Chapter Text
The Spaghetti-o’s and coffee were gone after Frank's very drawn out meal where he had to save every bite and every sip. He laid back onto the floor, staring at the ceiling. It seemed slightly moldy in some spots, this perfect place wasn’t perfect after all. If it was perfect, Frank wouldn’t have been bitten. Frank couldn't help but consider all of the what-ifs. They plagued his mind, it was out of his control. His eyes continued their roaming of the moldy ceiling. Everyone else watched him, he could feel them watching and it kind of sucked. It was different from how they normally looked at him, which only made the feeling of their eyes worse.
“You guys waiting for me to turn or what?” He sat up and looked at everyone. Mikey turned away, pretending like he hadn’t been staring. Ray tried to do the same. Gerard didn’t take his eyes off of Frank. Everyone was silent. “Hello? Don’t ignore me?” Frank chuckled dryly, laying back down.
Ray scratched his head. “You feel okay, right?” He questioned, Frank nodded in response. He felt completely fine, but it had only been a few hours since he had been bit. A few hours was still a long time to be completely fine, though.
“I feel fine.” He rested his hand on top of the bandage over the bite and winced a little. “It hurts like hell, but I don’t feel weird, y’know? How long does it take to turn again?” He questioned, looking at Mikey. Mikey was the most knowledgeable on things like this. He had tossed around his theories of how they could cure the virus before, but he was no scientist.
“A day at most, maybe faster. It depends. We don’t really know what it depends on though. Weight maybe? I don’t know.” Mikey muttered, he looked back over at Frank. He really wished he had a solid answer.
Everyone was grieving even if Frank wasn’t dead. They wanted to pretend like everything was normal. Frank didn’t want to sulk for his last day alive, being sad during the last hours of your life seemed like a real waste of time. Nothing could cover the sheer dread that they all felt, though. Frank couldn’t swallow the lump in his throat. The fear of him turning lingered in the air of the room, suffocating all of them.
“Aren’t you supposed to get a fever or something?” Gerard tilted his head and stood from the couch, sitting down on the floor next to Frank. He put the back of his hand against his forehead. “You feel fine.” He held his hand there for a few moments.
Frank shrugged, his face warmed up a little, but not because of any illness. “Yeah, that’s what I said. I feel fine.” He was a bit sad when Gerard pulled his hand away. Knowing he was going to die made him want to hold onto Gerard as much as he could. He really wanted to be alone with him again, as much as he wanted to spend time with everyone, Gerard was his priority.
“I feel like we aren’t taking this as seriously as we need to.” Mikey said quietly, his voice got a bit louder as he spoke. “Shouldn’t we be a bit more.. I don’t know, upset? You guys are acting like Frank is totally normal, not like he's about to die.” He was very straightforward, as guilty as it made him.
“I don’t want to think about it like that.” Frank said, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. “I don’t want to be all sad the whole time it takes to turn. I’m already fucked, theres nothing we can do about it. I don’t want you guys' last memories of me to be of me sulking around and moping because I’m going to die.”
“You can’t just not talk about it until you’re dead.” Mikey’s voice got quiet again, he grew nervous. His tone was laced with worry. Frank’s eyes widened. “I know it isn’t easy but it will only get harder if you avoid it like this.” His voice returned to its usual volume.
“What? I am not avoiding shit.” He said, a bit frustrated now. He shakily sighed and brushed his hair from his eyes, then he crossed his arms over his chest. If he wasn’t going to die soon, he would make Ray cut it. All of them needed haircuts.
“But-“ Mikey was cut off by Ray. Gerard’s eyes awkwardly glanced between the three of them. He cringed to himself. This wasn’t the best situation.
“Can we all stop arguing? Maybe? First it was Gerard, now you? Damn.” He sighed. “Don’t spend Frank’s last day arguing. If he wants to avoid being all serious, we’ll avoid it.” His words shut up everyone pretty fast. They all fell into silence for a few moments. Ray didn’t want to avoid it either, but he followed what everyone else was doing.
Gerard cleared his throat. “Well, um.. Anyways, as I said. You don’t seem like you have a fever.” He repeated, trying to return to whatever they had been going on about before the mini-argument started. Death was so easy to argue about.
Mikey spoke again, trying to push back his need to tell everyone that acting like nothing was happening was wrong. “Last time we saw someone turn, the fever hit in the first two hours, right? When that dude we found got bit.. What was his name.. Brendon?
“Shit, I remember Brendon. That guy was wild.” Frank picked at his nails. “He turned so fast. But you said it depends, so, maybe I’ll just turn as slowly and agonizingly as possible. Fuck. I don’t want that to happen.” He muttered.
Ray chimed in again. “His buddy was crazy too, what was his name again?” He thought for a moment. Gerard answered fast, he wasn’t one to forget stuff like this. Especially considering how crazy Brendon had been. “Ryan.” Gerard answered. Ray nodded, perking up once he remembered the name.
“Ryan! Right. I was hoping he would come with us, even though he was kind of weird..” He sighed. “Not that you guys aren’t great, but new people sound nice sometimes.” New people would be awesome, if Gerard was open to them. That wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
“I didn’t trust that Ryan guy. I didn’t want him to kill himself, though.” Gerard brushed his hair from his eyes. Everyone was getting more unable to sit still. Frank picked at his nails, Ray kept shifting how he was sitting and playing with his hair, Mikey kept adjusting his glasses, annoyed.
“You don’t trust anyone, Gee.” Frank sighed as he spoke. It was the truth, Gerard didn’t trust people. A stranger could be dying right in front of him and he would have a moment of hesitation before helping them. Talk about stranger danger. Frank stopped picking at his fingers, he didn’t want to draw blood.
Gerard sort-of rolled his eyes. “True, but it’s for a good reason.. I mean, that Ryan guy was kind of bonkers. Maybe I’d trust someone if they weren’t crazy. You don’t go and kill yourself because someone you like gets bit- Ugh.. Sorry.” He felt bad for what he said, he could see why Ryan did what he did, yet he was still criticizing it. “I just think most of the people left in this world are nutjobs.” He added, but he went quiet after. He felt really guilty. As if Ryan would come back to haunt him or something. If zombies were real, maybe ghosts were too.
Everybody fell into a semi-awkward silence again. The whole thing with Brendon and Ryan had haunted the group for a while. They hadn’t talked about it since it happened, maybe a year ago by now. Keeping track of the time was really hard. None of them even tried, there was no point in it. All they knew is that it was getting a bit colder out at night, which meant the time change had to be soon, which meant they’d have to adjust. It was annoying. Frank wouldn’t have to worry about it this time around.
“Well, uh.. Is there anything you wanna do?” Mikey asked. If Frank wanted to do anything before he turned, now was the time.
Frank shrugged. “I wanted to play guitar again, but..” He paused, trying not to cry at the thought. He thought tears could spill over at any moment if he thought too hard about his approaching death. “I don’t think there is one, and I don’t really want to go on an “adventure” again. Doesn’t seem like a good idea.” He muttered.
“Ray and I could-“ Frank cut Mikey off and shook his head. He didn’t want them to risk their lives for a guitar that this building may not even have. He would only be able to play it once anyways, it seemed useless to even try.
“It’s fine, man. Don’t worry about it.” He said softly, looking towards the ground. “This building isn’t the safest. After I’m dead you should get out of here. Don’t risk your lives for some guitar that may not even be in this building.”
Gerard hated this. He hated considering anything in the future, knowing Frank wouldn’t be there. He knew Frank wouldn’t let anyone try to leave and get him a guitar, but man, he wanted to. There was no way for Frank to play guitar again. None of them would play music together again.
“We really should get out of this city. It’s crawling with the dead.” Ray absentmindedly played with one of his curls in his fingers, twirling the small bit of hair around. It felt so impossible to sit still.
Mikey nodded. “Yeah.. We could try and find a safer place to camp out on the outside of it. Less living people in the past, means less dead people now.” He pushed his glasses up, wanting to throw them off of his face. He hadn’t stopped adjusting them for a few hours now.
“You want me to fix those?” Gerard offered. He reached out a hand, wanting Mikey to hand him the glasses. It wasn’t entirely a question, even he was annoyed by watching him push up his glasses.
Mikey nodded and handed him the glasses from his face. “Thanks..” He chuckled softly, shifting how he was sitting. Gerard took the time to fix his brother's glasses, it was an easy fix. They were bent and a screw was a bit loose, so he bent them back to normal as well as he could tightened the screws. The cracks and scratches on the lenses weren’t fixable, but at least they wouldn’t constantly slide down Mikey’s nose.
The sun was starting to set, it was getting darker, colder. Frank still felt fine. Everyone had squeezed onto the couch together. Frank rested closely by Gerard, Ray was shoved between Gerard and Mikey. None of this was making sense. Frank’s bite still ached, but he was nowhere close to being a zombie. Frank’s head laid on Gerard’s shoulder. Everyone was paying attention to him once again, as if they were waiting for him to turn, but this time he was waiting too. He was focused on how he was feeling, trying to notice anything that could be off.
“I seriously thought I was going to turn by now..” Frank muttered, sighing softly. A little tension left his body as he sighed. His bite continued to ache, but that was it. Nothing new.
Gerard brought his arm around Frank. “I’m really glad you haven’t.” He said softly, squeezing him a bit and pulling him closer. They could sit like this forever if they could, if they had forever.
“We’ve wasted pretty much all day, though.. Waiting for me to turn.” Frank shouldn’t be guilty, yet for whatever reason he was. The group had been waiting for him to die all day, they could’ve been doing way more important things than this. “It’s just so weird that I still feel fine..” He mumbled.
“We’ll see how you feel overnight.. Hopefully you’ll be okay.” Ray pushed his curls from his face. He normally pulled his hair back, wearing a half up half down thing, but his hair tie broke. “Wasting time is the least of our worries. I didn’t mind sitting around all day, I don’t think anyone else did either. We are glad that you’re fine.”
Mikey nodded. “I think we should still take some precautions, though.. In case he turns at night.” He said quietly. He bit the inside of his cheek for a moment.
“What, you wanna tie me up or something?” Frank was already annoyed with this idea. He didn’t want to be tied up all night, he couldn’t sleep without being able to move at all. “I’m not gonna be able to sleep like that, sorry..” He leaned back into the couch, letting his head fall back and look up at the ceiling.
Mikey fell silent, Gerard spoke instead. “That’s exactly what Mikey wants to do.” He sighed. It was almost like the Way brothers could read each other’s minds sometimes. If you’re around someone for your whole life, you grow to really understand how they think. Gerard knew exactly what Mikey was implying.
“Just lock me in the bedroom or something. You could all squeeze into that bed in there.” He shrugged. “I don’t want to turn and hurt you guys, but there is no way in hell I’m letting you guys tie me up for the whole night.. I’m the one who is going to die, maybe let me get a good night's rest.”
“So you can have a bed to yourself?” Ray teased, trying to lighten the mood as well as he could. Frank scoffed and shook his head, he uncrossed his arms. Gerard pulled him a bit closer once again.
“No, so I won't eat you!” He rolled his eyes. A smirk crept up onto his face but it faded fast. Eating people did not sound appealing whatsoever. Especially eating his best friends. He leaned into Gerard a bit, wincing at his aching shoulder.
“Okay, well do that then. If you turn, though.. Don’t figure out how to open doors.” Mikey glanced out of the window, the sun had disappeared from the sky for the night.
As soon as the sun set, they usually went to bed to get as much sleep as possible. It was like they were kids who had a bedtime, but without parents, and without an actual bedtime. When the sun set, they just knew it was time for bed. Tonight was different, though. None of them really wanted to go to sleep. They all hung around in the living room for a while longer, maybe a few hours. Eventually Mikey had to convince everyone that they should sleep. Usually Gerard was the one to boss everybody around to sleep, but not even he wanted to.
Frank and Gerard stood in the doorway of the bedroom that had the smaller bed in it. Ray and Mikey had told Frank goodnight already. Well, not goodnight, it was goodbye. A very unsure goodbye. Everyone had at least a little hope that Frank would make it through the night. Everything was quiet. The moon was peering through the windows of the apartment. Gerard admired how Frank looked in this light. The soft blue color illuminated the room behind him, casting shadows around. He couldn’t see Frank's face very well, though. Frank had his back turned to the light, he could kind of see Gerard’s face. He looked beautiful as he took in his features for what could be the last time.
“I hope I see you tomorrow..” Gerard said quietly. He scanned over Frank’s silhouette, it was hard to make out his face in the darkness, but he tried his best. He would see him tomorrow no matter what, but one of the options wasn’t him. Frank nodded.
“You will.” He promised. His words had a weight to them, they were full of hope and truth. He was determined to make it through the night. If he convinced himself he was going to live and wake up like normal, he wouldn’t be so upset.
Surviving getting bit seemed so outlandish, but not to Frank. At this point, everyone would be slightly more shocked if he did actually turn. He hadn’t shown any signs of sickness. Frank considered the possibility of being immune, though nobody else had been immune. If they had been, this apocalypse could have been over by now. Mikey could probably come up with a reason for him being immune. If he was immune he had no clue why or how.
Gerard’s breath hitched. He wrapped his arms around Frank and held onto him, never wanting to let him go. Frank held him just as tightly. “I’m going to be okay, I promise.” He said quietly, trying to reassure Gerard while also reassuring himself. “Plus, if I’m not, you guys will be fine without me.”
“I don’t want to do any of this shit without you, you better be okay.” He squeezed Frank, his lips unintentionally brushed against the side of his head. Frank felt his face heat up. Gerard didn’t really notice his lips brushing Frank’s head. He wished he could give him an actual kiss, though. He let go of him after a few more seconds. “I’ll see you in the morning..” He said softly, letting his eyes scan Frank’s features once again.
“Yeah.. Yeah, I’ll see you.” Thank god for the dark, Frank could feel how red his face got. He stepped back into the moonlit room. Gerard stepped out and Frank closed the door. The lock clicked. Even if he was most likely going to be okay, he didn’t want to risk his friends getting attacked by some zombie version of himself.
Frank climbed into the bed that he and Gerard had once shared. He was exhausted and scared. His mind juggled with going to sleep and being terrified of turning. His stomach churned with anxiety, he buried half of his face into the pillow and forced himself to close his eyes. He found it really hard to relax. The what-if side of things continued to taunt him. After getting extremely lost in thought, he passed out.
Ray and Mikey were both asleep in the bed, they had saved a bit of room for Gerard, but he didn’t really want to sleep. He went into the living room and planted himself down onto the couch with a heavy sigh. He looked out of the window, his mind lingered on Frank for a while. He couldn’t sleep. Losing Frank sounded terrifying, it was terrifying. He had Mikey and Ray and he loved them both deeply, but it was so different with Frank. He couldn’t imagine an apocalypse without him. Maybe that Ryan guy had the right idea.
Gerard ended up passing out on the couch, getting woken up by someone violently shaking him. He grumbled. He was expecting bad news. Good morning, Frank is dead. Or something along those lines. He squinted when he opened his eyes, the sun was brightly shining into the room. He felt relief when he realized who was shaking him. It was Frank.
Frank shook him awake, he was laughing quite a bit as he did. He was excited as hell to be shaking Gerard awake. Gerard forced his eyes fully open, then he threw his arms around Frank. He chuckled softly, pulling Frank onto the couch with him. “I’m still here.” He said softly. Gerard mumbled incoherently, he wasn’t awake enough to find words yet. He held Frank tightly, sitting upright. The way they were sitting was pretty awkward and uncomfortable, but they didn’t want to let go of each other. Neither of them had been this happy in a really long time. Gerard honestly thought he was still dreaming.
The two of them adjusted on the couch to be in a less awkward position, but they didn’t leave each other’s arms. Gerard buried his head under Frank's chin, trying to hide that he was taking in his scent. It was comforting and familiar, he wanted to remind himself that he was awake and that Frank was actually okay.
“Good morning..” Gerard muttered, he chuckled softly into Frank’s skin. He pulled himself away after a few moments, his cheeks a bit pink. Frank smiled at Gerard, he looked so stupid. It was adorable, to Gerard at least.
“I tried to bother Mikey and Ray but they weren’t having it..” He chuckled and put his arms around Gerard again. “Why’d you sleep in here?” Frank thought Gerard was going to be in the big bed with Mikey and Ray, but he found him on the couch instead.
“I dunno.. I didn’t mean to fall asleep out here.” Gerard sighed, relaxing into Frank’s arms. “Ray and Mikey weren’t having it? Aren’t they so happy that you are alive?” He chuckled.
“They are happy that I’m alive, but not very happy that I woke them up.” He sighed and rolled his eyes, leaning closer to Gerard. “I think it’s pretty early, though.. So it makes sense.” He yawned. Gerard also yawned. Fuck contagious yawns.
“They need to get their asses up.. We need to get out of this city today. It may take a while.” Gerard rubbed his eyes and stood up from the couch, Frank hated when he let go of him, but he would let it slide for now.
Gerard opened Mikey and Ray’s door, the two of them were both still asleep. Mikey was laying on his back, mouth wide open, he was snoring softly. Ray was laying face down on the bed, was he even breathing? If he was, how? Frank and Gerard stared at them both, then glanced at each other. They tried not to burst out laughing. Gerard walked over to Mikey, shaking him gently. Frank went to Ray and rolled him onto his back.
Mikey woke up, groaning in annoyance as Gerard shook him. “Ughh.. No.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes. He didn’t want to get up yet. Nothing could convince him to get up yet, he could be stubborn in the mornings. Ray, on the other hand, took a moment to wake up.
“Is he breathing?” Gerard questioned, ignoring Mikey’s pleas to not be woken up. Frank shrugged and put a finger under Ray’s nose to feel his breath. Ray jumped awake, Frank jumped back, his soul nearly leaving his body, for real this time.
“Shit! You scared me, Frank!” Ray groaned, falling back onto the bed. Mikey laughed, Gerard couldn’t help but snort too. Frank let out a heavy sigh, he relaxed a bit. His tense shoulders fell back to normal. The bite on his neck-shoulder area ached.
“I’ve never seen you wake up that fast, you scared me too.” He chuckled. Mikey sat upright, stretching his arms above his head for a few seconds. Frank put a hand over the bite wound. Mikey glanced over to him.
“I can change the bandage.” Mikey offered. Frank nodded eagerly. He wanted the wound to be cleaned and bandaged again, as if that would make it hurt less. It wouldn’t, but Frank liked to think it did. Mikey stood up from the bed and gestured for Frank to follow behind him. The two left the room.
Gerard sat down next to Ray. “How the hell do you sleep like that?” He questioned, laying down too for a moment. It was a lot more comfortable than where he had slept on the couch. He looked over at Ray.
Ray shrugged, he sat up. “Like what? Face first? I don’t know. I never fall asleep like that, but I always wake up like that.” He ran a hand through his curls, his fingers getting trapped between them for a moment.
“That’s weird as shit.” Gerard yawned. He didn’t want to get up now, this mattress was so nice. He shut his eyes for a moment. Ray was talking about sleeping face first or something, but Gerard was dozing off and heard none of it.
Once he opened his eyes Ray wasn’t in the room anymore. Gerard stood up, disoriented, and walked out of the room. Everyone else was in the living room. Anything they had laid out on the table was presumably in bags now. Gerard rubbed his eyes, he was a bit ashamed that he had fallen asleep accidentally.
“I was just about to come wake you up.” Frank said, adjusting the straps on a backpack to be a bit tighter. “We’re gonna head out soon.” Frank glanced over at him. He nodded and rubbed his eyes once again.
“How long was I out for? I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but holy shit, that bed is comfortable.” He chuckled softly and fixed his dark hair as best as he could, it was a mess. He normally looked like a wreck though, so he wasn’t too worried about looking perfect.
“Ehh.. Maybe an hour and a half.” Ray said. “I was talking to you and you fell asleep.” He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t think I was that boring.” Ray teased, a smile creeping up onto his face as he spoke.
Gerard rolled his eyes too. “Whatever. Sorry.” He chuckled. “You guys could have woken me up to pack. Do we have everything?” He asked. Gerard walked over to all of their bags and looked over them. Frank stood up, holding his bag and Gerard’s. He handed Gerard his bag as he threw his own backpack over his shoulders.
“Yep. We have everything.” Frank replied. Mikey was still shoving a few things into his bag, medical supplies and such. Gerard wished he hadn’t fallen asleep, they would’ve been on the road by now. Gerard put his bag over his shoulder.
Mikey finished packing up his bag after a few minutes of everybody awkwardly standing and waiting. He had trouble zipping it, but once it was zipped, he was finally ready to go. “The hell do you have in there?” Ray questioned. Mikey shrugged.
“Medical supplies, some food, extra weapons. Everything that you guys didn’t want to carry.” He explained, adjusting the straps a bit so it was more comfortable to carry. “We should head out.” Mikey gestured towards the window where the fire escape was. Leaving this building by going through the lower floors would be stupid. It was packed with dead, nobody else wanted to get bit.
All of them climbed down the fire escape, down onto the street. Navigating this city was a pain in the ass. The herd that chased them into the apartments was still out there somewhere. Since it had been a few days, they may have migrated to some other part of the city, hopefully. The goal was to get out of the city, that shouldn’t be too hard. This city was once packed with living people, which meant there would be a shit ton of dead ones. It was a question on how or why they even ended up in the city.
Gerard always wanted to avoid cities, but they had been low on supplies. It was necessary. It seemed that Gerard’s ideas got them into trouble quite a bit, despite how cautious he had been. He got them into the apartments, then he got Frank bit. He had a few ideas to get out of the city, but he kept his mouth shut for now. He didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. Guilt was eating away at him as the group walked along the desolate streets of the city, only a few dead were hanging around. No herds this time.
Frank had a little pep in his step, he was just happy to be there. Happy to be alive. He kicked at the pebbles under his feet as he walked. “Where should we go once we’re out of the city?” He asked, glancing at everyone else who walked about a few feet behind him.
“I was thinking of the warehouses,” Ray responded. “I saw a few when we came into the city. We can stay in one for the night and head out really early tomorrow.” He said. They had no specific place they were going, despite that, they were always on the move. Ray looked around at the broken down cars that were lined up ahead. Being stuck in traffic at the start of an apocalypse would’ve really sucked.
The four of them all started to weave between the cars, continuing down the streets. It was kind of fun sometimes. “A warehouse sounds fun. That's a lot of space.” Frank loved having a bunch of room to move around. The apartment they had previously been in wasn’t good for that.
Mikey and Gerard weaved between cars, Gerard sped up a bit, trying to start some sort of race with Mikey. Mikey took on the challenge. Both of them went between cars as quickly as they could towards the end of the street. Ray and Frank watched, amused. Gerard kept running around the cars, until he heard a thud followed by a yell from Mikey. “Shit!” He turned around and Mikey was gone. He assumed he had fallen behind a car or something.
“Mikey? You good?” He called out. Ray hopped around a car to catch up with Mikey. Frank followed. Gerard walked around the cars. They heard Mikey’s voice call out from behind one.
“Yeah, I’m good!” He had been tripped by some zombie that was half crushed under a car, great. It grasped his ankle for a moment. He took his knife out and stabbed its head. “Just another corpse.” He said, looking over at Ray as he walked over to him. Ray offered Mikey a hand, helping him onto his feet.
“It didn’t get you, right?” Ray asked, pushing some curls from his face. Mikey nodded and shoved his knife into his pocket. He brushed dirt off of his hands. Gerard and Frank finally caught up to the two of them.
“It didn’t get me.” He said, fixing his glasses that had nearly fallen off of his face when he fell. The group of four continued their walk, without racing between the cars this time. They couldn’t have anything fun it seemed. Not for too long, of course.
Silence followed as they all walked. Gerard got a better look at this city, it was actually really beautiful. Nature had begun its takeover, claiming back what humans had once stolen. Many of the buildings had some sort of green growth on them. Grass had grown through cracks in the ground, spreading throughout. People were no longer here to destroy it. Sometimes, he wondered if this was supposed to happen. Everything happens for a reason, right? That would explain it. The apocalypse could have meant to happen, maybe to punish people for destroying the earth. Like Noah’s Ark. God flooded earth because everyone was too corrupt, he could have sent some zombie virus to do the same. Although, the apocalypse brought out the worst in people. Gerard’s thoughts trailed down some path about humanity and nature and how it was absolutely thriving in this fucked up world.
The warehouses were just outside of the city, but far enough away to be safe from any herds. They were even darker and dingier than the apartments. All of the doors were locked, so Ray and Frank were trying to use brute force to open them. The doors were old, so they thought they would open up easier. Gerard and Mikey just watched, entertained while they slammed themselves against the door. “I don’t think that’s gonna work.” Mikey laughed.
“Frank, I thought you could pick locks?” Gerard questioned. He could’ve said that earlier, but he chose watching Frank and Ray slam themselves into doors instead. Frank stopped and thought for a second, then his eyes widened.
Ray continued to hit the door for a moment before giving up. “Are you kidding me?” Ray asked, rubbing his arm. It ached from throwing himself against the door.
“Um...” Frank muttered. “So, I can pick locks. I have a paperclip for it, actually.” He said softly, pulling a paperclip out of his pocket. Ray smacked his shoulder. “Ow! Ow! Bite, remember?! Shit!” He grumbled, punching Ray in the arm.
“Sorry! I forgot.” Ray stepped back from Frank, who was now angrily reshaping the paperclip. He muttered some incoherent, but angry sounding things under his breath while he got ready to pick the lock. Mikey leaned against the wall of the warehouse.
Frank shoved the paperclip into the lock on the door, he worked his magic while everyone else stood around. It was starting to get dark and everyone wanted to get inside of the warehouse. With the dark came a chill in the air. Gerard hummed quietly for a few moments, he looked over to Frank just in time to see him opening the door. “Ta-da.” He said dryly, gesturing for everyone to go in. “Ladies first.” Frank chuckled. He thought he was hilarious sometimes.
Everybody walked in, Frank going last. Gerard had his knife in hand, ready to kill any dead that could be in here. They all stood in silence for a few moments, even though the banging on the door would’ve already grabbed the attention of any dead inside. It seemed empty. The warehouse had a few closets, but they didn’t hear any dead. It was clear as far as they knew.
“It’s clea-“ Gerard was interrupted by Frank. Damn hypocrite.
“Woohoo! Fuck yeah!” He yelled. Frank dropped his bag and ran around the empty warehouse. Ray followed and dropped his bag, chasing after Frank. Frank yelled as he ran from Ray. Mikey and Gerard both removed their bags too and joined in with this chase. For once, all of them were happy to be alive. The four of them ran around the dark warehouse and laughed together, it felt like they were kids again, as if nothing mattered. Gerard, Mikey, and Ray were trying to tackle Frank, without hitting his bite of course, which is impossible.
Frank screamed, like, screamed. It scared the shit out of the other three guys, who stopped chasing him. “Frank, shut the fuck up, dude.” Gerard said, laughing, while also catching his breath.
“You’re gonna draw in the dead!” Ray coughed and fell onto the dirty warehouse floor, sighing. The floor was comfortable sometimes. Mikey was laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe, Frank joined in.
“Sorry! I didn’t want to be tackled!” Frank choked on his laughs for a second, he tried to calm down. Mikey joined Ray on the floor while Gerard jumped at Frank, pulling him onto the ground too. The once silent, empty, warehouse was now full of their laughter. Their voices echoed in the large space.
As fast as they all started being crazy, they went back to normal. All of their laughs faded out after a while. Ray’s eyes were all watery from how hard he had been laughing. Gerard and Frank stayed on the ground next to each other, staring at the ceiling. Mikey was now getting up and grabbing a flashlight from his bag that he had thrown on the floor. He shined it around the room. There were some windows that would bring in natural light during the day, but they weren’t exactly useful at night.
“I’m so tired..” Gerard yawned. Mikey shined the flashlight directly onto him, Gerard groaned and covered his eyes. Frank chuckled softly, so did Mikey, who removed the light from Gerard’s direction.
Gerard rubbed his eyes, he wanted to get up but he was so tired all of a sudden, probably from all of the running around that they did. He started to fall asleep right there on the ground. There wasn’t really anywhere else to go, though. Unless this place was a mattress warehouse or something. That would be an amazing miracle if it was. Gerard fell asleep, thinking about a mattress.
Frank took Gerard’s bag. He pulled out anything hard and put the, now mostly empty bag, under Gerard’s head as if it were a pillow. He did the same to his own bag and laid down next to Gerard, his eyes scanning his face. Ray and Mikey were somewhere by the door, moving stuff as quietly as they could to block it. The warehouse had a few shelves, thankfully, but they were mostly empty. Nothing useful. They would head out in the early morning, though, the lack of supplies was fine. Frank dozed off looking at Gerard. Ray and Mikey laid down some time later, also falling asleep for the night. Everyone was sleeping a lot better now that Frank was fine, that still didn’t explain it, though.