You had never felt this tired before in your life. The whole fiasco of almost loosing your only companion- and at this point almost dying- had sent you into hysterics. Chattering a constant whisper to him from afar and giggling quietly if only to try to confirm that he was still there. Sighing, you rubbed your head.

You were attached to him, you couldn't help that fact.

Shakily, you stood up, placing your hands on the roofs stone walls to try to steady yourself. A ring of grime was surrounding your neck- an ever present reminder of the smoker having had you caught.

You shuddered, reaching your free hand up to touch your dirty neck. You wanted to get a shower- but that would leave you in a vulnerable position, so you chucked that thought out the window, or over the roof in this situation.

Heaving another sigh, you looked down at the growling and restless infected. Most, if not all, still had their attention on you from where you stood at the top of the roof, so instead, you sat back down, ducking from their lingering gazes.

That wasn't to say there wasn't another gaze on you. Your hunter stared at you complacently, crouched, but it no way taunt and posed to kill. You supposed that was at least one good fact about the moment.

On the contrary, you felt ready in every way to give way and start to run. The fading adrenaline levels still had a bit of kick, and the more you tried to forcefully relax your muscles, the more tense they became.

It would run out eventually, and you hoped sooner rather then later. It's always good to replenish your energy, even when it feels like you don't need it. It was a weird feeling- being so pumped up and ready to run, yet equally tired and ready to fall over. Exhausted mentally worked better then tired.

Pressing a hand to your heart, you looked around again, taking in the area of the roof. The dead bodies he had been chewing on were left on their lonesome, bite and claw marks all along their abdomen, and more specifically, around their stomach.

The guts laying all around made you flinch for a moment, but you ignored that, focusing on standing up and working your way over to them. You may have been desensitized, but you didn't want it in front of you the whole time you were up here.

As you made your way over to the bodies, your companion followed, sniffling near your feet in an unsaid question and curious sense. He very clearly didn't understand what you were doing, but followed nonetheless.

Stooping next to the first body- a middle aged man at the looks- you hooked your hands under his arms and hoisted him up. Again, the hunter looked at you, even more confused by now. Once again, you ignored him, wondering over to the edge of the building and dumping the dead body over the side. It hit the ground with a dull thud.

Huffing, you walked to the other- middle aged female this time- and repeated the process, watching the body fall, hit, and splatter.

You had dumped the bodies over the opposite side you came up from, as to not make more noise and keep the horde there longer. Seizing the moment, you leaned on the concrete railing of the building, keeping in mind of the shuffling behind you.

A body stood next to you, hands and chest pushed against the concrete. The hunter was staring at the bodies you dropped, head just barely peaking over as he did.

He glanced between them before settling back onto all four of his limbs, mouth looking a bit tense.

"Feels like covering up a murder- doesn't it?"

His head snapped upward at you.

"At least... that's what I think it kinda feels like." You finished with a sigh, turning your gaze away from the two splattered bodies and sliding your back down the railing.

Sitting on the ground brought your sizes into scale, your companion being bigger length wise. You simply watched as he put a hand out, inching closer. Making a shooing motion with your hand, you forced him to take a step back, frowning mildly at this whole situation.

A low growl rumbled in his throat, before he turned the other way, crawling around all slow like and scanning the blood and internal organs that still sat on the roof. Not to your surprise, he trotted up to it and started eating. Not nearly as brutal as before, more of a nibbling type of eat.

Your own stomach growled at the thought of food, however disgusting his eating habits were. Sighing, you reached into your bag, pulling out a granola bar that you would have preferred to keep for rations.

Peeling the plastic, the first bite was like heaven. Anything that was reminiscent of a time before now was a pleasant luxury. That and being hungry made it easier to chow down on anything, even if it was a slightly stale granola bar that sat in your cabinet for half a year.

Despite the disgusting sight it was to see him eat human organ, you watched anyway. Didn't want him sneaking up on you again, even if his constant rumbling and growling making it easier to hear him.

You wished things weren't like this. The whole apocalypse wasn't what you had in mind for a Sunday evening. You were pretty sure it was a Sunday. The first week being dealt with more swiftly. You actually traveled with people during the first week. Got split up, and some stuff went down. Your not sure you'll see those people again. You hoped you will. How couldn't you wish to see them when two of them were siblings and the other was a close cousin.

Reminded you of the good old days.

"Hey." You said, taking another bite out of your granola and watching as he paused his eating to look at you.

"Remember when Bobby pushed the both of us down a hill?" He let out a puff of indignance before returning to his meal.

"We were so mad at him... You ended up falling into the river!" You let out a warm laugh.

"'Bobbbyyyyy...! Why'd you do it...!?' you had wined, and the only thing Bob could say was, 'If you'd have a lick of sense you wouldn't be standing at the top of the hill so teasing like.'"

"We forced him to bye us ice cream. You got chocolate, and I got vanilla. Ended up mixing them and sharing a bowl of melted 'choconilla' ice cream."

Your companion let out a low growl, jaw moving as he chewed the last bit of his self proclaimed food. You just sighed at him.

"Those were the good old days." Glancing around the roof, you paused before looking back at him, "Guess there's no point in looking back on them now."

Taking the last bite of your granola bar, you tossed the trash and picked yourself up off the ground.

That open door that led to the lower parts of the building had been bothering you for quite some time. Something could just up and wander up here anytime it wanted, and you made up your mind to barricade it.

Twisting the chain around your arm, you started to search the roof for something that could help with the barricade. The main things hanging around were broken pieces of rotten wood, some cinder blocks, a tarp, and what looked like half a table.

You took it upon yourself to move the cinder blocks over to the door first, the hunter following you a good foot away the entire time you moved the three cinder blocks. They made a good barricade up and by themselves, but for good measure you lugged the broken door over and propped it under the door knob the best you could. It would at least make a hefty amount of noise if someone did push it over when opening the door.

You settled on grabbing the tarp and sitting in a corner of the roof closer to the hoard. They'd leave eventually. You'd have to wait it out till them.

Your companion, who had been following you around as you walked, had settled on watching you a few feet away. He rested complacently on his haunches, and stared at you as though expecting you to do something.

You did nothing though, and only watched as he watched back.

He grew bored of that game rather quickly though, instead walking toward the little bit of guts still left on the ground. His chain clicked as he crawled, dragging along the ground with a grating sound.

What mildly surprised you was that he started hitting the guts around like a cat toy. If anything, you were expecting him to eat the rest of it.

He carried on like that for awhile, hitting it around and scraping his claws against the ground as he threw them. It was a dark sight- infected human batting infected human guts around. Made you want to up that granola bar you downed, but you held it in.

At least he seemed to be having whatever type of fun he could have, considering he was infected.

Definitely a strange one. You've observed the infected before. Don't eat, sleep, or drink water. The only thing you've had difficulty getting your companion to consume is water. Sometimes your positive he's awake when you fall asleep, though you have caught him sleeping a couple times, wakes up the moment you move, but it's happened. At least he eats alright.

A chocking noise snapped you out of your thoughts. Whipping your head up, your met with the hunter chocking on something. He hacked a few more times for you to get worried, but by the time you made a movement to go and help him, he spit it up by then. Looked like a penny.

You sat back down, squinting at that fact. Honestly, you didn't question it. He swallowed weird junk all the time.

Kinda like a dog.

Smiling at that thought, you let out a small laugh, "Your a goof." Was all you said.

He glanced up at you for that, bloody mouth pursed.

Shaking your head, you pulled a rag out of your bag, along with a water bottle. Shaking the chain, you tugged him over towards you, just a small bit of resistance being met before he crawled over without much thought.

In front of you now, sitting on his haunches, you poured some water onto the rag before leaning toward him. He didn't flinch until he realized it was water, jerking his head back for a couple seconds until you tugged his chain and forced him to sit still.

The frown on his face was sour, and when you brought the rag close to his face he tried to nip your fingers. You couldn't bring it close to his teeth bared mouth, and you were beginning to get rather annoyed.

"Sit. Still." He made a growling noise, and tried to nip at your hand, to which you promptly wrapped your free hand around his jaw and nose. Several muffled yelps came from him as he jerked away from your hand, taking a good few steps backwards.

You groaned at his movement, slapping a bloody hand your forehead. It only had blood on it because of the blood all over his chin. The blood that you had been trying to get off. "Uggghh- I'm just trying to clean your face. Get over here please."

He growled, huffing and crawling a bit farther away from you. Getting fed up with his sass, you stood and walked over to him, sitting down and hooking an arm around his neck.

Your companion only huffed a breathy rumble, resigning to sit in his own irritation. With that, you wiped the blood off his face, squeezing the rag and adding more water before wiping over anything you had missed the first time.

He was annoyed, and so were you, but the company was still pleasant nonetheless.

Trudging back to your backpack and wringing the rag, you placed it into a plastic bag before slipping it the front pocket. The hunter kept his distance, trying to wipe the extra water off his face somewhat reminiscent of a cat.

Plucking the tarp from off the ground, you sat back into the corner and pulled it around you. Rest was important. You needed it, and you were trying your best to get it.

The hunter grumbled, chain dragging as he waddled closer towards you. You watched, keeping an eye on his now clean jaw. His hoodie had blood on it, near the chest area, but that was something you couldn't fix. His claws were bloody and dirty, but cleaning those would be pointless as he walked and stepped in blood all the time.

He tried to crawl up next to you, but you pushed him back, keeping the constant reminder that he favored nipping and biting at things close to him rather then being motionless. A restless one if you would.

A small flurry of growls and displeased yelps came from him when you pushed him away a second time, and he sat a distance away from you with a displeased slouch in his back.

Thinking nothing of it, you simply hunkered down, pulling the tarp to your face as you tried to rest.

You simply couldn't though. No matter how hard you tried to settle those hard wired nerves of instinct and malignancy that whispered in your ear and told you to keep running and fighting for your life- you couldn't. In the several minutes you sat resting there, your leg would twitch with the need to run, your fingers would squeeze as though holding a gun, and your breath had an airy feel about it, as though your lungs needed more and more to keep you fighting.

Ignoring it was the only thing you could do. So as you sat there, bundled in your new found tarp, you watched your companion crawl around. Chain dragging from his harness and thoughts of how and why this came to be.

As to how it happened, you could barely remember the glazed images that passed your eyes. You could, however, remember very vividly the emotions you felt. So pained, and shocked. The electricity of fear shuttling through your spine and making you cry, and beg.

Desperate.

Hateful. Specifically at him.

There was no reason to be angry at him. You just needed something to blame it all on.

Watching him now, you wished to be closer.

Closer, closer. . .

Closer.

Shaking your head about wildly, you reacquainted yourself with your surroundings. Thinking like that's dangerous.

Don't do it again.

That's a good idea.

From the corner of your eye, the sun gleamed a brilliant orange hue. Clouds, bystanders to the radiant light, were dipped in an ever silky fuchsia and coral color. It was beyond beautiful from on top this building, and it faintly reminded you of the mornings spent inside your company filled kitchen. The bitter smell of coffee brewing, and the gentle clanks of spoons on porcelain bowls.

The cereal was always so sugary. Just the way you liked it.

The small chatter was familiar, and on equal scales it was pleasant.

Warm toast, melted butter, anything that felt like home, felt like comfort. Bacon sizzling, and the warm touch on the shoulder from a sibling.

That was what felt like home.

Not the cold concrete pressed to your back.

Finally, the effects of being on the run had begun to wear out. Your eyes becoming half lidded as you watched your companion sniff his claws with an untold curiosity. If it even was curiosity.

It would feel nice. Nice to sleep.

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