Until The End // Phan

Chapter 5

*Dan's Pov*

I was really shaken up as we left the city, but as soon as we got out of everything I was pretty calm and back to normal. Alex let us stay at her house for the night, but I didn't get much sleep.

After a few hours of laying on the carpeted, yet hard livingroom floor curled up uncomfortably with Phil, I decided to go into the kitchen to get a drink. I carefully lifted my arm off of Phil and squirmed away from him, trying not to wake him. We would have slept in the extra room upstairs, but we told Alex we would be more comfortable downstairs.

As I made my way down the hall, I could see a dim light above the stove that wasn't on when we went to sleep.

"Hey" I heard Alex's voice from the dark room. I could see a shadow shift towards me, and the light turned on. "Couldn't sleep?" She whispered as she turned away and walked back to her seat at the kitchen table. I followed her and sat at the other end. "Um, no. Not really." I avoided making direct eye contact with her to ease the awkwardness. "Yea, me neither."

The room was quiet for a few seconds until I decided to ask the question that's been bugging me since we got here.

"So.. I never asked you, what did you do after you found out everything? Come out here, and what? Like, why were you back in London?" I was stumbling over my question, forgetting how to speak. She looked me in the eyes and took a deep breath before she spoke.

"I called my mom, after what happened with my dad. The CDC didn't call her because they didn't want word getting out, so I did. I lived in London with my mom but I was visiting my dad in America. My mom told me to take the first flight back home. She told me i shoudn't be in the city, that it wont be safe for long. So, I left the next day, and instead of going home, I came here. But, when I got here, I called my mom a bunch of times and she didn't answer. Thats when I saw everything on the news so I drove out to the city to find her."

Her eyes started to droop and her posture became limp. I opened my mouth to speak but she beat me to it.

"She didn't make it."

My heart sank. I felt so bad for her, as if it were my own parents who had died. I could see her resisting the urge to cry.

"Wh-" I stopped myself before asking what happened to her mother. I could feel Phil's hand poke my side, although he wasn't really there. He always stops me before I say something rude, so it's sort of an instinct now.

"Why did you save me and Phil?" I changed the question. She stood up straighter and rubbed at her eyes.

"I um.." She yawned before finishing her answer.

"Because you guys looked like you needed it.. I don't know."

She looked up at me and half smiled.

"I know this sounds kind of stupid but.." She laughed and looked away out of embarrassment. I know where this is going.

"The minute I saw you, you looked super familiar, like I've seen you somewhere. Online or something?"

I could feel myself blush, even though there was no reason to.

"Yea" I laughed "We're Youtubers, me and Phil. I'm danisnotonfire and he's amazingphil on the internet."

Her smile faded, and she sighed, looking now at the shining table top.

"The internet.. thats something I'm gonna miss." She put her hands together and laced her fingers, not shifting her eyes from the one spot.

I haven't really thought about that yet. No more Internet. No more Internet. My life literally revolves around a steady wifi connection, and now it's just gone. Over. In a situation like this, no more internet probably seems like the least of our problems, but for me, it's the worst problem I could possibly face. For the past eight years or so, my entire being has lived online. Now that it's gone, I've lost a huge part of me that I could never replace. I know it sounds stupid, but

"My life is practically over." I didn't realize I had said that out loud until Alex's eyes darted up at me.

"Don't say that" She scolded me immediately. "Don't you ever say that. As long as you have someone that loves you and cares about you, as long as you are making the most out of everyday your life is most definetly not over."

She paused and grabbed my hand sympathetically.

"You've got Phil. And I've only known you for a day and I can tell you two would do anything for eachother. Not even my grandparents looked at eachother the way you guys do. What you guys have is special, and nothing could ever ruin it. Not even the end of the world."

I smiled, thinking of Phil and all of the times we shared with eachother before this. All of the times we almost came out to our audience by accident. It all seems so unimportant now. Life is short, so why didn't we just tell them? What was the big deal? I can't even remember. All that really matters now is that we have eachother, and we always will.

"You guys talking about me?" Phil yawned and rubbed his eyes, walking into the kitchen where we were sitting. Alex looked up at him and smiled, letting go of my hands so I could take Phil's.

"Yea, we um, we couldn't sleep" I muttered, resisting the urge to yawn after him. Why is yawning so contagious?

"Well, I can barely keep my eyes open so i'll see you guys in the morning." Alex stood up, pushing her chair under the table.

"Goodnight" Phil smiled weakly, tired in his eyes. We stood there as Alex left the room.

"Are you coming?" Phil asked me, wrapping his fingers around mine. "Yea in a second" I replied, grabbing Phil's wrist as a signal to let mine go. He released his grip and brushed the hair off of my forehead. Without saying anything, he gave me a peck on the cheek and left the room.

I made my way to the sliding glass doors at the other end of the kitchen, flipping up the lock and pulling the heavy glass with all of my strength. I stepped onto the back porch and felt the chilled wind on my face. Despite the circumstances, I was anticipating seeing the scenery in the daylight. I always appreciated things like this, considering I live in a busy city surrounded by buildings and crowded streets.

I used to always picture me and Phil sitting on a porch like this one, watching the sun set behind a lake or ocean together. The trees would most likely get in the way, but that's besides the point. It was the perfect scenerio I always saw us in.

If only it wasn't the end of the world.