Love Apocalypse

Chapter 2

"Rowan, It's time to eat."
My ears perk up from hearing this, and I get out of our tent.
We've finally settled down, although unpacking was made easy as we barely had anything to begin with. Just a few supplies and canned food. The camp however, helped us out majorly by giving us a few blankets and sleeping bags.

I make my way to the fire, everyone have already began eating.
"Here." Simon hands me a bowl.
I look inside, it seems to be some sort of soup.
The bowl's so hot, it's almost as if its warmness is enveloping my entire body rather than only my hands. The soup looks really good too, so I dig in gratefully.
"Oh wow, this is too good."

"Right." Jacob nods and agrees with my statement.
"About before, will you guys be going out to search for this man?"
Everyone's gone silent again.
It seems like I'm always overstepping my boundaries whenever I speak. The thought of this makes me shake my head, disapproving my tendency to always speak before I think.
"We... will soon." Arthur breaks the silence.
"What the hell is wrong with this kid? Just mind ya own business. We're giving ya shelter, food, protection and ya can't just shut ya trap up." Joseph stares at me intensely, clearly pissed.

"Hey now... she don't mean any harm" Alexander tries to diffuse the situation. He looks worryingly at me, giving me a weak smile. "We will find him."
Silence yet again. I decide to focus on finishing my dish, but to be frank I've lost most of my appetite.

As soon as I finished with the soup, I get up to leave, but Simon gets up the same time as me. We make eye contact, but then I turn away and make my way off. He follows in suit.
"Ooh la la" Alexander chuckles.
"It's not like that" Simon laughs, putting his hands up in the air.
"Don't worry son, I'll always approve your relationship with my daughter." My father's statement makes my mother smile, and she begins laughing.

"Rowan and Simon, sitting in a tree,
k i s s i n g" my brother laughs loudly, which makes Lucas smirk and join him in the teasing.
"Oh god" I cover my ears, turning away from the group and walking towards the forest.
"Where do you think you're going?" Simon, who's still following me, grabs onto my arm to prevent me from walking out of the camp.
"I just need some air, Simon."
"No you don't." He pulls me closer to him, looking me deeply into my eyes.

"I can fend for myself" I push his arm away.
"At least let me come with you."
I nod my head in response, rolling my eyes. We then walk out of camp in silence.
"It's been so long Rowan" he smiles down at me.
"Yes, it has.... I thought I lost you."
"I'm sorry Rowan. I really didn't want to leave you, I swear. My parents and I, we were being attacked."
"Attacked? By those creatures."
"Just call them zombies cause that's what they basically are." He chuckles.

"But what about calling me..."
"My phone got destroyed. I'm sorry, Rowan."
"Your parents? Where are they?"
He goes silent. I stop walking, grabbing onto his arm. Simon looks away, avoiding all eye contact with me.
"What happened, Simon?" I place a hand onto his right cheek, moving his face towards me.
"Simon?" He moves closer to me, leaning down and placing his forehead onto my shoulder.

"Are they... gone?" A few tears start forming in my eyes, I refuse to believe they're actually dead. I saw them like godparents.
Simon doesn't say anything, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"I'm so sorry, Simon." I hold onto him tightly, trying to comfort him as much as I could.
He starts sobbing, his grip on me tightening.
"I'm so sorry."
"I... I tried so hard to..." he continues sobbing into my shoulder.

"It's alright, you tried as hard as you could."
"I- I watched them get eaten alive" he breaks down even more, falling to the ground and dragging me with him.
"I'm sorry" is all I could manage to say, never loosening the grip I have on him.
"You're... all I have now, Rowan." He finally moves his head off from my shoulder, looking at me. His eyes are completely red, his nose is running and he's become more pale.

"I'm.. all yours." I'm taken aback from what I say, which makes me slightly blush.
"You're mine?" He chuckles and starts wiping a few tears off his cheeks.
"I- I didn't mean it like that."

"No, no, you're right. You're... all mine." He grins at me, a slight hint of flirtatiousness in his voice.
My blush increases further, I look away in embarrassment.
"Rowan, no matter what, I'll protect you with my life."
"You don't need to, loser. I'll be fine."
"No. I'll protect you with my life and I mean it. You're... like a sister to me."

My body tenses from this. My stomach gets butterflies, but not the good kind. The kind that makes you feel like you're about to be sick.
"A sister?" I ask.
"Yes."
"Oh right." I chuckle awkwardly.
"What is it?"
"Oh, um. It's nothing." I smile sheepishly, pushing myself up from the ground. He follows in suit.
"Rowan? Did I say something wrong?"
I start slowly walking away, with no particular destination in mind.

"Rowan" he catches up to me and reaches a hand out to me, but I push it away.
"A.. sister."
He tilts his head, confused.
"Simon, I- I don't know."
"I've always loved you."
"What?" I'm completely dumbfounded. He says it out of nowhere, with no warning whatsoever.
"I- I love you, Rowan." He states again, moving closer to me.
"You love me? As a sister?"
He smiles at me sheepishly, shaking his head. "'No. I just love you."
I take a few steps back from him, not knowing what to say.

"Yo" we hear some rustling from a bush nearby, Jacob then appears.
"Oh, hey Jacob" Simon scratches his neck.
"Sup" he then looks towards me, smiling.
"Hi Jacob."
"Hey, Rowan, was it?"
I nod my head.
"What are you guys doing out here in the woods?" He smirks.
"Oh, we were just- birdwatching" I look towards Simon, frowning.

Out of all the excuses he could of given Jacob, he picked the worst option.
"Ah, um cool." Jacob stands awkwardly, his hands in the pocket of his jeans.
"So... should we head back now?" Simon looks towards me.
"Nah, let's explore for a bit." Jacob answers for me.
"Alright" Simon shrugs.
We all begin walking into the forest.
"So, where you from Rowan?" Jacob tries to start a conversation with me.
"Well I'm from here."

"You're from Georgia? Just like Simon."
"We actually were neighbours." Jacob's eyes widen.
"Wait, really? I had no clue. I'm from South Carolina."
I nod my head at Jacob smiling, but then I get an intense headache out of nowhere. The pain is insufferable, making me fall to my knees. I hold onto my head, closing my eyes.

"Rowan?" Simon immediately drops onto his knees and places a hand onto my shoulder.
My eyes remain closed, I see a bright white light, and then the same forest we're in. There's a little blonde boy, I watch him parkour across the forest, running away from something. He looks terrified, not even taking a glance back to see if whatever he's running away from has caught up to him. I then see Jacob running towards his direction.
I try calling out to Jacob, but I seem to have lost my voice. I begin running after them, trying to catch up to them.
"Lucas!" Jacob calls out to the boy.
I then completely black out.