"Wait what?!"

Remi retorted in disbelief.

"No emotional breakdown? Existential crisis? Nothing? I mean dude you literally just learnt that the world ended."

"Well, there's absolutely no reason for me to break down. My life was rather.....unique before this. So honestly, accompanying you in the apocalypse seems much more normal."

Remi stared at the boy in disbelief. ' This kid's crazy', he thought.

"Um....well before I can adventure alongside someone I need to get to know 'em and they need to know me. So I'll tell you a bit about myself and you'll tell me about yourself."

He said after he got his bearings, after all, he'd seen a fair share of people go mad these past two months and who knows how long the kid in front of him was stuck in that car. A few screws must've gone loose during that time. Plus Zane didn't seem to have any ulterior motive and a well-meaning teammate would be good.

"Ah, that's true. Ok, so Remi...tell me about yourself. " Zane responded politely.

Both he and Remi proceeded to sit down on the pharmacy's floor.

"Ok, so my full name is Remi Adler. I'm 16 years old and uh...I'm a random pathfinder trying to survive. My family died when the apocalypse started so I've been on my own for a while." Remi said with a sigh.

"My condolences."

" What about you pipsqueak?"

"Very funny. I may be short but compared to you a lot of people could be characterised as short."

They both shared a quick chuckle, although Remi noticed Zane's mouth didn't curl upwards as he laughed. It seemed almost robotic.

"My name's Zane...I do not have a surname, I'm 15 years of age and I've trained to be a butler my entire life."

"Trained to be a butler?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Yes, that's exactly what I just said. "

He replied as if that was completely normal.

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"I was born from two selected adults with suitable traits, then trained to assist a master one day. I was meant to be sent to them...God knows how long ago but it seems this apocalypse prevented that."

"Dude, that's practically child slavery."

".....That's true, I never thought about it that way."

Both of them sat in silence for a bit.

"Um, well is your....master in Detroit?"

"No, they are apparently in California. They must be dead now considering I was told they were an adult."

"Ah, I see. "

Remi replied as he lowered his gaze to the floor and glanced at Zane from the corner of his eye. Zane's face was still unchanging and indifferent, he didn't look happy nor did he look sad in fact no emotion could be seen on his face. It was a tad scary even for a friendly person like Remi. Noticing the awkward environment, Zane asked.

"Anyways, how did you learn so much about...well everything? "

" Oh, everybody that was 18 and under learnt a lot of things when the monsters came about like their names, how they look like and such, not everything but a decent amount of info. It just kinda popped into our heads. "

"That's tricky...I was hoping you'd know a bit more, it's good you know something at least. Seeing as I do not know anything for some reason. " Zane said calmly before going deep into thought.

"Why don't we get some new clothes? I've been wearing the same ones for two weeks and yours are pretty much destroyed." Remi asked brightly.

They both headed to the clothing store and picked out a few clothes and headed to the dressing rooms. After a few minutes, they came out. Zane was wearing a baggy black sweater with the collar of a white shirt poking out, black trousers and black sneakers, with a large bag of the same repeating colour hung on his shoulders, while Remi wore an unbuttoned red flannel shirt with a grey t-shirt underneath, a pair of navy blue jeans and blood red sneakers on with a brown bag slung over one of his shoulders.

"You look nice."

"As do you, I will be back in a second I have to get a few things, you can start heading out."

Remi nodded as Zane hurriedly left the clothing store. He wondered what Zane would pick up. After some time, Zane walked towards Remi with his bag looking bulkier than before and handed him a wooden bat.

"Due to your slightly built frame, I assumed this would be the best weapon for you. It is unwise to head out unarmed."

"Oh. Thanks, dude. I actually played a bit of baseball before all this haha.... "

Remi felt a tad bit embarrassed that he never bothered to get a weapon for himself and shoved it into his bag as they both headed to the entrance he came in from.

He pulled out the beam from the door handles and led Zane outside, they walked a bit and heard a strange buzzing sound.

"Oh shit."

Remi turned around to see the atrocious pixie from before flying towards them at top speeds, so fast that it looked like a pink ball. He quickly tried to pull out his bat but before he could make another movement, he heard the pixie screaming in pain. Zane had impaled it with a kitchen knife.

"Interesting....it seems to bleed some kind of pink liquid. I should package it for further studying, it might be useful."

He said as he grabbed its squirming tiny body, pulled out an empty medicine bottle from his bag and squeezed its blood into it.

He wiped the blood off his fingers with a few tissues that were kept in his bag as well and put the medicine bottle back inside.

"Let's be on our way now."

Remi quickly nodded and followed Zane, wondering what might happen with this unique kid by his side.