He lost track of time after drinking the glass of water that Ariana had brought him. The rhythm of metal against earth became hypnotic: lift, push, throw, breathe. The sun had crept higher, cooking the back of his neck, and he'd shed his shirt hours ago, tossing it over a rock nearby. His palms had blistered under the shovel's handle, painting it red just a little, the stings dulled only by dirt and sweat.
"Levi!"
The call snapped him out of his trance. He looked up, wiping his brow with the back of his arm, smearing more dirt on his face. Donna stood a few meters away, hands on her hips, her expression a mix of disbelief and annoyance. She wore her jacket loosely over her shoulders, her hair messy, just like the rest of the people in this place. Except Ariana's family.
Her dad was bald, so there was nothing there to keep clean and neat. But her mother and she, well, they at least hadn't abandoned that part of their life.
"You've been at this since sunrise," she said, stepping closer. "Khutri said you were building… what? A second bunker?"
"Something like that," Levi answered without stopping. His shovel hit the ground again with a dull thud. "A backup. With more exits." He finished with a groan. Donna exhaled slowly, crouching at the edge of the hole to get a better look.
"Why?" She asked.
"I just told-"
"No," She interrupted him, making him stop. "Why are you doing this? Give me the real reason." She insisted and Levi sighed. Getting out of the pit, he looked to the street to see the same man from his talk with Khutri walking aimlessly. "Look at him." Levi pointed.
Donna turned and did as he said, confused as to where he was going with this. "What?" She asked when Levi didn't say anything. Instead, "Look at her." He pointed again, but this time, to a young woman, just a little bit older than Levi and Ariana himself. Her posture, her eyes, hair, and clothes, all of it as if they were homeless.
"What are they doing?" He asked, and before Donna could say something. "Nothing. Nothing at all. The only differences between them and zombies are, one has a beating heart and blood flowing through their veins, and the other has none of that. Yet they behave the exact same way."
Something in Donna snapped, and as she was about to lash out at him, "Why aren't you the same as them?" He asked, and she went silent. "I'll tell you why."
"Because you gave yourself a purpose. You told yourself that you had to be there for the rest of them. Every morning, you go around and check up on everyone. The same goes for Father Khutri." He told her, walking up to the edge, that she had crouched.
"I'm not going to be one of them," Levi told her.
"I'm going to try every single thing that keeps me busy. I'll give my blood, tears, and sweat in this place for as long as I'm alive. I'm going to kill every single one of those creepy, smily creatures." He promised, and Donna scoffed.
"They can take a shotgun to the head, and the only thing that'll do is widen their smiles. What can you do?!" She shot back, and "Levi!" Hearing the familiar voice, Levi turned to the one who had called him, his eyes wide open as he saw Dean and his family walking up to him with relief and happiness. Without hesitation, he walked up to him and hugged his second family as tight as he could.
"We missed you, buddy." Levi nodded, breaking the hug. "What are you guys doing here?" The shorter friend asked, and Dean frowned in confusion. "Dunno man, we saw a tree on the road and next thing we knew, here we are."
Eyes wide open, Levi's head shot up straight, a gasp leaving him as one nightmare faded, and he woke up into another. Looking around, he was in the dugout bunker, with everyone missing. A curse was on his lips, but he held it back. Wiping the exhaustion away from his eyes and then face, he turned to his side, seeing Ariana missing from there.
A painful groan left him as his neck and backside reminded him why someone should sleep in a sitting position. Both parts of his body hurt, yet he still pushed himself to his feet. Taking his mace into his hand and backpack on his back, he walked up to the hatch, finding it wide open and bright sunlight entering the hole.
Getting out was a bit of a struggle, but he managed. But the sight left him uneasy and uncomfortable, as the people were like zombies. There were maybe twenty or thirty people at best, and every single night, it felt like that number was dwindling as slowly as possible.
"Levi-" Turning to the other unofficial leader of the town, "Morning." Khutri greeted, and Levi returned with the greeting with a nod and a yawn. "Slept well?"
"Surprisingly well," Levi replied, glancing around and seeing the depressing sight once more. His eyes caught a figure by the road, at the entrance of the gas station. "How many?" He asked and watched as the priest sighed in grief. "Two."
The loss of two lives should have made him feel something, but it did nothing. He didn't feel anything, and Levi reasoned that he didn't know them. But looking closely, that thought was shattered as the figure was small.
"It was a mother and a child." The older man whispered. Levi closed his eyes in loss, pushing down the frustration and helplessness. "I need a shovel." He muttered, looking up at Khutri. "I'd be happy if you-"
"I'm not digging the grave." Levi interrupted, eyes focused on the small body before turning to a stunned Khutri. "I'm going to dig more hiding places. With multiple exits." Levi continued.
"Why?"
"Because last night, it taught me that I can't hide in a bunker with just one exit. It's far more dangerous than being out in the open."
"You don-" Khutri began, but Levi shook his head, stubborn. "I do. I spent a night outside running around the town, and I spent last night hiding there." He pointed at the closed hatch. "If those things figure out that bunker, we're dead. They'll cover the one exit we have, and we'll be sitting ducks."
Khutri hesitated for a long moment, his lips pressed into a thin line. "You're not wrong," he said finally, voice quieter than before. "But people are tired, Levi. We can't ask them to dig holes when they barely have energy to walk." He motioned to one man passing them. Eyes lost, lips parted and dry, hair unkept, and body hunched over.
A simple breeze could make the man fall forward and face-plant on the street. Levi looked past him toward the horizon, then back to the priest. "If it keeps them alive," he muttered, "then yeah, we have to force them."
The older man didn't reply. With a resigned nod, Khutri turned and walked away, leaving Levi alone in the biting morning wind. The air smelled of damp earth and rust, the stench of blood swiped past him as a breeze carried it to remind everyone of their end.
Not a minute later, Khutri came back with a decent shovel and pickaxe. "I can't force them. But maybe, just maybe, seeing someone doing something might change them."
With a nod, Levi put on his backpack and took the tools, heading towards the back of the diner. He kept poking the ground, trying to find a soft part of it to begin digging. He was hungry and exhausted, but he pushed through it. Humans could survive weeks without food. There were tribes in Africa that went weeks without food, and when it was time to hunt, they could jog for hours and hours.
He knew that he wouldn't get to that level. But he could start now. Once he found a soft spot, he put his backpack to the side. Kneeling, Levi pressed the shovel into the dirt and pushed with his foot. The fortunate part of the area he began digging was that the earth wasn't flat. If someone crawled on their elbows and knees, nothing would spot them from a distance.
And the pros didn't end there. On both sides of the diner were two houses, and while the alleys were too hidden to be called alleys, they could give someone enough cover to reach the hole.
The first few minutes were easy. After that, every thrust felt heavier, every breath louder. The morning sun rose higher, burning away the mist, and sweat began to run down his neck. Whenever there were rocks in the way, Levi switched to the pickaxe and then back to the shovel afterward. The sound of metal striking rock echoed through the still air.
By the time the town had fully woken, the hole was waist-deep. His hands ached, his shoulders screamed, and his shirt clung to him like wet paper. Still, he kept digging. It was something to do, something that made the fear smaller, quieter.
He was halfway through his next swing when a soft voice called from behind him.
"…What are you doing?"
Levi paused mid-swing, glancing over his shoulder. Ariana stood there, shielding her eyes from the sun. Her hair was tied back loosely, though a curly strain was in front of her face, and she still looked half-tired, like she hadn't slept well either. The faint dark circles under her eyes told the same story.
"Building us a second death trap," he said dryly, jamming the shovel into the dirt. "This time, one with more exits."
She blinked, unsure if he was joking. "You're serious?"
"Yeah," he replied simply, leaning on the handle. "If those things figure out where we're hiding, we're done for. So I'm making sure we have options. Starting with this."
Her gaze moved to the growing pit that he was in, then back to his dirt-smeared face. "That's… a lot for one person."
Levi shrugged. "I'm short. Less ground to dig or more, perspective."
That earned a small laugh from her, quiet but genuine. "You're really doing this?"
"Unless you've got a better plan." He turned back to the hole to hide the smile that was growing on his face, even though his throat was parched and his mouth dry as sandpaper. He started digging again, each motion deliberate, throwing the excess dirt to the side. "It'll connect to the basements near here, maybe even the diner if I can manage. Multiple routes. If one gets blocked, there's another way out."
She folded her arms, tilting her head just a little as she watched. "Do you need anything?"
"Some extra hands or heights, if you don't mind." He shot back, taking another break as he turned to her, watching as her smile grew. "I can't do anything for the second one-"
"Ouch." He muttered loudly, lips cracking and bleeding just a little, and a giggle left her. "But I can volunteer a little."
"I'll bring you some water." She told him, watching him as he wiped the blood with his dirty wrist. Only for some dirt to get in his mouth and then spitting it multiple times in disgust. An amused laugh left her once more. "Thanks, I appreciate it."
As she turned to leave, he called after her. "Hey."
She looked back.
"Thanks… for last night," he said, voice low but sincere. "For talking. Helped more than I thought."
"I should be the one to say that." Her smile was softer this time, genuine. Then she was gone, and the sound of his shovel filled the silence again.
He lost track of time after drinking the glass of water that Ariana had brought him. The rhythm of metal against earth became hypnotic: lift, push, throw, breathe. The sun had crept higher, cooking the back of his neck, and he'd shed his shirt hours ago, tossing it over a rock nearby. His palms had blistered under the shovel's handle, painting it red just a little, the stings dulled only by dirt and sweat.
"Levi!"
The call snapped him out of his trance. He looked up, wiping his brow with the back of his arm, smearing more dirt on his face. Donna stood a few meters away, hands on her hips, her expression a mix of disbelief and annoyance. She wore her jacket loosely over her shoulders, her hair messy, just like the rest of the people in this place. Except Ariana's family.
Her dad was bald, so there was nothing there to keep clean and neat. But her mother and she, well, they at least hadn't abandoned that part of their life.
"You've been at this since sunrise," she said, stepping closer. "Khutri said you were building… what? A second bunker?"
"Something like that," Levi answered without stopping. His shovel hit the ground again with a dull thud. "A backup. With more exits." He finished with a groan. Donna exhaled slowly, crouching at the edge of the hole to get a better look.
"Why?" She asked.
"I just told-"
"No," She interrupted him, making him stop. "Why are you doing this? Give me the real reason." She insisted and Levi sighed. Getting out of the pit, he looked to the street to see the same man from his talk with Khutri walking aimlessly. "Look at him." Levi pointed.
Donna turned and did as he said, confused as to where he was going with this. "What?" She asked when Levi didn't say anything. Instead, "Look at her." He pointed again, but this time, to a young woman, just a little bit older than Levi and Ariana himself. Her posture, her eyes, hair, and clothes, all of it as if they were homeless.
"What are they doing?" He asked, and before Donna could say something. "Nothing. Nothing at all. The only differences between them and zombies are, one has a beating heart and blood flowing through their veins, and the other has none of that. Yet they behave the exact same way."
Something in Donna snapped, and as she was about to lash out at him, "Why aren't you the same as them?" He asked, and she went silent. "I'll tell you why."
"Because you gave yourself a purpose. You told yourself that you had to be there for the rest of them. Every morning, you go around and check up on everyone. The same goes for Father Khutri." He told her, walking up to the edge, that she had crouched.
"I'm not going to be one of them," Levi told her.
"I'm going to try every single thing that keeps me busy. I'll give my blood, tears, and sweat in this place for as long as I'm alive. I'm going to kill every single one of those creepy, smily creatures." He promised, and Donna scoffed.
"They can take a shotgun to the head, and the only thing that'll do is widen their smiles. What can you do?!" She shot back, and Levi grinned savagely. "Fine," he said, voice low and dangerous, the kind that didn't need to rise to be heard.
"If I can't kill all of them. I'll kill one of them. If I can't kill even one of them, I'll be the most annoying pest that they'll ever face in the history of this creepy, disgusting town. I'll wipe the smiles off their face. I can promise you that"
For a heartbeat, the air between them was brittle enough to snap. Donna's jaw worked. Her hands curled into fists at her sides. She looked like she might spit on the ground and walk away, angry, tired, and ready to maybe clock him on the head.
Then something small shifted in her face. Not forgiveness. Not even pity. Just recognition. She exhaled, hard enough to fog the little space between them.
"You think being loud and busy will stop the town from dying inside?" she asked, quieter now. "Maybe it'll work for a day. Maybe for a week." She stepped back a pace and folded her arms, not softening but not attacking either. "But you can't be the whole town, Levi. You trying to be a one-man army? That ends badly. For you."
Levi leaned the shovel against his shoulder and met her eyes. The flash of stubbornness in him was the same stubbornness she'd admired in her sister when she was alive. "Then so be it," he said. "I'll do what I have to do."
She watched him for a long second, letting the heat of the day find the sweat in the hollow between his collarbones. "You want volunteers?" she asked finally. "You want a pile of people to drag themselves through dirt when they haven't got the strength to strap on their boots?"
He swallowed hard what little of saliva he had. "No… You're right that they don't have the strength, so…" He grinned. "I'll show them with action. I'll give them strength. All they'll have to do is watch me."
Donna rubbed her forehead, the movement almost painfully maternal. "You give people a reason, Levi, and they ask you for more. They'll lean on you until you break." Her voice cracked a little at the edges. She was tired of breaking, too.
"If you're going to dig, you do it right. You don't go in and make a hole and hope it becomes salvation. You plan. You map. You pick the weakest soil and the least obvious path, and you make sure when you dig, it's something we can expand."
"Already have something like that planned out," Levi answered, and Donna nodded.
"Good, make sure the entrance can't be seen from the road, make a false mound of dirt to hide the excess. Use planks to shore up the sides so it doesn't collapse if someone walks on top of it during the day." She continued, and Levi nodded.
"You'll help?" He asked, hopefully. If he had another pair of hands, it would be much better and much faster. She shrugged, though her face softened in a way that was almost like acceptance. "I've got to make sure people don't off themselves. But when I get the time. Yes, I'll help. And I'll get a rotation together, two people a day to move dirt around to hide the dug site. You and I can't do it all alone," She straightened, folding her arms again. "On one condition."
"What?"
"You don't promise miracles. You don't tell people you'll save them. You start telling them what needs doing, and you ask for help. No bravado. No speeches."
Levi laughed, short, surprised, and then softer. "That sounds boring."
"Good," she snapped, but there was warmth in it now. "The world's terrifying. But boring is survivable."
A pair of footsteps crunched on the street as Khutri came toward them, carrying a small tarp and a roll of twine. He bent to look into the pit and gave a slow nod. "This will help keep it tidy and hidden," he said. "And some planks from the old shed will shore the walls at the corners."
"Good, I'll come and fetch it tomorrow," Levi told him. Khutri nodded, continuing, "Donna's right: we do this carefully, or it's useless."
Khutri passed Levi the tarp and the twine. "Start with a small chamber," he advised. "Not a house, something men can crawl through. If it holds, expand it. If it collapses, at least nobody dies trying to rescue someone."
With a nod, Levi continued digging, taking Khutri's help every half an hour, eating a protein bar and water to replenish whatever energy he had lost. But it wasn't just that; every time Khutri or Donna dug, Levi took a nap, then woke up on his turn.
For hours, they dug, until it was past 4 o'clock. The sun began to dip, and a small shadow crossed his field of vision.
"You're still at it."
Levi blinked up through strands of damp hair. Ariana stood there again, holding a canteen and a cloth. Her voice was lighter this time, but her eyes were searching until it went to his dried shit on a rock, then she glanced at him. Shirtless, dirty, and soaked in sweat. Her face turned into disgust just a little before Levi could catch her.
"Couldn't stop," he said with a small, tired smile. "It's either this or… well, nothing."
"Here." She presented another glass of water first, and he gulped it down like a very starved and thirsty man. Which he was. The cool water spilled down his chin just a little- "Here," came her voice again, exchanging the glass with a cloth.
"Thanks," Levi muttered, wiping his face as clean as he could, only to see dried blood on it. That's when his body reminded him of the pain and aches everywhere. Ariana, seeing the blood and the pain on his face, decided on something.
"Let's clean that up before it gets infected." She voiced, and Levi wiped on his pants, making her frown. "It's fine-"
"It's not fine. Come on." She insisted, not budging even a little, as Levi remained stubborn. But finally, he decided to accept her help. "Fine."