||THE OUTBREAK||

||Chapter 14 : The Last Kiss||

Naira

"Keep it safely with you", Kartik instructed me, handing me a walkie talkie. I looked at it perplexed and then raised my head to look at Kartik with questioning eyes.

"There's one with me too", Kartik said showing me his walkie talkie, which he then tucked inside his jeans. I was still unanswered.

"What's the need of this? I mean we are gonna stay together only, right? Then why this communication device?", I asked him doubtfully. He sighed and held my arms, staring directly into my eyes.

"I know Naira. I'm never gonna leave you. We'll never part, but babe try to understand. This is an apocalypse. We can't promise anything. Our phones are dead, they're useless. God forbid but...(sighs) if any of us gets separated from the other under serious circumstances, we can talk to each other through this walkie talkie. We can gather help. We can be saved, right?", Kartik tried to explain me with so much softness like I was some kid. He made sense. But I didn't want any of the above possibilities to be true.

"Ok", I murmured nodding my head and staring down at the forest floor.

Kartik smiled and raised my head, keeping his finger on my chin. I looked into his eyes and he stared down at my lips. We continued the eye-lock for a few seconds, until he locked his lips with mine. He bent down a little and I stood on my toes to reach his height. We continued kissing each other slowly and passionately, under the shade of the tree.

Kartik broke the kiss and leaned closer, so that our foreheads could touch. There was so much proximity between us, we could feel each other's breath. It just enhanced the beauty of the moment. It made me feel so safe and cared for.

"I ain't leaving", he spoke as he closed his eyes and kissed my forehead.

"Mhm", I replied as I felt his touch on my skin.

I was standing under the shade of the same tree, with the walkie talkie in my hand - trying to contact Kartik. I knew he was alive, safe somewhere. I just needed to get a clue, a slightest clue that would take me closer to him.

"Kartik....", my voice quivered and eyes brimmed with tears as I spoke his name.

The man that I love....

"This is Naira. I know you aren't dead. You're alive, safe somewhere, with good people", my voice shook as I spoke over the walkie talkie. I was shattered and scattered into pieces.

"Please reply Kartik. Give me some clue that you're alive. I'll talk to you regularly through this walkie talkie. We're still at the Colonel's House. We haven't moved. The situations are manageable there. So if you hear me, please come back soon. I'll wait for you", I informed him, my voice heavy with tears. I waited for his reply to come from the other side but the signal wasn't clear and it continued to buffer.

I closed my eyes and sighed in defeat. I wiped the tears off my face and turned back to Watson. A biter was lying on the ground and snarling. Its legs were thrown somewhere away from its upper body, or we could say that it was just a biter head as its body was fully torn apart. Watson grunted and stabbed its skull with the machete. The biter gurgled but slowly its movements stopped and it died.

Watson looked at me and sighed.

"He's gone", he said referring to Kartik.

"I remember I left him right here yesterday. Maybe some of these creatures took him deep into the woods and-", Watson began to speak but I interrupted him in between.

"He's alive", I spoke and Watson sighed in disbelief. I looked around myself. We were surrounded by biter dead bodies and blood splattered on the tree barks. A suffocating, rotten smell engulfed around us. I started feeling dizzy.