THE WANTED

Summary: He wanted to belong, to fit somewhere in the already destroyed puzzle. But his forgotten past crept in and suffocated him.. This, right here; right now would have to suffice. Chris finds strength in places he never knew existed..

PAIRING: POSSIBLE Chris x Piers. It may also be just a bromance. I have yet to decide.

RATING: M (FOR: Gore, violence, cussing, and few mild suggestive scenes.)

CHAPTER 1

The sun goes down

The stars come out

And all that counts

Is here and now

My universe will never be the same

I'm glad you came

~The Wanted

Corpses breathed a putrid smell, leaking with a mixture of blood and puss. The sky was a pasty grey, the kind of scene you'd wish to roll up and toss away. Screams and inhuman wails plastered the dark pastel night. Uneven steps echoed the burning city, bodies oh god, so many.. It overwhelmed, Chris heard a stagger from behind him and whirled around just in time for his flashlight to catch Piers' shaken form, he was climbing to his feet after tripping over a body. It was easy to tell his mind was elsewhere.. Rattled from the past events any tough man could break. With a frown, The Captain offered a gloved hand to the smaller other.

There was a hesitance written on Piers' face. He clapped his hand into the other's, fitting it unsure before Chris secured the hold and pulled Piers' weak frame up on his feet. Chris swallowed the dry lump in his throat, it was similar to guzzling glass. He turned to walk again, but not before catching Piers limping in the corner of his vision mid turn, he stopped.

"Are you hurt, soldier?" The words were soft, and frightened even himself in the dead of night. Piers placed his right foot on the ground with a grimace, he shook his head.

"I'm fine.." He gathered.

How long had he been limping?..

Chris managed a sigh, approaching the other he guided the younger man to sit on truck's abandoned tire. The task itself seemed a lot more effort exerting than it should be.. It then occurred to Chris as he knelt down in front of Piers that he must have injured himself back at the main city when he had shoved Chris away from a rolling car. Piers had fallen too.. didn't he? That was.. Hours ago.. It explained why Piers was so slow upon dashing towards the alleyway when a hoard of staggering infecting had grounded them.

"You've been hurt all this time?" Chris tried to level his anger in his voice as he took Piers' ankle in his hands. Piers let out a sharp hiss between clenched teeth. It had swelled to the point where it was building up pressure, Chris had to untie his high top steel toe to release some of that pent up pressure. Chris was careful to lift up the male's pantleg to examine the injury. "You could have told me.."

"I.. didn't think it was that bad.." Piers was lying through his teeth, Chris could easily tell. The ankle was obviously swollen.. A dark purple had blossomed in the very center, mixing with scarlet red and fading into a faint pink around the edges. Chris saw Piers suck in a breath along with his lie. "I didn't want to slow us down.."

"Dammit, Piers.. A lot good it's doing us now.." He didn't mean to snap, patience wearing thin, dissolving in his words that had smudged from his lips. This wasn't working.. Piers avoided his stare like the plague itself. Disease riddled and angry was what Chris assumed the youth saw. This was no good.

Being at each other's throats got nowhere, and it was sinkingly obvious.

"You can't walk in this condition." Chris spoke through his teeth after cradling them on his tongue. Piers gave what closely resembled a stubborn huff.

"The hell I can!" He raised his upper frame forward only to stagger, if not for Chris' strong arm that steadied him, he would be eating dirt. He attempted to withdraw, but the shooting pain in his ankle subdued him against the man's bent arm.

"Captain, with all do respect.." Piers mutter came with his sigh of supressed pain. "Fuck you, I can take care of myself.." But despite his words he felt himself being hoisted onto the man's strong back.

Pouches, buckles and uncomfortable equipment gored into him, throwing out a gasp of pain from the wounded soldier, he hissed a curse but deep down held the appreciation that he was off his wounded foot.

"Fall in line, Soldier.." Chris' warning was sharpened by a rough tone. It even made Piers flinch. It was a shower of bullets that spurred Chris forward.. Dropping the subject completely and leaving it behind on the broken road.

J'avo..

The name was brought up by the Serbian word "Davo" which means devil, putting it bluntly. And the name fits the bill almost perfectly. The likeness is uncanny.

Creatures created from walkers infected by the C-Virus in its "Primary" mechanism .. direct administration; its counterpart, therefore, is the 'zombie', created by the virus' secondary mechanisms of airborne contamination. It's a lot of shit mixed with more shit and sprinkled with crap that Chris barely understood. All he knew was this:

Fucker's weren't human.

At a distance, one would easily mistake them for human friendlies.. They walk, operate guns and communicate with one another in their own foreign langauge.. But the smell and the sudden pulsating view of multiple eyes and writhing appendages would beg to differ'. They react.. Evolve upon trauma, mutating them into hideous creatures that adapt to it's surroundings.

And they don't play nice..

Chris staggered across the street, taking cover behind an overturned school bus, the sight coiled up mixed feelings in the pit of his gut.. School bus generally meant children were on that.. God knows where.. The feelings fanned throughout his body, inflaming them in anger. With utmost care, he settled Piers down against the side of the school bus, propping him on the it's yellow surface.

".. C-Captain.." Piers could only get those words out as Chris fished for a clip in his pocket. He heard Piers huff to regain lost breath. "We can't stay here.. And I am slowing you down.."

Chris shook his head fiercely, it was his stubbornness that kept him rooted. It was his strength and Achilles heel all the same.

There was no way in the depths of hell was he going to let these brainless bastards take anything else from him.. Not again. He pulled the clip out of his pouch with clammy fingers and fed it into the slot in his pistol. After it locked in place he waited for the spraying sound of metal hitting metal to spring out of his cover, firing several trigger pulls.

His accuracy saved them once more and the creatures began falling one by one, encasing themselves in a flakey caccoon like state. He lowered his gun to survey the damage delt. It was only a handful of J'avo, thank whatever god was up there. But he only bought time with the little money he had left, enough to jog around the bus and collect Piers.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Piers shouted as he was hoisted off the ground and back onto the man's spine. He almost struggled, but his body tensed, and Chris assumed he decided against it. "You could have gotten killed!"

"This is war, Piers.. People die all the time.." Chris reasoned between clenched teeth. He was chewing on his words, fiercely spitting them out in a manner that suited him best. Kept him in character.

War between what exactly?

It felt more against he and Piers than the damn J'avo. It seemed like behind every turn, Piers questioned his methods. And it was ebbing away at his patients.. fast.

"Then why the fuck didn't you leave me?!" Piers just wasn't giving up, or letting up on the bit so to speak, he kept at it.. Chris had to give him credit for relentlessness. "There are safer ways to win a war, Captain!"

"You just answered your own fucking question.." The words were low in Chris' throat, and it shutted Piers up for a good moment or two. And it felt like Piers was contemplating.. Turning the words inside his head and dissecting them..

suddenly, the younger man felt heavy on his back.. Chris kept sure to the fact he could still carry the wounded soldier back to headquarters where it was remotely safe.

"Thanks.." Piers' gratitude came out in a warm breath against Chris' neck. An involuntary shudder rolled up his frame and settled between his shoulder blades. Chris had to ask.

"For what?" There was a short pause, allowing the question to sink in between them and saturate.

"For not leaving me.."

The sky broke up by the beams of setting sunlight, having the gaps be mended by the sealing dark blue. Despite it all, it was a lovely sight. The sky mending itself while splashing an array of pastel pinks and deep scarlets. The sun played a key part in the color show as well, dipping behind some fallen buildings and a mound of debree and dust.

The base was plastered up sloppily in a haste, but sound. The structures stood up in walls of cement blocks and wired off with barbed wire to fence in the soldiers. They cleared the space of J'avo and other infected before putting up the walls, but inside was where they housed the tents and sheds for the wounded and weary. Like some sort of safe camp. A small slice of heaven in the center of a hell hole city.

Chris had reluctantly left Piers in the care of the nurses to patch up his wounds and went patrolling on the outer part of the wall. He felt like it was his job to make sure the perimeter was safe for his soldiers on the inside. But clicking his light on and off (For amusement purposes) across the landscape became fruitless. Which in this case was a good thing.

However, a snapping twig caught Chris' attention across the broken sidewalk where a few rustling bushes moved. Cautiously, he crept towards the moving thresh, holding his cocked gun in the direction he walked.

He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he got close enough to move the bushes with the tip of his assault rifle. Nothing could prepare him for what was staring up at him with big yellow eyes.

A small grey kitten...

Chris released the breath he realized he'd been holding and found himself hesitantly sinking to one knee. The hair on the kitten's scrawny back rose and it gave a hiss laced in warning. Trying to make itself appear bigger than it really was.

This made Chris smile. What creature could have the audacity to think it could hold it's own against something so much bigger?..

They did it too...

So Chris gave the kitten some credit as he fished for some dried turkey strips in his breast pocket. He pulled the strips from the pouch and laid them onto the floor in front of it. The kitten's steps were frightened, and timid. But it looked more hungry to take the risk, diving for the meat, it chewed frantically.

The sight broke Chris' heart and he reasoned with himself to pick the kitten up. He could feel it's ribs against his palms as it chewed the turkey bits, sniffing for more.

When Chris held the small thing in his hands, it gave a nervous purr and a weak mew. With a decision made, Chris went straight towards the gate that led into the camp.

The campfire breathed it's smoke and lapped at the dark air around the soldiers, bathing them in a comforting warmth. Piers found himself leaning into the flames, only to get scalded by the intense heat. He was quick to withdraw. The pain killers were working and had successfully numbed his swollen ankle but made him feel...loopy.

It was like small tidal waves churning in his stomach, relaxing his muscles and calming his mind into a state of not caring. Piers was considerably a lightweight when it came to drugs and beer.. He stayed away from it as much as possible until he really needed it. Who would of thought such a good act could fuck him up in the end?

It was the sounds of the crunching footsteps behind him that sobered him up a bit. He opened his eyes slowly and tilted his head over his shoulder to see Chris walking towards him. Wait... What was in his hands? It was moving...

When Chris was close enough, his focus fixated on it.. A small grey kitten. And almost immediately, his stoney heart shattered.

"How are you feeling?" The question levitated towards the young man as Chris knelt down next to the wounded other. Almost indistinctly, Piers reached for the small kitten. Noticing the act, Chris laid the wobbly kitten in the youth's lap.

"Where'd you find her..?" Piers had dodged the question with his own, and caught the dumbfounded look on Chris' face. He could easily tell Chris was impressed by the quick judge of gender.

"Outside the wall.. Poor thing must've escaped.. But barely.." There was a warm smile on the man's face, watching Piers hold the cat against him. It was a side Chris never knew Piers actually had. He had dropped his guard only briefly and it welled Chris with so many questions.

Piers watched his Captain kneel down next to him, and tensed.. For whatever reason, his jaw tightened and it was only the weak purr of the kitten that caused him to release said tension.

"What are you gonna name her?"

The question threw Piers off guard, it certainly cooked up a few questions of his own. He spouted the first that weighed on him.

"... You're.. giving her to me..?"

"She can't stay here for long, it's much too dangerous.. But I can see about an escort.." The suggestion sparked a flicker of light gleaming in Piers chocolate brown eyes.

"Smokie.."

"What?"

"Her name.." Piers stroked the tiny kitten's head with a vindication. It was matter of factly the way he held his tone. "Her name will be Smokie.."

"I'll have her checked and shipped by the morning..~" There was a contentness feathered in his gravled tone as he took the mewing kitten from Piers' raised arms.

"Thank you, Captain.."

There you have it, the start of a beautiful bromance. Brings a tear to my eye... Ahem, anyway, updates may be slow with this one, having to multi task and what not. But this is for a special friend of mine, so I promise I'd do it. Until next time, beautiful people!