𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙤𝙧𝙚 ━━ Chris Manawa

The Neighbors

The infected Susan Tran is reaching through the fence, swinging her arms in an attempt to reach them. Rylee figures that she was what Alicia was running away from.

"What's wrong with Su-su?"

Susan continues to growl at them through the fence. "Susan? Oh my God," Madison says, walking closer to the fence to try and get a closer look.

"She's sick," Liza says, leaning around Madison to take a look at the infected woman.

"Was she bit?" Travis inches closer to get a better look.

"What are you talking about?" Rylee asks, but Nick cuts off anyone's response to her.

"She's not sick, she's dead."

Everyone goes silent at that, and Travis looks over to a nauseous looking Alicia.

"Well that's, that's not Matt. He's-he's not like that," Alicia tries to reason with herself, but rushes to her mother after a second, "Mom, Matt's not like that! That's not him!"

"Why would you say that?" Travis turns to glare at Nick.

"Because it's the truth," Nick shrugs, looking far from apologetic. Alicia is desperately clinging to Madison. She's not crying, but Rylee can tell even in the dim moonlight that her eyes are watery. Rylee feels helpless, and at that moment she wishes that she was more like her cousin, able to comfort articulate her words in a way that didn't come off as snarky or sarcastic.

//

The bathroom is dimly lit by the flashlight laying on the counter. Chris is examining his nose in the mirror when Emma steps into the bathroom behind him. They catch each other's eye in the mirror, and Emma grimaces when she sees the bruises forming on his nose. "It's not as bad as it looks."

Emma snorts, "Alright tough guy. Take a seat," Emma gestures to the toilet for Chris to sit on. She turns on the tap to run a hand towel under the water. Chris watches her, his hands gripping the fabric over his knees as he tries to hide how much pain he's in. Emma wrings out the towel and turns off the tap, then steps between Chris' spread legs, "Look up."

They sit in silence as Emma cleans his face, her left hand cupping his jaw as the other one whips up the blood.

"There, good as new," Emma says, swiping her thumb next to his nose, "It doesn't look broken, but I've been wrong before."

Emma tossed the stained towel into the sink to free her other hand. She cupped Chris' face and tilted his face around to try to see it better. Chris watched her examining him with a small smile on his face, hesitating just a moment before reaching out to her. Emma flinched when she felt Chris' hands lightly wrap around her legs, hands settling just above the back of her knees.

"Sorry," he whispered, but didn't move his hands away.

"It's fine, just tickled." Chris' smile morphed into a smirk, but just as his hands drifted down to the backs of her knees, the door started to open. Chris dropped his hands to rest his knees, but Emma didn't move away like he thought she would. Instead, she continues to examine his nose, running her finger over the bridge of it lightly.

"I cleaned him up, but I can't tell if it's broken or not," Emma said when Travis was fully in the room. She tried to ignore his questioning gaze, but the heat in her cheeks gives away her embarrassment.

Travis snickered at the looks on their faces, but moved closer to his son to examine his face. Emma steps out of the way, scooting behind Travis so that she was out of his way. Travis pressed around his nose, turning his head left and right to get a better look at it in the poor lighting in the bathroom. When he seemed satisfied, he pulled away. "It's not broken," Travis said just as the power flickers back on, lighting up the dark bathroom. He grabs the flashlight and turns it off as he goes to exit the room.