Chapter Text
Tommy is what most people called, a pessimist. I know, it’s shocking that the hyperactive teen had such a dark view of the world, but given the circumstances, it was only fair.
Given that Tommy had never gotten to see the Old World, it was hard for him to imagine blossoms that sprouted nonradioactive food, trees covered in little plants that would change color, and a green substance that apparently covered the ground everywhere you walked. You had to admit, it all sounded a bit outlandish.
To Tommy, they sounded like nothing more than stories. Little fairytales that people would tell to kids at night as they tucked them in. To chase off their very real fears of the barren wasteland that waited for them outside their cozy little beds.
However, some nights when not even the creaking and crawling could keep awake Tommy’s exhausted brain, he dreamt of those stories. Most of his memories of the dream were lost to the night, but the one thing he did remember was how the dream made him feel. It made him feel at peace, calm. Like everything was finally okay, and nothing was going to go wrong.
“GOOD MORNING VIEWERS!” A loud voice startled Tommy awake from his peaceful sleep. He jolted up from his lying position and immediately went falling to the cement floor still wrapped up in his thin blanket. Tommy groaned at the very rude wake up call as the much too familiar voice continued.
“And what a beautiful morning it is!” The voice seemed too happy for how early it was, “the sun is shining, the gargantuan roaches are chirping, and there is only a slight chance of acid rain today!” After Tommy was brought back to his senses, he sat up and glared at where the voice was materializing from. His mom’s old busted up radio transmitter bursted to life with the joyous voice of the best (and only) radio host of the apocalypse.
“I’m your host, Ted Nivison, and welcome to Chuckle Station, the only station to put a smile on your face in these dark times.” he produced his signature intro.
“Guess it’s time to start the day.” Tommy yawned away the last of his tiredness and got up from his heap on the floor. He let the radio continue blabbering as he did his daily morning routine. It wasn’t like there was a way Tommy could actually turn it off as the switch had busted years ago.
“Today is a pretty special day folks,” Ted announced, “today is the 20th anniversary since the bombs dropped all those years ago and turned our lovely green earth into a radioactive wasteland!” A sound effect that sounded like children cheering went off. For such a morbid statement, his voice was full of nothing but joy. “Whew, 20 years already!” The host chuckled, “it feels just like yesterday when I was 4 years old and hiding out in this very radio station with my dad as the alarms went off.” Tommy got dressed into his normal attire and spent almost 10 minutes trying to find his gas mask before finding it lodged underneath his bed alongside his backpack.
“How the fuck did you get down here?” Tommy asked the item, which kinda made him look like a crazy person. Maybe it’s been too long since he’s been to the Greater Settlement, he could use some social interaction.
“Anyway! Enough about me, what about you, listeners?” Ted asked, “what were you doing when the bombs dropped?”
“I wasn’t even a thought yet.” Tommy laughed bitterly to himself. He doublechecked that all his supplies were in his bag; a hunting knife, makeshift map of the surrounding area, his motorcycle keys, and some dried monster meat to snack on.
“I would ask to hear some caller stories, but I can’t receive them!” A pain was apparent in the man’s voice lacing his happy attitude. Dude should really stop venting to everyone in the 100 mile radius. Tommy tuned out the rest of the radio host’s words as he securely fastened his gas mask to the lower part of his face and threw his bag on his back. After one more pat down, Tommy was certain that he had everything he needed to trek out into the dusty terrain.
Tommy climbed up the steep staircase of the bunker towards the steel door that was his only protection against the dangers outside. Before opening the door, Tommy reached over to where his trusty bat was leaning against the wall and flipped it around in his hand for a sturdy grip.
“Alright fucker, you won’t get the jump on me this time, nothing can surprise Tom- AH” Tommy’s badass speech was interrupted as he opened the door and was immediately jumped at by a roach the size of a large dog. Tommy was so thankful he was still holding onto the heavy door, otherwise he and the monster would’ve gone tumbling down back into the bunker which surely would’ve killed them both. Only difference is the roach would come back the next day and Tommy would be a rotting corpse.
It took a second for Tommy to be able to throw the gargantuan roach off him, but once he got the upper hand, he brought the metal bat high above his head and brought it down onto the monster with a nasty crunch. Tommy slammed the bat down a few more times just to make sure that it would stay down. Tommy took a second to catch his breath, letting the adrenaline leave his body.
“So,” he let out a big exhale, “same time tomorrow?” The roach twitched in response, which in return Tommy brought the bat down on it for one final blow.
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Tubbo was what most people called, an optimist. Don’t confuse his optimism with naivety though, Tubbo understood that the world was a big pile of shit, but that didn’t stop him from being able to see the good in it.
Okay, there wasn’t a lot of good in the world, Tubbo would admit, but that didn’t stop the world from being so fascinating and, in its own way, beautiful.
There were many things that Tubbo loved about his world; the way the sun would reflect off the radioactive clouds at sunset, the strange beauty of the acid rain as it left everything in its wake dissolved, fire.
But his favorite thing to learn and study was the Old World. It was silly, childish even, but Tubbo couldn’t help it. I mean, how could you not be captivated by all that once was? Beautiful flowers of all different colors and sizes, leaves that used to grow and fall from trees and could change color with the weather, grass!
It was just all so amazing to him, almost impossible. But it wasn’t impossible, there was physical proof that this all once existed! And maybe, it could exist once again.
“Tubbo?” A voice broke Tubbo out of his thoughts. He quickly half turned in his swivel seat towards the entrance of his workshop and smiled at the person who stood a bit stiffly in the doorway.
“Karl!” Tubbo greeted, “I’m glad you could make it.” Tubbo fully turned away from his work station and hopped off his seat.
“I’m sorry I’m a bit late,” Karl rubbed his neck guiltily and looked anywhere but the other. Late? Tubbo looked over to where his handmade clock sat on the wall and realized it was a lot later then he first realized. “The time kinda got away from me.” Karl laughed softly.
“It’s completely fine, man,” Tubbo strode over to the doorway and placed what was hopefully a comforting hand on his shoulder, “I didn’t realize the time either, I thought it was still morning!” That caused a bit of the tension to leave Karl’s shoulders.
“Well, it’s still not a great impression to be late on your first day.”
“I’m just glad I’m finally gonna have some help around here.” It was hard being the only mechanic in the entire Greater Settlement, especially in one that was so accident prone and plagued by bad luck. Tubbo led Karl further into the workshop as they continued talking.
“I still don’t know how much help I’ll be, I’ve never touched a motorcycle in my life.” Karl explained with an embarrassed look on his face.
“Good thing we aren’t starting with motorcycles then,” Tubbo lead Karl to his workbench where a small generator was sitting a top, “Punz came in earlier with this busted generator and I hadn’t gotten around to fixing it yet, so this could be your first job.” Karl had a panicked look on his face.
“A generator?” Karl’s words fumbled out his mouth, “I mean- I don’t know- generators are important and I- I could break it worse-“
“Its okay,” Tubbo put his ramble to a halt, “small generators like these are easy to work with, not too many complicated parts.”
“That’s easy for you to say, mechanic.” Karl joked. Okay, fair, Tubbo had been working on stuff like this since he was 10 years old. He had six years of experience while Karl had what he learned by reading the mechanic manual Tubbo lent him.
“I’ll be right here with you, guiding you through it.” Tubbo smiled. Karl thought about for a second before smiling back at Tubbo.
“Alright, lets see what we can do.” Karl sat down on the small chair while Tubbo stood over his shoulder. Just as he said he would, Tubbo helped him through it and answered any questions he had.
“So this part, the uh-“
“The carburetor.” Tubbo suggested.
“Right, the carburetor,” Karl repeated back to help him remember, “the carburetor seems to be the problem.” Karl got up from his seat and grabbed a towel that was hanging on the far wall. “It seems to be clogged up.” Karl gently removed the bowl at the bottom of the carburetor and used the cloth to clean out any loose debris and caked up oil from the sides. Once he was satisfied, he put all the pieces back together and restarted the generator. Karl waited with baited breath as the generator roared to life.
“I did it!” Karl fist pumped the air.
“You did it!” Tubbo repeated with the same excitement.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe that worked!”
“What did I tell you, Karl?” Tubbo said a bit smugly, but not unkindly. He knew Karl could do it, it may have been an easy fix, but Karl had spotted the problem pretty quickly for someone who had never worked with machines before. Tubbo wished Karl believed in his own abilities more. The man had a lot of potential, he just doubted himself too much to get anything done.
Before they could exchange any more words, the bell at the front of the machine shop rang to alert them that someone had entered.
“A mechanic’s job is never done.” Karl laughed as he pushed away from the work table as he and Tubbo entered the front of the shop. Behind the front counter stood a very sheepish man holding his four wheeler keys in his up facing palms.
“Sapnap!” Karl exclaimed, very excited to see his best friend.
“Sapnap..” Tubbo groaned, knowing exactly why the man was here.
“Hey guys.” Sapnap waved, trying his best to ignore Tubbo’s annoyed glare from behind Karl.
“What are you doing here?” Karl leaned his elbows against the counter.
“Oh you know,” Sapnap smiled, “just wanted to see how you were doing on your first day.”
“Oh Sapnap, that’s so sweet of you!” Karl smiled back just as wide, if not wider. Tubbo came up beside Karl and copied his pose against the counter.
“That’s so sweet,” Tubbo repeated sarcastically, “now why are you actually here?” Sapnap knew he was busted judging by the look on his face.
“Okay,” he sighed, “I may or may not have- ...” the rest of the sentence was mumbled so Tubbo didn’t hear them.
“What was that?” Karl asked, straining to hear what Sapnap said. Sapnap sighed again, much more dramatically this time.
“Me and George were riding around outside chasing this giant herd of mutated flies when all of a sudden, there was this ditch that come out of no where!” Tubbo rolled his eyes,
“Sure it did.”
“We barely had enough time to jump off before we went straight into the ditch!”
“Oh no!” Karl exclaimed “are you both okay?”
“I’m fine,” the way he carefully made sure none of his weight was on his left leg didn’t look fine, “but George landed on his arm funny and had to go to see Puffy.”
“I hope he didn’t break it.” Karl had a worried look on his face. Sapnap waved away his concerns.
“He didn’t land on it that hard, it’ll at most be sprained.” Sapnap didn’t look certain at his own words, but it seemed to be convincing enough to Karl.
“That’s good,” Karl let out a breath of relief, “and I’m glad you’re okay too, I would have been so worried if something happened to you.” Karl placed a gentle hand on Sapnap’s arm with a soft gaze. They both looked at each other in a certain way that made Tubbo feel like he walked in on something he shouldn’t have.
“Ahem, the keys?” Tubbo asked. They both snapped back to reality, Karl pulling his hand back and stuffing it in his hoodie pocket while Sapnap fumbled with his keys before placing them in Tubbo’s outstretched palm.
“Thank you,” Tubbo placed the keys in his back pocket, “let me guess, you two left the four wheeler in the ditch?”
“It was a steep ditch..” Sapnap defended. Tubbo sighed,
“Of course it was,” Tubbo hopped up over the counter and walked to the front door since it was closer to his apartment’s entrance, “you should really be more careful with that thing, I can’t keep fixing your shit every time you total it.”
“Its not completely totaled!” Sapnap exclaimed. Tubbo raised an eyebrow at him, effectively shutting him up.
“Do you need help, Tubbo?” Karl was already trying to climb over the counter after him, but was failing miserably.
“Its fine Karl, you stay here and look after the place,” Tubbo waved him back, “I won’t be gone long.”
“You’re leaving me in charge?” He pointed to himself like he was unsure of what Tubbo said.
“Do you see anyone else responsible enough around?” Tubbo gestured around the otherwise empty room besides the three of them. Sapnap went to open his mouth and but in with his two sense, but Tubbo’s glare shut him down. “I’ll be back, don’t burn the place down!” He directed towards Sapnap, who sent him back an offended look. Karl just laughed at his friend. Tubbo smiled at the two of them.
Yeah, the world was really shit, but Tubbo knew there was some good in this world.
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Wilbur was what most people called, an absolute mess. You wish I was joking, but it was true. Wilbur knew his life was a mess. No matter what he did, he just caused messes that his family would have to go behind him and clean up. He was just a horrible mess of a human being.
Like right now, he was a crying mess. Tears streaming down his face, unable and unwilling to stop for even a moment.
Voices that should be familiar to him called out his name. He walked in the opposite direction of them. Wilbur was too much of a mess right now. No one should have to deal with him when he is like this.
Before he realized, the big metal doors of the lab stood in front of him. A sign of protection, but also one of being trapped. He felt trapped. He had to get out. He had to leave.
It would be better for everyone if he would just leave.