Departure- The Rise chapter 1
Pairing: Sean x F!MC (Coral Grady)
Written for @badthingshappenbingo Fandom: Choices Endless Summer Square filled: Thwarted Escape
Word count: 2,209 Warnings: angst, dark!fic?, gore? Summary: The catalysts head home only to find everything has changed. A/N: My MC is Coral Grady and she is dating Sean. This happens after the start of the apocalypse. Thank you to both @itsstillnotwhatyouthink and @blackcatkita for proofreading for me. The dialogue and a lot of the set up comes from Endless Summer Book 2 chapters 13 & 14. This chapter is fairly mild.
Series Warnings: death, rotting flesh, gore, blood, biting, turning, blood consumption, may get NSFW. It’s zombies, it ain’t gonna be pretty! By requesting to be tagged you acknowledge you are at least 18 years old and can stomach the gore.
If you need to avoid The Rise postings, filter #choices zombie au or #the rise to ensure you won’t see my zombie fic posts.
Let me know if you want to be added or removed from the taglist. Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters, I’m simply borrowing them for a bit.
The catalysts stood staring at the portal, hearts racing with hope as they watched the swirling portal, crackling with electricity. The air hung heavy with anticipation, no more fighting, struggling to survive, they made it and found their way home. “Let’s do this together.” Coral said, turning back to face her friends. “This is it. Together, we’ve faced dangers none of us could even dream of. If you guys are by my side, there’s nothing we can’t overcome.”
“Compared to some of the things we’ve seen, a purple death vortex is a cakewalk.” Craig proclaimed.
“I’m with you Coral! All the way!” Grace replied
One by one, each of the catalysts, friends stepped forward joining Coral on the catwalk.
“So Varyyn, after we’re through, take the heart and get outta here.” Diego said, his voice breaking with emotion at the thought of having to leave Varyyn behind. “Don’t get caught, okay? I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”
“You would not be able to know either way.” Varyyn replied.
“—I’d know. Somehow I’d know.” Diego answered, a tear streaking down his cheek.
Varyyn’s lip trembled, seeming to hold back his own tears. He pulled Diego into his arms embracing him, his lips meeting Diego’s one final time. “I will wait for you, Diego.”
“For a million years?”
“For eternity.” Varyyn promised. “Goodbye my friends. It was the greatest honor of my life to know you.”
“Can we please move this along? The radiation cannot be good for our health!” Aleister grumbled, irritated and anxious to return home to Hartfeld and get away from this blasted island of death, away from his father.
“You ready Princess?” Jake asked with his familiar smirk, though Coral could see the nerves he was trying to disguise.
Coral took a step towards Sean, slipping her smaller hand into his larger one. Ready or not here we go. Her heart pounded in her chest hoping they made it through before being detected.
“I know I look like a tough guy, but a moment ago, I was scared witless.” Sean said gazing down at her.
“Really?” Coral questioned gently squeezing Sean’s hand.
“Really. And somehow, the moment your hand touches mine, all of that evaporates.” He replied. “Coral? Let’s go home.”
The twelve of them encircled the portal sphere. “Everybody, together. One—” Coral said, her breath caught in her throat, they nearly made it, they were finally returning home. “two—” She squeezed Sean’s hand. “three.”
They stepped forward into the light simultaneously. They felt their bodies stretch, shrink, dissolve and reconstitute, as they transmitted across dimensions, falling through the quantum foam. They held hands tighter, refusing to let go of one another.
“Whoaaaaaa!” Shouted Raj.
“Yaaaaaaah!” Craig screamed.
“Aaaaaaaah!” Michelle shrieked.
Finally, they felt something solid underfoot. “Do you feel that?” Coral questioned, both excited and afraid to open her eyes. Home, we’re home. It worked, we actually made it.
“I think we landed somewhere.” Zahara answered.
“I still can’t see.” Diego replied.
Coral winced against the blinding light as she opened her eyes.
“We made it! We really made it!” Grace exclaimed excitedly.
Gradually the haze faded. Silence hung heavy in the air despite the sun hanging high in the sky.
They stood in the middle of the roof staring out across the buildings. The sun hung high in the sky marking the middle of the day, yet a silence filled the air.
“What? What happened?” Quinn questioned. What went wrong?
The campus stretched out in front of them, everything quiet as if everyone vanished at once, the stench of death hung in the air. Familiar buildings stretched before them. Bare trees, and cool crisp New England winter air showing how long they’d been gone. It’s winter? It was just summer. The world appearing both familiar and unfamiliar at once. The realization of how much they missed, how long they’d been gone, how much had changed settled around them heavy in the air.
“Dammit, Z! You got the coordinates wrong!” Craig exclaimed in frustration, kicking a stray rock across the roof.
“I didn’t! I wouldn’t make that dumb a mistake!” Zahara denied with the air of indignation at the accusation.
“Then where the hell are we?” Michelle asked, her voice laced with confusion and annoyance.
Coral covered her nose and mouth with her hand, trying to lessen the stench she breathed in as she drew her gaze over the familiar surrounding, eyes squinting in the midday sun. “The gate worked—” Coral said, choking on the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh. “We’re home.”
They stared out at the campus, the silence of the normally busy square was deafening. Not a living soul in sight, they felt their hearts sink, each thinking the same thing; what happened? Where is everyone? Tension hung heavy around them as they scanned the horizon for some sign of human life or what had caused everyone to abandon the once busy campus they had all called home.
Sean silently watched the stillness, his face creased with pain. “Yea, it’s Hartfeld.” He replied, voice cracking with emotion.
“Nah, man… No way!” Raj replied incredulously.
“Yeah, last I remember there were fucking people! It wasn’t a fucking wasteland that smelled like death.” Craig angrily rebutted.
“I don’t understand. What happened?” Quinn questioned, her usually bubbly personality subdued as she tried to wrap her head around their surroundings.
“Surely this must be the distant future. It must be.” Aleister offered, refusing to believe this was their reality.
Coral slowly spun around, every corner silent, empty and oddly still. What caused this? She couldn’t think of anything that would cause a mass evacuation and leave the stench they were surrounded by.
“What the hell are we supposed to do here?” Michelle questioned the group.
This was all they wanted, to get home—but this wasn’t the home they left, the home they were trying to return to. Could they even return to La Huerta? Would that be the better option than staying?
“We have to look for survivors.” Coral replied, her stomach twisted in knots as she hoped that someone survived, that they could get answers. They can’t all be gone, right?
“Coral’s right. People could be hiding from whatever caused this.” Grace answered gesturing at the empty quad.
“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Jake replied grimly.
“Well sorry if I don’t take your word for it, Jake. Come on!” Sean countered, annoyed at the pilots pessimism.
They carefully descended the building’s creaking fire escape down to street level. Belongings left behind, cars abandoned with doors left wide open. The twelve look around trying to decipher what they were seeing, trying to piece together what could have caused Hartfeld to be seemingly abandoned. What could have been so bad that everyone would simply leave?
“Okay, let's look around. But be careful, okay?” Coral suggested.
The friends carefully maneuvered the desolate street, looking around, looking for clues as to what happened. Stray leaves swirled around them in the breeze fluttering in the wind. Sean suddenly paused, breaking off from Coral, heading down the vacant street.
“Where is he going?” Michelle asked.
Coral shook her head, breaking from the group, following after Sean. She followed him into an abandoned building, mailboxes in the entryway hanging open, everything as eerily quiet as outside. She climbed the staircase up to the second floor, following his path. She paused when she saw him standing in the open doorway, staring into the empty apartment. “Sean? What are we doing here?” She asked stepping closer, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“This is my mom’s place. Was. Was my mom’s place.” Sean replied with a shake of his head. I should have been here for her.
“Oh… Sean.” Coral answered softly.
“After we finally managed to get away from my dad, she wanted to stay close to me. I wanted her close.” Sean said stepping further into the living room looking around sadly. “She got this apartment when I was a freshman. Closest building to Hartfeld stadium.” He walked up to a cracked photo frame, hanging askew on the wall. He picked it up, looking at it sadly. A photograph of a young Sean, beaming after winning a peewee football game stared up at him. Hugging him are a proud mother and father. “I always hated that she kept this photo up. She still loved him after everything. After everything that bastard did to us, she still loved him.” Sean whispered sadly. “At least…she loved the old him. But that man was dead.” Sean slumped down clutching the frame. He blinked, welling tears forced out.
Coral sat next to him, grasping his hand in hers. “I wasn’t here, Coral. I told her I’d always protect her, and I wasn’t here—”
“It’s not your fault, Sean.” Coral replied leaning her head against his shoulder and squeezing his hand.
“That’s all I was ever good at, you know? Taking punishment so someone I care about doesn’t have to.” Sean said sadly. “And for my mom, for the person that mattered most… I couldn’t even do that.” His head dropped in shame. I shouldn’t have left, maybe I could have saved her.
“Sean, we’ll fix this.” Coral replied, voice strong and sure. She had to fix this, for everyone, for Sean. They had no choice but to find out what happened and fix it.
“You say that with such certainty… I don’t know how you do it.” Sean said looking up at her, letting out a laugh. “Only you could make me look at the end of the world and think ‘Yeah, this is fixable.’” He sighed shaking his head. “It seems completely nuts. But I look at you… and I believe it.”
“I believe in us.” Coral replied, standing up, offering Sean her hand. “Come on Heisman. The world needs saving.”
Sean took Coral’s hand following her out to their friends. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Raj falling apart in front of them. Nothing gets to Raj.
Raj paced, his hands thrown up in the air, as he ranted to himself. “This can’t be happening. It can’t be happening. It’s a nightmare. I can’t deal with this. I can’t!”
“Uh, Coral? I think we finally broke Raj.” Zahara stated gesturing to their fun loving friend mid panic.
Coral walked over to Raj. He ran his hands forcefully through his hair, eyes wide and almost wild. Coral wrapped him into her arms. He suddenly stopped moving, freezing as her arms came around him. “I— I—” He stuttered, unable to complete his thought.
“We’re here, Raj. We’re here with you.” Coral stated reassuringly.
“Okay. I’m okay. I’m good now. Thanks, Coral.” Raj replied exhaling. He wrapped his arms around Coral, returning the hug. “You’re a pretty good hugger by the way.”
“You too big guy.” Coral answered, breaking from the hug with a final pat on her friends back.
The twelve turned, heading back to the dorms when Diego froze, squinting his eyes trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
“So. This might sound weird, but—” Diego trailed off, his eyes wide with shock and uncertainty.
They turned, their eyes following Diego’s gaze.
“Is that people?” Jake asked.
“They aren’t people, they’re zombies.” Zahara replied, eyes wide in amazement.
“Zombies? Real live zombies? Cool!” Craig exclaimed.
“Craig, think. Zombies eat people, and we are the only people around.” Zahara replied slugging Craig in the arm as to knock sense into him.
“Oh, yea that’s bad.” Craig replied.
“Run!” Estela shouted.
“Hurry! Back to the rooftop! Go! Hopefully they can’t climb!” Coral declared.
The zombies grew closer, the quiet, the stench, the fact everything was abandoned now making more sense. They sprinted as fast as they could, reaching the fire escape, scrambling up to the roof. Back we have to go back!
“The Gate! It’s gone!” Quinn shrieked her voice high with panic.
“How the hell do we get it back open?!” Zahara demanded.
“I—I don’t know!” Grace replied sullenly.
“Oh no—” Aleister exclaimed, eyes growing wide as their brief head start was coming to an end.
They saw the zombies moving in closer still. The horde seeming to grow the closer they got to the building.
“Varyyn! He must’ve taken the Island’s Heart out of the machine and is on his way back to Elyys’tel!” Diego answered.
“So we’re totally screwed then. Great!” Michelle shouted.
Coral thought back to the times her mind linked with Varyyn. She closed her eyes and searched for him in her consciousness. She searched, pleading, praying he could hear her and feel their desperation. She tried, over and over, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping to finally find him. But she can’t find him, seconds ticked by and all she found was empty space. We must be too far. She slowly opened her eyes, the realization settling in on them one by one, they were stuck. How could we have been safer on an island that tried to kill us than home? She looked around her friends bewildered faces, every face etched with the same fear and worry. How do we get back now? Can we survive long enough to get back? Could whatever had changed be reversed, or was this simply the beginning of the end?
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