Of course I was terrified. I thought I was going to die.

One of them came over to me with a cock of his head and a smirk on his face. "This body's still breathing!" he called out to the others. He was tall, maybe about five foot ten and skinny as hell, donned in black jeans, fingerless gloves, a ratty white shirt, and combat boots.

"Well bring it over here!" another voice called out. A female voice.

The man before me held out his hand, which I was reluctant to take at first. "Come on, we're not gonna eat you or anything." he assured me. Although I wasn't sure how to take that, I grabbed his hand and he helped me onto my feet.

Te other three stood around my parents' bodies, looking as if they were deep in thought. The female of the group stopped for a moment to look up at me, and her expression changed from deep in thought to curious. "Well, who might you be?"

I wasn't sure what to say. For a minute or two, I just stood there with an open mouth, trying to think of something, anything to say. "I'm their son." I finally managed to say, and then was silent again. Not a very good choice of words.

She just looked back down at the bodies with a raised eyebrow. "Well, this is awkward..."

There was another man there, standing as straight as he could. His hair was slicked back and he wore glasses, and his eyes never left the bodies. "My condolences." he muttered. He didn't really sound like he meant it though.

Didn't matter, anyway.

"Seems like they've been dead for at least a week now. Have you been here since then?" the woman asked.

I reluctantly nodded.

She sighed and shook her head. "That's no way for a kid to live."

"What are you suggesting?" the man with the glasses asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Oh, come on. We can't leave him here."

"It's- it's really no trouble. I'm okay here..." I tried to argue.

"No, kid. You can come with us." the woman said.

"Are you insane?! With the kind of work that we do? He won't survive a week!" the man with the glasses hissed. That made me nervous about who these people really were. And apparently the woman took notice of my changed expression.

"Aw, look at what you did. You scared him." the woman said with a scowl.

"R-really. There's no need to worry about some nobody like me." I piped.

Silence fell around us until the man with the glasses sighed heavily. "Alright. Well, how about this. In exchange for your parents, we'll take care of you."

I didn't answer at first. How the hell was I supposed to answer that? I mean, yes, my parents didn't mean much at all to me, but why would they want their bodies? I looked down at the bodies, and they started to rot already. "Um..." I stammered, "W-well...I mean-"

"Alright, kid. Let me explain to you why." the woman offered, "Y'know that guy in all the posters around the city? The fat Italian dude who claims he has the answers to all organ failure problems?" I nodded. "We know he's up to something. With this new painkiller that he came up with? He can't be trusted."

"...You mean the owner of GeneCo?" I asked.

She nodded. "And he keeps collecting dead bodies for some reason. We're trying to find out why. Well, and we found out that this painkiller shit has people paying a fortune for it. So to fund our research, we steal it from GeneCo and give to the addicts. It might be a little sick, but look at what this world is turning into. Might as well adapt." She shrugged.

I was hesitant. But all that was left of my parents was rotting flesh and bones...so what reason was there to refuse? Still, I didn't know these people at all. "What exactly will happen to me if I say yes?" I asked with a bit of a firmer voice.

"Well, if he's gonna follow us around and stuff, he might as well learn our trade." the skinny tall man said.

The woman nodded. "Then it's settled. Kid, I hope you're ready to forget your past life because from this point on, you're going to become a graverobber. You're going to chuck your name out the window and from this point on, you'll be Z. Alright?"

I swallowed hard.

"I'm Hen. I make sure everyone stays alive." she introduced herself, then pointed to the tall skinny man. "Right there is Bullet, our bodyguard. He actually got an organ transplant so we're keeping a close eye on his contract." Next was the man with the glasses. "Atom is our scientist. A recently escaped doctor from GeneCo who's our inside man on the painkiller. Zydrate." And then there was the fourth person, a rather burly man with a black beard who stood quietly. "Here's Red, my right-hand man. He doesn't talk much, but he's pretty important." Although she failed to mention why, we just nodded at each other.

"Let's go get something to eat. I'm fuckin' starving." Bullet whined.

"We have to take care of these first." Hen pointed at the bodies, "And then we'll eat."

So we picked up what remained of my mother and father to find some abandoned building where I would watch them work.