Koalas (Kyle O'Shea)

Chapter 16

Two left before the last game and came back with some snacks.

"I'll get some, babe." Kyle told Melody. The woman slid down the wall as Kyle left.

"Who took all the snacks?" Kyle asked, looking around for the culprit.

Melody saw Jared, Ian, and Jamie turning to him, each of them had both hands full with granola bars. Wanda sat in front of them. She hadn't joined the game due to her injury. Ian turned to his older brother and threw all his bars at him. Kyle caught all of them and walked back to his girlfriend.

Jeb declared the games were over and everyone should go back to work. Melody and Kyle went back to their room. She was still worried he might have more than a concussion and told him to lay down.

"What exactly happened?" Melody questioned him.

They had arrived in their room and were now laying on their bed. Well, Kyle was. Melody was sitting by his side, her hands brushing through his black hair. Kyle sighed and closed his eyes.

"I knew she was in the bathroom so I wanted to throw into the chasm, so we wouldn't have the problem anymore. She fought back,"

That much was obvious. Melody could still see the scratches on his arms. The little half moons Wanda's fingernails left in his skin.

"I jumped trying to get her to loosen her grip but the ground gave in and I fell. The next thing I know is waking up in the infirmary next to you and Ian telling me she saved me."

"Why would she safe you?" Melody asked.

"Maybe I'm just irresistible." Kyle said, opening his eyes to look at his girlfriend with a cocky smirk.

"You're impossible!" Melody laughed and Kyle dragged her down making her lay next to him.

"I know."

The two continued to a lay in silence for a few moments. His hand drew patterns up and down her arm making her shiver.

"Maybe she isn't as bad as we thought. Maybe we were wrong." Kyle contemplated, making Melody look up to him.

"Are you sure about that?"

"I don't know, we'll see."

A few beats of silence passed before Kyle spoke again.

"But she really is a crappy liar."

The two started to laugh.

Over the course of the next days everything calmed down again. The raiders were now used to Wanda but not everybody was happy about it. Her classes continued every night and Kyle and Melody joined sometimes. Ian was reluctant to sleep in the same room as Kyle again.

"Well, we don't mind if you would sleep somewhere else, Ian" Melody told him with a wink making the few people around them chuckle.

"Gross, Mel." Ian said before Kyle pulled Melody on his lap and kissed her in front of everyone.

But the happy mood slowly dimmed. Walter was getting worse. He was unable to get up again and Doc usually kept him under any kind of medication or alcohol. The old man was getting closer to his end as his fragile bones began to break.

The message of his death shocked no one but it hurt everyone deeply. Walter used to always smile and see the best in everything. He could turn the most gloomy moods into a happy atmosphere and now he was gone.

Melody remembered him helping her navigate through the complicated tunnel system when she had just arrived here. Back then he was also sick but could still walk and didn't need yo much medication.

Silent tears fell down Melody's face as they made their way through the dark desert. They didn't use Kyle's and her exit but the official one. When the to arrived Aaron and Brandt were already done digging a deep hole for Walter. His body was covered in a white sheet as they slowly let him glide into the whole.

Ian appeared with an unconscious Wanda in his arms. Apparently she was there the last days of Walter, helping taking care of the old man. People didn't want her to know the way out of the caves so they compromised and Doc sedated her with morphine.

They started the ceremony. Everyone went up to the grave, threw dirt in it and said a few words about Walter. Melody and Kyle walked to the hole in the ground together.

"Walter died human. It's everything we can wish for someone."

They walked to their place silently watching as Jamie, Ian and Wanda stepped up to the grave and threw three hands of dirt down the grave.

Short chapter, sorry. Next chapter will have the usual length.