Zombie Cantos: A Dream Within A Dream
Title: A Dream Within a Dream
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Zombie Cantos
Characters/Pairing: JJ, Hotch - Gen
Genre: Horror/Drama
Summary: It’s been so long, it almost doesn’t feel real. It’s been so long, he’s not sure what he’s fighting for.
Zombie Cantos: A Dream Within a Dream
* * *
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
A Dream Within a Dream - Edgar Allen Poe
*
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde
* * *
Three Months After the Zombie Apocalypse
Aaron Hotchner has been staring at the sleeping form of his son for almost an hour, just watching the rise and fall of the young boy’s chest, reassuring himself that this is real, that Jack Hotchner is really there.
It seems like it would be just his luck if he were to wake up, only to discover that their reunion had just been some cruel nightmare. A nightmare because he had long since given up hope of seeing his son again.
To have him here now is the greatest gift Aaron Hotchner could have asked for. The journey had been long though, and not without its blows. He knows that the son he has now is not the same son that he had left behind in Virginia three months ago.
War changes them all.
He pulls the motel door behind him softly, though it’s less of a motel than it is his permanent residence now. Even though the purge had afforded them almost a hundred empty houses, it seems wrong to sleep in the bed of someone whose brains you’d blown out.
He sits on the edge of the concrete pathway outside, staring at the stars. It’s beautiful - there’s not so much artificial light polluting the sky anymore, and most nights he can see more tiny white dots, more faint clouds of dust, than ever before.
The only other light around are the bonfires that seem to burn around the clock, serving as both warmth, and a repellent to any stray undead. There’ll be a few people sitting around it now, in lieu of any other available activity. He doesn’t even consider getting up.
He thinks about his son, about all the horrors the boy must have seen over the past three months. Burning houses, hordes of zombies, a plague of death upon the world. Would death have been a preferable option?
No. Not death.
As much as he wants to save his son from this eternal nightmare, he could never wish death upon the boy, not even for mercy’s sake. It’s safe enough in the town, even if it’s a far cry from the life that once was.
‘Hey.’ He hears JJ’s voice from behind him, the approaching footsteps telling him that she’s about to sit down beside him.
‘Hey,’ he says, and his own voice is as humorless as hers.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’
‘I think I left my wallet behind in the last town we hit,’ he says, and even though it’s not really a joke, she gives a short, if artificial laugh anyway. He lets the silence hang in the air before telling her, ‘I was just thinking that this is no place to raise a child.’
‘Maybe not yet,’ JJ concedes, ‘But we’re getting there. The school’s in full swing, even if we don’t really have many real teachers, and it’s not as if it’s an all out war-zone. We’re well defended, Hotch. We’re on our way to becoming a real civilization.’
He nods, but that’s not the only thing that’s bothering him. ‘And what happens when I get taken by a zombie - is that the kind of thing that’s likely to happen in the real world?’
‘No…but every single day you strapped on your vest in the pursuit of a killer, you ran the risk of not coming home. Jack understands that. He understands why you need to do what you do. It’s the same reason it’s always been, even if the enemy is a little different.’
‘For a better world,’ he says softly. JJ nods. Just as softly, he says, ‘I’m sorry about Will.’
She says nothing, but out of the corner of his eye, he can see tears glinting under the night sky, see her teeth biting down against her lip. She chokes out a sob.
‘It…it took everything I had to come out here and sit down beside you,’ she admits. ‘I’m afraid that if I leave him alone for more than five seconds, then I’ll lose it all.’ She doesn’t specify who the “he” is, but then she doesn’t need to.
‘It’s natural,’ he says, loath to bring up his experiences of Haley’s death, because the last thing JJ needs is another reminder of what’s been lost. Of what losses are still likely to come.
Because she’s right.
They’re still fighting for a better world, and he gets the feeling that this fight will be just as unending as the fight to stop serial killers, rapists, arsonists. Seven billion people in the world, and even if only a fraction of them are infected, it’s still more than all of them put together can kill in a lifetime. The same can be said for the people they used to hunt.
The fight’s the same, even if the enemy’s a little different.
So why fight.
Survival, the greater good, a chance to save who they can? All of the above.
And that’s why he needs to keep fighting.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Zombie Cantos
Characters/Pairing: JJ, Hotch - Gen
Genre: Horror/Drama
Summary: It’s been so long, it almost doesn’t feel real. It’s been so long, he’s not sure what he’s fighting for.
Zombie Cantos: A Dream Within a Dream
* * *
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
A Dream Within a Dream - Edgar Allen Poe
*
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde
* * *
Three Months After the Zombie Apocalypse
Aaron Hotchner has been staring at the sleeping form of his son for almost an hour, just watching the rise and fall of the young boy’s chest, reassuring himself that this is real, that Jack Hotchner is really there.
It seems like it would be just his luck if he were to wake up, only to discover that their reunion had just been some cruel nightmare. A nightmare because he had long since given up hope of seeing his son again.
To have him here now is the greatest gift Aaron Hotchner could have asked for. The journey had been long though, and not without its blows. He knows that the son he has now is not the same son that he had left behind in Virginia three months ago.
War changes them all.
He pulls the motel door behind him softly, though it’s less of a motel than it is his permanent residence now. Even though the purge had afforded them almost a hundred empty houses, it seems wrong to sleep in the bed of someone whose brains you’d blown out.
He sits on the edge of the concrete pathway outside, staring at the stars. It’s beautiful - there’s not so much artificial light polluting the sky anymore, and most nights he can see more tiny white dots, more faint clouds of dust, than ever before.
The only other light around are the bonfires that seem to burn around the clock, serving as both warmth, and a repellent to any stray undead. There’ll be a few people sitting around it now, in lieu of any other available activity. He doesn’t even consider getting up.
He thinks about his son, about all the horrors the boy must have seen over the past three months. Burning houses, hordes of zombies, a plague of death upon the world. Would death have been a preferable option?
No. Not death.
As much as he wants to save his son from this eternal nightmare, he could never wish death upon the boy, not even for mercy’s sake. It’s safe enough in the town, even if it’s a far cry from the life that once was.
‘Hey.’ He hears JJ’s voice from behind him, the approaching footsteps telling him that she’s about to sit down beside him.
‘Hey,’ he says, and his own voice is as humorless as hers.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’
‘I think I left my wallet behind in the last town we hit,’ he says, and even though it’s not really a joke, she gives a short, if artificial laugh anyway. He lets the silence hang in the air before telling her, ‘I was just thinking that this is no place to raise a child.’
‘Maybe not yet,’ JJ concedes, ‘But we’re getting there. The school’s in full swing, even if we don’t really have many real teachers, and it’s not as if it’s an all out war-zone. We’re well defended, Hotch. We’re on our way to becoming a real civilization.’
He nods, but that’s not the only thing that’s bothering him. ‘And what happens when I get taken by a zombie - is that the kind of thing that’s likely to happen in the real world?’
‘No…but every single day you strapped on your vest in the pursuit of a killer, you ran the risk of not coming home. Jack understands that. He understands why you need to do what you do. It’s the same reason it’s always been, even if the enemy is a little different.’
‘For a better world,’ he says softly. JJ nods. Just as softly, he says, ‘I’m sorry about Will.’
She says nothing, but out of the corner of his eye, he can see tears glinting under the night sky, see her teeth biting down against her lip. She chokes out a sob.
‘It…it took everything I had to come out here and sit down beside you,’ she admits. ‘I’m afraid that if I leave him alone for more than five seconds, then I’ll lose it all.’ She doesn’t specify who the “he” is, but then she doesn’t need to.
‘It’s natural,’ he says, loath to bring up his experiences of Haley’s death, because the last thing JJ needs is another reminder of what’s been lost. Of what losses are still likely to come.
Because she’s right.
They’re still fighting for a better world, and he gets the feeling that this fight will be just as unending as the fight to stop serial killers, rapists, arsonists. Seven billion people in the world, and even if only a fraction of them are infected, it’s still more than all of them put together can kill in a lifetime. The same can be said for the people they used to hunt.
The fight’s the same, even if the enemy’s a little different.
So why fight.
Survival, the greater good, a chance to save who they can? All of the above.
And that’s why he needs to keep fighting.