A Family

Incident

  You've been at the airport for a month now.

  "Alright guys, I got some bad news." Virgil says, standing on the bench to address everyone. "We're running out of food.. We have to get downstairs."

  "What? It's a death wish!"

  Everyone looks hesitant and some argues against it immediately. Virgil is arguing with a few while the crowd of survivors all starts chattering and arguing about it over each other, until Ethan's had enough. He silence them with his deep strong voice booming in the room, which grabs everyone's attention.

"Enough!.. We'll need a group of us to go."

  "Are you kidding me? This is stupid. We'll be dead before we get there." Dylan speaks up.

  "I'll go." Tom raises his hand.

  "Me too." You volunteer.

  "No." Ethan immediately says.

"Excuse me?" You turn to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yn, we need you here. There's not many with medical experience.."

You look at him for a long moment before finally nodding. He sighs in relief and turn back to the discussion. By then a few have volunteered and a group has formed.

"Pat, you're coming too." Virgil tells the airport staff member.

"Me?"

  "You know the security system. You need to get us into the tax-free market and café. Come on, let's go."

Before Ethan goes, you stop him by grabbing his arm. He turns to you, and you just squeeze slightly. "Just.. Be careful, okay?"

He looks at you for a moment. "Yeah." He puts his hand over yours and squeeze it in reassurance before leaving after the others.

...

  While the group is downstairs, something happens on the other side of your level. Zombies breach the safe zone that was originally secured. It was being guarded by a few reckless guys who were playing around too much during their shift together. People frantically attack and run for their lives.

  Maria is horrified and scared and runs off on survival instinct. You were prepared this time and run to Parker, saving him from a few zombies you take down on the way to him. You take him in your arms and run.

  You get to a group who protects each other while holding the zombies off. Together, you make your way to a room on this level, away from the open area most were.

  You loose many and only a few managed to get to temporary safety. However, the zombies that are left from your attacks are about to get through the door. Glancing at everyone in the room and at Parker, you make a quick but big decision with extreme consequences. You hand Parker to Maria and take something to use as a weapon along with one of the others extra knives since you didn't have time to grab yours.

  Standing ready, you tell them to open the door enough for you to get out. They hesitatingly do and you kill the closest zombies and push your way out. Then you run away from the room to get the zombies to follow you. There weren't as many as before but it's still enough to risk everyone's life. You find another big open area on this level, far away from the other survivors. Then you turn around and look at all the zombies heading for you. You look down at the knife in your hand.

...

  Ethan is fighting his way through a corridor with zombies. The others close behind him. As he stabs and slams into the zombies, it's like in his a trance. He's just doing what must be done and barely feels anything. Once they're through, the ones behind get up front to get the door open.

  "You okay, man?" Tom asks him. Ethan looks at him and see him gesture to his hand.

  He looks at his bloody fist. "Uh, yeah.. I'm fine. I don't even remember what happened exactly."

  "Yeah, you kinda just turned into a beast for a minute there. I mean, that.." He points at Ethan's blood covered hand. "That's from when your knife broke just before the last one and you literally used your bare fist to smash its head in.." Tom tells him, looking at Ethan with his brows raised in disbelief at what he just witnessed.

  Ethan looks at his hand again and then wipe the blood away to check his hand for injuries. The others get the door up and he just turns to them, not thinking more of it.

...

Ethan gets to a specific room for the security on the airport and looks around. Opening a cabinet, a smile grows on his face.

A zombie appears and Jason fights it, but protecting Tom in the process the zombie gets the upper hand and he struggles without a proper weapon. Then suddenly it gets shot in its head. They whip their heads to Ethan by then rooms entrance. A gun aimed just fired from in hand.

He then just walks over while handing Virgil and the others some guns on the way to Tom. Finding a gun he believes Tom can be able to handle, he hands it to him.

"You think you can fit more guns on yourself?" Tom asks, gesturing to all the guns he's managed to attach to himself and Ethan looks down at himself.

"Yes, but this what all they had." He says, not getting the joke.

Tom nods with an amused smile while holding back a chuckle.

...

The group that was downstairs finally makes it back up. They're all sad about the two men they lost on the way back. (Yet to write what I have in mind for that.) Even with the guns. It was too many zombies on the way back that had been attracted to the struggle just before of them coming down and fighting their way to the food supplies. They're worried about telling their family members. One of them made a dumb and egotistical decision and the other sacrificed himself for the rest.

  Whenever he looses someone, Ethan is reminded of every single person he has lost. Either it's people under his command from dangerous missions or a veteran comrade fighting cancer for years and eventually lost. He frowns slightly when his first thought for comfort is to get to you, to see your face.

  You and Ethan have had plenty of deep conversation, the last two weeks of this month especially. And you've found comfort in being in each other's presence. The more social and extrovert survivors among the group has initiated some more social evenings lately with music and games from stuff they've found in luggages. They've done it to boost the moral, provide some emotional support and help spread some hope. You've been very impressed with how it's positively affected the ones that felt very hopeless and depressed to rather enjoy the moment and escape the truth for an evening.

This month has been really rough on everyone and it's been hard to handle not just one's own feelings but also others around you that let out their emotions on other people.

  You end up beside or close by Ethan at most times and end up talking. Often from the spots you're sleeping at. Which is by some benches in the corner by the floor to ceiling windows. You'd sit and watch the outside of the airport for hours and just talk. It was never awkward anymore and when it gets quiet, it's a comfortable silence.

Ethan is surprised with how much he enjoys your company, both light conversations and the deep. But what's mostly surprising to him is how he doesn't want to use the first excuse he has to leave when the conversation is technically over. Instead, he wants to just be in your presence.

  He prefers to be alone. At least that's what he thought he did. He loves his family deeply and love spending time with the pack as they call themselves. But he's always sought alone time. And when talking with new people, he's never wanted to talk long. However, now he wants to know more about you, listen to you.

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