Chapter Text
“Hey _____,” You felt a finger poke your cheek. You groaned half asleep and went to roll over. “____, come on, let’s go see the sunrise.” You groaned again this time annoyed as you turned your face to the sound of the voice and opened one eyelid. There stood your older brother Ryan.
“But… sleep,” you whined, looking at him as he gave you a smirk.
“Come on little miss lazy, come watch the sunrise with me. You never know when it may be your last.” He tugged on your hand. “We’re gonna go hunting too, we only have enough food to last for breakfast and we can go enjoy that while watching the sunrise.” You whined a little but nodded your head. Your brother does a lot for you and it’s not your place to deny him something that he wants. Especially when he doesn’t want a lot in the first place.
The world was in ruins, mankind had destroyed it. You barely remember what society was like before the wars started. The wars were still going on, and you only had your brother with you. He took care of you and made sure you came first when it came down to anything. He made sure you knew how to hunt and defend yourself. How to shoot a gun and how to cook and clean whatever animal he brought home from hunting.
Even though you knew how to do these things he always did them for you and would always tell you he didn’t mind doing them for you. You both had found a rundown shack that was perfect for the both of you. It reminded you of a log cabin and you both quickly made it your home. There was a cellar that you both could hide in if any hostile beings came near. The shack was one room plus a tiny bathroom. You had a woodstove to cook things with and two cots as well as a small table sitting in the corner. It wasn’t much but it was home for the two of you.
Stretching your back out. You heard a few pops come from your spine and you reluctantly got out of your warm bed. Ryan waited for you a bag in hand as well as a bow and some arrows. He was already prepared for the day. You however were not. You made a move past him to get dressed and within minutes you were standing beside him ready to take on the day with him.
You set out with him after locking your shack up and following him through the still dark world. Things were quiet and you heard the leaves crunching beneath your shoes as you struggled to keep up with him. Damn him and his long legs. He was taller than you by a foot at least. He bared the same likeness to you but with more masculine features.
You were at his side huffing along and when you looked up you saw a smile on his lips. He always had a smile on around you, and he was always cheerful. It was like the world around you two wasn’t deadly, with someone always wanting to kill you. You couldn’t tell if his smiles were genuine or not but you liked the thought of him being happy.
“Hey, Ryan?” You asked looking down at the trail below you. He gave you a small hum to tell you that he was listening. “Are you happy?” You looked up at him and his smile had disappeared and he was looking at the sky as he thought of a response. His pace slowed a bit.
“Well, I suppose I’m as happy as I can get,” he said looking down to you. “It’s not a perfect situation that we’re in, it’s never going to be. But we can’t just sit around and be depressed, we gotta keep fighting. I’m mostly happy about the fact that I have you around with me, and that I am able to keep you alive as well. Why do you ask?”
“I was just curious.” You say bumping your shoulder into his arm. He put on his prize winning smile again. After a few seconds he sighed and looked down at the path.
“Are you happy?” He asked you, his pace slowing further. You thought about it for a second.
“It’s hard to be happy in the world we live in… But I don’t think I would be happier in a colony, I’m happy with it just being us.” He nodded taking in what you just said.
“You wouldn’t like it in a colony anyway, ___. Women in colonies have a set job and that’s to repopulate the earth. That’s why I took you away from the colony that we used to live in…” You looked at him surprised. He never told you why he took you away from the other humans but he was twenty and you were fifteen and you two had survived three years together. “I didn’t think you wanted to be a baby mill.” At this you stopped in the middle of the path and hugged him tighter than you ever hugged him before.
“Thank you for everything, Ryan, I mean it.” You buried your face in the fabric of his shoulder.
“No problem sis,” was all he said as he hugged you back just as tightly. After a few seconds of both of you getting your wits about you, you two set out once again. The forest around you was starting to thin out and you were starting to see the sky more clearly than you could before. When you reached the end of the forest you two decide to stay within the trees so you both aren’t out in the open.
Sitting on a fallen tree, you look back out to the sky. Ryan sat next to you and started getting the food out of the bag he was holding. He pulled out some leftover cooked venison as well as a bottle of water for you and him to share.
“I was thinking of having you fish while I hunt so we have a few more days of food left, or if we get hungry we have extra food to eat.” Ryan spoke up before bringing the water bottle to his lips and taking a quick swig. His gaze never leaving the sky that was lighting up with every minute that passed. He nudged you with the bottom of the bottle asking if you wanted a sip.
“Did you bring a line?” You took the bottle and took a sip before setting it down in between the two of you.
“Nah, like I said I thought about doing it. But I don’t know if I want to leave you alone out here just yet, and besides I’d either have to scrounge for a fishing line or make it and I’m not sure if I would make a strong enough line for fishing and supplies are scarce and I probably won’t find one anytime soon.” He said taking a bite out of his share of venison. “I’ve never left you alone for more than a few minutes out here, I’d be really jumpy leaving you for an extended amount of time anyway...”
“I’m willing to help you any way I can, if you need help just say it, you don’t have to do things for me, I can take care of myself, and you made sure of that yourself.” You looked over at him and he seemed to process this as he chewed. You took this silence to eat your own breakfast.
“Yeah… I know, but if you died and I wasn’t there to help you, I would never forgive myself for letting you go out on your own. It would literally be the death of me.” You frowned at hearing him say this. He seemed to notice and he put a smile on for you. “We’re just getting into the deep shit this morning aren’t we? I’m sorry,” he gave an awkward laugh. You sighed and you both watched the rest of the sunrise in silence.
--
You two were about to leave when your brother froze and pulled you both behind a tree. You were about to protest when he clapped a hand over your mouth. You noticed he was watching something, or rather someone. You pulled his hand off your mouth and turned around and peered around the tree following his gaze.
There in the clearing were two monsters. You had seen monsters before, but none that were quite like these ones. They were two skeleton monsters, one was really tall, looked to even be taller than Ryan by a few inches and the other wasn’t as tall but you could tell he was taller than you.
They both wore grey turtlenecks and pants and the only difference in attire was the shorter skeleton had a leather jacket on with a patch of something you couldn’t quite make out on the arm. The hood had a fluffy lining on it. The skeletons drew a bit closer and that made your brother tense up. The closer they got you could see more details of their faces. They hadn’t noticed the two of you yet.
The taller skeleton’s right eye was closed, it looked like an accident may have happened that caused a crack to run up his skull from his closed eye. He looked more like a human skeleton than the other one did. The other skeleton had two cracks one over his right eye and one running down from his left eye to his mouth, which seemed like it always had a smirk on it. He looked a bit like a human, with the way that his head was shaped. He had no nose or individual cheek bones which is what made him look almost human… and attractive.
You watched as the shorter skeleton flicked his hand to the side. In his hand was a cigarette. What? How did that work? You’d have to wonder that later. You looked up at Ryan who seemed to be thinking about what to do. There was no way you could move without them noticing you both the leaves beneath you two would crunch if you stepped away.
“We ain’t here to cause trouble, if you aren’t.” You heard a deep unfamiliar voice say behind you. You jumped and squeaked in surprise and you and Ryan whipped around to see the shorter skeleton behind you. How was he so fast? Ryan put his arm in front of you protectively.
“We were just passing by.” Ryan said in a serious tone, “We don’t have any problems with the monsters, we just wanted to eat our breakfast.” The skeleton seemed amused, with his smirk a cigarette hanging from his teeth.
“Is that so?” The skeleton spoke softly his gaze turning from Ryan to you. “Heya sweetheart, did you enjoy the sunrise?” You felt all the blood rush to your face and Ryan stood in front of you to hide you behind him.
“Listen, we aren’t hostile toward you or anyone else unless we need to be, we need to get going now,” Ryan sounded a little irritated.
“Alright buddy, don’t blow a blood vessel, we aren’t here to be hostile towards ya anyways.” He held up his hands in surrender. His hands had holes in them. Everything about this skeleton confused you.
“Is my brother, bothering you? Sometimes he can be really obnoxious. I’m sorry about him.” You see the taller skeleton walk by you two and stand next to the shorter one. “My name is Papyrus, and this is G.” He gestures to his brother. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I am sorry that my brother has put you on edge.” Ryan seemed taken aback by this.
“I-uh,” Is all Ryan can say. You pop your head out and introduce you and your brother to them. Ryan looks at you dumbfounded.
“Pleased to meet you _____ and Ryan.” Papyrus says.
“In all honesty, I think sweetheart is a better name for you,” G’s smirk seems to get bigger as he winks at you and Ryan is just looking confused. You hide your face again not knowing how to take that.
“What made you think that we weren’t hostile?” Ryan asks looking to Papyrus. G only chuckles causing ash to fall from the cigarette in his mouth.
“Your girly behind you doesn’t look like she’s killed anything, or anyone.” G crossed his arms.
“She’s never had to kill anyone before, I made damn sure of that.” Ryan says looking down.
“You do what you have to do to survive in this world... Even if I wish that weren’t the case…” Papyrus chimes in, in seeing Ryan’s guilt ridden expression.
“And anyway, we have our magic to help us out in a battle where you two pretty much have nothing.” G said tilting his head.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m nervous around you, nothing personal man, it’s just I got my sister to protect. Ya know?” Ryan looks a little relaxed and he’s rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. That was something that he did when he was extremely nervous.
“Heh, don’t worry about it,” G chuckles. “Hey sweetheart?” You reluctantly sidestep and look up at him. “Wanna see a magic trick?”
“Sure…?” You say unsure. He points to a flower and you look down at the flower not expecting anything. Within a few seconds a purple energy engulfs the flower and picks it from the ground. The flower then floats up to G’s hand and he quickly steps forward and brushing your hair back and weaves the flower through your hair.
“Flower you today, sweetheart?” He just as quickly steps back. You blink, registering what just happened. Your eyes narrow when you realize that it was a pun.
“You smooth motherfucker.” You can’t hide the blush and the smile that resides on your face and your shoulders shake from laughter from the bad pun. Ryan laughs at you, and at what just happened. Papyrus sighs and G has full-fledged smile on his face pleased at the reaction.
“Alright brother, let’s be on our way, we’ve taken up too much of their time today.” Papyrus says nudging G. The shorter skeleton just nods and looks to Ryan.
“If you need help, just come here, someone will know you are here within a few minutes. Paps or I will help you.” Ryan looks confused again.
“How?” Ryan asks.
“Mmmagic!” G puts up jazz hands. You laugh, and Ryan looks a little disappointed. “Well, we’ll be seein’ ya.” With that both G and Papyrus go. After a few seconds you look in the direction they were walking and find no one there. Ryan snickers at you causing you to look up at him.
“What?” You say crossing your arms. He smiles shaking his head. “What? Tell me!” You insist.
“You wanna bone the shorter skeleton.” He teases you laughing. You hit his arm scoffing.
“How would I go about boning a skeleton Ryan?” You ask, you were actually curious but there was no way you would let him know that.
“Hey don’t ask me, I’m not the one who wants to bone him.” He chuckles.
“Come on, let’s go get some meat.” You say ignoring his comments and pulling him by the sleeve.
--
You two had gotten a small doe as a result of your hunting trip and Ryan was in the cellar cleaning it. You were currently in your garden where you were harvesting some potatoes. Earlier you had gotten water from the creek and you were warming it up on your wood stove inside the house it was to be for bathing the two of you in the bathroom since there was no plumbing. But bringing the buckets filled with water had tired you out. Your shoulders ached a bit. Though you couldn’t complain because Ryan had to haul a deer home and that was heavier than two buckets of water.
Bringing in the potatoes, you check the water that was warming up on the stove. It seemed like the perfect temperature to bathe in.
“Ryan!” You call out into the open door of the cellar. “Water is ready when you are.” You announce to him.
“’Kay Thanks, I got this done so you can start dinner now.” He brings up the meat and puts it on the stove to cook and takes one of the buckets into the bathroom with him. While you watch your food cook you glance out your window, something had caught your eye.
You turn the lights down on your lanterns and peer outside there was nothing, nothing to be seen out there except trees. Maybe it was just your imagination? You kept your eyes out looking for anything that might be amiss. You had your brother’s bow and arrows with you as kept watch but you still saw nothing.
“____?” Enough time had passed for your brother to finish bathing himself and you jumped at your brother’s voice. “Is something out there?” He said alarmed. You shrugged.
“I thought I saw something, but it might have been my imagination.” You answer him.
“I’ll keep watch, you go bathe, and you might be a little jumpy after today’s events. Especially after meeting your skeleton.” You felt heat rise in your face.
“He’s not my skeleton.” You say, “He’s just a huge flirt and probably does that to every girl he talks to. I don’t like guys like that,” You cross your arms. He chuckles and a huge smile spreads across his face.
“Then why do you still have the flower in your hair?” He pokes your cheek laughing.
“I-I uh forgot that was in there, I’m taking it out now!” You whir around and go to the bathroom placing the flower on the sink in there, and you go to bathe yourself.
--
“Goodnight sis, love you.” Ryan says sitting next to your cot. He had promised to stay up that night to make sure there was nothing dangerous going to happen to the both of you. Even though you insisted that you stay up with him he wouldn’t allow you to stay up with him. He used the excuse that he needed you awake during the day time to watch over him as he slept. You knew he was lying, he was going to push himself to stay awake until the night time just like he had done before. This time you were going to force him to sleep even if you had to strap him down on his cot.
“Night, Ryan, love you too.” You said. You actually ended up staying awake for a while after that. You were thinking about those two skeletons, about how it must have felt to see the surface in bad shape when they came up here two years ago. They had ended up joining this war, when all they wanted was peace. They probably were expecting to see this paradise up here and their hopes were dashed away once they actually came up here and found a war zone.
Monsters weren’t to be trusted in this world and if anyone were to see a monster they would have it killed immediately. Of course there were people like you and your brother who really had no problem with monsters, any allies with monsters were to be put to death immediately. So sayeth the rules of most colonies. But luckily you weren’t part of any colony. Those monsters earlier seemed so nice. You would have thought that they wouldn’t forgive any human for what the humans already did to their species.
You were starting to nod off. You feel the haze of sleep fall upon you…. That is until you hear something slam and you realize that that sound came from the real world and not the dream world.
Hearing this you jump up from your bed, Ryan was already standing and ready to take on whatever came through the door. Three men rushed in the door and attacked the two of you. You dodged one of the charging men and went to sweep the legs of one of the other attackers that was charging toward Ryan.
You didn’t knock him down but he stumbled and that gave Ryan enough time to push him back, he fell onto the floor boards on his ass. The man you dodged turned around and took a step toward you, he sneered and swung on you, you dodged once again and you returned a punch to him, just how Ryan had taught you. He was caught off guard and you took this chance to grab him by the hair and slam his head through the window above the bed.
Ryan having pushed the second attacker away had no time to block the third guy and he was knocked to the ground. You see this and go to swing at the brute who knocked your brother down, but the one that was pushed away grabs you and pins you against the wall his hand on your throat squeezing as hard as he could.
You gasp for air and clutch at the hand at your throat. You start seeing spots and your vision goes blurry. You see the other guy start kicking Ryan while he’s down. Your heart hurts, you can’t help him. You were so useless. Why? Why were you so weak? You can’t help your own brother, the one who helped you for so long.
Tears were starting to fall and the hand let you go and he forced you down on your knees. He took ropes from his backpack and he tied you up.
“Don’t you fucking move,” he said in a gruff voice. You were gasping for air and you were too focused on your brother. He was writhing in pain on the floor. Blood was pouring from his nose. One eye was closed shut and he was coughing. The other guy was still kicking him. You scurried to cover his body with yours.
“S-stop.” You say in a hoarse voice. “Please,” you beg. This caused all three men to laugh the one you put through your window gives you a swift kick in the back causing you to grit your teeth in pain.
“That’s enough boys,” a female voice rings out and you hear what sounds like heels on the wood floor approaching you. “My my, look at what the cat dragged in.” You glance up at the woman who was now looking down at you. “Didn’t anyone tell you it’s dangerous to be alone in a world like this?” She asks her brow raised. “No colony to keep you safe, no one to protect you from situations like this.” She brushed her black hair behind her ear. She had cold blue eyes that stared you down. You glared back. “Oh don’t be like that honey, you were asking for this the moment you ran out from your colony.”
You say nothing, you were trying to calculate how you could get you and Ryan out of this mess. “I have an offer if you’re willing to take it.” She says lighting a cigarette.
“What’s the offer?” You ask. Maybe there was hope. Maybe?
“Oh, so she does speak, well my offer is this. I offer you and your counterpart here room in my small colony, in return all I ask is that you keep them… Personally entertained.” She says amusement tinting her voice. You go to open your mouth to reply but your brother throws you off of him.
“Absolutely not!” He snarls. He jumps up and grabs the woman by the hair and pulls her to the other end of the room. “I’m not about to let you fuck heads ruin what my sister and I have built.” He spits daring anyone of the men to come and get her. You see a glint of a knife at her throat.
“You don’t have the balls to do it little boy.” She taunts.
“Why would you be any different from the other people I’ve killed?” He tugs on her hair causing her to wince in pain.
“Because I’m the one who has a colony behind my back ready to flood this place to kill you and your girl here. You kill me, there will be no one to stop what my men will do to you… And to her.” She smirks.
“Have your men untie her, now.” He demands.
“I think she looks pretty all tied up, don’t you?” She says in a sweet voice.
“Now.” He warns. She only laughs in his face. He sighs in frustration, and she takes this moment to slam her head into his already bruised face this causes him to lose his balance and he falls backwards taking her with him and lands next to the wood stove. He grits his teeth and pushes her face into the metal of the stove not letting her up off of it either.
You hear her flesh searing and her scream as you struggle to get up as the three men rush to help her. Now standing you knock into one of them and make them fall. Your hands were tied in front of you and you run forward to grab at your brother to pull him out of there. One of the guys grabs you and forces you to the ground and the other one grabs the woman and pulls her away from the stove.
You watch as they retrain your brother. They toss both you and him in a corner of the room tying you both to a pipe that stuck out of the wall.
“Elizabeth, are you okay?” One of the guys had asked her at one point. She didn’t even bother answering him. She just shouted orders at them all telling them to look for supplies out the shack. After that they were to burn the shack down with you and your brother still inside it.
Elizabeth knelt down by the both of you, the side of her face burned and ugly she wasn’t going to look like she did, before she came in here that was for certain and that made you glad. “I offered you a place to stay, food, warmth, protection. And this is what you choose to do, I hope you enjoy burning in hell.” She spits at both your brother and you.
It was then when you realize that you started smelling fire. They started a fire in the cellar. Elizabeth and her minions leave the shack with all of your supplies, and your left there to burn with your brother.
“I- I am so sorry, _____,” Ryan says a waver in his voice. You close your eyes and lay your head on his chest.
“Don’t be, it’s cause of you we had a good run.” You say tears threatening to fall. “Our luck was bound to run out at some point.” You say trying to make him feel better…
“Yeah, I just didn’t think it would be this soon…” He leans his cheek on the top of your head. “I love you sis…. Now and always…” He’s crying now.
“I love you too, always and forever.” Your tears fall and you both say your goodbyes. Before too long you both start coughing from the amount of smoke, your lungs burn and you can’t see anything around you but black smoke. Your eyes were burning too. You felt your brother go still next to you. He was quiet and you tried to crane your neck to look at his face but you couldn’t.
You were dizzy, you couldn’t breathe. You laid your head back down on his chest and closed your eyes, slipping away into nothing.