• Alystir sat back against a building, taking a rest as he watched Nathan laugh while blasting away at their former comrades at brain eating. His arms were shaking as they rested over his bent knees. He had no heart for killing anymore, even if they were already dead. He didn't know why that was, he'd gotten pretty used to it in the past. His head bowed. Perhaps with everything he knew now..

    The sun was starting to rise, casting the sky in vibrant colors and filling the air with the smell of dawn. It was just barely distinguishable over the rot. Alystir looked up, watching the stars fading as the light began to show. He hadn't noticed the lack of noise until a small hand grabbing his arm made him shriek and jump to his feet.

    Nathan laughed. He had hold of a zombie boy that looked no older than twelve. He was obviously turned recently, aside from a chunk missing from his shoulder and the familiar grey dead look to his skin and yellow sickness in his eyes, he wasn't rotted. The rot came from lack of taking care of oneself. Alystir and Nathan took precaution not to let their bodies rot with lotions and by not letting their injuries worsen through wear. All of Nathan's cuts were stitched, some looked like he'd done it himself, others looked like they were done at the lab. The boy was still pretty, in a manner of speaking. Curly brown hair, large brown eyes and full lips. Though his face was covered with blood and he was savage, attempting to get away from Nathan.

    "I couldn't kill this one. I want to keep it. Let's go back." Nathan offered a grin to Alystir who was staring at the older zombie agape.

    "They won't let you keep him, he's savage! He'll eat them!" Alystir flailed.

    "In his defense, we would have eaten them too in the beginning." Nathan gave Alystir a stubborn look that said he wasn't going to back down and he tossed the boy over his shoulder, wrapping his arm around his legs. The boy thrashed and gnashed his teeth for a few moments, then fell limp. "Let's go. You drive."

    "I'm telling you, Liam won't have anything to do with this.." Alystir shook his head as he headed toward the van, hoisting his gun and Nathan's over his shoulders.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "You're honestly going to go through with it?!" Alystir was aghast when they returned to the base and Liam was intrigued by the idea of fitting the savage boy with one of the devices.

    "It will be good research, training a savage zombie. What will he do if he cannot feed? That is his primary function, after all." Liam was following Nathan down the hall. Nathan was carrying the zombie boy who was desperately trying to get away to get at the luscious-looking human who appeared unbothered by the whole thing.

    Alystir on the other hand was quite disturbed. "Nathan, you yourself said you hate the experiments that they do on our kind, and you're condoning this?"

    Nathan shrugged. "I want a pet." He was studying the boy though with a sort of intensity that made Alystir curious, however. "I think I'll name him Quentin."