#also like her family is sticking together throughout the apocolypse

[rowantreeart]

No one asked for this but Rowan 2 and 14 for the character challenge

[waywardrose13]

Crimson Leaves- Chapter One: Croatoan

Masterlist // Series Masterlist

Crimson Leaves- Zombie Apocalypse AU mini series

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: The dead have risen. Amid a global pandemic that causes the dead to prowl the Earth, a leader of a small camp in North Carolina fights for survival. Y/N Y/L/N was certain of three things: One, only a bite would turn you. Two, the brain must be destroyed in order to completely kill the thing. Three, trust no one. When a stranger is brought to her camp half alive, Y/N must make the decision to throw him to the walkers, or let the mystery man heal within the gates. As Dean Winchester recovers from a zombie attack, he worms his way into the camp, and eventually into Y/N’s heart. Love is a dangerous game, especially when it’s played with the dead.

Warnings: Angst, language, zombie apocalypse, talk of sex, talk of injuries, zombie attack. Not enough editing to satisfy me. I need a beta lol

Word Count: 4,600 on the dot baby

A/N- Hey, look at that. My first AU series. I hope y’all enjoy! Also written for @spnaubingo​ (Square filled: Free Space) // @spndeanbingo​ (Square filled: Free space)

Tags are still open until next Wednesday before the second chapter is posted (5/27/20 by noon). Send me an ask for a tag:)

The camp was silent.

The sun had not yet risen, the sky still dark and full of stars overhead, everyone still asleep in their tents and cabins. Y/N knew people would be waking soon, the early birds up and ready to go around five thirty. The first of the days’ jobs would begin at six, and soon after, the whole camp would be up and going.

Which is why Y/N left at four.

Before the whole world went to shit and the dead began to rise, she was never a morning person. She loved the late night hours. There was something so calming about the night. Most people were asleep or falling asleep, yet she would be up under the moon. She would sleep late in the day and work well into the night.

That is, until the world went to shit, of course.

At the beginning, most people thought it was some sort of widespread hysteria. Videos began to surge around the internet of people, seemingly dead people, up and walking, half rotting and in decay. It wasn’t until more and more people began to turn did everyone realize it was real.

Once people began to turn, everything went to hell. The internet soon shut down since web servers and power plants were no longer being worked on. Some areas still had electricity through turbines and solar panels, however major cities had gone dark. Whole towns were abandoned, others ridden with the dead. Bottled water was a life source. Unless an area had well pumps. If you were in one place for a while and there was no risk of zoms, boiling water was also a way to get drinking water. But it was tedious to boil and then let it cool before having to move again.

There were three things Y/N was absolutely certain. One, a single bite could turn you. Scratches don’t matter, unless they get infected, because unless you have antibiotics, you’re dead. The only thing that will kill you and inevitably turn you is a bite. Or, if you somehow die after getting scratched, whether it be infection or a fucking bear attack, you’ll turn. 

Two, a shot to the head is the only way to absolutely kill it. Since they’re already dead, any sort of lethal wound or dismemberment won’t kill it. But for some bizarre reason, they still need their rotted brain. So unless you want to turn, a shot to the head will do it.

Finally, number three. Don’t trust anyone. If you were the type of person to not be so trusting before the apocolypse, congragu-fuckin-lations, you’re all set. No one is trustworthy out there. One minute you find a breather, thinking you’ll be working together to stay alive, the next minute they’re stabbing you in the back to steal your supplies. Literally.

It’s survival of the fittest. Risks are the only thing that could both keep you alive or kill you. Unfortunately, anything you do in the apocalypse is a risk. The only way to stay a breather is by sticking to yourself.

Y/N didn’t follow her own rules.

She had been alone for the first two years. She hopped from town to town, hunkering down in abandoned homes, barricading herself in for days. Once the town was ridden with walkers, she’d bounce to another, repeating the cycle over and over. She didn’t know exactly what happened to her family. Her family home was empty except for the few walkers on the property. She had hope that they were alive somewhere, but she knew that wasn’t likely. Still, she kept hope that they were still alive and kicking, maybe in a camp of their own. 

She had barely turned nineteen before the apocalypse. The college she had been attending was a couple hours from home. By the time she made it there, her family was already gone.

Now at twenty-three, Y/N found herself hardened and impermeable. 

She had met a small group of breathers in an empty town down somewhere in North Carolina. They invited her back to their camp. Y/N didn’t trust them of course, but she was starving and on the brink of death. They gave her food, a proper bed, even a damn cold shower. She came to realize the camp was a good one, the people kind and giving, the leaders looking out for their own. So she stayed.

She had quickly become a fond face in the camp. She worked for her spot there, becoming a runner. The runners were the ones who went out for supplies each day. The camp itself was from an old sports sleep-away camp for highschoolers. There weren’t enough cabins for everyone, so the leaders, runners, elders, and families with small children inhabited them. One was only for medical, a makeshift clinic run by an ex veterinarian. The kitchens were in another building near the locker rooms, and the farms were out in the fields. Y/N had been given the rundown after she was taken to the camp. Fences were built by the founders of the camp, traps set all around the perimeter to catch walkers. There was 24 hour surveillance, armed guards standing at posts in the trees all throughout the day, taking shifts.

When Y/N had first arrived, there were only eight people in the camp, including an old acquaintance of hers from college. However, she worked to recruit people, along with the other runners, and after a year of her living at the camp, the number grew to nearly one hundred. She had shown strong leadership skills on the runs, being promoted quickly by the founders to runner one, head of runners. 

The founders had gone out in search of more camps with a few of the other runners one day, and never returned. After a few days, one of the founders was seen out in the woods, an arm missing and intestines pouring from his abdomen.

A unanimous vote was taken and Y/N was elected leader of the entire camp. 

And here she was, sneaking out of the camp at four in the morning in order to go on a supply run. She was no longer runner one, or a runner for that matter, but she still went out in search for supplies. People would give her lists of what they were in dire need of, and she would find it. As leader of the camp, she felt as though it was her duty to still go out and do what needed to be done. Runners would get things that would benefit the camp as a whole, but there were people who needed specific things. A family was nearly out of baby formula. A woman needed a pregnancy test. One man was nearly dead from asthmatic fits. 

Y/N followed the marked trail into town. Small flowers had been plucked from the forest and planted in a way that runners would know where to go. Walkers weren’t common around the camp. Traps kept most of them away and the camp itself was deep in Pisgah National Forest. The city of Brevard was located at the entrance of the forest. It took about ten miles to get there, nearly four hours on foot with the mountainous terrain. However, hidden within the confines of the trees two miles from camp was a Jeep. Runners used the Jeep to get to town quicker, keeping it far enough from camp that if there were any walkers that followed the sound, they’d be caught by the traps set before they could even make it to the Jeep itself.

Although the camp was protected, the occasional walker would still be spotted. The fences kept them out of the grounds, but the rotting hominids would frighten the residents. Guns were only fired in dire situations for two reasons; amount of ammunition and the sound. Guards were armed with both guns and bows. Crossbows were the most resourceful, but harder to find. Longbows were higher in availability. A few compound bows were scored during a couple runs as well. Archery was a needed skill for both guards and runners. There would be the occasional runner who was bitten or an elder who passed simply of old age. Sometimes infection. But it was a rarity in the camp for anyone to pass on. Most people were younger, under the age of fifty, and the elders were all in great shape physically and internally. 

Again, survival of the fittest. Natural selection had taken its course early on.

Once Y/N made it into the Jeep, she fit her arm through the bow and ducked her head through it, allowing it to go cross-body. A pistol sat on her lap and her rifle was slung over her shoulder onto her back. She started the Jeep, wincing as it roared to life, and took off towards town.

It didn’t take her long to get there, and she quickly put the Jeep in park beside the department store she and the runners frequented. The store was picked clean for the most part. Food had been taken immediately, along with toilet paper, paper towels, and basic hygienic necessities. The shelves barely had anything, however the storage in the back of the store was plentiful. Seemed as though even during the apocalypse, people hadn’t thought to go back there. Maybe it was their subconsious morals, or simply were too dumb to think of it. Y/N’s morals had drastically changed during the time of the walkers, and she had a whole camp to think about.

She wondered what the camp would do once the back storage was picked clean as well. She didn’t want to think of that, knowing she’d have to venture further into the city. The first half was relatively empty, the other half, not so much. The retirees and blokes that were unfortunate enough to fail to get out of town continued to inhabit that part of the city. The camp had already lost three runners in their expedition to the “dark side.” She didn’t want to lose anyone else.

She unzipped her backpack and began her search of items. She grabbed a few pregnancy tests, four boxes of formula, and other basic necessities she knew people were starting to run low on. Her bag wasn’t too big, but she was able to fit a good amount of toiletries and the items on her requested list before she made her way to the pharmacy.

Like the rest of the store, the pharmacy had been ransacked. Cold and cough medicines, pain medicines, and anything of the sort was nowhere to be found anymore. However, a couple Albuterol inhalers were found within the mess of pill bottles and medication boxes. Y/N also grabbed a thing of eczema cream she had found. She knew a child in section one began to break out in a bad rash, and a rash of her own had begun to creep up on the backs of Y/N’s knees and the dips of her elbows.

Once her bag was packed to the brim, she zipped it up carefully.

Something crashed somewhere in the store.

Y/N jumped, immediately slinging her bag onto her back and unbuckling the buckle of her gun sash, holding it out in front of her. Her bow was hidden in the seat of the Jeep, and a gun would be easier to use in a store anyway. Walkers were never found inside, nor were people. No one ever came down this way and the doors were barricaded so only people could figure out how to get in.

She heard more clattering in the distance. Y/N slowly began to make her way towards the exit, ears and eyes on alert. She had her knees bent in case she needed to run, gun ready to be cocked and fired. Once she made it to the front of the store, she noticed one of the barricades had been pulled apart but not put back together. Not a runner from camp, however Y/N didn’t think a walker would be smart enough to pull apart a barricade.

She didn’t want to stick around to find out. She needed to get back to camp and begin the days’ duties and scheduling.

Slipping out the door, she rushed to the Jeep, starting it up quickly and peeling out of town and into the forest. She followed the road, turning off it once she reached the two miles till camp mark. She parked and turned off the Jeep a little ways off the main road, reapplying the branches and leaves over the Jeep, before heading deeper into the forest, following the flower marked path.

The gates were opened for her once she got to camp, closed and latched once inside, and she let out a deep breath.

Safe and sound.

By the time she had finished dropping off the requested items and toiletries, it was around seven. Residents of the camp began to wake as the sun rose. The first runners were suiting up and laying out their game plan. Y/N was getting ready for the daily meeting in the compound’s “control center.”

“How’d the run go today, Lord Commander?”

Y/N let out a sigh. She turned around from the map she was currently marking, narrowing her eyes at the man who had just walked in.

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that.”

Luke grinned. “And I thought I told you that it was your own fault for giving me the books in the first place. Now you gotta deal with it.” He reached over to ruffle her hair, eliciting a groan from the woman he was teasing. “Besides, you love it. You just act like you don’t.”

A smile hinted on Y/N’s face. “Okay, yeah I do.”

Luke laughed, taking his seat at the table. “Where’s the rest of the watch?”

Y/N checked the clock hung up on the wall. It was dusty and cracked, but worked just fine with fresh batteries. Batteries weren’t easy to come by, but she had stacks of them in the cabinets within the command center.

“They should start arriving soon. If not, fuck ‘em. We’ll start the meeting without them.”

Luke shrugged, reaching into his jeans pocket for a cigarette. He lit it, took a long drag, and blew the smoke over the map. He held it out to Y/N, who shook her head in decline.

“Mornin’ campers!”

“Hey, Steve.”

A tall man with a long red beard and curly strawberry hair ducked into the cabin. A wide grin was on his face, long arms outstretched. “How are we this fine morning?”

Luke let out another puff of smoke. “Tired and horny.”

Y/N’s face screwed up. “Oh, Luke- come on.”

Steve chuckled. “I heard ya, brother.” 

“What, you and Lana haven’t done anything for awhile?” Luke asked.

“Ran outta condoms,” Steve said. “Medical said that condoms are first come first serve. They’re clean out of them. So uh, Y/N, might wanna talk to your runners about that.”

“They do the best they can,” she said, marking a few things on the map. “Just do it yourself and be done with it.”

“It’s not that simple,” Luke said. “Now I know you don’t get it since you’re the Virgin Mary-”

“Hey!”

“-But sex is different than just whackin’ off,” Luke said. He held his hands up as a, ‘what can I say’ gesture. “Humans are sexual beings. I don’t know how you have gone so long without getting any.”

“I was nineteen when all this shit started and I had never had a boyfriend, and I don’t exactly have time to find a partner now.”

“Uh, hello?” Luke said. He gestured to himself, raising a brow. “Willing participant right here.”

Y/N made a face. “No thank you.”

Luke frowned. “Oh why not? I’m great at sex!”

“No he’s not.”

A new voice chimed in. A pale head of hair ducked into the cabin. Taller than the majority of the men in camp, Alice grinned down at Y/N, giving her a pat on the shoulder as she took a seat at the table beside Luke. He gave her a hurt look.

“I mean, he’s not bad,” Alice said. “But he’s not as good as he says he is.”

“Wow,” Luke said. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”

Alice shrugged. “I wasn’t. I hadn’t gotten any dick in months. You’re good, just not great.”

Luke smirked. “Wanna help me get better?”

Alice raised a brow. “Seriously? You just asked Y/N to bang, now you’re asking me?”

“Smooth, dude,” Steve said, finally taking his seat.

Luke went bright pink, looking at both women sheepishly. “I mean… yeah?”

Alice took a deep breath, staring at him for a moment. “Alright, fine.”

He perked up. “Wait really?”

“Yeah, why not,” she said. She gave Y/N a look, the leader chuckling behind her hand. Steve gave Luke a fist bump, Alice rolling her eyes.

“Where’s Mikela and Richard?” Luke suddenly asked. Mikela, who was now runner one, and Richard, head of medical facilities, were missing from the meeting. Y/N checked the clock again, furrowing her brow.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They’re never late.”

Alice pulled her curls back into a bun. “Maybe someone from the run this morning had an accident?”

Y/N shook her head. “They’re supposed to report to me immediately after getting medical,” she said. “The first runners should’ve returned half an hour ago.”

That’s when the horn blew.

One blow means a runner (or runners) approaching. Two blows means stray breather. And three blows means a walker.

There was one blow, and two blows thirty seconds later. Which meant both runner and breather.

The group within the cabin jogged out to the front gates, wondering what the hell was going on. Not only were the runners extremely late, but they had a newcomer with them. Newcomers were to be inspected of bites and interrogated outside the gates. Mikela was runner one, she knew this, yet she disregarded the rules anyway.

“This better be good,” Alice muttered.

As the group approached the gate, they noticed Mikela, runner three and runner six, Matthew and Gary, carrying in a man half unconscious.

“We could use some help over here!” Mikela barked. Alice and Steve immediately ran over to help the others, Luke staying back with Y/N. 

“What’s going on?” Y/N asked.

“Found a breather outside the warehouse on our run,” Matthew said. “Zoms surrounded ‘im. He was barely fightin’ ‘em off by the time we got to ‘im.” His voice was shaky, his southern accent more prominent when he was anxious. “We loaded ‘im into the Jeep and brought ‘im back here.”

“He’s got a serious gash on his torso,” Mikela said. “If we don’t get it sewn up, he’ll die, and he’ll just be another addition to their fuckin’ army of the dead.”

Y/N let out a deep breath, brows slightly furrowed in thought. “Get Richard to inspect him. Don’t do anything until he does.” She looked pointedly at Richard. “I mean it, Rich. Make sure he’s not bitten.”

“Whada we do if he’s bit?” Matthew asked.

Y/N’s eyes flashed to the Georgian. “Shoot him.”

“Boss-”

“I said shoot him,” Y/N interrupted Gary. “It’s like Mikela said. If he’s bit, he’ll just turn into one of them. So if he’s infected, take him out to the woods and put a bullet in his head.”

Gary swallowed thickly, a solemn silence washing over the group. The ones with the mystery man quickly shuffled to the medic cabin. 

“The rest of you.” Y/N addressed the other runners and guards. A couple of the farmers and cooks watched on. “You know your duties. Get to work.”

Murmurs were heard throughout the small crowd, people scattering to do their daily duties. Luke looked up at Y/N.

“I’ve known you for a long time, Y/N,” he said. “I know that the world has changed you- changed everyone… but you were always so gentle.”

Y/N looked at the ground for a moment, before squinting her eyes up at the sky. “Yeah well. If you wanna survive-” she looked over her shoulder at her comrade “-you’d be more lethal too.”

Without another word, Y/N turned away, trekking back towards the command cabin, wondering just how much she had lost herself.

***

By midday, the sun was hot and blaring. Y/N stood out on the porch of her cabin, arms crossed, leaning against the railing of the steps. She watched as children laughed and played. She watched the farmers tend to the gardens down in the fields. Her eyes wandered up to the guards standing on duty up in the towers. The parents of the children sat outside their cabins, reading, knitting, or simply enjoying the sun. Singles either relaxed in the cool of their tents or tended to their duties for the camp.

It was peaceful. It was the only place she knew was completely safe from zoms, where for a second, she wasn’t Y/N the leader, or runner, or fierce warrior. She was simply Y/N.

“Hey boss.”

Y/N inwardly sighed at the break of peace. It was Matthew, a somber look on his face. 

“What is it?” Y/N asked. The unfolded her arms, stepping down the stairs onto the ground.

“The breather we found- he’s waking up. Bite free,” he told her. “Figured you’d wanna talk to ‘im.”

Y/N gave Matthew a nod, swallowing thickly. “Yeah, lead the way.”

Matthew led Y/N through the camp. People waved and said hello to them both as they passed. It was hot. The days were typically mild during this time of year, however the air had turned a fierce eighty-nine degrees. Save for the fields, the camp was covered in trees, however the mugginess below the leaves still left beads of sweat on Y/N’s brow and covered her skin in a sheer layer of moisture.

Matthew jogged up the steps to the medic cabin, Y/N following suit, ducking inside as he held open the door for her. At the sound of footsteps, the inhabitants of the cabin, save for the man lying on the cot, stood as their leader entered.

“Lord Commander,” Luke murmured. The man on the cot quirked a brow, staring at the woman who had just walked in.

Y/N turned to Richard, the medic taking off a pair of latex gloves.

“Matthew said he was clean,” she stated.

“No bites as far as I can tell,” Richard said. “Dislocated shoulder, bruised ribs, and a deep laceration on his abdomen. If the runners hadn’t gotten him here when they did, he’d be dead.”

“He’s stable? I don’t want him turning in the camp, Rich,” Y/N said. Her voice was low and authoritative. The man on the cot continued to gaze at her.

“He’s stable,” Richard confirmed. “He’ll have to be here for a few days for observation. After that, we can move him to the wing. A week later, he could have a tent.”

Y/N hummed, glancing over at the man. Her breath hitched in her throat as she did. 

He was incredibly handsome, one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen. Green eyes locked with hers, freckles dusting over tanned skin. A beard covered the man’s face, brown with almost a ginger tint to it. His hair was light brown, slightly spiked from sleep. His lips were full and pink, a hint of a smirk gracing them as he noticed her stare.

Snapping herself out of it before anyone else noticed her staring, Y/N gripped the back of a chair, swinging it around to face her, sitting in it with her arms up on the back, facing the newcomer.

“What’s your name?” She asked.

“Dean,” the man answered.

“What’s your full name?” Y/N asked.

“Dean Winchester.”

“You got a camp?”

“Nope. I’m a lone ranger.”

Y/N hummed. “What were you doing out by the warehouse.”

“Scouting,” Dean replied. “Needed some more ammo. Was running low on fresh water and batteries.”

Y/N cocked her head. “Zoms typically aren’t found in that part of town. Did you do something to attract them?”

“May have set off a car alarm trying to hotwire it,” Dean said.

“Moron.” Y/N heard Luke mutter under his breath. She shot him a glare.

“So what, you got what you needed and got jumped on your way out?”

“Yep,” Dean said. “Didn’t notice them at first. Then I was surrounded. Tried shooting at them, but there were too many. By the time your friends got there, I thought I was dead.”

Y/N thought for a moment. “You got a criminal record?”

Dean scoffed. “Few charges but nothing major.”

“Like what?” Gary asked.

Dean shrugged. “Couple of fights in my early twenties. I had a brother who I was very protective over. Got charged but never convicted. So technically yes,” he said. “Like I said, nothing major.”

“Got any other family?”

“Besides my brother, no.” Dean answered. “Don’t know where he is. He could be dead for all I know. I haven’t seen him in years.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-three,” Dean said. “How old are you?” He sent Y/N a wink.

“I’ll be asking the questions,” Y/N told him. “If we were to let you stay, would your strengths be better as a runner or a guard?”

Dean thought for a moment. “A guard.”

She sighed. “Look, we’ve got kids and families here. You get violent? You’re out. But we need the extra help. You seem strong. You fought off a pack of zoms and survived. You could be a valuable asset.”

Dean thought for a moment. “Has it occurred to you there may be a reason as to why I was a lone ranger?”

Y/N hummed, standing from her seat. She folded her arms over her chest.

“Far as I can tell, you didn’t fare too well at the end of your solo ride. Way I see it, you need security and you need a team,” she said. “You don’t wanna stay? Fine. As soon as you’re up and running, you can waltz your ass out of camp.”

She took a step toward him. “But if not, I’m Y/N. I’m the leader of the camp. You have any business, take it up with me or Luke, my second in command.” She nodded her head towards the freckled blond behind her. “Once you’re better, you’ll become a guard. You’ll have your own tent and designated locker in the men’s locker rooms near the farm. The locker rooms also have toilet stalls and showers, both with running water. You will get three meals a day and a shower everyday after your shift. If you have any sort of medical conditions, you’ll bring it up with Richard here. He’s in charge of all medications. If anything were to happen to you to impair your health or disable you while you’re on duty, you’ll be relieved of your duties and allowed to live the rest of your days within the camp. However, all incidents will be investigated. If we find you have self sabotaged, you’re out of here, got it?”

Dean gave her a nod. “You got it, Chief. Seems I’ll be sticking around then.”

Y/N smiled at him. “Great. Welcome to Camp Roanoake Dean.”

Chapter Two

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