HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎆🎊🎈🍾🎉

Ok, now that I've gotten that out of my system, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy!

Ethan's POV

Mom had been keeping watch by the door while I stayed with Tony, he had now been passed out for several hours at least, but he was still breathing. I was holding the shirt, which was slowly filling with blood, onto the stump of his arm.

Maybe we cut it off soon enough, maybe he'll survive this. He's strong, as long as we cut his hand off soon enough he'll definitely make it.

"Ethan, get something to eat, there's some granola bars in my bag." Mom said from the front of the restaurant.

"I'm not hungry Mom, we should save them." I responded without taking my eyes off the wall I was staring at.

"Ok, fine. But are you really not hungry, or are you just to worried to eat?" She asked.

"I'm just..." I started to say.

I'm totally worried...

"I'm just not hungry, really, that's it." I finished as I finally took my eyes off the wall and looked over at her, I saw that she was looking at me, concern showing on her face.

"... Ok Ethan, but those bars are there if you want them." She said before looking back out the door.

I didn't respond, instead I looked down at Tony's now very pale face.

"Mom... I think he's loosing to much blood! He's getting very pale!" I said as I put more pressure on the amputation.

She ran over and lifted his arm up in the air and took over my job of holding the shirt and applying pressure.

"See if you can find something here that we can use to wrap his arm." She said calmly.

How can she be so calm?!

I ran into a bathroom and looked for toilet paper, as that is the only thing I could think of that might work right now with our limited supplies. I found a relatively full roll and ran back out to Mom and Tony.

"Get a different shirt, one that's not covered in blood, you should have an extra or two in your bag." She said as I set the toilet paper on the table.

I rummaged through my bag and pulled a shirt out of it and gave it to Mom.

She used the blood-covered shirt to clean up a little more blood before switching to my clean shirt.

"Now start wrapping the shirt up against the wound. I'll hold it down until you can get it held down without me." She said.

I nodded and began wrapping the toilet paper around Tony's arm, bleeding wrist, and my shirt. I eventually had wrapped it enough for Mom to let go, but I was running out of paper, she ran into the woman's bathroom and came out with a somewhat full roll and an almost used up roll.

"Hopefully this will be enough." She said as she walked over to me and set the rolls on the table.

I kept wrapping the paper around his arm and the shirt until it mostly stayed together.

"Here, use this packing tape to make sure it doesn't fall off." Mom said as she pulled some tape out of her bag.

I finished off the homemade bandage by wrapping it in packing tape and it seemed to work.

"Now we just have to wait for him to wake up." I said as I sat down next to Tony.

-Time Skip-

It's been hours... it's already getting dark out, the deadheads finally spread back out after giving up on getting our fresh meat in their stomachs. We found a little more food around the restaurant, Mom and I have each eaten a granola bar, and Tony still hasn't woken up.

"Mom... do you think he's gonna wake up soon?" I asked as we looked down at the unconscious boy.

"Yeah, I think we just need to give him time. Once he wakes up he'll need food and water, we have the food, but we're all out of water. I'll go on a run and hopefully by the time I get back he'll be up and ready for food and water." She said as she got herself ready to go out on her run.

"I don't like that you're going out there alone, you know what happened when we got separated and Tony was on his own." I said as I gestured down at him.

"Yeah, I know, I've done this before, and he is going to need that water once he wakes up. Stay here, make sure nothing happens while I'm gone, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I lost both of you in one night. I'll be back soon, I promise." She said before putting her gut and blood covered blanket back on over herself and walking out into the street.

I really hate this... Tony's still unconscious, Mom is going out on a run by herself, and we have no idea how many deadheads are out there, we have no idea if we'll be able to escape.

"E... Ethan..." I heard a raspy voice snap me out of my thoughts.

I looked down at Tony and saw his eyes were open.

"Oh my god! You asshole! Do you have any idea how long you've been out?! Any clue as to how worried my mom and I have been?!" I whisper shouted as I helped him sit up against the wall.

He just smirked before moving his arm and looking at the stump that was covered in toilet paper.

"You know... I can still feel it... my hand. I'm flipping you off right now." He said as he switched his gaze from the stump to me and smirked again.

Even after loosing his hand, he still has a sense of humor? Unbelievable!

"I cannot believe that you have a sense of humor, I mean, you just lost a hand, and you sit here, saying that you're flipping me off with a finger that is way over there, and not attached to your body anymore." I said as I pointed over to where we had put the hand, as we didn't really know what to do with it.

"You... kept my hand... after cutting it off?" He asked.

I nodded and his eyes widened.

"¿Qué demonios? Just throw it outside or something! What the fuck... that's really weird, man... really fucking weird." He said as he looked away from the hand. (When Tony spoke Spanish he said "What the hell?!" I used google translate so it could very easily be wrong, if so and you speak Spanish, please let me know the correct way to say it and I'll fix it, thanks!)

"We didn't know what to do with it!" I whisper screamed back as I went over to the hand, which we had wrapped in my moms bloody shirt after replacing hers with mine.

"Well, now you do, throw it outside." He said.

I grabbed the wrapped up hand and went over to the door. There were no nearby deadheads so I quickly opened the door and tossed the bundle outside. After that I closed the door and went back over to Tony.

"There, you happy now?" I asked.

"Sure. You wouldn't happen to have some food and water? Because I'm fucking starving and thirsty." He said.

"Well, we have some food here, but my mom went out to go find water because we ran out." I answered.

"She went out there by herself?" He asked.

"Yeah, I didn't like it either, but we weren't gonna just leave you here alone. My mom also wanted me to stay to make sure nothing happened." I answered.

"Damn. Well, I'll take some of that food while we wait." He said.

I nodded and grabbed two granola bars from my bag and gave them to him. He ate the two bars and then we sat and talked while we waited for Mom to get back.

-Time Skip-

"Ethan?! You still here?" Came Mom's voice from the entrance.

Tony and I had walked into the back storage area of the restaurant to see if there was anything I had missed when I searched it earlier.

"Back here Mom. Tony woke up, he's here with me." I said as I walked back to the seating area where Mom was leaning against a table and breathing heavily.

"Ummmm... Jennifer, you ok?" Tony asked when he saw my mom.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Just had to make a run for it because I almost got surrounded, so I need to catch my breath a bit. Here, there's a couple water bottles in that, drink some." She said as she tossed her bag to the ground in front of us.

Tony opened the bag and pulled out a water bottle and drank it.

"Thanks Jennifer, for the water, but also for saving me. I may only have one hand now, but at least I'm alive." He said after drinking the last of the water from the bottle.

"Yeah, no problem, we're glad you're still with us." She said as she smiled.

"So, What are we gonna do now? We can't stay here, but where are we gonna go?" I asked.

"I was thinking we head north, up towards Dallas, maybe find a farm or something where we can live." Mom answered.

"Sounds great, let's get the hell outta here." Tony said as he swung my moms bag over his shoulder and walked towards the door.

"Yeah, yeah let's go. I don't want to stay in this city any longer." Mom said as she followed him.

I picked up my bag and walked out the door with them. Tony now had my knife, Mom had hers, and I had the pipe. We all ran, killing deadheads as we went if we had to, until we reached the road that led out of the city.

"Maybe one of these cars will work." I said as we stopped by several cars that were parked along the sides of the road.

"It can't hurt to try." Mom said as she walked over to one of the cars. "I'll try and hot-wire this one, Ethan you do that one." She said as she pointed to another car. "Tony see if you can find anything around here we can use." She finished.

Tony and I both nodded and then went about our tasks. I tried to hit-wire my car, but it wouldn't start so I went to a different one.

I guess Mom's not having any luck either, she's on car number three.

Suddenly the car I was currently trying to hit-wire jumped to life.

Yes!

"I got it! This one works!" I shouted as I got out of the car.

Both Mom and Tony came over to the car, Mom got in the drivers seat, I sat in the passengers seat, and Tony laid down in the back seat.

"Let's get the hell outta here." We all said together as Mom started to drive away, towards Dallas.

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I also hope you had a great New Years, I'm looking forward to writing a lot this year, and I hope you're looking forward to reading what I write.

Anyway, Tony survived! Yay!

He lives to die another day!

...

Oops... I shouldn't have said that...

...

Heh... ummmmmm...

Pfh...

Tony's not gonna die... or maybe he will... I guess you'll have to wait and see... *evil cackling*

Question Time!

1. What do you think about Tony so far?

2. When do you think our two groups, Ethan's group and Team Family (or what's left of it... 😭) are gonna meet up?

3. What do you think that they will find on their way to Dallas?

Ok, that's it for now guys! I hope to be able to write and update again later tonight, but I don't know if it'll happen.

THANKS FOR READING!