"So what Russell, should we just kill these people and take all their stuff?" Nate twirled his gun in the air as the all too familiar words rolled off his lips, an expression of pure insanity spreading across his face, weather the look was faked on his part or not I couldn't tell.

Of course I knew Nate had intentionally brought up the part of my past that I'd shared with him to make fun of it, being a joke in his eyes, but even so I froze up as he said it. Nate's eyes fell back on me and I realized he really expected an answer from me.

"Uhhh.." Nate fired, his shot ringing out through the air, a scream from the old woman and a second shot following.

I jumped in disbelief, staring wide eyed at the blood now pooling out from the old couple's lifeless bodies. I didn't realize when Nate moved across the floor to the other side of the diner.

"Woah, look at all this shit, worth dodging' a couple bullets eh, Russell?" I turned to Nate, sure my face was wrinkled in terror because Nate's eyes softened.

"It's okay Russ, you're my boy now. Every thing's going to be a 'okay."

After another moment Nate turned and walked out the kitchen doors we came from.

"Stay here Russ, I'm gonna go make sure there aren't any of the dead roaming around."

I watched him leave before flopping down on one of the chairs behind me. Dragging my hand down my face, I tried to figure out why I was so upset. I didn't know those people why should I care if they died? Nate picked me up off the side of the road where I probably would have died otherwise, he saved my life. The only thing these people ever did was try to put a bullet in my head. So why do I care so much?

I shook my head and stood up, deciding to look for supplies and such while I waited for Nate to get back. It was another five minutes or so before he walked back in. He was holding what looked to be some kind of tool for a car.

"You're all good now Russ? Hate to see you crying like a pussy." He smirked.

My eyes narrowed.

"I wasn't crying, and it ain't cool that you were making fun of what I've seen. You don't do something like that man." Nate pated my shoulder a few times playfully.

"Sorry sorry, let's move on from that, agreed? I'll never do it again if you stop being pissed at me." My eyes scanned over his face a moment before saying,

"Fine."

"Good." My eyes fell back down to what he was holding.

"What's that?" I nodded to it with my chin.

"Oh this?" Nate held it up to about eye height.

"Found it while I was looking around, we need it to replace the tires that ass hole shot out, luckily there's plenty of good cars around. We can take the tires off of some in the morning."

"The morning?!" my eyes instantly darted back to the dead couple by the window, Nate's eyes followed mine.

"Oh right. We should probably take care of those." He walked towards the pair, setting his tool down on one of the tables he passed.

"Come here, Russ and give me a hand." I hesitated a moment before walking over.

With a bit of effort, we managed to move the bodies and dumped them a ways off from the building. As much of a pain as It was to drag them so far, I knew Nate was probably right when he said they would attract the dead, and we really didn't need walkers around the already defenseless dinner we would be sleeping in tonight.

I walked around the kitchen rooting through drawers and shelves, pulling out anything that could be useful to us that I hadn't gotten to earlier. I found a towel in one of the drawers and wiped my hands off with it. Even though there wasn't really anything on them, it still make me feel cleaner rubbing the cloth over my skin.

"Nate!" I called.

"I got most everything out of the drawers."

"Great." I jumped as Nate literally popped his head in the room.

"Come here, I found a place we can sleep." Nate waited for me to catch up before walking again.

He lead me to a room in the center of the dinner that was filled with shelves which at one time must have held boxes of food, plates and cleaning supplies for the dinner. On the back was a metal door to what looked to be a freezer. Lying in the middle of the room was an old mattress with a thin sheet for covers.

"Looks like this was where they slept." Nate moved forward and sat on the edge of the mattress and began unlacing his boots. I stared at him for a second, not saying anything until he brought his gaze up and meant mine.

"What?"

"Are you saying we're sleeping in the same bed?"

"Yeah why not?" Nate smirked and stood up, walking over to me. Putting his hand on my shoulder he gave it a soft squeeze.

"Come on Russ I can't let my boy sleep on the cold floor now can I? That wouldn't be right." I felt his grip tighten on my shoulder as he pulled me down towards the mattress.

"Better get some shut eye. Gonna be a long day tomorrow if you don't, and I sure as hell ain't watching your sorry ass stumble around all day just because you didn't sleep." He pushed me down so I was sitting on the corner of the bed. I looked up at him, a little nervous of what he might do.

"Nate I-I…" I started, but I didn't really have anything to say. He smiled down at me before moving back over to his side of the bed.

"What are you afraid of the boogey man Russ? Just shut up and go to sleep."