Into The River

"How did you find me?" She turns her gaze back to him. 

"The crash," Zero explains. He walks over to the fire pit and grabs a handful of dirt. He throws it over the smoking wood, watching as it goes out. "The loud impact caused the ground to shake. It's what brought the zombies to you." 

Flashbacks of the vile dead makes her shiver. 

"Thank you, for saving me." She smiles. "If you hadn't I'd probably be gone, huh?" 

He stares at her for a moment too long and she turns away. 

"Probably." He murmurs. 

She opens her mouth to ask another question, ask if he knows why she was in the chamber or why she crashed, but decides against it. What would a stranger know about her? She's just lucky he came to her rescue. 

"The zombies," She says instead, "How did that happen?" 

"A virus, or a disease, I'm not sure. One moment people were fine, and then they started getting sick. When people started dying, they woke back up, but they weren't really alive. They started attacking people. Ate them until they turned." He explains. "It was messy." 

She tries to imagine living through that and shakes her head. It sounds impossible. 

"Do you know where we are?" She asks, glancing around.. 

"Right now we're in the Hefner forest." He answers.

She nods, despite not knowing what or where Hefner forest is.

"Your shoulder, what happened?" He asks in return.

She lifts a hand and touches the edge of the makeshift wrap, "When I woke up, a sharp branch ripped into my chamber. It got my shoulder. I'm lucky, if it had been inches to the right, my head would be gone." She chuckles, but the sound is dry of humor. She's had too many close calls.

He nods his head, "Very lucky. You should wash up in the river." He says, drawing her attention back to him. "Get as much of your blood off your clothes, it'll attract the dead." 

She glances down at her left sleeve, wrinkles her nose at how dry and stiff it is against her skin. She flushes red as she takes a small sniff of herself. Could he smell how bad she stinks? 

"Right," The word squeaks out of her. 

"I'll be behind those trees, figuring out what we should do next," Zero continues, oblivious to her embarrassment. She watches him walk away, teeth biting into her lower lip. When he's out of sight she sighs and turns to the water. 

She struggles to peel off the clothe around her shoulder. Loose threads stick to her exposed tissue, making her whimper as she pulls it off. She ends up bleeding again, drops falling to the dirt floor of the forest. When the makeshift wrap is fully off, she tosses it away. 

She unstraps her boots and kicks them off, setting them aside on the river bank.

The black suit she wears is a lot harder to get off. She doesn't find any buttons or zippers to help her get out. 

She pulls her right arm free, and then struggles through the pain of pulling out her left. The skin around her wound pulses and it burns every time she moves too fast. 

She'll need to find more clothes, the hole in her suit won't do. And if it'll be this hard to get off and on, then it'll be more of a nuisance than anything. 

When both her arms are free, she takes a moment to give her shoulder a break. Blood is dripping down to her wrist, the liquid warm and thick. 

She pushes the suit down to her hips and steps out of it. She finds nothing else underneath, no bra or underwear. Her nose wrinkles, and she quickly steps into the cold water to hide how naked she is. Pebbles and sand squish between her toes and she stares down through the clear water. She wiggles them, goosebumps raising on her skin and she shivers at the running water. 

Toughing it out, she rinses the blood from her arm, watching it disappear. She holds her breath and ducks down into the river. Her hair is submerged, her shoulder burning at the sudden onslaught of water. 

She stands back up and shivers as the wind blows against her wet skin. She scrubs at herself until she feels she no longer smells. 

She tries to peer at her reflection once more, trying to get a glimpse of what she looks like. However, besides the black outline of her hair, she can't make anything else out. 

Sighing she scrubs at the blood in her sleeve, attempting to not get the entire thing wet. The copper bleeds into the river, and with the black armour and clothe, its difficult to tell of she's gotten it all. 

Biting her lip, she gives up on the sleeve and tears it off. 

At least now she won't have to worry about it, the blood or the struggle of getting it over her wounded shoulder.

When she figures its been long enough, she climbs out and begins to clothe herself. Her shoulder has stopped bleeding, and as she takes a moment to observe it she notices that she can no longer see her silver bone. In its place is raw pink muscle tissue. The urge to poke it comes to her, but she resists. She'll just make it bleed again.

Once she's in her suit, she pulls on her boots and straps them into place. 

"Zero?" She calls out, eyes darting from one tree to the other.

"Are you finished?" His voice reaches her. 

"Yes," She answers. 

He emerges from a thicket of trees and takes in her sleevless arm.

"I figured it would be easier to manage," She explains. He nods his head. 

"We'll have to wrap it back up. Until we can get some gauze for it, we'll just use my sweater again." He shifts and pulls off the rest of what's left of his black sweater. The black shirt underneath is long sleeved, covering his arms. Knowing he won't be as cold, she feels less guilty for having to use his clothing. 

She notices the fingerless gloves are back on his hands. 

She stills as he comes to stand in front of her. Her head comes up to his chest, and she admires the length of his neck. His chest fills out the shirt, the cloth stretching over thick muscles. With red cheeks, she tears her gaze away to stare at the trees behind him. 

"Lift up your arm." He tells her. 

She complies and raises it. He rips the front of the sweater, making it longer than it was. With delicate hands, he begins to wrap the cloth around her shoulder. She hisses when it makes contact, flinching as it presses against her.

"Sorry, I know it hurts." He murmurs as he carefully continues.

She doesn't reply, tries to focus on breathing through her nose as she pushes past the burning. 

When he's done, he steps back and admires his work. 

"Once we have some ointment and gauze, we can treat it properly." He murmurs. "Here's what we're going to do." He turns around and walks towards a large boulder. Leaning against it is his sheathed sword, and a backpack. "Our first priority is food. I don't know how long you've been without it. And of course finding some first aid for your shoulder." 

As he speaks, he straps his weapon against his hip and then digs into his pack. He pulls out a large metal canteen and walks to the river. He crouches down and fills it with water. 

"There should be a town west of here. We'll start there." He continues.

She stares at his broad back, "Why are you helping me?" The question escapes her.

He stands and turns to her. Black strands of hair fall in front of his brown eyes, and he raises his brows.

"Not that I don't appreciate it, I do. I'd be lost and have no idea what to do. But, why?" She presses.

"Every life matters," He starts. He closes the canteen and shoves it into his backpack, "As cliche as that sounds." He chuckles. He puts his arms through the handles and slides the backpack on, "We should save as many people as we can. There are more dead out there than there are living." Zero says. "If we ever want to survive this apocalypse, then that's the only chance we have." 

She nods her head, trying to make sense of it, "Right." 

"Let's go. While we're walking we can think of a name to call you." 

Despite how simple a name should be, her heart picks up pace. She may not remember her old name, but here she can pick one out. Here, she can be anyone she wants to be.