#itsalwaysbeenyou

"Violet thank god, you need to pack up your shit right now if you want to come with us," he yells through the door. His eyes are open wide and he has this face of pure shock, for a second you swear he looked scared. You quickly nod your head at him and immediately turn on your heels and run to your bedroom.

You aren't even sure of what the fuck is going on so you scramble to throw things in a bag that you think might be useful. A flashlight with batteries that are probably soon to be dead, some random clothes you picked up off the floor. You aren't even too sure if they are clean or not. You run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to grab things, then you hear a loud bang on your door followed by Joel yelling "We gotta go right fucking now" through the now opened door.

You run down the stairs nearly falling as you race to the door to meet Joel. He looks at you with those dark eyes again, and you see it for sure this time. He is terrified, and you still don't know why.

He grabs your wrist and starts pulling you to the front of his house, where you see his brother Tommy yelling in your direction and Joel's daughter Sarah crying in the backseat of Joel's truck. Once you reach the truck, Joel tells you to get in the back with Sarah. As he pulls out of the driveway and begins to drive away, you see Joel finally release the breath he had been holding for the past minute.

You grab Joel's shoulder finally asking, "Okay Joel, Tommy, what the actual fuck is going on? Because like 15 minutes ago I was peacefully napping on my couch." And before they even have the chance to answer, you spot someone on the street, they don't quite look alive but yet they are walking and that's when they run up and take a fucking chunk out of Adam, your down-the-street neighbour. Your jaw drops to the fucking ground. With your hand still on Joel's shoulder, he reaches up, and his touch on your hand makes you jump back into reality. He says, "I told you we needed to get out of here."

You guys continue to drive until you have nowhere left to go. Joel starts to panic, and you can see the worry in Tommy's eyes. Sarah is still crying, so you grab her and hold her in your arms. That's when someone hits the trucks, and it starts barreling down the road. Everything goes dark for a minute, but you slowly come to it. You realize you are trapped in the truck with Sarah still beside you. She whines as you notice her leg is crushed between parts of the truck. Fuck. Joel grabs Sarah as carefully as he can while Tommy comes to your side of the truck to give you a hand. You don't feel any major injuries, thank god. The truck catches fire, and quickly the infected-looking people start to take notice of us. "Joel, get Sarah out of here. Go towards the river," Tommy yells and you nod, agreeing with him as he hands you a gun. Quickly you turn to Joel and yell "Don't worry, we will meet you there!", he then runs off with Sarah in his arms and disappears around the corner of the Alleyway.

You fight back a couple of the infected with Tommy, your heart rate is so fast you can feel it in your toes. This is a feeling you've never experiences before, you can't quite take a full breath and you fight back your tears as you realized how truly terrified you are. Tommy is leading you down the alley you saw Joel take just moments ago. As you are running you begin to slowly realize that your adrenaline is starting to crash, and you feel a small pain in your leg, looking down you notice the gash on your leg, fully feeling the pain now you begin to limp. Tommy looks back at you with concern in his eyes, but you wave him off, but he doesn't listen and wraps his arm around you and helps you run. Then suddenly you stop.

In the distance you see a soldier pointing their gun at Joel and Sarah. He hasn't spotted you or Tommy yet, so you take this to your advantage and go off to the side, before the soldier even has a chance to finish his conversation on the radio, you shoot him right in his right knee cap. He drops his gun and radio, immediately falling to the ground screaming in pain.

You limp over to Sarah and Joel as fast as you can and give them the biggest hug. Tommy walks over to the soldier and starts demanding answers to what the fuck is going on, the soldier has no useful information whatsoever. So, Tommy finishes him off, then takes his gun, throwing the one he was using over to Joel. We all stare at each other, not knowing what to do next. That's when you notice the army vehicle the soldier had been using and run over it to see the keys still in the car. Joel and Tommy notice your movements and they grab Sarah and follow behind you. Joel grabs the key from you and ushers you to get in the back with Sarah with a pleading look on his face.

Joel then begins to drive, where? I don't think he even knows, but Tommy's got the map out trying to act like he knows how to read it. You feel Sarah's head fall onto your arm, you look down and see she's fallen asleep. She honestly might be one of the bravest girls you've ever met. You see Joel look at you through the rear view mirror and you make eye contact for just a quick second before putting his attention back on the road.

You finally break the silence in the car, "Do we have the slightest idea what we are going to do?" You ask them. Joel looks back at you through the rear view mirror and you know the answer to your question before he even has the chance to speak. Fuck, what a mess, you thought to yourself. "We gonna just keep on driving until we find somewhere to stay, or until we run out of gas. Whichever comes first." Joel replies to you before putting his eyes back on the road. You let out a sigh and decide you should follow in Sarah's footsteps and try and get some sleep before you lose the opportunity.

Next-> Chapter 2: It's a Start

AN: I’m still trying to get used to using this app so if something looks off, let me know!

Also sorry if this chapter felt a little rushed, will probably come back to it eventually and add some stuff.

You assume when you return at the end of your long day that either he listened to you and found something to do or was at the bar drinking again, not caring which one it was you went to bed. When you wake up the next morning to get ready for another day at the clinic, you find him passed out on the couch covered in dirt and dry blood.

You decide not to even engage with him on this, leaving him passed out on the couch as you leave the apartment unit, but making sure to slam the door when you do so that he knows you saw him.

You walk through the doors of the clinic and are immediately greeted with chaos, and people running around you. Finally, you see Henry walk into the area and you flag him down, "What's going on? Where do you need me?" you ask.

"We've got a girl in her mid-20s it looks like in the 3rd examination room on the right, a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Can you handle that, might need surgery" he replies.

You swallow and reply "Yeah of course I'll head over there now". All you can think is, what if it's Sarah?

Immediately upon entering the room, you can quickly deduce that it is indeed not Sarah. This girl looks younger than sorry and lacks her gorgeous dark curly hair and dark skin. You picture Sarah in your head and get lost in thought for a moment before the medical centre staff member yells out to you, “Doctor, we need you over here right now!"

You run over to the bedside and begin your evaluation. She had a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was losing blood quickly. “Can we get some O neg in here!” You yell out to the “nurse” standing in the doorway, and she turns quickly to get that for you. When she returns, you start the transfusion and try to control the bleeding, but you can’t seem to get ahead of it. The heart monitors start to scream at you, indicating she’s lost her pulse. You yell out, “Starting CPR!” As you get on top of her and start doing chest compressions.

After doing compressions for a while and the first transfusion, you call the time of death. In a perfect world, you would have given her more blood and continued CPR, but you’re running on a limited supply and have a protocol to follow.

You get off the young girl once you stop CPR and unhook her from all the machines before pulling the sheet over her head and calling the soldier in to take the body away.

You let out a loud sigh before walking back into the hallway and over to yours and Henry’s office so you can sit down for a moment before they call you back into the hell hole. You place your face into the palm of your hands as you try to hold the tears back. You saw a lot of intense shit while being a doctor before the outbreak, but somehow it never measures up to the things you’ve seen since getting to the Kansas City QZ.

When you worked in Austin, you mostly just clipped a lot of aneurysms and did a lot of tumour resections. The occasional trauma when you worked the ER or when you were on call, and for the most part it was almost exclusively head traumas. Though you did a full rotation in the intern and resident years of your surgical residency, it had been a long time since you’d done a lot of the things that you do here in the QZ. Back at your job in Austin, you were also provided with a more than adequately stocked hospital, while here at the medical centre, you were lucky if you had the basics. No major surgeries, not because you didn’t have the equipment but because you didn’t have properly trained staff to pull it off.

The QZ soldiers had raided a nearby hospital before you even arrived, they got hospital beds, medication, IVs and other miscellaneous hospital supplies but it wasn’t enough, it’s beginning to run low now. You and Henry have sat in front of the leaders of the QZ to express these thoughts with them but “the closest hospital isn’t close enough” they say. While you find that to be a load of bullshit, you don’t bother arguing with them because it ain’t gonna get you nowhere, so you bite your tongue and move on.

The rest of the day wasn’t as hectic, just a few people coming in for a variety of different reasons, no more losses though thankfully. Once the sun started to go down, Henry came to relieve you from work. He lived at the medical centre, and by that, he does live there. He never takes a break, he blames it on the fact that he doesn’t have anyone waiting for him at home which has always brought a frown to your face but he is a very stubborn man and there is no persuading him out of his ways.

Once you finally give in to Henry’s persuasion for you to go home, you grab your bag and start walking back to your apartment. In your head, you hope that Joel isn’t there lying on that damned couch. But with your luck, that isn’t the case as you lay your eyes open, he’s passed out on the couch.

You let out a quiet laugh while rolling your eyes before slamming the front door closed. This immediately causes Joel to jump, eyes opening wide and glaring at you. He is met with your smug smile; you are feeling petty tonight, and having woken him up makes something inside light up.

He quickly stands up on his feet and starts walking up to you; he looks down at your body and sees the blood on your clothes from work but chooses to ignore it and keeps walking closer, right until he is so close that he pushes you against the wall.

Unable to move, he feels power over you, and this brings a smirk onto his lips. He likes being in control—he looks down at you as you fight to meet his gaze; he grabs your face and forces it up so that your eyes meet his. You try and turn your eyes in the opposite direction; he starts pushing against you harder, trying to force you to look at him again and finally give in.

You bring your eyes back up to him, and he brings his hand up to your neck and applies slight pressure, causing a quiet moan to slip past your lips. He pushes his hips against yours.

Your mouth opens and lets out another moan and brings his lip to your neck and starts sucking on the sensitive skin, pulling the skin into his mouth before using his teeth to leave a mark on your skin. He brings his lips close to your ear and whispers “Jump”; you hesitate for a second before jumping up so that his hands can grab you. Squeezing your ass as he continues to push you into the wall, this time taking your lips in his. Sliding his tongue past your lips, you push against it with your tongue, causing a groan to come from him.

He pulls you from against the wall and places you on the table just a couple of feet away from where he previously held you against the wall. Placing you down and dipping his head to give a kiss to your inner thigh while looking up at you through his eyelashes, waiting for you to stop him, but you don’t. He takes his mouth and gives a kiss to your heated core, still covered by your leggings. His name starts leaving your mouth along with needy moans, you feel his smirk before he pulls his face away from between your thighs grabbing the waistband of your leggings and pulling them down your legs to remove them, throwing them on the floor before bringing his face back to yours before pressing a needy kiss against your lips, pulling away again, kissing your neck, down to your chest and then to your stomach before looking back up at you and bringing a kiss to the inside of your thighs. This causes your hips to buck forward, trying to get any type of release as he continues to tease you.

Finally, after hearing you whine his name, he brings his warm lips to your dripping core. Bringing an open-mouth kiss to your swollen clit before sucking on it and swirling his tongue. You start to lose control of your body and begin grinding against his face, you can feel a smirk build on his lips from your actions.

He pulls his mouth off you, looking up through his eyelashes to meet your gaze. You begin to whine at the loss of contact, but just as quickly as he stopped, he started again. This time he brings his fingers up to your core and pushes them inside you, the stretch causes your back to arch into him. While still looking at you he brings his lips back to your sensitive clit and begins flicking his tongue at a torturous pace. He feels your legs begin to shake and your walls begin to tighten around his fingers, he can feel you close to your orgasm so he quickens up his pace.

You feel yourself reaching your high, you moan his name over and over. You no longer have control of your body, at this moment he holds all the control and you hate it but love it so much at the same time. He lets out a deep moan and the vibration from his mouth on you sends you over the edge in less than a second. Your walls clench hard on his fingers and he feels your arousal release on him but he continues, dragging your orgasms out before finally pulling his fingers out and licking down your entrance to collect all your arousal on his tongue.

He pulls away and starts to undo his jeans but before he can pull them down, a loud banging at the door startles both of you. The banging is then accompanied by a voice.

“Joel! Are you in there?” A woman’s voice calls out and you immediately jump up and throw your leggings back on while glaring at him.

“Joel, who the fuck is that?” You try and whisper but it turns into something more.

He pulls his hands over his face before shaking his head and replying, “I’m sorry” as he walks over to the door while buttoning his jeans back up.

He opens the door and a woman, around his age is standing there. “There you are,” she says before looking back at you awkwardly like she didn’t know you would be there. She speaks up again “Oh hey Doctor, umm- nice to finally meet you.”

You stand there so lost in what the fuck is going on, you scoff “Oh is it, and who the fuck are you?”

She steps past Joel and you now see the blood soaking through her shirt, “I’m Tess, I’m a— a friend of Joel’s” she replies to you as she pulls out a chair from the table and takes a seat like she has the right to even be sitting in your apartment.

“A friend? Well funny because Joel ain’t ever mentioned a friend named Tess before, but from what it sounds like, he’s mentioned me to you huh?” You yell back at the two of them.

You can see the panic on Joel’s face. He’s been caught and he doesn’t know what to say, but he finally manages to say something: “Baby, it’s not what it looks like, okay.” He tries to grab your hand, but you yank it away. You look at Tess and notice she is refraining from looking at you. You can’t believe the scene that’s unfolding in front of you.

You take several steps back, rage beginning to take over your body. “Okay, well, ‘Joel’s friend Tess’,” you say with air quotes to indicate you can tell this is a load of bullshit. “What the fuck are you doing at my apartment looking for my boyfriend?”

She quickly looks at Joel, like she didn’t know that this was a shared apartment or that the two of you were dating. She just knew of you and from Joel’s lack of friends that’s why she assumed you were the Doctor he came in with. “Well, as you can see, I’ve got a bit of a situation here,” she says, pointing at the giant growing blood stain on her shirt. “I knew Joel had a pretty stocked-up first aid kit here, so I came to use it, but I get the feeling that the first aid kit might belong to you?”

You shake your head again, not knowing what to even reply to her. “Yeah, you’d be fucking correct in assuming that, and why the hell couldn’t you go to the clinic, huh?”

She hesitates before responding to you. “Well, this injury didn’t exactly come from within the QZ walls.”

Holy fuck is this woman serious? “What the fuck, you need to get the fuck out of here. I cannot have some smugglers just sitting at my kitchen table.”

Tess looks at Joel again, but his eyes are locked on you, and finally, it all clicks.

You walk up to Joel, shoving him hard and yelling at him. “Is that what you’ve been doing these past few nights? You’re going past the walls smuggling with this fucking stranger. You’ve brought her into our apartment! Jesus Christ, Joel, have you fucking lost it?”

You step back and take a breath to collect yourself before speaking to both of them, but mostly to Joel. “You both need to get the fuck out of my apartment right now.”

Joel takes a step towards you, but you throw your hand out and stop him. “Get your fucking shit out of my apartment, Joel. I can’t deal with you right now. I can’t fucking believe you.”

“Your apartment? I thought this was our apartment.”

You laugh. “Our apartment, funny. And what have you done to make this apartment any bit yours, huh? I slave away at that clinic while you sit here drinking, and now apparently spending your time with other women doing things that could get us both killed!” “The only reason they gave us this apartment and even let us stay is because I’m a doctor, for fuck sake.”

He takes another step, and you snap, running over to the bedroom and pulling his stuff out of the drawers. “Here’s a head start. I’m going to leave for an hour, and when I get back, I want to be like you were never here. You can go figure it out on your own and leave me the fuck alone. I don’t want to fucking see you, do you understand?”

He doesn’t answer, so you yell at him again. “I said, do you fucking understand?”

He quietly answers, “Yeah, I understand.”

You leave the room and go towards the doors, throwing on your jacket and sliding on your shoes before turning to Tess. “And you… You can get the fuck out right now and go find someone else’s medical supplies to steal.” She nods and gets up, but you open and slam the door in her face before she can follow behind you.

Tears fill your eyes. You quickly walk away from the once-shared apartment.

You find yourself coincidentally at the bar where he probably met Tess. Pounding back drinks, and waiting for an hour to pass by, it may be the longest hour of your life, but finally, it passes.

You drunkenly make your way back to your apartment, unlocking and opening the door. Once inside, you look down and see Joel’s key. He slid it back under the door when he locked up.

You look around, and it indeed looks like he was never here. You know that’s what you said you wanted, but the tears start coming anyway as the life you’ve known for so long finally comes apart.

"How's your leg feeling brave girl" you ask her while pulling up her pants leg to see what the damage.

She winces and replies "It hurts but I think it's okay, what about your leg?" She returns the question to you. You unintentionally brush her off and tell her you're fine and that you are more worried about her.

You stand up, telling her to stay put while you ask her dad and uncle if there is a first aid kit anywhere in this cabin.

Out on the front porch you find Joel and Tommy talking about what their guesses were on what's happening out there. Joel notices you, he opens his arms and offers you a hug and you accept it. He wraps his arms around you, making your heartbeat speed up. You quickly step out of the hug and push those thoughts to the back of your mind. 

"Do you guys have a first aid kit anywhere, I need to clean up Sarah's leg" you ask them.

Tommy speaks first, "ummm yes I think we do in the bathroom attached to the main bedroom upstairs." You wave at Tommy and yell back a Thank you as you walk back inside and leave them to their conspiracies.

You head up the stairs and take this chance to be a little nosey again, you enter the room and you see one of Joel's plaid flannel jackets in the closet, you now assume that this is his room. You notice a wood carving on the bedside table, looks like an owl maybe? You go to take a closer look and you see that it is indeed an owl.

You pick up the carving, tracing your fingers along the carves in the wood and notice a little signature on the bottom of one of the wings. JM it reads, you make the brave assumption that it stands for Joel Miller.

You suddenly hear Sarah yelling at you from downstairs to hurry up, so you make your way to the bathroom to find that first aid kit. The bathroom is pretty empty, but that's not surprising considering Joel probably hasn't used it in a couple years. You open the drawers to find a whole lot of nothing, then you open the cupboard and see the so called first aid kit. You wonder if there is even anything of good use in it.

When you pick it up, you notice a small box that was hidden behind it. Nail polish? Must be Sarah's, can't imagine Joel was painting his nails. You grab the box too and head back downstairs back to the couch with Sarah.

She immediately starts bugging you by saying "were you sneaking around again, you took foreverrrrrr." You both laugh and you pull the first aid kit off the floor, opening it up to see what we are working with. That's when you hear the front door open swing open, in comes Joel and Tommy. They go to the kitchen, Tommy starts yelling about some whiskey he supposedly stashed away somewhere.

You turn your attention back to the first aid kit, okay now this we can work with. It has plenty of gauze, bandaids and alcohol wipes to try and clean up the cut. You don't think her leg needs stitches.. Thank god. She may have a sprain but we can wrap her up and get her to rest it for a while.

As you begin to carefully wipe her cut , she winces and lets out a quiet cry. That's when you feel a presence standing behind you. You then feel a hand on your shoulder, your turn to see Joel offering a weak smile.

He asks then looks to Sarah before saying, "how are my brave girls doing?"

You immediately start blushing so you try to quickly turn your head, hoping he didn't notice. But then you see Sarah's face... she definitely noticed. She may only be 12 years old but my god that girl is a little too smart for her own good. You finally reply "Sarah is doing great, doesn't look like anything serious either so that's a plus, just might have to take it easy for a while.

You hear him hum behind you and then the sound of his footsteps go towards to the kitchen.

Tommy yells out "I fucking told you the whiskey was here." Sounding a way too excited. You laugh in response but you don't turn back to look at them. You reach to the floor and grab the box of nail polish supplies you found in the bathroom and bring it into Sarah's view. She immediately squeals, she's always be a girly girl since the day you met her, but that’s one of the things you love most about her.

"Can we pleaseeee paint each other's nails, I need you to do mine because dad always does a terrible job." This causes you to laugh loudly and you hear Joel grumble something under his breath behind you.

You reply "I can imagine his big old man hands can probably barely hold the little brush." Sarah lets out a hard laugh.

Joel pipes up from the kitchen to defend himself, "you know I'm sorry that's just not my typical paint job. Ask me to paint a room, I've gotcha. But nails... I will have to pass on that."

You begin to paint her nails, she picked a beautiful purple colour that you know will look amazing on her. You feel Joel sit down on the couch beside you and taps his knee against yours and gives you a cup of what you're assuming is Tommy's stashed whiskey. You take it, thanking him before taking a sip immediately, you need to feel a little numb.

You and Sarah had finished painting each other's nails a little while ago, she fell asleep almost immediately after you finished the last nail. After a while of sitting in silence Joel grabs her in his arms and says he will be right back.

You look over at Tommy whose eyes are starting to drift closed. You stand up and smack his arm in a way that his head that was resting on his hand falls.

"You fucker" he laughs.

"Alright Tommy boy where's this whiskey stash, my cup is looking pretty empty" you say and tilt your cup so that he can see the dry bottom of the glass.

He rolls his eyes and stands up to go grab the bottle and fills your cup.

Just as he does this Joel appears at the bottom of the stairs, "that girl is knocked out, didn't even twitch a muscle putting her into her bed."

Hmm her room? So the room down here must be Tommy's. Great you get the couch you think. Joel says something that you don't hear.

"Whatcha say old man" you say to him.

He looks at you and you can tell that one pissed him off. "You keep calling me old but you're only a few years younger than me, and it looks like your hearings starting to give out since you didn't hear me" he replies back to you.

"Hahaha very funny old man, it's called selective hearing. Anyways, what did ya say?" You say as you turn to him and take a sip from your whiskey glass.

"'Was my birthday yesterday" he says so quietly you almost didn't hear him again. Tommy definitely didn't hear him considering you can hear his snoring and can see drool dripping down his chin. Guy must be wasted, passed out in a matter of minutes.

Your eyes widen as you realize what he just said to you, "Jesus Joel I'm sorry, shitty day for a birthday. There anything I can do to try and make up for the shit show it was?"

He looks away for a second and then turns his face back to you and looks into your eyes, "come sit with me outside?" He asks.

You nod back at him, following him outside to the porch, the moon is shines down on both of you as you sit down on the steps next to each other.

He doesn't say anything to you, just appreciates your presence beside him. The whiskey starts to hit you and you realize how tired you are and you lay your head on his shoulder. He takes in a quick breath before sliding his arm around your back. You both sit there in silence and listen to the sounds of nature, this must of put you to sleep because you wake up in Joel's bed all tucked in. You turned to see if he joined you in the bed. Empty. Guess you didn't have to sleep on the couch after all, Tommy probably got that burden tonight.

Previous-> Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Next-> Chapter 3: New Neighbour?

AN: OKAYYYY so that’s the first two chapters, I know there’s not a lot of action considering it’s the beginning of the outbreak but trust trust it will come. Need some calm before the storm. I really don’t what to think about this so far. If you guys made it this far, let me know what you think. If its terrible I will scratch the idea and not pursue any type of writing 😂

Gonna probably do some backstory on their “relationship” and how they became close with each other in the next chapter. I’ll probably post that sometime tomorrow evening.

If anyone has any suggestions please don’t hesitate to reach out!! I need any type of criticism (maybe not hate but if you feel the need🤷‍♀️)

Also I’ve seen some stories where the chapter are all connected somehow, tried to google how to do that but couldn’t find any good explanation. If someone could help me out with that I would be very appreciative.

You haven't had any contact with any people over the years, other than the people you've heard on the radio. Mostly military gets picked up on their transmissions; they call themselves FEDRA. From the sounds of it, they have a big "quarantine zone" in Kansas City, Missouri, which is around an 8-hour drive, 8 days if you're walking. We had no idea what it was like over there, and we had been doing fine on our own here, so we never really considered going there an option, well until it was an option.

Today was just like any other day. You woke up with Joel's arms wrapped around you, and he attacked you with kisses once he realized you were awake. "Good morning, my love," he whispered into your ear, which put butterflies in your stomach and made you feel so safe and loved.

You began to push your ass into him, and this got a groan out of him, and you now felt his cock hardening against your ass. That was exactly what you were hoping would happen. He pushed himself against you this time, and he moaned. “Fuck, baby, do you feel what you're doing to me?" he says in a low and needy voice. You turned around to face him now, and he immediately kissed you. Your tongues pushed together, and the kiss got deeper and needier. You pulled your hand down and grabbed his hardened cock and began slowly rubbing it. This caused Joel to throw his head back as he let out a moan.

“Fuck, baby, that feels so good." He praises you and moans again as you continue to rub him in your hand. He then moves quickly so that he is on top of you, staring into your eyes. "Baby, I need you, please," he practically begs.

You kiss him again and pull away to say, “Take me then."

He offers no hesitation as he slips his hand down to your already dripping core. “Oh, baby, is this for me?" He teases you as he slides his fingers through your slick folds, causing a moan to leave your mouth as your hips push onto his fingers, wanting more. "Seems like you are needing me just as much as I need you," he says and hums in amusement.

He doesn't tease you any longer. He sits up and positions himself at your entrance and pushes himself inside you. The stretch gains a strained moan from you. He is so perfect. You love this feeling. You love the way he makes your body feel. You don't know what you would do if something bad ever happened to him.

He breaks you out of thought as he pulls back out before pushing back in, a little deeper and faster this time. He moans into your ear before bringing his lips to your neck and pulling your skin into his mouth, using his teeth to leave a mark on you.

He begins to speed up his movements, and you both begin letting out breathy moans, both of you in complete bliss as you lay there making love to each other. No one could love you the way Joel Miller does, and you thank the universe every day for giving him to you.

You can feel the knot in your stomach build as Joel keeps his pace, hitting your sensitive spot with every thrust. You won't last much longer, and by the way his thrusts are getting heavier, and his moans are getting louder. You can tell he won't be able to hold on much longer either.

"Baby, please don't stop. I'm so close, Joel," you moan to him, and this makes his body shudder, and he lets out another loud groan.

"Oh baby, please come for me. I need you so badly,” he says back to you, and this sends you over the edge, and you feel your body begin to unfold beneath him. Your core starts to tighten on him, and this pulls him into his own orgasm. He pulls out of you and brings his hand down to his cock as he releases on your body, and he starts breathing heavily. You will never get tired of doing this with him.

He sits up and pulls the blanket off you and heads to the bathroom to grab something to clean you up. Once he is done, he lays back down beside you and pulls you back into your arms and says, "I love you so much, darling, more than words could ever describe."

This makes your heart ache. You wish deep down that you were in a normal world where you could live a normal life with him, but you know that's an unrealistic dream. You finally answer him, "I love you too, Joel, so much."

You both lie there for a while before you hear Sarah's door across the hall slam shut. You hope she didn't hear what just happened. But if she did, you will for sure be hearing about it soon. This breaks you and Joel out of your trance, and you both decide it's probably time you get up and go join the family downstairs.

Tommy mentioned he wanted to take a trip to go get some supplies, so he is probably waiting not so patiently downstairs for you guys to come down. After you both are dressed and you've grabbed your bag, you head down to talk to them.

When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you see Tommy sitting at the table and Sarah sitting on the couch with her arms crossed. She turns to you with a sickened look on her face. Oh no, you already know what is about to happen.

She sighs and says with attitude in her voice, "You know I love you both, but if I have to listen to both your moans one more time, I think I'm going to go clinically insane. You guys are disgusting. No offence."

Tommy begins laughing his head off, and you try to hide behind an embarrassed Joel, but it doesn't work because he's also trying to hide behind your small body. Both of your faces are bright red, and you try to change the subject as quickly as possible.

“Ummm, Tommy, so supplies run? Yeah, I think we should get to that right now," you say to Tommy as he is still laughing at the two of you.

"You guys are hilarious, but yes, supplies run. Let me get my bag packed, and then we can head out," he replies back to you and finally stops laughing. Thank god.

You and Tommy are both at the door putting your shoes on as Sarah speaks up, “You know I've been working on my shooting, and I was really hoping to tag along with you guys on this run."

Joel coughs and quickly answers, “Yeah, sorry, honey, that's just not happening, not yet at least. You aren't ready."

She scoffs at him, “Well, when will I be ready? It’s been 8 fucking years, Dad. I'm not a kid anymore, you can't just keep me in this cabin forever,"

You do somewhat agree with her, but you aren't going to start that argument with Joel today. He replies to her, "One day, but today ain't that fucking day, okay?"

You can tell Sarah is upset, “Yeah, whatever," she says to him. That's when you hear a noise. You quickly shoot a look at Tommy that says, is that what I think it was? And you both really hope it isn't. But then you hear it again, and your assumptions are confirmed. Gunshots.

"Joel, pack up your shit right now, Sarah, you too. The time has come, follow the plan," you say to them with distress in your voice. This was the moment you have been hoping would never come.

There are other people here now, and they are going to find you.

You are all running around grabbing everything you need. Tommy is running out to the truck, and Sarah is following quickly behind him as you and Joel grab the last of your things. That's when you see them. There are about 8 of them, and they are all armed. They don't look like they are here to talk.

Time is running out, and before you and Joel can get out to the truck, they begin firing. You give Tommy the look; this look he knows what it means immediately, and he nods back at you and begins driving away. Save Sarah, that's what that look was telling him. You look back at Joel as he notices them driving away; you can see his heart break, but he doesn't have much time to think about it before they start shooting at you again.

You both look at each other quickly, and then you start running, where? Hopefully somewhere where they can't follow you. Just as you enter the trees, you hear shouting, and then another shot fires. You suddenly feel an intense pain in your shoulder; the fuckers shot you. Joel hasn't noticed yet, so you keep running, and it seems like forever before you stop, but you physically can't go any further.

Joel notices you stop and fall to the ground, “Babygirl, what's wrong?" He asks. You begin to take your jacket off, and he sees the blood and realizes what has happened. He runs to you and helps you get the jacket the rest of the way off as you groan in pain. You've never felt pain like this before, and you feel like you are going to pass out.

"Fuck, fuck, no, this can't be happening," he cries as he looks at your shoulder.

"Joel, the first aid kit in my bag. I need it right now," you sternly say to him, and he listens grabbing it for you.

You begin to take your shirt off so you can assess the damage. The bullet went clean through, thank god. You begin instructing him on what he needs to do.

“Okay, Joel, I'm sorry, but I need you to focus. I can't clean it and wrap it myself, so I need you to do it, so listen to me. Grab the rubbing alcohol and a piece of gauze. I need you to clean the wound before we wrap it." Since you've been running for a while, the bleeding has slowed down a bit.

He does what you say, you let out screams of pain. Fuck, this hurts so badly. "Okay, now I need you to grab a bandage wrap and wrap it up for me. I know it's still bleeding a bit, but we've gotta get it covered up so it doesn't get infected," you say to him, and he listens, doing what you say.

After he is done, he sits down beside you and asks, “Fuck, baby, are you okay?"

You let out a little laugh and say, “Yeah, I think I'm alright. Those guys are lucky we ran away, or they'd be paying for this," though you are trying to be sarcastic, there is a bit of truth behind your words.

He doesn't laugh, he just looks at you with sad eyes and says, "I can't lose you, so I need you to be okay."

"Well, you’re lucky I was actually a surgeon in a past lifetime before this all happened if you remember, so we're a little lucky here," you try and joke and lighten the mood, but it's not really working too well.

He doesn't say anything back, so you decide to grab your bag and pull out your map and compass to try and figure out where you are. Judging from the direction you were running from, you went north, and you can very broadly guess where you might be.

"Joel, I think we have to go to Kansas City, you've heard on the radio. You know they have people there, maybe Sarah and Tommy will have gone there," you say to him as you point to it on the map.

He sighs, he knows you're right, but he also knows it's going to be a long trip over there. Which is one of the main reasons you haven't done it yet. Sarah and Tommy have the truck, so they will have a good shot at getting there safely. "Okay, okay, yeah, you are right. Are you okay to make that long of a trip right now?" He asks you, though he already knows what your answer will be.

"Yes, yes, 100% I'm good enough. We need to find them, Joel, I can't lose them, and I know you can't either,” you say back to him.

He nods, “I know, baby, but I can’t lose you either, okay?”

You smile at him, “And you won’t, but we need to go. Right now, if those guys are following us, then they won’t be far behind us now, and I know I don’t want to get shot again, so we need to gain more distance.” You reply to him as you begin to stand up and you grab his hand with your uninjured arm and pull him off the ground. “I love you so much, Joel, please let’s go find our family.”

“I love you too, darling, let’s go,” he says, and you both start walking away. You’ve got a long trip to make.

Previous -> Chapter 7: Neighbourly Offerings

Next -> Chapter 9: We Ain't Bit

***AN: WOAH intense chapter. I hope you guys enjoy the twist in the story. I know 8 years was a big jump, but hopefully, it wasn’t too much. I have big plans for this story, and this was a needed time jump. Hope the beginning of the chapter wasn’t too cringy😭🥵

I may post another chapter, but it will most likely be tomorrow. Thank you, and if you’ve read it all, I really hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think, please!❤️❤️