The Final Leg - Book 4

Epilogue

"Louis, I swear to god if you don't get your ass out here right now we will leave without you and I'll just find another man!" Harry exclaims as he tightens the child-friendly harness on his chest where Lucy was peacefully asleep. Yet we all knew that the noises from the bike would wake her up. I certainly wished they had taken a car instead of a bike – yet I kept quiet. Perhaps I could wait to be an overly protective parent some other time.

"I'm coming." Louis growls toward him, shutting the front door to their house as he hikes his bag up higher onto his back. "You are the most impatient person I've ever met."

All Harry does is roll his eyes before Scarlett is snickering.

"The two of you are just... you're just great." She tilts her head to the side, revving up her bike earning a small cry from her son who was latched to her chest in a harness. As much as Liam had tried to persuade her to let him be in charge of holding Jack the way there, she only replied in a comment regarding his skills on a bike. That always seemed to shut him up.

"How's Lucy? Have you pulled her in too tight?" Louis bellows behind his shoulder.

"She's fine – can you just hurry up and start your bike?" Harry scoffs. "I want this trip to go quickly, I can't have her listening to the noises for too long."

"Yeah, yeah." Louis kick-starts his motorcycle once he had slung his satchel across his shoulder. I simply glanced over at Zayn, seeing him finishing up with a cigarette before he was throwing it to the ground, placing on his helmet. Once he started up his bike, he pulled out of the driveway to lead the way. Louis followed shortly after him, then Liam, then me, leaving Harry and Scarlett to cover the back at a slower pace to protect the kids.

I was rather invested in looking around at my final memories in Bradford. We passed the main street, the dorms I used to live in alongside Liam – the true beginning of my life. We passed so many memorable places before we were pulling our ways up to the highway which led straight toward the track.

This wasn't the first time I had been heading in this direction. I remember having my chest pressed firmly against Zayn's back as we left Bradford the first time, embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. I found both love and myself along that journey. I rebelled, got a tattoo, felt the breeze surge through my hair and truly experienced that fabled feeling of freedom that Zayn's gang described simply as 'the Road.'

I lost that scared little boy who was plagued with fear and doubt of failure. I knew what I wanted, I knew who I wanted to be, I knew that by following my heart I would ultimately find happiness and as I watched forward, seeing a jacket reading 'Malik' leading us down the winding road, I knew that there was no going back; for I had found what I have always been looking for.

Zayn took a quick curve off-road with Louis following tightly behind him. This was the route we usually took to the track yet this time, we were going to go way past that area filled with many memories – good and bad – and follow down the sunset road that my sights had been set on all my life.

It was crazy what we were doing and if this were me even a year ago, I would be turned around and on my way back to the safety of my bed. But I wasn't him anymore, I wasn't someone who saw adventure as a frightening thing, I saw it as it is.

Once we passed the track, seeing very few bikers there through recent events, the speed increased and we were suddenly away from civilization and in the middle of nowhere. The group spread out widely on the open ground.

Zayn was, of course, leading the way fearlessly like he had been doing since the beginning. He was a natural born leader and I knew that everyone here thought the world of what he did and how he did it. He belonged next to his father on the throne of great leaders.