Alicia was so happy to spend those fifteen minutes in bed with her beloved, able to watch her with pure adoration as he worked his magic with her feet. Even if the massage was focused on her extremities rather than her core, the release and comfort that she found in it was still there. Bryce was attentive, caring - there were many moments when he got distracted, found his lips against her toes, the soles of her feet, tracing a soft path along the top down towards her ankles.... She'd found herself wishing that those lips would trail higher and higher until they were flush with her still-wet core. Bryce wasn't the only one who found arousal in the simple moments of existing together.
"Dirtier would have been okay," she whispered in return as Bryce started to untie her. He started low and moved higher - as he straddled over her hips so that he could reach behind her and free her wrists, Alicia saw an opportunity to kiss him - and she took it. She took one and then another - and then as she went in for a third kiss her wrists were finally freed. As soon as freedom found her the young woman had her hands along her husband's skin, thumbs tracing along the outline of his abdominal muscles before wrapping tight around his back so that he could squeeze her. "I'm going to hold you to a next time... though I think it's my turn next."
----
Anna wished that the bottle lasted them longer, but at least it had added a pleasant buzz to the rest of the night. The pair had spent it curled up together in the back room of that little bar, and for just the night the world was nothing more than that. Holding on to each other, touches turned to kisses turned to her straddled bottom-bare over his lap - passionate but not intense, bated breaths and heaving gasps against eachothers' skin until her head went dizzy and even then until she'd driven him over the edge. They hadn't even lasted long enough to uncurl their bodies from each other before falling asleep - Nick with his back to the wall and Anna still straddled over him, head against his chest with her arms loose around him.
The girl sure as fuck didn't want to wake up when morning came, either. Nick was being ever so gentle about trying to get her up but that wasn't going to be enough to make her happy to rouse. She grumbled and groaned - even shook her head against him as she squeezed her eyes tight, desperately hoping that he would just let her pass back out. When that didn't seem to be the case she pulled away just slightly, enough that her hips fell back and her ass hit the ground between his thighs. Her hazel eyes were heavy-lidded as she pouted at Nick. "Is it really time to get up already?"
“Don’t worry, Princess. There’ll always be a next time.” It was tough to ensure that, especially in the world they lived in, but Bryce truly believed it. The idea that their story was almost over after only getting started was ludicrous. He had seen so many people die already, and he knew that they were not invincible, but together, they were a powerful tandem. Leaning into Alicia’s touch after she was freed caused a smile to grow across his lips, returning the kiss with all the passion and love he could manage. They must have kissed for at least another ten minutes before the fury of kisses were over. The male was breathing heavily, looking deep into her beautiful, green eyes. He could never get enough of them.
“Now… I should probably do this…” Once her mouth was closed again, Bryce tugged the gag back over her chin and over her mouth, retightening the knot. “Now, that’s sexy – my sweet, beautiful Alicia naked and gagged for me.” Hey, now at least she could touch him all she wanted – she just couldn’t talk clearly or kiss without the gag restricting her, so he hoped that was a fair enough trade for the moment. “We don’t do this nearly enough… cuddling when you’re bound or gagged. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think this is crazy romantic in our own, unique way.” After all, it was not like he would be comfortable sharing these desires with just anyone – only her.
--
“Yeah…. I’m afraid it is.” Before this, Anna could have woken up, passed out in his arms and they would stay in that position for the entire day. Oh, if only they were afforded the same luxury today. Nick would have loved to do that. Unfortunately, there was business to attend to. That didn’t meant that Nick was in a hurry, though. He bought some time, running his hand through her hair, down her arms – thoroughly enjoying the feeling of her body against his in a non-sexual way. Again, out loud, Nick would never admit how much he liked cuddling. It was so intimate and he knew that Anna would give him hell for being a big softy if he asked to cuddle with her all day. Hell, he usually tried to avoid that cuddling word because of the context it usually had. They were both similar in the way they loved to be cheesy and romantic in their own ways, but became flustered when they were called out on it.
Just then, there was some loud noise above them, outside. It made Nick jump. “What the fuck…? That sounds like… a helicopter, maybe?” Damn… imagine having access to that kind of vehicle now. “Sorry.” Nick grumbled as he weaved from underneath Anna so he could rush to the window. He caught a glimpse of it, the sign on the side of the helicopter showing that it was a medevac helicopter. He could see where it took off from. “It looks like some kind of medevac helicopter. The border can’t be that far away…” He knew a few dozen people that might want to know that the border was functional.
Alicia truly should have seen this coming - in what world would Bryce ever give up the chance to see her gagged in front of her? She'd forgotten that the cloth was still wrapped around her neck ready to be placed over her lips again, so the movement startled her at first. The shock was momentary, though - as soon as she realized what was going on a laugh escaped her gagged lips. She knew that her husband found her attractive in all manners, but he hadn't been shy about the fact that he found her impossibly more sexy when bound or gagged. He wasn't the only one with dirty thoughts here, though.
"Touch me," she urged, the two words muffled from the cloth that obscured her speaking. At the same time her hands trailed down the sides of his abdomen slowly, inch by inch until her fingertips hovered just above her husband's cock. They stayed there, lingering, as she watched her husband with a look that dared him to give in. He wanted to be dirty with her and two could play at that game - just because they'd recently finished up making love to each other didn't mean that getting handsy wasn't out of the picture.
----
Anna was rather startled by the loud noise as well, and she moved along with Nick as he got up to his feet and checked it out. She saw exactly what she did - the helicopter - and while his mind jumped straight to Colonia and it's inhabitants, hers jumped north of the border. It felt pretty safe to assume that copter was related to the base - and if the base was functional, there was the chance that she would find exactly what she was looking for. She could see where Nick's mind was going, though - there was proof that something would be waiting for them, and maybe that would be the push that Alejandro needed to clear Colonia before the place got attacked.
"We're going back, aren't we?" She didn't sound bothered as she said it - she saw the importance in giving the people back at the little village, both because of Nick's connection to them and the fact that they'd saved her life as well. If there was some kind of sign that they could be saved, she wasn't going to be the asshole to say no, just let them die. "Just... For all we know Marco got there last night. We have to be prepared for that, Nick."
Well, fuck. That was Bryce’s weakness right there. Alicia told him to touch her while the gag was over her mouth. Yeah, he was done for. With a wicked smirk, Bryce winked at his wife and pressed a small kiss over her gagged lips. As soon as their lips connected, he reached in between her legs and found her clit, slowly rubbing circles on that mound of flesh. “Oh, I don’t think I can resist it.” Chuckling happily, he placed ample pressure on her nub, leaning down to kiss her as passionately as he could even with the gag covering her mouth.
His other hand would begin fondling with her breasts, gently massaging the flesh, tracing her nipples with his fingertips, squeezing and rolling her nipples around. “God, I love you so much. I want to hear you moaning again.” Bryce whispered, more than happy to make this dirty by touching her in the most intimate place possible. “You knew I couldn’t resist you for that much longer. You’re make for such a sexy captive, you know? The gag drives me so wild.” Bryce now started to kiss down her neck as he kept the slow movement of rubbing on her clit going, not seeing any end in sight now that they started being handsy again.
--
Going back? Yes, they were. Anna was correct to assume it. However, the most surprising thing to Nick was that she did not even sound pissed or frustrated. Honestly, Nick expected both as a valid reaction from the female. Just when she made the next comment, Nick was expecting something far more venomous. Instead, she was understanding, as if he was not required to explain it to her further. He did not have to convince her. Nick could not believe it. “I know you’re right, Anna. I know that’s possible but I just don’t think I could continue on without at least checking.”
After the comment was made, Nick started packing up all his shit and got ready to leave. As soon as Anna was ready, he reached out for her hand so they could start the walk back. “Thank you, Anna. I know you waned to get to the base as soon as possible, but I appreciate you doing this for me.” Now Nick grew quiet as they made the trek, keeping an eye out around them. It felt like forever, but they finally did return to the settlement and there was noise inside. However, it was not screaming, shouting, and bullets. It must have been alright inside. They were about to find out as the gates were opened for them.
Alicia had spent the vast majority of the rest of the trip in thought - recalling a rather heated and kinky encounter that she'd had with her beloved just several days prior. The group had fled the hotel late in to the night, reached the warehouse where they found those bodies even later, and then set out to find the settlement where Nick may have been staying - or maybe they were just wasting their time. There wasn't much hope, really - a ratty haired boy wasn't much to go off of. They didn't have very many options, though. With their "home" left behind and no idea where to go from here, even a half-assed lead was better than nothing.
The young woman had dozed off for maybe an hour in her her husband's arms towards the end of the trip, only to rouse as they had pulled up to a fenced in settlement. The sight that laid before her was as haunting as every other abandoned home that she had seen yet - a ghost town. Her heart sunk in to her stomach as she wondered what had happened here in just a few short days' time that turned it in to this.
She hopped out of the back of the truck and looked to her husband - Madison had told her and Bryce to stand back, but there would always be that piece of her that wanted Nick to be the brother that he should have been, and she couldn't stand somewhere knowing that he could be dead in there. "No, I'm coming," she said to her mother as she grabbed Bryce's hand. He had a gun, she had her knife - and the place looked empty. Hopefully Bryce would understand why she couldn't stay back right now.
----
"The base will be there - we know it's functional, and we know it's close. A few hours isn't going to change much in the scheme of things." Anna found herself more relieved just knowing that they were close, and though now her desires made her want to keep moving in the direction they'd came from, reality was that a few hours wouldn't change anything. If the place was in shambles, it'd still be a shit place in a few hours - if it was good and safe and she'd get to see her friends again, a few hours wasn't a big deal in the scheme of the months they'd spent traversing the ocean and then Mexico since the world had fallen to shit.
Luckily, Colonia still seemed to be intact - but for how long? Alejandro seemed to be unwell, as a patient had turned while they were gone. The man had been bitten - and even though the man insisted that his faith would heal him, there was no hiding the fear in his eyes and the fever that had started to wrack him. This was not a man who was going to survive, and Luciana beside him was understandably bothered. She had been lied to, tricked in to thinking this was a man that she could believe in Alejandro. With faith shaken, with Alejandro knowing that he was facing his death and couldn't take these people down with him... the trip north started.
Nick and her took the lead, as people who had seen the helicopter. Luciana took the lead, as the last remnant of Colonia's control. It was the three of them leading the masses, everything from the elderly to the smallest of children, through the streets of Tijuana. Before long the border was in sight, and Anna tugged on her boyfriend's sleeve as she saw motion in the distance - Nick was the one with the binoculars.
Then in a single moment everything changed - she hadn't even had a chance to notice the armed survivor moving out from hiding before a searing, burning pain spread through her shoulder and she staggered back in shock.
Alicia was right – neither himself nor Alicia were staying behind right now. Bryce held Alicia’s hand as they followed Madison and Travis into the settlement. The first thing Bryce noticed was the silence. Nobody was here, which was wrong. Considering all the houses and structures that could serve as a house, it meant that this place was once crawling with humans trying to survive. If they were not here, it was not a good sign. Oddly enough, there were no dead bodies littered on the ground. Maybe the humans here escaped, fled somewhere else. It must have meant there was a threat nearby.
Either way, Bryce remained silent while following Alicia, holding hands with the brunette. Their fingers were laced together, with at least ten minutes passing without seeing anything. At one point, Madison pointed out a stalled school bus somewhere in the yard. They checked out just about everywhere else already, so they might as well give the bus a whirl. They entered the bus stealthily, quietly, searching around them for signs of life. It seemed like they hit another dead end until they reached the back exit of the bus. There was still someone here.
There was a man, clearly dying. The bite wound was obvious, quite apparent on his skin. “I’m looking for my son… for Nick. Someone said that there was a ratty haired gringo boy here…. Do you know him?” Madison was pestering the older man with questions. Bryce wondered if he should tell the blonde to take it easy, but there was no stopping her. “Yes… Nick… I know him.” Madison’s eyes lit up, as did Bryce’s. Wow, so this wasn’t a false lead after all. “Where… where is he now? Tell me, please…” In a dying breath, Alejandro managed to utter out a basic direction. “North… the border… he took them to the border because he saw… something.”
--
Alejandro was unbelievable. Even after being bitten by a turned patient – after being truly bitten, this time, the older man insisted that faith would heal him, keep him safe. This man did not quit, did he? It took some convincing, but Luciana finally saw things the way Nick did. Alejandro relented, too, deciding he would stay back. He was going to die anyways, so he would rather die here. There was no sense in bringing him along for a trip that he could not make. Everyone was forced to pack quickly, many having to leave whatever valuables they still had behind.
Even though all of this was based on a hunch, Nick knew he had to be right about this. If not, they were all in some deep trouble. Then again, it was either take this risk or deal with Marcos and his gang. This seemed like the better alternative. Finally, everyone left the settlement, except for Alejandro. They were getting closer to the border as Nick pulled up his binoculars again to look into the distance, seeing another helicopter landing at a refugee camp. Just when things were starting to look brighter, he heard Anna cry out after a gunshot.
Then, there were more bullets raining upon them. Not knowing what to do, Nick quickly pulled Anna down with him into an old phone booth. He ducked his head and made certain that his body was covering hers. If either of them were getting shot again, it was Nick. He was too rattled to even fight back, putting pressure on Anna’s wound. Things were moving so quickly that he couldn’t tell if where the bullet struck her, whether she was dying, if it was a flesh wound – nothing like that. Nick panicked. “Come on, Anna. Stay with me, okay? Stay – suddenly, a forceful hand yanked Nick by the back of the shirt and threw him on the ground, the boy landing with a hard thud as the firing began to stop with the rest of the armed survivors emerging.
It seemed that everyone was caught off guard - finding somewhere that her brother truly had been felt alien to Alicia, who had been prepared for another dead end. To add to it, it seemed that the family had missed him by mere hours. The man in the bus was able to tell them that he had travelled north towards the border, and the truck that they had moved faster than feet ever would.
They didn't leave without giving that man peace, though. Even though the world had hardened her, death was never easy - he seemed at peace though. Alicia hoped that one day when her own death inevitably came, she too could be as comfortable with what was coming as he.
"I can't believe this lead worked out..." She mused out loud as they stepped away from the scene, hovering close to her husband's side.
----
Anna Dawson had never feared death - she'd faced it head on, knocked at its door every day she dared to slip a needle in to her skin. This was not how she was supposed to go, though. Maybe letting her believe in something good was just another cruel trick of this world's - what fucked up kind of higher power had she pissed off to find herself shot so soon after finding happiness nearly in her grasp? As Nick hovered above her he would see something that he had never seen in her before - genuine fear. Her eyes were wide and mouth agape, she clung to his arms with an iron grip that couldn't let go. Even if she had wanted to look away from him, let something other than his angel face potentially be the last thing she ever laid eyes on to, she couldn't. She could barely even register the chaos around them.
Nick got pulled away from her but she clung as hard as she could, reached out towards him even as he was tossed to the ground. It was then, seconds later, that a man - one that both would recognize from days past - crouched down in front of Nick and cursed under his breath. "Fuck... What are you doing here?" He'd realized what he had gotten himself in to, and hesitated to check out the dark-haired girl a foot away - that was when the cursing really began.
Anna only needed to meet his eyes for half a second before recognition set in, and she was able to mumble three words before succumbing to the shock: "Josh, where's Molly?"
At the same time an unfamiliar face came towards Nick with the butt of a rifle, but Anna was lost to unconsciousness before she could know what happened.
Before leaving, Madison requested Alicia’s balisong. To prevent Alejandro from reanimating, Madison gently pushed the knife into the dead man’s skull, disabling the brain. The knife was returned to Alicia silently, everyone now turning to leave the bus. Madison did not even need to say anything. Their next destination was quite obvious already. Once outside, Bryce listened to Alicia’s comment, agreeing one hundred percent. It was nothing short of a miracle that they were able to find a lead. This time, it wasn’t Madison moving on false hope with no pretenses of it being logical. “Hopefully this base at the border isn’t a terrible place. Hopefully, we’ll actually find some safety there.” Already, Bryce wasn’t all that trusting of the military because of their dealings with the soldiers before.
On the other hand, Bryce liked to believe that not everyone still in the military had evil intentions. Regardless of how he felt, it seemed that Madison was eager to get the group moving. They would climb back into the truck and settle down for the ride North. Hopefully, it would not take them long to find Nick. He shouldn’t have made it too far, but things were rarely ever easy. Bryce became slightly worried when they were close enough to see a helicopter lifting off from camp, but there was no sign of Nick. Maybe he left earlier than the man said and was already in the camp.
--
Maybe Anna Dawson never feared death, but Nick feared it for her. If there was any supreme being up there, Nick silently spoke inside his head, begging to be taken instead of Anna. In that moment, when he saw the fear in her eyes, Nick had no idea how to comfort her. They both had a tight grip on each other, but that was no match for three or four soldiers, which was the number of soldiers that were needed to pull them away from each other. As Nick looked around, he could see some of the dead folk on the ground. Oh no. This was all his fault. Nick tried to blink back the tears, not wanting to show weakness, but there were elders, children – good men and women.
They followed him and believed in him, yet, he led them right into a trap, it seemed. Now, Anna might die because of him, too. Nick was too high strung to even notice Josh standing there. He just saw another soldier reaching down to restrain Anna, so Nick lashed out, trying to tackle the man. It only earned him a swift butt of the rifle to his head, knocking him out as well. For the next bit, he was in and out, feeling himself being restrained, carried to some armored vehicle that was now moving along the road, but Nick wasn’t able to make out much.
Yes, the border looked empty. At a distance that seemed like it had potential to be a good thing - a group as big as the one Alejandro had said her brother was with would have been seen. Therefore it felt best to hope that just this once, everything would go to plan. Nick would be on the other side, probably with the group of survivors he had been living with, and there would be a safe camp where they could at least momentarily stay, if not something more permenant. After the string of terrible events after terrible events, Alicia Kemp really should have thought the idea through a little more thoroughly. That was one of the hard parts of wanting to be an optimist in a pessimistic world - nothing ever wanted to go as it should.
The scene at the border was horrific - everyone quickly became aware that the group had in fact not made it to the camp. Bodies scattered the abandoned roads, freshly dead - probably a hundred of them. Alicia had never seen death in such large numbers and immediately felt like she wanted to puke. Her mother immediately stopped the truck and ran out, searching body after body. It was obvious that she was trying to locate her son amongst the sea of corpses and Alicia didn't know what would be worse - if she did or didn't find Nick in the crowd.
"Oh my god," Alicia gasped in shock as she leaned in to her husband. "This was a massacre."
----
For quite some time, Anna faded in and out. All she could remember from there out were bits and pieces - a glimpse of one of her best friend's face tainted with concern as her body swayed, obviously off the ground ("Are you sure she's even alive man?" "Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure - she's looking at me right now."), blindly searching for Nick who was being dragged along by another of the survivors, keeping her eyes locked on her boy as she as laid down beside her - Josh so much more careful with her than the other man had been with moving Nick. She'd been slipped out when Josh had crouched in front of them and grabbed Nick by the chin to get his attention - obviously the more aware of the pair, but that wasn't saying much - "Why the fuck did you come from Mexico?" It was a quick encounter - couldn't draw attention to knowing these people - and then he was off.
Anna was present enough to stumble-walk - or more like be dragged - in to a room filled with people not long (or she thought not long) after, but that didn't mean much. She was still bleeding badly and the shock had worn off, making her realize just how excruciating it felt to have a bullet in her body. At first the white hot heat had faded as her body fought it, adrenaline kicking to keep her going, but with that worn off all she wanted to do was scream but she was too tired to feel like she could. The affected limb was limp at her side as the other pressed to it, and she leaned in to Nick's side to prop herself up.
"What's going on?" She whispered, trying to make sense of everything - the border, the firefight, the room that they were in now...This was nothing like she had been prepared for.
Bryce had never seen anything like it. Seeing the undead was one thing, but these bodies were clearly human at the time of their death, not infected. What the fuck was happening right now? “We’ve got to get off this road. Quick.” Bryce did not expect Madison to stop looking, of course. Instead, Bryce decided he would help go through the bodies because it would save time. They were only halfway through when there was the sound of a few engines. Before the group could escape in the truck, they were surrounded by vehicles – military vehicles.
The first reaction Bryce had was to ensure his body was between the threat and his wife. The numbers were simply too overwhelming, though. “We should take them to the fuel depot.” An unidentified man spoke. On cue, another group of soldiers walked forward to begin the process of restraining everyone with zip ties. Bryce saw a soldier approach Alicia and make a comment about how attractive she was along with what he'd like to do with her when they had privacy. No matter the odds, Bryce could not hold his tongue when someone threatened Alicia. “You touch her – I’ll cut off your fucking hand and force feed it to you.”
That drew his attention to Bryce. Someone was trying to tell the soldier to stand down, that he was just wasting time. Bryce’s hands might have been restrained, but his legs were not, so he suddenly kicked the soldier in the gut hard. As soon as the soldier recovered and stood back to his feet, he tackled Bryce to the ground and slammed the butt of his gun over his face. The soldier was preparing to do it again, but another soldier grabbed him to stop him from killing Bryce, though the young man on the ground was quite dazed and unaware of what was going on around him.
--
Nick was in and out as well. He was hit quite heard over the head with the metal gun. He probably had a concussion and being dragged like this was not ideal in the recovery of such an injury. Whenever he did have a somewhat lucid moment, he would utter Anna’s name, as if he were trying to call out to her. Even if Anna heard him or tried to answer him, he would not have heard it. As soon as he started calling her name, he would have faded right back out before he could finish the last syllable.
They were being carried and/or dragged to the fuel depot that the military controlled. It was clearly not a safe place for them to be. However, the effects didn’t last too long. Nick was able to keep his eyes open longer with each passing minute. Still, he was nowhere near being good to go, but he could at least try to get a lay of the land. When Josh asked him why he was in Mexico, Nick really couldn’t answer that. There was too much to explain, and quite frankly, Nick was still trying to figure out if this was actually Josh, or if he was hallucinating seeing him here.
It couldn’t be, right? Josh wouldn’t have a hand in something so awful, would he? Nick didn’t think it was possible, but he realized that he was finally a little more lucid than before and each time he looked at the soldier, Josh’s face was still there. “I don’t know.” Nick was able to respond when Anna woke up in the room. “Nothing good….” Nick saw two of the guards standing there, so he tried to call out. “Hey! She’s been shot, man. She needs some help. I don’t know what you intend to do, but come on, she’s not going to make it like this.” Nick was growing angry, and he wanted to fight, bu the just didn’t have the strength or energy right now. What the hell was this place?
Alicia was truly sickened, and she hadn't thought it was possible to feel more detached from humanity than she had after plunging a knife in to a man just the day before. What she had done was self defense, defending her family - but she could not come up with one good reason for the mass murder that had occured at the border. This was very obviously the group from Colonia - the group that the man in the bus had sent with Nick. They were looking to flee an enemy and to find a safe home, only to be slaughtered. Alicia just wished Nick's body could have been the first that they saw - the fact that they stuck around got them deeper in to trouble.
Military vehicles surrounded them and with guns in the air there was very little that could be done except to surrender. Bryce always needed to get a last word in, though - time and time again he'd gotten himself beat trying to keep her safe. It was admirable, she knew that his hands were the safest she would find, but there was nothing that she could do as that soldier whaled on her husband, obviously prepared to go in for more had another man not pulled him back. The same man then moved to pull Bryce to his feet, and after everyone had been restrained - they aimed to make Bryce's extra tight as the boy had shown he could be a problem - they were ordered to move. Everyone was kept more than an arm's distance apart, everyone had a gun ready to fire in to their brains - there was little choice but to move forward.
"We're just looking for my brother!" Alicia cried at one point during the journey, as a large building appeared in the distance. To her, she had been so close to something. It had been impossible to believe in Nick until he had become real again, until someone else had seen him even just that day.
"Stop fighting Alicia, stop." It was Madison who quelled her, quieted her, shut her down - the one time in the world that Madison wasn't at the forefront of the fight. Madison was also facing a harsh reality - the son she sought so hard to save may have been among the bodies that they never saw.
The young brunette turned her head towards her husband as they continued to be marched forward, pleading silently that he would do everything he could to be at her side every step of the way.
----
In the beginning, things had been alright for Molly and Josh - for a short while. While Joshua Brant's connections to the military were old news, his commanding officer of the past had been the first face the couple saw as they pulled in to the base. There was a high probability that alone was what got them through the gates. For a short while they had been safe - nothing in this world was truly safe, though. It was thanks to a Jake Otto that they had found a new home after the base was to be left behind - no self respecting man would leave a pregnant woman out to die, after all. Working at the depot had been part of Josh's choice to keep Molly safe - it was ugly, but with the family he'd made at stake it was worth it.
The young couple had been in the holding cell an hour, maybe two, when Josh made his way in there - he hadn't said a word to either of them since they had left the border behind. "I'm here to take over," he lied through his teeth - and only once the watching guards had retreated, not expecting to be relieved so soon, did he pace in to the depths of the room and towards the disheveled faces that he knew so well. He crouched down in front of them, pleased to see that Anna had at least opened her eyes. Bullet wounds weren't to be messed with - he'd found that out first hand in '04, when an injury very similar to the one Anna had just got nearly cost him the use of his left arm, and ultimately lead to both him leaving the military and the ensuing heroin addiction that consumed his life for nearly four years. He reached out and ran his thumb over her cheek, held her face in his hand for half a second - glad to have you back. It was familial, not romantic.
"I could hear you from outside - you gotta shut up, Nick. You're going to draw attention to yourself, and you're gonna get both you and her killed." The man knew that he had to figure out some kind of plan and soon or else Anna at least was going to die. The bullet lodged in her may have saved her from blood loss by blocking the wound tract until she started to clot, but infection was insidious, and she needed proper medical care. "I'm gonna figure something out. I have to." When Anna simply responded with one word, Molly, Joshua nodded. "Amelia's not here but she's safe - and she'll kill me if you die, so you better hold on.... I'm going to figure something out."
Josh needed to have a very serious conversation with the Otto brothers - which would be difficult to do when one of them was responsible for this entire mess. He nodded towards Nick, ruffled the hair of the girl he'd spent six years living beside, and left as he tried to figure out how in the fucking world he was going to make this right.
The group of four were thrown raggedly into the back of a military vehicle. Bryce’s head was reeling, though the adrenaline allowed him to stay somewhat aware of his surroundings. The same soldier that took an issue with Bryce earlier was one of the three soldiers watching the captives in the back. His grip around the rifle was tight, there was the look of a killer in his eyes. Bryce closed his eyes for a moment and leaned his head against the wall behind him, only to be met by a hard jab with the barrel of the gun against his left knee.
“Hey, dipshit. Keep your eyes open. Don’t fall asleep yet.” Bryce didn’t say anything – there wasn’t much to be said right now. When this happened, Bryce could hear Alicia open her mouth again and shout at the soldiers while thrashing about. As protective as Bryce was over his wife, one could say the same about Alicia with her husband. Madison, again, commanded Alicia to stop fighting, to be quiet. It seemed like she might remain that way for the rest of their journey, but not quite. When the vehicles parked just outside the military fuel depot, everyone was forced outside.
They were on foot from here into wherever they were walking. The armed soldiers were forcing them to walk, though the soldier pushing Bryce was not being as lenient. He continued to shove Bryce, berate Bryce, and cause quite the disturbance. More than once, Bryce was pushed so hard that he lost balance and collapsed. He was a fighter, though. Bryce got up each time. He knew this fight was not one he was going to win right now, so he remained silent and kept walking. However, it seemed that Alicia could not do the same.
Bryce could see her thrashing about against one of the soldier trying to calm her down and she was using her voice as quite the weapon, too. Finally, a different soldier became irritated with Alicia and told the other to “shut that bitch up”. To do that, a bit gag was removed from the bag a soldier carried. The gag was placed in between her teeth and secured at the back of her head. Inside the depot, Travis was placed in a separate vehicle, driven to a different location than the other three.
Madison was also separated from the two younger adults as they were taken to a different office. “We better keep the girl restrained. She’s far too feisty. We’ll have to keep her like this until she calms.” Before leaving, Bryce was actually cut free, though Alicia’s ankles were also ziptied together. The couple was left, sitting on a couch in the office before the soldiers walked out and locked the door behind them. Finally alone, the first thing Bryce did was take off her gag since that was really the only thing he could do. Their weapons were confiscated so cutting her ties would be impossible. “Princess… are you okay?”
--
How long had it been? Two hours? Four? Nick lost track of time in this small room with other people shoulder-to-shoulder. What the hell was going on here? Their heights and weights were measured and recorded, which was strange. Nick was wondering what would become of them, and his answer was revealed in quite the morose manner. Now, he had seen three people taken out, shot outside in another room. The bodies were dropped back near the door, and Nick could see enough to know that there were numbers written on their heads. What the fuck was this? Nick had no idea.
Just then, he saw Josh inside the same room. At first, he was relieved, but remembered his face being at the slaughter. This was not the Josh that he knew. For that reason, he gave Josh an evil eye when he touched Anna’s face. It was not out of jealousy of him touching his girlfriend, honestly. It was simply this: Nick looked at Josh different now, seeing him like this. He wanted him and everyone else in this god forsaken compound to stay the fuck away from Anna. Nick, quite honestly, was not pleased at all. Finally, he was awake and aware almost completely, only having a throbbing headache to remind him of what just happened.
“Oh yeah, Josh? I’m going to get us killed? If you ask me, you and everyone else that brought us here are going to get us killed. I saw the shit at the border. You and your buddies slaughtered innocent people. Who the fuck are you?” Nick had venom laced with his words. It was bad enough that they killed the people from Colonia. Nick obviously had felt positive towards them, wanting to see them safe.
They also now nearly took Anna’s life. That was the end of the line. Any chance of Nick complying would be shot by now. He had spent the last hour or two shouting at the guards, asking for someone to help his girlfriend. “Oh, fuck off. Don’t act like you’re going to do shit. I don’t know how the fuck Molly can still be with you after the monster you’ve turned into. You want to help us, get us out of here.” Nick had no filter right now. And if somehow Molly didn’t know what Josh was involved in, you better damn well believe Nick would let her know as soon as they found her.
Soon after Josh left, another man was brought inside. It was Travis – the same Travis’ his mom had been dating. Nick said nothing until they were left alone by the guards. “Travis… what the fuck are you doing here?” There was so much to explain, so Travis kept it brief. “We were following your trail. Some guy at the community said you were going to the border, so we followed, and these soldiers came out of nowhere. Your sister and your mother are here too. Somewhere… I don’t know where they are. They took me a different direction.”
They fucking gagged her. That was what she got for being mouthy, of course, but how was she supposed to stay nice and quiet when she and her family were being rushed away in to some place they'd never seen? When they may have been pulled away from finding closure about her brother? When they dared to separate Travis from them and drag him off to who knows where? Alicia was pretty surprised that they hadn't tried to take Bryce away, too. He had, after all, tried to attack one of the soldiers over her, and she'd been a feisty little thing who had refused to back down. Leaving them alone in the same room... Well, that seemed like really terrible planning on their parts. Alicia wasn't arguing though.
She was left ziptied, ankles and feet, and in any other situation she might have found the bondage hot - because Bryce would have been the one doing it to her. Instead it just fueled her anger even more, and as soon as Bryce had pulled that gag from between her teeth (she had never seen anything like it before) she just shook her head. Alicia was a mixture of terrified and royally pissed off, and she wasn't even sure which feeling was reigning right now. "I'm not hurt," she affirmed - though if she was hurt wasn't the question she'd been asked. was she okay? Not really - but she would be.
"I can't believe this. Every time it seems like we have something good, or at least a road to follow... Bad shit happens. For all we know Nick's in that pile of bodies at the border. For all we know, we're going to join that pile of bodies...." That was a grim, but Alicia had no way of knowing what the people here were planning. "And where did they take my mother? Travis? I don't feel good about this at all." The ranting tone in her voice faded as she spoke up again, looking to her husband with soft eyes and the hint of fear finally leaking in to her voice. "Can you hold me?"
It was then that they could start to hear yelling from the room over - two men. It was hard to catch any of the words, but Alicia swore she caught her brother's name - and that couldn't be a coincidence. What were they supposed to do about that anyways?
----
Spraying in to a sea of a hundred bodies moving right towards their base of operations didn't even make the list of the top five terrible things Josh had seen or done, thanks to Iraq. That had been logic - a numbers game. There was no way that they would have ever been able to handle that many bodies, had no clue how many would be armed, and this world had turned in to a war zone once again. What happened inside the walls was another story, though, and something that the man was hoping his friends would not become privy to. Molly however had no clue, as it should be. She was much less jaded by this world than he was. Nick spat poison at him and Josh didn't argue - there was no denying that what happened here was terrible. He said one last thing before leaving, though: "If you ever have a kid, you and me can sit and have a talk about how far you would go to keep them safe. But causing a commotion is going to get you pushed to first in line, so shut the fuck up long enough for me to talk to someone. If you don't, you're going to be why she's dead." In the past he had been one of the most laid back people in the world, but there was no time for that now.
Anna only caught the conversation in bits and pieces - enough to know that her person was not here but safe, but not much more. She wasn't able to do much more than lean up against Nick and rest her head on his shoulder, observing what was happening and trying to make sense of it. She searing pain in her shoulder - bullet. The fact that she couldn't feel her arm - probably also the bullet. Josh? A sign that they had a chance. The other semi-familiar face that walked in after? It took her a moment to place that one - she'd only seen brief glimpses of Travis in the past as she'd found herself exiled from the Clark home before he had come in to the picture, and she'd spent most of her time back on the yacht keeping herself scarce to hide from Nick.
"We'll get out," Anna mumbled, only half present. It was then that Travis clued in that this was the girl from the yacht - he hadn't been around to see Anna and Nick move on from hostility. There wasn't any time to question how that happened, though - instead he saw the state that he was in. "What happened to her?"
Yes, I can hold you, Princess.” Bryce’s voice was soft, too. He could sense the fear Alicia felt. Things were compounded when Bryce had no means of undoing the restraints. She was stuck, for now. An arm wrapped around Alicia’s shoulders, the other one reaching down to rest on her leg. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll find your mother. We’ll get out of here.” The future was bleak. Even if they escaped, where did they go? How did they find answers about Nick? While all questions were valid, Bryce finally realized the importance of taking it one step at a time. They were not doing themselves any favors by focusing on too much at once. They needed to tackle this problem first. Then, they would move onto the next one.
“I will do whatever it is I can do that will help you relax.” How could he even do anything though? Wait a minute… Bryce thought of something. It was a dirty thought, one that an average person might not have thought about in a time like this. Hell, it would not have been the first time that Alicia found herself in peril before leading into something intimate. If Alicia wanted to stop she could always tell him. The young man decided to pull her into his lap instead of sitting beside him.
With her rear against his crotch, Bryce wondered if she could feel the erection forming. He reached a hand down to grab both of her ziptied ones, giving them a firm squeeze. His other hand wrapped around the front of her body, gently pressing his hand against one of her breasts. “Well, it might not help us literally escape. Metaphorically, we’ll be a million miles away from this hell. If you want me to stop, just say so.” Until then, Bryce began kissing her neck, gently suckling on her neck, down to her collarbone before brushing his lips against her cheek.
“I love you, Princess. You’re my beautiful wife and you mean the entire world to me.” He just wanted to remind her of that, to hopefully take her thoughts somewhere happier. The hand that was holding her bound ones moved forward, sliding into her pants, sliding to find her clitoris. Once his fingers made contact with the bud, two fingers were pressed into the flesh, a slow, agonizing pace being produced. If she was reacting well to his touch, then he would likely gag her again before losing all reservations about the moment, going all out with Alicia.
--
Nick did nothing but roll his eyes. Yeah, Josh – you’re the one here killing innocent people, setting up Nick and everyone else in this room to die, but he managed to twist it around in a manner that made HIM the bad guy here somehow. Holy shit – IF Nick ever got out of this god forsaken room, he was going to beat the living shit out of Josh. Okay, maybe that was difficult to do. Josh was in the military, much stronger than Nick. However, if Nick sneak attacked him, it might work out in his favor. Who could blame Nick, though? Who would not be furious in a time like this? Nick did not give a damn about Josh having a kid. That seemed quite irrelevant to him at the time.
Nick wanted to ask what his child would think about seeing his father killing innocent people. Maybe Josh didn’t need to protect the kid from the outside world. Maybe the kid needed protection from him. Oh yes, Nick was furious. It was compacted by the fact that he knew Josh, that he used to think they were friends. Yet, Josh was the culprit here. It would have been easier if this was some stranger dickhead, but it was not. That made the feelings of anger and frustration even more apparent. Nick’s face was red, he was angry, and his eyes showed it, too.
Yet, he listened to Josh. Nick zipped up verbally (but certainly not mentally). If looks could kill, Josh would have fallen dead before he even took one step away. His thoughts were dark and cold, too. Nick did not appreciate this, at all. He would show these people here they fucked with the wrong group of people – Josh included. “Yeah, yeah. You’re right. We will get out, Anna. Don’t worry. Just rest, okay?” Nick kissed the top of her head, his entire expression softening and his voice lowering.
This woman right here was the reason he was fighting so hard to get out. He needed to buy some time, to see if Josh was a man of his word. If he didn’t return soon, however, Nick was probably going to take his own actions. To respond to Travis’ question, Nick nodded his head to the guards outside. “Some asshole shot her just like they shot everyone else that was with us. She was lucky enough to survive. How did you end up here? Are my mom and sister okay?” To the contrary belief that Nick didn’t care about anyone but himself, he truly did think about Alicia and Madison often.
Alicia let out a sigh of relief as Bryce draped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, the gentle touch of his other hand on her thigh came as even more relief. There was only so much that they could do, and freeing her from the ties wasn't an option - the vast majority of the time, she absolutely loved being alone with Bryce while being tied up but this wasn't one of their kinky adventures that she had agreed to ahead of time. This was a captive situation, and one of the few where Bryce was not able to help her as much as they would both like. For now, the cuddling was all she could get, and Alicia would take that for all it was worth.
When he first slid her in to his lap, Alicia didn't expect anything to come of it - she'd found herself pleased that her beloved wanted to keep her close. It didn't take long for her to realize where her man's dirty mind had wandered, though. It wasn't the first time they'd gotten intimate in a perilous situation, and in a way she shouldn't have expected anything else - by now Alicia knew exactly how her husband's mind worked.
"Here?" She asked, slightly incredulous. That was about the moment when Bryce started to fondle her breasts, and as Bryce's lips found the tender skin of her neck Alicia knew she was already gone - it was a touch she was week to. Her head rolled to the side, giving the man more access to her skin, and as his fingers dipped in to her pants and inbetween her thighs, she let out a light moan. "Go for it, please," she whispered, a breathy thing caused by the head rush she was getting from the way her husband was touching her. Bryce was right - this would take them a metaphorical million miles away from the hellhole that they were in.
----
Despite the circumstances, Anna really believed that Josh would follow through. This was hell and she was shot, the one thing besides Nick's presence that she was actually aware of at all times, but she knew that face and if he said he'd get them out, Josh would get them out. That part, at least, was simple - Nick's reaction after might complicate that, the fact that this wasn't where they wanted to be would complicate that, and probably a lot of other things would complicate that, but whatever was going on.... She knew whose hands her fate was in, and Anna trusted that. She'd caught him saying that Molly was somewhere else - there was still a safe place, even if this wasn't it.
Travis was appalled by everything he had seen recently - from the massacre at the border to the holding room of the about-to-be dead. It was obvious that vile, vile things happened here, and he was fearing for the safety of the women more than he was himself. "We came here looking for you," he explained. "When we reached the border we saw a bunch of bodies.... Your mom thought you might have been in there. We got cornered, and they took us. Your mother and sister were okay the last time I saw them, they got taken somewhere else. I'm not sure where. But I'm going to take you to your mother, and we're going to get out of here... All of us."
That made two different people saying that they were going to find a way out. In another part of the depot, Josh was talking to a couple of the other residents, bargaining for Nick and Anna (if all he could get was Anna that was okay - the place may have been vile but Nick being a dipshit about Josh trying to get them both out made him much less important than the girl he considered family) without knowing that the rest of the other man's family had shown up as well.
“Good. You won’t regret this.” Alicia did not need to tell Bryce again. The finger inside her jeans continue rubbing at her engorged button of flesh, his free hand searching for the bit gag beside his leg. It probably went without saying, if they were going to make love while she was tied up like this, the gag was needed. Of course, before gagging her, Bryce granted Alicia full access for one more uninhibited kiss. When that kiss ended, Bryce pulled away with a knowing grin on his face. “I love you, Leeshie.” Bryce whispered in a soft tone, not pulling away before pecking her cheek. Finally, it was time for the gag. Once her mouth opened, Bryce took his time, ensuring the black bit gag was settled evenly between her teeth.
It was a more exotic gag than usual, which appealed to Bryce. He was most definitely keeping it when they escaped this room. As always, he ensured her hair was not trapped within the straps as he secured it. Before doing anything else, Bryce took a minute to simply admire the brunette beauty in front of him. “Wow…” He commented, his breath taken away. “You never cease to amaze me with your beauty. I still can’t believe that I have such a perfect wife.”
Now, he was turning all focus onto Alicia. With her hands and feet tied, it was impossible to undress her thoroughly. With the upper half of her body, her shirt would be hiked up over her breasts, though he left her bra for now. Then, her jeans and panties were yanked down around her ankles. That was the extent of it, in case they had to quickly stop if someone entered. While she was like this, he continued kissing down her neck, diving a hand back between her legs to feel if her wetness had increased yet. “I think bending you over the back of this couch would make the perfect position for right now. What do you think?” It seemed like the best choice, since her legs were bound together.
--
Oh great. Fucking fantastic. Alicia and Madison came here to find him. Not only did Nick lead the people of La Colonia to their deaths, but he was the reason Madison and Alicia may meet the same fate. By default, it also meant that Travis and Alicia’s boyfriend would meet the same fate, too. Great. All these lives were more blood on his hands. “Well, you found me. Congrats.” Nick didn’t meant to act so bitter toward Travis. He was simply overwhelmed right now. Sometimes, he did wish that Madison would have just moved on and given up on him. It would have saved her so much pain and torment. Usually, that was in context of seeing him nearly overdose or landing up in the hospital after being hit by a car. This time, it could be a fatal mistake.
He appreciated Travis’ optimistic view of getting out. Nick did not quite share the view, but he was glad someone did. “Yeah, well, we’re going to have to figure something out soon. They grab someone new every few minutes, then, we hear a gunshot and that’s it.” Nick muttered underneath his breath, not believing in waiting on Josh to figure something out for them. He could see that Anna was still in and out, and telling by her face and the glossy look in her eyes, she probably had a fever. This was definitely not good.
Soon enough, one of the Otto brothers returned. It was Troy, questioning Travis about his heritage, finally settling on Maori. Nick was growing frustrated with the conversation, so he blurted out questions. So much for not drawing attention, huh? “Where’s my sister? Where’s my mother? Look, the girl beside me is dying. She needs medical attention.” Troy only laughed before forcefully pushing Nick down. “Your mother and sister are being processed. Don’t worry about your girlfriend dying, though. Everyone here dies. There’s no escaping it.”
A soft hum escaped Alicia's lips - Bryce's soft voice and gentle tone were reassuring to the young woman, who quickly found her mind taken away from what was at hand - and to the one that Bryce had between her thighs. The young woman was growing aroused quick by the adept touch of her lover, and he would be able tell - Bryce had the magic ability to get her going in seconds flat, no matter what the situation was, and her growing arousal was already seeping and coating her lips - and the tips of her husband's fingers.
Unfortunately there really were restrictions to what they could do - her bindings meant her clothes couldn't come off, and they needed to be prepared for people to come in. Alicia, however, had always found the idea of fucking semi-clothed to be really, really hot. The idea of having her clothes shoved aside, bent over a couch all tied up while her husband had his wicked way with her? There was no denying that Alicia absolutely loved that idea, and the passion-frenzied gaze she gave her husband said what needed to be said: abso-fucking-lutely. "Oh, I love that idea," she said to him, gasping as his lips and hot breath trailed down her neck.
"Please, Bryce - before anyone has the chance to come back, take me." It was... interesting to say the least, trying to talk through the bit gag that split her lips. Every time they tried a new kind of gag she had to learn the workings of it all over again, adjust to the way it felt in her mouth, the way it obscured her ability to speak. She would surely grow comfortable quickly.
----
Troy's remark was morbid - but it revealed just how twisted this place really was. In her daze Anna wasn't able to think about much, try to figure out what had happened to lure one of the people she trusted most in to being a part of it. There had to be something that made sense of it and she could only think of one thing - Molly - because despite his faults Josh had always been a good man. He'd been around since she was seventeen - picked her up from parties she was too drunk to get home from, kept her from doing hard drugs for a while, backed her up during the times when she still hadn't figured out what confidence was. A twenty six year old man, ex-military at that, wasn't the kind of person that others wanted to mess with when hassling a teenager.... He was good - he'd kept her safe even though he'd had no obligation to, picked her ass up off the streets a million times, and he'd keep her safe again.
After Troy left, that started to feel like it wasn't actually going to happen. Maybe Josh had been right - that the ruckus Nick was causing just made the people here want them gone quicker - but within minutes guards had come back in, grabbed for the trio that were huddled back in the corner. There were very few times in her life where Anna felt like she couldn't fight but this was one of them; as she grabbed for Nick's arm, just to keep him close, her attempt was swatted away by an unfamiliar hand. She'd seen and heard enough in her daze to realize that this was not good, and she called out her boyfriend's name - please stay close.
Oh yes – Bryce was definitely keeping this gag! She sounded so hot, as usual. “I’d love to.” With that, Bryce helped his wife wiggle out of his lap, onto the couch. Next, he stood to his feet and turned to pull Alicia up as well. It was easy for the dark-haired male to support the brunette, moving her to the back of the couch. He wasted no time in bending her over, the idea of fucking her while they were still somewhat clothed as she was bent over the back of a couch did sound quite appealing after all. This was a new experience for them to explore. Bryce was ready for it.
Happily, he started tugging her jeans and panties down. They would find a resting spot just beneath her knees as that was all the room he needed. Then, he worked on doing the same thing to his boxers and his jeans, freeing his erect length. Another pro of this position was being able to have a good view of her tied hands. If she wanted to put on a show for him, he would have a front row view of her struggles.
“Okay, Princess. Get ready.” Usually, there was more buildup, but they both honored the fact that this was urgent, so they did not have that same opportunity. He did start with just feeling around her entrance with the tip of his cock, only sliding in after he felt her nectar coat the head. The first thrust slowly pushed himself all the way inside of her, though he did not start thrusting with any power and speed until about the fourth thrust, gradually increasing both. He knew it was quicker than usual, but he hoped it gave her enough time to adjust as he always knew her limits anyways.
--
The comment Troy made only fueled Nick’s anger toward Josh. This man was someone Nick would have trusted with his life, if he was forced to. Although they might not have directly interacted often, he was seemingly the love of Molly’s life. Molly and Anna were inseparable and were best friends. By default, Nick would trust Josh because of how these relationships and friendships intertwined. Plus, he did hear about him being there for Anna more often than not, even before Nick was in the picture. Now? It was a different story. That was the past. Now, Nick would rather put a bullet in his head than trust him with anything.
Having no idea what was happening, Nick found himself, Travis, and Anna being picked up by three soldiers. Nick lashed out until he was hit over the head a couple times. Travis gave him a stern warning to stop, that he was just making things worse. Yeah, Travis was right about that. Nick finally backed off and kept close to Anna, though not too close, as a soldier separated them. Wherever they were, the other soldiers called it the “lab”. They were brought to a line of people, sat on their knees.
The first man in line was dragged to the wall and suddenly shot a few times in the chest. Nick eyes’ widened, his shoulder brushing with Anna’s as he wanted to comfort her, but he also was trying to desperately look for an escape. Everyone was covering all exits, though. The next in-line? Another man and Nick. “We should make this fun. Kill two at once and place bets on who turns first. That sounds like a great idea.” The other soldier agreed, and before Nick knew what happened, he and the man beside him were being grabbed, dragged towards the wall.
Chaos ensued in the following moments - pure and utter chaos.
In the "lab" the group were seconds away from losing their lives. The twisted experiment found its way closer and closer to the group huddled together. Most were desperate to find a way out, but one was too out of it to even realize what was going on around her. She was definitely too out of it to be able to make sense of the conversation going on next to her - the man who had come from holding in to the lab with them, Steven, seemed to have an escape plan involving the sewers. Josh was seconds away from showing up with the news that he'd got clearance to take a few of the people inside in to his charge when shit started to get nasty. Just as the "soldiers" within the room decided to do a two for one deal, not a second too soon as Nick was pulled in to that lineup, Travis decided it was a good time to get lippy with the guards, causing a distraction. When said guards got pissed off at the distraction, Travis even offered, begged even, to take the place of the young man who had been torn from his partner. Travis took the first hit as he was being bound, giving Nick an opportunity to come at them from behind, and then the small group prayed for their escape.
Travis was caught quickly after the group split, taken to a pit at the back of the base while Anna and Nick fled in the opposite direction in hopes of following the sewer system to the fences just like Steven had told them about earlier. That man quickly lost his life, though, and his head body was hurled down the gate to the tunnels to follow behind them. Anna herself could barely walk, clinging to Nick's side in desperation because that was the only way that she could keep herself standing. As they reached the end of the tunnels only to be met with a horde of the undead it felt like all hope was lost - there was no choice but to turn around. That way, too, they were surprised by the dead - Anna got shoved out of the way (the easiest way to keep her from being the one the dead drew to) as Nick fell to the ground, the snarling corpse of Steven struggling to sink its teeth in to his flesh. There was so little that could be done, but the pair were in luck. Neither even had time to notice the living body of a man coming from the direction that they were moving.
"Found you." A familiar voice... it was enough to turn Anna's head now that she had enough adrenaline in her system to notice things, and although her partner may have had doubts about Josh, there was nod enying that Anna herself did not. That was freedom and safety and Molly right in front of her face. "You're just making shit worse. I was already given the go ahead to take you guys and then you had to go and cause shit. You all get to get back together. I know your sister and mother are waiting for you, Nick, and she-" he pointed straight to Anna "- needs medical care right fucking now. You know I'm right, and you know if anyone's going to be able to get help for her it's me. You don't have to like it." Really, there was no choice but to follow.
In other areas on the base Alicia, Madison and Bryce were vying for their own freedom in hopes of reconnecting with Travis and also finding a way out of the compound. Mother and daughter had been seperated and both were on their own journeys. It also hadn't taken much for Madison to overhear an argument in the room next to her between two males, either - her son was there. At first it was something about an Anna character which Madison hadn't put much thought about until she heard her son's name come up next, and that was way too much of a coincidence. The last time that she had seen either of those faces they had walked off together, after all. After Alicia and Bryce shared a moment of passion, a distraction from the fear and craziness of what was happening, the young woman was on a mission to find her way back to the rest of her family.
What happened next was unexpected - when the door burst open Alicia expected one of the men, possibly Troy. Troy was in fact there, but the more important part was what was happening to him - a sparkle of silver accented a spoon dug in to his eye socket, and it was Madison who had control of it. "Find a car with gas, I'm going to find Travis and your brother," she ordered to the two that had been placed in a seperate room. She'd taken action in to her own hands, a mother whose child was at risk, and Alicia took her husband's hand as they fled the small confines in hope of finding an escape. They had to be quick but silent as they attempted to hide from the soldiers. At one point they had to hide beneath cars as they watched the soldiers move about, packing their things - it seemed that they too were leaving.
Alicia was grabbed as she stood over a sewer grate, a mere second from dropping her knife down to the pair beneath. The siblings yelled to each other in the moments leading up to it, and there was no doubt that Bryce put up a fight before he let any man lay a hand on his wife. There was little that could be done, though. They were outnumbered and the men had no problem threatening to bring harm to Alicia if her husband didn't cooperate.
Their meeting was brief - Madison was first to be reunited with Travis who had survived "the pit" and immediately after getting out tried to attack Troy. Alicia and Bryce were next to come in to sight, followed by Nick. Anna was at the back of the group, on the back of a soldier only one of them had ever seen before, and it was a touching moment for the family. Immediately there were plans to try to leave - Josh didn't act subtley that just wandering off was going to leave Nick with one dead girlfriend on his hands. There wasn't much that could be done there, but he did his best trying to touch her up with some basic mending. It didn't take a genius to know that bullet probably got her brachial plexus - but he wasn't about to say out loud that there was a decent chance Anna may never use that arm right ever again while they were still working about if she'd ever have the chance to even try. Jake Otto, Troy's brother who seemed to be a much better man, had tried to talk Madison and Travis in to at least stopping at a safe haven, the ranch his father had cultivated over the years. The vast majority of everyone wanted to leave - there was really only one person who was adamant about going to this ranch. Anna and Nick had come this way in hopes of potentially finding her family, after all.
There wasn't any debate, though. As trucks were being loaded up (and Anna was vehemently refusing to walk away knowing that her best friend was so close yet still so far away), decisions were made for them. Suddenly a stream of the dead burst out through the doorway of one of the buildings, and it was time to find an escape. Nick ran to his mother who was seperated from the group, leaving everyone else to run for a helicopter. In the thick of the chaos Bryce too had been split from the group - defending the copter from the approaching undead as his beloved and part of her family got in to it, he wound up cut off from them. In the end Nick, Madison and Bryce had to flee in a truck with Troy Otto and Josh as the copter flew away with the girls, Travis and Jake Otto. "We're all going to the same place now," Troy said.
The helicopter was no easy trip. It was hard for Alicia to hate Anna when the girl looked like death with her head on Leesh's lap, struggling to keep her eyes open and calling for Nick. For the first time Alicia was able to see her as actually human, not just the bitch that stole her brother away from her after her dad died. This was just... a person. A person who was hurt really bad, whimpering in her lap and crying for the person she loved. That wasn't the worst that they had to deal with, though. Gunshots.... As soon as they rang out Alicia was clueless as to what to do. There was barely a moment to register what was going on when she watched Travis's eyes go wide in shock, and he fell from the open helicopter door before Alicia could even realize that there was blood on her hands. Blood... Travis's blood. The man that she had killed for just days ago, shot and gone and as she watched his body fall to the forest beneath Alicia felt like she was going to heave. She had to be held back as she reached to try to catch him, to save him.... There was nothing that could be done.
And then the real trouble hit - bullets hit the helicopter itself and it began a plunge towards the ground. It seemed that the chaos was not ending yet, and for a moment Alicia swore that she was going to end up dead. For a moment she found herself religious, praying that death didn't take her that day - that at least once more she would get to lay her eyes on her beloved, her mother, her brother. Travis was out there, too - he had to be. There was no other option in her determined brain, that man had to be okay.
It was the older of the Otto boys, the one stuck with them instead of on the truck, that took the lead. The mission was to get to their home - for Alicia to be reunited with her family, for Anna to finally get looked at properly, and to not die to the elements on the way there. There was no time to look for a man that had been lost in the sky.
---
The truck's silence was deafening - no person there was happy with being parted from their loved ones. For Josh there was no missing the way that Nick glared at him, making his dislike obvious. It was funny to think that in another time the two had been friends, and the older of the men was tempted to try to explain himself. That if Nick ever had a kid he'd realize that in an instant it stops being about the greater good and starts being about what keeps that girl and that baby alive and safe, especially in a world like this. He also wasn't going to explain that the base had started out innocently enough - a fuel supply run. None of that mattered after the violence these people would have seen. He did have one thing to say as the truck pulled up, after he caught wind of news that the chopper hadn't arrived at the ranch yet.
"Stick with your mom. I'll figure out what's going on," he said to Nick. He knew that he wasn't going to be as stressed out about this news as either of the other men in the truck would be, given that he knew his wife was safe at home. All he could do was try to figure out what was happening. "And Amelia isn't going to know that Anna was with you until someone tells her, so just... Leave her alone. I'll deal with it. I know you're probably freaking out but she just had a baby a few weeks ago and she will get even more stressed out than you are." That... simply was fact.
"Is that....?" A young woman didn't even take the time to say hello to her beloved, having already been staring towards the entrance to the Broke Jaw Ranch like she'd just seen a ghost for the first time. She couldn't tell from first sight, the group of strangers was just too far out of reach for her to be certain, but Molly Brant could have sworn she recognized one of the men that now stood within the gates.
Her husband was immediately faced with having to face the reality of what was going on before he even got to kiss her. He also knew exactly what was going through the woman's brain - it would be impossible for her to see someone who had once been intrinsically linked to the girl that had been like a sister without there being an inkling of hope that maybe, just maybe. How the fuck was he supposed to break it to her that she was right to have that little hope but hold on - don't get ahead of yourself - she might be fucking dead by now. Obviously he couldn't say it like that, no fucking shit, but what was the right way?
The first thing that Josh did was reach out for his son, to take the baby boy he'd been blessed with from his wife's arm and place a kiss to the top of Molly's head as he cradled his boy close. "Well, Molly... Strangely enough, that is exactly who you think it is. He was picked up heading North from the border, his family came looking for him."
Josh wasn't used to the kind of silence that followed - but he didn't need words to see the little tremble in his wife's lip or the sheen of tears that clouded over her eyes. Molly had always been the emotional type - pregnancy and then post-partum had only amplified that. All he could do was tuck his favourite person beneath his arm and hold her close. Nothing in the world was more important to him than these people, and it killed him to see the pain in Molly's eyes.
"Right about now... I really miss the days when Nick showing up meant that Anna would be following along any second now." Fuck, she wasn't kidding anyone. Molly had missed those days from the moment they ended, minus the screaming matches that happened here and there. Anna had been at her happiest... well, ever. She'd been happy. Josh had been happy. They'd all still been stuck in the middle of their party every day phase. Life had been good. For Molly life had been better after sobriety, at least until she found herself having a high-risk pregnancy in the middle of an apocalypse, but she'd never seen her best friend as alive as Anna had been back then.
All Josh could do was sigh, though. After pressing another soft kiss to the top of Molly's head, he had to break the news. "Well, there's the thing." The pause after he finished his sentence was enough to concern Molly. "She was with him. Right now she's in the helicopter, wherever it is... and she is really, really hurt. So I really hope they get back here soon."
"... Excuse me?" Molly felt like the wind had been knocked right out of her when she heard that. "...Why aren't you with her? Wait, no - you're not the person I need to be asking that." Just like that, Molly was walking off towards the newcomers to the ranch with a shocked, confused and slightly pissed off look on her tired face.
It was Jeremiah Otto that finally allowed the group that had arrived at the ranch in to its walls, after he had a chat with Madison. There seemed to be a mutual understanding that wherever the helicopter was it needed to be found - it seemed that he was the father of Troy, the one man from the depot that had caused the group issues, and one of the men who were with the girls, Jake. It seemed everyone had family on the line today. With Bryce and Nick still with her, no one had split a part yet, Madison was talking about getting out of there to figure out what was going on. She figured that it would be safe to say that both of the boys would agree - Alicia was one of the missing, after all. That was her focus - Travis, of course, but her daughter of all people was lost out there and just like she had searched and searched to lay her eyes on her boy once more, Madison would no doubt do that once again with her daughter.
The blonde didn't miss a person approaching, though, and it put her on edge. "Who is that?" She asked Jeremiah as a rather short, curly haired moved towards them, and rather quickly at that.
"You." One word, and a finger pointed right at Nick. There was no time for happy reunions right now, and Molly was on a mission. It quickly became clear to Madison that this was someone Nick had to have known before - it didn't take her more than a couple seconds to realize Anna was the 'her' that this unknown woman was about to start to go on about. It did make for quite the dramatic scene for any onlookers. "What the fuck is Josh saying, you were with her and then just.. left her? In a helicopter? Why the fuck did you do that? Are you retarded? And she's hurt? And how the fuck was she even with you, last I checked you two hadn't even talked in like two years and now she was in Mexico with you? I thought she was dead when she never came home and here she was shacking up with you again? Was she hiding this from me? I can't see her hiding that from me. What the fuck is going on here, Nick?"
"Maybe we should give Nick a moment and see about heading out and finding Travis and Alicia," Madison suggested to her son-in-law, unsure if she wanted to be around for whatever was going on between her son and this person she had never met. She had her own priorities to figure out... and she was rather sure that Nick would also want to be on the lookout for his sister and... well, the only way Madison could think of to describe what Anna would be to him was his girlfriend. For now the people who could focus on the task at hand needed to. Reuniting the rest of her family would be the top priority for Madison.
There was an argument ongoing just a few yards in front of Bryce. However, the dark-haired male found it irrelevant. Impatiently, Bryce was pacing. Where was his wife? What happened to the helicopter? It would cover much more distance than the truck would have covered in the last few hours. They should be here already! Bryce was ready to just say fuck everything and walk out the gates. Fortunately, he still did have the presence of mind to remember that a plan would be necessary before taking action.
How long had it been since Bryce and Alicia were separated like this? It felt like a lifetime ago. They were a team, only splitting up when necessary. Bryce realized that Travis needed more time to get Anna onto the helicopter with Alicia, so Bryce had taken on the role of battling the dead, giving the living time to escape. It did not work out in his favor, finding himself nearly cornered. The only option for him was to hitch a ride with Madison and Nick. Now, here they were, and Bryce felt sick to his stomach.
Well, they did drive in a southeastern direction from the compound. There was a direct path the chopper could have taken. Thinking about that would make it easier to retrace steps. If it was still in the air, they would be fine, but something told him that something went wrong. The only thing Bryce could think of was to go through the woods in the direction that Jake Otto would have been piloting the aircraft. Then, Bryce could look for any disturbances or things that looked out of place. Maybe, that would lead him towards the location of the downed chopper. Bryce was ready to march out of the camp himself, not even bothering to speak with Madison or Nick as they were involved in what seemed like a heated discussion.
--
If Nick had been tasked with imagining how the reunion between himself, Anna, Josh, and Molly would have gone, THIS would NOT have been what he pictured. Believe it or not, his imagination would have been lighter, happier; not whatever this was. Nick was conflicted. One, he was pissed at Josh because it was his fault that Anna had been shot. Two, he was growing upset with Molly because she had the audacity to insinuate that Nick would ever leave Anna behind. In reality, Nick had been helping Bryce clear a path for the helicopter so Anna could reach it safely.
Of course, Molly didn’t know that. She wasn’t there. Taking a deep breath, Nick wanted to raise his voice and argue, but he resisted the appealing urge. That helped nobody now. “I appreciate your concern for Anna. I don’t appreciate what you’re saying about me, though, but I’m not going to argue with it. It isn’t worth my energy when I need to get back out there and find Anna. You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. Please, don’t pretend you have any idea of what happened.”
Nick was conveying his message while being as calm and unhostile as possible. “Like I said, I have work to do. I have to find Anna, so I’m not going to entertain this right now.” Nick would simply walk away from this, as one should do if there was a huge argument blowing. Molly didn’t seem like she was holding back, though. Everyone gathered around once she raised her voice and seemed to lose her mind about something. Nick could not fault her, though. On the inside, he felt the same way that she did, but he knew that Anna would not be found if he was acting all fucked up. He needed a clear mind.
"Yeah no shit Nick, I don't know what's going on. That's why I'm asking you." Molly was... Pretty much dumbfounded by Nick's reaction to her. She wanted to get upset, call him an idiot for his 'no duh' level of response to her but there was little point. She was stressed and upset and freaking out - a recipe to get a little too high strung. This also wasn't the soft spoken, slightly anxious boy she'd known a few years ago - but she also wasn't the same girl that she'd been back then either. That boy would have come clean the moment that she asked a question, but at the time back then they'd had a rapport with each other. In this world, they were nearly strangers once again.
If Nick thought that he was going to just walk away then he was just going to end up hearing about it later - she wanted her answers. She wanted to know why Josh looked like he'd seen a corpse when he'd said Anna was hurt, why her best friend was found with someone that Molly was rather sure had gone no-contact on her two years ago, and a lot more things. Her lips pursed tight together as she shook her head at the boy in front of her. "Get her back. Or I swear to fuck I'll strangle you myself." Molly wouldn't be proud that she'd said that, she had never been the type to be violent. Hopefully later down the line Nick would realize that tensions were high, but there was only one person in the world that Molly would defend more fiercely than Anna and that was her own son - her husband even fell lower than the girl that was pretty much her sister.
"Mol. Back off of him, you're being intense." A firm hand on Molly's shoulder pulled her away from Nick, in to the body of her husband. Though she didn't break eye contact with Nick, her gaze softened in to something more afraid than angry. The baby crooked in to Josh's other arm cooed and reached for his mom, and instinctively Molly took the tiny hand offered out to her and nuzzled it to her face. "This is why I didn't want to tell you right away... We need to be focusing on finding the helicopter, Nick's right about that, and then you'll have Anna back. She's been looking for you, she told me herself. I'm sure she'll tell you absolutely everything as soon as she can. Nick, come on. We're all going to figure something out because we all have someone we need to find."
He couldn't have expected Nick to be able to diffuse that situation right. He may not have heard exactly what Molly was saying beforehand, but he knew his wife.
---
Madison was rather shocked with what was going on but answers could come later - it seemed that one of the men from the depot had come to diffuse the situation. She had realized quite some time ago that Nick had connections to these people, though his first go with Anna it seemed, and it wasn't her business. However, if that woman hadn't dropped it pretty soon Madison would have ended it herself. Not only did she hate seeing her eldest child being yelled at (albeit by someone who was obviously just freaking out about her friend), but there were more important tasks at hand.
"You, what was your name? You were in the truck with us." Madison was pointing to Josh, who responded in key. "I'm Madison, Nick's mother, and this is Bryce, my daughter's husband. If we're going to be together now we should know each other. We need to get out and find our people. I need my daughter back. I need my husband back. You probably know the area, and if you know my son I trust you a little more than I'm going to trust anyone else here. Where would they be? What could have happened?" In the end Madison did not trust a single soul here, but the man with a new baby who apparently knew Nick was the best she was going to get.
What started there didn't take long. Everyone wanted to be out finding their loved ones, and they had someone who knew the area able to give a hand. It was no secret that Bryce was raring to head out, Madison could tell - he seemed just as anxious with Alicia as Alicia did when he wasn't at her side. Josh wouldn't doubt that everyone questioned whether or not he could be trusted (though he hoped that Nick at least could realize that it was as much in his best interest to find the girls as it was anyone else's), but simple trust was not his highest priority. As soon as he handed the baby back to Molly it was time to go.
---
Somehow, fate struck. It was as the group was marching towards the gates to the ranch, about to hop in to the truck so that they could take the trails in to the woods and hopefully find their loved ones, that several figures appeared in the distance. At first it was hard to tell but it quickly became clear that it was two women, one hurt, and a man - Madison almost couldn't believe it was the group because where was Travis? She didn't want to have to face the reality of what her husband's absence meant.
As soon as Alicia caught sight of the ranch she was running full speed, struck with emotion as she caught sight of her beloved's form just within the gates. Bryce was there and he was safe and from what it looked like he was just about to come looking for her - she knew that there was no way that she would have been left behind. Bryce would search forever for her if he had to, just like she would do for him. Alicia was sure of that, steadfast in the way she believed in the man that she loved more than the world. "Bryce!" She called as she reached the gates, climbing through them rather than waiting for someone to come and let her in.
At the same time Jake Otto was trailing behind, Anna supported against her shoulder, and Josh at least was mortified to see that she looked worse for wear than she did before they had left the depot. Though Molly had originally fell behind to let the group head out on the journey, she was useless with an infant and a still fresh cesarean scar, as soon as she'd seen the group that was about to leave freeze she'd noticed the group in the distance. As soon as that happened she had started to move again, handing her son off to his father as soon as she reached them, and then she was moving as fast as she could - likely alongside Nick.
Bryce would have scouted every inch of the fucking globe by himself to find Alicia. Even though Madison kept asking him to slow down and wait for the others to get ready, Bryce was already near the gate. He was the first person to see the figures in the distance. Tears truly welled up in his eyes when he spotted Alicia running from the distance. They met together in the middle, his arms wrapping around her. Now, Alicia was smaller than him, obviously, but damn, she put some force into that hug!
Bryce found himself essentially being tackled, falling onto the ground with a girl in his arms. He tried to not seem like a complete fool right now, but he could not help a tear that fell from his eye. Bryce knew they were just so close to not ever seeing each other again, and that feeling fucking sucked. So, yeah, he was a little emotional right now – recalling the sadness in his heart while trying to focus on the happiness that replaced it now. “Alicia, baby. Thank god. Oh, thank god.” He murmured over and over again, holding her close, pretty much burying his head in the crook of her neck.
“I’m so sorry, Alicia. I should have… figured something out. I should have never let you go on that helicopter without me.” Of course, it was literally impossible for him to have cleared a path for the helicopter group and make it back, and it obviously wasn’t his fault for getting separated from Alicia, but that’s just the kind of guy that Bryce was. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you so damn much. I never want you out of my arms again, Leeshie.” Bryce cooed softly, planting one of the biggest kisses anyone had ever seen right onto her lips.
--
It was a shitty situation all around. There was no guidebook on how to react when your girlfriend is shot and both of you were nearly killed by this group of people that includes her best friend’s husband that was operating by killing people for sport and “research”. Yeah, Nick missed that part of school, so his reactions were confusing, as were his feelings. However, his care for Anna was strong enough that he could center himself, focus on the situation in front of him, and focus on finding her.
Nick was glad they managed to gather a small group together to go forth into the world and attempt to find their missing people. Nick could watch Bryce moving ahead of everyone, knowing he was undoubtedly on a mission to find Alicia. However, before anyone could make a move to leave the ranch, the figures showed up. Nick immediately searched for Anna. He did quietly acknowledge that his sister was safe, watching her run into her husband’s arms. Man, he hoped to have a reunion with Anna, sort of like that. However, only two other people entered; Jake Otto and Anna, who did not look too hot from the distance.
Nick took off into a sprint to Jake’s side, who was clearly exhausted. “Get her… to… medical.” He was nearly on the verge of collapsing. Anna was not a big girl, but she was a full adult woman, which did not make it easy. Nick didn’t even take time to see if she was even fully conscious or not, so he picked her up into his arms. He figured Molly would be right beside him as he carried Anna, but he did not slow down. “Josh, Molly. Show me where medical is. Now!” He ordered, needing some direction to get her there.
Alicia's heart skipped a beat the moment that Bryce's arms wrapped around her, pulling her in to one of the tightest hugs that she had ever gotten. Alicia returned the enthusiasm herself, nearly throwing herself at her beloved the moment that she could. Alicia had spent what felt like forever suffering with the dread of feeling like she might never be able to return to the man that she had commited her life to, and it was impossible not to be flooded with relief. Just as Bryce spared tear, which would be surprising to anyone who only knew his tough exterior rather than the softy he was at heart, Alicia couldn't help but cry.
Her outburst was a lot more emotional, though - she was not afraid and holding back. Though she wasn't full-on crying, a small burst of tears streamed down her face as she peppered Bryce with kisses and held on to him for good dear life. She didn't care about who might be looking or what they might think (though really everyone would just see a heartfelt reunion between lovers that deserved to have their moment). "Oh my god, babe, I missed you so much. I... I didn't even know if we'd ever get back after the helicopter crashed and then Anna just got worse and it was crazy. Oh my god, I'm so glad to have you back. I love you so much. Thank you so much." For being there for her, for being here, for the fight that he put up valiently trying to make sure that Alicia herself would be able to get to safety....
"Never leave my side again," she pleaded as she met Bryce half way and placed a needy, desperate kiss to her husband's lips. She took his cheeks in her palms, held him so gently... And as she pulled away, remnants of tears still on her cheeks, all she could do was smile at the handsome, strong, devoted, caring man that she never wanted to part from.
----
"Yeah, come on." There was no doubt that Nick had Molly on his side - especially as she got her first look at Anna's state. Anna looked nearly as lifeless as she had the day that Molly had found her overdosed shortly after Nick left a couple years ago, minus the foam that had been in her mouth that time. For Nick this would be the first time he'd seen that girl nearly dead, but for Molly this was a flashback and just like the last time, she was going to do everything that she damn well could to make sure that Anna would survive this time as well.
Someone else had other ideas, though, and tried to cut the pair off. It was no surprise that they would think it was acceptable to turn away someone desperately in need of medical care - a stranger and the brown girl were the first people to go for her, after all. Surely they wouldn't have felt this way if it was one of their own. "Stop - we can't let her in. What if she dies and turns? We can't have that in here. There are kids here. Your own kid. Do you really want to risk that?"
"Yeah, I do. She needs to be looked after. Get out of my way. We'll cuff her to a bed after she gets looked after if you're so worried, but she needs to be looked after. You wouldn't be doing this if it was one of your sons, don't do it to someone else's daughter." Molly was purely pulling at heart strings with that line - it was no secret that Anna considered herself no one's child and hadn't in a long time. It seemed that the fact that they were willing to take safety precautions eased their minds.... But there was still reluctance in their eyes. (Molly herself was after all an outsider to them, and one who had just used up a lot of their medical resources on a complicated birth - if it wasn't for the fact that her husband was one of their soldiers they wouldn't have been so understanding.)
"This way," Molly said to Nick once they got the go ahead to keep moving, guiding him towards a small building that was assigned as their medical unit. They had one medical professional - an army medic. Luckily the group of ex-addicts knew their way around a bit of wound care... Josh on the other hand looked around. Madison was too devastated over the loss of her husband right now, and Nick's sister seemed to be in the middle of a very heartfelt reunion - he was going to have to take the baby with him as he followed the pair with Anna towards medical.
For a moment, Bryce felt like he was being too selfish. Where was Travis? Shouldn’t he be with them? Bryce thought about interrupting the moment to ask, however, he could not bring himself to do so. It was understandable. He could not see it now, but Madison’s heart was slowly breaking. Nobody even had to tell her that something happened to Travis. It was obvious and she felt the pain in her heart. Yet, she managed to find a smile as she watched her daughter and her son-in-law reuniting, embracing each other.
Everyone around them found the reunion satisfying, even. Nobody had ever seen pure, true love quite like this before. It was shocking to see two young individuals who were strongly connected. Like Bryce always said, he used to think soulmates were just a fairytale. Then, Alicia showed up in his life and they fell in love. Now, Bryce thought soulmates had to be real. He was glad to have his Leeshie back where she belonged. Bryce would have probably broke if she did not get back to him. He did not even want to think about life without Alicia Clark. Was that even a life at all?
“I missed you, too. I love you, too. Thank you for getting back to me. Princess, I have no idea what I would have done without you. I really don’t. I don’t think I would have been able to go on.” Maybe it would sound dramatic to most people. That was fine, but their love was so strong that Bryce truly thought he would not be able to move on or go on without Alicia by his side. There was no recovering from that, no finding happiness again. There was nothing without the brunette.
After the desperate kiss ended, Bryce only confirmed Alicia’s plea. “Of course, baby. I will never, ever, ever leave your side again. I swear it. Hell, I won’t even let go of your hand ever again. I won’t let you out of my sight, out of my arms. Never again. Never again.” Bryce meant it, too. Again, it probably would sound extreme to someone outside the relationship but they were always so close together that it probably wasn’t as far fetched as some might have thought. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” Bryce repeated again and again, another tear slipping down his cheek before he started another desperate, needy kiss with the woman he loved.
--
When Anna was brought forth, it was like Nick and Molly met some silent agreement with one another to stop bickering, stop arguing. Right now, Anna needed help. It would have been selfish to argue with one another about what happened, about why this happened, or about anything else. Nick did grow silent after a while, more than willing to stay quiet, shut his mouth, and listen to how he could help in any possible way. Since Nick had never seen Anna this way, his own urgency and panic was rising. Nick knew it was bad before, but damn… this was even worse. He swore on everything, if something happened to Anna, Josh and everyone else in this damn militia was going to regret it.
Then, someone had the audacity to step up and say that they should not bring her in. Oh boy. This was the wrong day to test Nick. He was about to respond with a mouthful of swear words and insults, but Molly spoke before he did. Thank god she did. Whatever she said, it was better than what would have left Nick’s mouth and it was much more efficient than what he would have said.
Finally, they were given the go-ahead. They quickly ran away, helping Anna to the medical unit. Thankfully, it was a slow day. There were maybe two people in the various hospital beds, but the medical team were just standing around and chatting, waiting to see if they were needed for anything. “Hey, we need some fucking help here. She was shot. I don’t know what else. It’s been a couple days… maybe three? I don’t know… FUCK!” Nick was clearly angry and frustrated. The days were sticking together and he couldn’t remember all the precise details about Anna.
“Okay. We have got this. You either need to clear out or give us room to work.” The lead doctor stated, the woman looking like she knew what she was doing as she started to immediately bark out orders to the team that was around them. Nick wanted to be right beside Anna, but he was smart enough to know that these people would need some room to work, so he sat down in a chair, silently, cupping his face in his hands as he looked on with anticipation and worry, reaching that point of anger and sadness that he really just wasn’t reacting to anything at all.
How was it possible that these two had once not been so desperately in love that they were inseparable? Simply put, that had never been the case - they simply hadn't realized just yet that they were destined to spend the rest of their lives intimately entwined. It seemed silly now, the way that they had avoided their feelings for each other - shoving away what was right in front of their faces in favor of following the status quo and not taking risks. Now they didn't dare to spend a moment apart, now they were married, now they quite literally would spend the rest of their lives together, unwavering.
There was nothing Alicia wanted more than to hold on to her beloved as tightly as she could, and as he spoke she was pressing kisses all over his face - Bryce's cheeks and cheekbones, the tip of his nose. She saved his lips for the passionate kiss that came again, filled with a desperate need to have him as close as she possibly could. Alicia had faced loss before - she had lost her father - and the thought that she had lost Bryce was enough to hurt her the same as losing the first man that she had ever loved in her life. Unlike her father, though, Bryce had come back. It wasn't the first time that they had been separated, but damn did she ever pray that it would be the last time. She knew that he had been looking out for her when they were parted, but next time he wouldn't be out of arm's length.
She didn't want to spend another night in unfamiliar woods, unsure of what was going on or where she was going or where her beloved was. Alicia simply never wanted to be away from him for any reason, even though the hope of being reunited had been what pushed her to go on. Had he not been here... Well, if Bryce hadn't been her then her mother and brother wouldn't have been either. Alicia would have literally lost everyone that she had in one fell swoop - but since the world ended she had become the only family that Bryce had left. More than anything they needed each other.
Nothing else mattered. She'd been hungry before the group arrived at the ranch but she couldn't even feel it any more with the rush of adoration that flowed through her the moment that she saw Bryce. She was thirsty but a drink could wait - Bryce was like the air that she breathed, necessary. As their passionate kiss came to a finish, Alicia clung to Bryce as tightly as she possibly could, burying her head in to the safety of his chest. "I was really so afraid that we weren't going to make it back and I wasn't going to get to see you again," she said tearfully. "I just... Thank you so much for being here. I needed you back so badly, Bryce. You're all I need."
----
In another life Molly would have been able to help out at least a little bit - in the time since Nick and Anna had broken up she had cleaned up her act, got married, even started school. Though Noah's existence would have interfered with her doing her second year on time if the dead hadn't started walking, she had made it through her first year of nursing school just in time. The fact that she'd had a c-section quite recently meant that she was in no state to be on her feet and moving around like that, though - she shouldn't have even ran to Anna like she did - and as she took a seat in a chair besides Nick, she was already starting to feel the adrenaline wear off and pain in her abdomen. Molly was her own last priority, though.
"She can't die," Molly said, utter defeat in her tone. She didn't know if Nick was listening, but she also wasn't directly talking to him. "She just... can't. I can't get her back and then lose her. I... I need to be there. I need to help. Do we even give her morphine? We can't give her morphine, she's an addict. But Tylenol isn't going to make any difference. She's going to hurt so much when she wakes up."
"Amelia, you had major surgery less than a month ago. You need to sit. The last thing you need right now, the last thing Anna needs right now, is for you to overwork yourself. Do you really want to tear your wounds open when the medical attention needs to be on her?" Someone had walked in right as she was talking - Josh, holding the baby close to his body. He deliberately avoided looking at Nick as he knew that the man was angry with him - something that Josh understood. As much as he wanted to be there for his wife he knew that Nick wanted to pick a fight with him, and he would be better off somewhere else.
"... No." She looked defeated, tears in her eyes as she looked to her little family.
"Look - she's in good hands right now. Look how well they did with you when Noah came, I have both of you here with me when I was very close to having neither. I know you want to be here and that's okay, but being here with Nick is the best way for you to be there for her right now. I just came to see if you wanted to take Noah." A small nod from Molly was all it took for Josh to walk closer and hand the infant off to his mother. "I won't be far - the Otto's are itching to figure out who shot down the helicopter and they want me there. By the way-" he turned to Nick "-you might want to turn your aggression towards Troy. He's the one who took the first shot and hit her. Be careful about it, though. His family owns this place and both of our girls need it right now." Josh didn't even wait to see if Nick acknowledged him, just kissed the top of Molly's head and walked away.
All they could do was watch as the medical team worked as well as they could - debriding infected and dead tissue, sewing Anna's shoulder up, and praying to God that bullet hadn't decimated her brachial plexus or she may never use the arm again. All Molly could do was hold her child as gently but firmly as she could and watch, gazing between Nick beside her and Anna and Noah, leg tapping a mile a minute as she desperately waited. Besides the medical team, there had been silence since Josh left the room.
"So have you been with her since the start?" Molly eventually asked quietly as she watched the people working around her friend, who were now suturing the wound closed. They would be done soon and then, ideally, the pair would be able to move in.
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