The Death Of Us

Chapter 31

Mariah's P.O.V.

Location; on the streets

It's a little after morning. I shared my tent with Leo, at first Brandon was against it since he is a little overprotective, but he finally agreed. Not that anything happened last night, we didn't even talk, we were cuddling and fell asleep way too fast.

I groan a little and rub my eyes, I feel Leo's arm around my waist and turn around towards him to see him sleeping peacefully. I smile at him gently, brushing a few strands off his forehead, before leaning down and kissing his forehead. He stirs a little before his eyes flutter open, his free hand runs over his face to shake away the tiredness.

"How are you feeling?" I ask caressing his cheek, he looks down at the ground probably recalling the last day's event. He sighs and leans into my touch. "Stressful" He answers me truthfully. I sit up and help him sit up too.

"Figured, let's get out of here and as soon as we get to the forest, you're going to be relaxing" I tell him, he nods, I peck his lips before opening up the tents and clap loudly.

"Get up old people! We need to move" I yell towards Brandon and Luna's tents. I hear groans but they still get out. I hear a loud snarl, and huge smirk graces my face. I grab a hold of my tanto and spot the Zombie easily, it runs towards me as I twirl the tanto around me finger before digging in into its skull, then pull it out.

Leo and Brandon both get the tents down while Luna and I kill anything that gets too close, when they're done, I grab a bag from Brandon and sling it across my shoulder. Leo and I walk in silence both of us on edge after the recent events.

"How do you think he's doing?" I ask breaking the silence looking at Brandon who's walking in front of me. He slows down a little for me to catch up to him. "I mean do you think he's in his right mind or do you think he's going to do something stupid?"

"I don't know" Brandon answers me truthfully, he stares off into the distance, a look of sorrow on his face. "When Antlia died, I wanted to die, I almost ran out to the zombies if you and Katie won't have stopped me."

I look at him with a soft smile, I'm honestly really happy about meeting Brandon, he's been the father both Katie and I never had.

"Everybody deals with death differently" Luna suddenly says, and I nod. Honestly, I never dealt with it, sure I cried when my mother died but that was it, I never dwelled on it, I push it away and forget it. I don't think I'm strong enough to actually deal with it.

"He has Hua, Noah and all of us, he'll make it through" Luna assures me, smiling at me gently. I nod gripping my tanto tightly. The silence falls over us again and I'm once again walking beside Leo, making sure he doesn't suddenly collapse.

We all seem to be on edge when we hear the sound of a car, we stand still waiting for whoever it is to get in sight. As soon as they do, I feel my shoulders sag in relief. It's Katie. She stops the car right beside us and we quickly throw out bags in the trunk.

"I've never been more happy to see your dumb ass" I mutter as I jump into the back the two of us sharing a quick high five.

"Has it been tiring to walk?" Katie says in a mock voice, I just grin at her as she starts the car up. Leo who's sitting in the middle of Luna and I perk up.

"How is he?" Leo asks clenching my hand tightly, I squeeze his hand in comfort. I know he's been wanting to know how Levi is, since the two of them saw Xiomara die. Katie smiles at him sadly through the review mirror.

"As good as he can be, considering" Katie mutters looking back out at the road with a look of sadness on her face. Leo slumps in his seat before placing his head on my shoulder, still tired. I run my hand through his hair and soon he falls asleep.

"How's Hua doing, then?" I ask concerned for her, she's become an important friend of mine and I want to make sure she's alright. Katie smiles a little at the mention of her name.

"She's doing better, she's taking care of Noah" Katie assures me. I nod, kissing Leo's head a little.

We drive through bumpy and muddy roads, and get there in no time, Leo slept through the whole way which makes me happy since he's been doing a lot. As soon as I'm out of the car, Noah runs up to me and hugs me. I chuckle and hug the small boy in happiness.

"Hey, Noah" I greet, he grins at me widely. "Have you been protecting them?" I ask and he nods at me frantically.

"Yes!" He exclaims, I chuckle a peck his forehead before helping with all of the bags, Noah wanted to help but I don't think he can carry these bags. We start to set up and I notice Levi and Leo helping each other a lot more. Leo and I keep exchanging looks, which makes my heart flutter. When we're done packing and unpacking, Katie and I both share a tent.

"Well there's a lot of things that we need to get secured but we luckily have some barbed wire that I found in some shop on the way here" Brandon says and shows the bag filled with it.

"I've scouted the area and found the best places you can put it up on" I say and Katie nods along with me. After I put up the tents and all that I went around and checked the different routes and places there were.

"Alright, then it's settled, as soon as that's done, we start with the shifts."  

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Writers; Kaynad M. & Maryam S.

Word count; 1025