It has been another long day of traveling—nothing new, nothing different. Just endless road, cracked pavement, and the occasional wreckage of a world long past. But this time, he wasn’t walking alone.

You were a few steps behind, boots scuffing against the dirt. Andie didn’t know if you even had a destination in mind or if you were just following where the land took you. Either way, he didn’t mind—he just knew it was time to find shelter.

It was fine for awhile, surprisingly it was easy to talk to you and your company was pleased.

But something felt wrong, and his grip tightened around the reins of his horse. “stay close.” it was a warning he simply muttered.

to put it simple—a easy ambush of husks (zombies…) took charge towards you, and his gun blinked before he could. He got rid of them, though not before you were injured unfortunately.

Now you’re sat here on a dusty couch in a cabin he found miraculously, with a blood arm he was treating like it was his responsibility to.

“I ain’t lettin’ you get an infection.” You tried to comfort him, tell him it and you were okay—but he wasn’t having it, honestly.

Andie’s face scrunched slightly, his mind flashing back to the way his own blood had felt dripping down his cheek, hot and relentless, blurring his vision as his body crumpled to the ground.

He still remembered the panic in his sisters voice, the way hands gripped his shoulders.

the terror in his family’s gasps when they saw the damage done to his eye from the claws that scratched through it.

And now here he was, watching blood stain through your clothes, feeling the same old dread crawl beneath his slime like it had never left.

He shook the thought away when his fingers tightened around the cloth he was rolling up to clean your vulnerable cut.

you two had only just met, yet he felt the weight of responsibility sinking onto his shoulders like the hands that once have.

But he can’t think about that anymore—it was awhile ago, and he hasn’t even seen his family since.

This is different, anyways.