Page 62 of When the Living Fall

We fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, stirring slightly when two more warm bodies enter the tent and nestle in around us. Someone kisses my forehead, while another runs the pad of his finger along my bare arm.

“Are you happy, pet?” he asks softly, with a smile in his voice.

“Very,” I whisper, and snuggle deeper into them, falling asleep once more, surrounded by the three best things to have ever happened to me.

This must be what happiness feels like, even at the end of the world.

EPILOGUE

Griffin

This is it.

This is everything.

I stare in awe at the view before me. It’s only been days, but it feels like an entire lifetime has passed since I was last here. Back then, I thought I had it all. Until I lost it all and fought tooth and nail and to get it back better than ever.

The town looks even better than I remembered, even with a few rotters roaming the streets. We take care of those first, and I can already envision this place as the sanctuary we’ll build together.

Our group of survivors are exhausted. They’re weary and battered, but their eyes light up with hope when they see this place. The buildings are all intact, still with the supplies we’d left behind. For the first time, I’m actually excited to share this place.

Looking over at Emily and the sheer happiness radiating off of her while she points out everything to Zoey is better than I imagined. It was only last night that I gave her every piece of me in that tent, and then I drove the entire rest ofthe way today, only stopping to tend to our wounded now and then, but we made it. With Emily in the passenger seat, we’d put together a plan for these first few days. How and where to put the survivors until homes can be situated, and then the next steps for their care.

Emily and Zoey dive right into setting up a medical building. The original doctor’s office here is a building in the middle of town. It works out well that way so it would be equal distance from all points and the last place to be reached by outsiders if there’s an invasion. There’s even still a good amount of supplies left behind, so after cleaning it up as quickly as possible, they move the injured in there, laying the worst off in the beds first.

I watch after them, wondering how Emily will react if Zoey opens up her stitches. It almost makes me jealous and want to get more stitches myself because I loved frustrating her with that. Luckily, my wound is healing nicely, even after all the events of yesterday.

My mind drifts back to the roadside stitches in the early hours of this morning while most of the rest of the group slept. Josh had come and woken us up to say something was wrong with Zoey. She was bleeding through her bandage.

It didn’t take long to fix her up, but Emily was terrified. We’d found a needle and thread in one of the car trunks, and Emily had stitched her up by flashlight while muttering words of frustration. I had to fight a grin when it reminded me of the first time Emily had been furious with me for messing up my own stitches. Now I only wish I had a reason for more stitches, if only to see her roll her eyes and tell me off again. I enjoy the feisty side of her.

Well, all sides of her, really. I still can’t believe she came back with us, and even trusted us with her entire colony. Her trust isn’t something I’ll put on the line again.

After Max finishes taking care of the straggling rotters, I pitch in to help him clear the bodies, dragging them outsidethe perimeter to a burn pile while William, Josh, and Kevin hash out plans for a wall. We want to get one up as soon as possible to keep rotters out, but everyone has agreed to not use wood. It’ll take some time to build a decent, sturdy wall, but at least we have the manpower to create a perimeter of guards in the meantime.

There’s even talk about reinforcing the buildings with less flammable materials, but that’ll have to be tackled later. The memory of their last home going up in flames is still fresh, and I don’t blame them one bit.

It’s only been hours since we arrived, judging by the position of the sun in the sky, but it feels like we’ve been here for months. We’re all working so well together, each person taking on a role and meshing in ways I only dreamed of.

Juliet runs toward me. “Director.”

Oh no, I have to cut that off now. “Call me Griffin,” I say, shaking my head with a smile. “Director isn’t a title I want, especially after the last guy it belonged to.”

“Right, sorry.” She points behind me. “Um, is that okay?”

I spin around, expecting to see something awful, but it’s Buddy with a rotter’s leg dangling from his mouth while he runs around. “Uh, yeah. We’ve realized Buddy is harmless to humans, but for some reason he loves running around with rotter legs. It’s fine. That’s a thing.”

“That is so not a thing, but okay?” She runs off in the opposite direction, and I continue watching Buddy, who’s now playing tug-o-war with the leg with Max, who’s laughing maniacally. Shaking my head, I go back to helping William with the last of the bodies, before starting work on my secret project.

The sun is disappearing over the horizon by the time soft footsteps come up behind me. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

I spin around, not ready for her to be here, but when she looks beyond me, I realize it’s already too late.

“Whatchya doing?”

“Oh, uh…stuff.” I shove my dirt-covered hands into my pockets. It’s no use, because my pants and shirt are covered in dirt, too. Wow. I really made a mess of this.

“Stuff, huh?” She steps forward, but instead of looking at me, she’s looking at the ground. She kneels down and runs her hands along the freshly filled dirt. “What is this, Griffin?”

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