Thread by @ShweezyLiz

Gonna put this out here~~

TLOU SP/OD au thread where SP is a veteran in a mutant fungal-infected apocalyptic world who is tasked with escorting/protecting OD—who’s immune to the fungal infection—in their journey to get him to a research facility to make a vaccine.

((Didn’t want to make too detailed or too long of a thread unless yall are interested))

Basically the au is set in a zombie-esque apocalypse that has been ravaging the world for 25 years. The outbreak happened when sp was still yjh, 28, and on his b-day.

After the outbreak, many cities fell but others managed to remain. Sanctions and territories were made as the government swept in and implemented martial law on all functioning sectors. But as the infection worsened, corruption and greed rose within the govt. officials.

Political wars began, the mutant fungal infection fanning its flames. Some rebel groups formed to fight back while others formed extremist groups that made their own rule of law. Sp was always caught in these crossfires.

He managed to survive the cruel transition as civilizations fell —caused this mutant fungal infection— but not without suffering losses.

He lost his sister yma on the day of the outbreak, and other companions over the first 5 years. (ljh, knw, lhs, lsw & uriel)

So to stop himself from succumbing to grief he closed himself off, distanced himself from people and moved alone. He didn’t want to hurt any longer.

Over the years he was forced into compulsory military training, escaped, survived a bit on his own then got into smuggling

Eventually his skills improved and he got really good at smuggling/escorting illegal goods. He’s also particularly good at hunting targets so he became a mercenary of some sorts. As such he was dubbed ‘secretive plotter’ for his scary efficiency and identity shrouded in secrecy.

He did this for 20 years, idly scraping by until he was given an odd task. He got an assignment to smuggle some cargo—cargo being an actual kid. The task was to smuggle him out of a city under strict surveillance under an extremist group simply called the ‘constellations’.

Then he was to be escorted across the country to a rebel group called the ‘fireflies’. At first sp is reluctant to do the task, it’s a dangerous and lengthy one. But he owes the person who asked him to take up the task, hsy, who has done him many favours over his smuggling years.

And not to mention, she was on the verge of death, being bitten by one of the infected during a squabble for the boy. Despite being closed off, sp still feels somewhat obligated to honor her wishes as she was a great compani—contractor.

So he takes the kid.

OD is a relatively small kid, though he looks younger than he actually is (14 years old). He’s quiet but not quite complacent. But they somewhat silently work together.

SP wonders why this kid is so important to the fireflies to be escorted out of this strict city, as he has no blood relation to any of the rebel’s group members. But he finds out the reason why when they are caught by two patrol officers.

When they were scanned for signs of infection, it turns out kdj was infected. Sp managed to kill off the two patrol officers before they could signal for reinforcement, and at first felt betrayed by hsy, thinking that he was set up to be killed.

That is until OD tells him that he was bitten over a month ago. Sp thinks its impossible, since people who are infected immediately turn within 48 hours. But the bite wound on od’s hand is fully healed, forming a scar on his wrist.

SP is at first hesitant of Od’s immunity, but od proves it to him when they go through a tunnel filled with infected spores. Od goes in without a gas mask. People who inhale the spores immediately turn within 30 minutes, but od comes out completely unaffected after.

Sp finally realizes why od is so important to the fireflies, because he may be the key to create a vaccine that will eradicate the fungal infection.

And thus begins their near year round journey across the country.

Along the way they get into some mishaps and unsettlingly precarious situations, but both of them manage to pull through together. Sp finds throughout their trip that od is an incredibly endearing kid who had a love for reading.

He finds that od can be quite mischievous. He’s very curious, adorable and despite his frail appearance bears a ferocious determination inside him. He realizes how caring he is too, with how he saves some berries and chocolate bars for sp to eat.

Od likes to retell to him stories from books he’s read, make him random knicknacks he thought sp would like, accompany and learning from him when hunting for food and give him cookbooks he thought sp would like.

‘For when this is all over’ od says. ‘When the world is rid of the fungus, you can go back to cooking all these food you like!’

Sp finds od incredibly endearing. A kid with heart and soul that warms something in his chest he never thought could be ignited again.

And sp also finds that od is slowly but surely breaking down the walls he built around his heart. As sp has protected od, od had also saved his life multiple times and the two had formed an incredible bond over their journey. But fear grips sp’s heart as a result.

All his companions, people he once held so dear to his heart, all died under his watch. Fear has told him, eventually, od will suffer the same fate if he continues like this. Sp doesn’t think he can live if od ever gets hurt when he’s with him.

So when he and od gets to the next checkpoint where they encounter people who sp knew for their loyalty to him, he tries to leave od under their care.

The group were people whom sp had helped by freeing them from being prisoners under another radical group.

The group owed their life to sp and swore to repay their debt in their next meeting, which he initially disregarded as he was just paid to kill off the group’s leaders. They do take up his request to take od under their watch. When od finds out however, he’s heartbroken.

Od confronts sp, and an intense argument breaks out. Od questions why sp was abandoning him, after what they’ve been through together. He asks if sp still thinks he’s too incompetent, helpless and frail.

He begins to cry as he asks if he’s not good enough to stick with him.

Sp’s heart rends at the sight, but he steels his resolve. He has to stick through with this.

To get od away from him, to ensure that he is safe...

“You would only weigh the both of us down,”

Sp watches as od looks down dejected, a crestfallen look on his face as he wipes away the tears from his eyes. They go back to the group’s homebase, sp wants to say his final goodbye but od wouldn’t look him in the face. So with a heavy-heart he finally leaves.

Sp’s heart wrenches at having to separate from od, but he forces himself to pull through despite his sorrow weighing down on him.

But sp is forced to hide when he nearly encounters a strange gang of outsiders who he observes is sneaking up on the base od is in.

He stealths around the group, and as he eavesdropped on their conversation, he realizes its the radical faction who had imprisoned the same group he saved. They were planning revenge by ambushing them and killing them off.

Sp is enraged as he kills off as much of the people he can find, but others had already infiltrated the home group’s base—he hears their sirens blaring from the distance. Without a second thought, sp runs back to the group.

He gets there and helps the citizens fight off the intruders while he tries to find od’s whereabouts. The resulting physical & loud conflict attracts the attention of the infected, and a horde of them enters the homebase where the intruders had infiltrated. Chaos ensues.

Sp eventually finds od, though they barricaded themselves from the onslaught of the intruders. He picks them off one by one and reassures od its him and he’s back. Od finally comes out of the barricade, ecstatic to see him but then his face turns to horror.

“Look out!”

Sp looks back in time to stop an infected from biting off his shoulder, he manages to dispatch it but two more gets on him. One of them swipes his leg, he manages to step on its skull but he’s still forced to the ground by another infected.

His gun and knife is out of reach and he’s too preoccupied trying to stop the infected from biting off his face. It’s dangerously close to skinning him. Until a small hand shoots out and allows the infected to bite on it. A small knife jabs into its face cutting off its lower jaw

The infected staggers and sp kills it off. Od had saved his life again, but his hand is bitten. Dread grips sp as he tries to clean the wound. He fears that od might turn, his anxieties coming true. But od reassures him that he’s fine, reminding him that he’s immune.

At that, sp calms and hugs od. Od hugs back just as tightly. Od is still alive and safe in his arms, sp relaxes. Od then cries, saying how much he wanted to stay with sp, he’s the only person he felt the safest with and the one person he had cared for.

A waterfall of emotions flows out of sp’s chest and sp realizes that he can’t go on without od. Can’t go on not knowing if he’s safe. Can’t go on without him by his side. So he holds od close.

He apologizes for the harsh words he told him and promises from then on he won’t ever separate himself again from od. That they would be stick by each other from now on.

He’ll never leave od behind again.

Od sticks beside him as they bid their farewells to the others. The group offers them a place to call home when they go back. Sp appreciates the offer.

The option still stands, but od is adamant to getting to the fireflies.

They set off on their way. Winter begins to settle in as the cold makes itself known. They make camp near an abandoned warehouse before they plan to continue on the next morning.

Od scoots next to sp, he looks like he wants to ask something but id apprehensive about it.

Eventually, od asks sp about his previous companions. He’s only ever heard snips of them from sp’s passing comments in the past, and sp has never actually delved too far into his past with od so he barely knew anything of who sp is prior to their meeting.

Sp is silent at first. He didn’t think he’d have to unearth his past, not like this nor did he ever plan to do so. He’s never opened up to someone in over 20 years, but with od, he thinks he can let himself relive those memories once again.

So he tells od everything, about his sister, his life before the outbreak, his companions—everything. The memories hurt as he confronts them, but he finds that it’s bearable with od.

When he’s done, it felt as if an incredible burden finally lifted off his shoulders.

Od hugs him, and promises that he won’t need to suffer again once the world is finally rid of the infected. Sp couldn’t help but smile.

They set off in the morning, and at some point they stop at an abandoned university for supplies.

However, they’re ambushed by stragglers who reside by a nearby abandoned neighborhood. Sp is quick to take them out, but the problem arises when they sneak on him from vantage points he can’t see.

It’s a very troubling problem.

He struggles trying to pick them off, but he’s jumped on from behind and he struggles against his attacker from being thrown off the third level. Until a shot rings off and the man behind him falls limp on the floor. Od had shot him from his hiding place.

But another shootout causes the floor of the abandoned building to give, and sp falls and snags himself on a rusted, stray wire mesh.

The metal stabs through his side. He starts to bleed. Od rushes to the floor he’s on, sp says he’s fine.

Od looks like he’s about to panic, but the kid forces himself to calm and helps lead him out the building. It doesn’t look good for sp, he’s starting to waver and his vision blacks for the barest of moments.

He finds he’s losing his energy and momentum the more he bleeds out.

They manage to get out of the building and fight off the last remaining stragglers until sp finally gives. His strength is leaving him fast and his consciousness dips in and out. He falls, Od isn’t strong enough to get him to stand.

Od pales, sp is losing consciousness quick. He tries and fails to keep his focus as he tightens the gauze on sp’s side.

“Please don’t leave me, please.” Od shakes as blood seeps through the makeshift gauze.

Sp doesn’t respond, and od begins to panic and cry but he forces himself to do something. He spots a horse left behind by one of the stragglers, wraps a blanket around sp and ties him to the hilt of the horse. He leads the horse through the cold, looking for shelter.

They eventually get to an abandoned mall. Od secures sp in a locked area and scavenges the mall for any medicine. He finds a pharmacy, a vet clinic and security office filled with spores where he scrounged enough to patch up sp. He deals with any remaining infected and heads back

Od weathers through the blizzard, patching up sp through past experience and retained knowledge from the books he’s read. Sp looks stable, though weak, but alive.

The blizzard is brutal, but eventually passes. Od continues to clear the area of infected and hunts for food.

Sp is still out of commission for days, and od tends to him the best he can. He remembers how to hunt for meat thanks to sp, and he manages to sustain both of them for about a week.

One day od encounters a man who found him after killing a deer. Od is extremely wary of him, but the man looks sympathetic and strikes a deal. Anything he needs in exchange for the deer meat. Od asks if they have medicine and antibiotics, the man agrees, and the deal is set.

Od waits patiently with a gun for the man to return. He does, and he finally gets the medicine in exchange for the deer. But before he leaves the man asks if od would like to come to their base for shelter. Od declines.

But then the man asks if od is particularly fond of books and reading.

Od stops, anxiety arises in his throat.

Then the man asks if he’s from the city under the control of the ‘constellations’. That confirms Od’s suspicions.

He doesn’t answer. He aims his rifle at him as a warning, then leaves immediately as soon as the man is out of the vicinity. Od knows who’s after him.

Od gets back to sp, administers the antibiotics but arms himself in the process. Od knows he’s going to be followed, so he aims to redirect them from sp as he’s still incapacitated. He promises sp he’ll be back and sets off.

Od goes in circles around the area, making nonsensical trails through his footsteps in the snow by going into thickets then immediately retracing his steps. He places traps that he learned from sp under the trails he went to and by the trees. The snow will hide them.

He tips a cabinet full of fragile potteries by the doorway and makes it so that a shove from the door will cause it to fall. Its to alert the infected there in case they get here. He grabs bottles and bricks as well. Then he hides.

It wasn’t long until he hears the first scream. Someone got snagged into one of his traps. He hears men shouting and barking orders. They try to follow the trails but they all lead to dead-ends or deadly traps. They become extremely wary from then on. Od tries to calm his nerves.

Od steals himself, breathing in and out—just like what sp taught him—and aimed at the men with his rifle from a higher hidden spot in the house. He fires, the bullet hits then ducks for cover. They don’t know where it came from.

He goes again. The second shot misses, but the third hits the mark. He hides. Goes up to shoot, then ducks. He does this several times.

He hears a loud crash from the house next door. The loud sound of plates and glass shattering alerts a horde.

Od goes out the back door, intending on switching to the next hiding spot. A few of the men intercept him however and alerts he others where he is. Od immediately shoots them, grabs their ammo and runs off. They must not get him here.

Sp jolts awake. The pain in his side has subsided, though his muscles are a bit weary. His wound is healing. Sp notices that od isn’t here. Then he hears distant gunshots.

Sp shoots up, grabs his weapons (some are missing, he knows od has them) then follows the chaos.

Od manages to sneak his away around the men, picking off the ones who saw him and some infected as well. But he’s running out of ammo. He keeps going until two stragglers catch him off guard as he sneaks, punting him by the head and holding him down.

He struggles, trying to break free—when a familiar man enters his vision. Od pales, and stops.

His father, who had abused and abandoned him and his mother, was standing there right in front of him.

“I finally found you, you insolent brat.”

Meanwhile, sp follows the trail of bodies and blood on the snow. He finds men caught in the traps he had taught sp to make, and realizes od was being followed. Dread fills sp and he quickens his pace, coming across hordes of infected and strange men fighting them off.

He quickly kills off the infected, grabbing one man hostage and demanding to know where od is. None of them know, but they still suffer an excruciating death.

He calls for od through the chaos, his desperation increases every second od isn’t with him.

“Kim Dokja, do you know how long I was searching for you?” Od’s father practically growls out. Fear strikes od, yet resentment settles in as well. This man had abused him for years, and had abandoned him and his mother to die when a horde got into their home.

Him and his mother got bit, and both thought they were to turn together. Until his mother turned before him, and he was forced to kill her to end her misery. Od waited to turn as well, but he never did. That’s when he learned he was immune.

He was then found by hsy and ysa, who shortly looked after him. They were apart of the fireflies. When they learned he was immune, a plan was set to get him out the city and to their base for research.

But they were found out by the constellations, ysa orders both of them to move while she tries to divert them, and hsy and od run off. Hsy got bit however in a surprise encounter with a hidden horde trying to protect him from the constellations.

He knows hsy is gone, but he doesn’t know what happened to ysa. They must have found the messages and letters about od’s immunity through her.

Od is silent as his father orders the two men to bring him back to the base. They’re going to send him back.

Fear from his father makes him motionless, unable to do anything as terrible memories return to him. Even now, he’s still a weak, coward—he thinks.

That is, until he hears sp’s calls for his name. Its faint, but he hears it. It snaps him out of his reverie.

Adrenaline kicks in, he remembers sp’s training. He kicks at one of the men’s knees from behind as he’s on the ground. It gets him off balance. He slams the back of his head to the nose of the other man behind him. He feels blood trickle from the man’s nose on his head.

Then od immediately grabs his hidden knife in his shoe, and chucks it deep to both their knees and then to their throat before they could react. He calls for sp and tries to run but he’s stopped by his father who tries to slam the butt of his machete to his head.

Od manages to dodge, and runs back inside further in the large house. A terrible game of cat and mouse ensues.

Outside, sp hears od’s call. But he doesn’t call again. He’s in one of the houses hiding, sp concludes then rushes in.

Od tries to hide, sneak and evade the man with a gun and a machete, but there’s hardly any exits for him to escape the building so he’s stuck inside. The tension rises, fear and anxiety chills his nerves.

Then, od finds himself at a dead end. There’s no other way to go. He hides underneath a table, knife ready in hand. He waits with bated breath for his father to enter the room. Its eerily silent.

It felt like an eternity until his father walks in, so od strikes.

He stabs the back of his knee, a shout of pain erupts from him. Then he stabs the hand with a gun. It drops. He tries to grab it but a fist smacks him to the ground. Od keens in pain as he’s grabbed by the hair and pulled up.

His father is enraged as he prepares another sucker punch on od. But od jabs two of his fingers straight to his eyes, the man howls in pain and drops him. Od tries to crawl away, but a kick to his stomach sends him skidding to the other side of the room.

The wind is knocked out of him, the gun is out of reach and his father is trying to regain his bearings. He eyes the machete that was dropped, out of sight under a coffee table and slowly crawls towards it. Another kick intercepts him and od coughs out in pain.

His father pins him down to the ground, and begins to strangle him. Curses fly out of his mouth as he insults od. Taunting and berating the poor boy, blaming him for all his suffering and his misgivings. Panic and desperation encompasses od.

The searing but familiar lack of air brings up his trauma, and his free hand reaches to the machete and he swings it mercilessly to the man on top of him straight to the head.

His father staggers. Od yells out in fury as he swings at him again.

Od aims at his shoulder, then to his knees. When he’s completely down on the ground, he climbs on top of him and begins hacking away at the man’s head. Swinging again and again, through the gurgle of blood and muffled screams until the man is limp under him. But od keeps going.

He continues hacking, slicing and smashing in the man’s face for god knows how long until arms wrap around him and pull him off the mangled corpse. Od thrashes from the grip until he’s turned and face to face with sp who’s alive and moving.

“Kim Dokja, it’s me,”

Od looks at sp, tears building up in his eyes. He’s finally safe.

The weight finally settles in as an unbridled amount of emotions and confusion wracks od. He cried as he clings onto sp, who hugs him back just as tightly.

Sp soothes and cradles the boy, reassuring him that he’s here, he’s alright and he won’t have to go through that again. Od is safe with him.

They eventually get up, and leave the grim memories and bloodshed behind.

—

The winter passes, and they’re nearing the end of their journey. They’re close to the final checkpoint and there’s a hanging suspense in the air. Sp and od has been through so much together, accompanying each other for nearly a full year.

Sp had fully embraced od as his own, and od as his.

While the events of that terrifying winter is fresh in od’s head, he’s comforted by sp’s presence, whom he has relied on throughout their journey. Sp had protected and cared for him.

At a final camping spot, od asks sp what he wants to do when ‘this is all over’.
Sp smiles and says anything that includes being with od is all he wants. Od protests and says to come up with something more original. They spend the night talking about plans and visions ofnormalcy

The next day comes and they have to pass through an underground subway to get to their destination. The water rushes like a raging river. Od can’t swim. They have to tread carefully.

Abandoned train carts acts as makeshift bridges. They make their way through it.

They cross over a train, but as they walk over it, a chuck of the train comes off, swings and smashes to the side of the rail, reverberating throughout the tunnel. Growls and shrieks erupts from the distance as a horde of infected runs towards them.

Sp ushers od to the front as they try to dash down the trail of carts. Some of the infected fall off the trains and into the waters, but their sheer numbers agitates the trains and cause them to fall over.

But it turns out some infected had remained inside the trains themselves, as a hand shoots out and grabs od, pulling him into the train. Sp stops and decides to cutoff the other train cart behind, shooting its hinges and letting fall into the feeding river.

The horde is cutoff from them, but od is still trapped inside with an infected. Sp looks down and aims at the infected who’s trying to bite at od with his pistol and shoots. The bullet with accuracy despite the fierce struggle, and od holds onto a handle to stay afloat.

So tries to get him and pull him up but he’s too far to reach. He hears a guttural screech of metal and he looks up to see another train cart that broke off from another chain heading straight at them. The impact comes too fast, and he’s thrown off the train cart.

He falls into the raging waters, spinning and sending him into vertigo. He quickly tries to right himself.

Because od is trapped in the train.

He swims with all his strength against the current and back to the fallen train. He sees od inside, unmoving. Sp move with restlessness, kicking to break the glass and pull him out. It feels as if a minute too long would be too a minute too late.

He eventually breaks the glass, the shards cut his skin but he doesn’t care. Sp reaches in and grabs od, swimming back up and breaking through the water. He takes in a gulp of air.

Od doesn’t do the same. Sp tries to stop his panic from taking over.

He gets the both of them to land, and he begins cpr on od. He’s desperate as he pumps the boy’s chest, calling his name and trying to get him to respond but he doesn’t. The longer od doesn’t respond, the more sp’s biggest fears begin to manifest before him.

No, no, no, he can’t take it. He can’t let od die, not after the promise he’s made and not after the future they would swore to see together.

He can’t take another loss that would break him apart completely.

But he isn’t allowed to dwell on it, as he suddenly blacks out.

When he wakes up, he’s in an unfamiliar room. A hospital ward. In the corner is a woman with silver hair. She asks if he is sp. When he nods she introduces herself as jhw, the leader of the group who found them by the exit of the subway.

She tells him they are in the base of the fireflies. When sp asks about od, she reassures him that he lived and is fine. They came just in time to resuscitate and save him. Relief washes over sp. He asks how she knew of him.

Jhw tells him of the calls that hsy and her used to exchange. Apparently hsy used to talk a lot about him. Sp looks away with guilt.

Jhw lets sp rest, saying she will check in on od and will return to give him news of his wellbeing. Sp reluctantly agrees.

He sits in silence for several minutes, until two officers enter the room. They give him the payment they agreed upon a year ago but sp doesn’t care. He wants to see od alive and well. The soldiers don’t let him out the room, stating that the boy is being prepped for surgery.

Sp stills. What surgery?

Just then jhw returns to his room, and looks on sadly. She tells him that they’ve ran the tests on od, and they’ve confirmed that the cordyceps fungus that he has is a mutated strain. Extracting it can be utilized to make a vaccine.

However, since the cordyceps infection affects the brain, attaching itself to the tissue permanently, the only way to extract the fungus is by killing the host.

In order to construct the vaccine, they’ll have to kill od.

Sp stills. Everything he’s ever fought for, all the hell he’s been through after 20 years of suffering. All of it, so he could remain by od’s side.

Everything he’s done, was all to be with od. What good is a world of salvation without the boy he learned to love?

“Find someone else,” he gets up. ‘There is no one else,’

“Then keep looking,” he growls out. He tries to make his way through but he’s hit in the head and forced to his knees.

Jhw looks on at him. She orders the officers to take him to the other sector and keep him there.

She leaves and the officers goes to move him out the building. Sp calms his angered nerves, and lets them take him for the time being. He observes them for a while. He can kill them both.

He stops in his tracks, and before any of them could anticipate it, he kicks one of the officers knees inwards, ducks to avoid a gunshot and throws a punch straight at the soldier’s throat. He grabs his gun and plants a bullet between his eyes.

He turns to the officer with the dislocated knee and shoots his other knee. He hollers out in pain as sp demands where od is. When he doesn’t answer, he shoots the dislocated knee this time. The officer wails and eventually tells him where od is, and sp finally kills him off.

He grabs his weapons that were set aside, makes his way to the second floor in the left wing of the building and dispatches any soldier he comes across. He doesn’t care. He’ll slaughter anyone who tries to stop him. Sp leaves a trail of blood as he makes his way to od.

He finally gets to the operating room, where surgeons are just about to begin the surgery. He stops them before they could even make a cut on od, shooting them down one by one. Sp grabs od from the table, and begins to make his way out of the hospital.

Alarms blare throughout the ward, as he rushes down the hallway with od still unconscious in his arms. Everything turns to a blur as a sense of longing fills sp.

He finally reaches the underground area, where some vehicles are on standby.

He’s stopped however by jhw, who points a gun at him.

She tells him the magnitude of the what he’s about to do, not just to the world but to od himself. She grits her teeth, the only doctors they have are dead, and they have no one else who knows how to make the vaccine.

Jhw tells sp that there’s no way to save the world now. But, this would change the only world sp knows of. That is, his relationship with od after this decision.

She asks him how far he’s willing to go for the boy, and the pain he would bear in the near future.

Because both she and sp knows that od would have sacrificed himself willingly to create the vaccine.

Sp takes a look at od’s sleeping face. The promises they’ve made to each other flashes in his head. Promises that swore that they would be together, no matter what.

Sp makes his decision.

“There is no world worth living without him. And I’ll bear all the suffering that is to come—I’d go through hell a thousand times over—if it means he’ll be safe.”

Perhaps he is selfish, or maybe he was selfless. But all that matters to him, is od.

Jhw looks at him, something speaks to him through her eyes. She lowers her gun, and instead tosses a key towards him. Sp is shocked.

Jhw smiled sadly, “I’d be a hypocrite if I stopped you here,” she leads them to a car. “I’ll cover for you. Go and don’t come back,”

Sp places od in the backseat, and gives one last silent look to jhw. A ‘thank you’ just wouldn’t be enough. But he states his gratitude anyway in the solemness, and he drives away with od.

Jhw looks on as they leave, thumbing at the cartridge wrapped around her neck.

The next time od wakes up, they’re still in the car, moving. Od asks what happened, as all he remembers was when he blacked out after the train fell over in the subway. Sp looks at him through the car’s front mirror.

He decides he would lie.

He says that od’s immunity was useless, the doctors couldn’t make a vaccine after all. They’d given up a long time ago, and as such let them leave. Od goes silent at sp’s explanation. The boy turns to his side.

“I’m sorry,”

There’s nothing else that he could say.

Sp drives them back to the location of the group that had offered to let them stay. Their homebase had grown over the past month, working electricity, water and a functioning farms had completed their development. From afar, the base looked like paradise.

They stopped their car some way off from here, opting to hike the rest of the way back as the road was too overgrown and blocked.

Along the way, sp brought up the plans they had together.

He could teach him how to make dumplings, cook him all the dishes od wanted to try, build od his own library and teach him how to play the guitar.

Their plans together could still be done, even if the world was still ravaged by this apocalypse.

But then od looks at him with an unfamiliar depth in his eyes. Od knows. Despite this, he still asks,

“Even if the world would fall apart, even if there’s a chance you could live without fearing for your life ever again, to live a tranquil life that was back then—“

“You would give up that chance and live in this world, just to be with me?”

Sp kneels to level with od’s eyes, matching his depth with his own determination.

“Being with you is the world that matters to me,”

Od looks at him, “promise me that everything you said about what happened with the fireflies is true.”

There’s a pause.

“I promise,”

Maybe it was a useless cause, to believe in a lie to assuage one’s doubts about what could have been.

“Okay,”

The lie wouldn’t matter now, because the truth was that they found a world worth living in, by each other’s side.

—end—