Once Bitten

+One (15)

MK couldn't get himself to do more than sit on the roof and sob into his hands for a long, long time, chest heaving with the effort as he cried out more tears than he thought possible, his heart aching like it had been crushed into pieces. 

Her cheerful laugh rang like cursed bells in his ears and it just made his heart hurt even more, his eyes itching and sore with the endless tears that seemed to fall from them. 

He wasn't sure they'd ever stop, wasn't sure he'd ever get back up but then he reminded himself that he had to keep going and he forced himself to his feet, wiping at his eyes and sniffling into his sleeve. He felt awful like he hadn't slept at all and part of him wished he just hadn't because the nightmare had brought back those memories and feelings that made him feel like he was dying. 

But he couldn't just give up, no matter how much he wanted to. 

So with that thought in mind, he sighed into his hands and breathed in deeply a few times before exhaling loudly, his head aching dully as he registered a stinging in his palms from where his salty tears had fallen into his cuts. It hurt but it helped and he flexed his hands so the pain flared up deeper before focusing on the day ahead of him again. 

The sun was just about peeking over the horizon so evidently he'd woken up pretty early but he wasn't about to go to sleep again so he stretched and then got ready to keep going, able to see the edge of town from where he stood. 

He continued his journey, jumping from roof to roof to roof and climbing down then rushing across when he couldn't until he got to the edge of the town, his eyebrows furrowing at the sight of the empty road ahead of him leading to who knows where. 

Damn. He hadn't seen a usable car in this little town so he was stuck here and it made him want to growl in frustration, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the long road, wondering what to do. 

He could stay here until someone came by but then would that ever happen? How long would that take? No, he wouldn't stay here, he had to get to his dad's. So then... what was the plan? 

He sat down on the edge of the roof tiredly, wondering how long it would take to walk. Could he even walk it? What if he ran out of water? Food? It couldn't be too long until the next town or settlement, there seemed to be one every thirty-ish miles while MK had been driving so far. 

That would take, what, twelve hours to walk maybe? He could do that in a day, most likely two. And there were fewer zombies along the roads to the towns since there was nothing there for them to be interested in. There would be more as he started getting towards the next town or city though, so he'd have that to worry about. 

And there was no guarantee another settlement would even be that close by. 

But MK had to try so he picked himself up and got ready to backtrack a little in search of a weapon before his journey and somewhere to re-fil his water and food stock. Food and water were easily acquired but then he paused on the weapon part, bringing out the knife he'd taken from his home and staring at it with a bittersweet smile. Pigsy had used that knife so much in MK's memories and he was glad he had it but Macaque had been right. It was too small. What he needed was- 

His gaze caught on a broken wooden pole and his eyes lit up. Perfect. Looking around he climbed down the roof and slowly, quietly walked over to it, ears on alert as he picked it up and climbed back up the roof, laughing to himself brightly.

He used Pigsy's knife to sharpen the end, snapping it so it was a good length and not quite so long then standing up and spinning it around a few times. 

Perfect! He smiled down at it and then put it in the netting on the back of his backpack, letting it sit there and twisting his hand back once just so he knew he could reach it while it was there.