Samuel and Arthur were, as far as they knew, the last humans left alive. The dawn of the apocalypse brought death, destruction, and heartbreak. Samuel lost his parents, Arthur watched his brother turn into one of the undead, and they soon found each other. They call themselves the New Hope Brotherhood. Their mission was to somehow bring back the human race, perhaps by curing the zombies. Their chances were slim, but what else could they do?

On they drove, heading for nowhere, neither of them having eaten for days. "Surely there's some convenience store somewhere," Samuel murmured. "Right?"

"Of course," Arthur replied, in all honesty having no idea. "Don't worry. We'll find food. Eventually."

Samuel sighed deeply, staring out the window upon barren soil. There was a terrible drought; Samuel couldn't remember the last time it rained. He felt sick from hunger, and knew that if they didn't eat soon, they would starve. He was quite thirsty as well. Finding water would be a difficult task, but they had to. "Where are we?"

"Not sure. Someplace southern maybe. I dunno."

"You'd think we would have found something by now. Anything. There's just nothing for miles."

"Don't worry. We'll find something."

Samuel rubbed his tired face. "I can't remember when I ate last. I'm starving. Literally."

"I am too, but complaining won't do anything."

They drove for another hour or so, in that hour only seeing a few abandoned cars and some walkers. Arthur called them that; it just sounded better than zombies. Eventually they found a small house with a broken porch swing and a chimney, the walls painted a pale yellow and it looked quite cozy. "Samuel, I think we've found ourselves a winning lottery ticket," Arthur grinned, happy to have finally found, well, anything.

They departed from the car, Arthur opening the door, looking around for any walkers that might have wandered inside. He didn't see any, so took a step forward. The floorboards creaked, causing him to tense at the sound. He reminded himself that they were alone, and he was just being paranoid. "Be careful; anything could be in here," he warned Samuel.

Samuel walked past him. "Don't worry so much, Arthur. It's not like walkers can open doors. They don't have the brain cells for that."

"I wouldn't say anything like that. It always turns out the opposite of what that person said. Don't jinx it, Sam."

He merely scoffed, heading toward the kitchen. "Please. There's no such thing as a jinx."

Arthur followed him. "Saying that causes jinxes to be real. True story."

Samuel opened the fridge while Arthur looked in the pantry. There wasn't much; some bread and peanut butter, instant noodles, salt, pepper, and sugar. "Not much in here. We could make sandwiches or noodles or something. You find anything?" He looked over at Samuel who was already eating some cold pizza that was clearly leftover from who knows how long ago. "Samuel, do you even know how old that pizza is?"

He looked to Arthur. "I don't care! It's food! And it's good! Pizza doesn't go bad, right?"

It was better than nothing, Arthur supposed. He checked the bread; it had mold on it. Rather than sandwiches, perhaps he could just have peanut butter or something. He looked back at Samuel, but before he could speak, he saw a walker wandering out from another room, right behind him. His heart leapt into his throat, and he suddenly couldn't breathe, but he managed to call out, "Walker!"

Samuel whipped his head around to find the walker, yelping as it attacked him. Arthur fumbled for his gun that he kept in his back pocket, but before he could even cock it, he heard a shot fire. He looked back at Samuel, who had fallen to the ground, holding out his gun in his trembling hands; the walker lay slain before him.

They both took a moment to catch their breath. "Are you okay?" Arthur asked.

Samuel remained silent, lowering his gun and setting it on the ground. "Fine."

"That shot probably got other walkers' attention. We should probably go, bring some of this food with us."

"I - I don't think I should go anywhere."

A lump formed in Arthur's throat. "W-what do you mean by that?" He asked shakily.

Samuel rolled up his sleeve so the bite mark was more visible.

Arthur's heart stopped when he saw the nasty bite. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He thought it was all a dream, a nightmare. But it wasn't. He couldn't speak, and even if he could, what would he say?

"Arthur," Samuel began solemnly. "You know what you have to do."

"No," was Arthur's instinctive response. "I can't do it. I can't."

"You have to. I can't turn into one of those things."

Arthur squeezed his eyes shut, part of him hoping that when he opened them again this would all go away. The other part of him knew it was a lie. "I can't." His voice was barely above a whisper as tears formed in his eyes. He opened them, looking to the sad eyed Samuel. He loved him, more than Samuel knew. He kept it all inside, fearing rejection. Though now seemed like his last chance. As a tear rolled down his cheek he whispered, "I love you."

Samuel seemed to break inside. "I... I love you too."

~

Arthur knew how this went. He went through the same thing with Theo, his brother. He never wanted to go through that again, yet here he was, holding Samuel's hand and he laid on the couch in the den, coughing and wheezing. It was devastating to watch. "Arthur, please. I can't turn into one of those things. Please. It'll be a mercy killing."

He couldn't bear to think of that. He didn't want to see Samuel dead, he couldn't live with that. "Maybe... maybe we could find a cure. There - there has to be a cure. Right?"

"There isn't one. Who are we kidding?" He coughed violently into his hand, blood spewing past his lips. "There's no cure for this, it's hopeless."

Arthur shook his head. "No. I... I refuse to believe that. No. I love you, Samuel. There - there has to be a cure. There has to be."

"Don't you think someone, somewhere, would have found it by now?"

"Maybe... maybe we really are the last ones left. Or... maybe someone found the cure but they died before they could do anything with it, I don't know. But I know for a fact that I won't let you die. And I certainly won't let you become a walker."

"Where would you even look for a cure? Where would you go?"

He couldn't come up with an answer. "I have no idea. But I can't let you go. I can't."

"Yes you can. I know it's hard but you have to. Not everyone gets a happy ending. Just look around. Who on this entire planet got a happy ending, Arthur?"

"I wanted us to. I... I wanted to save the world with you."

Samuel coughed again, breathing raggedly. He looked to Arthur with bloodshot eyes. "I'm not really up for that, I'm afraid," he chuckled briefly. He reached into his pocket and got his gun, taking Arthur's hand and enclosing the fingers around the handle. "Please. Please. You have to."

Arthur shook his head, looking upward to keep his tears in. "I can't. I can't. I... I've already shot my brother, I can't do the same to you." He looked back down, tears falling from his eyes. He sobbed silently, staring at Samuel's gun. He couldn't.

"I'm sorry. I'm so... so sorry. You have to. Please."

After a beat, Arthur took the gun, standing on his feet. He pointed the gun at Samuel's head, quickly turning away. He couldn't do this. He couldn't.

"Arthur, it's okay," Samuel spoke past tears. "It'll be okay. I promise."

"It won't. It won't." He turned again to look at Samuel. The situation was dire; he could turn at any moment.

"Please. You have to."

He closed his eyes, trying to rationalize. He knew that as soon as he looked at Samuel again he would melt. But he knew this was the right thing to do. He opened his eyes, seeing Samuel with dark bags under his reddened eyes, sweat forming on his face. He looked awful. He was right; a mercy killing. But no matter how much Arthur repeated this in his head, he couldn't fight the ache in his stomach.

He pointed the gun at Samuel again, his hands shaking like leaves. He felt sick to his stomach, but he had to do this. "I'm sorry, Samuel," he rasped.

"It's okay. Just make it quick."

He took a deep breath. "I love you."

BANG!

(A/N: IM DEAD JNSIDE JECIS CHRISY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I'm also working on a pirate AU but I suck at writing pirate AU's so hehE 😃

Sorry for the feels. If anyone other than Ev is reading this :)

...is there anybody out there?)