Sunshine burned Eights eyes as he basked in the glowing light as a smile pulled at his lips. Never before had he been so happy to wake up with a twisted back and a pain he'd never felt before. Looking over as he noticed faint movement in the corner of the room, he saw Nine. Tangled strands of golden hair fluttered with each breath she made and her rounded nose twitched each time she inhaled. For once, she wasn't shimmering or phasing out of existence; she looked real.
A nail poked him as he shifted against the wooden floors, but he wasn't even mad, not in the slightest. He was out of the basement! Eights punched the air whooping and hollering, causing the girl's eyes to shoot open before narrowing at him.
"Are you insane?" Nine said, jumping from her spot before clasping her hand around Eights' mouth. "What if someone hears you?"
"Let them, we're free!" Nine smacked Eights' forehead, and he looked at her, surprised. "What was that for?"
"I'm not getting caught, so either be quiet or… or, I'm out of here!"
A smile played on the boy's lips, "Where would you go?"
A soft pink flushed over Nine's cheeks, and she puffed her cheeks out; her eyes shifting as she responded with, "I'll go back to the mansion and tell the numbered where you're at."
"Sure~!" Rolling his eyes, Eights chuckled. "Where are we anyway?"
He looked around, his eyes lighting up as he recognized the small cabin. It was one of his go-to hiding places whenever he made it past the gate.
"How did they not find us?" He asked.
Rubbing her shoulder, she glanced at the doorway, "I had to drag you all the way here, you know."
"That wouldn't have been a problem if you hadn't knocked me out!" Still a little salty about it, Eights then asked, "How'd Bruce… the dog not find you? You didn't hurt him, did you?"
Sucking air in between her teeth, Nine said, "Define hurt…"
"He's alive at least, right?"
"He-he is! I couldn't— wouldn't kill him…"
"Chill, I didn't say you did."
The girl shifted; she looked so unstable, like something in her broke. Biting his lip, Eights shifted over to the window, glancing outside. His eyes shifting with each falling leaf. "When was the last time you saw one of the numbered?"
"I think it was around midnight, I counted six of them returning to the mansion." Nine answered, still unsteady, but slightly more visible than before.
Doing some quick math in his head, Eights scratched at his chest when he realized he wasn't wearing a shirt. Glancing around the room, he spotted it hanging from the windowsill and looked back at Nine, who turned beet red before phasing out of existence.
He smiled wryly. "Wanted a peek, did you?"
"I had my reasons!" The disembodied voice echoed around the room.
"Hmm?" Eights hummed.
"Anyway, we should be safe to leave now, right?"
Eights simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "Will it ever be safe to leave?" He snagged his shirt, pulling it over his head when a prolonged groan sounded from outside.
Nine blurred as she shifted in and out of existence, her face, masked with anxiety, said, "Another zombie?"
He nodded, "Either way, we will at least be safe from The Twelve, and it's all thanks to you." The boy squished Nine's cheeks between his hands.
Blushing, Nine shifted once more, but it was a little different this time. It almost seemed as though she wasn't able to, almost as if being in contact with her stabilized her somehow. Soft strands of golden hair tickled his hands as he got a good look at the girl for the first time since they met.
Her sad eyes beaming up at him, and her thin lips quivered beneath his hands, and he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. Shivering, she pulled her hands to his chest and for the first time since he met her, she just… was.
"You did good." He whispered, "Without you, I would have done something I'd regret for the rest of time."
She stiffened in his arms before pushing away. Once more, becoming unstable, she said, "We need to get further away from the mansion. They may still be looking for us."
"My home isn't far from here." Eights scratched the back of his head, Nine's lingering body heat still radiating from his arms and chest. "If you want, you can come with."
Nine smiled sadly, "I'd like that."
"Then you'll come with me! You can become part of my family."
Gripping the edge of her shirt, Nine pulled at it as tears glistened in her eyes. Eights grasped at his chest as his heart began to ache.
"O-or, whatever." He stumbled over his words.
"I wouldn't mind that, I guess. Be-being your family, that is."
He couldn't help but let a smile pull at his lips, and he could feel his face begin to burn when he said, "It's settled then!" Cackling, he picked the girl off the ground and spun her around.
"Put me down, you psycho!" Nine dug her nails into Eights' arms."
"Ouch!"
"S-sorry, are you okay?"
"I finally get to go back home, of course, I'm okay!"
_0O0_
"This rope is the only useful thing…"
"What about this block of wood?"
"No!" Eights shook his head, "It's better to run from the zoms rather than weight yourself down with useless weapons."
Cracking the door open, Eights could see one of the undead wandering through the trees aimlessly. One leg dragging behind with each step, it swatted at a squirrel as the creature scampered up a tree.
"What-what did you take from that room?"
"Room?" Eights pondered the question. "You mean when we escaped the basement? I snagged a few rations and two water bottles." He then patted his stomach, "Hey! Where's the gun?"
Shimmering like a mirage, Nine said, "Must- it must have fall-fallen."
"Man! Come on!"
A muffled squeak come from the direction the girl once was, and the air in the room tensed as he listened to her quivering voice as she said, "S-sorry!"
"It's fine… I guess. Either way, let's not dally here." He swung the door the rest of the way open, stepping out onto the porch. Shading his eyes, he watched the sun before turning away from the mansion. Looking back, he noted that Nine was following him. She dragged her feet across the forest floor as they made their way through the woods, hiking alongside the road from a safe distance.
_0O0_
The further from the mansion they got, the more comfortable Eights felt as he inhaled the fresh scent of pine and savored the feeling of the soft ground under his feet as he hummed along with the chirping birds. Grasping a branch from the ground, he swung it around, occasionally tapping it against a tree. He began to recognize old landmarks from when he was younger, leaving the path behind as he fearlessly forged through the lush forest.
This went on for a while before Nine rushed ahead of him, blocking his path.
"What's up, Nine?" The boy tilted his head to one side as he looked down at her pouting face.
"You're being too loud."
"No worries, Nine. The numbered wouldn't come looking for us themselves. As long as they haven't sent scouts after us, we should be fine."
"Scouts?"
"You know, like the people who work for The Twelve. It's likely you were captured by a few of them before ending up in the mansion."
"And what makes you think they wouldn't send some?" Nine shimmered out of existence. "What if they're following us right now?"
Waving his hand, Eights said, "Nah, those guys are super busy. They basically run everything for The Twelve. Grandpa told me that after their training camp, along with a few other facilities, were destroyed, they had a hard time getting back into the game. Although…"
"What?" Nine squeaked.
"It probably won't affect us at my house, but it's also likely that certain cities might put a hit out on us."
"A hit!"
Eights could feel the girl's small hands grasp at the edge of his shirt, and he stifled a laugh. "Don't worry, no one leaves their cities, and even if they did, they wouldn't go far."
"What about your house? Wouldn't they look there?"
Tilting his head, Eights hmphed thoughtfully, "I didn't think of that…"
"How could you not?"
"Well, the scouts didn't catch me at my house. I doubt they even know where it's at."
"How do you know for sure?"
"I guess I don't, but where else can we go?" Eights sighed, "We aren't far from my house, but maybe we should be more careful." Tapping his chin, he looked around the forest until he spotted a decent-sized clearing. "We should camp there for today and try to see if there are any of The Twelve's people at my house tomorrow."
Gathering some dried twigs and grass, Eights began to dig a small hole in the ground, properly ventilating it before carefully stacking the wood inside.
"Don't tell me you're planning on lighting a fire?" Nine stopped him before he could start igniting the dried grass. "What if one of the numbered is looking for us? Or those scouts you talked about?"
"Don't worry, I'm making a Dakota fire pit. It'll be visible only to those in the immediate area, but it won't attract anyone far away. If anyone is close enough to see the fire, they'd be close enough to see us, so we may as well be warm if we're doomed to get caught anyway."
Making a little bow with the rope, Eights wrapped it around a large stick and began the intensive game of twisting and turning the tools until the dried grass began to smoke. Leaning close, he blew softly until embers began to form on the grass, and repeating the process over and over until he had enough to ignite the wood in his fire pit. Slowly, he fed the embers until the wood caught fire, before leaning back on his aching arms.
Nine leaned in close, looking down into the little pit, and smiled brightly. "You made that look easy! Whenever my brother and I tried this, it always took us hours." She clapped her hands together, her doe eyes beaming at the boy.
"It's not that impressive. With enough practice, you'd be able to light one just as good."
"There's no way I would be able to do it as quickly as you just did."
Heat rose to Eights' ears, and he turned away from the girl who was still beaming at him. "It's not a big deal. It's just something I learned from my grandfather."
"He must have been one great teacher."
"He was…" Eights let a smile pull at his lips, "I can't wait to see him again."
"Maybe he can teach me how to light a fire as well as you do. I would love to be able to cook anytime I want."
"He won't need to. He's got all kinds of tools you can use, and he's great with his hands. He built a stone oven all on his own. His Nene taught him how to do anything from hunting and skinning animals, to farming, to building things like this fire pit."
"He sounds wonderful."
"Yeah, he's great."
Nine beamed at the boy, and as the sun went down on their conversation, cicadas began chirping loudly through the woods. The girl had a radiance about her, one he could still see, even in the dark. His face heated, and not from the fire, and clearing his throat, Eights asked, "What about your brother?"
The question left his mouth before he could stop himself, and the girl's excited smile and bright eyes dimmed as she began to fade in and out of existence.
"Sorry," Eights scratched the back of his head, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
N-no, it's… It's okay now. I think I can talk about it." Sighing, Nine looked up at the stars with tears in her eyes. "He always took care of me, better than my parents ever did. "He was ten years older than I was," she said sadly. "Our parents used to tell us we couldn't be together forever, up until the day they disappeared. It was almost like they were preparing us for something. Then we came home to an empty house. Brother told me we didn't need them, but I often feel he was more hurt than I was. We lived without them for three years, until one day some strange men came to the house. They tried to take me and kept saying it was time. Brother, he and I ran into the forest, and that's when we came across a horde. I was able to disappear, but they caught him…"
Nine vanished, and Eights could hear her voice quiver as she continued, "He smiled as they bit into him and, and…"
"You don't have to…"
Nine came back into sight. Her eyes shimmered with tears as she smiled at the boy, "I've never met anyone else with a number for their name… I always thought it was just something my family did. Sometimes I would even imagine where one through seven went, but brother… Eight always told me not to worry about it. That our parents were probably just a little cracked in the head, whatever that means."
Eights felt the air escape his lungs as he plopped onto the ground, looking up at the inky sky. The grass shifted as Nine made herself comfortable, right beside him.
"What about your parents? Or was it just your grandfather?"
Smiling, Eights said, "Sometimes I wish it were just grandpa and me. I mean, I love my parents, but they were always so obsessed with going to the Hidden City."
"What's the Hidden City?"
"It's a city that no zombie can enter, not even The Twelve. I'm pretty sure it's just a myth, but they were so sure it was real. Grandpa says that they would go looking for it every day, then after I was born, they just stopped. Grandpa thought maybe they gave up so they could raise me, but… honestly, I don't think they liked me that much."
Turning onto her side, Nine's eyes sparkled. "Do you think they stopped looking because they found it?"
"Why would they do that? If they found it, then they should have gone there."
"You never know, though. What if it's not what they thought? What if it's super hard to get in, even for the living?" Nine closed her eyes as if she were imagining something. "What if we went there?"
"Wha—?"
"Think about it! If there is a city that The Twelve can't enter, don't you think we'd be safe there?"
Eights also turned on his side, "I guess… But we don't know where it is."
"We are going to your house. Maybe your parents left behind clues as to where it is."
"I don't know… what if they never found it."
"Then we stay… And we can live at your house with them." A star shot across the sky as if responding to Nine. "Either way, we can find a way to survive, together."
Another star shot across the sky, and another, until it seemed as if they rained across the black sky, and a feeling of hope began to rise in Eights' chest.
"Why do I feel like we could find it?"
Squealing softly, Nine kicked her legs against the grass, shifting it. "We definitely could! I just know it!"