At the last second the boy somehow managed to move his head just enough to avoid the killing blow, the blade of the hatchet buried itself in the floorboard a fraction of an inch above the boy's skull. As Joseph pulled the blade free from the floor and readied for a second attempt Lucas pulled him back a few steps.

"What the hell are you doing man, let's kill it and get out of here!"

"Look at him, he's no danger to us, he hasn't so much as snapped his jaws at us or tried to reach out for us." with that he moved in closer to get a better look at the frail figure on the floor in front of them.

"Sweet sassy molassy, he's not fucking dead!" Lucas could just barely make out the rising and falling of the boy's chest and the bright green of his eyes as they flickered open and closed as he fought to remain among the living.

"Joseph, go back and grab a bottle of water and some food from my pack."
Lucas knelt beside the boy and gently took his hand "You're going to be ok kid!"

Joseph came bounding back up the stairs with the bottle in one hand and an MRE in the other, "I can't believe I almost killed him." he said as he knelt beside the boys head, gently lifting it from the floor and placing the bottle to his lips.

The water leaked from the corners of the boy's mouth as he tried to swallow as fast as his parched mouth would let him.

"Slow down buddy, there is plenty more where this came from." Joseph slowly lowered his head to the floor, placing the bottle to the side and opening the MRE.

As he dumped the contents of the MRE onto the floor he continued muttering to himself "How could I have almost killed a little kid..."

"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades man, you missed and he's alive that's what matters. Now it is going to be dark soon and I don't want to be traveling at night if we don't have to so let's set up here in the attic, get this kid some more food and water and we can get him back home in the morning."

"You're right, I'll get some of this food into him if you want to move some stuff around and lay out our bags. One of us should probably head downstairs and secure the doors just to be safe too."

With that Lucas made his way back through the attic to the stairs and down onto the second floor, his pack was overturned in the middle of the room where Joseph had hurriedly grabbed the supplies. He proceeded down to the first floor locking the front door as he passed and made his way to the back of the house to double check that the backdoor was closed . It was so Lucas made his way back to the attic, making sure to gather up their packs and supplies before securing both the closet door and the door to the attic.

He dropped the packs on the floor as he made his way over to Joseph who was still kneeling at the boys side, "How is he doing?" Lucas asked as he pulled their sleeping bags out and began to unroll them.

"Better, he drank a whole bottle of water and took some of the MRE. He seems to be sleeping comfortably for the moment."

"Good, I locked up downstairs and grabbed all of our stuff. I will take first watch while you get some sleep; I'll get you up in a couple of hours. Sound good?"

"Sounds good." With that Joseph grabbed his bag laid it out next to the boy and closed his eyes.