Our Life (Sequel to "Remnants")

Commitment

-Riley-

After our intimacy, Carl and I sat in the car for several minutes, motionless and breathless. We were thinking about various different things, and not all of them were as romantic as you would expect. 

Usually in romance books and movies, the characters' motivation for making love is in the phrase - 'love.' But Carl and I's actions had been influenced by sheer relief, not necessarily love, and I found myself wondering if sex was anywhere near as meaningful now as it had been before the apocalypse.

That wasn't to say that I had treasured every second of it. The way Carl breathed softly and rapidly, the way his body writhed in pleasure, the way he had whispered my name... It was this sort of thing that reminded us we were still human, and I wasn't about to give that up for anything.

I hoped that Carl felt the same way. 

I was quite sure he did, but I still had my occasional doubt - I mean, I was the person who killed his father... I was responsible for his torture at the hands of the satanic Negan... I had punched him with as much force as I could manage, when his only intention was to help me...

When I thought of it that way, I wasn't so sure...

There was a lot of gloom and misery surrounding our relationship, but in the last few months he had been... happy. At least he had seemed happy.

We needed this happiness - now more than ever - but it begged the question: Is Carl just putting on a brave face for me?

"Carl," I turned to face him, unable to just sit here asking myself such a complex question when I could get a firm answer by simply asking the boy sat next to me.

"Hm?" he responded, only half paying attention to me, lost in his own puzzling thoughts.

"What we've just started doing; this whole... sex thing," I began, and Carl nodded with a uncertain grin.

I think his innocence is the best part of it all...

"Yeah?" he motioned for me to continue.

"Are you just doing it because... because we can? Or are you actually committed to it - to me? I guess the first time we did it I was too exhilarated to ask but I just want to know. I don't blame you if your answer's along the lines of the first option, because quite frankly, if someone had shot my parent there's no way I'd consider a future with them. It's just been on my mind for a while now and, like I said, I... I just want to know."

"Riley," Carl sighed, "of course I'm committed. There's a lot of ways we could've died before now: getting eaten, tortured, shot... We could get killed by the living or the dead at any time of any day. The shit that we face out there is getting more screwed up by the minute, and if watching so many people die has taught me anything, it's that things are gonna get worse before they get better. So yeah, I am committed, because - 'quite frankly' - you're the one thing that stops me from putting a gun to my head right now to make it all end."

I felt tears well in my eyes at Carl's heart-warming statement, and the sheer emotion in his voice showed me that my feelings toward him were entirely mutual. 

"I love you, Riley Palmer," he continued, placing a warm hand on my cheek, "I always will."

We were both silent for a moment, as I stared into Carl's amazing aqua-blue eyes - as deep as the ocean they were colored as - and he stared into mine with a kind, sincere smile.

"Now," he broke the silence, knowing that somewhere behind us a slow yet relentless herd was still giving chase, "lets go home."

I placed my hands on the steering wheel with a new-found confidence.

I had finally decided that I wasn't going to live with the memory of mom.

I was going to live for mom.

Slamming my foot onto the accelerator, Carl and I continued our journey back toward Alexandria. It wasn't far now, but things would be a lot different when we returned...

---

So, this is the penultimate chapter to my series!

Since the next chapter will have some more actual things happening - instead of just Riley and Carl time - I tried to make this one a nice, emotional one for you all :)

I'm sad to see my story coming to an end - and to be honest I hope you are too, otherwise I've done a pretty crappy job at writing XD

Anyway, I'll try to get writing the next one as soon as possible :)