"I never want to see you again!" Mari shouts, angrily.
"Good! Go then!" Wes yells back.
Mari stormed out the door, slamming it behind her.
3 months later, a nuke hit, killing thousands of people.
Wes has been living in his apartment, surviving throughout the apocalypse for 3 months.
He's heading out to look for supplies and hopefully survivors.
He walks through the ruins and what's left of the city of Los Angeles.
He goes into an abandoned, almost destroyed store for supplies.
He hears clattering from behind the counter and freezes, worried about if it's savages.
He slowly and carefully walks to the counter.
"Hello? Someone there?" He asks, cautiously.
"Not a savage but you are in your own way" A familiar voice replies, sarcastically.
"Oh crap" Wes mutters.
The person stands up, revealing themselves.
It's Mari, Wes's ex.
She smirks then frowns at him.
"Wesley" She says, coldly.
"Mariko" He replies with the same coldness.
"Surviving alone I see" Mari states.
"As are you" He says.
"Well, I am for now but soon, I won't be alone" She informs him, looking out the smashed window.
"You joining a group?" Wes asks, confused.
Mari shakes her head.
"Wes, the day we had that fight and broke up, I was gonna tell you something" She tells him, making eye contact.
"What were you going to tell me?" He asks her, curiously.
Mari sighs and moves away from the counter to reveal her swollen belly.
Wes gasps in shock and backs away.
"No. It's not true" He protests.
"I'm sorry, Wes. I should've told you" She apologises, sadly.
Wes was speechless.
He did not see this coming.
"You've been taking care of yourself this whole time?" He finally asks her.
"Yeah. But I'm not fully prepared" Mari replies.
Wes swallow the lump in his throat.
"Why don't you come back with me?" He offers.
"No. I can't intrude. I don't want you to feel like you have have to help me" She protests.
"I wanna help. I don't want our baby to grow up in this wasteland but I at least wanna be around" He tells her.
Mari looks at him surprised but unsure.
"Are you sure? Cause it's gonna be a baby we have to care for and protect" She says.
"If you're willing to then so am I" He replies, now standing in front of her.
Mari looks down at her bump, thinking about it.
She feels a kick, giving her a purpose and motivation.
She looks back up at Wes with a determined expression.
"Ok. Let's go" She says.
They leave the store and head to the apartment.
After arriving at the apartment, Wes starts sorting out the supplies while Mari goes into the bedroom.
Once finished with the supplies, Wes goes into the bedroom to check on Mari.
He walks in and sees her, sitting cross-legged, on the bed with stethoscope.
She has the buds in her ears and the end part on her swollen belly.
She has her eyes closed.
Wes walks closer to the bed.
"Mari?" He asks.
Mari opens her eyes and looks at him.
"I hear the heartbeat. You wanna listen?" She offers.
Wes nods and sits on the bed, facing her with his legs crossed.
Mari takes the buds out of her ears and hands them to him then he puts them in his ears.
Mari keeps the end part on her belly, allowing Wes to listen to the baby's heartbeat.
1 month later
Wes has been worrying and protective of Mari since he took her back.
He's been doing all the collecting and gotten as much as he could for the arrival of their first child.
Wes was late back today.
It was already dark.
When he got back to the apartment building, he heard Mari, screaming from inside.
He rushed in, worried that something was wrong.
He burst into his apartment, checking all the rooms.
"Mari?!" He yells, panicked.
He runs into the bathroom and sees Mari laying in the bathtub, crying and panting in pain.
Mari looks at him with tears streaming down her face.
"Wes, it's coming and it's coming now" She says and screams in pain.
Wes rushes to her side, kneeling down and grabbing her hand.
"You can do this" He assures her.
"It hurts! I can't do it! It hurts so much!" She sobs, gripping his hand, tightly.
"Mari, it's gonna be fine. I'm right here. We're surviving the apocalypse right now. You can survive childbirth" He tells her, sternly yet softly.
Mari takes in his words then screams in pain again and starts pushing.
After 20 minutes, Wes let go of her hand.
"Don't leave me" She whimpers, tears and sweat dripping down her face.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm still helping" He reassures her, putting his hand on her knee and looking to where the baby's coming.
"I see the head. Keep going" He orders.
"I don't think I can keep this up" Mari says, exhausted.
"You're almost there. It'll be over soon" Wes tells her.
Mari nods and continues to push, scream and groan.
"One more!" Wes exclaims.
That gives Mari the motivation to give a big push.
The pain eases away and as soon as Mari stops screaming, a baby starts crying.
Wes reaches down and picks up the newborn.
Not caring that it's covered in blood, he holds the infant close to him.
Mari looks at him and sighs in relief, panting, heavily in exhaustion.
Wes hands the baby to Mari who happily and carefully takes the newborn into her arms.
Wes leaves the comes back with a towel and a switchblade.
He carefully cuts off the umbilical cord, with the switchblade and wraps the baby in the towel.
He kneels back down, next to Mari as they both marvel at their baby.
"So, what should we name our daughter?" Wes asks Mari.
"Haya. It means 'quick' in Japanese. I have a feeling that she'll live up to that name" Mari says, smiling at her daughter.
"I think it suits her. Haya it is" Wes replies, stroking Haya's cheek.
I am now taking requests for a short story in future chapters.
