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

Chapter Eighteen: Zane.

As much as he would have enjoyed staying with Travis, he didn't think he could take watching him mindlessly devour a raw squirrel whole. Of course he chewed it and didn't swallow the whole squirrel in one bite, but the sounds of the squirrel's bones cracking almost made Zane want to throw up.
Zane had gone outside with Aaron, Don, and Garroth- Aphmau, Laurence, and Travis remained inside. They cooked the squirrel with the little fire as quickly as they could, luckily not making a lot of smoke. There was still enough smoke to be worrying, so they had to be as quick as possible.
They were just finishing up their cooking when Don started growing increasingly nervous and fidgety. At first, Zane didn't think anything of it, but it slowly started making him anxious.
"Is there a problem?" he asked, looking up from the fire.
"The smoke," she answered simply, wide eyes aimed up at the sky.
"What about the smoke?"
"I feel like it's drawing unwanted attention."
Zane couldn't tell if she was hinting at something or if she was just being generally anxious about it. "I know that it is. Anyone around here can see it."
"Then why are we still cooking? You guys have survived this long on fruit, why not just feed the squirrel to the dead-looking guy in there?"
Zane inhaled sharply. "I don't know where you got this sudden confidence, but I would appreciate it if you did not insult anyone in this group, especially the 'dead-looking guy in there.' You have no place to do that."
Don blinked a few times, then looked at the ground.
     "We can go back in now. I can't say I've ever cooked a squirrel before, but it looks done," Aaron said as he stood up.
     "How do we take it inside?" Garroth asked.
     Aaron shrugged. "We're going to be eating it, aren't we? It won't matter if we just carry it."
     Don slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out a glove. She put it over one of her hands and picked up the squirrel, closing her eyes tightly.
     "..That works too. Thanks, Don," Zane said, walking to the door and opening it. Don quickly shuffled towards him, holding the squirrel out as far away as her arm could reach.
     While they went inside, Garroth used one of their empty water bottles to collect some of a disgusting puddle on the side of the road. He wrinkled his nose and dumped it on the fire. It made a gross sizzling noise and went out, causing more smoke that seemed to go away faster.
     He tried to take the empty bottle in, but Zane took it from him and threw it down the gap between the two buildings.
     "We aren't taking that bottle back," Zane said, his voice almost a laugh.
     "I dunno what you're talking about, Zane. Seems pretty safe to me," Garroth replied, grinning.
     "Go ahead and take it back. Maybe use it to sample some of that water. If you grow an extra head and seven more limbs, don't come crying to me."
     "I'd be so strong. Seven extra limbs! We wouldn't need a base. I would just have to stand by you guys and wave all of my arms around. Nothing would be able to come close to us!"
     Zane laughed. "I think I would be too intimidated to walk near you."
     "Good."
     Still laughing, they walked inside and closed the door behind them. Aphmau was gently guiding a blood-covered Travis back to the bedroom with a worried expression. Aaron made a face at the blood on the table, placing the cooked squirrel on the opposite end of it.
     When Zane started after Travis, Aphmau stared at him and frantically shook her head. "No, no, no," she mouthed.
     He stopped walking. What was she doing?
     Looking instead at the table, he watched Aaron sit down and pick up one of the knives they used specifically for food.
     He waited until Aphmau came back a few minutes later so that everyone- besides Travis- was in the room.
     Zane walked quickly over to her. "What's wrong with him? Why did you take him in there?"
     "He got the weird look on his face that he did when he smelled blood on Gene."
     "So you made him stay in there?!"
     "No, no! He was falling asleep sitting up. He needed to rest."
     Zane stared at the door.
     "He's fine, Zane."
     He took in deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Okay."
     Aaron looked at all of them. "So there's... Zane, Aphmau, Don, Garroth, Laurence, and myself."
     Laurence shook his head. "No thanks."
     "What? Why? It isn't infected," Aaron said.
     "I don't... uh.."
     "I don't think he eats meat," Garroth said with a little laugh.
     Don nodded. "I don't either."
     "Wow. Two vegetarians," Aphmau said, blinking.
     "One vegetarian," Don said. "One vegan."
     Aaron rubbed his face slowly. "Alright. Okay! So now there's just Zane, Garroth, Aph, and myself."
     Aphmau sat across from Aaron, giving little glances towards the mess on the table. Zane grabbed one of the very many rags from the supply room and dumped a little bit of water on it, using it to carefully clean off the table without getting any blood on his hands.
     When he was finished cleaning, he dropped it in the corner with everything else that needed washed.
     When he got back to the table, Aaron already had a bunch of the meat from the squirrel divided into four piles on the table.
     "That's probably enough, Aaron. We can finish the rest later," Zane said. Aaron nodded.
     Garroth stood up and got some of it, and stayed away from Laurence while he ate it. Don sat beside Laurence, which very obviously put him on edge.
     The rest of them ate their portions, and Zane was happy for a little bit of a change. Eating fruits and things from cans every day was good for surviving, but he got tired of it quickly.
     Once they were done, Aaron used a few paper towels to wrap up what remained of the squirrel. He took it into the supply room and put it on an open shelf, probably so that Don and Laurence wouldn't have to stare at it.
     Garroth walked back over to Laurence and sat beside him on the floor, putting his arm around his shoulders. Don scooted in the opposite direction.
     "We need to go on another outage soon," Zane said.
     "You guys just came back from one, and you brought back another person!" Aphmau said, tilting her head.
     "And that's why we need to go back out. Sure, we're still stocked up pretty well on things, but with another mouth to feed, it'll run out more quickly."
     She thought about that, then nodded slowly. "I guess you're right."
     When she turned to talk to Aaron, Zane sat down on the floor next to the window. Don looked at Garroth and Laurence, then stood up and carefully approached Zane.
     "Need something?" he asked, his tone suspicious.
     "Uh, no.." She sat down next to the bedroom door instead. He saw her repeatedly glance in his direction and turned his head.
     Something that sounded like a bicycle skidding down the road went past the window. He jumped to his feet and looked outside, seeing nothing. If it was actually a bike, it wouldn't be gone so quickly. Unless whoever was on it was peddling for their lives, in which case they didn't have anything to worry about. Someone running away from something wouldn't try to raid anyone.
     But then, what were they running from?