Jacob lay Nicholas his couch, which was soft enough that it should feel comfortable to him. Again, Jacob silently cursed himself for allowing his things to get soiled. He could always try to get the blood out, though. If this kid was strong enough to cut his own arm off to survive, and possibly to protect Mattie and that baby, then there was no telling what he'd accomplished once he recovered.

If he recovers, Jacob found himself thinking. He shook the thought out of his head. There was no way that he was going to let Nicholas die, not on his watch.

The fire was dying down, so the room had gotten a bit chilly. Jacob took a thick piece of firewood and threw it in the fireplace, squirting a bit of lighter fluid on it, just enough so that the remaining sparks at the bottom would ignite the rest of the wood. He turned to Mattie and gestured at the couch across from the one Nicholas was lying on, "You can take a seat."

For the first time, Jacob examined Mattie. Her hair was all astray and her eyes were...obviously traumatized. She was wearing a rather nice looking shirt, but behind her shorts Jacob could see a makeshift bandage.

"What happened to your leg?" he asked.

---

When Jacob put Nicholas on the couch, Nicholas couldn't have been more thankful to be lying on something so soft. He struggled to keep his eyes open, especially now that he was so comfortable, but he did. He watched Jacob and then his eyes drifted over to Mattie and Cole. Cole had seemed to have found peace with everything, because he wasn't fussing. Nicholas was glad for that. He wanted Cole to be happy.

The fire was ignited, and the room seemed to get warmer. Nicholas felt thankful, because he had been getting colder and colder. He'd heard of people, before they died, knowing that they were going to die. They could feel it. Nicholas didn't feel it; he just felt like he was going to live through this suffering. Maybe he would. That was what he hoped, at least.

He heard Jake ask Mattie what had happened to her leg. He wanted to laugh a little, but couldn't. After Jake had asked Mattie that, he came over to Nicholas and laid a blanket across him. Nicholas looked up at him a nodded a little in thanks.

Mattie perched on the very edge of the couch. Her muscles were tensed to the point that she looked like a feral cat preparing to bolt. There was no way she was relaxing, not yet, not now. She swallowed and avoided eye contact with Jacob.

"It wasn't bitten, if that's what you were thinking, so no more impromptu amputations," replied Mattie, her voice somewhere between a hiss and a squeak. Then it softened just a little once she reminded herself that this man was showing them hospitality. Incredible hospitality. She pushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "I had to get out of my apartment. The door wasn't an option. Jumped out the window, and landing on my feet isn't always a talent of mine." Clearly she was too worn-out for the long story. She smiled slightly, but there was a flood of anxiety behind it. "I can take care of myself. Nicholas really is the only one who needs attention here."

She pulled out a container of baby food and started to feed Cole. Frankly it was all she felt useful doing.

Jacob leaned against the wall by the fireplace, and put his hands up defensively in front of him. "I'm not going to hurt you. I've already made that clear. "I know you're scared. Hell, I would be too, being randomly approached by someone with the likes of me." He grinned at her, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "If anything, you three are as much of a threat to me as I am to you. Well, two, I guess. Nothing to be afraid about with a baby."

"By the way," Jacob said, "That impromptu amputation your friend performed was most likely to save your and your baby's life." He nodded, never being the type of person who let a good deed by anyone go unnoticed. Especially not one like this. He looked over to where Nicholas lay and asked, "You still awake, Nicky?"

---

Nicholas' eyes had finally comfortably closed, and he was just on the edges of sleep when he heard Jake's voice cut through, "You still awake, Nicky?" He cringed at the nickname. He despised them because anything other than Nicholas just was not his name. He wasn't Nick, Nicky, or anything. That was that.

"I'm awake," he mumbled. The pain had dulled, or at least, he had become used to it. Every few seconds, though, a sharp pain would run through his shoulder, and he would instinctively try to move his arm. But he couldn't anymore. It was so surreal. Just to be sure, Nicholas moved his only arm over to try to grab the other one, but sure enough, it wasn't there. He felt across his own body until he touched the gauze covering the wound, and he cried out in pain at the touch.

"Don't touch it," he heard Jake saying, but his voice was coming into Nicholas' ears like a lost signal, distant and broken.

He felt the footsteps. He didn't hear them, he felt them. Jake came to the couch, and crouched in front of him. He felt his presence in front of him, so he opened his eyes. Jake reached out a hand toward his forehead, and Nicholas found himself shrinking away from his touch.

"Come on now, I ain't gonna hurt you," he said softly, putting his palm against Nicholas' forehead. He nodded and cracked a smile. "You don't seem to have a fever. That's a good sign, man."

"I-I'm not infected," Nicholas said, more to himself than to anyone.

"No, you're not," Jake shook his head, agreeing. "If you were, there'd be a change by now. At least a fever. You'd be coughing."

At the mention of coughing, Nicholas felt a prickling sensation in his throat. He hastily cleared it, and Jake laughed.

Then, there was a banging at the door that shocked both Jake and Nicholas. At the same time, Cole started wailing, spitting out the food that Mattie had been feeding him. Jake hurried into another room, out of sight. Nicholas sat up a bit, straining to see where he'd went. When he returned, he was holding an assault rifle.

"Where'd you get that?!" Nicholas choked out.

"My brother gave it to me for my 20th birthday."

---

Jacob looked over at Mattie, assault rifle in his hands. He held out a free hand and led her off of the couch and into his bedroom. "Stay here. Don't worry about Nicholas, okay? Just protect yourself and that baby." He gestured to his closet, "Plethora of guns in there. Go crazy."

After saying that, he went back out into the living room, up to his front door. The banging had stopped, as if someone had simply knocked on the door for entrance. The doorknob jiggled a bit, and then the knocking continued. Jacob's eyebrows rose in curiosity and he said, "Uh...Who's there?"

There was no reply. Sighing, Jacob unlocked the door and opened it just in time to see someone turning their back to leave. Reaching out, Jacob tried to grab the back of their shirt, but missed by an inch, and the person took off down the street, into the darkness and out of sight.

Mattie managed the tiniest of smiles. It was best to be friendly here; an idiot could figure that out. In fact, this was a situation in which being rude could mean death. Not that she doubted the man's morals, she just...didn't know. "It's not my baby," she informed him, and then added in a softer voice, "well, it is now I guess. And I didn't even sleep around for it." In spite of her word choice, her tone was humorless. She was feeding Cole with a distracted air. Focusing on Nicholas, on the stump that had been his arm, on all the ways she could have rushed into Hippie Manor and saved him from this horrible fate.

The banging on the door nearly made her drop Cole. Damn good thing she didn't, the poor baby was already distressed enough, and she assumed it was from the same stimulus. It was only half-willingly that she backed into the bedroom, biting back protests. If someone was breaking in, someone who'd just suffered an amputation awake shouldn't just be laying in the living room like that...but she said nothing. As was becoming the norm.

But, comforted by Jacob's willingness to grant her access to the guns, Mattie sat Cole on the bed and dabbed the baby food off of his chin. A small red flag bobbed up. Mattie had always avoided gun freaks as much as she could. Opening the closet and gaping at the assortment of weapons, she felt a small heart palpitation. I hope this isn't some gunman who ordered crazy guns off the Internet and shit before all this. But if he was, she had a gun now, too.

She picked out a niceish-looking revolver, popped in some ammo, and prepared for perhaps a large bald man in all black, maybe carrying an RPG, lower half of his face covered, to say something like, "I'm in charge now," or, "Give me everything you have or your ass is on fire," but instead, craning her neck to get a good look through the bedroom doorway, all she caught was a glimpse of movement. Not someone else. No. No more creeps. "I'm out of here," she announced, and scooped up Cole before trooping out into the living room again. "Did they leave?" she asked, the disbelief tangible in her voice. It didn't make any sense why someone would just take off like that in a situation like this one, turning down likely life-giving shelter.

It must have been a strange sight: Young woman with a baby perched in one arm and a revolver in the free hand. She put the gun down and pulled a light wooden chair up next to the couch on which Nicholas lay. Absentmindedly continuing to feed the baby, she spoke softly to Nicholas in case he was sleeping in which case she didn't want to interrupt his rest. "I'm staying right here if you need anything."

With all the commotion going on, Nicholas automatically retreated as far down into the couch as he could go. It was such a comfortable couch, he mused. He wished he'd had it when he was having to sleep on that warehouse's floor. It would have been heaven. His eyes slipped closed again and there was a small smile on his face. He was trying his best to ignore the pain that didn't seem to want to go away. He wished it did.

At the same time he heard Jake slamming the door shut, Mattie was beside him in a chair. He heard her say something, and he opened his eyes a little to look at her. In his almost delirious state, he couldn't help but notice how pretty she looked. He'd only known her less than twenty-four hours, and yet he felt like he'd known her his whole life. They had already been through so much together.

"Thank you," he found himself whispering. Mattie was the closest thing to family that he had left, because all the rest were gone or dead now. His mind wandered to think about his mother and Alisa, lying there in the street, flames engulfing their bodies...and it was his fault. It was all his fault.

He put his hand up to his face to cover the fact that he started crying.

---

Jacob stared out into the street where the person had run off. It didn't make any sense - did he look that scary? But the boy had turned to run off before Jacob had even answered the door. He shook his head, gave the street one last look, then slammed the door shut and turned around, assault rifle still in hand. Mattie had pulled up a chair next to where Nicholas lay. In a way, it warmed his heart.

Carefully, he sat himself on the sofa across from them. Nicholas' face animated distress before he put his hand up to cover it, his body shaking. Was he crying?

He got up and went into the bathroom, searching through the medicine cabinet. He was sure he had to have had some kind of pain killers. When he found a bottle of some that weren't too high in strength but not too low, he shook out three of them and then shut the cabinet. He went into the kitchen and got a glass and a bottle of water, filling the glass with the water. He brought it out and handed it and the pills to Nicholas. "Pain killers," he told him.

Mattie hoped that her presence hadn't agitated Nicholas. Trying to convince herself that it was the pain in what used to be his arm, not her, that had caused the crying, she patted him gently on the head before glancing toward the front door. So weird, she thought. Why would there be ding-dong-ditchers in the apocalypse? But it didn't even take a second for Nicholas to be front and center in her mind again. She wanted to apologize for letting him into that house on his own; she assumed he was crying for the arm he'd lost. But sorry, she knew, hadn't been good enough before the zombies.

She hadn't even noticed Jacob approaching with pain killers. He'd startled her, as people often did, but she dipped her head gratefully. Although she was more concerned with the blood loss issue. Surreptitiously she craned her head to look at the stump of Nicholas' arm. It didn't yield much information as to weather a scab had formed, for all she could see was the dark stain on the bandage. The thought of him slicing into his own arm like that...it made her momentarily nauseous.

"Need help getting those down?" she asked anxiously.

Nicholas shook his head at Mattie, gratefully taking the pills and putting them in his mouth before taking the glass of water and swallowing it too. He handed the glass back to Jake and relaxed into the couch again. "Thank you," he muttered to him, worried his voice would betray him if he tried to speak at normal volume.

He looked over at Mattie and Cole. It seemed like Cole had fallen asleep now, and probably rightfully so. It was dark outside. Nicholas wanted to check a clock or his watch, but there were neither. His watch was still lying on the top shelf of his dresser.

Looking up at Jake, he quietly asked, "Do you h-have a shirt I could borrow?"

Jake nodded and disappeared into his bedroom while Nicholas waited, looking at Mattie. He frowned, eyes drooping. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to drag you into anything. I didn't mean for us to almost get killed twice in one day. I didn't mean any of it. I just wanted help. I can't survive by myself. I'm a wimp. I've always been a wimp," he looked down in shame. "I couldn't save my sister even though I knew how to. I was hoping for something that obviously wasn't going to happen, and now two people that I love are dead because of it, and now you have to worry about me and a baby."

Before Jake came back into the room, Nicholas quickly whispered again, "I'm sorry."

---

There were several nice dress shirts available in Jacob's wardrobe; however, he wasn't about to lend one to this kid. Instead, he checked his dresser's drawers and found a black t-shirt with the name of some washed up band across the chest, logo below it to boot. When he went back into the living room, the two of them seemed tense. He thought he'd heard low voices, but he wasn't the type to eavesdrop. Instead, while he'd been looking for a shirt, he'd started humming.

"Here," he said lowly. "Sit up."

Nicholas obeyed, pushing himself to a sitting position. Jacob pulled his jacket off of Nicholas, which had been wrapped around him, and carefully helped him take his shirt off. He balled it up in the jacket, cautious in handling it as he didn't want to touch the blood of the infected arm. Then, he helped Nicholas put the t-shirt on. When it was on, Nicholas laid back down and relaxed. It seemed like the pills were kicking in.

"I'll be right back," Jacob said to Mattie. He went into the bathroom and picked up a clean wash cloth, absentmindedly trying to soak it with water under the faucet before realizing it didn't work anymore. He grumbled lowly and went into the kitchen, soaking it instead with a water bottle. He brought it back out to Nicholas and started wiping his face with it.

"Gotta get that blood off," he said. "You know, you remind me a lot of my little brother."

Nicholas grinned a little bit, and then groggily said, "Funny, 'cause I'm actually a big brother."

Mattie determinedly wiped her face clear of the tears that dribbled down one cheek. God damn it. "Nicholas," she murmured, tears threatening again. "It's hard being alone. It sucks. And I get that. And... I-I shouldn't have let you into that house on your own." Her eyes shone with tears. She looked sharply toward the wall, aware that this was ruining her stoic act. "We both knew it was dangerous and stupid. I let you go in, I let it bite you..." She trailed off when Jacob came back. Wiped her face again, one more time, just to be sure.

It was in silence that Mattie watched Jacob help Nicholas change his shirt and then wipe his face with a wet cloth. It was a relief (and perhaps a first?) to see her friend grin, but a kick in the stomach to hear the word "brother". Bittersweet. Their friendly demeanor helped to relax her.

"Thank you so much," she said to Jacob. "I don't know what we'd do without you. Especially him." She pointed toward Nicholas as if it were necessary, and got up to lay Nicholas on a comfy-looking armchair so he could sleep and she'd have her hands free again. Then she sat in the wooden chair again, clearly intent on staying there as long as she could.

Jacob waved at Mattie as if he were dismissing her thanks. "It's not a problem," he said. "I'm not the kind of person who would just let someone go without help if they needed it." He looked over at where she'd set Cole and decided that chair was a pretty good place to set him, if anywhere. He took a blanket off of the back of the couch across from Nicholas and bundled it at the end of the chair, in case the baby turned over.

"Well," he said. "Mattie, you can sleep on that couch if you feel like it, alright? I think I'm going to relax in my bed and get whatever sleep I can get." He looked at the two of them and then continued, "I'm a pretty light sleeper, especially recently, so don't try any funny business. I keep my revolver with me at all times." He looked at her sternly, not counting on being killed in his sleep by two people that he'd helped. "There's two blankets in that tiny closet over there if you need them," he pointed to the closet, told the two of them goodnight, and then retreated into his bedroom, shutting the door.

---

Nicholas could feel the effects of the pills. His eyelids were getting heavy, as well as his body. The pain had subsided the slightest bit, but it was still there with such an intensity that it almost seemed to numb it. Nicholas reached his hand out and put it lightly on Mattie's arm once Jake had gone into his bedroom. "I didn't mean to make you cry," he frowned. "I just...i-if I die tonight, I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry."

He stopped, and for a moment the only noise in the room was the sound of Cole's light snoring.

"If I die, then, everything I've done is for nothing," he said bitterly. "I c-can't die, I can't."

Looking back up at Mattie, he furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips. "Just can't leave you or Cole, not now." He laughed a little bit, "I mean, I know we haven't known each other long, but...I mean, you saved my life right after I met you. Seriously, I-I probably wouldn't have lived through Alisa and my mom both." He frowned again and looked back down, "I mean, you're the closest th-thing I have to family or friends now."

One eyebrow up, the other down. What the hell did he mean by funny business? How could they...? Oh. Her mind was really in the gutter. Mattie blamed the rough kids with which she'd grown up. There had been one day at recess that all of her friends had gathered to tell her every dirty word they knew. She couldn't eat bananas for a week afterward without feeling weird. She blinked. That had been a weird memory to surface at a time like this. It almost made her smile, almost.

"Good night," she called softly to Jacob, and then she took Nicholas' hand and squeezed gently.

"You're not going to die," she said, more confidently than she felt. "And," she added, lowering her voice, "I'm done letting people down. Hippie Manor was the last time. Got it?" She held his remaining hand in both of hers, and blew out a sigh. "I can't replace your family. You already know that. But I'm right here, and sure, I'm a little crazy, but I'm here to stay."

She decided that it was needed to lighten the mood. "And trust me, I'm gonna be pissed if you depart because then who's going to change dirty diapers? Jacob? Me?"

Nicholas' face broke out in a huge grin and laughed. He actually laughed. He shook his head, giggling softly and closing his eyes. After a moment of soft laughter, he opened them again and looked at Mattie. "Hey," he said incredulously, "You didn't l-let me down back there at Hippie Manor," he cracked another smile at the term. "If anything, I let you and Cole down. All we had to do was g-get some stupid milk from the stupid goat, but nooooo, I just had to go and see if someone was in the house."

Still smiling slightly, he shook his head again. "Hey, never mind. N-Neither of us let one another down, okay?"

As he started coughing, his smile faded. He was worried about still being infected, especially now that he was coughing. Maybe Jacob had misjudged the amount of time the infection took to sink in. However, he had to keep positive about it, and he looked at Mattie as if he had never even coughed. "And by the way, you are so crazy." He grinned, "But in a good way."

It turned out that the grin was infectious. In a good way. Before Mattie knew it she was laughing a bit too, holding his hand against her cheek. The coughing made her grin fade just a little and her grip loosen. But it only lasted a moment; the next moment she was smiling just as much as before. The blood loss will have weakened his immune system. He's probably just inhaled some dust.

"I'm an Amazon warrior, that's why I'm crazy. My crowbar is...was... Excalibur. Given to me by the Lady of the Electrical Closet. It granted me magical zombie-killing powers." To emphasize her warrior status, Mattie flexed an arm that wasn't all too muscly. "You'll want me on your side. I work out all the time. Even now." And just to make Nicholas laugh, she let go of his hand and dropped to the floor.

This was a mistake, she reflected calmly, as it became apparent that one push-up was a real challenge for her. It had, in fact, made her winded. "Looks like you caught me on a bad day."

Nicholas was laughing so much that he thought he stomach was going to burst. He tried to keep as quiet as possible so he wouldn't wake up Cole. He probably kind of looked awkward, laughing noiselessly with his eyes squeezed shut and a huge grin on his face. Mattie was completely nuts, but in the best way possible. She was distracting him from his pain, and he couldn't have been more thankful.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" he said, snorting, "Don't worry, though. I'm no more strong than you are."

To emphasize it, he flexed his own arm, surprising even himself at the muscle that was there. It must have come from having to carry his mother, and sometimes his sister, and two backpacks, and everything during this apocalyptic time. He rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face and said, "Whatever, maybe I'm a little stronger."

He looked at Mattie and smiled.

She rolled her eyes in mock disbelief. "You? Stronger than me? Hah!" she said sarcastically. She perched on the edge of the couch and felt Nicholas' bicep as if she needed to touch to believe. She didn't, but she was still impressed. A flirtatious grin crossed her face. "Ooh, you are strong. Apocalypses can work miracles, amirite? Like a workout every day."

Mattie poked him on the belly, looked toward Cole to make sure he was still asleep. "You could use a rest, I bet. I'll keep watch, okay? Can't sleep. Use Cole as an example if you've forgotten how to snooze." She returned to her post on the wooden chair. It wasn't that she wanted to watch Nicholas sleep; that was some creepy Twilight shit. What she really wanted was to make sure that his breathing sounded normal. That he wouldn't die in his sleep.

She went pale at the thought. Not on my damn watch.

Nicholas smiled softly, nodding his head. "Alright. Th-Those pills are about to knock me out anyway." He yawned a huge yawn and settled into the couch, trying to get comfortable. It was a hell of a lot easier to get comfortable on this couch than it was on the floor, he noted. His eyes thanked him when he closed them for the night, hand on his stomach. He always put his hand on his stomach when he slept on his back, which wasn't often. It was just the most comfortable for him.

Before long, Nicholas was fast asleep. His face was still remarkably pale, but his cheeks were turning bright red as he slept, and about an hour after he'd fallen asleep, Nicholas started to shiver. His breathing stayed more or less normal, catching at times and quickening at others. At one point, he started crying out in pain.

Mattie was trying hard not to doze off, but it wasn't easy. At times Nicholas' breathing changed, but it didn't sound serious. It simply sounded like perhaps he was dreaming, and different subconscious stimuli were changing his heart and breathing rates. Not that she knew all those fancy terms. And not that she could do anything if it was more dire. She just wanted to be there.

She was slipping away when a cry of pain made her jerk her head upwards. She was up in an instant and prodding Nicholas roughly. "Wake up!" she said, and shook him for good measure. She might not have been so aggressive about it, had she gotten any real shut-eye. But it hadn't been an option. And now she worried excessively.

She glanced at Cole. Sleeping like a rock. Good.

Nicholas woke up, not knowing where in the hell he was. When he saw Mattie, at first he didn't know who she was and he screamed. Why wasn't he at the warehouse?! Where was Alisa and mom?!

"Wh-Where the hell is my arm?!" he half-whispered, half-screamed, and then cried out again in pain, panicking. Then, he started to remember. His erratic breathing started to calm down and he sunk back into the couch. Cole started to wail softly, but soon stopped and drifted back to sleep. Nicholas wiggled around on the couch, head leaned back in pain. "It's so hot," he whined. "Mattie, it's so ho-ot!"

---

The commotion being made out in the living room woke Jacob from his already restless sleep. He jumped to his feet, grabbing his revolver off of his nightstand, and charged into the room.

"What's going on?" he asked, concerned.

"It's so hot," he heard Nicholas saying.

Immediately, he went over and crouched beside the chair in front of Nicholas. He put a hand to Nicholas' forehead and cheeks, then withdrew it and shook his head. "God, he's got a fever," he muttered.

Mattie stepped back when Nicholas yelled at her. After the happy note with which he'd gone to sleep, she hadn't expected that amount of agitation. Her head snapped around to look at Cole. Please be quiet... To her surprise, he did. The relief was short-lived because Jacob had practically hurtled into the room.

"Jesus titty-fucking Christ!" she yiped upon seeing the gun. Fever. Oh no. No no no, that wasn't good. Mattie swallowed, even though her mouth had gone dry. "You can get fevers from other things," she said desperately. "I'm betting the knife he cut with wasn't sterilized. It could be a different infection." But she knew that the risk was high. Denying it would get them nowhere.

Wide, pleading eyes fixed on Jacob. "What are we going to do? Kill him?" She struggled to keep back the tinge of panic.

"That's all we can do," Jacob said to her, looking at her with a grave expression. "We can't risk it." Hesitating, he readied his revolver, aiming it at Nicholas' head.

"No!" Nicholas yelled, putting his arm up instinctively, as if it would shield the bullet. "Please, no, don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Jacob lowered the gun against his better judgement, studying Nicholas carefully. With appropriate caution, he again crouched to be eye-level with Nicholas. "Nick," he spoke softly. "What's your full name?"

"Wha-?" he started, then asked, "M-Middle name too?"

"Yeah," Jacob nodded. "Middle name, too."

"N-Nicholas Charles Green."

Looking back at Mattie, Jacob told her, "I need you to do two things for me, okay? Go into the bathroom - it's over there - and get a wash cloth off of the white counter. Those are the clean ones. Then, I need you to go into the kitchen, through that archway there, and get a bottle of water out of the fridge. And no, the fridge doesn't work, I just use it for storage."

She nodded softly and rushed to the bathroom. She snatched a washcloth like it was the holy grail, then sped into the kitchen like a cheetah on meth, tore open the refrigerator and grabbed a water bottle. Not pausing to consider anything, she returned to the living room. Or the dying room. She didn't know. Mattie thrust the items toward Jacob and tapped a foot on the ground nervously. She didn't want Nicholas to be killed, but if it had to happen, she really didn't want to witness it.

"Do you have, um, drinks?" she muttered. One thing was sure. If Nicholas was going to die, she was going to drink away the grief. Why she knew she'd grieve, she didn't know. After all they had just met. But she felt sure that they were friends. Who the hell gets a friend for one day and then dies? That was fucked up.

"Stupid fucking sage burning piece of shit," she hissed, referring to the former hippie who had bitten Nicholas.