𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑾𝑨𝑳𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑬;
Pietro and his sister Wanda had been in this group not that long after all this started. Pietro didn't like this group at all, they just gave him a bad feeling; to the point he's genuinely surprised his sister didn’t pick up on it.
Maybe it was the fairly fresh trauma of seeing their parents dying, turned into...𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨...that wasn't human — but maybe it was because of this, that made all these red flags fly under the radar.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥; 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘢.
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.
✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶✶⊶⊶⊷❍❍⊶⊷⊷✶
Pietro was laid out on the ground, a mixture of fresh and drying blood coming from a wound on his head.
As his vision begins to blur, and the edges of his world starts to go dark, the last thing he sees is his sister, 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢, screaming for him, and two guys holding her back from running to him, effectively pulling her away from him.
He tries to speak...but nothing comes out.
While he does understand why they'd do that, considering the bite on his chest, Pietro tries to communicate to them; to 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳, that he was okay. From his place laying on the ground, his chest pressed against the grass and dirt, his head turns to the side so he could try to make eye contact with her; stretching out his arm, fingers twitching, trying to get her to see he's okay, he's 𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚.
Somehow, and he didn't know how exactly, but... 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘸...he was still okay!
The next thing Pietro knows is a 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱 pain in the back of his head, and finally... the darkness overtakes him.
What that pain was had been one of the men in their group hitting him in the back of the head with a rock...𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣.
Yes, he'd been bit, but they'd left him when faced with walkers, hitting him once with a rock that left him temporarily incapacitated, and even though he'd fought back, and even made it back to their camp; he'd clearly been bit.
But he never got the chance to tell Wanda, or confront the men, before the bite had been noticed and the momentary relief he felt was gone seconds later, as he's tackled to the ground, before he can say anything.
It was this second much harder blow from the rock that'd knocked him out.
𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 — 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳.
✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶✶⊶⊶⊷❍❍⊶⊷⊷✶
It's the pain that wakes him up, that makes him grit his teeth as he scrambles into a seated position. As his eyes scan the immediate surroundings, there's only one thought going through his head:
𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺.