Chapter Text
cw: implied sexual slavery
chapter one: 5.5k words
You weren’t exactly sure how you ended up in this situation. Only a few hours ago, you were scavenging an abandoned building in downtown Philadelphia. Now, you were hog-tied to a chair, seated at a dining table, and forced to watch a cannibal slice the flesh from a live man. Luke did always say you knew how to get yourself into trouble.
You were scrounging for food, water, and anything that might prove useful in the zombie apocalypse, when you heard a man and a woman outside. You snuck over to the gaping hole in the wall that you had used to enter the locked building, and you hid behind the debris as you watched the two of them swiftly mercy a zombie cop stationed in the front seat of a squad car. You couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the man left the woman alone and headed off somewhere out of view. You watched her, cautiously curious, as she began to hotwire the car and fumble with the radio. Out of the corner of your vision, you saw a group of men beginning to creep towards her. There was something menacing about their approach. You didn’t trust it.
“Hey!” you shouted as you ran out from your hiding spot, not thinking for a second about the consequences, and sprinted straight for the men as they reached the woman in the car. She quickly looked up, her eyes locking on you. You waved your arms about, telling her to watch out, as you ran to the car.
One of the men tased her, and you jumped on his back, attempting to whack him with your weapon of choice—a hammer. However, there were three of them and only two of you—one of whom was currently unconscious—and the large man was able to easily buck you off and overpower you. You struggled to push him away, kicking and screaming, but he tased you too. A jolt of pain ran through you. You reached your hand out for the woman, but you felt one of the men pick you up and carry you away.
The last thing you heard was a man’s voice over the radio. “Delta X-Ray Delta. What is your status?” Everything went dark.
You awoke to the sound of screaming and a bag over your head. You struggled against your bindings and gagged on the cloth that had been stuffed into your mouth. Suddenly, the bag was ripped away, and your eyes traveled across the room frantically. You were sat next to the same woman from before—the one you had attempted to save—and she was bound to a chair the same way you were. The two of you were sitting at a dining table. She locked eyes with you once more as the man who had grabbed you both gently wiped the hair from her face. She looked just as terrified as you felt. The ropes that held your arms in place were beginning to burn as you continuously tried to free yourself.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now,” a male voice spoke up. Your eyes darted to his imposing form, seated across the table and by a woman. His statement did little to reassure you. “You’re both safe. No one’s going to harm you.”
The gags were taken out of your mouths, and you immediately began to scream for help. A swift slap to your face shut you up quick while the girl beside you said, “Touch me, or her, again, and I’ll kill you.” The man only laughed at her.
“Sweet child,” he began, patronizingly, “that won’t be necessary. Please, the last thing we want is to harm you.” You bit back your tongue at the lie that he had already proven to be false.
“My friends are looking for me,” the red head said with such a certainty that you felt a hollow pang in your chest at the realization that you couldn’t say the same. “And when they find me, they will kill you. They will kill all of you!” she roared.
“I get it,” the man said. He was so calm that you wished you could leap over the table just to wipe the smug look off his face. “You don’t trust me. Why should you? I know you ladies aren’t ready to hear this, but I’m going to say it anyway. I’m sorry.”
“Go to hell.” You sneered at the man.
“Who are you? What do you want with me? With us?” she corrected as she looked back to you.
“An understandable reaction.” He looked to you before turning toward the other girl. “And fair questions. I’d be angry too if I were brought here against my will.” He got up from the table and sat down at a piano nearer to you. “Please, I don’t want either of you to be afraid,” he said as he began to play. The music might have been calming if you weren’t actively being gripped on the shoulder by the dirty hand of one of his men.
“I must apologize about my overzealous companions.” Said companions began to untie the two of you, though their hands still pushed down on you with overwhelming force. “They’re good men, but sometimes we have to resort to less-than-civilized means. We live in a less-than-civilized world. You know it; I know it. So, when we encounter strangers, the family needs to take…necessary precautions.”
“You didn’t just ‘encounter’ us,” you said. “You ambushed her and kidnapped us!” The grip on your shoulder became firmer, while the man just shook his head with a small smile, never stopping his playing.
“What family?” the young woman next to you asked.
“Ours,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “This is our home, and I am responsible for their well-being.” He got up and approached the two of you. “I’m Tobias Campbell. I guess you can say I’m like a father to our little family.” He sat down to your left, at the head of the table. “But, like a family, we take care of one another. Everyone contributes; everyone benefits. It’s how we’ve survived the last three years. It’s the only way we’ll survive in the future. Don’t you agree?” he asked the two of you. Neither of you said a word. You just continued to stare at him.
“Oh. You must be hungry. Please, eat.” You finally noticed the two plates of food placed before you. It looked like steak, but you knew that wasn’t possible. All meat was infected with the Z virus, and you would instantly turn if you were to eat it. “We have plenty to share.”
“I’m not hungry,” you and the red-haired woman said in unison, eyeing one another and the plates in front of you. Your stomach growled slightly, giving you away.
“If you aren’t now,” he started, looking to you, “you will be. Until then, why don’t the two of you go with Moonshade and Stormy.” Two women approached. “Ladies, be so kind as to find some fresh clothes for our newest members.” The man that was holding you down and the man that was holding the older girl shoved the both of you up to your feet.
Before you could open your mouth to refute his claim on you, the other girl spoke up. “We didn’t say anything about joining your ‘family.’”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be presumptuous. It’s just that, once people see the love and bounty that we share, they never want to leave us.” His gaze burned into you with that same eerie calm from before. “Ladies?” He let the two older women take you and the red head away as his men followed close behind.
The next hour involved the two of you being stripped of your clothes and dressed up in the most revealing, impractical outfits you had seen in the whole apocalypse. They had traded your jeans for a skirt that barely passed your fingertips when you held your arms flat against your sides, and your reliable t-shirt and jacket were traded for some booby, strappy tank. You felt naked, especially when the eyes of the two men guarding you flicked up and down your body.
The two women poked and pried at your face, slathering you with a full face of makeup. You hadn’t worn anything more than lip balm since the zombie outbreak began, and you were itching to get it off. It felt like a mask—one that was different from your usual mask of sweat and grime. This one was unnatural.
They handed you a mirror once they were done with their work, and you didn’t recognize the reflection staring back at you. Sure, it had been a few weeks (or months—who was counting?) since you had caught more than a glimpse of your own reflection, but this felt like an entirely different person.
The other girl, who hadn’t spoken since you were taken for your makeovers, was outfitted in a similar fashion. The two ladies had given each of you a silk robe to cover yourselves; “for modesty,” they said. As the four of you exited the trailer you had changed in, one of the women told you, “You look beautiful!”
The red head groaned and said, “I look like a post-apocalyptic stripper.” You mirrored the sentiment but were shocked by what one of the women said next.
“More like bait.”
Before either of you could respond or question what she meant, Tobias—your kidnapper—spoke up. “Look at you! Mother will be so pleased.” You weren’t sure who ‘mother’ was meant to be, but you had the sense she was the near-catatonic woman that had been by his side the entire time you’d been there. He was at the grill, and he said, “Supper will be ready soon. Set the table,” he ordered. “And set places of honor, for our two guests, next to Mother.”
As the women walked off to do as he said, the girl you had been kidnapped with mumbled under her breath, “Where are you, Mack?”
“Is that the guy you were with?” you whispered, accidentally startling her out of her zoned-out state.
“You were watching us?”
You felt weirdly guilty. “I was in a building nearby. I hadn’t seen anyone in a couple of weeks. I was curious. Sorry.”
She blew out a sigh and said, “If you hadn’t been watching me, I’d be here alone. We’ve got a better chance at escaping if we can work together.” You let out a small grimace of a smile, not ready to hold onto that kind of hope.
She took a couple steps away from the trailer, looking all around to make sure no one was watching. She nodded her head, indicating for you to follow her. Carefully, the two of you walked into a tunnel. Behind the partition, she flicked on her lighter and found a light switch which she then turned on. A red light cascaded over you, and your eyes adjusted to find a room full of weapons. Before you could get too excited and grab one, eager for a chance to fight your way out, the older girl—though not by much, you were pretty sure—nudged you to leave them alone. The weapons were covered in blood, anyway.
As you turned to the center of the small room, you finally noticed the tarp covering a table. “Oh, I hope we’re not eating dog,” the girl said. She slowly pulled back the tarp, uncovering a human leg and the stump of what was its matching pair. You had to cover your mouth to hold back a cry as she uncovered the other end to find a live man with his mouth sewn shut. Trying desperately to get out, she pushed aside another partition only to find a room with half a dozen men, in similar conditions, alive and strung up on meat hooks. They were struggling and trying to scream through their sewn lips. The two of you held back screams of horror and quickly ran out of the torture tunnel.
You ran right into the arms of Tobias. He caught you both as you continued screaming and sobbing. He was laughing, the sick bastard. As the two of you stopped struggling because his grip was so tight as to hurt, he yelled to the rest of his family, “Supper’s ready!”
And that’s how you ended up where you were. The man you had seen on the table in the tunnel was now on the dinner table. His shouting was muffled, and you and the other girl were both choking back sobs.
“I know you think we’re monsters,” Tobias started. “Inhuman.” That was one word for it, you thought. “We all did too, at first.” He began carving the flesh from the man’s shin. “But hunger has a way of changing one’s mind. Morality is stripped away, and all that remains is survival.”
“I would rather die!” you cried out. The man who had hit you earlier shot you a deathly glare that made you flinch in fear.
“I know, this takes some getting used to. Perhaps this will help make it more palatable,” Tobias said as he tasered the man until his struggling ceased. He finished carving before offering the flap of skin to the red-haired girl. “Please, Little Flower. You must be starving.” She shook her head vehemently, her mouth clamped shut. He turned to you. “Just a bite, Ocean Tide, to keep your strength.” You gagged at the name he had given you and the meat he offered you. “I made it special for you!” The two of you held your ground, refusing to let this monster turn you into one of them. He looked to the woman sat beside you and said, “Now you’ve upset Mama.” The woman didn’t move. “I know this is a big adjustment,” he continued, “but in times like these, it’s eat or be eaten. So please! Mama likes you two; make her happy.”
All of a sudden, a zombie growl averted your attention to one of the guards walking towards you. “Fresh meat,” he told Tobias.
“You two,” the Father nodded at the two women who had dolled you up, “get this meat back in the kitchen. Then get in position.” The women, along with the man who had hit you, all left to follow his orders. Tobias approached the other girl, and he pet her head and lifted the knife threateningly close to her neck.
“Stop that!” you yelled at him, thrashing against your bindings. “Don’t touch her, you freak!” He turned his attention to you but continued to pet your companion as if he was taunting you. You tried screaming for help, sure there was someone out there that could hear you, but he quickly clamped his sweaty paw over your mouth.
A shot rang out, and you and the girl exchanged nervous glances. Tobias sprang up, and he began to untie the red head. “What are you doing? Stay away from her!” He ignored your pleas and hauled her to her feet, knife at her neck. He walked her out of the dining tent, and you were left alone with Mother.
You couldn’t hear anything but muffled shouts and zombie snarls. You continuously turned your wrists, trying to shimmy out from the ropes that had you bound to the chair. You were experiencing major rope burn, but you had no time to care about that now. You were starting to make some leeway with your non-dominant hand when you heard multiple shots ring out, in quick succession as if from a machine gun. You yelped and continued wriggling free. You thought that if you could just grab the butter knife that was on the opposite side of the woman next to you, you could cut yourself free and make a run for it.
Before you could free yourself, however, Tobias was back in the tent—this time, without the red head and with a different woman entirely.
“Small change of plans, Ocean Tide. We had to let Little Flower go, but you should meet your new sister. This is Sunshine.” The girl he called Sunshine looked at you with wild and frantic eyes. She took one look at your bindings and seemed to know exactly what was happening.
“Wait, this isn’t fair! You didn’t say you had someone else, Tobias.”
“Well, of course not, Sunshine. Ocean Tide is here to stay because she wasn’t a part of the deal. They didn’t want her.” Tears sprung to your eyes, and you weren’t sure if it was from the burning pain in your wrist, the fear taking over your body, or the words that sounded too familiar for your liking.
Tobias sat Sunshine down on the opposite side of the catatonic woman and moved to crouch beside you. He took one of your hands in his and tsked at you. “Now, now, was somebody being bad? You’ll hurt Mama’s feelings!”
Soon, Sunshine was feeding the woman, looking to you with sorry eyes, as Tobias wore a smile. “Mama’s so much happier when you’re here,” he said to her.
The two guards that had kidnapped you made their way into the tent. “Got some fresh meat in trailer two, looking for something exotic and something young. I told him about the two-for-one special, and he took it.” The girl looked to you, and her breathing sped up tremendously. “You’re on Sunshine. You too, Ocean Tide.” Your eyes went wide. You had no idea what he meant.
“Wonderful!” Tobias clapped. “Sunshine, this is the perfect opportunity for you to show our newest member how we all contribute to this family.” He came over and untied your wrists, but he grabbed ahold of them before you could lash out. He walked you out, your hands held firmly behind your back, and he pushed Sunshine to lead the way.
On the short walk over to the trailer, Sunshine looked over her shoulder at you and said, “Just follow my lead. You’ll be okay.” You nodded, but the rest of your body was shaking in fright.
The trailer door opened and there stood an older man in sunglasses. He looked you and Sunshine up and down and said, “That’s what I’m talking about.” You were finally starting to understand what it is you were meant to do.
“Twenty minutes, and no rough stuff,” Tobias told the man.
“Define rough stuff,” the other man said. You whimpered. This wasn’t really happening, was it?
“Sunshine will let you know. And go easy on Ocean Tide here. It’s her first time.” It was true—not just your first time being pimped out but also your first time with a man at all. This was not how you imagined it going down.
“Ooh, Sunshine and Ocean Tide,” the man said as he continued to eye you both. The door closed behind you as Tobias left, and you immediately broke down in tears, though you tried to wipe them away.
Sunshine spoke up before you even had a chance to beg the man not to touch you. “What are you doing?” she asked him, with a familiarity in her voice that caused you to pause.
“Shh,” he shushed her. “The right thing.” He looked to you, and you could see a genuine kindness in his eyes; he looked nothing like the creep he had been just moments ago. “I’m not going to hurt you, darling. Just follow my lead,” he told the both of you.
He pressed his hands against the side wall and began pushing in a way that made the whole trailer rock. He then began to moan. Loudly. You were mortified, but then Sunshine joined in and motioned for you to do the same. Your face instantly heated up, but you began to quietly moan along with them.
“Oh, yeah, baby!” The older man said. “Louder for me!” You cringed internally but did as he asked as Sunshine let out an exclamation.
“Oh, you’re so big!” she said.
“Take it!” he responded. “Love doctor in the house.”
“Oh, doctor!” you shouted.
You had never been so embarrassed in your entire life. The three of you continued to moan and rock until you heard classical music playing somewhere in the distance. “Listen! That’s our signal,” the man said.
“Okay,” Sunshine started, “you’re going to have to pretend like I tased you, and they’ll come to retrieve your body. We can ambush them then!” The man nodded, but you weren’t exactly following. You shrugged and followed their leads.
Whatever plan they seemed to form was initiated by the man exclaiming, “No, no, don’t!”
The three of you hid. The man was situated just above the doorway, you were under the table, and Sunshine was in the bathroom.
When two men entered, the older man shot one of them dead, but he was unable to get a shot out on Tobias. Tobias began to wrestle and strangle the other man, but Sunshine quickly leapt onto his back and tasered him. You helped her push him down into the couch, and he panted out, “Sunshine!”
“My name is Cassandra!” she shouted before shoving the taser in his mouth and letting loose. Once he was knocked out, she helped you and the older man up and said, “Let’s go; come on.” The three of you quickly exited and headed around to hide behind the trailer.
The music got louder and louder as the members of the cannibal ‘family’ began rounding up all their defenses. A truck rammed through the main gate, and that’s when you knew the music was blasting from them. Whoever was in that truck had lured dozens of zombies to the camp. You heard the machine gun going off as bullets ricocheted off the truck, but they suddenly stopped. As Z’s invaded the camp, the older man turned to you and Sunshine—Cassandra—and said, “It’s now or never.” You nodded, and the three of you ran to the pickup truck and hopped into the bed. Once you were all in, the older man pounded the side of the truck, and you lurched forward as the truck took off.
You were hyperventilating. It was just you, the girl called Cassandra, and the older man in the back of the pickup, but you could tell there were at least five or six more in the truck. You couldn’t see any of them as your vision began to blur from tears welling up. You were vaguely aware of the truck driving away from the camp and back into town, but you were too busy holding your head between your knees and trying not to cry.
“Can someone calm her down?” a woman behind the wheel shouted over the sound of the wheels crunching along gravel. You flinched when you felt the man—you heard someone call him Doc—gently touch your arm. He immediately removed his hand, and you looked up, your head swiveling back and forth. Cassandra tried to approach you, but you shied away still. It wasn’t until the red-haired girl you had been captured with stuck her head out of the truck’s back window, looking out into the bed, that you took a deep breath in.
“Holy shit,” you stuttered out, inhaling shakily. You crawled toward her and grabbed her arms through the window. “You’re alive!” She held your hands as you came down from your panic attack.
“Shh, just breathe,” she told you. “You’re safe now; we both are. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you. These are my friends.” She glanced at each of the four people in the truck with her, and you stuck your head in a bit to match faces to names as she introduced them. “Up front, that’s Warren and Garnett.” She pointed out the driver and passenger, two adults with a commanding air about them. “This here is Murphy, and this is Mack.” She nodded to her left and right where a scraggly man and the blond man you had seen her with earlier were sat. “You already met Doc and Cassandra.” You turned your head and gave each of them a small smile. “And up top? That’s 10K.” You were confused until you backed away from the interior of the truck and farther into the bed. Looking up, you could now see that there was someone sitting on the top of the truck, sniper rifle in hand. He nodded down at you, and you used one hand to cover the sun from your eyes so that you could see him better.
He was cute. You hadn’t seen many cute boys in the past couple of years. About your age, although you could never tell these days, and he had messy, black hair and was wearing black warpaint across his cheeks. You watched him as he took a cloth, soaked it in water, and began wiping away the paint. He didn’t seem to notice you staring, and you quickly looked away before that could change.
You looked back at the red-haired girl. “And your name? I’m pretty sure it’s not ‘Little Flower,’” you sniffled. She laughed at this, and you were glad to see a smile that was friendly.
“It’s Addy. What about you? You don’t look much like an ‘Ocean Tide’ to me.” You smiled back at her and introduced yourself. She repeated your name back, loud enough for everyone to hear. Though, you weren’t sure why. It wasn’t like you’d be around long enough for them to care to know it.
Once you were a few miles farther out from the cannibal camp, Warren stopped the truck so that her group could get resituated. Everyone got out of the truck, so you hopped out of the bed as well, taking the hand that Doc offered you. When Mack and Addy got out, you noticed that Mack was carrying your bag. “My stuff!” you shouted a little too loud as you had been fairly certain you would never see it again. He handed it to you immediately, and you began rifling through it.
Water bottle? Check.
Sash of throwing knives? Check.
Two heavy duty hammers with pairs of initials carved into the sides of the wooden handles? Check.
All the rest of your stuff was there as well, including both a small first-aid and sewing kit. You hugged your bag to your chest, grabbed Mack’s arm, and told him, “Thank you!” He just smiled uncertainly and subtly shrugged you off. You took the hint and mumbled out an apology, although your smile was never wiped from your face. You turned to the rest of the group, who had all been watching you. “Really,” you started. “Thank you, guys. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come back for Sunshine—er, Cassandra here. Thank you for letting me hitch a ride out of there. I really have no way of repaying you, so I’ll just get out of your hair now! Thank you again.” You gave each of them as genuine of a smile as you could muster before turning on your heel and beginning to walk away. You weren’t sure where you were headed, but you were just about to pick a direction when someone called out your name.
“Where are you going, darling?” Doc asked you as Addy grabbed your wrist and spun you around to face the group once more. They were all looking at you with varying faces of incredulity.
“Aren’t you staying?” Addy asked you, with concern painting her expression. Your eyebrows shot up and your eyes widened.
“You mean…you want me to stay? With all of you?”
“Of course we do! You saved my life!”
“I really didn’t.”
“Well, maybe not exactly, but you risked your life to try to save mine! That means something.” You looked away from the girl in front of you and glanced at everyone else who was standing a few feet behind. The woman called Warren nodded encouragingly.
“I don’t want to impose—” you started.
“Screw that!” Doc said. “We’d love to have you along, kid. There’s plenty of room!” The man named Murphy scoffed loudly at that. “Okay, maybe there isn’t ‘plenty’ of room, but we can squeeze you in!”
“Any friend of Addy’s is a friend of ours,” Garnett said. You teared up a little at this. You hadn’t been anyone’s friend in so long.
“Are you sure?” You asked them, not truly believing you were wanted after being alone for months.
“Get in here, girl,” Warren said as Doc let out a “Hell yeah, kiddo!” You nodded and wiped your eyes with the backs of your hands.
“Great, another stray,” Murphy said.
“Ignore him,” Garnett told you, “and welcome aboard.”
Everyone began to file back into the truck, but you spoke up before anyone made their way inside. “I actually have a favor to ask—totally understand if I’m asking too much, so feel free to tell me no—but does anyone happen to have a spare pair of pants?” You shyly looked down to your bare legs and held out the skirt you were wearing as if to illustrate your need. The group just chuckled at you, some shaking their heads apologetically. You even thought you spotted a smile on 10K’s lips, along with a complimentary red tint to his cheeks, though you were sure you just imagined it.
“Ditto on that pants thing!” Addy cried out as she hopped into the back of the truck with Cassandra and Mack. Once more, Doc pulled you up into the bed where he, Garnett, and 10K had set up. Warren and that Murphy guy were up front.
As the truck began to roll out, you leaned over to the boy your age and whispered, “Is that a ‘no’ on the extra pants?” He smirked at you, looking you up and down, and licked his lips. It was an involuntary tic, you could tell, but it still made your face heat up and sent a warm bout of butterflies to your stomach.
Garnett leaned over and said, “We’ll stop as soon as we can, and we’ll get you some new clothes.”
“Yeah, this fit is just impractical,” Doc said, motioning to your outfit.
“God, I know, right? And the makeup? Completely unnecessary. But I guess it would have worked for what they had in mind,” you trailed off as a shudder ran through you at the thought of what you could have been forced to do.
10K spoke for the first time since you’d been with them, “What do you mean?” You avoided his gaze and watched Doc give you a knowing, yet comforting, smile.
“It doesn’t matter now, kid,” he told 10K before turning back to you. “You’re safe now.” You smiled back at him before sitting down and making sure you were as covered as the revealing outfit would let you be. You had lost the silk robe, so there was almost no modesty to be found. You tried your best, crossing your legs and covering any skin with the loose fabric of the short skirt.
From where 10K was standing on the opposite side of the truck bed, you watched as he dampened the same cloth you had seen him wash his face with and hold it out to you. You whispered a thanks and began to wipe your face.
“So,” you started nervously as you dragged the cloth across your mouth to rid your lips of the dark red lipstick that had been smeared on them, “what’s ‘10K’ mean?”
“Ten thousand,” was all he said as he watched you, his eyes darting to your lips momentarily.
“Well, yeah, I know that. I mean, what does it mean to you?”
“That’s how many zombies I plan to kill.” He shrugged. You nodded.
“It’s good to have goals,” you lightly teased with a small smirk. “My only goal the past three years has been to stay alive. That tends to be easier with other people,” you trailed off as you wiped black gunk from your eyes. “Haven’t been with people for a while.”
Doc leaned over and patted your boot. “It’s lucky we found you, darling.” You smiled gently at him.
Back in the center of downtown Philly, you jumped as 10K let out a shot. It ricocheted against what looked like the Liberty Bell. “My kinda town,” he said.
Garnett spoke up, saying, “If anybody asks, we were nowhere near that bell.”
The sound of the radio made you perk up. Over it, there was a man speaking to his “peeps down in the Philly area.” You could tell he meant this group. You sat near the open back window and listened, each of your hands holding Cassandra and Addy’s. The three of you cried silently as you listened to his words.
“Whatever it takes. Just stay alive. No questions asked.”