---Nightmare's POV----

As soon as Cross and I locked eyes I felt a pit form in my stomach.

His eyes were completely glassy, his normally lively pupils broken and dull. His hands were covered in blood, so was the side of his hoodie, the dark seeping colour of blood visible through the dark fabric of the hoodie. Blood covered most of him, staining his clothes.

"Cross?"

He looked me up and down, blinking slowly before baring his teeth and hissing, lunging at me.

I yelped, ducking down.

A surprised screech from behind me made me whip around in time to see Cross clawing at another zombie twice his size, a crocodile-like zombie.

It lashed out at Cross, scratching him right across the chest.

Cross let out a scream of pain, thrashing beneath him desperately. For a moment, our eyes locked, and they flashed back to normal. Just for a second. But that was enough to snap me out of my trance.

With a yell of anger, I pulled out my gun and aimed it, firing immediately.

The crocodile zombie froze before going limp on top of Cross, trapping him.

I ran over, using my tentacles to shove its dead body off of Cross.

Cross stumbled to his feet, clutching his side as more blood seeped from his wounds. He was still zombified, that was clear. But he still had some sanity. And that's all we needed.

I went to grab onto him, but he hissed, stumbling back.

"Cross..." I whispered. "Come on...its me, Nightmare...remember?"

He snarled, staying back.

Another scream from Rachie rang out and I turned around to see her and Panda being completely surrounded. There was no way they'd be able to make it out alone.

I growled, glaring at Cross. "Stay here!"

He blinked, tilting his head to the side.

I risked leaving him there, running over to where my spear lay discarded to the side. I grabbed it, keeping my gun out as well as I ran towards the mob.

I whacked several zombies out of the way with the spear, shooting any others and spearing them with my tentacles at the same time.

Eventually I fought my way through to the middle where Rachie and Panda were still fighting.

"Need any help?" I called, shooting two zombies behind them.

"Oh that would be nice!" Panda yelled, rapid fire shooting a bunch of zombies. Head shots every time.

Sudden unfamiliar gunshots rang out and Rachie let out a whoop as the wall of zombies around us started collapsing, falling to the floor at our feet.

Magic and Jay stood behind them, each holding two guns.

Powered on by their appearance, we fought back, stabbing and shooting all the zombies that came close.

After about five minutes, they were all lying on the floor. Dead.

Jay and magic ran over, looks of pure concern on their faces. "Did any of you get bitten?!"

I shook my head.

"Nope." Panda said after a quick check. "We all got lucky."

Magic breathed out in relief, pocketing her guns. "Thank god, that could have been a massacre."

Jay nodded, looking around. "We are never doing that again."

Panda laughed, going to answer back in agreement when a sudden muffled scream rang out, causing us all to whip around in time to see Magic, who had wandered off to an alleyway entrance, be pulled down by a zombie that hadn't quite died yet on the floor.

Immediately we all called out, pointing our guns at the zombie as she fell to the floor. But then froze as another zombie attacked it, freeing Magic and killing the other one.

I instantly froze, breaking out into a smile.

It was Cross.

Magic scrambled to her feet in terror, sprinting over to us and clinging to Jay, who instantly raised his gun at Cross.

"NO!" I called out, stepping in front of Jay and backing up. "H-He's the one with me..."

The four of them blinked, looking over at Cross.

"No way mate." Panda said. "He's gone. Completely infected."

"No he's not!" I hissed.

"Prove it then."

I growled, glaring at all of them before I turned to Cross. "Cross?" I whispered, starting to step towards him. "It's me...Nightmare..."

He blinked, swaying on his feet slightly as he looked me up and down. His eyes stayed glassy.

I slowly walked forwards until I was only about a meter away from him.

He was panting softly, his body covered in scratches and wounds. An alarming puddle of blood also seemed to be forming around him, dripping from his blood-soaked hoodie.

I cautiously reached a tentacle out and wrapped it around his wrist gently before pulling him lightly over to me, making him stumble slightly. "It's okay Cross...I need you to fight it one last time...a-and then you'll be free okay?"

He blinked rapidly, his eyes and expression staying empty as he let out a low snarl.

I flinched, but edged closer to him. "Shh...it's okay Cross...it's okay..."

He growled weakly at me, his aggressiveness seeming to fade as I cupped his cheek softly with my hand.

"There we go..."

Then all of a sudden he hugged me, clinging to me with all he was worth as choked sobs escaped him.

I let out a loud sigh of relief and immediately scooped him onto my arms, peppering his face with kisses quickly before walking back over to the others. "See. He still has some fight left."

Jay walked over and looked down at Cross, taking in his wide, terrified eyes that were no longer glazed over. "Alright. Take him in. He won't last much longer."

I nodded, holding Cross tightly to my chest as he shook. His grip on me was weakening by the second, and his eyes had already started going cloudy.

We ran back in, leaving Panda to bolt the doors behind us as we sprinted up the stairs and along the twisty corridors until we reached the room I had been dragged to originally.

"This way!" Jay called, kicking open a door at the back of the room I hadn't seen before.

It looked like your every day hospital room. With an operation bed in the middle and shelves full of vials and equipment to one side.

"Put him down on the bed. Quick."

I walked over, placing Cross down on it.

He immediately whimpered as I stepped away, trying to cling to me.

"Let go Cross..." I whispered, petting his head softly. "They're gonna cure you, okay? Y-You need to let go..."

His hands went limp and I set him down, backing up slightly as his eyes glazed over suddenly.

"Strap him down!" Jay yelled, grabbing some stuff as Rachie and Magic ran forwards, tightening leather straps round Cross' chest, wrists, ankles and neck.

He screeched, thrashing violently as the virus took him back over.

I wanted to stay and watch, be by his side as it happened, but I was dragged out by Panda, who pushed me down onto a seat.

"Look I know you want to be there with him but that could just stress him out more. Stay here, and let us do our thing okay?"

I growled loudly upon hearing Cross' snarls and yells, but I nodded, staying sat down in the chair as I watched him run back into the room with Cross, shutting the door behind him before I could get a proper look.

I sat there tense, thinking of every single possible scenario where this could all go wrong.

"Please..." I mumbled to no one in particular. "Please let him be okay..."

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Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh only a few more chapterrrrssssssss :'3

Ric will Cross make it?

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-Jess-