Bang. A faint gunshot pulls me out of the thought trance I was in. “You heard that too, right?” Helen looks over at Doug, “Yeah, looks like we’ll be having company here soon” He replies back.

I haven’t been out here long, but I know it’s not going to end well if we get mixed into the middle of things. Earlier in life I was all for the greater good, risk a few people and myself if I had to, to save more. But with everything thrown into chaos, people doing whatever they pleased. There’s not much hope left for the human race as a whole, just have to protect yourself and the ones closest to you. That is the rules of an apocalypse.

As we get closer we make sure to keep out of sight, hiding behind whatever vehicles are around. We stop just far enough away to see some of the bigger aspects happening around, say about quarter of a mile away. There’s a woman kneeling beside a body on the ground, we can hear wailing as she’s gripping the body’s clothes.

“From the looks of it, husband or son, can’t quite tell from here” I mutter. “What are we going to do?” I hear Helen ask from side of me.

“Go into the forest a little ahead of schedule and continue on” I say to Doug as I look to him, he’s directly beside me and I can see everyone.

“What?!” Alexia glares at me. I close my eyes, “Look, I understand that you want to help, but there’s really nothing we can do” I reply back.

“What do you mean there’s nothing we can do?!” Helen also glares, oh emotional people.

“Huuu… I’m gonna regret this later. As much as I want to help too, I do see his point. Look at the situation. There’s more than twice as many of them as there are of us. We only have two pistols and they are well armed. They have a wall of stacked vehicles to hide behind while it’s open space in front of them.” Doug sighs “Priority on us, the only choice is to move on and forget it.”

After a few minutes Doug and I get ready to move, “Come one” Doug urges the other two. Helen, still glaring, gives in and starts to follow him to the treeline. Alexia on the other hand stays put. I crab walk over to her side and squat down, rest my arms on my thighs for low balance.

“I just, I feel so helpless and weak. I was in this situation the other day and couldn’t do anything. And now, I can’t do anything to help someone else in the same position” Alexia starts to tear up and muffle some sounds. I hang my head, “I understand, I really do. But I can’t risk any harm to the group, to you. If there was a sliver of a chance of getting out of that situation with no injuries then I would be all for it. But the world has become a selfish place, we have to think of ourselves before we can think and help others. I know this is hard, and if you have to, blame me. But I will not let anything bad happen to the people close to me again.” I rise up and waddle over to where the other two are hiding.

There’s no animals or monsters around, probably due to all the gunfire that goes off around here. We wait for Alexia to finally come over, we head deeper into the woods. It was a little ahead of what we planned on doing but not by much and also didn’t really matter where we started at. The only issue now is that we have to be on guard for any creatures that may be lurking around.

Doug pulls out a compass and the map, Helen and him triangulate where we’re currently at. We find the right direction and put the map away only to keep the compass out. The only big issue with this route is the fact there’s a cliff in the middle of it. We continue our journey until we need to stop to make camp.

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“Let’s see, Doug and Nick, you guys go gather some firewood and us girls will prepare the site” Helen ordered us out of sight. As we get out of earshot range, “What do you think they’re talking out?” I ask to Doug.

“Probably nothing good… man I’m gonna really get it this time” Doug replies. “Uh” I respond. “Oh, nothing” He shakes his head while chopping at some branches.

Flip to the Girls Side

Alexia is sitting on a log while Helen is making a place for the fire to go. “What do you think of Nick?” Alexia asks Helen. Helen stops and thinks about the posed question. “Frankly, I don’t really know. From what I’ve seen, he risks his life way too much but still is smart about it. But as a person, I think there’s many unseen sides to him we have yet to encounter. What do you think of him? Or feel?” Helen slips the last part out with a sly smile.

“Hey!” Alexia quickly responds then smothers the loud voice, “I only just met him the other day”.

“I’m only stating what I saw, plus apocalypse time days are like months to years” Helen ponders on the discussion she had with him earlier in the day. “Whatever it may be, it’s your decision. And not like it’s so easy to find someone good these days, and you’re not stealing Doug from me.”

“Ew, why would I do that?” Alexia makes a disgusted face. “Just saying. Still, earlier let a bad taste in my mouth, but I guess he did make the choice with my safety as priority” Helen shivers “best to keep the past in the past I guess”.

We hear footsteps coming toward us, Helen ready’s her gun. “We’re baaaack” Doug calls out. Helen lowers the gun.

Everyone helps put up two tents and get the fire going. We pull out some food and drink, we’re starting to run out of water, going to have to find a stream soon. “You all get some sleep, I’ll take first watch” I say to everyone. Everyone looks up at me questionably, “It’s fine, It’s fine. Go get some shut eye.”

Around 30 minutes after they went to sleep, I hear some weird sounds coming from one of the tents. (It’s inside the tent, so whatever), it starts to get louder. I cup my face with my hands, (You have got to be kidding me, now of all time) stifled moans come from the couple’s tent. I faintly hear a voice “shh, or he’ll hear us” I’m tempted to make a remark but I end up just shaking my head.

A few hours later I hear one of the tents zippers, Alexia steps out. I’m relaxed against a tree near the heat of the fire, far enough away that it won’t caught fire though. She sits on a log opposite of me, I stare at her through the fire. She looks fierce through the flames, like a warrior who just got out of battle.

“You can sleep now if you want, you can also uhh… use my sleeping bag if you want” Alexia begins to whisper. “Nah, I’m quite comfortable where I’m at” I say with a relaxed face.

“So, um…” she pauses for a moment “What makes you think I’m beautiful?” she asks timidly. “Is this really the time for this? Then again, Isn’t this the perfect time” I mutter to myself.

“Besides the fact of being the first person I saw in a month, by then anyone would look favorably to me probably. I’m sure this happened a lot to you, but I’d would’ve probably had a crush on you if we were in school together, though I doubt I would have ever admitted to that back then” I take a pause. “As we grow older, we begin to look at what actually matters in a person. Not all the superficial of looks, but no denying that you are pretty, matter as much. It’s who you are as a person that truly matter, and how you would get along with them. People are so stuck on their feelings that they forget the promises and vows that they’ve made to each other. They are so stuck on lust and instant pleasure that they’ve forgotten how to kindle a true relationship and how to maintain it in the process… the thing I like about you is the fact that you don’t give up on people so easily, even if it means harm to yourself. You’re weak at times, but in the weakness comes the true strength. You are the beauty from ashes. You forge yourself to be a better person in the long run.” Alexia sits there in silence.

“Now I don’t want you to respond right now.” Alexia suddenly looks confused at to what I just said “ What I’m about to say is not a confession of feelings, but as a promise to you. A promise to keep you safe and out of harm's way, to keep you happy and healthy, to give my life before yours can be taken” she looks restless, I give a big sigh.

“I Love You”.