#tfc-net

“If we were in the zombie apocalypse, who would you bring?” she asked. Andrew didn’t know, but Renee told Kevin and Aaron to pack a bag for him. She promised to get him on that plane.

Andrew just smiled wider. “What’s your game, Walker? Think you’re going to convince me to get on that death trap with you by coming up with some fanciful distraction? Think again,” he said, holding the knife between their faces as he leaned forward. “That’s not how I want to go out.”

“I was just curious,” Renee said. “Five people on your team. I would save you, Abby, Betsy, Allison, and Wymack. We would have the best chance of survival, I think.”

He snorted, still sitting close but the knife lowered. Renee was sitting in front of his beanbag and he was half sitting on it, half kneeling in front of her, and fiddling with the knife in his lap. “Abby and Wymack would be too busy making out. Allison is strong but too slow. Bee would play martyr and sacrifice herself.”

Aaron and Kevin walked into the room with backpacks. Aaron had one, Kevin had two. They kept walking, not paying any mind to the two on the floor, even as Andrew eyed them both suspiciously.

“Why does Kevin have two bags, Renee?”

“I do believe I heard Nicky saying that he forgot his in the room,” she hummed. Nicky had packed his the night before and snuck it into the boy’s room, where he was now with Seth and Matt. The fifth years were with Wymack, probably helping to get everything organized because “they owe me some sanity.”

Dan came around, peeking her head in the door. “Two minutes,” she said. “Coach is more than willing to leave without us.”

“Would you like to at least accompany me to the airport? I want to heard your lineup.”

Huffing, Andrew stood and slipped the knife back into his sleeve. Renee got up after him.

Dan took Renee’s bag down to the bus while she and Andrew went empty handed. He didn’t seem eager to take his own car, or maybe he just didn’t think about how he would get home. He was missing a few links lately, he saw. He blamed Walker and her damn friendship.

After being convinced by Kevin and, over the phone, Bee (he was only just learning to trust her), he let Renee take him through the airport on the condition that Kevin kept carrying his stuff.

When it was time to board their flight, Andrew went ridgid. Aaron waved a hand in front of him, standing from a safe distance. Everyone but him and Renee had boarded already, even Wymack with the orders of “get him on the fucking plane.”

Fumbling with his phone, Aaron pulled up Bee’s number and held the phone to Andrew’s ear.

“What’s up?” she asked through the receiver.

“They’re making me board the death trap, is all,” Andrew replied, much to cheery. He had skipped his meds and they were wearing off. He held his hand out to Aaron and he fished his brother’s meds out of his bag, handing him a dose and a bottle of water that he was carrying.

He took his meds while Bee talked. “Andrew, nowadays planes don’t just crash. We’ve come a long way since those horror stories you read. There’s excellent security, engineering, the whole bit. The ante’s been upped a lot.”

He listened to her talk while Renee walked his numbing body through the gate. Aaron showed all three of their tickets. He wasn’t Renee’s biggest fan, but he could respect her comradery.

They got on the plane and the flight attendant went on about safety - they were the last ones on and just in time - while Andrew zoned, picking at the skin on his knuckles and comfortable sitting between his brother and Renee for now. Until the flight started.

She looked down, frowning at the red digs that were close to bleeding. She dug a stress ball from her bag and Andrew made an exaggerated scowl at it. She put it back and got a pen for him. He took it, albeit reluctantly, and fiddled it with both hands. He snapped off the clip at the top and they were almost done taxing before Renee started talking.

“So, who’s on your team?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

He grinned a little. “Are you really still trying to distract me?”

She held her hand open, palm up, between them. He took it and she wrapped her fingers between his and while he didn’t make any effort to squeeze hers back, his fingers clenched hers and his nails dug at her skin.

“Just tell me who,” she urged.

The plane began to lift off the ground. He couldn’t stop thinking about it but told Renee anyway, because it was better to have multiple focuses.

“I wouldn’t take anyone,” he said. “If you want to follow me that’s fine, but you’ll be on your own.”

Renee smiled a bit, if only in exasperation. “That seems about right for you, Andrew. I hope you’ll want to take someone with you, someday.”

Andrew and Aaron switched seats as soon as the light signaled they could move. He tried to get up sooner, but a flight attendant glared at him when he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Thank you,” Aaron whispered to her, not all manners lost to him, when his brother put in earbuds. Andrew had snapped the body of the pen in half beside him, the ink cartridge thankfully intact, and Renee fished a new one out of her bag while Aaron talked. “You could have been a monster, you know?”

“Would you like it if I was?” she asked with a knowing smile. He looked at his feet and grumbled. “I’ll stay an honorary monster. That’s what Andrew called me last week, at least.”