𝙝𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 ━ 𝙟. 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧

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N E W C O M E R S

Iris was captured by the hunters when Henry and Sam saved her, they found her when they had taken out a group of them, she was locked in a small room, she wasn't fed or given water when she was with the hunters, proven by her cheeks being sunken in and her ribs were sticking out from underneath her shirt.

She had been with the brothers for a few weeks, and did nothing but be kind to her, they gave her the food that she needed to get back to being reasonably healthy and during that time, they had become good friends, she promised she would help them get to their destination.

One day, whilst hiding from some hunters in a tank, they heard a male voice outside of the open window, Iris went to hide Sam while Henry distracted them long enough for her to come back and help. Iris ran back in to see a rugged man punching Henry to the ground, she didn't see the little girl in the corner, instead, she tackled the tall man to the ground, the man was handsome for sure, his hair was a dark brown with specks of grey throughout, he was strong as his muscles tensed under his shirt as he hesitated in fighting back and his hazel eyes were filled with sorrow and anger.

She pinned him as Henry shouts for to let up, She looks at him as she was roughly pushed off by the man, she landed with a grunt as she sees Sam in the corner of her eye, in the doorway holding a gun, "leave them alone." He threatens.

The man and the girl back away with their hands raised, "easy, son, just take it easy." The man tries to calm him down.

"It's alright, they're not the bad guys. Lower the gun." Henry reassures, he sits up and groans, "man, you hit hard."

The man says, "yeah, well, I was trying to kill you." Henry stands up and Sam goes over to help Iris, who was still on her ass, as she watched the scene unfold.

"Yeah, I thought you were one of them too." He points at the girl, "then I saw you. If you haven't noticed, they don't keep kids around. Survival of the fittest."

He walks to Sam and Iris and rips the gun out of his brother's hand and shoves it into his backpack. "I'm Henry. This is Sam, and this is Iris. I think I caught your name was Joel."

The girl points to herself, "Ellie." "How many are with you?" Joel asks.

"they're all dead." Sam replies. "Hey, we don't know that." Henry says, as he wraps up his wounds. "There were a bunch of us. Someone had the brilliant idea of entering the city. Look for supplies. Those fuckers- they ambushed us. Scattered us. Now it's all about getting out of this shithole." He continues.

"We can help each other." The young girl chimes in. "Ellie." Joel warns, his voices deepens slightly as he tries to keep her quiet.

"We can help each other, safety in numbers and all that." She pushes.

"She's right. We could help each other. We got a hideout not to far from here. Be safer if we chat there." Henry suggests.

Joel thinks about it before finally accepting, "Okay, take us there."

They walk out of the apartment and down a flight of stairs while Sam and Ellie talk to each other. Iris, notices that the man is much taller now that he's stood up straight, so when she turns to speak to him, she has to tilt her head to look at him, "hey, um, about before, I didn't realise the girl was there, I'm sorry." He hums, "s'alright, you've got one strong grip."

She chuckles and brushes a stray peace of hair behind her ear. "yeah, I suppose so."

They fall silent as they turn a corner, Henry pipes up, "we gotta be careful, we're right next to one of their look out areas." They walk down some more stairs as Henry asks, "is it just you and your daughter?"