(Andi's POV)

I wielded the heavy chainsaw with ease, slicing through the skull of another zombie. A horde of the undead came limping toward me through the pouring rain, groaning grotesquely. With a battle cry, I rushed forward and decapitated four at once.

"Yeah! Four times combo!" I cried out to myself. A loud moan from behind me made me jump. With a scream, I shot around and sliced through the chest of a female zombie who collapsed to the ground, oozing fluids. With a confident smirk on my face, I spun around and sent a pile of bodies to the muddy ground.

"Eat that, you undead bastards!"Adrenaline rushed through my body and I felt like I was on top of the world. As a wave of undead came trudging toward me, I swung my chainsaw and snarled, prepared for anything. And that's when it happened.

My chainsaw's engine stopped and made a cough-like noise, then suddenly petered out. The chain stopped rotating and my eyes widened. There were zombies everywhere! This was not the time for my engine to die! I dropped the machine to the wet ground and knelt down in the disgusting muck, ignoring the mud and guts soaking into the knees of my camouflage pants. I quickly pulled the saw's cord twice, and relief flooded my body as the motor whirred and started up. But it quickly let out a puff of noxious smoke and quieted once more. I looked around and screamed, seeing myself completely surrounded by the undead. I was in a circle of decaying bodies, and that circle was slowing beginning to shrink around me. A few more seconds and I'd be afloat in a sea of them! I frantically tore at the chainsaw's cord once more, my arm swinging back and forth as I begged the machine to work.

"Come on, come on, come on, Goddamn it!" I hissed. I looked around to see that the undead circle was only inches away. I shut my eyes tight, cringed, and braced for impact. But it never came. I opened my eyes as I heard an animalistic roar that clearly wasn't from one of them.

I looked up to see Jax leaping through the air with a submachine gun clutched in both of his hands. His combat boots hit the ground with a splat. He turned his head to the rain falling from the sky and cried out,

"Get…. away from her!" In an instant, bodies were falling to the ground, rapid fire bullets tearing through the zombies' deformed carcasses. I watched in awe as he shot the creatures, turning around in circles and making sure every last one was down for good.

After all the zombies were dead, he waded his way through the pile of carcasses and stood in front of me. I was still in awe, just staring at my handsome boyfriend. He was wearing waterproof camo pants, laced black combat boots, fingerless leather gloves, and a green/gray t-shirt that he had clearly torn the sleeves off of. His left hand was wrapped around the bar handle of the submachine gun while his right supported the barrel of the heavy weaponry. A shiny silver pair of dog tags dangled around his neck. I could tell the new state of the world had changed him completely by the rough, rigid, untouchable glare he had on his face. He had also buffed up a lot since the last time I had seen him before the zombie apocalypse. His whole frame was more muscular, and my eyes were instantly drawn to his upper body. His skintight shirt showed off every groove in his chiseled chest, and his newly rigid, muscled biceps slick with rain water were the epitome of sexiness.

"Andi." His voice rumbled, much lower than I remembered. His Australian accent was completely gone, leaving nothing but the rough, hardened voice of a warrior.

"Jax," I replied, taking in a breath. He knelt down next to me and for a moment, I was terrified of my newly transformed boyfriend.

"Those bastards didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No, they didn't. You got here just in time." Face unchanging, he stood and held out a hand to me. I graciously accepted his offer and grabbed his hand, lifting myself out of the mud and to my feet. He walked away from em and I involuntarily followed him.

"So… what now?" I asked quietly.

"We need to get to shelter before this storm gets any worse," he said, glancing at the sky. "Follow me." I did as he told me, still not used to this new Jax. The terrain was desolate and gray, the destroyed city behind us casting an orange glow upon the ground as the last flames of destruction flickered before being extinguished by the rain. Every so often, Jax would stop walking and stand completely motionless as if he were a statue. If I asked what he was doing, he would simply shush me. And then he would continue as if nothing ever happened. The 'end of the world' sure did have an effect on Jax. And I wasn't quite sure if it was a change for the better or worse.

After walking for about ninety minutes, my legs began to throb and I began to shiver from my clothes being soaked to the bone.

"J-J-Jax, how much longer until we get where we're going?" I asked, my teeth chattering.

"Approximately thirty-two minutes," he replied in a no-nonsense tone. I bit down on my tongue and trudged onward, watching as the sun began to set from behind the smoke clouds floating in the air. I groaned quietly as mud soaked into the bottoms of my pant legs. This was torture. How did Jax thrive through all this? A few minutes later, I felt my legs cramp up and before I could react, I had fallen into the mud face-first. My eyes and nose burned and I frantically spat the muck out of my mouth, feeling colder than ever now that I was surrounded by ice cold liquid dirt.

"Andi, are you alright?" Jax asked, his rough voice raising in what I believed to be worry. The frigid feeling spread and wrapped around my body like a cocoon.

"Jax, I-I-" I sputtered. And that's when it all went black.

I woke up some time later. My eyelids fluttered open and I jumped up, my eyes darting across my surroundings. I was in a log cabin sleeping in someone else's queen size bed and covered by a thick comforter. A blazing fire roared from a brick fireplace to my right. I kicked the blanket off and stood up, quietly creeping around the room. Slowly, the memories of earlier began flowing back into my mind. I subconsciously noticed that I was no longer wet, so I looked down to see that I was wearing an oversized gray t-shirt and a pair of black boxer briefs. How had I-?

"Andi." Jax's gruff voice rang out through the near-silent room. I glanced over to see him wearing a new outfit. This time, he was clad in a pair of loose boxers, a black muscle shirt, and the same dog tags from earlier. "You're awake."

"Yeah, I am. Where are we?" I asked, sitting back down on the bed.

"My place," he replied laconically.

"How…?"

"When the first wave of zombies hit Miami, my whole family was killed in the night. I was the only one to escape and I had nowhere to go, so I came here. This was my grandfather's cabin. I came here often when I was young because I loved running up and down the hills around it. Few zombies are strong enough to make it up these steep hills, so I figured I'd be safe. And I was right. Sort of," he joined me on the bed as he spoke.

"What do you mean 'sort of'?"

"We're completely safe now because the zombies have decided whatever's up here isn't worth fighting for. But when I got here, I found that one zombie had made in in here. I killed him, but then when I looked around, I found my grandfather. He had been… changed. Into one of them. And Then, I had to… I had to… I had to kill my grandfather." I gasped in horror as he clenched and unclenched his fists in rage.

"After all the good times we had together, I murdered him. And it was all because of them. And that's when I made the vow."

"The vow?" I asked, almost scared of his reply.

"I vowed to kill every last one of those goddamn undead bastards. I'll slit all of their throats for what they did to me, for what they did to my family, for what they've done to everybody. And I won't rest until every last one of them is dead for good!" he yelled, his knuckles white from his tight fists and his breathing erratic. He hung his head and began sobbing in rage, his frame shaking in fury and grief as tears slid down his face. I reached over to him, placing a hand on his muscular shoulder. He shot up instantaneously, glaring at me with daggers in his gaze.

"Don't touch me!" he growled, his voice sounding more like a wild animal than a human.

"Jax, It's okay. My family was changed, too. I had to kill them all with my bare hands. My mom. My dad. My older brother. My little sister. My dog. All of them, I had to kill," I confessed, my voice breaking. "I want the zombies dead just as bad as you. And I'll help you. I'll help you send every one of those fuckers straight to hell where they belong!" I roared, feeling the same mixture of emotions that Jax was. I released the rage and anguish and let hot tears pour down my cheeks, my body quivering. We stared into each other's tear-filled eyes and he walked over, pulling me into his warm embrace.

"JAX NOVOA!" I was torn out of my dream by an earsplitting screech. My eyes shot open, my heart pounding. My blurry vision slowly focused and I felt my blood run cold as I caught sight of Caitlyn standing in front of Jax's hospital bed, her eyes gleaming with fury. I glanced to the left to see Jax with his mouth wide and his face contorted in horror.

"What do you think you're doing, sleeping with Andi like that! Have you lost your mind!? You know the consequences for dating one of her kind!"

"Aunt Caitlyn, I-"

"No! No more excuses! You both knew what you were doing was wrong and you both lied directly to my face about it! 'No, Auntie, we're not dating. I'd never date a human!' Hmm? 'We were just roasting marshmallows, we aren't together.' Remember those words!?" The Australian woman spat, shooting knee-weakening glares at the both of us.

"After all we've done for you, Jax. Your uncle and I have been there for you for the past decade and a half and we gladly let you live with us when your father sent you here last year. And how do you repay us? You date a human when you know the consequences! And you too, Andi! We took you in when you had nowhere else to go, we fed you and gave you a clean bed to sleep in, and you say thanks by seducing my son and putting him in danger of losing his powers! And then you proceeded to lie about it!

"Auntie!" Jax barked, sitting up. I stared at him, shocked to see him stand up to his aunt for the first time. "It's not like that! Andi didn't seduce anybody! We love each other and there's nothing you can do about it. I used to think Emma was the one for me, but I realized that I only wanted her because I wanted to please my father. I was there for Andi when she shattered and that blossomed into love. We shared a bed, we shared interests, we shared our lives, and that evolved into sharing our love. I spent all my money to buy promise rings for her and me. I put my powers at risk so I could be with her. You can't stop me from loving Andi. And that'll never change."

Caitlyn stood frozen like a statue, looking mortified.

"UN-AC-CEPTABLE!" she screamed. "You can tell me stories of your love for days. This is not real! This is not true love! You're in high school. You two'd be broken up in months if I let you keep this charade going."

My jaw fell open in unison with Jax's, enraged by her words. I felt my body heat up as rage coursed through my veins. My hands balled into fists and I leaned up, ready to go ballistic on Caitlyn. But Jax threw his right arm out and restrained me, grasping my shoulder tightly and squeezing twice. I growled quietly at him, crossing my arms and fuming silently, allowing him to take over.

"Aunt. Caitlyn. I'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth our relationship. I love Andi. She loves me. I don't care about my powers. I'd give them up for her." Jax's aunt gasped and glared at him in horror. My anger evaporated quickly and I smiled wide. Jax would give up his powers for me? He did love me and only me.

"WHAT!? Don't you ever speak of such a terrible lie!"

"I'm not lying! What I feel for Andi is genuine. Love can make you do crazy things. I used to always gag at movies with cheesy romantic cliches like that, but I get it now. I don't doubt the fact that I would give my life for Andi." My jaw fell to the floor and my heart began pounding as what Jax had said sunk in. He just said that he would die for me… None of my family members have ever said anything so sweet or touching before… I felt my eyes fill with tears of joy. Jax really did love me.

I tuned out from the still-raging argument and closed my eyes, imagining what life would be like with Jax in the future. Was… was Jax the one I wanted to spend my life with? Yes. Yes, he was. I would gladly marry him and spend the rest of my life with the Australian troublemaker. There was not a doubt in my mind. No matter how Caitlyn would react to us, our love wouldn't falter. Because what we have... is true love.