Zanvis: ALIVE. (Part two of Apocalypse AU!)

Chapter Nine: Zane.

     Zane put his hands on his hips, staring across the street. Travis and Aphmau stood on either side of him, looking around. Aphmau seemed on edge, and Travis seemed bored. Aaron, Garroth, and Laurence were inside, keeping watch of the base while the rest of them went out on a scouting mission. They were going to do a quick sweep of the town and poke around in suspicious buildings, as well as start looking for another place to put a backup base that they could go to if there was a disaster.
     "I haven't been out here in a while," Travis mumbled, looking around and taking deep breaths through his nose.
     Zane smiled. "It's better than being cooped up in the sleeping room, isn't it?" Travis responded with a nod.
     Aphmau shifted her pistol in her hands, fidgeting. "What if we find a group of people who have more than we do?"
     "Then we fight," Zane responded simply.
     "What if one of us is injured?"
     "Define injured."
     "Gunshot. Bit. Arm chopped off."
     "We hide or run. Or, if still possible, we fight. We don't want to retreat in our own territory if we can help it."
     "What all is our territory?"
     Zane grinned. "This whole town."
     Travis pulled his gas mask up over his mouth, and Zane kind of wished he could have it back. It was Travis's to begin with, but he liked how it shielded his face from view. Instead of that now, he used a thin face mask that somewhat masked the lower half of his features but not very well. It was also uncomfortable, so he only wore it outside where it was necessary.
     "That's a lot of territory," Travis yawned. Zane had almost forgotten what Travis's voice sounded like through the mask.
     "Not as much as you think. This town isn't even close to the biggest ones out there."
     Aphmau sighed. "Can we just get moving? I don't want to stand around outside of our base and give it away."
     Zane nodded and walked down the sidewalk, the same way he had gone when he found Garroth and Laurence. Aphmau and Travis stuck close to him- Travis much closer than Aphmau.
     "Let me know if you guys see, hear, smell, or feel anything off."
     "What about taste?" Aphmau asked, giggling. "Can we tell you if we taste something strange?"
     Zane tried to resist a smile, but there was no use. "I don't recommend tasting things during the apocalypse."
     "So you're saying I shouldn't lick the ground?"
     "That's a bad choice to make."
     "What about this wall?" She pointed at the old, cracked brick wall of a building they walked past.
     "I don't advise that either."
     "Can I lick the wall?" Travis chimed in.
     Zane laughed. "No! No licking the wall!"
     "I'll just have to settle for some glass shards, then," Travis said, keeping such a straight face that Zane couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.
     "There will be no licking of anything except food from now on," Zane declared."
     He heard Travis fiddling around with his gas mask for a second, then saw him jump forward out of the corner of his eye. He squeaked as Travis licked his cheekbone, then backed away. Zane laughed and covered his mouth to stifle it. Aphmau had an extremely worried expression, and Zane realized she thought Travis was going to bite him. He shook his head at her and beamed at Travis through his small face mask.
     "I said no licking."
     "That—" Travis's head turned suddenly, as if he were listening to something. It was very, very faint, but Zane heard a soft, repetitive noise somewhere across the town. "I hear a dog."
     "A dog?!" Aphmau gasped. "I want it! I want the dog!"
     "Calm down!" Zane put his hands up and turned fully to face both of them. "Do you know how rare it is to find a dog or cat at a time like this?"
     "Really rare! That's why we have to go get it! Aww, what if it's hurt?" Aphmau bounced back and forth between her feet, eager to get going.
     "How about, instead of heading right for the dog, we make our way around this part of town first," he gestured to the city ahead of them, "-and then turn left to go to the dog."
     "Why not get the dog and then go around the town?"
     "It could be a setup. That could be a speaker or something drawing us over there so that someone can attack us while we look for the dog. If we take care of this part of town first, we'll be able to go in from the side."
     She nodded slowly and crossed her arms, as if she understood but didn't like it. Travis was still listening, face turned up to the sky.
     "Okay. We need to get moving again," Zane said after a moment. He walked slowly, pistol ready. Aphmau had hers ready, and Travis held a knife in each hand. He didn't want a gun, because he didn't trust himself with it. He decided he was better with melee weapons anyway.
A silence fell upon them for a few minutes as they were submerged into deep thought. It was Aphmau who spoke first.
     "I wonder what kind it is."
     Zane jumped, then tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
     "I wonder what breed of dog it is."
     Zane sighed heavily and rubbed his face with one hand. "Aphmau—"
      "Do you think it could be infected?"
      Zane turned to Travis now. "What could be infected?"
     "The dog."
     He groaned internally. Apparently, everyone's thoughts were glued to that dog.
     "I don't know. I've only seen birds and bugs, and neither of those... creatures are a good subject to study for that."
     "If humans can be infected, then what does that mean for animals?"
     Aphmau sighed loudly, turning her head away. Zane rolled his eyes. "I suppose it could mean a chance of infection. Aphmau should be the most informed on this topic, seeing as she can heal."
     Aphmau paused, then sped up to catch up with them. Zane stifled a laugh at how short she was.
     "What's that supposed to mean?"
     "You know what I mean."
     She squirmed, fidgeting with her gun. After receiving a sharp glare from Zane, she stopped messing with it and kept her hands far from the trigger.
     "Well... I don't know a lot about the virus... just that.. I can extract it."
     "You can extract it, and you didn't think about doing that before Aaron tried to kill Travis?"
     There was that silence again. That loud, uncomfortable silence that made Zane want to shout in frustration. Travis didn't seem to care about it, and Aphmau was just avoiding Zane's gaze.
      "Come on, guys," Travis said, walking ahead. "We still have ground to cover."