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

Chapter Twenty-One: Travis.

     "How is she?" Travis asked in a faint whisper.
     Aaron looked up at him, his eyes dull. "She's healing herself."
     "That's good. Keep an eye on her."
     Travis carefully took one of the many rolls of bandages and limped towards Laurence. He was holding Garroth's body close to himself, rocking back and forth with his eyes squeezed shut. Travis felt a pang of sadness at seeing Garroth like that, but said nothing about it.
     "Need anything..?" he asked Laurence in the same quiet voice while waving the bandages lightly.
     Laurence opened his eyes and shook his head once, then buried his face in Garroth's shirt.
     Travis sighed and looked over his shoulder. Zane sat near the edge of the building looking out across the walker horde below them. Minutes before this, Zane had stabbed Zenix in the chest and thrown him over the edge, watching him closely. He had obviously been forcing himself to watch Zenix get ripped limb from limb by the monsters below.
Pushing all of his own pain out of his mind, he approached Zane.
     When he rested his hand on Zane's shoulder, he didn't even flinch or look up at him or anything.
     "Hey.." Travis said, sitting down quietly beside him.
     Zane stared ahead.
     "You doing okay?"
     No response.
     Travis lifted up one of Zane's arms, wishing the pain flaring through his arm would go numb.
     He discovered a gash on his forearm and started wrapping that, deciding to ignore the smaller cuts that would heal themselves overtime. Zane didn't show much of a reaction to anything, but he raised and lowered his arm to help Travis wrap it.
     "Think the sunset will look nice from up here?" Travis murmured.
     Zane sighed.
     "I think it will. We'll be able to see the sky so much better from up here, and we'll get to see the whole sky!"
     He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the entire group, silent in grief.
     Travis hummed a little, forcing the cracks out of his voice. He needed to stay bright and cheerful. Especially when everyone else was quite the opposite of that.
     "Oh, no. You have a big cut on your stomach, don't you?" Travis said. Zane raised his arms a little so that Travis could wrap his stomach easier.
     "One more day.." Zane whispered in the faintest voice.
     "One more day until what?" Travis asked.
     When he didn't get a response, he let out a sigh and tied off the bandage. "That looks good. Anything else need bandaged?"
     Travis looked closely along Zane's shoulders, back, chest, arms, and legs, but didn't see any major injuries like the stomach and arm.
     Travis saw Aaron wrapping his own wounds and decided he could handle himself for a while. From the looks of it, Aaron had wrapped most of Aphmau's, too. Travis took his bandages and walked over to Laurence.
     "Can you look up at me, please?" Travis asked softly.
     Laurence looked up at him in slow motion, pushing his bangs out of his face. A small cut went across his forehead.
     Travis crouched down carefully next to him. "Oh.. you got stabbed in the side? Can you put your arms up, please?"
     Laurence sniffed and raised both of his arms. Travis wrapped the wound as quickly as possible without hurting Laurence and then sat back.
     "Anything else?"
     Laurence shook his head, closing his eyes and grabbing Garroth's hand. "Keep a grip on yourself, okay? Don't let your emotions influence your actions too much," Travis said, gently touching Laurence's shoulder as he stood.
     He made his way back over to Aaron and Aphmau.
     "Need help?" he asked Aaron, the only other person in the group that was keeping it together.
     "No. You do," said Aaron. It wasn't a question.
     Travis sat down slowly. "I think I'm fine. Let's save the bandages.."
     Aaron shook his head. Travis sighed and held out his arm, where most of the injuries were. He guessed that Sasha knew what she was doing when she attacked him.
     Aaron winced. "Your arm doesn't look very good."
     "Of course it doesn't. Sasha-"
     "No, no. The bite looks weird."
     "It's probably just all the blood and stuff from the other cuts," he said stiffly and quickly, wanting to change the subject.
     Aaron went quiet, wrapping Travis' arm almost completely, but leaving room for his elbow to move.
     "The rest are just cuts," Travis said, starting to move away.
     "Your face looks like you got a rock dropped on it."
     Travis pouted. "I can't fix that."
     "Is that from where you got kic-"
     "Yes."
     Aaron looked down at Travis's leg. "That?"
     "What?" He looked at his leg and wrinkled his nose at the long, shallow cut across his thigh. He hadn't realized why exactly he had been limping. Everything felt so numb that he couldn't even tell he was hurt until recently.
     Aaron waited for him to put his leg out and wrapped it quickly. "Is that everything?"
     Travis jumped to his feet. "Yes."
     "Is that everything?" Aaron repeated.
     Travis nodded. "I'm fine!"
     Aaron reached into the bag and pulled out a bottle of pain meds that was almost empty.
     "I'll take these to everyone. How many each?" Travis asked, carefully taking it from him.
     "Two."
     Travis looked down into the bottle. "There are... eight."
     "Eight?" Aaron asked worriedly. "But we need-"
     "Ten, I know."
     "I know what you're going to do and I don't agree with it."
     "I'm fine! I can go without pain meds. I can barely feel this now."
     "You're lying."
      "Aaron."
     "Travis."
     Travis could tell that Aaron wanted to give his own meds to Travis, but that would go against what he was trying to say about the importance of the meds.
    "Just take yours," Travis said, his voice hopefully strong enough to sound stern.
     Zane spoke up without looking at them. "Is Aphmau not healing herself?"
     "She is..." Aaron's tone completely changed.
     "Is she not numbing herself as well?"
     "She is.. I think.."
     "Does she really need meds then?"
     Aaron's eyes showed a brief flash of hostility, then changed to understanding.
     "She can't numb herself forever," Aaron sighed.
     "She doesn't have to. It won't take her forever to heal."
     Aaron blinked slowly and looked at Aphmau, then back up at Travis. "..Okay."
     Travis held out the bottle to him, and Aaron took out two of the little pills before giving it back.
     As he walked away from Aaron, he could feel his eyes on the back of his head.
     "Laurence," Travis said softly. Can you take these two pills?"
     Laurence shakily took the two pills from his hand and threw them in his mouth.
     Travis approached Zane a lot more slowly, making sure to walk up on his left side.
     "That was smart, Zane."
     "No, it was thoughtful. You two were too focused on getting a point across then actually thinking."
     Travis opened and closed his mouth a few times, then gave two pills to Zane.
     Zane said nothing else after taking the two pills and stared down at the streets below. Most walkers were beginning to lose interest.
     When Travis looked at Aaron, he saw that Aaron had been staring at him the whole time.
     Travis stared right back at him as he took the two remaining pills.
     When he looked back at Zane, his face had already gone back to the blank expression it was before, his blue eyes focused on nothing in the distance.