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There were footsteps outside their current hideout. Techno wasn’t back from scavenging yet. That meant only one thing.
Zombies.
A groan on the other side of the door almost convinced him he was right.
But it sounded… different.
It wasn’t the usual guttural moan that zombies usually had. This one was different. It sounded like someone had thunked against something hard and groaned in frustration.
So of course, Philza did the one thing he promised Techno he wouldn’t do.
He opened the door.
Outside the door was a very pale man with deep brown, almost black eyes. The man was dressed in a white jumpsuit, or it would’ve been white if it wasn’t stained and dirtied to heck.
“Why a white jumper, mate?”
The man spins around and his eyes widen.
Philza can now see that the man’s hair was brown, through the short buzzcut he had. Poor man was nearly bald from the cut.
Who chooses that hairstyle nowadays? Most people just go with long hair or use a knife to chop it off. Rarely anyone goes full bald because of the risk of nicking yourself.
And blood is what will draw the zombies in faster.
Philza lifts a brow when the man blinks at him.
“I’m just pulling your leg, but really… what are you doing out here alone?” He asks, stepping closer.
The man flinches, then whines.
Like a child.
Philza’s eyes widen.
This wasn’t a man. This was a teenager.
A scared teenager.
“Hey… easy, mate,” Philza says softly, reaching his hand out.
The teenager whines and jumps into Philza’s arms. Philza pauses and blinks, before carefully wrapping his arms around the boy.
“How… old are you?”
“F-Fourteen…”
“Fourteen?” Philza’s eyes widen. “What are you doing alone? Where’s your-”
“I-I was taken… before it all started… I-I didn’t even know… I just… escaped,” the boy coughs. “D-Do you have-”
“Here, mate, drink up.” Philza presses water into his hand. Boy was Techno in for a surprise when he came back.
The boy greedily drinks the water.
“Slowly! You’ll have it coming back up if you drink too fast!” Philza tilts the water bottle back down so the boy can take a breath.
“S-Sorry, sir…”
“No, no, don’t call me sir, just Phil’s fine.” Philza wonders where this boy came from that his first instinct was to say sir.
Not in a respectful tone, but in the tone that makes Philza more concerned about this boy’s background. Techno is not going to be happy about this.
“Phil. What is that thing.”
“Technooo, so you see-”
“Phil, that thing escaped from the lab. Y’know the lab? The lab that started the apocalypse?” Techno glared at the boy hiding in Philza’s arms. His long pink hair was still in a neat ponytail on the back of his head.
“Techno, he’s not gonna hurt us. He’s just a kid. A kid.”
“More reason to put it down.”
“Technoblade!”
“What?”
The boy whimpers.
“P-Please… I didn’t know… I di-didn’t mean to…”
“Didn’t mean to what, mate?” Phil asks gently, ignoring Techno’s glare.
“I d-didn’t mean to spread it… I-I tried to stop it but I couldn’t… they kept poking me with needles and-” the boy sobs.
“Needles?” Both Philza and Techno ask.
“Y-Yeah… and t-then they’d inject people and yell at me and-”
“So it wasn’t your fault then.” Phil gently rubs the boy’s back.
“Doesn’t that make the kid Patient 0 then?”
“Techno!”
“What’s patient 0?” the kid asks.
“It’s a movie.” Phil doesn’t explain further.
They don’t need to freak the kid-
“Basically the zombie that started the zombie apocalypse.” Techno shrugs when Philza glares at him.
“D-Did I-”
“No.” Phil hugs the boy tighter. “Ignore him, he’s full of shit.”
“What’s shit?”
“Aw Phil you taught the zombie cuss words!”
“Shut up Techno, or I’ll clart you!”
Phil flips Techno off and guides the boy into the hideout. He wraps the kid’s injuries and finds some old clothes of Techno that have the kid basically swimming in them.
“This is the best we got until we can find better fitting clothes.” Phil smiles sheepishly. “What’s your name, mate?”
“W-Wilbur…”
“Wilbur… that’s a nice name.”
“T-Thanks…”
Techno sits down across from Phil and begins to sharpen his sword.
“So now that we’ve got the king of zombies, what’re we gonna do?”
Wilbur’s eyes widen.
“How’d you know?”
“Tech- wait what.”
“I’m the king of the zombies! They have to listen to me!”
“Phil I was joking. Please tell me you didn’t pick up the actual Patient 0 zombie king.”
“Okay, so-”
“I don’t consent to this.”
“Then leave!”
Techno didn’t leave. But neither did Wilbur. That’s all Phil could ask for.