Nathan Miller

Smokey growled, the large wolf seeming even greater as her fur bristled up. Bryan steadied his hands on his makeshift weapon but the wolf, naturally hitting high up to his waist, was more dangerous than that. 

He knew that voice. He knew the way his name fit it- but it couldn’t be. Could it? No- no, he would have known. Someone would have said, if the Delinquents and their group had lived-

He was just going crazy, alone all these months. He tried to reaffirm himself, it could still be a grounder, and his mind tricking itself, something. He only lived by living careful.  “I said, one more step!”

Miller froze when the wolf reacted but it seemed Bryan had a good control over him. And he knew that Bryan wouldn’t let him attack him. Though with that said, his question posed confusion. Or, denial rather. Miller couldn’t say he was surprised. The ground did things to them. All of them. Especially if one was alone in battling the elements and surroundings. Letting the rifle hang over his shoulder from the trap, Miller held up his hands, showing he was no threat. 

“Bryan . . . it’s me,” he began to say, taking another very small step closer. The shock had not subsided within Miller but right now, he needed Bryan to recognize him. “Nate.” A nickname reserved only for those he was closest to: his father, and Bryan. To the delinquents and other Arkers, he was Miller. To his dad and Bryan, he was Nate. And he hoped that reminder did something to spark familiarity.  

The entire ride there, Bryan didn’t know what to do with himself. He spent months training, trying to figure out how to shoot a gun, how to handle that guilt, how to protect his home. 

Now he was just in a bus. Like that was nothing at all, as they rode to a new home. Finally getting out, the ability to just help other climb out, grab their things, occupy his hands was a start. He almost thought it was a daydream, as Nathan - his Nate - pushed through the crowd. But screw that. 

Bryan rushed forward, and wrapped his arms tight as he could around Nate.  “Me, too,” He said, gushing out the words. “When they told us, I thought that was it.”

There were so many things that Miller regretted. Putting his dad and Bryan through what he had in the Ark was definitely one of them. That guilt more heavily felt when he found out he was going to earth. But now, he had a chance to make that right. With both his father, and with Bryan. It made Miller feel like the luckiest guy, to have the two people he loved most in this world with him. “Me too,” Miller admitted, drawing his head back so that he could look at Bryan, a small smile upon the former delinquent’s lips. “I’m sorry.” For everything. For what he put him through. Words that needed to be said and ones that Miller was terrified he’d never have the opportunity of expressing to the man he loved. 

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Bryan kept around the curve of the tunnel. He aimed the crude, makeshift arrow; the bow and set was sturdy, it did its job. He just hadn’t had to use it on people in a while. 

English was the first sign they were from the Ark, but what did that mean? The last arkers had left him there in the first place. At his side, Smokey was stiff, waiting for an order to leap and bite, attack. 

A shadow crossed the curve of the tunnel, and he snapped, “One more step and your done!”