Nicholas felt a lump in his throat, discourage by the miscommunication. "I just- I didn't want to make you-" he sighed, giving up. He hadn't meant her any harm at all. He just wanted to carry the heavier ones so that she wouldn't have to. Not to mention, she unnecessarily, once again, used obscenities and then proceeded to insult him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, feeling his chest ache. He had no one now, and Mattie didn't seem to like him. It was understandable, he reckoned. He did lie to her. He really didn't mean her any harm, though. So, now he was stuck with a girl that seemed to hate him, after just having to burn the bodies of his ten year old sister and his mother. He took a deep breath through his nose, shut his eyes for a brief moment, and then started walking down the street.

"There's a refuge camp around here somewhere. Or, so I heard. After half the population of this town got infected, I heard something about it on the radio. I didn't pay attention to it, though. I guess I should have. I just thought my dad was gonna take care of everything." He shrugged. "But we see how that turned out."

He felt shivers down his spine. It was weird to be walking out in the open. This part of town didn't have many trees around. It was pretty much open fields for what seemed like miles, but really wasn't that far. There wasn't a single living, dead, or undead body in sight. Where had all the infected gone?

"Do you think they die?" he asked her, briefly looking over his shoulder. "Come up here beside me."