Fear the Walking Dead (reimagined)

Part 2. 𝐓enebrous

Tenebrous (adjective)
dark, shadowy or obscure

act one

We arrive at a neighbourhood and everyone gets out of the car, rushing into a house.
When we get inside everyone freezes.
"Watch out!" I hear Travis yell when I see a man stumbling towards him.
Everything happens in the blink of an eye and suddenly I see Daniel grab a shotgun from a blonde woman and shoot the man in the head.
I scream as I see his brains splattered all over the living room wall and his limp body falls to the floor.
I slap my hand in front of my mouth and tears escape my eyes as I start slowly backing away from the people in front of me and out of the house.
"Dad!" Chris yells as he stares at the body in shock.
He looks back at me before running out to me and grabbing my arm to stop me from mindlessly stepping backwards.
"We need to get inside!" He tells me frantically.
I watch as Travis walks out towards us with panic all over his face.
"Listen to me. That wasn't a person. He was sick, they get violent and when they bite you you get sick too." He explains, trying to force us inside the house.
I keep my eyes on Chris who silently asks me to follow him so I do.

act two

When we get inside the house I find Daniel and Travis rolling the dead body into the rug and dragging it to the side.
"What the hell is going on?" I hear a girl yell.
"It's a sickness. It's spreading fast. It kills you but then you come back to life like... Like that!" Travis explains.
"They said it on the news. If they bite you you get it too and only a shot to the head kills them."
I feel like I'm going to pass out but Chris is keeping me upright.
Across the room my eyes fall on a brown-haired boy who is staring right at me.
"Who is she?" He asks but I don't reply.
"This is Y/n. I met her on the bus just now, she has nowhere else to go." Chris tells the boy.
I can still feel tears in the corners of my eyes but the sympathetic look the boy is giving me makes my whole body vibrate.
"Hey darling, it's okay." A blonde woman tries to calm me down.
She wraps an arm around me as she leads me to the sofa where everyone goes to sit down.
"He was already dead. It's a sickness that makes the dead walk and if we didn't shoot him he would've killed us." She explains and I just nod.
"My name is Madison. This is my daughter, Alicia and my son, Nick." She gestures towards the girl and the boy who have now sat down with us.
Once again my eyes meet Nick's and I feel like I'm in a trance.
"So what are we going to do?" Madison asks everyone.
"We need to go to the desert! There's less people, we can ride it out there." Travis says.
"We should wait until daylight. We'll go first thing in the morning." he adds.
"Alicia, can you prepare your bedroom for our guests please?" Madison asks her and she simply nods before disappearing upstairs.
I look around awkwardly, feeling like an intruder.
Chris turns to me before speaking up.
"When I stay here I usually take the guest bedroom but if you want I can share a room with Nick so you can share with Alicia?"
I shake my head.
"I don't know anyone here, can we please stick together?" I ask him nervously.
He nods with a small smile before we head upstairs.

act three

I follow him into the guest bedroom as he starts getting out multiple blankets and extra pillows.
"I'll take the floor." He says casually and I decide not to argue with him.
"I'll go see if Alicia has some clothes you can borrow for you to sleep in." Chris tells me once he's done setting up his makeshift bed.
I give him a shy nod before he walks out of the room.
I sit down on my new bed and let out a sigh.
Before I can rile myself up by panicking about the future Nick appears in the doorway.
"Hi, it's Y/n right?" He smiles carefully.
"Yeah. And you're Nick?" I ask him even though I definitely remember his name.
He nods. "My name is actually Nicholas but everyone calls me Nick." He shrugs.
He walks up to me and sits down next to me on the bed.
He slumps down his shoulders and hangs his head.
I look at him with a puzzling expression, sensing that there's something troubling him.
"What's wrong?" I ask in a small voice.
He lets out a dry chuckle.
"I can't talk to anyone about it."
"Maybe you can't talk to your family but I'm listening. I won't tell anyone." I reassure him.
He looks up at me briefly, taking a long pause before he begins to talk.
"Earlier today I was in the hospital." He starts.
"How come?" I ask him, feeling a sense of worry for the boy.
"I uh-" he stammers before another dry chuckle escapes his lips.
"I'm an addict. The police found me wandering the streets after I found one of those monsters eating my... friend." He explains.
"I'm sorry." I say but it comes out in a whisper.
He shakes his head as if to tell me not to worry about it.
"When I was at the hospital, they had me strapped to the bed. I knew things were gonna go to shit but no one believed me." He pauses again.
"I had to get out of there but as I was trying to get out of my restraints I knocked something over and..." He stops.
"Hey it's okay." I reassure him as I hesitantly rest my hand on his back for support.
It seems to work when he continues.
"The man I was sharing a room with got a heart attack. I don't think he made it." He says as he looks up at me with tears in his eyed that are refusing to fall.
He scoffs as if he's ridiculing himself.
"I killed a man." He says in a hushed tone, refusing to meet my eyes again.
I rub his back while I try to think of the right words to say to him.
"Nick it wasn't your fault." I tell him but he doesn't react.
Before either of us can say anything else Chris walks back into the room.
Nick immediately straightens himself up and stands up, acting as if nothing happened.
"Nick? What are you doing here?" Chris asks him confused.
Nick looks back at me before replying.
"Just welcoming our new guest."
He slips out of the room leaving me and Chris alone.