❛ Oh, it's you that I lie with. As the atom bombs lock in. Yes, it's you I welcome death with as the world caves in. ❜

PRE-SEASON 1

━━━━━━ day 2.

"I'LL BE THERE before you wake up, hopefully. No later than mid-afternoon, okay?"

⠀⠀⠀"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

⠀⠀⠀"See you tomorrow."

⠀⠀⠀As Cal told Bianca, he woke up in the early morning, well-rested and lightly packed. He had a backpack full of clothes and some food he could take over to help cushion his stay with Bianca's family.

⠀⠀⠀His door creaked open, and he flinched in response at the sound. He paused as he stood at the door, listening for his mom downstairs to storm her way up and complain loudly about him waking her up. However, her guttural snore filled the house a second later, and relief washed over him. She was still asleep.

⠀⠀⠀So, he continued, timing his steps to the snores. When he got downstairs, he found his mom passed out on the couch, a bottle of scotch resting in her hand. The TV was bright blue, repeating the same emergency message that had begun the night before. It highlighted her sunken-in features, the wiry blonde hair, and thin skin. She looked sick, fragile, but he knew her when she was awake. Rageful, stronger than she looked, and someone he was ready to never see again.

⠀⠀⠀He opened the back door, no creaking this time, and slipped outside. His hand rested on the doorknob and again questioned if this was the right thing to do. It took everything in him to remind himself that his mom wasn't ever like a mother. She didn't care for him, hardly fed him, left him to do or die on his own. Finding Bianca was the one and only important thing in the world now.

⠀⠀⠀Taking in a deep breath, he closed the door with all his willpower and turned toward the backyard. He looked across it, unmowed grass and beaten down pickets from before the world went down to rumble. His whole childhood hidden between the weeds and wood. He gave the few and far between memories that were good a solemn smile before he left out the side gate.

⠀⠀⠀His car was parked in the street, and he was lucky the dead hadn't found them yet. From what Cal heard, their neighborhood was on lock-down, but no one had come down with the plague yet. It seemed the more condensed communities like Atlanta were seeing the worst of it.

⠀⠀⠀Cal shook his head, telling himself there was no time to think about anything other than the road ahead. He got himself in the driver's seat, threw his backpack into the passenger's seat, and opened his glove box to pull out his knife.

⠀⠀⠀Then, he sped off the street and back through town before hitting the highway. He cruised down the winding road, thankful he'd filed up on gas, or else he would've been in a pinch even on half a tank.

⠀⠀⠀The traffic was insane, like news reports in Galveston or New Orleans when another hurricane was coming through. They were all trying to leave the city for the weeks after. Unlike hurricanes, this outbreak was everywhere, and Cal wasn't sure where they were trying to run. Maybe to the emergency shelters the broadcasts were talking about. Or, they were like him, trying to race to their loved ones before time ran out.

⠀⠀⠀Cal was confident that he'd make it there by the early afternoon like he promised. Possibly by the evening, and then he'd be with her. Even if he died tomorrow, at least Bianca would be with him. Maybe not even tomorrow, maybe next week or a month or a year away. Whichever way it went, he wanted to be with her.

⠀⠀⠀Then, the black Sudan in front of him swerved to the left. It hit the white Honda speeding beside Cal and resting within the Sudan's blind spot. The cars behind the wreck sent the others screeching across the highway. A bright red car spiraled and clipped the back of Cal's car. He went flying into a ditch, the front end crunching just as the airbag blew up.

⠀⠀⠀The impact made Cal dizzy, and every muscle in his body felt like it was filled with ice. Once it settled, the airbag settled, and Cal blinked his eyes open. Black dots littered his vision, but he could see them. The dead crawled out from the woods, hearing the sound of the collisions, and drawn in toward the raging fires bursting out of some of the cars.

⠀⠀⠀He watched as people got out of their cars, running from their cars and trying to make it away from the dead. Cal nearly did the same but paused. He took in a deep breath, allowing the oxygen to reach his brain and let him a second to think. Despite the damage to the front end of his car, Cal was closed off from the dead. The worst they could do was pin him inside or break the glass open, but only if they knew he was inside.

⠀⠀⠀Cal crawled into the backseat, lying on the floor with his knife resting on his stomach. He waited, but nothing happened. Their moans waned, as did the people in the cars. He stayed the night, then in the morning made a last-ditch effort to run for it.

⠀⠀⠀Cal made it halfway through the woods before realizing he had gotten so worked up he forgot his backpack. He had a knife, but if he was going to survive, that backpack had supplies he needed.

⠀⠀⠀Cal turned back, jogging toward the highway again, believing all the dead had gone. However, one seemed to have lingered, ambushing him with a howl and tackling Cal to the ground. Its white, lifeless eyes stared back into Cal's as it tried to claw into his skin. Cal held it back with one hand around its neck while the other used his knife to stab into its chest.

⠀⠀⠀Nothing happened, and Cal began to panic. He tried to kick the abomination off of him, but he didn't know much of these things. He barely got access to his phone, a flip phone with no internet, and his mom had turned off the TV when the news tried to explain what to do when they arrived.

⠀⠀⠀A ring struck the air, and the dead slumped over, falling on Cal's chest. Cal groaned, disgusted as the dead's clotted blood smeared across his face. He shrugged the dead off of him after a second of struggling.

⠀⠀⠀Cal laid back, staring at the sky as he panted. Bright blue without a cloud in sight was his and Bianca's sky. Then, a man engulfed his vision looking eight feet tall above him. He gave Cal a kind smile, one like a father. His face was soft-featured and looked in his mid-forties due to the wrinkles pulling at the sides of his face and forehead.

⠀⠀⠀"You seem to need some help, son," the man commented, holding his hand out to Cal. He pulled him to his feet then retracted his hand as they stared at one another.

⠀⠀⠀"Thank you, I appreciate it," Cal said, looking around nervously. Cal worried he'd gotten mixed up with someone he didn't need to be. "I'll be on my way, now. I'm trying to get to some family in town."

⠀⠀⠀"I wouldn't try that just yet, young man," the man chuckled, his southern drawl making him seem like a Martha Stewart type of kind. The one you just didn't fully trust. "The city's overrun. It'll be a while until you can pass through. But, you can stay with us until it does, then we'll get you on your way."

⠀⠀⠀Cal hesitated, frowning, but he couldn't deny it seemed more of those dead people were popping up.

⠀⠀⠀"Just for the night," Cal said, adjusting the terms for himself.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright, for the night," the man agreed, although he didn't seem to believe Cal wouldn't stay for longer. "What's your name, son?"

⠀⠀⠀"Cal."

⠀⠀⠀"Cal," the man repeated, nodding his head. Cal was glad he didn't search for a last name, not like they needed it. But, he wanted to keep that for himself or ditch it entirely, if he was honest. "I'm Philip. I think we'll get through this crazy thing together just fine."

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

Hee hee hee!!!! Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know where Cal is. We will FINALLY get to see where's he's been, how he's doing and read his point of view in the next act.

I kind of want to do his and Bianca's POV in a similar style to Rick Riordan in the Heroes of Olympus series or Leigh Bardugo in Six of Crows (I've only read the first book so I'm not sure if she does it in the other Grishaverse books. Yes, I do like it but I suck at reading so I never got past those :/ ). Anyways, the point is that I want to do their POVs back and forth between chapters so one or two are Bianca and then one or two are Cal and so on. But, for Act 3 at least it's a little more all over the place with Woodbury so it'll be a little less structured on whose POV it is.

Lmao okay, that's probably an unnecessary info-dump. I hope you guys are excited and I hope to start posting in two weeks!! As you might have read but I'll say again I got a new job and am getting stretched thin with training and leaving my current job. 

Love you guys, hope to read your comments soon!

SONG: As the World Caves In by Matt Maltese

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you'd like. However, this is an all kind of reader safe space. So even if you ghost read or comment every chapter, I hope you know it means the world to me that you've come into this fic ♡ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until the next one.