The New World

6

"Adrenaline is something I will never understand."

He always has the answers. Let's see if he can explain this one without a dictionary.

"And why is that bright eyes?" His sweet voice asked me as he twirled a fish over the fire he made us in the woods. It was so dark. His soft features were illuminated perfectly in an orange gaze.

"You're thrown into these situations where your life is in danger, and suddenly you're invincible. It seems crazy, but it's the only way to describe the feeling you get when you're running your ass off in an attempt to escape death. Because, with adrenaline, somehow you are always safe."

"You're always safe because even the worst of the worst in the universe knows someone like you needs to exist in something like this. For someone like me." He reminds me.

The uneasiness of the lack of safety makes everything in my body ring with an upset pulse, no matter what you're always scared or prepared to be scared, never happy or carefree. You always feel the need to look over your shoulder, to double check the darker shadow behind the building, to always be clutching something that could save your life by taking another.

But all of that goes away with Chase.

"And we were all sitting in snack time, and I was finally starting to get in with the cool kids who had actual lunch boxes instead of paper bags like me, and that's when my mom walked in. I had forgotten my inhaler and she was worried something might bad happen if I didn't have it, so I had to get up and walk all the way to the door, grab it from her, kiss her, and tell her goodbye. Jessica Lancefield never looked at me again." He explained as I felt bubbles popping in my stomach, the smile on my face making my cheeks sore.

"At least you're mom cared," I suggest positively, and he gives me a small, content smile, nodding. It was calm, but there was pain behind it. I refrained from asking, so I looked back down at my feet to avoid any uncomfortableness.

"It's okay, you can ask me. You can ask me anything, you know that bright eyes." He mumbles, reaching over and wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me to him. I snuggled into his chest.

"Are you worried about your mom?" I ask him. He shrugs, looking back towards the fire.

"I believe she's more than capable of surviving in the New World. Just don't know about living." He murmurs. I look at him, his thick, brown hair streaked with rays of sunshine curled around his forehead and ears like crazy.

"Are living and surviving not the same thing?" I ask him in curiosity.

"Everyone who is alive in the New World is surviving. No one is living. Living through something like this would be impossible. The constant fear, near starvation, constant death, that's not living. People will survive. No one will live."

"Did you have a nice family before the Outbreak?" Luke asked me, shuffling next to me. I nodded, my heart warming at the thought of my parents from Old Time.

"Yes. I loved my parents." I grin.

"Did you have a favorite?" He asks. I shrug,

"I guess I always kinda leaned towards my dad." That teddybear smile and warming heart. "What about yourself?"

"Mom." I nodded. "I haven't seen or heard from her in nearly three years, since the outbreak hit the U.S. I have no idea if it's reached them, I pray to god it hasn't, but I haven't been able to find a way to reach them." He explains. His voice was disappointed, but he was almost content with the idea that he may never see his family again, and the possibility of them being dead.