moment

Vance is at work like normal on a Monday morning in February, he normally doesn’t care but it’s been unbelievably fucking slow today. The restaurant he works out is normally pretty busy. His best guess is that people are scared of getting the weirdass sickness that people have been talking about. Vance thinks it’s probably just some mutated version of the flu and people are being fucking dramatic. No one’s even gotten it here yet and if it was really a big deal, some big warning thing would’ve come out about it. His other guess is the weather, it’s been pretty cold but it doesn’t really matter, cause last year they were still just as they normally were. 

And at that very second, his phone rings, there aren't any customers so he’s free to answer. He pulls it out of his back pocket and reads the caller ID. It’s his mom. Now, this is where he’s getting worried. His mom never calls him while he’s at work and he doubts she’d call him to tell him something random. He was going over after work anyways. He quickly presses the accept call button. 

“Vance? Vance, honey are you there?”

He can hear the panic in her voice and immediately alarm bells are ringing in his head. 

“Yeah, mom. I’m here, what’s going on?”

“You don’t know yet?”

What the hell is he supposed to know? As far as he can tell, everything’s normal. 

“What do you me-”

“Forget it, just please come to the house and be careful, okay?”

He’s real fucking worried now. What the hell does he not know? Why is his mom so worried about it? There are a million questions going through his head right now and e can hear his mom yelling at his brother to stand back, which is just making his worry even stronger. 

“I’m on my way.”

“Okay kid, love you.”

She hangs up before he can say it back. He doesn’t even bother to tell his boss that he’s leaving, he’ll deal with that later. His first priority is getting to his mom's house. 

Vance runs out back to the parking lot, ignoring the questions from coworkers on his way out. He quickly starts his car and speeds out of the parking lot. He works and lives downtown and his mom lives on the outskirts of Denver, so it normally takes him about twenty-five or thirty minutes to get there from downtown. He gets about five minutes down the road when he starts hearing screaming. Whatever’s going on is probably what his mom was talking about. It’s only a few seconds later when he hears gunshots. That’s when he starts speeding up and just in time too. He notices all the cars going behind him, he knows that’s going to turn into a god-awful traffic jam. Then he sees them, the people.
Some are just running like normal, others are covered in blood and chasing after people. It feels like something straight out of a fucking movie. Vance watches as a woman gets tackled by an older man, the man starts ripping at the woman’s flesh. Blood going everywhere. It makes him sick to his fucking stomach. What the fuck is going on? It makes him even more worried for his family's safety.

He gets far enough to turn onto one of the backroads that will lead to his mom's house. He guesses it’s lucky for him that all those damn cars are trying to get out of the city, not stay in it. But it doesn’t feel like luck at all, it feels like a death sentence because whatever's going on, if what he saw is just a small bit of it. Staying in the city probably isn’t a good idea, at least not for now. He’s right down the road when he sees an old neighbor, Vance never really knew his name. But he watches as the guy piles his family into their car. The neighbor is about to get into the car when a woman comes out of nowhere. She jumps on him and just like he saw earlier, the woman bites into the neighbor man’s skin, somewhere around his neck, he can’t get a good view. He doesn’t know how to fucking react, it’s vicious, that's for damn sure. He watches in his rearview mirror as what he assumes is the man’s wife gets out. He watches her hit the woman, eventually, it goes down after she gets a good hit on the bloody woman’s head. They were only a few houses down from Vance’s mom. Vance almost passes her house because his eyes were so trained on the neighbors. He halts to a stop, quickly pulling into the driveway. 

That’s when he notices it, there’s a limp body laying on the lawn. He thinks back to the woman a few houses down before getting out. That was not going to be his family. Vance gets out and that’s when he notices a bloody can laying by the man’s head, he looks back at the man. He was covered in a shitload of blood and there was a huge dent in the side of his head. Vance wonders if the man was one of the ones who were going all fucking cannibalistic. He thinks of how ridiculous this is, fucking zombies? Or at least zombie-like. Holy shit. This might be the thing everyone was scared of. That disease people were scared of, maybe this was it. He doesn’t take another minute to think about it when he sees the neighbor's car almost crash trying to get out of the driveway and the neighbor man starts twitching. 

Vance goes to open a door and realizes that it’s unlocked, they never leave it unlocked. Ever. He opens it and walks in, barely having time to close it before he hears a series of things falling in the living room and sees a random man charging at him. Blood covered just like those things, this is just the best luck he’s ever fucking had, huh? He doesn’t have anything useful in his pockets, he left his phone in the car and his wallet won’t do much. He curses as he realizes he doesn’t have anything to fight it off with. Of course, his cursing is cut short when the thing fucking jumps on him. The thing is crazy fucking strong considering it knocked Vance flat on his back. He holds the thing back and away from him by its shoulders. He gets a good look at its face. It looks like a lot of the blood came from the thing's eyes. Its pupils were blown out wide like the only thing in its focus was to eat, or maybe that wasn’t the case. Maybe it was just to spread whatever disease it had. He’s looking around, trying to see if he missed anything he could use to fight when he saw it. There was a bite on the thing's arm, he looked all around the thing trying to see if there were any injuries, something else suggesting what killed it originally. Vance doesn’t find anything else. He’s wondering if maybe it’s just obscured by the rest of the blood. 

He thinks Griffin and their mom are hiding somewhere, either that or they got out of the house. He remembers something he used once during a fight when he was younger. The guy had been his first fight when he was 11. The guy had been older but not much bigger. But Vance remembers exactly what he did to win that fight because it’s when people began being afraid of him. 

Vance quickly takes his left leg of the thing’s right leg and shoves on it’s shoulder with his right hand. They flip over and Vance remembers the dent in the man outside’s head and how the other infected woman went limp after being hit in the head. He firmly grabs the thing's shoulder with one hand and uses the other to hold onto the side of its head. He bashes it into the wall until the thing stops fighting him. He does it one more time to make sure before he scrambles up off the floor. He looks at his work uniform, it’s covered in blood and so are his hands. He’s not sure how to feel right now, he just killed someone, infected or not. What if someone had come up with a cure and he just stopped that guy from ever getting it. Fuck, there are too many things for him to think about right now. He’s just got to focus on one thing. Figuring out where Griffin and mom are. 

He calls out for them and doesn’t hear anything for a solid minute before he hears someone come almost running down the stairs. It’s Griffin and he looks physically fine, but he’s not sure what’s going on in his head but whatever it is, Vance knows it’s not good. He takes notice of the tear tracks going down his little brother’s face. Vance hadn’t seen Griffin cry since he was about five or six. Vance was gonna ask where mom was but from the dead silence and the tears, he’s already thinking the worst. He doesn’t even know if she’s dead or alive but the thought that she’s gone and Vance didn’t say goodbye. It kills him. He wants to scream or hit something or do anything other than just stand here like a fucking idiot.

 Vance takes a deep breath and takes a step towards Griffin, Griffin only grabs his arm and takes him upstairs. He can see the tenseness in his brother’s shoulders. And seeing the trail of blood, his suspicions are confirmed. The trail seems small though, the drops of blood thin out as they go. So there might be a chance. The trail ends at the bathroom door and that’s where Griffin drops his arm. Vance opens the door and walks in, he doesn’t see anything at first except for a bloody rag completely soaked through. God damn it, that’s really not fucking good. He looks to his left and sees his mom, she smiles at him, a little too weak for his liking. She looks pale and her normally curly blonde hair is flattened down by sweat. He looks at her eyes and sees that they’re still as sharp and determined as ever. It brings him a small amount of comfort, but he knows that little bit of it is going to be crushed in probably the next five minutes. His eyes fall on a bloody rag wrapped around her arm, he wants to believe that maybe it’s just a cut. She just cut it while coming in or fighting the thing. But Vance knew better, he could see the grim look in everyone’s eyes. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. 

“Griffin, honey, can you make sure all the doors and windows are locked? If you see anything move outside, just forget it and come back up, okay?” 

Griffin nods and looks at mom one more time before going off to lock the house up. As soon as he’s out of the room, his mom starts speaking. He can tell that all the blood she’s lost is taking an effect. Her voice is still as strong as ever, it’s just shaky. 

“Thanks for coming home, kid.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Vance, I’m not saying that you never would, I’m just glad you did.”

He nods his head. He takes a deep breath and looks at her arm. He doesn’t even have time to ask her to confirm what it is before she answers. 

“It’s a bite. The one out in the front lawn got me when I opened the door. That other one got in the house when we weren’t looking.”

Jesus fucking christ. Vance knew what she was going to say, he knew he should’ve been prepared for it but how the fuck do you prepare for that shit? He has some vague memories of his dad but for as long as he can remember, it’s only been him, Griffin, and their mom. Vance moved out over a year ago but he still spent half his fucking time here when he wasn’t at work. Hell, he was supposed to be coming over for a movie night tonight after work anyways. He wasn’t codependent on them or anything, they were all really independent people. They were just close, and he didn’t think it was a bad thing to be. 

Vance figures his mom might know more about the entire “zombie’ disease thing than he would. She used to be a nurse before she switched to be a real estate agent. But she still had plenty of friends working in the system. He gestures at it, there’s a gross part of him that wants to see the bite. He wants to see what the hell kind of bite can take down a whole person and make them come back as some cannibalistic monster but he knows he won’t really ever get a solid explanation. He knows he’s freaking the hell out, what he doesn’t know is why he’s reacting the way he is. Normally, he’s at least calm enough to be able to rationalize shit and figure out how to go about things but right now, he can’t think about anything but what he sees at the moment and there’s this ever-sinking gut-drop feeling that’s almost destabilizing to him. It takes another second of deliberation before it clicks for the first time in his life, he’s scared, genuinely scared. He doesn’t mean the kind of nervousness you might mistake for fear when something bad happens, he means a genuine feeling of fear. The feeling that makes your blood pump so loud you can hear it in your ears, the kind that makes your insides feel like lead. It’s probably one of the worst if not the worst feeling he’s ever felt in his life.  

He realizes his mom started responding but he hadn’t been listening. And apparently, she noticed that before him because she lightly shook his shoulder before telling him. 

“It transfers through things like bites. If you have an open cut, do not let them get their blood or saliva or anything near it. They can get you that way too.”

“Is it only if you get that stuff in your bloodstream or is it just inevitable?” 

She shrugs and looks down at her arm.

“I don’t know, I wish I could tell you but I haven’t heard anything about that.”

Vance figured that was the case and it was fine. He’s not saying she has to know every fucking thing that happens with this, he doubts anybody really knows. 

“Y’know how long you have?”

This time she nods and Vance is relieved to get another answer. He always hates when he doesn’t know about something, he’s always wanted to know everything about anything, and this wasn’t an exception. And in the long run, it’d help to know as much as he can about the disease. 

“Alison told me people usually have a couple hours before it kills em’. I got bit almost right after I called you, so a little less than an hour? Or at least I think so.”

“It’s been almost an hour, mom.”

Griffin reappears suddenly in the doorway. Vance hates the crack that was in his brother’s voice, he hated the dull look and the now-drying tear tracks. He never knew how to deal with all that feeling shit but he hated seeing that look on Griffin’s face. Then again, he knows he probably has a similar look on his own face, and there’s a pretty damn obvious reason as to why. 

Vance really isn’t sure what’s going on in his head. He doesn’t know if it’s shocking at how quickly things are going to shit, shock at the fact his mom is going to die, the fear of what’s going to happen now, how’s he going to protect Griffin if he doesn’t even entirely know what he’s protecting him from? There’s too much to think about, to take into account about everything. He fucking hates this. Fuck that entire fear thing, he wants to get rid of that feeling the most. Vance can handle a bit of worry and he can obviously handle all the anger but fear is where he’s drawing the line because what the fuck. There’s no manual or any way to know how to fucking deal with it. His thoughts are interrupted by a loud cough. His first instinct is to look at his mom, worrying that the effects are beginning to set in. He doesn’t think it’s full on but judging by the small spatter of blood on her arm, from where she covered her mouth, he knows it’s starting to hit. 

“You two should probably grab some things. You’re going to have to get out of here soon and go somewhere safe.”

Vance knows exactly what that means. Pack the shit you need to live and go, I’m going to die soon. He has to make himself busy, he has to focus on something else so he doesn’t completely lose his shit. He gets off the floor and he realizes Griffin gets the message when the younger walks completely out. Vance remembers something and thinks it’ll be useful enough. 

“Grab your hiking bag, carries more.” 

Griffin nods at him before quietly stalking off to his room. 

Vance decides he needs to focus on one thing right now, it’s all he can do to keep his head screwed onto his shoulders. He goes into the hallway closet across from where his old room was, they mostly use his room for storage now, occasionally clearing his old bed off if they have a guest but that’s rare. He pulls open the closet, the squeaking is normal, and the closet door has always squeaked when it opens, telling just how old the hinges are. Even so, Vance still finds himself jumping at the sudden sound. He digs around for a minute before he finds it, his old hiking bag. It’s worn with age, which is funny considering it’s only a few years old. Vance would say he’s careful, well maybe that’s just relative to him but who cares? The bag had been used probably a hundred times, there was a long tear in the side pocket. He had caught it on a branch and it had torn without him even realizing it. His water bottle had been in that pocket and he didn’t even realize it was gone until he went to take a sip. He figures that he’s going to have to be a hell of a lot more observant than that if he’s gonna survive this thing. 

He digs around in the closet, finding a few things that should help. He knows trying to go back and stay at his apartment wouldn’t be good, the city was already going to shit by the time he was leaving. They’d have to find somewhere else. He wasn’t sure if they’d find a place by night, hell, he didn’t even know if they’d find a place at all. Guess it’s just a matter of luck at that point. He digs out a couple of flashlights and some batteries, a couple of blankets, and he grabs some of his old clothes out of a box in the back corner. Normally he wouldn’t care about whatever the hell he’s wearing but he really doesn’t want to be running around in some uncomfortable ass uniform. Or at least that’s what he tells himself. In all actuality, there’s some sort of weird, indescribable feeling that comes with walking around absolutely fucking covered in someone or something’s blood. Something that he killed, he’s never been squeamish around blood but this just feels different than the blood a regular fight would bring. Huh. Well, there’s the key difference, regular. 

He packs the batteries and one of the flashlights in the front pocket of his bag, then he rolls up one of the blankets and sticks it in the bottom of the big pocket. He quietly cracks open Griffin’s door and sets the blanket and extra flashlight down on the dresser. Griffin doesn’t even turn around at the sound of the door, Vance takes it as a signal to just let him be while he packs. He slings his backpack around one shoulder and carries the fresh clothes in the other. He goes to the downstairs bathroom to change. 

Vance quickly pulls off his shirt, he’s about to put the other shirt on when he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. The first thing he notices is a bruise starting to form on his left side. He hadn’t even realized he hit anything, if he had to guess, he’d say it was from hitting the floor when that thing came at him. The thought that it’s limp body is still lying by the door is beginning to unnerve him. He quickly finishes changing before he decides to check the bathroom closet for anything. He grabs every bottle of pain relievers he can find, Griffin got hit pretty hard in the back during a PE class. Just that kid's luck that something shifted out of place, he’s had back problems since then. Some days were worse in pain than others and Vance would rather waste space in his bag than run the risk of letting Griffin’s back end up getting him killed. It isn’t worth it, so he shoves every bottle in the front pocket of his bag with the flashlight and continues looking. 

Vance knows that somewhere in that mess of a closet, there’s a pretty decent first aid kit. He has to knock shit down on several shelves before he manages to find it, it’s hidden behind some old medicine bottles and cotton balls. He looks at the contents of the first aid kit, it’s at least relatively unused. The band-aids are the most used out of it all. It looks to be for smaller injuries, though there are some bigger bandages there, even so, Vance is hoping that small injuries will be the only thing they ever need it for. He quickly packs it in his bag before deciding that he doesn’t think he needs anything else from the bathroom. He walks out to the kitchen, not really surprised to already see Griffin there. Griffin holds his hand out, there’s something in it. Vance picks it up and immediately recognizes it, it’s his old pocket knife. He hasn’t used that thing in forever, he’s surprised Griffin found it. He’d lost it years ago. 

“Thanks, kid.”

Griffin only nods his head in response. Yet another thing that makes this situation even harder to wrap his head around. No one in their family was super talkative, they were all actually on the quieter side. Around the house was a different story though, Griffin liked to talk about whatever he was interested in at the moment and their mom would be the one asking all the questions. Vance would occasionally put his own input in, helping explain to their mom if he knew what it was or asking a question if he didn’t. He wasn’t used to Griffin being so damn quiet, but yet again, it was something Vance couldn’t blame him for. 

Griffin’s already raiding the cabinets for canned and dried foods. So, Vance decides he’ll start looking through drawers. After digging through all the kitchen drawers, he doesn’t really find anything useful except for a half-empty box of matches and an old pair of his mom’s fabric scissors. Those would probably work better than the small flimsy scissors from the first aid kit. He looks around again before his eyes settle on the pack of plastic water bottles shoved carelessly into a corner by a fridge. He walks over and counts how many are left. Seven. He still has some room left in his bag, he wonders about Griffin. 

“How much room you got left?”

“Decent bit.”

“Enough to hold a few water bottles?”

Griffin turns and nods, holding his hands out. Vance tosses him four, he’d rather Griffin has the extra, just in case. Vance isn’t fucking invincible, so if he goes down with the extras, it’s gonna be bad. Vance moves on from that thought by shoving the other three water bottles in his bag, his hand settles by his pocket, like normal and he feels the shape of the knife. He has a weapon, what about Griffin?

“Do you got your old knife?”

Griffin rummages in his pocket for a minute before pulling out an old switchblade. Vance knows that thing is old as hell, he’ll have to make sure he finds a way to sharpen it so it cuts better. He walks over to Griffin so he can take a look in the cabinets. He looks into Griffin’s bag and notices the room starting to run out. There’s still one more thing Vance has to get for all of them, so he stops Griffin from putting the next can of green beans in his bag. Instead telling Griffin to just start putting them in his bag until he says stop. They’re able to fit another twelve or so cans in his bag before he decides that there’s enough room to spare. Griffin shoots him a questioning look, one that asks Vance about what exactly they’re leaving room for. 

“You remember how to shoot, right?"

Vance is only met with a blank stare. He knew Griffin had hated shooting, he hated the noise and the kickback from bigger guns. Vance understood, he really didn’t like it either but if it comes down to it, having a gun and knowing how to use it could come down to life or death for them. 

Their mom had taught them how to shoot different types of guns once they each turned fourteen. The area they lived in was pretty prone to break-ins, so she wanted to give them an extra layer of safety, just in case. She taught them carefully, and wouldn’t even let them touch the gun until they could recite every part on it back to her. She was a good teacher cause he still remembers exactly how, although he’ll probably be pretty rusty, he hasn’t shot in years. That’s a thought for later though. He’s not occupying himself with that shit right now. 

Vance double-checks around the kitchen, making sure they have all that they’d need out of it. They do. Of course, they do, they were always the best when it came to preparing for trips. Except this wasn’t a trip. All three of them weren’t leaving this house. They weren’t going somewhere nice. They didn’t know where the fuck they were going and only two would be leaving the house alive. It stung, Vance obviously knew his mom wasn’t going to make it out of here, he’s not fucking stupid. It was just the realization, the way it came through his thoughts so easily, it startles him. His mom was going to die. He wasn’t ever going to hear her stupid corny jokes after today. He wasn’t going to have to sit through another one of her lectures about how fighting was bad and he shouldn’t immediately resort to violence. He wasn’t going to hear the quiet congratulations after the lecture if he won a fight against a particularly big asshole. No more of her advice or commentary on their family movie nights. Nothing, the bright, strong light that his mom gives off is going to be gone soon. It sends a shockwave down his spine. 

Fear and grief aren’t things he’s used to if that isn’t already fucking clear. The feelings are uncomfortable and depressing. Extremely unlike the buzz of anger always present just below the surface of his skin. The red hot bubbling anger, ready to blow up at any second; whether it’s silent or an explosion. His emotions have always been sort of explosive, sudden, fleeting is a better word for it; cause it’s there and so strong, and then it’s gone, back to its dormant state, just waiting until it’s riled up again. The grief and fear, although becoming a constant, it’s not explosive, it doesn’t get stronger, it stays the way it is and it doesn’t get better or worse and that’s probably what makes him hate it. Nothing ever changes about it, he’s always been on the move, always deemed unpredictable by those who didn’t know him well enough. But Vance is pretty damn sure that he can predict that these feelings are gonna stay with him for a long fucking time. If the feelings weren’t already so consuming, he’d say the anger would be flaring, swallowing every bit of grief up whole; but it’s not, because the anger isn’t nearly enough to ensnare everything else. 

Fuck all of that, he’ll come back to that later, maybe when his mom’s time isn’t currently running out. Vance looks around, seeing that Griffin has already gone upstairs. On his way to the stairs, he looks back towards the door. He sees the thing’s legs sticking out from behind the narrow hallway that leads to the door, the blood already dried all around it. Vance has to pry his eyes away, it’s surprisingly difficult. The stairs creak under him, he’s always noticed all the creaks and sounds coming from the house, it’s old so it’s to be expected; but just like the closet door earlier, the noise makes him hyperaware of everything around him. Vance wasn’t necessarily the paranoid type, he paid attention to his surroundings, the people, the things, and the sounds. This was just another new thing kickstarted by this fucking godawful day, it was like he was looking over his shoulder every five minutes because even things he knew were normal felt like a sign that something was going to happen. 

The voices in the bathroom are quiet, Vance can guess that his mom is probably just trying to reassure Griffin, and calm him down enough to be able to make it the first few days. He appreciates her for doing that, he wouldn’t have a damn clue what to say to comfort a seventeen-year-old in any situation, let alone this shitshow of one. Vance takes this as his cue to grab the guns from the safe. His mom keeps them locked up in a safe in her closet, even after she taught them how to use it, it was a force of habit to still keep them locked up like when they were little. She had told them the combination to get in though. He walks into the closet and sees the corner of the safe peeking out, he kneels down and puts his hand on the dial, carefully putting in the combination, 12…19…6…3…2…25, the safe pops open with a soft click. The combination is pretty easy to remember considering it’s just their birthdays, it goes mom, him, then Griffin. So, just oldest to youngest. He looks around in the safe, there are a couple of boxes of ammo, most of them are full considering she’s really only had to use them seriously a couple of times. There’s 3 guns, two semi-automatic pistols, and a smaller one, if he remembers correctly it’s called an LCP. His mom preferred handguns because they were easier to conceal, she said they could make you be viewed as less of a danger if you could easily hide them, it makes someone less likely to hurt you out of fear. 

He trusts her experiences, she grew up in a pretty shitty area. She worked her ass off to get them to a better area, but she taught them cause she said she’d rather be safe than sorry. Seems like she was right to teach them. He pulls the ammo boxes out of the space, shoving them in his bag. He turned the safety on for the two pistols, he left the LCP alone. He picked up all three though, carefully of course. He’ll say it once and he’ll say it again, he’s not a fucking idiot. He carefully places the gun in his backpack, he’ll figure out a way to safely carry it on his belt or something later. Trying to stick it in his waistband or something seems like a good way to shoot his leg or some shit clean off, even with the safety on. He carries the other two in his hand, he doesn’t bother closing the safe back. It’s not like they’re coming back. 

He walks out of the room and to the bathroom. He hands the gun to Griffin, who looks at it with a nervous gaze before he reaches out a shaky hand to take it. 

“You don’t gotta use it all the time, it’s just in case you can’t use the knife.”

Griffin gives him a relieved look before fully grabbing it and putting it in the front pocket of his bag. Vance turns towards his mom and has to repress his instinct to say ‘holy shit’. Cause that’s what he wanted to say when he looked at his mom, she’s paler now, and a lot shakier than when he first got here. Her hair is now almost completely flattened down by sweat and the color in her face is going. She makes eye contact and motions them over before stretching her arms out. A hug, it’s for a hug, the final hug. 

Griffin darts over immediately, it takes Vance a minute to catch up but he does, he sets the LCP down on the counter before quickly kneeling down on the floor with them. She wraps her arms around both of them as tightly as she can. She squeezes her arm around Griffin before pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before turning and doing the same to Vance. Vance for once takes the time to revel in it, he was never a touchy-feely person, none of them were but this was the last. Today was the last day for plenty of fucking things and too many have already gone by, so he revels in the warmth of the hug. Even if part of that warmth was due to her oncoming fever, it was whatever. Then she speaks and Vance can tell just how much has already been taken out of her.

“Never and I mean never, forget how much I love the both of you. You two will always be my world.”

Then she squeezes them one last time before letting go, when they pull back, Vance stands up first. He really isn’t sure what makes him feel worse, letting go of his mom or the absolutely anguished, broken look on his brother’s taste. If Griffin hadn’t already broken then he was almost there, the look told Vance that much. He has to pull Griffin up, off the floor. He leads him to right outside the bathroom door, mainly because that’s where Griffin starts resisting moving past. Vance walks back in and picks up the small gun from off the counter. It was about the size of his hand and dark, with rounded corners. He walks up to his mom and hands it to her. 

He knows his mom would’ve asked him to bring one in anyways. He knows her well enough o know that she wouldn’t want to ever become one of those things, she wouldn’t ever want to become like that whether she was aware of it or not. She’s suffered at the hands of it’s brutality and she doesn’t want to make people suffer as she did. Vance knows because he’d be the same way. He wouldn’t want to die in some shitty ass way only to come back as some cannibalistic zombified thing. When he dies, he wants to stay dead. 

She carefully takes the gun out of his hands. He leans down and hugs her one more time. 

“I love you, mom.”

She smiles at him and despite how beat down he looks, her eyes are still as strong and determined as ever. She wraps her free arm around his shoulder, gives it a squeeze before she pats it a couple of times. Her signal for him to let go and he does without a fight. He knows it’s time. 

Vance gets up for the second and final time. He quietly leaves the bathroom, grabbing Griffin’s bag on the way out. He shuts the door and takes a deep breath. He turns to his right to see Griffin staring at the wall in front of him. He knows they’ll need to leave soon, neither of them want to stay here. This won’t be their home anymore, it’ll be the place mom died. They don’t want to drag her body out and pretend like nothing happened and stay there. It’s also too close to the city, they would have to wait a while before they could go back within even a vicinity of it. 

He gently touches Griffin’s shoulder, he almost falls when Griffin turns, trapping him into a tight hug but he quickly regains his balance and returns the hug, gripping his brother tight. There’s a shitload of things that he wishes he could say to at least ease Griffin’s mind but he doesn’t know what to say, so he settles on nothing at all. Vance knows this was about all he could do, he wasn’t good with words not by a long shot. Griffin’s grip on him tightens, and they stay there for another minute but he knows their mom can hear that they haven’t left and she obviously doesn’t want to go with them in the house. So, he pulls away and puts his hands on Griffin’s shoulders. 

“As soon as we get to the car, you can rest, okay? But right now, I’m gonna need you to grab your stuff. When we get downstairs, you look out the left window, I’ll look at the right. If the coast is clear, we make a run to the car.”

Griffin nods and grabs his bag from beside Vance’s and darts down the stairs. Vance follows suit, grabbing his bag and making a beeline for the window to the right of the door. He doesn’t see anything, he takes a second to listen but he doesn’t hear anything either. 

“Clear over here. You?”

“I don’t see anything.”

“You hear anything?”

He watches as Griffin turns his ear toward the glass. Griffin shakes his head, 

“Nothing.”

Vance nods back at him. 

“Okay. Keep your knife on hand, just in case.”

Vance grabs his knife from his pocket, ready to use it at a moment's notice. He heads out the door first, if something’s hiding out of sight, it’s better that it gets him. Lucky for them, for the first time today they have something go right. There’s no sign of one, at least in the immediate vicinity of their house. Vance can see the zombified neighbor from earlier shuffling around near his yard. The car’s gone, so at least the rest of them got the hell out. 

He knows his car is unlocked because once he saw the body outside he didn’t think to lock it back. Vance looks around one more time before fully stepping out the door, still nothing in his sight other than the neighbor. He leans around to check that both sides of the car are fully clear. Once it’s confirmed, he hops into the driver's seat, Griffin’s in the passenger seat not even a minute later. They both gently set their bags in the backseat.

Vance starts the car up and looks over at Griffin. He’s just staring at the dashboard, the dead look back on his face. Jesus, that poor kid. Griffin’s a tough one but that doesn’t mean he deserved to have all that shit thrown at him at once. The kid was supposed to turn eighteen in a few weeks. That realization makes Vance want to slam his fucking head into the steering wheel. Griffin was supposed to turn eighteen, he was gonna graduate, and was set to go to his dream school in the fall. Now, all of that is gone in the blink of an eye. Vance only lost his mom and his sense of normalcy, Griffin’s lost his entire life. 

Vance knows there isn’t anything he can do to make it better, he didn’t start the shit so he can’t finish it. All he can do is be there for Griffin when he needs it and keep him alive at the very least. He hates that he can’t do more, he feels like a useless piece of shit. He can’t even figure out how to say a few comforting words to his brother. God, he wishes that thing had gotten him and not their mom, she’d know what to do. Vance tries to rack his brain for anything that she would do but he doesn’t know. It pisses him off, he’s spent so many years listening to and watching his mom comfort people and he didn’t pick up a single damn thing. The only thing he does notice is how exhausted Griffin looks, so he can at least think of one thing now. 

“Get some sleep. I’ll tell you when I find a place.” 

His brother looks at him, almost dumbfounded before lightly shaking his head and laying down on the seat. Vance can hear the small liver things going as Griffin tries to get comfortable. 

“Blanket in my bag if you need it.”

Vance starts backing out of the driveway, carefully watching to see if there’s anything coming onto the road, it looks clear until a car shoots by, effectively muffling the sound of Vance swearing and Griffin digging through his bag. Vance checks again and it looks clear, so he doesn’t waste any time and shoots out of the driveway. 

He’s not exactly sure where the hell he’s going, he just wants to find somewhere safe enough for the night. Most people’s panic response is probably gonna have them in all the big areas or areas around a lot of houses, so a secluded area would be good for now. They have enough supplies to last a while, they’ll be fine. Then they can start moving back towards the city in like a week. If things are better and this disease is gone for the most part, then things will be back to normal-ish, and if they’re not, well, at least now they know they’ll be in it for the long haul. Plus, being away from people means that any of the infected ones they come across will be few and far in between. So, that’s just what he goes with, while Griffin sleeps, Vance drives as far away as he can from any sign of people. He’s got one goal, keep Griffin safe and Vance knows that it’s a strong enough goal to keep him going. For now at least.