A horse's howl: The enemy returns

Adam

After a minute of running, Julie stopped and Adam collapsed in pain. "Well, we're free! Right?" Julie breathed.
     "Yeah. Finally, sweet, painful, relief." Adam winced.
     Julie came to his side and tried checking for broken bones. "Ah!" He shouted, in pain as she touched his arm.
     "Yep, definitely broken. We have to find help some how." She said, trying to look for any civilization anywhere.
     They were in the middle of no where in a dark forest. Perfect!
      "I'll try to see if I can somehow make a cast or something for you. Just stay still, don't move!" She instructed.
     "Don't move.. I can do that." Adam decided. He lied there, for about five minutes, trying to ignore the pain in his arm.
     If they actually managed to make it home after this, what would they do? Ashley would be back to her old self and she'd probably still want to be in a relationship when they got back to school. School. He was barely even going to see Julie after this. He lived half an hour away, and they only really visited each other at big events or serious times like when they had to decide what to do with Juniper a few days ago when the whole zombie apocalypse started.
     Adam would miss the girls, but what if something actually happened between him and Julie? Would they just go back to normal when they got home?
     "So, what's the plan after this?" Adam asked, breaking the awkward silence, as Julie looked for supplies.
     "We find somewhere to get directions and go back to my place, where hopefully Mable and Alex will be." She answered, as she crushed some plants into a paste.
     "Okay.. and after that?" He added.
     Julie sat in silence for a second, with a quick flash of sadness in her eyes. "I guess we go back to normal. Pretend nothing happened. I guess we'll still have to figure out how to handle Juniper, but I mean after that... We go back to school." She continued.
     "So, what're you looking forward to at school?"
     Julie ripped one of her shirt sleeves using a rock, and lathered one side with the paste she made. "I guess my friends. There was this one boy I kind of miss."
     As she said that, Adam's heart hurt more than his arm for a split second. "Oh?  Were you guys good friends or were you... a thing?"
     "Oh, gosh no! We weren't dating. He was kind of my only friend other than Alex at school, and she already has a huge friend group that doesn't really like me."
     She took the sleeve, and wrapped it around his arm, causing a slight relief in the pain. She ripped her other sleeve and used it as a strap to make a sling. "He was kind of the only kid that accepted me, but even then I had to be someone I wasn't." She continued. Adam was shocked hearing this. She was so beautiful, so cool and kind 97% of the time! So what, she wasn't interested in makeup or fashion? In Adam's eyes, she was perfect. "Well, if you went to my school, I promise I'd accept you just as you are." He assured her, sitting up, with his DIY sling. "And thanks.."
     "Well, I can't let you suffer. I don't do that to my friends. Anything else you need?"
     As she said that, he felt a pain in his stomach. Friends. He didn't want to, but he hated hearing Julie refer to him as that.    A sudden feeling in his gut caught him off guard, and his thoughts went out loud. "I don't suppose you'd kiss me in the middle of some random, half-dead forest." He smirked. A sudden shock wave of regret surged through his body followed by a tomato red blush lathered across his face. Julie looked completely shocked, and turned away so he couldn't see her blush. "Can you walk?" She asked, ignoring his question, and offering her hand.
     "I think so.." he said, taking it and standing up. Down his back, he felt a very sore pain but nothing to horribly bad. Definitely not worse than the ache in his heart from being ignored. He took a painful step and nodded.
     Although he could walk, Julie continued to hold his hand. Whether it was for his comfort or for hers, he was completely fine with it.
     They walked for about twenty minutes, when they could hear car engines and smell  smoke and gas.
     "A gas station!" They shouted, in sync.
     They walked as fast as Adam could, and they were, in fact, at a gas station. "We have no idea who's in there, so stay here." Julie advised.
     "I'm not staying here, while you go in there, and deal with assassins." He protested.
     "Adam! What do you think is going to happen? I'm just going to get some sort of map and find out where we are."
     Adam looked at the ground, in thought.
    "Fine. Just promise me you'll be careful."
     "As careful as can be." She promised, stepping into the open. Adam stood at the bushes edge, in stress. What was happening in there? Was she going to be okay? Some sketchy people hung out at gas stations.
     Five minutes passed and Adam was really starting to worry. This shouldn't have been taking so long.
     Finally, Julie came out holding a paper, and wearing a huge grin. "I have a map! Turns out, home is an hour away by road but only half and hour is we take the trails. Which we can in our case." She informed Adam.
     Adam wore a smile. He was happy to go home, but he didn't want his time with Julie to end. "That's awesome!" He gushed. She smiled, and hugged him. "Let's start heading Home." She suggested. Adam nodded, still recovering from the amount of hugs he'd gotten from Julie that day.