Hide For Me

Ten

I walked into my room and slumped onto my bed, sighing I turned over, towards Ant. He was sitting on his bed, reading a book of some sort. "How was your training?" Ant asked, not even looking up from his book, "It was alright... I guess,"
"You don't sound alright," he placed his book on his bed and turned to me. "What happened?"
"Well we did training for a bit, then I took off my hoodie because it was getting hot but it became so awkward, so I put it back on. Then we found Alastair and Karl and they told us the saw the Iwa clan so we went to go visit them. Clay and Ethan got into a fight about a girl named Elizabeth then we left without saying anything,"
"Elizabeth?" Ant stood up, "Did Clay tell you about Elizabeth?"
"No. No, he didn't." Ant nodded, "Right. I'll explain everything tomorrow since we just get to chill here at the base." I nod. Would it be invading his privacy if Ant told me? Surely not... right?

That night, Clay doesn't come out of his room, making me even more curious about this Elizabeth. I asked Dave how he was going and he said he was fine, but by the way, he hesitated before saying it made me doubt his words. I lay in bed, curiosity ripping me to shreds and eating away at my conscious.

The next morning, I woke up to see Ant getting ready for the day. "Good morning Georgie!" I rubbed my eyes sleepily and yawned, stretching my arms out. "So, are we just staying here today?" I ask, "Yes, but you still have to get ready since we are technically patrolling the base." He fiddled with his collar, then stepped out of the room, "See you upstairs!" He closes the door as I look at it, still a bit tired. I force myself out of bed and change into something comfortable. Walking upstairs, I walk into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water, drinking it hastily as sleeping often makes my tongue feel like sandpaper. I see Ant heating a can of Tomato soup, "You having that whole can?"
"No actually, I was gonna ask if you wanted some but I guess you beat me to it." He takes out two bowls and spoons, he then separates the soup. I start eating, savouring every last spoonful. "I haven't appreciated canned soup until this apocalypse," I say enjoying the warm bowl of crushed tomatoes, water and some other things they put in the canned soups. "Yeah, I never liked pumpkin soup before this, but thanks to the walkers I feel happy whenever I find a can in a store." I finish and place my bowl in the sink just as I was about to walk to the bathroom to wash my hands, Ant begins to speak. "Do you still want to know about Elizabeth?" I turn back to him, thinking a bit before nodding. I had said nothing earlier as I didn't want to pressure him into telling me. "Right." He pushes his, now empty, bowl away from himself.

"So when Clay was little, he had a best friend at school, they both originally lived in one of the suburbs further away from the centre of the city. When she turned 11, her best friend moved to another country. Which made her awfully upset, so Clay decided to help her since for class they sat next to each other in class since they were in alphabetical. They quickly became good friends, actually, that would be an understatement. By the time they were both 16, they had become best friends. Around this time they began growing feelings for each other, but before they could admit their feelings for each other, she moved into the city, although they still kept in touch. When the apocalypse struck, he decided it would be best if he went to the city. Here, of course, he started the group and everything but he found Elizabeth. They got close once again and once again, old friends turned into lovers. But one night, they made a grave mistake. Clay and Elizabeth went out one night but they got ambushed by a bunch of walkers and..." Ant rested his head in his hands. By the expression on his face, it made me connect the dots. Ant stood up, "Follow me." I followed him down to Clay's room.

I stare at the small picture of Elizabeth. She had dark, shoulder-length, wavy hair and dark brown eyes with pale skin and roses cheeks. She was wearing a black shirt with a white pattern on the chest area and denim shorts. "Did they make any connections with you and Elizabeth?"
"Yeah, Ethan did." Ant nodded, "no wonder, you both look very similar." I can't take my eyes off her. This was a girl Clay was in love with. A girl taken away from him too soon. This was a girl who looked oddly similar to me. I became light-headed. I knew just how hard it was to lose someone so close to you. He lost his girlfriend. I lost my friends. I wanted to find Clay and just hug him. I wanted to let him know that I was here for him, that I was here if he needed a shoulder to cry on. I was here if he needed a friend to talk to.