#sassconvict

Though you’re a little embarrassed, you just laugh back at him before replying, “Tommy, it’s just a bikini. You can turn back around.”

Hesitantly, he does and he looks at you again, trying to fight the arousal building inside him that he knows is wrong.

“Uh, okay-well, I just came up here to offer you a beer. Fuck— you look good,” he admits.

“Well, thank you,” you say before sliding your sundress over your head, but of course, it gets stuck over your head and you blindly try and get it to go on properly. That’s when you feel his hand on your waist and then his other grabbing the material of the dress to help you get it on. Once it’s not covering over your face, you realize how close he is and start to blush a little too hard.

You’ve had feelings for your father’s best friend, Tommy, since before you started college, but you always thought the possibility was out of reach considering the age difference, and well, also the fact that he is your dad’s best friend, but now you think to yourself that maybe the idea isn’t as far-fetched as you originally thought.

You both just stare at each other for a moment before you hear your father call out to you both from the hallway, and Tommy quickly backs up.

“Did you find her?” Your father says to Tommy before getting to the entrance to your bedroom. “Oh good, you can drag her downstairs now, time for beer, let’s go you slowpokes,” your dad teases you both, completely oblivious to the intense tension in the room.

Your dad walks away, and Tommy turns back to you and says, “Shall we?”

You nod and follow him downstairs, immediately grabbing the tequila and some shot glasses from the liquor cabinet. You hold them out to Tommy and ask if he wants a shot too.

“Fuck, darlin, are you trying to kill me?” he says with a smirk, but then agrees.

“Old man can’t handle a little shot of tequila? What happened to the party Tommy that dad is always telling me about?” you say with a laugh as you begin to pour out two shots.

“He went into retirement years ago, but I think he could make a little appearance tonight if you’re a good girl.”

This makes you choke on your own breath, and he laughs and takes the tequila shot and motions for you to grab yours. He lifts it off the counter and clinks it to your shot glass before you both pound the tequila back. You have no reaction; you’re a college student, so this isn’t a struggle for you. Tommy, on the other hand, twists his face in disgust and looks at you.

“Fuck , do you drink a lot of tequila at college or what? Is that what they’re teaching you out there?” he jokingly teases you.

You shrug your shoulders and answer, “Maybe I’m just not a pussy like you.”

He scoffs and shakes his head before taking a step closer to you, eyes slipping down to your lips as you lick the tequila off them.

Suddenly, you hear another voice, and both your heads snap. It’s Tommy’s older brother, Joel. Unlike your father, Joel immediately senses the tension in the room and gives you both a weird look.

“Everything okay in here?”

“Yup,” you answer just a little too quickly, you realize and quickly turn on your heels and grab a beer from the fridge and excuse yourself, saying you’re going to go out to the pool.

Once you reach the edge of the pool, you slide your sundress over your head and grab one of the floaties sitting on the edge of the pool. You throw it into the water before jumping in yourself. After a bit of struggle, you finally manage to get onto it and lay back to enjoy the sun.

With the music blasting out of the speaker, you don’t hear Tommy exit the house. He walks over to one of the poolside chairs and takes a seat, enjoying the view of you. Not long before your dad walks out, and they start talking. You glance over at them, and you can see Tommy fighting the urge to look at you, making you smirk a little as you bring your beer to your mouth and drink the last bit of liquid out of it.

“Boys, I’m in need of another beer. Which one of you is going to deliver?”

They both laugh, and you see Tommy get up and walk to the sliding door that leads to the kitchen. Your dad had followed behind him, said he still has some things to do before people start arriving. A minute later, Tommy returns and stands by the edge of the pool and stares at you.

“You going to come get it or what?”

“Oh well, I figured you could just bring it to me in here,” you tease him, not expecting him to actually do it. To your surprise, he places the beer on the ground and quickly pulls his shirt off, exposing his torso. You stare, your eyes follow his tanned skin down to his toned chest and his abs, and then down to his trail of hair that leads down into his shorts. You can’t take your eyes away, but before you know it, he’s jumping into the water. The waves from his landing knock you off the float and into the water.

When your head comes out of the water, you see him laughing at you. You roll your eyes and head in his direction. Trying to grab the beer from his hand, but he pulls it out of your reach, causing you to place your hand on his chest for stability as you get on your tiptoes to try and reach the bottle. You begin to lose balance, and Tommy notices and brings his hand to your waist to balance you. Both a little too close to each other, you feel his heart begin to race, and his breaths get heavier under your hand on his chest. Both of you just stand there staring at each other, but yet again, you hear your dad calling from the distance, and you both step away from each other quickly. You wish it was just the two of you so you could see this play out, but you know that’s not going to happen.

A few hours later:

The party is in full blast now. You’ve got a few of your friends from before college here, and you are all in the pool talking and taking tequila shots after tequila shots. Your body is buzzing now, and you can’t get Tommy out of your head. Your eyes search the backyard, and you see him sitting around the fire with your father and Joel, plus a few others you don’t know ever well.

You decide that you’re ready to get out of the pool, so you excuse yourself and grab your towel. Drunkenly passing Tommy and heading inside to change out of your swimsuit. Once you are in your room, you strip and wrap the towel around you. Then, you hear a knock at your door.

“Come in,” you say, assuming it’s one of your friends, but when the door opens, you see Tommy walk in and close the door behind him, locking it.

He just stares at you, eyes racking up and down your body. He doesn’t know why he followed you, but he just couldn’t stop himself.

You feel the liquor hard and it gives you maybe a little too much confidence, and you drop your towel to the ground. Watching Tommy’s face, his jaw drops and a groan comes out of him. You can feel the wetness building between your thighs. He doesn’t move, and you start to feel a bit embarrassed, thinking that maybe you got the wrong impression and made a really bad decision. You try and cover yourself with your hands, but Tommy walks up to you, grabbing both your wrists.

“No, don’t cover up. You’re so fucking gorgeous, darlin’. Lemme look at you, please,” he says in a low and heated voice before dropping your wrists and bringing his hands to your waist. Then they move up your body, his calloused hands scratching at your skin, and you feel your breath trapped in your lungs. You press your thighs together without realizing, and he notices, looking down at your naked body before bringing his eyes back to yours.

You’re the one that moves this time, grabbing his face in your hands and pulling him towards you, crashing your lips together.

You open your mouth, allowing him to slide his tongue in, and you respond by pressing your tongue against his, and this gets a moan out of him.

He pulls back for a second, heavy breathes as he manages to speak, “Are you sure this is okay? Don’t want you to do something that you regret because you’re drunk.”

“Tommy, you have no idea how long I’ve been wanting this,” you speak out in a whisper, and that’s all the convincing he needs. He pulls his shirt off before bringing his lips back yours. He grabs your waist and pushes you backwards, and your knees hit the front of your bed, causing you to fall back so that you’re back on the mattress. You both shuffle up the bed so that you’re lying in the middle, his body pushing fully against yours, and you can feel his erection fighting against his jeans.

You reach your hands down and try to unbutton his jeans, but your hands are shaking and you can’t seem to get it. He smirks on your lips before pulling away and standing up, swiftly undoing his jeans and pulling them and his boxer down, and they lie on the floor next to your towel.

He wastes no time coming back to you, his lips on your neck making you moan, then they travel down to your breasts. He places an open-mouth kiss on the one, using his tongue on it, causing your hips to buck towards him. He takes the hint that you need him, and his kissing continues down your body, now his head between your thighs. You look down at him, and he’s looking up at you.

“Can I taste you, baby? Please,” he asks, but it sounds more like a beg.

You nod, and he immediately brings a kiss down onto your dripping core, taking your clit in his mouth. Sucking on it while flicking his tongue back and forth, your eyes roll back from the immense pleasure, and your hips start to grind onto his face, but he takes his hands and places them on your hips to hold you still. Moans leave your mouth, forgetting that there is a party going on downstairs. You take your hands and cover your mouth to try and hide the sounds of your moans, but you secretly hope that the loud music downstairs will drown them out for you.

Tommy moans on you, and the vibrations cause you to whine his name. He then takes his fingers and slams them into you, no warning. Just him filling you with his long fingers; he goes at a torturing pace as he continues to attack your clit with his mouth, and you are barely holding on. Your pussy starts to flutter on his fingers, and he can tell you’re close.

He takes his mouth off you to catch his breath and speaks out to you, “I can feel how close you are, baby—fuck-cum on my face, please. Need you to.”

Before you can respond, his mouth is back on you and you can feel yourself start to unwind. Moan after moan leaving your mouth, you curse his name out and he lets out a long moan. This is what sends you over the edge and you break, orgasm pulling through your whole body as you begin to shake and your pussy squeezes down on his fingers and you release on them and his tongue. He doesn’t stop right away, but after a moment he pulls his fingers out and takes his tongue and licks along your folds and collects your arousal on his tongue before pulling back and looking back up at you.

“You taste so fuckin sweet, could eat this pussy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You might be my new favourite meal” he says before moving up and taking your lips on his. You can taste yourself on him and you moan again.

As he kisses you, you feel his hard cocks pressing through your wet folds as he tries to get some release.

“Tommy-I-I need you, I need all of you” you whisper in his ear before placing a kiss on his neck and pulling the skin between your teeth to leave a mark.

“Are you sure” he asks you.

“Yes-yes I’m sure. Please Tommy” you practically beg him.

He nods and brings a hand to your face and the other down to his cock aligning himself with your entrance and slowly he begins to push inside you.

The stretch is intense but it doesn’t hurt, it feels so good and by the way Tommy jaw goes slack and his eyes roll, you can tell he’s thinking the same thing.

Once his hips are flushed with yours he stays there for a moment just enjoying your warmth, but you need more. You start to push your hips against his trying to get some movement.

Suddenly his lips are back on yours as you feel his cock slide out of you so that just the tip is still inside you, then he slams back into you and it nearly knocks the air right out of your lungs. He continues at this pace and both of you moan into each other’s mouths, completely lost in each other’s bliss. He feels you start to flutter on his cock and he knows that you are close and he knows he isn’t far behind you but he wants to try something else before this is over.

He stops and you let out a whine, then suddenly he’s flipping you so that you are straddled on his lab. The new angle causes you to moan, you can feel him push deeper into you.

You start to bounce up and down on him, he can feel your ass jiggle every time you slam back down on him. He brings his hands to your ass and helps you build up speed.

Moans leave his mouth as he throws his head back. You can feel yourself getting closer and closer to your orgasm as your legs start to give out on you. He takes this moment to begin pounding up into you at a fast pace, he then takes his one hand and brings it to your clit, rubbing circles on it.

You begin to fall apart, bringing yourself closer to him and sliding your arms around his neck. Foreheads pushing on each other as you look into his eyes as you fall apart.

“Fuck Tommy, I-I’m cumming” you practically scream out, again forgetting your father is just outside.

“Let go for me darling, let me feel you” he groans in response.

Your second orgasm, more intense than the first comes over you and you can’t control the noises leaving your mouth.

Tommy’s thrusts start to get messier and he moans out to you, “fuck baby, I’m gonna come. Where do you want me.”

You quickly respond “Inside, I’m on birth control. Please Tommy”

That’s all he needs to throw him into his own orgasm as he thrusts up into you and pushes your hips down so that he is as deep as he can go as he releases into you.

You can feel him twitching inside you as his warm release fills you up and both moan loudly again.

He doesn’t move, enjoying you as his cock starts to soften inside of you. Finally, you roll off him and onto your back beside him.

You look over at him, he looks out of it.

You are the first to speak. “So, that happened,” you laughed.

He smiles and laughs with you. “Yes, it did, and I hope it happens again.”

You blush and say, “Well, we better get back before a search party comes for us, if they haven’t started looking already. Hopefully, no one heard us.”

“Hello? Are you there?” He says while laughing, and this finally breaks you out of your trance.

You shake your head and reply to him, “Oh hey, when did you get home?” Totally oblivious to the fact he has been trying to talk to you for the past couple of minutes.

He rolls his eyes, “Just a couple of minutes ago, how’s the studying going?”

You look up from your study notes to meet his eyes, “It’s-uhh-it’s going. I just feel like I keep reading over the same things over and over, and it’s just leaving my brain immediately,” you say as you let out a sigh.

“Maybe you should take a break,” Joel says as he walks over and sits on the couch behind you and starts to rub your shoulder.

His touch alone causes a shiver down your spine, and the way his hands work out the knots that have built in your shoulders and neck from hunching over studying all day brings a soft moan out of you.

Joel laughs, “Yeah? Does that feel good? And before you can answer him, he speaks again, “I know it feels good, darling.”

You take your hand and reach back to place it on his.

“It feels so good, babe, but I can’t take a break yet. Need to do a bit more, and then I’ll call it quits for the night, okay?”

“Whatever you say, darlin, want me to help you?” Joel asks you.

His question surprises you a bit and gets a quiet laugh out of you, but Joel can tell by the way your shoulders moved under his hands that you were laughing at the suggestion.

“And what’s so funny about that, huh?” He asks teasingly as he takes his hands from your shoulders, uses them to shove the textbooks and papers sitting beside you, and takes their spot on the ground.

“No-no, it’s not funny,” you try and play it off, but he can tell when you are lying because you let out a little giggle after the words leave your mouth.

He takes his hands and grabs you by the shin to turn your face to his, “You don’t think I would be any help?”

You look into his eyes and place your hand on his thigh, causing his eyes to flicker down to where your hand sits.

“I never said that— I just think that maybe you’d be more of— um— a distraction,” you finally admit to him, and this causes him to scoff and release your chin from his hands.

“Me? A distraction? I don’t think so, darling. Pass me your notes, I’ll quiz you” he offers.

You play into his game and pass him your notebooks, and he begins to ask you questions, but he finds himself having trouble pronouncing some of the words.

“Fuck, my girl is so smart. You know what these all mean?”

“Well, I’m trying, but you stole my notes from me,” you say back with a laugh mixed in.

“Hmm, guess you’re right,” Joel replied before sliding the notebook on the floor over to the other side of the room, “whoops, looks like the notebook is saying it’s time for a break.”

You shake your head and smile at him, “Is that so?”

“Yup.”

You both stare at each other for a moment; you can see the need in his eyes, and finally, he moves towards you and closes the distance. Catching your mouth with his, he kisses you hungrily and slips his tongue into your mouth, which causes a moan to slip out, and you push your tongue against his.

He breaks the kiss and sits back for a second before reaching behind you and moving all of your study material out of the way before coming back and kissing you again. The kiss deepens and he pushes you slightly so that your back is on the floor now. Your legs are spread with him between them, you can feel his hardening cock press against you and your body is on fire and you realize you need him.

It’s like he hears your thoughts because he pushes himself on you, causing friction and gaining a moan from both of you. He continues to push his now very hard cock on you and you can feel how soaked you are just from this.

He moans into your mouth before breaking the kiss and sitting back a bit to look down between you, he notices the wet spot on his jeans from your arousal and he groans and looks back to your face.

“So fucking wet for me huh? Knew you needed a break” he says in a low voice, he sounds so sexy when he’s worked up like this.

“Joel-please” you practically whine at him.

He slowly brings his hands lower, tracing his fingers down your body and stopping right before he reaches where he knows you need him.

“Please what”

“Please touch me-fuck I need you, please Joel”

He hums as his fingers finally touch your aching core, bringing his finger through your folds and collecting your arousal on his fingers before bringing them to his mouth. He looks you in the eyes as he puts his finger with your wetness into his mouth.

“Fuck baby you taste so good, how’d I get so lucky”

He brings his lips back to yours and you can taste yourself on your lips, you then feel his finger make their way back down to your dripping core. You buck your hips trying to get more from him but he shakes his head.

“So fucking impatient, you need me that badly huh”

You don’t reply, just nod and grab the top of his shoulder and pull him closer to you.

He gives in and you can feel his finger push into you and it’s like something ignites in you. Moans start leaving your mouth as he adds his other finger and circles your clit with his thumb.

“So good for me, squeezing my fingers. You’re so fucking tight.”

His words are making you fall apart, and you can feel yourself coming closer and closer to your release.

“Oh baby, you’re so close, come for me please. Wanna feel you come on my fingers”

This sends you completely over the edge; your legs start to shake, and you moan out his name as your orgasm hits its peak.

His fingers don’t slow down; he carries you through your orgasm, and when it almost gets too much, he pulls his fingers out and brings them to his mouth again.

“So fucking sweet, you think you can handle more? I need to fucking feel you, baby.”

You nod rapidly at him and reach for the button and zipper of his jeans.

“So eager,” he says as he pulls off his pants and his boxers before standing up and putting his hand out to you. You take it, and he pulls you off the floor and guides you over into the kitchen, where he pushes you so that your body is bent over the kitchen table before swiping his length through your slick folds before pushing himself inside you.

You immediately let out a moan as he stretches you out, your pussy clenching around him.

“Fuck—feels so good, Joel,” you say before letting out another moan as he pulls out and slams back into you.

“Feel so good wrapped around my cock, baby, could do this for hours.”

One of his hands sits on your waist, while the other is on your lower back, pushing you against the table as he slams into you repeatedly. He curses and moans your name, and this causes you to let out a loud moan. His fast pace is beginning to make your knees shake, but he doesn’t stop. He takes his hand that is on your waist and brings it to your clit, where he starts rubbing circles on it, causing you to push up against his hand on your back, needing him to be closer. He grabs onto your neck and holds you so that your back is pushed against his chest, and he continues to fuck you.

You can feel another orgasm creeping up on you, and he can tell by the way your legs start to give out and your eyes shut tightly. Non-stop moans are leaving your mouth now.

“I can feel how close you are, let go for my baby, I’ve got you.”

A few more thrusts and circles of his thumb on your clit, and you’re sent over the edge. You couldn’t imagine anything feeling better than this does right now. Your pussy is clenching down on his cock as you release on him, and he groans loudly before feeling him twitch inside you, and you know he is about to cum.

“Fill me up, Joel, I need you to cum for me.”

This is all he needed because he plunges deep in you, and you feel his release begin to fill you up. He thrusts a few more times before coming to a stop. His head lays on your shoulder as he catches his breath before pulling out of you.

“Fuck, you’re are going to be the death of me, woman,” he says as he laughs.

And you reply while rolling your eyes, “What about me? I was supposed to be studying. Study break is over.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be taking another study break soon, darling,” he teases you and winks before coming up to you and placing a kiss on your lips again.

***AN: Okay first Oneshot, sorry if it’s short and feels rushed. Didn’t have a lot of time but wanted to write something 😏

“I won’t let you hurt him!” You say before winding your fist back and placing a mediocre punch to your father’s face.

He steps back and rubs his face. “Fuck sakes, you gonna take the beating for your little shit of a brother then, huh?”

Suddenly, you feel his fist collide with your face, and the impact sends you to the ground. He doesn’t stop there. After you harshly collide with the ground, he sends a kick to your side, and you scream out in pain, a tear rolling down your face as he speaks up again.

“Are you done testing me, boy, or do I need to keep going?”

You don’t reply, just slowly try to get up. Then you hear the doorknob to your brother’s room turn slowly as he peeks out the small crack in his door, opening it wide open when he sees you with blood dripping from your face.

“Tommy, don’t come out here!” You yell, but it’s too late. Your father kicks you back on the ground before he runs into Tommy’s room, slamming and locking the door behind him.

You crawl over to the door, banging on it while begging your father to leave Tommy alone. But you know he can’t stop this from happening, so you sit there praying that he won’t get it too bad.

You don’t even know what Tommy did this time. You don’t care. You’ll always protect your brother, no matter what.

The next day:

Reader’s POV:

You enter your first period classroom early, like always. Taking your seat before looking over to see Joel Miller entering the room, you immediately notice the gash on his face and how he walks with a slight limp. He must have gotten in another fight with his brother, you thought.

He looks over to you, eyes catching yours as he offers a slight smile and a little wave before coming over and taking the desk right beside you. You notice the bruises on his hand, and this makes you frown at him.

“Hey Joel, you okay?” You ask him.

He nods, “Yeah, just got into it a bit at home, but it’s not anything I’m not used to.”

This reply makes you feel a little sick. You want to ask more but decide not to pry.

“Can I see your hand?” You ask him quietly.

He hesitates before putting his hand out in front of yours. Instead of grabbing it, though, you place your palm up against his and let out a laugh at the difference in size.

He smiles before taking his fingers and curls them over the top of yours to show how big his hands really are.

He laughs this time before saying, “Cute little hands you have. I bet they fit perfectly holding mine.”

This makes you blush hard. You look away a little embarrassed, but he moves his hand and turns your face to him again.

“Thanks for asking if I was alright. It’s nice to know someone cares,” he confesses to you while looking deep into your eyes.

You smile again and answer him, “I’ll always care, Joel.”

You then hear other people enter the class, and you are broken out of your moment as he pulls his hand away and rubs the back of his neck.

“Well, if it means anything, I care about you too. A lot.”

You don’t say anything yet. You just smile brightly at him, blush creeping back onto your skin.

"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!❤️❤️