"First, I already excused Zion from the morning meeting," Lawrence began his speech as he stood and looked around to the entire group that sat at desks in front of him. Me, Sue, and Ethan sat close to each other. Hailey and Emily sat next to each other while Harry and Eugene were sat next to each other as well. "If anyone is willing to relay what I say to him today to him later, that would be appreciated." Lawrence sighed when he finished his statement. He held his eyes closed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb, lifting his glasses in that process. I could tell he looked both frustrated and stressed.

"I'm sorry," I spoke up softly, aware that the source of his stress was me. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, seeing the leader of the group is extremely put off by a team member being hungover as well as having a stranger join a group meeting. Me being the reason the other member is hungover and also being the stranger.

Lawrence unpinched his nose, fixed his glasses, and just quickly turned to face me with a smile. "No worries, Zion is just a pain in my ass."

I chuckled at the response but noticed Sue next to me had seemed tense. She didn't like the presence of Lawrence. I trusted her instincts but I didn't know what her instincts even were. She hadn't told me anything about Lawrence yet but she was my best friend and I knew that she held no liking for that guy.

Lawrence continued by discussing the pairings for patrol. He went ahead and gave me patrol with Ethan so he could help catch me up with the basis of patrol. Sue seemed somewhat curious about his decision but not as tense as I usually saw her with Lawrence's decisions. We were also given the responsibility for the 4th floor, which seemed to be an easier area.

It was a pretty self-explanatory idea to do with patrolling, just keeps everything safer and protected. According to Ethan, nothing really big had happened during a patrol. Just fixing things, reporting sightings, clearing anything, making sure nothing big happens in the future. Weirdly enough though, the thing that scared me the most was that nothing big happened during patrols. In my brain that meant that something really big was going to happen now because I showed up.

"Mouse, if a zombie tries to bite my face off what do I do?" I bluntly asked the tall boy next to me.

He just stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me with shock and confusion plastered all over his face. "Nothing, a zombie isn't going to try and bite your face off." He just spoke slowly, facing away from me and going to continue with his walk when I stopped him again.

"No, seriously," I grabbed his arm to make sure he didn't just walk away. He wasn't one too, but I still felt the gesture was important in the case. "You have your bat. I don't have anything. What would I use? Should I find a weapon?"

"You'll be fine."

"Dude, I'm being serious. In a situation where it may happen-"

"It won't."

"You don't know that." I groaned in annoyance at the persistence of the boy. "I'm trying to be serious here now, Ethan. If I got attacked, how am I supposed to defend myself?"

"You aren't going to need to," Ethan responded deadpanned, taking his large steps again as my hand slipped its grip from his arm as he moved forward and I stayed behind.

"Why, because I'm just going to be dead already." I rolled my eyes and scoffed, taking a small hop to catch up to his wide strides.

"No, because I'm not going to let anything hurt you," Ethan responded with nothing but certainty.

"Okay, but you're not going to be glued to my hip 24/7. What am I going to do if you're not there?"

"Nothing will happen to you." Ethan sternly spoke. The more and more I spoke on this topic the more and more he almost seemed to tense or get visibly upset. "I won't let it."

I sighed. "Ethan-"

"I'm not letting anything happen to you, and that's the end of that." Ethan's voice raised slightly in annoyance and his pace began to quicken.

"Dude," I groaned, catching up to him. "You can't just be so sure. If I'm being attacked and you're not around-"

"Then I'll find you."

"Ethan, you asshat listen to me!" I finally shouted in pure frustration. "You are not a superhero! You can't just promise a girl to be her superman and scoop up and save the day when you physically cannot do that. Why can't you just take my question seriously and help me out instead of being a little piss baby?" I stomped my foot down, stopping Ethan in his tracks to where he had to turn to face me. "I get you to want to be this big protective brute man, but unfortunately that doesn't make your safety promises true."

I stared straight into his sea-green eyes as he stared right back into my emerald green ones. Ethan's fist around his bat tightened and his jaw clenched. "I'm not going to let you get hurt. You are here with me now, so don't worry about it. Okay?" He spoke angrily, his whole body tensed.

"No." I crossed my arms, standing my ground. "You can't push off the inevitable, Ethan."

"What is inevitable?"

"That one day you won't be there." I bluntly stated. His eyes widened. "That I will be alone again, Ethan." I sighed, trying to stand up straight and stay strong through my words. He seemed to be angered by me stating I would be alone again.

"I let you be alone on your own once, I'm not doing it again, Liyah."

"You couldn't control it the first time, and you can't control it again."

"I'm not leaving you alone, Aaliyah." He enunciated my name.

"You can't be so sure of that, Ethan." I enunciated his in retaliation.

Ethan just rolled his eyes and went to walk in the opposite direction. I dashed over to him as fast as I could and pulled him back towards me with full force. Though not pulling him back as much as I would like, it stopped him to turn and face me again. "Why are you avoiding this?"

"Because I don't want to talk about it."

"So what, if I get taken by zombies and you're not there and I have no way to defend myself I'm just going to have to deal with it because you don't want to talk about it?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him. I was more than just angry, I was furious. "You can't leave me defenseless and hide that by calling it protection. It's selfish. Putting your thoughts first over my realistic protection."

He glared at me, obviously angered by every word I had said. He didn't say another word. He just shrugged and silently finished the last bit of the patrol. I gave up trying to argue and bring up the topic again, so I stayed silent as well.

I didn't want to speak another word to him either. I wanted to feel flattered and protected and cared for but it was hard when I knew that this can result in the death of either or both of us. And I wanted nothing more than for all of us to stay alive.

...

During the next meeting, Ethan didn't sit with me and Sue. I had already explained the situation to Sue, and for once she wasn't glaring at Lawrence. She was glaring at Ethan.

"Sue," I sighed. "you can stop now."

"You know I'm pissed off as much as you, right?" Sue turned to me crossing her arms. She seemed like if she had the chance she would steal Ethan's bat and bust his kneecaps. "His selflessness is turning into selfishness, Aaliyah."

Ethan must have heard his words as I saw him rolling his eyes in my peripheral vision. It only pissed me off more. "If Ethan won't teach me how to protect myself, I'll find someone who will." I leaned in towards Sue to whisper it to her to make sure he didn't hear that because if he did he would stop me. I wasn't going to take shit from him.

After the meeting had ended, Ethan was the first one to leave. I groaned in response. Yet I raised out of my chair to meet someone before they could leave. "Harry," I ran up to him, grabbing his arm. "I need to ask you a question."

"What is it, Aaliyah?" Harry asked, turning around to face me immediately. He was the sweetest and most composed. Though he probably wasn't as good of a fighter as Ethan or Zion, he was the one I trusted the most that could show me how to protect myself while remaining empathetic.

"I want you to teach me how to fight. How to protect myself." I asked bluntly, as it was the best way to propose.

Harry's eyebrows seemed to furrow slightly. "Why don't you ask Ethan?"

"Because he's a little pussy ass bitch baby, that's why." I crossed my arms, spitting out my words with anger.

Harry just raised his hands in defeat. "Okay, okay, noted." His eyes were wide as he stared at my furious expression. "Yeah, I can."

"Can we start now?" I asked as soon as he agreed.

"Um," Harry went to stop and think until I passed him a death glare in which his expression turned into one filled with fear. "Yes, yes, of course, right now yes, yep." He immediately agreed afterward. I smiled brightly to his obedience and skipped out of the room.

Not long later after getting a bit prepared, I went over to Harry's room and knocked on his door. When he opened the door he smiled at me with his sweet shining smile while holding a crowbar in his hand. He then handed it to me. "Don't ask where I got it, just know to hide it later."

I nodded in response, not even giving it a second thought. I was going to be taught how to fight. I was going to fight for myself and no man was going to stop me.

Harry had me follow him in which he lead me up to the roof. When I got up there I saw a makeshift training ground with boxes on either the floor or whatever object there was around and chairs stacked on top of each other (which blankets and pillows around them, probably to muffle sounds if they fall). It made me smile. Does Harry put this much effort into helping me?

"Took a couple of hours but I got it done," Harry smiled. "It also was annoying to do it alone and doing it without anyone noticing." He awkwardly chuckled and scratched the back of his neck.

I looked at him with my grin stretched ear to ear. "It's perfect."

Harry grinned at me. "Good," He clasped his hands together. "First, we need to make sure you can hold the weapon and then use that to use all of your force towards the enemy. In which here, aren't exactly the best." He coughed. "The zombies will be tougher, but this was the best I could control.

"It's completely fine." I nodded in approval. "Now, how should I do this?"

"Well, I'm not the best person to teach you a strong stance as well as how to handle a so-called two handed weapon the best way as that happens to be the person you called a 'little pussy ass bitch baby'." He chuckled at the words he spoked. In all honesty, I never expected to hear those words come out of his mouth. "But, I'm going to give it an attempt."

"Got it." I responded with complete focus.

"Okay," Harry stepped closer to me. "For your stance put one leg in front of yourself, keeping one leg below you. Then ground them. It helps you from falling over which is something you have to be very careful of these days."

I followed his instructions, putting my left foot in front of me and keeping my right leg positioned below. I put all of my weight into my legs and feet to keep myself grounded. "Like this?"

Harry hummed in question as he viewed my stance. Then he came over to me and pushed me, in which I stumbled slightly but was able to steady myself quickly.

"Great, but can definitely work on it." He gave me a thumbs up. "Now to hold the crow bar is very easy, just your non dominant hand above your dominant hand and gripping it tightly. And it should be easy to swing as long as you enough force into it as well as making sure it won't fall out of your hands." He explained to me.

"Okay," I responded in understanding and following his instructions.

"Yeah, great. Now hold on," Harry spoke, walking up behind me and putting his arms around me and grabbing the crowbar as well, placing his hands on top of mine. My breath hitched slightly as I was taken aback by the sudden closeness, yet he seemed unbothered. "Now, you can swing like a baseball bat or like a golf club. Any preference?"

Just in terms of being angry at Ethan, I quickly responded with, "Golf club."

I could feel the grin on Harry's face as his remained next to mine. "Good choice." He quietly spoke. It tickled feeling his breath against me.

He then started to help me move the crowbar back and swing in the way you would a golf club. He taught me how to put power into my swing while as well keeping myself grounded. Finally after a short while he left my side and had me go after his makeshift dummies.

Yet, it was weird. When he stepped away from me I was almost disappointed.

I think I liked him being so close to me. But why?