A NIGHT LIKE THIS

Prompt: I was unaware there was an organized zombie crawl going on and I didn’t realize you were in a costume and I screamed in your face because I truly thought I was facing a zombie invasion. AU

So I doubled this one up with a Soulmark AU.



Anna often worked late hours at her job. It was worth it, since she liked the job and she desperately needed the money. Repairing a fixer upper house was expensive but it was going to be sweet once she finally got it done and over with. At the moment, however, that meant that any social life she had was pretty much dead in the water. She could not remember the last time she had managed to actually hang out and not just flop on her bed when she got home. Speaking of bed, she was tired. So tired. She had gotten off at ten and it had been well and truly dark for a few hours.

The fact that her stomach was trying to eat itself was the only reason she hadn’t gone straight home. The only store open this late was a gas station but they stocked pizzas and chocolate doughnuts. The dinner of champions. As tired as she was she hadn’t noticed the mob of people until one of them came up right on her.

It was funny in hindsight. There had to be about twenty people and they weren’t silent. Oh no, they were moaning and groaning like a bunch of the undead. And dressed like them too. Several of them had these shiny markers on them to make their darker clothes pop out. Any way that a mob could be noticeable, short of rioting, they were doing. But Anna hadn’t noticed until one of the buggers had come up and close.

She had startled when she noticed the person. Then stared when she realized what they looked like. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened as her brain hit high gear. Standing in front of her was a woman as pale as moonlight, with a bloody sweater and blood that dripped from her mouth. Her cheeks were hollowed and she looked like she had a large chunk bitten out of her neck.

Like a deer in the headlights, Anna stared until the woman raised a hand and reached for her.

Then she went bug fuck crazy.

“HOLY SHIT FUCK GOD BLESS AMERICA!” She brought her bag up and over, hitting the woman square in the chest. It cost her dinner and probably even her wallet, but who the fuck cared about the wallet when a zombie apocalypse was going on?! She turned to run only to find another zombie, this one larger and a giant that had both hands out.

“FUCK!” Anna jumped up and drop kicked the bastard. Or rather tried. Her attempt failed quite epically as he caught her.

“Whoa! Lady! Chill.” Still she fought, placing her foot in his face as she tried to get out of his hands. Tears forming on her face all the while. This wasn’t how she wanted to go out. She really, really hadn’t thought about it, but she knew that getting eaten alive was going to be on the Top Ten sucky ways to die list if she ever wrote one.

“It’s just a zombie crawl. Man, stop ow. That hurts.” Anna tried to steady her breathing. Freezing as she realized the zombie was talking.

“There we go. Calm down. Nothing to worry about. Now, I’m going to put you down. Are you going to hit me?”

The sudden nature of the question had her responding honestly, “Yes. Because this was a bullshit thing to do and a bullshit thing to happen.”

“Okay, never mind. More happy time hugs.” Anna grunted and pinched the guy. Not happy at all to being given bear hugs from a stranger. Even if it was from a hunky and well muscled guy. Okay, the hunk part was okay, the stranger part was not. She felt herself moved gently to one arm as the guy walked over to the other zombie. Oops, she forgot about that lady.

“Hey. Els? Are you okay?”

“Just peachy. I hate you and I hate everything,” said the the girl on the ground

“Aw, you love me. Besides, I believe you owe this lady an apology. After how you scared her and all.”

“Sorry, I was in character, how ever could you forgive me?” The sarcasm was dripping from the words, but Anna didn’t care about that. The words were familiar and they should be. They had been tattooed on her upper arm since birth.

“Holy shit, you’re my soulmate!”

“Wait. You’re the pottymouth! I got in trouble for reading your words the first time! Soap! So much soap!” Anna started laughing at the sheer amount of amused indignation.