"... Lucas" He said while holding his spear tight. Both he and Sarah were still standing inside the territory of the shelter and if the family of four just a few meters away wanted to try something funny, he could just activate the barrier.
"It's good to meet you, Lucas. Do you know anything about what this place is?" The man based with a calm face yet Lucas could tell the desperation in his eyes. He wanted his family to survive, just like him.
"We also don't know what happened and how we got here." Sarah spoke and stood right beside Lucas not wanting to be a burden anymore.
"That is a house, right? How did you get it, man?" The man on the side asked with a small grin. Lucas found the guy annoying who tried to comment on every single thing his father and him were talking about.
"Let's leave these things aside, I know what you came here to do, but sorry... I won't be able to accommodate any more people." Lucas said with a small courtesy. Sarah looked at him with worry, he was going to abandon a family with elder people just because there was less space.
It was not like they couldn't live in this place. But Sarah had no way to ask him for letting them inside, she had no means as the shelter was not hers to begin with.
"Lucas... If I am being honest, this place is very dangerous and you both were the first we found after we arrived here. Don't you think we should help each other out in this place?" The man said again with reluctance, Lucas could tell he was a prideful man just by looking at his face. He could tell because his father always made the same face.
"... How can I trust you? You can kill me and her for all I know."
The four of them looked at Lucas with complicated faces.
"Why would we kill you bro? Do we look like murderers to you?" The man on the side said with a frown as is offended by his words.
"Sarah... what do you think?" Lucas threw a gaze at her and asked for her opinion.
"Mr.John, You might know what he fears." She said and stopped getting a slight nod from him and continued, "We all are strangers but at this point, I don't think it matters. This place is very dangerous and if we are a big group, we have better chances to survive." Sarah said without making any eye contact fearing that she was blabbering nonsense.
Lucas for the first time smiled in front of them thinking that she was acting too cute. His gaze became serious again. He was going to say something but was interrupted by John.
"I can tell why you are worried, young man... If you are not comfortable with us being here, we can leave."
"Dad!"
"Please don't shout," Sarah said while looking everywhere with vigilance making others remember that it was dangerous to speak loud.
"Uh... okay." The man blushed while looking at Sarah and averted his gaze getting a sigh from his mother.
"I don't want to be rude anymore, sorry you had to bear with this but I don't want to mess up the plan of meeting my family. Also, how did you find this place?" Lucas said and asked at the end.
'Honestly, I don't know what I am even doing right now... should I even trust these guys? But... they are humans and their state is the same as Sarah's.' In his mind, he could only think about this stuff.
Lucas had no experience in handling these things so the only proper way was to be the blunt guy to not be dilly-dallied by the others.
John looked to his left and pointed at the camp which made Lucas frown. He couldn't tell what was wrong with the fire until his gaze went up.
"S-Shit" Lucas went toward the fire while feeling excruciating pain. The fire was already extinguished yet the smoke came out without stopping so he started throwing soil over it.
But his back went numb from pain in between which led to him falling to the ground.
"L-Lucas!" Sarah exclaimed and went running toward him, and so did the others. Lucas couldn't think much other than controlling his scream due to the pain.
He bit his lip while trying to grit his teeth which didn't come to his notice even when his lip started bleeding.
Sarah came to him and tried to give him support yet Lucas pushed her as it pained a lot.
"D-Don't" Lucas's legs straightened and he laid on the ground completely trying to lighten the pain.
"What do I do?... What do I do?..." Sarah started panicking again while biting her thumb again. She was not prepared enough to handle these situations.
"What is happening? Is he hurt?" John came close and crouched toward the squirming Lucas who looked in a lot of pain.
"D-Dad, don't go near. He might be becoming a zombie..."
"Shut up, Sean, and come here to help."
"Ugh, this is how every zombie movie starts." The guy said with a groan and went toward them.
"Lucas got injured when we were fighting that thing, his back is in a lot of pain." Sarah said while still biting her nail in panic. John's wife, Ella, came toward Sarah and hugged her while caressing her head to help her calm down.
John moved Lucas's t-shirt up, his eyes widened in shock with how big the bruise was. Even Sarah became paler than before.
"W-What the hell is up with that injury? Why is the skin moving on its own?" Barney, the other son asked while stepping back.
"His back is cramping, dear. What do we do?" Ella was starting to panic too while she looked at John.
Lucas was not even aware that everyone was looking at his bruise on the back.
It was all alright if the bruise pained alone which was happening all this while but Lucas, after trying to put out the smoke quickly, unfortunately, got a cramp right where the whole bruise and injury were.