Surviving.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Laineys POV

"Hiya Sophia Emad Alaeetawi." I grin and wrap my arm around her little shoulders.

I turn to the others and give them a stern look, they lower their weapons one by one. By now, Laken is awake and out of the bushes. Carl looks at Sophia in awe and Rick keeps nudging Carl and chuckling. Conner is watching her every move. I let go of her and walk over to Conner.

I hip-bump him playfully and turn to Sophia, "This is Conner, my lover." I say with a wink.

Conner is smiling like an idiot by now. His face is beat red. I wrap my arm around Carl's shoulder and pull him to me.

"This is Carl. He almost killed me." I laugh and walk over to Rick. "This is Rick, he's Carl's daddy and also tried to kill me."

        Sophia looks at me as if I'm insane, but she nods her head anyways. Now where's Laken? I turn around in a circle and still don't see her. I turn back around to find Carl extremely close to Sophia.

"What the fuck?" I laugh and shrug, "Sorry, there's one more person I'd like to introduce you to, but she seems to have gone somewhere."

Conner comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me from behind, "Probably to sleep again."

We all laugh together and Rick steps up and turns to me, "So, is she coming to the prison with us?"

Sophia looks between me and Rick and her eyes settle on Conner, who looks down at me, "Should we bring her along?"

I look at Carl who is looking at me with a pleading look in his eyes. I look at Sophia and find her looking at Carl. I look at Conner and nod. I see Carl relax a bit and Rick yawns.

"What did I miss?" A voice says from the bushes which i immediately recognize as Laken's.

"Where the hell have you been?" I say and a wave of irritation rushes over me.

Laken looks at me and grins, "I wasn't sleeping, that's all I'm going to say."

I roll my eyes, "Lazy ass.'

Laken laughs and so does everyone else. I see stress lines on everyone's faces and realize how hard it must've been for them. I was used to being alone, so it's weird for me to be in such a large group. It must be amazing for them. I never had good parents or siblings at that. I had 2 sisters, Sam and Sara. They treated me like shit, but I remember Owen. Owen was the closest thing I ever had to a brother. I had known him since I was a preschooler. I dated him in the fourth grade. I remember, he was my first "kiss". After that stage of hating each other, we became the best of friends. He died when shit hit the fan. He was one of the early cases. It was kind of like the Ebola case in the 8th grade. This time, it hit home. In his final days, he was his old self. He got a lot of visitors. A few from school; Jackson, Dave, Rose, and even that bitch Lisa, others from home, like his 7 brothers and sisters.

It was hell when he died, but he went peacefully. Seeing everyone so happy just lifts my heart. I look around and grin as I see everyone laughing, smiling, and singing.

Maybe, just maybe.

We'll be alright.