"Hey, guys, look what I found." 10K said, walking up from behind us from looking around.

"Shh." Warren shhed him. He looked forward to see the zombies running to us. "Puppies and kittens." There were a bunch of zombies in front of us.

Warren pulled out her machete to get ready to kill them. The others prepared their weapons they had. I pulled out my sword machetes to kill them with.

As they got close, we started killing zombies. I moved over by 10K. He got zombies that were further away and I took care of zombies that got too close.

After it was over, we went over by Murphy. I put my sword machetes away in their sheaths on my back. Warren was cleaning her machete. Murphy put his daughter ,which he named Lucy, in our make shift carrier ,which was a cooler for lunches.

"Where'd this come from?" Murphy asked. I followed Murphy's line of sight. I saw that it was a little boy. He had long messy hair. His clothes were all torn up.

"Get away from him. I found him." 10K snapped at Murphy.

"Was anybody with him?" I asked.

"He said something about a doctor." 10K answered.

"The man gonna kill him." The boy spoke up. His voice was high but rough ,like he doesn't talk much.

"What?" Addy asked.

The boy grabbed 10K by his jacket. "He's gonna kill 'em!" The boy raised his voice. He let go of 10K and looked at everyone else. "You kill man." He said pointing at all of us.

"No, no, no. We no kill man. We on mission. Scram, kid." Murphy snapped. The kid cawed at him. Yes, cawed. Like a crow. "Did he just caw at me?"

"Murphy, get Lucy some water." Warren told him. Warren looked at Doc. "Can you get this one some too?" Doc went through his bag.

"I got it ,Warren." I told her ,pulling out my water. "You thirsty ,sweetheart?" I asked him.

He took the bottle from me when I held it out. He put his face to it but he couldn't get water from it. I furrowed my brows in confusion. Well, this kid was really young when this started. He probably doesn't know how to drink from that bottle.

He got frustrated and threw the bottle. I walked over and grabbed it.

"Kid doesn't even know how to drink from a cup." Doc said solemnly.

"Must've been four or five when this all started. Apocalypse is all he knows." Warren spoke up. Warren stepped forward to talk to him. "Where's your mama and papa?"

"Just sister." The boy said.

"Okay. Is she with the others? The ones that are in trouble?" Warren asked.

"The man will kill 'em if the doctor won't talk to 'em." The boy told her.

"Doctor? Who's this doctor?" Addy asked.

"Did I mention that we're on a mission?" Murphy asked rudely.

"Yeah, and we have Lucy to think about too." Doc stated.

"Well, we can't let some man kill a bunch of people." I spoke up, surprising myself.

"Sure we can. We do it all the time." Murphy argued.

"I vote we help the kid." 10K spoke up.

"You know I'm gonna agree with him." I spoke up again.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Blue Face is right. We're on a mission." Warren said. 10K looked away in disappointment. I looked away as well.

She was going to leave people to die. Murphy's not really worth it. He's kind of an ass. And there's a kid right in front of us from here. There could be more. If my kid was there, I'd want someone to help.

"Okay, we don't know what we'd be walking into. And we can't take a chance like that." Warren said.

"So what are we gonna do? Just leave him?" Addy asked.

"Can we talk about this?" 10K asked.

The kid then grabbed 10K's gun. He made a run for it. I knew what he was doing. He was just trying to get us to stay.

10K ran after the boy. I ran after him. I was easily getting winded but did my best to keep up.

10K was almost caught up to the boy. Then I saw someone in all red came up behind him.

"10K!" I called. I was too late. She hit him with her weird weapon. It was like a club but the end was flat.

"You so much as twitch and brains will be the last thing you think about." The girl threatened. I pulled my shotgun off my shoulder and aimed it at her ,cocking it to get her attention. She glanced at me for barely a second.

"We're good. I swear. I just want my gun back. That little thief over there stole my gun. Ask him. It's mine." 10K told her.

"That his gun?" The girl asked the little boy. The boy cawed at her ,it didn't seem as angry as when he cawed at Murphy. "Sorry. He was raised by crows. No really, he was raised by-"

Then 10K grabbed her weapon. He kicked her back with enough force to put her to the ground. He had her weapon and turned it around on her.

"Now you freeze." 10K told her.

The girl then hit him. He stumbled back. She got up to fight him.

"Get off of her." The boy jumped on his back. I threw my shotgun down and ran over to them.

I pulled the girl back off of him. She lunged at me but I shoved her back. She came at me again. I rolled my eyes and just punched her. She went to hit me but I blocked the hit.

This time when she came at me, she went for my legs. I fell backwards onto the ground. She got on me, trying to punch me. When I couldn't keep up with trying to block each hit, I just covered my stomach to block those hits.

I think she seemed to notice because she stopped. She looked down at my stomach and back at my face. She had a shocked look on her face.

"That's enough! The fight's over!" I heard Warren call. She pulled the girl off of me. 10K went to go after her but I got in his way. "Fight's over. Fight's over. Girl, you better..." Warren trailed off ,giving the girl a stern look. The girl stopped fighting.

"Leave him alone. He's just a kid." The girl told Doc ,who was holding onto the little boy ,who was struggling in his grasp.

"More like a wild child. Time out ,mowgli." Doc said.

"Hey, hey, hey. Stop struggling. Stop. Stop struggling." Warren told the boy ,going over to him. I went over too. He was trembling.

I kneeled down in front of him. "Hey, nobody's gonna hurt you ,okay? Stop trembling. Okay? You're safe." I said to the boy ,trying to soothe him. He hugged me. I hugged him back. "Okay. That's it."

"That's it ,right? Everybody just chill out." Warren spoke up ,looking down at me and the little boy that was holding onto me tightly. "Nobody's gonna get hurt. Nobody's gonna get mercied. We're just gonna talk. Okay?"

"What's he so afraid of?" I asked ,looking at the girl ,who I could see looked around my age.

"There's a man, going around with a list of names looking for people. One of them is a scientist hiding among the survivors we're with. Doctor Teller." The girl told Warren. I finally had time to look her over now that no one was fighting and everyone was calm.

She had dark brown hair and pale skin. She looked around mine and 10K's age. She was wearing all red ,including a red cloak like thing. She had her hood up on her head.

"What does 'The Man' want with the people on the list?" Warren asked.

"No one knows. They disappear." The girl told Warren.

"So where's the man now?" Warren questioned.

"I dunno. Said he was coming back in the morning. If this Teller guy wasn't waiting for him, he would kill my brother. Then all the rest of us ,one by one, 'til he finds the doctor." The girl explained. She looked at her brother. "How'd you get away?" She asked him.

The boy pulled out of my arms ,I let him go willingly. The boy then cawed his answer to his sister. He used hand movements to explain as well. He was really just hitting one hand against the other as he cawed at the girl.

"Did you catch any of that?" Doc asked us.

"No, he lost me at caw." I retorted.

"So what does this Man fella have against doctors?" Doc asked.

"People say he's some kind of avenging angel. Making people pay for the apocalypse." The girl answered.

"Well, somebody should pay for all this." Murphy commented.

"Where's the survivors?" Warren asked.

The girl pointed in one direction. Warren tossed something to Addy. It turned out to be a scope. Addy looked in the direction the girl pointed through the scope.

"Yeah, they got vehicles. We could use some transpo." Addy told Warren.

"And we're down to puddle water and orange peels." Doc added.

"Is this the part where I drop my pants and show you the tattoo on my ass? You know the one that says 'never get off the boat'?" Murphy asked rudely.

"Keep your pants on ,okay? We're just gonna check it out. She said The Man's not coming back 'til the morning, which gives us plenty of time to get out of Dodge if we don't like what we find." Warren told him.

Warren started walking. The boy ran over to the girl and hugged her. Cassandra growled at the two ,causing the girl to turn more so the boy was away from Cassandra. Then Murphy started following Warren and the others ,which meant Cassandra followed him.

"What's wrong with them?" The girl asked 10K and I ,but looking more at me.

"You better just stay away from those two." 10K told her. I nodded in agreement with him.

We followed the others. 10K was on one side of me and the boy was on the other side of me ,with his sister on the other side of him.

When we came over a hill, we saw everyone had stopped. They let the girl ,I'll just call her red ,since that's the only color she's wearing, take the lead. The boy followed her. I was the first one to follow them ,10K right behind me. The others followed as well.

Red led the way to a fence. She brought us to an opening and slipped through. We all followed her lead and slipped through the opening in the fence.

We walked into an area with a bunch of people. Red whistled loudly. One guy walked up by her, facing us.

"Stop right there!" He called out. Then he turned to face Red. "Who are they?"

"Friendlies. They've come to help." Red told him.

"We don't want any trouble. We're just delivering the kid home safe." Warren told him.

"You shouldn't have brought them here!" The guy called to Red. I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm afraid you guys are gonna have ta leave."

"That's gonna work out 'cause we ain't plannin' on stayin'." Murphy told him.

"Doctor!" Red called out. A man ran out from around a corner.

"Is he okay?" The guy ,I'm assuming is Doctor Teller, asked.

"He escaped from The Man. These people saved him from a Z-pack." Red told him.

Doctor Teller kneeled down in front of the kid. "Are you okay?" He asked. The kid nodded his head ,while scrunching up his nose a bit and taking a small step back. Doctor Teller stood up again. "Thank God."

"So you're the man on the list?" Warren stated more than questioned. The man looked from Warren to Red back to Warren. "The girl told us. She thought we could help."

Teller nodded.

***

I was sat by the kid as he basically polished a crows beak. I had been sitting back by 10K and Red ,who were now sitting behind me. The kid had come over and grabbed my hand, pulling me over to show me.

After he was done, he looked over at me. I smiled at him. He smiled back and looked back at the crow. He did a few more touch ups.

This poor kid. Was raised by crows. And he's in the apocalypse. He's just a little boy. He shouldn't have to do all this. But I'm glad he's alive. He may not talk a lot but I can tell he's a good kid.

He doesn't talk much. When he talks, he has something to say. I can tell already that he's a cockroach. He escaped the man and he's made it this far.

He just really reminds me of 10K.

"Hey, kid. Say goodbye to the old one ,and his girl. Time to go." Red called out. The boy stood up. He looked at me for a moment before heading towards his sister. I stood up and made my way to 10K. Red turned back to look at the two of us. "We're gonna get some food. You can come with us." She pointed her club at 10K. "Just don't try anything or you'll be wearing red too."

The way she said it didn't seem like a threat. She was warning him not to try anything but she wasn't being rude to him. That fact made it so I wasn't upset with her for what she said. I followed after Red. I heard 10K stand up and follow after us. I glanced back to see him walking with the kid.

"Does he know?" Red asked from beside me.

"Know what?" I looked over at her.

She glanced down at my stomach. "Most people when they're getting hit, they try to protect their head or something. You were guarding your stomach when I was trying to punch you-"

"You didn't try. You succeeded." I cut her off.

"I was trying to look after my brother." She defended herself.

"I know. That's why I'm not upset with you for it." I told her back. It was quiet for a moment. I sighed. "No. He doesn't know." I admitted. She sent me a questioning glance. "I just don't know how he's going to react. We've already got so much on our plate right now. We don't have the time, safety, or resources to look after a baby." I told her.

Red was quiet. She had a thoughtful look on her face. She seemed to be debating whether to say something. Finally deciding, she opened up her mouth.

"Maybe you guys could stay here with us. We have people. We have supplies. And what we don't have we can try to trade with people coming through here." Red told me.

"I don't know. We really need to get Murphy to California." I told her.

"Can't you leave that up to the others?" She asked.

"I mean, technically yeah, but... I don't want to. I want to be able to know they get there, to help them on the way. They're my family. I can't just leave them when they need my help." I explained to her.

She nodded in understanding. She glanced back at her brother who was looking at 10K, trying to copy his walk. We both chuckled at the sight.

"I understand. I'd do anything for my brother." She stated.

"I can see that. I can feel the bruises to prove it too." I said lightly. We both chuckled. She glanced back at the two once more before looking back at me.

"He's going to make a great dad. You're lucky to have a guy like him." She told me. I looked back at 10K with a smile.

"I know."

We stopped talking and walked the rest of the way in silence.