Thankfully, the group had managed to get at least a few hours of sleep before Nick had woken up. It was still dark when he opened his eyes, his mother Helen, still asleep beside him. However, it was a thump in the night that had startled him, and he was listening intently to see if he would hear it again. The camper was eerily quiet, and it might have been because everyone was asleep; but something just didn't feel right to Nick. And when he heard the thump again, his thoughts were confirmed.
Carefully, he climbed out of the bed, not wanting to wake Helen, and grabbed the rifle he'd laid on the floor earlier. He'd rather be safe than sorry, especially with the supposed bite marks they saw on Liam earlier. He wanted to be wrong though; God he wanted to be wrong. They needed someone friendly like Liam, someone who knew what the hell they were doing. But it would be their luck to run into a survivor who had something wrong with him.
Nick rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before opening the door to the tiny hallway, bracing himself for anything.
The thumping came from the other side, and Nick kept his rifle handy just in case. It eventually led him to the small kitchen, which was almost pitch black (except for the moonlight) until he turned on the light. It was only Liam, having been rummaging through the cabinets. He wasn't able to turn around before Nick got a look at the back of his gray shirt, where a small stream of blood was flowing through due to the marks on his neck.
"Oh, it's just you, good," Liam said, a visibly relieved look gracing his feature. He smiled slightly.
"Heard a noise, thought it might be one of them things," Nick replied with a frown. "You, uh, you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, fine," Liam answered, waving his hand. "Just needed some water." He coughed violently, and it was only then that Nick saw how deathly pale he was becoming.
"You look like shit, man," Nick said as calmly as he could. But that bad vibe was ever growing, as if Liam knew a little - or a lot - more than he was letting on.
"I-I'm okay, just..." The older man coughed again as he filled a glass with tap water. He had to turn away, coughing onto his arm. He never did straighten up, though, because he collapsed right there on the tile floor. The water-filled glass shattered everywhere, and the sound made a bigger noise.
"Shit!" Nick swore. He slowly walked over to Liam, looking down with widened eyes as he gripped his rifle. "Liam, fuck, man, say something! Are you alive?"
He quickly checked Liam's pulse. It was still there, but just barely. His neck - the part that wasn't bitten - practically burned to the touch.
"The hell's goin' on in here?" It was Pete. The noise of the collapse had woken him up. Upon noticing Liam on the ground, his eyes widened too. "Oh, goddamn it. Is he dead?"
Nick turned to his uncle, alarmed. "I don't know! You gotta help me, Uncle Pete. We were right about the bite...and his pulse is barely there!" He was trying to stay calm, but it was incredibly difficult because of their current circumstances. "Should we...should we kill him?"
"Son, you can't kill him if he's already dead," Pete replied.
"We don't know if he's dead...I mean, what if he's going to turn into one of those things?" he continued to question.
But before Pete could give an answer, a noise came from Liam. Freaked out, Nick immediately aimed the gun at him, but Pete grabbed hold of his wrists.
"Now hold on! We don't know how this works yet," he scolded. "You said there was a pulse."
It turned out that the noise was ragged breathing. Liam tried to sit up, but was hardly able to. He coughed yet again. At the confirmation that he was still alive, Pete practically yanked the gun from Nick's hands, earning a glare from his nephew in return.
"Fuck...what happened?" Liam croaked.
"You passed out!" Nick exclaimed. "Damn it, we thought you were dead!"
"You alright? You're pretty damn pale," Pete added.
Nick decided to ask the inevitable question, feeling suspicious now. "Where'd you get those marks? The ones on your neck?"
Liam sighed, knowing that he had to tell these people the truth. "Alright, alright..." he trailed off. "When all of this started, I was trying to help the other people at the campsite, you know? But I had my back turned and one of those things got me...hell, I think I knew who it was, too..." He shook his head as he spoke weakly. "I didn't think it meant anything."
"Well it does fucking mean something!" Nick hissed in reply.
"We don't know anything yet," Pete interjected, not wanting the situation to escalate.
"I guess we're about to find out then," Nick said, watching as Liam's skin grew paler and paler with each passing second. It was unreal, and it almost felt like a nightmare to both Pete and Nick. To think that it was just a normal day, and then all of this shit had to happen. And in fact, it was the bite that did it; Liam found that out the hard way. He collapsed on the floor once more, this time, all the life in his body leaving him.
"Back up, Nick," Pete warned, not knowing what was going to happen next.
Nick obliged, standing next to his uncle as the two retreated away from Liam's body. It was some minutes later before another noise came from Liam, only this time, it wasn't any type of breathing, regular or otherwise. It was a low growling sound, and when Liam opened his eyes again, they were pure white. The decaying smell came far quicker than either man would have liked. Pete took out a knife that he'd put in his pocket, cautioning Nick to stay where he was, and slowly approached Liam.
"That gun will make too much noise," the old man whispered. "We'll put him out of his misery without attractin' more of 'em."
"Fine," Nick said back.
Liam's turned body began to stand up, and Pete gripped the knife. He didn't feel right in any possible way, doing this, but he had to if he wanted to keep the others safe.
"I'm sorry. It's a shame we couldn't save you," he said, and then plunged the knife into Liam's eye. Black blood splattered everywhere, and Liam went back down, the knife sticking out of his head.
"Jesus Christ..." Nick muttered. He felt like he was going to be sick, and he wasn't alone there. There was an eerily long pause, and then, "...what do we do?"
"I say we bury him," Pete said. "We owe him that much. But it's too damn dark to see right now."
"Morning then," Nick nodded. "Luke can help us."
"Alright," Pete agreed. "Let's move the body out of the way for now." He gestured for the younger man and the two picked up Liam's decaying body and carried him back to the bedroom he was staying in. They laid him on the bed, and covered his body so the smell wouldn't be so bad. "And don't say nothin' to your mother...she doesn't need to know about this," Pete replied.
"She's tougher than you think, you know," Nick bit back.
"I know." Pete nodded. "It's just...not yet." He shook his head before looking back up at his nephew. "Go on back to bed, we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Once those words left his mouth, Nick was thankful. He was still very tired, and after what just happened, he wanted to sleep more than anything. So, he headed back into the bedroom with his mother and climbed back into bed. Within minutes, he was asleep.
Morning came quicker than he would have liked, but he wasn't the first one to wake. It was Luke, and he had managed to find something for everyone to eat for breakfast for when they woke as well.
Nick came out to find him dishing out the food onto the plates from the cabinet. He noticed that there were five plates, indicating that Luke didn't know anything. God, this was going to suck. He could still see Liam's body, fresh in his mind.
"Morning," he greeted, trying to push it back.
"Oh, hey," Luke said in return, taking a spot at the table. "Sleep alright?"
Nick only shrugged, sitting beside him and rubbing the back of his neck. Like hell there was an easy way to explain what had happened. Turning his head, he could see that Pete had cleaned the blood to the best of his ability, but one could easily tell where it was.
"It was a bite," he said bluntly.
Luke looked puzzled. "What?"
"Those marks on Liam's neck? It was a bite," Nick explained somberly. "Pete and I found him in here, saw him die...turned right in front of us. Fuck, this ain't like the movies. This ain't like any shit we ever saw." He was really hoping that Helen wasn't listening at the moment. "Freaked the hell outta me."
Pete walked into the room at that moment, looking just as somber as Nick felt. They could hear Helen readying herself in the bedroom, so she would be out at any moment. No one knew how she would react.
"He turned that fast?" Luke asked. "Damn. Where is he now?"
"His bedroom. We're burying him."
"He's really dead though?" Luke inquired.
"Yeah man, Pete took care of him," Nick answered.
"Holy shit."
Pete sighed. "I didn't do nothing...only put him out of his misery."
It was that moment when Helen finally made her presence known as she walked into the kitchen. "Boy, something sure smells good! I am starving." She approached the boys. "Everyone sleep alright? What's for breakfast?"
Luke shrugged. "Oh, I just threw together what I could find."
"How'd you sleep, Mom?" Nick asked.
"You know, I actually slept okay," she said with a nod. "Where's Liam at? He still sleeping?" Nick closed his eyes and sighed. He knew she was going to find out eventually. His eyes darted to Pete, urging him to hell Helen just what had happened. After all, he was the one that had wanted to keep it from her.
"Uh, Helen...I gotta tell you some bad news." Pete sat down beside her. "Liam didn't make it last night."
Helen looked shocked. "What?"
"It turned out to be a lurker bite after all," Pete explained, remaining calm and collected despite the uneasy feeling that remained. "Poor bastard turned, there was nothin' we could've done to prevent it. We're burying him before we take off."
For a few moments, Helen was quiet. Then, "My God. That poor man. He didn't deserve it." She looked visibly upset, but Nick was right, she was a tough woman.
There was a moment of silence for Liam, and after breakfast was eaten, it was time to bury him. After checking to make sure that there weren't any walkers around, Luke and Nick got to digging a hole just outside the RV. They did have to be careful and keep an eye out, though. In about ten minutes, the hole was dug up. Luke and Pete got the body out of the bedroom and carried it outside. Liam was laid in the dirt, and Luke and Pete also took the liberty of covering up his body while Nick and Helen watched on, staring down at the grave. Liam had been kind and hospitable to the four of them in his final hours, so it was only fair that they do something for him in return, even as to laying him to rest.
Helen found a piece of plywood and marked it with Liam's name before placing it over the soil. She, Nick, Pete, and Luke stared at the grave for several long moments.
"We should go," Pete eventually said. "We're burnin' daylight."