The Last of Us (Laurinah)

summer: part 3

"You've been bitten!"

Lauren quickly pried the gun out of Austin's hand and aimed it at Dinah. She mentally cursed herself for being so careless. How had she missed Dinah being bitten? She was usually so thorough on situations like last night, the fact she willingly let a stranger stay the night with her, without checking for any sort of bitemarks angered her.

"I was!" The blonde replied immediately, her hand going to her sleeve to pull it further up, revealing the bitemark more clearly to Lauren.

"You were? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" What she'd seen was enough to convince her Dinah was infected. It was a bitemark for fuck's sake!

Frustrated, Dinah lifted her arm higher. If Lauren wasn't holding her at gunpoint, she would have shoved her entire goddamn arm in her face, "Look at it!"

Lauren's eyes hesitantly drifted to the bitemark. It was then that she noticed the difference between what Dinah's bitemark looked like compared to someone who was freshly bitten.

"I was bitten three weeks ago, Lauren. That's three weeks. Think about it! How long does it take for someone to turn?"

Lauren didn't need to think about the answer to that, "Forty-eight hours." She said, disbelief in her voice. Since the plague started nearly twenty years ago, it was always common knowledge it took an individual to turn after forty-eight hours. Not three weeks. And when Lauren finally realized this, she couldn't believe it, "Holy shit."

Was this girl immune? Her mind was swimming with possible thoughts and conclusions. How was that possible? Was it even possible?

"Is that why your group was heading to the quarantine zone to see JoJo?" She asked, finally lowering the gun.

Yeah..." Dinah trailed off. She glanced briefly at the gun Lauren held before she looked up at her, "It was the reason why we were on our way to the quarantine zone. They were supposed to make arrangements with her, find a way to get me to the Fireflies to find a cure."

This was a lot for Lauren to take in, she didn't even know where to begin. To what could possibly be the cure to the infection, only stood mere inches away from her. Secondly, that cure was Dinah. Dinah Jane. The blonde she almost shot the fuck out of.

"Sorry for almost killing you." Lauren blurted out, a hint of guilt laced in her voice.

Dinah cracked a smile at the brunette, "No big deal." She waved her hand as if she wasn't literally seconds away from getting her head blown off by Lauren. "I knew you weren't gonna kill me anyway." She joked lightly.

"Well, you can't kill beauty anyway."

Shit.

Lauren let the words slip out of her mouth without even thinking. Did she really just say that? Not only was embarrassing, but it was also slightly morbid? She could feel the heat in her cheeks rise while Dinah quirked up an eyebrow at her, "Oh god. I didn't mean for that to come out."

She wanted to slip away, but Dinah's enticing smile kept her rooted in her spot, "We're just gonna ignore that comment and pretend it never happened." She continued, completely flustered at how much of an embarrassing idiot she was, "Let's uh," She cleared her throat, "get back on track."

Dinah opened her mouth to say something, but the blonde quickly shut it, realizing If she said a word to Lauren, she'd probably embarrass her further and seeing just how flustered she got after her comment, Dinah didn't want to push her embarrassment level any further.

Lauren turned her back on Dinah, mouthing a "what the fuck" to herself before she stepped over to Austin's body. Squatting, she dug around in his pockets, pulling out a few personal effects. Nothing that could be of use. The only valuable thing he carried were a few bullets, and knowing how limited they were with them, she stuffed them into her pocket.