Cover Artist: Ren (Linktree)
Estimated Chapter Count: 32-42 Chapters
Length: TBD
Estimated Reading Time: TBD
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Twin brothers Diego and Victor are on the cusp of adulthood and excited to be close to learning their magical gifts when their entire world changes. After going on a camping trip, the family returns home to a zombie outbreak. Once reunited with their friends, the parents decide they can solve this outbreak by finding a cure and they leave the group of five boys safely waiting for their return. So the boys wait and grow older. Unsure if the world will ever be normal again, or if they even want it to be normal again, they try to find a life for themselves that is more than just surviving the day. The story follows the friends in an urban fantasy setting as they grow up, fall in love, and make a life for themselves and other survivors in a post-apocalypse world. It rotates between the five friends' different perspectives.
This work is expected to be complete mid-2025. While you can preview chapter one here, the rest of the story is currently being updated on my members website. You can sign up to read it by joining my mailing list.
Content Warnings
This section breaks down all the content warnings in the work. Despite being a zombie work, there are a lot of common tropes I do not include. Once the work is finished, I'll add a proper list of kinks, but for now you can view my about page which lists all the content (including a list of kinks) that I will write, won't write, and will maybe write. If you don't see your concern listed, give my about page a quick review because I will not be writing incest, underage sex, slurs, and many other common concerns that are not addressed in the list here.
Whether your concern is a kink, potential trigger, or just something you'd rather not come across, you can contact me directly to ask if it is in there. There's always a chance I've forgotten something, and I'd rather you reach out than get upset or be triggered. If you need more information about anything in the list below, please feel free to reach out. I've tried to balance between detailed and vague, and some content is still being written or edited, so I may not have put up the full information. Some questions do not have clear "yes" or "no" answers and have detailed explanations instead because I feel as though the way I've written the content may be a trigger even if I'm not intentionally writing it to reflect that trigger. This is so you can use your own judgment as to whether or not it will effect you even though it's not intentional on my part.
Since this work is currently a WIP, if you come across something I've written in this work that you think could be easily changed to no longer be a potential trigger, please feel free to contact me and I'll see if it's something I can change without fundamentally changing the story.
Magic does not function in this world as waving a wand and having problems solved. There are no temporary limbs made of magic nor is there magic sight. Healing magic can be considered in a similar vein to current medical advancements. Nothing is instant and some things cannot be cured or even need to be. Some degenerative conditions need constant treatment to merely slow down the process. Magic uses up energy and, when overused, can cause long-term complications to one's well-being. In a situation like the one in Those Left Waiting, characters need to carefully pick and choose when to use magic since they may need it more later. Characters have disabilities and may choose to not get treatment that slows down its progression so they can learn to live with their disability. No character chooses death over living with a disability. No character is abandoned for having a disability in a post-apocalyptic environment, though characters may internally wonder and need reassurance that they are valuable and will not be left behind.
There is an instance of a character dying to a long-standing condition where an organ fails, but they are treated until it becomes less effective, and they consider their death the equivalent to dying of old age.
While characters are revived from their zombie form with disabilities, I do not intend for this to leave room for the interpretation that zombies in this work are a metaphor for people with disabilities. Characters with disabilities exist in this work outside of those that have turned, and I truly hope nothing in my work reflects the idea that zombies are a metaphor for this.
This one is a little more complicated due to zombies and whether or not you want to consider a person in their zombie-form alive. So I'll break it down as much as possible.
There are repeated concerns about characters asking to be killed or protected in the event they're turned into a zombie. Characters respond in different ways depending on whether they would consider that person still alive. Characters find varying levels of comfort in this.
One character repeatedly wonders if he's better off dead or as a zombie.
One character is dying and speaks of someone killing them after their death so they don't hurt anyone when a zombie. One of the main characters kills them as a zombie, partly as a test to see if he is capable of killing a zombie he knows. The character's parent is upset that he had to do this at all.
There are two off-screen instances of characters using up too much magic and dying. These were not intentional suicides. One character states that knowing what they know now, they would do it again. This is intended less as a "I will kill myself in exchange for someone's life" and more "I will give up the use of my magic in exchange for someone's life." There is a repeated fear and concern of dying from using too much magic.
In chapter two, a character considers that if he is ever alone or misses the zombified character too much, he can simply hug that character and they'll be together again. He doesn't consider it dying, but it is a bleak thought and the reader may consider it a suicidal one. He does not go through with the thought. I am considering removing the line completely, and feel free to reach out to me if you have thoughts.
Aside from the above instance potentially being a suicidal thought, no other character considers suicide. No character commits suicide. The characters do not stumble upon bodies of humans who have committed suicide nor committed suicide in a way to prevent themselves from turning into a zombie.
Victor dies at the start of chapter one and is revived in chapter five. This is the only instance of one of the main characters dying.
None of the love interests die aside from the instance mentioned above.
Yes. The parents leave the main characters in an apartment complex in order to "solve" the zombie crisis. The parents visit the characters in the beginning of the story, but they eventually do not return. All the main characters struggle with their parents' decision to leave them, and other characters comment on it as well.
Albert's parents have a history of forgetting him, leaving him behind or at home, and not spending time with him. He struggles with this throughout the work, and constantly worries about whether or not the other characters will leave him or care about him. While abandonment is a major theme within the story, it is core to Albert's development.
Yes. All the main characters' parents are turned into zombies, including one character left as a zombie with a consciousness. They do not kill any of their parents.
There is one additional parental figure who dies. One of the main characters kills them after they've turned into a zombie.
Noah's father died before the work takes place, and he carries that grief with him into the events of the story. It plays a role in his plot and development.
One character requests that his parent kills his other parent while the other parent is a zombie so they cannot turn back to a human. The parent follows through with the request.
Many characters appear where their parents are missing or known to be dead.
No. Children appear in the apocalypse and are protected and treated with care.
Yes. Different characters have different thought processes for it, and I try to focus a lot on the humanization of zombies rather than as a faceless mass of undead. A character finds relief in killing zombies, and he is faced more than once with the thought that he is killing people that have had whole lives before their death and he may be hurting someone still alive by killing someone undead. His entire arc is his struggle with his desire to let out his rage and whether or not he should consider the consequences of killing zombies. He eventually moves away from killing for his own relief and only kills for protection.
No. The other survivors they see are either friendly or they avoid each other. There is the fear that other people may hurt them, but it never happens.
Before the novel starts, Victor and Albert make a form of alcohol called "stolen honey" and sell it at school. There are references to both making and drinking the alcohol in the past, but they are not illustrated drinking it until later in the novel when they are adults.
Aside from zombies eating humans, there is no human on human cannibalism.
There are several fat characters within the work, and the characters in the work perceive fat as healthy. While Clint's father isn't happy about Strength being his gift, it's not framed that his fatness is an issue. Fat characters are not associated with gluttony, greediness, or are always depicted eating.
Conversely, there are instances of characters being described as too thin and sickly, but in narrative form as a descriptor. There are no instances of a character telling another character they need to eat more because they are too thin or conversations in that vein. There are instances of characters encouraging others to eat more, but due to food scarcity rather than comments on their body.
Characters do not make any comments about going on a diet. They do not refrain from eating to try to achieve a certain look. There are no instances of binging or purging.
There are comments about diversifying the food they grow to get a larger variety of nutrients. There are instances of pining for certain foods they can't make and fantasizing about food. There is experimentation with cooking and growing food for better flavours or trying to get closer to food they remember. There are encouragements to eat more food, but this is not tied to appearance and more because they are not experiencing any food scarcity.
Characters (Victor in most cases) sometimes feel ill after eating or find food flavourless and don't have much of an appetite. These instances are tied to emotional turmoil or illness and are not specifically tied to weight or appearance.
No. Due to the length of time this work covers, I opted to leave out any major pets or animals so I wouldn't have to include a potential pet dying of old age. Animals are mostly excluded from this work, and the main characters' diet is strictly from plants.
Characters use up their magic to the point of exhaustion. One character consistently uses a lot of magic so he is sore and tired. Two characters use up so much magic they die off-screen. These are not intended to reflect self-harm, but there may be room for that interpretation from readers.
One character is missing his arm from the forearm-down and characters assume that he cut it off to prevent a zombie infection from spreading, but it turns out to be from an accident before the apocalypse.
In the first chapter Victor remembers burning himself so that he'll have a matching burn scar with Diego.
Clint has an abusive father. The physical abuse is off-screen and there are only a few instances of emotional abuse. Clint asks his step-mother to kill his father so he cannot turn back into a human, which his mother does. Clint struggles with safe outlets for his rage and struggles with whether or not he should feel bad killing zombies. He eventually only kills zombies for safety reasons rather than for sport. He does not hurt any of the human characters and no one even thinks he is capable of it. With Clint's magical abilities relying on strength he is seen as a bit of a brute while his father is seen as highly intelligent and respected. Clint struggles with this abuse throughout the work, but there are not flashbacks to the abuse.
There is no non-con or dub-con on-screen or off-screen in this work. I sometimes write about recovery from sexual assault, so I wanted to specify that there is none in the work at all.
Yes. One of the main characters is traumatized to the point where he will rarely leave his apartment. In the beginning the main characters have varying levels of frustration with how the others are coping, but they eventually adapt to each other. These ways are not always the healthiest methods of coping. Anxiety, depression, and PTSD are constant throughout the work, but the characters do not always have the language to diagnose or be able to articulate what is happening to them.
Yes. Several of the characters show signs of depression and speak with language weighed down by it. They do not always know the words to specifically diagnose themselves and do not always have the healthiest ways of coping. For example, one character considers that he may be better off as a zombie since he will not have to make decisions and doesn't have to actually engage in any conversations. Depression is consistent throughout the work.
There are a few instances of characters implying Clint's father wouldn't be happy about him being gay. There are no other instances of homophobia. There is no instances of transphobia. Aside from the main cast being gay or bisexual, there are many side characters that have a variety of sexualities and gender identities. While I write the main cast as cis, I welcome trans interpretations or readings of the main cast.
Yes. You can find spoilers for these in the other death sections. One trans side character enters the story as a person who's been revived after dying. No one is killed off because of their sexuality or gender identity and I hope there is a large enough cast that no group feels specifically targeted. The vast majority of the cast is LGBTQ+ so if only straight characters died, I think there'd only be four deaths.
The first death in the work is not a Black character. There is a common horror trope that Black deaths are depicted more brutally and on-screen, and I try not to continue the trope in this work. That being said, three of the main characters experience attacks in the first-person, and one of those characters is Black. He is the second to be attacked and, while he is emotionally the most affected by it, it is not illustrated in any more detail than the other two characters and is not more gruesome. Since he does think of his attack more often than the other two characters, his attack is not repeatedly illustrated throughout the work in his memories. The attack does not mirror or replicate any real-world violence and is typical zombie-horror.
There are no depictions of racism in this work, including micro-aggressions.