Warning: This is going to be like Game of Thrones- characters will die no matter how much you love them/beg me not to kill them off/ stake out my apartment and give me death threats.

A/N: Inspired by tumblr user noribouu's zombie au drawings of this pairing. Check out her art! It's really great!

April 22

I've watched the weight of your world come down

X

Edd shuffled his papers at the podium. He tugged on his bowtie, slightly nervous. It was his turn in the debate team and though he had done public speaking several times since freshman year in high school, it still took courage to utter the first sentence.

He ignored the audience before him, his teacher, and fellow debate team members, looking forward, above the audience's heads, giving the illusion that he was talking to them.

He loosened up a quarter of a way through, voice becoming more passionate, but as soon as he relaxed everything went to hell. If this was a horror movie that would be the tagline to the trailer. Maybe. Edd never watched horror movies, always annoyed by the anatomical inconsistencies.

Kevin slammed open the door to the auditorium. Three expressions shuffled across Edd's face: surprise, annoyance, and then concern. Though it had made things awkward for both of them, Edd knew Kevin would only make such an entrance if it was important.

"We need to go," was all he said over the speechless crowd.

"I beg your pardon?" Edd flattened his papers on the podium, confused. "Is there a fire? Or did you happen to lose your ball here?" He teased, but realized he shouldn't have. At this moment Kevin should be playing for the baseball team. Whatever it was, it had to beserious.

"I wish." Kevin said, tone graveled, almost laughing, sarcastic. He stomped up to the stage where Edd was standing, ignoring everyone else. As he drew closer, Edd noticed Kevin's baseball uniform was red, which was certainly not the school color. More details knitted into focus: his long sleeved shirt was ripped off on the left, revealing his shoulder blade, the claw marks, fresh and angry on said shoulder. In his right hand was a baseball bat, smeared with red blood.

"Kevin. . . ?" Edd didn't know what to think. He just sincerely hoped Kevin hadn't seriously injured or killed anyone. The scenario was shaping itself to be that, making Edd's skin bristle like he was twelve years old and in the middle of one of Eddy's schemes.

"You have to promise me something."

"Um. . . anything," he said, though Double D was unsure.

"Don't laugh at me when I say this." He looked over his shoulder briefly, as if afraid something would enter the doors after him. Then his eyes locked onto Edd's.

". . .Okay."

"The school is being overrun with zombies."

Edd laughed. Am I dreaming? He couldn't imagine Kevin saying such a thing, let alone attempting to prank him with such a premise. He had to be lucid dreaming for the details to be so sharp and realistic and yet retaining the nonsense. He expected that Kevin's head would be replaced with Ed's and that he was actually in his underwear trying to give his presentation in public

Kevin pinched him, as if reading his thoughts. "I know it's ridiculous, but we really gotta go before it's too late." His fingers threaded with Edd's. "Trust me."

He turned toward the crowd, still speaking to Edd. "There is some zombie shit going on. Grab the water, knives, and guns. We gotta get to some remote location like right now right now." His tone darkened, "And if people don't believe me, they get eaten."

Edd followed the pull of his boyfriend, though he didn't like this; it felt like being led around like a dog! Still, there was an intensity in Kevin's green eyes he couldn't ignore. If this was a dream, well, Edd would go with it for now. A little imagination never hurt anyone, and he knew he could wake up at any time. He could forgive dream-Kevin for pulling him around.

Halfway down the hall Kevin stopped. Double D ran into him, their hands still tethered together.

"What is it?" Edd asked.

Silently, the other raised his finger in response, his face concentrated, listening carefully. There was a soft shuffling of footsteps. It reminded Edd of the parties he had attended with Kevin a few times and those who became so drunk they could hardly walk.

Fear prickled the back of Edd's spine. Was it the shadows at the end of the hall or just the quiet foreboding? No. It was how Kevin's hand trembled in his. Edd noted the Chem lab at their left, and quickly steered Kevin there- it was his turn to lead the way. Kevin didn't question him, trusting Edd as much as Edd trusted him: entirely.

Kevin carefully closed the door behind them. There was no way to lock it without a key, so he pushed a chair under the handle as a temporary deadbolt.

He gently held Edd's back and led him down to his knees. They crept across the floor like that. The entire time the words, filthy filthy filthy, were running through Edd's mind. Kevin peered up where the only windows in the lab faced the hall. Edd felt compelled to look too, but soon wished he hadn't.

Edd had known to expect this, but he was not mentally prepared. There was a march of corpses, white film over their unseeing eyes, skin and jaw sagging. Their lips were drawn back, revealing human teeth stained with blood. Their gums were red and purple with decay. Many had retained their tongue, though others were not so fortunate (if you could call being a zombie in the first place fortunate).

Double D turned to Kevin, voice low. "This is a prank, right? If it is- it's not funny."

Kevin kept his steely gaze on the zombies through the window. He didn't know what to say, but he knew what he wanted to say. But he couldn't. This was the truth.

"Got any ideas?" Kevin asked, already establishing their roles: him the brute force and Edd the genius.

"Well. . ." Edd carefully crawled towards the empty desks. Vials of chemicals were set up, presumably for the next class... A class that now wouldn't happen.

X

Fifteen minutes later Edd had set up an impromptu plan. He motioned to Kevin that he was ready.

There were zombies at the outside window as well. Edd had done a headcount and there was a better chance of survival this way than going further through the school. It would be unwise to traverse further indoors as well. It only increased the possibility that they could be cornered, and they had no idea which areas were safe to tread.

"You remember the way I directed?" Edd asked. Ever prepared, he had also estimated the safest direction through: a 90 degree angle towards the cul de sac. It had the lowest headcount.

"Ready?"

Edd nodded. Kevin broke the window with his bat and glass waterfalled to the ground. Kevin hiked over to the other side and held out his hand for Edd, leaning his bloodied baseball bat over his shoulder.

"Thank you."

"No problem." They smiled to each other for the briefest of moments before Kevin let go of Double D's hand and flicked the lighter. Kevin never smoked, but some student who had been using the chem lab did. He had found it under one of the desks. He kindled a sheet of papers Edd handed him- the speech Edd had been working on- and like that he threw them in the now empty chem lab.

They ran before the chemicals reacted to the fire. Edd stayed behind Kevin (clenching Kevin's hand for dear life) as Kevin swung his bat at any walking corpse that dared cross their paths. Blood splattered on Edd's face and it was all he could take to resist the urge to vomit or find the nearest faucet to clean himself. He clenched his eyes shut, abhorrent the way the blood, slick and thick as a gastropod, sluggishly slid down his cheeks.

He soon forgot his original hope that this was a joke or nightmare. Survival was the only thing on both their minds.

Astounding how fear trumped logic. Edd had never so much watched a horror movie or read non-fiction, and yet, here they were, running from the unimaginable.