Bite {Niall Centric}

Day 189

Niall woke up before the others, his vision slowly fading in and out of focus as he tried to fight off the last remains of sleep. His backpack was currently being used as a pillow to support his head, but he could still reach into the side pocket to pull out the photograph of his family. His thumb tenderly pressed against the corner of the photograph before rubbing over Greg's face as an afterthought.

The photo was gradually disintegrating, spreading white along the creases and edges; he never wanted to see the day the photo would finally crumble into little pieces. It was his last reminder of what his family looked like. Each day that passed, early memories faded away to be replaced by the new ones.

What had his mother's eyes looked like before turning feral from the bite? How big was his dad's smile again? What about Greg's fond expression everytime he looked at Niall? Those memories were kept safe in his one little photograph.

Maybe someday, Niall will find a camera, and he can take a picture of himself with the boys as a reminder for the future should ever something happen. Then, he'll never forget Lou's lazy grin, Harry's charming dimples, Zayn's gorgeous eyes, and Liam's bushy eyebrows.

He placed the photograph back, sighing to himself quietly as he debated whether he should get up or go back to sleep. The dilemma was solved for him when Zayn began to stir beside him. Said boy sat up, rubbing his eyes tiredly as Niall watched him silently.

"Morning," Niall whispered, sitting up, too.

Zayn returned the greeting but the mumbled words were barely discernible.

On the opposite side of the room, the door swung open. Almost immediately, Zayn was alert, gun aimed at the doorway before he lowered his weapon; it was only Harry checking in on them during his shift. The curly brunette chuckled softly,  obviously not disturbed by the fact he had a gun pointed at him.

"Glad you two are awake," Harry leaned against the doorway, green eyes following every movement Niall made as he got up. He continued watching as both boys made their way towards him. "Night watch is really boring by yourself. How's your ankle, Niall?"

About six days ago, Niall finally came clean about his ankle pain, and the boys made a point to always ask about it in case Niall tried to hide his suffering again. Niall couldn't help it; he just felt weak when he complained, so he had developed a habit of bottling things up. However, he was given no choice but to break said habit.

"It's fine, honestly," Niall replied, looking down at his poor ankle. The bandages had been changed three days ago after, much to Niall's dissatisfaction and Louis' limited knowledge of medicine, Louis examined his ankle and deemed it "fine but swollen".

"Are you positive?" Zayn asked this time, giving Niall a pointed look.

Niall rolled his eyes before nodding.

The three boys then walked fully out of the staff room in the furniture store, weaving their way through the maze of beds, couches, and more to reach the entrance. On the other side of the display windows showed an empty and blood-free mall.

It was cool inside the furniture store. The air conditioning for the whole mall was set on medium after Niall, with the help of the boys' strength, managed to pry open the door leading to the room where the controls for the ventilation system were. There had been many dials, buttons, switches, and sliders; however, according to the instruction manual Niall had rediscovered in the adjacent room, he only needed to press the small red reset button for ten seconds.

It was a relief that their hard work had eventually paid off. The mall was zombie-free and as clean as the five boys could manage. All the windows and doors on the ground floor were boarded up and barricaded. The stores were thoroughly  rummaged, and the boys had five piles of their collected supplies: the first heap was medical supplies; second, non-perishable foods; third, clean albeit dusty clothes; fourth, weapons and ammo of all kinds; fifth; cleaning supplies.