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

Chapter Eleven: Zane.

     Zane kept grinning as they left the building and walked down the street. Of course, after Gene had sorted through the boxes of belongings and picked out the most important ones to take with him.
     He couldn't wait to bring Gene back to Aaron and tell him "I told you so" about an argument they had about leaving the base for a while.
     Zane noticed that Travis had been staying particularly close to Gene, and he hoped it wasn't because of the stench of blood coming off of Gene in waves. He wanted to prove to Aphmau that Travis wasn't just a mindless zombie.
     "So, Gene," Aphmau began.
     Gene nervously looked over his shoulder at her. Travis stepped closer to Zane and linked their arms.
     "Who was in your group?"
     "J-just... some friends... a-and my brother..." He sighed quietly.
     "There are a lot of brothers out here," Aphmau said to herself.
     "How do you know your brother is dead?" Zane asked, tilting his head. Aphmau gave him a warning look.
     "H-He left at th-the beginning of t-this m-mess."
     "What was his name?"
     "Dante."
     "Well, there's a chance he's still alive. I ran away when this all started and I found my brother recently."
     Aphmau smacked his arm. She didn't want him to share this much information of their group, but Zane trusted Gene.
     "R-Really? Maybe w-we could look for D-Dante some time when w-we get back to the b-base."
     Zane smiled and nodded. Travis took in a deep breath through his nose and tore his gaze off of Gene.
     Keep it together, Travis...
     A loud bark that echoed off of the buildings ahead of them made all of them jump. Aphmau gasped in pure, unharnessed excitement. Gene looked worried. Travis tightened his grip on Zane's arm.
     "We're so close!" Aphmau squealed.
     "Shh. We don't want the dog to get angry and chase us or get scared and run," Zane muttered. Just in case, he readied his pistol. Travis clutched a knife already.
     "Don't kill the dog!"
     "It's the dog or us, Aphmau.." Travis mumbled. Zane nodded in agreement.
     "There's a l-lot of a-alleys h-here," said Gene nervously. "Lots o-of twists and t-turns."
     "We'll be fine. Unless it's a giant maze."
     "N-no... It's just.. alleys l-lead to alleys and d-d-dead ends."
     Travis let out a dry laugh. "Dead ends. The perfect roads for the apocalypse."
     Zane snickered. Aphmau rubbed her face with both hands. Gene looked like he was fighting back a laugh.
     The bark occurred again, but faded into a low whimper.
     "Is it hurt?" Aphmau gasped. "We need to hurry."
     Zane silently agreed and sped up. Travis clung to his arm and matched his pace, while Aphmau surged ahead of them and Gene strayed slightly behind.
     The town grew darker this way. It was still the city, but it was more tightly packed together and it was very close to nighttime.
    Zane realized that it was also very quiet here, and they could hear every single sound of the town. The flutter of bird wings, their footsteps on the pavement, and the soft scrabbling of claws.
     "We're close!" Aphmau squeaked, then covered her mouth with her hand. Zane shouldered past her and took the lead, silently thanking Travis for letting go of his arm.
     "Okay. Be very quiet and very careful." Zane looked behind him. Travis was next to Aphmau directly behind him, and Gene stood anxiously in the back.
They walked slowly now, moving almost silently down the street. The scrabbling came from an alley to their right, so without a word that's where they went. It grew louder.
Somewhere in the alley, to their left, they was a long alley leading to a dead end. At the very end of it, in the shadows, a dog moved around.
Even though it was a far distance and the shadows covered a lot of its features, Zane decided that it looked like a crossbreed of a dog like a German Shepherd and a big, fluffy dog like a Newfoundland. From how it moved, it looked like one of its front legs was hurt.
"Poor baby.." Aphmau said quietly.
Zane walked very slowly down the alley, motioning for everyone else to wait at the end of it. The dog looked up at him with wide, super light eyes that nearly looked silver. It looked terrified.
"It's alright... I'm not going to hurt you..."
Its eyes focused on his gun, and its pupils shrunk. Zane quickly put his gun away to seem as non-threatening as possible.
"You know..." Gene called from the entrance to the alley. "I almost want to be sorry."
"What do you mean?" Zane asked, looking away from the poor dog.
"You guys seem like nice people. I'm sure you'll find it in yourselves to forgive me for this. That is, if you can think."
"What are you talking about?" Zane stood up straight and looked at him. Gene was standing with a different posture- much more confident.
Gene laughed and made a whistling sound, then sprinted away from the alley. Zane whirled around and the dog- wolf -revealed more of itself from the shadows. Silver eyes. Black fur with a deep blue tint. Broad-shouldered.

Silver eyes suddenly stared into his own and time froze.
White teeth flashed in front of his eyes.

Everything went black.