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Collect Your Things, You're Coming With Me

Summary:

Babe was having a hard time believing what the Sherriff was saying.

“So, lemme get this straight. You’re saying there’s some kind of weird plague going on, and people are what? Attacking each other? And we didn’t notice any of this shit goin’ down until now? What is this, ‘World War Z? Should we be expectin’ Brad Pitt-”

“Babe, stop bein’ an idiot-" Julian interrupted.

“Whose side are you on-"

“-this has more of a ’28 Days Later’ vibe.“

Notes:

I know I marked the warning for major violence, but I just feel like I need to say it myself as well: This is a zombie fic. There will blood and body horror. It’s not extremely detailed, but it will be happening.

This is a fan-work based entirely off of the actor's portrayals in the HBO mini-series Band Of Brothers; no disrespect to the real men of Easy Company. I own nothing.

Chapter 1: Looks Like We're In For Nasty Weather

Notes:

UPDATE: This is now edited! I’ve added stuff and rewrote some parts so please give it another read before you move on to the next chapter! Thanks!!
Also, I know I marked the warning for major violence, but I just feel like I need to say it myself as well: This is a zombie fic. There will blood and body horror. It’s not extremely detailed, but it will be happening.

This is a fan-work based entirely off of the actor's portrayals in the HBO mini-series Band Of Brothers; no disrespect to the real men of Easy Company. I own nothing. The title of this fic is taken from the song "When the World Ends" By Dave Matthews Band and the title of this chapter is from "Bad Moon Rising" By Creedence Clearwater Revival

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“The following message is transmitted at the request of the Pennsylvania State Police Department. Civil authorities have issued the following warning for the citizens of Pennsylvania. Hospitals and townships across the State are reporting strains of a highly contagious viral agent. Symptoms may include high fever and in advanced cases delusions and irrational behavior. It is advised to stay away from any persons demonstrating these symptoms. Authorities request that citizens stay in their homes until further notice as the situation is handled.”
-Emergency Broadcast System: Pennsylvania; 7:33 AM, Wednesday, April 1--th, 201-- – 5:57 PM, Sunday August --th, 201--

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Babe Heffron didn’t regret a whole lot about his life. He’d moved out at nineteen and secured a small drafty apartment just a few blocks from his parents, who he regularly visited for lazy Sunday afternoons after church. He’d gone straight into the work force right after high school, forgoing a secondary education as the college student per household quota had been filled by his older brother and younger sister. Besides, Babe had always been more of a labor man than a student and his job at the docks was much more interesting than studying.

He did, however, regret letting his friends drag him to a bar on a Tuesday night in mid April. He’d been very firm in the idea that he would only have a couple of drinks and then head home, as he was trying to act the part of the working, responsible adult that he now was. That’s why he stumbled in the door at a little past two in the morning, his head swimming and four pairs of feet instead of two and why he woke up with a pounding headache, a dead phone, and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Miraculously, he’d somehow managed to set his alarm but ended up hitting the snooze button repeatedly because really, what was a hung over man to do when faced with loud noises early in the morning. This meant he missed his morning radio show, which usually wouldn’t have mattered. However, Wednesdays in April were pick-up days where Babe would drive to a couple of random towns through out Pennsylvania, gathering packages for his boss before working the night shift. And by missing his radio show and thus, the traffic report, he was almost guaranteed to hit backed up cars somewhere in the city. Which meant he was definitely going to be late. He took a moment to curse himself and his friends before sliding into his car.

But apparently luck was on his side today. He didn’t hit any traffic on his way out of the city. Normally this would have unnerved him because when had the streets of South Philly ever been this empty? But to a bleary-eyed and viciously hung-over Babe, it was a blessing. The only issue he had heading out of the city was a woman who was wandering aimlessly in the middle of the road. He’d honked and swerved around her before speeding off, cursing the weirdos who were always lurking around in the early hours of the morning.

When he did hit traffic, it was when he least expected it. He’d been heading down the familiar two-lane road that led to the little town where he usually made his first pickup when he had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting the car in front of him.

“…the hell?” Babe muttered to himself.

He’d driven this road every Wednesday for four months and had hardly ever seen another vehicle on it. And now there was car after car backed up across both lanes. He rolled down his window and tried to look around the smattering of cars that were cluttering up the road. He could barely make out the front but he could see that the road opened up again after about a dozen cars. He figured what ever the problem was would work itself out soon so he capitalized on his brief stop to root around for some advil and get a cigarette in.

Thirty minutes later saw Babe in the exact same spot he’d ended up in when he’d slammed on the breaks. His boss was usually pretty lenient on delivery days when Babe came in late and swearing about traffic, but he was definitely going to be yelling at him today. Part of Babe wanted to leave and just finish the rest of his route, but he was stuck. More cars had trickled in behind him, closing off his only escape route.

Fifteen minutes later and Babe was seconds away from smacking his head against the wheel. He’d never been one to handle boredom with grace. Normally, he’d be fiddling away with the stupid apps on his phone, but since it was dead and sitting on his counter at home the only sources of entertainment in his rusty old pickup were the radio, which hadn’t worked in over a year and a yellowed sudoku book that the previous owner had left.

That’s why when the door next to his car opened and spilled out a tall, lanky guy who couldn’t have been more than nineteen, Babe eagerly leaned across his middle counsel and rolled the passengers side window down.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Babe, desperate for any kind of interaction, nearly shouted at the poor boy.

“Jesus!” The guy squeaked, whirling to face Babe, “Give a guy a little warning!”

“Sorry!” Babe shot him a toothy grin, “I’m goin’ a little crazy just sittin here.”

“You and me both,” The guy said over his shoulder as he fiddled with something in the backseat, “I’m thinkin there’s gotta be something wrong with the cars up there since we haven’t moved an inch in,” He checked his watch, “about an hour. And seein’ as I’m a mechanic, I can probably help get this show on the road.”

Babe sighed and looked up through the line of cars, before coming back to the guy, “You mind an extra set of hands? I dunno how much longer I can stand just sittin’ round like this.”

The kid lugged a tool kit out of his back seat before turning back to Babe, his big brown eyes crinkled up in a grin, “Not at all.”

Babe smiled back and slid out of his car, holding out his hand, “Babe Heffron.”

The kid shook his hand, “John Julian, but most people call me Julian.”

“Nice to meet ya, Julian.” Babe said as he grabbed the other handle of the tool kit and started down the road.

“So, Babe, huh? That a nickname or were your parents that confident in their genes?”

oOo

As they got to the front, it didn’t take long to figure out why they were stopped randomly. There were three police cars blocking the path, a couple of detention vehicles, and about a half a dozen officers patting people down and asking questions. There was a line of people getting into a bus that was just past the police cars and two groups of people sitting along the side of the road.

“Is this a DUI check point?” Julian asked Babe.

“If it is, this it’s the weirdest one I’ve ever seen.” Babe responded, watching as an officer cuffed an older woman and lead her over to one of the groups of people sitting along the road.

Julian huffed and set the tool kit down, “Lugged this shit up here for no reason then. Least we got our work out in for the day right-“

“What are you two doing out of your vehicles?” An officer intercepted them, his calm voice at odds with the way he was casually pointing his gun at them.

“We uh- we thought there was a problem with a coupla the cars up here and I’m a mechanic so we thought we could help-“ Julian stuttered, his eyes on the gun.

“No. Nothing like that,” The officer looked them over, his eyes barely visible under the bill of his hat, “Return to your vehicles.”

“Yeah, obviously.” Babe snarked. He was late and cranky and there was no way he was about to go back and die from boredom in his car with out a reason. Julian sent him a wide-eyed ‘please don’t fuck with the officer look.’

Babe ignored him, “What is this? Some kind of DUI check point?”

“No.” The officer had shifted his attention, and his gun, to Babe, “Go back to your car.” His voice held a note of finality as he turned to walk away.

“Hey, wait a minute! You gotta at least tell us what’s goin’ on, you got a lot of antsy people out there-“ Babe said, reaching for the officers arm.

Babe’s friends always said his mouth had a knack of getting him in deeper shit than he was already in. And they were right. Before he knew it, he was being slammed up against the side of a car, with the barrel of a gun pressed to the underside of his chin and the officer in his face.

“I know you didn’t just try to touch an officer.” The cop’s voice was low but terrifying as he towered over Babe. Babe stole a glance over the officer’s shoulder, trying to make eye contact with Julian. He could see the people in line eying them warily and Julian just about shitting himself as a big man with a shiny Sherriff’s badge walked over.

“There a problem over here?” The Sherriff stopped in front of them. Babe didn’t like the way he shifted his hand to the holster on his belt.

Babe watched with amazement as Julian, who must have been used to slipping out of sticky situations with the way he put on his biggest doe eyes, turned to the man and proceeded to lay it on thick, “Oh no, officer, everything’s fine. My buddy here’s just worked up cuz he’s got a sister in the hospital-“

Babe sighed in relief. Julian was a genius. The sister bit always worked-

“What for?”

Or not.

The intended cover up back-fired as the cop got more intimidating, pressing the barrel of the gun closer to Babe’s rapidly pumping carotid.

“Hey, hey!” Julian yelped stepping forward. The officer sent him a withering look and Julian visibly paled.

“She’s pregnant! Her boyfriends a dick and walked out on her, and Babe promised he’d be there for her.” Julian gave Babe an exaggerated look and silently pleaded with him to go along with it.

“Yeah,” Babe coughed out, “She’s a mess. Only nineteen and the fucker promised her he’d stay, proposed and everything. Next day, boom. Gone. So I- uh I kinda promised her I’d be there so she could at least break someone’s hand, even if its not her boyfriends.”

The officer narrowed his eyes at Babe. Babe tried to take a page from Julian’s book and gave him his most innocent look. The Sherriff put a hand on the officer’s shoulder but neither his hard stare nor his gun wavered from Babe.

“I’ll take care o’ this. Why don’t you head back over to the line and keep checkin’ people in?” The Sherriff said to the officer. The officer took a moment to consider the offer, drawing out the moment and pressing the gun just a little harder into Babe’s neck before pushing away from him slowly. Babe gasped as he was released from the emotional and physical weight of the gun. The cop gave one last look that sent shivers up Babe’s spine, but headed back over to the small line. Babe rubbed at his neck.

The Sherriff sighed and his shoulders slumped, “Sorry bout him, he’s just paranoid. And with everythin’ that’s goin on, can’t really blame him.”

Babe, cowed by the memory of the gun at his throat, furrowed his brow and shared a terrified glance with Julian, “With what goin’ on? This check point thing you got?” He tried to keep the tremor in his voice in check and failed miserably.

The Sherriff was silent as he studied them, “You fella’s really don’t know? What are you two doing out on the road so early?”

“I’m picking up parts.” Julian muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Babe could see Julian subtly shuffling so that Babe was directly between him and the Sherriff. He scowled. What a little shit.

“’m pickin’ up some things for work too.” Babe answered shifting just enough to be out of the middle, “To be honest Sir, I’ve never seen this many people heading into your town.”

The big man frowned down at them, “Jesus, you don’t know. With your sister bein’ pregnant and in the hospital you shoulda heard something. Assuming that’s where she really is.” He sent a knowing look to Julian, who’s face washed with red.

Babe took ahold of the conversation, “Let’s assume that my sister isn’t one for hospital check ups. She’s a bit of a naturalist. What would we be hearin’ if she went in regularly?”

The Sherriff pursed his lips, “You’d be hearing about that virus that’s been going around.”

Babe tried to wrack his brain for any memory of a virus in the news but all he came up with was the outbreak of H1N1 and ebola from years ago.

Apparently Julian had heard of it because he piped up, “You mean that harmless one? People aren’t even getting vaccinated for that anymore, it barely even gives you a cough.”

The Sherriff was quiet for a moment before he spoke, “Yeah, well it ain’t so harmless anymore. People are gettin’ violent. Unreasonable. And it’s spreadin’. Lot of these people here are tryin’ to escape it. That’s why we’re searchin ‘em. Can’t let any of that touch our people, we’ve already had enough trouble with it.”

Babe caught Julian’s eye. There was a beat of silence before they both burst out in peels of laughter. Oh, that was good! Babe looked up to the Sherriff, expecting him to be chuckling along.

He wasn’t.

He had his arms crossed in front of him and was pining them with a look that would have made Babe’s mother proud.

Their laughter trailed off slowly into awkward chuckles.

“You boys done?”

“You’re serious?” Babe asked, incredulous.

“As the grave.”

Babe pursed his lips, “So, lemme get this straight. You’re saying there’s some kind of weird plague going on, and people are what? Attacking each other? And we didn’t notice any of this shit goin’ down until now? What is this, ‘World War Z? Should we be expectin’ Brad Pitt-”

“Babe, stop bein’ stupid-“ Julian interrupted.

“Whose side are you on anyway-“ Babe snarked back.

“-this has more of a ’28 Days Later’ vibe-“ Julian argued.

The Sherriff sighed, “Look, I know how it sounds. I didn’t believe it ‘til I saw it myself. And we might be overreactin’ but it’s better safe than sorry with the shit we’ve seen-”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on, seen?” Babe interrupted, “What do you mean seen?”

Julian looked like he was torn between wanting to punch Babe out for challenging another person of authority and eying the Sherriff, desperate to hear what he was going to say.

The Sherriff drew himself up to his full height and Babe knew their window for information was coming to a close, “Don’t worry about it. We’ve just had some mishaps over the last couple of weeks. It’s probably nothing, but we want to make sure before we start letting people into our town.”

Babe shot Julian an incredulous glance, “You know that sounds great and all but-“

“Listen,” The Sherriff interrupted, “Where you boys from?”

“Philly.” Babe said, gesturing to Julian, “Him too.”

The Sherriff nodded, “Lot of big cities ain’t tellin’ people. They wanna handle it with out causing unnecessary panic.”

Babe was a little incredulous. The Sherriff seemed to have a explanation for everything but hadn’t actually told them anything, “I’m gonna be honest with you sir, this sounds like a whole bunch of bullshit.”

The Sherriff rubbed his brow, “Listen boys, you can believe what you want. But let me make you a proposition. You stay here for the night, you get checked out by the hospital, and get some warm food. If this all blows over in the morning, you can go on home.”

Julian picked the worst time to jump on Babe’s authority defying train and challenged the Sherriff, “Or what?

“Or we arrest you and hold you in a cell until we decide you’re safe to go.” The Sherriff leveled them with a powerful look.

So much for getting back in time for dinner.

 

oOo

 

“Fuckin’ hell, it’s hot.” Babe hissed, resting his head against his knees as the sweat rolled down his back.

After their less than reassuring conversation with the Sherriff, they’d been briefly checked over and relocated to one of the groups on the side of the road. Babe just thanked his stars that the officers didn’t see fit to cuff them.

“You owe me a fuckin’ drink after this shit’s over.” Julian grumbled next to him.

“As long as I can drink it with you.” Babe muttered into his arms.

“Hell, I’m still workin’ out if I ever wanna see your face again.” Julian glared at him.

“Hey, none of this is my fault. Plus, you can’t tell me you believe any of this shit they’re sayin’. Even if it was true, we’d have seen something if people were attackin’ other people.”

“I’m not talking about that! I’m talking about you not listening to that cop. You coulda just left it be-“

“Yeah, and we would still be sittin’ in our cars, not knowing what kinda dystopian shit we were walkin’ in to.” Babe huffed, fishing around in his pocket for his smokes.

Julian sighed and dropped his face into his hands, “My ma’s gonna kill me.” He whined miserably.

Babe silently agreed. His mom was going to beat the living daylights out of him for getting involved with the police again.

He sighed and tapped two cigarettes out.

“Smoke?” He offered one to Julian.

“You’re a helluva bad influence, you know that?”

Babe smiled serenely.

Julian took the cigarette.

oOo

It was about twenty minutes later when shit hit the fan.

Babe and Julian had been steadily working their way through his pack discussing how they were going to explain this shit to their employers when the sound of tires skidding and crunching metal reverberated through the air, followed by sounds of doors slamming and loud yelling.

“What the hell.” Babe mumbled, craning his neck, trying to get a good look at the crash. He couldn’t see much past the first row of cars, but he could make out a plume of smoke curling up toward the sky and a few people hopping out of their cars to get a better look.

“Someone’s a bad driver-“ He joked.

An ear-splitting scream cut through his joke. The hairs on the back of Babe’s neck were on end instantly. He’d never heard a human being make a noise that desperate outside of a movie.

“Babe, holy shit! Babe! Look!” Julian was gripping his arm and pointing but Babe didn’t need his guidance. His eyes were already glued to the scene unfolding in front of him.

And holy shit was right. Unlike their group, the people in the group next to them had been hand cuffed, but it wasn’t stopping them from tearing each other apart. The older woman who’d Babe had seen before had her teeth sunk into a little girl no older than seven, who was screaming ‘Grandma stop!’ There was man, leaning comatose against the road railing as another dug into his neck, sending blood splattering everywhere. The others that had been in that group were screaming and struggling to get away, not able to get up with their hands cuffed behind their backs. The smell of blood and the sound of ripping tendons drove Babe’s head between his knees to empty his stomach. He was barely finished before Julian was hauling him to his feet and shouting about running. They’d hardly made it ten feet before the sound of gunfire drove them to their knees, hands scrambling to cover their heads. whole lot of good that was going to do them. They turned to the source and watched as the policeman from before opened fire on the group, sending the people who’d managed to get up straight back to the ground with unerring accuracy.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Babe yelled desperately, staggering to his feet, “Stop! Stop it! They’re people, you can’t just-”

Julian grabbed his arm and pulled him back, “Babe we can’t do anything about it! We gotta go!”

That sounded like a good idea. Babe wanted to be very far away. But he couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. All he could do was watch as living, breathing people were mowed down in front of him, hitting the pavement and not getting up again. There was a guy, young like him, on the ground struggling to crawl away, bleeding profusely from a wound to his neck. They locked eyes and his blood stained mouth was moving, maybe trying to form words or gasping at the air. Babe tried to make his body go forward to help, to do something, but he was not in control anymore. It was like his systems had shut down until he could understand what the hell was going on.

The guy’s eyes never left Babe’s, even as the barrel of a gun pressed again the back of his head, execution style. Babe could only watch as the terror washed over his face before the force of the bullet sent his head bouncing against the ground.

Babe’s brain kept tripping over how unrealistic every portrayal of being shot in the head was. There was no slow motion. No last profound moment. It was just over. The glint bouncing off the gun drew Babe’s eyes away from the bloody mess. His wide eyes followed the path of the hand holding the gun to the arm to the body. The same officer that had threatened Babe and shot all those people was standing over the body. He looked absolutely terrifying with his hat pulled low over his face and blood smeared across his pale cheeks. His eyes were the worst. They were barely visible under the brim, but as he lifted his head Babe could see the wild gleam.

How did Babe know this? The cop was staring right at him.

Babe’s body finally caught up with his mind and he turned to run, shouting, “Shit, Julian-“

But Julian was already being pulled to a squad car by another cop. And suddenly the officer was right next to him. He had Babe by the arm before he could even think about escaping and was dragging him to a police car.

“Get in.” He growled to Babe.

Like hell he was getting in that car.

“No way-“ Babe was interrupted by the officer’s fist connecting with his nose, the force of the blow sent him reeling back against the door, smacking his head against the car and Jesus Christ it hurt. There was screaming coming from inside the car and his mind foggily labeled the voice “Julian.”

“Fuck you.” He spat, gripping his nose and meeting the officer with a glare.

For the second time that day Babe found himself face to face with a gun and the officer’s glittering eyes on him, “Get in the God damn car,” the hot metal touched his forehead, “or I’ll give it a new red and pink paint job.”

An “Oh.” Was all Babe could manage before the cop was yanking the door open and shoving Babe inside. He smacked his head on the shoulder of someone else in the car. He wanted to yell obscenities at the officer but the door was slammed in his face and all he could do was watch with spinning vision as the cop sprinted back out into the fray. His face was still smooshed against the shoulder of the person occupying the middle seat. He tilted his head up intent on apologizing but all that came out was a jumble of mismatched words.

The man didn’t even acknowledge him, which Babe thought was pretty rude. His head just kept lulling from side to side as the car started speeding along over the uneven road. Upon closer inspection, Babe, even through his fuzzy vision, could tell the man was in bad shape. There was blood leaking from a cut in his lip, spilling down his shirt and he held his arm at an awkward angle.

Babe could kind of sort of hear Julian yelling at him. But the car felt like it had filled with water. The light was slow and filtered and the sounds around him were muffled and far away. Babe smiled and tried to drift forward to tell Julian that they were swimming. But the car was not full of water and instead of slowly moving forward Babe’s head thudded against the partition. His face felt like it was stuck to the glass. But he wasn’t too concerned about it. He was content to finally be steady.

Babe knew that Julian was trying to get his attention, but he just couldn’t bring himself to pull his head up from where it rested. It continued on like that for a while and Babe was just about to let himself slip under when Julian started to scream. Loudly. It wasn’t like before. This was honest to God “screaming-for-my-life” kind of loud. Even in his concussed state, Babe could hear the panic. He tried to turn his head and it slipped from where it was sliding across the partition and he finally managed to get a glimpse of Julian. He could just barely see him underneath the man from the middle. He was looming over Julian, pulling at his shirt with gray hands. Julian was desperately pushing him off, but the man was completely unfazed. Julian managed to get a foot on the man’s chest and delivered a desperate kick. The man rammed into Babe and his world was brought sharply back into focus.

There was noise all around him. The sound of the wind whipping around the car. The snarls and moans from the man in the middle. Julian’s desperate yelling.

“-Jesus Christ, Babe! Fuckin’ help me!” Julian screamed as the man recovered from the kick and lunged at him again,

“What’s goin’ on?” He slurred out, grabbing at the back of the man’s shirt and trying to pull him off.

“Fuck if I know!” Julian squeaked as the man shoved off of him and turned to Babe. He expected punches but he got teeth instead. He managed to get his hands braced against the man’s neck but it didn’t stop his jaw from working over time, the sound of his teeth clacking loudly. Babe’s brain brought him back to the side of the road where the damage had been dealt through bites.

Julian was yelling, trying to verbally persuade the man to ‘fucking stop, Jesus Christ!’ while trying to manhandle him away from Babe. The man seemed to remember his hands as they began pulling at Babe. The Sherriff’s words came back to him as he was faced with blood stained teeth and cloudy eyes.

‘People are gettin’ violent. Unreasonable.'

Babe didn’t want to believe the Sherriff. Life was not a million dollar Hollywood production horror flick and yet, here he was, facing down a person more interested in getting his teeth into Babe’s jugular than the fact that Babe had his hands wrapped around his neck.

“Shit!” Babe hissed through clenched teeth as the man lunged again, almost slipping through his precarious grip on the man’s throat. Babe felt like he was slipping under the surface again with only his adrenalin helping him hold on.

Suddenly the oppressive weight was gone, hauled off of him by skinny arms. The man was bucking against Julian who was still screaming at the man to calm the fuck down. A sinking realization washed over Babe. The man would never calm down. He would continue to be violent, continue to be unreasonable. And Babe and Julian would end up just like that little girl with a hole torn out of her neck or the man with his organs laying on the road next to him.

They needed to get him out of the car. Now.

His hand clumsily found the door handle and frantically pulled at it but it wouldn’t budge. Babe wasted no time turning to the partition. The officer in the passenger seat was trying to train his gun on the man but he was moving too much. Babe pounded on the glass until his hand split. The officer in the passenger seat turned, bewildered, and locked eyes with Babe.

“Unlock the car!” Babe screamed, “fuckin’ unlock-“

The soft click of the doors unlocking rang through the back seat like a gong. The car slowed as Babe threw the door open. He locked eyes with Julian and unbuckled the man. And then Julian released him. The man lunged for Babe but Julian had got a foot under him and gave him a final shove. The extra force sent him straight over Babe and toppling out of the car.

Babe leaned his head out of the car and watched as the body tumbled to a stop. He sucked his sigh of relief back in when he saw the body struggle to its feet and stumble after them. That fall should have killed him, or at least broke enough important parts to keep him on the ground.

He didn’t have a lot of time to mull over his thoughts as the car started speeding up again and sent the open door smacking into Babe’s already sensitive head.

“Fuckin’ hell.” He whined, rubbing at his head and looking over at Julian. He’d braced himself against the corner of car, his arms pressing him as far back as he could go. He was staring at the door with wide eyes.

“Julian,” His voice leaked out, thick, slow, and a thousand miles away, “you good?”

“…we-we just killed someone.” He stuttered out, eyes not leaving the door.

“No, he was fucked anyway.” Babe’s vision was seriously swimming now and he had to close his eyes against to block out the nausea.

“Babe, we just threw someone out of a moving vehicle-“

“The Sherriff was on to somethin’. ‘Violent, unreasonable’.” Babe recited. He clapped his hands over his eyes, trying to block out residual movement, “Are you good?”

“Yeah, yeah ‘m fine,” Julian’s voice sounded defeated and tinny, like he was on Babe’s grandpa’s old television set, “I’m more worried about you, to be honest.”

“Nah I’m,” Babe’s stomach rolled, “I’m fan-fuckin’ tastic.” His words slurred and his tongue felt like it was sticking to the roof of his mouth. He let his head fall back on to the seat.

He could feel Julian prodding and poking at him and he felt like he should respond but his head was so heavy and he was so tired. Maybe if he rested for a few minutes he’d feel better…

“Babe!”

Julian was yanking Babe’s hands away from his eyes and suddenly the world spinning violently in front of his eyes.

“Babe you gotta stay awake, I think you‘ve got a concussion!” Julian’s voice was desperate as he tried to shake Babe back into consciousness.

Babe’s head was pounding, “Julian-“ He grabbed at his arms, “ya gotta stop shakin-“ He barely had enough time to rip himself away from Julian and duck his head in between his knees before he was puking again.

“Jesus, Babe!”

“’m fine Jules.” Babe slurred, trying to smack Julian’s hands away, “Peachier than peachy.”

“Babe-“

“No no. Shhhhhh.” Babe reached forward to put his finger on Julian’s lips trying to get him to stop being so loud, but the car jerked to a stop and he missed, sending him sprawling across the seat.

Abruptly the door swung open and a strong set of hands were pulling Babe from the car. Babe had thought the inside of the car had been as nauseating as it was going to get. He was wrong. He was vastly unprepared for the direct sunlight and cacophony of sounds that assaulted him. Police sirens were blaring in every direction and people near him were yelling and screaming. He desperately clapped his hands over his ears, trying to block out the noise.

He was propped up against the police car briefly as the person who had hauled him from the car checked him over before swinging their arm around him and trying to pull him forward. Babe tried to cooperate. He really did. He kept putting one foot in front of the other, but it was always too slow and he kept tripping.

Finally, someone took pity on the stumbling mess they were and came up on Babe’s other side and helped drag him along.

“Fuck, Babe, you’re heavy as hell.” Someone grunted next to him.

“Fuck off.” He mumbled, trying to swing his head to look at them, “’m very fit.”

He wasn’t sure how long they struggled to move forward but suddenly Babe was laying down on something. He thanked every deity he knew that he was finally horizontal. Then he was moving again. He could tell by the way the lights over him kept passing him by. At first he tried to count them but his eyes kept fluttering shut and he’d miss a few. He kept forcing his eyes open. Someone told him he couldn’t sleep, that it was dangerous. That didn’t make sense to Babe. Sleeping was the best. But he gave it his best shot. He tried to count again, but now the lights were zipping past his eyes, moving too fast to count. There were spots dancing around the corners of his vision, beckoning him to come with them.

Babe gave up and let his eyes fall shut.

Notes:

This is my first attempt at fanfic in almost 7 years. Here's hoping that it's not as bad as my first one.
I'm super open to comments and criticisms. If you really absolutely hated it, let me know why! I'm trying to learn as I go with this.

I'm on tumblr if you want to stop in and say hi!