Finding Peace: a Sad Milk Apocalypse Story

Chapter 7

"Cmon Oz wake up." Wonder prodded Oz with his foot, it was their shift as lookouts. Oz only rolled away from Wonder, covering his face with his arm, still asleep. Wonder sighed, he crouched down and shook Oz. They had a job to do and he didn't want to keep Blair and Flinders waiting for them to get outside.

Oz flipped Wonder off as he glared up at the blonde in the darkness. He stretched before standing up, grabbing the tin of coffee and a bottle of water, he followed Wonder out of the tent. If he was going to be on lookout, he was going to have some coffee.

Blair smirked at Oz when she passed him, he didn't really think about it. He was too tired to comprehend much of anything. He poured his water into a pan they usually boil water in to sterilize it. He then put a little of coffee grounds onto a paper that he folded as they didn't have coffee filters.

It was quiet as the two watched the water heat up under the fire. They sat there in silence, only the sound of the world around them as noise. "What do you think we would be doing right now if this whole apocalypse thing wasn't going on?" Wonder asked breaking up the silence.

Oz poured some of the hot water into the filter, filling up his cup, then Wonder's. He gave the other cup to Wonder before shrugging. "Hopefully making a five-hundred k special for Sad Milk. The channel was rapidly growing before this all happened." Oz blew on his coffee before taking a sip. "It was nice while it lasted."

"I wish everything was different. But I guess it's nice that we are all still here together as a group. With all the shit going on around us." Wonder looked out into the forest, trees casting long shadows in the light of the fire. There was a long comfortable silence where they just existed next to each other. "Is everything alright with you and Blair again?" Wonder asked breaking the silence.

Oz half nodded. "Kinda. The only reason why I was upset with her was because she knew the reason why I don't talk about why I was gone for over a week. Yet, she didn't stop you guys from bringing it up. I was put on the spot and I just couldn't handle it."

"We're still cool right?" Wonder asked.

"Yeah, I should've told you about it before. It is something you should know." Oz started pushing his hair off of his forehead revealing a long scar going from his eyebrow to his ear. Wonder raised and eyebrow not saying anything. "So you know those long fingered spiky bastards? The ones that are not entirely porcupines but not screamers?"

"Yeah?"

"Well one got me here," he ran his finger across the scar, "and usually you'd get infected from the cut. I had to isolate myself, I didn't want to hurt any of you. So I stayed in a house far away from patrols. Nothing happened. I waited that whole week, my wound scabbing up but not producing any fungi from it. I was supposed to stay there until I knew I was infected. I was supposed to die, but I didn't. I never told anyone about it. I lied about being lost."

Everything was still after his rant. Only the sound of crickets chirping, owls hooting, and the fire crackling filled the air around the two. The full moon shined brightly as the night sky was filled with stars, it was pretty to say the least. Just for a moment, everything felt alright.

"You're immune." Wonder murmured after fully processing what Oz said. Oz nodded, a weight was lifted off his shoulders. "I understand why you are not telling people now. The NWO would be constantly on your ass trying to kill you."

"They are already on our asses trying to kill us as is." Oz pointed out. "How's everything going on your side of the group? Blair always seems to like sending us off with our horse partners when we go do things."

"Salty and I are chill. We work well together. It'd be nice to change things up a bit, that's why I like the scrambled nature of having the lookout job with others." Wonder shrugged. "I can see why Blair does it. It is just less confusion with horses and stuff. How about you?"

"Flinders just needs to have a little more self confidence with his shooting ability. But other than that, we work well together besides the fact he gets distracted sometimes. It's pretty nice." Oz stared into the fire recounting the past few days, a soft smile appearing on his face.

"Blair was right." Wonder rolled his eyes, he didn't doubt her. She just knows these types of things, somehow.

"I've already had this conversation with Blair, I'm not having it again. I already have to deal with her endless teasing already." Oz grumbled refilling his cup. He was not in the mood to be interrogated with something that was not true. He didn't have a crush on his friend, that was the end of it. They didn't have the time for stupid feelings in a time like this. And even if he did, which he doesn't, Flinders is extremely straight, which didn't bother him, because he didn't like him in that way.

"Whatever you say dude." Wonder was looking up at the sky, the sun was just peeking through the trees. "Nearly dawn."

"We should wake up the others."

"Yeah."

an- funny story, I never was planning on flinders and Oz being shipped, it just kinda happened. Long with Oz being immune. But thats aight I guess. A bit of a short chapter, next chapter will be longer.