The Boy

Chapter Ten : A New Face

Chapter Ten : A New Face..

The teenager was an average looking kid on the verge of becoming an adult. With over grown blond hair that kept falling into his grey eyes and dirty cloths that suited him well. He looked almost as though he had modeled his current look after Kurt Cobain, right down to the dirty jeans and sneakers, all he lacked was the stubble. Instead he had red acne covering his chin and spotted across his face. For a long minute Ethan just stared at him dumbfounded. What was he doing in the kitchen of their shop? He thoughts went immediately to the guns that were stashed away in the roof under their bedding. It didn't look like he had found them, his eyes kept going to the guns on their hips, like he was waiting for them to draw them as if he were in some kind of western. After about a minute of sizing each other up he made a polite attempt at a farewell and excused himself. Ethan stood aside to let him pass. It wasn't until the stranger was in the shop that he realized they had blocked the entrance with the car. He paused pondering it for a second before looking back at them.

"I don't suppose you could move that for me?" He sounded half like he was joking but underneath the politeness Ethan could sense frustration and fear. The atmosphere was electric with tension, it almost felt like they had trapped a tiger and now they weren't sure what to do with it.

"What's your name first?" Ava interjected forcefully.

"Samuel." He tried to look bored and disinterested but didn't pull it off very well.

"Have you got somewhere to go?" Ava pushed further.

"Not really... " He trailed off

"You could always stay here for a bit." Ava offered quickly, he stopped and looked back over the pair for a long second.

"When you came in were there many zombies about?" Samuel questioned, the look on his face betraying his needs more than he cared for. It was clear to Ethan that he didn't want to go, but he didn't want to seem desperate either. It made him think of himself and his feelings towards joining up with a group.

"Come up and see." Ethan offered up at last, motioning to the room again causing Samuel to give him a questioning look. Ava's smile might have had something to do with his going along with them, maybe he would have came anyway but regardless it was all together they made the climb into the roof space and over to the hole that had been their sniping position. From there they had a good view of the feast that was happening down the road. Samuel stood watching silently as, what were once human beings tore into the three carcasses.

"So that's what the shots were." He said as much to himself as to Ethan. "Why did you shoot them?"

"We needed to distract the rest of them." Ava said coming to Ethan's defense, hoping that this guy wasn't going to get all zombie rights about it like the strange man.

"Sorry about that." He apologized. "I didn't think there was anyone in here."

It took Ethan a moment to catch on to what he was apologizing for, then it struck him, the reason the zombies were crowded around the shop was because of him. Still he was too tired to care, his leg hurt and was starting to swell a little. He really wanted to sit for a bit and use the scope on one of the rifles to get a better look at the feeding pack.

While Ava chatted casually to their new acquaintance, he loaded a shell into the rifle and sat taking aim at different targets while listening in. They talked about recent history and what he was planning to do next. Ethan meanwhile scanned faces looking for the one face he hoped never to see again. If he did he would have to make a hard choice and one he wasn't sure he would ever be ready to make. Samuel talked a lot once he got started, telling how he been roaming the streets finding whatever he could to survive, out running any zombie he happened upon, finding a hiding spots to rest in. From what he was saying he didn't have any kind of plan. At least they had some idea about what they would do and what their ultimate goal was, Ethan thought to himself.