Chapter Text
"Keep quiet, Nick," his mom whispered, pulling him down from view. The window of the ransacked coffee shop was large and broken, but some dried up potted plants kept Nick and his mother hidden from the survivors walking outside. A young man and woman, who remained oblivious to the people observing them. Nick twitched, his instincts telling him he should help, call out to these people.
"We should help," Nick whispered, not looking away from the people. "I think she's injured." They moved very slowly along the street and Nick could see even far away that the movements of the woman were clearly pained. She wobbled every time she took a step forward.
"We should," his mom agreed. "But the world ain't like that now. We need to take care of ourselves first."
The woman stumbled and fell to her knees. The man was immediately by her side, slinging her arm over his shoulder. They were close enough now for Nick to see their faces. She was pale, eyes unfocused, hair a mess. She looked like a corpse already. The man looked healthy, even if tired, his dark brows furrowed in worry, brown hair sticking to his forehead. He said something to his sick friend and jerked his head toward a group of about ten walkers behind them that took interest in the noises they had made.
"We can't just fucking stay here and watch," Nick hissed, ready to stand up. "Where's the gun?"
His mother gripped his shoulder with both hands, keeping him down. "Don't. Pete has the gun. There's no way to help without hurting our safety and I'll be damned if I let my son die before me." Her voice was stern but pleading."We need to be careful, Nick. Please."
"This ain't careful. It's heartless," Nick tore himself away from her and stood up. The walkers were on the other side of the street, slowly moving towards the two people. The man pulled out a machete from behind his back and tried to shield his friend while guiding her away from the horde and towards the coffee shop. Nick stepped over the window sill and called out to the strangers.
”Over here!” He gestured towards the coffee shop. The man turned too fast, the sick woman's weight making him stumble. The walkers were too close now, there was no way the man could drag his friend to safety fast enough. Nick rushed to help them, suddenly regretting not taking a weapon.
”Take her, please,” the man said and thrust the woman for Nick to carry. Nick slung her arm over his shoulder and started moving away. The man turned to hack the head off the nearest zombie and barely avoided the next.
Nick dragged himself and the nearly unconscious woman away from the walkers as fast as he could. His stomach felt frozen and his heart beat faster with every second. Throughout all of the apocalypse he hadn't been this close to danger before.
The locked door of the coffee shop opened and Nick's mother ran out with a kitchen knife. Her eyes were wide as she saw the walker's approaching.
”NICK, NO!” she yelled but it was too late. Nick felt someone grab his forearm and felt a breath too close to his neck. He managed to sidestep enough to avoid the bite, but the grip on his forearm didn't relent, no matter how hard he tore himself away. With another person hanging over his shoulder, he couldn't do much without dropping her and undoubtedly letting her be devoured.
A knife broke through the walker's eye. It let out the most disturbingly human sound as it collapsed and finally let go of Nick's arm. His mother seemed surprised by her own actions, staring at the bloody knife in her hands and then at Nick. Her expression hardened.
”Go. I'll watch over you,” she said and positioned herself behind Nick. Nick didn't hesitate to grab the sick woman up in his arms and run towards the open door. He carefully set her down on a booth inside and rushed back out.
Stepping back and looking at the chaos was almost surreal. His mom was stabbing another walker against a wall while the man was almost surrounded by them, slashing the ones he could reach. One of the walkers lunged at him, but he sliced it's throat open before it had the chance to grab him. Another grabbed his wrist and he was so busy hacking it off that he didn't see another coming towards him.
”Watch out!” Nick yelled and began running as the man fell under the weight of the walker. The machete flew from his hand and he was defenseless. Nick wouldn't reach him in time.
A loud bang echoed the street and the walker collapsed. The man looked around, trying to see who the shooter was.
”Uncle Pete,” Nick cheered when he saw where the bullet came from. His uncle aimed at the next walker and shot it too. It didn't take many shots before all the walkers were down. The stranger got up from under the walker and got his machete back. He sheathed it and looked at a loss for what to do next.
”I leave you for one minute...” Pete walked to the bloody group. He extended his hand towards the new person. ”Nice to see a new face. My name's Peter Randall.”
”Oh, uh... I'm Luke. Nice to meet you too, sir,” They shook hands.
”Call me Pete. There's hardly a need for formalities these days,”
”We need to do something about that girl you're with,” Nick's mother said. ”She seemed sick.”
”She's... She was bitten,” Luke glanced at the coffee shop. ”I don't know if she'll make it.”
”A bitten girl?” Pete asked. ”Where is she?”
”In the coffee shop. Come,” Nick's mom beckoned, leading them inside.
The girl was hardly breathing. Luke told them her name was Jade and showed the bite on her left leg. It looked awful and inflamed. Nick's mom knelt beside her and tried to clean the bite while the others stood back and watched nervously. This was the first bite victim Nick had met, so he didn't know what to expect. They didn't know if the bites we're even treatable.
”How does she look, Linda?” Pete asked after a while.
”I don't know much about bite victims, but I'd say it's not good.” Nick's mom said. ”She's burning up.”
”We might have to leave soon. Every lurker within a mile is heading this way after all the racket with the gun.”
”I don't think we can handle another horde. Someone should go scouting to see which way is the clearest.”
”I'll go,” Pete said, already moving towards the door. ”Don't get hurt, people.” He closed the door behind him.
As his mom tried her best to help the girl, Nick focused on the other new arrival. He seemed worried, as one might expect, but not truly worried. It was the kind of worry you would feel for a passer-by stumbling down stairs, hoping they hadn't broken their neck, but ultimately not remembering them the next week.
If the girl didn't make it, would Luke leave to survive on his own or would he join Nick's group? He seemed trustworthy enough, but it was always hard to tell what someone was really like so quickly. It seemed like the apocalypse brought out the worst in people, so a new member in the group could get somebody killed.
He realized he'd been staring at the guy when their eyes met for a brief second.
”You didn't tell me your name earlier,” Luke said, walking casually to stand next to Nick..
”Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm Nick,” he said.
”Well, Nick, thanks for saving us,” Luke smiled. ”People don't do that much anymore. Folks would lock their doors and point guns at us as soon as they saw her condition. I'm glad there's at least one guy with a heart.”
”Pete's the one who saved you. I didn't kill even a single walker.”
”And still saved two people. So thank you.”
Nick wondered if saving the woman counted. With no real medicine or disinfectant, she barely had a chance to survive.
”How do you know her?” He asked. ”Was she important to you, like a girlfriend or something?”
”Nah, never had much luck with relationships,” Luke said. ”I only met her a few days back. Neither of us had a group, so we teamed up. Don't even know her last name.”
”Explains why you're not that worried about her.”
Luke glanced at him, maybe offended by the implications of not caring, maybe just surprised Nick noticed. He didn't have time to find out when his mother spoke up.
”Oh, I think she's finally waking up,” she said. ”Jade, you're safe now. Can you hear me?”
Jade let out a groan and opened her blank eyes. Nick realized something was wrong immediately, but it was still too late. The walker lunged at his mother and took her by surprise. She fell and the walker crawled on top of her, trying to bite any piece of skin it could. She struggled beneath it when Nick pushed the walker off and Luke cracked it's head with his machete.
”Fuck, fuck. Mom?” Nick knelt down and took hold of her hand. ”Are you alright? You're fine, right?”
She sat up on her elbow and squeezed Nick's fingers. They both looked down at her arm at the same time. It was covered in tiny bites and one bigger bite, bleeding more than Nick had seen anything bleed before. It was his fault. He wanted to help the girl.
”I'm sorry, I didn't listen,” Nick felt his voice thick in his throat. ”It's my fault, I can fix this. We can cure it, right?”
”No... Don't let me turn. Don't let me hurt you like this,” his mother looked up at him. ”You have to shoot me, honey.”
”B-but, this can't be it for you. Something has to cure this,” Nick tried to keep himself together. ”We have to try.”
”We just tried and it doesn't work. Nick, you have to do it.”
”But I c-”
”Nick...” Her voice was stern but pleading.
”I-... I don't have a gun. Uncle Pete took it with him.”
Luke shifted on his feet. ”Jade had a gun. It's in her front pocket.”
Nick looked up to see Luke with the same not truly worried frown as before. He nodded to Luke and reached towards the corpse. The gun he pulled out was a small pistol. Holding it in his hand made the reality of the situation really strike.
”Mom, I don't know if I can.” He said. He couldn't bare to shoot a deer as a boy, so how could he shoot his own mother?
”I won't feel anything, I promise,” she smiled, but it was a tired smile. ”Just... tell me you'll be careful. That you'll take care of yourself.”
Nick couldn't trust himself to form words without crying, so he just nodded and squeezed his mother's hand. She squeezed back.
”Nick, don't let yourself turn. My little boy...”
The safety was turned off.
The gun was aimed.
click