Jacob, putting the revolver back, not wanting to shoot anyone (and probably seeming like a coward to Mattie as this was the second time he drew his gun without shooting), crossed his arms. He gestured toward Nicholas and told him, "Well, I don't know the whole story. Him and Mattie were at this house right down the street when I met them. Mattie said he'd been bitten, and when I went in there the kid had sawed his freakin' arm off."

Shaking his head, he looked at Nicholas with pity. "I was stupid enough that I didn't get the blood from his infected arm off of him, and it caused him to get the virus. But it looks like he's recovered remarkably through the night." He rubbed his face with his hands, going over and sitting on the chair that Mattie had left by Nicholas. "You can have a seat across from here."

Darrin gaped at Nicholas with unmasked shock and worry. And fear. He had the virus. And he was right there in the house. He could lunge for someone any second, and the fact that Mattie wanted in the guy's pants or whatever only made it worse. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled.

"So the guy's infected and you're just letting him lounge on the couch," he said grouchily. "Great idea. I can see why you've survived this long." He addressed Nicholas coldly, now: "Oh, and by the way, stay away from my sister. I've already lost my only brother, and you're not going to infect her with your nasty virus."

Mattie came back after having rocked Cole to sleep. "Maybe you guys should give Nicholas a little space," she suggested, oblivious to Darrin's warning.

"Yeah?" Jacob sneered, referring to Darrin's remark about his survival skills. He opened his mouth to make a response, but shut it again. He wasn't about to succumb to this low-life kid's level. The boy didn't look even Jacob's age. Again, he propped his feet upon the coffee table, having turned the chair so that his back was facing Nicholas, and he rested his hands behind his head. There was no way he'd let this boy ruin his comfort in his own home. He itched for a cigarette. For some booze. Hey, he might have been an alcoholic, but at least he wasn't a druggie asshole.

---

Nicholas listened to Darrin with disgust, eyes closed and giving him no response. He acted as if he were dead, maybe to freak the kid out. He heard Jacob's tone and knew that he wasn't all too happy about this guy being here either. Nicholas would try to be a good sport, though, since he was Mattie's brother.

And then Darrin turned on him, when he hadn't even said a thing to the little prick. Still, he lay unmoving. Darrin was close to the couch he was lying upon. With all the strength he could muster, Nicholas sprung to his feet and opened his mouth wide, making a roaring noise as he pretended to charge at Darrin. The poor kid backed up so fast that he fell on his ass, and Nicholas dropped to his knees, body shaking with laughter.

Darrin yelped and toppled backwards, landing hard on his ass. He groped around for his backpack to pull out his baseball bat, but it wasn't there. Damn it! Mattie had it! And then he heard laughing. His face burned with humiliation, and he picked himself up with the look of a wounded dog. He narrowed his eyes at Nicholas. He wouldn't be laughing if I had my bat. I'll beat the shit out of him.

Mattie was doing her best to hide the giggles. The only reason she'd wished Nicholas hadn't jumped out was because he had a fever. She knelt down and pulled him back onto the couch, careful to keep her hands away from his wound, and smiled a little. "Enough stunts."

"Okay, first of all," whined Darrin, "He was being a dick to me and you're helping him? Second of all, you are touching an infected.

"Go to bed," Mattie told him. "Maybe in the morning you won't be such a prick."

This was the last straw. Darrin grabbed Nicholas by the hair, lifted him, and threw a punch at his stupid feverish face.

Nicholas cried out in pain, but he had the advantage. The pain of Darrin pulling his hair had nothing on the pain of losing his arm. Nothing on the pain of the damn virus. Trying to use both arms and, of course, only successfully using one, Nicholas put his hand around Darrin's throat and squeezed. Within the next second, he'd lunged forward and bit down on Darrin's shoulder.

Hard enough to draw blood.

---

The second that Darrin had grabbed Nicholas' hair, Jacob was on his feet. This time, he didn't bother pulling out his gun because he knew he wasn't about to shoot either one of them. By the time Jacob had shoved the boy off of Nicholas and onto the floor, straddling him, it had been too late. Nicholas had already bit him. Except Nicholas had done it out of collected rage, not because of the infection. Jacob knew that. At least, he hoped that.

"Shitting little mother piece of shit," Nicholas babbled. "You got DAMN NONE idea about what I've been through in the past twenty four hours, so go 'head and crawl away to find your pathetic drug addict friends, prick."

Darrin stumbled backwards, dizzy with pain. Oh, god, oh god oh god, this could not be happening to him. He struggled under Jacob's weight, but he was scrawny and weak with starvation. Plus he'd been bitten. He sank down and closed his eyes. What was the point of fighting anymore? He was as good as dead. He was going to end up like Aaron, except dying in a car must have been mercifully quick. "He's infected. He bit me. He bit me." He looked to Mattie as if she'd know what to do, but all he did apart from that was mouth shoot me.

Mattie couldn't stay here. She opened the front door, stepped out, closed it behind her. Sat on the porch and looked at the stars. There were so many now that there was no power...

Jacob, sitting atop of Darrin, rubbed his own face vigorously with frustration. "God, that's the last time I help anyone out in this messed up world." He glared down at the boy and asked him, "Do you want to die now or suffer? Because the chance of you recovering as quick as Nick did is very slim."

---

Nicholas, chest heaving from the shortness of breath as a result of his adrenaline rush and quarrel with Darrin, stumbled to the front door after Mattie. It didn't matter that his head was aching, or that he was so dizzy he could barely stand, or that his stomach was turning every which way until he felt like he might vomit.

"I'm sorry," were the first words that spilled out of his mouth, of course. He didn't know what to say to her. He just infected her brother. "I didn't know what else to do," he said, more to himself rather than to her.

He ambled over to where she was and crouched down beside her before falling down into a sitting position. He didn't look at her, and he leaned his head back against the house, eyes closed. His breathing was erratic. His head was so hot, but the coolness of the night made it a little bit better.

Mattie turned her head and sighed. "It's like my real brother died and something else replaced him. And hey, you should be resting up, kiddo," she added, trying to sound cheerful. She reached over and took his hand. "And stop being sorry, alright? Just...don't...bite anyone else."

She leaned her head back next to his and closed her eyes. Some tears came out, but she didn't make any sound to suggest she was crying. As much of an asshole as Darrin was being, now she had to come to terms with the fact that both of her brothers were good as dead. One deep shaky breath and she murmured to Nicholas, "You'd like him a lot more if you'd met him before he ran away. And before..." Before Aaron died. She didn't want to say it.

"You should go in and sleep."

"Die now," pleaded Darrin. "But I can do that myself." He struggled briefly, half-heartedly.

Nicholas, eyes still closed, held Mattie's hand tightly. When he looked over at her, he could see the tears spilling out of her eyes. Though he felt like crying himself, he didn't. They sat in silence. Then, Nicholas said softly, "No. You stayed with me. I'm gonna stay right here. I'm strong enough now. It's going away..."

---

Jacob, for the third time, pulled his revolver out of its holder, mentally sighing. Was he ever going to shoot someone? It didn't seem like it. He put the barrel to Darrin's right temple, though his finger off the trigger. He asked, "You sure about this, kid? Any last words?"

She didn't feel like arguing, so she just drew her knees into her chest. "Thank you." She tightened her hand around his and scooted a little closer to him. She didn't care about getting sick. She just wanted this all to be over. And she didn't know how she felt so comforted by someone she'd only known for about a day. So much had happened, yes, but it worried her. Feelings had always been something she pushed as far away as she possibly could.

Darrin broke out in a sweat at the thought of a bullet ripping through his brain, and he bit his lip. "I'm sorry, and, and, Mattie, I love her, she was like my mother even though she was my sister." Stalling. "I'm ready."

Nicholas let go of Mattie's hand and put his arm around her, squeezing her in a hug for a second before loosening his grip and leaning on her shoulder. He closed his eyes again and just rested. He could feel himself slipping out of consciousness, but forced himself to stay awake. As he drifted, he could see his mother's face in the second before she'd dropped to the floor for the last time. He could hear her voice.

"Nicholas? Why are you hurting me?"

He'd never got to say good-bye to her or Alisa. He didn't tell them he loved them - he hadn't thought to. He had always been so sure they'd make it out alive. They'd make it to the refuge camp one day. Just as soon as his mother got better...

The sound of a gunshot made him jump and forget all about them.

---

"I'll tell her," Jacob nodded, face expressionless. He hesitated, but recovered because it was so unlikely that Darrin would survive. He couldn't believe he was about to kill this boy. He shook his head then, and told Darrin, "I'm sorry too." That being said, he braced himself and pulled the trigger.

Mattie sucked in a breath and leaped to her feet. Darrin. She didn't need to be told. She could feel it like a heavy rock in her heart. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath. "No." She'd hoped to whip him into shape. Now she wouldn't have the chance. It was a mercy killing, she reminded herself, but that didn't make her last brother any less dead. The tears threatened again. A sob formed in the back of her throat, and it took all her might to keep it in.

In as calm a voice as she could muster, she said to Nicholas, "Tell him I know. I'm going next door." And with that, she got up and ran into the next house over, tearing open the door and slamming it shut. Aided by starlight, and with eyes adjusted to the dark, she started down the basement. Bad idea, there could be something down there. So she went upstairs instead, up to the attic. Empty. Smelled like dust and model airplane glue.

There, she let out those sobs.

Before Nicholas could even pull himself to his feet, Mattie had already sprung to hers, said her piece, and ran to the house beside them. Hand against the wall, he managed to stand on shaky legs. Again, the dizziness hit him. Hard. So hard that he would have fallen if Jacob hadn't opened the door at that very moment and caught him.

"Whoa," Jacob said. "Easy now. You come on back in. Where's Mattie?"

Nicholas looked up at him and could see that he'd cried. Jacob's voice still had the sobs in it. Nicholas' jaw felt tight, like it didn't want him to open his mouth. The stump where his arm should have been was aching. He said, "Sh-She went next door. She knows. She's...broken up about it."

Jacob helped Nicholas back into the living room, and Nicholas half-expected to see Darrin lying on the floor, but he was not there.

"You lay down and sleep," Jake told him.

"Yeah," Nicholas mumbled. "Where'd you put him?"

Hands on his hips, Jacob said, "Basement. Hatch is over there," he pointed to said hatch. Then, he went into his bedroom, no doubt to either check on Cole or to get some sleep himself.

Nicholas worried to death over Mattie. Why hadn't Jacob?

"Fuck!" Mattie yelled at the top of her lungs before punching a hole in the wall and bloodying her knuckles. "Fuck them both! Fuck them all! Fuck fuck fuck!" She kept punching until her fingers were raw and red, and then she stood there shaking, tears coming down, her lip quivering. If a zombie had climbed up and attacked her right now, she probably would have picked it up and tossed it through the window like it was that dirty diaper from earlier. The one that had almost hit Darrin.

She put her back to the wall and slid down, her hands against her face. She cried for a while, screamed a little bit (though with enough intensity to make her throat burn) and then calmed down. It was like this that she fell asleep, with her head tucked into her knees and her bloody hands lying limp on the musty floor.