Yes, I know my grammar sucks. But hey, at least I'm creative.

I've decided to keep this a hurt/comfort thing with a sibling relationship instead of some creepy romance. I feel that's what more people want.

Enjoy.

***

Louis looked down at his designer solar powered watch. "She's been in there for five minutes now. Should we go and-"

"Not yet," Bill said, closing up his canteen, "I trust her. She'll be out soon."
As if on cue, Zoey opened up the bathroom door and came out. Francis stood up and turned his head towards Zoey. "Ah, 'bout time you came… out?"

The group was shocked at the specimen that Zoey had brought out of the bathroom. "Hey guys, I want you to meet someone. I'm hoping we can take him along with us." Zoey was holding this young boy's hand, walking along towards them with him.

"Whoa, whoa," Bill said as he grabbed Zoey by the shoulder, leaving the boy back near the door. "Guys, over here. We need to plan things though. Huddle up."

The group got into a tight circle and started whispering to each other. "I knew it was going to be something like this when you said it was a boy. I was hoping I was wrong and it was just a male witch." Bill said to Zoey. "I know it sounds weird that I was hoping you would find an infected instead of a survivor, but I'm thinking that a kid that young would only slow us down."
Zoey lowered her head. "… I was afraid you would say something like that." Then Zoey look Bill directly in the eyes. "But I know that want to bring him along. You could never leave a boy behind in this post-apocalyptic zombie flick. You're a better person than that."
"I agree with Zoey here." Louis said as he loosened his tie. "If and when we get to safety, we're going to need all the help we can get to repopulate and rebuild humanity."
"I hate kids."
"Shut up, Francis." The other three said in unison.

The four looked towards the young boy. He was ripping open the box of 'chicken in a biscuit' that Louis had brought along. "… Alright, fine. We'll bring the kid along" Bill said looking back at Zoey. "But someone is going to have to stay with him at all times. Are you guys okay with that?"

"I would gladly do it." Zoey said. "I'll stay with him."
"I'm pretty good with kids." Louis said. "And he doesn't look like one of those overly hyperactive ones, either. I can handle that."
"Fine, then it's settled. We'll bring him along." Bill looked at the kid, who was shaking the box upside down over his mouth, trying to get the last few crumbs. "… Damn that kid was hungry."

Zoey walked over and lowered to his height. "We've decided to bring you with us. Would you mind telling us your name?"

The boy, still clutching to the box, said in a quiet, boyish voice "…Loren."

"Loren? Heh," Francis chuckled "that sure isn't a very manly name, that's for-"

Bill wacked Francis on the back of the head mid-speech. "God damn it, Francis, would you stop being a dick for five minutes? We're in the middle of a crisis."

Zoey took the box out of the boy's hands and set it aside. "Could you tell me what happened here?"

The boy was silent for a while, but then he spoke up. "I guess people thought that a church would be a good place to hide, because a lot of people came here. Mommy and Daddy said it would be a better place than home, so we packed everything and came here. Someone said that we should stay and wait for help from the military. So we stayed. Then they killed them, one by one, day after day. When we first saw the giant-"

"Giant?" Zoey asked.

"I think he means the tank." Bill informed.

"…we knew that they were not coming. Just the day before we were going to all leave, they rushed us in the middle of the night. After that, I was the only one left… the others had sacrificed themselves to save me…"

"Wow, what a story… I only hope my death has such meaning as that…" Bill said, taking his hat off out of respect. "But I have to ask, where were they going?"

"I… dunno… I think they said something about an air force base to the west…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes… hold on, I think one of them ripped out a page from a map book…" the boy looked under a few of the pews, and then picked up a large sheet of paper. "Here, this line that they drew shows where they all agreed to go. I hope this helps."

Zoey took the map from Loren and brought it over for the others to look at it. "So what do you think? Should we try it?"
Louis followed the line with his eyes, looking at what they would pass. "I think we can make it on foot. We could leave in the morning and be there by the afternoon."

Francis pointed at a spot on the map. "And I think there should be a safehouse right about there. I think we should go for it."

Bill nodded his head and put his hat back on. "Well, we don't really have much of a choice right now. You heard what happened to the others who stayed. I think we should get going ASAP."

"Wait, how do we know the kid isn't infected?" Francis said pointing at the kid.

"Well, we should give him a full body check. " Bill said casually, puffing a large cloud of smoke from his mouth.

"What? Hell no, not giving that to a kid." Louis said backing away slightly from Bill.

"I can do it." Zoey said raising her hand. "I'll examine his body."

"That's great," Bill said, "you two do that, us three can discuss tactics for getting to the base."

Zoey grabbed the boy's hand and lead him towards the bathroom. "Don't worry, this will be quick."