19. Summer Camp AU and 21. Dystopian AU?? 👀👀
A big Tater thank you to @claire8216 for giving me such a challenge. This one's based off an old fic of mine from college that was a bit of a Tremors au. It's stupendously niche, but here you go!
No one was prepared the summer the worms came, Julie least of all. One minute the piano prodigy was rehearsing the eight pieces she was to perform her senior recital at UTC, the next her family and half her house were gone, dragged underground by the huge worms, never to resurface again.
Julie managed to run out of the house and hide before the worms got her too, but that was pointless: the monsters were everywhere, destroying places and people too fast for the government to do anything about it. In fact, military bases and heavily-trafficked areas were the first places hit.
The entire damn world was gone almost over night.
Luke found her alone, hungry, and crying in a storm drain two days later. Julie didn't know him from Adam, but he told her everyone he knew and loved was gone, too, and they clung to each other and sobbed for hours.
They'd been inseparable ever since.
They foraged through abandoned stores and houses looking for food, pointedly avoiding ones that had obviously been destroyed by worms. As the days, weeks, and months went by, they found clothes and weapons and learned how to hunt and protect themselves. They'd see others, but they wouldn't interact. It wasn't safe; there was no telling what the world as it was did to people, and they weren't waiting around to find out. Pretty soon they started finding fliers that said noise was what attracted the worms.
Julie nearly had a break down when they saw that.
She'd been playing the piano the night the worms killed her family.
She was the reason they were dead.
Luke pulled her into an in-tact house with an attic and collapsed in the floor with her so she could cry without worrying too much.
When she finally calmed down enough they continued wandering.
The flier also said that as long as people stayed in small groups, they were safe. If they gathered too many people in one area, the chances of an attack were way higher. That was easy. Julie and Luke were all the other had.
They'd managed to avoid the worms for the most part, but every once in a while they had to fight one off. It became easier the longer they were on their own. They learned where the other's strengths were and who was more adept at what skills.
They were learning each other, too, and not just when fighting worms. They were learning everything. And slowly, as absurd as it seemed in the middle of a worm-induced apocalypse, something resembling love blossomed.
One evening they were trudging through the outskirts of a town in Georgia. Julie had no idea where they were going, and Luke said it was a safe place. Just when his smile lit up at the sight of a gravel road, a worm burst through the pavement right in front of him.
He managed to get out of the way before it grabbed him, but not before its sharp teeth raked three huge divots across his back. They manage to kill the worm, then Julie has to help a very bloody Luke down the gravel road and to the place where he thinks they'll be safe: Camp Dawn Tracer, his absolute favorite place in the world and the summer camp he went to every summer as a kid.
Judging by the abandoned art projects, bows and arrows strewn across the field, and obvious game of capture the flag set up in the orchard, the worms' attack showed up right in the middle of camp.
Luke lead her to two-story cabin next to the lake and pointed at the building just up the hill from them. "There should be a blue jump bag in there full of medical supplies. See if you can find it. I don't think this scratch is going to heal on its own."
Julie did as instructed and came back to find Luke in a bedroom trying to pull his shirt off, but between the dust from the road and the dried blood, it was stuck to the wounds.
Julie batted his hands away and said, "I'm going to have to help you with this." She walked into the bathroom (yes, there was still running water!), grabbed a wash cloth, and handed it to Luke. "Bite down. This is going to hurt."
Finally, Julie had the wounds bandaged and Luke had passed out on the bed. She stood and rummaged through the house for anything else they could use (that jump bag would come in handy) and finally pulled out some of the salted, venison jerky they kept with them and boiled it.
By the time it was finished, her mouth watered with the smell. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a hot meal.
"That smells good," Luke said, his lips brushing her ear.
Julie wasn't expecting him to be so close, but judging by the near-miss they had earlier, she leaned back into him and just thanked God he was still there.
After they ate, Luke wanted to go back to bed, and this time he pulled Julie with him. As they snuggled under the covers, Julie realized that, even after the whole ordeal from earlier, this was the first time she'd felt truly safe in a long time.
Luke gazed down at her and sighed. "Thank you. For... Everything."
She shook her head. "No. Thank you. I would have died without you."
In more ways than one, goes unsaid.
He pulled her closer (they've never slept this close before) and rested his forehead against hers. "I love you, you know," he said in a very matter-of-fact voice.
And Julie realized, in a very matter-of-fact way, that she loved him back.
He tugged her closer and, after checking with her, slid a kiss to her lips.
They weren't safe. They were far from safe.
But their hearts were safe with each other.
And that was what mattered.
give me two from here and I'll see what I can come up with
