Patton scrunched his nose as a potent smell from the old, dying refrigerator filled his nostrils. Why he was searching in there, he doesn't know. If there was hypothetically anything in there, it would all be rotten by now anyway. He and Logan needed non-perishable items.

Patton sighed in disappointment as he was greeted with nothing but some weird slime like goo connecting the door and the damaged shelves inside, along with an abundance of spiderwebs, and, of course, spiders.

Patton shivered almost violently as he quickly slammed the door and began to back away from the revolting abomination of a fridge, a hand over mouth to muffle his disgusted gags.

Once he had recovered from the brief moment of unwelcome nausea, tears stinging the corners of his bloodshot eyes, he took a deep breath and wiped his saliva-soaked hand on his dirtied jeans.

"Jesus, I never thought that I'd ever come across something that gross, but here we are," Patton sighed as he spun on his heel, sauntering over to the wall-mounted distressed wood cabinet that was nearly falling off the wall. The bubbly man hesitantly wrapped his fingers around the cold metal knob, hastily throwing the door open.

He flinched as an empty can fell down to the ground with a soft, tinny thud once he flung the door open, it cracking at the hinges. He opted to ignore the can on the floor and rather search through the cabinet, pleasantly surprised by what he was greeted with.

Patton let out a heavy sigh of relief as he saw piles upon piles of untidily stacked up cans and containers of, thankfully, non-perishable food items. Canned pasta and peanut butter wasn't the best thing to live off of for the next few months, but it was a start. It was better than dying, Patton reminded himself. He even squealed in delight when he spotted a full box of Twinkies stuffed into the corner of the cabinet.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Logan was scavenging every last bit of any corner of the broken down house that he could get his hands on. He threw blankets and bedsheets of off the bed, nudged around dressers, and even tore out bits of wallpaper and drywall. So far, he had come across a measly dog collar and only one undestroyed blanket. The blanket wasn't soft at all, and it only had room for one person to fit underneath it.

"This'll have to do for now..," Logan thought aloud, pausing to play with the fabric between his fingers. "Unless Patton wants to bring the ripped blankets too. Or maybe we could cuddle underneath this one for warmth," Logan shook his head before his thoughts could continue. Patton was a cuddler, that's for sure, but he in no way ever wanted to sleep (sexually or not) with his best friend. That was just plain weird.

Logan went to search through more of the run down building when he heard bounding coming up the stairs rapidly and excitedly, and for a moment his heart leaped out of his chest when his brain convinced him that a zombie was coming to eat him whole. He let out a breathless sigh, though, as his best friend came into his field of vision.

"Logan! Logan!" He cheered, skipping his way over to Logan. "I found stuff!" He smiled colourfully as his skips stopped abruptly, invading Logan's personal bubble.

"As did I," Logan replied blankly. "What did you find, Patton?"

"I found food, and lots of it!"

"Are they non-perishable food items?"

Patton tilted his head, puzzled. "What does 'non-perishable' mean?"
"It's a term used to describe foods that have an extended shelf life. In other words, they don't need to be refrigerated, and last longer."

"Ohhhhh," Patton dragged out his h's. "Well, you're smart, Logan, so maybe you can help me decipher whether or not they're nonperishable or not!" Patton cheered. Patton absolutely adored Logan's intelligence and admired him at every moment he could. He was pretty intelligent himself, although he didn't know what "nonperishable" meant until now, but nothing that he had stored in his brain could reach what Logan had stored. Logan had even given Patton stitches when he fell out of a tree trying to save a cat. The cat made it out unscathed, however, Patton wasn't as lucky. A deep, blood-spurting wound etched itself into the flesh of Patton's lower belly, turning the grass red. To Patton's surprise, Logan snatched up his first aid kit and cleaned and stitched Patton up himself instead of driving him directly to the hospital. It healed just fine, which was surprising to both of them.

But that was in the past. Right now, they needed to focus on intelligence in a zombie apocalypse.

"Patton?" Logan's perplexed voice startled Patton out of his daydream.

"Huh? Oh hey Logan," Patton chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry."

"It's alright, but what were you thinking about?"

"Nothing," Patton lied; Patton always felt guilty about lying, but he couldn't risk his big secret slipping out at an inappropriate moment.

Logan cocked an eyebrow, but ultimately decided to push his curiosity aside for the time being. He let out an exhale of slight annoyance and picked at his surprisingly long fingernails, absolutely loathing the sudden silence between the two.

"What did you find, Lo?" Patton's higher voice broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I found a dog collar and a small blanket. I was actually going to ask you if you just wanted to take the only undestroyed blanket that I could find, or if you wanted to take some of the ripped up ones as well," Logan gestured to the ravished bed in the room beside the pair, Patton following the trail with his eyes.

"The blanket is only big enough for one person, and I don't think that snuggling would be the right thing to do this early on," Logan continued, watching as Patton's ears dusted a light salmon at the mere mention of snuggling.

"The real question is," Patton whipped his head to look back at Logan. "Why would we need a dog collar?"

"Asphyxiation, I guess," Logan shrugged nonchalantly. "If it came down to it, we could just choke them out. Now, answer my question," Logan commanded strictly. The tone of voice sent harsh shivers up Patton's spine.

"Well, if we take any big blankets, it'll take up more space in our backpack, or backpacks if we are lucky enough to find one. We would probably need to utilize the space that we would hypothetically have with a backpack for things like food, water and first aid," Patton explained thoroughly, watching with the slightest smirk painted on his features as he witnessed Logan's eyes widen in disbelief at what his ears had just heard Patton say. Logan was rendered speechless, something that was incredibly rare to do.

"I-um-- yeah," Logan stuttered. "Right. You're right, Patton. I'll just sleep on the cold ground," Logan muttered, his voice fading off.

"No," Patton denied, causing Logan to quirk an eyebrow once again. "You're snuggling with me whether you like it or not."

"Alright, alright, Patton," Logan gave in, avoiding eye contact to hide his ever-growing blush that rose from his neck all the way up to his ears.

The duo kept up some casual chit chat as they searched around the upstairs of the house more, with Patton occasionally squealing when he managed to find something extremely useful.

________

Once the pair's huge scavenger hunt for much-needed supplies came to an exhausted end, Patton flopped down onto the couch in the busted living room while Logan stood, still pacing the space in front of Patton gently.

"So, in summary, we found: four bottles of water, some canned foods, like meats and pasta, a blanket, and a dog collar," Patton listed quickly, examining the items that he and Logan had arranged across the floor between them. He watched Logan's pacing come to an abrupt end, raising an eyebrow.

"And, we found a first aid kit," Logan reminded his friend, who made a noise of realization and nodded, waving his index finger at Logan to show that he understood.

"Right, right, sorry," Patton apologized with a small chuckle. "But, we still haven't found a backpack. How are we supposed to carry all of this?!" Patton exclaimed, exasperated, as he flopped onto his back on the frankly uncomfortable sofa.

Logan hummed, considering the options, before spotting another blanket that was slung carelessly over the back of the couch that Patton was lazily laid out on.

"Maybe...," He took a few steps closer to the destroyed piece of furniture, being careful to avoid their collected items strewn about the floor, and leaned over Patton's body to swipe up the piece of fabric. "This'll work."

"Patton, would you be so kind and retrieve a large stick for me from outside?" Logan requested softly, playing with the blanket in between his fingertips.

Patton shot up to a sitting position, nearly nearly tumbling to the ground, with a horrified expression washing over his face.

"You want me to WHAT? Alone? Out there?! What if there are zombies, Logan?! What do I do then?! Just... let them eat me?!" Patton yelled in anger and fear, his bottom lip quivering as the anxiety of this whole ordeal finally set in; they would have to leave eventually, and Patton was petrified.

Logan shook his head. "You're strong, Patton. Plus, we're in the middle of virtually nowhere. No zombies would've made their way this far yet," Logan reassured his best friend, using his dark cocoa brown eyes to calm Patton down, staring into his navy blue ones. Staring into someone's eyes oddly helped soothe Patton, and Logan knew this tactic all too well.

After a few tense moments, Patton closed his eyes for a brief second before reopening them, nodding with a quick, confident breath.

"Okay. Okay, Logan. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for," Logan flashed a genuine, caring smile to send Patton the message: Logan would never let anything bad happen to him.

Patton returned the smile and pushed himself off of the dusty piece of furniture, brushing himself off and coughing at the dust that got caught in his throat. He then skipped out the door that had fallen off of his hinges and began searching for a stick like the one Logan had asked for.

Logan continued to play with the found fabric as he tuned into the sound of leaves rustling about from Patton seeking a measly stick. He hadn't heard any screams of terror yet, or the sounds of bones crunching under rotting teeth as flesh was torn to shreds, so that was a plus.

Before Logan knew it, Patton came bounding back into the building with a stick sitting in his hand, holding it out in front of Logan's face.

"Thank you, Patton," Logan gratefully accepted the piece of nature- that was a little sticky, might he add- and quickly got to work, hastily wrapping the blanket around any strong, stray wood sticking up from the main small branch. Patton sat down beside him and watched in fascination.

Only a couple minutes later, Logan has professionally crafted a makeshift bag out of the blanket and the stick that Patton had provided.

"Wow," Patton whispered in awe as he admired the simple, yet so preciously and carefully designed carrying case for their survival items. All thanks to the brilliant, intellectual, Logan Ackroyd.

A small smile crept its way onto Logan's soft lips from Patton's speechless state as he held up his beauty in his hands triumphantly, gleaming with pride.

"Alright, this should work for now," Logan stated as he reached over to the piles of items, shoving each one into the makeshift backpack. First was the food, which was surprisingly light, then the first aid kit, the dog collar, and finally, the water. He soon realized that the extra warmth system would not fit.

"Patton, would you mind carrying the other blanket around your shoulders?" Logan questioned Patton, earning himself a nod of approval.

"Yup! I can certainly do that!"

At that, Logan pushed himself to stand on his aching feet, swinging the bag over his shoulder. Patton followed in suit, except he swung the only good blanket over his shoulders.

"Oh, and uh, before we leave, Patton, we should go grab some knives from the kitchen, if there are any," Logan suggested, gesturing towards the kitchen with his head, his glasses falling out of place for a second.

"You trust that I won't stab myself? Or you?" Patton cocked an eyebrow in half disbelief, half concern for not only him but Logan.

A trusting grin stretched across Logan's lips. "Of course I trust you, Patton."

Patton didn't know how or why the universe decided to make Logan and Patton stumble across each other, not only that but become the best of friends, but he was eternally grateful that it did. Logan made him extremely, overwhelmingly happy, even in a nightmare scenario like this one.

"I saw a pocket knife in there as well as a few steak knives, now that you've mentioned it," Patton nodded, starting to saunter towards the kitchen, Logan following close behind.

"Great, then we can each wield a knife for protection," Logan replied as they made their way over to where some knives were scattered across the faded marble countertop.

"I'd feel more comfortable with the pocket knife," Patton admitted a little sheepishly, wrapping his injured fingers around the small weapon and sliding it off of the surface, clutching it in his hand protectively.

"That's fine," Logan grabbed a much larger knife, examining the blade for any bluntness that might affect the effectiveness of it. When he saw none, he nodded to himself and dropped his arm down to his side.

"Now, shall we go back out there and possibly try to find some others?" Logan inquired, listening to Patton's fearful breath.

"Yup. I'm ready."

"Remember, Patton, we can always come back here should we need it. I suggest that we don't venture too far from the forest so that we can come back and sleep in a bed, at least for the first night," Logan explained, relieved when Patton nodded in agreement.

"Agreed. I really don't wanna spend the first night of the zombie apocalypse on the cold, hard ground," Patton chuckled breathily.

The two shared a final confirmation before heading out the door, feeling ready to face the first wave of creatures.

That confidence probably won't last for long, though.

________

Are you surprised that I actually got off of my lazy ass and wrote a second chapter? I am!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! I'm sorry if this chapter is shitty, and if the book is going slow so far, and if the book is boring so far, but I'm trying. Feedback does give me more motivation, though.

See all of you guys, gals and non-binary pals in the next one!