Zombieworld AU (1)

A/N: As promised! I'm not sure how many people saw the original bit of the game, but shoutout to @monachosis who was the first on interacting with this post!

No one expected Billy to survive, is the thing.

As one of the smaller kids on the street and with little strength to speak of, he'd never gotten to keep the nicer hideaway spots in the city.

He hadn't been able to stay in homeless shelters much either; They'd always ask why he was alone or they'd try and call social services on him.

His odds had been stark, laid out plain like that - small and weak and with no way to find a reliable place to eat or sleep.

Billy wouldn't have bet on himself either when the first wave hit.

But he does.

Survive that is.

Squished under a small pocket in a demolished building, a little lean-to he'd dug out for himself with his ratty backpack hugged to his chest and just about all his clothes on for warmth, he'd been too deep down, too difficult to reach, too insignificant a target when the whole world went to hell.

Billy remembers that first night in flashes. Remembers waking from his uncomfortable dozing to screeching tires and screams.

The bits of the sky he'd seen through the gaps between crumbling concrete and rebar had glowed a dull red, and there'd been an awful, thick stench of burning petrol in the air.

A car accident. He'd thought so simply at first.

But it had kept happening. Louder and louder and all over the place.

Desperate screaming and things breaking and this raw, savage sound in the background accompanying everything - Billy remembers that he'd thought of the dog he'd seen once, with rabies.

All slavering and thoughtless and violent to anything and everything that came close.

Just like that, but everywhere and instead of the way the dog had let him be when Billy had gotten far enough, whatever it was, was attacking everything.

Billy remembers shaking, hands clasped around his nose and mouth, with shallow vents between his fingers for air, lungs heaving rapid and shallow.

Had it been instinct, then? Something prey-like in his hindbrain telling him not to make a sound.

His heart gone rabbit-quick, slamming against his ribcage.

More and more screaming, people begging and a wet tearing all overlayed by that awful, awful savage sound filtered down to Billy.

His mind had gone blank.

How long he'd stayed like that, Billy hadn't known, but eventually the sky brightened - dull red fading to black then purples and then lightening to blue sky and Billy had stayed like that until the bits of the sky through the gaps stung to look at and everything was getting uncomfortably warm.

Billy remembers thinking later or trying to think anyway that he'd made the right choice, so to speak.

Getting out would have taken precious minutes and would have left his back to open air as he leveraged himself out.

Plus, he'd had no idea what was out there. He wouldn't have been able to help anyone.

Hiding had been his best bet.

Like a coward.

Billy had dug himself out of the building's remains, telling himself that and stepped out into a world completely changed.

More Posts from Toobytoobs and Others

toobytoobs

6 months ago

Okay but someone in the JL has definitely gone through the Watchtower security cam footage and made a compilation video of Captain Marvel banging his head on the top of a doorway.

And I’m pretty sure we all know that he must do that a lot.

Tags

fanfiction cassandra cain I'm hopeless cassandra wayne perfectionist issues

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toobytoobs

3 weeks ago

"get a load of this guy"

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toobytoobs

5 months ago

Arcane is a story about the horrors of war

How no one is safe, no one is free from it, even after it ends

How war can destroy everything if it’s not quelled

There were so many names in that bowl

Arcane is a story of caution

It’s also a story of devotion

Singed is so devoted to his daughter he destroys countless families and nearly brings his people to ruin

His devotion is rewarded

Ekko is so devoted to his people and his land that he takes on more and more and more until he breaks down

Ekko is so devoted to Powder and to Jinx that he leaves a perfect life to save her

That he tortures himself, watching her die over and over until he can find the right words to save her from herself

He is punished for his devotion

Caitlyn is so devoted to the memory of her mother that she is willing to tarnish it to try to prove her love for someone no longer there to receive it

She is so devoted to the past that she is willing to let go of her future with Vi for it

She is both rewarded and punished for it in the end

Violet’s devotion to her family, bled into her devotion to Powder - Powder’s devotion to Violet bled into Jinx’s devotion to Vi

Vi’s devotion to Jinx is found in Jinx’s devotion to Isha and is reciprocated in kind

Vi’s generational devotion can’t save them but it does save her

She would trade places with Jinx in a heartbeat, just as Jinx would have for Isha

Vander is so devoted he places his family above his principles- working with those who oppress his people to keep his family safe

It’s not enough

Silco is devoted to his cause to the point that he is willing to go to the same depths as his adversaries

He’s even willing to kill his own people in the name of saving them

Sevika is also devoted to the same cause, enough so that she was willing to go on the frontlines, willing to throw the first punch against a much larger opponent

In the end her devotion leads her to working with the same people she’d once planned on attacking, for the benefit of her people, in honor of those she lost

Ambessa has a twisted understanding of devotion, so devoted to her daughter’s legacy that she kills in Mel’s name, a child just like her, breaking their connection in that very moment in the name of devotion that she was afraid of

Mel is devoted to her own principles, come by naturally and inherited from her brother, even after she is punished, banished for it, she remains ever devoted - not even Kino’s death or Ambessa’s makes her falter in her conviction- but it does change her

Viktor is so devoted to being good, over being great, over being remembered, he is so devoted to being good that he tells Jayce to destroy the one thing that can save him no matter he fears the ticking clock and Jayce, so devoted to Viktor, can’t

And when Viktor’s devotion is corrupted, Jayce takes it on

In their final moments Viktor, the truest version of him, tries to push through his fears and do one final act of good - save Jayce, he’s on the brink of death and he tells the most important person in his life to leave him

Jayce who had so much to live for, who could have done so much good still, so devoted to Viktor refused to leave him, no matter the consequences

Ximena is so devoted to her son she will do anything to save him, even stand up to the most powerful people in her city for him

It gives him time

It does not save him

She is still left alone in the end

Several background characters weave in and out of the main character’s stories, and time and time again we see them do everything for the people they love

Some are rewarded

Most are not

Arcane is a story of how war shows us the depths of our devotion, the lengths we are willing to go for it

Arcane is a story of caution

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toobytoobs

2 months ago

I like to think that the ao3 staff find out that ao3 is down from the screams of anguish on tumblr alone

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toobytoobs

7 months ago