4 Intruders

Shawn stared at Zack with googly eyes, his green eyes hungrily looking at Zack from head to toe who was swinging a wooden sword around and slashing the air freely without a care in the world as if wearing a tight pair of pants and no t-shirt was normal. X was standing nearby, leaning against a wooden post and carving a piece of wood, ignoring the stares that a group of girls were sending towards him. Amanda kicked a dummy's abdomen and send another one towards its head, shrieking and snarling as she completely destroyed the stuffed dummy to a pile of hay.

"Easy Amanda, take it easy. The thing didn't even pick a fight with you," Tim muttered as he sharpen his pocket knife and turning it here and there, reflecting a streak off light every five minutes.

"Can you not," Shawn snapped, irritated as a streak of light blinded his face again, awakening him from his dreamland for the fifth time.

"Sorry," Tim muttered as another streak of light smacked Shawn across the face again.

Shawn turned livid and growled, "You know what? I'm going to shoot some arrows."

He stomped towards the shed where weapons were kept, grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows before stomping back towards the sandy ground, where combat practice usually take place. He lifted the bow and nocked an arrow in place, preparing to let go. Just as he was about to fire, a loud horn blew across the grounds, echoing throughout the Fortress. Shawn started, letting go of the arrow which went flying and hit the edge of the target, almost missing by an inch.

"Shit! What's wrong now!" Shawn snarled angrily.

Zack looked on with interest as a group of men rushed by the entrance of the combat grounds. He heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to look at Tim who had gone as pale as a piece of white paper.

"We have intruders," Tim breathed out, his eye twitching in annoyance.

X sighed as he slipped the carving knife back into its sheath and stuffed the piece of wood into his pants' pocket. Amanda scowled darkly as she grabbed a pistol off the shed's wall where guns of varying sizes hang and Shawn grinned as he headed towards the entrance with the bow in his hand.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Come on!" Shawn exclaimed as he rushed towards the men who had gathered in the courtyard.

Everyone followed after his trail and when they were within reach, someone at the front of the group yelled, "There're survivors! Quick! Someone get Jim Cox over here right now! We can't just let them in!"

Zack, who was following the little group suddenly froze on the spot, his nose flaring as he sniffed a couple of times to convince himself if the scent was actually what he think it is. X and Amanda noticed this and grip their weapons to the side to prepare for an attack just in case.

"Blood," Zack murmured towards X's questioning gaze, "And if I'm right, there are two of my kind among the survivors."

Amanda scowled just as Tim reached the group of men, raising his voice loudly in order to be heard. "Get back! I said get back! Timmy Robinson coming through! Please! Hold your horses, men!"

The crowd parted to let Timmy pass, revealing a group of people just outside the black iron gates, holding the injured and infants by their sides or in their arms. Zack frowned as he scanned the intruders silently, trying to pick out the two zombies from the group. But with the smell of blood, dirt and sweat in the air, it was quite difficult.

"They're there," Zack murmured softly, "But I don't know where among these filthy people."

X frowned and nodded, keeping an eye out for any strange person that appeared to be different from the outsiders. Nothing seemed amidst until a tall man stepped forward from the group. Zack's eyes flashed with a glint of surprise and a frown on his face, X took this as the fact that the man who had stepped out of the group was the unknown threat and took off the safety switch on his gun, clicking it into place and hovering a hand over the trigger so that when the man tried to make a move, he'll whip the pistol out of his pocket and fire if necessary.

The man's blue eyes seem to have notice X's movement despite the distance but didn't show anything on his face as he raised his voice, "We're survivors from the Silverwood Fortress! We have come to ask for aid and guidance so that we can remain alive and safe as well as treat the injured!"

Tim frowned, as he stared at the man long enough to make the crowd behind him uncomfortable. "And why, should we let in people, who may not be from the Silverwood Fortress, inside our own safety compound?" he demanded loudly.

The intruders shifted restlessly as the man frown, an expression of anger and disgust on his face. "So you're saying that even if we're not from Silverwood Fortress you will not accept any other survivors just for your own safety? To save your own fucking lives?!" he snarled angrily.

Tim opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a hand on his shoulder. When he looked to see who it was, he was a bit surprised. Zack stared at the man with a hard look just as the man looked back at him with an expressionless face.

"William," Zack greeted quietly, his dark blue ones looking into the pair of icy blue ones.

"Zackery," William greeted back quietly, his eyes narrowed into slits.

X came up behind Zack and was taken aback in surprise as he stared at William in shock. Something inside his brain seemed to have flicked on a switch, a memory flitted through his mind as he slowly held onto that bit of information.

Five years ago

Xavier screamed, flying sideways into the passenger seat. Another corpse was banging and scratching the driver's window. Xavier's breathing increased rapidly. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the woman lifted her arms and banged against the hood of the van. Xavier closed his eyes and began to mutter a pray under his breath. A loud snarl was heard, and then a loud crash.

Xavier's eyes flew open and stared with bated breath as a pair of sad icy blue eyes peered at him through the driver's window. Both eyes met with Xavier gasping in shock and awe. A fair skinned boy with long, shocking white hair, high cheek bones and long eyelashes that framed his big, piercing but sad blue eyes was watching at him. Xavier gulped as the boy raised his hand and touch the glass that separated the both of them. He cocked his head to one side and smiled softly before stepping back. He nodded and then, he was gone without a word.

X broke out of his flashback and stared at William who was frowning in disgust. His eyes zeroed in on Tim, who stared at William with a look that said 'Watch your attitude'. X stared at William, long enough to make William notice but ignore easily.

"Well well! Look, what do we have here?" someone boomed loudly, with a hint of glee in his tone.

X grimaced and turned to scowl at Mr Raven who walked towards the trio, his smile wide as a river, revealing his flashy smile. William glance at him and went back to glaring at Tim, who looked nervously at Mr Raven, fidgeting anxiously as he called out "Sir. . ."

Mr Raven looked around, his smile wavering as he scowled at a man near him. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let them in! I say! Don't you feel any shame? Treating guests like this is enough to leave us as a Fortress who doesn't give a damn about other humans who are just like us in flesh and blood! That is a very shameful thing to do!"

The iron gates soon open, and as soon as the outsiders came in as a mob, the door shut back to its original position. Zack was eyeing William warily who in turn was eyeing him with a look of anger on his face. His icy blue eyes flashing menacingly.

"Pardon the intrusion, but I thought you said there were two of them?" Amanda demanded loudly, throwing the question at Zack.

"There are two of them, Amanda," Zack replied back as a boy broke off from the group of outsiders and sidled next to William.

"Oh," Amanda replied blankly, taken aback by the boy's ethereal and silent beauty.

X stared with a mix of emotions clouding his eyes, as the boy tilted his head at him and smiled softly. His long eyelashes framing his big blue eyes, which appeared to be in pain, pierced X's heart with a thud as he turned breathless for a second before they broke off eye contact. The newcomer tugged at William's coat, murmuring softly as William nodded, eyeing Mr Raven from across who was instructing the outsiders about the rules and regulations they must go through to ensure they were not bitten or infected by a zombie. Amanda glanced at X with a raised eyebrow as Shawn broke away from the group of men and sidled next to Tim, who folded his arms and eye the pair of zombie warily.

"Go see them off," William muttered. The boy nodded and hopped lightly towards the outsiders.

"Who's that, William?" Zack murmured in amusement as he watch the boy walked towards the outsiders, appearing to be hovering over the ground and dancing lightly.

"None of your business, Zackery," William growled as he watch Mr Raven beamed brightly, reaching out a hand to shake the boy's hand.

"It's him. . ."

William looked over at X who was staring at the boy with a look that made him appear love struck. William frowned. "Who?"

X stared at the boy with a look of longing as he murmured, "From five years ago, at the beginning of the apocalypse. It was him. He saved my life."

William and Zack looked thunderstruck as they both turned sharply to stare at the boy who was laughing quietly at Mr Raven's chattering.

"Feng? Feng did what now?"

Zack snapped back to look at William with wide eyes. "Feng? As in, Feng, your little brother?! Wait, what?!"

"He wasn't dead," William murmured, cutting off Zack's next question, "he was missing. Missing for two years. And yet, I found him. I finally found him in an alleyway."

He risked a glance at Zack who was shock and hurt. "I found him after you left, for Tokyo."

Zack's expression broke as he looked at Feng sadly, asking softly, "What happened to him? He seems. . .broken. . ."

X was still staring at Feng, who was chatting with a woman, after Mr Raven left who was leading several people towards a building where his office resides.

"When you left, I found him in the alleyway where a gang was hanging out."

"Was?"

"They left me no choice. I was blinded by rage. I felt wronged."

"What happened," Zack asked, a hint of fear in his tone as X trembled with only one answer echoing in his head.

"He was raped, Zack," William whispered harshly, "Raped by those disgusting and filthy group of men."

Zack turned even paler, if possible, while X clenched his hands into fists, grinding his teeth together from snarling like an angry beast, his heart tearing into pieces as his insides boiled with a simmering rage.

"Those sick bastards."