𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦

✮9. Welcome to Saeville✮

A/N- After this chapter, it's going to get CRAZY. 

3 hours. Just 3 hours more until we reached heaven on Earth.

The rest of the road trip had been pretty calm. There were moments in which we wanted to question our whole existence but we decided not to. At one point, there was a bloodied undead who was kneeling down on the ground, with his face buried in...fur. As we moved further, I made out a body of a dog, laying in a pool of blood. Its fur was covered with blood and the man was ripping out its torso. I did not point this out. Yara had a pet golden retriever by the name of Frodo at her parents house. Hopefully, Frodo's safe at home and nibbling down on his bones than being nibbled down on his bones. 

The sky was grey, the air was cold and the mood was grim. It should be the happiest day of our lives but it didn't feel like to me. 

As I waved by hand through the cold and dewy wind, I couldn't help but feel unsettled. My stomach was lurching not of excitement or joy, but of solitude and dreariness. It's probably the weather, I thought shaking my negative thoughts off. 

We drove for a long while, which seemed like forever. 

As we progressed further in our journey, the big, blue and rusted "Welcome to Saeville!" board came into view. My hands tensed on the steering wheel. I looked over to Yara who was gripping her knees nervously. 

"Finally", she said, "We're finally here." I smiled in her direction, "Yep. This feels like a eerie town, to be honest. Why in the world would you come here with your boyfriend?", I inquired. 

"Probably the weather. To answer your question it's a beach town, for one. Perfect for beachside dates", smiled, satisfied with her answer. "Although, this is where I lost it", she added sadly.

"Ew, Yara."

"What? NO, oh my god, Anna!", she exclaimed, her cheeks flushing. "I meant, this is where I lost my first self-bought bag. It got hot sauce all over it at a barbeque. I had to dispose of it considering there was no cure", she buried her face in her hands. I recalled the infamous incident, "Oh yes! I remember you cried for weeks. Your vintage Kate Spade, was it?" "It was $350!", she argued. 

"And yet it took a $9.99 hot sauce to ruin it". 

The small town slowly came into view. It was a beach town, a pretty one. It had all those aesthetic elements of beach towns, with cemented bungalows as well as make-shift shacks along the rocky coastline, about 20 feet away. As I looked at the sea, I saw the port with at least 12 boats and 25 yachts.  

Now, as I said, it was eerie. There was absolutely no one in sight. The streets were fairly clean but my concern were the roads. There were truck tires marks painted in red. I was sure it was blood, it had to be. Nonetheless, we kept moving forward, both of us extremely alert.

We went further into the town when we saw it. The cemented white bungalows actually smeared with dried red blood. The once cheery beach town now turned into an abandoned ghost town. Unattended luggage on the streets, crashed bikes and cars and puddles of blood along the pavement. 

"I...", Yara began but stopped at her loss of words. The atmosphere was officially gloomy. I could tell Yara was nervous to drive further as the car now moved slowly, as if stealthily moving into town. "I get why they picked this location, looks like the damage has already been done", I reflected. 

We were driving smoothly till the car made a few heavy metal sounds and halted suddenly. "Please don't tell me the car broke down", I said, burying my face into my hands. "Okay", replied Yara. I looked over to her with a skeptical look on my face, "So, why'd you stop?" "I'm not allowed to tell you that." 

With that, I cursed under my breath and got out of the car and Yara followed. We grabbed our stuff from the back seat and took hold of our hockey sticks. "Let's go", Yara said and we started walking down the road.

I'm pretty sure this town had looked straight out of a rom-com movie before. We came across an aesthetic ice cream shop, where the lovers have their first date. A cute park, where they have a picnic. A surprisingly small movie theatre, where they make out. Except now, all these spots looked like  great places for the lovers to brutally rip each other's guts out. 

The pier and the closed off section of the beach finally came into view. And oh God was it a view.

About a 60 off-white tents were lined up at the beach, about 40 feet away from the tides. A huge wooden watch tower, which didn't look very sturdy was built at the end of the tents-row. The best thing, there were people. 

Actual, alive, people. We could see that all of them were in a rush, heading in and out of tents. Some wounded people were being tended to while others were eating the food which was being given out. Never did I ever think that I, as an introvert, would be so happy to see such a big crowd of about 100 people. It felt like I found the Golden Fleece, it was incredible. Yara and I shared a hug and about 15 Oh my Gods. 

"It's a base camp", I stated, "we finally found life again."