YAY! A longish chapter! Woo! I did plan to do more with this chapter, but I thought I'd save it for the next :)

Oh yeah, and I figured I'm not gonna put any new characters into the story. Not because you guys didn't want them in, but bc they'd be better off in the flashbacks. Yes, one of them could have been good for maybe a chapter where he or she was in it once or for a couple and left straight after. But idk. Maybe they wil ;)

But anyway, enjoy!

Guess Account Replies:

R5Girl13: Haha, Mrs Hayes doesn't hate Ratliff :) You'll see that soon in some flashbacks and a little in this chapter.

Riaura Fan: Yes, Ryland is going to be in the flashbacks. I don't need examples or suggestions, okay? I'm not asking for any. I'll say if I need any ideas, and so far I've got everyone sorted out up until the very final chapter.

Chapter 8
The Old Friends

The four, plus Riker, had found somewhere to settle down for a little while. They were well out of LA, still near it, but not in the city. All of them had found a hut along the road that Ross and Rocky were guiding them along, it seemed big enough to fit five, maybe six, people in it. Seen as though they were all tired out from the burning Sun that was out, they took a stop there.

Ratliff stood in the doorway (if you could even call it a doorway?) looking out incase anybody was there or any zombies made some surprise appearances like they have a reputation of doing. Ross and Rocky gently took Riker inside the hut, whilst Rydel went on ahead and made sure the ground was comfy enough for him to lay on. Ratliff turned away from the door and looked down to where they had just laid Riker down.

He looked a mess. His hair was all over the place, it wasn't it's normal blonde, neat and tidy self. His face had a couple scratches on them along with the couple dirt marks, including his hair. Ratliff continued to stare down nervously at him, looking away somewhere else and back at him as if it was too awkward too. Rocky noticed this as he was getting something out of his backpack.

Rocky stood up, getting the thing he wanted out of his backpack which was his water bottle. "So, you two, huh?" Rocky asked, raising his eye brows up as he said 'huh, screwing off the lid to his bottle "knew each other?"

Ratliff nodded. "Anybody else you know from High School that we might happen to bump into?" Rocky asked, half jokingly. Though, he knew they were bound to run into random people hiding, running and trying to protect themselves, it appeared Ratliff seemed to be the well known one here out of the four, now five, people standing in the hut.

Even Rydel said she recognises him from somewhere.

Ratliff shrugged "There's my friends Tristan and Connor. But... something tells me they probably didn't survive long when the apocalypse started. I never seen them ever again after... something happened. I went to go see them, but that was the day the apocalypse started and well... you know... got distracted, obviously," he said, trying to make them laugh at the last part about the distraction, it worked a little. "Then there's my teacher Mrs Hayes... I know she probably didn't survive. All the students that got turned into zombies probably attacked her."

Ross let out a small laugh, still kneeling on the floor "Was she that bad?" he asked.

Ratliff looked up to the dented metal roof of the hut "Well... depends. At first, throughout my whole High School year... she was a gigantic pain in the ass. The beginning of senior year, she was even more of a gigantic pain in the ass. But... then I realised, in my senior year one, she was only worried and concerned for me. Seeing things I couldn't quite," he shrugged "she helped me through a lot, I'll say that. I suppose in the end, she was a pretty alright teacher," he said with a small smile, letting it fade almost instantly "and... I don't think I ever told her. I don't think I even showed it..."

"I'm sure she knew," Rydel said, smiling a little trying to cheer him up. He seemed more sadder by Mrs Hayes being gone and what he never said to her then he did about his friends Tristan and Connor. She have had some sort of big impact on his life. "Everyone knows."

Ratliff looked at Rydel confused "What do you mean?"

"Well.. it's like... you know that one person in your life you always act like you hate, but it's not hate. You know that. It's more of a banter-full relationship you both have together because you still get on with one another when you're not being 'mean' to one another. Throughout the years you know that person, that bond you have with that person gets sort of stronger in the way it's always been. And even though you still fire shots at one another, your not exactly mean to the point where you make them cry, because they know you don't mean it and it's only a joke. They take it like a joke and fire shots back. And I guess, in a way... that's just a way of showing how much you care for each other. Even if you don't ever say it."

The three boys let silence fall over them after Rydel finished saying what she had just said. Ross had to blink a couple times to make sure he didn't imagine something that intelligent coming out from Rydel's mouth, as for Rocky and Ratliff they were in some sort of shock too. Rydel rolled her eyes "Oh, get over it, I may be mean, but I know what's what." she said, turning around and having her back to them.

Ross walked slowly over to her "If that's the case, have anything else like that you wanna share with us?" He asked, half jokingly. He was mocking Rydel and her intelligence he didn't think she had or would ever see.

Rydel shrugged "Not yet."

Ross gave Rydel a type of suspicious look before taking a couple steps across to the other side of the hut. "Oh c'mon," Rydel said "there's had to of been somebody in your life that was like that to you? Everyone has."

Ross shrugged, sitting down a small wooden chair that looked like it was about to collapse "I guess you could say I did." as soon as Ross's butt touched the chair, the legs gave out and collapsed. Making him fall on the floor.

"Good one fat ass." Rocky said to him.

Ross glared up at Rocky, picking up one of the bits of wood from the broken chair and lobbing it at him. Rydel folded her arms, becoming interested in Ross's little past that seemed to be coming out, apart of Ratliff's had and it looked like it was Ross's turn. Soon Rocky and then probably her. Wonderful. "So, who was this 'friend' Ross?" she asked.

"He wasn't exactly anybody special, Rydel," Ross said. He sighed "Not as special as Riker seems to be." he tried to say quietly in a sing song voice, picking up on something between Ratliff and Riker.

"Oh, wow, dude. Wow." Ratliff said sarcastically.

Ross shrugged. Rocky turned to Rydel, facing her "The guy he's referring too is, or was, his best friend. But he died, at least we think he did. We offered him to come with me, Ross and our other friend Will on this little trip, he said yes. But when we went to leave we couldn't find him, we wait around for him long enough and he made a no show."

Ross sighed, almost pouting "Why is everyone we're talking about dead?" he asked, almost rhetorically.

"Because they didn't know how to survive," Ratliff said, sounding serious but it was an obvious guess for him "or they couldn't take being in an apocalypse anymore so they decided to end it."

Ross shrugged again "Maybe."

"Ross almost never came with us, he wanted to go look for him as he owed him big time," Rocky said, explaining to the others. Even though he never really wanted to go down that road with this again, or re-live it. "Why, you may ask? Because, he saved his life. Well, as much as it could have been saved but lets face it," Rocky said, turning to Ross "if Brad didn't get you out of there when he did, you would not be here today, would you?"

"More than likely, yes." Ross said, even though he was unwilling to admit it. "And now he might be dead when I could have saved him. I was supposed to make it up for him because he nearly died too," Ross started to explain, starting to get angry with himself "and that was the only way, by going to look for him, I could have made it up to him was by going to look for him. And I failed at that," Ross took a big deep breath, trying to get the anger out of his system as the others looked at him sympathetically. He forced a smile on his face, looking at Rocky, Ratliff and Rydel. Mainly aiming it at Rydel and Ratliff "So for the love of god. Please... TRY to stay alive until we get to Utah."

Rydel scoffed "I'll try." she joked, turning around to get some water from Ross's water bottle seen as though Rocky still had his in his hand.

Ross's smile faded when Rydel said that. It wasn't that he thought she was more likely to get herself killed then Ratliff and Rocky was, if anything she was the least likely out of all of them, it was just... he didn't want her to die of all people.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a soft groaning. They turned their heads to the floor, seeing Riker stirring. Ratliff's eyes widened "Right, um... he's obviously going to wake up now," Ratliff said, going towards the exit of the hut "and when he does, he'll start asking questions about who you are, where he is and what not. But when you tell him who you all are, I am not here."

Rocky gave Ratliff a suspicious look "Why...?" he asked.

Ratliff shrugged, obviously hiding something "Oh, you know... because... lets just say after I planned on seeing Connor and Tristan to talk to them, I planned on going to go see Riker for the, almost, exact same reason. Lets just say long story short, I had no friends when the apocalypse started," he stuck his thumbs up, but he saw Riker's eyes moving "anyway! I'll be hiding out here!" he quickly ran outside, out of the sight of the entrance so Riker couldn't see him when he woke.

Because if he did, lets just say all hell would break loose and one of them would be fed to the nearest zombie.

Rydel sighed, averting her eyes upwards like something was going to give her strength "I feel like the only person who's not going to cause drama..."

Rocky gave her a funny look, even though he planned on going out there to Ratliff "What do you mean? We're not causing drama or going too."

"Oh, c'mon Rocky. Obviously something happened with Riker and Ratliff. That's going to start something off when Riker wakes properly and sees Ratliff. You two, your brothers so obviously something's going to happen between you both, or even worse or better you might find your Brad friend."

Ross looked at Rydel like she was talking nonsense and she was an idiot "He's gone Rydel."

Rydel scoffed "Oh sweetie, did you not watch TV when we had it? This stuff ALWAYS happens. You lose a friend, and you always end up finding them eventually. Besides, you don't know if he's dead or not. He could still be out there somewhere if you think about it."

Ross went to go say something about Rydel being wrong, but by the time he went to Riker had already woken up fully. They looked down to him where he was rubbing his eyes and sitting up. When Riker moved his hands from his eyes, he looked from Ross to Rydel and to Rocky who was near the entrance "What the hell is going on?" Riker asked, sort of groggily.

"You tell us," Rydel said "One minute me and the other blondie here were cleaning ourselves up and all of a sudden you come rolling down the hill unconscious!"

Riker cocked his head, facing Rydel's direction but letting his eyes wonder to the side trying to think of where he last was before he woke up here in some hut. "Oh, yeah... I was being chased by zombies. I tripped and fell down the hill.. and well... here I am now."

"Well, you haven't got any broken bones, we checked," Ross said "you should be okay. We've been carrying you for hours."

Riker nodded "Thanks... who are you guys?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm Rydel," Rydel said, introducing herself "blondie over there is called Ross, and the one who looks like Jesus is Rocky." she smiled.

Ross sighed, looking at Rydel unimpressed and shaking his head "You're going to have to come up with better nicknames than blondie and Jesus. Especially when you're blonde yourself and look like the female version of jesus over there." he nodded his head in the direction of Rocky.

"Yeah, we also have another friend with us," Rocky said, moving towards the exit "he ran out. But I'm going to go see him now. He's the one who told us to bring you with us so you'd be safe and wouldn't get hurt because apparently he knows you."

"He?"

Rocky nodded "Yeah. Goes by the name of Ratliff," Rocky said, seeing Riker's face drop, his eyes close and he sighed like he was fed up "and... that reaction to him cannot be good." Rocky didn't say anything else before exiting through the door "Ratliff! He's awake!"

Ross looked away from where Rocky had left and to Riker "Apparently you both know each other. All we got told is that you were friends in High School. And about some guys called Tristan and Connor as well as a teacher called Mrs Hayes. Ring any bells?" he asked.

Riker nodded "Oh, yeah. All three of them. What a freaking nightmare." he said, rubbing his eyes.

"So," Rydel said, kneeling down on the floor, becoming quite interesting in this story and what happened between Riker and Ratliff "why don't you tell us a story Riker? How you and Ratliff know each other and what happened because he won't say anything to us."

"Of course he won't," Riker said, not seeming surprised in the slightest "he never does."

Ross sighed, again sounding fed up and the apparent drama that seemed like that was going to be caused hadn't even began yet. He was starting to feel like he was in some sort of teenage drama story. He brought one knee up, resting his elbow on it and supported his face with the hand on the same arm "This is going to be fun..." Ross said, seeming tired.

Rydel reached over and slapped Ross across the head for being insensitive "Shut up Ross and listen to the story for goodness sake."

Rocky walked out of the hut and looked around, seeing for where Ratliff could have went. It couldn't have been far, and he couldn't hide because all that was around was grass that had turned brown and short, a couple trees and that was it. He looked left and right before going left to look next to the hut where Ratliff was leant against it sitting on the floor "Dude," Rocky said, catching his attention "just get back inside the hut and stop acting like a baby."

"I'm not acting like a baby, Rocky," Ratliff said, trying to defend himself "You don't know what happened. So therefore, you can't say anything about me being a baby about not wanting to see him."

Rocky rolled his eyes, walking closer and sitting down next to him on the floor "Then why don't you tell me?"

I literally went through 3 names for this chapter. Oh my god.

Like i said at the beginning, I was going to put a flashback in this chapter but I think I'll do what I wanted to do for this chapter in the next one. Woo.

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