It’s an okay haul for a scavenging trip, tucked in the back of the truck. Two bottles of water. A jar of peanut butter. One of those survival rope bracelet things that rich people buy but never use.

Plus the infected kid trapped under a Prius.

He’s a rabbit, like me, short ears and tawny fur that’s darker around his face, maybe around 10 when the hordes got him. I don’t see many other rabbits around anymore. I’m not sure what got them, infection, other survivors, probably some combination of the two. Last one I saw was maybe a month ago. Her body was thrown in an alley, neck all torn open and black with rot.

The kid’s kinda cute, though.

“You got left behind too, huh?”

The thing snarls, reaching towards me with one free arm, veins in his elbow dyed jet-black by the infection. A bald spot near his shoulder is still swollen with black and red boils, probably where he was originally bitten. His scream is hoarse, dehydrated. The inside of his mouth is potmarked with holes. In each is a white, pulsating sack. I’ve seen their contents, infected corpses with their heads shot open. Broken skulls full to the brim with pale worms, needle-thin and writhing inside something that used to be a person.

“...You’re cuter with your mouth closed.”

I take a seat on the asphalt across from the kid. The hordes have already moved on from this town, called towards the coast, the same way that most survivors are probably going. The town’s some no-name cross-country pit-stop without a soul left living in it. Sidewalks choked with weeds. Silence broken only by the breeze. Roaches live in the gutted buildings, growing fat off the dead.

“I’m Jamie.”

“Rrrrr.” The kid growls.

“You really are cute. I wish you’d lived. I could’ve brought you to live with me, kept you safe.”

He stays quiet, eyes still locked on me.

I lean back, my eyes losing focus. “I used to work at this mall, right?” I pause. Wait for a response that doesn’t come. “There was this kid that came in all the time, every Friday after school. He looked a lot like you, same fur color, maybe a year older. Had this really big smile whenever a new game came out. He only bought one every few months, though. I wish I’d bought him one, done something nice for him.”

	I wait.

“That would’ve been creepy, huh?”

The thing bares his buck teeth. I look away from his mouth.

“This one time, God…” I close my eyes, putting my head in my paws. “I… I heard him say he was going to the bathroom. I left the register, went into the stall next to him. I jacked off the whole time he was in there, thinking about him with his pants down, looking at his feet under the divider…”

My ears perk. Pulse racing. My paws start to shake. Anyone could’ve heard that. They’d hear, they’d know and they’d come after me and-

“Gggah.” The kid under the car huffs. A weak snarl with no life in it.

No one else comes.

Paws still shaking, I rub the front of my pants. “I’m really fucked up, huh? Wanting to f-fuck little boys like you…” The kid just stares at me. God, I’m already really hard…

I tug down my fly, pulling my dick out in the middle of the empty street. The orange stripe of fur across my torso cuts off just below my navel. My cock’s surrounded by musty, coal-black fur. With how pent-up I am, my boxers have another wet spot. I wish I could wash these, but I haven’t found soap in weeks.

“You’d have come with me, right? If you were normal?” I start pawing off, staring at the kid. The pink tip of my cock winks into view as  I stroke it. “We could go back to the cabin. I’d teach you to drive on the back roads. There’s only one bed, so we’d have to share it.”

He reaches out to drag himself toward me. Doesn’t work. Most of the nails on the kid’s paw are missing, ripped out at the bed and scabbed over in wiry black growths.

“You’d want to touch it, huh?” I’m pretty close, my balls pulling up as I point my dick at the kid’s face and pull my foreskin back. “Yeah, you’d be okay with sleeping naked, right? I’m a cool adult, and you’d want to do anything I did. When you woke up with morning wood you’d be all embarrassed, then be really happy when I told you I liked it.”

My breath is ragged.

“Y-you’d… you’d lie on your back, l-let me touch your cute little-”

I cum, shooting a thin line across the pavement. A drop lands on the kid’s paw. He shrinks back. I’m dripping and sauced with happy chemicals when the kid heaves, screaming as he tries pushing himself free of the car, his arms and back pushing and pushing-

He collapses. No progress. All that effort for nothing.

I should leave. My dick’s spent, brain winding down from the rush of dopamine. I’m burning daylight. I should get out of here.

“Do you like video games?”

The kid’s chest is still heaving.

“I played a lot of WoW, was one of my guild’s best raiders. We were usually one of the first 10 groups on our server to clear new dungeons.”

He still isn’t saying anything.

“What did you play? Were you into Roblox, or were you too old for that?”

He’s quiet. I stand up. I feel weak, tired, but my fur is still crawling with tension. Fuck. I want a hug. The kid’s dead and a monster and full of alien worms from Area 51 or some shit, and I want to hug him. Hug some kid. Somebody.

“You ever try speedrunning? I was kind of a big deal. I spent months grinding for the world record on Silent Hill 2.”

Silence.

“I held it for, like, 3 weeks.”

Silence.

Metal clangs. “Why won’t you fucking ANSWER ME?!” I’ve kicked the car. The boy thrashes, trying to grab me. His paw hits pavement and I stomp on it. “JUST SAY ANYTHING!” He’s screaming. I’m screaming. Fuck. I kick him in the jaw. Shut up. Close your monster mouth. Just stop, fuck.

He stops. I suck air. My face is wet.

The kid pants, cheek bruising ink-black.

“...I had, like, 100 subscribers on YouTube. Well, almost 100.”

Nothing.

“You don’t like WoW, do you? I shouldn’t have led with that.”

“Waawh.”

I stop breathing for a second. “You… you do like it? Say it again!”

“Waawh.” The kid’s voice is flat, empty, like he can’t get enough air into his lungs.

“Yeah, WoW! I knew you’d be into it! You probably played Paladin, right? Handsome, brave kid like you?” I laugh. It sounds wet and sick. “Yeah, perfect! We can be, like raiding buddies!”

I grab the rope bracelet and break it apart. This is stupid. No telling what shape his legs are in. They can live awhile with limbs missing, but not forever. This is so fucking stupid, but smart is going back to an empty cabin to days weeks months of waiting to die alone. Fuck that.

Getting the car off him takes some doing, but there’s an intact enough board nearby that I can make a basic lever. The vehicle only lifts a few inches, but it’s enough. Legs are mostly intact, just bruised to hell and back. One of his feet might be broken. The boy doesn’t resist much, probably spent most of his energy already. Pressing his face into the pavement, I tie him up as best I can and throw him into the bed of the truck.

I get in and start the engine. We’re going to have a beautiful life together. I’m going to get my guts ripped out and eaten. Who even cares anymore? Just give me something, I need something to keep going for. Please. 

Please.