BLACK OUT DAYS | THE WALKING DEAD

Chapter One: Seed/Sick

"We're not sure, we found him." The man who was probably their leader answered from the top of the stairs. He started to descend down from them.

"You broke into my house." Nate said sharply, glaring back up at him. He was full of adrenaline, it had spiked the second he saw them park outside his house. He hadn't spoken to another living soul in months and suddenly these people were inside his house. He was surprised he wasn't dead yet.

"Will you let go of me?" He tried to jerk away from the man holding onto him, not really caring if he fell again but he had his feet set firmly on the step below him so he would be fine unless this guy decided to push him or something.

"Daryl." The leader said cooly and so Daryl rolled his eyes but finally let go of Nate's shirt. He adjusted his collar and pulled his sleeves back down to his wrists and began to walk down the steps. Too many eyes were on him, he suddenly felt unnerved and then he stepped into his living room and blinked at the amount of people who were staring curiously at him. His eyes immediately fell to their weapons, only a few were tense and had their guns pointed at him and he quickly took a step back, his heart almost leaping out of his chest and he didn't notice as the guns were lowered as he heard rustling in his kitchen and he cursed under his breath as he remembered the pile of supplies he had sitting on his island counter. When he entered the kitchen, he stumbled upon a kid wearing a sheriff's hat and an Asian guy rummaging through his things.

"Hey, that's mine!" He shouted and reached forward to snatch the can the boy had been holding onto. The kid blinked in surprise and looked up at him in shock. Nate knew it had been rude, these people looked like they were exhausted and starving and one of them was pregnant but he couldn't help his reaction. He had risked his life for this stuff.

"Who the hell are you? Give that back." The boy demanded, he was only a few inches shorter than Nate and Nate quickly took a step back as the boy tried to snatch it from him again and Nate was tempted to hold the can above his head and then three of the adults ran into the kitchen.

"Carl!" The pregnant woman exclaimed as their leader went to pull the boy away from Nate and protectively put him behind him, as if he thought Nate would hurt him. Nate brought the can in closer towards his chest, just so he could have something to hold onto and he kept a tight grip on it.

"But this is stuff that we need! Who is that?" He turned his head to look up at the leader. Nate assumed they were related, he thought they looked alike.

"I don't know, we found him upstairs, he says he lived here." The pregnant woman turned to the leader with surprise.

"He's been living here for the entire time? By himself?" She asked, he slowly shook his head. They were talking like he wasn't standing right in front of them.

"I don't know. He took off before we could ask anything but luckily Daryl caught him." He told her. Nate could hear whispers from his living room, he was half listening to the two in front of him. A few of them were even peering through the archway at Nate, one old man in particular.

"What's your name?" The old man asked, raising his voice a bit louder so Nate was forced to turn his head towards him. Nate hesitated, sharing his name with strangers was a bad call. They could kill him but he decided that since they hadn't done it earlier, then maybe they were alright.

"Nathaniel, but most people call me Nate." He told him weakly. This is the most human interaction he's had in..in five months. He averted his gaze down to the can again and then with a defeated sigh, he handed it back over to Carl. They probably needed it more than he did.

"Thank you." His mother said, almost in shock, she had rested her arms on top of Carl's shoulders a while ago, to keep him close.

"Pleased to meet you, Nate. My name is Hershel, this is Rick, Lori, and Carl." The old man introduced them and Nate nodded as he took their names in. It was nice to be able to call them something now.  Rick continued to have that hard look on his face and Nate wasn't sure what he was thinking.