So, I thought this would be out 2 days ago… Sorry, I miscalculated ^^'

After making it very clear that they were the only two going on this rescue mission, especially to Robin, the two had packed their bags and began heading towards the direction that Maka had sensed the soul once the sun was up. Unfortunately, neither of them had gotten much sleep. Kid knew this mission was going to be dangerous in more ways than one, and figured the more stealth they had on their side, the better, and stealth naturally came with small numbers. Of course Maka could have been extremely stealthy on her own, but Kid simply refused to let her go out there alone. The direction in which she had sensed the soul was unexplored territory to them, who truly knew what awaited them there? Kid figured they would be gone for a few days, maybe a week at most. The distance of the soul Maka had sensed was easily a day's trip.

Most of the journey was rather quiet, both meisters seemed lost in thought, though it wasn't uncomfortable. They had been walking in unfamiliar terrain for a good 6 hours now and covered about 12 miles. The two could've probably gone a bit faster, but the continuous stop and start due to rotters made it difficult to travel at a constant speed. Luckily they hadn't been swarmed, but the population of the beasts certainly increased the further away they strayed from their camp. About a half mile back they had found a small cave and both agreed it would be perfect place to stay in for the night seeing as the clouds above seemed to get darker and simple tree cover wouldn't suffice such a brutal bombardment of rain, but they weren't about to turn in just yet; it had been around this area Maka had sensed the soul. They carefully stored supplies they wouldn't need immediately in the cave, such as food and clothing, and decided to explore the area, rather than going out any further.

Maka couldn't help but think about what Liz had said to her about Kid. I see you two being all cute and flirty. She almost blushed at the thought. Her and Kid? Flirting? The thought just seemed sort of ridiculous. Not that she didn't she didn't think he was attractive or anything, he just always seemed so… Reserved; distant from the rest of the group. Say she did have an interest in him in that way, surely that feeling wouldn't be returned. She thought back to the time they spent, just the two of them and Robin. She almost smiled at the thought. The two of them did have some moments didn't they? She felt like she had seen a whole new side to the reserved reaper; but once they had found the Thompson sisters, it almost felt as if he started avoiding her. Did he really confide in her like that just because he had no one else to talk to? That thought didn't feel truthful, but it still stung.

"Is that a… Town?" Kid questioned, bringing Maka back from her internal conversation.

"I knew we had been walking awhile, but I didn't thing we'd gotten that far…" Maka mused, commenting on the rooftops that had just come into view. "Should we go check it out? I bet we could get a lot of helpful supplies…"

"I don't know…" Kid said warily. "You saw how it was in Death City; and I can only guess the Rotter count would be much more dense in higher populated areas..." Though I really do need to get something. Today is special after all… He thought afterwards. "Ok, here's the plan. We scope out the place, go to the nearest store, grab as much supplies as we could possibly carry," Kid was silently thankful that they had decided against leaving their backpacks in the cave. "And we get out, quick."

Maka nodded in agreement as the damaged town came into view.

After circling the entire town and discovering it was, in fact infested with the flesh eating beasts, the two meisters were lucky enough to discover a store that seemed to be void of rotters.

"This place is a wreck…" Maka commented, gingerly stepping through a glass door that was completely shattered. The smell that hit them almost immediately was appalling. A combination smell of rancid flesh and smoke wafted through the building, causing their eyes to water.

"Well, now we know why they aren't in here." Kid whispered through a cough. "If we split up, we would be able to get a wider variety supplies. Besides," Kid paused as something that vaguely resembled a package of soiling hamburger meat hit his foot and looked at it with disgust. "I don't think we have to worry too much about the rotters in here…"

"Right. I'll get whatever food I can manage to find," Maka nodded, taking in the damage and scarcity of food products. It was obvious a lot of it had been picked over; someone had been there recently. "You get whatever other supplies we might need. Let's meet back up here in about 10 minutes."

The two both set off in different directions, Kid scrunched up his nose as the odor started to become more offensive. Almost having to hold his nose as he walked down the pharmacy aisles, Kid stuffed his bag with what ever pain killers, bandages and first aid kits were left, which wasn't much. After stuffing a few toiletries (some upon Liz's request) into his bag, he started off to a different section; which was the real reason why he wanted to split up. Smiling in success as he found what he wanted, he stuffed it into his now budging backpack and tried to ignore the lack of symmetry and tidiness; in all honesty, he was proud of himself for keeping his cool in such a chaotic store… He twitched slightly. Oh great… Now I'm thinking about it... Knowing he had a little extra time before he was to meet Maka, he began to browse a little to keep his mind off the mess, maybe even finding some creature comfort items that might put them all in a better mood. Kid tilted his head as he found a small coloring book with crayons attached. Little kids like this sort of thing, right? He thought it over and put it in his backpack anyways, perhaps Robin could find some normalcy in it. His eyes wandered towards a small section at the back of the store. The jewelry section. He shrugged and wandered over, eyeing all the cheaply displayed items, loosely acknowledging the new intensity of the smell of rancid flesh. Uninterested in the cheap metals, his eyes stopped when they came to a particular case. It was a simple silver necklace that wrapped around a display hook and finally came together into one smaller chain that detained a dainty, oval emerald. The color of the stone vaguely reminded him of something particularly pleasant, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what. All he knew was that he wanted it. Without thinking, the butt of his knife was already hacking away at the glass that imprisoned the precious stone necklace and before he knew it, he was running his fingers over the smooth silver chain to examine it. Not a single chink. He smirked at the perfection.

That was when he felt something grab his shoulder.

Before he could react, he felt the warm, sour breathe of a rotter run down his arm as it sunk its teeth deep into the flesh of his bicep. Kid swung his good arm that luckily was the one wielding the knife, and embedded it deep into the rotters forehead. It's glazed eyes simply stared at him for a minute before it fell over. Kid was frozen in place. He was bit. Immediately, he took the knife that was buried in the dead Rotter's forehead and held it tight to his own throat, waiting to feel his body overcome by the disease. If he was going to turn, there was no way he was going to endanger Maka. The bite seared his skin, the pain was greater than he had ever felt before, but he kept a tight grip on his knife, nothing was going to make him drop it.

15 seconds.

He had outlived most human beings; but then again, he wasn't exactly human. He stayed in the same stance, barely even allowing his lungs breath.

30 seconds.

Perhaps he was immune? No, that wasn't particularly possible. His body may not be human, but it was still a body. Possibly it could hold off the effects. After about a minute, the pain dulled down, though it was still sure to make itself known. Kid let out a heavy breath and decided to examine his wound. The rotter had bitten clean through his long sleeved shirt, but it seemed as if only his top teeth broke skin, seeing as it was only one parenthesis shaped mark instead of two. He folded his sleeve in such a way that it didn't look cut, then cut and folded the other sleeve to match. Kid could feel the sweat building on his forehead, but other than fear and the dull, droning pain on his arm, he felt fine. He looked down at the hand on his injured arm to see it was closed in a tight fist; he uncoiled it to reveal shiny silver and green. Placing the necklace in his pocket, he looked up as a loud thud came from somewhere beyond the jewelry counter.

Dozens upon dozens of thrashing bodies seemed to pour in from a back room, all their eyes set on Kid, who turned tail and sprinted for the grocery section. They most've heard the commotion. Just before reaching his destination, Kid's feet flew out from under him as he slid over a piece of glass, causing him to bite his lip. Hard. Kid was a frenzy of arms and legs as he willed his body vertical again, ignoring the vicious cuts he was receiving on his hands from the shards of glass scattered below. The moans and groans behind him were worse than a ticking clock as he clumsily, but finally, made it to his feet. Maka came running down an aisle in front of him, obviously alert to the new abundance of sound. Only pausing long enough for her eyes to widen at the scene before her and ensure Kid would follow, she turned and ran toward the exit and out the door; Kid silently thanked whoever was watching out for them as they both made it safely out of that accursed store. But they didn't stop running. Kid vaguely appreciated the small raindrops that occasionally hit his bruised face, but mostly tried to keep his mind focused on following Maka. She was pretty fast when she really needed to be. The two meisters didn't stop or slow down once until the reached the cave; and once they were in the safety of their makeshift home, the sky opened up into a complete down pour. Neither of them said a word, but simply looked at each other, both panting, and started laughing uncontrollably, thinking the exact same thing the other was.

At least Mother Nature had spared them of getting rained on.

Oooooooh crap. Kids bit. Again, sorry for promising a quick update then letting two days pass! I honestly thought it wouldn't take me that long to write chapter 19, but its turning into an absolute MONSTER. I'm only halfway through it and it's about as long as my average chapter pushing at 2,300 words; So expect next chapter to be much longer.

As an apology for saying something and not following through, here is a small sneak peak to chapter 19:

Things calmed down quite considerably. Thankfully they were able to find enough wood that was dry enough to start and continue a decent fire. It was rather nice, actually, though the rain continued to drone on outside, the fire had warmed the cave quite nicely, leave the two more comfortable, temperature wise, than they had been in awhile.

Kid looked over at Maka who was hugging her knees tightly to her chest, forlornly looking into the pits of the campfire. He sighed inwardly, every since they had gotten back she had been like this, distant and unresponsive. This whole ordeal was tough for him to manage, but she had experience everything he had along with the possible confirmed death of her weapon partner… Best friend… Maybe more? Kid shook his head of the thought; it made him… Uneasy for some reason. If anything good were to come out of this silence, it was that Kid was able to think more thoroughly about his injury when his mind didn't wander to the small, fragile looking blonde across from him.

Yes, I said small and meant it ^^ Also, If you want to see what that necklace looks like, Ill send you a link through private messaging, just let me know.

Replies~!

Checkered Brooke- Oh, but cliffhangers make the world go round! They keep things… Interesting :D Ooooh nice ones! I like the way you think my friend! All very real possibilities :3 Stay tuned!

PsychopathicXangel- Not much KiMa in this one… But expect some in chapter 19 for sure!

Awesomex- Why, thank you! I find you feel more engrossed in a story when you have an author who knows appropriate punctuation; it just makes the overall experience of reading more enjoyable! Though I do admit I slip up in spelling and even punctuation at times, I try to re-read and fix as much as I can!

Mikaela- Oh, don't get me wrong, I love Soul. He's actually my third favorite character behind Kidd and Maka; but I will say, things have to happen for other things to happen. And yeah, I can totally see Maka losing it.

Carifoo2001- I'm sorry for updating so much? o.o and yes, I know how to spell thief, I must've just missed it once because I looked back and saw that it was normally spelt correctly and only misspelled once, thanks for letting me know, though. And as for the Liz suggestion; I'll take it into consideration, though I think I have an idea for her…

XxDeathTheKid4EverxX- Thanks! I hope it makes up for lack of cuteness in this chapter ^^'

DeathTheKidsDinosaurRawr- oooooh, I do like llamas :3 It's all The Emperor's New Groove's fault…