What would I do without her?

For years, we were friends. We were joined at the hip and did everything with each other. There was the few year span of drought in the friendship and I still feel guilty about that. If this whole neuro-zombie apocalypse hadn't happened, then we would still be giving each other the cold shoulder. I would have somehow been able to perform in the pep rally while Max would have been bitched out by Craft. We would've had a detention sentence of cleaning the entire lunchroom. Then we would've gone our separate ways, keeping the icy wall up.

I was supposed to go on a date with Nate Monty after homecoming.

Who knows how that might've turned out.

Now, here we are. For weeks, maybe even a month, we've fought together. We've been side by side, she's saved me multiple times and vice versa.

And I shot her in the neck.

Seeing her in the hospital bed, pale and restrained, was worrying. Mere inches, and we would be putting her in a grave instead.

I don't think I could ever forgive myself if that would've happened. She tried to kill Steve and she killed a scientist. That was the only dead scientist we found, anyway. Whatever Grimes did to her made her into a monster that I hardly recognized and it scared me.

Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel less guilty.

My hands turned the slightly dirty penguin stuffed animal, my thumbs wiped his black plastic eyes. There were smudges and some scratches on the eyes as he stared back at me. I pulled him close to my chest and sat my chin on top of his head, my eyes going up to Max.

She was asleep in the hospital bed, her arms strapped to the bed just in case something were to happen. An IV stuck out of her arm and the heartbeat monitor beeped in a soft rhythm. Every so often, she would mumble something in her sleep and twitch. Usually, she would often mutter strange noises in her sleep, but she was saying coherent words. My name came up often as did Steve's. There was also some soft growls that rolled throughout her body, which made me keep my eyes on her until they softly faded away.

After Steve went to go check things out with Grimes, I was able to convince Max to get some sleep. Sure, she was out for a while, but she was weak and not quite stable enough. I told her I would wake her if Steve had big news, even if she told me to go to sleep as well.

Of course I didn't.

I couldn't go to sleep. I've hardly slept since we brought Max back from the lab. The worry and guilt rang in my ears like fireworks.

"Ash?" A soft voice said from the doorway of the room.

My eyes went to the door to see Steve's head poking through the crack in the door. He stuck a hand through to gesture for me to join him in the hallway before his head disappeared again. Getting to my feet, I put the penguin toy by Max's side, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and started off towards the door. I slipped through the door and left it cracked.

Steve paced the hallway slowly. Anger creased his brow as he rubbed his face. I never noticed how much his facial hair started to grow in. Dark brown stubble was growing in as a makeshift beard.

I guess he decided to embrace the apocalypse style.

"I hate this fucker." Steve growled, coming to a stop in front of me, "Grimes only speaks in fucking riddles and doesn't give a shit if we threaten him. Nathan is the same way. He's just more of a fucking jackass."

"What are you guys going to do?" I asked.

His eyes went up to me. I could see that they were blood shot and dark from exhaustion, "He wants to talk to Max."

My ears got warm, "He what?"

"He said he will only talk to Max." Steve sighed, "Thor and Hawkeye talked about maybe just beating the shit out of him to get him to talk, but Thor has a feeling that he would just let us kill him. We can't have that. Unfortunately."

Unfortunately.

That man deserves to die for what he's done. He unleashes a damn superhuman cannibalistic virus, causing a state wide quarantine, and he's still alive. How does that make any sense?

And now he's out here calling the shots.

"No fucking way in hell." I shook my head and pointed to the door of Max's room, "After what he did to her, no fucking way."

"Ash, we don't have a choice!" Steve snapped at me, causing me to take a step back. Noticing my surprise, he sighed before taking a step towards me and putting his hands on my shoulders, "I'm sorry. It's just that we need to get his information. I know that Grace is close to a breakthrough, but with Grime's research we can instantly find out how to cure Max and her dad and everyone affected by this. The served in his lab were wiped clean and all of the files we found are irrelevant."

I reached up and put a hand over his, "I just... I don't want him to cause her more harm. She's been through so much and I just want it to stop. If Grimes can help that then... so be it."

The words felt like straight vodka on my tongue, but I knew he was right. Grimes may be the worst human being on this planet, but his information could give Max a cure and save everyone.

If he doesn't help, I'll kill the bastard myself.

"This better be worth it." I shook my head.

"Me too." Steve nodded, "I know Thor and Hawkeye already radioed Grace to talk to her about it and got the go ahead. I came over here first so that I could warm you and Max. Thor is on the way with the dicks."

Max definitely won't be happy about it, but I'm sure she'll have the same idea of how much this could help. She'll have a lot of choice words to the man as well.

"I'll wake her up." I said to him before going through the door of the hospital room.

Max was still sound asleep in the bed, mumbling softly to herself. Her leg twitched softly and she turned her head towards the door. Her nose scrunched up a bit before going back to normal.

God she's so cute.

I sat back down in the chair and reached a hand out to touch her arm, "Max? Max. Wake up."

Her mumbling got louder