Chapter Text
Nick’s sweat mixed with blood and dirt and viscera, his tongue so dry but so moist from the bile brewing in his stomach, his vision melting from the hot sun pounding against his scalp, his neck straining to keep his head upright. His exhausted legs waddled forward. It all blurred together. All the walkers… they were fuzzy. They were stumbling, then dancing, then one was right at his face, letting out a plume of hot breath against his ear. He was becoming one of them. An odd kind of salvation, but maybe one he could accept.
More and more walkers passed by him. He couldn’t keep up. They all danced away, groaning and moaning as if he were never there, leaving him in the dust. Communicating, but only to themselves. Desperate arms flailed about on the sand. He needed to keep up. He needed to keep up. He needed to…
***
Some kid was lying lifelessly in the middle of the desert. Walker guts had been smeared all over him, head to toe. His hair was shaggy and greasy, jeans torn into pieces near his ankles. He didn’t have anything on him--not even a backpack or a knife.
Jeremiah jostled him, quick fingers pressing into his neck. There was still a pulse; faint, but still beating.
He made quick work to grab a bottle from his pack and pour some water down the boy’s neck. Unsatisfied, he scooched up a little and… wait, no. Flesh had been torn off his ankles. Clear bites. Jeremiah jumped back, grasping his knife on his belt.
Jeremiah held the tip of the knife at the boy’s bloodied temple. He would’ve shoved it in, no hesitation, but dark eyes lazily opened and glared straight into his.
The slightest hint of panic washed over the boy’s features. “No, no, no, uhh…” His eyes nearly fell closed again. “No… No infectados. El perro, el perro.”
El perro. Jeremiah peeled back the stiff denim of his jeans and noticed the long lines of punctures running up his shins. These bites were absolutely not from a walker.
Jeremiah raised his hand to the boy’s forehead and pushed the oily hair from his face, revealing his dirtied features beneath. “Welcome to America, kid.”