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Candace bites her lips when she’s nervous, and she hasn’t stopped biting at them since she walked through the door of Vanessa’s apartment for movie night. She keeps her arms wrapped around her chest, nails digging into her sides, and she never stops chewing at the skin on her lip. It's almost painful watching her struggle through a conversation with Vanessa's friends about nail polish, movies, fashion, and music. She manages to stay out of it, but it's hard - Vanessa wants to say something, tell her it’s okay, at least give her some chapstick, or something. But then Vanessa’s dad is at the door with pie, and then he’s at the door again but this time he’s not her dad, and then the power goes out and the phones are rendered useless and it’s her and her friends and Candace Flynn in the dark as those monsters masquerading as her father work their way slowly towards her.
She can’t call it a zombie apocalypse, because it’s not. Vanessa tries to use her words wisely and properly, tries to avoid misnomers that could lead to interpretation. So she won’t call it a zombie apocalypse. But it’s pretty damn close, and she loses Lacey and the others in seconds, and Candace is younger than her but so much smarter, faster, her mind is already working twenty steps ahead as she grabs Vanessa by the arm and drags her away, tells her that there’s no use going back for her friends because they’re not her friends, not anymore, and before Vanessa even knows what’s happening they’re down twelve flights of stairs (or maybe up? She’s not paying attention, anymore, just internalizing Candace’s chant of “Go, go, go, faster, come on, now” in time with her footfalls, in time with her heartbeats, breathing in and out unsteady) and her feet hurt like hell in the little heeled boots she selected back before she ever thought that they might wind up in a position of mortal danger, and Candace has finally decided that now is a good time to stop, to breathe, to think, and she’s biting her lip again and Vanessa thinks it might be bleeding, and she doesn’t know how to tell her so she reaches her hand up and wipes the blood away, because she knows there’s no way their odds are good and she doesn’t think they’re going to last any more than another minute or two, if she’s being honest, and Candace was bleeding and Vanessa wonders if she even knew.
The stairs are long and winding and Vanessa says something like “I think my feet are going to kill me before my dad’s clones have a chance” and Candace says something about how stepaerobics have never failed her before, and Vanessa lets out something that’s almost a laugh, and the echo bounces gently against the apartment stairwell’s walls before fading against chipping violet paint and arcade carpet, and they walk up another flight and up another flight or maybe it’s down, Vanessa doesn’t know, she’s follow Candace and they’re blocking doors with fire hoses and trash cans and plastic plants in sync like they’ve been together doing this their entire life, and Candace says something about how “We have to find Phineas and Ferb” and Vanessa nods but she’s watching Candace, face scrunched up in determination as she works out a plan, and Vanessa doesn’t know how they went from fighting over some Mary McGuffin doll at the beginning of summer to whatever it is they are, now, but she thinks she feels something and maybe it’s always been there, and maybe she’s been ignoring it, and Candace is biting her lips again, concentrating, working through problems because she seems to think she can solve everything…
They make it to the ground level, and Vanessa realizes that they’ve been going down, but down is up, sometimes, or maybe she’s just tired and floating on microwave popcorn and doonkelberry pie and spending time with Candace and adrenaline, and they’re standing outside of the door that goes to the lobby and Candace says she thinks she hears something but she’s not sure if she should open the door, yet, and Vanessa says it’s smart to sit and wait, that rushing into things too quickly causes trouble and she tries not to notice when Candace wrings her hands together and bites her lip again, nerves getting to her like they always seem to, and Vanessa takes her hands and gives her a kiss on the cheek and says “We’re gonna get through this, okay?” and she can feel the lie as she speaks it into existence but she knows that whatever’s behind this door, it’s unlikely to be friendly, and Candace nods like she’s willing to believe in false truths, if only for a little while, and they’re holding hands when Candace hears her brothers’ voices calling out for her, a beacon in the darkness.