#though of course raphael would need 2 days prep time

[bhaalsack]

Raphael has unique dialogue for Oathbreakers (he's mean about it)

[aurora-the-kunoichi]

The Aftermath - Part One

Part one of my apocalyptic story.

Raphael and Reader. 

(Don’t worry loves, there will be smut)

It started out as a routine expedition to Antarctica to gather samples of the melting icecaps. When the team of scientists found hair and frozen tissue in several of the core samples they pulled from the ice, they sent them in for analysis. When the samples returned with wooly mammoth DNA an excavation team was dispatched to unearth the specimen for testing and preservation.

One week was all it took before the first scientist fell ill after handling the thawing samples. They thought it was a common cold from the symptoms but knew once the patient started coughing up blood it was far from it. It took only 48 hours for the unknown virus to take hold and run its course before killing patient zero.

It should have been quarantined, but with only one scientist dead and the rest seemingly fine, they were released back home after the expedition was completed.

The second scientist to fall ill reported similar signs of the virus 3 days later and succumbed to the illness within 48 hours. One by one each member of the team showed signs of the same symptoms and perished days later, the last one dying nearly 7 days after patient zero was confirmed dead.

After that it spread like a wild fire in a drought spreading all over the world in less than a year wiping out the world’s population to near world extinction levels. Family members were unable to bury their loved ones for the fear the virus would continue to spread. So each body that was infected was ordered by the CDC to be incinerated.

Over seven billion people lost their lives to the world-wide pandemic devastating the global economy and dwindling the world’s population down to a few thousand apparently immune to the deadly virus. Cities lay barren, families and legacies torn asunder leaving the remaining population wondering what would be next.

That was 10 years ago, the year now 2030. The earth was still reclaiming her territory, buildings and roads overrun with newly grown greenery and the world’s animal population seemingly untouched by the virus’s destructive grasp flourished in the wake of the loss of human life.

Somehow you had been blessed and cursed with surviving the plague. You witnessed each of your family members picked off one by one at the ripe age of 15. Left alone to survive the apocalypse held up in your family’s home as long as you were able.  

Thankfully you were no useless adolescent doomed to wander the abandoned cities witless and helpless. Your family was stock full of bright talent that thankfully trickled down to you, your father an engineer and your mother a marine with a green thumb and a passion for prepping. Your father had rubbed off on you in the early years soaking up his knowledge for solar power and self-sustaining homes. Which was probably one of the reasons you were still alive today, that and the years of hand to hand combat instructed and insisted on by your mother.

“You need to learn how to protect yourself Y/N, be ready for any situation.” She said on a regular basis. She had no idea how right she was…. God you missed her.

The first year after the pandemic crawled by, depression and loneliness eating away at you day after day as your food supplies dwindled to nothing forcing you to make the decision, was it life or death?  The next year took a different direction as you worked your fingers to the bone daily to work up a system to keep yourself alive and prepared. Animals were rounded up and put into pastures on your land, animals that would provide food, whether it be meat or from the food they produced.

As the loneliness began to eat at your sanity once again a new ambitious project took hold of your endless spare time. A large SUV you had found parked in a garage while scrounging for supplies was ripe with potential and you had nothing but time.

Your father’s spirit seemed to follow you around the large workspace day after day, fingers worn and bleeding you worked over the equations and drums of supplies until the days blended into night. After countless of hours of mind numbing trial and error somehow by the grace of whatever cruel god that was up there you figured it out.

The large oversized vehicle was now able to switch from gasoline and the power of the sun with a flip of a switch. Gas stations were still producing, but it was only a matter of time before they dried up. And you needed to travel farther and farther for fuel and supplies, you needed to expand your options for travel.

As the truck clicked to life nearly soundlessly solely fueled by the stored energy in the solar panels you screamed at the top of your lungs resting your weary and tired skull on the metal hood. The farthest you had ventured from your sanctum was two hours in every direction. And as far as you could tell there wasn’t a living soul within that radius, and you had scavenged every home and building for useful items. It was time to look farther out and New York City was a prime location. Plus, with your new project completed a few spare solar panels would be nice and the once overly populated city should produce some.

You hadn’t seen anyone alive in years which in this type of situation was mostly a good thing. The end of the world usually didn’t bring out the best in people, survival of the fittest and all that jazz and you had a sweet set up ripe for the pickin. Which was why you had spent many man hours keeping the entrance to your family property hidden. All the tar from the driveway had been removed 100 feet in and an intricate fence from brush and bushes was maintained to keep the entrance secluded from any unwanted visitors.

It took you two weeks to prepare the homestead, making sure your livestock was well fed and your home locked down tight and protected. You anticipated your trip to take roughly 2 weeks but prepared for over a month. There could always be unseen circumstances that would keep you from your home for a longer period of time, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

It was a warm summer morning and your vehicle was packed, the small camper trailer connected, and panels fully charged, it was time to head out. With one final look at your home you made the 5-minute trek down your driveway exiting from your hidden entrance. Once it hidden from sight again you started out ready for the long solitary road trip.

With no one driving on the roadways they had managed to stay drivable for the most part. A few trees and bushes needed to be dodged but you were still able to utilize them for now.

It took nearly 8 hours of driving before you saw the dilapidated welcome sign for New York City. One side had broken free of its bolts and had sunk into the earth where rust had begun to climb up the forgotten metal eating away at its integrity.

It was late afternoon and you needed to start scouting out a safe place to set up camp and hopefully a few hours of scrounging around before dark. You decided central park would be a good place to hunker down and start your exploration.

With your camper set up and prepared you strapped two guns to your hips with two long blades in your boots and headed out with a line of homes to the east your first target in mind. The empty duffel bag slung over your shoulder was ready for supplies and anything that you would deem a sanity saver, something that would help ease the hours of boredom or something that was fun to look at. For some reason those seemed to help the most. Artwork or small trinkets that would occupy your overactive hands. Records were the most coveted though, music was everything. You had an ipod chalk full of music but with no way to add more to it so new records were a pivotal part of keeping your sanity in check.  

By the time the sun had begun to dip below the horizon your duffel was plum full of goodies. By some luck you had found a few guns with a healthy amount of ammunition, a plethora of canned goods and a few sanity savers, but no records. You had found a box full of brightly colored comics, Batman, Avengers, X-men and so much more, it was definitely a good haul for one day outing.

With your newly acquired treasures packed away safely in your trailer you lit a modest fire and cooked your dinner. The outline of the fire danced on the treetops that swayed gently with the evening breeze which didn’t help much with the summer’s heat. The humidity of the night had grown stifling leaving a thin seen of sweat covering your skin so a swim in the nearest body of water was tempting.

The pond that sat on the edge of the park sparkled in the moonlight, the steady breeze setting soft ripples across the glass like surface. You were hot and sticky and with an eight hour drive a dip sounded wonderful.

Your eyes scanned left and right observing your surroundings. You had been here for hours and no one had come out to meet you or thankfully worse. With the decision made your clothes were stripped free and your gun set underneath the pile of discarded clothes by the water just in case.

The moons silver light hit your naked flesh as your descended slowly into the pond holding your breath as your head was submerged beneath the surface. You stayed below for a minute allowing the coolness of the water to lower your body temp and it felt glorious. You had been roasting most of the day, but you couldn’t convince yourself to use the A/C in the truck. The fresh air was so much better.

Floating to your back you started to swim backstroke across the pond watching the night sky come to life with the stars. Since the lights had gone out at the end of civilization the milky way could be seen on a clear night. Witnessing the waves of bright lights from the cosmos was one of the few perks to surviving the apocalypse. That and the calming sounds of nature no longer drowned out by the city life.

As you reached the far end of the pool you suddenly felt something you hadn’t in a very long time, a feeling that you were no longer alone. It was eerie and unsettling for the feeling had become foreign. Your eyes scanned the tree lines and watched your campsite with the lazy fire that continued to lazily lap at the fresh wood you had laid within the ring. No shadows, no movement just the strange feeling of being watched.

Lowing further into the pool you watched the shadows, looking for anything, even an animal to come into view but nothing appeared. Then as quick as it came, the feeling vanished, the unseen gaze swept away with the warm breeze. It was strange but had no proof you were in danger, so you finished your swim and dressed heading back to your camper.

Moving the burning logs away from each other and smothering the glowing embers with the dirt you headed into your trailer for a few hours of sleep. With one final look into the darkness you closed the door and locked the reinforced doors tight.

As the final embers died out in your campfire, four very large shadows emerged from the tree lines. With no sound they moved closer, two blue, one green and one set of amber eyes set on the camper where your slept.

“Haven’t seen her around before?” the one in blue whispered into the breeze for only his companions to hear.

The one wrapped in orange moved closer to the trailer trying to peer into the windows, “And I would definitely like to see her again, especially without her clothes.”

A soft whack resounded on the back of his green skull as the largest of the four came up behind him yanking him from the perimeter. “You don’t know who she is, she could be one of them. And be quite shell for brains, you’ll wake her up.”

The tallest of the four came up to the truck taking in the solar panels with keen interest, “She’s smart, that is for certain.”

“We’ll keep an eye on her for now, no contact. You hear me?”

“Yeah yeah Fearless, we got it. Don’t touch the pretty lady.”

“Let’s go Raphael.”  

@waterstar2016​ @blossom-skies​ @thelostandforgottenangel​ @hollybunch95​