(Charon's POV)

Why did she have to look at me like that, with so much trust in her eyes? She knew nothing of the things I had thought of doing to her, while she undressed before me, and as we laid together so closely in her narrow bed. If she saw my face she'd be able to see the guilt written all over it.

However, I still knew it would be best for me to sleep beside her, in place of Butch. While I merely daydreamed about doing these things with her, Butch would probably just molest her all night without shame. I felt a little better seeing them crawl into separate beds.

It wasn't long before Butch started snoring loudly, but Minion seemed to be taking a bit longer. "Red?" she said tiredly.

"Yes?" I turned half-way to look at her. She was entrancing, sprawled out like that, and her hair was almost dry now, gently masking parts of her face, which was again tinted with an orange glow because of the fire. I felt almost mesmerized as I watched her lips form her words.

"Did I piss you off or something, earlier?" she asked, leaning on her elbows.

"No, you have done nothing to bother me. I am the one who is in error," I replied, turning back around to stare at the empty night.

"Well," her voice was like silk, "If it's anything you want to talk to me about, go ahead... I want to hear it... we're best pals, after all... partners in crime. Goodnight, Red."

"Goodnight," I murmured, and she settled back into the blankets. My mind was slowly overtaken with "what ifs" and other thoughts as I failed to notice how tired I actually was...

"ATTACK!!" cried a deep, gruff voice.

My eyes snapped open to moonlight and I felt momentarily disoriented. How long had I been out? I got to my feet and saw that Minion and Butch were in a frenzy, and my friend was hastily messing with her chinese assault rifle. I looked behind me and saw a group of mutants staggering towards us, all with various kinds of melee weapons. Luckily, none of them had guns.

"Shit, shit, shit, what do I do?!" stammered Butch, hiding behind Minion. "I only have a knife, I don't want them to get near me!"

I snatched up my shotgun as the mutants came within range. I nailed one of them between the eyes, and paused to toss the idiot an old 10mm. Butch yelped as he caught it, but apparently knew how to use the thing, as he began to fire off poorly-aimed shots in the general direction of the mutants.

Minion wasn't doing so good either. I didn't know whether it was the rude wake-up call in the middle of the night or a hangover or a combination of the two, or what. It could have also been that she simply wasn't a good shot in the dark, which was understandable. I turned my attention back to the mutants, who were almost upon us.

Goddamn it, this is all my fault! How the hell did I fall asleep?! Had I been so exhausted without realizing it? If something happened to her, I deserved full blame. I should have finished my shift and woken her up, not closed my eyes and blacked out. How could I protect her if I made stupid mistakes like this?

"The fat man, where is it?" I asked hastily, sending another mutie down.

"It's at home," she shouted angrily. "It was too heavy to carry with all that extra stuff so I just left it at home! I know, I'm a dumb-shit!!"

"Forget it!" I cursed to myself and dodged a swing from a mutant wielding a lead pipe.