Chapter Text
In all his time living in this New World, he never imagined that he’d become part of the Pack. The Pack only took members who had no family anymore, nothing to live for except to just do whatever people told them to do. After all, it wouldn’t be fair to send out a father of three to get supplies and food in the danger zones.
Then again, Derek didn’t think he’d lose his entire family in a freak-IT accident.
That’s what they call the zombie-like things that prowl in the danger zones, just outside New London. They didn’t act like stereotypical zombies, but they wanted the same thing: brains. Really, they ate anything off a human they could, and the survivors of an IT attack...
Well, Derek would rather be killed is all he’s saying.
His family wasn’t even in the danger zones. They were out in the safe zones, just outside the city, where the fences were supposed to be high enough that people can go out there, get fresh air away from the city. Instead, they got an attack by the IT. Killed nearly everyone, and the ones that survived quickly became one of them.
The safe zones were closed after that.
Derek had managed to escape their fates by simply deciding to not go with them, but instead spend time in their meager two room apartment, split between his parents, his aunt and uncle, and his 3 siblings.
Now he still has the two room apartment, but he can’t bring himself to move into his parent’s bedroom. He was supposed to submit an application to be rehoused, give his bigger apartment up to those who needed it and get a much smaller one, but he couldn’t bring himself to give up those memories. The government didn’t punish him for it, but considering the letters he kept getting, he should do it.
He didn’t.
In this age of IT attacks and problems with finding all the necessary supplies and such, he knew that him clinging to things he didn’t need per say was an act of treason. After the US collapsed, and the rest of the world basically, the survivors had almost agreed that they would go to a sharing system. Democracy and ownership needed to take a backseat to the problems of the world, to the limited sources everyone had. However, the city officials didn’t charge Derek since it was technically their fault that Derek lost all his family.
The corporations didn’t really like it though, hence the stacks of letters.
The city siren rang out, announcing that the work day has started, and therefore everyone needed to get up. Derek stirred from his bed with a growl. He knew he needed to get up and go do his job, that he needed to be ‘the upstanding citizen that New London called him to be’, but really what was the point?
A cannon shot through the silence, letting the citizens know that they were safe from the IT again, and he remembered.
He got out of bed and stretched. Time to be that outstanding citizen.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
New London was born after one area, his hometown of Beacon Heights, survived the majority of the IT attacks, and the government took notice.
The entire United States whispered to each other of the mythical place where IT barely comes, a town that survived despite the disease that took out billions of people around the world.
If other places in the world survived that is.
No one really knows where it began. Rumors circulate that it could’ve been in Asia, since by the time it hit the United States many countries in Asia were wiped out, but others say it really started in Europe, somewhere in Germany. But it’s all rumors.
All that’s left now is rumors.
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“Did you hear that IT-go is releasing another IT repelling spray?”
Derek rolled his eyes at his partner’s enthusiasm. No spray has ever worked, just made people think it did. Not a lot of things from that company did. It was the only thing in this messed-up world that gave people hope, that they’d be able to fight off any IT attack easily. Derek never had the heart to voice what he knew though. That these sprays were as helpful against attacks like pretending they don’t exist is helpful.
As in they weren’t.
But all he said in response was, “Maybe this time it’ll work.” It wouldn’t. “You ready to go out tonight Isaac?”
Isaac was there because a few years ago his brother was killed by the IT and his dad had turned into one without the government knowing it. He would’ve taken Isaac too if Isaac hadn’t booked it out of there as soon as he tried to take a big chunk out of Isaac’s leg.
Now he had no one, just like Derek.
“If we must,” Isaac sighed. He seemed to hold on to hope that one day, they’ll be able to stop this problem and return to normal. Isaac put on his kevlar vest (not really helpful against the IT but better than nothing) and attached all the weapons that they needed, “You ready?”
Derek tucked his trusted knife in his boot and stood, “As I’ll ever be.”