This has truly been a labor of love. Thank you @shamelessbigbang for letting me be a part of this! It was my first time and everyone was so gentle. A huge never ending thank you to my amazing artist @oathkeptroxas not only for the insanely, perfect artwork but also for your help in everywhere else. No way could I have done this without you. Last but not least thank you to my sprinting pals and the power of the Jessicule! Plus the honorary members who keep us all sane. For your kindness and encouragement as well as your comiseration.🫶🫶
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The end of the world didn't make monsters.
It just let them off their leashes.
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Ian Gallagher thought he knew fear. Growing up on the Southside, surviving a family that barely held together, fighting his own mind every single day. He thought he'd seen the worst the world had to offer.
But then it happened. Not like in the movies. Not loud and terror filled streets.
Just the slow, quiet, mindless gnawing away of civilization. It happened faster than it should have, it preyed on the human instinct to band together, to help one another.
But here's the thing about the apocalypse that nobody tells you.
The dead are easy.
It's the living you have to fear.
Mickey Milkovich was built for survival. Terry Milkovich made sure of that. The streets of the Southside took care of what was left. When the world ended, Mickey didn't flinch, he adapted.
He found Ian.
He kept him alive.
For a while, that was enough.
For a while, they had each other.
Then the real monsters came.
This is not a love story.
This is a story about what love looks like after everything has been taken from you.
When they are separated they each have to survive on their own.
But Mickey comes back different. Hollowed out in ways that have nothing to do with the walking dead. Flinching at touch. Terrified of kindness. Certain that he is destroyed and no one could want him now.
Ian doesn't care.
Ian will spend every day for the rest of his life teaching Mickey that not all hands hurt. That some touches are gentle. That he is not what they made him feel he was.
The apocalypse took everything.
Now they're fighting to take each other back.
Gallapocolypse is not an easy read. It is not soft or safe. It is about the worst side of humanity and the stubborn, furious, bleeding hope that survives anyway.
For fans of rough, survival horror and the kind of love that crawls through hell and comes out the other side still holding on.
Please before you read, check the tags. PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.