"This should work." Leo says as he tightens the rope more firmly of the makeshift stretcher that we made for Rissa.

We look at our handiwork and deem it suitable to use. At least for now anyways. And it was hard to sit back and watch as Zared and Leo gently tried to place Rissa on it without causing her any more pain than she was already experiencing.

"She has to go back. There's no way we can keep moving on with her like this. It's too dangerous and way to risky. She'll only slow us down." Lacy comments, looking down at my friend with furrow brows.

"I'll take her back." Jacob announces with a grim look.

"I'll go with you." Violet quickly replies, kneeling next to Rissa as she still struggled to breathe.

"You should go as well." Lacy looks to Lani who was already shaking her head.

"Absolutely not. The less there are of us, the lesser chance of making it back alive. I'm going, you need me." She strongly voiced.

Lacy just sighs, not bothering to argue with the girl. I guess she was getting tired of badgering us all the time. I walk to Rissa and kneel next to her, taking a hold of her hand. Her face was even paler than before, and it made me worried.

"You're going to be okay. Jacob is going to take you back to the hotel where Chuck will look after you."

"Make sure...you come...back." She wheezes, squeezing my hand.

I give her a tight smile, my heart twisting at the sound of her voice. "Promise." I whisper.

"I'll stay with her." Violet tells me, her eyes red from all the crying she's been doing.

I nod my head and stand back up just as Jacob lifts one end of the stretcher and starts pulling away from us back in the direction we had come from. It was going to be a tedious way back, but at least they'll make it before night fall.

"Maybe you should go with them?" I look to Zared with furrowed brows.

"Nope." Was his immediate reply.

"You might be able to help Chuck with her condition." I press, already knowing it was a lost cause.

"You're not going back, so neither am I." He presses even harder, finally looking at me.

"Thought you wanted to save lives, wanting to be a doctor?" They weren't really fighting words; it wasn't like I wanted him to go anyways.

"That may be true, but to me your life and safety is way more important than anyone else's. I'm staying with you."

Not to sound dramatic but hearing him say that flushed my entire body and soul with happiness and pleasure. I couldn't help the tiny smile lift my lips as I reach over and softly caress my thumb against his plump bottom lip.

"Okay, but you know I had to try." I gently say.

He grabs my hand and kisses my palm, never taking his eyes off mine. "I know. Besides, there isn't anything I could for her at the moment. She needs surgery if she does have a punctured lung. She hasn't started coughing up blood yet so that's a really good sign. But just in case, I'll need to grab a few more things from the hospital to help her."

"We should start heading downtown and no more side stops. The person who was here previously is either dead or long gone. We need to hurry." Lacy states in a hard tone and doesn't wait for the rest of us as she starts marching after Jacob and Violet.

I sigh guilty. It was my fault we had almost gotten pulverized and Rissa nearly dying. I did exactly what Lacy kept telling me I was going to do. But it was hard to leave others in a peril situation when I know I can help.

But after this...I don't think I'll be making another thoughtless act again. I can't risk someone else getting hurt because of my actions. Especially if that person was someone I cared about. Like Zared for instance. If anything ever happened to him because of something I caused I would never forgive myself.

We got to a point where we had to go our separate ways with Jacob, Violet and Rissa. As we treaded along, I couldn't help but keep on looking back at them until I no longer could see them anymore. Zared had taken my hand and intertwined our fingers when he noticed I kept doing it with a frown of worry on my face.

"They're going to be fine." He whispers, trying to ease my worries.

I knew he was right. But the feeling of something going wrong wouldn't leave me. But there wasn't anything I could do. Squeezing his hand in mine I just nodded and together, all of us staying silent, we continued our path downtown.

***

About an hour later passes us by with no interruptions. We have yet to see another living soul around and haven't encountered any other monsters. Of course, we stayed clear of residential areas as much as we could and didn't bother on entering any facilities that we walked by.

The sun was rising high in the sky, and my guess it was probably around noon by now. The day was already starting to get warm, and this sweater needed to go, damn it. There were so many stores that I could have stopped in and took some new clothing. But after what had happened at the house I didn't want to ask to stop.

"Hey you guys?" Zared suddenly speaks up looking in the direction of a truck stop center. "I know you don't want to make any unnecessary stops, but I'm sure we all could use what we could scavenge from that place." He points right at it.

"And best part it's not near any buildings and those kinds of stores have great supplies." Leo perks up, readjusting his bag staring at the place too.

Lacy sighs but nods her head in agreement. "Honestly, we need to find new supplies anyways. With a larger group we'll be running out sooner rather than later."

I was relieved that we were stopping and that this time it wasn't because of me. We quickly headed to the large store, carefully looking around to be sure there weren't any unsuspecting creatures around. But what does it really matter if apparently, they could hide underneath the ground too?

"Its not too dark inside with all these windows, so we should be alright." Lacy slips her pack off and puts it on the ground. "Let's keep most of our stuff out here in case we have to make a quick getaway. Don't want these hindering us to move fast if needed."

I follow suit and quickly take out an empty bag I had placed in my pack just for this occasion. Zared does the same thing and keeps his knife close at hand. I made sure the shot gun was reloaded after Lani had given it back earlier.

"I say we stay close to the areas that have sunlight. The less risk the better." Lani voices as she peers into one of the windows.

"Good idea. Let's not try to stay too long. We still have a little while to go." Leo tried the front door, and we all became shocked that it was unlocked and opened with ease.

"That's a little suspicious." Zared breathes out, clutching his weapon tight, his shoulders stiffening.

"Just keep your guard up and be aware of your surroundings." Lacy walks up next to Leo as he holds the door open.

They both nod right before she bangs hard on the window a couple of times, and we all wait for something to happen. I was getting used to my heart pounding like crazy by this point that it was becoming natural now.

We all waited a little longer than normal but when nothing still happens, we breathe a little better. Lacy and Leo were the first ones to go in, followed by Lani, then myself, bringing Zared at the end. I beeline to the clothing section. Back home I cared what I wore and how it looked on me, but here?

Clothing of any kind was better than the stinky smelling ones I currently had on. I just grabbed a bunch of shirts hanging on the racks, not bothering whether they were too big or too small. Didn't even care what color. The pants were a different story. I need to be sure they stayed on my hips, so I took a little more care on what size they were before shoving them in my bag.

Zared was next to me doing the same thing. I wasn't sure what the others were doing, I was just trying to hurry up and get back out into the open of pure sunlight. Once I was done with that, I went in search for the hygiene section.

I grab a few bars of soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a shaving kit. I found some socks and underwear and threw those in too. My bag was already getting full, so I searched for the one section I knew I needed to get too. I doubt we'll get another chance to stop at another store, so I needed to get them now.

Condoms and lube.

Grabbing all the lubes that I could, I hesitated on the condoms. The sizes...the ones at the hotel were a bit tight on Zared from what I could remember. I'll be honest, I didn't even check the size of that box. I stood there debating on whether to just grabbing them all when an arm reaches over my shoulder and grabbing the XL size then throwing them in my bag.

I flush when I look over my shoulder to see him standing just behind me. He gives a tiny smirk then reaching over grabbing two home ready 'check it yourself' health kits and throws them in my bag too. I stare down at them with a frown.

"Might as well be sure we're both clean, cause trying to find condoms all the time is going to be frustrating. If we're both clean, we wouldn't be needing them anyways." He whispers, then leaving me there standing by myself with my entire body heated in flames.

And I just totally became hard thinking of him going bare inside me. This was completely the wrong time and place to be thinking about his dick, damn him. But fuck, did I want that man's body against mine in this very moment, all hot and sweaty.

I groan internally, leaning my head against the shelf in front of me cursing him for this predicament that I was now currently in. Now I had to wait until it calmed down, because there was no way I was going to showcase my hardon in front of everyone else.