Pain.
Pain was the first thing Zane could feel when he woke up. Absolutely nothing but pain. He didn't know where he was. Something was covering his eyes. The right side of his face was the source of the excruciating pain. He could feel nothing on that side of his face.
His arm shifted to pull whatever covered his eyes away. There was a gasp, a pause, and then a weird feeling of numbness across his face and he could no longer think. His eyes remained covered and his hands were still.
Unable to think or move, he went back to sleep against his will.
The second time he woke up, the pain was the slightest bit better. It still hurt worse than anything Zane had ever felt, but it was better. One of his hands was warm, encased by two other hands. He was aware of someone else hovering over him, getting very close to his face. He didn't have the energy to move or tell them to go away. He could only lay still and let himself fall back asleep.
He had no idea how much time had passed or how many times he had woken up, but the pain on the right side of his face didn't seem to be getting better.
Zane didn't know where he was or anything about what had happened to put him in this situation; his thoughts buzzed through his head like a hive of bees, all flying in random directions with no purpose other than to be loud.
A groan escaped his mouth as he shifted, all of his muscles protesting after being still for so long. The right side of his face sent waves of fresh pain all throughout his body and he pressed his arm against his mouth to stifle a cry of pain. His hand touched a piece of cloth on the painful side of his face and caused him to bite down sharply on his hoodie sleeve.
A door opened and two people walked in, probably the two people from before. They sat on either side of him, one taking his hand and the other not doing anything that Zane could notice.
He twitched the hand that was being held and felt whoever was holding it tense.
"He's awake." Zane recognized the voice immediately and felt a flood of relief. Travis.
"Again?" Aphmau responded. "He's been waking up a lot recently. Maybe we should put him back to sleep again."
"No," Zane managed to mumble, wincing at the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
Aphmau gasped, and Travis gently stroked his hand.
"Can you hear us, Zane?" Aphmau said very slowly and hesitantly.
"Yes.."
"How do you feel..?"
Zane groaned in response.
"On a scale of one to ten, one being no pain, ten being worst pain imaginable, how bad does it hurt?"
"Zero."
He could tell they both knew he was lying.
"Tell me why I'm blindfolded," Zane commanded. He was able to speak fairly well now, though it hurt his face tremendously.
"Facial injury.."
"How bad?"
"Good news or bad news first?"
"Good news."
"You didn't lose your eye and it will eventually just become scars."
"Bad news?"
"....Uh..."
"I don't want to know, do I?"
"Not yet. When you heal more, I'll take the blindfold off and tell you the bad news if you don't immediately figure it out."
Zane let out a heavy sigh. His face throbbed, he couldn't see anything, and there was news so bad she couldn't even tell him. He was having a fantastic day.
He felt a hand rest gently on the left side of his face, immediately recognizing Travis's hand. His hand itself helped numb the pain, even though Travis had no way of healing Zane.
Zane slowly brought his hand up and placed it on top of Travis's, rubbing the top of the other male's hand with his thumb. Zane wondered what was going through Travis's head right now. He knew one thing for sure- he had no clue what was happening in his own head.
"How did this happen?" Zane asked. It must've been strange to talk to him, the way he just lay entirely still without turning his head or anything. Just speaking.
"Remember the dog?"
"I.. think so, yeah."
"That was a wolf."
"Oh. Really? A wolf survived the apocalypse in a town?"
"Aaron... Aaron thinks it was a werewolf. It had to have been very smart to survive the apocalypse this long, and the colors didn't seem very wolf-like to me. Black with dark blue tints and silver eyes? That's not normal."
"Maybe it was a furry," Travis offered. Aphmau gave a small laugh at this. Zane did nothing.
"Okay, now how did I get here?"
"Travis and I carried you back to the base. You're on your bed now."
"Where's the wolf? Did it bite anyone else? Where's Gene, and what did he do? Who is Ein?"
"The wolf ran off when we went to kill it. It attacked you only, I guess it was because you were the only one close. Gene tricked us into walking down into the alley. That's another reason why we think the wolf was a werewolf. It worked with Gene."
She didn't answer his last question.
"Ein? Who's Ein?" Travis asked, catching this.
"Ein is.. Ein is a werewolf. He lived around where I used to live. Oh my Irene. Oh my Irene. Did we just find Ein?!"
"How do you know?"
"Ein had black and blue hair and light gray eyes!"
Zane shuddered as the image of the wolf's eyes in front of his flashed through his head.
"Definitely had silver eyes."
"Okay, okay. Um, Travis, go get water for Zane, please."
Travis pulled his hand away from Zane's face, leaving it feeling cold. Travis pressed a kiss against Zane's cheek and then stood up, the sound of the door closing indicating that he had left.
"How much does it really hurt, Zane?"
"Out of ten?"
"Yes."
"Twenty-three."
He could hear Aphmau rubbing her face. "Do you want me to numb it again?"
"No, no. Don't numb it. Then I'll fall asleep."
"If you say so..."
"How is Travis doing?"
"I think he needs actual meat."
"What?"
"He says he's hungry but doesn't want to eat fruit or anything. He only eats if we force him to."
"Ugh... is he okay?"
"He seems fine, because we've been forcing him to eat when we eat, but I can tell he needs meat or something alive. That's why he gets all... weird when he smells blood."
The door opened, and Travis's light footsteps walked in. He took back his place beside Zane and handed the water to Aphmau, made audible by the crinkle of the bottle.
"Okay, Zane... Is it possible for you to sit up?"
Groaning, Zane sat up. Everything hurt.
"Uh, if it hurts too bad, then you can lay back down. Do you need help with the water bottle?"
"No." He reached his hand out to her, waiting until she placed the bottle in his hand. He felt the water bottle for a few seconds, then unscrewed the cap and took one quick gulp of water. It mixed with the sharp taste of blood in his mouth and made him gag, but he swallowed anyway.
"You have.... a... uh... cut on your lip. Yeah. A small cut on your lip and it's bleeding so that's why you taste blood."
"I would argue with you but I don't think I have the energy. Why does my face feel weird over the injury?"
"I wrapped that side of your face."
"Why do I have a blindfold, then?"
"Your eye is injured and the only way to secure the bandage correctly is to wrap it all the way around your head, therefore covering both of your eyes instead of just one."
"I couldn't have just been a pirate?"
"What?"
"Eyepatch."
"Oh." She laughed. "No, I needed this kind of bandage and it's sort of difficult to work with, so no eyepatch. Sorry, pirate Zane."
He felt a hand run through his hair. Definitely Travis.
"You need a haircut."
"So do you."
"No, Aphmau trimmed mine yesterday."
"Wait, what? Yesterday? How long have I been asleep?"
"Less than a week, don't worry."
"How well did Aphmau trim your hair?"
"I think it looks fine."
He took both of Zane's hands and lifted them up, placing them both on top of Travis's head.
"Definitely feels shorter," Zane said, pouting. "I liked your fluffy hair."
"It's too dangerous."
"Guess you're right."
"I can cut your hair when you're all healed up," Travis offered, and Zane could tell that he was smiling.
"Yeah, sure."
"What about me?" Aphmau protested jokingly.
"I don't trust many people with scissors around my head and neck."
"You're in an awfully joking mood for being in excruciating pain."
"I'm trying to ignore it, Aphmau."
Travis kissed him once more on the cheek. "I'm going to go tell them how you're doing."
"I'm staying in here, but I'm taking a nap over there." She pointed across the room, making sure to touch Zane's shoulder so he knew where she was pointing.
"Okay.."
"Get some rest, too."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"My face hurts too much."
"I'll numb it."
"Don't make me sleep for a week again."
"You'll only sleep for a few hours, maybe overnight."
"Fine..."
Slowly, he lay back down, grunting and restraining himself from rubbing his eyes.
"Sleep well, Zane."
Her hand rested over his entire face, which hurt extremely badly for a moment, but then went numb. His thoughts lost track of themselves and froze, smashing into fragments that couldn't form coherent trains of thought. After a moment of this, he fell asleep.