The sun was setting in the city, time seemed to slow down, yet pass by like a bullet. While the sun was setting, clouds began to form and the mid-sixties temperatures went down to the low thirties.

As the group continued on to get out of the city, Nick began seeing his breath in the cold air. His wounds had clotted for the time being, giving him a short amount of time to keep his strength.

Beside Nick, Briar was walking normally as if he wasn't cold. Nick looked over his shoulder to see Ellis slowly walking with Rhett in his arms; Rhett was frozen, she was visibly shivering. Ellis was trying his best to keep her warm and to look out for Maya.

Maya was a little behind Ellis, she was shivering too. Her brother's hoodie wasn't enough to keep her warm.

Nick felt bad for Maya since he didn't want to get her cold with blood all over his blazer. He halted, then moved to where Maya stood.

"You okay, little one?" Nick asked calmly.

Maya shook her head and sat down on the ground. She was exhausted, her eyes were dull and she was nearly frozen.

Nick pulled her close to him; to the touch Maya was cold.

She closed her eyes, as if she wanted to go to sleep right where she was. Nick looked down at her and shook her gently to keep her awake.

"Come on, Maya. Stay awake for me. I know you're tired, but we have to keep moving." Nick told her gently and forced her to her feet.

Maya finally stood straight, her bookbag was light so she could walk easily next to Ellis.

Nick walked over to Ellis and saw he had goosebumps all over his arms. He must've been cold too, for he had a short-sleeved shirt on.

"How's Rhett pulling through?" Nick asked Ellis as he looked at the pink-haired girl.

"She's trying to sleep, but with the pain she's in and how cold she is, it must be hard for her." Ellis explained as his blue eyes closed a little in sympathy.

"I understand, Ellis. Can you keep Maya close to you, please? She's exhausted." Nick asked calmly.

Ellis nodded and looked over his shoulder at Maya. He saw the dark haired girl nearly half asleep on her feet. He walked over to her and gave her a gentle nudge against her back. Maya flinched as she awoke from her half-asleep daze.

"Come on, Maya. We have to keep moving. We'll find shelter soon." Ellis encouraged her as he walked slowly so Maya could keep up.

Maya followed slowly. She kept to Ellis' side as long as she possibly could.

Two hours later. . .

Finally, after walking for two hours, the group had found a small, abandoned neighborhood on the border of West Virgina. They entered the biggest house they could find in the small town.

They chose a house that was a light biege color and had four bedrooms.

Once inside the abandoned house, Nick looked around all the rooms to make sure no zombies were inside. For about ten minutes, Nick kept looking for zombies and, luckily, he found nothing in the house.

"Okay the house is all clear." Nick annouced as he came back to the group.

"Good, I'm exhausted." Ellis sighed as he sat down on the couch with Rhett curled up his arms.

"Ellis, don't tell me pink hair girl here is going to sleep with you?" Nick teased.

Ellis yawned. "No, she's getting her own room. So am I."

"Same here." Briar yawned.

"Looks like Maya has to sleep with someone." Ellis teased.

Maya blushed shyly and hid behind Nick. She was the youngest one in the group and she had to sleep with someone.

Nick rubbed her head and encouraged her to stop hiding.

"It's okay, Maya. You can sleep with me in my room." Nick spoke gently.

Maya blushed as he offered, Nick gave Maya a gentle smile as her face turned red.

"Oooooh. Nick is going to have company tonight." Briar teased.

Nick narrowed his eyes at Briar, he didn't like the fact that he kept teasing Maya like he did. Though he kind of understood, he was only eighteen so he was still kind of in the childish stage, like Rhett.

"Okay, everyone, head to your rooms. Ellis and Briar, I want you up at dawn for guard watch. I'll wake up at dawn too and help you guys out." Nick ordered.

"Yeah, that's what he said last time." Ellis whispered to Briar.

"Shut up, Ellis." Nick growled.

"Well it's true." Ellis shrugged.

"Whatever. Maya and Rhett are allowed to sleep. Maya is still recovering from her Hunter wounds and Rhett is burned. Ellis, before you put Rhett to bed, wrap her wounds up." Nick ordered.

Ellis nodded and picked himself and Rhett off the couch. He walked into one of the bedrooms and closed the door. Once in the bedroom, Ellis removed Rhett's shoes and wrapped her feet in bandaging, along with her wrists. He took her katanas and her Auto-Shotgun out of their holsters and set them on the floor along the wall. He picked her up once again and lay her in the double bed, covering her up.

For a few moments, Ellis watched Rhett sleep. Her pink hair hung in her face a bit; he sat down and moved her hair aside. She had stopped shivering and was fast asleep. Ellis gave a gentle smile to her before leaving the room to get some sleep for himself.

Outside Rhett's bedroom, Nick stood with Maya right beside him. Ellis jumped as he saw Nick standing near the door.

"What's up, Nick?" Ellis asked calmly.

"You love her, don't you?" Nick asked curiously.

Ellis' face turned a litte red but he still didn't feel that way for Rhett.

"No, Nick. I don't love her. I only like her. Sure we share some relationship benefits, but I don't love her. Not like I loved Zoey." Ellis admitted sadly.

"I understand, Ellis." Nick smiled as he patted Ellis' back.

Ellis smiled back and he knew that Nick finally understood how he felt for Zoey, even though she had died.

Ellis finally went to his bedroom to sleep, this room also had a double bed, luckily for him, the people who lived here last had pajama pants that were clean and were his size. He undressed himself and finally got some clean PJs on and went to bed.

Briar had chosen his room, too. It was a small room, but it was big enough for him. He went to bed too.

In the full size bedroom, Nick was treating Maya's still healing claw wounds. Her wounds still bled a bit but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. With her brother's sweatshirt on backwards, Maya didn't mind at all having Nick treat her wounds.

"You have any pain in your shoulder, Maya?" Nick asked.

"No, I haven't felt any pain since Rhett gave me stitches." Maya replied.

"Well that's good." Nick said with a smile.

Once Nick was finished with Maya's injuries, it was his turn to treat his own wounds. He took both of his shirts off. He grumbled in pain, his wounds were deep, but luckily this had happened before with the Hunter.

Maya had left the room to change in a pair of purple PJs she'd found in the house; they were a little big but she didn't seem to mind. She came back to find Nick gripping his shoulder blade.

"Nick, are you okay?" Maya asked as she came into the room slowly and sat down in front of Nick.

"Not really, kiddo. I'm in a lot of pain right now." Nick grumbled as he tried to sound gentle towards her.

"Let me help you. I've seen you, Ellis and Rhett help each other out and I've seen how you to do things. Let me try to help, please?" Maya asked in a begging tone.

"Alright, Maya. I'll let you try." Nick said calmly.

Maya grabbed a small bottle of peroxide and a cotton ball from Nick's first aid kit. She wet the cotton ball with peroxide and gently wiped Nick's wounds. Nick whimpered in pain as Maya kept cleaning his wounds.

"I'm sorry I'm hurting you, Nick." Maya said sadly.

"Don't worry, Maya. It's not your fault." Nick said in a tone of pain.

Maya put a large cloth patch on Nick's wounds and carefully wrapped bandages around his upper chest and over his injured shoulder. She was finished and she'd perfectly bandaged Nick up.

"Wow, Maya. You did a nice job with patching me up." Nick praised her.

Maya gave a gentle smile and she blushed as he praised her. Nick gave a smile back at her.

"Maya, you may need to leave the room again, just for a minute, okay?" Nick asked her nicely.

Maya nodded and stepped out the room. Nick closed the door behind her. He was changing into pajama pants he found in the dresser in the bedroom. Maya was standing againist the door while Nick was changing. Without warning, Maya felt the door open behind her and fell backwards with a tiny yelp.

"Ahh!" Maya yelped.

"Shhh. Quiet, Maya. People are sleeping. I didn't mean to startle you." Nick said gently.

Maya was sitting on floor right at Nick's feet. She looked up at him and saw him wearing dark red pajama pants and a white t-shirt. Nick reached down and picked Maya up and closed the door.

"Maya, you need to go to sleep." Nick said as he sat down on the king sized bed with Maya still in arms.

Maya yawned. "I know, Nick."

Nick chuckled. "Then get to sleep, little missy."

Maya giggled. "I can't, you're keeping me awake and making me laugh."

Nick lay Maya on her side of the bed and he lay on his. Maya then crawled under the comforter of the bed and faced Nick.

"Maya, what did I say?" Nick teased with smile.

"I know, Nick, I'm trying." Maya yawned.

Nick crawled over to her and was a few inches from her face. She blushed as he got closer to her.

"You're not trying hard enough." He teased as he kissed her nose and forehead.

Maya smiled and eventually her eyes began to close. Nick soon crawled under the comforter as well and turned the lamp out. Maya soon moved over to Nick's side of the bed and stuck close to him.

"Maya, what are you doing?" Nick whispered.

"I'm cold." Maya shivered.

Nick pulled Maya over to him and let her rest on him. Maya laid her head on Nick's chest, to her, Nick was extremely warm.

"Feel better?" Nick asked in a whisper.

Maya gave a nod in reply. She soon closed her eyes and fell asleep. Nick kissed her head and fell asleep as well.

The Next Morning. . .

The sun wasn't even up, it was still dark outside when Briar, Ellis and Nick were awake, on guard duty. They were still in their PJs at this time.

"How was your night with Maya last night, Nick?" Ellis teased.

"Yeah, Nick, how was sleeping with her?" Briar also teased.

Nick narrowed his eyes and just ignored their chidlish behavior.

"It was fine. Ellis, by the way, Maya is quite an excellent medic, she was able to patch me up last night." Nick explained.

"Really? Where did she learn how to do that stuff?" Ellis asked in surprise.

"She must've studied how we patched each other up as she was recovering and when we found her. Maybe, she wanted to be useful to the group." Nick spoke with a calm voice as he shot a wandering zombie in between the eyes.

Inside the house, Maya and Rhett were still fast asleep. Although, Maya woke herself up from being cold. She opened her eyes to find Nick's side of the bed made up.

"Nick?" She mumbled.

She got herself out of bed and went over to a mirror that was on a sliding door closet. Her hair was a bit messy but she fixed it as she combed through it with her fingers.

She wandered out of the room, she crept around quietly. Still sleepy eyed, she heard the boys talking outside. She stopped at the front door and she was going to open it when she heard her name.

"Why would Maya think she isn't useful to the group?" It was Ellis' voice she heard first.

"Well, from what I've heard you two, it seems like she doesn't do anything but hang back in the group like a loner." Briar said bitterly.

Maya pulled away from the door and felt hurt that Briar would say that about her.

"Briar, I'll give you one warning. Don't ever call Maya a loner ever again. She is not a loner!" Nick said viciously as he held his Magnum near Briar's face.

Briar backed away and back down from Nick, for he knew he shouldn't talk badly about Maya.

Inside, Maya had sat down against the front door and kept listening to Nick and the others talk. Her dark hair hung on the sides of her face, as she sat, she saw the sunlight come through the windows behind her.

She soon got up and walked back into the bedroom and crawled back into bed. As she lay still in the bed, tears formed in her eyes.

"I'm not a loner. . ." Maya mumbled to herself.

"No, you aren't." A familiar voice said to her.

She sat up in the bed and looked over at the doorway to the bedroom and saw Nick leaning against the door frame.

"N-Nick!" Maya stammered in embrassment and shock.

Nick didn't say anything; he walked over to the bed sat down on Maya's side and crawled up to her.

"You are not a loner, Maya." He said as he lay both of his hand on her face and wiped her tears away.

Maya lowered her head in Nick's hands and began to cry again.

"Maya, stop crying. It's okay." Nick said as he once again wiped away her falling tears from her soft face.

"Then why did Briar say that?" Maya stammered with sadness heavy in her voice.

"He doesn't realize how special you are to me, he thinks of you as loner because you hang back in the group, but that's because you're not strong enough yet to wield a gun. When you're strong enough or when you recover from your injuries, I'll teach you how to wield a gun." Nick said in soft tone.

"You will?" Maya brightened a litte as he gave her the offer.

"Yes, I will. But, I'll only let wield a gun when your out with me. Not with anyone else, understand?" Nick said as he rubbed Maya's face with his hands that were still on her cheeks.

Maya nodded and finally gave a small smile to Nick. He smiled back at her.

"Lay back down, Maya. You need rest a while longer. I'll stay with you, okay?" Nick said as he lay Maya back down and lay at her side with his arms wrapped gently around her.

Maya nodded and shut her eyes again.

Back outside, Briar and Ellis were still on watch until eight AM. Right now, it was seven thirty-four. They would be on watch for another half hour.

One hour later. . .

Ellis and Briar had came in and they had both fallen asleep in the living room on the couches.

In Nick's bedroom, Nick had dozed off with Maya in his arms. The still sleeping girl stirred slightly in her sleep but kept sleeping. Nick stretched but, as he did so, his wounds ached with a sharp pain. He got up out of bed and looked out a window and saw the sun at it's morning peak.

As Nick looked out the window, he saw zombies gathering near the house. His green eyes widened in shock. He grabbed his Assult Rifle and went to the living room to find Ellis and Briar sleeping.

"Ellis! Briar!" Nick yelled.

Ellis and Briar woke up from their slumber and looked at Nick.

"What, Nick?" Briar complained.

"There are zombies gathering outside! Get up and help me kill them." Nick ordered.

Ellis and Briar got their guns and went outside with Nick, but when they got outside, they saw two girls killing the zombies.

With wide eyes, Nick, Ellis and Briar watched in astonishment as the girls killed the zombies in matter of two minutes.

"Woah, those babes are amazing." Briar complimented.

Nick rolled his eyes, but Ellis was just astonished. He saw one of the girls was a beautiful blonde haired girl with red highlights. His heart began to pound like a drum, and his eyes were shining like diamonds.

"She looks like Zoey." Ellis mumbled to himself.

"Who?" Briar had over-heard Ellis and was confused.

"A girl he fell in love with." Nick explained.

Ellis left the porch of the house and wandered toward the two girls. The other girl was goth or emo looking for she had long black hair with blonde highlights underneath her hair and her clothes made her look goth. The young blonde haired girl turned her head to see Ellis walking up to her and her friend.

"Who are?" The blonde bitterly ordered for an answer as she held her Shot gun up in the air.

"Woah, calm down. I'm not gonna hurt either of you." Ellis stammered nervously.

"How do we know that? We've had survivors harm us before." The blonde spoke.

Behind Ellis, Briar and Nick had followed him. Nick rose his Assult Rilfe up and pointed it at the frisky blonde.

"You might want to shut up. If we say we won't harm you, then we won't but if you keep talking shit then we might just blow your guts on the ground." Nick spoke with pride.

"Nick! That's no way to talk to girls." Ellis scolded.

"She started it! She said that we would harm her and her friend." Nick hissed.

"Shut up! I'm sorry, ladies. We mean you no harm." Ellis calmly said.

The blonde haired girl lowered her Shot gun and looked at Ellis with her piercing, pale blue eyes.

Ellis swallowed hard and was a nervous reck around her; eventually, she just walked away with her friend following the rest of the guys.

Inside the house, Rhett was still resting; Maya had finally gotten up and changed into a black tank top and black skinny jeans.

In the living room, the boys had sat down with the two girls. Maya peeked around the corner of her and Nick's bedroom and listened in the conversation.

"Tell us your names." Nick ordered.

"Why should we tell you who we are? Me and my friend have survived on our own for three months since the start of this--hell you call a world!" It was the girl with black hair who spoke first.

"She's right, why do you need to know who we are?" The blonde calmly spoke.

"Well, we were gonna add you to our little group we have made over the last month or so. But this is your choice, we will not force you to stay." Ellis explained.

The girls both looked at one another trying to figure out what to do. The girl with black hair shook her head as if she didn't want to stay, but the blonde nodded her head with force as if they couldn't live on their own any longer.

"We will join you." The blonde spoke with pride. "My name is Summer Carmichael. And this is Raine White."

"Pleased to meet both of you." Nick nodded.

Maya stood with shock in her eyes. She didn't seem to trust these girls one bit, but she had no choice, Nick was her leader and her foster guardian for now. She returned to the bedroom and looked out the window at the rising sun.

Nick soon walked into the bedroom and saw Maya standing at the window. With a small scowl on his face, he approached her.

"Maya, is everything okay?" Nick asked as he laid his hand on her left shoulder.

"Yes, I'm fine." Maya said in an annoyed tone and shouldered away from Nick.

Nick frowned. "You sure don't seem fine, what's the matter?" He asked as he crossed his arms.

She looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "I don't trust those girls! I don't know what it is but I don't trust them."

Nick's eyes widened then narrowed again. He was wondering how Maya could speak to him that way especially with him being leader and her guardian.

"Well, Maya you're gonna have to get used to them. Whether you like it or not." Nick bent down in front of Maya's face and scowled at her.

Maya scowled back at Nick, she didn't like how the girls looked or acted. Maya made an effort to try and slap Nick's face to slap some sense into him, but before she could even reach his face, he grabbed her wrist. Eyes wide with shock, she tried to make him let go, but his grip got more tight.

"Nick, let go." She whimpered.

"Learn to behave and I'll treat you the way I did before you started acting like a brat." He said as he threw her wrist away and walked out of room.

Maya watched Nick walk away. She bowed her head in resentment as if she wasn't needed. She looked out the window and didn't see any zombies around. She opened the window and looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching. She jumped out and ran off.

I'll show them, I'll show them I can make it on my own! Maya thought to herself as she ran back to the city.

Once far enough from the house the rest of her group was at, Maya was on a highway that headed for city, the same path she took to the house.

She panted as she slowed down. Her chest heaved with exhaustion from lack of oxygen.

"I hope I'm going the right way." She panted.

She walked along the highway until she heard the familiar growl of a Hunter. She froze and stood still, listening to where the Hunter was. She saw a few cars and was curious to maybe find a weapon that might help her out but she finally saw the hooded demon that she heard. Her eyes were wide with fear and she trembled. The Hunter growled deeply and it circled Maya.

I've gotta make a move, but if I move anywhere this--thing will claw me like the one did at home. Maya thought to herself. She tensed her muscles for the perfect moment to run. She finally ran while the Hunter was on the far side of her.

She ran a few steps until the Hunter took a massive leap and landed in front of her. She gasped in fear. In a swift movement, the Hunter tripped up Maya and clawed her ankle, tripping her and sent her rolling on the ground.

Maya whimpered in pain and saw her ankle bleeding from three claw wounds. Her arms and back bled from scratch wounds from rolling on the asphalt ground.

The Hunter leaped at her once more, but Maya managed to crawl under an abandoned truck.

Her ankle ached with agony, she began to get tears in her eyes from the pain. Where was Nick when she needed him the most?

~That's chapter five folks, hope you enjoyed it. I sure did with writing it, well until next time followers. :) ~