Russel decided that hiding would just make him look dangerous, and in these parts if you're a threat you're bound to get shot. He stopped in his tracks, looking directly at the truck. A light was out on one of the headlights. The truck pulled up next to him, the music making direct contact with the traveler. The two stared at each other for a few seconds, the driver was a white middle aged male with a trucker cap and blue jacket on.

"Howdy." The man greeted him, he possessed a gravelly voice.

"Uh.. Hey." Russel awkwardly replied, looking down from the stranger.

"Kid, you must be either completely stupid, or have a death wish. Either way, I like the cut of your jib." He grinned at the dark skinned teen, picking his nose a bit before unlocking the car.

"Look, man, I don't want any trouble." Russel held his hands up, looking around the man instead of at him. The stranger noticed his nervous look.

"Hey, calm down, kid, I ain't some freak or killer. I ain't gonna kidnap and molest you or nothin'" The middle aged man clarified. "My name's Nate. What's yours, pal?"

"Uh.. Russel." He replied hesitantly, watching as Nate brought his hand forward for a handshake.

"You sure? I guess that means you didn't steal that bag there." Nate joked, staring down at the lad's unmoving arm. "Rus', I'm just messin' with ya. Now get in."

"What?" Russel backed away nervously, afraid that Nate would attempt to kidnap and murder him or something.

"Easy, I don't wanna kill ya. I'm bored and you're gonna die out here. So, c'mon." Nate offered, looking around at the near empty street. Walkers were bound to show up eventually, hell they already had a few days earlier.

"Can you take me to Statesboro? I got a grandma up there, I need to check up on my folks." Russel asked, considering the idea. It would be way faster to just take this ride.. But what about the risks?

"Shit, she like to party? Hell yeah I can take us there." Nate replied easily, checking the glovebox for something.

"And you swear you're not a killer or thief..?" He questioned, his hand lingering over the door handle.

"C'mon, if I wanted to kill you, I would have run you down already. If I wanted to steal from ya, I would have shot you by now. I ain't trouble, I just want some company. I'm a good guy, y'know?" He let out a smirk, a devilish smirk. At this point though, Russel could feel his feet swelling up from how much walking he had done, not to mention his golden ticket was sitting right there, even if it was creepy and smelly. Russel opened the door and sat down, closing it behind him.

"Thata boy, Rus! Oh, hold onto your ass, seat belts broken." Nate warned, beginning to speed across the road, a few walkers peering from the trees behind the car. Looks like he really did dodge a bullet. Loud rock music filled the car, making Russel feel uncomfortable but also a bit soothed in the presence of Nate. The guy had creepy written all over him and the music distracted from that a little bit. "So.. Kid, tell me your story. You ever been in any groups before? Maybe have to kill a few guys?"

"Well, I've never had to kill but I've been in a group that was.. Rather comfortable killing." He said slowly, thinking back to unpleasant thoughts.

"Tell me about what happened, I'm all ears, no judgment." Nate smiled genuinely, pulling out a flask from his jacket pocket before sipping it, turning down the rock music a touch.

"Right.. So, this whole thing hit when I was back at school, away from family and all. Went to a university, you know. The teachers were real smart about stuff, let us have food, water and medicine as we left for our families. I heard not many of them lived but they sure as hell helped me. A-anyways, I ran into this group that seemed pretty smart. There were two country boys, one dumber than the other. An old guy and his sister, smartest in the group if you were to ask me. A Spanish dude and his daughter she was about, what fourteen? Uh, and then there was a teacher and his wife, and a balding guy with an accent. Finally, the leader of the group, his name was Steve."

"Go back to the daughter." Nate pervertedly asked, chugging booze. Russel ignored his question.

"Steve was a bad dude. He let me into his group for a while but after a couple of months I realized how bad of an idea it was to stay. He said nine was the magic number, and if we added anyone else we'd be cursed. So.. Whenever we met a struggling survivor, or- or a group of survivors, he'd.. He'd.." Russel struggled, shaking his head at his former leader.

"Let it out, paco." Nate reassured, giving him a sympathetic look.

"He'd say, 'are we gonna kill these folks and take all their stuff or what?!' and then bang! That was it.." Russel stared down at the floor, a frown now present on his face. "Anyways, I snuck away after that. Haven't seen em' since."

"So… No one got down with the daughter then?" Nate asked rudely, sipping from the flask once more.

"What?! Fuck no! That's gross!" Russel yelled back, rolling his eyes and folding his arms whilst looking out the window.

"Hey, Rus'.. C'mon, I didn't mean it. This apocalypse just gets ya blue balled ninety percent of the time. I mean, clearly you're still a virgin." Russel exchanged a glare with the man as Nate turned the music back up. "I'm joking! Jesus.. Here, maybe this'll lighten you up." The older man offered his flask to him. Russel looked down for a few seconds at the drink before carefully taking it.

"R-right.. Thanks." He cracked open the bottle, the smell of rancid moonshine hitting his nose. "Ugh.. What is this?" He asked, letting out a few coughs.

"Alcohol. I don't fucking know, it's whiskey, it numbs the pain. Who gives a shit what it is?" Nate replied, scanning the road before smiling when he noticed a female walker. Russel drank the concoction but spit it back out when it made contact with his taste buds, passing it back to Nate. "Okay, maybe somebody so innocent." Nate stepped on the brakes next to the zombified husk of a woman, rolling down the windows and blaring the rock music, drums and guitars alerting the hunger filled walker to the two. It grabbed Russel's arm and attempted to bite him.

"AH! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Russel screamed, tugging his arm away with everything in him.

"C'MON, RUS', WHATYYA THINK? SHE WAS SLAMMIN' BEFORE SHE ROTTED, RIGHT?" Nate yelled back, the widest, shit eating grin plastered on his face.

"FUCK, HELP!" Russel screeched back.

"COME ON, RATE HER! A FIVE AT LEAST, RIGHT?!"

"TEN, OKAY? TEN YOU PSYCHO!" Russel confirmed, looking back at Nate for help.

"Thatta boy, Rus'!" Nate congratulated, pulling out a short pistol and aiming it towards the dead woman's head, clicking the trigger. "Shit!" He exclaimed once realizing that it was out of ammo. Nate slammed his foot back on the pedal, tossing the walker off of the truck and narrowly saving Russel. He passed the boy the gun as a new song came on, Riders on the Storm by The Doors. "Here, load that. Should be some bullets in the glovebox."

Three hours later, Russel had been silent, mostly pissed at Nate. He loaded the guns with bullets and spoke once afterwards, asking if he could use the bathroom. After that, they didn't exchange any more words until Nate pulled into a gas station. "Hey, Rus'? I'm gonna stop for some food and other supplies, keep the car warm for me, kid." Nate explained, getting the cold shoulder in response. "Ah, don't be such a pussy, you'll be fine."

"Look, I-" Russel was interrupted when a bullet zoomed past the window, nearly blasting the teenagers head off.

"Oh shit, Rus'! Go, get the fuck out!" Nate demanded, opening his door and jumping out, sprinting to a nearby abandoned truck. Russel jumped out as well, dashing towards a gas pump.

"Rus'! You don't wanna be there, trust me!" Nate yelled.

"Y-yeah.." Russel yelled back, his voice shaky as memories of the past came rushing back.

"Here, run over, I'll cover you!" Nate revealed the pistol from earlier, loading it up.

"Okay.. Okay!" He replied, ducking his head before making a run for it. Sniper bullets rocketed towards the teen, but he managed to dodge them all, finally making it back. Nate did not keep his word. "What happened to 'I'll cover you!?'" Russel shouted, glaring daggers at Nate.

"Look how good you did!"

"We're fucked.. I should have never come with you."

"Hey, Rus' don't talk like that. We can make this. Think about it, if I hadn't saved your ass back there, where would you be dead? You'd be on the road, either dead or bitten. Now c'mon, we can do this, all we gotta do is sneak all the way back to that gas station and sneak up on the fucker who's shooting at us! Got it?" Nate pumped up the boy, attempting to at least get him to understand that they aren't entirely fucked yet.

"I.. I guess." Russel muttered, shaking his head lightly.

"Good. C'mon, let's push this truck for cover. Ready? One, two, three!" The two began pushing, the truck slowly moving along with their shoves. A bullet collided with one of the exposed tires, causing it to flatten.

"Shit, harder, Rus'!" Nate yelled back, both men pushing as hard as they could. For a couple of seconds, they actually managed to push the truck quite far. Then, another bullet collided with the second exposed tire, making the truck too heavy.

"..Ah! End of the road." Nate sighed, looking to their next cover, an abandoned sedan. "Alright, look, Russel, over there is our next cover. What I need you to do is trust me. We gotta run all the way over there. You can cover me first, or if it makes you more comfortable, I can cover you first."

"I'll cover you, don't worry." Russel nodded, grabbing the gun from Nate's hands.

"Alright, thanks." Nate smiled genuinely for the first time today, getting into position to run. "Go!" He called, running towards cover. Russel shot at the window of the gas station, breaking the glass but doing nothing else to his knowledge otherwise. Nate made it over, narrowly dodging a few speeding bullets.

"Catch!" Russel called, throwing the gun over to Nate, who caught it, just barely. "You're gonna cover me, right?" Russel asked, his voice beginning to quake again.

"Of course! I'm sorry for the first time, okay? I got you, you're my boy, Russel!" The older man yelled back, readying his gun.

"I believe you.. Shit, what am I doing?" Russel asked himself before hustling his ass all the way to the sedan.

"Great job, bud. Great job. Now, there's the wall. All we gotta do is make a run for it." Nate pointed towards the wall of the building, readying his gun once again.

"Got it, I'll go, you cover." Russel nodded, a smirk now on his face.

"Don't get cocky yet, kid. Now, go!" Nate ordered, covering Russel for a second before watching him trip to the ground. Out of sheer panic, Nate ran towards the boy and grabbed him, saving him and covering the two of them against the wall just before a sniper bullet hit the floor he was previously lying on.

"Holy shit.. You saved my life."

"We ain't out of the woods yet, Rus'. C'mon." Nate felt like somebody, like he actually had finally found a friend. Russel followed him closely, hopping a fence that led to the back of the gas station. Turns out, it was also a diner. On the way to the door, Russel found a walker lying on the ground, barely able to move with an ice pick in its eye. He cringed at its existence, halting himself and Nate.

"Russel, it's dead." Nate coldly stated, folding his arms, the gun still in his hand. Russel ignored him, pressing his foot down on the walker's skull to ensure its death, putting the creature out of its misery. "That make you feel like a big man now? Come on before whoever is in there catches onto us." The two made their way inside, crouching down whilst closing the door very gently behind them.

"Follow me, quietly." Nate whispered, putting a finger over his lips. Russel nodded, following Nate's silent footsteps as they entered the diner portion of the pit stop, where the shooter was hiding out. Nate got up quickly and punched the attacker in the face, stealing his rifle. It was an old man..

"Walt! Ow…" And an old woman! The woman had a gunshot wound to her stomach while her husband was bleeding from his nose.

"Get the fuck outta here ya monsters!" Walt demanded, clutching his face. Russel looked very conflicted while Nate looked furious.

"Woah, gramps, calm down. You shot at us." Nate spoke over the old man, trying to make his voice appear louder.

"You think you can just leave your mask at home? A-and now you're with this fuckin' spook!" The man yelled back, furrowing his brows as if he were trying to kill Nate with stares alone.

"Woah, watch the fuckin' racism! This is my boy. Second of all, I don't know who the fuck you people are. Thirdly, you tried to kill us for no goddamn reason, so I think you deserve to die in return." Nate coldly stated, throwing the rifle to the ground and grabbing his pistol, aiming directly at the man.

"Please, just get the fuck out of here. Please go." The old man begged.

"Whatddya say, Rus'? Should we kill these folks and take all their stuff?" Nate had the evilest grin Russel had ever seen. Steve may have been bad, but he never enjoyed killing, he only did it because in his sick head he thought it would keep them safe. Nate seemed to want to kill just because he could and would. Russel had to make a decision, he couldn't just stand here.. Could he?

Choices:

A: Agree with Nate

B: Take the gun away from him.

C: Walk out.

Relationships:

Nate is happy to finally have a friend. He is very attached at this point. 9/10

The old couple obviously don't like you. 1/10

((Question of the chapter: For Lee's relationships, would you guys rather have Lee stay loyal to one girl (I.E. Carley) or have a harem and be able to get with anyone he wants, including Molly. Obviously, there would be drama. Tell me what you think and I'll see you next time!))