No other purpose

by Jewelrybonneys

Summary:

The world was in chaos, the outbreak had wiped over half of the population if not way more. The only thing left was a rugged world where you fought to survive another day without getting eaten by the dead or killed by the living.

You had witnessed how cruel the people had turned so you chose to remain alone, not trusting another human fellow. But everyday left you more unclear on what you continued to live for, survive for. Days seemed to get easier to survive, but at the same time they turned hard to get by. You could think again, ponder the reason for your existence and purpose to continue. You didn't have anything anymore, everything once familiar to you was gone. But maybe life wasn't so one dimensional after getting a new traveling companion and leaving the brooding thoughts behind.
--
Cross-posted on wattpad.

Chapter 1: Prologue

You have been observing the city for a while now. You were seated on a rocky cliff a good distance from the city so you could scout the place before going, if it was safe enough to even go. Well nothing seemed to be exactly safe these days, but the city hasn't yet seemed to be too dangerous or a complete death trap. Well that green-haired guy seemed to be doing fine there, always coming to stop at that same crossroad wherever he tried to go. He had slashed a couple zombies along his way with his katanas while being all directionless. It was almost amusing to watch him at first, but he didn't seem to ever learn and his stupidness soon started to irritate you. How had this guy exactly survived the apocalypse this far?

The zombie apocalypse that started maybe over a year ago. It was mid-spring when the outbreak erupted and the world all over fell into chaos. People were and still are being eaten alive everywhere you go. Once you are bit you are turned into a rotting corpse with never ending bloodthirstiness. After witnessing cases where people turned into one without bite or scratch being as cause you realized everyone must be already infected. Everyone would turn into a zombie eventually after death, if not finished through their heads preventing the changing before complete death.

Once it started you were lucky that you were on your way to meet your friend who was living far from the big city you lived in. It was supposed to be one long weekend over his place and then return back home and continue with your everyday life. What you didn't know was that there was an outbreak going on around the world and you weren't gonna get to see your friend before the worst would have happened.

That day you arrived by train to the station where your friend was supposed to be waiting. You were the only one exiting the train to the quiet and empty station, but it was a small town so you didn't question why nobody would be heading there. It was also a weekday so there weren't that many passengers on the train. The train continued ahead while you were left at the eerie station. After waiting a good twenty minutes without getting any signal to your phone, you got enough and stood up ready to go to the town yourself. Maybe everyone was in quarantine in their homes, you read about some worldwide breakdown going off before your mobile data stopped working completely. You blamed your location in the middle of nowhere for the bad connection.

The town itself looked quiet from a distance. Once arriving it still seemed like a ghost town, no people seen anywhere. You continued walking on the streets mindlessly, not knowing where your friend Luke even lived. You saw a grocery shop ahead, so you chose to go get some snacks while waiting for your friend to appear somewhere and find you.

Stepping to the shop, you were surprised at how trashed it looked. There were items in the ground and some of the shelves were completely empty. There wasn't anyone at the cashier either, just this creepy atmosphere around. Thinking more positively, maybe the store was giving stuff away now because of the outbreak or something. Looking around for cameras you didn't see any and chose to take the opportunity, going to the candy aisle and snatching some sweets. Surely you could take advantage of this as well.

After filling your bag with some different sweets, you flinched when you heard a thump behind you from the door. When you turned to look back at the door, fearing you may have been caught in the act, it was only a very filthy and bloody looking man swiping his hands on the window while growling oddly. When you walked closer it started to trash against the door more violently like he wanted to get to you. With a quick review he looked and acted shockingly much like the zombies in zombie series. It couldn't be that, right? You tried to ask him if he was okay, but he didn't react to your words at all, he just got more violent with the window when you spoke.

You then came to the conclusion that the zombie apocalypse was really going on and he must be one of the infected ones. You got a lot of proof for that from the alleyway across the street where there was a gutted corpse lying on the ground getting more gutted and eaten by another man or by a zombie. For sure you didn’t want to find out what exactly he would do if he got to you on the other side of the window. Then there was already another zombie that came to rash on the glass door, probably led here by the other one that continued causing loud noise. They would only attract more and you needed to get away before they made their way inside.

But then your body started to shake uncomfortably, once the realization really settled in. This was really happening, actual zombie apocalypse. What the hell were you gonna do? You feared just going into the bathroom at night after watching zombie movies so how were you even gonna sleep your nights when you had an actual reason for all the fear. Was Luke dead already, or zombie more specifically? Was that the reason he wasn't here? You didn't want to believe that before witnessing it with your own eyes only then you could accept that he was gone and mourn over it. But what were even the chances of your survival, you were weak and that was the fact, that you maybe didn't want to admit to yourself before. You were good as dead, but if Luke was alive then you did have to find him.

Another thump on the window made you come back to your senses once again and you looked up at the window. There were two zombies more and way bigger than the two others, the glass wasn't gonna last long if more was on their way here. You looked around the store and found a back door in one corner, you dashed to test it, but of course it was locked. You looked around the shop, if there was something useful to help you open the door. You found nothing helpful and there was already one zombie more at the door. In your eye caught the fire axe that was behind the cash register on the wall in a glass frame.

Testing the glass, it was locked as well, but you took the barcode scanner from the cash register behind you and hit the glass with it. The glass broke and you quickly took the axe out of the frame. There were eight zombies in total and the banging against the window just got more violent. Before going to the backdoor you filled your bag hurriedly with some leftover water bottles that had fallen into the ground. You shoved as much food you could fit, throwing some of your clothes away from taking space in your bag. Who knows when you would come across this much food again.

You gave up on filling your bag with more dry foods when you heard the alarming sound of glass cracking. You ran to the backdoor with the axe in your hands, breaking the lock. You pushed the door open and closed it pushing a trash bin in front of the door to slow the zombies. When you looked around the room you had come to, it was the store's loading dock, which was still inside the building so you ran to the open entrance out of there. Getting at the entrance you came face to face to your first zombie that once noticed you came clumsily lunging at you. It wasn't fast, but you didn't have any other choice than deal with it because it was blocking your exit.

Testing the theory you slammed your axe with all of your strength on top of the zombie's head, blood gushing, it fell limp and collapsed in front of you. Your satisfactory sigh was short-lived when you heard rattling behind you, the zombies had got to the backdoor and were just trying to get behind the trashpin. Before they got too close you pulled your axe out of the zombies head and continued running ahead with all you got to leave the place alive to find Luke. Somehow you survived long enough after that to witness today the stupidest survivor in the apocalypse. Even now you still continued doubting the chances of surviving another day even if your physical abilities and surviving skills had of course improved.

You moved the binoculars from your eyes and settled them on your lap after getting enough of surveying your surroundings. The moss head had disappeared from your vision a while ago, after that more infected started appearing on the streets of the city. You were low on food, well you didn't have any of it, but you still had some water so you preferred to stop at a smaller town at least. You didn't like to go into cities trying your luck when the places were crawling by them. Moreover your time was ticking, the huge pack of zombies you had come running away wasn't gonna stop so you had better get off from their path before they got to you.

"I can't believe how dumb that guy was?" You muttered to yourself, standing from the ground and dusting your trousers. You put your binoculars in one of your bags and looked to your left in the east, making sure you weren't seeing the pack yet. "He's probably dead by now, don't you think?"

"Who is?" an unfamiliar deep voice questioned behind you, making shivers travel to your spine. If Luke tied to the tree hasn't learned to talk as a zombie then behind you was standing some stranger of a man, possibly one hostile to you. 

Chapter 2: Chapter 1

"Wha- it's you!" you yelped when turning around to face the same green-haired swordsman you saw running at the streets of the city a little while ago. You were honestly surprised that you weren't being pointed by a gun or one of his swords when turning around. Still on guard you pulled your jungle knife from the sheath on your hip and settled it defensively in front of you. "What are you doing here?!"

"So it was you stalking me," the man stated, crossing his arms not taking your defensive stance as threat, instead focusing his attention to the zombie tied to a tree by the treeline. "Why haven't you finished that one?" he questioned, settling his fingers on the handle of one of his swords and stepping closer to the zombie.

"No! He's mine," you barked, getting yourself between the zombie and him before he got his hands on your zombie. "Don't you dare touch Luke."

"Luke? Why are you protecting that thing," the mosshead questioned in disbelief while raising a judging eyebrow to you.

"I'm not protecting it, you can clearly see he is harmless," you muttered and moved just a little from in front of the zombie, showing him how he indeed was harmless. "With that motorcycle helmet on he can't bite anybody and with those sliced hands he can't scratch anybody," you pointed, taking hold of the rotten arm and showing the swordsman how you had taped the end parts of his once sliced arms. "All safe see, and I sliced his jaw off too and pulled out all his remaining upper teeth."

"So you are torturing it," the green-haired male asked, looking at you from the zombie with a weirded out expression. How nice now he thought you were a complete lunatic.

"No, I'm doing small learning and he isn't so bad traveling company either," you half-lied, tapping Luke's helmet in an affectionate manner that came off quite harshly. "But as I was asking, what are you doing up here?"

"I was heading north," he answered, scratching the back of his head and looking around. "And I guess I just bumped into you along the way."

"North, huh?" You questioned amused and smiled at him with a teasing smile. Making an irk mark appeared on his forehead.

"What?!" He barked at you, not understanding what you found so amusing.

"Nothing, nothing, you are just heading east at the moment," you said matter-factly, looking at your nails to irk him more, not paying attention to his face turning more sour.

"I'm not lost and how would you even know that," he demanded, questioning you while pushing his huge chest up in prideful manner. Wow, he had very sizable milkers right there.

"Well I just may know the points of the compass," you bragged, moving your eyes back to his face so you wouldn't let his huge chest distract you again. "Unlike some people," you said in a pitiful voice, but before he could bark back you continued. "What's in the north anyways?"

"Umm, some area I guess," he answered unsurely back. So he was just wandering and he didn't have any actual goal in mind. He was different from others you had met, but similar to you.

"You don't seem so bad so I give you little heads up then," you began and went to your zombie friend, releasing its leash from the tree and tying it to your bag strap. "From east, there," you pointed in the said direction so he would get it. "Is coming a huge herd of zombies, like the size of five full stadiums. I'm heading southwest so I can get out of their path. If I were to go straight south I wouldn't have enough time to get out of their way before they got to me. We are at the moment closer to the left end of the pack than right so it's smarter to head south and southwest exactly."

"How far are they?" He asked, getting more serious after hearing your information.

"Over a day away, but counting out the faster ones," you answered him, already starting to walk past him while tugging Luke behind you. "I'm sure you are strong enough to handle yourself, but you may want to avoid those coming," you reassured him when he didn't seem to move an inch to the best direction to go at the moment.

"I'm heading north," he stubbornly claimed once again, looking at you last time with the same frown of his.

That with you turned to look ahead and continued walking into the forest with your zombie close in leash. Even if he said he had nothing in the north you couldn't know if he actually had something there. Why would he tell a stranger about his business anyways. But he just seemed a stubborn person nothless, doing the thing he had once settled his mind on and doing dumb sacrifices to achieve it. You would call it a stupid determination that didn't actually reward one in any way because the price to reach the wanted point was too high to make it rewarding. Or maybe you were just reading into it too much, you talked to him for like ten minutes if not less. It just would be such a shame if somebody that fine looking would go and walk straight to his death. Maybe you were just thirsty, but he was the first actually good-looking guy you had come across after the apocalypse started.

~

You had been walking over half a day to the southwest. You met the guy in the morning and it was a couple hours after noon now. The day had got hot, the moving started to get exhausting as well. You went the long way around the city through the suburbs where there were less dead. You were not in good shape to fight too much and it had been over a month without actual sleep from short naps. Even when you had a good moment to sleep longer you couldn't let yourself relax enough to fall asleep for a longer time than for a short nap.

You hadn't eaten in a couple days either and your blood sugar was low, making you feel just more dizzy and weak. You were more spry in the morning when you met the swordsman, because you had just woken up from your nap a couple hours before meeting him. But now you were wandering ahead tiredly, your bags and backpack heavy and rubbing your shoulders while tugging Luke behind you.

It was three days ago when you noticed the shocking numbers of zombies coming. They had gotten dangerously close to you, but luckily you had a working car with gas at the time, so you got away from close proximity to them. Losing your life once again had been very close, but somehow you made it. After a day of driving, the wreck of the car stopped working so you had to abandon it. You continued on foot while tugging Luke behind you, occasionally stopping at towns or gas stations you came across, looting if you would find something edible or useful.

You were currently walking on the side of the narrow road that seemed to have no end. Around the road there was nothing but forest where a couple zombies appeared at times for you to finish off. There were five of them ahead of you maybe hundred meters ahead of you and a couple were trailing behind you farther. You sighed in frustration when they got just closer to you, so you got your axe from your strap in your belt ready to smash some brains. The zombies were just a couple cars away from you when somebody dashed from the forest and made quick work slicing their heads off. You blinked in amazement, but then focused on the figure fearing he might come to you next.

But seeing him, more clearly you were left surprised to see the familiar shade of mint green. It was the same guy from earlier. Did he change his mind on going north? Or maybe he saw the zombies coming and realized how dumb idea it was to go north. You kept walking straight to him, making the swordsman look up on you. His facial expression turned into a surprised one as well when he finally took in your features and only then sheathed his two swords, red and black ones. Even if you were exhausted you cracked a little smile on seeing his familiar frowny face once again.

"Funny seeing you here," you mused to the swordsman once you got to him.

"Isn't it otherwise?" the man questioned, sounding all serious. He couldn't have gotten this lost could he. "Did you change your mind or something?"

"I should be the one asking you that," you scolded, raising an eyebrow to him. "You are the one going southwest at the moment."

"Huh? I was just heading east," he argued back, crossing his arms and glaring at you. East now, really? Wasn't he going north earlier today? He clearly didn't know where he wanted to go.

"Well, you do you," you sighed, not in the mood to continue the pointless argument with that thick-headed swordsman. You walked past him once again with Luke behind you but stopped when you didn't hear any footsteps behind you. "You coming? You clearly can't navigate slightest on your own."

"Huh, what you say," he barked back, not ready to embrace the fact that he was lost.

Now that your exhaustion was penting up, you did the calculations that if you couldn't rest well soon you would be too weak to continue on or kill the zombies coming your way. But if you had him with you the zombies were less of a burden to deal with and you could actually sleep if you kept guard for each other. You preferred being alone, but you couldn't deny the sense of security another human's company brought. Unlike him you actually had a sense of direction so you could get him in any location he wanted if he even wanted to get anywhere special. Also one of the reasons you carried so many bags was because you had a lot of water on you, so you could provide some water to him for his lovely company. You had gotten the water from the gas station you came across a week ago so you had a lot to offer in water, unfortunately none in food.

"While lost, why not accompany me," you pondered from him, pouting a bit. You looked at the sky, acknowledging how low the sun had gotten. "We should find a place to stay before dark."

"Who said I'm coming with you," the swordsman grumbled to you, not believing how bold you had gotten. You gave him 'really' face and he seemed to give in by the frustrated sigh that left his mouth. "Fine, it can't be so bad to accompany you for a while."

"That's the spirit, watch out for those two behind you tho," you praised before pointing to the two zombies that had finally reached you from their long trailing. He waited a bit until they got closer and then smoothly with one slash chopped both of their heads off. "Sweet, let's go," the swordsman grunted in answer and walked to your side. "Do you have a name by the way?"

"Zoro," he answered back shortly. Hmm, it somehow fitted him. "Yours?" he asked, glancing at you waiting.

"Y/n," you answered back shortly as well, the exhaustion starting to get to you again. Your eyes felt heavy and you hoped you came across something suitable to rest the night.

~

After a couple hours of walking you found a small house on the roadside. You didn't see more zombies after the earlier ones, but you weren't sure if that was too good of a thing. It would be good to finish off the lurking ones near before their big number got to surprise you. That way you could also ensure your peaceful rest at night without too many of them stalking near. You hoped that seeing no dead ones near just meant that there weren't just many of them in the area. You carefully scouted the surroundings around the small house before going knocking on the door, testing if there were any zombies inside so they wouldn't come surprise attacking you around some dark corner. Those encounters were just the worst.

Zoro went inside the house first, you went inside closely after him. You checked the first floor while he went to check the upstairs. The house was clear so you went to check the kitchen if there was still something edible left. You only found expired stuff stinking in the fridge so you gave up on the scavenging. The sun was already settling so you started to move some furniture to block the entrances. You covered the windows with blankets and fabrics you could find from the house. You suggested that you spent the night in the bedroom in the upstairs further from the doors, so small noises you made didn't attract uninvited guests to come knocking on your door. When you had covered the bedroom's windows and settled your stuff down Zoro plopped down in front of the door to the room, leaning his head in the swords readied.

"I can take the first watch," you tried to politely offer, looking at the swordsman sitting in front of the door from your seat on the edge of the bed.

"No, it's fine," Zoro bluntly shot your offer down. You huffed, glaring at him with the last of your energy. "You look like shit, rest."

"I do not," you grunted, digging your hand in your bag on the floor and getting your pocket mirror. Self consciously you checked your face and saw how unwell you looked. You had some dark bags under your eyes and your skin was paler than usual. "Hmm fine then."

How you looked might be the rest of your worries during the apocalypse, but of course you had to care little when you were in the company of this fine looking man, well he surely was visibly musty. Also ignoring his blunt existence you still liked to look somehow presentful for yourself, so the reflection you saw from the mirror didn't satisfy you at all. But worrying about something as shallow as you looks made you also forget for a second how shitty the world you lived in was and how crappy surviving there really was.

Dropping your shoes on the side of the bed you dived under the blankets. It wasn't so nice to dirt the fabrics with your flimsy clothes, but it had to do. You weren't gonna strip off your clothes in front of the swordsman and you had to be ready to bounce at any given moment. You untied the hoodie from your waist and dropped it on the ground as well and finally settled laying on your side. You weren't still completely sure if you could trust Zoro, debating in your mind if you should try to get some sleep and let yourself fall into an unconscious state. Who knows he could take your stuff and leave, but somehow you doubted that. Before you could even close your eyes your stomach rumbled loudly, making your cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

"Are you hungry?" Zoro questioned quietly after a moment of silence.

"No," you answered back shortly, refusing to admit your hunger, still too mortified on how loud your stomach had to be.

"Take this," Zoro muttered, digging something from his backpack and throwing it to you. You catched the coming item without looking and brought it to your eyesight, it was a chocolate bar.

"Are you sure you want to give this to me?" you asked, sitting up and looking at him unsurely. Who would give a stranger their rare sweet like a chocolate bar.

"Yeah take it, I don't like chocolate anyways," he muttered nonchalantly, making you gasp in disbelief. Who the hell didn't like the luxury of chocolate, especially at times like this? Well his dislike benefitted you so you weren't gonna complain.

"Thank you," you mumbled. You supposed it was only fair to offer him something in return. "There is water in my backpack if you want."

When your words left your mouth his gaze fell on your backpack in front of the bed. He then looked at you for reassurance, you nodded and layed back on your back. Corners of your mouth stretched in a small pleased smile, happy that you had something to offer him in return. You opened the chocolate bar and started to munch the bar, relishing the sweet taste slowly. It had lost some flavor and the texture was a bit odd, but it still tasted like chocolate. You heard your backpack zipper open so you glanced at him to see his eyes widened on the amount of water you had. He then took one and opened it hastily, gulping some of it down his throat like his life depended on it. What a thirsty boy he was.

After finishing the chocolate you turned on your side and pulled the blanket over you, deciding to try to get some sleep. You heard him shuffle a bit in his place with his swords clanking, but otherwise it was quiet. Zoro turned the lantern off after he put the bottle back in your backpack and for the only source of light was left the moonlight that peeked from the top corner of the sheets covering the room's only window. Your body couldn't relax completely, not still sure if you really should trust him and if you were gonna wake up for another day. Nonetheless you eventually fell asleep with your knife tightly clutched in your grip.

 

Chapter 3: Chapter 2

You woke up after all, still alive and somewhat well. When you opened your eyes after your long slumber, the moonlight peeking behind the covers had been replaced with rays of sunlight peeking into the room. When you looked on the door there he was at the same spot, heavy head leaning down while he snored loudly, breathing with his mouth. Well he sure looked peaceful, the night was probably quiet to him sleep with no uneasiness at all. Your eyes were still a bit hazy, but you sure felt more rested and brisk than in months. You yawned and rubbed your eyes clear before moving your legs on the edge of the bed. The sound of shuffling didn’t wake him so you got up and went to check the window.

Moving the sheet and the curtain out the way you looked outside from the window. The sun was already high, it was maybe a couple hours before midday. There were only a few clouds in the sky while the rays of sun glimmered on the surface of the pond in the front yard of the house. There were fields on the other side of the house on the opposite side of the road, when the house was on the forestry side of the road. The forest around the house was sparse so it was easy to see through it if there was a corpse wandering near. There were no zombies to be seen on this side of the house at least other than Luke tied to one of the trees.

He was just standing there still with the helmet on. He didn’t move much willingly on his own anymore after you had starved him so long, you doubted that he had even fed once after he was turned. Maybe you were really torturing the rotten corpse that was left from him. But it wasn’t him anymore so it didn’t matter, he was useful for you and that was it. Or that was what you convened to yourself. Perhaps it was just too hard to let go of one of the familiar things you had left from the times before the whole apocalypse.

“Is it clear?” The swordsman voice brought you back to present from your thoughts and you scanned the area again.

“Yeah, on this side at least,” you muttered and turned to face him from the window. He was still sitting in front of the door, looking at you with his same old scowl. “But I don’t know how long it’s gonna be like that, so I suppose we should leave.”

Zoro grunted for answer and stood up, setting his swords on the strap on his hip. You went to put your shoes on and put your hoodie on, leaving the zipper open expecting a warm day. After you had got your backpack and bag up on your shoulders Zoro voiced again. “If you were moving whole yesterday doesn’t that mean we are already out of the herd’s path.”

“Probably, but they could easily change their course,” you answered. Just one person or loud sound attracting the pack's attention could get them to change the direction they were heading in the beginning. So it would be dumb to assume that they were gonna go straight ahead, disappear and stop being a threat to you. “It’s better to create more distance before taking it easy.”

“Hm,” Zoro grunted, already opening the door and ready to exit the house. You weren’t sure if that was a grunt of acknowledging your words or some kind of disapproving grunt. All his grunts sounded the same really so it was hard to tell the difference between them.

You made your way outside the house without a word after that. Zoro scouted the area while you went to the pond and got your toothbrush and toothpaste out so you could brush your teeth. It was already bad enough that you couldn’t take care of your hygiene at all, but you weren’t ready to let go at least from morning teeth brushing. Also if you took care of your mouth hygiene then you didn’t have to deal with rotting teeth that you would have to pull out by yourself in the end so they wouldn’t rot the rest of your teeth with the lack of medical care in the apocalypse. It was also just nasty to go on the day with morning breath. You dipped the brush into the pond, wetting it and then applying some toothpaste on it and started to brush your teeth. Zoro came around the house when you were in your work mouth foaming and looked at you weirded out.

“You are brushing your teeth in the middle of the apocalypse?” Zoro questioned, raising his brows and making his way to you.

“Mmh, you should too,” you said, spitting the toothpaste out on the grass and wiping your mouth with a napkin. “Rotten teeth means no teeth. I have an extra brush if you need.”

“You’re gonna take care of those two then,” he said pointing his sword at the two zombies coming from the field. You nodded to him and offered the extra brush that you had dug from your bag with the toothpaste.

While he got into the washing you walked closer to the zombies and got your two extra knives from your belt. You took hold of the blade part and figured your aiming. When they got off the road and walked to the front yard you threw the first knife that dug nicely on the other zombie's forehead. When the first one collapsed you closed your other eye and aimed at the second zombie's head. The second throw was also successful and it sinked nicely between the freak’s eyes. When you turned to Zoro he was ready with brushing his teeth and nodded to your performance approvingly with an impressed face. It was good to know that he possessed some facial expressions other than just a scowl.

“We should go now,” you voiced and accepted the toothpaste he handed back to you. While he put the toothbrush in his back you went to untie Luke from the tree and nudged him to walk behind you.

“You want me to carry something,” Zoro asked, signaling the backpack. You shared a glance at him confused. “You have a lot of water, your backpack surely weighs and you seem to have a lot of stuff in your bag too.”

“It’s okay,” you shrugged and walked to the road with him. Surely your bags were heavy and you had a lot of stuff to carry, but in politeness you refused his offer. Or he could just slice your legs with one of his swords and make a run for it.

“Why don’t you make that thing carry your stuff then,” Zoro questioned, raising a brow to you and pointing at Luke. Well his brows seemed to be always crossed so it just added the judgment look on his face.

“He’s too fragile to carry the amount of weight I’m carrying,” you answered, looking ahead on the road.

“Let me carry something,” he tried again firmly and stopped a bit ahead of you. He looked back at you with a softer expression and offered his hand to carry something. “That way we can move faster without breaks.”

“Geez fine,” you sighed and offered your heavy equipment bag to him. You had only your shoulder bag and backpack now so it already felt way better and easier to move.

“This is heavier than I thought, what the hell do you have here?” Zoro complained, throwing the bag on his shoulder, all the stuff clattering inside it. He should be more careful with your bag if he was so willing to carry it.

“Guns, ammo, more knives, kettle, cushions, couple garnets and other stuff,” you listed, recalling what you had inside. You carried everything useful you had once collected on your way.

“No food?” Zoro asked after a moment of silence while looking surprised by the information you threw at him. Oops, were you a bit too honest? Oversharing times like this was totally not good, but he asked.

“No,” you answered shortly and truthfully. You had already revealed so much so it didn’t really matter anymore what you told. “My luck doesn’t really hit when I’m trying to look for food. But nevermind about that, do you have any maps of this area?”

“I have some maps I grabbed from one gas station I came across,” he suggested, moving his backpack in front of him and digging out a pile of maps.

You accepted the maps and unfolded the top one. You looked through it and tried to recall the name of the last place you knew. The first map didn’t seem to show the area anywhere near so you moved to the second one. The second one looked more promising and you even recognized the city’s name where you saw Zoro running around like a headless chicken. You stopped walking so you could trail the way you had come here. It took a moment to find the right road, but eventually you figured out the one you were currently on. Zoro stopped a couple steps ahead and looked at you waiting, but you ignored him and continued to observe the map. If you continued with your pace you would come across a small town in five hours or so.

“Did you find out where we are,” Zoro asked after walking back to you. He gazed at the map in your hands like he could read shit, making you smile in amusement. His brows furrowed in frustration while he tried to take in all the details on the map.

“Yeah, we are right here,” you said and pointed to the part of the road you assumed you were at the moment. “There is a town ahead five-hour walk away.”

The swordsman nodded to you humming for confirmation to continue. So you started to walk again without other words shared between you. You eyed him with your side eye and took more in his appearance. He was wearing a tight white shirt with a green haramaki on his middle with some black pants and boots. He also had black bandana tied around his left bicep. His face was scowly, but that you had already noticed with his short mint green hair. His face wasn’t anymore so frowny though and his face muscles seemed to be more relaxed. You had noticed that he started being more with your company than he was when you first implied to him to come along with you. Well he probably saw you as a crazy girl dragging a zombie with her. You didn’t doubt that he wouldn't see you like that still.

If he didn’t have any different destination of yours in mind then maybe you could count on his company for a longer period. When he gave that chocolate to you, your liking for him increased a lot. He didn’t seem like such a threat anymore either and you did trust him on some level. You couldn’t really complain about what you got here and he was at least decent in many ways.

~

“Why aren’t you carrying one?” Zoro asked suddenly while you were approaching the town in sight.

You had been traveling presumably now for five hours or little less. Your pace had stayed so fast that you were sweating bullets when you got near the town. Zoro wasn’t all so considerate with his pace of walking, he had kept his quick pace even at the times you slowed down to take a little breath. But if you let him walk ahead alone he somehow got sidetracked on the straight road, so you didn’t have too much time to take small breaks before you had to direct him to walk straight. How directionless could one be?

“Carrying, what?” you questioned confused.

You stepped into the town and gained the first two zombies' attention that were the closest. There were a couple more ahead visible, but you couldn’t be so sure what there laid in the other streets. You took care of the two first ones when Zoro took care of the other ones behind them, his swords swinging while you stabbed the zombies with your knife. When you turned into another street there were a good dozen of them creeping around. Dozen wasn’t too bad you could handle it alone in this shape, and only better with Zoro.

“Your gun,” Zoro answered finally, making his first question bounce on your mind again. You thought he was gonna just leave you hanging like that when his answering part started to take his sweet time.

“Ah that, well I don’t think I need one,” you answered and got your axe from the buckle on your belt. “After all I have this one and haven’t found any silencers yet.”

“You sure you can handle yourself?” Zoro yelled from ahead, already slishing some zombies. You nodded to him when he looked back, making sure.

You walked towards the first zombie and slammed your axe with force on top of its head, splitting the head halfway open, blood spilling. You pulled your axe quickly out of its head and kicked the other one coming to you on the ground. You finished another one coming, slamming your axe sideways in its temple and then stepping hard on the one’s head that was in your feet, squishing the rotten skull with ease. There were two charging at you at the same time so you backed away a couple steps and got your first knife from your belt and threw it on the other zombie’s eye. You quickly got another knife from your belt and threw it stabbing the last zombie’s forehead.

You sighed and straightened your back, but before you could relax you heard Zombie’s groan too close to comfort behind you. You quickly turned around only to be met face to face with the ugly creature latching its hands on your shoulders. You pushed your hands on its chest and pinned the zombie against the brick wall of the building on your side. The thing tried its best to bite the air in front of you, but you held its head firmly against the wall. You dug your other hand into its throat and quickly freed your other hand from its chest and got your jungle knife from your hip, stabbing it in the eye. You stabbed the rotten piece a couple more times, pissed that it had tried to sneak on you like that. When you were ready you let the thing go and plop on the ground, kicking its mushed head one more time before looking around.

Zoro seemed to have been ready for a while and had walked closer to you from the pile of corpses he had taken care of. You looked around the streets and there wasn't any more seen coming even if you had caused some commotion. You wiped your forehead with the back of your hand and cringed when there was some zombie blood from your face. You dug a towel from your bag and wiped your face clean with it. The blood droplets landing on your face from smashing the zombies were the most disgusting thing. You could never get used to it, but in the heat of the moment you could ignore it. You went to the zombies you threw your knives at and pulled them out, wiping them clean to the zombies clothes.

“You okay?” Zoro asked, walking back to you and sheathing his other sword in its sheath.

“Mm-hmm,” you hummed to him, looking at the shops in the street. There was a bar, bookshop, equipment store, couple clothing shops and the rest of them were apartments. “We should loot the town, let's meet here in a couple hours.”

“You wanna go separate now?” Zoro questioned weirded out, giving you a judging brow. How wasn’t it a good idea, you clearer out the most trouble already from the way.

“Yeah, just yell if you need any help,” you mused smugly to him and smirked at his bewildered expression. “There shouldn’t be too much trouble left anyways,” you continued fueling the swordsman, but in the end you got just a little irk mark forming on his forehead.

You turned around and decided to tactically check the shops you had walked past and leave the unknown dangers ahead for the swordsman. You heard him muttering to himself how he meant your safety by the question, but ignored him chuckling to yourself. You then remembered that you let Luke’s lash go when you turned into the current street to take care of all the zombies and when you looked up he wasn’t there anymore where you left him. You sighed and jogged to the beginning of the street and looked both ways to see where your helmeted zombie had disappeared.

You looked back at the spot you left Zoro, but he was already out of sight. Well he better be back in a couple hours with your bag still with him. You trusted him somewhat, but leaving him with your bag wasn’t exactly the best idea. You chose to ignore that for now and decided to go look your old companion in the direction you haven’t been yet. There were more options for him to hide there and you could check the stores on your way. But not seeing traces of him made you rub your temples in frustration and you huffed, taking your axe in your hand and approaching the first store.

Chapter 4: Chapter 3

It had already been over two hours since you parted ways with Zoro. You had waited for a good while for him to return to the meeting place, sitting on some wreck of a car. Just one zombie had come to you after you made yourself comfortable waiting for the swordsman on the car. You realized too late how bad an idea it was to part away with him, forgetting that he was directionless and was probably lost right now. It wouldn’t do any good to go looking for him either, you never found what you were looking for like example food or Luke that was still lost as well. So you trusted that he would find you eventually, maybe, probably not.

You had gone through all the stores and some of the apartments as well in the side of the town you chose to loot. Everything was ransacked in the stores, but you found three silencers from the gun store, that being the highlight of your search. Well you did find a lollipop behind the pharmacy's cash register and that was treasure on its own. Other than that you didn’t come across anything useful enough and just cleaned the stores from the zombies coming to you. Per store there was usually just one or two rotten freaks inside and you were enough in guard that one couldn’t sneak on you. You stabbed the seemingly dead ones on the ground too, so you didn’t have any ankle biters ready to surprise. All the apartments and houses you entered were empty and messy, no zombies or nothing usable at all in sight.

You sighed and opened the lollipop wrap and plopped the sweet treat in your mouth. Maybe you had to try and go look for the mosshead, you could abandon Luke, but not Zoro with half of your stuff. He was too much of a himbo to run away from you and not run back to you accidentally, so you doubted that he would have actually taken and flew with your stuff. You looked at the building behind you and chose to climb on its roof to see better around. You jumped down from the car roof and walked on the side street next to the not too high building. There was a cafe downstairs and on the second floor there were probably apartments. You got behind the building where you climbed over the trash bin, using it to climb on a higher platform. The platform had ladders to the roof, so you used them to get up there.

On top of the building you could see around quite a well. The building was the highest in the small town, so nothing other than a couple trees were blocking your view around. You blocked the sun from your eyes with your hand and checked street by street if there was a sight of the mint-haired male. The side that was his to search was clear, but when you looked on the streets you had been you saw a glimpse of mint moving around, there he was. Before you got down the ladders something else caught your eye, in the far left of your vision. You looked into the road you had come with to the town and there was a pack of zombies coming. Maybe one hundred of them and you doubted that they were from the huge herb that you had been running away from, but smaller local herb roaming around.

You looked back at Zoro and you saw him now closer on the street behind the building, but running away from your direction. You had time to go get him, so you dropped your stuff in the ground and made your way down the ladders fastly, jumping on the ground halfway down the ladders. You quickly run after him, making your way out between the buildings. Suddenly a zombie latched on you, but you stabbed it through its chin to its brains instinctively, knowing to expect these shitheads to surprise at any time. You then saw Zoro confused, looking in different directions ten steps ahead of you, Luke with him.

“Zoro here fast!” You yelled at him, softing your voice a bit so it didn’t carry far. He looked back at you questioning, but you just signaled aggressively with your hand to him come already.

He didn’t question more and ran to you understanding what your worry probably meant. He tugged Luke still behind him, so you ushered him to give your bag to you so he had less to carry now that you had empty hands. You ran back behind the building and climbed over the trash bin to the platform. You looked back at Zoro who was still on the ground, looking at Luke puzzled about what to do with him.

“Just leave him!” You whisper yelled at him urgently, hearing the moans and groans of the zombies closing. “Now come already!”

He jumped onto the trashpin and you offered him a hand to climb up to the platform after seeing him struggling a bit with the heavy backpack jiggling on his back, before climbing the ladders up, he close behind you. You plopped on the ground in the middle of the roof low so the zombies wouldn’t notice you and setted the bag down next to you with Zoro seating near you. You neared the edge bit and looked at the zombies going by. You hoped that they wouldn’t stay looming in the town long, quickly continuing their way.

~

After an hour the good portion of zombies had walked through the town continuing roaming headlessly ahead, but there were dozens in the streets just drifting around. You sulked, looking over the edge carefully around frustrated, keeping yourself low, not wanting to cause attention to focus on you.

“We can do nothing but wait,” Zoro muttered quietly behind you. You looked back at him, noticing that he had opened a can of something vague. You walked hunched back to him and the bags, deciding to drink some water.

“How much food do you have?” you asked from him, keeping your voice quiet. It was good to know how much you could rely on him when you were starving again.

“This was my last can of food, but I found a couple more,” he answered, raising the can and trying to offer it to you, but you dismissed it, rather saving the food for later when you were actually hungry. “You need to eat,” he stated, looking at you with scowl.

“I’m not hungry yet,” you mumbled and opened your bag that he had kept with him.

You had three big guns and one hand gun with you that you had found from some abandoned military vehicle. You preferred the big guns and took one out of the bag, earning a curious look from Zoro. You dug your other hand in the bag you had shuffled the silencers out. You tested one of the silencers on the gun, but it didn’t seem to go with it so you tested another. The second one settled to its place with a satisfying click, but you still tested to push it a little to see that it was properly in place. Now that you didn’t have a problem with your guns keeping too much noise you wanted to test them out a bit. You crawled back to the edge and got the gun on the tiles stably.

You closed your other eye and put your eye in the scope and aimed for one of the zombies' heads. You weren’t too sure how you loaded the gun after you were out of bullets, but you ignored it and made sure the gun was in single shooting and not in auto so you didn’t shoot too many at times. Your friend who with you had traveled a couple months after the apocalypse had started teached you to use guns. Her dad had worked in the military so he had teached her how to use guns before he died already before the apocalypse.

Her name was Bonney, but unfortunately you weren’t traveling with her anymore, the man who called himself blackbeard had targeted you with his gang. Bonney got caught by them when you had splitted up for a while and once you tried to approach their camp to save her you only heard her pained screams and after one gunshot they stopped. In sorrow you ran away from there, hearing a couple footsteps approaching you while they talked on finding you as well to teach you a lesson on what would happen if one wouldn’t accept blackbeard’s generous offer on joining their gang. They were sick bastards, both Bonney and you knew it so of course you didn’t accept that and tried to run away when they got mad, only one of you surviving. Well you never saw Bonney dying on your own eyes, but being mere meters away from them told you already by the voices what happened.

You inched your finger on the trigger and shot the zombie that head had turned to look at you. You missed, the bullet landing on only the zombie’s shoulder. This is why you preferred your lovely axe, not having problems missing your target in close combat. Hearing shuffling next to you, you shot the second bullet that somehow landed on the zombie’s head, making the corpse collapse on the ground.

“You seem to be good with that one,” Zoro pointed out next to you, making you jerk a bit in sudden surprise.

“I’m not, it probably hit the zombie only because your presence brought me pressure,” you mumbled and looked at the zombies slumbering on the streets. One passing by the street seemed to look up so you pushed Zoro’s head more down. “Stay down, you have a presence that even they can sense.”

”What are you talking about now?” he questioned, brows furrowed, bit too loudly that the zombie turned its attention completely on you two.

You moved your eye back to the scope, aiming on the zombies head before it got under the terrace roof. You pushed the trigger and shot your target, blood splashing and the zombie collapsing on the ground on your first try. You smiled to yourself kiddy, maybe you weren’t so bad with the gun, but you sure had a long way to master the art of sniping. Zoro glanced at you with the ‘I told you so’ expression and you huffed, forgetting the satisfaction you felt a second ago.

“Hmm, maybe I'm a bit better than I thought,” you mumbled, looking away from his intense eyes.

You then crawled back to the side you left Luke, to see what he was up to. He was still there standing next to a pillar. Past him walked one zombie, but it didn’t acknowledge Luke in any way. You had once witnessed zombie smelling Luke baffled probably, because you sprayed perfume on him at times when his rotten smell got too bad. The smell was one of the things with which the zombies detected somebody as prey or fellow one of the dead. You found out that when you accidently cut one zombie’s guts over you and after that the next ones you encountered completely ignored you.

You chose to shoot the zombie that had already passed Luke to practice some longer distance shooting. You targeted the aiming point in the zombie’s head once more. You breathed in and out to stabilize the slight shaking your hands did, pressing the trigger when you had focused on the back of the rotten corpse’s skull. You missed the first shot, shooting the zombie in its nape and just making it waver. When it turned to look behind the cause of its flickering you shot again, but you missed again. You huffed and rolled your shoulders, entering in complete focusing mode and blocking all the other things around you. Pressing one last time the trigger, getting finally another headshot, parts of the zombie’s brains flying on the ground, staining it before he collapsed onto the remains.

You looked around, making sure you hadn’t gathered anybody else's attention. When all was clear you went back to the middle of the roof where your stuff was. Zoro was still on the other edge, leaning against the brick edge and snoring. If he decided to take a nap maybe you could sleep while waiting as well. The zombies couldn’t climb up on the roof so it didn’t matter if you were napping for a while. Extra sleep wasn’t never for bad, having nothing else than waiting to do so why not sleep the time. So you settled your bag comfily behind you and laid your head on it, laying sideways on the hard ground. You took your hoodie off and settled on your head, blocking the bright sun from shining through your eyelids and closing your eyes.

~

You opened your eyes to be met by the material of your hoodie still, blocking the sky. You moved the fabric out of your face and were met with a pinkish blue sky. You sat up and looked in the direction of the west to see the sun setting. Zoro was still sleeping on the edge so you chose to just enjoy the sunset in the quietness, few birds chirping in the trees nearby. You went to sit on the west side of the roof, hanging your legs over the edge. It was quite a peaceful evening, if you ignored the occasional groans of zombies on the ground level.

After a while Zoro sat next to you on the edge without a word. You continued to sit there for the last twenty minutes until the sky changed from orange hues to red and purple, eventually darkening into a bluish night sky. The stars started to get more visible with the moon rising, placing the sun in the sky.

“It’s quite peaceful at least at times like this,” you stated, looking from the zombies on the ground back to the starry sky darkening more, now the sun completely disappeared into the horizon.

You didn’t think that the zombie apocalypse was just a phase that mankind would come over, society rising once again. To you it seemed more like a world ending going on, surviving from the fittest till last one standing. You were barely optimistic these days, not like you were that optimistic person even before all this. There wasn't anything better to expect or any kind of miracles in this world that could possibly clean all this. With a pessimistic view of life you didn’t have to be disappointed when things didn’t go so well after all, if you didn't set too hopeful expectations for life from the beginning.

But when talking to somebody else you could of course sugar-coat your words a bit when you were actually talking, there was no reason to voice your brooding thoughts. For example you were sure Zoro’s point of view wasn’t so different from yours, so there was no reason to brood aloud. It wasn’t necessary to tell all your brooding thoughts and make the other person feel as hopeless as you felt even if they truly felt that way already. Rather point the positive things out for the other person.

“Mm-hm,” Zoro hummed next to you, glancing at you and then looking back to the sky. He then picked something from his side and holded the earlier can open for you. “Are you already hungry? I saved you some.”

“I guess there is some space in my stomach now,” you said amused, rolling your eyes to him. He really was persistent, kind in a way if you wanted to count it.

You accepted the metal can from him, and raised it on your eye level to see what you were gonna let down on your throat. It was some ring spaghetti slop, not very desirable looking, but you slurped some from the can. Yeah, it was pretty disgusting, it wasn’t easy at all for you as a picky eater in the apocalypse. You cursed Zoro initially leaving so much for you to try to gobble down. Just a couple spoonfuls on bottom would have been more than enough for you. You had sipped the spaghetti thing dozens of times, but the bottom didn’t seem to come so you offered the can back to Zoro holding hand over your mouth so you wouldn’t puke the slop that you had already consumed.

“Can’t.. eat more,” you mumbled to him, feeling sick on your stomach, going quickly to your bag to get some water to suppress the awful taste in your mouth that was left from the canned food.

“It’s not that bad,” Zoro prattled, downing the rest of the spaghetti-ring thing down his throat with one gulp and setting the metal can on the edge before joining you near the bags. “How have you even survived this long?”

You weren’t sure if that question was for you or him wondering aloud, but you answered nonchalantly back. “I’ll be wondering that as well, but guess it always lucks out when I’m just on the borderlands of death.”

“Luck runs out eventually,” he stated, looking at you in a more serious manner. What for he is having such a serious expression on his face now.

“Sure it does, but now I have you with me,” you mused, smiling cheerfully at him. You flopped to lay down on your back, using your bag as a pillow once again and glanced at the swordsman that had got quiet. Catching him staring at you speechless, he turned to look away from you, light blush decorating his tanned cheeks. Seems that he ain’t such a tuffy-tough guy after all.

When he got over his flustered state of his he laid down on his back as well, staying at a bigger distance away from you than earlier. You continued staring at the star sky full of glistening stars, at some point wearing your hoodie back on when it got too chilly. Even if the warming days weren’t so much to your liking, you could appreciate the nights that weren’t too freezing anymore and the temperature was perfectly enjoyable with hoodie on. You didn’t know how Zoro was still on his white tee, bare arms flexing behind his head like he wasn’t feeling chilly at all. That did give you a perfect chance to appreciate his muscular tannish arms. Before he could catch you though you focused your attention back to the sky, soon feeling droopy again and falling asleep, him soon doing so too. 

Chapter 5: Chapter 4

You left the town when the rest of the zombies wandering there had started to drift elsewhere in search of food. You spent one extra day there, but you were starting to run out of food and there wasn’t anything more to find so you continued on your way to find something edible before you were starving and on low energy. You tried to test out the cars in the streets of the town, but they all were just standing there with low gas or the batteries not working anymore. So you had to continue on foot to the next destination, which was another city, in three or more days of walking ahead. You were now completely in the middle of some country area and there weren't any other towns near the city ahead. It could be a dangerous shot to try what the city offered, but it was better than walking into another town six days away. The distances between everything here were awfully long. 

You had been walking the whole day yesterday and this morning, after waking up you continued shortly on your way again. You had rested boldly just on the side of the road, with Zoro sleeping the first shift when you demanded him to do so. You rather stargazed the beginning half of the night and slept the rest of it. You also betted that Zoro would let you sleep longer n the morning, not too mean to disturb you early. He could take care of himself alone well enough too if there wasn't a lot of the rotten around otherwise you should flee quickly and create some distance. Couple hours after midnight he woke up and offered to switch the watch and you to sleep, which you gladly accepted. You were also right that he didn’t wake you up and let you wake up on your own in the morning. 

The temperature was surely high. The temperature has been just rising hotter and hotter today and because of the surprisingly warm weather, you have also woken up all sweaty. While walking you waved your makeshift fan on your face to ease the heat. Zoro besides you was also sweating a good amount, his shirt almost completely drenched. From the side side-eyeing his huge pecs sure looked deliciously lustrous. When he glanced at you, questioning you focused your attention quickly elsewhere. Damn, this heat was really getting to you, maybe you were having a heat stroke or something. 

“What?” he asked you, still looking at you even if you tried to look away from him. 

“Nothing at all,” you shrugged, not looking at him and avoiding his eyes. 

“You were staring,” he stated arguably back, then turning to look back at the road side-eyeing you once more. 

“There should be a creek near,” you said, eyeing the map in your other hand. You dug it from your bag for an excuse, but some bathing in fresh creek water would feel amazing right now. You started to hate the clammy feeling and the clothes sticking on your skin. “I wanna do some cleaning, I'd rather die than be like this much longer.”

“Then we should head there so you don’t have to die,” Zoro uttered and stopped so you did as well. “What direction?” 

“To the right from here,” you answered, looking from the map to him. He turned to walk straight to the left instead of the right, making you sigh from disappointment even if it didn’t come as a surprise. “I meant right, not left.” 

You pulled him from his shirt to the right direction and walked a bit behind him while he walked still at his quick pace. He sure was in good physical condition, having enough stamina to walk many hours without heavy breath, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t sweating drastically much. That’s why he needed some bathing as well, even if his musk could be sexy on some level he was a musty son of a bitch. You wonder when he had his last good shower, you can say it was a long time ago. Well, not like you have had one either, but at least you cleaned yourself with a wet rag at times.  

“It’s not just for me, but for you as well,” you continued after only sounds coming from your treading on the forest floor. “I can’t travel with a stinky traveling companion after all,” you joked teasingly, getting a grunt back from him. 

~

“So you stay right here before I come back,” you demanded, pointing at the ground below you. The swordsman nodded tiredly in front of you, leaning against a tree. “Did you understand?” 

”Yeah, yeah, call me if you need help,” he muttered, closing his eyes and crossing his arms behind his head with no worry in the slightest of his surroundings. 

’If you need any help?’ You repeated in your head, shaking your head in disapproval. He could have worded that better, his phrasing sounded oddly suggestive in your mind the more you thought about it.  

You decided to ignore the moss heads and left him in the thicket near the stream so you could wash up a little in privacy. You left the bags to him and took your shampoo, towel and change clothes with you. Yes, you decided to wash yourself properly now. The stream’s water was bright and you could see the sandy bottom so you didn’t mind stepping in the water. Before you stepped in the water though, you stripped off your top and trousers, leaving yourself in your underwear and bare feet. You checked the surroundings already, so no zombie was near, yet at least. Still, you kept your belt at your waist, so you could grab your knife from its sheath if needed. 

You walked into the middle of the stream and sat on a bigger stone there. The water wasn’t deep so you could easily walk to each side of it. You wetted your rug and started to rub the dust and filth off your body. You stopped washing your body and decided to wash your hair first because that left you more exposed to the surroundings. You kneeled on the water, letting your hair open and dipping your head in the water. You messaged your scalp, wetting your hair completely before adding some shampoo on your hand and messaged in on your hair. Suddenly you heard noise from the pushes on the opposite side of the stream where Zoro was. 

You quickly raised on your feet, the shampoo still in your hair. Your hand was already touching the handle of your knife while you walked a bit ahead in the stream to see where the noise was coming from. You relaxed when you saw that there was a zombie laying on the side of the stream without legs or a other hand. It couldn’t even crawl to you because it was stuck between some roots. What a pitiful case it was. You let the pitiful corpse’s groans sink into the background and sat down on the rock near you, starting to wash the shampoo off. 

When you finally had washed off the shampoo and were about to go back to scrubbing your body you heard rustling behind you from the side Zoro is. You turned in that direction standing up and getting your knife already out ready to kill whoever was tryna startle you now. A hand came out of the bushes and moved them to the side, behind the bushes the swordsman revealed himself and stepped ahead. You huffed and crossed your arms, a sudden shift in his eyes made you suddenly remember how little clothing you were. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” you hissed, still keeping your calm, so your voice didn’t lure more unwanted guests. 

“I heard one here,” he answered, looking past you, avoiding looking at you with pinkish blush coating his cheeks. His gaze then hardened when he supposedly noticed the one behind you keeping the noise. “Why didn’t you finish that one?” 

“It’s not hurting anybody there, is it now,” you pondered, quipping a brow and crooking your head to him. 

Honestly, you didn’t care that the zombie was there looking at you in your underwear. Those braindead freaks didn’t know for better so you didn’t need to worry about their pervertedness. Zoro on the other hand was bright and brainy enough to acknowledge your lack of clothes. Even in the apocalypse you wanted to keep some self-dignity. Only if you had a drink right now maybe you wouldn’t be so embarrassed being seen like this by the half-stranger.

“It did interrupt my nap,” Zoro muttered and hopped through the rock over the other side of the creek without getting wet. He stabbed the corpse on the ground with one of his swords, a white one of his. He then turned back and skipped back to the other side, ready to allow your privacy back. 

“Wait,” you said, stopping him. You wanted to scrub yourself completely, but it was hard to clean your back on your own and now Zoro was conveniently here. He already saw you in little clothing so it didn’t matter so much anymore. You took a deep breath before gathering your courage to ask for his help. “Can you wash my back?” 

“What?!” Zoro exhaled, looking at you caught off guard. 

“You are now here, so help me out a bit,” you suggested, throwing the rug at him and sitting on a rock back to him. When you glanced at the swordsman he was still frozen. “C'mon now,” you urged him and he finally made a move to come to you.

He left his boots on the edge of the stream on the dry ground. He then walked to you and sat on a rock behind you. He wetted the washing rag and before he started to scrub your back you clasped your bra open. He stopped breathing momentarily, but you signaled your back with your finger so he would start scrubbing, which he did, after getting over his mini-shock. You closed your eyes enjoying his calloused hands working on your back through the rag and sometimes directly on your back. He went from your upper back to lower back, wetting the cloth more every now and then in the flowing stream water. 

“Can you massage my shoulders a bit now that you are on it?” you asked pleadingly, turning to look at him blinking. He sighed grunting, and got his big and rough hands in work to open the knots in your shoulders. “Mmh right there and harder please,” you purred, feeling him working on the sore knot that had been bothering you. 

He compiled, working harder on kneading the spot open. He didn’t seem to read your words as suggestive as they might appear so you continued enjoying the massage he was giving you with a mischievous smile on your face. He messaged your shoulders for a good while before he went to finish some zombie coming behind him. When he was busy with that you clasped your bra back close and went to dress in a new pair of clothes you had left on the edge of the stream. When he came back behind the bushes you were already dressed. You were gonna leave him in his own peace to wash up, but his voice stopped you. 

“Well, are you gonna wash my back as well or what?” he questioned absurdly, making you look back at him unsurely. He nodded to you encouragingly and got rid of his top, throwing it on the ground along with his trousers. Gosh, this man. 

~ 

After washing the swordsman's back and even shampooing his hair you left him there to finish washing himself. While washing his back you couldn’t help but blush, you wonder if was he as shyish to wash your back as you were to wash his. But guess the boundaries weren’t such a thing in the apocalypse. Still, you couldn’t be more than shy to feel his muscles while scrubbing his filthy-ish back clean. He sure has some muscles, and his muscles relaxing under your soft palms felt nice, but you would never admit that. 

When you got back to the spot, you had left your stuff, you dug your bags a bit to see what you had and how much. You had already emptied almost two big bottles of water from the four you had. The water sure started to disappear faster when there were two of you consuming it. You also knew that you had only one can of food left and it was beans. How disgusting. You'd rather wait until you found something else to eat than beans. You couldn’t even swallow beans without feeling nauseous and puking them up. But you ate yesterday some tomato mix that Zoro had so you could easily travel up to the city without food, so you could manage. 

You didn’t have many clean clothes left either and you didn’t really have time to wait for your clothes to dry if you washed them. You had still had a couple of good hours to move ahead and the evening that was about to settle was still young, so you should continue long enough before the darkness. You sat down leaning against a tree next to Luke and looked at him with a distant look. He really looked filthy, well what else would he look when he was one of the rotten. Big parts of his ribs were showing from the holes in his skin and his stomach was as skinny as it could be, consisting only of the skin wrapped around his organs. 

You didn’t really know if you should pity him and end his suffering or keep him in your company. He has been with you from the beginning because that time you couldn’t finish him off, so then you never tried it again. You stood up and walked to him, taking the motorbike helmet out of his head, cringing when you heard something ripping. When you got a look at his face it seemed that part of his skin on his cheeks had ripped when you had pushed the helmet so forcibly off his sullen face from being pressed by the helmet so long. His eyes flickered on you after a while of getting used to the light. You turned his back to you and searched the tattoo he had in his nape and there it still was. You touched it gently drawing over the lines of it, smiling distantly. 

Your attention shifted quickly from the tattoo to the rustling from the direction of the stream. Zoro appeared behind the trees and made his way to the more open area of the dense forest where you were. You withdrew your hand away from the zombie’s nape quickly and settled the helmet back on Luke's head hastily. Zoro glanced at you curious before he settled down onto the ground leaning against a tree. He continued drying his hair on the mini towel he had on his shoulders that you had left for him while eyeing you from time to time. 

“What were you doing?” Zoro finally voiced, eyes staying focused on his blade that he was cleaning with a piece of cotton he had dug from his pocket.

“Nothing just checking him,” you answered in your place opposite of him, checking around the forest and then up to the sky. “Should we leave now and continue moving for a couple more hours.” 

“We should rest for the rest of the day,” Zoro muttered, looking up from his swords at you. You raised a brow at him, not really thinking you should relax that much before reaching the city. “It’s still a hot day and we have a whole tomorrow to move.”

“Fine then,” you agreed and dug your manga from your bag and started to read it. You had a complete series with you that you had found from one of the apartments you were scavenging. You had to keep yourself entertained in some way when it got boring. 

Zoro moved closer to you to his backpack and opened the zipper, getting the last can full of nasty beans. He opened the can, pouring some of the nasty stuff down his throat, and then offered the can to you. You looked at the outstretched can with disgust and then shot a judging look for the swordsman. How dare he offer that yucky stuff to you when you remember telling him a couple of days ago how much you hated beans. He probably wasn't even listening, just occasionally grunting to keep you talking to yourself. 

Zoro then pulled the bean can from you and offered something else with his other hand. You looked down at what he had to offer you now and were pleasantly surprised when it was fresh fish probably from the stream that had a stab hole in its head. You looked up at his face and he had a self-satisfied smirk on his face to your reaction. It seemed that he had listened to your prattlings more than you thought. 

“You better cook that as well,” you taunted, subtly smirking back at him. His own cocky smile died a bit, but he soon gathered himself and nodded grunting. “Just clean the fish and I cook it,” you offered to ease his job, already thankful that he had been thoughtful enough.

Notes:

I don't know how I happened to update this story of mine most irregularly when the character and AU are my favorites. I love zombie AUs and I have always loved zombie movies and series, so with Zoro this mix is perfect for me. But apologies for the big breaks between updates, I will try to update more often. My schedules have gotten tighter and more things to do have pushed into my life right now, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to or have time and motivation to write and update this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Chapter 6: Chapter 5

Yesterday the rest of the evening went peacefully and the fish Zoro had gotten wasn’t all that bad after you fried it enough on the campfire with salting it to not taste too fishy. Even with the fire out, not many zombies came to stumble on you, but the bushes around you hid the light nicely which could have invited too many unwanted strollers. You took the first watch again, Zoro protesting he could watch the whole night and you could sleep the night, but you shot him down quickly. You didn’t understand why he had turned out to be so helpful and considerate in all ways. He had to sleep too and you didn’t want to accept his offerings, not wanting to use his services too much without giving enough back.

He shook you awake in the morning when you didn't react to his voice. Tiredly you forced yourself to wake up and there were a couple of fresh zombies finished by him laying around. You heard more groaning from near and understood that there were more zombies around and that you should continue your way already. Before you could leave though you sneaked in the stream with him past the zombies lurking, getting your dried clothes and quickly washing your face, getting yourself more awake with the cold water hitting your face. After that you left the stream and walked back to the road avoiding the zombies you heard, not knowing how many of them there were.

On the road, you killed a couple of undead when they tried to come on your way, but after that, you continued your journey in peace. It wasn’t so hot today and you even had to zip your hoodie to avoid the chilly breeze sending shivers to your skin. You glanced at Zoro a couple of times wondering if he was completely immune to temperature changes because he was still in his white top after all the weather changes. Not caring if he was content, you still dug one of your hoodies from the bag he was carrying. He looked curiously at what you were doing, but you just pushed the oversized hoodie to him.

“It’s chilly, wear that,” you commanded, looking at him persistently. When he just walked doing nothing but holding the hoodie confused you hummed sharply to him. “Your skin is all cold too,” you stated, touching his bicep that actually was warm, but that warmth would be gone if he didn't prevent it from escaping. 

"Your fingers are the freezy here," he muttered, but you just looked at him demandingly. 

He complied and put the dark gray hoodie on, not zipping the zipper, leaving the hoodie open. You hoped he didn’t stain the hoodie to the condition his white top was; full of blood stains, but it was whatever now. Feeling the weight on the leash going to Luke’s neck you looked behind to see him troubled with keeping up with your pace. You tugged him harder ahead and he limped to walk more at your pace. You weren’t sure how much longer you should continue dragging him behind you. He has become more of a nuisance than useful and the only reason for your dragging him anymore was probably the attachment. Zoro glanced at you without a word while you looked annoyed at the zombie you had to tug occasionally to move.

~

You had walked the whole day without any stops and it was already starting to darken. More zombies started to appear from the woods so you hadn’t stopped yet and continued up ahead, hoping you would come across some kind of cover, but there was nothing around, not even one broken wreck of a car. Staying out open was not an option now with more zombies around probably from the city which was getting closer. You didn’t have any problem with continuing so you didn’t stop at any half-good spot you walked past. If you stayed on your foot walking you could get to the city quicker and the longer stops weren’t necessary for a while.

The sunset was setting on your side in the west and the last rays of the spring’s sun were hitting your faces between the tall trees. It was a calm evening and the sky soon turned purple, the color of the sky just darkening more. Zoro walked a bit ahead of you, still on your side, looking sternly forward on the road, more wary and tense after the evening turned into night. You looked more at the landscaping around you and noted the forest on the side of the road turned into a field.

In the middle of the field, there was an old decayed barn, it could be suitable for rest, but you still preferred to continue. You also had this bad foreboding in the pit of your stomach so you didn’t want to stop. For an answer to your bad hunch, you squint your eyes to see better the dark figures you were seeing behind the barn, not seeing that far especially in the dark that well. You quickly got your binoculars from your back and took a better look at the nearing figures, already knowing what to expect, but you hoped your eyes were only deceiving you. They weren’t; you were screwed.

“Zoro,” you called the swordsman seriously, alarming him. He looked from you to the field understanding that there was something coming. “There are a lot of them heading this way. We need to run now.”

“Are they scattered all over the field?” Zoro questioned while you started to jog to quickly get away under their path over the road. It was better to run and avoid them than keep them behind you.

“Yeah we better run fast now before they are gonna notice us,” you said breathlessly, looking from the field to Luke that had trouble keeping up. He stumbled on his steps and he kept clumsily almost tripping on his feet.

Zoro got ahead of you due to his better physical condition and ability to run more than you, but most of all because he hadn't a zombie behind him slowing him down. You tried your best to keep the zombie on his feet, but he wasn’t fit to run anymore even by dragging. The zombies were getting dangerously close to you two and there wasn't a lot of distance anymore. You were only gotten over the halfway point of the field and you had some way to run into the more wooden part of the road. Zoro looked behind him to you probably questioning why your steps were coming from so far. He ran back to your side and took the zombie's other arm and put its arm around his shoulder and took a firm grip on Luke’s side, helping him move faster.

“Y/n,” Zoro called with a serious voice. You knew what he meant by the way he looked at the zombies getting closer and back at you.

“I know,” you answered, taking a deep breath, weighing the only options you had. Either leaving Luke behind and increasing your chances of surviving or taking Luke still with you and most likely dying with a bigger chance. “Okay, just leave him.”

Zoro looked at you for assurance so you nodded vigorously to him, your lips starting to quiver. He gave you a small nod and left the zombie on his own feet. He was ready to run again, but you still stayed and took the helmet from the zombie's head. You quickly dug your mini vodka bottle from your bag, opening the bottle you poured it on the zombie. You then stroked the part of his skin where he had skin and looked at him sadly, the world around you drifting in the background and noises around you muffling. You got your lighter from your pocket and lighten it, dropping it still on in Luke’s flannel’s loose pocket, making him lighten up on fire.

“Y/n… Y/n!” Zoro repeated, shaking you violently to get you off your zoning. You looked at him puzzled back, half of his words not registering in your mind. “You are too close to the fire, we need to go now!”

“Yeah, yeah,” you repeated, shaking your head and clearing your mind. You dug your pistol from your bag and pointed it at Luke’s head and fired the weapon, making him collapse, finally dead. “Didn’t we always discuss that we would prefer cremation as a burial method,” you chuckled eyes closed, your eyes wetting with tears, and looking at the zombie before turning ahead. You quickly wiped your tears on your sleeve and turned determined to Zoro. “Let’s run to the woods and avoid them following us into the city.”

“Okay,” Zoro agreed, looking at you with little concern, but still knowing you would be okay. The first zombies started getting to you so he slashed them before starting to run in the treeline on the other side of the road where you had pointed.

Luke still on fire behind you brought good distraction for the zombies that hadn’t still noticed you. You kept running as fast as you could, Zoro probably slowing down to stay on your side, so you did your best to run as fast as you could, adrenaline pumping in your system. You looked behind you to see that the zombies were still moving towards you and some of them that had stopped at the fire were moving in your direction, a couple of them on fire as well. You reached the treeline, where Zoro glanced behind before continuing running. You signaled that you should start heading towards the city from here and stop going straight ahead.

You looked one more time behind to the road where the flames on Luke’s body were starting to die down. You looked at the sight with sadness, but it was for the best so you turned to look ahead of you to not trip over your own feet now. You didn’t have time to grieve, because now the mandatory matter was to get away alive. When you looked over Zoro he was running in a completely wrong direction. You sighed and ran up to him, taking him by the hoodie and directing him in the right direction. You still heard the zombies' loud groans echoing behind you so you kept running with all you got, Zoro slashing the zombies coming from front of you.

~

You had been walking for over three days in the forest without anything to eat, you had also run out of water a day ago. You were admittedly a bit lost and you still hadn’t found the way back to the road you were supposed to move through. You didn’t count on Zoro helping you to navigate back to the road either so it was your job to get you two back there. You had run too headlessly while dodging the zombie packs ahead and muddy ponds. So now you couldn’t pinpoint your exact location and in the dark, you couldn’t read the map either. You hoped you had been heading in the direction of the city and not just anywhere deeper in the forest. The forest was so dense that you only saw the sun when it was on its highest so it wasn’t there to help you either.

It was another new day. It was still early in the morning and you were in the later watching duty this time. The sun was seemingly already up by the sky that had lightened some more. You sat leaning on a tree next to Zoro who was lying on his back on the ground, using his backpack as a pillow. He occasionally furrowed his brows while he continued snoring loudly, mouth open and all ready to eat some bugs. You tried to sleep earlier while he was on guard, but it was just eye-resting. You couldn’t get any sleep with Luke still fresh on your mind. So in the meantime, you just played with his old ring, gazing at it distantly.

He always kept it in his right hand’s pointer finger and when he turned into a zombie and you had to slash his arms off you kept it in his jacket’s pocket. You always wanted his ring so you did the trade back there and then when you replaced the ring in his pocket with your lighter he had always wanted. You slid the ring on your middle finger where it smoothly placed itself even if it was a bit loose still. 

Jingle brought your attention to Zoro’s ear where he had his three identical gold earrings. You had of course noticed them before, but you never got to observe them in good lighting. The earrings jingled to each other softly with every moment he did or with the slight breeze moving them. He sure was a heavy sleeper if he could sleep with clinking like that on his ear. Your eyes landed back on his mouth when it started mouthing some words.

“Booze, sake, beer,” he mumbled quietly in his sleep. You lifted your ear from his mouth and smiled amused to yourself. Who doesn’t miss alcohol in the zombie apocalypse, you sure could have use for some right now. Suddenly he sat up and yawned monstrously, his mouth stretching wide. He then looked at you eyes still half open while he stretched his hand over his head. “Oh, it’s morning already.”

“Mmh,” you hummed, looking around that it was still clear around you. You then looked back at him to see him yawning once again. “We don’t have to move yet tho if you want to sleep some more.”

“Nah, I’m good,” he answered, denying your offer while he stood up, opening his locked back joints. He then looked down at you with an expression that meaning you couldn’t really pinpoint. “I don’t know about you though. I know you haven’t been sleeping lately.”

“I’m good so let’s continue,” you refused quickly, standing up and picking your bag and backpack up. He quipped you a brow but got his stuff up as well. “It’s better that we get to the city as soon as possible.”

“If you know for sure where it is,” he taunted, with that smug smirk on his face.

“Hey, no need for you especially to say that to me,” you barked back lightheartedly, turning to him with an accusing face. “And I know where we are going.”

“Sure,” taunted last time before stopping your teasing. He then fell quiet and you looked at him expecting that he had noticed something, but he was looking at you with a somewhat serious look. “Why hadn’t you finished him already before?” You could tell he had wanted to ask that for a long time already. 

You turned back ahead with a calm look, thinking how you should explain it to him when you weren’t too sure of your own reasons for it. “I couldn’t at first, then I just postponed it and didn’t ever do it,” you explained, looking ahead, preferring to face away from him while you told him. “Even if he wasn’t the person I used to know and everything that once was part of him was wiped away, the creature he had turned into was in the familiar body of the one that had once belonged to Luke,” you told him, stopping when you started to feel your voice starting to get shaky.

Zoro hummed for an answer and you continued walking ahead in the direction you led you two. You thought of trying to cheer the mood surrounding you so it wouldn’t be left so heavy, but you opted for it. It was better to move quietly through the forest as well and the weak cramping you started to feel in your calf didn’t encourage you to talk more. Your calves started to cramp yesterday from all the straining they had gotten lately without too much resting. You expected the cramping to be just temporary, but it seemed that it would be good to find a safe stop from the city once you get there and relax longer than just one night. You glanced at Zoro who was now gotten to your side and was already eyeing the leg where you didn’t put as much weight as on your other leg. And you thought you were subtle with it, or he was just too observant.

“I’m okay,” you muttered, making his eyes shift from your leg to your eyes. The least you wanted to do now was to stop and slow your way to the city where you should have been already. For a sign, you walked out of the woods back to the same road you had once lost. Looking ahead there the city loomed.  “See here we are.”

“And if there are dangers, what are you gonna do exactly with that leg or those legs?” He questioned, raising his brows and stopping a bit ahead of you, blocking your view of the city with his toned body.

“Well, then adrenaline is pumping in my veins and I will forget the pain,” you answered to him proudly, looking at him challengingly back. “We don’t have food, no water, or more safety here than there, so we are going,” you ended, but he still seemed to stand his ground persistently, so you grabbed his arm and linked it with yours and tugged him to the wanted direction of the city. He grunted in answer but didn’t say anything and let you lead him as you pleased, making you smile winningly to yourself.

“I guess we will see what comes of this.” 

Chapter 7: Chapter 6

The journey to the city wasn’t long and you had gotten through the big highway to the outskirts of the big city. You came across noticeably more with rotten corpses, but not too many to not handle them well enough. First, your task would be to find some food and maybe some water somewhere, then you could ponder what place you wanted to clear up for the night. Every time you went to kill a zombie you could feel Zoro’s eyes in your back probably making sure your sore legs weren’t gonna betray you or something. He surely should have more trust in you handling yourself.

You looked around the stores in the buildings’ ground levels while you started to approach the downtown of the city. There were a couple of zombies in every direction roaming, but they were far enough to not pay attention to you while you walked with light steps, not wanting to draw too much attention. You pointed to a market from your side and Zoro nodded agreeing, so you headed to it. You got to the door where you knocked on the door, testing if any zombies would come to welcome you in, Zoro waited next to you, swords ready to slash the welcomers if they would come crashing to the door. When nothing came Zoro opened the door and went first while you secured the area behind you, noticing that you had attracted a couple of zombies from near.

“You coming?” Zoro asked, peeking his head out of the store to see why you were taking your sweet time to follow him.

“Can you lend me my gun from the bag first?” You asked, keeping your eyes still on the zombies and counting their total; eight. They were still scattered so it would be easier to take care of them now than let them block your exit and attract just more to try to break into the market to get to you.

“This one?” Zoro quipped after rustling behind you while digging the weapon you had used for practice on the rooftop.

“Yeah that one,” you said after a glance and took it from his hands. He came outside as well and went to finish the zombies from the left that were closer to him while you took the right side, sniping zombies father coming in your direction.

You moved your eye on the scope and started shooting, not missing even once and hitting all of the five from your side to death. They all were so close that it was harder to miss the shots than hit those freaks. You glanced at Zoro and he had finished his last one as well and was sheathing his swords walking back to you to the door. You got started when you heard something crash in the door behind you, it was a swollen-looking zombie in the market’s work wear scratching the glass door that was between you and it. You let the gun rest on your shoulder by the strap and took your jungle knife and settled your hand on the handle ready to open the door and take care of the zombie. Before you could pull the door open Zoro settled his hand on top of your hand to stop you from opening the door, you looked at him confused, but he only pulled the door open by himself and stabbed the zombie through its head with one of his swords.

You clicked your tongue from his side, annoyed that he wouldn’t let you take care of that one or finish it off even with little teamwork. He looked at you obnoxiously, not knowing what you were so upset about, and went into the market first. This time you followed behind him, not wanting to be left behind now that the streets behind you remained eerily quiet. You noticed that Zoro started to go through the shelves without a flashlight so you got two flashlights from your backpack and went to offer the other one for him. He accepted it grunting for thanks and continued looking now between the shelves and under them for anything edible or drinkable. You went to another section from him to look for anything, but the place seemed quite dry from the goods you tried to find, everything useful already taken.

~

You had scavenged the market for an hour already, but you didn’t seem to find anything good from there and the only luxury you had found was from the pet food section; two cans of some expensive wet cat food. You didn’t mind eating cat food that much though, it really wasn’t so bad tasting if the flavor was the right one and luckily the cans you had found were salmon favored. You still hoped Zoro had found something better to eat. You had seen Zoro a couple of times while going through the shelves, but you weren’t sure where he was now. He wasn’t back at the door yet or near the last place where you saw him and the possibilities for him to get lost in the not-so-big market were not that big. 

Going through the vegetable section, all of a sudden something grabbed your ankle, when you looked down, a zombie with its bottom stuck under some fruit boxes was trying to bite your ankle. You quickly balanced your standing and quickly smashed your other leg on the freak’s head, breaking its skull, its brains splattering on the floor. There weren't a lot of zombies inside the market other than a couple on the floor that couldn’t stand on their own feet and come to you. From the backroom where you had broken in you found a couple dead zombie corpses on the floor.

You continued searching for the moss head from the market, occasionally whisper-yelling his name, not wanting to cause too much noise attracting more zombies from outside. Going through the whole market you were left puzzled, not finding the swordsman anywhere from there. You walked back to the front entrance and got startled when the swordsman was there standing, sharing you a glance.

“I was wondering where you went when you weren’t coming here as we agreed,” Zoro started matter-factly, making your brow twitch from annoyance.

“What are you talking about, I was here once in time, but you weren’t, so I went to look for you,” you grumbled to him, poking his chest with an accusing finger. The stiff, but somehow soft flesh under your finger made you almost melt to wanting to get one squeeze of his huge pecs. You shook your head hard, eyes closed to get those ideas out of your head, Zoro looking at you confused. “Milker- I mean you are then at fault for making me go look for you being late like that.”

“Hmm,” he hummed deeply while he kept eyeing you with raised eyebrows at your odd behavior. “What is with you?” He straightforwardly asked.

“Devil just got me, but anyways about that let’s leave,” you admitted truthfully, knowing he couldn’t connect what you were about to call his pecs you just got to poke, lacking too much of an intelligent brain functioning for that.

“What?” He asked, confused, but you had made your way out of the front door already. Noticing you already gone he followed behind you to the still quiet streets.

“Don’t think about it too much,” you told Zoro when looking at the still thoughtful expression on his face. “What did you find by the way?” It was better to distract him to forget your momentary oddness there.

“Two cans of beans and a full water bottle,” he answered while you walked aimlessly further into the city. A couple of zombies were seen, but they weren’t close enough to see you with their bad eyesight.

“Seems that it would be good to continue searching,” you answered looking around what stores there were near. A liquor store in the corner of one building caught your attention, but drinking would just make your state worse, so you didn’t point it out aloud.

“Any idea where? Everything seems quite scavenged already,” Zoro questioned, looking to the side but only seeing car repair stores and equipment stores.

”From the mall?” You questioned hopefully. He looked at you with raised brows while you innocently pointed at the big grey round-shaped building ahead.

“Are you sure you wanna go try your luck there?” Zoro asked, trying to rationalize your bold idea. “I can manage, but I don’t know how much I can cover for you.”

“Don’t assume I need some covering,” you crossed your arms and glared at him. “But that wasn’t the point. See, the entrance at least isn’t shut off,” you pointed out to Zoro, he looked at you encouragingly to finish your point. “That means people didn’t try to camp inside the mall and by logical thinking they all tried to escape from the mall when things got worse, so there shouldn’t be that many infected that we would assume about a big place, well only if zombies from outside haven’t wandered there.”

“Huh?” he exclaimed puzzled. “Have you tested your theory before then?”

“Indeed I have and the results were more giving than taking,” you nodded proudly, trying to ignore how the trip to a place like that ended last time; you lost a lot of not usable but for you meaningful stuff in the quick escape you had to have to do. “So if there are any zombies they are most likely packed in some specific part of the shopping mall, so let’s go find out?” You pondered from him at the entrance you had gotten.

He looked at you still doubtful, but nodded and grunted for you as an answer. He walked inside first you following close. He was about to turn his flashlight on when you stopped him.

“No, that will only bring more attention to us,” you whispered to him, taking the flashlight of his hands and putting it back into his back. “We can see all right with those ceiling windows, but when it gets darker we are out of here.”

“Sure we are,” he agreed and continued in front of you to the first wide corridor. The ceiling seemed to be a bit broken, some ponds were seen on the floor with the clothing rags of the shops fallen on the floor. But the insides of stores seemed pretty untouchable as you expected. That was the good side of looting malls because only a few dared to enter them. You walked into one of the clothing shops, picking a pair of nice-looking cargo pants in your hands, and eyeing them. Zoro marched following you, looking you questionable from the side. “What are you doing?”

“Shopping,” you answered shortly, resting the trousers on your arm, moving to the shirts, and grabbing a couple of cute tops and some long-sleeved shirts. You looked back to Zoro who had a deadpan expression on his face. “What?! I need clothes, and so do you.”

“Anyways to the next shop,” you said, changing the subject a bit and walking past him while putting your new clothes in your bag. “You need at least new shirts.”

“Didn’t we come here to search for food?” Zoro wondered aloud, catching you and walking on your side with his white sword out while you carried your axe in your right hand.

“Yes that as well,” you supposed, finding a nice blue top for Zoro from one of the clothing rags from the other shop.

~

You had completed searching on the floor that you found to be the second floor of the three. You only found clothing shops, cafes, and equipment stores, so you finally then walked upon a map from the shopping center, finding out that the two big supermarkets were on the first floor. But looking over the railing to the second floor you could clearly see that the rotten had packed into there and some of them even tried to make their way to the second floor through the escalator.

“Yikes, I guess they all really were packed somewhere,” you shrugged very disappointed, thinking your plan would have been a success for your food situation. “Sorry troubling you over this,” you apologized to Zoro for wasting his time with you here for searching something you didn’t even have a chance to acquire from the beginning.

“You didn’t know so don’t apologize,” he shrugged, assuring you when you looked at him back unsurely and apologetically. “Let’s leave before those get up,” he said pointing at the zombies climbing the escalator.

“Yeah, but we still have one place to stop,” you told him, you were certain that maybe you had missed something edible, not thinking big enough.

“And what could that be now?” Zoro voiced, but you didn’t answer and locked your arm with his and went to drag him to jog with you to the mystery location.

After a little jog to make more distance between you and the escalator zombies you arrived at the cafe that had caught your eye. You told Zoro to wait in front of him and keep guard while you would go get something from the kitchen where you broke in with your axe. Inside the cafe's little back kitchen, you rummaged through the tools on the table and the cupboards until you found what you were looking for; a couple of whipped creams and a sprinkle jar but also as an extra some chocolate sauce.

Proudly you excused the kitchen just to be grabbed by Zoro hastily to start running. You looked behind you, seeing movement closing from the shadows in the already quite dark mall. Surely you needed to start making your way out of the place. The zombies were faster walkers than you thought so you speeded for a proper escape run, Zoro’s hand still gripping your wrist in a rough but gentle grip. You soon came to the same entrance you had entered to the building and made your way out just to be met by a more buzzing street than earlier, now full of rotten, their attention soon turning to you two.

“Well shit,” you muttered under your breath, your eyes still on the big threat in front of you when Zoro tugged your puzzled self into some sidestreet.

You snapped out of it and readied your axe for use while Zoro already had chopped the heads of zombies ahead. Seeing that the alley was a dead end, you looked at Zoro confused. You hoped that his sense of no direction wasn’t acting right now. You looked behind you the fear starting to set into you when you were once again grabbed by Zoro and he turned to you with a serious face.

“Do you trust me?” He asked firmly, making you a bit nervous about what you should answer now, the danger nearing. You nodded slightly and that seemed to be enough for him and he smiled lightly. “Let’s make our escape through that,” he said, pointing to a low roof where you could get by the big bin at the end of the alley. He could probably lift himself to the roof without trouble, but your arm muscles sure couldn’t do that. “Now we have to hurry.”

You both climbed over the bin and you looked at the roof you couldn't even touch by the tips of your fingers. “Zoro…” you murmured unsurely, looking at him defeated.

“I help,” he assured and without other words, he lowered himself and lifted you, his arms circled around your legs, his cheek against your bottom, making you squeak from embarrassment despite the situation you were in. He moved you closer to the edge of the rooftop and you got a good hold of it, Zoro pushed you completely onto the slanted rooftop, making you steady yourself. He then offered his swords and then his backpack and bag to you that you accepted and moved to the side so he had some space to lift himself on. He easily took a grab on the edge and then lifted himself up with his muscular arms and got himself on the roof just in time for the zombies to start to swarm around the bin wanting to get to you. You looked at them over the edge while Zoro sheathed his swords back into his waist and got his bags on his shoulders again.

“Where are we heading then?” Zoro asked, making you look at him dumbfoundedly at where you possibly would even go from here. “We can travel through the rooftops, no?” He questioned as if reading your question from your face.

“I guess we can, I just hope I don’t slip and die,” you muttered pessimistically, standing up wobbly and following after Zoro to climb to a higher roof. Seeing in the distance a building with fire escapes you chose it was the best place to try to enter for the night. Through the fire escapes you could safely get inside the building from the roof. “Let’s head there,” you pointed to Zoro, who nodded in agreement.

You started to make your way through the roofs to the wanted destination. It was easy to move from the first couple of roofs to another because they were so close by, but the next two buildings seemed to be harder to get by because of the bigger distance between them, but at least they were a bit shorted buildings so it wasn’t impossible to get to them if you threw all your stuff first to the next roof little more downwards and then did a horrible jump to there as well. If your body was full of bruises tomorrow it was no surprise why. So in the end you finally made your way on the building with fire escapes. 

You went to knock for a test on the different floors’ windows, choosing to stop on the second highest floor where no rotten came groaning to the window. Before you chose to dig your axe on the corner of the window you looked around at the streets, checking that there weren't a lot of zombies to stir from the little noise you would cause. When there weren’t too many you smashed the window’s lock broken, creating a more practical way inside than just straight up breaking the glass.

The apartment was nice looking, a spacious studio apartment with a bed, living room, and kitchen in the same room. Zoro checked the bathroom and hallway outside the apartment as well to assure that the place was safe for you two to stay in and rest. Now that you weren’t out open for a snack to zombies you both could rest without the other one guarding the other. You dropped your bags on the ground and let yourself fall into the soft bed, just now realizing how exhausted you were from hiking in the woods and then walking the whole day in the city. You let out a deep sigh, then looked at Zoro who was looking at you weirdly.

“Hmm,” you hummed for him to get him to say what was on his mind, still laying scattered on the bed on your back.

“What did you get there?” He asked, making your brows frown into visible confusion. “From the cafe place,” he elaborated.

“Oh, that,” you exclaimed remembering what goods you had gotten. You sat up and dug from your bag the whipped cream, sprinkle jar, and chocolate sauce. “I know they are all sweet, but better than not edible things at all.”

“Mh,” he grunted, not too fond of seeing all the sweet stuff as you expected. “I don't like sweet stuff that much.”

“Well, the whipped cream is the least sweet tasting so eat that more,” you said, throwing the whipped cream charger to him. He looked at it confused after catching the bottle, making you sigh. “Just pour it into your mouth.”

He did so and then after eating the cream threw it back to you. You, on the other hand, poured some of it on your hand and then added some sprinkles and chocolate sauce on it. You showed your work to Zoro proudly, but he didn’t look that impressed by your sugary sweet. You huffed and plopped the thing in your mouth, liking the taste of sprinkles and chocolate sauce not so much of the taste of the spoiled-tasting whipped cream.

But it did bother you a bit that Zoro preferred to eat those disgusting beans over the sweet things you brought. He deserved a treat, not a sweet one, something he liked himself as well and you were gonna get him one. After all, you haven’t returned the flavor from the chocolate bar he gave you on the first shared night of yours. Now again you have found something more pleasant for you than him as well. So it was his turn to get something he desired and you had a good picture already of what he would want, so there was no other option than getting them for him.

Chapter 8: Chapter 7

Your rest under the blankets was not peaceful at all after you had chosen to rest a little once the night fell. Before sleeping or trying to sleep you had eaten more of your whipped cream-sprinkle-chocolate sauce mixes before you had undressed and crawled under the blankets to rest after cleaning yourself a bit with a wet rag. While you stayed awake laying in the bed a good plan had formed in your mind and you were about to execute it if you weren’t gonna fall asleep in the next second. Zoro snoring on the couch, still deep in his slumber just encouraging you more to go with your plan.

Your plan was to go secretly to the liquor stop you suddenly remembered noticing maybe six blocks away from here, to get liquors for Zoro he had murmured about in his sleep the one night in the forest. He sure would be pleased and show more signs of being happy or excited over something when you would bring him an alcoholic surprise. Zoro was a heavy sleeper if no danger was around and there would be no one, so you should get past him easily. You sat up and dug the city’s map from your bag and looked for a route to the liquor stop from your current location. You liked to go a long way around the pack of zombies you escaped from, but you couldn’t be sure where they were looming at the moment.

Putting your plan into motion, you rose up from the bed after choosing what kind of detour you were gonna take in this unfamiliar city for you to get to your preferred location. You dressed in the clothes you had undressed from earlier that night and carried your shoes to the window, putting them only outside the apartment to not wake Zoro. You had just one backpack with you that you had emptied on the floor, everything else except some rags and clothes that would work as cushions between the bottles you would obtain. You also took one of your big guns on your shoulder to hang from its strap just in case you would need it and of course, you still had on your belt your axe, three smaller knives, and the jungle knife hanging from its strap.

It was quite dark, the only light coming from the crescent of the moon. It was eerie, but there weren't too many zombies in the streets of this neighborhood to scare you into not going. A couple of them noticed you when you finished coming down the fire escapes. You finished them easily with your axe splashing their brains while still being on the higher platform. After that, you jumped on the ground and hastily started to make your way through the route you had memorized while constantly being on guard and ready to finish off any dangers on your way. You preferred to finish the zombies that were in your way now than leave them to be and follow you all the way, gathering your own personal pack of zombies to follow you.

Passing the intersection you noticed that in the south street, there were more zombies seen so you jogged quickly in the west before they could pay more attention to you. You started to get closer to the place where you had seen the liquor store but the groans that you had heard in the distance started to get closer as well. You chose to climb through the fire exit ladder to one not-too-high building’s roof to see if you could point where all the zombie groans were coming. On the rooftop you looked around your surroundings, just realizing how big the city really was. When you did escape through the roofs earlier you didn’t truly have time or mindset under the escape to grasp on the fact.

But you couldn’t let it distract you too much and went back to searching for the source of the groans that you still were hearing just a bit more distantly. You didn’t see anything other than a few scattered zombies here and there that much the dark allowed you to see, but you saw the liquor store right ahead on the next street as well, so you had not gotten lost despite all looking colorless and unrecognizable in the murk.

You climbed the ladders down to continue your way to the liquor store, crossing the street quickly on the store’s side. You didn’t go inside the place right away but followed the groans that were now near the trashcan area of the building. Behind the trash bins, there was a high fence to which you crept silently. You looked through the reeks of the fences, yelping a bit seeing a lot of zombies on the sand pitch ahead, walking aimlessly around. Quickly hearing groans behind you despite all the bellowing coming ahead you turned to look behind you. Two zombies were walking ahead on your street, but they didn’t seem to notice you by the way they continued ahead.

You sneaked to the liquor store’s front door and knocked quietly on the glass door to see if there was anyone to try and attack you. After a couple of long seconds, you creaked the door open, your face morphing into an unpleasant expression by the noise that the door caused, but quickly you were inside the place already. Before you even decided to check the alcohol selection you inspected between the aisles and cash register that there weren’t any surprises. Looking at the selection, you sighed disappointed seeing that there wasn't anything at all left from the broken bottles on the ground. Of course, people wanted to get alcohol to ease their sorrows in the apocalypse, but seemingly your luck didn’t help even attaining one bottle of something.

With not that much hope you opened the backdoor to the stockroom with the key you found on the floor near the cash register. At first, you didn’t see anything in the small little room with no windows, but after lighting your flashlight you were pleasantly surprised by how untouched the place looked. All the carton boxes were tidily on their own shelves with nothing having fallen on the ground. You inspected the boxes more seeing that they had collected a nice amount of dust on them already. You took the first box, settling it on the ground to see if you really had been lucked out. You had been, the first box full of red wine bottles. Not a friend of wines and not thinking those would be Zoro’s favorites either you continued on the boxes, now reading from the box what it contained before going through the trouble of opening all the boxes one by one.

Before you found any sake that you had heard Zoro mutter so dreamily in his dream you found some tequila. Even if this wasn’t supposed to be a treat for yourself you chose to slip a couple bottles of it into your bag before continuing on. The next thing you found was some beer, not too strong but not too tasteless sounding either. After opening one can of the beer and tasting it you approved it and packed twelve cans in total inside your backpack. The last thing you would need to find was the most important; the sake.

After a lot of rummaging, you found some sake from smaller boxes behind the others. You weren’t sure if Zoro preferred some brand over another, but you opted on getting one of all three brands. But then you started to hesitate if that was enough for a big guy like Zoro and added in your bag one more and then two more, now having six bottles of sake, a 12-pack of beer, and two bottles of tequilas. So it was to say that your bag sure weighed a ton and all your cushion stuff was not able to cushion all the spaces between the bottles, making some of them clank to each other if you did any hasty movements like adjusting the backpack on your back.

You turned your flashlight off and waited a moment for your eyes to adjust to the dark before you opened the door back to the store side. The store itself was still quiet, but you waited a moment looking through the windows to see if there were any major dangers outside for you when you would exit the store. When the street seemed quiet enough you excused the store, looking back at the zombies behind the fence that still were minding their business, so with that, you started to make your way back to Zoro, through the presumably same way you had come here.

~

Moving in the night was more nerve-wracking now that you were more aware of your surroundings and some healthy sense had crept into your head. Leaving the apartment, you had been busy with your plan to get to the liquor store and get the alcohol, nothing else weighing on your mind, but to accomplish those two things. The easy part was of course to get away from the safety, but now the hard part was to get back to the safety you chose to abandon because of a whim of a moment and sleepless night.

Lousy zombies were creeping everywhere and finishing them off made just more come to you so you kept on running. Ugly rotten faces everywhere, avoiding them all started to get hard and you ended up further away from your destination by trying to circle around the busier streets. Further, you had gotten the buildings looked more unfamiliar, not having seen them even once in daylight. You still had some idea in what direction your apartment for the night was and you tried to move towards it, but in that direction there always seemed to be some obstacles you had to avoid.

Finally, you seemed to have arrived at the right apartment complex. You were on the wrong side of it from the fire escapes, so you needed to get on the front side of the building. You had come running here from the pack of zombies you saw maybe 10 minutes ago, so you were on high guard, constantly checking the areas on your side and turning to look behind you anxiously and also stopping and listening if you heard anything. You were still checking the areas behind you when you bumped into something solid, turning your face ahead you were met with the same solidness blocking your view. Raising your axe to kill the zombie you backed away from the body surprised when your axe was held in place by hand on its edge. You looked from the hand to the individual that was the familiar mint-haired male not looking so happy.

“Hi?” You unsurely muttered nervously, sheepishly scratching the back of your head. “What a coincidence seeing you here,” you blabbered, not able to stop the foolish words coming from your mouth under the stress of what Zoro would say to you, glaring at you with that frown on his face.

“Don’t give me that,” Zoro growled, not sounding very happy with you. “What the heck were you doing here alone?” He snapped, making you feel a bit guilty like you had done something wrong. Well, you had.

“I had a thing to do,” you said after gathering yourself a bit to be able to explain yourself without spoiling the surprise.

“Huh, things to do?! Like what?” Zoro snapped a little too loudly making a couple of zombies’ attention snap to you.

“I can’t tell you… yet,” you answered, avoiding his eyes a little quilty. “But if you do want to converse about this more can we please do it inside and not here in the dark and dangerous near those creeps.”

Zoro agreed silently with you, finishing off the two coming to you with a forceful slash probably powered by the emotions of annoyance he was going through now because of you. You didn’t want him to wake up especially because of this, not wanting to anger or betray his trust or some sort like that. Head hanging low with the shame you were feeling you followed behind Zoro to the fire escapes on the other side of the building. This was supposed to be a nice surprise for him, but you doubted that just giving it to him now wouldn’t calm him down even a bit.

In quietness, you started climbing the ladders upwards surrounded by now the more peaceful seeming night. You took a couple glances at the streets below, assuring nothing had followed you. After that, you hopped inside the apartment through the window first, Zoro waiting patiently for you to go first to assure you wouldn’t dash and disappear somewhere again.

“Why can’t you tell me yet what things you had to do,” Zoro asked, sounding a bit calmer now, but he wasn’t looking at the source of his irritation, you. His back was faced to you and he had his arms crossed as he looked still outside from the window you didn’t enter with to the apartment.

“Because it’s a surprise,” you mumbled, sitting on the edge of the bed not wanting to look at him either. You played with your fingers anxious about what he would say next.

He sat on the end of the bed, massaging his temples while sighing deeply before he snapped to you. “Do you really value your life less than some stupid surprise?! I don’t want you to go out there alone, especially at night, so never do that again. I can’t protect you if you aren’t near or I don’t have the slightest idea where you are.”

“I won’t do it again,” you muttered, your head hanging low while you pursued your lips. He really was giving you mothery nagging, but you admit you were being foolish. “And I’m sorry for leaving like that.”

“You should be sorry for worrying me,” he corrected you with a low voice, but already softer. His response made you stun not being confident enough to think about the possibility of him being actually worried about you. “What does it seem so unlikely of me,” Zoro muttered looking at you back. You turned to look at the floor too embarrassed. “So don’t do that again, okay?” He said moving to sit next to you and lifting your head to look at him with his big calloused hand on your cheek.

“Okay,” you murmured, your voice small while you glanced at him seeing the assuring soft little smile he had. “And sorry for worrying you then.”

“It’s not okay, but you are forgiven,” he taunted a bit, the air around you already lighter. He let your cheek go too, making you miss the warm sensation of his hand cupping your cheek. “So what did you get?” He asked, implying the full-looking backpack on the floor.

“Didn’t I tell you that it would be a surprise,” you scoffed, glaring at him. “It will be revealed only when you have already forgotten it.”

“You sure you wanna carry that around, it looks heavy,” Zoro asked, trying to change your mind too curious now what you had there. But it was true that the backpack was heavy so as soon as possible you would like to reveal its fillings.

“I’m sure,” you answered back stubbornly. “But I’m quite tired now so I would like to continue my sleep that was left unfinished.”

“Well sure you are,” Zoro retorted, meaning the nightly run you chose to take around the city. “But my sleep was interrupted as well, so when I’m gonna wake in the morning I hope to see you in close proximity to the bed,” he told you warningly, eyeing you with unserious sternness.

“Yes-yes, I’m not going anywhere anymore as I promised,” you sighed and raised your hand for a promise handshake he connected with his own hand, a much bigger one compared to yours.

“As you should not,” he mocked teasingly and stood up going to the uncomfortable couch you had let him take because of your plan, but now in other thought, he could sleep with you in the bed.

“Isn’t that uncomfortable?” You asked him when he had sat down on the couch.

“Well yeah, but it's okay,” he answered, laying on his back on the small couch that wouldn’t be long enough for you either to sleep comfortably in any other position than the fetal position.

“You don’t have to sleep there, there is plenty of space in here,” you muttered to him, tapping the empty space next to you for him to take.

“Are you sure?” He asked, sitting up and looking at you for assurance. You nodded to him, making him stand up and make his way to the bed. You dove under the blankets and already turned on your side, facing away from him. The mattress dipped next to you in the dark a bit before Zoro voiced. “Now I can make sure you aren’t going anywhere,” Zoro grunted closer than you thought he was. “Night.”

“Good night to you too” you murmured yawning, the tiredness from lack of sleep finally getting to you. You let your body relax more, feeling how tense your body had gotten with being always on your guard not really letting yourself fully relax or rest.

~

Waking up from your slumber you didn’t open your eyes right away, enjoying the warmth that had enveloped you holding you in place. Lying there a couple of extra minutes with the sun shining on your face from the window. Only did you snap off from the relaxation when you felt the warmth move a bit around you. You tried to jerk away from it for reflex, but then remembering who with you decided to share your bed. You turned to face him in the tight embrace of his only to be met with his bare chest. So he had slept with no shirt on, well you didn’t have pants either, your bare legs tangled with his bare ones. You looked up at his face seeing he was still fast asleep. You tried to wiggle off his arms, but his hold only tightened around you if you did so. Somehow you wiggled enough that you got to turn on your other side facing off from him once again.

Only after a while, he started to wake up, making some light movements and flexing his muscles around you. When he seemed to get to his actual consciousness he yerked a bit from surprise on leaning to you. He didn’t seem to want to let go while you laid there unmoving waiting if he was gonna get up and let you act like you just woke up not knowing he had cuddled you in his sleep to avoid an awkward situation morphing. But he didn’t get up, adjusting himself behind you and keeping his arms around you, settling his head against your nape. Really, now wasn't the time to get comfortable.

You close your eyes for a bit to wait for him to move, but at some point, you accidentally fell asleep. You woke again when the bed dipped next to you signaling to you that something was moving in your side. When you turned to look at what Zoro was doing he was putting his white button tee back on and got up from the bed then. He sheathed his swords then on his waist and went to his bag, sipping some water. His attention then settled into your sleepy self.

“Good morning,” he greeted, making you grunt unclearly back and turn on your side from him.

You looked out of the window still from the bed, expecting to see the sun close to the place you had last seen it, but it was already further from the view the way you didn’t see it from your angle to the window. You rose suddenly from the bed, creaking the window open and looking at where the sun was at the moment. Shocked, you saw the sun already lowering, noon long gone already.

“Clock must be two or three now, why didn’t you wake up earlier?!” You exclaimed, stressed about how you had wasted this much of the daylight time for sleeping. Now you had a shorter amount of time to go through the city before you would need to find some shelter for the night again. “Yesterday was so short too before it was already dark and now this.”

“Weren’t you the one waking last,” Zoro questioned, raising an accusing brow at you.

“I did wake up once already hours ago, but you wouldn’t budge,” you argued back, sighing deeply to yourself from the disappointment. Zoro looked a bit taken aback by what you just said, embarrassed, but you didn’t pay attention to him, dressing up hastily and packing your bags, and lifting them up. “But whatever, let's leave, no need to waste the rest of the day too now.”

“Maybe if somebody wouldn’t have disappeared into the night we both wouldn’t have been so tired in the morning,” Zoro retorted after collecting himself, jumping off the apartment, and following behind you making his way down the fire escapes. “So it was good that we got to sleep even once long.”

“Well maybe so,” you half-agreed, starting to walk ahead with Zoro now on your side tall and protective.

Notes:

Sorry for the long wait and apologizes for the irregularity. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one coming sooner than this one :)

Chapter 9: Chapter 8

You had gone through the town for five hours already. Your feet ached but you endured the pain, not wanting to stop for a break now when you hadn’t even found anything useful at all yet. You looked through the stores and the easily available apartments for any goods while killing passing zombies, but nothing at all was found. You had some food left, but those weren’t gonna last long so some stocking was needed. You looked at the sky dejected seeing how the sun was settling soon, looking back at the streets while aimlessly walking ahead with Zoro on your side.

Suddenly something ahead got your attention, just a normal-looking business building at first glance, but seeing the street lights being on in its parking lot made you double look at what you were seeing. Perhaps a backup generator or those solar panels you noticed on the top of the building.

“Zoro, what do you say about our place to stay for the night?” You asked, looking at the swordsman in anticipation of what he would think about another idea of yours, noting that your ideas haven’t been most successful in these couple of days. Well, you did end up getting your liquors yesterday. “Hmm?” You pointed at the building to specify it to the himbo.

“You can’t be serious about that,” he muttered in disbelief, seeing the big modern business building coming ahead.

“I know it may look big and scary,” you said thoughtfully, a bit nervous. “But think this, wouldn’t the people flee from a place like that to home to their families or just flee home or to prepare for escape from a city like this? So there should be a small number of zombies or just a couple of them and I know I said this about the mall too, but I think people would flee with better speed from a place like a workplace, wouldn’t wanna be locked in there would they now?”

“But why would we even try our luck in a risky place like that,” he wondered, trying to be the voice of reason. “Wouldn't an apartment like yesterday do?”

“Those apartments don’t have electricity,” you reasoned, already imagining what all kinds of electric working things would be working inside the building, maybe even showers. “Please I assure you this can be a jackpot of luxury we haven’t encouraged in a while,” you pleaded, clapping your hand together in a pleading sign and pursuing your lip.

“Luxury over life?” He asked, frowning to you not seeming to be that convinced.

“We can find food there too,” you told him, getting him to give you a puzzled glance. “Those office workers sure hide all kinds of sweets in their desks so it can be a good place to try to find food when the apartments and stores keep offering us nothing, so?”

“Okay, but if we knock on the front doors and there appear more than three zombies banging at the door we aren’t going,” Zoro firmly told you and you nodded understanding.

You had already gotten to the modern maybe six-story building made from glass. The building looked pretty untouched without a scratch from the explosions in different parts of the city. There were some bodies and litter in the front yard but there were those everywhere. There were a dozen zombies following you to the building, you would only finish them at the front doors one by one. Other than those you hadn’t seen too many zombies today, it seemed that the bigger packs of zombies you had almost run to at night were moving through different parts of the city at the moment.

When you finally had walked through the front yard to the building you stopped and faced the zombies getting nearer. They would cause trouble so it was better to finish them off now. Zoro started to take out on his side zombies nearing, chopping their heads off. Before the first ones got to you, you threw two of your knives, digging into two zombies' heads and thinning down the zombies coming to you. After that, you finished the rest of them by digging the edge of your axe into their skulls.

Soon all the zombies were dead and you turned back to the door behind you two. You went to knock on the door with the handle of your axe and waited a moment while Zoro kept guard of your surroundings. You didn’t know if it was creepier that no zombie got attracted by the voice on the door or that there would have been a couple of them, but no one came to answer the door.

You tried to open the door, but it was locked and the scanner on the door showed red. Zoro looked at you confused when you looked searching for something from the yard. Seeing one of the older corpses having a key card hanging on their neck you went to snatch it. You returned back to the door and read the key card to the device that beeped and then showed greenlight.

“Wanna hurry up a bit?” Zoro asked when you were just pulling the door open. You looked at the cause for the hurry he was eyeing, noticing that a big pack of zombies was gonna pass the street you were in and would notice you two if you weren’t soon gone from the view.

Hastily you opened the door for you two to quickly make your way inside, Zoro closing it carefully to not let it cause any extra noise. Quietly you looked outside the tinted glass door to the zombies passing on the street, not seemingly having noticed you entering the building, which was a good thing, so the only dangers left were inside the building. Zoro was already looking around the dark lobby, the lights probably worked but it was better to keep them closed while the daylight was enough lighting for now.

“Shall we continue?” You asked for reassurance. He nodded to you and started to continue ahead carefully on high alert.

You followed behind him and stopped at the map of the building, showing a lot of office room numbers so nothing very helpful for you to understand. But the gym and shower spaces seemed promising on the sixth floor. You tapped the elevator button next to the map, getting the elevator to beep and open its doors. Zoro from a bit of distance turned to you startled and walked back to you.

“Don’t just stop behind like that,” Zoro complained, annoyed looking from you to the open elevator.

“Sorry you are just in such a hurry,” you apologized and grunted sarcastically back to him. “But let’s try other floors, this floor seems pretty empty and it would be much safer further away from the ground level we are now. From the top floor, we could find showers too as a little extra.”

“Let’s head there then, but don’t let your guard down even if we aren’t seeing them. I know they are here somewhere,” Zoro stated, eyeing you firmly.

“Okay, okay,” you assured and nodded, making your way inside the elevator. “Which floor do you wanna test first?” You quipped, letting him choose what floor you would take next, he pushed the button to the second floor and the elevator started moving. Less than a minute later you arrived on the second floor and the elevator doors opened only for you to be greeted by a bunch of infected, stopping at their tracks and turning to you. “Okay to the next floor!” You exclaimed, pushing the button to the sixth floor and making the doors close just before the zombies got near you. Zoro glanced at you without a word after the elevator started to move, irking you a bit.

After a couple of minutes, you arrived on the sixth floor, this time with no one to greet you in. When you were about to step out of the elevator Zoro held you back with his arm and chose to go first. Only when he had checked both directions to go he signaled for you to follow. The sun was settling outside so it was better that you would find a safe place to stay now and not later. You walked through the empty corridors and were soon faced by doors to the office spaces. The doors were locked when Zoro tried them and before he was about to break them forcibly you scanned the key card on the device, making the door open. You smiled subtly at Zoro and made your way inside first.

The room was full of desks with computers in their own little booths. You looked around the space and near the entrance where you were there were two separate rooms for toilets and a little coffee room. Before you had enough time to become too absorbed with the coffee room you both checked all the corners of the spacious room. On the opposite side from the entrance, there were separate office rooms, but they were empty as well from the one room Zoro checked, killing the zombie that was inside of it.

"All clear here I guess,” you supposed when Zoro walked to you.

“You wanna go find those showers you were talking about?” Zoro questioned, making your idea of getting cleaned up still this evening pop back into your mind.

“I think that would be ideal,” you thought aloud, looking at the door you entered through this room you were in. Zoro went first and opened the door with the key card you passed to him.

You followed behind him to the dark corridors, getting enough of them and turning the lights on the corridor you were in. Zoro looked back at you confused and then continued his way ahead while you read the names and numbers of the rooms. After walking a while Zoro stopped in front of one of the doors. You peeked behind him to see what there was written on the glass door; gym. Zoro opened the door and you were met by a small gym. On the left, there was a space for the changing rooms where the showers would be. You walked to the woman's changing room Zoro following you, so you turned to him with an accusative expression.

“You go there,” you ordered, pointing at the men's section to him and raising your eyebrows at him while you eyed him suspiciously.

“But if there are any zombies?” He questioned, not faced by the accusations that were displayed on your face.

“I can handle them,” you answered shortly and went inside the empty changing room, closing the door behind you from Zoro.

In the room, there was some stuff left behind in the hangers like a couple of bags, but other than that there wasn’t anything significant. You opened another one of the two doors and there were two showers. You left all your stuff in the changing room area from your changing clothes and one of your knives. With that, you went to the shower space and closed the door behind you while you started to strip off your clothes after testing that the water worked.

When the water got warm you stepped under the shower head and sighed contented with how amazing the warm water felt on your skin. After enjoying just the sensation of the water you started to scrub your body of the dirt. When you were done with that you started to apply some shampoo to finish washing yourself completely.

A good while had passed before you forced yourself to turn the shower off because Zoro surely was already waiting for you by the noises you imagine hearing outside of the door. So after getting dressed in a new clean pair of clothes you exited the showers, but when you opened the door a sleazy zombie attacked you making you fall back, your back hitting the hard tiles with the zombie on you trying to get a good bite of your face. You had a tough time keeping the freak’s teeth away from you while at the same time trying to get your jungle knife out of the sheath the zombie’s knee was on. When you got hold of the handle you quickly pulled the knife out of the sheath and stabbed the zombie right from his ear inside his skull.

You threw the body to the side and checked from the mirror that any blood didn’t splatter on you so your shower wouldn’t have ended up pointless. You sighed and checked the toilet you believed this one had come from for other zombies, but there weren’t luckily more. You sighed yourself from a little annoyance that you had been so busy getting to shower that you forgot to check the toilet for any dangers. You then went to get your bags when Zoro barked in the room with worry on his face.

“What happened? Are you okay?” He threw question after another, looking from you to the zombie in the shower room.

“Yeah that one just got to surprise me,” you nonchalantly told him, the adrenaline from what happened already lowering even if your heart still gave a couple of irregular beats. “You ready? Are we gonna go to that space we checked already for the night?”

“Yeah, let’s go now,” Zoro replied, exiting the gym back to the corridor you came by.

At first when he started to head in the completely wrong direction where you haven’t even been you were confused, but then remembered that this was his directionless-ass acting up. By his shirt you dragged him in the right direction, walking by his side so he wouldn’t start leading you more lost in the still quite unfamiliar building. Soon enough with your help, you get back to room number 669, so to the right one. You turned the light off in the hallway and then opened the door for you two.

Right away you speeded to the little coffee room, testing if the coffee machine still worked. You placed the cup under the mouth of the machine and clicked the chocomilk option. Mesmerized you stared up close to the waterish milk then the cocoa filled the cup. When your cup was full you took the warm carton cup and smelled the delicious and steamy choco milk.

“Zoro, see it works,” you cheered airily showing the cup closer to him like he didn’t see it from the door he had stayed watching you. “Mmh it is delicious too, but still a little hot,” you muttered after sipping a bit of the cocoa from the surface.

“There is just water too, I guess we could stock our bottles here,” Zoro said after going to the machine past you. He took a cup for himself, settling it under the machine and choosing to take just water. “Surprisingly it’s cool too,” Zoro mumbled between sips and then gulped his whole cup empty and filled it again. “If there were a booze option then that machine would be a dream granter.”

You froze once hearing that, completely forgetting that you still had those liquors. So maybe you would operate as Zoro’s dream granter today. Slowly you continued sipping your hot chocolate and checked the separate office rooms, deciding that you would spend the night in the biggest dimly lit one that probably had belonged to the higher-up of this section. You signaled Zoro to follow what he did, in the room plopping down on the two-seated sofa and groaning in relish. You went to sit on the desk in the end part of the room and looked outside the full wall mirror to the dark city and then the night sky above it. How peaceful.

“Zoro,” you called him and he hummed for an answer. “Close your eyes and cover your ears for a moment,” you ordered, he looked at you confused, his brows raised questioning. “Just do it please,” you pleaded, getting him to close his eyes and move his hands to cover his ears.

Right away you got to work, starting with moving the desk a bit so there was space for you to sit behind it and drink. There wasn’t any coffee table for the couch so you opted to drink behind the desk on the floor and enjoy the view from the window. You started to unpack your backpack, settling all the bottles carefully on the ground. On Zoro’s side, you settled more of the sake bottles and some beer knowing he probably fancied those most out of everything.

Something seemed to still be missing from your surprise and the many bottles on the floor. You peeked at Zoro, who was still covering his ears with closed eyes. After that, you chose to check the desk drawers and found a cute colored handkerchief. You ripped a piece out of it and tied it around one of the sake bottles in a bow. Only after a little adjustment were you glad about the surprise. Now it looked like a picnic settling, a very alcoholic one.

“Zoro,” you called, but he didn't seem to hear you at first. “Zoro, I’m done,” you said louder and walked to him. He opened his eyes and uncovered his ears, looking at you still questioning. “Behind the desk,” you told him and walked him there, walking there from the other side of the desk to the side where you settled his favorites.

“Y/n how?!” He exclaimed surprised, his eyes almost bulging out of their pockets. He plopped down on the floor, taking one of the sake bottles in his hand and exclaiming it like it wasn’t real. “This is my favorite brand too, you didn’t really risk your life over these last night.”

“It was worth it, so shut up and enjoy them,” you huffed, wanting him to already taste one and stop talking, which he usually didn’t do so much.

“Don’t have to tell me twice to do that,” he chuckled, opening the sake bottle and gulping the liquid down his throat like a thirsty animal. “Mmh it’s as delicious as I remember,” he happily exclaimed, making you surprised to see a cheerful side like this from him. Alcohol really did its tricks on people. Giddily you looked at him enjoying the alcohol with a smile on your face, happy to cause some positive emotions in him in exchange for him needing to worry about you when you were using so little of your logical thinking skills. “Don’t just stare, aren’t you gonna drink too?” Zoro scowled when setting the bottle down, his dark eyes connecting with yours.

“Of course, I’m gonna drink,” you said, opening a beer bottle and sipping some of it. “But my hot chocolate first,” you noted, taking the cup from the desk almost forgetting that you have it with you.

~

It has been a couple of hours or something like that if you were even capable of telling how much time had passed because at the moment you were just a tiny bit intoxicated. Talking with Zoro about various topics while drinking more and more wasn’t the best idea. Zoro wasn’t any better, his cheeks in a pinkish hue already finished with a couple of beer cans in the side with two bottles of sake and was now finishing his third bottle. You had lapped beers and also opened the first tequila bottle drinking straight from the bottle halfway. At first, when you started to feel hazy you told yourself you were a little tipsy even with your big alcohol consumption, but you ended up being all screwed, and only ideas to worsen your state started to creep into your mind.

“Zoro let’s pass the tequila,” you slurred, raising the bottle clumsily in the air, offering it to him. “No shot glasses so one swig and switch, who can’t finish one swig loses, throws up loses,” you listed him the rules.

“But you are the al- already drunk one here so isn’t it unfair,” Zoro tried to reason while stumbling over his own words.

“Bullshit, you are welcome to start now,” you encouraged him and he took a swig from the tequila bottle, scrunching his nose a bit for the first taste of tequila today for him. ”You like this stuff?”

”Yeah I like the mix of strong and salty,” you explained while accepting the bottle from him and taking your own swig and passing it back to him. “What’s your full name?” You asked suddenly, an odd question popping into your mind.

“Roronoa Zoro,” he answered before taking his own swig out of the bottle and passing it to you.

“Ask something from me now, let’s play 21 questions or something like that sort of,” you suggested and forced yourself to take your own swig out of the bottle. How you wish you had some lime.

“You don’t need to force yourself to continue,” Zoro recommended, but you shook it off and offered the bottle to him. You looked at him urging him to ask a question before he took his own swig. “Ehm, your full name?”

“Y/n S/n L/n,” you tittered happily to answer the question you forced him to ask you. “Next question come up by yourself, but the question for you is, what’s your favorite food?”

“White rice and anything that goes with booze,” Zoro answered simply and took his sip before offering the bottle back to you. “What’s your favorite color?”

“The shade of that bow,” you answered, pointing at the bow you had tied around the first sake bottle Zoro had finished. After answering you poured some tequila into your mouth, finishing the first bottle. You threw the new bottle to Zoro that he caught, opening it. “What’s hmm, your biggest fear?”

“I don’t have one,” he answered shortly, taking the first gulp out of the new bottle. No biggest fear? That sure was a lie, but maybe his biggest fear wasn’t some phobia, but more like failing his job as protector. “The wildest thing you have done?”

The question surprised you coming from stoic Zoro himself. “Well uhm let me think,” you drunkenly slurred, playing with the bottle in your hands in deep thought. “I guess- ah yeah that time when I went to a job interview all buzzed and high also,” you chuckled, laughing at the memory.

“Did you get the job?” Zoro asked curiously, smiling in amusement.

“Actually I did,” you told him proudly, taking your sip of the bottle finally. “I don’t know if my acting skills were that good or were they just desperate for somebody to the position,” you laughed alongside Zoro who chuckled. “But now that you chose to change the course of this questioning I will engage in it. So what’s the most embarrassing thing you have done in front of somebody you like?” You asked boldly, curious to know about his pre-apocalypse life.

He took his swig first, breaking your habit of ‘answering first, drinking then.’ “Not knowing she was awake and cuddling her closer while sharing a bed.”

At first, you were confused in your drunk haze about why he was staring at you like that when it hit you; he was talking about you, wasn’t he? You knew for a fact he was talking about this morning when his eyes fell on your lips despite how much he tried to keep them on your eyes. You understood now what the weird atmosphere in the air has been the past half hour and could pinpoint what the glances between you two meant. How blind you had been to your own lust and desire. To act on your attraction did never cross your mind before now, almost black-out drunk.

Zoro moved the bottles, empty and full ones, to the side to move closer to you what you did too. You straddled his lap, him wrapping his arms around you. His rough hands rubbing your skin up and down. You drew your fingers over his broad shoulders, moving to take hold of his nape while connecting your lips together when he was too busy to just stare at you and touch you gently around. Zoro started to answer the kiss slowly, soon his lips turning rough on your lips, changing into a messy makeout. Soon he was the one to ask permission into your mouth that you granted. You both tasted like alcohol, but it sure didn’t stop your tongues from fighting for dominance over one another, tongues tangled.

You moaned into his mouth while rubbing your lower religion to his crotch for friction. Zoro groaned from pleasure and tried to ease your movements that got him unbearable aroused. You didn’t stop, so Zoro realized to guide you by your thighs when there didn’t seem to be stopping anymore, him hardening under you. Your lips connected into another lustful and messy kiss while you started to strip up. You helped Zoro take his shirt off while he helped you off your tee, trailing kisses from your neck to your collarbone. He lowered his head to your breasts, meeting an obstacle; your bra, covering the promised land. His hands found their way to the strap of your bra, but before he opened it he stopped and looked at you for permission.

“Is this really okay?” He mused, looking deeply into your eyes. You hummed ‘mmh’, nodding and that was enough for him to clasp the strap open and free your breast. “You are so beautiful,” he muttered into your breasts before taking one of your nipples into his mouth and sucking it. You moaned and pulled his short hair a bit back, making him groan.

“Zoro hurry up,” you complained impatiently, wanting him to relieve your frustration in your panties while he was focused on your breasts.

“So impatient,” Zoro huffed, pinning you down on the floor. “No foreplay for you?”

“Straight to the business please, I’m prepared enough,” you pleaded, feeling the wetness between your legs, rubbing your thighs together to relieve the feeling.

He didn’t say anything to that but smirked slightly and pulled your cargo pants off your legs while kicking his own pants off too. He connected your lips to another kiss while he started rubbing circles on your clit through the soft fabric of your panties. He swallowed your moans while continuing to prepare you even though his cock was desperately twitching in his boxers. He slipped his fingers under your panties, finding your wet hole, and dipped them inside of you, making you let out a louder moan from the sensation of his long thick fingers filling you, pumping inside and out. He suddenly pulled his fingers out of you and sucked them and then let you taste them as well. 

“I can’t hold much longer,” he slurred into your ear and freed his cock from his boxers. He gave it a couple of bumps before rubbing it on your slit, using your slick as lube before lining his length on your entrance. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, put it inside already,” you purred eagerly and that was enough for Zoro to comply.

He slowly started to insert his dick inside of you, drawing soft moans out of you. He grunted from pleasure at how tightly your walls were clamping around him. When he pushed his whole girthy length inside you, you groaned at how full you felt. He started to pull out and then pushed back in, his tip hitting your cervix so delicately. He started to speed up his pace, thrusting relentlessly inside and out of you with that ability he could in his messy drunken state, but you weren’t any better in your own pleasurable drunk haze.

“Ah- faster, rougher, please,” you begged, making him chuckle and fasten the pace. You moaned loudly, feeling getting closer to the edge.

Zoro buried his face into your neck, starting to leave wet kisses on your skin as he lowly continued grunting. Your bodies were rockin' into each other as he continued slamming his cock into you over and over again. He began to feel himself closer too and as a result of that, his thrust got more powerful and sped up. He tucked your legs more upwards to get you into an angle where he could pistol himself deeper into your wet and warm walls that so deliciously tightly were squeezing around his hardness.

In the new position, Zoro was rubbing just the right spot inside you, making you shake from pleasure, your toes curling. You could feel his cock twitching inside of you, signaling that he was getting close too. His last thrusts were mixed with sloppy and rough, making the knot in your stomach snap and release your juices on his cock. He came soon after you when the want to cum turned unbearable, because of how tightly you were tightening around his cock for aftershocks of your orgasm. Only when you felt hot liquid filling your insides that Zoro had released inside of you, you realized that you had gone at it raw, but oh well you were too exhausted to care about that right now.

“That was needed,” Zoro sighed relieved, pulling out his softening cock, and plopping to lay beside you. You hummed agreeing, eyes closed, feeling the exhaustion settling. He turned the desk lamp off and turned to you, embracing you from behind. You turned to him, settling your face on his bare chest and stealing some of his warmth from his muscular self. You don't know where he had gotten the warm blanket he laid on you when you started to shake a bit, but you were thankful and almost fell asleep warm in his arms before his words prevented you from blacking out. “Good night.”

“Good night, handsome,” you muttered playfully back to him, holding some consciousness to answer him before finally totally peacefully blacking out. 

Chapter 10: Chapter 9

The next morning after your memorable night, you woke up with a horrible hangover, your head aching painfully. Zoro wasn't any better, grunting and cursing incoherently. Luckily you had a nice stash of medicines with you and found among those some strong painkillers. When you looked at how many bottles you had time to empty yesterday, it was almost all of them except the bottom from the other tequila, a couple of beers and one already opened sake bottle from Zoro. So you really drank a lot yesterday. You could almost say it was overkill with how much alcohol you had consumed with water surely tasting refreshing in the morning.

You didn't really exchange any words with Zoro, both of your hangovers being a bit distracting. You also were too embarrassed, woken up from his arms again, your legs sore and your bare tights covered by dried liquid from yesterday. The pictures of last night's events flashing in your mind. You weren't sure if Zoro had forgotten them already, not having any reaction to anything other than the headache he was feeling.

After waking up first you were quick to dress up before he would open his eyes while he was there lying still very naked. Well, it was better to not think of it too much and get another headache from all the embarrassment you were feeling. He was only your traveling companion, nothing else. Yesterday you both just let some pent-up frustrations out you had been feeling.

The afternoon you spent eating breakfast along with some caffeine drinks you sipped in hopes of easing the state you were in. Zoro's anti-hangover tactic was to work out, doing pushups, and all sorts of muscle exercises. Well, he had to maintain those abs in some other way than just by killing zombies.

You spend the time napping, just lying on the ground, or reading if you have the energy to focus on the small words on the pages. Also, you spammed the coffee machine, going over and over again to get a new warm drink. You didn't want to even question if the cream or milk was expired - totally were. But you have evolved an iron stomach in the apocalypse already, so it was alright as long as the flavors were mixed up to a delicious mix that you could get down your throat.

Once you were feeling a little better you chose to go chocolate hunting, scavenging what you could find from the desk drawers of once-stressed office workers. Your plan sure was very rewarding, finding all kinds of stuff from the drawers like cup noodles, chocolate bars, cookies, and granola bars. Your food situation was now better than it had ever been so you happily stopped looting for the day. For the evening you retreated presumably to the old CEO's spacious and faultless office. There was even an expensive-ass-looking white grand piano and some costly-looking paintings on the walls. You were amazed at how much somebody would spend just to decorate their office when pre-apocalypse you were just a struggling student.

You both were now checking what you found in the office before deciding to rest for the night. Even if you didn't do anything that hectic today you were feeling tired from the headache having weighed the whole day while looting around. More alcohol you wouldn't desire for many months at least. Only now remembering, why you didn't drink so often in your old life either, even if the drunken state would be blissful in a way like it once again was proved to you.

You skimmed through the book collection there was on the bookshelf, tasteless garbage was your opinion after getting enough of exploring the room. You sat on the main desk and looked at the dark city from the big windows. Three of the five walls were made from glass, so it was to say you had a very nice view from up here. You glanced at what Zoro was doing - he was just digging through his backpack after going to get some steaming water from the dispenser.

You turned back to look outside from the various windows before he would have caught you staring at him curiously. But soon enough he sat on the same desk next to you, very close. You tensed a bit, your cheeks warming for some reason now even if his close proximity wasn't a new thing for you.

"Wanna eat something?" Zoro asked, not looking at you but straight ahead to outside the window in front of him.

"Yeah sure," you answered, glancing at him wondering why he was being so odd.

"Here," he said, offering you another one from the cup noodles. You accepted it, starting to eat the noodles with the plastic fork Zoro offered to you. You sat there peacefully, eating your noodles and looking outside the city's scenery. The awkwardness around you started to slowly morph into just a comfortable silence that you appreciated.

~

After finishing your noodles and munching some cookies you went to lay on your back on the couch in front of one of the windows, looking over the back of the couch outside tiredly while enjoying how relaxed you could for once feel yourself. But you knew that it couldn't continue too long anymore.

Zoro lifted your legs and sat on the other end of the couch, letting your legs fall on his lap. He sighed content, resting his head in the soft full pillows behind him. You glanced at him between looking outside tiredly, admiring his features. Without him, you probably wouldn't be this stressless or have lived up to this day. You were pretty much at your end there back then, too exhausted with the never-ending escaping you had to do while being at the point of starvation.

So you were thankful to Zoro for that. Back then you had even thought of ending it all a few times, not wanting to continue living when there wasn't any point. Not wanting to endure more suffering by trying to survive alone with Luke already dead and presumably Bonney too who with you had traveled for a month before encountering him, Blackbeard, who decided to add more worries for you when surviving from the zombies of the crummy apocalypse wasn't seemingly enough.

After nine months of not having positive contact with another human Zoro really was a breath of fresh air. Him as your survival partner was pleasant, you felt safer and you had now company, not feeling anymore so lonely in this brutal world. Finally, you also got yourself to let Luke go, to accept that he was dead and there was no that same Luke existing anymore. 

Even bickering with Zoro about small things were pleasant moments for you, showing you that you were really in the company of another human being. One who could talk to you and have their own opinions on matters. But if you were to lose Zoro now, you don't think you could continue anymore and let your old post-apocalypse life start over again-

"What's on your mind?" Zoro questioned, looking at you concerned even if trying to not show it. "You have been awfully quiet today," he continued when you didn't answer him right away.

"Just some deep thoughts," you answered, not wanting to think of the thought that had almost got you a teary eye. You were really pathetic letting yourself get all shaken up like that and worry the swordsman for nothing.

"Want to talk about them?" Zoro asked, stroking your legs softly to reassure you. "I didn't do anything wrong yesterday, did I?"

"No, of course not, you didn't. I just sank into my own brooding thoughts," you told him while trying to muster a smile to show him that you were fine. But it got more difficult to do when the corners of your mouth started to quiver uncontrollably.

After that, he didn't say anything, instead, he shifted closer to you. He sat in the middle of the couch and set your face against his chest while putting his other arm around your shoulder, keeping your head against his body. He was warm and comforting. The comfort you were getting from him was a new thing for you. You always hid the negative feelings, only letting them out when you were alone so there was no need to bother anyone with them. First, you thought you were sloppy for letting him know that you weren't in your most positive mindset at the moment, but then you chose to accept his comfort just this once.

"Shouldn't we stay here longer? We have everything needed and more here," Zoro quietly muttered into your hair after a while. That made you tense in a bad way, knowing you could not stay here longer.

"No we can't, at least I can't," you yelped, breaking the peaceful moment you two had shared. You sat back up and your face got more serious, readying yourself to be more strict to not let him read into it more from your expressions or body language than he was supposed to. 

"Why?" He asked after a quiet moment, confused as to why you were so against the idea.

Why? What could you really answer to that? Tell the truth or lie and save yourself from trouble, opening the situation you were in. "We aren't gonna be the only people who will find out that the place is still running with energy. So they will come and demand the place not so nicely."

"Well that can be true, but I haven't seen another person alive in two months at least," Zoro tried to reason with futile tries. "Have you?"

"Yes I have," you answered truthfully. "And they weren't the most pleasant group of people."

"We haven't seen anybody in over three weeks," Zoro noted, still holding firm side. "They would have come already if they were heading here."

"They are coming," you answered shortly, turning to look outside, sulking. A silence was created between you for a moment while Zoro just kept gazing at you without saying a word.

"Who are you running away from?" Zoro asked knowingly, making your heart miss a beat before starting to beat faster the more anguished you got.

"No one," you tried to deny. When you were getting off the couch he grabbed your arm, not letting you escape from him.

"You can tell me," Zoro told you with a softer voice and less frowny face.

"Fine," you muttered, sitting down not looking at him, but ahead into the room. "Blackbeard, I don't know if the name rings any bells, but unfortunately me and my traveling companion back then ran into this man like nine months ago. A lot happened, simply put, my friend died not being able to escape from them and I got him mad by ruining his revenge plan or whatever by saving this guy from a cage."

You paused for a moment to think and continued again, "As far as I know, they have been quite persistent in catching me because only two months ago was the last time I saw them. Well, what else they got than time in the apocalypse but I hope that the herd I escaped from was a good way to shake them off my path. So yes I know they may not be anymore after me, but I don't want to risk it and suddenly encounter them again."

"Are they strong? How many are there of them?" Zoro asked like he was actually preparing to take them on.

"Well they are bulky men, but more than that they had all the equipment and guns to kill anybody they like," you explained, remembering them talking about how they had attacked some military place and stolen their last stuff after killing everyone alive there. You stood up feeling too restless to just sit. "There are at least eight of them who I saw, but they had background groups as well."

"So you have to continue escaping?" Zoro asked with a lower voice, making you uneasy not to know what exactly he would be thinking of you after this.

"Yes," you answered shortly, a little ashamed. You were ready to hear him not agree to that and the worst outcome be brought to you.

"Alright let's leave tomorrow then," Zoro sighed before ending the conversation, ready to do as you wanted.

"... I'm sorry," you looked at him for a moment before apologizing, hanging your head low from shame. Well, now you would at least have him with you, but you still felt bad about all this.

"For what?" He asked confused, not understanding why you were all frantic over this matter.

"For dragging you into my problems," you muttered, too shy to look at him.

"I chose to travel with you so I did it on my own," Zoro answered, rubbing your shoulder after he signaled you to sit back on the couch. "I could have chosen to leave you, but I didn't. We are on this together now ain't we? And if we ever come face to face with any of them I will chop their heads off."

"Mm-hm," you hummed, feeling very relieved about how the situation had been handled.

"Good, let's go sleep then," Zoro yawned, lying down on the couch on his back. Sleep, where exactly when he takes all the space?

"Where do I sleep?" You asked puzzled, but he just pointed at him. When you didn't seem to understand what he meant he pulled you to lay on him on your stomach. "Didn't you tell me the other day that you liked sleeping on your stomach?" Zoro grunted, already having closed his eyes. You quietly gasped how Zoro remembered that tiny detail even though you had told it to him in the middle of your never-ending blabbering you were sure that he wasn't even listening. But certainly, he had paid more attention to you than you gave him credit for.

"Yeah, but the lights are still on," you tried, protesting against sleeping this close to him. You were feeling so flustered you weren't sure if you could get any sleep like this.

"They were on last night too," Zoro argued, his voice more crocky and quiet and his arms wrapping around you to keep you in one place. Your head sideways on his chest you decided to stay still and try to get some z's now that you didn't have a choice. But sudden snoring coming from Zoro interrupted your first falling asleep try. Eventually, you managed to prevent his snoring from bothering you and fell asleep as well with him.

~

After waking up you were soon up, going through the offices for more food and filling your water bottles full, preparing yourselves to leave the place. Zoro emptied his sake bottle before leaving, so it wouldn't go to waste while you took the last swig of the tequila, emptying the bottle. After that you packed your stuff and were ready to go, so with the elevator ride down you exited the building.

It felt weird to walk again on the empty, but dingy streets, zombies seen here and there. After checking the map you searched for a nice way out of the city. You were heading now to the west where the nearest next stop would be because going back to the east wasn't an option. You did desire to go back towards the north though. Northeast was where you originally started, but there wasn't really anything anymore. The north though, was ideal with its weather, because as you would expect, zombies dealt poorly with cold. But to get north you needed a working vehicle. You were done with walking days with low food and rest. Resting would be safer inside a car and in less straining of yourselves you didn't have to eat as much.

So for a plan, you formed one where you would leave the city with a car. For now, your tries had been futile, dead batteries, empty tanks, and lost keys were the causes of the failed attempts. You didn't have any idea how to start a car like in movies with some weird red wires when there weren't any wires even seen by the car's keyhole. Zoro didn't seem to have any clue either and he didn't mind walking, saying you were wasting time by trying to find a working car. Hopeless you decided to give up and get out of the city while there was still light. Steadily continuing on ahead, not stopping for anything else now that you had everything needed except the car of course.

When you had gotten already to the outskirts of the city to an industrial estate you started to hear some weird noise in the distance. Right away you didn't comment anything about it to Zoro and observed if he was hearing it too; he clearly wasn't. You tapped your ears a bit and listened focused and heard the noise again more at your left side now. They sounded like they came from people and not from zombies, although you did hear zombie growls from there too. So it was easy to picture what there was going on.

"Do you hear that?" You asked Zoro. Maybe if he focused more on the voices he would hear them too.

"What?" Zoro grumbled right away, trying to listen around but not hearing a thing. "I don't hear anything unusual."

"You really don't hear those noises?" You questioned, signaling to the direction the cries came. "How much do you really have moss in your ears," you muttered in disbelief when he shook his head for an answer.

"Hey! What did you just say?" The mint-haired male barked, but you were already walking in the direction of the new voices. You wanted to get a peek at least of what was going on. "Where are you going now?!"

"To see what is going on," you yelled at him from ahead with a softer tone, so your voice wouldn't echo. He deeply sighed before following you and soon catching up with you.

When you arrived closer to the cause of the noises you were at a corner of some empty parking lot. There were dozens of zombies gathered under a ladder to a platform on a building's side that didn't lead anywhere. On the little platform, there were two men in the middle of a crisis, hugging each other knowing this would be the end of them if the zombies' attention wouldn't be drawn to something other than them or otherwise they would die there from starvation probably. Very soon too because they didn't seem to have any stuff like bags with them there.

"Should we help them? You mused, looking at the puny duo in pity. They didn't look too wile and evil either, so you didn't think you would regret saving them later.

"They can handle it on their own," Zoro argued, looking at the scene unimpressed. Wow, he was today really less cooperative. "Don't they have long swords with which they can stab the zombies dead one by one?"

"No, the other sword is on the roof of one of those cars in the distance, and the other is on the ground under the rotten," you answered, examining the scene seen with your binoculars. You looked around the deserted parking lot away from the commotion, spotting an ice cream truck. "I think I have a good idea for saving them."

~

After explaining your fine plan to Zoro he was quite against it, saying it was too dangerous and risky. Your plan was for you to go start the ice cream truck and put the music on to lure most of the zombies away under the two men on the platform. You would then jump out of the vehicle and let it continue to the hill that there was. Meanwhile, Zoro would go help the puny duo, getting them safely down the platform.

Even if Zoro tried to offer to be the driver you didn't accept that, knowing how directionless he would get when he got even a bit separated from you, so you believed that he could navigate to the two. After the plan is completed you should hurry and leave the place before too many zombies would get drawn by the noise you have caused.

"Okay, let's get this over with," you sighed, leaving your bags down and dolting to the ice cream truck. Zoro got closer to the two but didn't act yet before you had started the truck and got the attention of most of the zombies.

You got to the truck and quietly approached the door to the driver's seat. When you got closer a zombie appeared from the half-open window trying to get his hands on you but failing to do so. You tighten the hold you had on the handle of your axe, setting your other hand on the handle of the truck's door, readying yourself to open it and deal with the zombie inside. You opened the door hastily, slamming your axe on the skull of the zombie before it had even time to act. You then let its body drop on the ground from the seat, taking the seat the zombie had been occupying. You sighed in relief when you opened the sun visor where the keys of the vehicle dropped on your lap.

Well, starting the car didn't end up as easy as finding the keys for it. There was barely any gas, but enough for what you had to do. You kept both the brake and clutch pressed and tried to start the car over and over again and when you were almost out of hope the engine came to life. You quickly searched the button for the usual ice cream truck music to play and pushed it. You glanced at the zombies that started to turn to you and the two men who couldn't believe their eyes. You waited a bit for the zombies to get closer before you started to drive slowly ahead toward the downhill. When most of the zombies had started following you, Zoro revealed himself behind the car and slashed the last zombies near the ladder before running to the two.

The downhill was getting closer and at the edge of it, you jumped out of the car, quickly hiding behind a wreck of a car without a zombie spotting you. The hill was gentle so the truck didn't start to go too fast ahead at first, but the speed gradually started to grow and the distance between it and the zombies grew. Before the rotten corpses decided that the two men were closer you quickly ran to your bags and then brought them to Zoro who had gotten the two guys down. The two guys didn't even notice you approaching when they were praising their big bro for saving them. When you stopped to stand beside Zoro their attention shifted to you.

"Big sis! Thank you for saving us!" They exclaimed loudly, dropping to their knees in front of you, tears starting to pour out of their eyes. "We thought we were dead there, but your and big bro's bravery saved us!"

"No problem, I guess," you muttered unsurely, sweatdropping, not used to so loud and emotional people in the apocalypse.

"We should go," Zoro noted, seeing that there were a few zombies already heading your way.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," you said, glancing from the zombies to the two on their knees that had gotten more serious.

"Big bro, don't think we let you get separated from us again," the tanned one with sunglasses barked.

"We have tried searching for you this whole half-year," the one with a buzz cut continued. So Zoro knew them even if he was so reluctant to help them at first.

"I thought you left," Zoro answered.

"You left us in the middle of the night!" They scolded.

"Oh did it go that way then," Zoro questioned, scratching the back of his neck.

"So you know them?" You asked curious.

"Yeah," he answered shortly, looking at the zombies getting closer.

"We traveled together with big bro for at least four months before he disappeared," the guy with dark hair and glasses answered, first happily then getting sadder. "But I'm Johnny and this is my pal Yosaku," he introduced him and his friend to you very gleefully.

"Y/n, nice to meet you," you introduced yourself back. "But we really got to go now," you hurriedly stated.

"Fear not big sis, just follow us," Yosaku babbled and ushered you two to follow him and Johnny. You took off running, following Johnny and Yosaku through small alleys to a car. "Mind traveling with us?"

"I don't mind at all," you muttered in awe. Your wish really just came true, no more walking for a while at least.

Johnny got into the driver's seat while you decided to claim the shotgun. Yosaku got on the back seat and slid behind your seat to give Zoro some space. Just when you took off hurriedly, zombies started to ooze from the alley you had come through. Johnny started to drive away from the city, making you relieved that their way was out of the place as well.

"So where are you heading to now?" Johnny asked while keeping his eyes on the road. In the back, Yosaku had latched himself on Zoro while muttering with teary eyes how they never doubted his survival even if they were heartbroken by his sudden leave.

"Not southern at least," you answered and Johnny nodded. "Because the heat down here this south already is gonna be unbearable once the summer actually comes."

"True, true," Johnny agreed, nodding. "We came from the west and I can say it's not a possible option. It's full of herds moving around and it is sure dry on food and supplies."

"The east isn't any better at the moment," you stated, recalling what kind of spring you had had there. "More herds have gathered and scattered around the east. There may still be food supplies there, but all the places are overrun by zombies. I was thinking maybe to the north where the cold winters would work in our favor."

"Yeah, before this, we were heading east, but seemingly there isn't anything to try out," Johnny told you while you dug out your map and unfolded it to show the area you were now in.

"Sure there isn't anything worthy," you muttered back. "Where did you drive here?" You asked showing the map to him.

"Maybe from this little town," he pointed to a town in the southwest.

"So you haven't tried this town yet?" You asked, pointing at the next city in the northwest you were originally moving towards in three days of walking. Johnny shook his head for no. "Well we are already on the highway there so mind trying that?"

"I do not mind, whatever big sis wants," he exclaimed agreeing, adding some speed once the road seemed clearer from obstacles.

"Big sis?" Yosaku called and you hummed to him in answer. He poked his head through the middle and you looked at him curious. "How did you meet big bro?" He asked giddily, pointing at the sleeping swordsman on the seat behind Johnny. No wonder he was so quiet, but you were talking about directions; his favorites.

"He stumbled upon me and then he stumbled upon me the second time," you told them pretty simply, recalling the silly interactions back then. "I saw he was clearly lost so I forced him to accompany me, at first I was on guard with him, but eventually I started to trust him more and realized he was just a himbo."

"Wow, so he didn't save you when you first met," Yosaku exclaimed, baffled. You muttered confused 'no' for an answer even if he in a way did. "Then you must be strong, big sis!"

"Well, that much what you need to be in the apocalypse," you chuckled in embarrassment, getting such praise from these two.

"He saved us and after that, we continued to follow our big bro," Johnny told you excitedly. "And then big bro and our new big sis saved us again today. I don't know what we would have done without you coming to our aid!" It's better not to tell him that Zoro wasn't so willing to save them before you insisted.

"He has been very helpful to me as well," you told them, smiling lightly. "I don't think I would have survived this far without him," you muttered, looking outside the window with a distant smile. "Umh, but anyways-" you shrugged, feeling that the atmosphere had changed.

"Big sisss!!" They both cried, Yosaku trying to hug you from the backseat while Johnny easily did so. "Don't make us sad like that!" You were very taken aback by the two emotional men's response, but your eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when you realized that Johnny's hands were around you and not holding the wheel. You quickly took a grip on the wheel to prevent the car from fluttering so much on the road before it crashed into something. What a handful two you had joined to travel with, but the grim apocalypse sure got more entertaining and brighter in a way with them. 

Notes:

Wow, what a gap there got created between this and the last chapter. I guess, it's been a while. But I have a new goal to get five more chapters out before the new year, so let's hope that I can accomplish that.

But I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you so much for all the support <33

Chapter 11: Chapter 10

You spent the day driving further in the direction of the north and chose to stop for the night, choosing to rest quietly in the car on the roadside while one of you at least kept guard. The roads weren't packed with zombies, so that was good and that's how you got to spend quite a peaceful night in the car. The only non-peaceful thing in your night was how loud Yosaku snored. Luckily Zoro didn't snore so much in his night sleep, but more in his naps, so he was all right quiet.

The problems only rose in the morning with Yosaku starting to feel sick. He said it would pass, but his condition didn't seem to get better and he kept hugging his abdomen in pain. You kept asking behind the wheel about his condition there and there but he refused to let you stop the car, saying he was fine and that he would get over it like a man. Johnny was worried next to you about his "bro," visibly fidgety in his seat. So somewhere in the noon you luckily chose to pull the car over despite his protests. That was the right choice because once the car was stopped Yosaky absurdly got out of the car and vomited on the side of the road.

Johnny supported him emotionally while you and Zoro exited the car to watch over the two from your surroundings. There were a couple of infected heading your way from ahead that Zoro went to take done while you scouted the road behind you as well as the forest on Johnny's and Yosaku's side. When you glanced at Yosaku on his knees he was still throwing up his guts out while Johnny was grimacing next to him. Bitten Yosaku couldn't be of course but you did wonder what he had gotten. Just normal nausea, stomach bug, or just dehydration?

Once Yosaku felt like he had thrown up everything there would be to come he laid down on the backseats, breathing hoarsely. Zoro turned to you with a questioning face and you shook your head to him as if to tell that Yosaku wasn't feeling any better. Johnny then came to your side from sniffing after trying to get his friend to drink some water.

"Sis, he isn't dying is he?" Johnny asked you with teardrops on the edge of his sunglasses about to spill. You weren't sure why he asked that especially from you, but you did have already in mind what to do in this situation.

"Hopefully not, but rest easy I go ask about his condition," you tried to comfort, patting Johnny's shoulder. You then went and opened the door to the backseat from the side Yosaku's head was and crouched next to it and tested his forehead with your hand, noting that it was feverishly hot.

"Sis, I feel like I am dying," Yosaku muttered, tilting his head up weakly so he could see you. "Say to Johnny to go on without me and not regret anything because I didn't," he boasted with his last energy while you inspected his eyes.

"Nonsense, tell me your symptoms now, so I'm able to help," you ordered, wetting a towel and setting it on his forehead. "It's not yet over for you."

"Are you an angel?" He asked in his sick haze dreamingly. You gave him a 'serious' look, making him sigh from slight disappointment. "Horrible headache, ow don't make me acknowledge it more, and um- this horrible aching in my upper stomach. Also, everything aches... and my whole body just feels weak."

"Hmm, okay I go see what I can do to those," you said thoughtfully, standing up and closing the door so the bright sun wouldn't make his headache worse. You walked back to the backside of the car where Zoro was standing, looking around while Johnny sat on the edge of the open trunk. "I think he can have something as simple as food poisoning or such," you told the two, getting their attention to you while you went to dig your bag.

"Food poisoning?! Is he dying then, what do we do?! I thought those were nothing serious," Johnny rambled anxious, holding his heavy head from all the concern he felt. "Wait a minute, are you a doctor or something?"

"Nothing like that, and he should be good with some treatment," you answered him, still focusing on digging your bag. Finally, though you found the plastic bag where you kept all the pills you had found through your journey. "Treatment being some medicine to help on his condition, without right treatment his condition could turn vital," you explained while skimping through the pill bottles and reading what they were for. When Johnny didn't answer anything you looked from the bottle in your hand to the two quiet men, looking at you shocked. "What?"

"How do you have that many different kinds of pills?!" Johnny asked, baffled, his mouth gaping. Zoro nodded as well questioningly surprised what a stash with a variety of options you had carried all this time with you. Well, you did have quite a many pill bottles, a few dozen of them for different kinds of symptoms.

"I just kept finding more and I didn't have ever that much use to consume them," you told them while settling the right pill bottles you would feed from Yosaku next to you. "You are at luck that I didn't form a drug addiction even if I have some oxycontin, buprenorphine, and lots of morphine in my possession," you remarked playfully, playing with the mentioned pill bottles in your hands. "But anyways I would suggest that he eats these antibiotics for now, I think they are for food poisoning or something close enough and I give him some painkillers as well for now," you showed them the bottles before dosing the pills on your hand and accepting the water bottle from Zoro and going back to Yosaku with Johnny.

"Yosaku you are gonna be fine!" Johnny sobbed to his friend who seemed to be a little out of it at the moment, his pupils not seen.

"Can you make him sit up?" You asked Johnny who had gotten himself inside the backseat, Yosaku's head on his lap. He wiped the tears that had appeared again and lifted the limpish man to sit. You climbed inside the vehicle from the other side and showed the pills into the sick man's throat and then made him drink lots of water after that. "Done, he needs to take the next pill in the evening and we need to make sure he stays hydrated."

"Yes, sis!" Johnny replied, trying to stay firm. You nodded to him with a smile and got off the backseat only to be ushered by Zoro who jogged to the door at the driver's side.

"We need to leave now," Zoro ordered and you nodded before glancing behind, seeing a pack of zombies moving in your direction. You had been put at the roadside long enough that it was only a matter of time before you had attracted some unwanted attention to you.

"What is going on?!" Johnny asked panicky when you and Zoro got in the car and Zoro started the car, starting to drive away from the threat.

"Just some zombies," you replied, taking a look at Johnny in the backseat looking cautiously behind the car to the road. When you looked at Yosaku he was snoozing off, leaning his head into the window on his side. "Don't worry, just keep him comfortable," you assured, gesturing toward Yosaku.

"Alright sis," Johnny answered and accepted the water bottle from you to keep ready for Yosaku. "Also... why is big bro driving?"

"Huh?" You and Zoro both voiced at the same time, Zoro more gruntingly and eyeing Johnny with furrowed eyebrows from the rearview mirror.

"Why wouldn't he? He knows how to drive, yes?" You questioned confused, looking then at Zoro with a raised brow making him scoffingly nod to you.

"Yes, but big bro may get us lost from our route," Johnny reasoned carefully, making you nod agreeingly and irking Zoro.

"It's a straight road, I don't get lost that easily!" Zoro barked irritated, an irk mark twitching on his forehead. "You would need to be extremely stupid to get lost here," he ended fueled, taking offense at how you both avoided eye contact and quieted suddenly. "I'm not stupid."

"Well of course you are not," you reassured him, smiling eyes closely at him, relieving him from his frustrations for a second. "You are just a bit simple at times."

"So I'm dumb to you?!" He hissed with shark teeth to you. You just chuckled nervously and shrugged your shoulders for him, making him sigh and focus back on the road. "Do you want to drive then?"

"You can drive the time we are on this same straight road," you answered, not too keen to drive yet and stop enjoying your time as a passenger princess. "I will rest that while."

"Mm," Zoro hummed more pleased with your answer than he expected. He felt like he hadn't done too much today from killing a couple of zombies. While you had been capable of taking care of so many things today. He felt like he would put too much on your shoulders to carry if you had concluded that he couldn't even drive the car toward your destination. The least he wanted was to be just another useless passenger in the car while you had one ill and one busy worrying one already there.

"Did you sleep badly? You have been quiet and tense today despite the earlier?" You questioned looking from the window on your side to Zoro with inquiring eyes curious. He side-eyed you and stayed quiet for a while thinking.

He didn't expect you to catch on his feelings at all especially when he didn't show them in any way. So it was a surprise for him that you would ask about them at all. He checked from the rear-view mirror that Johnny was muttering incohenteries to Yosaku and decided then to answer.

"No reason really," Zoro answered you, belittling the little issues in his mind already.

"Well I do not know that is not true," you started matter-factly and closed your eyes. "But I won't pry more." You knew that he would tell you if he wanted, so you chose to let the matter be as it was. He would get over it eventually and you understood him, preferring to take care of any of your own mental troubles by yourself. "I will take a nap, wake me up if there are any problems," you announced, setting your hand on his shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze before crossing your arms and making yourself comfortable in your seat.

"I will," Zoro answered shortly, glancing at you only when you had already closed your eyes. He looked at you fondly, a light smile creeping onto his face before he focused firmly back on the road ahead.

~

An hour had gone past with you and Yosaku sleeping, you more peacefully resting when Yosaku used his sleep to recover from the pain and nausea he had been feeling earlier. Zoro had been at medium speed to save the engine while dodging the zombies that were on the road at some parts of it. Johnny tried to keep Yosaku comfortable while trying to talk to Zoro to ease his boredom, feeling too restless to nap. Well leaving Zoro the only conscious one to lead you wasn't the best option either.

"Do you like her, big bro?" Johnny suddenly asked Zoro, sitting at the edge of his seat and looking over the armrest to get a look at Zoro's face. He didn't really place any emotion to his question, asking it out of plain curiosity. "Or are you perhaps even together in a way?!"

"Huh, what?!" Zoro questioned with a hushed whisper-shout to not wake you especially up, his tan cheeks covered in pinkish hue. He checked you to make sure you were still sleeping before turning to look at Johnny with raised eyebrows and a perplexed expression.

"Watch out!" Johnny pointed out, alarmed, seeing the three zombies ahead that Zoro was driving straight towards. Zoro turned quickly to look ahead as well, trying to dodge them, but it was too late when he drove over the zombies. The nasty sounds were heard when you crushed the zombies under the wheels while the car bounced up and down, you and Yosaku still in sleep bouncing more along the car.

"Don't distract me like that!" Zoro barked, looking quickly back at Johnny and glancing that you were still fast asleep before focusing back on the road.

"I was just asking," Johnny whined apologetically, but still desperate to hear the answer, holding the back of Zoro's seat.

"Yeah, now I'm curious too," Yosaku suddenly joined the conversation after waking up from all the bouncing, rubbing his agonizing head from bumping on the window.

Johnny turned to his friend, an excited and happy grin stretching on his face. "Partner! You are alive!" Johnny exclaimed and they both hung an arm on each other's shoulders and celebrated together. "Yaay! Yaay! Yaay!" They sang, happily and loudly.

"Big sis saved me!" Yosaku cheered joyfully, side-hugging his friend while giddily smiling widely. Zoro side-eyed you relieved that you were still somehow sleeping through the chaos in the car.

"Yes, she did, partner!" Johnny gushed merrily with his partner.

"But back to my partner's question, big bro," Yosaku suddenly remembered, pushing his head from the middle on the front seat's side, looking at Zoro with expectant eyes. "How is it?"

"Yeah tell us," Johnny joined and pushed his head from the middle as well.

"She will wake up if you keep that much racket," Zoro muttered, his brow twitching from annoyance that they didn't forget to pester him after their little cheerful merrymaking.

"Sorry," they apologized at the same time, faltering a bit, sitting back in their seats. "But tell us, now we're curious."

"Nothing to tell, now bug it off," Zoro commanded, sighing heavily what a nuisance they were being right now. They whined but agreed to back down from their pestering, getting nothing out of Zoro.

"What is the ruckus about?" You questioned, rubbing your eyes clean and yawning into your hand after your long and fulfilling nap. You turned to Zoro curious who was already looking in your direction, his expression mixed with surprise and flustartion. "Hmm?" You hummed curiously, looking at him oblivious.

"How long have you been awake?" Zoro asked, shifting his attention forward.

"Just woke up," you answered Zoro, glancing at him and then the two awfully quiet men behind you two with suspicious brows raised. "Why?" You pondered, sipping some water from your bottle before picking the map from the dashboard and folding it open.

"Umm, because Yosaku woke up if you didn't know," Johnny nervously covered for Zoro. You looked behind you again, only now realizing Yosaku seemed to be up and doing well.

"Oh, I didn't realize," you responded, looking at Yosaku, smiling. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes! Thanks to you," Yosaku chirped gaily, smiling with eyes closed.

"Well, don't strain yourself too much though," you reminded him, testing his forehead with the back of your hand. It wasn't as hot as it was earlier, so his fever had subsided even a bit. "We should soon come to our first intersection, where we continue straight ahead, Zoro heard that?" Zoro grunted acknowledging, putting more weight on the gas.

"When are we reaching the town, big sis?" Johnny wondered, looking out of the window at his side, seeing a couple of zombies by the tree line.

"By evening," you answered thoughtfully, estimating how fast you would get to your destination by the way there was left. "Or maybe by late afternoon if we keep up this speed."

"Roger that big sis," Johnny and Yosaku both replied eagerly. After that Yosaku fell back unconscious against his friend, clearly having used too much energy while he was still recovering. "Partner is dying again!!" Johnny cried when you just sighed, looking ahead with your face full of unimpressment.

~

Just before the afternoon changed to evening you arrived at the town you had been on your way to since yesterday. Yosaku kept waking up again and again, muttering a couple of words before blacking out again, worrying Johnny. You tried to reassure Johnny that his friend was okay but only got him to calm down a little from his emotional freakouts. You knew that Yosaku was gonna be fine if he kept resting in peace, not straining himself too much, and eating the pills you prescribed to him.

You drove around the suburbs of the town, just inspecting how safe it was around. There weren't too many zombies around, so you decided to stop at a nice-looking neighborhood and exit the car. Exiting the car after the long period of sitting sure felt relieving and you finally got to stretch and crack your sore back. You threw your lightest bag on your shoulder and readied yourself to scavenge the spacious and offering-looking detached houses. You glanced at Zoro who was waiting for you, ready to go. You then looked at Johnny who was looking at his friend worriedly.

"What are we doin-" Johnny couldn't finish before you were already ready to reassure him.

"We clear that house first and then we can move him there," you suggested, pointing at the mint green three-story house in front of you. "Stay here with him while we go check it."

"Okay, big sis," Johnny agreed, his face full of determination while he unsheathed his own sword. You noticed earlier that both Johnny and Yosaku carried the same type of swords with wide, rectangular-shaped blades and dark red hilt with a yellow tip and a circular yellow guard. They sure were matching.

"Let's go," Zoro said to you, pointing with his nose to the house ahead. You followed the swordsman with your guard up prepared for everything.

Zoro arrived at the door to the sizable house, knocking and waiting for a moment before barging in. He walked inside, deciding to check the downstairs first while you walked inside the house, closing the front door behind you and deciding to take a look at the upstairs. On your way upstairs you noted the old blood stains on the steps seemingly routing to ahead. You tightened your grip on the handle of your axe as you followed the bloodstains to one of the rooms. At the crooked door, you quietly pushed the door open wider so you could get a good look at the room.

But it was a small empty kid's pinkish room with unicorn wallpapers covering the walls with lots of blood. The floor was all bloody, the toys covered by it as well. Apparently, it had been a hell of a shit show here with this much blood to just spurt around uncontrollably. While you were so caught up with the sight ahead of you, you missed hearing the steps nearing behind you. Only when the wooden floor cracked behind you, you hastily turned around to face the kid-sized zombie that started growling and charging at you once you moved. The zombie was too close to you for you to quickly stretch your hand and stab it, so you needed to take a dangerous hold around its neck to keep it at bay. While it was busy with trying to get a bite of your hand you slammed your axe in its head.

You sighed and wiped your forehead with the back of your hand when the zombie fell down. Weren't you supposed to have your guard up? Because it sure didn't seem so. You inspected the kid zombie on the floor, noticing the dozen bloody old stab wounds in its abdomen. Somebody clearly had their work done on this kid. Speaking of somebodys, there were two adult zombies quickly heading your way from the room you hadn't checked yet.

You tried to take the first one down with the knife you threw at it, but it hastily moved its head when the blade was almost digging into its skull. You sighed and swung your axe on your hand ready to swing it around some more. The mom and dad zombie were walking at you side by side, so you kicked the dad zombie on its knee to make it fall clumsily and stop for a moment. In the meantime you slammed your axe down the mom zombie's skull, the remaining pits of brain gushing out disgustingly.

The dad zombie was on its feet when the mom zombie had dropped down on the floor. You backed a bit, creating some distance between you and the quite tall zombie whose head you would have a bit harder time stabbing with your axe. The creep was now also coming at you more hastily, its arms outstretched towards you while it was growling loudly. You took a couple of steps back before you tried to dig your edge down the dad zombie's skull with futile tries as its big rotten hands were quickly to come and try to scratch your face and prevent you from seeing where to aim.

You quickly came up with a new plan to kill this bulky two-meter-long zombie and ran away from it. You escaped to an empty room and slammed the door quickly shut and waited for the zombie to come while your back was against the door to keep it shut. You listened as the zombie's heavy footsteps grew closer and then you could feel it scratching the door from the other side of it. You kept the door closed for a minute before you quietly moved away from the door to its side in the corner where you could easily sneak to the zombie. In que the zombie finally broke in, predatorily looking around for its prey. When it stepped further into the room you started to creep behind it into a good distance to try to finish him.

You were already swinging your axe down the dad zombie's skull when the wooden floor under you cracked and exposed where you were. But too late when you finally accomplished killing the zombie successfully, your edge digging deep enough into its mushy head. The rotting corpse fell on the floor soon motionless and you could finally sigh, exhausted by all the action within a short period of time. Before you could let your tense body ease for a minute you heard growls of another zombie from the corridor.

This time it seemed to be the last member of the family, the son. Before you even raised your axe to deal with the oncoming one, its head was swiftly chopped off with a familiar white katana. Behind the corner stepped out Zoro whose eyes met yours as he eyed you with a silent concern after acknowledging the fresh corpses around. You walked up to him, walking over the zombie on the ground and smiling reassuringly at the mint-haired male.

"I guess we have massacred the whole family now," you voiced after getting next to Zoro and looking at your work around. "This was probably their second time being massacred in their scurvy lifetime if interpreted correctly," you mused half-jokingly.

"Huh... second time?" Zoro asked after a while, letting your words sink into his thick skull. He turned to look at you puzzled, but you just pointed in the direction of the children's room.

"I'm certain that something similar happened there, don't you think?" You questioned his take on the evidence. He inspected the blood-splattered children's room a bit before agreeing with you.

"Seems likely," he simply answered before you started making your way back downstairs. Before you had even time to ask the next question that came to your mind, Zoro was quick to answer it. "I found just a few cans of pea soup, did you find anything?"

"Not really, but honestly I wasn't really looking with all those creepers coming," you admitted to him while you exited the house. "Next house? That one doesn't really meet the low standard I have set."

"Yeah, let's check that one," Zoro pointed to the nicer house next to the tragic house now behind you. If you were gonna stay the night in one of these houses you preferred one with fewer bodies inside to clean and one with fewer signs of slaughter inside, knowing the outsides would already be bad enough. So some feeling of comfort and safety was more than welcomed. 

Notes:

First of apologies for my long disappearance and leaving you all hanging with this story. I have been spending my time very unwisely this time I have been not updating this story actively. So because my focus has been on all kinds of other things I haven't gotten myself to continue this or my other stories. Lack of motivation has been one thing too or the lack of will to get myself to sit down and write. But I realllyy try now to keep myself continuing to write and update this story more actively.

Again I'm deeply sorry for my own inactiveness and lack of consistency. Also, I wanna thank everyone for reading and enjoying this story. Your support means much <33

Chapter 12: Chapter 11

After going through a few more spacious houses you finally found one that met all your set criteria, or just your set ones. There were more zombies trying to live that domestic life inside of the houses than you expected, so you surely got quickly your day’s kills high. The last house you entered was the only empty one and pretty pristine to your eye from any blood puddles or other untidy marks. More food you didn’t find from the pea soups, but at least your food situation was a staple at the moment.

You still had the many chocolate and granola bars from the company building with some cup noodles, so you could rest easy for a while. But it never hurt to search for some more if there were any to find for a rainy day. You had pretty much everything needed at the moment, water, food, car, meds, and cover for the night. But now that you were a group and not a duo anymore, there were more consumers, so it was only expected that those would soon run out, however frugal you thought you were. So it was wise only to keep looking for more stuff and not wait for the worst scenario to occur.

But you were more confident in your situation at the moment even if one man might be a bit down right now. It was a good idea to join Johnny and Yosaku, Zoro knowing them already made you trust them on some level. Also, it was easier to keep watch with more than just two people. Numbers really brought a sense of security and safety. So it was good to lower guard a little with the right people that were helpful more for improvement than damage. To Zoro, you, of course, trusted with your life, he had proven himself for you plenty of times thus far.

“So did you find some suitable place with walls and a roof for us?” Johnny asked jokingly, having watched you go from one house to another. He had been guarding the car in the meantime while killing the creeps, arrogant enough to try to test his abilities to protect his dear friend.

“Yeah, I just wanted one with fewer rotten corpses lying around,” you told him, smiling sheepishly while scratching your nape on your way to the car from the house at the end of the route. “But we found the perfect house there,” you exclaimed in a proud manner while you pointed at the last house on the street. “I know you might think what could happen in an extreme scenario where a herd of zombies chased us there. But don’t worry because I have a solution. There is a small direct route wide enough for a car that Zoro and I checked and it leads to a road through which we get back to the main road.”

“O-okay, then I believe you had it all figured out, big sis!” Johnny agreed, at first puzzled, but matched quickly your eagerness to get away from your imagined scenario zombies. You smiled at him, glad he was more giddy about your plan than Zoro was once hearing it. The swordsman wasn’t the best cheerleader for your new plans, how not outrageous they were at times for once. “Do we move the car there?”

“Yeah, that would be wise,” Zoro chose to voice in exchange in your group discussion. “I don’t think he is in shape to walk on his own yet,” he continued, checking Yosaku lying on the backseat from the half-open window.

“Yeah.. is he really healing, sis?” Johnny asked you after a saddened pause. Zoro glanced at you as well, his eyes meeting yours for a moment.

You walked to the half-open window and sneaked your arm inside the car to test Yosaku’s forehead. “The fever has subsided, resting like this, taking his meds and he will be up energetic tomorrow,” you confirmed to Johnny, holding long eye contact to seal your words for him. Even if in the apocalypse Yosaku’s sickness could be worse than it was, you knew that it most likely wasn’t anything too fatal that wouldn’t heal and go past. Stomach bugs couldn’t be too rare in times like this. “So let’s move the car and get him inside the house.”

“Yes, sis!” Johnny quipped, keen to do what you instructed the three of you to do. “I will start the car,” Johnny bid before getting inside the driver's seat. While he did that Zoro’s gaze met yours once again.

“He will heal like I said,” you told him scoldingly, knowing he was questioning if you were just ensuring Johnny, so he would stop asking. “Now get inside, I will get on the backseat with Yosaku,” you said before climbing into the backseat, setting Yosaku’s head carefully on your lap as you sat on the place where his head had been lying. Zoro grunted but complied and circled the car to get on the other side of it to sit on the shotgun. When Zoro had gotten inside Johnny started to drive now that the engine had gotten warm.

~

Zoro and Johnny had carried Yosaku inside successfully without bashing his head around too much with your given directions. They set him in the living room on the couch while you spent the rest of the evening preparing for the night by covering the windows with all kinds of covers and layers you found. You also blocked the exits with furniture, so uninvited rotten individuals couldn’t get too easily inside. You also made sure to kill the couple zombies that you had drawn by the ruckus inside the house, through the windows before blocking them as well.

You had a couple of lanterns on around the living room, bringing you some light to see each other. Too much light you didn’t set up, so it wouldn’t shine through the fabric layers hiding the windows. You were sitting on the floor, relaxing a bit while Johnny sat on the edge of the couch, looking over his pal. Zoro was upstairs, keeping watch from the windows there that you didn’t bother hiding, anticipating that you would only use the downstairs. You tried to assure the swordsman that he could chill for a moment too, but he opted to do his protection duties.

“Sis…? I’m sorry that I keep asking, but is he really gonna heal?” Johnny asked you like a saddened puppy, looking for some reassurance. You nodded to him with a closed-eyed smile across the room while you leaned your back on the armchair behind you.

“He’s gonna be fine, time is the only thing he needs for full recovery,” you told Johnny with a soft voice, patient and kind. “Well I suppose he could do with his medicine right now though,” you pondered aloud thoughtfully and started digging into your bag. You found the right pills quickly and then went to offer them with a water bottle to Johnny, so he could get them down his partner’s throat. “I bet he's up and energized tomorrow already.”

“Really!?” He eagerly asked, getting hopeful with the information.

“Mmh, you will see,” you assured with a confident smile. He nodded to you agreeing, his expression bright and anticipating. “Should we eat something, you hungry?”

“Yeah, I am starving actually, but I was waiting for you or Zoro to suggest eating,” Johnny laughed embarrassed. You scoldingly looked at him for not voicing his hunger.

“Well, what do you want?” You asked him, moving to the bags and starting to dig them. “We have pea soup, chocolate, and granola bars, some instant noodles, but impossible to cook inside without fire if you don’t want to eat them hard and- oh… we also have these cursed bean cans and cat food. Choose yourself from this variety.”

“I think some chocolate and pea soup is good,” Johnny answered, not being as picky with the mentioned options as you were. You then handed him a random chocolate bar from your bag and the pea soup from Zoro’s bag. “Thank you, sis.”

“I think it’s time to taste this cat food,” you wondered aloud, looking at the can of some luxury cat food in the flavor of salmon.

Johnny looked unsurely towards you, pondering why you were thinking of eating the most emergency type of food from the mentioned options first. “Are you sure?”

“Well, I do prefer that over the other canned goods,” you answered him, aware of why he was a tad concerned for you. You opened the can and the smell wasn’t the most unpleasant, with a fork you took from the kitchen drawer earlier, you dug into your food. It looked almost like luxurious salmon and not like slimy cat food. “Not too bad,” you muttered between bites, not knowing some cats have been eating this good while humans even before the apocalypse consumed even more disgusting convenience foods with poisons.

“Glad you enjoy, sis,” the dark-haired male next to you sweatdropped and started munching his own food now focused.

You heard footsteps coming down the stairs and soon Zoro appeared on the doorway to the living room. He looked at you two inspecting before he made his way to you and sat next to you, surprisingly close, the way parts of him kept grazing you as he moved. Your mouth full, you didn’t get to ask if he was hungry before he had grabbed a bean can and water bottle for himself and cracked the yucky thing open. You frowned at his food but smiled at him when he turned to look at you curiously.

“Done keeping watch?” You asked him with a playful tone, glad he decided finally to join you and not mope around upstairs alone.

“Yeah, it’s too dark to see anything anyways,” he answered you and started gulping the bean-filled liquid down his throat.

“Mmh-hm,” you hummed and slowly ate the cat food while taking obvious glances at the swordsman. He side-eyed you a little, wondering why you were taking looks at him like that, but soon he just sighed and let you be you.

“Full tummy really gets me sleepy,” Johnny yawned widely after being finished with his food. He pushed his bags to the side and put his sword under the couch pillow he had grabbed for himself. He then laid down on the blankets under him and turned to look towards you two on the other side of the coffee table that separated you on your own sides. “I’m gonna sleep a bit now if that is okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” you agreed, smiling reassuringly. He then smiled and turned to his other side, facing the couch away from you towards the couch where his pal was still sleeping or just unconscious. “Sleep well,” you bid, and not long before you already heard some snoring from his direction.

“Are you sleepy yet?” The mint-haired male next to you asked, eyeing you sharply for signs of tiredness. You looked towards him with round eyes and shook your head for no.

“My power nap in the car is still keeping me spry,” you told proudly, but right after you finished your sentence a yawn got to escape your lips. Quickly you covered your mouth, trying to belittle it.

“Spry you say,” Zoro taunted, smirking a little for you getting caught from your lie so quickly. “You should get some sleep too,” he then commented more seriously, advising you firmly.

“And what do you do?” You questioned with a pout, against the idea, knowing he would just keep watch alone then. “I only sleep if you do as well. There is no instant danger outside, so you need to let yourself relax as well,” you told him and crossed your arms, showing your own firmness.

“Oh, is that so?” He asked, his tone amused because of your demands. He then thought for a minute, letting a deep hum echo from his throat. “I guess, I don’t have a choice then,” he started and suddenly grabbed you under your arms and lifted you and settled you laying down on the mattress under you, him behind you cuddling you.

Before he settled one of the blankets over you, you voiced your concerns. “It will get uncomfy to sleep with these clothes on,” you complained as if innocently, just wanting to feel his skin against yours.

“We should get rid of them then,” Zoro agreed and with a little effort took his shirt off and kicked his trousers off. He then looked at you curious why you hadn’t taken anything off and were just expectantly looking at him over your shoulder.

“Aren’t you gonna take this off?” You asked him, tugging your thin sweater a little. He shook his head to himself, amused by you. He then took hold of the hem of the sweater and tugged it off easily when you raised your arms to ease his job. He let the white tank top under the sweater stay on and then went to unbutton your cargos and tugged them down. “Mmh much better,” you commented happily and pushed yourself closer to him, your butt rubbing his crotch and your back against his warm and broad chest.

You smiled a little, happy with the warmth and comfort, obliviously you closed your eyes, ready to catch some sweet dreams now. Zoro behind you had some other plans though and your small movements and suggestions earlier had been enough to feed his urges. At first, you didn’t pay any mind to the small movements of his hips rubbing on your bottom and thought he was shaking his leg or something because it was so unnoticeable. But it came clear that it was intentional the way his humping got even more vigorish. Insticly almost you started arching your back the way your ass rubbed back at his bulge.

“Aren’t we gonna go to sleep?” You asked with an innocent-like tone, taunting and teasing him. Though you thought he just felt like humping a little and nothing serious would happen in this living room where there were two other males sleeping. You were quickly proven wrong when he moved your panties to the side and you could feel his tip already on your entrance. “Zoro! Not here, Johnny and Yosaku are still there,” you whispered to him while he shamelessly rubbed his tip on your slit, he smirked at you when he felt you getting more wet even though your protests.

“They are heavy sleepers,” he assured and took hold of your hip and pushed you towards him even more. You looked at him and then the two, crisis in your head storming for the decision. “We will just keep quiet enough and they won’t know a thing,” the mint-haired male behind you reassured, too horny to even care if you would get caught. “Don’t you want it?”

He asked and looked you in the eyes while he pushed his length slowly inside you, surprising you. When you were about to leave a whine from the sudden sensation he took hold of your head and kissed you desperately and intensely. His tongue was quickly inside your mouth, tangling with yours as he started thrusting inside you. He raised your other thigh in the air a little, so he got a better angle to thrust deep inside you. The movements of his hips got quickly fast-paced and he didn’t wait too long just savoring. You enjoyed this, liking how he kept burying himself inside you over and over again with such intensity.

When he ended the makout he started slamming inside you even more roughly, on purpose drawing some muffled whines from you. You had your fist in front of your mouth to block too much noise from coming, but the skin-clapping noises in the room weren’t any quieter, some heavy breathing from both of you was the main source of noise though. Sometimes in the pleasure haze, you peeked anxiously towards the two males sleeping, confirming that they were still sound asleep, not bothered by you two.

Sensing your worry Zoro brought his head closer to yours and tilted your face towards him and kissed you again, sucking onto your lower lip. Your tongues entwined as you french kissed steamily, lost in the intense pleasure. Zoro sped up his pace even more, pistoling inside you with absurd pace, his hips strong with their thrusts. It has been a little while from the last time already and the desperation and yearning could be sensed from the way Zoro fucked you like this could be the last time. Well, it always could be in the apocalypse…

The swordsman noticed your thoughts drifting and made sure to thrust inside you more relentlessly the way your g-spot got stimulated and your mind cleared from everything else except the way his cock made you feel. He then suddenly turned you to lay on your stomach and got on top of you and started thrusting into you from behind. You arched your back always to meet with his thrusts and whimpered from the sensation of his heavy balls slapping on your clit constantly as he pushed his full length inside you.

Your mind sure was hazy and the pleasure was the only thing on your mind. Zoro took notice of this by the way your moans grew louder when you weren’t so conscious of your surroundings anymore. He covered your mouth with his big hand to muffle your moans and continued mercilessly his work on you. It all felt so good and all the risks of getting caught just adding to the fun. The swordsman, poking your pussy with his length, was surely amused with this and your reactions, smirking behind you with a cocky smirk while he was deliciously sweaty from your evening exercise.

He couldn’t hold himself back anymore and his thrusts turned sloppy before he used the last of his libido to rummage into you with such strong and fast thrusts. There was no time for a sound to leave your lips as you just gasped for air as the ground-shaking sweet orgasm hit you. Due to your own release, Zoro came right after you as your walls tightened so tightly around him that it was impossible to not cum and just continue. Your pussy pulsed from the aftershocks and from the sensation of his hot cum filling your oversensitive walls. He didn’t move for a while and stayed laying on your back while catching his breath and letting his cock twitch and rest inside of you before he had to leave the warmth of your sweet pussy.

Before he pulled himself out he kissed sweetly your cheek and then lips after turning you to face him. He then flipped off you and laid on his back and sneaked an arm under your head, pulling you into him and making you rest your head on his chest. You continued laying there for a moment longer, catching your breaths and enjoying the calm moment after your highs. You looked up at Zoro with inquiring eyes, to see what kind of expression he had and to figure out what he was thinking about right now.

He had his eyes open and his face was relaxed, there wasn’t the usual frown of his, even bits of that. Just his face at ease, all his facial muscles relaxed as he breathed evenly. He noticed your gaze on him quickly and when he turned to look down at your face, you quickly looked away to stare at your finger that was drawing circles and hearts on his chest. When he didn’t get your gaze back to him anymore, he took your hand in his, a much rougher and bigger one, and brought it gently to his lips where he smooched it thrice.

You gave him the eye contact he wanted after that and he looked at you sincerely, his eyes almost softening to the sight of you. He caressed your cheek with his thumb and kissed your forehead. You blushed at all of his odd acts of soft affection but gave him one kiss back in the corner of his mouth. That didn’t suffice and he took hold on the back of your head and directed your lips on his. The kiss was passionate and longing and you couldn’t but forget for a moment where you were currently and what kind of a world you were living in. It all felt just so wonderful and unreal because of how blissful the moment was.

Unfortunately, the moment had to come to an end because of you snapping back to reality first. The lukewarm cum leaking out of your pussy to your asscrack and inner thighs surely made you fall from the dreamish haze and face the little issues of the moment playing right now.

First of all, this guy couldn’t keep cumming inside of you casually just like this, even though there were no worries about bad surprises. That’s because you had inside of you a practical gadget that was put there while the years of civilization were rolling. So the prevention was in use for everyone’s luck, but still, the swordsman wasn’t yet aware of that and he was still so freely cumming inside of you without the slightest worry, filling your womb for a second time already.

Before you got to open your mouth and present your complaints he was wiping your ladybits clean from his special liquids with a towel that he wetted with water from a bottle next to him. You looked at him surprised and all of your words backed away from your tongue and you looked at him cleaning you up. After he was finished with you he did a quick clean-up on himself and then laid down next to you and covered you two with the towel that you had kicked in the side earlier.

“You should wear at least these,” you commented and picked up his boxers from your side and handed them to his naked self. Without a word, he wore them and then offered you your panties from his side in exchange.

Before you got a handful of them he moved them aside and chose to put them on for you, making sure to give your ass a couple of extra touches and grabs. “Are you ready to go to sleep now?” He asked you, hugging you from behind as you turned on your side in the original position where it all had begun.

You turned to him to give him a look of disapproval from the way he made it seem like you were the one who couldn’t calm down enough to go to sleep, when it was the complete opposite, him rubbing on you first. Still, it was a nice way to ease some of your frustrations and release some of your pent-up energies.

”As if I was initiating it first,” you taunted and sighed from fake exhaustion to him. You closed your eyes and widgeted your body, so you would find the perfect sleeping position in Zoro’s arms. You hugged his other arm that he had around you on your chest and used the other as a comfy pillow under your head. ”Good night,” you bid yawning and he hugged you tighter as an answer.

”Sweet dreams,” he wished for you and relaxed behind you, seemingly ready to let himself fall asleep as well. To your surprise, he was the one to fall asleep first and start snoring in sign of that. You stayed up a while listening to his snoring before the exhaustion took over you as well and you drifted into the dreamland.

~

”Pal! You’re alive!” Johnny yelled excitedly after waking up and realizing his partner was awake and looking around confused, the surroundings looking unfamiliar from the last ones inside the car.

”Yes! I feel much better now!” He rejoiced happily, hugging his dear friend, matching his happiness. ”Where are we, pal?”

”We found a safe house for the night, speaking of big sis and bro-…” Johnny paused when he turned to look at you two, all cuddled up together, still sleeping over all the noise they had made. ”Ah- look at them! I knew there was something between them that big bro didn’t want to admit.”

”I’m jealousss! Big sis is such a nice girl,” Yosaku whined while looking at you two, all cute together. ”Big bro sure is lucky!”

”Mmh, he is. Because of sis, you are now all okay!” Johnny happily told his partner who nodded, waiting for elaboration. “She guessed right on what kind of meds you needed and provided them for you. Big sis also kept patiently assuring me that you would be okay even when I was feeling doubtful,” Johnny explained, some tears forming on his eyelids when he got to the end of his sentence as he recalled the unsure feelings he had been feeling from the health of his pal.

“But now I’m completely all right thanks to big sis!” Yosaku sobbed with his pal, their emotional selves taking the reins once again.

“Yesss pal!” Johnny agreed, wiping his nose and hugging his friend back for emotional support and understanding.

Due to this commotion, you were woken up and you groggily opened your eyes and looked toward them to locate where the sobbing was coming. You weren’t surprised and smiled amused to yourself and tried to turn on your other side away from Zoro who was keeping you in place, his arms tightly around you. You tried your best to wiggle off, but nothing did the trick to loosen his protective hold around you. You decided that you would just wake him up first and started headbutting him gently. When that didn’t work you decided to give his neck some kisses without the two seeing anything, still too busy being emotional.

When your lips had gotten on the swordsman’s chin he grunted and opened his eyes. Your eyes connected right away and he kissed you on your lips, completely unaware that the two were up and spry in this same dim room. When he looked past you to the two who were staring at him back quietly from the couch, he blushed and let you go embarrassed. You chuckled at his reaction and turned to the two and raised your hand up for greeting and smiled sheepishly.

“I see you’re fine now, Yosaku,” you stated and he nodded with red cheeks, embarrassed with his pal that he had gotten to witness this side of the brave swordsman. Their minds racing on the possibilities of what you could have been doing on that mattress at night while they were sound asleep, seeing now how affectionate you were with each other. “Right?” You questioned when he was still lost in his racing thoughts.

“Ah- right! I’m all better now thanks to you, big sis!” He beamed with joy and smiled widely to you from gratitude. Johnny grinned alongside him, also thankful.

“Hehe, well that is great then,” you giggled and smiled back at them.

You glanced at the swordsman who had gotten fully dressed now and took the sign to wear more clothes yourself. When you moved the blanket to the side and revealed your bare legs for you to put your pants on, the two males turned to look quickly away, flustered with your density. Zoro gave you a disapproving shake of the head, but you didn’t notice to acknowledge it and wore a sleeveless hoodie on top of your top after getting your cargos on.

“What are our plans today?” The mint-haired male asked you after you had gotten up as well, now fully dressed. You looked at him confused about why he was asking you that, were you the task planner here? “Are we gonna stay here for another night or move ahead while looking for food?”

You pondered for a while, getting expectant looks for answers from Yosaku and Johnny as well. “I guess we could stay here for another night and scavenge more of the houses in this neighborhood. I don’t think we should hurry on traveling so early now after Yosaku just getting better,” you reasoned and got an agreeing nod from Zoro who sheathed all of his katanas on the sheath on his hip.

“I feel good enough to travel though, so no need to do that because of me,” Yosaku tried to assure, but you shook your head.

“You are still recovering, so no unnecessary straining,” you ordered like his strict doctor, your pointer finger up to ensure your point. “We all should just now gather our energies because the travel to the north won’t be easy or favorable. There we barely will get rest or even a break, so let’s enjoy these few days here,” you told them seriously, so they could see why there was no need to continue your way just yet. The journey towards new struggles and obstacles didn’t have to start just yet.

“Yes, big sis!” Both Yosaku and Johnny agreed determinedly, understanding what you were getting at. Zoro at your side agreed as well, saying nothing opposing and giving you a sign that he wasn’t against it. 

Notes:

Here's an update finally :'P

But I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for all of the support <33

Chapter 13: Chapter 12

It was already the next day after the rest day that you had decided to take. The car ran low on gas because of the many miles you had driven. The miles started passing even more slowly the more you dropped the high speed. Something that was steadily growing the more you headed north was the number of zombies on the road. Some corpses were lying on the road, as well as ones that were still very alive and kicking, wanting to have your flesh for dinner. They did indeed look like they hadn't been fed for a while, and the killed ones were looking quite dried already, so seemingly there wasn’t too much traffic on this road.

Your biggest concern at the moment was the heat. You didn’t bother using the car's AC, knowing it would just drain the battery and use your valuable fuel. So it was safe to say that you were sweltering inside the car because of the unsparing heat that the summer had brought. All of you were sweating bullets, but Zoro, of course, was the one reacting least to the “warmth”. He was as sweaty as you, if not even more, his shirt drenched completely over his chest and armpits. Yosaku and Johnny, in the front, were the ones complaining most, moving their hands vigorously to create even the smallest current towards their faces. They had also drunk tons of water, so much that you had to snatch the bottle from them before you were completely dried out on your water supply.

With a little concern, you glanced at your feet, where there was the last bottle of water that was only a little over half-full. You weren’t hopeful of finding water or anything useful by this road because all the buildings, houses, and gas stations that you passed didn’t have anything at all. Everything on this road, except the zombies, had been emptied already. You wondered if you should change the road and diverge from your original route somewhat. Cause you really couldn’t continue like this for long while the fuel was running out, and soon you would be back on your feet, burning at least thrice more of your energy.

“Hmm?” The swordsman hummed next to you, his sharp eyes examining you and your body language. He was quick to notice even slight changes in someone's emotions and aura, especially in yours.

You looked at him, pausing to think a little about what would be the best solution for your longer survival right now. Maybe you could continue ahead a little more before changing the course a bit if the road didn’t get any more promising regarding your situation with nutrition. Yeah, that was the plan, and now you just have to hope for the best and not let this summer be dry and dead.

“I was just thinking if this road is profitable enough for the long run,” you told Zoro, who gave you a slight nod, understanding. “Let’s just continue for some time before deciding what kind of detour to try next.”

“This way has been pretty dry,” the mint-haired male next to you agreed, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. “Though this heat is our biggest problem,” Zoro commented, looking at the two males in the front panting and being all sluggish from the warm weather. “I guess a lot of people have had the same idea to head north.”

“Yeah, seemingly,” you answered Zoro in thought. “How much gas do we have?” You asked Yosaku and poked your head to the front to get their attention. Yosaku glanced at you uneasily and then at the fuel gauge.

“Something below two liters,” he answered, his usual eager energy gone. You hummed in turn and retreated to the backseat and sighed.

No one liked summers in the apocalypse; everything was just twice as horrible compared to normal life in the apocalypse. Horrible heat, exhausting and draining all the juices from your systems, more people consuming the rare goods, and even more zombies moving around with no favorable bad weather slowing them down. You bet that the death rate was even higher in the summers than in winters, in suicides also. While in winter, you have to just focus on staying warm and fed, with the zombies weak and numb from the cold. But surviving the cold wasn’t a new thing for mankind, so it was easy enough to beat with enough preparation.

”Should we start collecting fuel?” Johnny asked suggestively, glancing at the backseat.

“Well, if there is any left in any of those very few cars that come by,” Zoro shrugged in response, looking ahead to the road that didn’t have that many cars lying around, and if there were some, they looked quite wrecked. “But the best we could do is to prepare to continue on foot.”

“Eventually it will get to that,” you agreed, looking ahead to the street, searching for cars.

You then dug the map out of your bag and tried to pinpoint your exact location at the moment. When you discovered the area you supposedly were in, you checked the nearest towns and habitats. The nearest place was a tiny neighborhood, far from everything. There were a couple of farmhouses near it, but nothing too big. So you could say that you had officially entered the countryside, usually it was a safer area, but also not that promising with supplies and loot. The road was peculiarly empty, and you couldn’t recall seeing even one zombie in the last hour.

“Let’s make our stop in the coming neighborhood,” you showed Johnny and Yosaku, tapping the little colonization on the map, a few miles up ahead. They nodded, determined only for their and your faces quickly changed into shock as you heard an explosion coming under the car, and the driving turned into sliding on the road. “Oh shit!” You yelled as the car headed towards the side of the road, the thick oak suddenly in front of you, as the car wasn’t in control.

Yosaku succeeded in turning the car sideways before the impact, so the crash into the tree was a little softer and less fatal. Well, Zoro, who was sitting closest to the impact, surely took most damage, but also being the toughest nut in the car, he endured it best. You all sat there for a good second in shock before you gained awareness of the situation and checked each other with glances around.

“Big sis, big bro?!” Johnny yelled worriedly and turned to you two in the backseat, worry painted on his face. They at least got some cushion from the airbags that popped in front of them, while the backseat didn’t have any safety mechanisms popping out, if there even were any in this quite old model. “Big sis, your nose!”

You touched the underside of your nose, sensing that it was dripping. Blood. You had hit your nose in the impact to Yosaku’s seat, so that was the reason it was bleeding. By touching your nose, you confirmed that you hadn’t broken it because it wasn’t that painful or a weird feeling. Before you could do anything else, Zoro had turned your face towards him with his calloused hand on your cheek. With widened eyes, you looked at his stern face with a big hint of concern, checking your condition. You then noticed the side of his head bleeding and touched it gently.

“I’m okay, but are you?” You asked worriedly as he jerked to your touch on his wound.

“I just hit my head on the side of the window,” Zoro assured, testing the small wound in his hairline. The trail of blood that he had on the right side of his face made it look more fatal, but the bleeding from the wound had eased a bit already. “But it’s nothing.”

“Hey, guys… we should maybe move already,” Yosaku warned, seeing two zombies having popped out of the treeline, lured by the loud noise the crash had caused. Johnny and Yosaku exited the car with that, and you followed, wiping the blood under your nose. Zoro’s door didn’t open, so he followed behind you, using the door on your side to exit the car. “The door of the trunk doesn’t work!” Yosaku stammered, trying his hardest to open the door by pulling it up, but it didn’t even shift.

“Forgot the apocalypse for a minute there,” you muttered, displeased, and quickly went back inside the car and pushed the backseats down, and started pulling stuff out from the trunk through the backseat. Yosaku and Johnny took the stuff from you while Zoro faced the two zombies approaching. “There everything!” You stated and got out of the car with your bags on your shoulder.

Yosaku was crouched down next to the driver’s side front tire, examining the tire that blew out with the same side’s rear tire. You, Johnny, and Yosaku looked in the direction you came and all saw the cause of the car crash. A zombie was lying down, with spike mat wrapped around it, and some of the spike mat was lying on the road also, painted with blood, making it look like the zombie's digestive system that had come out. So, of course, while driving, you wouldn’t have noticed that the separate parts from the zombie were a spike mat in disguise. This was worrying, to think that some people had set this on purpose, to steal the victim's loot and probably kill them too.

“You think there is someone waiting for us?” Yosaku asked aloud, some fear settling on his skin.

“I don’t know, but at least that trap zombie looks long dead,” you pointed out, and the two nodded after gulping in anxiety. Well, you hoped that you weren’t gonna face any of those who set that trap, but most likely they would have moved on already.

When you looked at Zoro, pulling one of his katanas out, he suddenly stumbled, his balance off. “Big bro!” Johnny gulped, running to the swordsman. You ran there too, killing the nearest zombie easily with your axe before it got to Zoro. “Big sis come,” Johnny told you after he and Yosaku had taken a supporting hold under Zoro’s arms.

Confused, you looked back at them as to why they were in such a hurry to escape here. “I can take a couple of zombies,” You unsurely stated, making it sound like a question. Now doubting yourself and your skills a little as well.

“No, behind you, there!” Yosaku exclaimed, pointing further at the zombie closest to you. You looked in the direction Yosaku told you to look, and there were more zombies flooding out of the treeline that was just next to the road.

“Oh fuck,” you whispered to yourself and quickly killed the rotten in front of you and started jogging to catch your companions that didn’t move that fast. While you jogged, you looked back a couple of times to count the zombies. There were at least 50 of the dead approaching you, some of them were even on quite fast foot, jogging at the pace of brisk walking. “There are some freshly turned, we really need to speed up,” you told Yosaku and Johnny, who were jogging on the sides of Zoro, who was still a little out of it. “Zoro, can you run any faster?” You asked uneasily, seeing him trying to keep consciousness.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me!” He scolded, shaking his head to organize it, and used his feet a little faster while still using only Yosaku on his side for support. You didn’t say anything else and continued glancing at him, worried. He probably had gotten a concussion from the impact his head took and had some vision and balance problems due to that.

Still, this was no moment to stop, and you had to do your best to escape the rotten chasing you. Your best bet was to reach the little neighborhood close, a good time before the creatures behind you, so you had time to hide in the houses quietly and let them pass the place. You didn’t have to say the plan out loud because all of you four, clearly, had the same idea, assuming so by the fact that you were running in the direction of the only known idea of some kind of safety. The faster zombies and Zoro’s condition were the only factors that made that plan shaky and unstable. But you knew Zoro could endure till you were hidden safe.

Just when you hoped for the best outcome, Zoro stumbled, falling on one knee and grumbling from pain. Zoro clenched his teeth as he tried to stand up, but he couldn’t without aid. Yosaku threw his other bag to you and, without a word, went to help Johnny to keep Zoro on his feet. You turned around after hearing the groaning getting closer, and the fastest zombies were only a couple of meters away. You raised your axe and waited, swinging it when the first zombie was an arm away from you.

The axe dug from its ear to inside its head and after that, you pulled the weapon quickly out and used it to kill the other rotten. You easily killed them both, and after that, you jogged to the struggling trio who had gotten little ahead. There was now a better distance between Zoro and the closest zombies, but you continued jogging behind Zoro to make sure to finish off any dead that got too close.

“Big sis, ahead!” Johnny yelled as three zombies approached you from the treeline in front. You acted fast and ran to the front and went straight to killing. Swinging your axe up and down, you were fastly done, wiping the rotten blood from your cheek and looking at the three with an assuring smile.

“Big sis, you’re our savior angel!” Johnny and Yosaku yelled, hope pumping in their systems now after seeing that you would do your best to keep you away from rotten teeth.

“Alright, boys, let’s keep this up,” you instructed and went to their side to check that the zombies behind still stayed far enough.

“Hey, there is the town!” Yosaku exclaimed with excitement, and Johnny sighed happily while sweating bullets. They had a heavy job carrying Zoro, who was pretty sickly looking, supporting himself only a little anymore, while putting all his weight on his friends’ shoulders.

You were as beaten as they were, all this fighting wearing you off, and the hot weather keeping you drenched and sticky. You haven’t been eating anything these past days, trying to save food while you still have a car. So, already exiting the wreck of the car, you had a weakish state, and the heat burning made you even more uncomfortable in your own skin. But you tried your best to stay strong and did so by killing even more zombies on the way.

Again, in front of you, there appeared four new creeps that probably got lured here by the noise that the herd behind you kept by their desperate groaning and moaning. You hummed, annoyed, and fixed your grip on the handle of your axe. Glancing behind you, you saw that the smallish herd had gotten too close for comfort.

“Johnny, Yosaku, go around those four,” you told the two steadying Zoro. “We don’t have time to stop, but I will handle those,” you added, and they nodded, walking away from the side, avoiding the zombies in front of you while you got the zombies' attention by clapping your hands. “Come on, I’m here for you to taste!”

The three rotten of the four turned towards you, lusting for your living flesh. You skipped to the first and swing your fist to its face, his other eye poking out from the impact. You then kicked the creep to the stomach, so its face slid off from the blade of your axe. The next one was already aiming her arm at your face, but you struck your axe at its arm. With your left hand, you dug your jungle knife and stabbed it into the left eye of the rotten. The third one was already at your side, but your jungle knife stuck in the first one and axe still stuck in the flesh of the dead zombie you kicked the third one to guts, making it fall onto its butt.

You got your knife out first and quickly put your feet on the chest of the undead to keep it on the ground and stabbed it to the temple, letting it rest now completely dead. When you looked up where the fourth zombie was going, you saw it chasing the trio very too close. You quickly pulled your axe back and threw it at the occipital lobe of the zombie, killing it effortlessly and flawlessly. Surprised, Johnny and Yosaku looked at you, and you smiled proudly with your good aim. You then jogged to them, the zombies from behind already at your feet, but just ahead of you, there was your destination, the small neighborhood.

“Run through the bushes so you can hide in one of the houses,” you told them while you jogged behind them. They looked warily at you, wondering where you would go. “I make sure that the closest zombies don’t see where you will hide.”

“But big sis, you need to hide too,” Johnny tried to assure, but you shook your head.

“I will, after I make sure that you will make it to safety,” you explained, stopping jogging by the bushes, which they would need to run. “Come on, go now.”

“(F/n), you’re not staying,” Zoro grunted with the last of his consciousness, opposing the idea of you covering for them. His pride was probably hurt that he had gotten so hurt that you needed to protect him and keep the two buddies also safe while they were busy aiding him.

“I will hide after I make sure no one follows you,” you assured him, strictly and with a stern face looked at Johnny and Yosaku. “Now is the time, go!” You bid them and they went through the bushes towards the houses, strugglingly.

A dozen zombies were the first to approach you, you chose to fight them, some time before you would choose to hide. You used the last of your strength to strike your axe and stab your jungle knife into their flesh. There was no end to the apocalypse. It was just running around, hiding, and fighting as long as you had willpower and strength in your body for that. There was no way you would kill all the zombies in the world; it was just an endless survival game at your expense.

When you had slashed a dozen of the nearest zombie, you were completely covered in the nasty blood, your skin and clothes all dirtied. You grumbled disgustedly, keeping your mouth tightly closed so no drop of blood got to your mouth. Taking off running, you chose to now hide yourself before the herd would drown you in the middle of them. The rotten followed your lead, so you did turns on different streets, so they lost sight of you.

When you were sure no zombie could see you, you quickly barged into one of the houses and closed the back door behind you, pushing an armchair in front of it. You walked on your toes, still on guard if in the house there was any intruders, but when it was safe enough, you searched for a room to hide in. Adrenaline rushed in your veins when you saw the front door’s handle move. You quickly got close and almost stabbed the man who came inside. Both of your eyes widened in shock, but before you could react more to him, you saw behind him, a walking zombie that still hadn’t noticed you.

You pulled the man by his shirt’s collar to you and quietly as possible pushed the door almost close. That got the zombie’s attention, and you could hear it stop dead in its tracks. You kept your finger on your mouth to tell the blonde man to stay quiet, and he did so, looking kind of frustrated, his breaths through his nose sounding quite heavy. You tiptoed with the stranger man to the small closet and quickly closed the door just before the rotten invited itself to the house.

The closet was very small, so your chests were pressed together with the stranger blonde. His breaths got even more shallow and noisy in the closet, so you put your hand in front of his mouth to keep him quiet enough. You didn’t know what his problem was, but he was acting very strange. Was he having a panic attack? Was he scared of you? Maybe all the blood on you made you look scary. You started panicking when he seemed to be hyperventilating and his eyes rolled up. You quickly took your mouth off his mouth and crouched down to soften his fall on his knees.

“Awuuah,” he softly murmured to your shoulder where he was leaning his head. Your body tensed as you heard the zombie stop by the closet’s door, and with no thought, you muffled the man by pushing his head to the cleavage your skimpy top was displaying. “!!!~!♡” he reacted to the placement of his face with the hearts on his eyes and feverish puffing with his nostrils, like he was inhaling your bust. Embarrassed, you shook your head at the nonsensicalness of the situation and looked up to the ceiling to calm your nerves while staying dead quiet.

You waited some time sitting on your knees and letting the man rest in his made heaven, shaking his head against your chest, poking his lips out and inhaling the skin like there was something for him to snort inside of his nostrils. There was no way you could stay calm and without a reaction. You were more embarrassed than ever, your cheeks completely red and your mouth curled in a weird line as you tried to keep yourself from letting any noise, no screaming from uncomfortableness, or laughing from his touches that tickled your skin to your spine.

Suddenly, you could hear a crash in the direction of the back door, and you tensed. The man on you didn’t react at all, a basic survival skill long gone at this point. Steps, too hard and emotional for a rotten creature, approached the closet. With a switch motion, the whole door of the closet came off its hinges, and the door was ripped off and thrown to the side. Your eyes widened, and a stupid ‘o’ was formed on your mouth as your dearest Zoro appeared from the other side of the once existing door. He looked furious, and it made the hairs on your skin raise, his eyes didn’t even meet yours before they had settled on the back of the head of the blonde man.

From the collar by the blonde’s spine, Zoro tossed the blonde to the side, the man crashing into the door of the bedroom down the alley. “(F/n)!” the swordsman emotionally yelled as he saw all the blood on your chest, where the blonde’s nose had been bleeding all over your chest. But Zoro probably thought the blonde man was a zombie that was in the middle of eating you. Before you had time to explain, the mint-haired male was on his knees and had scooped you to his arms in princess style.

“Zoro, it’s not what you think!” You quickly explained as you saw the poor swordsman's eyes get watery. Your own eyes also got teary to see Zoro so emotional, even though nothing bad had happened, but the thought of him caring this much about you made your heart flutter emotionally. “He is not a zombie, it’s his blood,” you told Zoro with a little shaky voice, trying to explain yourself as best you could while you stared at the concern painted over your survivor partner’s face.

“What?” Zoro questioned, his voice hoarse and his mind utterly confused. You showed him what you meant by wiping your chest from the blood on your hand, revealing that there were no bites under the puddle of blood. He sighed deeply, visibly relieved, and then supported your head with his hand on the back of your head and kissed your forehead softly for long seconds. “You worry me too much,” he breathed out onto your forehead and then kissed your lips sweetly, and you kissed back, smiling happily to be in his strong care.

“Big bro, big sis!” Johnny whisper-shouted from the front door, before you or Zoro even answered, both Yosaku and Johnny were by the doorway to the closet, and they blushed seeing that they had interrupted your longing kiss. “Here you are, ehehe,” Johnny laughed awkwardly, scratching his nape, and you chuckled, seeing them more embarrassed than you two were.

“After most of the zombies had cleared, Zoro gained full consciousness again and he left the house right away to find you like a madman,” Yosaku told you, leaning to the doorway, chuckling at the swordsman. You looked at Zoro, but he just turned his head elsewhere, a little embarrassed by his own outburst.

“We tried to tell him that you most likely found some safe place, but he didn’t believe before he would have found you,” Johnny continued, crossing his arms and looking to the swordsman all-knowingly. You smiled, amused, and patted your loyal protector’s shoulder, thanking him for doing his important duties. “I have never seen him chop zombies' heads so fastly and easily as he did while searching you.”

“Sounds like you have done quite a good job,” you told Zoro, who was now looking again at you, and you tickled his chin a little, getting a small smile from him.

“Ugh,” came down the doorway from the blonde stranger’s mouth as he started coming back to the earth after being in heaven and then hell, when the prosecutor, Zoro, came to pull him from heaven to hell by the hard throw to the wall he eventually got.

“That is some clean-dressed zombie,” Yosaku muttered as he pulled his sword out and was ready to finish the man who pulled his face up from the ground.

“It’s because he isn't a zombie,” you told them and were met by confused looks from Yosaku and Johnny.

“Who is it?” They both questioned at the same time, their eyes switching from the stranger getting up to you.

“I don’t know, I just met him in this house and had to hide together to avoid getting seen by the herd,” you answered, as puzzled by the man’s identity as they were. Zoro helped you to your feet, carefully checking that there wasn’t any damage in you. “So stay wary, he seems quite strange.”

“Was he attacking you when I found you?” The swordsman next to you asked, reminiscing about the position he found you two. Your cheeks got warm as you tried to think of a way to explain that.

“I tried to keep him quiet, he had a panic attack or something that sort of going on when meeting me,” you revealed, and they all raised their brows, confused how on earth this guy with panic attacks was still alive in the outbreak in year two. You gulped at the reaction you got, but for the most part, your explanation was truthful. “Perhaps, we would have gotten killed if I hadn’t gotten him to shut his mouth.”

“What troublesome guy,” Johnny commented, crossing his arms, looking in the direction of the mentioned blonde now sitting up and looking around confused.

Zoro was the first to walk to him and crouched down in front of him with a stern expression. When the blonde looked at him with a somewhat disgusted face, the swordsman took hold of the same collar of the blonde’s collared shirt that you had been pulling him by too. “Who are you?” Zoro asked the blonde neutrally, and the blonde stared at him, annoyed, irking Zoro.

“None of your business,” the blonde spat, his luxurious blonde locks swaying from side to side as he shook his head. Now, only you noticed that he had swirly eyebrows. How odd. Had he burned them to grow like that?

“You endangered the life of my comrade, so it is my business,” Zoro demanded, pushing the blonde towards the wall behind him, his back taking a hit and making the air from his lungs come rushing out. “Who are you, I ask the last time.”

“Cough’, Sanji is my name,” he coughed out as he tried to even his breathing and the oxygen in his lungs. He had many breathing troubles and sensitive lungs, seemingly, perhaps he was a smoker. “What else do you want to know?”

“Who are you with?” Zoro inquired, his grip on the man’s collar still tight.

“No one,” Sanji told, sounding kind of serious. You tilted your head, curious, and walked closer to the man past Yosaku and Johnny. When the man noticed you again his eyes shined for a second bright again, and his expression got happy, only for the swordsman to poke his side with his sheathed katana and make him serious once again. “I was in a group with my adoptive father Zeff, but almost all of the group was wiped out when someone let the zombies into the warehouse we had been camped in. Few others may have escaped alive, but the rest are dead. It has been a month since.”

You walked to Zoro and touched the arm with what he was keeping his katana, touching Sanji, and he put it back to his hip. “You have been alone since?” You asked softly.

“Yes, and what might be your name, darling?~" Sanji surprised you by getting on one knee and taking your hand between his as he petted the still somewhat soft skin of your palm.

“Womanizer!?” Johnny and Yosaku deadpanned at the same time as they looked at the blonde change from a despaired man to a flirtatious fella in the blink of an eye.

The mint-haired male beside you didn’t like this change either, and his hands were again at the sheath of his katanas. You side-eyed the swordsman firmly, telling him to forget chopping the foolish wretch. “(F/n),” you answered nicely.

Sanji stood up and bowed to you, “In your service, my lady (F/n)~.” That irked Zoro, his temples were seen twitching from annoyance at this newly met guy. Before anyone could say more, you heard groaning coming from the back door, and a tall zombie walked into the house. Beating Zoro in quickness, Sanji acted the fastest, kicking upwards towards the zombie's face and smashing its face to the wall behind it, just using his long leg as a power house and his foot and shoe as the finisher. “There, my dear, everything is taken care of,” Sanji bowed again towards you while you were gasping at how smoothly he had handled the job with his leg. Original at least.

“Stop talking to her like that,” Zoro growled possessively and pulled you farther away from the peculiar guy. “It’s not like you’re joining us.”

“Yeah, he seems strong, but too weird,” Yosaku backed up the swordsman, almost unsure of himself. You looked at Johnny, wondering what he thought.

“But he seems so strong that he could be a good addition,” Johnny commented after locking his sunglassed-eyes with you.

“I'm a chef too, I can make any of the nasty canned foods delicious for your flavour,” Sanji continued, talking more to you than to any of the guys. “Licensed in the pre-apocalypse.”

“Well, I mean, this would be an opportunity gone to waste if we didn’t have him with us,” you carefully reasoned, not wanting Zoro to get too irked by the new guy and his possible joining with you. “He clearly can protect himself, and he cooks too.”

“Yeah, that is quite good compo,” Yosaku reasoned as well, actual cooked food sounding so savory from the dry granolas and yucky canned beans you ate.

“Whatever, at least we get you to eat your beans somehow,” the swordsman agreed. You smiled, and the two friends high-fived each other. Zoro walked out of the house and stood steady on the outside to wait for you.

“Well, welcome to the crew,” you chuckled and offered a hand to shake for Sanji, who beamingly shook it. “We are on our way to the north. I came from the east and the boys from the south, those weren’t promising, so together we chose to try the north.”

“I started from the east as well, so north it is,” Sanji agreed and nodded to you. “Also, thank you (F/n) for accepting lowly me, to travel with your elegant beauty!~" He mused, getting a nasty glance from Zoro, who was standing outside, arms crossed.

“No problem, just ease up,” you giggled and made your way outside as well, ready to continue now ahead.

Notes:

Helloo! I'm back, finally, motivated. Some life chances and lack of motivation have been the reason for my bigger break, but I'm now again inspired to write.

Also, I accidentally changed (Y/n) to (F/n), but I think I will keep it that way.

But thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter <33