Archive of Our Own

Work Text

Jeremy:

(hopefully its readable 😓)
Miko:

ALSO I FORGOT TO INCLUDE A FEW THINGS HERE
Birthday : May 8th
Nationality: half British half polish😈😈😈poland mentioned

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The alarm went off, a loud siren, a sign to evacuate - but why?
Everyone ran out the building, shutting down the metal doors, the sound of creaking and scratching getting louder. A loud thud came from behind the doors and gates, followed by a swarm of larvae-like creatures flooding out of the lab building, quickly and ruthlessly attacking every scientist, biting deep into their skin, laying eggs, and dying immediately.
The victims’ bite marks quickly began to rot, in the time span of two to three hours, eggs forming on their skin before exploding, a swarm of the larvae escaping through the torn skin, killing the host. 
The creatures made a wet creaking sound, almost gargling, ergo the name - creakers.
The bug-like monster quickly took over the earth, killing everyone in their wake.
 
*
 
Miko quickly ran out of the University, gripping his books as his body shivered. He looked around the crowds of students running away, looking for one specific person - Susie, his friend. Suddenly, he felt a strong tug on his hand, pulling him to the exit. It took him a while to register that the person pulling him was the one he was just looking for - how lucky. The two ran away, their footsteps loud against the sidewalk, the screams and yells filling their ears, and of course, the creaking noise. It made Miko’s skin shiver.
Soon enough, they made their way to Miko’s father’s weapon shop, looking for him. Well, it’s safe to say they found him, just not alive. The short man fell to his knees as he saw the body, a gaping shot wound gong right through his father’s head, blood dripping onto the floor, the stench awful, gross. Miko glanced at the man’s ankle, tens of rows of eggs growing out of his stretched skin. Before he could do anything, a shoe squashed them all, blood and a weird, off-white goo spilling out, followed by some dull lime sludge, all mixing, staining Miko’s jeans. He moved away, his breath labored as he tried to make sense of what just happened, tears welling in his tear ducts, heart racing.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, the touch made him shiver. Miko looked up at Susie, stumbling as he stood up.
”Su- What the fuck?!”
He managed to mumble out, looking at the corpse, his lips quivering. The woman only sighed, her expression sad, but eyes almost empty. Susie was always rather cold-blooded, always thought logically, almost too logically.
”Miko, just- ..get the guns”
She placed her hand on his shoulder again. 
Miko felt sick. How could she act like this in such a situation? He didn’t care they could die, hell, he wasn’t even thinking about that right now, his heart racing, mind unable to focus. He stumbled backwards, shaky hands reaching for the sniper rifles, a tommy gun, a glock 19, stuffing all into his backpack, squashing the books inside. All aside from the glock, which he shoved into his back pocked. He looked at the corpse lying on the ground, a small pair of keys stuck to a carabiner on the dead man’s trousers. Miko felt dizzy as he reached down, slowly taking them off, and heading to the back of the store. His hands trembled as he opened the door, quickly taking the flame thrower off the wall, sliding as much ammo as he could into his backpack from the tables, a few bottles of gas and alcohol for the flame thrower as well.
Then, he heard a gun shot, and another one. The man ran back to the main section, hand on the hand gun as he looked around. He sighed in relief as he saw Susie kick the creakers body away, his hands shivering. Miko grabbed a pump shotgun from the counter and walked up to the woman. She gave him a nod of approval, discussing further plan of actions.
”Good. The rest of the city’s been cut off by the police, the only logical way out’s gonna be the forest, that way”
She pointed to the direction, her fingers trembling as he raised her arm. Miko only nodded, before following her, keeping the shotgun in his shivering hands as he paced through the streets, looking out for any danger as Susie guided them out of the city.
 
*
 
Miko leaned onto the woman’s shoulder, their legs hanging down from the tall, brick wall. He let out a shaky sigh, his mind wandering. Susie wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
”It’ll be alright dude, we’re gonna find a place to stay. I promise”
She spoke, though her words didn’t matter. They both knew that they were all doomed, they knew it since it all started, all the way in America, it was obvious that it was over for humanity after that stupid ‘virus’ got out.
Still, her empty words of comfort brought a weird, unusual sense of calmness to the man. He closed his eyes, remaining silent. 
He just hoped that despite the logic, they could somehow survive.
 
*
 
The brunette ran through the forest, his breath quick and shallow as he carried the full backpack on his back, hands full of bags of food and tools. He had been somewhat ready for this. He’s began building a bunker as soon as he heard about the plan of mutating bugs for test purposes, paranoia got the best of him. But now, he thanked himself for thinking ahead. He slid down the vent entrance, closing it behind himself as he shimmied down the metal ‘slide’. He panted as he landed on a cold mattress, throwing the bags down in a panic. He ran to the table, leaning against it, his heart racing. His shaky, slim fingers smashed a few buttons, the sound of doors shutting down and machines powering up overwhelming him. 
He sighed in relief as he lied down on the floor, staring at the small fridge, stuffed with food, atop it canned beans. He didn’t really like beans, but they had a nice texture, and were long lasting.
Jeremy slowly pushed himself away from the table, making his way over to the big computer in the corner of the room, a string of wires and long pipe tunnels coming out of it, some going upwards, some downwards. He turned the computer on. It took a while to boot up, as it needed to connect, but it finally did. He turned on the camera system, watching intently the whole city, sweat strolling down his face.
He saw people dying, killing creakers, killing each other even. A group of people robbing stores, three people jumping out the window of a house, running away. Tons and tons of people committing suicide, and a pair of people sitting on a stone wall. It freaked him out.
But at least he was safe.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Miko walked through the bushy forest, his scarred arms pushing through the thick leaves, feet carefully avoiding any twigs and bones as to not wake up the hoards of creakers sleeping on the ground. The rising sun and it’s rays hit his face, temporarily blinding him as he got out of the bushiest part. The man looked around, his squinted eyes scavenging the open part, his focus shifting to the weird satellite-like metal poles poking out of the hard ground, they were off-white, and very dirty, stained with blood and various other liquids, as well as dirt. He walked a bit closer to them.The man looked around again, making sure it was at least somewhat safe. With each step, his curiosity grew. Sure, an apocalypse changes a man, but old, human instincts always stay, and curiosity was one of them. His hands slowly reached out, stopping right before his fingertips touched the cold metal, something red glistering from the corner of his eyes.
It was… an apple. he didn’t think much of it, because who would really stop to think about whether food was real or not when starving? He glanced to the ground, making sure there weren’t any twigs. He moved fluently, but quickly, his arm extending to reach for the fruit. Right when his fingers grazed the surface, he fell deep into a hole, a vent even. His overfilled backpack hitting the metal slide, the flamethrower on his back scratching the surface of it, making that painful, agonizing sound. He tried to stop himself from falling, fingernails bending as he only gained speed, before falling flat onto something that seemed like a mattress.
He heard a thud, his body still in shock as he looked around. He was in some hole, a bunker perhaps. The ‘ceiling’ was extremely high up, 6 meters at least. The place was filled with a variety of machines, and something that seemed like a core generator of some sort, a green, shining element in the middle, probably uranium. Whoever built all of this, must need a ton of power.
His eyes shifted to the man in the corner bending over a table, a blowtorch and a metal scrap in his hand. The moment they made eye contact, the tall brunette dropped the items, the still hot blowtorch and scrap burning the tips and soles of his shoes, making his suck the air through his teeth as he shimmied to the side, stumbling, making sure not to take his eyes off of Miko. He missed a few times, but eventually grabbed a water mug, pouring the water all over his burnt shoes and feet. His shaking hands putting it back on the table, almost knocking it down in the process.
His breath hitched in his throat as he took a step closer, as if to examine the smaller man, his skin shivering more and more with each step. 
Miko immediately reached for the hand gun shoved into the back of his trousers, both hands gripping the handle as he pointed at the other man, his heart racing. The moments he pulled out the gun, the other man froze.”Don’t get any closer.”He stated firmly, grimacing as the man put his hands up.
He nodded, pointing at the man’s work belt.”Take the belt off, kick it to me. Empty your pockets and throw away any weapons while you’re at it”The moment the words left his mouth, the other man was already fighting with the belt buckle, kicking it towards Miko. His shaky, slim fingers reached down to turn his pockets inside out. He noticed the man glance at the table, and his reaction was to grab the tools from it and put them all on the ground.
Miko felt a sense of relief, the man seemed harmless, but on the other hand, so did most pricks he’s met in this shit hole of a country. His focus shifted to the biggest machine, the core. He immediately heard the man stutter, his shaky, hoarse voice filling the bunker with an echo.”N- Not the generator, don’t touch that-“Miko’s eyes glistened. He shifted the hand gun into his left hand, pointing it at the puffing machine. He noticed the instant panic in the man’s eyes.
”Now, who are you and what the fuck are you doing in a hole?”He scoffed.
The man took his sweet time answering, panic never leaving his eyes as he thought of what to say.”I- ff… My name’s Jeremy. And its not a ‘hole’, it’s a bunker.”He seemed to take offense in the “hole” part, but was too scared and anxious to react any further.
Miko furrowed his eyebrows.”Okay, Jeremy, how long’ve you been ‘ere?”
”S- …Since the outbreak.”He murmured, his gaze examining the smaller man, as if still shocked he’s actually met a human person, a guy, just falling right into his bunker. How lucky is that? He slowly took a step closer, not thinking much of it. Miko raised the gun more, not letting him step any closer than 5 meters.
Jeremy froze, his hands going up in a surrendering manner. He swallowed the lump in his throat as a shiver ran down his spine.
”H- How long have you been up… there?”The brunette asked, his voice still shaky and hoarse.
”Same as you”He murmured, slowly lowering the gun again. The man seemed harmless, he hadn’t tried to attack him, and willingly took every single potential weapon off him, he probably wouldn’t hurt him in any way.
The taller man sighed in relief as he watched the other shove the gun back into his trousers, under his belt.
For a moment they were quiet, confusion and anxiety filling them both. Miko’s eyes wandered around the bunker, before looking at the mug resting atop a work bench.
”How’d you get water in a …bunker?”
He could see the man’s eyes light up.
”O-Oh! See, I have this drill, and basically while it drills into the walls, it sucks all of the wetness and moist from the soil and smashed the dry dirt back into the walls. The water transports into the cooking pots inside- Well, they’re not cooking pots, but they work the same. S-So, they cook the water to clean it, it boils so all of the other substances from it evaporate, and then it pours out to a mug, or a glass, anything really, from that small pipe!”He rambled as he pointed to the drill, which was much larger than Jeremy made it sound like. The pure passion and interest in his machines made Miko feel somewhat at ease. No matter how weird this guy was, even despite the fact he lived in a hole, he seemed like probably the most normal and harmless person he’s met since the outbreak.
His expression softened a bit as he took a step closer.
”Can I… have a glass?”He mumbled, a rather polite expression on his face, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips as the taller man nodded. Miko watched Jeremy turn on his feel and grab a mug off the shelf. He headed towards the drill, pouring in the water which has been previously cleansed. He then slowly approached Miko, handing him the mug.
”Thank you”He murmured, putting the mug up to his lips, taking a long sip, the nice liquid relaxing his body. He needed this. As he finished, Jeremy took the mug and put it into a big plastic bowl. That man seemed to have it all figured out, an unusual, but safe and secure life. Even if he did live in a fucking hole, it didn’t seem as bad as it looked like.
”So, tell me,”Jeremy walked back up to Miko, looking down at him, eyes filled with such interest and curiosity he’s never seen before.”How did you survive up there for so long? How was it all like?”