Tommy's First Friend | Z Nation

Chapter 3: Youth

Halfway through Tommy's shift, I woke up. I saw his silhouette, casted by the fire. I didn't feel like going back to sleep and I never did ask if he was feeling all right after what happened with his dad, so I went out to keep him company.

I came out of the tent and I saw his tensed up posture, with his rifle positioned on his shoulder, ready to shoot me. "Tommy, it's just me. Sorry if I startled you," I said with both hands up.

He put the rifle down and mumbled an apology. I sat next to him on the forest floor. "I couldn't sleep," I explained.

He nodded his head and we both sat in silence, watching the wisps of smoke escape from the makeshift stove we built using the flat rocks from the riverbed.

"Tommy, how are you feeling?" He tensed up again but otherwise remained silent. I picked up a few more twigs to throw in the pit but stopped when he started speaking. He sounded broken.

"It still hurts a lot, but I made a promise to pops, so I'm trying to move forward. But it still really hurts. He was the only one I've ever had. It was just us for a long time and then for him just go away, I don't think I could have walked away from him if you weren't there Lyn. I don't know what I would have done."

I grabbed his hand and give it a tight squeeze. "I'm really sorry about your dad Tommy, but I'm sure he's watching over us now and thinking about how proud he is of you because you're not just surviving this whole shit show, you're living. You've still got the will to live, so that just proves that you're strong Tommy, with or without me, you're strong." He shook his head, but I decided to drop the subject. All that mattered was that he was trying to look ahead.

"Lyn, what were you doing, you know, before this whole virus started?" He asked.

I hummed at his question as snippets of my past flashed in my mind. "Well, I lived in Michigan with my mom. She was a scientist working for the government. I'd rarely see her since she was pretty busy so I spent most of my time studying or I'd be in shooting ranges. My dad's the reason why I love guns so much. He and I used to go camping every summer break and we'd hunt a lot. He's just like Bear Grylls." I giggled when I recalled a funny memory of dad's reaction when we met Bear Grylls in one of our adventures. Safe to say, I'd never seen dad so star-struck before.

"Your dad's like a bear?" Tommy did his cute impersonation of a puppy again, with his brows furrowed and his bottom lip jutting out. I couldn't help it, I ruffled his hair. "Not an animal Tommy. Bear Grylls is a famous adventurer who climbs trees, swings on vines, and other crazy stuff."

He sniggered. "He sounds like an animal to me." I gave him a light tap on the shoulder for that. How dare he.

"You've really never seen him? Not even in commercials?" I asked.

"Commercials, what's that?"

I'm pretty sure my face resembled a fish with how my mouth kept opening and closing from shock. "Commercials, those two to three minutes of pure garbage in TV."

He looked even more confused with my explanation. "You watch garbage for two to three minutes? Huh, then it was probably a good idea my dad never got a TV."

This was new. At this day and age, to see someone not see a TV was quite mind-boggling, even more so than the apocalypse. "Have you ever watched a show before?"

He shook his head.

"Ever used the Internet?"

He shook his head, again.

"Ever been to a school?"

He went quiet at first, eyes flicking down. From the look of things, he didn't want to talk about it and I didn't want to push so I grabbed his shoulder, which stiffened under my touch. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."