Chapter 5: The boy

I woke up to Xavier waking me up and saw smoke coming from the car. I get out and pull the hood up to see the problem. I cough and wave my hand to clear the smoke and say, "We don't have the stuff to fix this, I guess its foot from here on out. We walked and walked until we needed to take a break. We found a town up ahead we can rest in, once we got into a food store, we grabbed things we needed. We sat and ate and drank water while we stayed silent, but not awkwardly. I knew that Xavier loved me, but I didn't think he would ask me to marry him, but I need to focus on finding Zach.

"You know, we will find Zach and the others." Xavier whispers. I look at him and nod my head slowly thinking of a way to find him. All of a sudden, the doors bust open, and people rush inside and quickly shut the door holding it shut from the walkers. A little boy turns around and he holds his knife out towards me. I hold my hands up and he says, "Dad we have company." His dad looks behind him at us and says, "Don't move." Xavier and I don't move, and we hear the walkers outside get louder. "Look, if you want to survive you have to follow us." I say quickly. The dad nods his head and I grab a board from a shelf and stick it to where the door was blocked. I quickly grab the little boy's hand and say, "Quickly, this way." They follow Xavier and I to the back of the store and he opens it a little to see if the close is clear.

We walk out and shut the door quietly, but the walkers get to the back of the store. The dad looks with wide eyes and kneels down to his son that was holding my hand. "Go with them and stay safe. You know everything is for a reason, listen to them and stay alive." He says to the crying boy. He looks up and stands up to me saying, "He will take you to a safe place, please look after him." I open my mouth to say something, but he runs towards the walkers starting to kill them, but he goes down looking at us and crying, but smiling. The boy tries to go after his dad, but I pick him up and carry him. Xavier drags me and the boy away from the place while the boy cries for his dad.

We made it back to the cave from the beginning, but the boy is sleeping now. Xavier gets into his bag and pulls out a blanket and lays it down, so I lay the boy on it. I sit down next to the boy, and he lays his head in my lap, my eyes widen, and I look at Xavier. He smiles and starts making dinner, but I look down at the boy and see his brown hair covering his eyes. I move my hand to his hair and move it out of his eyes, I play with his hair until dinner is ready. The boy opens his eyes and looks at me, his eyes are a beautiful blue, just like Xaviers. He leans up and Xavier hands him some food and he start eating like he has been starving.

I smile and start eating as well, but I feel a pain in my stomach, so I drop my food while holding my stomach. The boy looks at me scared and Xavier rushes to me, I grab the portal shard and see Zach. I run over to him, and he smiles, I look at his stomach bleeding and then see a knife cut his arm. I wince and Burnout yells, "Where is she!" Zach glares at him and says, "I'm never telling you." Burnout turns and leaves Zach bleeding to death, I put my hand on Zach's cheek and he whispers, "Are you safe?" I nod my head and he let out a breath of air, but winces looking down. "I'll heal us, don't worry. Did you find any information on the bracelet?" I ask. "All I know is it's with a family." He speaks. I nod and the pain starts getting worse, so I leave Zach.

I look around and see the scared boy crying holding a rag against my stomach trying to stop me from bleeding to death. Xavier grabs my bag and puts the flower in my hand, and I close my eyes and the pain goes away. The bleeding stops and the boy slowly takes the rag away, seeing a scar. The boy's eyes widened, and I dropped the dead flower saying, "It's a long story." The boy nods and Xavier asks, "Did you see Zach?" I nod my head saying, "He said the bracelet is with a family, and that's all he knows." Xavier nods and looks away thinking, but the boy puts his hand on my hand. His hand was soft, and he said, "My name is Nathen." I smiled and said, "I'm Hope, and this is Xavier, my fiancé." He smiles and looks down and then frowns so I put my hand on his shoulder and say, "Where is the safe place?"

Xavier hands him the map and Nathen points to a place in the woods not far from here. I nod and Xavier says, "We will head that way when the sun rises." Nathen nods and lays down and rolls up his sleeves. I saw he was sweating so I grabbed a clean rag and soaked it in extra water we have. I start giving him a sponge bath to clean him and to cool him down but stop when I see a bracelet. It's blue and silver, it looks so familiar…I try to think, and I touch the bracelet and see electricity!