ZOMGWTFBBQ! 2 (Or 3) months have passed since I last updated this? F-ing school getting in the way of everything. But since co-author and I have free time, here's Ch. 3!
And Bill is, in fact, alive in this story even though the story takes place after The Passing. His death is a lie. Like the cake. (Or I WISH it was…)
Edit: Just a head's up, but this chapter is going to be split into two POVs. The first one is going to be Bill's, and then it's going to be Luigi's. Also, if you're wondering about why the Survivors are freezing their asses off it's winter time in this story, so I'm going to say late November, early December. And since the Survivors did just have a swim they're going to be stuttering a lot, so I hope you guys are okay with that. Lastly, there are going to be parts in this chapter where it's bolded, and that's because this is indicating when Luigi is writing in a journal Medic gives him since his throat is temporarily messed up.
Chapter 3
"Noooooooooooo! My foooooooooood!" Sabella cried dramatically, down on her knees by the river with her hands ruffling her hair. "My precious foooooood!"
The other Survivors stared at their overdramatic comrade for a little bit before averting their gaze. Ahead of them stretched a desert landscape for as far as the eye could see. Bill even swore he saw a tumbleweed roll by. A silence hung over them while the group of six pondered on what to do next. Finally, Zoey spoke up.
"W-Why d-didn't w-we g-go t-to t-the F-Florida K-Keys a-again?"
"B-Because F-Francis d-doesn't k-know h-how t-to m-move a-a b-boat." Louis answered, hugging himself tightly.
"H-Hey!" Francis snapped.
"E-Enough!" Bill raised his voice above theirs. "L-Let's g-get a-a m-move o-on b-before h-hypothermia m-makes u-us k-kick t-the b-bucket."
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. They didn't even take two steps into the new area when an angry shout stopped them.
"Hands in the air Carriers!" The voice of a soldier.
"C-Can't w-we g-get a-a b-break f-for f-fucking o-once?" Francis grumbled, raising his hands with the others and turning around.
Bill narrowed his eyes. "W-What t-the h-hell d-do y-you b-bastards w-want? W-We're n-not h-hurting a-anyone." He silently cursed his shaky voice, but it couldn't be helped.
Each of the soldiers were wearing scavenged gear as well as gas masks, the same attire as the ones back at Millhaven. What those soldiers hadn't been wearing was an emblem, a blue rectangle with a wrench inside and the letters B. L. U.
One of the soldiers, presumably the leader, snorted and advanced. "Liar. You've been running around spreading this goddamn flu. You Carriers are worse than the damn zombies!"
"I-If t-that's t-the c-case t-then l-let u-us g-go. W-We're n-not g-going a-anywhere n-near t-the n-non-immune." Bill responded, trying to make his voice sound as calm as possible.
The leader simply laughed and drew even nearer. "You don't fool us. You might have screwed over the outpost, but we ain't making that mistake. Besides, CEDA's got rewards for Carriers. They figure they can use you creeps for a cure or something, and I'm not turning down a cold one when I can get it."
He suddenly struck out before Bill could react, smashing his gun against the older man's face. The other soldiers followed suit, descending upon the Survivors viciously. Francis managed to land a few blows before getting knocked out. Truly the man had no luck when it came to the military. Bill could only watch helplessly as the others were easily overwhelmed, with no weapons to defend themselves and weakened because of their fight with the Horde and swim across the river. Sabella was struggling violently against the soldier who had apprehended her while snarling at him to "Get your fucking hands off me!" Louis had pushed Zoey behind him protectively and Luigi was crouched on the ground hugging Tycho close to his chest while being held at gunpoint.
Bill vainly struggled against the lead soldier, but couldn't shake him off. Help them, don't just lay there! You already failed William are you going to fail them too? You really are a useless old bastard.
Bang!
The soldier pointing his gun at Luigi suddenly stiffened, a grunt escaping him as he dropped to the ground dead, a freshly-made bullet hole now in his head. Everyone stared at the corpse in shock before Bill looked around in confusion; none of his fellow Survivors had fired the shot. The soldiers were just as confused if not panicking.
"Who the hell just shot?" one of them demanded and swung his gun around while keeping his grip on Sabella, the young woman grimacing but too tired to struggle some more. He too became victim to the unknown attacker.
These soldiers are really incompetent. Bill thought to himself. You'd think they would at least try to find cover?
Soldier after soldier fell, each shot perfectly in the head and not a single off target. Soon all that was left was the leader. He seemed to be in utter panic.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" he demanded, pointing his gun down at Bill. "I'll kill him if you don't—" He was cut off when a baseball abruptly struck him in the head, dazing him.
"Nice catch, chucklenuts! Now catch dis!" a voice shouted clearly with a Boston accent, belonging to a wiry man with a bat in hand, practically flying over to the dazed man and smashing the bat into his head, sending him to the ground out cold.
The Survivors merely stared at the newcomer, blinking with awe, before swiveling their attention down toward Francis when a groan left the biker's mouth as he came back to consciousness. Luigi crawled over to help steady him when Francis slowly sat up, a hand on his head. Tycho pawed at the man's leg with a worried whimper.
"I-I'm f-fine," Francis reassured them when he saw their anxious expressions. "H-Honestly."
"B-Bill?" Louis questioned.
He nodded, getting to his feet. "D-Don't w-worry a-about m-me. W-What a-about y-you?"
"W-We're f-fine, r-right, Z-Zoey?" Louis glanced over at said college student who nodded with agreement.
"I-I'm okay too," Sabella announced.
Luigi didn't say anything, and gave them a thumbs-up instead.
Turning back to the newcomer, Bill tipped his beret to him.
"T-Thanks. W-We o-owe y-you o-one." he said gratefully.
The young man chuckled, resting the bat on his shoulder. "Hey, don't mention it. My pleasure ta beat dose BLU-tards any day."
"Sorry to say mate, but you only knocked out that one." spoke another voice.
A tall and lean man walked up to join them. He sported aviators, a leather hat decorated with teeth, and a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder. Judging from the accent in his voice, he was Australian. The Survivors then noticed that both men were wearing red.
"Psh. Whatevah." the other one retorted, rolling his eyes. "Speakin' of, ya think Soldier's gonna want ta grill this chump?"
His companion only nodded, prompting the Bostonian to drag away the dizzy assailant. Zoey watched them go before piping up.
"W-Well, i-if i-it's n-not I-Infected t-trying t-to k-kill u-us i-it's f-freezing t-to d-death, a-and i-if i-it's n-not t-that t-then i-it's t-the m-military." she stated. "A-And F-Francis, h-haven't y-you l-learned e-enough b-back a-at M-Millhaven?"
The biker held his chin up defiantly. "W-Whatever."
The Australian grimaced when he saw the state they were in. "You guys look pretty roughed up. We got some medical supplies to spare if you'd like."
Bill perked up at this. "F-First-aid?" he echoed. "W-We n-need t-that m-more t-than y-you c-can b-believe."
"A-And s-some w-warm b-blankets a-and h-hot c-cocoa…" Sabella paused. "W-With m-marshmallows i-in i-it." Another pause. "P-Please."
The man chuckled, beginning to walk off and motioning for them to follow. "I'll see what I can do."
The Survivors exchanged glances, the question of if they could fully trust the two men went unspoken. Finally, Bill headed off after him. What other choice did they have? They had no idea where they were and if they didn't find some kind of help soon they would surely succumb to hypothermia. Francis was soon behind him carrying Zoey piggy-back style with the others following. Louis insisted he'd manage, but they could see how badly he was limping. Luckily, all that stood between him and first-aid was a hill. Irony was a bitch sometimes. The sniper wielding man fell back and helped the former business man along.
Maybe their luck was finally looking up?
"Maggot! You will answer my question!"
"Fuck you, Carrier!"
As the group approached a truck, a rather heated argument reached them. The Australian let out an exhausted groan.
"Dammit, should've said no." he muttered to himself before addressing the Survivors. "Just ignore it if you can."
The source of the shouting belonged to the military leader and a man with an army helmet covering his eyes and grenades strapped to his jacket. The helmet-wearing man started shouting again.
"Listen, twinkle-toes! You will comply with me! This is your last chance!" He grabbed the leader, yanking him up to eye level. "Where—?" He stopped when the leader brought his knee into his chest, freeing himself. Scrambling away, he flipped the bird back at the group and laughed. "You goddamn spineless maggot!"
Furious, the man suddenly had a rocket launcher on his shoulder. The trigger was pulled, a rocket bursting out of the gun and right at the escapee. The leader only had time to glance back before the explosive met its mark, a bloody mess the only thing left.
A whistle escaped Francis' lips, part of him seriously impressed and the other part freaking out. "D-Damn."
"D-Did y-you s-see t-that?" Sabella whispered to Louis.
"H-Holy s-shit!" the business man breathed.
Both Luigi and Tycho tipped their heads to one side, their eyes wide.
"Wish we had one of 'em whenever there was a Tank." Bill muttered.
"I hear that!" Zoey agreed.
"It certainly helps against those bastards." the helmet-wearing man noted. He seemed to have calmed down a bit, although his tone was still pretty loud. He then snapped to attention, saluting. "Soldier, Scout, and Sniper of the RED team at your service."
The mentioned REDs both gave their own salutes as well. This earned raised eyebrows from the group of six.
"U-Uhh… I-I'm B-Bill," The war veteran gestured to his companions beside him. "T-This i-is F-Francis, L-Louis, L-Luigi, S-Sabella, a-and Z-Zoey. W-We're t-the… S-Survivor t-team."
Soldier snorted. "RED's an anagram, stands for Reliable Excavation Demolition. We're mercenaries… Were mercenaries." he trailed off, looking away. "Anyway, I'm guessing you're all in need of some supplies?"
"Y-Yes, w-we a-are." Bill said. "I-If y-you c-can s-spare t-them t-that i-is."
The mercenary nodded, heading to the back of the truck to retrieve the supplies. Luigi wandered toward Sniper and gazed up at him through round bright blue eyes.
"Are…" He grimaced, rubbing at his throat. "A-Australian?"
"That I am, mate." Sniper responded, tipping his hat. "I am one hundred percent Aussie."
A huge smile adorned the teenager's face, his eyes shining. "C-Cool!"
Sniper then frowned. He swept his gaze over the Survivors, taking in account their numerous injuries and freezing state. "Soldier," he called over to the man. "I don't think just giving them supplies is gonna cut it."
Scout hopped down from the truck's hood, raising an eyebrow. "Doc could probably fix 'em up. He did for dat other guy, and he was way worse."
"W-What o-other g-guy?" Zoey curiously asked.
Bill walked over. "S-Save t-the q-questions f-for l-later, Z-Zoey." He ignored her glare and continued. "I-I s-say w-we t-try t-that d-doctor S-Scout m-mentioned." He glanced over at Soldier. "W-Would t-that b-be o-okay w-with y-you?"
Soldier scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, we don't enough room in the truck, so you'll have to ride in the back." he told them.
"W-We c-can d-do t-that, n-no p-problem."
He nodded. "Alright. Let's get a move on then."
"Holy shit, she was hot!" Scout declared, leaning back as the truck rumbled on and propping his feet up.
"Keep it in your pants!" Soldier spat back, not tearing his eyes away from the dry wasteland.
The Bostonian scowled. "I still don't see why we're goin' through all da trouble ta help dese people. We ain't Samaritans ya know!"
Soldier didn't respond this time and spared a glance at the Survivors in the rearview mirror, his face falling slightly at the sight of them huddled together and shivering as they were buffeted by the wind.
"Ya gonna freakin' answer me or—"
"Scout. Shut up." Sniper interrupted from the passenger's seat, glaring at the younger man.
"Whatevah."
The three said no more on the matter as they drove down the dusty remnants of what may have been a road at one point, a large basin soon on the horizon.
A cooing noise was what woke up Luigi up. His eyes involuntarily squinted against the harsh lights above him before growing used to it after a heartbeat or so. He looked around in a daze and his hands fisted into the cot he was lying on. The room he was in looked like a hellish infirmary. Decorating the pale walls were slightly faded bloodstains, as if they haven't come out all the way. His eyes drifted over to a table where he found a nice little trinket of medical tools and shivered at the mere sight of them.
Where the hell am I? the teen asked himself, starting to panic. The cooing sound continued, and he realized that it was right by his ear. He groggily turned his head to the side only to come face-to-face with beady black eyes. He released a startled yelp, watching through wide eyes as the dove flew away from its perch on his shoulder.
"Archimedes, behave!" a voice shouted after the bird, followed by more cooing. "Birds… Ah. He is avake. Good."
The voice belonged to a thin, glasses-wearing man. He wore a light red doctor's uniform with two red rubber gloves over his hands. There was a certain degree of malice behind his eyes, his smile rather wicked.
"Gutentag, fräulein!" the man greeted, adjusting his glasses.
Fräulein? Luigi wondered. "Who… Are y-you?"
The man smirked, rising to his feet. "I am ze doctor of ze team. Call me Medic or Herr Doctor if you are so inclined." He took a bow as he introduced himself, waving his hand about dramatically.
"O-Okay. Where…" The brown-haired teen rubbed at his throat as it started to burn. "…am I?"
"You are currently in ze RED base of Badwater Basin. Population… Twenty." the German replied.
"My… Friends?"
"Taking showers I believe," He fixed Luigi with a curious look. "It's interesting, you bear some resemblance to ze last one brought here."
Luigi tipped his head to one side. "W-What are… Are you… Talking about?"
The man studied Luigi for a few more moments before turning away and muttering a quick, "One moment." Without another word, the RED left the room, the door quietly swinging shut. You bear some resemblance to ze last one brought here. Medic's words rang in his head. The teen scratched his head while wondering what the doctor meant by that.
Minutes passed. Every so often he would hear noises from outside the infirmary, but none of it sounded like the doctor. The silence was broken when the door reopened, the squeaking of a wheelchair filling the room. The RED slowly rounded the corner to the bed, pushing a very battered and broken figure. Gauze was wrapped around the person's head and their left hand was bandaged as well and, if Luigi looked closely, there were even bandages wrapped around their torso. The person's leg—or maybe both of their legs—was broken if their only way of getting around was a wheelchair.
"He is your brother, I presume." Medic quietly noted, standing by the wheelchair.
Tears pooled at the edge of Luigi's vision as he stared at the newcomer. He whimpered, not able to bring himself to say the name. William smiled weakly at him.
"Hey, Luigi." he murmured.
He burst out crying at the sound of his name. "You're alive!" he sobbed.
Medic wheeled the older teen closer to the cot before heading back to his chair, watching with what may have been interest of some kind.
William grabbed one of his brother's hands. "Yeah, I'm alive. I'm here, so everything's going to be okay now. You don't have to cry anymore." he consoled.
Luigi tried to stop, he really did, but the tears kept on coming until they finally dissolved into sniffles. He accepted the tissue Medic handed him with a grateful nod. After wiping away his tears and blowing his nose, he indulged his older brother in small talk. He learned that William had fooled the Tanks by playing dead, but soon succumbed to unconsciousness. When he came to, he managed to drag himself back to the safe room and rest. He then went on to explain that he came back to the bridge to regroup with them, but when he arrived there was no one there.
Luigi frowned at that, and opened his mouth to comment, but he couldn't get any words out. Wailing at the top of his lungs did a number on his throat. Sensing this, Medic rummaged around in a cupboard before producing a pen and notebook.
"No more talking," he told the brown-haired teen. "Rest your throat."
Nodding in understanding, Luigi wasted no time in writing in his journal before holding it out for William to see.
I knew I should've looked for you instead of helping Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle.
William tipped his head curiously. "Who're they?"
These new Survivors we met. They wanted us to lower the bridge so they could get their car past. When they left we found a car of our own and drove of out Georgia—that was the state we were in.
"What happened to the Florida Keys?" William asked.
Francis forgot to move the boat.
Chuckling, the dark blue-eyed teen commented, "Why doesn't that surprise me."
Luigi then went on to explain how they were finally rid of Duke, the humanity-holding Hunter who was hell-bent on killing them and how his band of other humanity-holding Special Infected retreated after the death of their leader. William was thrilled at the news, growing even more excited when he found out that his own little brother had been the one to kill Duke. However, what he didn't know was that Luigi was lying when he told him that he killed the Hunter by stabbing him with his katana. Luigi wasn't comfortable yet with telling his brother how he succumbed to the Hunter strain of the virus pulsing through his veins during his fight with Duke and how he nearly turned, only snapping out of it when his twin brother, Dylan, backhanded him across the face.
Never let the Hunter strain of the virus surface, his twin had warned. Because if you turn, you won't hold on to your humanity like we do.
He was brought out of his trouble thoughts when William asked how their brother's condition was.
He and the others still had humanity when we ran into them in Rayford. I don't know where they went after they helped us. Anyway, how did you end up here?
"Ah. I don't really remember much. When I found out that you all had left, I did the same. I didn't know where I was going, but it beat staying there waiting to die. The only weapon I had was a fire axe I found, and let me tell you, that thing got me through a lot of shit. The last thing I remember was following a road and I guess I must have passed out, because when I woke up I was at the base being healed by Medic. Everything still hurts, but I'm fine now."
Luigi looked at Medic. "Thank… You."
The RED shrugged nonchalantly as if it wasn't a big deal. "It is my job as a doctor." He chuckled, glancing at William. "I remember how we found you... Broken bones, severe blood loss, trauma, several chipped teeth..." He stopped, clearing his throat nervously. "Sorry."
William shrugged. "Shit happens."
Luigi quickly wrote something down in his journal and held it up.
You didn't have to go and restart the generator.
His brother sighed heavily. "I couldn't stand there and let my family die," he began. "This damn Infection already took my younger brother and best friend away from me, and I'd be damned if I let it take anyone else that I love. And…" He paused, collecting himself before continuing. "And I know Bill wanted to be the one to go down there, but I couldn't—wouldn't let him. You and the others needed him. He was our leader. He saw us through a lot of shit, even if sometimes his actions were questionable. Now I'm glad I was the one leaping off that bridge; without him, you wouldn't have known what to do after failing to move the boat before helping those other Survivors."
Luigi said nothing. It was better that William never found out how much Bill regretted letting the teen go off in his place. The door began opening, catching their attention. In lumbered quite possibly the largest man Luigi had ever seen in his life.
Luigi's eyes widened while William simply said, "Hi Heavy."
The large man beamed at the young man, nodding. "Ah, comrade William! I vas wondering where you were." He then noticed Luigi, raising an eyebrow. "And who might this be?"
"This is my little brother, Luigi." William introduced. "He can't talk right now because his throat got messed up."
Not being able to talk didn't stop Luigi from waving.
The bald man stared for a moment before waving back, smiling. "Hello, new comrade Luigi!"
Medic coughed, getting the other RED's attention. "Yes doktor?"
"Heavy, vhat are you here for?" the German questioned, a tired patience on his face.
Heavy scratched his head, thinking about it. "Mmm... I do not remember now." He shrugged sheepishly. "I can have a hint?"
Medic sighed, getting to his feet. "Heavy, just do me a favor. Go get Soldier."
"Da. I vill do this." He turned to leave, glancing at Luigi one more time and offered a rather child-like smile.
He's… Interesting. Luigi wrote for William to read after the Russian left.
"Heavy's a good man and an interesting source of conversation. Just don't piss him off."
Medic, why did you tell Heavy to go get Soldier? Luigi asked curiously.
"He wanted to know when you were finally conscious is all. Und speaking of ze Infection," the man began, referring back to the previous conversation the brothers were having. "I hate zhose Spitter things. So unsanitary." His face scrunched up a bit at the thought of the disgusting green goo-launchers. "They're as bad as zhose Boomers."
"Fuck Boomers!" William suddenly raged, slightly startling Medic. "I swear to God, I'll kill every single one of them!"
The teen's hatred of Boomers stemmed all the way back to Riverside when Crazy Church Guy—now turned Boomer—vomited all over him when he opened the safe room door. Ever since then William was always being puked on, and he firmly believed that Crazy Church Boomer had put a curse on him much to the exasperation of his teammates.
Luigi held up his hand to temporarily pause the conversation as he scribbled something down. How come Medic knows about the Special Infected when those soldiers back at Millhaven didn't even know they existed?
"We have all encountered ze Infected at one point or another. Disgusting, unsanitary..." The RED grimaced, displeased with the fact. "Of course, we are all immune ourselves, so I suspect that gives us an advantage."
The bright blue-eyed boy tugged on a piece of his hair. Have you encountered any humanity-holding Special Infected?
"Do you mean sentient or still behaving as they did pre-Infection?" The man questioned, eyebrow raised.
"Behaving as they did pre-Infection," William answered. "They're more intelligent, can talk, and still feel emotions. They also slowly lose their grip on humanity as the virus takes more hold on their bodies."
The man raised an eyebrow, wiping off his glasses. "I have never encountered such cases... It almost sounds preposterous, to be honest." He paused, tapping a finger. "Although, if I remember correctly, Heavy said he ran into something like zhat. Whether or not this is true, I know not."
"Did he tell you what kind of Infected it was?" William interrogated. "Was it a Smoker, Witch, Boomer, Hunter, Tank, Spitter, Jockey, or Charger? Does he know its name, or what color the hair was?"
Medic's brows furrowed. "Vhat difference does it make?"
William opened his mouth to speak when a voice spoke up. Glancing over, they saw that Soldier had arrived.
Medic rose from his seat, nodding to Soldier. "Well, I need to go take care of a few things so I will leave you three for now."
The German then took his leave, brushing past the other RED, the door closing behind him. The man made his way to the chair Medic had just been in, seating himself.
"Glad to see you're finally awake."
Luigi smiled, but said nothing.
"Medic told him not to talk," explained William.
The man nodded, rising to his feet and began pacing back and forth. "Since you're here, you may as well be informed as to what's going on and why you got attacked like that."
Luigi perked up, listening closely.
"Alright. First things first, you heard me say that we were mercenaries, right?"
The teen nodded.
"Good. Now, we work for RED like I said. Our job was to solve their problems that their frilly paper-pushers couldn't." He grimaced. "Those problems were almost always BLU, or Builders League United. Just like RED, they control at least half of the world's governments. And also just like RED, they hired their own team of mercenaries." At this he withdrew a photograph, handing it over to Luigi. "We've been fighting against these bastards for years, generation after generation. And now... Now there's nothing to fight for. Both companies have all but collapsed, and anything left of ours is now under the control of the Administrator, our, well, administrator." He paused, eyeing the teens. "You keeping up so far?"
"So what you're telling me is that first there's a zombie apocalypse and now I found out that two teams of mercenaries control half of the world's governments?" William echoed. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jesus Christ what next?"
How come their Soldier and Medic look just like you two? Luigi wrote in his journal. Are they your clones or something?
"To be honest, we don't know either." Soldier addressed Luigi first, peering at the picture as well. "But if you look closely, there are some differences between us. For example, I'm about an inch shorter than the BLU Soldier, but I'm wider than he is." He then turned to William. "It gets better. How about the fact that the BLUs are the ones who ordered those guys to attack your brother and the others? Or that they're now in full control of CEDA and most of the military?"
"What?! How?"
Luigi didn't reply, but he looked shocked.
Nodding gravely, Soldier continued. "They got control over them through a certain set of documents, some money, and a good deal of propaganda to get everyone worked up about Carriers." His face darkened, lips curving into a scowl. "Believe me when I say they take advantage of every moment. Anyone they don't like, anyone who tries to fight back, Carrier or not, they get labeled as one and everyone descends on them. It's a tyranny; plain and simple."
"What can we do about this?" William questioned.
Soldier grunted, shaking his head. "Nothing, to be completely honest. My boys and I are the only ones who will be able to get this done." He grimaced. "Or die trying. But I will not put anyone else in harm's way." Pushing himself to his feet, he began to pace the room. "We can offer you a place to stay until you're all one hundred and ten percent, if you'd like a place where you won't have to worry about those goons coming after you."
"I w-want to… Help!" Luigi suddenly blurted out, ignoring the sting in his throat. "I can d-do it! I… I'm not c-completely… Useless!"
Pausing mid-step, the man chuckled a bit and turned to face the teen. "Heh, I like your attitude." He returned to the bedside, not bothering to take a seat this time. "But this is war. We're fighting trained bastards here, not the Infected that you're used to." He held up a hand. "Now don't get me wrong, fighting those undead-maggots isn't a walk in the trench either. You've had to have beaten plenty of skulls in to have lasted as long as you have. Besides, it might be something you would want to discuss with your group. You join us, there ain't going back."
Luigi furrowed his eyebrows, not replying and staring down at his lap.
"Mull it over a bit. I'll be back, gonna check to see if the food's ready. Don't know about you, but I'm starving."
That said, he left the infirmary, leaving the two brothers alone. William glared at Luigi the second Soldier was out of sight.
"Are you stupid or what?" he hissed.
"What… Did I… D-Do?"
"Telling Soldier that you want to help. You don't know anything about these people!"
Luigi returned his glare, furiously writing in his notebook. I do know that they helped us from those soldiers, and that they're letting us take shelter in their base. They even saved your life too.
"And? What's your point?"
I'm sick and tired of running, William. I don't want to go to the Florida Keys and leave everyone else to rot. Soldier said that he and his team are trying to put an end to all this unnecessary death, and I'm willing to help them in any way I can. I know Zoey will back me up.
William huffed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Neither brother talked until Soldier came back and announced that the food was ready.
"Yes!" Luigi whooped, hopping off the cot. "I'm s-starving!"
"Luigi, you're not supposed to be talking!" William called after the teen who was already racing out the infirmary, but came back shortly after.
"D-Don't know… Where to go." Luigi admitted, blushing with embarrassment.
Soldier sighed good-naturally and patted him on the shoulder a few times before moving toward the mess hall with the brothers following suit.
