Savior.

Talk.

Bennet stirred awake and was greeted by the morning sky blocked out by trees and the smell of food cooking. He rolled over and smiled when he saw Mia sat by the fire, patiently cooking eggs. He sat up and stretched, letting out a drawn out yawn.

"Good morning." He sleepily greeted. Mia glanced over and just nodded her head in his direction before focusing on not burning their food.

Mia stabbed an egg with a fork and passed it to Bennet. He looked at her with confusion before she spoke. "I forgot to take plates," she mumbled.

Bennet happily ate his breakfast while Mia packed their things and stomped out the fire. She picked Bennet up by the arms and dragged him out of the sleeping bag so she could pack it away. Bennet just stood watching her, not even bothering to finish his food.

He went to tap Mia's shoulder but was immediately stopped by the older grabbing his wrist.

"Don't." She said in a stern voice. Bennet nodded and pulled his hand away once Mia let him go. She straightened out her posture and turned to face Bennet. "What?"

"I- I uh, do you want my food? I'm not hungry." Bennet softly asked. His voice was raspy and trembling from having woken up less than 10 minutes ago.

"Oh, bullshit. You look like you barely eat. Enjoy your scrambled egg, I'll be fine." Mia protested. Bennet nodded slightly. He glanced around and quickly grabbed his backpack before continuing to eat.

He passed Mia his fork and they began to walk mostly in silence, though Bennet would point out flowers he saw. Mia would always shush him and whisper that, "people or zombies will hear you!"

After a while, Bennet decided to speak up. "Do you have an actual plan? Like, where we go in between here and Kansas?"

Mia contemplated telling him that he wasn't going to Kansas. He wasn't supposed to even make it out of Iwoa. But she wasn't gonna crush his hopes. She took a deep breath and shrugged.

"Yeah. Kinda. There's a place in Missouri we're gonna stay in for a bit. It's an actual community, not just a ghost town."

Bennet hummed in acknowledgment. Mia felt a bit bad for getting his hopes up that he'd be going with her. Hell, that he'd even be leaving the city. It seemed wrong, but what else was she supposed to do? She couldn't tell him that he wasn't leaving and she had to go without him, that'd just be a shitty thing to do.

The sound of gravel crunching suddenly filled Mia's ears and she frantically looked around. She looked to Bennet and let out a shriek of horror.

Bennet had fallen to the floor and was desperately trying to get a zombie off of him. He was yelling, as well. He was yelling for Mia.

"Mia!" Bennet screamed. She came back to her senses after a moment and kicked the zombie off of Bennet. She quickly pulled out her knife and stabbed it in the eye and neck. She stood and let out a few ragged breaths.

She looked behind her and saw Bennet, sat up with his knees to his chest, sobbing. Mia dropped down to kneel in front of him and grabbed his face.

"Hey, hey. You're not bit, are you?" Bennet shook his head. "Breathe. You're not dead. You're still alive."

"I- I almost died!" Bennet choked out. He was shaking and his breaths were shallow.

"I know. I know Ben, I know." Mia swiped away tears as they fell down Bennets face. "We need to move. There's probably more of those fuckers around and we just screamed loud enough to alert them."

She helped Bennet to stand and continued their walking with Bennet in front of Mia instead of behind now. Mia wouldn't be able to live with herself if she let a innocent kid die.

A few hours passed and Bennet was still on edge, not even letting Mia tap his shoulder or speak too loud. He was still trembling and any noise he didn't recognize had to be checked out.

"Bennet, you're fine. It's just a squirrel-"

"What if it's not?" Bennet asked sharply. "What- what if it's someone who wants us dead? What if it's a zombie? Then what?"

Mia slowly approached Bennet and shook her head. "You're overreacting. You aren't dead, I'm not dead. I've survived longer than you."

"No you haven't!" He yelled. Mia took a step back and looked to Bennet with confusion and hurt. "We've been going through this the same amount of time! We're different ages, but we were both alive when zombies started walking!"

"I was alone when this all started. You have me. We aren't going through the same thing."

"Yeah? I almost died because you didn't tell me how to defend myself."

"Blame your mom for that. She's supposed to care for you, not me."

"My mom's probably dead by now!" Bennet snapped.

Mia froze. She gently shook her head, trying to convince herself that he was wrong. "No, no don't say that. You'll find her and go back home."

"Be honest with yourself, no I won't. I'm going to die out here and you'll go to Kansas."

They fell into a tense silence before Bennet let out a choked breath and mumbled, "if I turn into one of those things, will you bury me?"

Mia stayed quiet and veered off the trail to set up Bennets sleeping bag. Bennet followed behind with tears trailing down his face and staining his shirts collar.

Mia set down the sleeping bag and set her bag against a rock before laying down and using it as a pillow. Bennet slipped into the sleeping bag and faced away from Mia, staring out into the darkness.

Mia cleared her throat as began to speak. "I'm sorry for uh, for saying you were overreacting. You almost died and you should be alert but-"

Bennet cut her off with a harsh, "Do not," which shut Mia up instantly. She nodded and decided to just let him be upset. He was a teen, he was gonna be a prick sooner or later.

Eventually, Mia dozed off with her pistol held tight in her hand and her head rested against a rock. Not comfortable, but she needed the rest.