Fanfiction? On my fan site??

He doesn’t remember how he ended up in the woods.

Last he remembered, he was in his house, wasn’t he? Opening the front door to… Something? Hadn’t it been night time? But it was light out, that doesn’t make sense.

Art’s bare feet crunched against the leaves and twigs on the ground, occasionally making him wince when he stepped on something particularly pokey. Something about these woods seemed unfamiliar— It didn’t quite look like the woods around his house, the trees weren’t right. But surely if he picked a direction and kept walking, he’d come across someone who could help.

He rubbed the back of his hand against his bleeding nose. The air didn’t feel dry enough to cause a nosebleed, but that was the least of his worries.

Eventually, he came across a winding dirt road, large enough for cars to travel on it. He looked down either direction, but neither gave any indication as to which way led to civilization faster. So, he picked a direction and kept walking.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Art wasn’t sure if he should consider himself lucky for coming across what seemed to be a military compound. He certainly didn’t feel lucky when their guns were aimed at him. By some miracle, the soldiers seemed to actually listen when he sputtered out an apology and said he didn’t know where he was, and they lowered their guns and escorted him into the base.

He rubbed his nose again as they walked him into one of the buildings. The blood on his face had dried by now, and was coming off in deep red flakes. One of the soldiers stopped by an open doorway, knocking on the frame before saying, “Nurse Garraty. We have someone you need to check out.”

A husky red-headed man stepped just into view, glancing over at Art, before looking back to the soldiers. “Alright, let him in.”

One of the soldiers nodded his head towards the door, and Art walked into what he assumed was the infirmary, based off the man called Nurse Garraty and the array of medical equipment. Nurse Garraty reached over and shut the door behind Art, leaving the two soldiers outside the room. He motioned to the exam table, before walking to a cabinet and pulling out some gloves. Art sat himself atop the exam table, letting his legs dangle.

“So,” Nurse Garraty started, pulling on a pair of gloves, “What brings you in?”

“I, uhm, I just got here,” Art said. “I had a nosebleed earlier.” 

“That’d explain the blood,” Nurse Garraty muttered, before giving Art a friendly and assuring smile, “You can call me Ray, it’s nice to meet you,”

“Art Baker,” Art replied in turn, “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Must’ve been in a hurry to get here if you didn’t even put on your shoes,” Nurse Garraty— Ray commented, pulling out a pen light from his pocket and turning it on. “Keep your eyes open and look at my nose.”

Art focused his gaze on Ray’s nose, doing his best not to squint or flinch when the light shone into his eyes. “Where is ‘here’?”

“Walker Compound?” Ray asked.

“Yeah, I… I don’t know how I got here. One second I was at home, the next I was in the woods and found myself here,” Art explained, blinking a few times once the light was pulled away from his face.

“… Huh.” Ray’s eyes looked over Art, most likely looking for signs of bruising or abrasions if Art had to guess. “What’s the last thing you remember, out of curiosity?”

Art narrowed his eyes as he thought. “… It was midnight, there were some bright lights outside… And then I was in the woods.”

“Sounds like the aliens got you,” Ray says in a joking tone.

Art smiles and laughs slightly, too tired for the noise to be enthusiastic. “Could you imagine?”

“Well, with everything going on recently, I wouldn’t exactly say it’s that wild.” Ray turned off the pen light and tucked it back into his pocket.

Art paused. “… What d’you mean?”

Ray looked at Art with a mildly confused expression. “… You know, the invasion?”

“What invasion?”

Ray stared at Art. “… The… The invasion. From the aliens.”

Art let out another tired laugh, “No, really, what invasion?”

“… The alien invasions. They showed up to multiple cities? People had to be evacuated?” Ray motioned his hand, like he was trying to jog Art’s memory for something that wasn’t there.

Art stared at him. “… What?”

“… Oh my god.”

“What??”

Ray looked away, then looked back, seemingly trying to choose his words wisely. “Okay… A few weeks ago, aliens invaded, and people got evacuated to different compounds like this one. Some, uh… Some of the aliens have abducted people, and it sounds like you may have been one of the ones abducted…”

“But… But that doesn’t make sense.”

“Bunch of families all over the country went missing a few days before the aliens invaded,” Ray shrugged, “If you were one of them, it’d explain why you don’t know about the invasions.”

Art tried to think it over. The bright lights from outside his house. The humming that vibrated his bones. The impossibly tall silhouettes.

What happened to his family?

The second the question crossed his mind, his stomach sank, and he knew that they were no more. He couldn’t explain why, there was no memory there to prove it, but he felt in his bones that they had not made it out like he did.

“Art?” Ray’s voice broke him from his thoughts.

Art looked to Ray and tried to swallow down his feelings, “Sorry— Just… Just a lot to take in.”

“I can imagine…” Ray glanced to the closed door for a moment, then back to Art. “Let’s finish up this exam. Next meal is pretty soon— You can sit with me and my friends if you’d like.”

Art nodded numbly, “I… Thank you, Ray.”

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

It was Hank’s idea to add Art to the plan. Only took two days for him to come to this conclusion.

Logically, he knew adding more people to the group could be detrimental, but fuck it. He liked Art. He wanted Art to come along.

He brought it up to the group. Ray and Pete agreed quickly. Stebbins hesitated, but said it didn’t matter to him if they wanted to add another person, so long as they weren’t stupid about it. Hank claimed he was never stupid about anything.

So one night, Hank carefully shook a sleeping Art’s shoulder. Art jumped awake, turning his head and squinting his eyes open at Hank.

“Get up,” Hank whispered.

“Hm?”

“Get up,” Hank urged again, “You want outta here, right?”

Art hesitantly nodded, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He slipped on a pair of sandals someone had kindly donated to him and stood up, narrowly missing bumping his head on the top bunk. Hank grabbed him by the crook of his elbow and led him out into the hall, where Ray and Pete were waiting.

“Where’re we goin’?” Art whispered as the four of them made their way down the hallway, down a flight of stairs, and further down another hall. The lights flickered overhead, and Hank momentarily worried about how long the compound’s generators would function for.

“Sh,” Pete responded, pressing a finger to his lips. Eventually, they came upon the familiar door, and Ray knocked lightly. After a brief moment, the door unlocked and opened, and the four piled in.

Stebbins was already in the room— He always got to the so-called ‘planning room’ first. He waited for everyone to come in, before shutting the door, then turning and looking right at Art. “Who is this?”

“This is Art,” Ray said, putting a hand on Art’s shoulder, “Remember, we’re having him join us?”

“Join y’all for what?” Art asked, his brow furrowing as he looked at Hank.

“You didn’t even tell him?” Stebbins asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“We’re going to leave Walker Compound,” Hank explained to Art, “But they’re real fuckin’ strict about people leaving. And by ‘real fuckin’ strict’ I mean they’ll put a bullet in your head if you try.” Art’s eyes widened.

“So,” Ray points at the map on the wall, where a rough path has been drawn from Texas, to Georgia, to Maine, “We’re figuring out how to leave and where to go from there. Where do you need to get to?”

“… I don’t know,” Art admits, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “I’m from Baton Rogue, but… I don’t think there’s anyone there for me, anymore.”

“Then you’ll come with me and Ray to Maine,” Hank said decidedly. “My girl, Clementine, should be there, and Ray’s family is there too.”

Art hesitantly nods, eyes looking over the maps and plans on the wall and white-board. While Art starts acquainting himself with their written plans, Hank goes to one of the room’s wall outlets, pulling his phone charger and phone from his pocket and plugging them in to charge.

Most people’s phones were dead at this point, but frankly, even if they weren’t dead they were still mostly useless. There wasn’t any wi-fi at the compound as far as Hank could tell, and he was getting no data or cell service out here. Still, he, Ray, and Pete tried to keep their phones charged via the planning room’s outlets, and Hank checked for new messages every night.

He turned his phone on and opened his last text conversation with Clementine. Still no new texts.

He had to imagine she was in Maine. He had already convinced himself that she didn’t make it on the plane that day, and in turn started convincing himself that she had somehow made it back to her house. He knew her home address, from the times he’d mail gifts to her. All he had to do was get there.

And yet, the thought of going on a cross-country road trip brought a vice grip to his heart and throat. The one time— The one time he left his house for a meaningful amount of time in years, the world fucking ended. He couldn’t even get comfort from staying in the compound— His house was a comfortable fortress, ready for an apocalypse and ready for him to live the rest of his days in a survivable comfort. It was familiar. It was safe.

The compound made him feel like a mouse in a blank, sterile cage, full of dozens of other mice. Nothing was comfortable and safe here. The only things Hank could quantify as safe were Ray and Pete, maybe Stebbins— Him being a soldier left that up in the air. One wrong move, and you could potentially just disappear. A few people already had.

Leaving made him want to scream and cry, but so did staying, and only one of those options was going to lead him to Clementine.

Hank set his phone aside and went to the table, grabbing the radio off of it and turning it on. It’s volume was low, and nothing but static came out of the speaker.

“Trying to find music?” Art asked.

“Trying to find a functioning radio station,” Stebbins answered from his spot by the door.

“No luck so far,” Hank adds. At this point even just getting a music station would be a victory in his book.

Art nods a little, before looking back at the white-board. A few details on how they’re going to escape are written on the board, including but not limited to, “Acquire vehicle — find options in the garage,” and “Drug soldiers? Steal uniforms?”

“So, what’s the verdict, Baker?” Pete asked, stepping over to Art’s side. “You gonna come with us?”

Art looks to Pete, then to the map on the wall, then back to Pete before nodded. “Yeah. I think I will.”

“Where d’you think you’ll go after high school?”

“Jail, probably.”

Mary Alice frowned at the girl on the ground. Eloise was on her hands and knees, looking at the bottom row of a library book case for the proper spot for a book. Technically, Mary Alice should’ve been the one looking, she was the librarian’s student assistant after all. But she was wearing a skirt today, and Eloise was a lot more spry than she was. The skirt thing alone made Eloise insist she’d look at the bottom shelves for Mary Alice. So despite the fact that Eloise was probably skipping her sixth period (Mary Alice never actually asked, she didn’t want Eloise to leave) and despite the fact that she wasn’t a library assistant, Mary Alice let her help.

“I mean, will you stay in Maine?” Mary Alice clarified.

“Oh, fuck no,” Eloise replied, finally slotting a book into a spot and sitting back on her haunches. She brushed her dishwater-blonde hair out of her face, “If I never see snow again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Where will you go, then?” Mary Alice asked, starting to push the library cart down the aisle. Eloise hopped to her feet to follow.

“Florida— That’s where I’m from. Where my mom lives, too. Second I’m eighteen, I’m ditchin’ dad and runnin’ straight to her,” Eloise declared. “What about you?”

“… I think I’ll go to Texas,” Mary Alice mused.

“Is that where you’re from?”

“Technically, I’m from Guam.”

“… What?”

“Daddy was based at a military station there when Mama was pregnant with me.”

“Where the fuck is Guam??”

Mary Alice paused, staring off into the distance the way she did whenever she was thinking hard on something. “… I don’t know, actually.”

“You’re tellin’ me if I gave you a map and asked you to point to where you were born, you wouldn’t be able to do it?”

“Would you be able to point out Guam on a map?”

“I’m not the one who was fuckin’ born there, Ma!” Eloise points out, using the nickname only she was allowed to use (“Mary Alice is a mouthful, I’m just gonna call you Ma for short.”)

Mary Alice rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the smile that came over her face. “Anyways, I think I’ll go to Texas.”

“Think you’ll find some rich oil-tycoon to marry?” Eloise joked, grabbing one of the books from the cart and looking it over, wrinkling her nose slightly at it— Clearly not a title she liked.

“No, but maybe I’ll find someone nice to marry. Settle down, have a few kids,” Mary Alice mused. Eloise looked at her like she had two heads.

“A few??”

She nodded, “I wish I had siblings, I think I would’a been a lot less lonely if I had some. I don’t want my kids to be lonely like that.”

“… Hm. Makes sense when you put it like that,” Eloise stretched her arms over her head, “Personally, I’d be one-and-done, and that’s if I have any at all.”

Mary Alice held back a smile, “That’d be a disaster.”

“What, me having kids?”

“Yes.”

For a moment, Eloise looked offended, before saying, “I said ‘if’ for a reason!”

“At least you’re self-aware.”

Eloise grinned, biting her lip so as not to laugh. The image made butterflies stir in Mary Alice’s stomach, but she pushed the feeling down. “You wanna be close to your mom?”

“Oh yeah. You know how lame my dad is.” Eloise looked down the aisle, her tone not inviting further questioning on the subject.

Mary Alice didn’t push the subject, pulling the cart to a stop to put away a few more books. Eloise leaned against the cart, careful not to accidentally push it. “Do you think we’ll stay friends after graduation?” Mary Alice asked.

“Huh?” Eloise looked at her like it caught her off-guard.

Mary Alice got to her tip-toes as she reached to put away another book. “Do you think we’ll still be friends?”

Eloise plucked the book from Mary Alice’s hand and put it on the shelf for her. When Mary Alice looked at her, her brow was furrowed. “Sure, why not?”

“Florida’s far away. From both Maine and Texas.” Mary Alice pointed out.

“Phones exist, dummy,” Eloise retorted, leaning against the cart again. This time, she accidentally pushed it and nearly stumbled, quickly grabbing the cart to stop it and catch herself. Mary Alice slapped a hand over her mouth and Eloise bit her lip to stop themselves from dissolving into a fit of laughter. Eloise let out a shaky breath, before looking at Mary Alice, her green eyes boring into her. “What’re you getting at, Ma?”

Mary Alice was quiet for a long moment, before giving Eloise a sad smile. “I don’t think we’re going to be friends after high school, El.”

The smile faded from Eloise’s face. “… What, you’re not even going to try and keep contact? People have penpals and shit all the time!”

“El, quiet,” Mary Alice hissed.

Eloise continued, her voice a harsh whisper, “So what, we just graduate and never see each other again? That’s it? Gee, I see how much I fuckin’ meant to you—”

“We both wanna move far away, Eloise. Tell me you’d be friends with me if we weren’t in the same building five days a week?” Mary Alice prompted.

“You think I’m that much of a piece of shit? We’re only friends ‘cus of proximity?!”

“I never said you were a piece of shit—”

“Oh it was fuckin’ implied, Mary Alice!”

“I just— I just wanted to say we should enjoy the time we have left—”

“Go find someone else to enjoy the time with.” Eloise turned away, scowl on her face as she stormed away, leaving Mary Alice alone in the aisle.

Mary Alice stared after Eloise, even after the other girl was out of sight, stunned. All she had wanted was to get on the same page— To know that there was a definitive end to their high school friendship, instead of letting it peter off into nothing. Mary Alice had learned a long time ago that she was not good at keeping contact with people once she moved somewhere new— Which was often.

Knowing Eloise, she could cool off and come back in an hour or a month. Mary Alice desperately hoped it was the former this time. There were only two months of school left before graduation, and she very much wanted to cherish what little time she had left with her friend.

Mary Alice pushed the cart further down the aisle, trying to think of where she went wrong in the conversation, and hoping that Eloise would see some sense.

●

Call it pride or stubbornness, but Eloise was now sorely regretting whatever it was that kept her from talking to Mary Alice. Because a day quickly turned into a week, which turned into a month, and now they were at graduation. Eloise could count on one hand the amount of times she’d talked to Mary Alice in the last two months.

What’s more, but as soon as graduation was done, she hopping into a car and driving down to Florida.

Eloise dug her nails into the palm of her hand as she waited her turn to walk. She glanced back to the students who were still seated, looking around where the S last names must’ve been.

Mary Alice was sitting in one of the chairs, donning an emerald green graduation gown and cap, her sunny blonde hair in a braid over her shoulder, a few wavy strands escaping and framing her face. Eloise could already imagine her insisting to her mother to keep her hair fairly simple, not having the patience for it to be styled. Meanwhile, Eloise had slept in curlers to give her hair gorgeous Hollywood waves.

The person behind Eloise cleared their throat, and she realized the line ahead had moved. She turned back and quickly followed. Once she was caught up, she looked out to the bleachers, where everyone’s families were waiting. Her dad wasn’t going to be there— He claimed he had work, but Eloise knew he also wanted to make her feel bad for moving back home to her mom. No, she was looking for her mom.

She spotted the leopard-print dress first, which she couldn’t help but smile at. Debbie Barkovitch grinned and waved at her daughter from her spot in the bleachers, her nails and lipstick matching shades of firetruck red, her hair bleached strawberry blonde and permed to perfection. Eloise grinned more and gave a small wave. Already she couldn’t wait for this ceremony to be over, so she could hop into her mom’s packed-full car and kiss Maine goodbye.

But then she remembered Mary Alice, and something twisted in her stomach.

“Eloise Barkovitch,” The vice principal read into the mic. Eloise pulled a grin back on as she walked across the stage, taking her high school diploma and shaking the principal’s hand. As she walked off stage, she turned to where her mom was in the bleacher’s and triumphantly held up her diploma, grinning the whole way. Debbie Barkovitch was clapping her hands off and let out a proud yell.

She quickly made her way offstage and down to take her seat in the crowd again. Once she was situated, she turned her attention back to the line of students. Damn Ma’s height, she’d be a lot easier to spot if she wasn’t so short.

Eventually, she heard, “Mary Alice Stebbins,” from the stage, and her friend (were they still friends?) walked across the stage. Eloise clapped as loudly as she could, but resisted the urge to yell out.

Once the ceremony drew to a close, and the hats were thrown and everyone was cheering and everyone were officially high school graduates, Eloise stood up and booked it to the bleachers.

Her Mom was already making her way down the field, and she was the first to throw her arms around Eloise. “I’m so proud of you, baby!” Eloise grinned and hugged back, before her Mom pulled away to look at her. “You got anyone you wanna say goodbye to before we go?”

Yes, Eloise thought, but she’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel too late to do so. Eloise didn’t have many friends, not many that weren’t extremely superficial at least. The only one who really felt like a friend to her was Mary Alice. Maybe that’s why Ma saying they wouldn’t be friend after high school hurt so much.

“You go say bye to your friends, I’ll go get the car started,” Her Mom lightly pinched her cheek, drawing out an annoyed noise from Eloise before she gave one more hug and started heading to the parking lot.

This was it. This was Eloise’s last chance to say goodbye.

She looked around the crowd of people, going on her toes to try and get a better view. She spotted Mary Alice’s father first— He was a tall, stern man, and hard to miss even in a crowd. Relief flooded her heart for a moment as she started to bee-line towards the group. But once she saw Mary Alice, she froze up.

It’d been two months. What if Mary Alice was already over her? She certainly hadn’t given her much reason to stick out for their friendship. What would she even say to her right now? I’m sorry I was an idiot, now it’s time for us to no longer be friends anyways? Was there any point to making up if it was just going to end anyways?

Mary Alice hadn’t noticed Eloise yet, her back to the girl as she talked to her parents.

Eloise swallowed hard, then turned and started heading to the parking lot. She tried to imagine what the road trip down the Florida was going to be like, ignoring the hollow pang in her heart as she left Mary Alice behind.

It’s better without a goodbye, she reasoned.

TLW Star Trek AU - This is the newest one, and I'm so hyped for it I'm rewatching The Original Series and the AOS movies, as well as also starting Deep Space Nine! I only have a few plot lines thought up rn and am working on the intro fic to this.

Mom Yuri - I'm so excited to show people this particular version of Mama Stebbins and Mama Barkovitch, as well as how the step-sibling relationship between Gary and Billy grows! And of course Meemaw being the queen she is.

Mourning Chronicles - I'm really excited for chapter 3, which is the chapter that explores Collie's backstory! I'm like 2k words into it, but it's still got a ways to go, so I forsee a lot of the chapters for this fic to be very long ones (at least, long by my standards). But fun fact, one of my biggest inspirations for writing this AU was how Joshua Odjick said in an interview that he really wanted to play a vampire!

What Remains - I know I havent updated this one in ages, but I'm still working on it! I keep changing whose perspective should happen when and the exact order of events in this next chapter, so that's why it's taking so long. I have not abandoned my Alien Apocalypse AU though! (Spoiler: the chapter opens with Art returning to Earth)

Celebrities AU - I've got two fics being worked on for this series rn (well, three, but one is not going to come out for a looooong time). One is a fic on how Hank and Clementine met, and the other is about an episode of Keeping up with the Kingleys that takes place during a Vegas trip

The Walker House - STEBBINS IS GETTING PNEUMONIA ON GOD I PROMISE HE IS!!! The Pneumonia fic will probably be the second-to-last fic of Sophomore Year (NOT EVER, JUST OF THAT SCHOOL YEAR). Ironically, me almost getting pneumonia myself delayed this fic a lot

Thorns and Roses - The Quarter Quell is coming up and Im so excited for Reader to interact with all the other Victors and for Stebbins to pull some bullshit hehehehehe

Bring Down the King - I'm excited for Reader and Stebbins to meet each other in this next chapter! I know this one is also very slow-going, and to be honest part of that is bc Im considering scrapping it as a fic and just making it into an original series. Part of me is like, well with how much worldbuilding I've done I might as well, but also.... Stebbins. (Also I'm very reluctant to delete any of my posted works tbh. When I started posting fic again I told myself I'd never delete a fic, even if it was unfinished or if I left the fandom or what-not, but Im not certain. I'd also hate to disappoint anyone who wants to see how it continues, yknow?)

Hunger Games Fic 1 - My first HG fic (not counting Thorns and Roses) is about the first quarter quell! I've got like 6-8 main POV characters, and the POV is gonna switch between these characters so you're not certain which tribute will win! I've already made quite a few tragic characters for this, and it's all the more tragic that this is the quell where the tributes were voted in. Call me evil, but it's fun to come up with reasons why each tribute got voted in.

Hunger Games Fic 2 - This is an idea I've had for years, but it's an AU where instead of Katniss and Peeta going into the 74th games, it's Madge and Gale. I've been toying with the idea for like a year now and have finally decided to start writing it.