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It's snowing.
The snowflakes are wet and fluffy, the kind that accumulates quickly. The kind where you stop paying attention for half an hour, then return to the window and find a few inches already piled up. It's been years since Dream has seen snow in person, but it isn't like he can enjoy it now. Not when he has more important things to worry about.
Things like finding a fueled car to hot wire. Or a store with decent canned food. Three warm coats. He has an entire list of things that the group needs, but the struggle is deciding which takes priority. He still has stale granola bars and jars of applesauce tucked away in his backpack, enough to last for a few more days. If he remembers correctly, Sapnap still has saltine crackers in his bag as well. So he slots food at the bottom of the list. They could use a car, both to drive and for the toasty heater, but they won't always have said car. Gas runs out, things get damaged. It would leave them out in the freezing cold all over again and the three roommates from Florida clearly weren't prepared for a zombie apocalypse in twenty degree weather. It leaves finding warm clothes as a main priority. Second is the car. Food last.
"Where are we again?" Dream questions. The last time they had a working vehicle, he remembers being in West Virginia. That was a few weeks ago.
"Ohio," Sapnap tells him, "I think we're close to Dayton, it's hard to tell on the map,"
"That was a bigger city, it means stores and we need warmer clothes. That's good," Dream grins. A little bit of hope in the face of the end of the world.
"That also means more Zombies," George interjects. Dream watches as he drags his blood stained bat on the ground, leaving indented lines in the snow, "What kind of name is Dayton anyway,"
"A bad one," Sapnap snickers, "The place is called Ohio, it's already kind of sucky,"
Dream snorts at that, "Cold states are all sucky,"
The suburbs of cities are always relatively safe, give or take a handful of random stragglers. Most of the big hoards tend to stick to larger spaces where they're more likely to find live people. They learned that the hard way in Orlando and again in Charlotte. After learning that lesson twice, they stay on the safe side and stick to the outskirts in silence. Most of the sound comes from the wind rippling against their clothes and George continuing to drag his bat behind him, quiet enough to avoid drawing attention to the group.
George is the first one to spot the rundown thrift shop, which doesn't come as a surprise to Dream in the slightest. If he hadn't been with the group, both he and Sapnap would've walked right past the shop. They tend to get stressed while keeping their guards up and miss everything they had been searching for in the first place. He isn't too good to admit that it has happened multiple times, George being forced to be the person to rein them in. The soft touch on his elbow as George steers them towards the doors is enough to remind him of that.
"Nice spotting," Dream murmurs once they're indoors and settled with the doors blocked, "Thanks for that,"
"It's kind of my job," George smiles.
Dream bumps up against his shoulder playfully, "Good thing you're decent at it"
"Jesus," Sapnap scoffs and pushes past Dream, "Are you gonna find some clothes or keep kissing each others asses?"
"Aw, are you jealous? Want me to compliment you too baby?"
"Shut up," Sapnap hisses. Dream doesn't miss the hint of a blush turning his ears red, but decides to tease him over it another day.
"We're going, we're going," He says innocently with his hands up, but then adds a serious, "Just find things that would be good for layering,"
"Will do boss," Sapnap mocks with a small snicker.
The store is untouched for the most part, but it’s obvious that they aren’t the first group to have passed through and grabbed clothes. As far as he can tell, the winter clothes remain untouched which is all that really matters to them at the moment. He ends up pulling on two long sleeves and a hoodie before even making it to the heavy coats. He’d rather end up being sweaty in the snow instead of freezing to death. They hadn’t survived an entire apocalypse just to be taken out by a little bit of snow.
George and Sapnap seemed to have the same idea. When he makes his way over to the coats, he finds them pulling coats over heavy hoodies and thick jackets. Dream finds two for himself and folds them over his arm as they move through the store cautiously. He finds a few tea candles and flashlights and puts them in his bag for the late nights when they have little to no light. He hates those nights more and more as time goes on, it makes the world feel empty and terrifying. Sapnap finds him again soon after that with an empty but new bag.
“George said that there’s a grocery store down the street," Sapnap shrugs when he sees Dream eyeing it, “Food and medicine since it's close. Then we get the car,"
“Right. Good idea,”
“Yeah. Are you ready?”
Dream looks back towards the front and notices that more snow has accumulated then shakes his head, “I want to eat lunch before we leave again. It’s getting worse out and we need the energy,”
“Would you look at that, you do have some good ideas too,” Sapnap teases, “I’ll go get George,”
They have a feast. Not a typical one, but one full of applesauce, crackers, and beef jerky that's too chewy from sitting in George's bag for months. It's enough to fill their stomachs and that's what truly matters. Dream hadn't even known about the beef jerky-not that he was mad-just shocked when the man had pulled it out. 'It was for special occasions' George had said. The special occasion was being warm and under a roof. The two friends couldn't disagree with that, it's the best meal that they've had in weeks.
"I wish we could stay a while longer," Dream sighs with a disgruntled expression, "It's nice,"
"We could stay the night at the grocery store," George offers.
Sapnap pauses in cleaning his axe, "Maybe they'll have pillows and blankets,"
"In a small grocery store like that?"
"Sometimes they're half groceries and half home goods. Kind of like a mini Walmart,"
"America is still weird," George huffs.
"I think the entire world is weird right now, George," Dream chuckles. He's moved on to pulling on his heaviest coats and George follows in his lead.
"Only a little bit,"
Sapnap checks out the front door while Dream and George hoist their bags over their shoulders and sort out their weapons. Dream always keeps a gun in the waist of his pants, but hardly uses it because of the noise. It's for extreme situations only and he's only needed to use it once, thankfully. He opts for his usual knife and keeps it tucked between his belt and his pants, safe and easily accessible if needed.
"Tiny problem, guys!" Sapnap calls from the front, "There's a cluster near the grocery store,"
"A manageable one?" Dream questions. He pushes through the racks with George tailing right behind him. He peeks out the window to see just how big the group is.
"We've handled worse. I'm thinking we just go in with knives, it's faster than the bat and axe," Sapnap reassures them.
"Ready?"
George holds his breath for a moment, "When you are,"
They drag the items that barricaded the door away and step into the bone chilling cold winds. They make it to the grocery store, stealthy and silent. They go unnoticed by the groaning Zombies until the snow crunches under Dream's heavy boots. Then one turns and the others follow one by one. Dreams brain short circuits for half a second being face to face with the disgusting rotting flesh on the face of a dead person. It's happened to all of them at least once, the shock never fully going away. Then there's blood spraying across his face and a knife being pulled from the head of the zombie.
"You're okay," Sapnap tells him. It's soft but stern, "But we need to move quickly,"
He does. He stabs the first monstrosity he sees right between the eyes, one after another they fall around them. They're making progress, he can see it and in more ways than just the bodies piling up. He can actually see the doors. His hands are soaked in blood, making it difficult to grip the knife properly but he's still managing to get by.
"DREAM!"
Dreams heart sinks at the scream. He's heard George scream before and this isn't like anything he's ever heard before. It is nothing but panic and fear, which startles him so much that he drops the knife.
"GEORGE!?"
He's scanning the area, struggling to find the brunette amongst all of the blood and bodies. When he spots him on the ground, fallen face first with a zombie on top of him, he panics. Before he can even stop to think about the consequences, he pulls out his gun and aims straight for the Zombies head. And then takes out the remaining Zombies in a blind panic.
"Get the door!" Sapnap shouts, "Dream, get the fucking door!"
Dream makes his way through the bloody pile and lets out a sigh of relief when the sliding doors are unlocked and slide open without any resistance. He holds them open as Sapnap and George limp into the darkened building. George collapses onto the linoleum tile with a pained groan. He looks fine, a little beaten up and bloody from his scraped knees, but he's alive. Both Dream and Sapnap can breathe again.
George's eyes are watery and red when he blinks up at the duo, "Dream, can you go get me some bandages?"
"Yeah, of course. Let me j-"
"Now. When I tripped and fell I sliced my arm," George explains.
"Just watch him, okay?" Dream asks Sapnap.
"I've got him,"
Dream grabs a basket and stocks it to the brim with everything he can think of. Bandages, pain pills, ointment. More than they'll probably need, but he won't take any chances with his best friends. Extra is safer than not enough. When he arrives back at the front, George is lying with his head in Sapnaps lap and Sapnap has his knife balancing on his knee. He nearly drops all of the supplies right then and there. He'd only been gone for half an hour.
"We need to talk," Sapnap tells him.
Dream sets everything down and falls to his knees beside them. He reaches a hand out to feel his best friend's pale skin, pulling it away as if he's been burned as soon as he made contact.
"No," Dream tells him, "No,"
"There's nothing we can do," Sapnaps voice is soft.
"Where is it, was it his leg? We can amputate it, we watched it happen to that one kid,"
"My lower back," George blinks up at him. His eyes are glossy and red, "I had to tell him first,"
"This isn't happening. You aren't dying," Dream hisses.
"The infection spreads fast, you know that. The fever is the end stage," George murmurs.
"I love you. Please don't leave," Dream whispers. He runs his fingers through his hair.
"I love you too,"
George doesn't make it through the night. Dream and Sapnap hold him the entire time, watching and waiting. When his breathing finally slows and comes to a stop, Sapnap finally gives him an out as they both cry.
"You should probably go. Get us some food for the morning," Sapnap tells him.
"I can't do it," Dream whispers. His eyes are clouded with tears as he stares as Sapnaps knife. He knows what has to happen.
"I know. George and I said our goodbyes earlier, he asked me to do it," He admits.
"I don't want him to be alone,"
"He won't be, I'm right here. I'll hold his hand, I promise,"
Dream gathers all of the energy left in his body to get up and leave. He makes it to the cereal aisle before he breaks down in a sob. They've managed to survive this apocalypse for nearly a year, traveled through a dozen states, killed hundreds of Zombies, and this is what caught one of them. A small herd of Zombies. It's a fucking joke.
But he was right, the snow wasn't the thing that would take them out.