A/N Hey! Look! Listen! This chapter introduces a new (and important) character, that is actually in a lot of stories I write. Anyways, read and enjoy!
Jakob shakes me awake, and Sylvia groans to life. I open my eyes, and a bunch of gun barrels are trained on me.
"Well, crap." I manage to say. "Jakob?" I ask. I look over at him, and he shrugs.
"It's a custom. Any new people must be tested, and uh, well your new and Infected." He explains. Sylvia opens her eyes, and gasps.
"Could you tell them we want to be human?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"They're stubborn." He says. I groan, and my head tilts back.
"I think they're sa-" Suddenly, a scream interrupts the man. My head shoots straight up. The soldiers all turn to look somewhere else. One of their radios buzzes on.
"He's escaped! Romeo has-!" The voice is cut off by a groan.
"Romeo's escaped? What do we do, captain?" The man in the middle points back to us.
"Take them, and-" Something stops the man mid sentence. He falls onto the truck bed, to reveal an arrow in his neck. I follow where it came from, and see a man from a distance staring at us. The soldiers raise their guns and start towards him. He fires another arrow, and it pierces the visor of a soldier. They open fire, but he dodges every single gunshot. While they're reloading, he puts his bow away, and pulls something else out. A pair of tomahawks. He charges towards the soldiers, and brings the tomahawk into one of their helmets. One of them draws their knife, and attempts to attack Romeo. Romeo deflects the knife, and slashes the stomach of the soldier. He ducks as a soldier shoots, and he brings the tomahawk down into the skull of the soldier on the ground. I notice a string holding the two tomahawks together. The soldier who fired the shot stands before Romeo, and he lets one of his tomahawks go. He lashes the one he still has a grip on so it spins and slashes up the body of the soldier. He falls dead, and Romeo manages to grab his flying tomahawk. He runs at the last soldier, and makes his way past him, holding his tomahawks on either side of the soldiers head. He turns behind the soldier, and the twin tomahawks curve to choke the soldier. A few seconds later, the soldier falls dead. I look over to Jakob, who is now panicking. Romeo turns to Jakob, and points at him.
"Hey! Jakob! Get back here!" He runs towards Jakob, and pins him to the ground.
"You lied to me! Because I was a Carrier, meant you should keep me in captivity?" He curses and punches Jakob. I don't do anything. Sylvia presses her face into my side as Romeo beats Jakob to a pulp. Romeo stops and stands. He opens the truck door, and it revvs to life. Sylvia looks up at me, worriedly.
"What's going on?" She whispers.
"I don't know." I say quietly. I need to take her mind off of this. The truck pulls out, and out of the complex. She's worried. I need to take her mind off of our human kidnapper.
"You said something to me last night before you fell asleep. What was it?" I ask her. She looks at me, embarrassed.
"I didn't say anything." She says. I smile.
"Yes. You did. It sounded like 'I lo'. What was it?" I ask.
"I... I didn't say anything." She tries to convince me.
"Sylvia, what did you say?" I ask, my smile fading.
"I... I...love..." She begins. She closes her eyes, and forces herself into my side. I know what comes after that. I just don't say anything. Sylvia begins to cry, something she hasn't done for a while. I stroke her hair, hoping for her to calm down. After at least an hour of repetitive sobbing, the truck comes to a stop. Romeo opens the truck door, and walks to the side of the truck. He looks at us.
"What, no thank you?" He asks. I shake my head.
"Why would we thank you?" I retort.
"I just saved your life!" He shouts.
"I can't believe you saved my life. You're my hero!" I say in a sarcastic voice. He snickers.
"What the hell, man! You would've been killed in there!"
"Yeah, kill the dead guy..." I say quietly. He looks at me.
"What? You're...?" He thinks. He quickly grabs his tomahawks from the front seat.
"We're not going to kill you, you know." I tell him.
"Prove it!" He demands. He raises his weapons, and threatens to strike me.
"If I were to attack you, I would've done so earlier." I tell him. He lowers his tomahawk.
"I know what you are. You're a late immune." He tells me. I look at him.
"What's that?" I ask.
"It's when you're immunity isn't active until after you become infected. Now, come with me." He gestures to the back of the truck. I lift Sylvia in my arms, and follow Romeo.
"Never seen a Hunter and Witch get along so well." He says. I nod.
"Yeah..." I say, awkwardly. I look down at Sylvia, who looks up at me shyly, before burying her face into my chest. He feels a red door, and knocks on it twice, then once, then three times. The door slides open, and we walk in. The warm air hits me as I walk in. In this room are two girls, one whose leg is injured, and the other who opened the door. Then I remember where I've seen Romeo. I killed the old man he was with. He was the one who prevented the rescue of the senior. The injured woman looks at me, curiously. The other one retires to a desk, and begins to write notes, almost depressed.
"These two are late immunes." Romeo introduces. He turns to us. "You got names?"
"I'm Nathan, and this is Sylvia." I tell him. He nods, and rests his tomahawks on the table in front of him. The injured woman sits up.
"How do we know they're not just getting smarter? I mean, we saw that saferoom graffitti, and maybe the person was-" She begins.
"For the last time, Michelle, it's fine. That person was either crazy or being robbed by others who acted like late immunes." He assures her. The uninjured girl hardly glances at us. Romeo turns to us.
"As you probably already know, I'm Romeo. That's Michelle. And the one moping about is Dixie." Romeo says. Dixie shoots him a glare.
"I'm moping about because my father was mauled to death by a Hunter." She snaps. I shudder. I killed her father. Damn.
"I'm not sure about this, Romeo! You even said there was a possibility that that guy was robbed by people pretending to be late immunes. How do we know that's not the case?" Michelle questions. Romeo sighs, and rubs the bridge of his nose.
"Fine, Michelle. We'll talk about it. But for now, I suggest you two go into that room to rest." He nods at us, and points towards a steel door. I nod and mutter a thanks before opening the door and sitting down. It closes and locks behind me, but I decide to not panic. If they wanted to kill us, they'd have done so already. I hold Sylvia in my arms. She seems... peaceful. I lightly shake her, and she looks up at me.
"Sylvia, while they decide our fate, I think we should talk about... us." I begin. Her eyes widen out of fear.
"What do you mean?" She asks, worried.
"I mean we should talk about what we feel, and whether we should feel that way. Or even if we would feel that way if we were humans." I tell her. She nods, and slumps back into my lap.
"I love you, Nathan. I have for a while. That's why I get nervous when you take off your sweater, or when you stroke my hair or even when you kissed me. I've felt human for a while. I knew I had began to turn back two weeks before I met you, but I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to tell you I felt human, because I thought you'd turn on me and attack me. But... I love you. And..." She stops, and pulls the hood of my sweater up.
"Okay. I think I feel the same way about you-" She quickly glances up at me, "-, but I can't be sure until I'm fully human." She looks down, sadly. I lift her face up to look at me.
"But I don't think I'll change too much." I say, before bringing my lips to meet hers. I remember the first time I did this, I had no clue why I had done it and I felt nothing, just impluse. But now... I feel, I don't know. Love? Yes. That has to be it. She stares into my eyes. Passion flows through hers. She quickly wraps her arms around my neck, and I pull her hood down. I cup her face in my hands. The door opens, and we pull apart. Romeo stands in the doorway, his mouth gaped open.
"Never seen a Witch and Hunter get along that well..." He says. I scowl, and stand. I lend my arm out to help Sylvia up. She takes my hand and warmth immediately courses through my arm. We walk out of the room, hand in hand. Instead of just Romeo, Dixie, and Michelle, there is another man. He stands over something on the table that Romeo had placed his tomahawks.
"David, these two are Nathan and Sylvia." Romeo introduces. David looks up at us. He waves, before looking back down.
"Interesting..." He says. He grabs a paper and begins to mark something down.
"David researches the Special Infected, as well as other crap to do with this apocalypse." Romeo tells us.
"What have you decided about us?" Sylvia asks, impatiently.
"You're-" Romeo begins.
"Leaving!" Dixie cuts off. Romeo scowls at her.
"Shut up, Dixie! They're staying, if they choose." He looks back at us. "If you want to stay, you may." I look at Sylvia. She seems frustrated. She looks at me.
"We have to decide." I nod. I look over at Romeo. I point to the room we came out of.
"You all have to go in there." I joke, hoping to cheer Sylvia up. She rests her head against my arm. Romeo chuckles.
"Just decide!" He turns and sits on one of the chairs. I look down at Sylvia, who is smiling. Good.
A/N Fun fact: Before I thought to do this story, I wanted to do another story about Romeo, and how he knew some of the actual characters from the game. You'll learn more about that next chapter, though.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.