Peace. Love. Zombies.

Chapter 26: Sam?!

“Sam?” I asked making sure my eyes weren’t damaged from the jump. I stood there blinking at my ex, who I thought was eaten.

“Gwyn!” he shouted pulling me into a hug, one I didn’t object to. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he pulled me close by my shoulders. He took in a nose-full of my hair then kissed the top of my head. To my surprise, tears welled up in my eyes. Quite a few emotions ran through me at that moment. Relief, happiness, curiosity, anger, concern, worry, and finally confusion. None the less, I cried into his shirt silently.

“I thought you were dead,” I said, keeping my voice from cracking.

“Far from it my dear,” he murmured into my hair. “Let’s go out to lunch, huh?” he asked. I nodded into his chest and he pulled away from me. He smiled a bright dazzling and took my hand, his blue eyes boring into mine. “Are you ready to go, my lady?” he asked. I only nodded and he gave a quick tug of my hand before I hissed out in pain. He turned and his broad smile turned into a concerned frown. He took my arm and pulled up the sleeve of my hoodie. “Why-- what-- is this what I think it is?” he asked, stumbling over his words. I pulled my arm out of his gentle grasp and cradled my broken wrist.

“No, I promised you that I wouldn’t do that ever again,” I told him softly. “I just broke it.”

“How?” he asked.

“Why don’t we talk about over that lunch you promised,” I smiled before walking across the street with Sam in trail.

We sat in the park with sandwiches in our hands. We sat in a tree that seemed old with its curled and outstretched branches. My legs hung over one of the higher branches and Sam sat next to me. I took a bite out of my sandwich and smiled at him.

“So what happened that night?” I asked him after I swallowed my food.

“Well when your dad and I went for that walk, he wanted to talk about me and you. We were half way through the conversation when we were surrounded by those… flesh eating beasts. Well your dad panicked, pushed me towards them, then ran as fast as he could and I followed him. We couldn’t turn around ‘cause of all the undead behind us so we just ran. Eventually we lost them, which was good. We eventually got some money and we to the first airport we could find once we got to the nearest town full of the living. I decided, ‘Let’s go to Japan, that’s Gwyn’s favorite place.’ So we came here,” he shrugged. “What happened after we left?” he asked.

“Well, long story short, Mom was eaten when she went to go find you guys, Mary drowned herself, Emily was bitten and Paul was probably turned by her, I had to shoot him,” I shrugged. The thoughts of my family clenched at my heart but I kept my face impassive. “Not long after I did what I did to Paul, I met Eli,” I said. He removed his arm from around my shoulder and clenched his jaw a bit.

“Who’s Eli?” he asked. I shifted on the branch in an uncomfortable way. Telling my ex, the guy I used to love as much as I possibly could, that I got over him and found Eli, the guy I was crazy in love with, the guy that it hurt to be away from, just screamed “Awkward much?”

“Well he’s the guy that… I’m… in love with,” I mumbled the last three words.

“What?!” he hissed.

“I’m in love with him,” I said softly again.

“Well that’s just great!” he growled at me.

“I’m sorry but do you know how long it took me to get over you? After you guys left and my mom died, I cried for three hours then I lost all feeling for everything, until Mary died of course,” I said. Then I let out a dry chuckle. “You know, I almost killed Eli,” I told him.

“Well you should have, I doubt he can take care of you like I can. I doubt he can love you like I can. I doubt--,” he started again before I cut him off with my own voice.

“And that’s where you’re wrong, Sammy,” I argued, scowling at him. “He may not know every single thing about me, but I doubt you don’t either. He’s taken care of me as best as he could ever since we’ve met and he loves me more than you ever did.”

“I don’t care, you cheated on me, Gwyn!” he whined.

“I didn’t know you were even alive, I was alone. He’s one of the only people who didn’t try to kill me. Tell me something, what did you do all that time we were apart?” I asked him.

“I thought about you, Gwyn,” he said grabbing my arms and looking into my eyes. I tore my eyes away from his, not wanting to stare into them for too long, knowing the effect they’ll have on me.

“I think you’re lying,” I said, not believing the words that were spilling out of my mouth. “I don’t think you believed I was alive that entire time. I think you accepted my death and slowly decided to move on because you know it’s what I’d want you to do,” I continued.

“I only accepted you death last month,” he admitted. A guilty feeling decided to gnaw at my insides. I had accepted his death almost instantly. Maybe it was ‘cause I was watching my mother die in front of me and the easiest thing for me at the moment was to accept that death was the only thing that surrounded me, that no one could possible stay alive when they were around me. Yeah, that’s it, but just because I accepted their deaths immediately, that doesn’t mean I didn’t mourn for them. In fact, I began mourning over the three when I decided to be the empty hallow shell of a woman I used to be.

“Do you know where my dad is?” I inquired, attempting to change the subject.

“Gwyn, I only accept that you might not be alive anymore last month and all you can say is ‘where’s my dad?’” he asked incredulously.

“I’m sorry you’ve spent so much time on someone who doesn’t deserve your time,” I told him. “When I accepted your death, my mother was sitting there, her skin between the teeth of those monsters. I accepted the fact that the people around me would only die in the beginning but I didn’t expect the deaths to be so horrid, so heart breaking. It was the kind of heart break that only time could heal,” I said. “I was also alone through a lot of it though, you don’t know how many times I wish you were by my side again and you weren’t,” I said. My jaw was clenched tightly as I said those words and tears were on the verge of spilling over my face again that day. It hurt a lot to live through all the memories he was bringing back, the ones I tried so hard to destroy. Why did I have to run into him? Sam of all people! I screamed at the people that filled my head. At the moment, he was just making things hard on me. “I’m sorry I wasted your time,” I said before hopping down, leaving my sandwich there with him. I landed on my feet hard and the impact ended up hurting my ankle a bit but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. At the time, I didn’t care about my father or if was okay. That was something I could worry about later. Right then and there, I wanted to get as far away from Sam as I could at the second. I decided to run back to the hotel. I knew Sam would end up trying to talk to me again ‘cause he was a persistent person, he wouldn’t let go of me without a fight.