((Hi, hello, this story is not dead. xD I've just not been having the motivation to continue. But thanks to two LOVELY reviews by iIampureAngel and a guest called 'Matthew', I found my motivation again! :D Really guys, the reviews give me motivation to write :3 So please keep giving me these wonderful reviews ;) More reviews means me writing faster~ Anyways, I'm glad you all enjoy B.O.T.E. Please leave reviews, and any tips and tricks you think I should know. :33 Anyway, on to the next chapter!))

That night, when Lovino thought everyone was asleep, he grabbed his weapons, put on his gear, and walked outside. The night was cold, very cold. With a shiver, Lovino pulled his coat closer around himself, and went towards the gate. But just as he was about to open it…

"And where do you think you're going Lovi?"

Shit. Antonio had still been awake. Lovino turned around and scowled lightly at the Spaniard, who had put on his coat as well, shotgun slung over his shoulder.

"..I-I'm…" Lovino began softly. "It's none of your concern, so go back to sleep dammit. I've got enough ammo.." He adjusted his coat a bit. "I'll be back before morning." Lovino began to try and open the gate again, but suddenly Antonio grabbed his arm.

"Lovino, where are you going..?" Suddenly he seemed to realize, and his grip got tighter. "Oh no. You're not going out there on your own just get revenge on those bastards. Not alone at least."

Lovino tried to pull himself loose, but suddenly he noticed the serious look on Antonio's face. "...Fine. Come with me then. Now be quiet before you fucking wake everybody." Antonio grinned lightly at that, and let Lovino go.

They walked through the gate together, and began walking towards the city. After a while Antonio spoke up. "So… What's the plan?" Lovino looked back at him and sighed.

"...Well, what do you think..? Kill those bastards and then go home..."

He really meant it. He really wanted to kill them all. Along with Antonio, that would be much easier. Lovino knew Antonio was angry too. Furious maybe, if he learned anything from how the Spaniard acted when Ambrosia told everyone the news. Antonio's face had darkened a little, before he had sighed.

"It's your child. You're carrying it. It should be your choice. If you want to keep it, I'll respect that."

Eline had flipped out of course, Lovino saw that in her eyes. The brunette woman had just stared at her girlfriend for a while, disbelief in her eyes. Then she had left the room for a moment.

Ambrosia had followed her, and Lovino had heard them talking in the hallway. He hadn't listened to what they said, but he knew it was private anyway. When they returned, Eline kept holding her girlfriend's hand.

Lovino snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Antonio chuckle lightly. Lovino just rolled his eyes at his boyfriend, and grabbed his hand. Just for that little bit of comfort. He secretly was glad Antonio went along with him. That way he wouldn't be alone.

After walking for about 2 or 3 hours, they reached the city. It was very dark, and groans from the infected echoed through the streets. But by being sneaky, they managed to reach the building they were looking for. Yet something seemed... Off.

"Yikes.. I have a bad feeling about this.." Antonio muttered. As they walked closer, they noticed a bloody smiley face painted on the door. Under it, layed a dead body. 'MEAnIE' was carved into the corpse's forehead.

Lovino froze a little. Holy fuck, what had happened here..? Some sort of cult? Goosebumps rose on his skin. He did not like this. Not one bit. He was really freaking out now. "W-What the hell is that..?"

Antonio looked kinda disgusted. "A victim from someone with a twisted mind..." He mumbled. Lovino scrunched his nose up and walked over to the corpse. It was in the way of opening the door. So the only way to get in was… Ewww…

"Help me move it aside bastard. This thing is in the way."

Antonio gave a nod and helped Lovino pull the dead man away. They stepped inside after slowly opening the door, careful not to make any sound. As they walked down to the basement, they could hear deranged, female giggles coming from a nearby room, along with muffled screaming.

"Shush~ Shush, shush, shuuuuush. Loud.. Too loud. No good, no good.. Ah!"

The screaming stopped and the female voice chuckled again. "No more loud. Good, good! Much more fun!" The walls were decorated with drawings in blood. Happy faces, words, doodles.. Like a kid went wild.

Lovino felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Yup. This was some sort of cult. There was a mad person down here. Making sounds would really get them both killed. Lovino walked down the hallway, and looked behind a few doors, Antonio behind him. After looking behind 3 doors, Lovino looked back to signal Antonio that there was nobody there.

That is… if he could signal Antonio that nobody was there. Antonio was gone all of a sudden.

An icey cold feeling bloomed in the pit of Lovino's stomach. Oh no. Oh nonononono.. Where was he..?! His heart raced. "A-Antonio…?"

OH SHIT. He wanted to slap himself. Instead he just covered his own mouth with his hand. Shit. Why did he make a sound?! Hopefully that mad woman in that room hadn't heard him. He prayed she hadn't heard him.

But God had other plans. The giggling in that room stopped. A metallic scraping was heard. A knife. Someone had grabbed a knife.

"Hellooooooo?~"

Lovino shuddered, feeling his blood nearly turn to ice at the voice. Oh shit, she had heard him. And she was coming for him. Shit, shit, hide. HIDE. He had to hide. Somewhere. Anywhere.

"Frieeeeeeend?~"

He had a feeling she wasn't so nice to 'friends'. Suddenly Lovino spotted a broom closet. He darted towards it and hid inside. Just in time too. He heard the door from that one room open and footsteps coming down the hallway.

"Hehehehee~ Where aaaare youuuu? Teehee~ Me love hide and seek~"

Lovino forced himself to stay silent, even though tears streamed down his face. He was scared. Where the fuck was Antonio when he needed him?! Was he okay? Was he maybe grabbed by someone?!

The footsteps came closer and stopped in front of the closet. For a moment, everything was silent. Lovino could hear his heart beating, and mentally cursed the organ for being so loud. And then that voice rang through the air again.

"Awwwww... Friend?~ Where are youuu?~ I no hurt you.. Me never hurt friend."

Silence.

The woman walked further, her calls of "Frieeeend?~" slowly disappearing. When Lovino was sure the woman was gone, he stepped out of the closet, shaking.

"A-Antonio.." He whispered. "Asshole, don't leave me alone damnit.." Lovino cursed softly as he began walking towards the room the woman had came from. Maybe he could find a clue to what the hell was going on here.

As he walked, every footstep made him feel more alone. This place was freaking him out. This had been a bad idea. And he had gotten Antonio involved in it. He really felt like an idiot right now. Lovino just hoped they would get home safe.

The door to the room squeaked lightly, making Lovino flinch. He quickly slipped through the crack and looked around the room. It was definatly the room where he and Ambrosia had been kept.

It was bad. A few men were tied up to the poles, looking really badly injured. Antonio, luckily, wasn't one of them. They were all blindfolded. Hearing Lovino coming closer, the men whimpered softly in fear. They looked familiar. The same men who had locked him and Ambrosia up that day.

Lovino growled lightly at the men, reaching for his gun. Now was his chance. But.. The crazy woman would probably hear him. So he just walked over to one of the men, and pulled the blindfold away. "Keep your voice down or you're dead. What happened here? I promise to help you if you tell me."

He wasn't really planning on it, but hey.

The man looked at Lovino with scared eyes. "T-Those people... N-No.. T-Those t-things.. T-They.. You gotta run man, they'll kill you!" He whispered.

Lovino flinched. Oh crap, there were more. He set his jaw and put the gun against the man's forehead. "What the fuck do they do. Tell me now damn it." The man paled at the gun and began to sputter. "I-I don't know, I swear! So far they have only gotten their hands on my men.. I-I haven't seen their faces! B-But.. They're fucking insane!"

Lovino bit his lip. He really couldn't help these guys escape and take them to the farm. Ambrosia would flip her shit and kill them. They had done horrible things.

Suddenly he was snapped out of thoughts by a voice that made his blood run cold.

"Ruuuude~ Rude meanie."

OH SHIT SHE WAS HERE.

Lovino turned around, now seeing the woman. Now that he saw her, she didn't look like much of a threat. She looked around 18, with middle-long red hair, grey-green eyes, wearing a simple green shirt and sweatpants, glasses, an insane smile, a knife in her hand...

Wait, what?

"Hiiiiii frieeeend~" The woman mused, nearly skipping over to Lovino. Lovino quickly darted away and hid behind one of the men. "G-Go away! I-I'm not your fucking friend!" He knew he might've just given her a reason to butcher him, but frankly, he didn't care.

"Awwww~ That's meaaan.." The woman got closer, smiling creepily. Suddenly a gunshot went off in another room. "Loud thing!" A little voice wailed. A young boy came running from a room, throwing a shotgun on the ground like it was a snake.

Lovino paled. It was Antonio's shotgun. He would recognize that thing from anywhere, mostly because the bastard had engraved turtles into the barrel.

The young child latched onto the woman's leg, who picked him up. "Mommy!" Lovino glared at the child. "Where did you find that?! TELL ME!"

The boy meeped a bit. "F-Found it..." The woman frowned, pointing her knife in Lovino's direction. "No yelling. Not nice."

Lovino took a step back and grit his teeth. Where the hell was Antonio then?! Please don't be dead… Lovino breathed in and out to calm himself. "..Where is Antonio? And who are you?"

The woman smiled at him and pointed at a little card stuck to her shirt. "Marije~" Lovino studied the card a little closer. It was an ID-card for patients of the St. Lukas Andreas Mental Hospital. Well… He wasn't wrong about her being crazy. She was literally a mental patient.

Suddenly the door to the door opened, and in came a tall man with platinium blonde hair and purple hair. Even though he was a giant, he still looked at Marije slightly scared. "Sorry.. I make mistake Sunflower. I hurt friend."

Lovino stared at the new arrival, and saw how Marije frowned, holding the little boy in her arms closer to her. "Ivannnn..." She whined. "What you doooooo?"

"Hit head by accident. Dropped him.."

"Ivannnnn..."

"Sorry... But Nathalia gave him stuff in first place.."

"...is okay. Come."

Marije motioned Lovino to follow her. Lovino blinked. "W-Will you bring me to Antonio..?" He got a nod, which made him follow the two mental patients. He stayed at a safe distance though. "I-Is he okay..? Is Antonio okay..?"

Ivan shrugged. "Probably. Stuff will make him a bit.. Blargh though." He imitated someone puking, then looked at Lovino, smiling innocently. Lovino frowned. Well… Alive but sick was better than dead.. "Just… take me to him.."

Ivan nodded. After walking through a few hallways, they stopped. "Here we are~" They were standing in front of a door that had another drawing in blood on it.

'FrIEnDS'

Ivan opened the door.

The first thing that came to Lovino's mind was the word infirmary. There were some beds standing around, and some wounded people were sleeping on them while other people took care of the wounded, giggling a bit insanely. The caretakers all had the same little cards as Marije and Ivan on their chests.

Lovino looked around the room, still feeling nervous. These people were.. creepy. But they weren't hurting the people on the beds.. Maybe they had a little morality. Lovino walked further, looking at the people on the beds. Most of the people were sleeping, and a few were clearly related to eachother. Suddenly Lovino's heart skipped a beat.

On a bed in the far corner layed Antonio. He was unconcious, and a young woman was carefully making detailed drawings on his arms with a red liquid that could only be blood. Lovino quickly ran over to them.

"A-Antonio..!"

He dropped to his knees next to Antonio's side and tried to shove the strange woman away. "S-Stop making those creepy things..!" Lovino tried to scrub the markings off, but his arm was suddenly grabbed by the woman.

"Don't. It's protection. Zombies won't smell living."

Her voice held no emotion. Lovino looked at her and grit his teeth. "...I know that.. Why such weird marks though? These are creepy!" He motioned at the marks, making the woman nod.

"To recognize an ally. Only I make those marks." The woman replied, her voice still monotone. "Some people are a bit... Stab first, ask questions later here. We don't want anyone innocent being hurt."

Lovino huffed. "You hurt him anyway. What did you do to him? Why is he unconcious?!" The woman just slowly blinked, and sighed. "My friend drugged him on accident. She thought he was one of them."

Oh fucking hell…

"...S-Stupidos, we came here to kill those bastards, to get our revenge..." Lovino growled. He clenched Antonio's hand, watching his boyfriend's unconcious face. That didn't last long though.

"Nngh…"

Antonio was waking up. Lovino gasped and grabbed Antonio's hand a little tighter. "Antonio?! A-Are you okay?! You don't feel sick, now do you?!" He knew he didn't sound calm at all right now, but he was stressed out damn it!

Antonio groaned a bit again, trying to open his eyes. Christ, it was like someone was pounding on the inside of his head with a hammer.

What had happend?

His memories were fuzzy.

He remembered following Lovino, then someone had covered his mouth and nose with a cloth. On instinct, he had gasped in surprise, the sweet smell on the cloth making his head spin. He had tried to warn Lovino in some way, but the drug made his eyes droop, the man only managing a small groan before the world had gone black.

He could hear Lovino call his name in a paniced tone, the sound only making his headache worse.

"...Uugh.. L-Lovi...?"

Lovino quickly quieted down a bit, seeing Antonio's face scrunch up in pain. Damn it, that drug must've given him a headache. He gently stroked Antonio's hair and gripped his hand. "..Are you okay? They… They drugged you accidently."

Antonio nodded slowly, still keeping his eyes shut. God, his head hurt. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open. He tried to give him a small smile to reassure him, but even that hurt. He just gently squeeshed Lovino's hand back, as if to say; "I'm okay"

The Italian smiled slightly, and gave Antonio a quick kiss. He looked up at the other people. Most of the mental patients were watching them, curious. Maybe they had never seen a gay couple? Didn't matter. "...Do you guys have any water for him?"

One man nodded, going over to a barrel. He scooped a cup of water out of it, handing it to Lovino with a smile. It wasn't super clear, but at least it was clean enough. Antonio was still trying to regain his bearings, breathing and moving slowly to not worsen his headache.

Lovino took the cup and gave the patient a nod as thanks. He helped Antonio sit up and pressed the cup to his lips. "...Can you drink by yourself or…?" Antonio just put his hand on Lovino's wrist, and pushed it up slightly so he could drink the water.

He began coughing a little as he drank too much in one gulp, and Lovino quickly put the cup down and gently patted Antonio's back. Antonio just groaned in pain and massaged the sides of his own head, trying to fight off the migraine. Lovino sighed and helped his boyfriend to lay down again.

They sat there for a few moments, and suddenly guilt swept over Lovino. He had gotten Antonio into this mess… This was all his fault… Lovino huffed at himself, and stood up. "D-Damn it… This is all my fault…" He walked out of the room, faintly hearing Antonio call after him. He ignored it though, too annoyed at himself to care now.

Lovino wandered through the few halls a little, and soon found a little room with nothing but a wardrobe closet in it. He sat down on the floor, hugging his knees with a sigh. All of this was his fault… If he had been more careful back when they went to help that woman… Or if he had just swallowed back his need for revenge.. Antonio wouldn't be feeling so sick right now..

He truely was an idiot.

Suddenly he heard Marije talking in the room next to the room he was. Oh.. Had he completly passed the madwoman in his state of self loathing..?! That was a dangerous mistake.

"Hi friend. Other friend went that way. He sad. Very angry at himself. You help him."

Lovino shivered at her words. Oh no. He looked at the closet and quickly went to hide in it, sitting down in it. Just in time, because he heard the door to the room open.

"Lovi?"

Lovino swallowed and stayed silent. He didn't want to talk to Antonio right now. He just felt too guilty. After a moment of silence, Lovino heard Antonio exit the room.

"He's not here.."

"He is. Went in there. Saw it. No way going out without me seeing."

Oh shit, Marije was coming to the room as well.

"Friend? Are you hiding again?"

He could hear her walking over to the wardrobe. There was a soft knock on the door. "Friend? Why are you in closet? Come out." Lovino swallowed, hiding his face in his knees. "Go away.. Just go away.." He whispered, just loud enough to be heard from out of the closet.

Light flowed into the closet as Marije opened the door. "..Friend..? Are you okay..?" Lovino looked up a little. Marije was staring down at him, an almost worried look in her eyes. Was that even possible for someone as mentally damaged as her..?

"Lovi..?"

Lovino looked over at Antonio, who seemed worried as well. The Italian clenched his eyes closed, grabbed the door of the wardrobe and pulling it closed again very quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly, because his fingers got caught for a moment. Lovino nearly cried out in pain, but let it turn into a sob.

"I-I said go away!"

There was silence. "Loud.. Not nice, not nice.." Marije suddenly mumbled, walking away. There was more silence, but Lovino could faguely hear Antonio sitting down in front of the wardrobe.

"...Isn't that a bit of a tight space to sulk in Lovi?"

Lovino let out a slight snort. "T-Tight enough for me to sort out my thoughts… A-And I'm not sulking damn it..!" He knew he was lying, but whatever. Antonio laughed a little. "Suuure.. I know you longer then today Lovi. Why are you hiding in a closet? What's wrong?"

Oh, where would he start? So many things were wrong. The world was fucked up, his mind was scarred from his past, his parents died resenting him, he got his friend kidnapped and caused her to get raped and get pregnant from that, he was too prideful and thought he could handle killing an entire building full of people, and he got his boyfriend into this mess.

So, to handle with all his emotions, Lovino did what he always did when he felt guilty about things. He hid in a small space and quietly cried until he tired himself out. Lovino sniffled a bit and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"I've done this always when I felt fucking guilty...M-My parents always used to yell at me, w-who knows how much I've had to bear with it...F-Feliciano was always the good boy..." He hiccuped a bit as the tears began to flow for real now. "I-I wanted mama to love me too..."

He knew that had nothing to do with his current situation, but… It was like weeks and weeks of frustration and sadness finally broke loose. He could faintly hear Antonio sigh.

"Lovi.."

The door to the closet opened, and this time Lovino didn't protest. Antonio stepped into the closet, pulling Lovino close to him. He closed the door again, covering them both in darkness. Lovino curled against him, sobbing into his shoulder. Antonio gently stroked his boyfriend's hair, rubbing soothing circles over his back.

"Lovi, it's okay.. You've done nothing wrong.."

Lovino continued to sob, clutching his Spaniard tightly. He could faintly feel the scars on Antonio's body through his sleeves. To be honest, he often wondered where the Spaniard got them. But now was not the time to ask. Not now, when they were in an old closet in the basement of some stupid factory, and Lovino was crying his eyes out.

Slowly, Lovino began to calm down. He sniffled a few times. "...Bastard.." He muttered, not knowing what else to say. The way he said it made it almost seem indearing. "A-At least… At least I've got someone better now.." He mumbled in Antonio's shirt. He could feel Antonio chuckle.

"You're not the only one with someone better mi amor."

Antonio pressed a kiss to the top of Lovino's head. They sat there for a while, just quietly hugging, waiting for Lovino to calm down. Eventually, Lovino wiped his nose and let out a sigh.

"We.. can get out now.. If you want.."

"Alright mi amor."

They got out of the wardrobe together, and straightened their clothes a bit. Suddenly Antonio chuckled. "Hey. We just got 'out of the closet'." He joked. When Lovino looked at him unamused the Spaniard pouted. "Oh, come on.. That was funny."

Lovino rolled his eyes. Leave it to Antonio to try and lighten up the mood with a stupid pun. "That would only be funny if we weren't gay, idiot.." He sighed, though his tone was a little playful. He gave Antonio a quick peck on the lips and then walked to the door leading out of the room.

"..We should go back to the farm… There's nothing we can do here now." The Italian said as he walked out, freezing for a moment as he saw a dead man laying on the ground with stab wounds all over his body. Huh. That must've been one of the 'Meanies'. Lovino was glad he and Antonio were concidered 'Friends' by the mental patients.

Scrunching up his nose in disgust, he walked around the corspe, heading towards the exit. "What? No revenge plan?~" Antonio teased as he followed Lovino.

"..No. They'll get what they deserve I think. Our new 'friends' will probably have the time of their lives." Lovino muttered, chuckling softly at the thought. Antonio chuckled at that, nodding in agreement. "Alright then Lovi. Whatever you say." He picked up his shotgun on the way out, slinging it over his shoulder.

As they walked outside, Lovino noticed the sun was rising a little already. "..Damn it.. It's getting bright. We'll have to hurry before the zombies see us in broad daylight." He said, walking a little faster, Antonio following him.

Soon enough, they were out of the city and back in the countryside. The sun was rising more. Antonio looked up into the sky with a sigh. "By the time we get back everyone will probably have freaked the hell out. Hopefully not too much.."

Lovino chuckled a little bit. "Amber might beat us up." He joked. Both of them chuckled at the thought of the blonde woman ranting at them in German. Granted, they would deserve it after disappearing in the middle of the night, but hey. The thought was still a little funny.

They walked for a little while longer, soon passing a few old bungalows. Maybe they had accidently walked into an old trailer park. Lovino looked around a bit, but then froze. There was a small pack of walkers, maybe 50 metres away from where they stood. They hadn't noticed them yet, but they soon would.

Antonio stopped behind Lovino, swallowing softly, He desperately hoped the walkers wouldn't see them. And that's when karma said "Fuck you.", since the wind turned, taking their scent along towards the walkers. One of them lifted their head, sniffing and growling. But since Antonio stood so close to Lovino, the blood-marks on his arms masked Lovino's living scent. Mostly, not completly. They had to move.

Lovino shivered in fear and looked at Antonio. His experssion said all. What now? If they ran, the walkers would hear them. They needed a plan, and fast. The walkers couldn't smell then yet, but the keyword was 'yet'. Soon they would.

Antonio seemed to think. He slowly shrugged, his face very scared. Suddenly his face lit up with an idea, and he motioned with his head towards one of the abandoned houses. Slowly, Antonio holding Lovino to shield his scent with his own, dead, smell, they shuffled towards the building.

Suddenly the walker growled. It had gotten a tiny whiff of Lovino's scent. The infected suddenly ran towards them, screaming. Antonio's eyes grew wide.

"LOVINO, GET INSIDE!"

He pushed the Italian towards the building, quickly getting his shotgun to shoot the infected. It tackled him to the ground, but rolled off dead when the Spaniard shot it. "GO!" He called, fighting off more of the undead.

Lovino nearly tumbled to the ground, but he did what Antonio asked of him. He ran like an arrow shot from a bow, bolting towards the most nearby house. His body whizzing with adrenaline, Lovino managed to reach the house, jumping through the window and quickly shutting it.

He wasted no time. The walkers might've been preocupied with Antonio, but he couldn't keep them off forever. Lovino quickly began to block all the windows. He jumped a bit when the door slammed open, grabbing his gun. He lowered it when he saw it was just Antonio, who quickly closed the door and blocked it with everything that was avalible.

"Lovino.. A-Are you okay..?" The Spaniard eventually panted out. Lovino finished up with the last window, and nodded. "Si.. I'm fine.. Just a bit shaken up. Damn, they came out of nowhere huh?" He chuckled, walking to the small living room where Antonio was standing.

"Y-Yeah.." Antonio chuckled, his voice still shaken. But for some reason… He didn't sound relieved. There was a hint of.. fear in his voice. He was hugging his left arm to his body a bit too tightly.

Lovino tilted his head. "Hey… Are you alright bastard..? That stupid drug isn't still affecting your brain, now is it?" He asked carefully. He suddenly had a real bad feeling. But.. That couldn't be, right? Antonio wasn't so stupid.

"N-No, I.. I'm.. I-I.." The Spaniard bit his lip, suddenly cursing under his breath. "L-Lovi...? P-Promise me you won't freak out.."

Those words only made the sinking feeling in Lovino's stomach worse. No, it couldn't be… That wasn't what happened, right..? Lovino swallowed, stepping closer. "P-Please don't tell me… T-That you're.."

Antonio sighed in defeat, pulling his sleeve away from his wrist. There it was. Funny, how such a small wound could mean certain death. It was small, but it still terrified them both to the core. It may have been small...

But it was still a bite.

((WHOOOOOOO, I return and I give you guys another cliffhanger, yayyyy! xD))