Warnings: Gore, character death(s), zombies, general creepiness, purposely out of character Phineas, disturbing implications, and an original character (because that requires its own warning in my book).

"You're sure this is the right way?" Jasper's knuckles were white as he gripped the blood-spattered baseball bat.

"Yeah." The kid, Phineas, if he remembered right, strolled along. "Don't worry. I've done this hundreds of times."

"Right." He swallowed. What he'd do for a drink of water now. Rather, what he was doing for water. The kid didn't seem dangerous, but the casual attitude about what was going on around them didn't sit right.

Phineas slipped through a broken chain-link fence. "Come on."

Keeping view of the way they'd come, Jasper huffed. "Easy for you to say, kid." Using his bat, he pushed the gap in the fence wider before ducking through.

Phineas had already run ahead, and Jasper sighed. It was amazing the kid had survived two years the apocalypse if this was how he acted.

Racing after him, Jasper stopped dead when their destination came into view. Or that was he was guessing it was. The old factory building didn't look secure like Phineas had promised. Despite it being surrounded by fencing and other make-shift blockades, the building itself was decayed with broken windows.

One of the doors stood open.

There was nowhere to go but forward or back the way he'd come. Going back meant another day of struggling to find clean water and edible food. He was so tired of every day being a fight.

Jasper approached the door. "Phineas?"

Not hearing a reply, he stepped inside. Only a few feet inside the place, he faltered. The inside didn't match the outside.

If someone told him he'd stepped through a portal to another dimension or back into time, he'd buy it. He barely noticed the door closing itself behind him.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been somewhere this clean. Not overly neat though, since every wall had boxes and crates and random items messy piled against it.

His fingers loosened on the bat. "The fuck is this place?"

"Mine, and I'd like it if you didn't curse." Phineas poked his head out a door. "The food's in here."

Jasper nodded, his eyes still roaming the storage.

<hr>

The food was better than promised. His mouth water just seeing the fresh fruits and vegetables. When asked where he got them, Phineas started on a long speech about artificial environments and genetic engineering to help the plants grow in less than ideal conditions. Jasper could follow that part alright.

The occasional inter-spaced rambles about the moon and cows and mutant plants, however, completely lost him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't cook something better with it," Phineas said after Jasper had inhaled about half the food on the plate. "Ferb has always been the cook."

"Ferb?"

"My brother." There was a flash of something in the kid's eyes. "You'll meet him."

Jasper nodded. Phineas had mentioned that two of his friends were back at his place. "Where is he? And your other friend?"

"Resting."

"They rest while you go out there alone?" They were either cowards or didn't care about the boy.

"Yeah, I can't take them out with me." Phineas blinked. "After how long it took me to find them, and I can't risk losing them again."

Jasper frowned at his empty plate. With his adrenaline warn down and his stomach pleasantly full for the first time in a long time, drowsiness was starting to hit him.

"Do you want to meet them?" He sounded excited by making the offer, but there was an edge to it.

He might as well get it over with.

<br>

When Phineas brought him to the room, the first thing to hit Jasper was the chill. The rest of the place was comfortable, but they must have had an air-condition on full blast in there.

Two beds, one on each side, made up the only furniture. On each, a child was stretched out. Jasper couldn't make out much detail from the doorway.

"Go in."

He gave Phineas a glance and, seeing the imploring look on the boy's face, entered the room.

Immediately, the children stirred, pushing themselves up off the beds.

The girl's black hair fell across her face as she got up. The pink dress she wore was as clean as everything else there but winkled and sitting wrong on her frame. She made no move to fix it. Or move at all once standing.

Getting up from the other bed, the boy looked more put together. He kept his head down. His green hair catching Jasper's attention. It was why he was watching the boy when he raised his head.

"Holy fuck!" Jasper scrambled backward, but rather than go through the door, he hit something. He spun around, still trying to get out. But while he could see out the room, the doorway was sealed.

Phineas stared at him, wringing his hands.

"Let me out! Let me the fuck out!"

The boy frowned. "I'm really sorry about this, but they're my bestfriends. And I really, really, don't want to lose them again and they need to eat."

Jasper risked a glance behind him. The two hadn't moved. The red eyes of the zombie boy were still locked onto him.

"They're dead!" Jasper banged his fists on the clear barrier. Why had he left his baseball bat in the dining area? "You've already lost them so let me the fuck out of here!"

The hand winging stopped, Phineas' frown changing to a glare. "They'll be fine. I'm working on it. You'll be fine too. Don't worry. I'm working on it. I can fix it. They'll only eat a leg or something. I'll make a prosthetic. Then once I fix everything, you'll be fine. Won't even notice it."

"What?" The word was barely more than a breath as he tried to make sense of the words.

What Jasper had seen flash in the boy's eyes before was back with a vengeance. "It won't be so bad. I put sedatives in the food. You won't feel it. They won't attack until you won't feel it. It'll be soon then it'll be over. Don't worry. I'll bring you back. I need you because I can't use the sick ones out there because they're damaged. If it works, they'll die too soon. I can have that. I need fresh ones." Phineas blinked at him. "You understand, don't you? Why I have to do this? I have to fix it, and everything'll go back to normal."

He did understand. "You're insane." His pounding was growing less forceful. He felt his heart should be beating faster, but it felt slow.

"They're starting to kick in. I can tell now." His shoulders slumped a bit. "I am sorry."

"No, you're not." He gave one last punch at the barrier. "If you were, you'd stop this." His vision swam, and he blinked rapidly. There was nothing in the room he could use. Only the beds. He could try that. Jasper went to take a step, his leg giving out midway.

He crushed to the floor. The hard concrete causing no more pain than a minor irritation. Fear filled him.

His arms struggled to push him up. He finally gave up. He'd stay on his back, from that position, he could see the zombies. They'd started moving towards him.

They dropped to their knees next to him. The boy's head moving to bite Jasper's leg.

"No!" The command from Phineas, made the zombies freeze and gave Jasper a fleeting thought that he'd changed his mind. Then the rest of the order came, "Not like that. The way I told you. I don't want him turning too soon."

"What?" The word was garbled.

He could do nothing but watch the two worked in tandem to dig their nails into his thigh. They both pulled, ripping the skin back from the muscles. It should hurt, it should have had Jasper screaming or passing out from pain, but he felt nothing. Whatever the boy had drugged him with was doing its job.

Not even a gag built as they dug their fingers in, yanking out pieces of <i>him</i> and bringing it to their mouths. Blood poured down from the open wound. More leaked down the children's lips and chins as they took their time to savor him.

Phineas walked into the room, tisking lightly as he brushed the hair from the girl's face. Reaching onto the bed, he picked up a ribbon and gently tied it back. "I'm gonna have to clean you two up again." His hands lingered on her head, stroking her.

She paused in her chewing to lean back into him. After a second, the other one took notice.

Letting the bloody tissue fall from his hands with a plop, he growled. He struck out, catching the girl across the face. His nails taking off some skin on her cheek and leaving a mangled mess behind.

"Hey!" Phineas moved between the two. "No fighting!"

Jasper blinked slowly, trying to understand anything happening. But everything was becoming increasingly far away.

Phineas touched the girl's damaged cheek and grimaced. "That's gonna take some work to fix." Turning his head, he shot the boy a glare. "Ferb, we do not scratch our friends."

The zombie boy butted his head against Phineas, letting it rest against his side. Sighing, Phineas ran his fingers through the green hair. "Just finish up with him. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can work on getting you two back to normal. Three-hundred-sixty-third time's the charm right?"