Reminder: this story is not mine, I found it on dev
I will give credits in the end(?)
Warning : gore
Idk but when I opened the part 3 there was a warning
Ellis looked nothing less than bewildered. He still held his hunting rifle out, ready to shoot if one of the Hunters happened to jump at him. To be honest, I wanted to scream at him for hurting Cole. Not a single one of my new companions had taken an offensive step towards the other survivors, yet that moron decided to take a shot. Although… I couldn’t fault him too much. If I were in their position, I likely would have done the same. Taking a step into a building that may have been promising only to be faced with three zombies. Zombies that could pounce on you and shred you ribbons in seconds. That would be a reasonable cause for distress. Survivors had more of a “fight” than “flight” reaction if they had the bullets; besides, there is no running from a Hunter. They would always be faster.
I could feel my hands shaking from the weight of emotions filling my head. Social anxiety, worry for Cole, and fear were some factors. Responding was proving to be hard. Talking to them back at the mall had been so much easier; however, I wasn’t trying to keep - or wasn’t being kept by Infected back then. There had been no need for panic. They were enroute to their own tasks, as were you. My focus flicked back to the tallest Hunter, where my hand still tried to stop his wound from bleeding too much.
Cole’s clawed hand wrapped loosely around my wrist by the time I was looking at him again. I hadn’t even noticed him do it in the first place - his hold was so gentle. He didn’t try to push my hand away; and that same hand was just a little covered with the thick, dark substance that trickled lightly from his wound. Slowly, I looked up to see if his expression had changed. Any hints of pain, anger, or lingering discomfort were absent from his face. He was just… staring at me. His expression actually seemed empty.
Nick obnoxiously cleared his throat, bringing me back into the full situation. I was still aware of what was going on, so it was mildly irritating that he felt the need to do that. I only got a little sidetracked when I was checking on Cole.
“You goin’ to explain to us why you have these things around like guard dogs, or are you just gonna leave us hanging here to figure it out for ourselves?” Nick asked in an impatient tone. I turned to glare at him in response. Could he be any more of a dick?
“Matthias, Soren, it’s okay…” My voice was barely above a whisper, but they were able to hear me through their growls; that was apparent when I suddenly felt two other bodies lightly brushing against my back. I turned just enough to see that the two smaller Hunters were still facing the four survivors standing at the doorway of the dilapidated bank. They both stood in offensive stances, as if creating a rather hazardous barrier to protect me and their injured friend. Their growls had stopped, but that didn’t mean they weren’t ready to pounce at the first sign of danger.
I cleared my throat as much as the soreness would let me, and looked over at the other survivors. I hadn’t really asked myself why this pack was with me. They had protected me, retrieved medicine for me… If they wanted to stay with me, that was their choice. It might sound terrible, but they didn’t cost any of my supplies to keep around. They’re all dead.
“I didn’t ‘tame’ them or teach them anything if that’s what you’re wondering. They’re as new to me as you guys are.” I saw Ellis’s mouth start to open, as if he was about to interrupt me, but Rochelle was quick to shut him up with an elbow jab. Sigh. “If it helps, yesterday after we met I was attacked by a Smoker. I blacked out, thinking that was it. I don’t know how long I was out, but I woke up right here where we’re standing now... to these guys surrounding me. They brought me medicine, too.”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Coach said, taking a step forward from the group. He had relaxed and lowered his own gun once he had broken away from his group’s tight formation at the door. It was clear he didn’t see this pack as any sort of threat; however, the way he looked at me and the other three of my own group suggested he still couldn’t believe what was right in front of him. “So you’re telling me three zombies are keeping you like a pet or something?” His tone didn’t sound like he was keen on the situation. “It’s not like I don’t believe you, [y/n]- I can see what they’re doing… like they think we’re gonna hurt you or take you away from them or something.” He blinked hard as if he was trying to clear his eyes or wake up, then shook his head when he saw that I still had a small team of Hunters around me. “Y'all… I’m going outside to keep an eye on the streets.”
“I think that’s pretty neat!” Ellis chimed in as his friend sauntered outside. I had no idea what else to say, so I was pretty grateful for him speaking up. “I mean, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, who wouldn’t want guard zombies?” He gradually lowered his gun, but he didn’t seem to totally trust Matthias and Soren. They remained somewhat crouched, ready to pounce. The energetic young man kept his finger off of the trigger of his hunting rifle, though his hands remained where he could quickly aim and fire if he needed to.
I bit into my lower lip and looked at my hand that covered Cole’s collarbone. The fluid that escaped the wound covered my hand enough that I could make out the colour. It was definitely old, and a little congealed. His large hand still encompassing my wrist tightened upon seeing Nick step away from the doorway to gawk at the piles of useless bills lying around the lobby. When I had posted up here, I threw out quite a bit of the cash stacked in the vault to clear floor space. If he wanted to take any of the money, I certainly wasn’t going to stop him. That stuff was useless these days. My eyes looked up to see Cole’s own soft yellow orbs trailing after the suspicious human.
“And I think it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Nick finally spoke up again while he started a little activity of stuffing the largest bills he could find into his pockets. “What if they decide they don’t wanna keep you around anymore?” Matthias growled in protest, trying to make it clear that he understood every word that came out of the man’s mouth. The dark haired man made his way over to us once he seemed bored enough with the currency lying around the lobby. He seemed to be walking straight for the offended leader of my new companions. What was he planning? “A better idea would be preventing something like that from happening, like…”
