Logan Daniels

“Rock boy? Why? Did you start eating ..rocks and shit? Logan, we have dinner times here. YOu don’t need to eat the earth yet.” She snorted quietly. “Sure thing, grandpa. I can already see wrinkles on your eyes, now it’s just going to go downhill with you. “

"What? No--why would I eat rocks--nevermind it’s because apparently I’ve lived under a rock my whole life which is a whole lot easier to explain than the truth.”He said shaking his head slightly. “Grandpa? I think I have to be a father before I Can be a grandfather.”

“But why” she snapped, looking at where he placed her hand before shrugging her shoulder in an attempt to removed it “That’s easy for you to say- you’ve got a sister to look out for- to keep living for. If I left this place no one would notice- no one has noticed. I leave all the time on my own.”

He quickly retracted his hand as he could tell that was the last thing she wanted right now and it made her uncomfortable. “Because I have to believe that there is more to life than this.”He said referring to all chaos that was around them. “I would notice, I know it’s strange but--you’re the first friend I’ve ever had.”

“No, unfortunately nicknames do not work like that. Kids can be cruel.” She said with a loud sigh. “Broken hip? Psh, you mean our third hip? Maybe lose our fake teeth as well, who cares! We’re old and dying anyway.”

“If it makes you feel any better the first nick name I was given was about a week ago and it’s Rock boy.”He said with a quiet laugh. “Fake teeth? I’ll probably take my dentures before any shenanigans.”He admitted with a smirk. 

“Yes it is, maybe I’m a leprechaun and you just really insulted me.”Kinley said jokingly, looking up at him with a cocked brow. “If I had known you were such a color extremist I would’ve stuck to the ‘Blind Betty’ story when we met. Which was really a nickname I had for a while, one out of many. — No? go big or go home, we’d totally go down a hill or something. Or maybe one of those skate parks.”

“Not gonna lie I didn’t really understand nicknames when I first met you and I thought that maybe you gave that nickname to yourself.”He said with a quiet laugh. “I’d be down to go down a half pipe in a wheelchair--what’s the worst that can happen right? Broken hip?”He said with a slight shrug. 

“Is green not a color to you? Wow, Logan. Are you red-green blind? Is it all just grey for you? Green is a nice color, better than pink for sure. But hey, whatever floats your boat.” She dug her elbow into his side, shaking her head laughing. “I’m four years younger, I’ll get wrinkles after you. Wheelchair races down t he hill, huh? Yeah, for sure. You want to die fast and furious.”

“It’s a color just not a very good one if you ask me.”He said with a shrug. “No I’m not color blind my favorite color just happens to be blue therefore it is superior to all the other colors.”He said with a grin. “Well I haven’t had any gray hairs yet so I think you’re aging faster than I am.”He said gently nudging her back, “I never said anything about down a hill I was thinking we could be safer and race down a hallway or something.” 

“You think green is boring? Well I’m sorry if my toothbrush is offending you.” She chuckled quietly, wrapping an arm around his mid with a small smile. “I know, we have each other.  And someday when we’re old and wrinkly and ugly, we’ll think back and laugh about that time there was a virus outbreak and stupid vampires and stupid family.”

“No I was just hoping you’d have a little more color in your life and I’m a little disappointed.”He said shaking his head. “Speak for yourself on the ugly part.”He teased with a small smirk playing on his lips, “Don’t worry even when you’re old and wrinkly we’ll still have wheel chair races.”

“Green? Well that’s boring.”He said with a sad smile, he tried to keep the conversation light but in the back of his mind all he could think about was possibly losing his sister. He moved to turn, wrapping an arm loosely around his sister as he followed her inside. “I know, and same goes for you alright?”

“What’s the point though, Logan?” The sobs had slowed and she let out a shaky breath. She had given up on trying to look tough a long time ago- the vomit helped with that. And now she was just the scared little girl she always pretended not to be “The world is literal shit- people are eating each other. I’m already sick of fighting and now- there’s no one to fight for. What is the goddamn point”

“The point is we have to keep moving forward.”He said quietly as he rested a hand on her shoulder as he looked over to her. “We can’t give up, we have to hold onto whatever hope we have left and keep surviving. We can’t give up.”He said quietly. “There’s no one to fight for? You fight for you Riley, that’s who you fight for. Fight to survive.”

“Well up until a few weeks ago the world wasn’t ending” she retorted back, the instant regret visible on her face. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, making her body as small as humanly possible as she allowed more tears to silently fall. She remembered the look on her face when she told Riley to go- Sophie knew she wasn’t going to walk out of there “No- there’s no chance. She blew up her place so I could get away. It was either that or we’d both die fighting them off- there were dozens”

He had no idea how to act around her, he never had to comfort anyone before and the whole thing just made him feel strange--he felt empathetic and wanted to help her but he just didn’t know how. “Well I’d hate to think that she died for nothing, she died so you could live.” He said quietly, “I know there’s nothing I can say or do to make you feel better right now but I don’t want you giving up.”He said simply. 

“I don’t think it really matters what a dead girl would and wouldn’t want” there was a numbness those words brought. She knew deep down she didn’t mean it but right now, in this moment she didn’t care what words slipped through her lips “I don’t expect you to get this but like I said- I’ve got nothing now. No one. That was it for me. So I think I’m going to talk however the hell I please”

“Up until a few weeks ago I didn’t have no one either, don’t count yourself out yet.”He said quietly. “How do you know she’s not still out there?”He asked quietly, maybe the two got split up or something--maybe there was hope that she was still alive. One thing he didn’t want to think about was how Sydney would react--even though he didn’t like her he knew all hell would break loose if she found out.