New World [Gay Chandler Riggs/1D fusion fanfic]

Chapter 5

Chandler stood by awkwardly, massaging his shoulders as Dad checked out my sprained ankle while Pops was shouting at me, literally red in the face "Cole are you completely insane!? Have you gone mad?! Why did you go outside!? What demons possessed you and made you think it was a good idea!? Do you do you have any idea how worried all of us were!?"

Speaking softly to not interrupt Pops, Dad looked at me and said "It's just a sprain, a nasty one though; you'll have to keep your weight off of it so it can heal, I'll go get some crutches and painkillers for you. I'm very disappointed in your behavior and I was worried sick, but I'm just glad you're safe" he said with a smile.

When Pops finally finished foaming at the mouth he hugged me roughly "if you ever do anything like that again, I'll kill you myself" he said as the kissed the top of my head. I adjusted my glasses since the hug made them crooked as Pops turned to Chandler "Thanks so much for bringing him back" Pops said and Chandler shrugged "My name is Louis and even though we don't have much we'd be happy share what we do have". "Speak for yourself Lou-"James started saying "I swear to God James, just keep talking" Pops said in a low voice.

-

"So you think you'll stay for a while?" I asked Chandler, taking a seat next to him on some empty boxes, letting my armpits rest from the crutches. Chandler shrugged "I can't go anywhere for a while at least, because of that car alarm you set off and the fact that I left everything I had behind". "Sorry about that, I'm a disaster" I said, Chandler looked at me for second as if he wanted to say something before turning away and simply saying "It's fine".

We sat in silence until Fenris and Shylo suddenly stood up and crouched down, following their snouts a black scurrying creature was making its way across the floor of the warehouse; it was huge, the size of a small cat, rats have grown immensely in size since humans were no longer controlling them via poisons or traps and a lot of food was left just sitting around for them. ""Gross" I whispered under my breath as the rat scurried along and under one of the shelves.

Fenris and Shylo ran, each on the other side of the shelf so no matter which way the rat ran it wouldn't escape. "You've train them to hunt?" Chandler asked as Shylo finally caught the rat and shook it roughly from side to side.

I looked at him "No, as they both got bigger their play became more violent towards smaller things and after that it didn't take long for that play to become predatory...this behavior is usually trained out of house dogs since it leads to the destruction of household objects, but we didn't since it keeps our living space clean; whenever they killed a rat Dad would reward them so...I guess we did teach them to hunt, in a roundabout way". Shylo bounded over and proudly showed me her kill which was hanging lifeless in her jaws.

"Yuck, don't give it to me" I said as Shylo dropped the giant rat in front of my legs "Matt...you umm...want some fresh meat?" I called over toward the shelves. "Gimme gimme gimme" he said as he walked over. "Go nuts bro" I said as he picked up the dead rat before flashing me a smile and walking away. "We're running low on food but I don't think I'll ever be able to eat a rat" I said scrunching up my nose to Chandler.

He ignored me and said instead "I...have a question...You call the one with the long hair...Harry I think his name was? You call him Dad yet the man who looks just like you, you call him Pops?" "They're my parents" I said bracing myself for his reaction.

"So...you have two dads?" Chandler asked, with an unreadable expression on his face. I looked away and petted my dogs "Uh...yeah...is that ok?" "I...yeah...it's fine" Chandler said, looking over my head where my parents were making dinner.

I looked at him, curious by his response and what it meant but I didn't want to push him away with questions. "I never thanked you for saving me the second time, it would have been easy for you to walk away...but you came back" I said instead.

I watched as Chandler turned slightly red and looked away, I had to bit my tongue to keep from chuckling as Chandler adorably mumbled "Yeah, no problem". Without even thinking about it I placed my hand on his knee, but he suddenly stood up "What are you doing?" he said angrily.

"I...I'm sorry...I didn't mean...I don't know...I wasn't thinking..." but I trailed off as Chandler stomped away from me; at that moment I felt so embarrassed that I nearly wished I was just torn apart by walkers in the street. Chandler obviously wouldn't be interested in someone like me, someone that needed to be baby sat; someone that couldn't even go five city blocks without disaster, he probably wasn't even gay or bi.

"Why so glum chum?" Liam said as I went over to join my family at dinner. "I'm just a screw up" I sighed. "Everyone make mistakes, I couldn't tell you the amount of times I got injured when I was training for the fire squad" Liam said, assuming I was talking about my ankle and my adventure outside. Zayn start chuckling as he handed me a bowl of heated canned soup "Yeah seriously, there was a time when Liam and I were on a first name basis with most of the doctors in the local hospital".

"Where is your friend? I opened an extra can just for him" Dad said looking around. "I don't know" I said, Pops nodded "So tell us about him; he's very quiet". "His name is Chandler, he saved me but he's been on his own for a long time...he's an orphan I'm guessing" I explained. "That poor kid" Liam commented, "That's real heavy" Zayn agreed.

"We'll just have to make him feel welcome" Pops said, Dad nodded after swallowing a mouthful of noodles "Losing any family is always hard, he's just a child and his entire family is gone; however we can't push him, the only thing we can do is be there for him...Cole, try to become his friend, he can probably really use one right now".

-

Chandler was still gone as we settled down for the night; Dad set a thermos of soup, a granola bar and a bottle of water for him next to an air mattress Liam and Zayn set up for him outside of our tent. Pops wrote "Chandler" on a piece of paper with a marker and set it down on the mattress on top of the blanket for him "Let's get some sleep, you've had an interesting day" Pops said and opened the tent flap so I could crawl inside without my crutches.

As soon as I laid down on my bed, Shylo and Fenris also made themselves comfortable on either side of me. I snuggled into Shylo's soft fur and I felt Fenris press right up against my back, dog blankets are the best.

"If you need the bathroom or anything during the night just wake up me up and I'll help you alright?" Liam said ruffling my hair as he made his way to his and Zayn's mattress. "Uncle Liam...does Chandler's story...do you think we'll still get rescued? He's been on his own for a long time which means that...help isn't coming" I said turning over to look at him over Fenris's side.

"Cole I think...that we should start planning on rescuing ourselves" Liam said after a moment "The four of us have also been discussing that same thing, but don't worry about it Cole; let's just take the days one at a time like we have been".

-

I opened my eyes and listened to the soft snores coming from the adults "Uncle Liam, I need to use the restroom" I whispered to the sleeping shapes. When no answer came I wiggled out of the tent myself and carefully got up to my feet, already feeling a little bad and not wanting to wake them up. I sighed in relief as I put weight on my bad ankle, thankfully instead of searing pain it was just a dull throbbing ache.

I looked over and was ecstatic to see that Chandler found his bed and ate his dinner; he had both his backpacks and his crossbow next to him, which explains where he went. "Shylo stop it" I whispered as Shylo went over and was sniffing Chandler's face, with made her sister curious to what she was doing.

Limping back to the tent from doing my business, Shylo and Fenris started to softly whine and they trotted to Chandler's bed where he was tossing and turning. "Candy, I'm sorry" he kept repeating over and over in his sleep.

I stood there, unsure of what to do; what if he got mad because I woke him up? I remember when I was younger and had nightmares, Dad or Pops would wake me up and then would lay with me in bed until I fell back asleep...would it be weird if I did it?

I looked back over my shoulder to Chandler who was still tossing and turning as I entered the tent and zipped up the door behind me after the dogs came in.