"Are you sure?" I asked, my eyes focused on his, running my hand through the long locks of his hair.

"I'm sure..." he all but purred, and to reassure me he pressed his lips to mine in a possessing yet gentle kiss.

I was a little worried I had forced things, yet the thoughts vanished from my head as he took off his shirt, revealing a very masculine and sculpted chest. My breath was taken away at his beauty, and I reached over, running my fingers along the solid flesh of his body.

"You're beautiful," I murmured as I slipped my own shirt off.

"So are you..." he whispered back. We drank in the others' body, burning the memories into our mind.

_______________________________________________________________________

I slept deeply. As I woke up, I noticed the absence of Jareds' body against mine, and sleepily I opened my eyes. He was off in the corner adjusting the tape on his clothing.

"Hey..." I murmured sleepily. He jumped slightly.

"I thought you were asleep."

"I was," I retorted. I briefly wondered why he was so bothered by the fact I had woken up, then it hit me. He had planned to leave without me. I growled.

"What?" he asked, some concern in his voice.

"You were trying to take off!" I accused, my voice high and scratchy.

"No I wasn't," he stated in an annoyed tone.

"Yes you were! I can't believe this," I muttered as I sat up, rubbing a hand on my forehead. It was a stupid movement given my claws, and sure enough, they got caught in my hair. I let out a disgusted cry, and yanked, taking out a chunk of hair for my efforts. I then swore out loud.

From the corner I could hear Jared trying not to laugh. I glared up at him. "Stop laughing!"

"I'm not!" he answered, a stupid grin on his face. That sent me over the edge and I jumped over and spitefully torn out a chunk of his hair from inside his hood.

He let out a cry of disbelief. "I didn't rip out your hair!"

"You were laughing!"

"I was not!"

"It looked like you were!" Briefly a part of me wondered how we could still have silly arguments despite it being the end of the world.

He leaped over and pinned me down. "Maybe I think you look like you were laughing at me!" he snarled in reply, raising his hand to start attacking. I readied my claws in turn. He started to tear into me, but after a couple of swipes he stopped.

Not realizing he had stopped for a reason I shoved him off and got a few good slashes in myself.

"Ah, fuck, cut it out! Don't you hear that?!" he yelped.

I paused for a moment too. Sure enough, I heard something growling and snarling loudly, accompanied by giant pounds that were starting to shake my room. It could only mean one thing.

I got off of Jared, and ran down the stairs. I saw a couple running down the street and a Tank in hot pursuit. My instincts were fighting to take over as I stood there, and to keep them under control I sat down in the doorway to keep the Survivors out of view. As the gunshots broke out and their yelling reached my ears I started to think of the saddest things imaginable.

Sam's death, never seeing my family again, having left Jared before the infection...it worked, and soon I was drowning them out with my sobs. As luck would have it though, they decided to run down the alley beside my house and they were getting too close. I stood up and growled at them.

"Oh shit...Lisa watch out!" the man yelled as he spotted me. Lisa turned towards me in fear and tripped right before me. I growled louder...only a few more seconds...

The man took a step over to help her but was suddenly hit by a car that the Tank had thrown over. The car rolled over several times and smashed into the abandoned garage beside my home.

"AMON!" Lisa screamed, staring at the bloody smear of her boyfriends' corpse. Unfortunately she startled me, causing my bloody instincts to kick into overdrive. Letting out a scream of my own I ran and started to tear her apart. She screeched and squirmed but she was no match for me. Less than a minute and all that remained was her corpse.

The Tank let out a huge growl, and I let out some more screams, and then I ran. I needed to get as far away from that monstrosity as I could possibly get. I flew down the alley, not stopping for anything, until I reached the grocery store a few blocks away.

I stopped, panting loudly. Blood pounded in my ears, and my adrenaline was running high. Slowly my senses came back to me. Then I remembered that Jared was still back at the house, if he hadn't already taken off to find Chicago Ted.

Anguish ran through me and I let out a heavy cry and fell to my knees. I sobbed long and hard. I cried for Sam and her meaningless death. I cried for the fall of humanity and the pointless reasons behind it. I also cried for the loss of what Jared and I had once shared; true and unconditional love. I didn't think I was ever going to see him again and that brought a new searing scar of grief followed by a loud gasping sob.

As I cried I remembered things about my life with him. Little things such as root beer being his favourite drink, and bigger things such as his passion for life. I cried harder at the last one, realizing what he had become, and how much me must have loathed it. My tears brought more memories of my sorrow, and how he'd come and comfort me, a quiet soothing voice and a warm touch.

"Hollie...what's wrong?"

It was hard! It was like I could feel him right next to me, and like I could hear his voice again. Then I realized; he was right next to me and that was his voice I was hearing!

I jumped, startled, but before my bloodthirsty instincts could take over, he had remembered what would set me off and quickly moved to counter it. Soon, he had me pinned down as I fought to control myself.

"Hollie, get ahold of yourself! Come on, you're better than this!" he cried out. "Pull it together, the Tank is coming this way! Hollie, we have to get out of here!"

It sounded as though his words were being spoken through a wall, but they did reach me. Soon the red haze clouding my vision cleared, and I saw the look of concern on his face. He looked back towards the alley. I stopped struggling.

"I'm okay," I told him. He nodded and pulled me up.

"We have to get moving," he told me.

"Good thing we're the faster creatures this infection has developed," I replied, a slight smile on my lips. "Where are we going?"

"To find Chicago Ted. And I know just where to find him!" Jared said, a look of triumph on his face.