The Apocalypse Life.

Ch. 7: Untrustworthy.

"Didn't your mama ever teach you that?." was the last thing I was told in my dream before waking up.
...

I had gone out of the house with Shadow, Rouge stayed back to continue to take care of Cream. I felt intensely nervous. In my head I was just planning on how I was going to confront them about Shadow. "What if they hate me? What if they try to kill him??" I asked myself. I didn't want to lose them, that is if they don't like the idea of him. But I didn't want to keep lying to the ones I care about the most. I was lost in my thoughts and fidgeting a lot with my hands yet it was no problem for me to lead us back to the base where I hoped to find my friends. Shadow noticed my fidgeting so I guess he knew I was nervous. He grabbed my hand and just gently held it. I stared at him with wide eyes. My mind went blank. Shadow looked at me and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back and quickly look away, I felt my face burning up.

"I really hope this goes well" I whispered yet made sure I said it loud enough so that Shadow could hear. He rubbed my hand with his thumb, continuously moving his thumb up and down against my hand. It was soothing and gave me a reassuring feeling.
"Sonic!!" It was a very familiar voice, I knew who was behind us automatically. I quickly let go of Shadow's hand. I felt like a child whose mother had caught them doing something bad. But, love isn't bad. Is it?

I looked behind me quickly, I took some steps forward and stood in front of Shadow so I'd have some time to at least explain that he isn't going to attack before they try to first. I saw my friends running towards me.
"Sonic, where have you been??" Asked Knuckles.
"Why didn't you come home? We were worried sick!" Scolded Amy.

Lots of other questions continued to pile up. I guess they just didn't see that I was with someone when they saw me. I tried to answer all of them but eventually gave up.

"Guys calm down!" I yelled and they went silent, probably waiting to hear an explanation of some sort. I was going to give them one anyways. "I'm sorry I didn't come home, I went exploring then ment a child that was all alone. Something bad happened and I had to stay elsewhere, thankfully two kind uhm.. 'People' helped me. But I'm okay! I'm sorry."

Tails hugged me tightly. "I'm glad you're alive." His voice sounded quite shaky.
"It's good to see you again buddy" I said, hugging him back.
"Who are these three new survivors? We have an extra room but two are going to share a room and someone else is going to have to share a room with one of the new people. We should get to meet them first to see where they'd fit best." Amy planned.

I let go of Tails, he stepped back and I started fidgeting with my hands again. It was like if weights were making my body heavier, I just felt so anxious. I didn't feel ready honestly, not ready for what exactly? I'm not sure. I looked behind me and Shadow tilted his head at me. I took a deep breath and gave him a weak smile before looking back at my team.

"I agree, but they aren't survivors the-"
"What?!" I was cut off by knuckles. They all looked at me confused and concerned.
"Let me explain." I paused for a bit. "You guys remember the infected that didn't bite me even though he grabbed me and was capable of doing so? Well, he wouldn't stop following me and we started to be around each other more and.. Uhm. he basically saved me the night I didn't come back. Please trust me, he isn't a bad guy." I said ranting, then stepping aside so they could see Shadow. I felt more scared than nervous now. I could already tell by their expressions that this was not going well. Shadow awkwardly smiled and waved.
"The child got infected because of the bad thing I had mentioned earlier that happened, and then Rouge, Shadow's friend, was already infected when I met her" I continued.

"Sonic, listen, I love that you can be friends with everyone.. quite literally." Amy said, looking at Shadow up and down then over to me. "But this is nuts! he's going to infect all of us. Maybe you're right, he won't bite now. But tell me, what will happen when he gets hungry? What will happen then? I am not going to willingly become his meal Sonic."
"Well he already isn't like the other infected so maybe he also has a different diet?" I said, trying to defend Shadow.
"Sonic you know I love you like a brother but you need to understand that the infected will always be infected. I don't know what you are trying to pretend he is but he is not someone you should have as a friend." Tails said trying to talk sense into me but they just don't understand.
"No, no! He's different, please believe me. I've been around him for long periods of time and he has never even looked like he wants to attempt to or has any intentions of biting me."
"Listen to yourself, what you are impling is crazy! Why would all of the sudden 'friendly' infected start to appear? What if he only has a liking for you? You're just gonna let him infect us, won't you? Is that what you want?" knuckles said, crossing his arms.
"I just need you guys to trust me, if he wanted to infect yall already he would have already done so. He has just been standing there! You really think an infected person could just do that? Please guys, for the love of chaos. Believe me. You all have had no trouble trusting me before. What is so different now? I've always had crazy ideas but you guys never doubted me. We are a team."