Contagion

Chapter 20: Brothers

The wolf flys across the road from the impact of the hatchet. Matthew turns towards where the projectile came from and sees a pair of young men running towards him.

The two men ran in front of Matthew like they were protecting him, one swinging his his hatchets and the other swinging a machete at the oncoming Cannibal wolves.

The wolves squealed as they were slashed, fur flying with each slice. The two men slowly killed each wolf as they came.

Matthew could not fee anything though. He was still in shock by the terrifying sight his best friend's head being ripped off.
One of the two men turned and crouched to become eye to eye level with Matthew.

"You're gonna be alright. I'm Tony and that's my brother Jake. Well keep you safe." He leaned in and wrapped his arms around Matthew who was just sitting there, blank.

~~~

It had been three months since that day.

"Hey Matt!" Tony yelled.

They were roaming an abandoned city, looking for a new place to camp because they're old place had become overrun with Cannibals.

"Yeah?" Matthew replied. Matthew decided he wanted to be called Matt from then on. It was shorter and kind of helped him move on from the past.

"I think I found a good place to stop," Tony exclaimed.

"Be right there."

Matt was rummaging through a mess of junk on the ground. He decided nothing could be salvaged and headed towards where he heard Tony calling.
The house that Tony had found was nice. Looked like nobody had stopped there yet so maybe there would still be supplies.

"Nice find," Matt praised Tony and slapped him on the shoulder. Jake was already inside searching through the house. First he ran upstairs claiming the master bedroom as his own.

"Haha suckers, this bedroom is mine!" He laughed.

"I get the other bedroom!" Tony shouted.

"And I guess that leaves me with the couch..." Matt mumbled to himself.

"Hey guys, check this out," Jake said excitedly.

Tony and I headed to where Jake was and saw that Jake had found a supply closet full of canned foods.

"Woohoo! Jackpot!" Matt shouted.

They had been living on small rations the passed few weeks. Finding supplies was hard because most houses had already been scavenged.

Matt saw on the top shelf there was a bottle. He reached up and tried to grab it but he was too short. Matt got on his tippy-toes and continued to struggle for the bottle and almost had it when Tony came up behind him and grabbed his Matt's waist, lifting him up.

"Thanks, but I could've gotten it by myself," Matt said coldly.

Tony's face got red but he just shrugged, "Sorry."

Matt turned the bottle in his hand and found it was a large bottle of Vodka.

"Woah-ha-ho! We're having fun tonight boys," Matt chuckled.

The brothers just looked at each other, not knowing what to do. They had never rally drank before, but they decided that would change tonight. This world is too fucked up to stay sober.

As dusk approached, Tony prepared his bed. It would be the first time he's slept on a bed in months. He found some blankets downstairs in a closet and grabbed some, taking them upstairs. As he walked through the living room, he saw Matt sprawled out uncomfortably on the couch.