Chapter Text
Stan and Kyle were finishing up their long walk to the grocery store. It was 10 AM when they finally decided to get going. When they initially went outside and saw how much was destroyed, they were initially shocked. By the time they were where they were now, a block away from the Food 4 Little, they had gotten used to it.
The only thing that fazed them was seeing City Wok almost entirely destroyed. The City Wok guy was no longer there, likely dead. It made Stan think of when they started out. He missed Kenny. He missed Butters. He even kind of missed Craig, even though he was a bit of a dick.
Kyle bumped his shoulder, making Stan turn back to him. "Yeah?"
"Did you bring your phone?" Kyle asked his friend, "Mine is dead."
"Yeah, not like it works well. It's at like, 20% too," Stan replied. He then continued, "So, like, if we wanna live, we should probably stay at the store. It didn't destroy concrete or wood last night, so if we're lucky, it's because it can't. The roof at Food 4 Little is something like that, so it should be chill."
"Yeah, except the glass doors," Kyle countered.
Shaking his head, Stan smiled, "Dude, the basement had a window, too. If we just stay away from the doors, we'll be fine at night." Stan was sure this would work.
Kyle sighed. "Do we even want to be fine at this point? Everyone's dead, and food is dwindling. We can't make more. There's also no cars, so we can't find some bunker where they have gardens or something, either."
"Don't say that, Kyle. Look, if we run out of food, then we can go out there, hand in hand, and let ourselves go. But, if the fog stops eventually before that, we have ourselves an out. There's a point in going on so long as places like this don't get destroyed," Stan assured. Kyle stifled a laugh. "What?"
"And here I thought I was the speech guy," Kyle said with a snicker.
Stan rolled his eyes affectionately, "Oh, shut up. Let's go eat chips and drink the fake alcohol they sell here until we feel real drunk."
"I don't think that's possible, but we haven't had breakfast, so I can't oppose that."
The two were very pleased to see that the only things the lights had touched were the shopping carts and the inner doors. No food was harmed last night, meaning they could have whatever they wanted. Preferably not the fruits or vegetables which were now going bad without cooling, but whatever they wanted besides that.
Okay, also not the meat since that was both raw and going bad. The milk was fine so far, just warm, so also not preferred. Stan grabbed a drinkable yogurt and chugged it while navigating the store.
Finally, the two made it into the chip aisle. The aisle, where chips stayed, and also fake wine and beer at the very end.
Kyle and Stan indulged themselves in the food and dealcoholized wine. They were a bit sick of the flavour of beer since last time.
"Y'know, this is all really fucked up, right?" Kyle asked, drinking from the "0.1%" wine bottle in his hand.
"No shit. My parents died in front of me, and my sister is probably dead, too," Stan said with a bit of upset. He wasn't exactly over it.
"Yeah, and my parents and little brother are all dead, too. What I meant, though, was how everyone just left us behind. Like, what the hell!?" Kyle asked, taking a handful of Tostitos.
Stan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I mean, Kenny didn't even say anything before he left. What a douchebag!" He reached for the bag of Lay's.
This continued for a while until they ran out of fake alcohol. Stan and Kyle stood up simultaneously. "Let's see... we need an actual flashlight if we wanna check out the back of the store. You think they sell 'em anywhere here?" Stan asked.
Kyle shrugged, "I dunno. They sell can openers on the hangers off the side of the shelves, here, so who knows what other aisles could have."
So they began to check every aisle. It was a slow process, so they weren't exactly having fun. After three aisles, Kyle, in a pleading tone, asked, "How many more aisles?"
After checking around the corner, Stan replied from the other side of the aisle, "Eight, maybe nine more!" Kyle loudly groaned at this revelation.
"We gotta familiarize ourselves with the aisles! How are we gonna live here if we don't know where to go. Especially in the dark!" Stan explained.
"Where are we even gonna sleep!?" Kyle rebutted.
"The same way the homeless do! On cardboard!" Stan said in a voice that sounded too excited for Kyle's liking. Either way, Kyle continued to check the aisles with Stan, though not without complaint.
Eventually, they made it to the last aisle. "Alright, Kyle, we made it. At only 2:50, no less! Now, I guess I'm gonna have to use the last of my phone battery as a flashlight instead of a real one, but that's fine. Let's get our beds ready."
Kyle groaned again as Stan dragged him by the hand towards the back room. He turned on his phone flashlight and opened the door.
"Maybe there'll be real blankets in here?" Kyle coped. There weren't going to be real blankets, and Stan knew that. He decided to let Kyle believe.
As expected, there were various empty and also full cardboard boxes. "Stan, you're still holding my hand."
Stan looked back in Kyle in the almost pitch black darkness. "Oh. Yeah. Haha."
There was a momentary pause between the two as they simply stared at each other. "Y-You didn't let go," Kyle stated.
"I didn't..." Stan responded.
The roof of the building began to fade away into fog. Stan and Kyle stared into each other's eyes.
The shelves surrounding them began to dissolve. Their faces got closer together.
"I'm sorry it ended up this way," Stan said with tears falling from his eyes.
Kyle wiped away his tears. "It's fine. Stan, we really suck at feelings, don't we?" he laughed to himself and smiled softly at Stan.
Stan sighed. "Can we kiss before we go, then?"
"I was about to ask the same thing," Kyle smiled.
Their legs began to slowly become fog as Kyle and Stan's lips pressed against each other, as one final goodbye. They kept their eyes shut as they felt themselves drift away into the endless mist.