Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

“Keep running. Keep running.” Frank willed himself on as he struggled to get to a safe place for a few hours. He was hurting from a twisted ankle and a stomach ache from not having a sufficient amount of food for a few days. He had been on his feet since his car broke down about two miles out of Jersey City and he had somehow accumulated an entourage of undead in his clumsy wake through the city.

The zombie outbreak had started only a few weeks prior and not even the world’s top scientists could figure it out. Though now, Frank was sure, all the scientists were turned over to the dead as they had most likely been contaminated by the virus while running tests. It was a wonder Frank had been able to keep himself alive this long. His mother and father had passed, taking their own lives instead of subjecting to the inevitable hell that would have become of them otherwise. Frank found them on their bed with hundreds of pills strewn across the bedside tables, along with a bottle of wine and two glasses. He didn’t cry when he saw them though, he just felt relieved that he wouldn’t have to kill them himself when they would have unavoidably turned into walkers.

When he found that Kearny was full of nothing but the dead he decided he needed to get out or die trying. He packed his father’s 9mm and all the bullets he could find, more than a few kitchen knives, and any snack food he could find that he hadn’t already eaten. He got in his mother’s car and willed it to make it to Jersey City where he heard about a refugee camp on the radio. Unfortunately it was on the opposite side of the infested city and as he had expected, the car hardly made it halfway there.

As he reached the outskirts of the city he was shocked to find almost everything desolate spare a few walkers here and there, but no sign of any real human being. To say he was scared was an understatement as he slowly made his way into the city. He wasn’t sure how these creatures worked as he had spent almost every waking moment since the outbreak inside his house avoiding the walkers at all costs. He wasn’t sure if they could hear, he wasn’t sure if they could run, he wasn’t sure if they could even sense his presence so he just walked slowly and quietly into the city, willing the tears to stay at bay.

He wasn’t sure how it happened, how he’d suddenly had a swarm of zombies following slowly after him. He tried his best to ignore them, hoping to God that it was all in his head as they seemed to multiply and get closer. He picked up speed, twisting his ankle as he stepped off a curb a little too quickly, and was horrified to find that these things, these demons could run. And run fast. Tears stung his eyes as he pushed himself to run faster than he ever thought imaginable, but only to be a few strides ahead of the fastest walker in his entourage.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” He sobbed out as he kept running, looking for any place he could call his salvation.

“God please someone help!” He screeched as he ran around a corner and into an alley, hoping the small enclosure would thin the herd a bit, but once again he was wrong in his thinking. He hit a dead end and was met with a chain-link fence with only more Zombies to face on the other side. He was surrounded and a sitting duck.

Death was more likely now than ever, and he briefly thought of putting a bullet through his head so he wouldn’t be subjected to becoming one of those creatures. The thought vanished quickly though as he heard a whistle from above and saw a man waving to get his attention. He was saved, he found salvation.

“The fire escape!” The stranger yelled pointing to the metal contraption a few feet away. Frank knew he couldn’t jump high enough to grab the ladder and whimpered as he once again saw death as the only option.

“I can’t jump that high! Oh, God… I can’t make it! I’m not gonna make it! Fuck!” Frank sobbed out as he stood under the fire escape, jumping as high as he could as the zombies enclosed on him.

“Fuck it!” He sobbed out once again and reached to his back to pull out the black 9mm pistol and pushed it his temple, bidding himself adieu as he tried his hardest to pull the trigger.

Just before the gun was supposed to go off and leave Frank’s brain splattered across the brick wall, he was yanked by the collar of his shirt and being pulled up by two pairs of arms as the zombies grappled for his feet and ankles. Once he realized he was saved, he pulled the gun away from his head and shot one of the zombies trying to nip at his leg right between the eyes, and two others after he was safely perched on the fire escape with his two saviors who seemed to be bickering back and forth about something.

“We should have just let him off himself! He’s probably bit now!” The blonde burly man with piercing blue eyes yelled at the man who had originally gotten Frank’s attention.

“Goddamnit, Bob! You have absolutely zero compassion for anyone! The kid is obviously alone and scared! He needed us! He needs somewhere safe!” The other bellowed towards the blonde as he made his way up the fire escape and back to their safe haven that just so happened to be the fourth floor of an apartment building.

“Gerard! Look at all the walkers he attracted! We’re gonna be stuck here for weeks and we don’t have the supplies for that!” Bob shouted over his shoulder as he continued to climb. Gerard just shook his head and turned back to the man he had just rescued.

“Are you okay? Did they get you?” Gerard asked calmly as he helped the poor soul to his feet and ushering him up the fire escape and into the safety of the make shift camp. Frank allowed himself to fully take in the man before him, awe struck as he realized just how beautiful this being was.

His hair was black, hardly past his ears, and strewn all over the place from his recent activities. He wore tight fitting jeans with combat boots on his feet, and a tight fitted misfits t-shirt with a leather jacket over his torso. His eyes, a hypnotizing olive green color, seemed sunken into his head and swollen from either tears or lack of sleep, but they were beautiful nonetheless. To Frank, this man was the definition of perfection and he almost slapped himself to make sure all this wasn’t some kind of fucked up dream. Frank had never come out to his parents as anything other than being straight, but deep down he knew he liked men more than women and at that moment Frank had wished he had a chance to tell his parents that small detail about himself before they passed.

“I think I’m okay now. I don’t think I got bitten. God, thank you so much. You didn’t have to do that.” Frank spluttered out as he climbed up until he was sitting in the window sill of the apartment, waiting for the man who saved his life to close off the fire escape so none of the walkers could get to them.

“I didn’t want to see another person take their life because of this hell. It’s happened way to many times.” Gerard mumbled as he tied off a rope that held the bottom ladder high enough off the ground from the zombies.

“What’s your name, kid?” Gerard asked as he dusted off his hands on his tight jeans.

“I’m Frank Iero.” Frank said and stuck his hand out to shake hands.

“Gerard Way.” He responded and firmly shook the other man’s hand before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up swiftly. He noticed Frank’s needy stare as he inhaled on the cancer stick and completely understood why he looked that way. Poor kid probably hadn’t had a cigarette in weeks.

Gerard held out the pack to Frank and he greedily took two, sticking one behind his ear for later. He placed one in his lips and leaned forward into the light that Gerard had so nicely ignited for him. He felt his shoulders relax for the first time since this whole fiasco started and he instantly felt as though he’d make it through this hell as long as he had this confident man beside him. Something about Gerard Way had Frank feeling safe for once in all of this. Gerard looked as though he knew the ins and outs of the city, how the walkers acted, and how to off them easily. Gerard was the leader of whatever group he was in, Frank could tell that much, and he was more than happy to accept this man as his leader as well. He knew he didn’t have a chance in hell of surviving through the night without Gerard, and he got all that from only five minutes of being in his presence.

“Were you traveling alone? Or in a group before… ya know…” Gerard asked calmly as he took a long drag on his cigarette.

“I’m alone. I had to get out of Kearny. I was the only one left there.” Frank sighed as he ran a hand through his short dark hair and let a shudder escape his body.

Neither talked for a moment and that’s when Gerard let his gaze fall over the short man, absorbing the handsome man in his eyes. Frank was obviously not aware of how one should dress when running through a heard of zombies. He had a jacket tied loosely around his waist that hung low and would obviously catch on something or a walker would catch it. His white t-shirt was slightly baggy, but at the moment it clung to him as the sweat made it transparent against his skin and Gerard could almost completely see his multiple tattoos. His jeans hung low on his hips with his boxers poking out and even though they were tight, they could be tighter for the sake of his safety... and for Gerard’s own selfish wants. He allowed his eyes to travel across Frank’s face and he noticed the hoops in his nose and lip, immediately knowing it’d be safer to take them out than to risk getting them caught on something in the heat of the moment. Anything could go haywire when in a zombie apocalypse. Frank’s eyes were beautiful, he knew that, but Gerard didn’t have the time or enough focus to think about them. He was constantly worrying about other things.

“We started off with twelve,” Gerard spoke suddenly as he flicked his cigarette butt out into the sea of walkers below them, “We’re down to six including myself. I’m glad we found someone who knows how to shoot a gun, we could use the manpower.” He continued as he made his way into the apartment, beckoning for Frank to follow.

“What uh… what happened to the others?” Frank asked quietly, though he was sure he knew what happened.

“Well, three took their own lives… One went missing… and the other two turned.” Gerard explained evenly. Frank wasn’t sure if he was good at hiding grief or if he just wasn’t fazed by all of this anymore. Maybe there just wasn’t time to be sad when the undead ruled the world.

“Oh…” Frank spoke as he followed Gerard around the trashed apartment. He noticed three women sitting by a radio transmitter, trying desperately to reach anyone on the other side.

“That’s Jenny, Cass, and Penny.” Gerard told Frank before showing him into a few other rooms and telling him their designated uses. “Johnny is around here somewhere. He’s the fastest in the group, we send him every so often to get supplies.”

Gerard opened a door down the hall to reveal Bob with a shotgun pointed out the window, doing target practice to blow off some steam. “Of course, this is Bob, as you probably heard me call him earlier.”

“Fuck off Gerard, did you check to see if he’s bit?” Bob grumbled as he took a shot at a particularly large walker and blew his head straight off.

“No, he said he wa-”

“Fucking check him! I don’t care if he said he wasn’t bit, that’s happened before and look what happened then! We lost Ray because of our stupidity! God fucking damnit!” Bob bellowed as he unloaded more than a few rounds onto unsuspecting zombies in the area.

“C’mon, Frank… I’ll check you in the bathroom.” Gerard mumbled as he ushered Frank out of the room and shut the door behind him.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Frank asked quietly as they made their way to the small bathroom down the hall. Gerard opened the door for him and instructed him to stand in the tub.

“He’ll be fine; he’s just not sure how to show emotion.” Gerard answered as he shut and locked the door behind him, purposely not getting into any details just yet. He figured it wasn’t the time or the place to spill his heart out to this hopeless stranger about the precious lives they’ve lost.

“This is going to sound weird… But I need you to take your pants off.” Gerard chuckled as he leaned against the door of the bathroom.

“Uh… my shoes too?” Frank questioned uncertainly as he slowly reached for his belt buckle, unsure of where exactly this was going.

“Yeah, those too.” Gerard giggled once again and Frank couldn’t help but feel enlightened as the sound made his ears ring with joy.

He slowly shed his pants and shoes, socks too, and stood awkwardly as Gerard inspected his legs for any sign of a walker bite. Gerard then instructed him to hold out his arms as so he could check those too, as well as his stomach and back. Frank figured it must be required to enter their group, Gerard didn’t have the decency to tell him that it was for his own selfish need to be able to get off later.