The next morning there was a bit of panic as the group surrounded a figure lying on a thin mattress. Noah was sitting next to him and trying to wake him up yet even after calling several times, the boy was unresponsive. Hearing all the commotion Rhys walked over to see what was going on.

"He is burning up boss." Noah reported to him as he ones more tried to shake Ash awake.

"So, he is not dead?" Josh's voice drifted over and several eyes turned to him in disbelief. Although his voice sounded sarcastic, Josh looked quite worried as well. Rhys kneeled next to Noah and placed a hand on the boy's forehead and indeed it was very hot to the touch. Rhys frowned. He was fine yesterday. Although he had skipped his dinner and slept through all the noise, him being in this condition was worrying.

"Anyone who knows medicine here?" He asked. He knew most of his people and as far as he knew they didn't have any hidden talents to cure people. So, the question was directed at the group that were saved by them from the police station and the two of the survivors that joined his team from camp. The Chinese woman, Biyu Chen, slowly stepped forward. She was in her late thirties, yet she looked like she was in 10 years younger than her actual age.

"I was a nurse. So, let me take a look at him." Rhys stepped away for the woman to take a look at the boy. He saw her frown. "does anyone have a thermometer? His body temperature is quite high." Hearing this one of the members rushed off to their vehicles and after rummaging for a while returned with a first aid kit. Ever since this mess started and they had to go out on raids, the group made sure to carry medication with them in case something happened. Taking the kit, Biyu Chen looked through the contents, there were several different kinds of bandages and plasters, along with scissors and tweezers. Between all that mess, obviously packed by someone in a rush, she fished out a thermometer. She quickly wiped it clean and then stuffed it into Ash's mouth under his tongue, then waited.

"Is he infected from Anne?" Someone asked and all eyes turned to Anne who was still tied up to a pole. She looked back at them in disbelief, but she was also feeling a bit worried. Josh shook his head, she is fine. She doesn't look infected. I think it's because Ash strained his body too much along with the mental stress. After all this is his first outing. A lot of us were in similar situations on out first times." Noah nodded his head in agreement and soon the suspicion and fear left the others as well.

By then Biyu Chen pulled out the thermometer and glanced at it, 110F (43°C). her frown deepened. That was abnormally high. She passed the thermometer wordlessly to Rhys who was hovering over her shoulder and instead started to look through the kit again for medication. Rhys frowned at the digits on the device. 'What kind of number is this?' he looked at the boy and saw the beads of sweat lining his forehead and signed. 'He was no doctor so there wasn't much he could do.' Instead he looked at the Chinese woman fiddling with this and that and said, "Take care of him." She nodded at his words and whispered a 'I will do my best.' Before focusing back on the patient.

After that he turned to the rest of the group "As you can see three of us are unable to go on at the moment." Referring to Anne, Ash and Biyu Chen. "Anne needs two more days of quarantine. Let's hope that Ash wake up and will be able to move by then." There was also the issue that they now had two teenage kids tagging along. One was 16 while her younger brother was only 13. Other than Kiran who was an officer, the Chinese man didn't look like much of a fighter. Rhys really had to reorganise and plan their next move.

Sending the newcomers back with an escort was not a feasible option. That would reduce their already uncertain numbers sine Anne and Ash were down. Another option was retreat, but even with the previous raid, all they could collect were four guns and a few boxes of ammo. This wasn't going to last long. For all they know, it might run out on their way back if they encountered a large group of Zombies. If they didn't make another good find, then their entire trip would be meaningless. A waste of fuel and food.

Rhys gathered the rest of the members around him and started planning. "Alright, while we wait, we can't waste time, we have to be efficient. One team will enter the city and scout out the situation. Especially the police station. Second team, after the first team returns, you two will merge and look for any kind of useful spoils that we would need at the camp. Team three will remain here and protect this hideout." Excluding, the injured, the sick and the children along with the nurse, there were 9 of them left. So, Rhys divided it 1:2:4. The scout team had the four people advantage since their joy was the most dangerous. Rhys decided to stay behind. After everyone received their task Rhys said. "If you encounter something you can't handle, then don't dawdle, return at once." With a nod the groups dispersed to get their stuff ready for this trip.

---------

An hour past noon, Ash woke up groggily. He was feeling disoriented and confused as he looked at the unfamiliar ceiling. After a few minutes of blinking his eyes he remembered that they were at the farmhouse and that the sun was high up in the sky. Startled he sat up quickly and it made his head spin, a sharp pain crawled through his temple making him wince.

"Get up slowly." The Chinese woman, Biyu Chen said from his side. It looked like she had been taking care of him all this time. "Are you feeling better?" She asked handing him a bottle of water to hydrate himself. He took it graciously and nodded his head before gulping it down like a starved animal. "Slow down or you will choke" She said with a frown and right after the words left her mouth, Ash started coughing and wheezing. Biyu Chen rolled her eyes "Did you know that you had a really high fever, and no one could wake you up. All of us were worried if you were infected or something."

Ash wanted to chuckle. His fever was due to overexerting his healing powers. This has happened every time during the experiments in the lab. There wasn't much anyone else could do. His body already being a powerful self-healing mass of flesh, all other kind of medications wouldn't work on him. All they could do was to wait for his own body to kick start again and recovering from the exhaustion. Instead of saying all this he thanked her for taking care of him while he was out.

"Where is everyone else?" He asked looking around. Seeing that he was up, Angelica walked over and handed him a package of dry biscuits. Her brother was still following closely behind her as if he feared he would lose sight of her if he wasn't constantly by her side.

"They all went on a mission." Angelica was the one who satisfied his curiosity. Us and the boss guy are the only ones left here." The girl must have felt that he was more approachable than all those scary men and women, so she plopped down beside him and started narrating everything that happened after they woke up. He finished the biscuits and water while he listened attentively. Then he stood up and walked out to find the 'Boss'.

Rhys was leisurely walking around outside. He was obviously on lookout. When Ash walked out, he saw a set of broad shoulders facing him. The spine curved beautifully to support some nicely shaped butts. From inside the waistline of his jeans, the grip handle of a gun poked out making the entire scene, dangerously gorgeous. Hearing movement from behind, Rhys turned around swiftly with a raised hammer in his hand, ready to strike the threat.

Seeing a pair of blue eyes flinch at his action, Rhys stopped quickly and lowered his weapon with a cough. "Don't sneak up on me. Ever." He said in a dangerous tone and then resumed his lookout duty.

Ash patted his heart and went ahead to stand next to Rhys looking out the vast field. "This is a nice place." He commented. In the distance was a large grass field separated off for their cows to roam freely and eat to their heart content. At another end, a small fence was built for their chicken. The door opened into a large fenced field where crops and vegetables were planted. After their arrival yesterday, the chicken coop was on high alert and very loud as a few of their comrades were missing after those men chased them around.

"Mm" Rhys responded.

"If we move, it would be wonderful if we could round up all these animals. They would keep us from starving."

"Yes. I was thinking the same. But we don't have the vehicles nor the manpower to shift these animals. As such, it is better to let them free when we leave." Hearing the compassion for animals in Rhys's voice, Ash was a bit surprised. He secretly smiled to himself and agreed. They fell into a comfortable silence.

"Why did you catch a fever?" Rhys broke the silence, looking at the boy from the corner of his eyes.

Ash scratched his head uneasily "Ah, I would get it occasionally since I was young. It seems its due to over exertion. There is nothing to worry though. It comes quickly and goes by itself after a few hours of sleep."

Rhys looked at him sharply. 'It looked like the boy was saying the truth. Although he does seem to be hiding something.' Yesterday's raid could hardly be said to be anything, if the boy would feel exhausted from just that, then he was not meant for the battlefield.

"Since you are so weak, it is best that you don't join any other missions once you get back."

Ash was startled. 'What! The exhaustion is from using my power okay! Not from physical strain. If I wasn't here Anne would have turned on this mission.' Although at first, he was against being dragged into a dangerous mission, after he hit the road, Ash realised that there was a lot of amazing things to see in this world. Things he had only seen inside the books and on TV. If he stayed at the camp, it would be no different from before when he was kept prisoner in a lab. Ash's face reddened in annoyance. But then he suppressed it and stated, "My body will be able to handle it once I train it."

Seeing the determination on the boy's face, Rhys couldn't help but smile. "Yes, we will see how far you can go. Let's start with that gun lesson I promised you." Ash's eyes lit up immediately and nodded his head like an excited puppy.

They left Biyu Chen for watch duty along with the kids. The boy, Keith was to keep an eye on Anne, the others would find a high-altitude place and be lookouts. If something urgent came up, they were to holler, rather than directly engage. With all the instructions in place, Rhys lead Ash a bit further away, where a several dense trees clustered together like an island amidst muddy fields. Rhys placed a large can, filled with stones, on top of a rock under the tree as target. Training field and targets were set.

Beads of sweat slowly rolled down Ash's face, after 15 minutes of being under the scorching sun. He held a gun in his hand, Rhys's Gun. He has demonstrated a few times how to hold, aim and shoot the cold weapon in his hand. Ash suddenly felt like he was very familiar with the weapon. Like he had handled it countless times before in his past. He didn't know where this feeling came from since he was certain that it was right now that he had ever first touched a gun in his life.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the familiar feeling that he was experiencing. How should he hold it? where should he place his fingers. how should he load the gun, aim and...' his hand copied the images that he was seeing in his head. Rhys watched the flawless movements with narrowed eyes.

'was the boy such a big genius that he had memorised every muscle movement for shooting the gun from just observing him a few times?' He shook his head That wasn't it, he could tell that the boy was moving his hands due to muscle memory. 'As time goes on, the boy becomes more and more mysterious.' Rhys thought as he observed with cold eyes.

"Shoot" Ash cried out as he pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened except for that cry. Seeing the confused look on Ash's face, Rhys started laughing. He couldn't stop. He clutched is stomach as he bend over from the joke he just witnessed. 'He was overthinking too much. This boy was certainly a beginner. Maybe a beginner with exceptional memorising skills but still a beginner.' Ash scrawled at him. he must have taught him something wrong. Otherwise how can the gun not even fire after following his instructions. After a few minutes of making fun of him, Rhys seemed to have recovered. He walked over and threw an arm around the fuming boy and said in a low voice "First lesson, make sure the safety is off before you shoot." He chuckled again as he saw the boy turn beet red with embarrassment.

"Instead of jumping ahead, learn the basics first." Rhys said with a serious tone.

Ash quickly turned off the safety and then aimed ones more. Rhys stood next to him observing. Maybe due to the embarrassment from before, Ash lost his cool posture and his shot missed the target by a mile. He tried a few more times but the result was the same. Plus, the recoil was hurting his hand and shoulders. He looked up at Rhys with a pleading look asking him to demonstrated ones more. He wasn't willing to give up on learning as this was a must during these times. Such a skill could be the deciding factor whether he lives or not.

Rhys only smiled mockingly at him. Ash sighed and focused his gaze back at the target. His hand was slightly trembling from the recoil. Having spent most of his life with only a little exercise, his muscles were not adapted to the sudden and brutal treatment they were facing. So, they complained endlessly by giving him occasional numbing shots of pain each time he pulled the trigger. He felt like if his muscles could keep up with his mind, then he would be able to pull this off without much trouble.

Suddenly Ash felt a warmth press against his back. It was something firm and hard and covered the length of his figure. The heat was seeping through his cloths and settling uncomfortably against his skin. Ash stood frozen. His shoulders stiffened as he tried to turn around. But then a pair of strong muscular arms encircled his body, trapping him in position. Large warm hands covered his own over the gun, mimicking the posture that he held while he was shooting. Suddenly, Ash's heart started to beat really fast. He tried to take a few deep breaths to calm himself. This was the first time someone was at such a close proximity to him. there was hardly any gap between his back and Rhys chest. A feeling of discomfort assaulted Ash so he slowly turned his head stiffly to the side to look at the man behind him from the corner of his eyes and asked "Rhys?"

Rhys still had a blank expression on his face as if these didn't mean much to him. He snapped "Eyes to the front. Are you going to shoot without looking at the target? We don't have that many bullets to waste." Hearing that Ash's eyes snapped forward at once. He looked at the target perched upon the stone and felt like it had become even more difficult to aim.

With slow and soft movements, Rhys corrected their posture, into the ideal one for shooting with minimal recoil. Each correction made them press closer together until they were in perfect sync. Like they were one person. Suddenly Rhys placed his head on the boy's shoulder for a better look at the target and then they squeezed the trigger together. The sudden burden on his shoulder had made him startled, so aim was misdirected, and the bullets only softly grazed the large can.

"Ash focus!" Rhys reprimanded him. his voice was low and laced with a bit of annoyance. Yet he didn't realise that he was breathing down ash's neck literally which made him more uncomfortable and unfocused. Although they fired a few more shots, they all missed the mark by a small margin. Ash suddenly found this funny and started laughing.

"Seems like you aren't that great of a shot either." Ash teased although he knew that the problem lay entirely with him. he looked back at the Rhys with a smirk on his face. Their eyes locked. He felt the body pressed against him stiffen.

"Oh, you did not just say that." Before Ash could respond, his slack hands were lifted without much effort and Rhys fired without even looking. His eyes were focused on the blues the entire time. Ash heard a metallic ring and snapped his head back quickly. The can was hit! Although he was filled with admiration, Ash felt like he wanted to roll his eyes. Suddenly, hearing and feeling the chest vibrate in a triumphant chuckle, an urge to overthrow this master filled him. He wanted to hit the target as well no matter the cost.

This time around, Ash raised his hands with much more determination and confidence. He adjusted his stance without much probing and raised the gun to his shoulder level. His legs were firmly planted on the ground. He aimed the weapon and pulled the trigger. The bullet swished through the air and collided with the can several feet away. Hearing the metallic ring, Ash was overjoyed. He forgot that Rhys was still attached like glue to him and turned quickly to gloat about him achievement.

Two people froze. Rhys still had his arms around Ash. dark eyes collided with blue ones. Ash was speechless at how close they were standing. He had a clear view of Rhys facial features. He really had a very handsome face. The kind that makes you stop in your tracks and take another look. His nose was straight and tall along with a faultless set of lips. His eyebrows perched perfectly and clean above those mesmerising eyes. Although it wasn't any amazingly rare shade, it still emitted a majesty that warranted attention. On closer inspection those orbs were a dark brown rather than black. Now that they were exposed in the sun, the chocolate colour was more obvious, small specs of gold floated amidst the endless sea of brown. Long lashes framed the eyes and they almost kissed his lids every time he blinked. A comforting smell of pine and dew engulfed him. Seeing him in such closeness, Ash's breath hitched.

Rhys was equally speechless. He was entirely captured by those endless ocean blue eyes. As if possessed, he drew closer until their breaths mixed together. Unconsciously his eyes flicked towards soft looking pink lips. It was as if time had frozen. Only they both existed at that moment. The air was tense and heavy making their hearts beat faster. In sync.

Some twigs crunched nearby. Rhys quickly shot his head in that direction, taking out the hammer he had decided to carry along since the gun was still in Ash's hands. Biyu Chen stood then shocked in her tracks. Her eyes wandered between the two and as if finally understanding something, her eyes widened before a deep blush crept up her cheek. When she had walked over, she saw Rhys and Ash deep in embrace. Their heads were so close that it appeared like they were kissing from her angle. 'So, they were in this kind of relationship.'

Seeing that it wasn't a Zombie or anyone dangerous, Rhys lowered his hammer. But then he saw the blush on the nurse's face and knew at once that some kind of misunderstanding had occurred. 'Look at that woman, she was too shy to even look him in the eyes.'

"I-I am sorry to have disturbed your personal time together." she stammered out. "But the teams have returned just now." She suddenly wished she wasn't the one tasked with informing these two lovebirds. Especially since Rhys looked like a scary man. Yet at the same time she was glad that she hadn't sent any of the children here. Their innocent eyes need not be corrupted by adults' bedroom activities.

Rhys's eyes rolled at the words. 'What personal time together? It's a MISUNDERSTANDING.' Although he wanted to shout it, he knew that it wouldn't convince that woman, so he decided to follow her back. Then he remembered the boy next to him and turned to look at him. the boy was still in a trance. "Ash!" he shouted shaking his shoulder. Ash quickly snapped back to reality and redness seeped into his cheeks.

"I still need to practice." He said and turned away with the gun in his hand. "I will come after a round." He said pushing the others away. Since the trees were in the middle of an open field and there wasn't much space to hide, the probability of a Zombie attack was minimal. So, they decided to go ahead first leaving a "Be back in 20 minutes" behind.

After the two left Ash turned back to the targets and took aim, he had just reloaded the bullets. There were 7 of them inside waiting to be fired. He pulled the trigger in succession and the continuous ring of bullet hitting metal filled the air. Out of the 7, 4 found their mark close to the centre. The other 2 were next to the edges and 1 he missed the target. It wasn't just his imagination, he clearly felt like his mind knew how to handle a gun to precision. His muscles were betraying him though. Right after the last bullet left the gun, an unbearable pain shot through his nerves.

He needs to train his body more. Otherwise he would be useless during a mission and Rhys would ask him to stay behind. Remembering Rhys, his cheeks started tingling but he didn't know why. Maybe the exhaustion from yesterday hasn't fully vanished yet. 'He really has beautiful eyes' Ash thought as he packed up the gun and ammunition. After training, he suddenly felt hungry. The only thing he had had that day was a packet of biscuits. His stomach rumbled loudly pushing away all other irrelevant thoughts. Rhys among them. He slowly made his way back to the farmhouse, his heart light and cheerful. It has been a long time since he could say he was truly happy. He had learned a new skill and he was free, and it looked like he was starting to make friends too.

Little did he know that, he was being happy too soon. Right after this trip ends, disaster would befall him.