Marinette slipped on a pair of nursing gloves and an ear-loop mask to check the body over, trying to find the cause of his turning. She sighed as she saw nothing a long the lines of a bite, so she grabbed a clean cotton bud and took a sample of his saliva. She was making a small collection of DNA types to see if she can get a scientist to experiment with it and find a diagnosis as to why this is happening.

She brushed his hair away from his eye, only to find that there was no eye beneath the red locks that covered half of his face. There was just an empty socket. "Oh, Nathaniël. Why you of all people?" She said sadly, her voice slightly muffled by the mask she wore over her mouth and nose.

She didn't want to drag him out like she did with the ones she didn't know, so she picked him up in both her arms and put him down gently outside the back entrance of the bakery. She waved sadly at his lifeless body before turning away from him. "Rest in peace, Nathan." She mumbled.

She went to the bathroom to have a shower to wash off any bacteria she might have picked up. There didn't seem to be many more walkers around the bakery, so she decided to take her chances. She took off the used gloves without touching the parts that made contact with the corpse. She put them together and threw them away, along with the mask.

She stripped and untied the bloody bandage from her arm. It was still bleeding a bit, but she stepped under the shower anyway. She cringed a little as the water cleansed her wound, making it sting.

A little while later, she had finished and gotten dressed. She threw away the clothes she had on and changed into clothes that were exactly the same as the ones she had on before, because gain, it was a white T-shirt and pink pants that she had ripped. She slipped on a pair of ankle socks and her new daps before she headed down the stairs.

She froze on the third step, her eyes wide. There was something in the bakery...she could hear it. Footsteps treading across the hard floor, pots and pans clattering. She rolled her eyes and grunted before heading back to her room to grab a pistol.

She slowly walked down the steps, breathing quietly. She peered into the bakery to see a male rummaging through her bakery. She was happy it wasn't a walker, but unhappy that it was a thief. "Hey! You there! What d'ya think you're doing?!" She yelled, holding the gun to his head. He stood up straight and held his hands up in surrender.

"I'm Sorry! I was looking for something to eat! I thought this place was empty! Please don't kill me!" He yelled. Marinette raised an eyebrow. She turned him around by his shoulder and almost gasped at how beautiful this guy was. Blonde hair that shined like the sun, sun kissed skin and eyes of a grass-like green that twinkled under the lights of the bakery. He was the most attractive male she had ever seen. She shook away the thought as she took the gun away from his head.

"Alright fine. Take what you need and go. Just don't take a lot. There's still myself, my parents and my best friend to feed. Don't forget that there's an empty grocery store and supermarket down the street...the owners were either turned or killed." She said, blowing her hair out of her face. She jumped up to sit on the edge of the counter and watched as he packed two muffins, a few macaroons, some brownies and some cookies.

He looked up at her and smiled. "Thanks." Marinette shrugged.

"Anytime. But, are you sure you have enough for your family and girlfriend?" She asked, assuming that this shirtless toned boy wasn't alone in the love department.

He smiled at her sadly. "It's just me. My father is away in Italy, he arrived there a year ago, my mother left when I was young and I don't have a girlfriend. I did however have a girl friend...a friend of the female gender that is, Lila. But she was killed by a police man with terrible aim, it happened two days ago. He tried to shoot a zombie, but...missed?" Marinette cringed.

"Ooh. Sorry to hear that. I was shot by a police officer yesterday... obviously not quite like that, though." His eyes looked her over.

A light blush filled his cheeks as he noticed that her top was slightly wet due to water falling from her hair and wet patches on her body, and being as her top was white, it went see through, showing him patches of her pink bra and flat stomach. He cleared his throat. "I uh...I don't see any damage." She smirked at where his eyes were directed.

"Not down there you won't" she chuckled. She got down from the counter and walked over to him. "I was shot here." She showed him her shoulder and his eyes widened.

"Woah! Doesn't that hurt?"

Marinette shrugged and turned her back to him to walk behind the counter to get her fanny-pack. He bit his lip at the sight of her white thong leading into the inside of her pink shorts. She put some more disinfectant on the wound and wrapped it back up with a fresh bandage. "It hurts when I clean it, move it a lot or touch it." She said. "But other than that, it's fine." She walked back over to him. She rolled her eyes as she realised he was now staring at the front of her white thong. But she smiled anyway, using two of her fingers under his chin, she pushed his head up so that he looked her in the eye. "Eyes are up here, pervert."

He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He put his hand out for her to shake. "Adrien. Adrien Agreste." Marinette's jaw dropped. How did she not notice? Stood before her was her idol's own flesh and blood. She mentally face palmed, she had seen his face all over Paris and didn't even realise that he was standing right in front of her. Dumb much?

"Agreste? As in Gabriel Agreste?" She asked, limply shaking his hand. He nodded.

"...Yeah. I'm his son. You a fan of his?"

"A fan? I idolise him! He is my inspiration!" She exclaimed.

"Inspiration?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh." She chuckled awkwardly. "I'm a designer...I even designed my mother and father's logo...but that was five years ago, when I was fifteen." She smiled. "I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng by the way."

"What a beautiful name. I'll have to see your designs at some point...maybe sometime after the apocalypse?" He smirked, getting on one knee and kissing the back of her hand. She nodded, a slight blush spreading across her cheeks. "That settles it. It's a date." He winked, standing up. She smiled dreamily as he turned his back, waving. Her eyes widened as she saw a huge gash down his back.

"Adrien? What happened to your back?" She asked.

"Hm?" He turned around. "Oh, that was Lila. We were stood back to back when she went to cut the head off a zombie, but she caught me as she swung the sword above her head."

"Com'ere. I can help." He walked over to her and she picked up some cotton pads and the disinfectant. He turned his back to her.

"This might sting a little." She said, holding his shoulder and pressing the cotton pad against his wound. He cringed and seethed a little. Marinette bit her lip, entranced by the way his muscles tensed. She fought the urge to move her hand and caress his bicep. "Oh, and I know that I'm not the boss of your vocabulary, but the word 'zombie' to describe these creatures is a word I don't like. Simply because it makes this apocalypse sound like a crappy, fictional horror movie, video game or kid's programme... which it's not. It's much scarier than that. We fear of ourselves and our friends and family being eaten or killed; and because this is real life, we can't regenerate. We stay dead. See what I mean? This is why I prefer the terms walker, undead, creature or lost soul." She explained. Adrien nodded in understanding.

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind." He replied.

"Adrien. If you would like to stay with me and my family, you're welcome to, if you like."

"Sure. I have nowhere else to go, so why not?" They stood, smiling at each other as they stared into one another's eyes as if this wasn't an apocalypse, but instead a real life cliché romance movie.

They both snapped their heads in the direction of the door. "Marinette!" A sweaty, teary eyed, panting Alya yelled.

"Alya?!"

"Mari!! You're parents! I tried to save them! But...but..." Marinette felt her heart drop. One perfectly happy moment torn to shreds as she thought the worst.

"Alya...calm down, then tell me." She suddenly found it hard to breathe, she didn't think she wanted to know what had happened. Alya took a few deep breaths before attempting to explain.

"Marinette...you're parents are dead." She struggled with a shaky voice. "Well. They now walk among the undead...they were bitten more than once. I tried to save them, but once Sabine had been bitten the first time, the police officers held me back. I tried to break free and use my baseball bat, but they took it away! And by the time I broke free and got it back...they had already gone." Alya hung her head in shame, blaming herself. "I'm sorry... it's all my fault. I should've tried harder."

"Don't blame yourself, Alya. I had the most weapons; I should've gone with you." Marinette replied, a tear running down her cheek. She wiped it away and went up the stairs. She got to the middle step when Alya ran to the bottom of them.

"Don't say that, Mari! You were keeping our base safe while we went to venge for as many survival items as possible! If you weren't here, you wouldn't have saved..." She turned her head to the boy by the counter. "No way!" Alya walked towards him, resting one hand on his shoulder, using the other to move his head from side to side and up and down. Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Adrien Agreste?!" Alya turned her head. "And he's shirtless. Gurl you have some explaining to do." She grinned.

"Oh please. Nothing like that happened, Alya." She walked down the steps. "You know me. I'm no Chloé Bourgeois. I don't throw myself at every attractive man that comes into my life like," She turned around to Adrien, putting her arms around his neck and lifting her knee to his hip, trailing a finger down the middle of his chest and stomach, stopping at the waistband of his skinny jeans. "Hey hotstuff. The name's Chloé Bourgeois and I'm twenty, hot and single. Wanna fuck me?" She removed herself from him, not really realising the amount of blush that appeared on his cheeks. "No. I had a shower, got dressed and went to come down to freshen up my wound. When I was on...pfft, I don't know, the fourth step? I heard the sound of footsteps and the pots and pans clattering. So I turned around to get a gun and headed downstairs only to find Adrien Agreste rummaging through our baked goods.

I didn't realise who he was at the time, so I held the gun to his head and asked him what he was doing here. He told me that he only needed something to eat and that he was alone and such. We spoke for a little while, I cleaned his wound for him, and yeah... he's one of us now." She turned around to Adrien and smiles at him. Alya looked between them, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh. Right. Okay." She turned back to Marinette. "But seriously, Mari. It's not your fault."

"Alya. You see it the way you see it, and I'll see it the way I'll see it. Alright? I'm going to my room. Don't stop me." She said, turning away from the two beings and heading up the stairs into her room. "Weapons are in the back if you need them." And with that, she left them alone to get the new, devastating, information into her head. Here parents were gone...There was no way she was going to get them back.

Alya and Adrien looked at each other and smiled sadly. Alya sighed, putting out a hand for him to shake. "Alya. Alya Cesaire." Adrien smiled at her and shook her hand. "I know who you are. You don't have to tell me." She smiled.

"I gathered." He chuckled.

A few hours passed and Alya had cooked dinner at least an hour ago, but Marinette still hadn't come down. Not once. There had been a few attacks and such, but not even that made her come down.

Adrien sighed and went to walk up the stairs. "Adrien? What are you doing? We've tried and nothing we did worked."

"That's when you try. I want to at least try to help...I know how she feels." He turned away and walked up the stairs. Alya sighed, giving in.

Adrien knocked on her trapdoor a few times. "Go away, Alya. If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: I'm not in the mood to talk." He heard the bluenette's broken voice come through the wooden object.

"Actually, it's Adrien. Will you please let me in?" 

She hesitated. "No. I'm sorry...I'm not in the mood to talk, Adrien."

"Alright, then I'll just have to sit on these steps until you are in the mood." He said, sitting down on the metal steps.

"No, there's really no need to-"

"-No. I insist." He cut her off, not taking no for an answer. He heard her sigh and heard the hatch unlock.

"You're not taking no for an answer, are you?"

"Nope."

~Well done to those who guessed Nathaniël. ^.^ ~