Work Text:
College was hard. His sleep schedule was shit, his midterms were coming up, and he practically lived off of ordering out food because he never had the energy to actually cook something in his dorm room.
Getting adjusted to a whole new country was also kind of exhausting. Sure, they spoke the same language, but the accents! Why do people talk like that?!
He wouldn’t call it a culture shock because he already knew a lot about the UK before he moved for college. He did the smart thing and actually did some research about it before locking in his application. He still wasn’t very familiar with everything, though.
So when news of a brand new disease spreading across England that turned people batshit crazy and made them claw their own skin off came out, he was sure he was done for.
But nope, he’s surprisingly still alive.
He only had to steal multiple people’s guns and somehow a sword to do that. It was actually really easy when everyone was focusing on panicking.
He doesn’t actually know the official terms for whatever the disease does, but it sure reminded him of zombies.
If you happen to be seen by one, they will chase you down until you outrun them or you’re nothing but torn flesh. If that fails but they manage to bite you or get any of their saliva in your eyes, mouth, or nose, you become infected with the same virus too.
It took about 2 hours after infection for symptoms to start. Usually it was darkening of the veins, especially around a bite, lethargy, confusion, loss of sanity, itching, or the feeling of ants under the skin. 4 days after infection, and it’s complete. The person is basically a shell of themself by that time, body covered in claw marks from scratching and dark veins forming under the skin.
He’s seen it; he knows.
He’s lost friends because of it.
Back when it first started, it was like the calm before the storm. People were just starting to hear about the outbreak, and most just brushed it off like it was another COVID pandemic.
He too kind of brushed it off at first. Sue him; he was way more stressed about turning in his assignments on time at that stage.
Then it got serious when people started getting attacked in the streets by “sickly-looking people.”
11 months later and boom, at least Techno doesn’t have to worry about his social skills anymore. It’s better to be alone than to be with people anyway. Other people could betray you or steal your things while you sleep. He’s already had some run-ins with those types of people. A man tried to rob him once and in return, he put a pickaxe through his teeth.
He preferred to be alone.
Or at least, that was until 3 people basically waltzed into his life.
While searching some already ransacked stores, he ended up bumping into 3 people, a man and his two sons. The 4 of them practically stared at each other for like 2 minutes before one with brown hair smiled and got all excited. They said their names were Phil, Wilbur, and Tommy, and while Techno originally just told them to basically fuck off, he ended up running into them multiple times.
At some point he got attached to them and didn’t have the heart to leave.
He stayed with them for a while.
They weren’t too bad, really. Phil was one of the kindest people Technoblade has ever met, and he’s also the most person to ever say mate. Phil loves birds for some odd reason. Phil also loved to talk about stories from the past, most of them being about his wife who had passed before the virus.
Wilbur is the same age as him, 23, Technoblade ending up older by 3 months. Wilbur is a bit bitchy sometimes, but he plays well on a guitar and actually has good taste in books.
Tommy is well… Tommy. He’s unique in his own way, loud but never crossing the line too much. He likes trouble but knows when to stop. He’s also 16; surprisingly, he looks a bit younger than that. Technoblade makes sure to look after the kid a bit more than others; he doesn’t know what it feels like to still be a teenager while the world is basically ending but it’s probably horrible.
They were good people. It’s why he decided to move into their shelter that was an abandoned bookstore about a year after meeting them.
-
“I really don’t need help with moving my stuff; it’s really only a few things.” Techno shooed off Tommy’s hands from grabbing his stuff with a sigh.
“Oh, c’mon, let me help!” The blond pouted.
“I don’t need help, Tommy.”
“You just don’t trust me holding your fancy guns!”
Techno heard Wilbur snort from the wall he was leaning against, and he rolled his eyes. “You’re right, I don’t trust you. You’re going to get every zombie on our ass if you hold one.”
Tommy put his hands together and pleaded. “I won’t shoot it, I promise!”
“Nope.”
“Wilbur, back me up here!” Tommy turned to Wilbur with a begging look, but Techno locked eyes with Wil and gave him a glare.
“Yeah… I’ll have to pass on that one…” Wilbur laughed nervously.
Techno grinned, “See, now let’s go before it gets dark.” He got up from the wobbly chair he was sitting on and went to grab the two bags he had with his stuff and weapons.
“Oh, you bitches—“
-
Techno was nudged on his shoulder, breaking him out of his daydreaming. He was reading a book in his hand, but he guessed that he zoned out at some point.
“Techno, me and Tommy are going to go out for a bit if you want to come?” Wilbur plopped down into the seat beside him and leaned against his shoulder.
“Why, I thought we got enough supplies on the last run?”
“Well, yeah, but Tommy said he saw this really cool thing that he forgot to grab, so we’re going back to that spot with those overgrown trees.”
“Wasn’t that place kind of far…?” He said uncertainly.
Wilbur rolled his eyes. “We’re taking a pistol and a machete with us just in case.”
Techno thought about it for a second and used a pen on the table as a bookmark so he could finish the book later. “Alright, I’ll go, but I’m bringing the axe.”
“Fine by me!” Wilbur cheered, then got up immediately. “You better hurry up because we’re leaving now; meet you outside!” And then, like lightning, he ran away.
He still didn’t think it was a good idea to go far from the store. It wasn’t because they would be leaving Phil alone, of course; Phil made it clear he can take care of himself. Techno actually hasn’t seen Phil in a couple of hours; the man is going outside to a fenced-off plot of land across from the bookstore.
Phil explained before everything went to shit that land was going to be used to make a new building, but it never happened. So now Phil was using it as a garden for vegetables and fruit so they didn’t have to search the city for them. It was actually a really useful thing to have.
Anyway, Phil has probably spent all day outside by himself in that yard. The man can take care of himself for sure.
He’s probably just paranoid about if Tommy and Wilbur will somehow lose track of time and not get back before it gets dark. The zombies, or whatever you call them, are always more active at night; something about the sun drives them off.
Tommy is definitely not going to let it go about whatever thing he saw, though, so he won’t stop them from going. He’d just feel much better if he went with them.
So to make sure Wilbur and Tommy didn’t leave without him because he was taking too long, he quickly got up and went into his section of the bookstore for his stash of weapons.
Fun fact: They actually used the bookshelves as makeshift walls and barricaded the windows in the front so no one could look into the building.
Rummaging under his bed for a second, he touched a familiar handle and pulled out the axe he has dubbed “Axe of Peace.”
It was one of his favorite weapons to use that he found recently. Something about how easily it chops through limbs was just too satisfying. Maybe he should talk to Phil about that later.
Techno shook his head and clipped the axe to his belt, walking out and then grabbing his jacket from a rack because it was cold outside, winter season approaching fast.
Upon walking outside, he saw Tommy and Wilbur waiting a couple of feet away. Tommy was actually wearing weather-appropriate clothing for once, a red sweater with a white undershirt and jeans. He also had a backpack he always carried with him when he went outside on him. Wilbur looked the same as he did a minute ago, the same yellow sweater he always wears, but now he has his iconic trench coat with it. He swears Wilbur never wears anything else but those clothes.
“Yes! Finally we can leave!” Tommy yelled as soon as he saw Techno and ran off.
“Hey, Phil said you can’t run off like that!” Wilbur shouted after him and looked at Techno with an exasperated look. “He thinks that if we don’t get there as soon as possible, someone else might take the thing he wants.” He sighed.
“What even is the thing that he wants?” Techno questioned him as he and Wilbur walked the same direction Tommy ran to, and he could see the blond waiting for them down the block.
“He said it’s a music disc or something. I don’t know how he’s going to use it, though, because we literally have nothing to play it on.”
“Can you guys hurry up before I leave your asses!?” Tommy yelled at them once again, and Techno chuckled while Wilbur just groaned , covering his face with his hands.
-
It took a bit longer to get to the place because they got sidetracked a bit, but by the time they made it, it had been about 3 hours since they left. The place Tommy wanted to go to was basically an abandoned tourist gift shop. You know, those places where you get fridge magnets, collectibles, and random stuff you definitely don’t need but a tourist would definitely buy.
Yeah, it was one of those.
They all called it the “overgrown place,” though, because it was quickly taken by animals after it was left alone. Raccoons, roaches, rats, and any pest you can think of were in the place, and vines had started growing along the storefront.
It was pretty if you ignored the reason it was like that.
Inside of it was pretty much as overgrown as the outside. Mold was growing in the walls, moss in the cracks on the floor, and items scattered everywhere. The windows were broken, so that also left pieces of glass scattered around. Luckily for Techno, he always preferred to wear boots. Sadly, Tommy and Wilbur always wore the same beat-up sneakers that were ready to be thrown away.
“Watch out for the glass.” He told the both of them as they went inside. Tommy pretty much just rushed past them to where he had seen the discs, walking behind some display shelves.
Wilbur stayed near the door, saying that he’d keep watch for anything and if their time was running out, so that left Techno with nothing to do.
He wasn’t really interested in looking at all the knickknacks on the ground or the British flags hanging around. It was pretty big for a tourist shop, to be honest. There were some vending machines in the back of the store, but of course, the power had gone out long ago, so it was useless, and everything in it was probably expired by now.
Next to the vending machines was the cash register, and just by how broken it was, he could tell someone had probably tried to open it and steal the money. He’s sure whoever that was is probably long gone by now; money isn’t really a useful thing anymore.
What caught his interest was the fact that there was a door behind the register that had a torn-up sign saying “employees only.” A door like that would probably be locked, right? The door looks like it has suffered some brute force, which he doesn’t know if that means he shouldn’t open it or not.
The door ended up not being locked. It creaked so loud as it opened it caught Tommy’s attention, making the teen turn around to look at Techno. “Whatcha doing?”
“Breaking rules like the anarchist I am.” Techno, he said simply as he went into the room.
Like he kind of expected, it was dusty as fuck. He couldn’t see much thanks to the fact there were no windows in the room, so he turned back around to face Tommy, who had gone closer to the register to watch Techno. “Did you bring your flashlight?”
Tommy put down his backpack and took out a flashlight from one of the big pockets, tossing it to Techno. Techno flicked it on, and just like that, he can now see the room better.
It was the break room if he had to guess. A couch with a small TV was tucked into a corner; there was a bathroom to his right and a small hall to a room labeled as storage. Spider webs decorated the ceiling, and the smell of mold was really strong here. Just his luck.
“Anything cool in there?” Tommy asked from behind him, and Techno shook his head. “Unless you want to steal a probably roach-infested couch…” He muttered, and Tommy let out a quiet “Aw man…”
Tommy went back to the main area of the store, and Techno decided to check out that storage room, so he went past the bathroom to get there. He had to cover his nose with his sleeve because the mold really stank near that bathroom.
Pushing the storage door open, he saw shelves of boxes lining the walls. Walking in further, let him see that there were several aisles of shelves too, a desk with a computer in the back too. Techno walked closer so that he could sit in the chair next to the desk and look at all the sticky notes that were attached to the screen. It was just the password of the computer on the sticky notes and petty things written to different employees. It made him kind of sad to think about.
People worked here, and they probably all had normal lives like everyone else. Sure, it seemed like the employees hated each other, but at least that was something. These people were most likely dead now thanks to the virus, and it made his heart ache.
He sighed and leaned back into the chair with a creak, running his fingers through his hair. Hopefully Tommy has found those discs by now so they can leave; he didn’t really like this place that much.
That’s when he heard a box topple over behind him and fast, wobbly footsteps behind him. His heart rate spiked; he unclipped the axe from his belt and spun around. Of course the one time he doesn’t check for zombies, there was one behind him!
As soon as he turned around, he was met with the torn face of a man. He cursed under his breath and shoved the main into the shelves, knocking over boxes with a loud crash. He booked it down the aisle, but without the flashlight he left on the desk, he ran into stacked boxes and tripped.
“Tech, you good in there?” He heard Tommy call from somewhere. He didn’t get to answer before he felt claws sink into his back through his jacket.
The man—or zombie—tried to claw off his jacket so it could bite him better without fabric in the way, but he fought against it. He rolled over and swung his axe, hitting the zombie’s shoulder, but that didn’t stop it from clawing on his face and arm. He was going to swing again, but then he felt teeth close in around his arm, digging into his flesh.
That’s when a beam of light suddenly flooded the room, and a pistol went off, the zombie slumping onto Techno. He quickly pushed off the dead zombie with a sigh of relief before looking at his arm in horror. The teeth broke his skin, the bite mark bleeding and dripping onto the floor.
“Techno, let me see it!” Wilbur was beside him in an instant, grabbing his arm and looking at the bite with the same terror on his face. God, Techno was so stupid for letting this happen.
He looked up and locked eyes with Tommy standing in the doorway with a flashlight in hand, the teen’s eyes shining with unshed tears.
“Tommy, give me a med kit, alright?” That seemed to snap Tommy out of his shock for a moment, and he quickly took out a med kit from his backpack to give to Wilbur.
Techno could only stare as he watched Wilbur try to clean the bite and scratches, but he was sure Wilbur already knew it was too late. “Wilbur, just amputate it.”
Wilbur had to do a double take with that one before yelling, “WHAT!? We’re not amputating your arm, bro!”
“Wilbur, I have 2 hours before I’m done for. Amputate it.” He deadpanned. He didn’t want to do it as much as everyone else, but he’d much rather prefer to have half an arm than be mindless.
“You can’t just fucking tell us to amputate your arm!” Tommy yelled at him, and Wilbur nodded. “We’re going to go back to Phil, and we’re NOT going to cut off your arm.” Wilbur said sternly as if that was going to change anything.
“Then I’ll do it myself.” He went to grab his axe off the floor, but Wilbur grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “Techno, we can figure this out without hurting you.”
Technoblade could feel his anger start to rise at that. “Well, what do you want me to fucking do!? It took 3 hours to get here, and it takes 2 for me to start going insane, so what do you plan to do to stop this!?” He snapped and pushed Wilbur’s hand off of his so he could get his axe.
Wilbur then promptly tackled him. “You are not fucking cutting off your arm! We’re not going to do anything like that unless Phil says to, alright!?”
Techno tried to struggle against Wilbur, but he just wasn’t budging, so he sighed heavily before going limp.
“Tech, please… ” Techno could feel Wilbur’s desperation without even looking at his face.
“…Fine.” He mumbled quietly, only just loud enough for Wilbur to hear. Wilbur let Techno go at that and took a bandage from the med kit.
“I’m going to wrap the bite so it doesn’t get any bacteria, ok?” He said while wiping some of the tears that were starting to spill. Techno could hear Tommy sniffing from a few feet away, but he didn’t dare look. He didn’t want that guilt to push on his chest even further.
Techno nodded and tried not to hiss at just the bandages pressing against the bite. 2 hours; he has 2 hours before symptoms start. They’re not even going to make it back home before then.
Once Wilbur was done, they did a quick check around the store for any more zombies before leaving. They basically speed-walked the entire way back, but Techno didn’t really pay attention for most of it. All he could think about was the bite covered by bandages on his arm and what was going to happen now. Were they going to amputate it? Leave him to the infection? There’s no cure for the virus, so there’s not even a way to combat it.
Thanks to not getting sidetracked this time plus speed-walking, it took 1 and a half hours for the bookstore to get back in sight. Wilbur sprinted ahead and ran into the bookstore to get Phil since they didn’t see him in the garden. Tommy was beside Techno, and he could feel Tommy’s eyes burning into him.
So once again, Techno locked eyes with Tommy and tried to give a reassuring smile despite both of them knowing nothing about this was okay.
Wilbur came running back out a second later and dragged both him and Tommy inside the store, forcing Techno to sit down while Phil carefully unwrapped the bandages.
The bite looked almost worse than it did when he first got bit. It wasn’t covered in blood anymore, but it was still oozing some out, and the skin around it was bruised green, slowly turning into purple. The veins around it were starting to darken just a bit.
“You feeling alright, mate?” Phil spoke gently with a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t want to look up from where he was staring at his bite, but he did anyway and met Phil’s concerned gaze.
“Stings a little, but I’m fine.”
Phil breathed heavily through his nose and shook his head. “That’s good, but I don’t think we can amputate it at this point. It’s already spread too far.”
“So we’re just going to leave him to die?!” Tommy said in disbelief. Wilbur visibly deflated with that too.
“There’s nothing to combat this with, Tommy. We could use the antibiotics stash, but I don’t know if that will even slow it..”.
“Can’t we at least wait a day to do anything rash like—“ Wilbur began before getting cut off by Techno. “It takes only 4 days for the infection to take over, Wilbur; we don’t have that type of time.”
“Let’s wait one day, just one day, please !”
After like 10 minutes of worrying and arguing, they agreed to wait a day before deciding on what to do and just sent him off with medicine in hopes that at least it would help symptoms. Techno didn’t like it at all; he didn’t want to put the others in danger. 4 days was all it took; he doesn’t want to hurt them and get them infected too.
During the night, if Tommy and Wilbur both came into his room and lay down next to him, that was between him and them.
The next day, Phil unwrapped the bandages on his arm, and the bite still looked bad, of course, but it didn’t look like how an over-a-day-old bite should look. It was still bruised, and his veins all the way up to his shoulder were a blackish color, but it didn’t look like how it should have.
Techno had a friend from college that got infected early on. She was a nice person, and Techno helped her study for exams every once in a while. They didn’t have all classes together, so he didn’t know her too well, but he was just as terrified when she got bit on her leg.
The bite was gruesome all throughout the days that she managed to pull out through. The wound always smelled like rotting flesh, black blood oozing from it no matter how much Techno tried to sterilize it back then. It was bruised, inflamed, and she had a fever the whole time. It was like that with other people too; it never really varies from that.
Technos didn’t look like that. It still bleeds just a bit from not fully closing; it still was bruised and discolored. But it wasn’t inflamed, and it didn’t smell bad.
Now that he was even thinking about it, the worst thing he had ever felt after the bite was tiredness. He didn’t feel sluggish like he usually did with a fever. He didn’t even feel tired right now thanks to getting more sleep than usual since Tommy was piled on top of him.
The medicine from last night could have stopped the symptoms, but that wouldn’t explain why his bite didn’t look right…
Phil seemed to be just as confused as he was. While Phil has seen plenty of bites and infection stages, Wilbur and Tommy have not become Phil didn’t want any of his children to witness that type of stuff. They thought the bite was bad, but compared to what Techno and Phil had seen, it didn’t make sense at all.
-
When a week went by and nothing about Techno changed, that’s when all 4 of them started to realize exactly what had happened.
Techno’s bite healed without much fanfare; it just scabbed over and became another one of Techno’s many scars after a while. The dark veins didn’t leave, not even a month after the event, but it made them reach the conclusion that the virus just didn’t affect him at all.
They sure weren’t going to test how a second bite would turn out to find out, so yeah, that’s the answer they’re going with.
They were more than relieved that nothing happened and sure didn’t want to test that luck again.
After all the fussing and worrying, Techno was just so mentally exhausted he took a 10-hour nap. Which was very much needed, by the way; kind of hard to sleep in an apocalyptic world.