3 | We Who Survive the Apocalypse | ✅

Chapter 10 - Reunited

The unevenness of the forest floor doesn't help Rogan much with his already awkward crutches. I can tell he's tired, and that every step takes great effort, but we all know better than to try to help him. Pirate trots along beside him, wagging his tail.

Seth leads the way as we head back to the house. I think we're almost there, but everything kind of looks the same to me because of all the snow.

Doyle and I walk side by side, clasping each other's hands tightly, despite the biting cold on our skin. I still can't believe we found him...and he kissed me. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face and makes my heart swell.

Izzy is stomping along behind all of us, grumbling inaudibly once in a while, probably Rogan related. I really wish I could figure out what exactly happened between them and why she hates him so much.

But Izzy isn't the straight forward type, and Rogan, well, he hardly talks at all, so we'll never find out from him. I don't think Mara knows, but I couldn't have asked her, anyway, since before now we didn't know if Rogan was even alive, and it would've been cruel to make her talk about him.

"So are you two gross people gonna hold hands the entire time?" Izzy demands suddenly.

"Izzy, just don't, okay?" Seth responds with frustration.

"But it's weird, and impractical!" Izzy protests, "I mean, if a bunch of zombies came marching down on us right now, their hands would be so tightly wrapped together that they wouldn't be able to draw their weapons, and then they'd die."

"Ugh! Izzy, stop it!" Seth groans. "And also, since when to zombies march?"

"Stop being so technical!"

Doyle and I glance at each other in mild amusement. Izzy and Seth are just nuts.

"Well, if you two don't shut the fuck up they will march down on us," Rogan grunts, wrenching one of his crutches lose as it gets caught on the roots of a tree.

"I'm not doing anything you say," Izzy snaps at him, "you miserable fu-"

"Okay Izzy, enough already," Doyle cuts her off, "how about if I tell you to be quiet?"

Izzy only huffs and I turn around slightly to see her fold her arms tightly across her chest and glare angrily at the ground.

"Anyway," Seth says, "what exactly happened to you guys after we left?"

There's a slight pause, and then Doyle replies, "well, we kept shooting until we were sure you'd had plenty of time to get pretty far. Then we took off through the woods in the direction y'all had gone."

"You could've tried to cover your tracks," Rogan grumbles. I suppose we did leave a pretty clear trail, with all of the vines and bushes Seth whacked up.

"We kept going until we stumbled on this massive herd of zombies, biggest one I've ever seen. And then Pirate finds us while we're trying to skirt around the herd." Doyle sighs. "So from where we stood, it looked like you were all dead."

"We didn't die, we jumped off a cliff," Izzy says bluntly. "Into a river."

"Yeah, the herd kind of had us trapped," Seth adds.

"Mara jumped off a cliff?" Rogan asks, but I can't tell if he seems proud or worried about it.

Seth nods. "Yep."

"I jumped first!" Izzy announces loudly.

"Which can either mean you're brave, or stupid," Seth says, looking over his shoulder at her.

"I am not stupid!" She yells, anger clear in her voice.

Doyle looks down at me as Seth and Izzy begin another shouting match. "So you jumped off a cliff, too?"

I nod. "It was absolutely terrifying. The water was also extremely cold, so that didn't really help."

As Izzy and Seth's argument grows louder still, Doyle looks up and raises his voice. "Do you want me to finish my story or not? I'm not gonna tell it again!"

At this they both fall silent, curiosity, I suppose, being more important than their battle of insults.

"All right then," Doyle says, and clearing his throat, he continues his tale. "We kept moving, until that night when a group of people managed to sneak up on us. Barely got away, still not sure how. The last thing I remember is one of them shooting and then I woke up beside a river and looked over and saw Rogan eating a raw fish."

"Sounds delicious," Seth mutters sarcastically.

"Turned out my head got grazed by a bullet and I blacked out. Earned me a new scar," Doyle says, motioning to the new mark above his right eyebrow. 

"Then we kept moving on until we made it to that warehouse; it seemed as good a place as any," he concludes.

"So how did Rogan get shot, then?" Seth asks, looking back over his shoulder at us.

"It happened when I was dragging his unconscious ass through the woods," Rogan answers.

"Oh."

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Hudson opens the door as we step onto the porch. At first, he recoils at the sight of Doyle and the others, until he realizes they're no threat.

"Um, so who are-?"

He doesn't get a chance to finish, because at that moment, hurried footsteps sound from inside, accompanied by an elated cry from Mara as she brushes past him and runs into Rogan's arms.

He stumbles backward, his crutches clattering onto the porch as he is pushed back into one of the posts.

Her arms cling to him as he returns her embrace, and they hold each other so tightly I'm surprised they aren't hurting each other.

I hear Seth making introductions, but I'm too busy watching Rogan and Mara's reunion to pay much attention to him.

Mara is crying, but for once because she's happy, rather than imagining all the ways Rogan might have died. Pirate sits patiently beside one of the fallen crutches, waiting for his turn to be greeted, his tail wagging and stirring up the light dusting of snow that has blown up onto the porch.

Rogan's face is buried in Mara's hair, his fingers cradling the back of her head gently. He's always so tender with her, and so harsh with everyone else, it makes me wonder what happened to make him let her in like that.

She pulls away from him just enough to cup his face in her palms, his hands moving down to the small of her back as she begins planting dozens of kisses all over his face, laughing through her tears as she does so, and, yes, there's no mistaking it, a smile turns up a corner of Rogan's lips as he gazes at her.

Love isn't a strong enough word to describe the bond that these two share. It's more than love. It's something that no words can explain, something so pure and so powerful that nothing, not an apocalypse, not a gunshot wound, not a single curve that fate might throw, can destroy.

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Looky who finally, finally, finally fucking updated! Anyway, hopefully I won't be so long updating next time....