Love Me (Choni)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN, surrounded:

The groups progress was slow and our moral low. Archie injuring himself was probably high on the list of worst things to happen. We had covered only a few miles yet Archie looked like he could carry on no more.
Jughead was assisting him, carrying a good half of Archie's body weight on his shoulder. They had created a deep bond over these last few days, the two boys finding many things to talk about, mainly how single and lonely they were.

Toni and I had filled Jughead's gap at the front of the group and took to navigating our group towards the nearest town. We had followed the roads: we were less likely to get lost as they were signposted and obvious where they lead. We were currently nearing a place called Southgate. Non of us had seen the point, or had the gut to attempt to find Riverdale. The town we once knew to be our home would now just be the shell of what it used to. I wanted to remember it in a positive light not replace it with a ghost town, full of fallen friends, which now it would be.

We had walked for a further hour, when the buildings first appeared on the horizon. They were close compact tower blocks which could mean only one thing... We had found the city. Fueled by our new discovery, our group covered the remaining land in a hurry. As we approached you could see the effect of neglect on the buildings- or what remained of them. Their walls were over grown with Ivy, which had also created deep cracks. The grimy windows had been smashed in, probably due to looting or raids and many doors were missing. It looked like a war zone but with no people, not a soul in sight.

I tried not to dwell on how this made me feel, I wasn't a good one with emotions. I buried them deep inside, never letting them resurface. I knew this wasn't a healthy tactic but I had used it since childhood- mainly to not let my abusive mother know what she said to me effected me. You could never let the bully win, I learnt that early on. She would say the most vile things when drunk, which was often and wasn't much better when she was sober.

I glanced over to Toni, the only one I truly trusted in my life. I didn't know what it was but my gut told me she would never abandon me. She was set on helping Jughead hoist archie onto a stretcher we had found on the road- he was quite literally on his last legs. As she heaved him up, her lower body tensed, giving me a pleasent view. Her body was perfectly sculpted, toned yet not overwhelmingly muscly. Slim yet still had curves in the places where curves ought to be.

Suddenly Toni turned, catching me in the middle of my study. My cheeks turned crimson at being caught as she sauntered over to me - Reggie was now carrying the stretcher with a feverish Archie on.

"Hey babe, I saw you looking," accused the shorter girl, smiling down at the pavement. Veronica taking the lead this time with Joaquin.

"I don't know what you talking about," I said innocently smirking, I was in the mood for light teasing.

"You know that thing you do with you eyes," she said sarcastically, rolling her own.

"Oh... you mean this?" I questioned, looking her up and down and taking a long bite on my bottem lip. The shock on her face was priceless, I would show her she wasn't the only one with top energy.

"Ye-yeah something like that," she agreed, regaining her wit.

"Your gonna kill me Cheryl Blossom," she breathed out into the breeze, taking my hand in hers and intertwining our fingers- nothing felt more natural.

"No my job is to keep you alive, it's the zombies who are trying the alternative," I carried on our conversation to be interrupted with a scream from Betty. It had been an annoying habit she had gotten into.

We had all drawn our weapons by the time Betty had told us the reason for her outburst. A few doors down on the left of the street, was the green cross we all longed to see... A pharmacy. Maybe we could save Archie after all.