The day we fell.

chapter 05: an unexpected mix

Lucy's POV:

We search for survivors, weary of the unknown. I see a boy in the shadows and point it out to Tom and Jace quietly and we go to investigate. We look at the boy, he looks very familiar. Then my brain puts the pieces together. This tall, black-haired boy was Tom's friend. Steven. "Steven?!" Tom and I exclaim, he smiles and nods, Jace however, gives him a dirty look. "Stephanie." "Jace." I felt the air thicken then we all agreed to take him in, Jace was hesitant, but agreed. We take him back to camp and now and then I'd hear a beep but thought nothing of it. We talked, shared food, and talked about our plans. I soon excused myself to talk to Jace.

"What's wrong kid?" I ask, concerned.

"Don't want him here, " Jay mumbles "he's weirding me out"

I and Jace stayed and talked for hours about it and how he was weirding both of us out. Days flew by like the pheasants above us, and I started to see what Jay meant. Steven was acting friendly to me and would try touching me at any chance he could, I could tell this upset Tom, and Jay for that matter, but we couldn't do anything about it.

We had to go out hunting, and this time, we all tagged along so I could learn how in case Tom was out of the picture. The thought always made me feel sick, I hated the idea of losing him, I never understood why, Jay always said it was because of my love for him. Love? Me? At this time? That'll stun me. 

We were wandering to an unknown destination, me and Jace in the back while Tom and Steven walked ahead. I wonder if Tom was as weirded out as we are about Steven? I don't have a clue. I felt like I wanted to be upfront with Tom so we could talk but I have no idea why. "Does anyone have any food?" Asked Jace. "No we still haven't found a place to settle so I can go and hunt" replied Tom. "You need to teach us how to hunt Tom" I shouted forwards. I never took Tom for the kind to be violent, but this apocalypse has shown me otherwise. "Why could we just stay at the camp we had?" Questioned Jace. "Because the woods aren't very well lit meaning it's a hot spot for zombies and the light of our camp would attract more, they like the light like filthy moths" replied Tom. "Wait you guys had a camp?" Asked Steven. "Yeah, we did, how did you even survive the apocalypse? How did you get out of the school?" Questioned Tom, all good questions and it answered my question about Tom's stance on Steven. "I- uh- umm- I can't remember" replied Steven, panic and fear filled his voice. Tom stopped dead. We all stopped. "What is it, Tom?" Asked Jace. Tom flicked over to Steven, grabbed him by the shirt, and pinned him against a nearby wall. "Now, how about we jog your memory? You seemed a bit too hesitant to tell us what happened, so now I'm interested" Tom spoke through his teeth. "Tom! What the fuck are you doing?" I yelled. Fear filled Steven's face. I and Jace both stood and watched this all unfold. "I- uhh- I r-really don't reme-" "I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER, WERE YOU BITTEN?" Tom screamed, cutting Steven off. "No! No, I wasn't, promise!" Replied Steven, panic in his voice. Tom let go and carried on. "Come on, we have to keep moving, we need to find a place to settle"

The tension between Tom and Steven rose. We found a potential place to settle, a rooftop which is pretty easy for us to get to but hard for zombies. "Set up here, you all set up a fire and I'll go and get some food, I need a cloth to wipe the infected blood off my pipe" commanded Tom. Jace passed Tom a tissue and he began to clean his pipe. "So we need to start a fire?" I asked. "How the hell do we do that?" I followed up with a second question. "Gather sticks and I'll do the rest" replied Tom, after that, he dropped the tissue, nodded at Jace, and left to go and hunt. "Tom seems a little on edge" stated Steven. "Yeah, probably just being protective" replied Jace. That made my heart skip a beat. Tom, being protective, of me? Why would that excite me? "Guess you guys are important to him" continued Steven. "Guess so" I stated, a bit of a tremble to my voice. Steven turned and locked eyes with me, I looked away uncomfortably but he continued for a few seconds longer than he should. "When will Tom get back with this food!?!" Exclaimed Jace. We all giggled at this but didn't share much else in terms of conversation. It began to get dark. "It's getting dark and Tom still isn't back?" I questioned. "Wouldn't be a big deal, just means I'd be the man of the group, which I'm sure you wouldn't mind Lucy" stated Steven. My body cringed the statement. Before we could say anything we heard a rustle of a bush and the footsteps of something moving, we all braced and panicked. "Hello? Thank you for welcoming me back jeez" It was just Tom. We all let out a sigh of relief that it wasn't an infected zombie, although, my sigh was bigger than expected. A few hours passed and we had eaten and were just about ready for our second night. "Ok, what are the shifts?" Asked Jace. "I'll take all of them" stated Tom. There was no point protesting, because there was no reasoning with him, he was stubborn but not annoyingly stubborn.

While they were gone, Tom was mostly just furiously chopping trees and lamping his axe into trees and Jace was simply having a conversation with him. "So, Tom, why are you so angry over what Steven said to Lucy mhm?" Questioned Jace. "I saw how it made her uncomfortable," Tom said with a sharp tone. "Is that all??" Continued Jace. Tom stopped cutting wood and turned to look at Jace. "What else would it be?". "I don't know, you tell me, Tom!". "I don't know what you're implying but there isn't any other reason". Toms's anger seemed to be sleeping away as his tone changed to his usual calm tone. "Tom, I've seen the way you and Lucy look at each other, the way you look at her when you think no one is watching, there's something there". Tom froze. "So yeah maybe I like her, so what?" Tom has a slight tremble and panic in his voice. "You've gotta stop Steven from flirting with Lucy, she's into you man, trust". The stay at camp with just me and Steven was awkward, just him staring at me, and me trying to make conversation to divert him. Eventually, Tom and Jace returned with Tom carrying a large amount of wood to burn. He turned and looked Steven dead in the eyes, a look of confusion followed by fear infected Steven's face. Tom eventually nodded and continued to drop the wood and sit down next to me. My heart began to race and I have no idea why.