had a point, It would be kind of weird if only Mr. Tweek was here. Until Kyle remembered that Tweek's family store had a back room, he looked towards Stan who was looking right back at him, he indicated him to look at the back door which was next to the counter. While everyone was talking about Mr. Tweek, Kyle and Stan went to back door, Stan was in front as he had the gun. Stan slowly pushed the door open which made a terrible creaking sound, Kyle looked towards the group to see if any had heard it, no one had. Kyle whispered 'go' into Stan's ear and Stan made his way through the door with Kyle following quickly behind. Nothing out of the ordinary, coffee machines, coffee bags, boxes and stuff. All until he set his eyes on a horrendous sight, Mrs. Tweek was lying on the floor with her face bashed in and blood splattered everywhere. Stan dropped his gun in shock, the object her head was bashed in was presumably a coffee machine as one lied next to her head covered in blood. They was no sign of Tweek though. "Who do you think did this?" Stan asked looking towards Kyle. Kyle just shrugged, he thought it would be Tweek, but he couldn't imagine Tweek killing his mother.
Kyle left the room leaving Stan and went to go get Craig, "Guys, I found Mrs. Tweek." He notified his group aswell as pointing to the door to the back room. Only Cartman, Craig and Token came with Kyle to the back room, no one else wanted to see any more blood. As they entered Stan was in the corner of the room puking, How does Stan put up with it Kyle thought, he puked when we found Annie dead and now he's puking again. "Oh... Shit." Token whispered as he saw the remains of Mrs. Tweek, Token and Stan both backed away from the body, Cartman and Craig went to check. After about two minutes Craig stood up and walked over to Kyle, "Tweek probably did do this, see blonde hair." Craig explained holding up a piece of blonde hair, "Mrs. Tweek has brown hair so it isn't hers." Kyle was shocked, he didn't really think Tweek, of all people to kill his mother, he didn't seem like the type. "Shit, didn't know the kid had it in him." Cartman butted in standing behind Craig. "Well, where is Tweek now?" Token asked from behind Kyle, still backed away against the wall. Everyone shrugged in response.
Kyle and everyone else left the room to re-join the group, Kyle took a look at his watch, It was nearing midnight, "Guys, we better sleep, it's near midnight, we wan't to be up early if we can get to Jimbo's, his shop is probably a couple more miles away." Kyle informed the group, "I know, now go to sleep you Jew." Cartman replied in an annoyed tone. Kyle frowned and went to go sleep on one of the couches at the back of the room. Clyde was already asleep on the other one, Craig sat on the floor next to the couch with his head in between his knees. Everyone else was sprawled across the floor, except Cartman who was lying on the counter. Kyle fell fast asleep but instead of dreaming, nightmares populated his head.
A Man was whispering words but his voice was scratchy and couldn't be understood fully.
there is no cure
hell has broke loose
dr mephesto did it
survive or
die die die
die die die
DIE
The last word ends the nightmare and wakes up Kyle shaking and sweating. Kyle began to look around It was still night, he checked his watch, It read two in the morning, "Jesus, How fucking long was I asleep for." But instead of trying to go back to sleep he got up and decided to look around as he didn't really search the place much after the whole Mr and Mrs. Tweek incident. Kyle never really visited Tweek when he was working and most of the time when he visited it was when he was hanging out with someone else. There wasn't really much to do that didn't contain waking up the other group members. He decided to go sit outside, he quickly passed Esther and Nichole who were sleeping back to back, he got passed Pip aswell. Out the front door he went. The cold air hit him, refreshing. He sat down next to the door of the coffee shop. He hadn't realised how hungry he was until now, his stomach started to grumble, trying to ignore it he thought of his family. His little brother Ike, he was nine years old, he was too young to be living with these things out there. His mother, Sheila and father Gerald, how would they be coping, he just hoped they were safe somewhere.
It was quiet, a bit too quiet. That's when the trigger went off, just down the road about three miles away Kyle heard an explosion, jumping to his feet startled, shooting broke loose and screams and shouts could be heard. Another explosion. The front door of the Coffee house opened and Kevin came running out, "Kyle, what the fuck is going on?" Kevin asked reluctantly, Kyle could see the fear on his face but couldn't respond. He just shrugged and looked back over to where the shooting had came from. "Come on. Let's go back inside." Kyle insisted, him and Kevin walked back inside and tried to get to sleep, It would be hard though. Because outside there was horror.
--The Next Morning--
"Hey. Come on chap we need to go." The English boy whispered while shaking Kyle to get up, Kyle opened his eyes and Pip was staring down at him. "Right-O. You're awake. Come on, Kenny said we should get going." Pip started again. As he walked away, Kyle stomach started to grumble more, he stood up and decided to talk to the group about their food and drink issues. "Uhh. Guys. Is anyone else really hungry?" He asked, they was a few nods until Cartman finally begun to speak, "Yeah we know. We are all starving, that's why we need to get to wherever we are going Kahl!" Kyle didn't want to argue so he just ignored him. "Okay so guys." Stan started to speak, "We're gonna start heading to Jimbo's again. We don't have any supplies so let's get there quick." Stan finished. Kyle was thankful that they were nearly there. The thing that ruined the day most though was the strange nightmare he had, he was desperate to tell somebody about it and he was surprised he had kept it a secret this long. He went over his choices, Stan, sometimes he thinks I'm crazy. Bebe, she seems to trust me but she might not keep it a secret, or Pip, might be able to tell him as he is good at keeping secrets but it would be hard to explain to him. He didn't seem to trust others in the group that much to tell them but he put it aside for now and started to follow his group into the cold and cruel streets of South Park.
Last night was really loud, but it now it was eerie and quiet. Not many sounds were heard and when they was it was mostly just rats running out from alleyways. "Woah! What's that?" Nichole asked suddenly startling Kyle, she was pointing into the sky and everyone's eyes were directed on where she was pointing. A flare was in the air, presumably from a flare gun, "Is that Uncle Jimbo?" Stan asked as he started to sprint towards the origin of the flare. Kyle and his group were sprinting for five minutes until they reached where it came from. When they had arrived they were stopped by a gate and barriers. "Dude, why aren't we aloud past." Stan asked confused. No one in the group answered until a figure stepped out from behind the gate and began to speak, "Because this is where you stay!" It was Jimbo. He was holding a rifle and was covered in blood. "Uncle Jimbo!" Stan shouted running up to the gate. Jimbo smiled and whispered something to a man standing beside him. The gate slowly opened making a weird noise as it did. Stan entered with Kyle and his group following behind. The place wasn't big, two buildings and a courtyard. Skeeter's Bar and Jimbo's Guns where the two buildings. Outside they weren't much stuff a couple barriers and guns spreaded about. Kyle noticed Jimbo's friend Ned sitting and drinking a beer outside of Skeeter's bar. "So Stanley, this is the Safe zone, inside Skeeter's bar is where we sleep and my place is where we keep the guns and supplies." Jimbo explained, "We also have two of your friends here, go check inside Skeeter's" Stan looked towards Kyle who nodded, the group of fourteen year old's sprinted towards Skeeter's and waved to Ned as they did so. As they bursted through the door two of their friends sat on top of the counter. Heidi and Jason. Because of the sudden run through the door, Heidi and Jason both jumped of the counter and pointed a gun at the group. Heidi gasped and lowered her gun, "Girls!" She shouted as she ran up to the group and gave them all hugs. Jason walked up to the group of boys and smiled, "Welcome to the Safe zone, dudes."

Chapter Text

Peace. Waking up. For once Kyle was relaxed sleeping on an actual bed, but it was inside a bar. He lay there just doing what normal people do, relaxing not killing un-dead monsters. To his left was Stan who was still fast asleep and to his right was Nichole and Token, they chose to sleep together since Jimbo didn't have a bed for both of them. He had been awake for five minutes according to his watch, he already saw Jason, Cartman and Bebe leave and decided he should too. Kyle rested his feet on the floor and slipped on a pair of socks and his now muddy and bloody shoes. He had slept in his clothes because he couldn't be bothered getting changed. He got up from his bed and crept out the door avoiding making any noise or waking up his friends. The cold breeze hit him and he let out a little laugh. He could walk around freely without worrying about them walking corpses. He just wished Bradley was here, he didn't deserve to die a bad death like that. Kyle sighed and looked around because he didn't do much yesterday except play Truth or Dare with his group around the camp fire. Jason was talking with Ned next to the gate while Bebe was discussing something with Jimbo on the other end of the yard. Cartman sat next to the fire eating what Kyle thought was breakfast. Eggs and Bacon, now that was a real delicious meal. Bebe noticed Kyle's presence and waved him other, Kyle smirked and walked over to where she and Jimbo were standing.
Before walking over he jumped at the noise of a corpse attacking the gate, he saw Jason laugh and stab it in the head, it fell down straight away, Ned patted him on the back. Kyle got confused to why the let them get so close but ignored the thought. He walked back over to Bebe and Jimbo, "Hey-a sport, sleep well?" Jimbo asked smiling, Kyle smiled back and nodded, he was so relieved that they were somewhere safe. "Well that's good because as soon as everyone else is awake we'll teach y'all to shoot, it'll be blank bullets with silencers against targets so none of them walking monsters gets alerted." Jimbo replied with a laugh, Kyle liked the idea of silencers and blanks against targets but not the guns part. Before he could protest Jimbo shoved a gun into Kyle's hands and walked away. Kyle frowned and looked towards Bebe, "I don't want to use a gun." Bebe frowned with Kyle and responded, "Is that about that thing in Bijou Cinema?" Kyle gave a quick nod, "Bradley, I just... I just lost it and shot frantically, Bradley falling too the ground is still in my head, and I have been having crazy nightmares, I just can't do this. And on the night we was at Tweek's Coffee House. Me and Kevin went outside and we heard screams and shooting and explosions." Kyle whispered but it soon turned into yelling, Bebe was left speechless, Kyle wasn't known to have these sudden outbursts. Not knowing what to do as everyone was staring and he noticed he woke up Pip and Craig who were standing at the front of Skeeter's Bar, he shook his head and went inside Jimbo's Guns where he knew no-one would be.
Kyle was embarrassed, even though he didn't really do anything bad and no-one laughed at him, he was embarrassed. He had probably left people confused over what he meant by nightmares and the explosions, they'd probably ask Kevin about it though. He sat on the floor against the gun stores counter with his head in between his knees. He missed Ike, he missed his parents, he missed Bradley, he missed everyone who died before all hell broke loose. Life was hell, he wasn't relaxed any more. Kyle looked around the room, they wasn't much except boxes full of food, guns, knifes and water. He thought about leaving, he could make it. If he rounded up the people he liked, Stan, Bebe, Pip... though they probably wouldn't want to leave. He stopped thinking when the door to gun store creaked open, Stan stood there. "Hey dude." Stan started, "Bebe told me what happened." Kyle put his head back in between his knees. "You wanna tell me about the nightmare?" Stan asked walking over to where Kyle was sat. "Fine." Kyle whispered. Upon this Stan slid down onto the floor and sat next to Kyle. "When we were at the coffee house, I had a nightmare where a man was talking, I don't know who but... but they said something where they is no cure and Dr. Mephesto was the fault of all this." Kyle mumbled looking up. Stan frowned, "Dr. Mephesto? We haven't seen him since like fourth grade." Stan clarified. "And didn't Terrance say something about his dad retiring, like back in sixth grade?" Stan asked, Kyle just shook his head. Silence flooded the room as Kyle and Stan didn't know what to say any more, Until Stan stood up and said, "I'll get Jimbo to take you off gun training." And with that he left the room.
About an hour later Kyle was sitting outside watching his group shoot the targets, no-one made a fuss over what had happened earlier except Cartman who ripped on him for it. His group was good at it apart from Pip who needed Jimbo to help him point the gun. Kyle carried on watching until Ned came over beer in hand and sat next to him, "Hey kid." Ned spoke up into his Electrolarynx. Kyle glanced at Ned and nodded not knowing what to say, "If you mind me asking, what did you mean by a nightmare earlier one?" Ned asked curiously, Kyle sighed and started to explain once again the nightmare he had. "Of course." Ned whispered, "That fucking crazy, he could never stop talking about making monsters, apart from them four arsed monkeys and such." Ned murmured. Kyle looked confused, if Ned knew about this, how come he didn't say anything to the authorities, like Mayor McDaniels or Sergeant Yates. "Better tell Skeeter about this." Ned mentioned getting up, Kyle got confused again, "Hey. Ned. Wait." Kyle called running up to Ned, "Skeeter's here? I haven't seen him here yet." Ned looked down to Kyle, Ned was pretty tall. Not as tall as Jimbo "Oh. We must of forgot to mention, he's the one who sits in the guard tower, well not much of a tower more of a mini stage with a balcony. He's also the one who opened the gate for you kid's." Ned croaked walking away from Kyle and climbing a ladder with his one available hand. Kyle didn't know much of Skeeter, all he knew is that he had a good sense of humour from the stories his dad used to tell after he came home from his bar.
Thirty minutes later, Jimbo had stopped training the kids and went to go rest in Skeeter's bar. Kyle and his group where left to do what they wanted. Bebe brought up another game of Truth or Dare which everyone agreed too. It wasn't that dark out, the sun wasn't far off from setting, probably an hour away. "Okay. Wendy, I dare you too... erm... Kiss Kyle on the cheek." Heidi laughed causing Wendy and Kyle to blush, Stan glared at Heidi thinking it was a bad idea. Wendy stopped blushing and crawled up to now tomato red Kyle and kissed him on the cheek. Wendy laughed and crawled back to where she was sitting. Kyle was left to wipe her kiss off his cheek. Stan wouldn't stop glaring at Heidi. "Okay, Craig, Truth or Dare." Heidi started to speak again. Before Craig could answer, Skeeter roared at the top of his lungs for Jimbo and Ned to come outside. Kyle got confused over what the fuss was and his group started to whisper rumours. Jimbo bursted out of Skeeter's bar with Ned following quickly behind, both with rifles in hands. "What is it Skeeter?" Jimbo asked climbing up the ladder. When he reached the top Skeeter handed him a pair of binoculars and pointed to somewhere out on the road. While Jimbo and Ned took a look, Kyle crept up to the rusty gate and tried to find out what was causing all the commotion. Not much was out there, mostly fog and a couple of dead bodies. "I can't see anything." Jason cried, Kyle looked to his side and found out that his group was also searching for the origin of Skeeter's shouting. Five minutes later, Jimbo came down the ladder and sighed. The group surrounded him demanding what the fuss was about. "Kids, you all remember how to use a gun right, I know we didn't have much training, but do you remember?" Jimbo asked, there was a couple of nods except for Pip and Nichole who shook there heads in disagreement. Kyle joined them. "Okay well, Kyle, Nichole and Pip you stay up on the guard tower with Skeeter, the rest of you go into my gun store and grab a pistol and and as much ammunition as possible." Jimbo demanded, no-one moved. "Woah, woah, woah. Were not doing anything until you explain why Skeeter was shouting." Wendy demanded again. Jimbo sighed and said, "A herd is coming, there is about fifty or sixty, it's not a lot, but it's enough to overrun us." With that Pip and Nichole climbed the ladder as fast as they could leaving the others to stock up on ammunition.
Kyle just stood at the gate looking out, a few figures popped out of the fog about a mile away. Their thirst for flesh was real. "Kyle, what are you doing? They'll be here in about thirty minutes, get up here!" Nichole shouted from the guard tower, he glanced towards her. He could see the fear on her face. Kyle shook his head and whispered 'sorry' and followed Nichole up to the guard tower. "This will fuck us up." Skeeter mentioned to the kids, he picked up his rifle which was on the floor next to him. "One of you kids tell Jimbo that if they don't protect the guard tower it'll fall with US on it." Skeeter ordered. Kyle looked towards Nichole and Pip who were looking right back. Kyle sighed, "I'll do it." He jumped down from the tower not bothering to use the ladder and ran towards Jimbo's Guns. As he bursted through the door, Jimbo, Ned and his group were all stocking up. "Jimbo. Skeeter said protect the tower at all costs." Kyle shouted, "No can do you Jew. Ned already said were letting them in here. Go open the gate." Kyle couldn't believe what he was hearing, they were going to let them walking corpses into the camp. "Are you insane? They'll overrun us. We'll be dead!" Kyle protested. He looked towards Stan. "Sorry dude, what Jimbo says goes." Stan agreed with Cartman. Kyle didn't know what to do, he wasn't opening the gate that's for sure. "You'll have to lie for us kid." Jimbo muttered, "Go tell Skeeter we'll protect the tower, but stay on there, or he'll get suspicious!" Jimbo demanded. Kyle flipped him off and left the room. He looked outside the gate, they were getting closer and closer. Kyle sighed and climbed the tower, he decided to go with what Jimbo said though. He had no idea why. "Jimbo... Jimbo said he'd protect the tower." Kyle stated, he could see Skeeter smirk and the looks of relief on Nichole and Pip's faces. Kyle had no idea why Token was going along with it, if the tower did fall his girlfriend would be gone.
Jimbo, Ned and the rest of his group ran out of the gun store and stood by the gate with their guns in hands. Kyle could the see the determination on everyone's faces except Token's, he had guilt, Kyle knew why. Kyle frowned and wondered why they weren't opening the gate, "Probably when it's closer" Kyle whispered to himself, luckily Nichole and Pip didn't hear. All Kyle knew is that this was not going to turn out pretty, the herd was five minutes away.