Zak
"He's burning up," Clay says, placing the back of his hand on Darryl's forehead. "Darryl? Can you hear me?"
Darryl remained motionless against the wall where him and Zak were sitting before.
Zak stutters helplessly. "I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up to him twitching super hard. I tried to wake him up, and then he stopped moving. Clay, what's wrong with him?"
"Twitching?" Clay asks, pulling Darryl's eyelids open with his finger to check his pupil's reaction to the light, which was now shining through the windows brightly. "You're sure it was twitching, not convulsions?"
"Con-what?" Zak asks.
"Convulsions. A seizure."
"A seizure? Oh god, I have no idea."
"His pulse is a little slow, but it seems to be in a safe rhythm. How long was Darryl asleep for?"
"I don't know," Zak stutters again.
Fumbling around in his case, Clay grabs a small rag. He throws it to Zak. "Get this wet, quickly. I need to regulate his temperature."
The puddle, I can soak the rag in the puddle from before. Where was it again? It was just outside.
With the rag in hand, Zak bolts outside, trying his best to ignore the freezing cold air biting at his exposed fingers and face. It had started to snow again, this time harder, and everything around him was covered in a thick layer of white frost. Zak had to shield his eyes with the rag just to see a few feet in front of him, stumbling blindly towards where he thought the puddle from before was.
It's frozen over again.
Zak brushes snow off of and stomps on the newly frozen puddle, trying his best to get to the water underneath. Unlike last time, it doesn't break. Focusing only on the mission to get the rag wet, Zak doesn't notice the burning zombie coming his way until it attempts to bite him.
"Woah!" Zak exclaims, jumping backwards. He could hardly see the zombie through the snow, but the scent of burning flesh overwhelmed his sense of smell, bringing tears to his eyes. Zak quickly pulls a knife from out of his pocket and stabs the zombie, its skin sizzling as it lands on the frozen puddle. It twitches violently as the sun's strength increases through the clouds, letting out one last ear-splitting scream before it finally dies.
Kicking the burning zombie off of the puddle, Zak is relieved to see a thinned out later in the ice. When he stomps on it now, it breaks with ease. He rushes back to Clay and Darryl with the wet rag, trying to push the images of the burning zombie out of his mind.
"Put it on his forehead," Clay demands. Darryl was now laying flat on his back, a small pillow underneath his head. Clay had removed his coat too, all while trying to cool Darryl off.
Zak places the fabric on Darryl's forehead, holding it down as he lowers his hand to the side of the unconscious boy's face. Darryl seemed to sigh with relief when the cold rag touched his skin, and he squirmed to life a little bit as Zak stood over him. He opened his eyes slowly, scanning around the room.
"Darryl, are you okay?" Zak asks, moving his second hand away.
Darryl coughs when he tries to reply, and winces in pain. He attempts to grab his ankle, but when he discovers he can't reach, grabs Zak's hand instead. Zak almost pulls it away because of how strong the grip is, but just clenches his teeth instead.
Clay rolls Darryl's pant leg up, finally deciding to examine his ankle. Him and Zak both agreed that it was too hard to see anything under the layer of blood and dirt, so he asks for the wet rag. Coating it in rubbing alcohol from his bag, he places the rag on the wound.
Darryl screams in agony. He kicks his legs and his body thrashes erratically. "Stop!" He managed to call out, kicking Clay square in the jaw.
"What is your problem?!" Clay exclaims, grabbing the side of his face in pain. "Zak, hold his legs down."
"Clay, I don't know if—"
"Just hold him down!"
Zak does what he's told to, sitting on Darryl's legs to keep them from kicking Clay again. He held onto both of Darryl's hands with his hands, trying his best to ignore the fingernails in his palm and knees hitting his groin. "You're hurting me, Darryl!" Zak whines.
Darryl immediately stops moving around. Regret shone in his eyes, and it was enough to make Zak feel sorry for even saying anything. He was entranced by Darryl's eyes, which looked a little more red than usual, and the two of them just stared at each other for a while, until a gasp was heard from Clay.
"What's wrong? Is his ankle broken?" Zak turns around to ask.
"Worse." Clay whispers, the breath taken out of him. He looks up at Zak with an expression of disbelief plastered across his face. "It's bitten."
Zak felt his heart shatter. He stumbled off of Darryl, making his way out of the room. Grabbing onto the railing in the stairwell outside, Zak collapses to his knees and begins to cry.
It can't be Darryl. It should be me, not him.
Everything around Zak felt cold except for the hot tears streaming down his face. All he could see was the memory of the burning zombie outside twitching just the same as Darryl did earlier. He pictured blood running out of Darryl's eyes, his skin melting in the light of day, his brain rotting. Zak wailed as he imagined Darryl attacking him, forgetting completely who he was and what they had gone through together. Zak struggled to breathe as he realized:
I love Darryl.
That's it; that explains everything. I love him. I loved him when he saved me from the giant spider and zombie mob. I loved him, even when he was with the Skeletons. I loved him when he brought me back to my home, even though I didn't want to go. I loved him when he kissed me, and I loved him even more when I kissed him back. I love how I feel when I'm with him.
I can't lose him.
"Zak?" He hears Clay from the doorway. He sounds like he had been crying, too. "I put Darryl to sleep for a little while, like a medically induced coma. It should slow down the... Changing."
"Okay," Zak replies, his voice cracking. He hadn't remembered sounding this hoarse since before he met Darryl, and hadn't talked in a year.
The tears wouldn't stop coming. Zak remained in the stairwell, not daring to move back into the room. He could hear Clay fumbling around with his experiment, but Zak knew any cure wouldn't be ready in time. He whimpered to himself as he pictured Darryl lying still in there, the zombie infection coursing through his blood. And there was nothing he could do about it.
Vincent. He's going to be upset too. I should find them, the rest of the group. They need to know.
Slowly standing, Zak leaves the building. The only sound audible was his sobbing, but Clay didn't seem to care about stopping him. He was too focused, which was good. Zak's teeth chatter as he walks in the direction of his house, wiping his tears as they fall in fear of them freezing. He passes the corpse of the burning zombie, and struggles to keep his bile down as he walks on. Zak figures Vincent and Dave must have been on their way back already, because it doesn't take long to run into them.
"Zak? What are you doing out here? It's freezing!" Dave was the first to see Zak as he approached them.
"Who are you?" Zak asks, turning to the new member of the party.
"I'm Finn. It must be your house that everyone was trying to live in, then."
Zak disregards Finn, turning back to Vincent and Dave, who both had worried expressions on their faces. "Darryl," he breathes out, breaking down into tears again.
"Darryl? Have you seen him? What happened?" Vincent asks, placing a hand on Zak's shoulders to steady Zak as he cried.
"He's... He's..."
"Spit it out, Zak," Dave says in a soft tone.
"He got bit."
Vincent begins to tremble. "He... What?"
"Got bitten!" Zak collapses to his knees again, his hands over his face. Dave goes down with him, rubbing his back in attempt to comfort the boy.
"You're dead!" Vincent screams towards Finn, who was already running away. Zak just moves his hands and watches as Finn is tackled to the ground and repeatedly punched by Vincent.
Dave scrambles to his feet and rushes over to break up the fight. "Stop! This isn't helping anyone. Vincent, calm down. Clay has a cure, remember? Right, Zak? The cure?"
"It's not done," Zak stands up again, ignoring the snow sticking to his pants.
"He... Hasn't turned yet, right?" Dave asks.
"No," Zak responds. "Clay put him to sleep so he wouldn't."
Dave begins to walk towards the city. "We should get back to them, then. All of us need to be available to help with whatever Clay needs. If I could be saved, so can Darryl."
Zak nods, wiping tears from his eyes as he follows behind Dave, who glances back periodically to make sure Vincent didn't kill Finn. As they walked, Zak realized his mind was blank, and he couldn't think of anything else besides the fact that he loves Darryl. He loves Darryl and would do anything to save him.
Anything.