It's Never Too Late

Chapter 14: Strangers

💀James's POV💀
Now with Josh dead there's 7 of us. Molly isn't coping well with the situation, she's come to me everyday since her dads death and all we talk about is her dad, which personally I don't mind at all. He was an amazing man and deserves to be talked about, we will never forget him. Well now I see Leeanne waking up in the backseat of the car. I look back at her there with Heather sitting next to her but still asleep. She looks at me and goes right back to sleep. I get out of the car to stretch out. I look around to see if anyone else is awake, and than I see Molly sitting beside the RV she was sleeping in. I walk over to her as she's looking down.

"Hey Molly, how'd you sleep?" I ask her, her still looking down as she says "Okay I guess....." She starts to cry. "Please don't cry, your dad was a great person and didn't deserve what happened but-" I start to say but get cut off by her. "You don't get it James, I know he's dead and have cried all I could from his death but that's not why I'm crying now. I'm crying now because I'm going to be next, I'm weak James. Weak people are the ones who go, my dad was the most amazing person in my life other than my mom, and well you, but he was weak and saw that walker coming to bite him but he froze. He didn't know what to do and he froze. That is why he's dead, and I don't want to be next, but I am." I look at her and tell her "Molly, you and I are not going to die. That is something I am going to make sure of. I will protect you and your family and me and mine. There is no guarantee that nobody else in our family will die, in fact in the end it could come down to one of us. But I will try and try and try every single day that I'm left alive to prevent that. Molly I love you and I'm not going to let anybody or anything kill you."

She grabs me and kisses me on my lips. It was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I felt like I was on cloud nine. It felt like everything that was happening, wasn't. At that moment we fell off of the box we were sitting on and laid down on the ground, my arm around hers, just staring at the sky. And while the peacefulness was nice, it broke after about two minutes when Leeanne came out of the truck. "Good morning James, good morning Molly." She said, being a little bit louder than she should have. "What's for breakfast?" She asked. "Well," I say looking at what we have "we have corn, ketchup, chips, geez we have more food than I realized." Molly looks at me, "Well that's a good thing, means we won't get hungry for a while right?" She asks. "Yeah, right." Dad and Heather wake up along with Lisa and Doc. "Good morning guys." I say to the four. "Why is it that kids get up so darn early, I'm just never going to understand it am I?" Doc says. The three of us laugh at his comment as the others stretch. "Oh Heather I forgot to ask you, are you still keeping track of the days with your calendar?" I ask her. "Of course, why?" She replies. "What day is it?" "June 19th." She says. Dad and I both look at each other with a grin.

"June 21st is my 15th birthday. Haha, whatcha gonna get me dad?" I ask him. "Maybe a new gun if we come across one, there should be a gun store not to far from here. We could all use some more ammunition after the school and the house." Dad says to us all. So for a few minutes we get everything from the trucks around us in the RV. There was a lot of good stuff surprisingly, mainly medical supplies and a little bit of food and water. We get in the RV and drive off. We spent only about an hour on the road until we found an abandoned farm.

"Okay guys listen up. We will split into teams walking in here. Lisa, you take Doc and Molly through the barn. James and I are going to walk around the perimeter to see if there is any broken parts of the surrounding fence. This is big land so it's gonna take a while for us to do so. If something happens just yell, I'm sure we'll be able to hear you guys."

Dad instructs everyone. "But what about me dad?" Leeanne says tugging on dads shirt. "I need you to stay in the RV and lock all the windows and doors. You will be like the gate keeper!" Dad says, trying to make interest in doing nothing. "Okay that sounds pretty cool." Leeanne says. "Okay so let's do this, I believe we can make this place our home." Dad says. And with that we were off. Dad and I started to walk the perimeter, and at first it all seemed good. We walked a little more to notice a few walkers by the fence. "Kick their legs and than stab them." Dad told me. So I walked up to one and kicked the bone out of its legs, letting it fall to the ground and stabbing it. Dad got the other, but there was still one left. I walk up to it and trip in a hole along the way. I fall right under it and I see dad about to draw his gun but drops it. I'm a second from being bitten when...BAM!

It gets shot in the head. I look at dad only to discover that he doesn't have his gun in his hand. "Who's out there?" Dad screams out towards the woods. Dad picks up his gun and points it out there. "Hey man, put that thing down! We don't mean any trouble." A man says as he walks out of the woods with another woman around his age and a smaller, familiar girl. The guy couldn't be older than 22 though, nor her. The girl is around my height and looks very familiar. "Who are you?" My dad asks. "My name is Charley. This is my girlfriend Sophie-" "What's your name?" I ask the girl. "Miranda." She says. Yes that has to be her. "How's it going Miranda? You remember me?" She looks puzzled at first but than her eyes widen and she runs up to me and hugs me. "James!" She says. "Wait, you two know each other?" Charley says. "He used to be my boyfriend." Miranda says quickly. "We traveled so far, and out of everyone I could have found, it was you." Everyone else comes up to see the new people and we all greet each other.

💀Molly's POV
"Hi I'm Molly. Nice to meet you." Molly said to Miranda. "I've never seen you before, are you James's friend?" She asks me. "No he's actually my boyfriend haha." I say kind of awkwardly. She puts her hand on her holster, gun attached, than she lets go.

"What did you see something?" I say looking behind me. "Oh no, must've been a force of habit. Charley, Sophie and I never found a good place to hold down. My parents were with us when this started. My dad was the first to go. She was bitten on the neck and fell to the ground. She became unconscious which gave the dead ones a good chance to kill her. My dad however. He wasn't bit. A person killed him, like a real living person. Dad was looting one store for supplies when we heard screaming and three gunshots. When we got there, my dad and the person that killed him were dead." Miranda told me.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. I lost my dad maybe a week ago, and it sucks not seeing him anymore. I understand though, you have every right to be alert. But this farm here seems pretty safe for now. We were trying to check the area. Wanna come help?" I say as I reach for her hand. She quickly swiped her hand out of the way. "No." She says. "Well alrighty than." I see Paul and mom talking to the new people. I run over to James and hug him from behind. He kisses me on my forehead. "So, I see you talked to Miranda." He says to me. "Yeah, she lost both of her parents to walkers and a passerby. She doesn't seem very okay." I tell him. "That sucks. Well to lighten the mood would it make you jealous if I told you she used to be my girlfriend?" He says smirking.

"Ha you wish. And why would it matter, you love me right?" I ask him. "Of course I do Molly. There isn't anyone I love more." He says. I grab him and give him a big kiss. "Whoa." He says surprised. I look over to see Miranda with an angry face. "Do you think she would.....no she couldn't....could she?" I think to myself. Paul gets everyone together, " Okay guys listen up. With the new additions to our team, clearing out this farm should be a breeze if we play our cards right. Same teams as last time except Heather I want you to check on Leeanne." He says. "Got it" Heather replies. We all split up checking through the houses. James gives me a kiss before we head out. Miranda walks towards the barn with her group looking back at me with that same angry look....