The Dark Haired Boy/10k [Z Nation]

Part 6- Camping

The night was dragging on and on, and the pale moonight was slowly being swallowed by a giant cloud of green pollution. It added an extra factor of creepy to the already uneasy position we found ourselves in. Alone, in the dark woods, Z's could be anywhere, and a band of cannibals searching for us. However an hour had passed without any sort of distrubance; Sam must have given up for the night.

My pants were soaked and the cold water was seeping into my bones, frezzing me to my core. I needed dry clothes and from the look of him, so did 10k. After digging out a fire pit we gathered some branches, twigs and dry leaves, and soon enough we had a roaring fire!

We still needed to get out of these wet clothes, so we made an agreement to stand on either side of the fire, face away from each other and change.

"No peeking!" I shouted to him as I unzipped my pants. Why did I pick skinny jeans? After what seemed like an eternity I finally got them off and slipped into a dry pair of shorts. I turned around and saw 10k quickly jerk his head away and bend down to dig through his bag for something.

"I said no peeking!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know if you were done or not!"

I shot him a death glare and bent down to retrieve my bag, not breaking eye contact. His cheeks formed bright red and he rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground. I pulled out a jacket spread it out on the ground. I laid down and used my backpack as a pillow so I could still see 10k sitting across from me, the flames bouncing shadows off of his face. We were silent for a bit, after the awkward encounter but I was over it already so I broke the silence.

"So, tell me about your friends" I said, glancing up at him.

"What do you want to know" he replied blankly, avoiding eye contact.

"I don't know, just anything. How many are there? Where they came from, how you all found each other."

"Well, I ran into them about 3 years ago. I was scouting around on the roof of an abandon school when I heard voices. I saved one of them; Doc, from a Z and then they just took me in."

"They sound like good people"

"They really are... There's Warren, she's the leader, a real badass lady" he smiled warmly. "Then there's Atti, she's Warrens right hand woman. She's like an older sister to me really... Then Doc, he's not a real doctor, we just call him that. He's like an ex hippie gone therapist" he chuckled and glanced down, remembering good times with the old man I'm assuming. I didn't want to pry so I left him to his thoughts and waited for him to continue. "Then of course, Murphy." his face went dark, and hatetred filled his eyes. I was shocked, I had yet to see him this angry... He clearly dispised this Murphy guy.

"Are you okay?"

"There used to be more of us.... Cassandra, Mac, and Garnett.. They all died trying to get that piece of shit to the CDC lab... He's the reason they're dead"

He stared at the fire, stoking it with a stick. His eyes glossed over and I could tell he was fighting back tears. Shit, I didn't want to upset him! I just wanted to make friendly conversation.. What do I do? I sat up urgently and glanced around, unsure of my next step. Finally I managed to gather my senses enough to speak.

"Hey, 10k I'm sorry for whoever you've lost... But we've all lost people, that's just the way of the world now, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.. I was just curious" I stopped to examine his facial features, trying to get a sense of what he was feeling. He stopped poking mindlessly at the fire and shifted his gaze to the ground in front of him.

"It's okay, you didn't know.. I can't blame you for asking."

He darted his eyes up to meet mine for a brief second and smiled weakly, reassuring me that he would be okay. Well shit, now I need to lighten the mood... But how?... Oh yeah! My eyes lit up and I jerked around to search through my bag. After a few seconds of digging my fingers wrapped around the cold glass neck of a bottle. I pulled out a bottle of whisky and displayed it to 10k, an open-mouthed smile plastered on my face.