Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter one.

It has been only one month since the outbreak.
At first,it wasn't very noticable.
But soon, people started getting sicker. Their skin grew pale and flesh grows cold, like some kinda living corpse. Soon small grey blotches would appear on the skin and slowly spread,the eyes would gloss over slowly as well.

Then, they'd die.

But only for two minutes.

When they come back,they come back wrong,more feral and bloodthirsty than before,willing to do anything they could to maim and kill.

At first it was only the humans who were infected, but then it slowly began to spread out to ghosts as well.

The only difference between an infected ghost and a normal one is that the infected lose their ability to become intangible. However the infected can still become invisible. . .

One month has passed by since the first outbreak,one month since the mysterious disappearance of Danny Fenton,and by extension Danny phantom.

One month since the outbreak in Amity park.

Danny is still missing.

Tucker is currently missing.

Which leads us to our unlikely trio of survivors for our story.

Sam,minimoose and Gir where wondering around downtown Amity park,Sam was searching for what little supplies she could from within the abandoned shops.minimoose had floated off to inspect the abandoned cars in the streets. Sam kept gir close to her as she held her lead pipe. Gir stays close to her hugging his rubber piggy. His once cheerful and idiotic personality now scared and much more shy than normal.

"Sam? Why are we in this building?" He asked her sheepishly. Seeming to jump at the slightest of sound.
"Its dark and scary." He says softly seeming to lower his head while staying close.

Sam looks around the building on edge. "We need supplies gir....and a new shelter...." She says staying on high alert, almost irritated.

Gir goes quiet looking away,he looks guilty.

"Is it... because I opened the do-"

"YES,GIR. IT IS!" She snapped at him glaring at him.

Gir flinched scared of her sudden outburst.
"I-im sorry! I-i-i didn't know they where sick! T-they sounded like they needed help! I-im sorry I didn't mean it!" Gir says in a Shakey voice trying to hold back tears.

Sam looks at him and sighs softly,he maybe a robot but with the way he acts and behaves he was basically just a kid.

She knelt down to his height and gently hugs him. He instantly hugs back.

"...I'm sorry I snapped at you...I know you didn't mean to,but you need to remember that things are different now. These thing's.... they can't be helped gir..."

Gir sniffles quietly as he tries to hold back tears. “I-im sorry,I won't do it again ... .t-they sounded so scared on the o-other side of the d-d-door…”

Sam picked gir up, holding him with one arm and her pipe in the other.
“I know,gir. They all sound like that…it's a trick the infected use to get to us,you need to remember that.” She says trying to stay calm as she keeps looking around the abandoned shop. Gir rests his head on her shoulder as he quietly looks at his rubber piggy in his hands. “....Sam?” Gir asked softly.

“Yeah?” Sam replied, while she watches over the area pacing the isle's quietly as she does her best to stay aware of her surroundings.

“....I miss my master sometimes…”
He says softly. Holding his rubber piggy close to his chest. He closed his eyes, nuzzling into the small dirty toy.

Sam looks at gir, feeling bad for him. She met him and Minimoose during the first week of the outbreak. At first gir would follow Sam around from a distance which greatly annoyed her at the time. It wasn't until she was ambushed by an infected ghost that the two jumped in to help her.

That day gir lost his eye,but he still got Sam to safety. From that day on Sam had decided to stick with them. She's learned a lot from them, actually.

She looks at a few items left on some shelves and gently sets gir down so she can get a better look at the items. She gently picks up one of the items which were a few bottles of melatonin.
On the shelf were a few bottles of cold medicine and a couple bottles of water; two were already empty.

“Yeah…I know gir…. y'know,gir…I miss my friends too...and my family…”

She said softly as she began to gather up what little supplies she could for them.

Gir looks up at her A Bit curious.
“You…had friends?...what were they like?”
He asked as he fidgeted with his rubber piggy.

Sam goes quiet as she remembers her friends. She thinks over her next words carefully.

“They ... .where the best friends I could ever ask for…we did everything together ... .i-i….”
She goes quiet, her voice slowly became horse as she tries to hold back tears.

“One of my friend's…he w-went missing before the outbreak happened…”

Gir looks up at her and tilt's his head A Bit.

“oh,but…where'd he go?”
He asked,his voice soft yet innocent.

Sam goes quiet again before giving a soft sigh to calm herself.

“We don't know,gir…that's why he's missing…”
She says calmly yet bluntly.

“Oh…w-well, maybe he's just hiding someplace? M-m-maybe he got scared of something,and hid away someplace safe. But forgot to tell you and your other friend about it.”
Says gir quietly as he looks around the Isle there in, he began to search the lower shelves as they talked.

Sam goes quiet as she thinks about what gir suggested,it was a silly thought. To think so positively in such a dark situation.
Sam wasn't used to someone as optimistic as Gir. It's bizarre really. Even in this somber and timid state he was in,he still sees the bright side of things.
He had some kind of child-like innocence to him at all times.

He's trusting, and despite his new nature is always friendly, he was always trying to make friends with everyone they met when she first met him,and while he's stopped doing it for now,he still feels compelled to help those who need it.

“Yeah…. maybe”
Sam says softly. She glanced at gir, watching him rummage through whatever was left on the lower shelves.

Gir and Sam where quiet for a moment. The silence was unsettling, just then girs eye widens abit. “Oh! Sam,you said you had two friends! Is your other friend also hiding too?”
Gir asked softly but in a bit more of a cheery mood.

Sam froze again, looking away from gir.
She tried to think of something to say.
She was tense by Girs question,but she couldn't be blunt with him,or at least as blunt as she'd like to be.
She cleared her throat and began to speak.
“no,gir…my other friend,he….he got sick…like the others,a-and…I had to leave him behind…”
He says in a soft and uneasy tone. She goes back to checking other shelves for supplies.

“O-oh…well…I hope your friend gets better soon,and ... .a-and I hope we can find them, and that they're all ok.”
Says gir quietly but determined.

Sam smiled A Bit. It's the first time she's smiled during this whole shit show.
“Yeah…yeah me too….”

The two continue to scavenge in silence when suddenly,from behind they hear something drop to the ground with a loud metallic crash.

The two jump from the noise terrified,Sam drops what she was holding and grips her pipe with both hands as she Quickly turns around to face whoever or whatever made that noise…it was dark and hard to see down that side of the store.

“. . .gir?. . .light,now.”

She says quickly and quietly,her eyes not leaving that spot.
Gir quietly nods, running to her side and hiding behind her, clinging to her leg as his working eye flickers, becoming bright enough to work as a flashlight of sorts, he looks forward beaming down the dark side of the store.

Sam tensed up looking down the hall and seeing none other than Star already at the final stages of the virus. Her jaw was unhinged and oozing blood as her milky eye was fixed on them. Gir was silent but terrified,Sam was silent. She didn't take her eyes off Star for a second,her grip on the pipe tightened as she trembled Abit.

She was terrified,but she tried to be brave.

“H….hello….hello…”
Star spoke,her voice calm and oddly friendly despite her appearance.

“I won't hurt you, come out. It's safe”
She says as she looks around oblivious to the two survivors standing before her down the Aisle. Her voice sounds almost normal at first.

But then after a moment of silence,she began to screech and groan like a rabid animal,her sounds otherworldly and her movements inhumane. Ectoplasm leaks from her nose and blood drips from her mouth. She wrecked the other shelf by knocking it over.

Gir flinched terrified of what star has become.

“S-sam…i-i think she's sick….”
Gir whispers softly to Sam,absolutely terrified.

Sam was quiet for a moment before whispering back to him.
“Gir…go find Minimoose…I'll take care of her.”

She says as she silently took a step forward, hoping to get the jump on star while she was distracted on her rampage.

Girs eyes widen scared. He didn't want to leave Sam's side. What if she gets hurt? Or got sick? He didn't want his friend to get sick like everyone else.

“B-b-but-”

Sam quickly shot gir a icy glare as if to tell him not to argue. Gir instantly stopped and ran quietly out of the store.
Sam watched gir to make sure he was safely out of the store.
But by the time Sam turned around star was already inches away from Sam's face.

“Bye bye”
Says Star before going in to bite Sam.
Thinking quickly Sam held up her pipe so Star would chomp down onto that instead,to which star does. The loud crunch of teeth being destroyed filled the room as star screeches and stumbled back as a few rotten teeth clamer to the floor. Sam grips the pipe like a bat and starts to swing at the infected Star who kept stumbling backwards. Sam was able to get a good hit or two in until Star rips Sam pipe out of her hands and clumsily swings at Sam striking her hard in the head. She collapsed to the ground slightly out of it from such a hard hit.

Star stood above Sam with the pipe raised above her head ready to bash Sam's head in.
Sam flinched.
“OH GOD NO”
Sam screamed as she tried to shield her head from the attack.

When suddenly,a loud gunshot rang out.

Sam opens her eyes and sees that Star was shot in the chest.

“No…. fair…”
Crooked Star as she lowers her arms and drops the pipe, swaying Abit. Before another loud gunshot blows a hole Through Stars head.

Stars body collapsed on top of Sam who quickly shoved her off the got up grabbing her pipe, standing up and facing the hidden shooter.

“Wha-WHOS HERE?!?!”
Sam yells on edge ready to strike at the first thing that moves.
“I'M WARNING YOU,I'M VERY DANGEROUS SO DON'T TRY ANYTHING MOTHER FUCKER!”
As she says that minimoose entered the store to check on Sam.
“Nya?”
Squeaked minimoose as he floats beside her.
“I'm fine but we're not alone”
Sam says, responding to Minimooses concerned squeak, clearly on edge.

From the shadows a soft chuckle was heard.

“Wow bratty bat. Talking to a purple space moose? Pfft,and I thought I was going bonkers.”
Says a sly female voice from the darkness.

Without thinking Sam dropped her pipe, backed up and grabbed minimoose holding him out In Front of her.

“STAY BACK I HAVE A MOOSE!”
She yells,her hands trembling slightly as she aims at the darkness.

“Nya”
Says minimoose.

Just then,a familiar face slowly approaches from the darkness with her hands up.

“Oh nooo dont-”
Nina's sarcastic comment was cut short by a shotgun bullet whizzing by her head as she quickly ducked down.
she looks back at Sam and minimoose seeing light smok leave minimooses goofy little smiling maw.

“DID THAT MOOSE SHOOT A SHOT GUN SHELL OUT OF ITS FUCKIN MAW?!?”
Nina yelled in shock.

“yes.”
Says Sam casually. She cocks him like he's a shotgun.
“Yes he did.”

Nina blinks A Bit before smirking.
“Heh,not bad. Anyway it's good to see ya bratty bat.”

Sam rolls her eyes at Nina's nickname for her.

“Even during a zombie apocalypse I still can't escape that stupid nickname,hm?”
Asked Sam as she let go of minimoose, letting him perch himself on her shoulder.

“Nnnnope”
Says Nina playfully before putting her gun away as well.

“Man,it's so good to see you!...Wait, you're clean,right? No bites or anything?”
Asked Nina abit worried.

Sam looks at herself quickly.
“Hmm,yup I'm clean…”

“Good…so uh,you got a safe place to stay?” Nina asks as she raids the counter for any candy left behind.

“I did,but someone let an infected in…so now we're looking for a safe place to lay low.”
Responds Sam as she looks over at the door where gir was peeking in from. Sam then motions gir to come in.

Sheepishly gir enters before quickly running to Sam's side and hugging her leg.

Nina turns around to see gir,her eyes widen A Bit.

“oh! Heh heya lil man.”

Nina says with a kind smile while looking at gir.

Gir sinks down Abit becoming shy and avoiding eye contact.

Sam noticed this and picked him up.

“This is gir. He's A Bit shy right now, But he's friendly.”

Gir stays close to Sam as he glances at Nina. He gave a shy wave before burying his face into Sam's shoulder causing minimoose to move and float beside them instead.

“Heh, adorable. Aaaand who's the moose?”
Asked Nina as she glanced at him.

“Oh that's Minimoose. He's chill.”
Says Sam casually.

Nina nods casually.
“Cool. Anyway,it's getting late. I'll radio my bro and we can get out of this dump.”

Nina says as she gets out a walkie-talkie.

“Wait,you mean you're going to take us in?” Asked Sam confused.
Nina rolls her eyes.
“Uh,duh! You're my friend! I'm not gonna let you laze around out here and get infected. Besides, we got plenty of room back at base. We set up a safe haven at Casper high. You're in good hands now.”
She says reassuringly to sam as she radios dash.

“Ayo bro. You won't believe who I fuckin found. I'm across the street from you still.”
She says into the radio.

Just then a male voice is heard from the walkie-talkie.
“Wait, you found a survivor?! I'll be right over.”

“We'll meet you outside.”
She says into the walkie-talkie before putting it in her bag and motions for Sam and minimoose to follow her.

Sam looks at minimoose who had just put her pipe into her backpack. He looks back at her before following Nina.

Standing outside was dash,he was standing next to a truck with supplies tied down in the bed of the truck.

“Holy hell,Mason is that you?!”
He asked almost in shock.

“I'd hate to say it but damn,am I happy to see you.“
Says Sam as she opens the back door of the truck.
She sets Gir inside and buckles him in as Dash gets in the front driver's seat, minimoose casually gets into the front passenger seat as Nina sits in the back with Gir and Sam.

And with that,they drove off into the night heading straight to Casper high.

Chapter Text

The drive itself felt longer than normal. The night was already long and tiring for everyone in the truck.

Nina kept looking out the back window as Dash drove silently.
Sam looks out the back passenger window,her hand rests gently on gir’s head as he peacefully naps beside her.

Mini moose floats silently in the front passenger seat.

The drive provided the survivors with something that was almost a rare luxury for them…a brief moment of peace.

Dash occasionally glanced at mini moose,who in turn glanced back at him with that familiar goofy grin.

After a few minutes of silent driving dash speaks up.

“Ok,can we address the elephant in the room..or rather the moose in my goddamn truck.”
Asked dash, breaking the silence.

Nina turns around a bit.
“I mean,what's there to explain? He's a tiny moose. Pretty self explanatory,man”
She says casually as if it was completely normal.

Dash rolls his eyes.
“Oh yea, like that's the most normal thing on earth.”
He responded sarcastically,a bit annoyed with Nina's casual demeanor.

Sam glanced over at Dash and spoke up.
“Well,if you must know, he's a space moose.”
She says, a bit drained.

“Oh…ok I guess”
Replied Dash seemingly satisfied with that response. Not even questioning Sam's answer.

“....wait…you're not gonna question that?”
Sam asked, a bit confused by Dash's acceptance of the space moose.

Dash just shrugs casually.
“Eh,I mean we have an alien at the safe haven. So I guess a tiny purple moose from space isn't that far off” he says as if this was just a normal thing.

Sam goes quiet for a moment processing what Dash just said for a minute or two before shrugging and just saying “alright.” And going back to watching the old buildings pass by. This town they once called home is now a cruel shell of what it once was.

A literal ghost town that not even spirits dare to tread though.

After what felt like hours they finally made it to Casper high. The school grounds seem to have been barricaded, a giant barbed fence lined the barrier. They stopped at the giant gate. To which Nina hopped out to unlock it.

“Jeez. It looks like a prison” says Sam as she looks up at the tall fences and barbed walls.

Dash shrugs, clearly tired. “Yea,but it's safe.”

After a while Nina pushed open the gate and waved dash through. He slowly drove in but instead of pulling into the parking lot he drove into the football field and pulled over.

“Ok, before you go in we need to make sure that you guys aren't infected.” Dash said as he looked over at Sam in the back.

Sam seems a bit confused.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” She asked as she opened the truck door.

“We have someone who can tell. It sounds crazy,but it's true…” Explained Dash,as he got out of the truck.
Mini moose floats out of the truck's passenger side window. Gir wakes up and looks up as Sam got out.

“Did we gets to da safe place?” Gir asked softly, rubbing his remaining eye. Sam helped gir unbuckle his seatbelt and picked him up before shutting the door.

“Kinda…” she says cautiously.

Dash takes out a cigarette and goes to light it but the lighter doesn't work “damn…” he says a bit annoyed.

“You smoke now?” She asked, a bit surprised.

“And you don't?” He asked back.

Just then Nina comes over with two animals on separate leashes.

“Sorry guys. Took me a while to find these goober's.”

Sam looks over and her eyes widen, recognizing one of the animals.

“CUJO?!” Sam asked in shock. Gir gasped excited at the sight of them.

“PUPPY!!!! KITTY!!!” Gir basically yelled excitedly and did grabby hands at them, similar to something a child would do.

Dash takes a step back as Nina removes the leashes from their collars allowing cujo and mittens to quickly approach the new group.

“Yeah, turns out these two can accurately pick up on who's infected with amazing accuracy!” says Nina happily.

Cujo and mittens sniffed around carefully checking the newcomers.

Sam knelt down and pet cujo,who seemed very happy to see Sam again. “Heh, good too see you again bud.” Sam said, looking down at cujo. “Woof!” Barked cujo happily.

Mittens' eyes mini moose closely but she doesn't seem hostile towards them. The two look back at Dash and Nina proudly.

“Myark!” Mews mittens as she straightens up a bit before licking her paw.

“Arf!” Barked cujo happily as he looked up at the two.

Nina looks at them and smiles “welp, looks like you're clean bratty bat.” she says before giving cujo and mittens a treat and putting their leashes back on and heading towards the school. “Follow me, I'll get you settled in.”

Dash gets back into his truck “you guys go ahead,I need to bring the truck around to get it unloaded.” With that he slowly drove around. Nina Smiled as Sam followed with gir and mini moose.

As they walked Sam couldn't help but notice something odd about mittens.

“Uh,hey does that cat have six legs? And…is it kinda blue looking?” Sam asked Abit curious.

“Oh she's a snarl beast,a rare alien creature, not sure how the lil fella wound up on Earth though,but she refuses to go anywhere without cujo and vice versa.”
Nina casually explained as she opened the door letting Sam and the others enter first.

The hallways were surprisingly clean and well lit. Something about the school felt calm, and in some way, normal even. Nina unleashed cujo and mittens and let them run off as Sam set gir down. “I'm surprised this place has working electricity.” Remarks Sam as she looks around.

“heh,yeah. Took awhile but we made it work” Nina says as she hangs up the leashes inside of a locker with a missing door before walking over to Sam.”
Welcome to our lil safe haven. Everyone is probably off doin their own thing. Granted we're a small group in a large school,so yeah. Here, let's get you some clothes to get yourself cleaned up” she says leading them down the hall past dark and empty classrooms,doors open but lights off.

“Wait, this place has running water?”Sam asked.

Nina nods “eyup. We got a lot going for us here. Granted we wouldn't have gotten to this point without-”

“- HOW CAN YOU BE SO DENSE!?” yelled a familiar male voice from the science room Nina and Sam were passing by. The shouting made gir hide behind Sam.

“N-NO,HOW COULD Y-YOU BE!?! I'M T-T-TELLING Y-YOU,HE WAS N-NEVER T-THE BAD GUY!” yelled an almost childlike voice,she sounded frustrated.

Sam looks over curiously at the two in the science room. To which she sees two people arguing one of them was clearly an alien child.

“It's too much of a coincidence!! First Danny goes missing at the SAME TIME as phantom??? THEN the outbreak happens?!? I'm just saying, something is going on and Danny is behind it!” Wes yelled angrily as Aries continued to try to fix a radio while arguing with him.

“Wes, y-you've t-thought of s-some crazy t-things so far but T-T-THIS is the dumbest conspiracy t-theory I've EVER heard! And I s-s-should k-know! My best friend was a HUGE conspiracy t-theorist and paranormal investigator,but even he wasn't as crazy as y-y-you!” Aries protested as she tried to focus on the radio.

“Heh y'all are always at each other's throats like a pair of rabid chihuahuas.” Nina says as she leans on the door frame,her voice startling them.

“Nina!” The two say. Aries sounded relieved to see her. Wes however,was more defensive sounding before noticing Sam,Gir, and mini moose. His eyes widened.

“Sam?!” Wes yelled before approaching the group.
“You're ok?!Who are these two?! Why is one of them a tiny purple moose?!”

Nina scoffed “god,Wes. You can't just ASK people why they're a purple moose.” She says sarcastically with a sly grin.

Wes glares at Nina. “Can it Nina,I'm not gonna take crap from someone who's fuckin clicker trained!.” He says, clearly annoyed.

Nina's eyes widen as she blushes embarrassed “I TOLD YOU THAT IN PRIVATE,ASSHOLE!” Nina yelled angrily.

The two began screaming and ranting at each other leaving Aries,Sam,mini moose and Gir to watch on.

“Sorry about t-them. N-Nina always knows how t-to get him riled up…i-i-im Aries.”
Says Aries as she sets her tools down and looks up at Sam.

“I'm Sam. Nice to meet you I guess…uh…what are you exactly?”Sam asked as she looked at Aries' rather otherworldly form.

“O-o-oh,I'm a irken. We're a race o-of insectoid aliens” she says sheepishly.

“D-dont worry,I'm n-not evil like the aliens i-in earth Media! I u-understand if i-i look u-u-unsettling. But i-i promise,i j-just wanna help.” She says with a kind smile.

Sam sighs softly.

“Honestly, no offense kid,but I could care less what you are at this point. I'm dirty, hungry and I haven't slept in days.” Sam says, clearly tired.

Aries eyes widened and her antennas perk up instantly “O-oh! Here let me get y-you something to eat. I should have something.” Aries begins rummaging through drawers before getting a bag of chips and bringing them to her before noticing Gir.

“Oh my S-stars!! You have a s-sir unit!?!” Aries asked excitedly as she looked at him.

Gir waves happily from behind Sam.

“Uh,his name is Gir.” Sam says as she takes the bag of chips from Aries, who by now was inspecting Gir closely.

“Gir? What does t-the g s-s-stand for?” Aries asked curiously. To which Sam just shrugged.

“Hmm,he's m-missing an eye. And h-his antenna i-is bent. S-s-should be an easy fix for me and Dex, however his s-suit…i-it's pretty messed up,poor guy..” Aries says softly, feeling bad for Gir.

“Can yous fix it?”Gir asked innocently.

“I-i don't know,b-but I'll see what I-I can do buddy “ Aries says with a soft smile trying to stay positive.

As they talked the argument between Wes and Nina turned physical briefly before Dash walked over and casually separated them as if this was normal.

“Can I leave you two assholes alone for fifteen goddamn minutes without you two going at it like feral dogs?” Dash asked them, exhausted.

“He started it!” Nina yelled, pointing at Wes.

“Wha- NO I FUCKIN DIDN'T!” Wes yelled back angrily.

Dash looked so done with everyone's bullshit. So he looks at mini moose.

“You, moose guy. Who started it?” Asked Dash, just wanting them to stop fighting.

Mini moose looks at Nina, then Wes. Before pointing one of his little nubs at Wes.

“Nya!” Says mini moose.

“Thank you,moose guy.” Replies Dash.

Mini moose nods back at him. As Nina smirks smugly.

Mini moose then looks at Wes,who glares back at him.
“...I don't like you.” Wes says with a sneer.

Aries notices Dash and goes over to him quickly.

“Dash! Did y-you find the parts i-i-i requested?” She asked, nervously fidgeting with her bracelets charm.

Dash takes off the backpack he's wearing and hands it to her. “I think I got everything. You think this'll be enough to fix the radio?”

Aries takes the backpack but it was clearly far too heavy for her and it falls to the floor with a Loud metallic THUMP. She struggled a bit but she does her best to drag it to her work area. “OOF! t-this should be! T-t-thank y-you.” She struggled a bit but managed to get it onto the table,she stops to catch her breath.

Dash looks at Sam. “Hey, you ok? Sorry about those two.”

Sam sighs. “It's fine. Honestly Nina and Wes fighting has got to be the most normal feeling thing I've seen in the past few months.” She says, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.

Dash chuckled a little bit “yeah, seems like even in the apocalypse some things never change I guess…uh,I noticed you only had a pipe on you. Was that your only weapon?” He asked Abit curious.

“Oh,yea. I did have a knife but it broke.” Sam said casually.

Dash seems genuinely surprised she's lasted this long with just a pipe. “Oh,damn…well. Let's change that.” He says giving him a dented metal lockbox with a key.

“Wait,what?” Sam was a bit surprised.

“We raided the abandoned police building and found these. There's a holster in the box too. That pipe can only do so much, trust me…” Dash says calmly.

“Dash…i-...thanks.” Sam put the box in her bag.

Aries looks up at Sam. “If y-you want to i-i could fix up y-y-your friend here while N-Nina shows y-you around.”

Sam straightens up a bit as she looks at Aries.“I don't know,I haven't left him out of my sight for long…”Sam says with a sigh.

Gir looks up at her with a smile. “It's Oki Doki Sam. She's gunna makes me all better! Yous can go and I'll stay right here! I promise!” Gir says happily.

Sam looks at Aries then Gir before sighing heavily then looks over at mini moose. “Keep an eye on Gir for me,if anything happens come find me” she says, sounding drained.

“Nya” mini moose says in response.

“Good.” Sam responded.

With that Nina and Sam left the room. The two continue down the haul alone.
“So…how'd you even meet the lil guys anyway?” Nina asks as she leads Sam to a storage closet full of spare clothes, supplies and sports gear. She rummages around as Sam stands to the side.

“It's a long story, man. But basically a while back,they saved me from some infected and we've all been traveling together since…but honestly, it's not all bad. Mini moose is resourceful and pretty strong. Gir…well, he's Gir. He's just a little guy,he needs us to keep him safe. Sure he's a robot but like…he's just a kid, y'know?...”Sam says as she leans against some lockers.

Nina listens to her before coming out with a plastic bag with some clean clothes, soaps and a towel inside.

“Here. You should go get yourself cleaned up and we can get you some Actual food. We finally got the showers in the girl's locker room working.”

Sam slowly takes the bag from Nina, almost looking relieved to finally have clean clothes for once. “thanks,man”

“Don't mention it. If you want,half of the library is free. You and your lil buddies could settle down in there.” Nina suggested casually.

Sam sighs softly”honestly,I don't care where in the school we end up. As long as it's got a bed and it's safe. But for now,I just wanna go clean up before something happens.” Sam says as they continue to walk down the hall.

“Yea fair enough, you look like shit man.”Nina says casually.

“Heh,you look like shit to.” Sam says back, elbowing Nina's arm.

Nina smirks, just happy to see Sam after everything that's happened.

“Oh,also you can put your old clothes in the bag when you're done and I'll take 'em downstairs to wash with the rest of the laundry if you want.” Nina says casually.

Sam seems a bit surprised “wait, you? Doing laundry? I never thought I'd see the day.” she says with slight sarcasm.

Nina just chuckled at Sam's sarcastic reply before speaking.
“Man, I missed your snarky sarcasm Bratty bat. But yeah,we got a bit of a system where some of us do certain things around here and we swap out every few weeks. This week I'm on laundry duty.” She says casually as she stretches. “Buuut for now I should probably get the library ready for you and your lil buddies. I'll meet you at the cafeteria later. See ya around”Says Nina casually.

“Alright,see you later.” Sam replied back.

with that Nina left towards the school's library as Sam headed off to the girls locker room.

Meanwhile,

Aries was hard at work on fixing up Gir to the best of her abilities. His suit was draped over a desk in the back of the room for now.

Dash came back into the science lab with a cup of hot chocolate and gently set it on the desk beside her.

“Here,I thought you could use something to drink. Don't worry,I didn't use water.” Dash says reassuringly.

Aries smiles softly at him “t-thank you,Dash.” She says as she sets her tools down to take a small break to enjoy her Coco.

“No problem ... .So uh,Gir right? You've been traveling with Sam for a while now,hm?” Dash asked, sitting on one of the desks directly across from Gir and Aries.

“Mmhmm,she was all sad and alone when we's founded her. And when she gots acttaked we helped-ed her escape from the sick people! I losted meh eye though. But dats Oki” Gir says as he hugs his rubber piggy.

Dashes expression softened as he heard Gir speak.
“I see…has Sam ever mentioned traveling with other people before meeting you?” Asked Dash. He changed his tone a bit,as if he were talking to a small child.

Aries antenna perks up a bit at Dash's question before lowering, knowing exactly where this is going. She gives Dash a soft look of sympathy.

Gir was a bit oblivious to the situation and responded.
“Mmhmm Sam told me she haded two friends! But then one went away and now they can't finded him nowhere. And then her other friend got sick,and Sam said she had to leave him alone…”

Gir fidgets with his rubber piggy while looking down at it.

“Sam gets really sad when talking about her friends…but,I know one day, we'll be able to find her one friend. A-and maybe her other friend would get all better too. A-and maybes Sam might be happy again!” Gir looked up and smiled happily at them.

Dash was quiet for a moment,not sure how to respond to the situation. Aries looks at Gir,her expression soft.

“O-oh,Gir…you're a g-good unit. I-I'm s-sure we will f-f-find her f-friends one day.”

She looks at Dash, despite her kind smile her eyes betray her. She had a look of hurt in her eyes,as if she related to Sam's situation. She does her best at hiding her tears, pretending to wipe sweat away from her face with a nearby rag before setting it down with a trembling hand. She swallowed her spit before speaking again. Her voice faltered slightly as she tried to put on a brave face.

“R-right…Dash?” She asked, hoping he'd agree. For Girs sake at least.

Dash sighs deeply,he didn't want to lie to Gir. But he knew the truth would crush him. He looks at them with a soft smile.

“Right. I'm…I'm sure we'll find them…someday” Dash says softly before getting up and walking around Abit, leaving Aries to go back to attending to Gir.

He looked at Gir's suit and picked it up before looking at them.

Aries was doing what she could to fix Gir. She was gentle and kind with the tiny sir unit. And Gir was happily talking with her, slowly warming up to his new environment.

Dash could feel a ghostly presence enter the room from the wall behind him. A calm voice speaks to him.

“Looks like she's doing better at interacting with new people.”

Dash looks at the ghost and sighs softly relieved to see it was pointdexter. He leans against the wall watching over the interaction between Aries and Gir.

Mini Moose was fast asleep in the corner with Cujo and Mittens,the three of them curled up close to each other. Pointdexter floats beside him.

“Yeah…she's doing her best despite our situation. She's got a good heart, but…man” Dash sighs deeply.

Pointdexter nods, understanding what Dash was getting at.

“Yeah,it's not great. But there's not a lot we can do. The only thing we can do is just try to have hope, y'know?... Maybe if we fix the radio we can reach out to other survivors and maybe even find more supplies…we're going to get through this..” pointdexter says, reassuringly.

Dash thinks on pointdexters words for a moment before nodding.
“We can only hope I guess…” he looks over at pointdexter. “I'm gonna go to the cafeteria…I'll see you around Dex.”

With that Dash left the science lab.

the hallway where quite for the most part as Nina made her way to the roof of the school. The stairwell was peaceful at first. Halfway up Nina stopped.

“... y'know,you suck at sneaking up on people Wes.” Nina says casually. Not even bothering to turn around.

Wes scoffs. “Please. I'm not trying to sneak up on you.”

“Yeah yeah. Soooo you're just being a stalker for fun?” She asked casually, turning around and leaning against the wall, crossing her arms.

“...I just…I wanted to apologize about the clicker thing earlier….I just-...look,it's been hard on us all. First the outbreak happens,then my sister….s-shes-...”Wes trails off Abit, avoiding eye contact as he balls his fists.

Nina's eyes soften before she sighs deeply. She focused her energy,and began to transform.

She pulled him into a tight hug.

“It's ok,Wes…it's not your fault. She's recovering…it's slow but, it's working…”

Trembling Wes clutches Nina burying his face deep into her dark blue fur. His screams muffled by her floof. She shhhh’d him gently. Her eyes tired as if she understands his pain.

She just…holds him there for a while just letting him cry for a few minutes. She knew he needed this more than anything.

Then,when he calmed down,she spoke.
“It's…going to be ok…I promise. But for now,go to bed man. I just finished moving beds into the library and I need a minute, y'know?” She slowly let go,as did he.

“Yeah…yeah. I'll uh,see you around.” With that Wes headed down the stairs as Nina continues to the roof.