*~oOo~*

Two days later~

Everybody was rather tired after having to walk for two days straight. The wound on my neck was healing tremendously, it was almost just a scab now. The day before yesterday was rather tricky, trying to find a safe way through the city with the thought of what happened to wade could easily happen to us.

"I think we are very close by, I recognise the area well" Ethan said to me, we were walking together near the front of the group. We were walking down a rather bare grey street, houses and little tuck shops either side. It was about late after noon, coming on 4:00 I would guess.

"Down here..." Ethan took us to the right where the buildings started to thin out, fields surrounded the road side and soon to the left we saw a large grey building with lots of glass components .

"Thats it!" We jumped over a barbed wire fence and ran across the field to get to the research centre. Ethan buzzed the intercom at the gate, waiting for a reply.

"Ethan is that you!" I voice buzzed back

"Brian! Its great to see you again" (A/n : I'm basing Brian off of girbeagly because I know that they are close, other characters will be made up) a click and another buzz sounded before the large metal gates opened and welcomed us in. Making a slow jog towards the seemingly derelict building. me and Ethan pushed open the main glass doors and let the others in letting the doors lock behind us. We waited for faces to appear down the main staircase in front of us and soon enough two friendly faces appeared. They swarmed Ethan with a hug and treated each other.

"Im so happy you're alive! I thought after we had lost contact that was it!" The other chap said. He had blonde hair which was a tied into a man bun. He had bright green eyes and a hint of a stubble.

"Guys meet Thomas and Brian! These guys decided to actually get a college education!" He giggled.

"Well what brings you here?" Brian asked

"well..." Ethan, and seemingly the whole group seemed to stare at me. Ethan walked up to me and swung his arm round my shoulders.

"This is (y/n). She was bit on the neck by a Z about a month ago now" he pointed to the scar on my neck smiling.

"Woah, hold up a sec, she's been bit but hasn't turned!?" Thomas said to shocked for words.

"Yep and she's got a scar for the proof" the scab had hardened over and it looked clean and sterilised unlike what it was before, puss seeping.

"Is it ok if I look at the wound?" He asked me, I seemed to stumble over my words as his green eyes pierced my (e/c) ones.

"Oh uh... yeah sure" he walked up to me and I noticed mark approach my side a grasped my hand. He knew he was being over protective again still ignoring my words. Thomas touched my wound and I flinched just from surprise.

"Sorry" he smiled gently and went back to inspecting my wound. I could feel his hot breath of my cheek making me blush.

"Thats probably the cleanest wound I've seen!" He exclaimed.

"How did you keep it clear?"

"Well Marzia is basically my private doctor" Marzia smiled and waved so he knew who I was talking about.

"And everybody tried so hard to find meds for me. Without these guys I'd be dead" I squeezed marks hand back.

"Well they basically saved your life, is it ok to take you to the lab and get some blood tests?" I nodded smiling.

"Cool i'll introduce you to everyone else, follow me guys" I let go of marks hand and followed Thomas at his side. We came to a large open room with glass doors, I could see figures inside.

"Through here" he gently placed a hand on my back and I swear I could hear mark growling. Rolling my eyes I went into the room.there was three more people. Another 2 girls which was rather refreshing to see and another a lad.

"Welcome to the gang! We have Laura," he pointed to the slim girl with soft brown hair which was cut just above her shoulders.

"Kevin," he had ginger hair and a freckled face with blue eyes.

"And finally we have Billquese, but we just call her billy" she must've been of African or carribean inheritance and wore her hair in a black patterned head scarf. Her eyes were a deep brown almost like marks and she had a friendly beaming smile on her face

"I'll leave you guys to get introduced and settled while I take (y/n) to have her blood tests"

"Im coming as well" mark pushed his way through the crowd to join me

"Ok thats fine, as long as you're ok to stand outside to prevent contamination of the other samples we have in there"

"Fine" we walked down the bleach white corridors in silence until Thomas started to speak.

"So it will take a while to get the blood but I'm going to hook you up to the machine which automatically drains sections of blood and sorts it Into the different viles needed" I nodded taking in the information.

"Here we are" we stopped at the glass door and he grasped a lab coat and mask on the rack.

"Im gonna have to ask you stay here if thats ok" he said to mark

"Yeah, ok" he folded his arms being a bit moody.

"I'll be fine mark, i'll see you in a bit" I hugged him and left. Thomas led me through the glass doors and into a small glass room. There was draws of small bottles filled with different liquids.

"If you could just sit in that chair please" he pointed to the chair in the middle of the room. I did as I was told and exposed my inner arm to him. He put an elastic waist band around my upper arm to help the blood flow. After he finished that he set up a tall metal stand with an empty drip bag at the top. Two tubes came out of of it: one with a needle on the end and the other which separated the blood into the different section.

"Are you scared of needles?" He asked with the tube with the needle in his hand, he crouched down beside me. I laughed slightly, thinking of all I've been through and to be scared of a needle.

"No"

"Good, this will just feel like a scratch" he strapped my wrist down to the chair and tapped my inner arm to make a vein appear. He was struggling a bit and rubbed my upper and lower forearm slightly, smoothing my skin. A blue vein soon surfaced. He readied the needle and quickly pushed it into my arm.

"There we go!" He stood up flicking the plastic tube so the blood would flow easily. I watched the crimson colour flow up the tube, through the bag and into the different sections.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself " he said sitting on. The work top writing notes.

"Well I'm a musician to start"

"Really? Don't tell me.... (y/n) (l/n)! I have heard a few of your songs, they're catchy tunes"

"Well thank you,"

"Anything else?"

"Not really just you're ordinary girl"

"Well I don't think your pretty ordinary" I cocked an eyebrow confused

"Well I don't know many people who get bitten by a Z and survive" he laughed I chuckled along with him realising what he meant.

"Well how would you describe yourself then? Give me three words"

"Well I consider myself quite (word 1) I think I'm pretty (word 2) and (word 3)"

"You should add pretty to that list as well" I blushed profusely trying to speak but only jumbled up syllables tumbled from my lips.

"What about you and mark? You guys seem close"

"Yeah, I love him to bits. He's just being a bit over protective right now, but he'd be a bad boyfriend if he wasn't" I beamed, he nodded and smiled looking at the needle in my arm.

"Alright we're finished here" he took the needle from my arm. I glanced at the amount of blood he had taken. It was quite a lot.

"Don't get up too quick or you'll-" feeling dizzy from having large quantities of blood taken from me I tumbled towards the ground only to fall into Thomas' arms.

"- fall over is what I was going to say" he chuckled.

"Here" holding out his arm, I took it for support. We left the room and saw mark nervously biting his cuticles.

*~oOo~*

yeet