"Are you bit?" The other spoke, he looked unnecessarily worried for Sal. Why had he even bothered with helping Sal, he was a stranger and if he was bitten the other would have just wasted bullets and attracted the monsters. "I need you to tell me, dude."

"Oh, no! I'm not." Sal smiled, but realized the other couldn't see. He suddenly became overly aware of his appearance, his prosthetic broken and cracked, exposing scarred skin. He had lost his glass eye a while back, but it was luckily the eye that was still covered in shadow by the prosthetic, so the other probably couldn't tell. His hair was a mess, curly, overgrown and everywhere, with most down but some still pulled in one pitiful looking pigtail. His clothing was worn and old, he probably looked tired and sick as well.

Larry seemed to be focusing on Sal's ear, staring for a moment before reaching out and grabbing at it. "What's this?" He ran his thumb over a chunk missing from the top of the ear, an injury Sal had obtained with the rest, years before the story of the first monster.

"That's not a bite, well, I-it's... a dog did it, a long time ago." Sal was acting like an idiot, he was nervous, he probably looked so weak. "I-I'm Sal Fisher."

"Larry Johnson." The boy stood, reaching a hand down for Sal to grab, which he did: he was pulled to his feet rather quickly, stumbling to keep balance. It was then he noticed how much taller the other was, maybe Sal was just short, he couldn't really remember how he'd compared to others. Larry seemed to look him over, he probably didn't believe that Sal hadn't been bitten. "How old are you, Sal?"

"Um... I think I'm about 16 now... Who was that other person? T-Travis, was it? Where'd he go?" No one else was nearby, but multiple sets of footprints lay in the snow.

"Probably running to his dad, the fucking prick." The brunette rolled his eyes, looking more frustrated. It probably wasn't a good idea to stick around an unknown, frustrated teenager, but at least Sal knew he wasn't the one causing the frustration. "Don't say or do anything stupid, okay? Really, don't say anything unless they ask you, I'll talk to them. Okay?"

"Why?"

"What? Because they're strict and if—"

"No, like, why do you care?" Sal nervously looked up to make eye contact with the other, genuinely confused why the other even saved him in the first place.

"You're just a kid and you're alone. I'm just doing what's right." The taller boy shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing around before turning to walk the way he came. "Follow me, and try to make yourself look less insane."

Sal reached up and tugged his remaining hair tie out, letting all his hair fall down on his shoulders. He shook his head, making himself dizzy, before running his fingers through his hair like a brush. "I'm not a kid, you can't be that much older than me." As he pulled his hair back a coughing fit took over, he'd almost forgotten about his illness with all this 'excitement.' He had to stop, covering his mouth with his arm but doing little to muffle the noise.

Larry stopped and turned back towards the boy and, with a sigh, reached over to touch the bit of Sal's forehead that wasn't covered by the prosthetic. Sal couldn't help the blush that formed on his cheeks, thankful that the prosthetic should have covered most of it. "You're burning up, dude." He spoke flatly, looking Sal up and down again. The smaller had stopped coughing, but looked like he would start again in a second.

Larry grabbed the hair tie from the other, tightly pulling his blue hair back into a ponytail. "Use that to try and look pitiful. Though they might not want to take in someone sick..."

"But, like, why... Who says I wanna join your group at all?" Sal stepped away with a slightly defensive look, breaking off into another bout of coughing.

"Is this the girl you wasted ammo for?" Another voice sounded in the direction Larry had been bringing him, Sal looked up to see a tall blonde man next to a teenage boy. Maybe Sal was just unusually short.

Sal tried not to look scared as he made eye contact with the adult, his eyes seemed to burn into his own. This man was fucking scary. "I'm not a girl." Was all he mumbled out, his eyes shooting down to stare at his torn up shoes. He heard the man scoff somewhat.

"The fuck's that thing on your face? Take it off." The man stepped forward so he was right in front of Sal, why did he even have to deal with this dude, he could just walk off, right?

His eyes locked onto the large gun the man carried, slung onto his back. How many guns did this group have? Did they really need that many?

"I'd rather not, it's a prosthetic." He once again made eye contact with the man, bad idea, he looked ten times more annoyed, it was frightening. Sal looked over at Larry, briefly catching his eye. The other just made a motion, as if trying to say to just 'take the damn thing off.' "I don't really like people seeing." He mumbled this and he saw Larry sigh.

"Would you rather I just shoot you in the head, then? Because if you don't take the thing off, I'm gonna assume you're bit." The man crossed his arms as he spoke, a hand grabbing the strap of his gun.

Sal shook his head quickly, locking eyes with Larry one more time before reaching behind his head to the prosthetic's strap, which he was surprised even still worked as it was intended anymore. Larry seemed to understand Sal's look and averted his eyes, if the other didn't want him to see he'd respect that.

Sal slowly pulled the tattered piece of plastic down, revealing the scarred mess that was his face. He knew he looked disgusting, he had kept the prosthetic through all of this because he couldn't stop thinking he looked like one of the rotting monsters.

"Jesus!" The other, unknown teenager jumped back slightly at the sight, exclaiming as he did. This earned a stern look from the man and the boy immediately looked apologetic.

He blonde looked over Sal's face, crinkling his nose before stepping back with the wave of his hand. "Put the fucking thing back on." He turned away and walked back the way he came as Sal strapped his prosthetic back on with shaking hands. The man motioned for the blonde teen and Larry to follow him. Larry grabbed Sal's arm and pulled him along and Sal didn't feel like protesting.