Chapter Text
As far as most cared the world ended nine years ago. Tommy's world didn't end until three weeks later, when he realized his family wouldn't be coming home. He'd only been eight at the time.
All things considered, there was very little substantially different about the world before and after its supposed ending. At least for Tommy. He still lived on the same farm his father and mother had bought when they were younger and had raised Tommy and his two brothers on. All that time later he was still on the farm. There were fewer farmhands now. As a kid, even if they weren't a commercial farm his father had brought on a couple extra hands to help. When the world ended all those extra hands thought they'd be safer on their own, leaving behind Tommy and his three best friends who'd been staying with them at the time for a sleepover and one of his oldest brother's friends who'd been "babysitting".
The farm was still running strong, he couldn't say the same about all the farmhands that'd ditched them.
His family was only supposed to be gone for a week. His father had gone with his older brother to some type of music festival a long ways away. His middle brother liked to show dogs and the nationals were happening so Tommy's mother went with him. His oldest brother had asked one of his friends, Niki to keep an eye on Tommy while they were gone. It was supposed to just be a week. Tommy got lonely fast though, so his dad said he could invite over some close friends to stay on the farm during that week, as long as he finished all of his chores. Purpled, Tubbo, and Ranboo had been right there alongside him and Niki when everything went to madness, but it hadn't reached them. Not immediately. Not when the farm itself was a whole six hour drive away from the closest city, let alone however long walking would take.
Week one had been peaceful. Up until the end where no one's parents came back and Niki started to realize something was wrong.
Week two had the farm hands fleeing. That was okay. It was the off season so there wasn't any major work to do outside of tending to the animals, something that Tommy cheerily taught his friends how to do. That second week he'd still been convinced their parents were coming back. Niki wasn't. Tommy's middle brother was twelve and his oldest fifteen. Niki was between the two at fourteen years old. Still a child herself, but she understood in a way that eight year old kids simply couldn't. That week she brought out an old radio that Tommy's dad had stashed away in the attic. Any time she wasn't listening to it, she was counting stores. A farm is a farm so they were in essence already prepared for the end of the world, his family having stores upon stores of back up preserves.
Week three is when everything finally shattered and it sunk in. Tommy's family didn't come back and there was only a little bit of hope he could have still kept clinging to. If the first monster hadn't shown up. It was one of the farmhands who came back, bleeding and half delirious. Niki, in a panic, tried to get him to leave, but he'd hidden somewhere on the property. Tommy's the one who found him later, drowning in his own blood. He was there to watch the man turn before Niki found them and put a pitchfork through the man's skull. It took her three hours to clean that pitchfork and another three to calm Tommy down. The world might have fallen before that, but that was the day when Tommy's world ended, when he came to the realization it was just the five of them for the foreseeable future.
He grieved his family, but he was nothing if not strong, and children are nothing if not adaptable. He moved on.
Little by little they got older, the group bound together in a way other groups simply were not, and the five of them learned how to take care of the farm all on their own. They read and studied the books left behind and put together the necessary puzzle pieces to understand the world, they picked up passion projects and kept moving forward. The survived, and unlike the majority of the world around them, the difference is that they figured out how to keep living.
Tommy was seventeen now. The world had ended a long time ago, but a new one started in its place. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The old farmhouse that used to just belong to his family still did in a sense. When he was a kid only four rooms had been in use. Technically only four rooms were still in use, but not the same ones.
His parents and brother's rooms had been locked up at Tommy's request. Luckily his family entertained guests frequently so there was plenty of extra rooms in the proper house. There was separate housing for farmhands as well but Tommy had wanted the family he made to be just as close to him as the family he was born with. Niki had moved into the room right next to his parents, down on the first floor along with him. Purpled, Ranboo, and Tubbo were all on the second floor where Tech and Wil's rooms were, Ranboo and Tubbo having shared for a long time at this point. It was a comfort thing at first, a much younger Ranboo suffering far more nightmares than the other three. Tubbo offered to sleep in the same room together and the two just never stopped. Despite having helped build the bunk beds himself, he was pretty sure they still shared most nights.
Tommy's movements caused a fluffy head to poke up at the bottom of the bed. Techno, way back in the day, had showed dogs. Well, he showed more than just dogs but he specialized in dogs. Clementine was old now, being the dog that Techno had gotten Tommy for his seventh birthday so he could teach Tommy how to train the beasts. Clementine was small and gentle but still protective, the jack russell terrier being Tommy's oldest friend. He'd taken over the care of all of Techno's dog and whatever pups came from them after, but most weren't exactly "purebred" anymore all things considered. Tommy still trained each and every one of them up to Techno's standard.
Clementine jumped off the bed, tail wagging slightly as Tommy got up and started trying to make himself presentable for the day. Things had been awful when it was just Niki and her gaggle of eight year old children, but even then they were lucky. In all those years, Tommy hadn't gone a day without running water or food, which was more than some could say. From the sounds outside of his door, someone was already up. Probably Purpled and Niki. The two tended to take charge around breakfast with Purpled and Tommy handling lunch and Tommy alone taking dinner. Ranboo and Tubbo were banned from the kitchen after the Pasta Incident That Shall Not Be Named.
He checked the makeshift calendars on his wall after swapping into some clean work clothes. Into their second year on their own another survivor had managed to come across their farm and Tommy had managed to make friends with this stranger. Scar was now an important friend and an even more important trading partner, his "Swaggon" transporting goods between the Watson Farm and the little outpost created by the Hermits, a group of survivors working towards recreating some form of sustainable society. They'd offered the group to join, but Tommy wasn't the only one who was happy with how things were on the farm. As rough as it was at first, they were a family now, and this wasn't just Tommy's home anymore. The calendar was a gift from the last time Scar had visited, helpfully marked off with the dates of future visits. Today was supposed to be one of them, meaning Tubbo would probably be busy most of the day.
It'd taken some real effort to get to this point, but they were finally producing enough excess goods to trade out for other materials that were harder to get. Most of their little group were familiar with a number of trades, like Niki having taught herself how to make alcohol or Ranboo having figured out how to smith things like weapons and tools, but raw materials like said metals were sometimes a bit difficult to come across. The Hermits traded them things like metal, paper, and other goods in exchange for food and water. For the most part the Watson Farm was still pretty self sufficient, the large reason for trading with the Hermits was out of sympathy and a genuine desire to see them hopefully flourish enough to create a larger colony. It was hard to accept new members, but they had helped a fair number of other groups get a footing and still kept an eye on those fledgling societies. Groups that would hopefully one day also trade with the Watson Farm, or set up their own farms.
The Hermits were also willing to offer protection, since the farm was a major source of food for them, but in Tommy's fine opinion that wasn't very necessary. He poked his head out the window, letting loose a sharp whistle. The baying of a number of different dogs met him in return, quirk and sharp before another lower pitched whistle cut off their noises. Clementine was soundness as she stayed glued to the space next to Tommy's legs.
Five people, one farm. Despite its size they did well for themselves. Tommy was in charge of the animals, and Purpled the plants. Between the two and the various machines Tubbo had concocted over the years to make life easier they handled it well. Tubbo was, obviously, their engineer, making sure everything around the farm kept running. Ranboo and Niki process goods and pitched in with the animals or plants whenever they were needed. Together, the five of them kept things running smoothly enough they had the time to undertake their own personal projects. A lot of which ultimately ended up benefiting the farm anyway. The hives out back of the main house hadn't been there when Tommy's dad ran the place, that was for sure. That was one of Tubbo's projects from about a year in. At the time Tubbo had been testing whether whatever disease started attacking humanity also impacted animals (it didn't) and whether it could carry through animal byproducts to infect humans (it couldn't).
The bees were an important aspect in testing. They had some trouble testing the whole animal products theory but there was a shocking amount of people Scar met who were willing to be test subjects in exchange for free honey. Scar recorded the results and eventually they and the Hermits were able to conclude that the only viable method for the disease to jump hosts was through direct contact with the bodily fluids or the mucus membrane of an infected.
They participated in a number of other experiments throughout the years, each member of their group getting progressively more intrigued by something and inevitably reaching out to the Hermits to test their theories. Such had led to their excessive amounts of what one might consider "luxury goods" in a world like this.
Case in point. As Tommy came down the stairs, Purpled was drizzling syrup onto a stack of massive, fluffy blueberry pancakes while Niki finished cutting up another bowl of fruit, a larger stack of pancakes without toppings waiting for the rest of the group to come downstairs. Like the older sister she was, Niki ruffled Tommy's hair and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead as he passed, Tommy making a half hearted effort to fake disgust.
A couple bottles sat overtop the stove, from olive oil to cooking wines and Tommy wondered how Purpled's greenhouses were doing. They had the larger fields for bulk crops but at some point Purpled was the one to get fed up with not having access to certain fruits or vegetables and with the help of Tubbo managed to set up a couple temperature controlled greenhouses. Ranboo had been worried at first they might start attracting attention but the farm was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Even so, they were the one to eventually bring up the idea of fortifications which led to Ranboo and Tommy getting into carpentry together and now... the bones of the farm were still noticeable, Tommy could see in his minds eye what it looked like as a child, but since then it'd changed. It's grown and spiraled in wood and steel and walls, in plants and beasts and bugs, it's changed and the occupants changed with it. He doubted anyone would recognize the place if they weren't here for its transformation.
Tommy took a couple pancakes off the top of the stack, reveling in their flavor. Niki was the best at baked goods, but all three who were allowed in the kitchen were pretty proficient on regular meals. It was made all the better by the fresh ingredients. Henry VII, the most recent in a long and illustrious lines of Henrys, had been treating them well. A much younger Tommy hadn't understood animal husbandry the way that the older Tommy had, so he wasn't as careful about monitoring the bloodline of their stock. He hadn't damaged anything irreparably, but it was a matter of time before he either needed to go out himself or pay a hermit to start looking for the necessary materials to expand his herds.
With that in mind he'd taken up hunting a couple years ago to supplement their access to meats. Keeping in mind the disease couldn't jump species, it was no wonder that the sudden collapse of society had brought forth a surplus of wild animals. Maybe not all of them were conventional for meals, but there sure were a lot of them. Between the uptick in wild populations, they were able to take care of both themselves and Tommy's dogs without making too much of a dent in their livestock. If any. A number of Techno's former prize winning purebreds hadn't been spayed or neutered. Once again, younger Tommy didn't understand that. Current Tommy was dealing with the fact that a large number of his younger dogs were mixed. Not just between species of dog but also a couple were absolutely the spawn of some of the local wolf packs. He'd been worried about that, but they were just as loyal and docile to the members of the farm as any of the older dogs were. A bit more savage towards trespassers, but that was the trespasser's problem, not Tommy's. They wouldn't attack livestock and they could hunt for themselves half of the time so ultimately it was more benefits than anything.
Eventually, Ranboo and Tubbo wandered out as well, the last two to find their way into the kitchen. They were always the last up, but they were also typically the last to go to sleep as well. Tommy was used to rising with the sun and going to sleep with the moon, as was Purpled, but their work on the farm was a lot more traditional and easiest done during the daylight hours. The other three had tasks that could typically be done at stranger hours, especially Tubbo.
Tommy was the first to finish eating and by extension the first to stand up, stretch out, and start making his way towards the door. "I'll be gone for lunch today so don't wait up," he tossed over his shoulder quickly before closing the door behind him. He didn't hear the responses, but it wasn't like this was the first time. Most of the basic day to day chores didn't take long for Tommy. Feed the animals, clean up after them, make sure they were healthy. It was a bit before afternoon by the time he finished, and that's when the real fun started.
While he was good at riding horses, more of the horses that lived on the farm weren't made for speed. They were work horses or in the case of Carl the very lovingly raised "war horse" according to Techno, so most weren't built for speed. Tommy didn't just ride horses though. It wasn't as hard as he thought it was going to be, he mused to himself quietly as he made his way towards a penned in animal. It was a fairly calm creature, having long since gotten used to Tommy. Yes, it really should have been harder, breaking an elk of all things. Henrietta just raised her head passively, watching Tommy approach. She only wore a bridle for the sake of Tommy having something to hold onto, otherwise he wore the elk bareback.
The elk had no issues with Tommy hauling himself up onto its back. "What a pretty little lady," Tommy cooed as he ran his hand down the elk's side. Tubbo hated her. Henrietta freaked Tubbo out for a number of different reasons, first and foremost being how eerily well she listened to Tommy. A close second was the fact that female elk weren't supposed to have antlers. Henrietta decidedly had a very large rack of antlers. Larger than most of the bulls he'd seen. Henrietta also seemed to understand that as long as she belonged to Tommy the dogs weren't a threat so she never got spooked and none of the dogs had ever gone after her, despite having no reservations about attacking other elk.
Ranboo was the one to paint her antlers gold one day, making some joke about Artemis and the fae that Tommy hadn't understood for the life of him. Tubbo had laughed though, and the pair had kept painting her antlers ever since. Tommy didn't understand why it apparently made her more scary when people visited their forest, but it did. Ranboo had even made Tommy a special bow to match with her. Long, elegant, in swirling gold and silvers. It wasn't really made for hunting, but that's what the dogs were for, and Tommy typically had a crossbow in case of emergencies. The bow was just to look cool, and Tommy had to admit, he was more than willing to do something just for the sake of looking cool.
He gave a short nod and Henrietta started along a moderate pace, easily bounding over the fencing keeping her in. It was mostly for show, she could jump it whenever she pleased and none of the other animals bothered her, but she seemed to like having her own area. A sharp whistle and the baying of hounds picked up behind Tommy. Clementine would be back home at this hour, probably spending time with Niki. She wasn't made for the same kind of hunting after all. It didn't take long for the pack of dogs to catch up with Tommy who started leading the way through the forest.
Strangers in the forest wasn't something uncommon. A lot of people came here looking for shelter because Tommy kept the surrounding areas empty of the undead. It was pristine in a way that a lot of forests weren't even nowadays. From what Scar had told him, apparently while animals couldn't be infected they still didn't like the infected, so while their populations had grown they still avoided areas like cities. Even the forests were quieter, bird songs becoming sparser and typically vocal animals becoming quieter. Tommy didn't have that problem. The air smelled clean here and the songs of the birds was almost always present. All of this made the forest surrounding their home seem that much safer. Especially considering the older Tommy got the more ground he could cover, and by extension the farther their 'territory' so to speak started to spread. Water was clean and zombies were few, that was going to attract attention.
Tommy didn't mind. If a stranger was polite he'd welcome them like any other. He knew from the Hermits just how well off he and his friends were, and they had enough to share so they might as well. Yet, every time a stranger ended up coming across Tommy they seemed terrified for one reason or another... Even the ones that didn't have a reason to be. If you were rude Tommy wouldn't be as welcoming but he'd only ever chased people out if they got aggressive. Even the thieves he usually let off with a lighter warning. A close friend of theirs now, Fundy, had tried to steal a jar of honey a couple years back. So Tommy chased him down. Didn't let any of the dogs touch him, but he did catch Fundy up in a snare net and chide the man for stealing. Fundy apologized though so Tommy sent him off on his way with some more substantial food stuffs. Fundy came back, this time a little more open about not having anything to trade. Apparently Tubbo found something useful for him to do because the two came up with a deal that Tommy... still didn't know anything about despite the fact he heard them whispering his name a couple times.
He shook his head, urging Henrietta onwards. Some of the older dogs were hanging back, but the younger ones were either keeping pace with Tommy or straying further up ahead. Some had been specialized as trackers, while others were geared towards hunting. The herding dogs and live stock guardians stayed back on the farm, performing their duties even in Tommy's absence. These were specifically hunting dogs, or at least had become specifically hunting dogs. In reality they were just the more protective ones, the dogs that'd hunt for Tommy but also help chase off a threat if necessary.
They followed commands well, moving at the demands of whistles and short clipped words. Techno hadn't used traditional commands because he hadn't wanted someone else ordering his dogs around, so Tommy didn't either, having picked up the words that Techno used.
Slowly the sun started to dip farther down the skyline, Tommy watching all the while. They'd managed to snag enough to eat for the dogs, the pack gorging itself on a fallen deer while Tommy dressed a leg or two to bring back to the working dogs. Things were peaceful. Until something that sounded like a gunshot went off. All of the dogs perked up, twisting in the same direction. It was away from the farm, and still sounded far enough away that whoever made the shot probably wouldn't be arriving for another day at least if they were on foot. Most people tended to be. Cars were a luxury most couldn't stand the upkeep of, not to mention the noise, and horses were hard to maintain if you didn't know how. Not to mention difficult to acquire. The Hermits had that luxury if only because of Tommy and the rest of farm, helping to raise the necessary beasts of burden, train them, and teach the Hermits how to properly care for them. Not to mention provide half of their diet.
Tommy narrowed his eyes in the direction of the apparent strangers, watching the dogs start to get antsy. They wanted to hunt, wanted to chase, but they wouldn't without Tommy's command and Tommy wouldn't send them on strangers without good reason. Scar would be showing up come tomorrow, so he might have news then. Tommy turned Henrietta away back towards the direction of the farm, figuring he'd talk it out with the others at dinner. They had a day to prepare, and Tommy wasn't keen on sending away strangers if they had resources to spare. Tubbo would be the first to argue they might be dangerous, but there were ways to mitigate danger, and they hadn't survive this long by being cruel. One of the reasons they were doing so well for themselves now is because they befriended the Hermits.
If they needed help, he'd offer it. If they were dangerous, he'd handle it.
And maybe if he was lucky...
Well, Tommy never lost hope that his family might one day come home.