KILL COUNT || Corpse Husband

E I G H T

Corpse had been quiet the whole way back to the old motel, leaving me to talk quietly with Lucas as soon as we got back.

I felt bad for him.

While Z's were an everyday occurrence for us now, almost getting killed by one like that is terrifying. Sometimes it's easy to forget how screwed we are in this world, and an encounter like that is like being splashed by a bucket of ice water. It reminds us how easily we can die. 

We were back on the low roof of the motel like we had been this morning. Leila and Sera were off to the side with Ara and Vince, who were dramatically telling stories of their day to amuse the girls. I smiled fondly as I watched them. At least we had moments like this.

Lucas and Corpse were close to the edge of the roof, deep in conversation seemingly. I wasn't surprised Corpse had taken to Lucas like a friend easily, he was an extremely easy guy to get along with.

I was currently sat in Jax's lap on the camp chairs as he softly played with my hair. While our relationship had never turned romantic in our time together, we had grown extremely close and no longer had many major boundaries with each other.

"Did everything go okay?" Jax asked me quietly, his gaze curiously sliding to Corpse and Lucas every few seconds.

"Ran into a couple of Z's, but we're okay." I answered after a moments silence, deciding not to share that the Z had come uncomfortably close to making Corpse it's dinner.

Jax nodded thoughtfully, but didn't offer anything else for a moment as he regarded our new companion warily, "Do you trust him?"

"No." I answered immediately. Corpse could be the nicest guy in the world, but I couldn't help the wariness that came with meeting new people. I would never know his true motives for joining us. "But I don't trust anyone so that shouldn't really be a surprise should it?" I shot Jax a wry grin, he of all people knew just how untrusting I was with newcomers.

"It's weird..." Jax trailed off, collecting his thoughts before he shared them with me. "I want to trust the guy, he seems great and I will never be able to thank him enough for helping us with those guys, if anything had happened to you or Sera, I never would've been able to forgive myself." His face tightened painfully. "Hell, I'd probably be dead to be honest."

My hand found his easily, squeezing softly to let him know we were okay. Jax hadn't been through everything with us, but he knew what was awaiting me at that place if I was to be taken back.

"I want to trust him," Jax told me. His face was open with no sign of a lie, but his eyes looked conflicted. "I really do, but something in my gut is telling me not to." His hand tightened on mine slightly, as if afraid something was going to happen to me because we had welcomed Corpse to our group. "I think maybe your untrusting nature is just rubbing off on me."

I laughed softly with him, not surprised he had ended on a joke. Jax already knew I didn't trust Corpse, he didn't want to make my issues with him worse.