Those Who Survive

Trapped

Nate was left with Oliver so the others could scope the place out. He's really getting tired of being left behind. It's grating on his nerves and making him snippy. Oliver lay sleeping on the bed beside Nate. Trusty knife in hand just in case any unwanted visitors came by. Sure, he was trusted to keep the baby safe, but not trusted enough to clear the place out with the others. Mark has healing injuries, too, even Felix as well, but no Nate is the one who has to stay behind. I'm getting real sick of this. He sighs harshly, wincing lightly as a spike of pain flares across his chest. He ignores this, it's a normal occurrence and will be for awhile longer.

He glances down at the sleeping child, about three weeks old, though Nate's lost count of days a long time ago. It just isn't fair that Oliver has to live without his parents. Honestly it scares Nate, the promise he made to Stephanie to keep her son safe. He's terrified of letting her down, feeding Oliver is so hard right now since they don't have any actual baby food for him. They've made due with what little amount of formula Ken had brought back the day they buried Mary-Jane, but that little supply is already almost gone. 

The baby will die if they can't feed him, and if he dies, Nate doesn't know if he'll be able to live with breaking his promise. He doesn't know if he'll be able to handle losing everyone that he's cared about. Sure, he cares about the other members of the group he's in, but after losing Matt, Nate clung to protecting Stephanie to keep himself going. Then she died, and she forced him to promise to keep Oliver alive, and now he's clung to his best friend's child as a last resort to tell himself his life is still worth living after losing everyone else.

If I fail Oliver, too.. Nate sighs, looking away. He closes his eyes and tries to shut off his thoughts. He has far too much time to think lately, and he can't stand it. His thoughts never change and he hates reliving it all over and over. He doesn't want them to be made true. He doesn't want to be a failure in a world where failure means not only the death of himself, but possibly even the deaths of the people around him. Causing someone else's death, especially of the people he cares about, is his worst nightmare.

...

Once the sun is setting, the door of the apartment opens and Nate quickly enters the living room, shutting the bedroom door behind him, knife in hand. He relaxes as he sees it's just his friends returning from their scavenging. He crosses his arms loosely, "Find anything good?"

He frowns when he realizes Ken isn't with them, "Where's Ken?"

Felix and Jack exchange looks, they both look shaken. Nate's eyes flit to Mark, taking in the careless man's newest wound, seemingly yet another bite on the arm. Nate drops his arms to his sides, his grip on his knife tightening, "What happened out there?"

"The department store below is full of the Infected," Jack speaks up, "They got the jump on us when we opened a door, and Mark threw himself in front of us so we could escape back up the stairs. He got bit, but only once, and.."

He sighs, looking ashamed, "Ken got separated when more burst through a door on this floor, and we ran to get back here as fast as we could. Ken put a security fence gate in front of the stairs to try and block some of the infected, but we don't know if it worked. That's what he was doing when we got separated."

"So.." Nate's eyes narrow, "We're trapped in here with infected on both floors?"

Jack and Felix nod and Mark looks down. Nate continues, "And Ken's been left alone somewhere on this floor, too?"

Again, more nodding. Nate groans softly, "Are we going to go back for him? We're trapped here as is, we can't just leave him to fend for himself, it isn't right."

"We can't risk going back," Felix shakes his head, eyes wide, "There's too many downstairs, and if they get past the barricade, which they might have already done, this floor will be flooded, there's no way we could survive that. Not even Mark would be able to survive that!"

"Keep your voice down," Jack urges as he removes his backpack to claim the remainder of their medical supplies to patch Mark's new wound. Nate continues glaring at them and Felix groans, running a hand through his hair, "We're fucked, we're fucking sitting ducks in here and we have no way out now. We're so fucking fucked it's not even funny."

Felix starts pacing quickly, muttering lowly, wringing his hands together and pulling at his hair in intervals, "Det här är, vi kommer att knulla dö här upp. Slutet av vägen för oss. Jävla helvete, varför slutade det så här?"

Jack sighs, glancing back to Felix with gentle eyes, "Calm down, you're speaking Swedish."

Felix glares at him, "We're fucking dead. That a good enough translation for you?"

"We can't just give up just yet," Mark says softly, "If we think things through, we can get through this."

"In time for the horde to pass?" Felix groans, looking away from them again, "What if they all just decide to stay in town here, huh? What do we do them? We're all going to fucking die, end of the road for us!"

He laughs humorlessly and Jack stares pointedly, "Be quiet, you need to calm down before the infected in the hallway hear you."

"Let them!" Felix laughs, "We're fucking dead anyway!"

Nate storms over and smacks Felix across the face, "You need to get a hold of yourself, you're not use to us this way, got it?"

Felix glares at him, but says nothing. Nate sighs and turns to Jack and Mark, "Please, tell me I'm not the only one that plans to go find Ken? It's not right to leave him alone like this."

"You're not," Mark assures, "But there's still the problem of the infected, and we don't know how many more might be hiding behind closed doors."

"Tell me the layout as far as you know it," Nate replies, "And I'll come up with a quick plan. I don't care who, if anyone, is going with me, but I'm going to get Ken."