Chapter Text
My name is Phoenix. Yup, that’s really my name, Phoenix Stormcloud Rivera. Trust me, I did better than my brother, Paisley Rainbow. My parents were kinda hippies. Emphasis on were. Like much of the population, they died shortly after Patient Zero took that fateful bite from an infected burger. Zombies. Out of all of the insane, convoluted end of the world scenarios, it had to be zombies. The world has become one giant horror movie. It’s been around six months since then and I’m still alive. More importantly, my little buddy is still alive. Against all odds, we’ve survived. How I managed to survive zombies, a hurricane, a really horrendous fever, and other survivors who were less than friendly with a four year old is beyond me, but I’m grateful.
Yes, a four year old. His name is Buck, and I found him in the first week of the outbreak. Poor little guy’s house had been attacked while he was home with his babysitter. I heard the screaming and went to see if I could help, but it had been too late for the teenager. I beat in the heads of the infected bastards who came at me and was about to make good on my escape when I heard a little crying noise. I found this scared little towheaded boy stuffed behind a truly hideous floral couch, silent tears streaming from his big blue eyes as he whimpered in fear, clutching a tattered blue teddy bear. I couldn’t leave him, even though I knew it was risk.
I scooped him up in my arms and we fled. He dropped his blue bear in a pool of blood I had to leap over on the way out, but we couldn’t take the time to stop. He didn’t stop crying about that or his dad for a while, but I managed to find him another bear just like the one he lost at a gas station of all places. We did spend some time looking for his dad, but had to get out of town before we found anything. So that’s how I ended up a toddler in my care during the zombie apocalypse. Good thing I’ve never liked doing things the old fashioned way.
Buck’s adjusted fairly well, he’s a sweet little boy and has given me the courage to get up and keep going even when I didn’t know if I had the strength. I’ll do everything in my power to keep him safe, keep him healthy. He’s my little miracle.
This is my story, mine and Buck’s, of our life in these United States of Zombieland.
~*~
Six months. Six fucking months of what was most likely the literal Hell on Earth, with zombies, near constant running, a goddamned hurricane of all things, and a few bands of predatory survivors, and she was going to die because of a stupid stuffed bear. It was enough to make a grown woman scream.
The latch on the back of her ambulance had apparently not caught entirely, or was broken, and had popped open when she had gone over a pothole. Buck, who had been securely strapped in the passenger seat, had looked out the window and seen one of their gear bags fly out of the back, the head of the bright blue bear sticking out of the bag. His tears, rolling down his still adorable chubby cheeks as he bravely tried to say it was okay not to go back for his stuffed friend had convinced her to stop to retrieve the bag. Well, that and the fact the gear bag the bear was stuffed into contained their sleeping bags and extra ammo.
Instead of doing the smart thing and driving back to the bag and continuing on, Phoenix had decided to stop and see if there were any supplies in the ransacked stores they could add to their rapidly diminishing stock. Now she was running as fast and as hard as she could, carrying Buck under one arm as he clung to her like a monkey. He’d dropped the bear again, but there was no way she could retrieve it this time. There were just too many zombies chasing them.
“Ears,” Phoenix snapped out, and the little boy clapped one tiny hand over an ear while pressing the other side of his head against her chest. She turned, spraying a blast of bullets from her Uzi in the mob behind them. Hope sprang up momentarily when she saw the horde was down to a more manageable number. That hope died when she went to fire again and heard the sickening click of an empty clip. She was out and her extra clips were back on the ambulance, at least a hundred yards from where they were, or back in the gear bag she’d been forced to drop when the horde had first started for them. She honestly didn’t know if they’d make it to the ambulance, never mind if the possibly broken latch would hold the infected bastards off while she reloaded.
“Shit. Fuck. Goddammit,” Phoenix muttered, fear hot and greasy in her stomach. They couldn’t die, she couldn’t let Buck, sweet, innocent Buck, die. Plans raced through her mind as she tore through the abandoned town, desperate for any shred of something workable. She had her machetes on her, the pair were bouncing against the opposite hip that Buck was on, but she couldn’t take zombies out while she had Buck.
There! A Hostess truck had crashed and been abandoned, sliding up against a brick wall and creating a perfect vee to hide Buck behind her while the zombies had to funnel in to get them. Phoenix skidded into the vee and set Buck down, quickly demanding that he crawl underneath the vehicle, as close to the wall as possible. She turned back to face the drooling, bleeding, decomposing zombies that were stumbling toward them at a frightening pace, confident that Buck would do as she said, and she pulled her machetes out, crouching down into a battle ready stance.
Phoenix waited until they were closer and then let loose a primal scream that had been building inside her as she flew toward the first beast to get pushed forward, slashing and hacking with her machetes. Blood flew, bones broke, and a head rolled, but Phoenix was on to the next one, her desperate need to survive and her nearly maternal instinct to protect the child driving her with a tunnel-like focus.
Vaguely, over the growls and guttural screams of the dying zombies, Phoenix thought she heard someone else shouting. Was that a chainsaw? Phoenix saw the jagged teeth of the chainsaw ripping through the final zombie and she retreated, backing up against the truck so she was shielding Buck from whoever else was killing the zombies. She had learned a few months ago that not all dangers came from the undead… some of the worst evil still lived in the remaining survivors. She had the scars to prove it. She and Buck hadn’t lived this long just die at the hands of some chainsaw wielding maniac.
~*~
Columbus was driving as Wichita slept in the passenger seat while Tallahassee and Little Rock sat in the back seat discussing Hannah Montana. Four months into this strange little family’s sojourn and he still could not grasp how someone hadn’t ousted the bewigged superstar for a boatload of cash.
“It’s a damn kids’ show, Tal, it doesn’t have to make sense,” Columbus finally muttered, just loud enough for the big man to hear. Little Rock giggled, but Tallahassee just folded his arms over his broad chest and glared at Columbus through the rear-view mirror. As he caught Columbus’s eyes in the mirror, he gave a small, angry nod towards Little Rock before rolling his eyes and staring out the window. Columbus felt like an asshole as he realized that this entire time, the big man had just been keeping the twelve year old entertained.
He was about to open his mouth to apologize when Tallahassee suddenly shot upright and yelled, “Stop the car!”
“What? What happened?” asked Wichita, who was woken suddenly by Tallahassee’s yell. Columbus was too startled to do anything.
“Stop. The fucking. CAR!” Tallahassee roared, already unbuckling his seat belt and fumbling for the latch.
Columbus slammed on the brakes and Tallahassee tumbled from the SUV. The remaining trio watched, stunned, as Tallahassee stumbled toward something in the road before collapsing to his knees.
“What is he picking up?” Wichita asked, as Tallahassee clutched something to his chest.
Columbus shook his head, but Little Rock was still young enough to instantly recognize what Tallahassee had plucked from the ground. “It’s a… a teddy bear,” she said, her heart breaking a little as she realized why the sight of it must tug at her friend so.
“Must look like something his son had,” Wichita said, frowning as she thought about what it must have been like for Tallahassee. She didn’t know if she’d have been able to go on if she had lost Little Rock. They were all so jaded these days, but once in awhile, something shocked them back into a sense of empathy.
Tallahassee looked over at his friends, his eyes bright with pain as he staggered to his feet. “It doesn’t just look like a kid’s toy, it looks exactly like Buck’s BooBear. He carried that damn bear everywhere,” Tallahassee said, his voice hoarse as he trudged back to the SUV, the raggedy teddy bear tucked under his arm.
Columbus felt tears prick his eyes in sympathy and took a deep breath, hoping that no one else had noticed. “C’mon, man,” he said, his voice just slightly watery, clapping him on the shoulder. “Let’s get going.”
Tallahassee sighed and was about to get into the vehicle when a sound caught his attention. It was one that had become all too familiar in the past few months. Someone was screaming, full of rage and fear. After seeing a bear exactly like what his son had cherished, it proved too much for the cowboy. With a growl, he tossed the bear in the SUV and headed for the back.
“Tal, what are you doing, we need to go!” Little Rock cried, chasing after him.
“Gonna kill some motherfuckin’ zombies,” Tallahassee rumbled, ripping open the back of the black SUV. He pulled out a chainsaw and gave the pullstart a tug. A maniacal grin crossed his face as the chainsaw roared to life. He waggled his eyebrows at the trio and took off towards the scream, letting out a wild cheer as he ran.
“Shit!” Columbus cried, running a hand through his curly mop of hair. Little Rock and Wichita looked towards him and he was horrified to see that they were waiting to see what he would do. “Get in the car, we’re going after him,” Columbus said and they piled into the SUV, peeling after their insane friend.
Tallahassee knew he was being stupid, but his chest and head hurt too much, and his impulse control had always been shit. He came upon a pile of zombies trying to get at whoever was hiding between a crashed Hostess truck and a grocery store wall. From the screams of rage and hacking noise, he knew the person was still alive.
Instant gratification and a strange relief flooded Tallahassee the moment he began cutting into the stinking infected. In a very short amount of time, he stood in the middle of severed limbs, heads, and broken torsos, panting slightly as the chainsaw rumbled to a stop, blood and bone shards splattered all over him. Normal Tuesday in the US of Z. He looked up, towards the person he had heard on the other side of the zombies and his eyes widened.
In front of him was a young Hispanic woman, her dusky skin streaked with sweat, blood, and dirt, crouched in a defensive stance, holding her two machetes out as if daring him to come at her. Stormy, intense green eyes stared him down from a thin, nearly feline face that reminded him vaguely of Rosario Dawson, her wide mouth twisted in a snarl. With blood dripping off her machetes, her fierce stance, dark hair caught back in a braid almost like a short mohawk, the tips appearing blonde and pink, and combat style black pants and fitted leather motorcycle jacket, she looked like a warrior queen out of some apocalyptic movie. Granted, that was basically what the world had turned into.
“Whoa, now,” Tallahassee said, raising his free hand, and pushing his tan cowboy hat back from his forehead a bit. “Lady, I’m gonna be real pissed if you come at me with those gross blades after I just hacked apart several zombies to save your ungrateful ass,” he told her. He refused to admit that he was relieved when he heard the squeal of the SUV’s tires behind him and the slam of doors, while a gun cocked behind him. He’d bet money it was Little Rock who was taking aim. Girl had a way with firearms.
The woman crouched lower, her eyes flying to take in the newcomers before swinging back to his. “Thanks,” she ground out. “I got it from here.”
Tallahassee rocked back on his boot heels. He really didn’t want to leave another survivor out here to die, but his little group had learned that not everyone who had survived the plague wanted to rejoin humanity. It had suited them just fine. Still… “We ain’t bit,” he tried again.
“Congratulations,” was all she said. Her eyes flicked nervously toward the underside of the Hostess truck and then were on him again in a flash.
“Yer funeral,” Tallahassee drawled, irritation replacing any guilt at leaving her behind. He began to turn when a little blonde head poked out from under the truck, sky blue eyes meeting his, eyes the same exact color. The chainsaw dropped from his suddenly nerveless fingers.
“Daddy!” the little boy cried, wriggling out from under the truck and running towards him.
“Buck, no!” the woman cried, dropping her machetes to lunge towards the child, her eyes wild with panic. The little boy slipped past her fingers and latched onto Tallahassee’s leg, burying his face into the material of his pants.
“B-buck?” Tallahassee stared down at the tiny ghost clinging to his leg and felt as if he had just been gut punched. He was dead. He was dead and finally in Heaven. That was the only explanation. Yet, he could feel the lukewarm blood of the zombies on his face, the press of those small arms tightening on his leg. Slowly, carefully, he disentangled the little boy, lifting him up to stare at him face to face.
“Put him down!” the woman growled threatening, picking up her blades and pointing one of her machetes at him as she stalked forward, but Tallahassee heard her as if he were underwater. It was the same with the shocked cries from his friends behind him. He was too busy staring into a face he had thought was lost to him forever.
“Daddy?” the little boy asked, reaching out to pat Tallahassee’s face, stroking the line of his jawline scruff, just as he always had.
At that gentle touch, Tallahassee broke. He clutched his son, his miraculously alive son, to his chest and fell to his knees for the second time that night. Soft, chubby arms encircled his neck and Buck laid his head on Tallahassee’s shoulder, sighing in contentment as Tallahassee shuddering with silent, body wracking sobs.
Phoenix stopped her charge when she saw the big cowboy collapse to the ground, holding Buck as tears rolled down his cheeks while her little buddy wrapped his arms around the man’s neck. Uneasy, she looked up to see the two young women and a somewhat scrawny twenty-something guy get out of the vehicle, the youngest of the girls careful to keep a sawed off shotgun trained on Phoenix. Shock was written on all of their faces.
“Tal, what the fuck is happening?” the older girl, a strikingly pretty brunette in her early twenties, asked as she took a cautious step forward, her eyes swinging from her kneeling compatriot to Phoenix, who was still holding her machetes.
“It’s Buck,” the big man choked out, rocking back and forth just slightly as he pressed his cheek against the soft, short blonde hair of the little boy.
“Holy shit,” the scrawny, curly haired guy whispered, tears shining in his eyes as a smile broke across his face.
Phoenix watched the gentle, loving way the man held Buck and knew the impossible had happened. “Buck, chiquito, is this who I think it is?” she asked softly, lowering her blades.
The little boy looked up at her, his face beaming with happiness. “We found him, Phe! We found him!” he said, bouncing up and down in his father’s arms. The man just shuddered with another sob, stroking a hand over Buck’s head.
Phoenix smiled at Buck, although she kept glancing towards the other three as they came closer. “I’m so glad, baby,” she whispered, her throat closing.
“I thought you were dead, oh God, Buck, I thought you were dead,” Tallahassee choked out. “There was so much blood, and I called and called for you. I was so sure you were dead.”
That answered one question for Phoenix, at least. It was oddly comforting that the man holding the boy she had spent six months keeping safe and healthy, loving with all of her heart, hadn’t abandoned the little boy as she had feared. He had clearly been devastated by his loss.
“Phe found me, Daddy!” Buck said excitedly, “She saved me, kept me safe! Phe fought soooo many bad guys, Daddy.” He grinned at his father, who gave him a watery, ear to ear grin, revealing a small gap between his front teeth that matched Buck’s.
Tallahassee lurched to his feet, still clutching his son to him. Phoenix was shocked when he moved like lightning, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her tightly up against Buck and him. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, oh God, thank you.”
Phoenix instinctively wanted to push out of his embrace, unused to anyone besides Buck touching her, but she knew it wasn’t an attack. She forced herself to relax slightly when she heard Buck giggle at being sandwiched in between them. Still, it was a surprise to find herself mashed up against the broad, muscular chest of a stranger. The man was tall, at least several inches over six feet, and incredibly strong. She wasn’t used to feeling short around people, as she topped off at 5’8”.
“Uhh, Tallahassee, I really hate to do this, but we need to get moving,” the nervous voice of the young guy broke into the strange embrace. “More are going to be coming after all that noise.”
Tallahassee dropped his hold on the woman and backed off a few feet, continuing to hold his son tightly to him. “Right, yeah… you should… you should come with us,” he said, looking at the woman, who seemed nearly as stunned as him. He couldn’t seem to get his mind to function properly, the shock and joy overwhelming most of his thinking. He needed to straighten out, or he could get them all killed. Now, even more than before, that was unacceptable. He felt the three behind him move in closer and he wanted to turn to them, introduce Buck to them, share his joy, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the woman. He didn’t want to risk her running, or just vanishing, he needed to know more about her, more about how Buck had survived, what it had been like for his son these past six months.
Phoenix saw the shotgun lower in the younger girl’s hands as the three moved closer to the man holding Buck, and sheathed her machetes. She wasn’t at ease, but she didn’t think they were going to instantly attack. The air around them was different, and their joy at discovering the little boy seemed genuine. “Well, I’m not going anywhere without him, and you don’t seem like you’re letting go any time soon,” she said, nodding towards Buck. There was an instant of hesitation while she met the big man’s wide, almost shell-shocked looking eyes, eyes the same exact shade of cornflower blue of that sweet kid in his arms, and then she went with her gut, sticking out her hand. “I’m Phoenix. Glad you aren’t dead,” she said, her voice a little huskier than she had intended. Her world was about to change in a big way, and she wasn’t sure she was prepared for it.
The curly haired guy gave a surprised laugh. “Shit, does everyone have your rule of no real names, Tallahassee?” he asked, before anyone else could say anything.
Phoenix stared at him, confused by what he was saying, but before she could say anything, a large, warm hand, rough with callouses, engulfed hers, and she was treated to a short, firm shake. “Tallahassee. I really can’t thank you enough,” he said, his drawling, Southern tinged voice still hoarse. He pointed to the guy behind him, swiveling Buck in one arm so the boy rested on his hip and could see more clearly. “This here is Columbus,” he pointed to the young woman, “Wichita,” and twisted around to young teen on the other side of him, who still held the sawed off shotgun loosely in her arms, “and this hellion is Little Rock.” He grinned, a huge ear to ear grin as he presented the boy of his hip. “Guys, this is my sweet baby boy, Buck. Buck, can you say hello to Daddy’s friends?”
Columbus raised a hand and gave a nervous, lop-sided smile. “Hey, Buck.”
Little Rock gave a wave and big smile, while Wichita grinned. “Hey, little guy, we’ve heard a ton about you,” she said, her voice low and kind.
Buck seemed to shrink back from the three new people, his fingers clenching on the fabric of Tallahassee’s maroon v-neck. “Phe?” he asked, his voice high and nervous as he looked around for his friend, his savior. Tallahassee stared at him in concern at the obvious fear in his son’s voice and the way he shrank away from the newcomers. He’d always been so friendly before.
Phoenix stepped up to Tallahassee, in clear view of Buck, making sure a reassuring smile was on her face. “Shhh, chiquito, it’s all right. I’m here, and your papa says they’re friends,” she murmured, running a soothing hand over his soft blonde hair. Caring more about the little boy than what the others looking on might think, she leaned in, pressing a kiss to Buck’s forehead. “We’re safe for now,” she whispered, and was relieved when she felt the little boy relax in his father’s arms.
She stepped back, her hand leaving the small head reluctantly. Buck grinned at her, and then turned that sweet, innocent smile on the three new people. “Hi,” he said and then hid his face against his dad’s chest with a giggle.
Tallahassee watched the gentle, loving moment between the woman and his son and felt the air leave his lungs. It was so foreign for his son to turn to anyone besides him for reassurance, yet their bond was evident and strong. He always wanted desperately to know what had happened to make his little Buck so frightened, his own memories of what life was like in Zombieland filling his mind with nightmarish scenarios. “Why is he so scared of strangers?” Tallahassee muttered quietly out of the side of his mouth, shooting a questioning, somewhat cold glance at the woman who had called herself Phoenix.
Phoenix shook her head, mouthing, “Later,” while nodding slightly towards Buck, who was currently peeking out at Little Rock and giving her a small wave again. Tallahassee blew out an impatient breath. He wanted to know now, but he didn’t want to upset his son. He also knew they had to get out of the open and to shelter as soon as possible.
Tallahassee set his jaw and squared his shoulders. Buck was alive and in his arms, and he was determined to keep it that way. He wouldn’t let his awe of this hinder his ability to protect Buck or his ragtag Zombieland family. For now, that meant getting everyone, including this Phoenix, back to shelter. Questions and planning could happen then. “Alright, I know we were bored as hell at the last place, but it’s only an hour away and we know it was secure. Let’s head back there for tonight and start fresh tomorrow,” Tallahassee stated.
“Phe and me too, Daddy?” Buck asked, tugging on his shirt and Tallahassee felt his heart break just a little that his boy had even thought to ask.
“Of course you are comin’,” he said hoarsely, pressing a kiss to Buck’s forehead.
“Phe too?”
Tallahassee looked over at the warrior woman who had so fiercely guarded his son, raising an eyebrow at her, his expression silently asking if she was coming as well. She nodded, exhaustion suddenly evident in the slump of her leather-clad shoulders. “I told you, I’m not going anywhere without Buck, so yeah, I’m coming,” she replied.
“Great. Good. So can we go now? Please?” Columbus asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot as he looked around, clearly suspecting the infected to appear at any moment.
“Gonna be crowded in the Escalade, but we’ll make it work,” Wichita said, a small, cautious smile aimed at Phoenix.
“I got an ambulance a couple hundred yards up. Nearly full tank, good supplies. I’ll follow you guys in that,” Phoenix said. This seemed to work for everyone and Columbus quickly scrambled into the black SUV, starting the vehicle. Phoenix started to jog towards her ambulance, but it felt so wrong without Buck’s hand in hers, or his weight on her hip. She looked back at him in his father’s arms and felt her chest constrict.
Tallahassee saw the panicked, pained look in her eyes as Phoenix stared at Buck and knew she was struggling with separating herself from the little boy. Buck was staring at her as well, his bottom lip quivering just slightly as his small hands clenched once more in the fabric of Tallahassee’s shirt. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Guys, I’m riding with Phoenix,” he said more loudly as he walked away from the pile of body parts, and was gratified to feel Buck relax once more. It seemed that the woman did as well.
Little Rock made a protesting sound as he passed her, and he patted her on the shoulder, giving her a lopsided grin. “Don’t worry, Little Rock, we’ll be right behind you. I’ll kick your ass at checkers again when we get to the house,” he told her. The twelve year old still looked unsure, but she joined Columbus and her sister in the SUV.
Tallahassee looked at Phoenix. “Lead the way,” he said, gesturing for her to go on. “They’ll follow us to the ambulance, make sure it’s safe and then we’ll follow them.”
Phoenix took a deep breath, staring into Tallahassee’s clear, steady blue eyes. Not a hint of deceit or bullshit. This was it. Her life as she knew it was once again over. Once again, she took in the way those big arms gently cradled the little boy she would have gladly given her life for. For Buck, she’d take the chance. For Buck, she’d take the risk and tie her fate to this strange group of other survivors. for now. “This way,” was all she said, and turned, walking down the cracked asphalt toward her ambulance, trusting that he would follow.