A Light That Never Fades

𝟭𝟳

Zane smoothes the nice texture of the navy blue school hoodie with his fingers that Alyssa had gifted him about two months ago. He stares at it, feeling a little bad that he had not worn it at all ever since the sweet beaming girl handed it to him to shield him from the unbearable cold at night. He was getting awfully tired of wearing the same old clothes he had so he decides to replace his favorite dark gray sweater and slips into the navy blue one.

He inspected his short black hair, he knew it was only a matter of time before it began to grow a lot more.

He then surveyed his new clothing style in front of a mirror inside the boys' locker room. He wore his favorite black cargo pants underneath as his eyes trailed away from the new hoodie. The hoodie was a little too big on him considering it was meant to be worn on older teenage boys, but Zane didn't mind it too much. His eyes then trailed to his creased white Nike shoes. The black logo still easily looked nicer than ever although the rest of his shoes looked stained now, but the little boy wasn't ready to let go of these shoes yet. It means a lot more to him now, since they were a gift from Grandpa Ford when the boy had turned ten about a year ago. He still hopes to see him again someday, a thought invades his mind as he thinks further about his beloved grandpa.

How could Nettie have easily shot that random boy who was taking care of his sick grandma?

The question had caused Zane to frown upon it as he now began pondering about what he or Samy would've done if they were held at gunpoint by someone who didn't care about them taking care of an old man back at home. It made the little boy shudder, he wouldn't have let anyone steal from his only father figure.

But Nettie did the right thing.

At least, that's what Zane kept telling himself right after. Without the medicine, Maia and Ricky would now be dead. It was currently day 72, and those two were barely starting to regain strength in their muscles now. The little boy wished that everyone could accept Nettie for what she had done, killing someone now in this present age probably didn't mean much anymore. It's the way they must all survive now, they cannot afford to show leniency to any stranger.

The little boy picks up his backpack and returns back to the basketball court, he hears a few of the teens bicker about minor things like usual. Zane directs his eyes to Maia and Ricky, the two relaxing in one of the sofa chairs of their own. The group had decided hours earlier to start dismantling the 'sick bay' tent since the flu would no longer become a threat to them all. Not when the medicine that the scavenging group brought back home had been helping substantially unlike the pills from the nurses' office.

Tommy's bitten leg had been thrown out outside the school gym after the group had taken care of cutting off his bite yesterday. It was gruesome to say the least, but Fabian suggested they throw it outside anyway, where the sick would feast upon it.

Nettie was currently speaking to them all about something, it was so early in the morning right now, Zane's mind wasn't properly awake to be focusing on one of Nettie's rants at the moment. Instead, he treads over to Tommy who laid on the couch, now awake. The group had felt relieved when the injured boy had woken up, not turning infected whatsoever. Samy's idea to amputate his leg had worked, however Tommy still appeared to be in a bad state.

He had a strong fever settling within him, along with a bad cough. Nothing like the flu though, Taylor had informed them about him possibly just dealing with the bad infection his injured leg gave. Tommy had been given pills already for his leg infection to be treated. His face looked clammy from all the sweat that had poured down his forehead. Zane crouches down and takes his backpack off, he zips it open and takes out a superhero comic book he read a long time ago. It was the same comic book that Tommy had loved reading, the injured boy curiously glances at him. The little boy hands it to him, Tommy hesitates for a moment before shakingly taking the comic book.