Bite {Niall Centric}

Day 180

Pretending ended up being pretty hard to do for Niall these past few days. How could he just forget that all his friends were attracted to him? He was just a scrawny, blonde - really his hair was mostly brown by now, and his hair was reaching past his ear because he hadn't cut it for the past month - kid who used to have braces and complained about it a lot.

Besides, how did he even even feel towards them? Friends? Lovers? He was still slightly hesitant around them, that much he knew he couldn't help. He had met them only about a little over a month ago. . . yet they had gone through so much already.

These four boys were too much!

Niall hardly expected for Louis to like him, but all of them. Niall still couldn't fully process everything. He would eventually have to talk to them individually if he ever wanted peace inside his head; he needed help in deciding what to do with the same questions he'd been mulling over in his mind for days.

Louis would probably be his first target. He confessed first, Niall should probably talk to him first. Then perhaps Liam who seemed the most sensible. Then Harry. Then Zayn.

They were all walking, pushing their motorcycles beside them in order to save gas. Harry had estimated they were close enough to the mall to walk and make it before sundown. They exited the outskirts of a rural town, the mall only a couple of miles away. Guns were pointed in different directions, Niall excluded for he was leaning against his baseball bat with each step.

After running from that devil zombie, his ankle had started to throb two days later. Niall was sure he had messed it up again, but he couldn't be bothered anymore. His ankle would probably never be fixed, not with so many zombies running rampant in the world.

The summer heat felt nice, warm against Niall's exposed shoulders and face. Bright afternoon light kept the monsters lurking in shadows at bay, and the clouds in the sky were shaped like elephants and infants being cradled in their mother's arms.

Niall had been cloud gazing for a while, hoping it would help him sort through his thoughts, but it only served as a temporary distraction. Niall could only focus on so many things at once, the most important being staying alive and keeping his friends alive.

He recalled an old memory from before the apocalypse: walking home from a friend's house, licking at the vanilla dripping down the side of his ice-cream cone, how hot the sun had been, the redness in his face from the heat, the houses crowded together so closely, the sidewalk littered with cracks and chunks completely missing. Niall felt as calm as he did in that memory, like zombies were still just figments of imagination potrayed in horror films.

The boys made Niall feel safe.

Okay, what else did they make him feel? Annoyed. Happy. Stressed. Relieved.

Could he really return their feelings? Should he be thinking about it so hard? Should he even have to think about it at all?

Finally, the mall was coming into view. He slowed his walking until coming to a complete stop. He hadn't meant to, but he was frozen in awe. He thought he would never see the place again. The water, the electricity, the possible air conditioning. . . the boys here with him, living with him.

It looked huge, even from so far away. He wanted to run towards it now, never stop running until he was touching the boards nailed to the glass windows and barricaded doors. He wanted to peek through the cracks and see inside.

Had more zombies gotten in? Had the zombies already inside destroyed the place? Could this still be his base?

The boys had stopped, too, looking at him and waiting patiently. Niall started to lead the way, the boys following behind wordlessly. It had been silent between them for a long time. It wasn't awkward silence like it should have been, just the kind where no one needed to say anything.