Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse

"Were you ever actually planning to stay?"

Eyes drifted over to Basil, who had spoken then.

"Because I’m standing here trying to figure out whether you were just waiting for a reason to walk or not."

"Yes," Dion said. as he gave an understanding, faint smile, though he shook his head, "I was. But I also said it depended on what happened in the next few hours. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be what could have convinced me to stay."

Basil’s expression did not change, and Dion did not look away from it.

"When we were in my room and told you I’d stay, I meant it. We were on the same page. But the rain changed everything, and I can’t afford to wait with you anymore." He paused, and his voice hardened a little, his brows furrowing. "And for all of your sake, ill say it again, but this isn’t just about the hospital. It’s about what’s happening out there."

He looked at through rest of them as he nudged his head, gesturing outside of the building.

"The things we’re fighting are getting stronger faster than we are. You’ve experienced it yourselves. The zombies were slow on the first night, and now they’re faster and harder to kill. Then there are the Gnolls, and now normal animals are mutating—one of which has torn Marcus’s arm off. All of that happened within days of each other. If you sit here for another day waiting for Marcus to recover, who is to say that by then, you can even go looking for food six blocks from here without losing someone else?"

No one answered that.

"Every hour that passes in here without going out there to fight, the gap between what’s out there and what you can handle gets wider, and at the rate its going, very soon it could easily be so wide survival even for the awakened doesn’t seem as hopeful as it does right now. So, did I mean that I would be staying? Yes. But that had been me hopefully thinking that you all would have understood this reality, and now that it’s clear you are at least willing to try go against it by waiting, then I’ve changed my mind."

Basil took a step forward past them until he was standing closer to Dion than the rest of them.

"Why are you so set on this? What is it about that hospital that you can’t let go of?"

Dion did not answer immediately. The rain buzzed through the silence, and his eyes moved to the window at the end of the corridor, briefly, and within its curtain, the sight and sound of his first night replayed as he stood there for a few moments with his jaw a little tight before he spoke, loooking back at Basil.

"Because staying still means accepting that I’m powerless against everything that is happening, and I will not be reduced to that again. Not when I still have to go much farther than this city." He stopped briefly, and his expression gained a sharpness to it as he continued, "...And because I made a promise to someone who trusted me that I would find the person they care about in that hospital."

The corridor was quiet

"You’re... going all the way there for someone who’s more than likely already turned? Aren’t you just damn near throwing your life away? It would be a waste of time if their zombified..." Yara asked in surprise.

Dion looked at her only briefly.

"No, it wont. I’ll bring their corpse back so they can bury them."

No one had anything to say to that, while Basil’s particularly attentive gaze remained on Dion’s expression.

Anton exhaled and he said, "Then at least part of the way, we go together. We still need to go to the pharmacy, and there is one in the same direction. We can cover more ground as a group until our paths split, and even pick up food from any gas stations along the way."

Dion nodded. "That’s fine."

"We’ll get everyone ready to move, now," Anton said. He looked at Madeline, then at Yara.

They moved. Anton went first, back down the stairwell, and Madeline followed without looking at Dion as she passed him, yara leaving with her support. The woman’s leg was nowhere near as bad as she made it seem now.

’It’s good practice to keep the weight off it until she actually needs it though.’

At the same time, Basil stood for a moment longer, his eyes on Dion, and then he went after the others.

The corridor emptied, and it was just the two of them again.

Dion looked over at Paris, his brow raised.

"You didn’t tell them?"

Paris gave a bit of a guilty, nervous laugh as he averted his gaze, raising one of his hands to his cheek. "I would have caused trouble for you if I told them now. Its better I tell them when we’re outside already and about to split up."

"You’re one smartass, you know?"

"Coming from you, I’m sure its a great compliment, Mr. Dion."

"So, are you sure about this?" Dion finally asked. "Because I’m telling you now, I don’t want anyone with me who is going to chicken out later or turn on me. If you come, you going along for the ride all the way. No changing your mind halfway through."

"I’m sure," Paris said and his voice did not waver.

"Then go gather your things, if you have any. Say goodbye to whoever you need to."

Paris nodded, and then he paused.

"The people I was talking to before I came to find you," he said. "Some of them mentioned you brought a woman and a boy up here. The kid, he’s... where did you take them? They’re the only ones I’ve properly spoken to the most while being here."

Right then, Dion glanced to the direction of the door, and seeing where he was looking Paris did as well.

The handle fell, and the sound of it releasing sounded beneath the rain as the door opened.

"Hi, Paris."

~~~~

A/N: Putting this here because no one really reads the proper author notes.

Finally, it’s the 100th Chapter, and... it’s certainly been fun.

This is release 4 of probably 8, maybe 10 total. I’m stopping at 100 for now since it’s a nice round number, so expect 4-6 more depending on how much time I get to write.

Nevertheless, this mass release it to thank you all, genuinely, for reading this far. Comments especially mean a lot; MrMoon in particular is a big part of why I’m doing this at all.

This is my first serious NovelPhoenix (the villain one doesn’t count, neither do the old fanfics), so thanks for sitting through it with me.

Don’t worry, the Chapter itself is still over 1k words without this note.

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