Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Lurking in the Dark

26th September 2026

As the weeks passed by, the weather remained at a temperate degree. The leaves on the trees just starting to melt into those warm autumnal colours as fall neared around the corner.

It was the one day of the year where the majority of the tasks within the community had been put on hold as they allowed their residents the time to mourn and remember those who had fallen over the years... The only duties that still took place were the ones that were pivotal to the immediate safety of Jackson. Whilst those key duties did involve the patrols, Joel had managed to wrangle both him and Tommy off the rota for the day... It was well deserved. The current lack of suitable and trained residents on the frontline had meant that as the lead, Joel had been working like a dog for months.

With the surrounding atmosphere still feeling very much summery and the desire to not remember the events that had taken place twenty three years ago, an afternoon family outing to the lake had been planned.

It was one of those picturesque moments in time in which the boys messed about in the lake with Tommy trying his hardest to dunk Ellie as she fought him off and Joel doing what he could to aid his brother in the matter. Maria was crouched down in the shallows by the reeds as little Charley watched in awe of the silvery schools of minnow that darted out and around his feet.

Ava had placed herself near the embankment, sprawled out across an old and slightly tattered picnic blanket as she watched over her family. She had Lily laid out on the skirt of her sun dress that covered her thighs as she leant back and allowed herself to bask in the last of the years sun.

She allowed her eyes to fall shut as the heated rays warmed her tilted face. It was days like this where the fight for survival all felt worth it. The source of the heat on her cheeks was soon shadowed. Her face scrunching as cold droplets of water trickled onto her, it's coolness against the heat of her shoulder causing the skin to shudder. She didn't even need to open her eyes to feel his familiar presence, to know it was him.

A smile tugged at her lips as she allowed her chocolate irises to focus on the figure that towered over her. Even now, he still gave her heart butterflies... especially when he so candidly looked like that... There was definitely something about the way he would scrape his saturated locks from his face that would give her some rather unholy thoughts.

She reluctantly pushed those fantasies aside whilst remembering that they were in fact on a family day out. Now was not the time or place to get all flustered over her husband. The action of pushing her musings away had instead caused her to focus on the cold tingles of droplets that still dripped onto her.

"You're getting me soaked." She whined, leaning towards him and making a feeble attempt at swatting his legs with the book she had brought with her- one she had not even yet opened due to the intoxication of watching her family fool about in the water, being able to observe them as they just lived as intended. No infected, no threat. It was days like this where it was all so easy to forget about the horrors that plagued the world.

A smug grin spread across his lips at her unintentional innuendo, his voice low and gravely, "It don't take much..."

He offered her a devilish wink as she gasped dramatically aloud. It was as if he had managed to get into her head moments ago and read all of her impure thoughts, "Joel Miller! There are children about!"

She couldn't lie, there were parts of her silently wishing that the kids and her in-laws weren't in the immediate area right now...