We watched Scott and Snake closely as they crossed the street, careful not to get close to any infected. Krism was holding her breath most of the time, only letting it go once they had reached the other side of the street and were hidden in the tree line.
"You two go next," Felix said and Minx nodded, looking at Krism. She took a deep breath and nodded as well, following her wife towards the highway. I made sure to watch them closely in case anything went wrong. I wouldn't even be able to do anything, but I could warn Russ and Felix. That wasn't even necessary though, because they were watching out for the two just as much as I was, probably even more as they had known each other for a longer time.
I heard Felix gasp when an infected came very close to Minx. She quickly hid Krism behind her, being the protecting wife she was, and ducked behind the car as much as possible. I saw she took out a small knife from her pocket, patiently waiting for the infected to make a move. It seemed to almost sniff the air like a dog and then slowly turned around. I was relieved to see it walk away from the two again, allowing them to safely reach the tree line as well.
Now it was our turn.
"How much weight can you put on your leg?" Russ asked me, giving me a worried look. He seemed pale and a bit scared.
"I can't stand on my own yet, but other than that I should be able to crouch and move quickly." Lies. My leg still hurt like hell, but I didn't want to worry them even more. I could deal with the pain. I just wanted to get to the others safely.
Felix made sure to stay by my side to support me as much as he could while Russ went in front of us. We reached the highway and slowly started crossing, using as many car wrecks to hide behind as possible. Everything went pretty smoothly, but when we were about halfway I accidently hit my wounded leg against an open car door and I winced in pain, swearing.
"Are you okay?" Felix immediately asked and Russ quickly looked around at us. I nodded, wincing again when I had to move my leg. I almost got a heart attack when I looked at Russ..
An infected was standing right behind him, but neither him or Felix were paying attention. They were both still focused on me. Time seemed to slow down as I pushing myself up with my good leg and slamming the infected's head on a sharp part on the trunk of the car, nearly splitting it into two pieces. I was now balancing on one leg and I quickly used the car as support. The cut on my hand started bleeding again.
"Wow, dude," Russ said, being in total shock. His skin was so pale; it looked like he was about to puke.
"Guys, we gotta go," Felix said, sounding panicked. I looked around us and saw the rest of the infected were limping in our direction. Shit.
I didn't even have the chance to say anything when Felix lifted me around my waist and started running to the tree line, Russ running a little bit ahead of us. We spotted the others and we all ran through the forest, dodging the trees and bushes, until we were far enough away. Infected weren't that fast anyway.
"What.. The.. Fuck.. Happened...?" Scott asked through his breaths, leaning with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Felix put me down, but maybe a little bit too quickly because I almost screamed in pain when I stood on my leg and I immediately fell on the ground.
"Shit, sorry," Felix apologised, letting himself fall on the ground as well.
"I asked you a fucking question, masky." Scott glared at me. I was so fucking done with this guy.
"What happened? You're asking me what fucking happened?! I saved Russ' life dammit, that's what happened! If you had just given me my fucking knife back I could've stabbed him without making a noise, preventing the other infected from hearing us, but no. You just had to fucking keep my knife, didn't you, you fucking asshole," I screamed, my hands formed in tight fists. Everyone seemed taken aback by my reaction and it stayed quiet for a little while. I guess they didn't expect me to start screaming. Scott eventually broke the silence by scoffing.
"You saved Russ? Geez, dude, all you did was send the horde after all of us," he said, narrowing his eyes at me. Oh, damn. Scott should be so fucking happy I couldn't stand right now, because I would've punched that guy's face in...
"Scott, you're being unreasonable. Cry saved my life! If he hadn't done anything, I would be gone now, got it? Can your fucking mind comprehend that information?" Russ spat at Scott, which really surprised me.
"All that matters is that we're all alive, so let's keep moving." Felix ended the conversation, helping me up without waiting for the others to agree or disagree. "Can you still stand on your leg or do I have to carry you?"
I quickly shook my head. "I can stand."
We continued walking and my head started to throb because of the bright sunlight. Snake was walking in front again, but this time Scott was right next to him, talking about where we were headed. Minx and Krism were holding hands, walking just a little ahead of us. Russ offered to switch with Pewds, but he said he was okay with helping me, so the three of us were just walking in silence. Russ sometimes made a joke to lighten to mood and I could really appreciate that. It made me feel more relaxed and it made me laugh. Russ was a good guy.
"Hey, Snake, we should continue walking tomorrow," Felix said, looking up at the sky that was getting darker. Snake hummed in response, looking around him.
"Do you guys sleep on the ground?" I asked, looking at Felix and Russ.
"No, we sleep in the air. It's really cool, you should try it sometimes!" Russ joked and I laughed.
"God dammit, Russ."
"Just kidding, dude. But yeah, we sleep on the ground and one of us keeps watch," he explained and I nodded. I always slept in trees, so sleeping on the ground wasn't really my thing. I just felt it was saver to be higher up, where the infected couldn't reach you and bite you in your sleep.
"You never sleep in trees?" I decided to ask. Russ immediately shook his head.
"Three of us are afraid of heights, so we decided to all stay on the ground."
"Ah, I see."
We stopped when we came to an open spot and Felix helped me sit down. I felt bad that I couldn't help making the fire, but they seemed to know exactly what they were doing, so not much later we had a small fire to cook some food on. This group lived mostly off meat from animals they had hunted, which was the opposite of what I always did. I just stole food from people. I decided to not tell the group that though.
We all ate — me making sure to turn away from them whenever I had to lift my mask — and Russ and Krism had a conversation about cats for some reason. I just stayed silent for most of the evening. I had talked a lot today, which surprised me just as much as it surprised the others.
"I'll stay watch," Scott offered.
"I can stay awake too, if you want to. I normally don't sleep a lot anyway," I told him but Russ immediately disagreed with that idea.
"No, you need to get rest," he said, vaguely pointing at my leg. I went to argue but Russ didn't change his mind. It was a bit weird to see everyone get comfortable on the ground, because I never really tried sleeping on lower grounds. I was nervous and I already knew there was no way I would get some sleep tonight.
Felix's P.O.V.
"Psst, Pewds. Are you awake?"
I groggily opened my eyes and looked up. I could see the stars in the night sky, twinkling happily. I brought my hands up to my face and rubbed my eyes, slowly sitting up and letting out a yawn. Did someone say something or was that just my imagination?
"Oh, you are awake. Good!" I heard Scott whisper and I turned to look at him. He was sitting against the tree, casually poking the soft glowing ashes of the fire with a branch. Russ was sitting next to him with tired eyes. The rest of the group seemed to be asleep.
"Yeah, I'm awake because you just woke me up, idiot," I chuckled and Scott grinned, mumbling an apology. Russ yawned and I smiled at him.
"Why are you even awake, Russ? Go sleep," I told him. He shook his head and laughed.
"Hmmm... No."
Scott chuckled, a huge smile on his face. "He's staying up because he feels bad that I'm on watch."
"What? No, that's not-" Russ loudly defended himself and I shushed him, motioning to the sleeping group members.
"That's not the reason!" he whisper-yelled, softly hitting Scott's shoulder, who just laughed and shook his head again. Russ pouted and crossed his arms like a little kid who didn't get what he wanted. I smiled at the two.
"Hey, guys. What do you think of the new guy?" Scott asked after a little silence, suddenly serious. Russ scoffed and gave Scott an unamused look.
"Firstly, his name is Cry, not 'the new guy'. And secondly, why does he bother you so much? You keep talking about him like he's a horrible person and whatnot," Russ whispered, narrowing his eyes at his friend.
"I just don't think we can trust him," Scott explained. "I mean, just think about it. We found him wounded with only his knife, which probably means he travelled in a group and he was just out hunting or something."
"Why does that matter?" I asked, frowning at Scott.
"You remember what happened last time we helped someone from a group," he reminded me. We'd found a girl who was surrounded by zombies once. There was no way she would survive without our help so we decided to save her. To make a long story short, her group showed up and they stole all of our shit, including my crossbow. I was still mad about that. That was a nice crossbow.
"That doesn't mean every group is like that. Besides, we can't know for sure if he's in a group. Maybe he just didn't have a lot of stuff?" Russ said hesitantly.
"And survive for this long? No way." Scott shook his head and sighed, looking at Cry, who was sleeping with his back facing us.
"And that fucking mask..." Scott added quietly, "He got so angry when I wanted to take it off."
"Well, he has his own reasons to be wearing that mask. It's his decision if he takes it off or not." I shrugged. I had to admit that it was weird though. Why would he want to hide his face so badly? Was he just very insecure or was there something else going on?
"I just don't think that it's a good idea to have him around..." Scott admitted, picking at the grass. "I don't want the group to be in danger because of him. I don't want to lose anyone..."
Russ and I stayed quiet for a second, sharing a glance. So that was the reason he was being so harsh to Cry; he just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. I knew he cared a lot about our well-being. It was also the reason he was the leader of the group, together with Snake. They always knew exactly what to do to keep everyone happy, fed and safe.
I opened my mouth and was about to say something when I was unexpectedly cut off.
"You don't have to worry about your group."
I jumped and looked at Cry, who slowly sat up and turned towards us. He was awake? Had he been listening this whole time?
"I'm not in a group or gang, I simply lost my stuff. I have no intention in harming you in any way. It would only be unfair to hurt the people that saved my life," he said. I shivered a bit because of his low voice. Maybe it wasn't quite Snake's level yet, but his voice sounded really awesome.
"If you want me gone, that's understandable. I know I'm not the most trustworthy person," Cry continued, shrugging a little. "But don't worry. I'm planning to leave as soon as my leg allows me to, so then I'll be out of your way."
He turned away from us again and laid back down on the grass. "And why I wear my mask is none of your fucking business."
It stayed quiet after that, no one daring to break the silence. I eventually decided to just get some sleep before morning and laid down, allowing my tired eyes to close. Cry's words seemed to echo through my mind and I couldn't stop thinking about all he had said. It took me a little while to finally fall asleep again.