The Price of Humanity

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"Zane, I need you to cover me from the roof." I hear him pause and his footsteps start moving towards me. "Zane." I demand. He stops moving. I keep my eyes on the green ones in the alley.

"Zane, I need you to cover me from the roof." I repeat, a little more forcefully this time. "Let me deal with this."

He stays in his place for a few moments, obviously debating whether to let me go out alone or just jump out into the street and deal with the problem himself.

I can practically hear the gears turning in his head and I can almost see him raising his gun and running past me into the street. Almost.

He eventually jogs out to the back. I hope there's a fire escape or something that they can get up to the roof from. Although something tells me I won't need their backup.

I wait a few minutes to give my brothers time to find a way up, all the while staring into those mysterious green eyes. I take my bag off my back and open it hurriedly, forgetting about something important.

I pull out the walkie and turn it on, only hearing static on the waves. A minute or so later I hear Gale's voice on the other end.

"What's going on kiddo?" I look back into the stranger's eyes, contemplating my response.

"I don't know...Just keep your eyes and guns on the guy in the alley opposite. I'm going to talk to him." I hear complaining from both of my older brother's through the walkie talkie but ignore them, turning it off.

I quickly stuff it back in the backpack and sling the bag onto my back before my brother's run off the roof and into the pharmacy to stop me.

I start walking towards the front door. I walk slowly, trying to stall so I can think about what I'm doing, but reach it quickly anyway. Pushing the door open, I step onto the pavement outside the pharmacy.

The stranger walks slowly out of the alleyway, looking around for any other people. His eyes flick to the gun in my hands quickly before returning back to mine.

"You've got your backup with you." Ohh, that voice. Silky smooth but manly at the same time. It sends chills down my spine. I instantly can see myself falling into this guy's arms and feeling perfectly at home. Well, I would've before the end of the world. I sigh at the feeling it gives me. I have a feeling I'm very much going to be in trouble with him.

He looks up to the roof and I follow suit, realising we're meant to be having a conversation, I shouldn't have. Looking away gives him an opening to attack me, to disarm me and take my gun.

I see my brothers kneeling on the roof, guns pointed at the stranger. Zane has swapped his shotgun for the handgun on his belt, aiming it straight at the stranger's heart.

"Where's yours?" I say looking behind him and not seeing the little girl he was with. Oh god. My mind automatically switches to the worst possible scenarios.

"She's somewhere safe. But it's nice to know you care." His lips flicker into a small smirk. He can't be that dangerous, at least he doesn't seem it.

"About her." I correct. "She's young and not built for this world."  He puffs his chest out. Great now he's going to get defensive over his little sister. I should've expected it since Gale and Zane are always more protective than they should be with me.

"I've been teaching her." He defends, I highly doubt it from the way she acted in the supermarket, or maybe his 'training' isn't as intense as Zane and Gale's. Either way, put in this world on her own and she wouldn't survive the week.

I don't reply, but take my time in looking him over. His dark grey t-shirt clings to his muscles, and let me tell you there's a lot of them, big and delicious. His faded jeans are rolled up slightly at the bottom so they sit on the top of his boots.

His laces are tied tightly and are tucked into the boots so they're harder to grab. His dark green jacket is rolled up at the sleeves, stupid move. His exposed arms give the corpses more places to bite, it's harder for the bite to pierce the skin through a thick jacket.

It gives me a brilliant view of his muscular arms though.

He eyes the gun in my hands once again and steps towards me with his eyes back firmly on me.

"The city's dangerous." He says, eyes boring into mine. "You shouldn't be out in the open." I scrutinise him with my eyes, he's in the open too.

His eyes flick to my gun again and before I even have the chance to counter his attack his leg swings out and knocks me off my feet.

Everything happens in a blur from that moment. Due to his distraction, my fingers loosen on the gun I'm holding and he swiftly grabs it with one hand and puts it in his back pocket. Stupid move on my part. I feel myself falling to the ground but the sensation quickly stops.

His other hands snakes around my waist and stop me from hitting the concrete. I stop falling and instinctively grab onto the sides of his jacket to steady myself. I feel the strong arms underneath his jacket and very quickly realise that I've literally fallen into his arms.

I look into his eyes, very confused and slightly delusional from the smell of him, our proximity and the things that just happened. Those muscular arms I'd been admiring before are now wrapped tightly around me and the feeling is much better than I imagined.

"You attacked me." I comment, more to myself than anything. I had thought I would be okay in his company, I thought like a delusional teenage girl swooning over a guy.

Kinda, like what I'm doing right now.

I realise I should get out of his arms, I realise I should fight back but it's like my body doesn't want me to.

I want to stay here in his arms forever, which is highly illogical since there are corpses and criminals, or they would be if this was the old world, wandering around the city.

I don't get a choice however because a shot rings out from behind me and the stranger's face turns into one of shock and pain. His arms loosen around me and I realise that it's now my time to catch him.

I grab his shoulder's but I'm really not strong enough to hold up a six foot four lump of muscle, so I try my best to let his fall to the ground be gentle.

"I still caught you." He defends to me, a small smirk on his face. A few seconds later the smirk fades and he passes out in the middle of the street.