Ash was in shock. Unlike that time when Ashley died, this time it was someone he knew, even if only for a few days. Also, the reason was him. he didn't have the strength to pull him up. He was useless. Ash was sitting there paralysed and dazed with streams of tears rolling down his cheeks that he did not notice Noah calling for him.

"Ash pull yourself together!" Noah scolded. Ash looked at him with blank eyes. Noah tried to stand up and winced at the pain that shot through his leg. But Ash was still somewhere far far away. So, in the end without much choice he slapped him hard across the cheeks. The sting on his cheek brought him back to earth. He held his reddened cheeks and looked at Noah pitifully. "We can't stay here. So, get up."

Ash nodded and without a word stood up to do whatever Noah asked him to do. Noah shook his head exasperatedly. He had known Mike longer than Ash and he was mourning the loss of a friend as well but at this moment, their safety was more important than a fallen comrade. He shuffled towards the edge and looked down at the mass of snapping teeth and growling rotten corpses. Ash came over as well and looked at them. He felt nauseous at once. He covered his mouth in an attempt to keep his breakfast inside. In-between the mass of bodies he saw a discarded corpse. It was completely chewed on. Several chunks of flesh was missing from his torso and neck. His stomach was torn open and the intestines piled out. One of the zombies had torn out his arm and was gnawing happily on it. A pair of horror-stricken eyes was staring up at them, lifeless. Mike!

Ash couldn't hold it in anymore. He ran to the side and emptied his stomach over the edge. Noah looked after him with a pained expression in his eyes. This will take some getting used to for the boy. He had already lost a large number of friends soon after the apocalypse started. As such, he was more immune to these sights than this lamb.

"Ash, we really need to go. So please. You can mourn him later." Noah patted him on his back and felt the boy slowly recover. After taking a few large breaths, Ash seemed to have calmed down a bit. He nodded at Noah. His eyes were red and from all the crying, but he knew that he needed to survive. So, there was no choice but to man up.

They started exploring the space that they were in. Noah had great difficulty keeping up with him due to his injury. He was hoping on one leg back and forth. Escape was certainly going to be more difficult with that injury. "let me see your leg. I will tie it up so that you won't feel the pain us much." Noah looked at him in surprise as he didn't know that Ash had medical skills. Without any complaint he pulled off his boots and let Ash examine his swollen foot. After all anything that could make their escape smoother was worth trying. There was a deep purple bruise on it that throbbed with the slightest touch. He hissed in pain as Ash slowly poked at the bruise with his index finger repeatedly as if he was intentionally causing him pain.

"hold on for a minute I am gonna massage it for a bit. It will help with quick healing" before Noah could respond, Ash pressed his thump against the blue-black bruise and pressed hard and with the same strength started circling his thumb in a fake 'special massage'. Noah screamed out in pain and glared at Ash. Was he really trying to help or make it worse?

Ash slowly inserted his healing power into his 'massage' and after a few minutes looked around for some cloth but since he couldn't find any, he directly tore his t-shirt into long strips and tightly wrapped the fabric around the ankle. Throughout the entire process, Noah felt like he was dying. Until then the pain was at least bearable, although painful. But how his foot was killing him. at one point he even doubted whether he would be able to use that foot ever again.

"All done" Ash said, ignoring the dead glare that he was receiving and then stood up with his torso bare shivering at the cold wind on the roof top. Noah decided not to say anything and take the torture as a way the boy used to vent his grief. He didn't want to agitate the boy more than he already was. If he was going to escape someone to watch his back was a must.

He stood up after him and was surprised. Except for a little bit of discomfort, I small stabbing pain, which could be mostly ignored completely and the tightness of the wrap hindering proper blood circulation, he was feeling fine. The brain shattering pain was gone. He could now freely walk and run without help. 'was it really a special massage, or did he have amazing wrapping skills that nullified the pain until it was taken off?' Most probably a bit of both?? He looked down at his foot and he almost spat blood. The cloth was tied too messily, even a 6-year-old child could wrap a bandage better than Ash.

While Noah was relishing in the lack of pain, Ash was walking around the limited space that they had and looking for an opportunity to get out. Zombies were still around them. The only space without Zombies was right behind them where it was a long drop to balcony a few floors below.

Noah also started observing his surroundings when he suddenly heard a shot. Shocked he looked back in the direction where Ash was standing. He had his bare back facing towards him and his gun was pointed towards the ground where they climbed up from. Noah rushed over with his gun out to see what was going on. "Ash?" he asked Ash who had a very grim expression on his face.

Noah followed the direction the gun was pointed and saw the corpse of Mike with a fresh bullet hole in his brain. "Oh!" He sighed. 'of course. Mike turned after he died with all those bites.'

"He wouldn't have wanted to be a monster." Ash said with his voice hoarse. Ash didn't know if he was trying to justify his actions for himself or he didn't want Noah to blame him.

"Yes." Noah agreed quietly.

They stayed in silence for a while paying respect and remembering Mike in all the friendly, fun moments they experienced together. But after a moment they got back to business. There was not much time to waste. Anything could happen the longer they delayed things.

"what do you have on you?" Noah asked looking at the backpack on Ash's shoulder.

"I have no idea. Mike gave it to me right before we climbed the ladder so that he wouldn't have anything weighing him down when he was climbing up." Both of them again fell into silence. Even with the hindrance gone, Mike had still died.

Ash flipped the backpack upside down and all the contents inside spilled onto the floor. It was filled with all the emergency stuff needed when you go on a raid. There was some rope, torch, tape, knife, spare bullets, bottle of water, pliers, lighter and some packets of dry food. Ash looked at all of the contents in surprise. "do you also have all this stuff in your bag?" Ash asked looking at the bag on Noah's shoulder.

"Haha, not all that. Mike was always a careful one. It's because Rhys always forces us to carry them in case of an accident." And good thing they did or now they would have been in a bind.

'How come he didn't tell him about it?' Ash thought with a grim face. Except for the gun and a pocketknife, Ash wasn't given anything else to carry.

Guessing what Ash's thoughts were, Noah said, " since you were the newbie most probably Boss was only planning to let you tag along and always stay in the safety of the car." Ash didn't look convinced. 'Or boss was planning to protect you personally.' Although he didn't say it, the thought flashed through Noah's mind. At least that's the conclusion that Noah reached after hearing the long argument between Rhys and Ash asking him to stay behind with Anne and the kids.

But Ash's mind went in a completely different direction. 'So, he thought I was slow already and didn't want me to drag down the team even further by having a weight to carry. Or maybe he wants me dead??'

With a sulking mood he piled both stuff in Mike's and Noah's back-bags together. There was a lot of rope. And Noah had a big notebook where he wrote down important stuff.

"Alright what to you propose we do?" Ash asked. "We still have a lot of ammo left.

"Well taking the same route down that we came up is impossible. We don't know how many more Zombies are left in the building; we also don't know where the rest of the team is."

Noah reached for the walkie talkie in his backpack and tuned into the right frequency. "Boss?!" He shouted. There was no response. "Keep trying" Ash said as he stood back up and went to observe the one end where there were no zombies. 'All they could do was try to jump down to the 5th floor balcony and hope not to die.

"Noah?" a voice came from the walkie talkie. It sounded heavy with worry. "Where are you? Are you alright? Are you still inside the building? What about Mike and Ash?" the word came flowing through the device without a break.

"Ash and I are alright. Mike...." His sentence trailed off not knowing how to break it. but the silence already confirmed that he understood what had happened.

"He was a good man." Rhys said. "and he will be remembered. But the dead are dead. I want you two to get out of the building as soon as possible. Josh and I are on the way back to get you. Everyone else is waiting at a safe location."

"We are stuck on the rooftop. Surrounded by Zombies. We will think of something, but it will be hard to get out unscratched."

"Keep me updated." Just when they hung up, Rhys remembered that both Noah and Ash were injured. And now that they were stuck on the roof top, the chances of saving them were slim. It was very possible that they were rushing towards their doom. His brows dipped further with worry. Abandoning them is not an option. He just had to hurry and get there. See the situation and act accordingly.

Noah packed the device back into his bag and went to stand next to Ash. "So? We go down?" He asked looking at the balcony a few floors below. Ash nodded. That's the only chance we've got. But we won't know what is waiting for us inside." He looked at Noah "How is your leg? Do you think you can handle this?"

Noah scoffed. "This is child's play. I can do this even with both my legs broken and my eyes closed. But with your arm will you be alright?"

Ash rolled his eyes at the bragging and mocked "Of course, Unlike you I am still young." Both of them looked at each other and grinned.

"Let's do this then." Noah said tying the rope on the bars of the water tank and giving it a sharp pull to make sure that it is in place. "I will go first. You cover me from the top. After its clear you can follow."

Ash nodded. Then it was a flash of movements. Noah jumped down onto the balcony with the help of the rope and right as he landed, he started shooting. Ash watched from above with worry. But soon, Noah gave the 'all clear' and Ash followed him down.

They walked through the broken glass of the balcony and into the apartment. The inhabitants were already shot to death. They lay sprawled across the floor with their brains shot open. Noah quickly went to the front door and looked outside. Meanwhile Ash quickly explored the apartment and stored any dry snacks that he found into the bag and finally put on a new t shirt from the cupboard. It was too big on him that It hang loosely from his body until his lower thigh like a dress. 'Well at least I am not naked.' He thought tucking the long ends into his Jean pants.

"There are a few down the corridor" Noah said coming towards him. Ash nodded as he pulled some large cardboard boxed towards him and started cutting them up.

"What are you doing?"

"Protection" Ash answered and pulled Noah down on the sofa beside him. then he wrapped the cardboard around Noah's arm and taped it into place. He did the same for his own arms. Then he proceeded with the legs and torso. Ash made sure that they could still run and bend their arms freely. Now if a Zombie attacked at least they won't get bitten or scratched that easily. After he was satisfied, he said, "let's go!" and headed towards the door with his gun ready.

They rushed down the corridor. Shooting any Zombie that crossed their pack. Once in a while the crowd would get too much and they would hide out in any open apartments that they could find. Any damage to their 'Armour' would be mended with more tape while they rested. They also took this time to update Rhys of their situation. Rhys said that they were already below the apartment and were starting to make their way up.

The lower the floor the more crowed it was. There were several times when Ash and Noah thought that they were about to die. Without the 'Armour' they would have long been bitten already. Noah was thankful for Ash's foresight. Ash and Noah rounded a corner and saw a flash of a shadow dart towards them. Ash fired with excellent precision; the aim was right at the temple. There was no one who could avoid it now. But just as his shot rang another shot was also heard. As the Zombie fell down to the ground with two bullet holes in its head, right behind it stood two very familiar figures.

Rhys stood there in all his might. He was breathing hard as if they had rushed here at the fastest pace. He was completely drenched in zombie blood and remains. One of his hands held a gun while the other held a dripping bloody knife in a backhanded grip. He looked murderous. He emitted danger and killing intent. He made everyone there take a deep breath in relief.

Finally, all the tension left his body like a river. He felt safe under the watchful dark eyes. Both of them stood there for a moment observing the other. A small smile flashed across Ash's face. He just felt like he wanted to rush over and throw himself at Rhys to make sure he wasn't imagining them. They had been running for so long and now a little bit more and they would be finally free. Rhys saw the weird getup and couldn't help but take another look. As soon as his eyes landed on the boy's face all his fear vanished like smoke. He looked him up and down to make sure that he was uninjured and safe. Then he noticed that the boy was wearing a different t-shirt. One, several sizes too large to boot. The neck fell over one of his shoulders showing very well-defined collar bones. His eyes got fixated on it for a moment before he remembered that they were not out of danger yet. He coughed to clear his thoughts and was about to instruct when Josh beat him to it.

"Follow us. Quick." Josh said noticing that both sides were not showing any signs of moving.

----------

Everyone was finally back together. they all rushed over as soon as the car pulled over where they were stationed to wait. A lot of the members were injured. Although Ash wanted to help them, he was feeling conflicted. His gut kept telling him not to reveal his powers but at the same time his conscience couldn't' agree with him doing nothing. So, he would go around giving everyone quick shots of heal, which helped in pain relief. Everyone thought the nurse, Biyu Chen was very talented and a miracle worker as she had the ability to reduce the pain.

Due to him using his powers so much, he couldn't really focus on his own wound and thus it was still painful and bleeding slightly. Biyu Chen quickly patched him up with some gauze and Ash decided it was necessary to keep up his act. Finally, he went over to the unconscious woman with her lower leg missing. He was not able to heal cut off body parts. So, all he could do was stop the bleeding. When he was healing her secretly, his eyes widened in disbelief. she looked at the sleeping face and frowned. 'she was infected.' Although she had chopped off her leg, maybe she had waited too long to do it, or the virus spreads too fast, either way, her heart was already infected. It was just a matter of time before it reaches her brain.

Like he did with Anne, Ash tried to suck out the virus but maybe his powers were not strong enough or the virus spread was already too far for a cure. It didn't react to his probing at all. All it did was drain his last bit of energy.

"She might be infected" right after he said that, Ash fainted on the spot. Everyone rushed over in panic. They were already restricting the woman under Rhys orders so there wasn't anything else to do, so they found a good place to stay and let everyone catch a very much needed and deserved rest. They held a small gathering to honour Mike's passing. Everyone sang a farewell song together and promised to remember him in their hearts. Then they retired for the long trip awaiting them the next day.

Josh placed Ash on top of the mattress in one of the rooms and frowned at the sleeping boy. 'How can he be so weak. When we get back, I need to put him to some serious work.' He huffed in annoyance and then turned around and left the room. Right after he left another figure entered the bedroom and sat on the bed next to Ash. He slowly raised his hand and softly caressed his cheeks, relishing the softness that his fingertips felt. After a few strokes his hand slid lower and traced the shape of the pair of plumb, pink, soft lips. His eyes filled with different emotions. The ones in the forefront were worry and pain. His other hand slithered up the boy's face and ended up in the tangling mess that was his hair. A long finger twirled around the locks feeling the softness and sighed in content. The thumb on his lips came to a top as the figure seemed to be in a daze. The figure hesitated for a moment before leaning forward but then as if surprised by his actions he withdrew with a start and walked out of the room in a rush.

That night the woman that they spend so much time rescuing, turned. Luckily, she was tied up, so no one got hurt. Rhys took the initiative to shoot the woman. She had cost him Mike. And she was the reason a lot of his men were injured. Not to mention that they got separated. If it hadn't been for her, they would have been already half the way back home. The entire mission had only caused them misfortune. There was no gain at all in their venture.

The next day they hit the road again early. Ash was still out cold. But he woke up while they were on the bumpy road. As soon as they neared their camp, Rhys knew that something was wrong. It had been too quiet throughout their way here. Not a Zombie in sight. But once they drew closer the number of them sprang up at once. He drew to a halt at a distance from Tesco and looked at the scene in shock. The entire place was surrounded by Zombies. Tesco was still holding. But barely. The soldiers left behind were doing their best to fight off them. But they had the advantage of numbers.

"What on earth happened here!" Anne exclaimed from the passenger seat. She looked at the scene in horror and surprise. They were under attack. But how did it come to be. They had made sure to eliminate any nearby treat as soon as possible. Something must have happened.

Ash looked at the horde and almost cried. They just escaped one death experience and now god was throwing them right into another one. He didn't want to believe it. he needed a rest from all this fighting, fear and stress but he was getting none of it. deciding to join this raid was the biggest mistake he did after all. Mike's face was still flashing in front of his eyes. Who would it be this time? Maybe it will be me. or because of me again. Oh no no no. please no. Ash was really having a mental breakdown. The lab suddenly looked much nicer in comparison. At least there, Dr Hawks would ensure that he didn't die. Here there was no such guarantee.

"There is no other choice. We need to help out. Our friends and family are still in there." Josh shouted. He was worried dead about his brothers, so he jumped out of the jeep without hesitation. Seeing his initiation, others soon followed. Anne took control over the jeep while Rhys also stepped out. She passed a gun to Angelica and said, "You still remember the basics I taught you?"

The girl looked horrified, but she nodded her head vigorously.

"Good in order to keep your brother safe you need to do this". She spun the car around. "Don't worry I will drive around you just have to make sure that you don't hit our people."

Noah was also in the jeep as he was worried his leg would be a hindrance since it is wounded. The kid's brother was next to him along with the nurse. Everyone else abandoned the vehicle and rushed forward to fight against these monsters. Although not for long, this place has been their home, and no one likes seeing their home destroyed.

It was a mess after that. Everyone was fighting like they lost their minds. Ash did his best shooting at any Zombie that came too close. When he ran out of bullets, he took out his knife and started stabbing at them. With every passing second, he was filling more and more with dread and fear. 'I am going to die' he thought as saw 4-5 Zombies approaching him all at once. His hands were shaking hard and he hadn't fully recovered from his energy expenditure. He had to do something. If he wanted to live, he need ed to move. The images of Mike flashed before his eyes. The way he slipped from his fingers and how he had been devoured to an almost unrecognisable mess of flesh and bones and how he had turned into a zombie and looked up at Ash with bloodthirsty murderous eyes, how he had shot him because he felt like those eyes were blaming him for letting go of his hand.