Chapter 1: 1989 Honda Civic
Summary:
Gabriel finds a river, sees it's polluted and just gives up on finding drinkable water. He turns to see a Honda Civic, which he hotwires to make it drive for him. And when he drives around the small city he was in, he finds possible life--that he's not the only one alive.
Notes:
welcome to a new series!! I've never tried writing apocalyptic scenarios before so it's my first ever time so apologise if it's not what you imagined it to be!!
Chapter Text
Gabriel tiptoed along the straits of a city he was never much familiar with. The silence and emptiness of the streets he walked in echoed every little step he made. Bodies littered the roads and sidewalks. Beside him where his destination was were ten television screens all playing the same channel and coincidentally, the news channel. The television screens were all cracked and some had broken LEDs so the videos were cut off. His eyes darted across all the screens in an attempt to solve the headline puzzle. Any news was important to the Brazilian. Even the minuscule ones like Taco Bell had a new menu item available in their restaurants if they did have one. Anything worked. However, there was one piece of news he wanted to read or hear from the news anchor himself. When are the airports going to open again? He thought, slamming his fist into the window of the department store. There was nothing much to the store except for the flickering lights in it and the neon sign outside. No one knew if the news was reliable anymore since everyone believed a lot of the population was wiped out. All the food in all the stores were stolen and bought out by frantic citizens who Gabriel never ended up seeing again. How has he survived this mess? He doesn't know himself. All he had was money and a shit ton of it as well. What could he do with it with barely a hundred people in the city that used to be filled with millions. Bribery? But when people are hogging and hoarding everything to themselves, money, no matter how much, wouldn’t help out when it was almost worth nothing.
Street lamps flickered slightly with broken glass shards dropping onto the concrete sidewalk. Almost some shards fell on Gabriel’s messy hair. He looked back on the glass pane with his granite-covered fist print stamped onto it and glanced at his hands. The crinkling sounds of the river flowing through the city were almost never audible to the Brazilian’s ears but now they were. He licked his lips with the little saliva he had in his mouth. The dirty river water looked tempting. Maybe even appealing. To the privileged Brazilian, he had never drunk such undrinkable water in his entire young adult life. But when you live in a world where capitalism doesn’t exist anymore and it’s the survival of the fittest, anything is potable.
He dragged his slim body to the banks of the river. His shoes and socks were about to fall apart if they hadn't already. But as he arrived at the fence barricading the stream, he almost wanted to walk away. The river was littered with plastic of all forms but mainly plastic disposables. Most of them were covered in soil particles. The Brazilian knew his body wasn’t going to survive the intoxicating water. He just never developed the immunity to it. He managed to see old phones surfacing on the water, some had their family on the lock screens. Gabriel couldn’t take his eyes off them. He started sniffling and he teared up whatever water he had in his system. “Don’t cry. Don’t cry.” Gabriel murmured to himself, surprised at the rashness of his voice. When you have lived alone for so long, you forget how your own voice has sounded. He still wore his team’s kit though it was ripping apart bit by bit. His white cargo pants were already stained till it was every colour but white. He wiped away the little snots he had in his nostrils, flicking it into the river. He used to be surrounded by many people, not just his fans but his team’s mechanics, engineers and his annoying social media team. No wait, he was the annoying one. And they loved him for that. And where was that love and warmth now? Now the only thing surrounding him was the cold air of the near winter. He never thought he’d live his last days like this. How long has it been since…it happened?
***
He never really liked the Red Bull ring. Why did one entire team have their own circuit on the race calendar? No, not one team. Two teams. It wasn’t fair. Why could a drink company have two teams on the grid of ten teams. They basically had four drivers on the grid. Fortunately, he managed to get into the points with his slow ass Sauber which everyone called a tractor and he fully understood why. He only accepted the position in Sauber purely because he believed he could drag a car that bad into legacy. Or at least try.
But as soon as the race had ended, engineers and strategists of the Sauber team were rushing him into the pit building, slamming closed the garage door. Pandemonium had struck. Fans were running indoors, abandoning bulky possessions like signs to show support to the drivers. Pit walls abandoned. Cars abandoned. Some people in the garage were holding their heads in a brace position. “What’s going on?” Gabriel mouthed to his performance engineer across the garage. His body quivered, shaking his head slowly to the Brazilian. Gabriel turned his head to the people beside him, questioning the same questions. What could possibly cause such panic in the Red Bull ring? Terrorism possibly? No. It inherently wasn't that in the slightest.
“Meteor showers NASA never managed to detect were seen all across the world with meteoroids the size of two buses striking onto Earth’s surface. ‘The meteor belt in our solar system has collapsed and all the rocks from that belt are falling on our planet’ NASA reports. Is it the end of the world? I really hope not.”
Gabriel was shown a live streamed news report with the reporter already running for his life. No way they were going to survive this incident. No way in hell. Meteors the size of two buses? He’d better call his family and wish them well. And he never got to see them in person again. He whipped out his phone and rapidly sped dialled his mother. Tears streamed down his face, trying his best not to choke on his words when speaking to his mother. But the call was disconnected. Mobile service was down. No one was running it. Everyone for themselves. The Brazilian dropped his phone down and curled into a ball.
His life was about to end.
***
Funny little story Gabriel remembered. The meteor showers lasted a few days and basically destroyed so many buildings. People were risking their own lives to get some food and water for themselves. Even a step outside of bomb shelters could mean death. He remembered the engineers running for their lives when they heard there were 30 minutes of no hazards. Everyone was driving to be with their families. But that ended up killing them since it was an inaccurate report and the falling of space rocks continued in about 5 minutes. Gabriel never actually walked out of the garage for those few days. He never really had family to see for those thirty minutes with cell service down.
Gabriel’s breath began to condense with that frost coming out of his mouth. The clouds were covering the sun of daylight and snow began to fall. It was July yet it looked like December. How ironic. The season had ended as well. Drivers had part ways too. Just no driver’s dinner he was hoping for in his first year in Formula 1. All his rookie friends were gone. He didn’t know if they were alive or not. In his heart they were still alive and constantly talking to him. Loneliness really hit him hard these past few days. He still had his phone in his back pocket. It was relatively useless now so he took it out and threw it in the river along with the rest of the junk. He even spat at the river when his phone sank down. He ruffled his hair a little bit before turning away from the river after a while of reminiscing.
As he turned, he noticed a shape at the corner of the street. A dusty old 1989 Honda Civic. It looked second-hand with the headlights yellowing. He saw a bunch of cars ranging from SUVs to Mustangs and convertibles as well as super cars when he was walking the highway to this tiny city he was in. He couldn’t read any of the Austrian signs but if it pointed to somewhere his gut thought was interesting, he’d go. When he was on the highway, he tried working the other cars but even after hotwiring it, it wouldn’t move. But, Gabriel wanted to try again with the Honda Civic in front of him.
He walked up to the car sluggishly and pulled onto the door handle. Locked like the rest of them. He wasn’t gullible but he still wanted to try. He sighed slightly before scanning at the sidewalk. He walked up to a dying tree planted in the sidewalk and grabbed a reasonably sized sharp rock from the soil pile. Tossing it in his hand, he walked back to the window at the driver’s seat and hovered the sharp point of the rock over the corner of the window and forcefully tapped onto the window. Gabriel jumped back a little. The cracks across the entire window looked like an artwork of some sort before shards of glass collapsed outside and inside the car.
The Brazilian walked carefully back to the car, avoiding every glass shard he could see and wincing at every glass shard he did step on. He stuck his hand into the inside of the car and took a while to open it for him. He swept off the shards on the black cushioned seat and sat onto it. It had been a while since he even sat on something that comfortable so he ravished in the comfort before he looked for the steering column. He saw the plastic in front of him calling his name. The Brazilian smirks with the same rock from earlier and stabs the plastic, pulling it away to reveal messes of wires. He unplugged the ignition wire harness connector with ease, laying the wiring in his hands. Gabriel smiled at the red, yellow, blue and black wiring in his hands. He pinched onto the red and yellow wires, twisting them together and seeing the sparks fly. The interior of the car lights up with the fuel whirring behind him. The Brazilian chuckled under his breath. Quickly, he brought the red and yellow wiring to the blue ones and pulled the blue wire when he heard a little click.
And the engine roars to life.
Gabriel laughed excitedly out loud, dancing in his seat and turning the steering wheel with his hands, tossing the wires back in the steering column. He dropped his right hand onto the lever of the manual car, shifting it into third gear and pressing onto the pedal, driving off into the street of the city.
It felt a lot slower to what he remembered a third gear drive should feel. Maybe it was because the car was sitting there in the soon to be freezing temperatures. His skill wasn’t lost when he turned at a tight corner and made it out when going over any kerbs. “Maybe if I find the other drivers we can race again in this city. It has some amazing corners.” Gabriel joked. As he was driving in the middle of the city, he saw a lit bakery across the street. He didn’t manage to see it earlier but for it to still be lit after all forms of electricity was shut down just a day ago, it was strange to see.
He parked his car a block away from the bakery, just in case of something dangerous being there. He delicately pushed open the door and walked to the bakery with hands in his pocket. Someone could be in there and he needed to look…approachable. But with the way Gabriel was looking when he stared into his reflection in the glass pane of torn down buildings, he looked like anything but approachable.
“Gabriel?”
As if it was a trauma trigger, he looked to the sound of the voice that called his name. Eyes filled with the glimmers of hope. Outside the bakery he was heading to, he saw a blonde figure wearing the same clothes as he was. Just a little bit more tidy and clean. He almost wanted to run to the blonde but he collapsed to his knees. The blonde ended up running to him as he was falling, catching him in his hands. “Nico?” Gabriel murmured, trying to not sound like he had a sore throat, “Is that you?”
“Yes it’s me.” Nico smiled.
Chapter 2: Penelope's Pastries
Summary:
Gabriel wakes up in an abandoned bakery, the exact same one he had spotted across the street when he was driving his Civic. And it's snowing badly. So, Nico and him scrap the snow off his Civic parked outside the bakery which Nico moved from that block where it was originally parked.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Gabriel slowly opened his eyes and found him staring at a dark ceiling with gusts of wind blowing at him occasionally. His hands felt around for grip to sit up but in his hands, he accidentally crumpled something that felt fibrous under him. He pushed himself up immediately, darting his eyes around to see what he was lying on. Flattened and torn apart paper bags. Paper bags that said something in Austrian the Brazilian presumed but the only thing he was able to read was the word “Penelope” and it was even spelt weirdly. Light was shining from the doorway in front of him and he peeked out to see Nico leaning in a roller chair sleeping with his arms crossed and legs overlapping each other on the counter. He opened his mouth ever so slightly but the snores coming from the man were louder than fans screaming for their life back at the Red Bull ring. Weird…reminder, Biel. He gave out a disgusted face to himself. He looked around what he assumed to be a bakery and was surprised to see dimly lit lights and tables in front of a showcase filled with nothing but price stands and empty plates.
“Gabriel, what are you doing up so late at night?”
The Brazilian snapped his neck to Nico’s direction who was already yawning with sleepy eyes. Perhaps he accidentally woke him up. The German rubbed his eyes slowly and leaned forward to Gabriel a distance away. Gabriel gave an awkward look to Nico, slowly going back to behind the wall by the doorway but realised what the German had just said. “Late at night? I thought it was still daylight out?” Gabriel questioned the German, standing up already and leaning against the door frame. As the Brazilian was standing up, he almost lost balance of himself. Nico scoffed at the Brazilian turning his chair away for a second before dragging it to him. The German got up and commanded Gabriel to sit in the chair, worried he might not be able to walk without looking drunk, as he pulled out a plate of food covered in Saran Wrap from a fridge and pushed it in Gabriel’s hands. “You look like you haven’t eaten for days.” Nico laughed, scrubbing the counter top with a dirty rag. “Because I haven’t.” Gabriel mumbled, unwrapping the Saran Wrap delicately.
Nico himself grabbed a chair from in front of the counter and sat in front of the Brazilian, who was shoving the pastry down his throat. Stale like those military rations but how could he know what it tasted like, he was never a soldier. “What are you doing here late at night?” Gabriel asked with his question slightly muffled. Maybe slightly was an understatement with the way Nico looked at him as if he spoke in a completely different language. Nico smiled slightly after a while of silence between the two, chuckling so softly that it was barely audible. “This is my place while the entire apocalypse is going on.” Nico replied, crunching the Saran Wrap on his plate in his fist, “A nice little bakery someone abandoned.” The German took one big bite out of his tart, closing his eyes in some sort of delicious food satisfaction. “Shame honestly. They make good pastries.” Nico commented, chewing on his tart.
The Brazilian smacked his lips, trying to remember the taste of the pastry he had just devoured and ended up nodding to the German as if they knew what they were both tasting. The bakery reminded him of those restaurants he would see in old American movies but it had that tang to it–that European piece of culture to it like pictures of famous Austrian infrastructure. Outside of the bakery was snow falling with already the ground layering with snow so much that he could see it from the inside of the bakery through the glass. “That’s a…lot of snow.” Gabriel murmured, tossing the Saran wrap into the trash bin right next to him. “Sure is huh.” Nico acknowledged, looking at the glass with the flickering lights of the bakery flashing on them. The German took another big chomp into his tart, looking at Gabriel with the look that was purposely focused on the food. The snow began looking like something out of a winter wonderland. Something you’d see in an old Christmas movie.
“You drove here right?” Nico suddenly asked with a very muffled speech.
Oh shit. He did.
Gabriel dropped the plate he held in his hands onto the chair as he sprinted to the door of the bakery. He pushed it surprisingly with ease and saw his car completely covered in snow. “Shit shit shit shit.” Gabriel muttered under his breath with his hand on his head, shivering, as he pulled open the door again, collapsing on a metal chair with a thumb on his lip. Nico stared at the Brazilian worriedly, putting aside his almost finished tart and folded his arms. Gabriel changed his sitting position again, sniffling a little but loudly. Nico walked up to the Brazilian and sat on the edge of the table beside him, placing his hand on his shoulder. “Need help?” The German offered, directing his eyes to the kitchen in the bakery, “There should be some brooms and scrapers in there.”
As the German and Brazilian frantically looked for the said brooms and scrapers, it apparently looked like the kitchen had been swept out with them having to check specific corners multiple times and to no avail, absolutely nothing but dust and cobwebs. “Why did they take the brooms with them?” Nico questioned softly, staring at the stove while scratching the back of his neck, “Were they going to…fly off into the sunset with the brooms?” “Hey, maybe that’s why this city is so abandoned. Never found a single person but you yet.” Gabriel replied to Nico’s joke, finger gunning the German. Nico lifted up his foot and took off his shoe. He tossed it to the Brazilian who barely managed to catch it. “Can see why you didn’t play any ball sports.” Nico commented, taking off his other shoe and tossing it in his hand. “I’m sorry but why am I holding your shoe?” Gabriel asked, clearly taking offence to Nico’s words, tossing said shoe in the air. The German caught his own shoe mid-air, snatching it back from Gabriel. “Using it as an alternative for the brooms. If you don’t want to use mine, use yours.” Nico deadpanned, pulling open the kitchen door back out into the restaurant part of the bakery. “Hey what the–” Gabriel wanted to find some excuse for not using his air forces but if he had to…
“So, how do you handle snow in Germany?” Gabriel asked Nico as he scraped off half of the snow off his windshield with his own shoe when Nico refused to give him his.
“Stay inside, drink some hot drinks and watch some winter sports with my family.” Nico replied blankly, wiping the Brazilian’s Civic with a towel he found in the kitchen.
“You know in Brazil, some of us have snow but not me and my family.” Gabriel added, pushing more snow off the windshield and into the snowy grass, “So, I’m new to this whole winter thing.”
A silence fell over the two as they continued removing snow off Gabriel’s car. Nico then slammed his shoe onto the roof of the car, looking at Gabriel menacingly. “You destroyed the window to the driver’s seat?” The German asked, already knowing the answer to his question. Gabriel ignored Nico for a hot minute as he continued shivering, trying to savour every warm breath, in the climate they were in. He looked up to Nico with a blank expression, as if he wasn’t already ignoring the German, then smiling nervously at the German. “Oh you were serious.” Gabriel said, his expression dropped, “How else was I supposed to drive the car?”
“You’re stealing a car.” Nico scolded the Brazilian.
“And you’re residing in someone else’s bakery.” Gabriel shouted at Nico, slamming his own shoe on top of the car, “How’d you go in? Kill Penelope?” Gabriel pointed at the flickering vintage sign of “Penelope’s Pastries” he couldn’t read.
“You didn’t need the car–”
“THE CAR WAS THE ONLY PLACE I HAD WARMTH TO THIS WINTER IF I HADN’T SPOTTED THE BAKERY, NICO!” Gabriel continued his point, swiping his shoe back and pushing off the snow off the trunk of the car, “It’s like saying you didn’t need the bakery.”
The crunches of snow were the only things filling up the silence between the two before the German decided to speak up again.
“Besides that,” Nico pointed into the car with narrow eyes, refusing to apologise, “because you broke the window, snow got in so we got to clean the inside too. And usually I wouldn’t be so pissed if we had a vacuum cleaner but we don’t!”
“There is–? Oh…” Gabriel leaned in to the passenger window to see the heap of snow in his driver’s seat he hadn’t even noticed somehow with realisation in his voice.
Nico sighed, bending down and holding onto his knees with white frosty breath leaving his mouth. He threw a towel onto the roof of the car and headed back into the bakery, giving a peace sign to the Brazilian. Gabriel, about to protest against Nico leaving with something along the lines of “This is not a one man mission”, kept his mouth shut and walked around the car to the driver’s seat. Every little filter in the seat he could see was filled with snow particles and his carpeted flooring was littered with snow as well. He groaned loudly, looking at the German dropping his bit of tart into his mouth and dramatically chewing it. The Brazilian snarled at the German softly before focusing his attention back on the car. Why am I doing this at night? Gabriel thought to himself as he continued sweeping the snow off the seat.
“Never thought I’d see an F1 driver sweeping a seat full of snow.”
Gabriel turned his neck around, already smiling from ear to ear knowing he found another human being and a familiar voice was it too. And in fact, it was two human beings. One man wearing his iconic cap and another in his black, red and white team kit. Gabriel immediately got up to hug the two despite the fact that he was covered in soot. “Good morning to you too, Gabi.” Ollie smiled, hugging the Brazilian even tighter. Max pulled away from the hug, walking towards the bakery, mouthing something like “Penelope Pastries” before entering the bakery. Nico walked out when Max walked in, throwing Gabriel a heat blanket and instructed him to head in. “I’ll deal with…whoever you’re talking to. You’re practically almost frozen, go warm up.” Nico commanded, pushing the Brazilian into the bakery. He sighed, tossing up his shoe again to finish removing all the snow on the car.
Gabriel sat in a booth by the window of the bakery, staring at Nico doing his work while covering himself neck to toe in the heat blanket. He watched the German scrape off every little bit of snow left with a concerned expression on his face. Oliver was just standing behind Nico, a little offended. Gabriel cupped his hand and stuck to the window with his head at one end of his palm, shouting, “You didn’t even say hi to Ollie behind you!” Nico turned back and didn’t wave a hello. He looked back, shrugged his shoulders and continued cleaning. As Gabriel got warmer on the inside of the bakery, the figures of Max and Oliver began to lower in opacity in some sort. The Brit behind the German looked more translucent like compared to the completely opaque German. And when Gabriel turned his head to look around for the Dutch, he was already gone.
Nico walked back in, towel hanging on his shoulder and sat across from Gabriel in the booth. He tapped onto the Brazilian’s shoulder, asking if he was alright. Gabriel barely got the message but nodded anyway which made Nico’s face soften. The blue eyes of the German somehow calmed the Brazilian down from what was happening and somehow, he managed to put his questions into words for the German.
“So Ollie and Max…” Gabriel murmured, “...were hallucinations?”
“It’s normal honestly when you’re alone and cold. I don’t blame ya.” Nico reassured the Brazilian, removing his hand off him, trying to warm himself up.
“So what was real?” Gabriel asked the German as if he knew the answer.
The German looked at the Brazilian’s concerned stare. His eyes darted all across the room and even outside of the bakery where the Brazilian’s Civic sat. He sighed a little, sitting up in an upright posture and leaning to Gabriel. His main mission was to reassure the Brazilian that everything was okay.
“I don’t know. I can’t see what you see after all but I can reassure you that the car is re–”
“Are you real?” Gabriel asked, interrupting the German’s answer.
Nico stuttered for a moment before giving up on replying to the Brazilian. Gabriel continued shivering in the heat blanket but not as much as he was outside the bakery. His heart was quickening. He could feel the heat flowing back in his body. Nico pretended not to look like he was affected by the climate, rubbing his forearms slowly. Gabriel opened his mouth, about to say something but resisted. Nico saw the Brazilian’s attempt to not make things awkward between the two. Only a few days had they not seen each other. Only a few days of no racing between the two. Only a few days of apocalypse and so much has changed between the Brazilian and the German. Nico wanted to apologise for earlier but Gabriel already changed the topic. “Do you think we’ll see the sun again? My hallucination of Ollie said it was morning already.” Gabriel opened up the conversation, not expecting the German to reply. Nico exhaled out a long one. He looked at the sky like the Brazilian did. The greyish and white clouds overlapped each other with no sign they’ll make way for daylight. Nico had to answer Gabriel but in a way that didn’t seem like all hope was lost even though it probably was given the situation.
“If it exists, surely we’ll see it again.”
Notes:
gng this DOES NOT sound like a romance at all
Chapter 3: Two shots
Summary:
Nico meets Max and Oliver and they bring him to a bar to get some jackets they had so he could survive the winter.
Notes:
i need to stop looking at instagram while writing chapters
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Nico couldn’t sit still. How could he survive the apocalypse? No, that was not the question lingering in his head. It was how long could he survive the apocalypse. No human could survive under these circumstances. They’d all die. That was something he took a while to accept. He could barely remember how he even arrived at a lady’s bakery shop. He could barely remember what he did in those few days of apocalypse. It was so…unexpected. And now he probably would never even see the sun again. He would never see his family again. That would take even longer to accept. The German left the store with the open sign facing the outside world. Even when it was closing time, he would turn the sign and shut everything down as if he managed the place. Well, he did for the time being until this Penelope person returns…that is if she does.
He had given the Brazilian his own sleeping area in the bakery. The booths were comfortable but they were too short for his stature. He eventually did settle on a quiet corner away from public view (if there was one) that had a slightly ajar window opened. He never expected to see Gabriel curl into a ball as his sleeping position, hugging onto the heat blanket tightly with a soft smile on his face. The German sat beside the sleeping Brazilian with his legs stretched and hands supporting him behind his back. “Gabi,” He murmured to the Brazilian who’d he knew would not converse with him, “how long do you think we’d survive this…whole mess. We have I think two or three more pastries left in the fridge that somehow’s still working.” Nico chuckled sadly through his question and comment. The German’s eyes softened and his expression turned even more worryingly. Has he accepted he’s not going to live long? Nico wondered, standing up back to his roller chair behind the counter.
As Nico was walking to the doorway back to the counter, he saw two figures standing by the door, looking up at the sign of the bakery. “Oh shit the hallucinations are getting to me too.” Nico mumbled, brisk walking to the door. He pushed open the door, ready to entertain whatever his mind was trying to ask him to cope but four eyes had darted to his presence.
“You’re not Penelope.”
“And you don’t look like a hallucination.”
One of the figures stuck out his hand, exhaling out a genuine smile he had never seen a while. Nico hesitated to even raise his hand. But the figure took back his hand with a scoff and gave the German a hug. Nico just stood there, absorbing the chilliness from the man hugging him that somehow had a slight warmth to it. He could feel the frosty breath of the figure on his shoulders as the figure kept on laughing. “Okay you’re definitely not a hallucination.” Nico laughed along, “How are you, Max?” The Dutch pulled away from the hug, smiling along. He looked a little cross eyed when he noticed the frosty breath coming out of his mouth. “Maybe we should head on inside.” Max pointed to the door, already heading to pull open the door. The second figure followed in, dropping onto one of the booths and sighing. Max dragged one of those rusted metal chairs to one end of the table, which was the end that wasn’t either facing the cushioned seats or bolted to the wall.
“It’s a lot warmer here. Jealous I didn’t find this place earlier.” Max surveyed the entire bakery while approving it at the same time.
“I’m just happy that it seems comfortable. Do you sleep here?” The second figure lifted his face off the seat with hope that the German answered a no.
“We can’t stay here, Ollie. People are waiting for us back at the bar.” Max whispered into Oliver’s ear.
“Bar?” Nico asked, leaning in closely to the two of them.
Oliver awkwardly smiled at the German before turning his head to Max, begging for any help of any kind to get them out of the situation. Max sighed, looking at Nico dead in the eye. “Long story short, it was abandoned as well so we settled there. Unfortunately…no booths.” Max looked back at the Brit who was already stuffing his head in the cushioned seat like he had never seen a booth before. Nico looked at the dark doorway at the back of the bakery, seeing the frosty wind flow in gracefully into the bakery. Should he wake the Brazilian up? No, that’ll be mean for what he had just gone through. A person he hallucinated was actually present and he would not be able to believe it. He would think that the German was playing tricks on him. He would never be able to trust Nico again. He changed the topic in his head to another one, something about that bar Max and Oliver were residing in. “Well, why are you guys here then? You have a nice place to be at. Why risk frostbite outside?” Nico asked, trying not to sound unwelcoming to the two. Max already bursted out laughing, somehow that frosty breath from earlier still escaped his mouth. Oliver got up from his savoring in the booth seats, offering a seat for Max on the booth seat. Max tugged on his jacket that Nico only had just noticed the two were wearing. “What frostbite when you have these?” Max confidently showed off the clearly well insulated jacket they were both wearing. “W-where did you get those? Raided people?” Nico stammered, trying to sound all so sarcastic.
“Our bar has tons.”
Oliver interrupted the two, pulling off his jacket and showing Nico the inside. “See,” the Brit pointed, “it says here two shots which is the bar’s name.”
“But that says–”
“So, you want to come by to our bar and grab some of these jackets for your safety?” Max changed the subject, looking smugly at the German, mouthing the words, “You have a car right outside.”
Nico looked back at the dark hallway at the back of the bakery, only could he imagine Gabriel still shivering even though he was covered by the heat blanket. If the Brazilian ever found out Nico used his car…screw it, giving Gabriel some warmth he could wear was the more important thing right then, it could pay for whatever price Gabriel threw at him. As long as he looked closely, no matter if the people in front of him were hallucinations or not, he’d be able to go back to the bakery hopefully in one piece. He couldn’t bear to see Gabriel dying before him. He had more life to live. Nico had to risk it all.
“I’ll do it.” Nico said, standing up and already walking to the Civic outside the bakery.
“Alright! I’ll guide you there!” Max
After a short travelling distance of approximately a hundred metres which they could’ve easily walked and that two or so minutes of bickering, arguing about German directions and Oliver Bearman being the third wheel to their drama, they arrived at the bar. The German parked it exactly at the front of the bar and got out of the car, looking confusedly at the sign of the bar. “That’s…a lot more explicit than I thought it was going to be.” Nico murmured in German with Max smirking with the dirtiest smirk the Brit and German had seen. “Is this some inside joke I’m completely missing out on?” Oliver questioned with frustration, slamming the door of the fragile Civic. The two completely ignored Oliver with Max frantically checking if the car got damaged and Nico staring into the interior of the bar. Wait a fucking second…
“There’s no one in there.” Nico shouted, turning back to the Dutch as Max laughed in utter amusement.
“Never has been.” Oliver added, still looking slightly confused, “It just has been me and Max at the bar.”
The Brit pushed open the door of the bar with the wind chimes whistling their melodic tunes. Nico leaned against the car, shaking his head at the Dutch still chuckling to the amusement the German brought him. Max shook his head with a half smile on his face, walking in front of Nico, gesturing to him to follow him in, chuckling his last few laughs. The bar looked like every other movie’s bar. Depressing. A cocktail shaker stood on the countertop with a few newer looking bar stools holding onto some jackets. You’d expect there to be some neon signs in a bar or a jukebox or something that made it resemble a bar but the only thing that did was the island bar in the middle of the whole restaurant. And the Dutch was right, it was a lot cooler in the bar than at the bakery. It had some paranormal feeling to it like a cold gust of wind that didn’t feel right. Max grabbed one of the jackets and tossed it forcefully into the German’s arms. The German went ahead and grabbed another one for Gabriel. It looks like his size. Nico thought as he examined one of the smaller jackets. He felt along the leather of the jacket, nodding his head at the authenticity of it all. Nico looked around the entire bar and like Max said, no booths. How could you have a restaurant this big and not have any booths? They were one of mankind’s greatest inventions! Max sat Nico down on the bar stools beside the jackets, pointing to the already behind counter Oliver for some gin tonic.
“You’re a beer lover, aren’t ya, Nico. Want some as well?” Max gestured to a shelf full of beers, some common ones you’d see in your local European supermarket and some exotic ones, “care for a drink?” Tempted, Nico kept his eyes fixated on the bottles of beer that ranged in height and even country of origin. Some even came from places he never thought could’ve made beer. Oliver slid a glass of gin tonic to the Dutch across the counter and Max smoothly grabbed hold of the neck of the glass. He sloshed the liquid around before having a sip of it, smacking his lips at the taste of it.
“What were you looking for when you two were at the bakery?” Nico asked, demanding for answers and eyeing Oliver the entire time, still doubting the people in front of him.
“Don’t bring Ollie into this.” Max said, blocking the Brit’s face from Nico’s line of sight, “It was my idea.”
“From the sound of it, you’re making it sound like you guys wanted to do something to the bakery.” Nico commented, refusing a shot of beer when Oliver offered to pour it for him.
“Actually, Nico,” Oliver replied, shelving the beer back, “we were just looking for food. Our bar doesn’t have a kitchen if you haven’t noticed. And we noticed your bakery looked open so we went to check if there was anyone there so we could claim it as our own.”
Nico slowly turned his head with a “are you kidding me right now” face to the Dutch who was awkwardly smirking at him. Max held his shoulders to his ear, looking at anything besides the German in front of him. After a brief moment of silence, Max dropped his shoulders with a groan. “Okay I just wanted to be in one of those movie bar scenes that made the main character argue with the sidekick or something like that.” Max explained, handing his empty gin tonic glass back to the Brit. Nico rolled his eyes at Max but ended up staring at Oliver cleaning the glass with a rag and placing the wiped glass into a sink of other glasses. “How do you…wash those?” Nico pointed at the glasses in the sink, trying not to gag.
“We don’t.” Max smiled, slowly chuckling at every laugh that came out of his mouth.
Nico looked to Oliver who looked slightly annoyed with Max already mouthed the words, “The river nearby” to Nico without turning to him directly. Max pulled something out of his back pocket, something that looked like it came out of the garbage bin. Scribbles of different coloured ink were used, some of it faded and some of it looked fresh. He opened the scrunched up piece of paper that revealed there to be different calculations on it, some way too advanced for the three to properly understand. “What’s this?” Oliver swooped by and asked.
“It’s a piece of paper about the whole situation so far.” Nico murmured, dragging his finger across different sections of the paper, pointing at the poor drawings of meteors with a fiery tail at the back of them.
“According to this piece of paper that I found lying around,” Max coughed up, “we’d only have a few days at most before we die from hypothermia because our days would get colder and colder. With no one running the electrical generators and none of us here knowing how to, we’d have no heating to deal with the dropping temperatures.”
“So we’re dead?” Oliver concluded, slamming a rag on the counter.
“Seems like it.” Nico barely said out loud.
“And that’s why I asked you to come by the bar in the first place.” Max finally explained, “Since it seems like it’s going to be our last few days on this planet Earth, we should spend our time wisely and try to live as long as possible if you wish.”
Oliver smirked at the Dutch who looked serious but as unserious as well. “Did you only bring it up because you wanted to make it sound like one of those cooler movie scenes?” Oliver asked, smugly smiling at the Dutch. Max nodded admittedly with Nico slamming the counter and leaving the bar, probably annoyed at the Dutch already. Max looked up the ringing wind chimes from the door and saw Nico not looking back at the bar, rushing to get back in the car.
“Come again!” Max waved at the door with a sad smile on his face.
“You think I drove him away?” Max asked, concerned, to Oliver who was carrying a big pail.
“Doesn’t seem like it. It looked like he was a man on a mission.” Oliver replied, waving the Dutch a goodbye before he headed out.
Notes:
fun fact: i know how to bartend