Chapter Text
Returning to her small ‘family’, she sighs and sits against a creaky wall. She felt a small finger of warmth travel down her body when she regarded them as a family. Only she and Roxy are related by blood, although she’s fairly certain that, given the amount of time they’ve spent together, John would have popped the question; so to speak.
Almost reading her mind, Dave raises an eyebrow just slightly over the top of his shades. “What you thinking Lalonde?” He questions nonchalantly, “You’ve got the contented face of a dog surrounded by huge bones.” What a way with words the Dave Strider has.
“Oh nothing. Just something to do with John.” Rose replies dozily, lost in thought of the life she and John could share had the world not gone to hell.
“You’re right, you know.” He says flatly snapping Rose out of her thoughts, “He would have done it ages ago.”
Rose knows exactly what he means and she flushes bright red. The pair is distracted by the entrance of Roxy Lalonde into the conversation. “What has to do with John and he would have done what?” She says to Rose. Thank goodness John isn’t present.
“Roxy, how much has Dave told you?” Rose inquires at Dave more than Roxy.
“Nothing much,” She says, “But he did tell me that you and John are still, you know, all lovey dovey.”
Rose feels she can’t keep the truth from her own sister. “Well, Roxy, me and John are together and Dave here was just implying that John would have proposed to me.”
“Way to put it bluntly, Rose.” Dave says.
“No better way to put it.” She says simply.
“Rose Lalonde, Queen of Bluntness.” Dave mulls it over.
“Dave Strider, King of Observation.” Rose replies sarcastically.
“Ow. That sarcasm burned my cool. I’ll go and see if there is any burn ointment in the bags.” With that he stands and leaves Rose and Roxy sitting in the room.
Roxy is looking at Rose with her eyes wide and mouth agape in surprise. “Really?” She questions amazed.
“Don’t be so surprised Roxy, me and John have been together for three years now. You know this.” Rose says surprised that Roxy could have forgotten.
“It’s not like I’d forgotten, more like I-” Rose cuts her off before she can finish.
“I understand.” Rose sooths her suddenly apologetic sister, “You didn’t realise that after all this, we’d still be together.” She pats the floor beside her, beckoning Roxy over to her. She complies but in the teenager reluctance she always used to have. She seems to be getting back to herself again, Rose thinks happily.
Roxy settles on the floor next to Rose and leans on her shoulder, evidently more tired than she thought.
“But here we all are,” Rose continues wrapping an arm around her sister, “One small family amid a world of ruin, with the odds of survival stacked against us. But as a family and with our newest member,” She gives Roxy a slight squeeze which makes the smaller girl blush slightly, “The odds are beginning to be stacked more in our favour.” Roxy gives her sister a warming smile before returning to the shoulder she rest on.
“You’re right. Things are better.” Roxy says quietly, “I’ve found you.”
Without warning, Roxy relaxes against Rose’s shoulder and her breaths even out into a restful state. Smiling, Rose tucks the scarf she was refusing to part with around her thinning shoulders and slender neck before tucking the remaining length behind her head as a cushion against the hard floor and laying her against the floor.
Just then, you realise that John was in the room for the small speech you made. He looks rather emotional again. He smiles down at you and raises his eyebrows with a nod of the head towards Roxy.
“She was very tired.” Rose says, standing to face John. His face only slightly higher than her own.
“She’s really small,” Rose gives him a look, “cute and small, like a child.” John’s tone isn’t one she’s familiar with. She once again gives him a look.
He looks as though he was snapped out of a trance. Shaking his head a tiny bit quickly he looks at Rose with a ‘I’ve forgotten what happened in the past three seconds’ look and she simply raises an eyebrow.
“John, what is up with you?” She questions, waving a hand in front of his face watching as he flinches as she snaps him out of another trance like state.
“Hmm?”
“John, you spaced out twice in the space of thirty seconds. You feeling okay?” She raises a hand to place it against his forehead but he shakes his head.
“I feel fine.” He slows to a stop again before continuing quietly, “I was just thinking.”
“About my sister?” Rose questions carefully.
“No. About you, me; about everyone.” He stares into space. “I was thinking how everything would be different if this whole thing hadn’t happened.” Rose is about to say something when he continues, “We wouldn’t have to be on the move all the time. We could settle down, start a family, be a family and everyone would be happy. Not inside a stripped out hospital wondering when death will come to us.” Rose eyes widen as he speaks, not only is this very surprising coming from John but also he mentioned starting a family.
Pull yourself together Lalonde! she mentally scalds herself, when she realised that John had mentioned some heavy stuff and all she’d heard was ‘start a family’.
“John, we could settle down, start a family,” She waggles her eyebrows at him on this line and he goes slightly red in the face, “we can go somewhere where there aren’t any zombies and do just that. As for being a family, isn’t that what we’ve been doing for the past two years?” She looks at John sternly and he flinches under the look.
“That’s not what I meant.” He stammers.
“Well what did you mean-” Rose is cut short by the appearance of John’s lips against hers. She gives up the line she hadn’t been able to finish before she had become otherwise occupied. She enjoys the kiss for a few seconds before John breaks it.
“You know John, Dave will be back soon.” She says slyly. But John being John didn’t quite catch the double meaning.
“Where did he go?” He questions looking puzzled.
“To get some burn ointment.” She says dismissively.
“Why would he need that?” He really isn’t paying attention to the double meanings.
“No John, he went to nurse his ‘damaged’ cool after I ‘hurt’ it.” She says.
“Huh.” Is all he says, “Sounds like Dave.” John turns back to Rose who has settled next to Roxy again. He thinks for a few seconds about nothing in particular before deciding he should probably go and sit down. Walking over to the pair of Lalondes, he plants himself down beside Rose and pulls himself around her and Roxy. Rose’s mind lights with recognition as she realises why John spaced out earlier when he looked at Roxy. He’s gained a parental protectiveness over Roxy. Carefully she turns to John over her shoulder.
“John?” She questions.
“Yeah?”
“I understand.”
“Understand what?” He asks back confused.
“What you said ealier. You feel it, don’t you?” Rose questions.
“Huh?” He replies.
“You’re getting parentally protective over Roxy.” Rose states.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He says pulling them tighter into himself.
“Ow. John, lose the squeeze for a moment,” he does and Rose shifts the bony elbow from her side, “There, now you can squeeze us to death.” You can feel him smile into your shoulder and his force increases slightly to a comforting pressure. She can feel fatigue tearing at her mind. She lets it start to take hold. Feeling the world drifting away, Rose begins to reflect on all that happened in the two years.
-------Two Years Previously-------
“John! Hurry up!” Dave calls over to the taller dark haired boy. John may have been an on and off rugby player, but he wasn’t faster than the athletically build Dave but certainly faster than the shorter blonde with the book worm legs as she called them. Dave had to snide at that but as it turned out, it wasn’t fat really, it was power; or so she told herself. She drew a deep breath to catch some oxygen as her lungs burned in her chest.
“Com’on Rose! John, on your right!” Dave called over to John as the zombie aimed to collide with his right side. John heeded the warning and dropped the shoulder, as the years of rugby training taught and with his well-built size, sent the zombie sprawling with the blow as John rammed his way through.
“Cheers.” His thanks was breathy and short.
“Run, run, run!” Dave yelled in encouragement. He needn’t have. The zombies chasing them were encouragement enough.
“I can’t keep this up much longer!” Rose breathed at herself between heavy breaths.
That was when the target made itself visible and Dave reacted by shouting his encouragements to the pair behind him.
The building looms closer and closer threatening to swallow them whole.
“Rose! Rose! Rose, wake up!”
That’s not how it went, oh well, and the memory fast forwards a few month to the pharmacy incident.
“John? What have you got there?” Rose peers over her shoulder, and instantly regrets it.
John is holding a packet of twelve condoms. He looks up and catches Rose’s eyes and they both go bright red.
“You two look like a pair of virgins at the first mention of sex.” Dave chirps from nearby. They both break the eye contact.
“You know,” John started, “we could put these to use.” John suggests. You hear Dave making noises like he was going throwing up. You’d care if you knew it wasn’t a trick.
“I like your thinking.” Rose replies slyly and John smirks and goes a little redder.
“BLUGH!” Dave’s vomiting noises sound again and there is splattering as something hits the floor. “Seriously! You two are doing this now!” He sounds indignified.
“Shut up Dave!” They both call at the same time.
“Wow. Geez guys.” He raises both hands in mock surrender and leaves the room.
“ROSE! ROSE WAKE UP!” The world shakes violently.
The dream continues and she replays the first little bit of meeting Roxy when…
“ROSE LALONDE YOU WAKE YOUR FAT ARSE UP THIS ISNTANT!!!!!!”
Rose’s eyes snap open and she is immediately surrounded by a flurry of movement.
A groggy mind turns as she works out what is going on. Roxy stands within swathes of swarming people. Kind of reminds you of the concert the two of you attended a year or so before the extinction started.
ZOMBIES! Get your arse off the floor!
Within seconds she up and on her feet, machete collected from the ground by her feet.
She charges the nearest zombie and decapitates it before slicing the arm of the next and performing a graceful spin she buries the blade into its heart with a backward stab before wrenching the blade free and countering the blow of the next attacker in the process. There are a lot of them aren’t there.
“Dave!” She calls over the noise.
“Present!” He replies.
“John?!” She calls.
“Here!” He replies breathily.
“Where are Karkat and Jade?” She asks splitting a zombie from head to groin and kicking the halves out of the way, its guts and internals trailing behind each severed half. She barely notices and she carves the next one similarly but from groin to neck before pulling the blade free and flinching slightly as its blood ejects from the wound onto her clean-ish clothes.
“We’re here!” She hears the unmistakable voice of Karkat over the zombies.
Good they are all here. Maybe when they finish this off, they can deal with the little things.
“Fuck this!” Dave’s call finds its way to her ears and she risks a glance over to see that Dave has drawn nothing short of his flamethrower which he proceeds to cake the runners in burning petrol and other volatile chemicals. The smoke begins to fill the room and the risk to the group is large but the dry, cracked flesh of the infected mixed with the fluidity inside them turns the infected in over-ripe grapes bursting under the heat. It’s actually rather clever really, the heat boils the blood under the skin and causes the water to turn to steam greatly increasing the pressure inside the body and causing it to burst. She muses a little longer as a decapitated head is propelled past her shoulder by the force of a muffled explosion that is no doubt the work of the infamous John Egbert.
It gives her a room for thinking. Heat seems to be a good weapon against them. The dry dehydrated skin of the infected goes up like petrol soaked kindling. She decides to muse on it later.
“Everyone, out the door! Go!” A gruff harsh voice calls indicating the retreat from within the now burning building. “That includes you Lalonde! Fucking move!”
“Of course Karkat.” She mumbles under her breath careful not to breathe the thick clingy black smoke.
Bursting out into the street heralds the relief of fresh air. Oh how she’d missed it. Breathing deeply the group recovers and she can see that Dave is grinning like a madman. Oh how she’d like to give him a piece of her mind.
“We’re not done yet.” John says indicating a small group of clickers that amble toward them.
Tired, the group ready to fight them but a series of loud bangs fill the street and the group of clickers drops to the ground. Roxy stands smoke forming a wispy trail from the barrel of her automatic rifle that Rose has no idea how she got hold of.
“Okaaaaaaaaay…” Dave says, “The chick can shoot. Now we run.”
And run they did but only enough to lose the small number of followers they had gained.
Panting and wheezing for breath the group comes to a halt in front of a gutted building with a half broken sign.
“Seriously? Heddon Street Kitchen? I loved that restaurant.” Dave pouts and kicks a stone on the ground that was harder than it looked and he yelps hopping back and shaking his foot. Roxy manages a laugh despite the lack of breath.
“We need to find a new place to stay the night. “ John says.
“No duh dimwit.” Karkat says sarcastically before he is swatted by a back hand from Jade.
“Karkat. Rude.” The normally gruff Karkat disappears and he apologises sincerely to which John chuckles and Karkat sticks his middle finger up and lazily ducks under Jade’s swing who is giggling too much to put any effort behind it.
Rose, Dave and Roxy meanwhile are searching the buildings lining the street which Dave and Rose knew instinctively to be Regent Street.
Roxy peers into the building opposite the blown out building and calls Dave and Rose over. Of course everyone naturally comes over out of curiosity. Inside there is a barricaded doorway that looks untouched. Human curiosity got the better of Roxy and she moves forward to the door and pushes against it. When it doesn’t budge, Rose called Roxy back and John moves to cover her but then the door swings open and a small round canister falls out of the ceiling landing between Roxy’s feet.
“Grenade!” John yells and dives for the street. Caught like a deer in the headlights Roxy is frozen and as everyone leaps for the street, she stands there and blinks. There is a fizz and a pop and then silence, silence that hangs heavily and could be cut with a knife.
Carefully those on the floor rise to their feet and turn to see Roxy standing there canister between her feet and unmoving.
“Roxy…” Rose starts and Roxy jerks and turns sharply. All caution aside, John walks to Roxy and gently eases her out of the way before kneeling and examining the canister. The moment John touches Roxy; she darts out of the building and throws herself at Rose; who catches her just in time.
“You got lucky.” John explains, “This thing must be ancient because the powder inside is all but dissolved into an inert paste.”
“I thought the worst…” Roxy mutters into Rose’s shirt.
“We all did.” She sighs gripping her a little tighter, “We were all wrong.” She smiles.
“It’s fairly safe inside,” Dave says to no one inparticular, “warm, dry and zombie free.” Leading Karkat and Jade followed by John into the building leaving Rose and Roxy outside. That doesn’t last long as the pair quickly makes it in the door and up the stairs.