"Matthew."
Matthew opened his eyes then winced. It was morning, and the light from the snow was making the whole room insanely bright. He lifted his head and blearily looked around the room. He was in a hotel room again. So it had been a dream. The people weren't here, he and Harry were safe. He rolled over to poke Harry awake. But the bed next to him was empty.
"Harry?" He looked around the room, wondering-hoping Harry was in the bathroom. Then it dawned on him-this wasn't the room he and Harry had been hiding out in. Panic seized him like a cold fist. He leapt out of bed, ready to run out the room and attack everyone in his way to find his brother. But then, voices from outside the window stopped him. He pulled the lace curtain aside and peered out.
To his relief, he saw Harry outside in the snow. Two other children were out there as well, the girl he had seen last night, and a boy, probably a few years younger than Harry. They seemed to be having a snowball fight. The woman with the brown hair from the night before was there too, laughing and throwing snowballs at the boys with the little girl. And there was a man, with his back to the window, watching them. Blonde, tanned, stocky looking. Matthews heart started to pound again. He leaned closer to the window, trying to get a better look at the man, willing him to turn around.
"You know it's not him." Matthew turned his head to the bed. His heart sunk. Sat on the end of the bed, looking no worse for wear was his old gym teacher, Mr Lister. He was looking at him with an irritating understanding look on his face. Matthew turned his attention back to the window.
"Shut up. You're not real. You're only in my head." He pressed his face up against the glass trying to see the man.
"If I'm not real, why are you talking to me?" Mr Lister leaned forward, his "I'm listening" expression on his face, just like he use to do in school. He stood up and walked over to the window and peered out of the window. "That's not your uncle Matthew. You saw your uncle die, just like you saw your father die." Matthew gritted his teeth and didn't respond. He'd been seeing, and speaking, to Mr Lister for a few weeks now, usually when he was worried or stressed. More often than not, he had full blown conversations with him, debating with him almost, about what to do, where to go. He didn't really mind him too much, but he knew if anyone else walked in, all they would see was him talking to himself. Matthew had seen the effects that the epidemic had had on people, but he couldn't imagine anyone being too understanding about a thirteen year old communicating with the dead.
The door to the hotel opened and Matthew jumped away from the window and onto the bed. He lay on the bed, pretending to be asleep. He heard two people entering the room talking in hushed voices. He picked out a male voice, soft and southern.
"Is he still asleep?" He felt someone sit down next to him on the bed.
"Out for the count. Poor thing. They're both so young to be out there alone. They must have been terrified." This voice was a woman, who must have been the one who sat on the bed, her voice was closest. He felt her hand on his forehead, first the palm and then the back of it. "He doesn't seem to have a fever. How on earth do you think they lasted this long?"
"I don't know. The little one is pretty reluctant to talk to anyone about anything. Won't answer any questions, apart from his name's Harry. Just wants to play with Sophie and Carl. Georgie, Adele and Daryl are watching them outside."
"Daryl?" The woman sounded surprised. "Did Georgie bully him into it?"
"No, would you believe. He went out because he wanted to." The man's voice sounded as amazed as the woman. A silence followed.
Matthew started to shift, making a big point of yawning and stretching. He opened his eyes, to face the person sat on his bed. It was the bald headed person from last night. Except they weren't completely bald, their hair was simply cut very short. It was a woman, with brown hair, flecks of grey scattered through it. Her eyes were a very unusual colour, grey with a hint of purple. She was looking at him with a concerned expression on her face, and was moving backwards, apparently removing her hand from his forehead. He looked around. Mr Lister was leant against the wall, watching another man who was standing in the corner of the room. Matthew sat up straight, looking at him. Even from the back of his head, he knew who this person was. Or who he wanted him to be.
Almost in slow motion, the man turned around to face him. He was average height, with kind blue eyes. His hair was brown, short and slightly curly. He was wearing a sheriffs uniform. He smiled at him and moved towards the bed. Everything about the man was familiar and comforting. But it wasn't his father.
Suddenly it was all too much. Even though he had known it was impossible, even though he had been strong since the disaster had started, even though he had kept himself and his brother alive for weeks, maybe months, Matthew was overcome by emotion. To his horror, he burst into noisy, uncontrollable tears, burying his face in his knees, holding his head in his hands. He felt arms wrap around him, and hands stroking his hair. He wanted to shake the person off, but he couldn't collect himself.
"Hey, hey." The man's voice, nothing like his fathers, broke through his sobs. "Come on now. It's ok, you're safe. No one's going to hurt you." Matthew drew in a deep shuddering breath and lifted his head, wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands. Pulling himself together, he tried to decide what to say when they asked him where they had come from. He didn't want to give anything away, until he knew if these people would keep him and his brother safe. He looked up to face the man, who had moved to sit on the other side of the bed. Both he and the woman waited for Matthew to pull himself together before they spoke again.
"My name's Rick. This here is Carol. Could you maybe, tell us your name?" Matthew glanced at Mr Lister, who nodded slowly.
"Matthew." He sniffed woefully and looked down at his hands.
"Matthew. Matthew, is that other kid your brother? The small boy with the freckles?" Matthew studied his hands intently, again glancing at Mr Lister before answering.
"Yeah. Harry's my brother."
"Ok." Rick shifted himself on the bed. "Now Matthew, I know you must be scared, an something's might be hard to remember or talk about now, but we really need to know where you came from. Can you tell us if there's anyone else in the area? Anyone else in the hotel?" Matthew shook his head.
"I don't know. Me and Harry stayed in the room upstairs. When we heard those men in the hotel, we hid under the bed. We didn't think they'd come back."
"Under the bed." Carol, the woman spoke for the first time. "T-Dog and Daryl can't have looked that hard. There could be walkers in the whole building."
"All the doors are locked." Matthew spoke without thinking. Carol looked at him quizzically. "You have to get a master key from reception. We went into the rooms and got the candy and chips out of the mini bars. We only covered some of the first floor and the room on the second floor."
"Matthew. Do you still have that key? Because we're going to need to look in the other rooms." Matthew hesitated. If he gave up the key, the man might turn on him, lock him and Harry in a room somewhere.
"Don't give it up yet." Mr Lister spoke from across the room. Matthew half expected Rick and Carol to turn around, but Lister was still only visible and audible to himself alone. "You're right. Figure them out first." Matthew nodded.
"It's somewhere in my room."
"Ok." Rick looked up at Carol before pressing on. "Now. How did you and your brother end up out here all alone? Where are your parents?" Matthew froze. He could see Mr Lister shaking his head at him. He was right. Whether these people were good or not, they would never understand what he did. He couldn't tell them, and he needed to tell Harry not to tell either. Rick looked at the wall Lister was stood against and back at Matthew. For a split second, Matthew was convinced Lister had made himself visible to Rick, but then he saw the confused look on his face.
"What do you keep looking at that wall? Something bothering you?" Matthew opened and shut his mouth foolishly, searching for an adequate response.
"Can I see my brother now please?" Rick started to say something, but Carol stopped him.
"Of course you can. He's outside with the other children. And I bet you want some breakfast." She glanced up at Rick. "We can talk more later, when you're fed." She placed a motherly hand on Matthew's shoulder and stood up, motioning Rick to do the same. "There's some eggs downstairs. T-Dog made them. Powered, but he does make good eggs." She left the room, followed by Rick, who looked deep in thought. Matthew waited until he heard the lounge door to the room close before he got out of bed.
"That was close mate." Matthew glared at Mr Lister as he went into the bathroom to splash water on his face. "You need to play it safer than that. That Rick is a Sherriff. He'll get the truth out of you somehow. Don't let him ask you anymore questions, no matter how much he looks like your dad."
Matthew walked out of the room and glanced into the lounge to check that Rick and Carol weren't listening in on him before he answered. "Well maybe if you didn't hang around making me look crazy, they wouldn't be so suspicious." He found his shoes by the couch and rammed them on before leaving the room in search of the eggs Carol had promised him. As he left, he heard Mr Lister call after him:
"I'm your hallucination Matthew. I'd say just looking crazy isn't the main issue here."