Don't Let Me Go

Awhile To Go

Nate starts a fire with sticks from the clearing as the others settle down for the night. They haven't gotten out of the woods yet, but Nate feels they have to be close by now, since they haven't encountered any more infected in quite some time.

He sighs, smiling in triumph as the fire comes to life. He sits back, smiling sadly. It's a fire Matt would be proud of.  Stephanie comes and sits down beside Nate. She smiles softly at him, "Thanks for not giving up on me."

Nate smiles back, but says nothing. He doesn't have to. She knows what she means to him. Stephanie stares into the fire, she may not be over Matthew's death, but she won't disgrace his memory by giving up. She'll fight as long as she can, for him.

Felix and Marzia come and sit with them as well. They sit in comfortable silence and Felix puts his arm around her. She smiles at him and they share a quick kiss. A promise to keep each other safe. Mary-Jane bounds over to the fire, dragging Ken along with her.

He sits down with his friends, setting the small girl on his lap, putting his arms around her. She may be a stranger, but she's just an innocent child, no longer with a family. Ken makes a promise to himself to protect her as if she was actually his daughter.

Jack and Mark sit with their friends, happy to still have the company. Mark still shows no symptoms of the infection, and it gives Jack hope. It was dark, perhaps Mark hurt his ankle some other way. No matter what happened, Mark was still around, and Jack is grateful for that.

Tyler sits a little ways away from the group. He doesn't trust his so-called friends anymore. Mark was bit, he was going to turn soon enough, and then they would all know Tyler was right. He doesn't care if they blame him for what happened to Matthew, he doesn't care that they don't care that they let Ethan walk away.

They would all see he was right all along. Soon enough, they would all have to face the facts. Things aren't the same as it used to be, you can't trust the people you grew up with. In the end, the only person that will keep you alive in this world, is yourself.

...

"I'm fine," Minx grunts as Cry helps her stand.

Ohm and Dan tie up the other two that ambushed them, sitting them against the far wall.

Cry sighs, "You didn't have to kill him, Minx."

"They were going to kill us," Minx turns away from him, picking up her knife, "I was just doing what I had to do to survive."

Cry frowns, but says nothing else. While he doesn't like that she murdered that man, it did give them the edge they needed to get ahead of the situation. He's worried about how this will affect her in the long run. They've never had to kill anyone before. Killing the infected is different, they aren't alive.

Once they are sure everyone is okay,  the group prepares to leave. They have a long way back home, and no one likes that Dave and Signe were left alone for so long. Entoan frowns, crossing his arms, "What do we do about those two?"

"Leave them to rot." Dan states, "That's what they would have done to us."

"For once," Entoan chuckles lightly, "I agree with you."

Ohm sighs, scratching the back of his head, "Let's just get going."

Minx adjusts her backpack, nodding, "Yeah, it's a long way back."

Dan, Phil, and Entoan head for the door and Ohm looks back at Cry and Minx for a moment. He looks like he wants to say something, but he just turns and follows the others. Cry looks at the two that had ambushed them. He doesn't exactly feel right just leaving them tied up, but he doesn't trust letting them go.

Minx sighs, "Come on, Cry."

Cry nods and follows Minx out, closing the door behind him. As they walk away, they can hear their ambushers screaming from within. Cry stops and looks back at the building, and Minx grabs his arm, pulling him along, "They're not our responsibility."

Cry frowns, but follows his friends. While he doesn't feel okay with leaving those people to whatever fate befell them, Cry doubts it'll be the last time they'll have to do something like that. What the world has become has barely begun, and it's got awhile to go.
_______________________________________
Hello, dear readers! This is the end of "Don't Let Me Go", but don't worry! There is already a sequel in the works! Sometime later this week I will be posting the sequel, "After The Fall".

Look out for it!

Ahem, I would like to apologize for how long it took me to finish this story. My life has been chaotic and way too dramatic for me. A lot has changed, and updating takes me about three hours to do since I can only write on my phone now. So updates will continue, but will be very slow. I apologize in advance for any typos.

Thank you all for sticking with me through this, and I hope to see you all again in the next one!

~Xion, out!