Til The Last Day✅

Chapter 22: A place to call home

Michael's POV

We traveled for a few more days after that. I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened between me and Katy. I'm not even sure if I kissed her right either. I was so nervous to do anything. At least it was enjoyable. I don't know, I'm weirding myself out. Besides that, everything's been really good for the most part. Dylan's started to watch us more. I don't really get why. Well, I mean I do, but really. If we're being honest here, I think Katy and I are at that age. We found a few rations here and there and we lost all of our water supply yesterday before we all went to bed. This absolutely sucked. I just hope we find somewhere soon.

"Katy," I came up and walked next to her, slipping my hand into hers.

"Hey." She smiled at me, "What's up?"

"Walking. More walking, oh yeah, and walking." I gave a weak smile.

"Ditto. I'm really tired though."

"I am too. Dad? When are we going to take a break again."

"Let's go for a little bit longer and then we'll take a break. Suns probably going to go down in 4 hours or so, let's get in all the traveling we can."

"Ughhhh," Me and Vince said at the same time. We looked at each other and laughed.

*4 hours later*

We sat crossroad area. We ended up taking a country dirt road to see if there were any farm houses. Right now, that's our best  bet for survival.

"How far do you think we've traveled?" Nick asked dully. I still feel really bad for him, I hope he gets better soon. I want my Nick back, even though he was an asshole to me. It was a good kind. 

"We probably traveled 30 to 40 miles at least. Maybe less. How you holdin' up Vince?" Vince was already resting on the ground in pain.

"It's gotten worse."

"Lemme see." Nick said pulling Vince's pant leg up to see what's going on. There was a huge black and purple bruise forming on all of his leg. It was also kind of a green color which made me want to throw up. I can't imagine the pain he's in right now. Walking on an unfixed leg.

"It doesn't look very good Vince. I don't know if we're going to be able to fix it at this point or if we're just going to have to amputate it."

"Hell, dying sounds better than the amputation."

"Yeah, not gonna kill ya bud."

"I know. Besides, I can't leave y'all in this shit. Not yet anyways."

"Exactly. All right bud, let's go find a better place to hunker down." Nick reached out to Vince hand and helped him up. Vince winced as he got up.

"Where should we go?" I asked dad.

"Let's go down this road and if we can't find anything, we'll probably stop. I don't think Vince can take much longer."

We continued to walk along the road. Mckayla started to cry and I took her in my arms to help calm her down. She finally fell asleep when we saw a light.

"You guys think it's a house light?" Katy questioned.

"Let's see." Hazel said.

As we got closer we heard different animals. Actual farm animals. That means there's people. There's got to be. Hopefully nice ones. All of this made us walk a little bit faster. We were tired of walking all day. We want this to end, the traveling. It's going to kill us one of these days. We approached a huge acor full of different animals. We opened the gate a little bit and it made a huge creak. Lovely, the owners of this place will know we're here. I'm praying to God that they're nice.

Dylan told us to stay here and that he'd go up to the house and figure everything out. We watched him approach the ranch style porch and knock on the door. The people opened the door and they looked like they were having a discussion. Then Dylan started to walk back towards us with the owners.

"This is Michael, my son, Katy, his girlfriend, Vince, Nick, my daughter Mckayla, and Hazel."

"Nice group you got here. What happened to your leg?" The owner's voice was deep and had a thick southern accent.

"Some jackass. Don't really want to talk about it." Vince grumbled.

"He's just upset because he didn't win."

"Look who's talking smart shit. Remember the warehouse." Vince smirked. 

"Why do you always have to bring that up?" Nick whined.

"Sometimes I think they're in a relationship." Katy giggled.

"I support your answer and ship it." I laughed.

"Well Vince, we can see what we can do with your leg. Come, you guys look a little hungry. My wife just cooked up some dinner. She can prepare more for y'all." 

"Thank you so much." Hazel started to get tears in her eyes.

"M'am, there's no need to cry." The owner smiled and motioned us to follow him.

Katy's POV

I had come a long way from where I started. I met new people, I saw life for what it was. I found my place when I thought I never would again. There at the ranch we all found a new home. Vince ended up getting his leg fixed and is going through the stages to walk again. Everyday we are assigned chores to help out the older couple who took us in. In fact, they kind of became me and Michael's grandparents, which I thought was pretty funny. Hazel and my dad ended up sparking a relationship, which startled all of us, mostly Michael. Michael had a hard time adjusting and Dylan and him still have their weekly fights, but I talk him through it. Nick is still mourning over the loss of Audrey and in all honesty, we all are. She was an amazing person just like everyone else I had lost due to what had happened. The destruction the apocalypse had caused was devastating to all of us, but we finally found a comfort where we felt safe. We hardly ever saw zombies, unless we went on runs and went too far out of the farm grounds. I lost a lot throughout this whole period of time, but I learned from all of it. It's sad to say, but I'm glad all of this happened. I'm glad I found these people, they were what I wanted in friends and family. I had that before, but they left this world. The other day me and Michael were out watching the sunset as usual. With his arms wrapped around me and his head resting on my shoulders, I knew I would be safe and my life would be okay. 

A/N: Holy...it's over. This was originally my first book ever and it's ended. Ahhh. Idk what to do now. Actually I do haha, write another book. I really hope you guys enjoyed this story and all it has to offer. I had a great time writing this book for y'all. Idk if that was a good ending or not, but aye, that's a way to end it I guess. I hope to see y'all in another book of mine? *Awkwardly, slowly walks away*