I muffle a gasp and we all stand there looking at the bite. It's bleeding down his leg and into his shoe.

Carl put an arm around my shoulders as I realize I'm shaking badly. "How long does he have?" I whisper to Carl.

"Couple days at most." He whispers back. Austin mumbles something along the lines of "not again" and Dylan stares at him. They've both experienced this happening with Olivia I think her name was.

The new kid, Kennedy, stands in the corner of the room awkwardly.

"It's up to you." Michonne tells Christian. "We can...um.."

"Kill me?" Christian finishes shaking his head. "I might be bit, but I can be of some use. If a hoard comes I can be the distraction. "

"No." I speak up. "We aren't going to use you for bait. If you don't want to kill yourself, then we can keep you in the back room till you um...turn." I whisper the last word, hating it so much these days. Used to be a word for directions or games, now it's for death and monsters.

"Woah woah woah," Kennedy steps over to us. "You can't keep him in the place where you sleep until he turns into a monster."

"Cause I'm totally not sitting right here." Christian snorts.

Carl lets go of me and steps up to Kennedy, Carl being a good inch taller than him. "Listen, we just saved you, so you're new here. You have no say what we do and don't do. Got it?" Kennedy just rolls his eyes.

Oscar and Carl help Christian to the back room and onto the couch. Michonne agrees for the first day we can guard him, but when he gets really sick she's guarding him.

"I'll take first watch." I volunteer.

"Not alone!" Carl protests. I walk over to him and look him in the eyes.

"Do you think I would cheat on you?" I honestly feel hurt.

"No, just...just if he turns." He looks at the ground.

"We still have a couple of days. If it makes you feel any better I can bring my axe with me." I fiddle with the handle of my axe.

He looks back up at me with those piercing blue eyes. "You sure you vcould do it if he does turn?"

I sigh, knowing the answer. "No, but I will if I have to."

He hesitates a second before agreeing to let me go. "Fine, just holar if anything happens. I'll be in the next room." He jerks his thumb towards the wall to the left.

"Ok." I peck him on the cheek and place my axe into the loop of my belt. I open the white door to see Christian just sitting on the couch and staring at the floor. He looks up at me when I close the door behind me.

"Hey." I say with a small smile.

"Hey." He sadly says back. I sit next to him on the couch. His bite is bandaged up, curtosy of Austin. "I'm surprised Carl let you be alone with me." He looks up at me.

"Had to convince him that nothing would happen." I sorta lie, not wanting to tell him that the only way Carl let me is because I have my axe. But unfortunately I was never good a lying.

"He made you bring you're axe, didn't he." Christian asks with a sad smile on his face.

"What? No!" I try to cover up the truth, but again, I was never good at lying.

"Come on Lauren." He shoves my shoulder playfully. "You're terrible at lying."

"First, ow that shoulder still has a hole in it and secoond, Nu uh! I lied for you when Christie asked if you were single." I remind him.

"But she didn't believe you at first until I grabbed your hand." He shoots back.

"And how would've we played that off if camp never got over run?" I ask him with a slight smirk.

He smiles and looks at the ceiling. "I would've thought of something. "

"Riiiight. .." I sarcastically say.

"What? I would've!" He puts his hands up.

"Uh huh, cause you're such a fast thinker." Man, my sarcasm is on point still. "May I remind you of that awkward time when we were at target practice at camp and everyone hit the target and it took me three minutes later than everyone to hit it. You just stood next to me and said 'nice job at shooting.'" I mimic his voice.

"What has that to do with fast thinking?"

" You didn't even think before you spoke. It was awkward, like I could see I did horrible and trying to compliment me made it worse when you were like the third person to hit it."

He puts his hands on his hips. "Maybe I panicked."

"Panicked about what?" I laugh.

"About talking to you. "

"About talking to me? What's that supposed to mean?" I cross my arms.

He sighs. "Well, I never told you this but at camp I had a small crush on you." He plays with his fingers, twisting them and scratching his palm.

I laugh and he gives me a confused look. "That explaines the stalkerish staring." His face goes red. "Just to be fair, I had a crush on you too. Zainab and Morgan were the only ones who knew."

"So that explains why Zainab kept trying to get me to sit next to you in the cars we had when we got away from camp." He chuckles.

"But I guess we were both too devastated about our family to even care." I say.

We sit in awkward silence for a minute before I get up. "Welp, this is awkward now. Wanna play cards?"

"Sure, why not. Speed?" He asks as I get the cards from his bag.

"You know it." All the kids would gather around a small picnic table and have speed challenges against the winner. Whoever won the first round went and played someone who won from another pair of players and then the second round went between two other players and so on. I won some just like the others.

"No hard fellings?" He asks me.

"No hard fellings. " I agree with a smile.

We play speed for two hours before sleep beckoned us. Christian offered to give me the couch cause it's 'gentlemen like' but I thought it common knowledge that the sick one gets the couch. I slept in a chair that was near the couch.

I was just about to fall asleep. "Hey Lauren." Christian called me.

"What?" I ask with my eyes closed. This kid better not need anything.

"You do know Emily got out of camp."

I bolt up. "What?"

"When we lost you we found her with another group. They found us and wanted us to go with them back to their camp, but we were heading to Terminus and refused. She was with them." He says sleepily. Violently coughing after words. I hand him a water bottle, knowing that he was just staring to get sick. My heart dropped a little at the thought of that.

"Good night Christian. " I say, not really knowing how to respond.

"Night Lauren. Maybe you'll find her again and become the insperable cousins again." I can hear his smile.

"Maybe." I say and smile at his already sleeping form. Maybe walking down memory lane was something he needed, something I needed too. It made me long for those days when we were all as happy as one could get these days. I wish Carl would've been there too cause those would've been even better.