~ Lucy ~

"And that's the last one." Chip said as he placed the gas can in the van and closed the door.

It was a long walk, as well as a long day. I was tuckered out. My arms and legs felt like they were about to fall off so I rested against the van and sipped water out of a bottle.

"Quick, into the trees!" Chip rushed over and said in a loud whisper. He led me behind a big tree and we crouched.

"What's going on? Why are we hiding?" I asked as I scanned the area. I didn't see anything.

"Shh. Watch." He pointed to the road. I heard a soft hum of an engine, then it got louder and louder. One car, or it looked more like a tank, drove by. But that wasn't the last one. A few more like it followed then some blacked out trucks.

"What was that?" I said, following their taillights.

"Looks like the military and CDC if you ask me. This ain't good, we gotta get out of here before they find us. They might want to herd us into the city and keep us there." He crouch walked his way over to the van and got out the walkie talkie, "Brick, this is Chip. You there?"

There was a soft static from the walkie talkie for what seemed like an eternity. Finally it crackled to life. "I'm here, Chip. Whatcha need?"

"We got activity over here. Looks like military and others are barricading the city."

As he said that, I peeked around the tree. Sure enough, the road we used to get in and out of the city was blocked off.

"Same over here. We made it out just in time before they saw us. Heading your way now."

Chip replaced the walkie talkie in the front seat of the van and ushered me with his hand to join him. "We should be near the vans and ready to go when they get back."

"But Annie and my brother aren't back yet." I watched the scene at the end of the road evolve. People started to gather on foot and in their cars. They were still a ways off, so I couldn't hear anything.

The sun started to set and there was a rustling in the trees beside us, but Brick and his group were the only ones who came out.

"Is everyone here and ready to go?" Brick said as he loaded their gas into the van.

"Luke and Annie are still in the city. They went back for another run before the blockade went up." Chip said, glancing over at me.

My heart began to race when I realized they've been gone a long time. Brick came over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug.

"There's no need to worry, Lucy. Your brother has proven time and time again that he's capable of handling himself in any circumstance. Believe me when I tell you, he will come back. He and Annie," he looked at me and smiled, "Although when he comes back, I'm going to have a talk with him. He always seems to get in the biggest of messes."

Even though I didn't want to, I laughed. Brick was right. Luke always got into messes, but he always found a way to get out of them.

I sniffled back a few tears. "You're right. And get in line," I cocked a thumb behind me, "I'm going to talk to him about it as well."

He gave a full chest laugh, one that seemed exaggerated, but if you saw his face you'd know it was real.

"Come on Lucas... Hurry back..."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

~ Annie ~

We chose the biggest suite. It was huge! Large windows opened up the room to the view of the city, which wasn't so great now with all the fires and looting. It looked like a studio apartment you'd see in a movie. The furniture was white leather, the rugs were white and shaggy, the TV was one of the biggest I've ever seen, and it even had its own full sized kitchen.

I walked to the center and looked up, spinning in slow circles, "is this a hotel room or someone's house?! Holy cow..."

"Yes and yes." Luke laughed, "I think this is one of those rooms where a famous person buys it and stays here when they're in town. Like no one else stays in here. Except for us now, of course." He walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle, "oh my, they got the fancy stuff here."

He walked over, bowed and offered the bottle to me like a butler, "May I interest you with a Natural Spring water with uh," he looked at the bottle real fast then went back to bowing, "Electrolytes and natural minerals, Miss?"

I chuckled and happily accepted the bottle. "Why thank you, my good sir." We both laughed at our goofiness.

The water felt nice and cold against my skin. I hadn't realized it until now, but I was hot, sweaty and sticky. I smelled of smoke and I'm pretty sure I had some soot on my arms and legs.

"Hey! Check this out." Luke yelled from somewhere else in the room. I went and found him standing next to an indoor pool.

"They have their own pool too?! Who lives here?" I bent down and ran my fingers across the surface of the water. It felt nice and cool on my fingertips and there was a faint smell of chlorine, so it was cleaned recently.

"Want to go for a swim?" I said, staring at the blue water effects that danced on the walls.

"But we don't have swimsuits, or new clothes." Luke said, taking off his socks and shoes and placing his feet in the water.

"We're in a hotel and have a master key. Let's go look in other rooms. No one going to miss their swimsuits with zombies running around."

He smiled and stood up. "Sounds like a plan, ready to go?" He stuck his hand out, waiting for me to take it.

"Most definitely." I said grabbing his hand and letting him pull me up.

"Alright, let's go." We ran out the door.

★★★★★

Luckily we found some suits that fit, as well as new clothes. It was weird wearing other people's clothes, but we needed some and they didn't need theirs anymore.

I put my hair up into a ponytail and sat on the steps that led into the pool. Luke was taking a bit to get changed so I sat there tapping the water, watching my reflection distort in the ripples. When I heard the soft pats of his feet hitting the floor I looked up.

"It's about time." That's all I said. Not only was he adorable and acted cute, but he was toned.

"Sorry," he laughed shyly, "it was a bit bigger than I thought so I had to fight with the strings."

I traced his muscles with my eyes. First his pecs, then down to his six pack abs and those faint V-Lines. I could tell he took care of his body.

"Annie?"

I snapped out of my trance, "Y-yeah?" I flicked my eyes up to his.

"You okay?" He began to enter the water.

"Oh gosh. No I'm not okay, I'm great! Holy cow you're... HOT... They're just muscles... HOT MUSCLES, COME ON!"

"Never better!" I'm pretty sure my smile was followed by a blush from my thoughts.

He dived in. I watched him glide through the water as if he was some majestic water creature. He did a little flip and propelled himself off the side of the pool, right back towards me. He broke the surface and ran his hands over his hair to clear the water from his eyes. He noticed me staring and smiled. The heat on my face was too intense so I broke eye contact and looked out the window.

"You think we'll be able to get out of here tomorrow?" I changed the subject.

"I hope so. We'll find a way, I promise." He swam over and sat next to me, on the opposite side of the railing. He rested his arms on his knees and focused out the window. He sat so... peacefully. I couldn't help, but glance his body over again.

His shoulders and arms were defined more than I thought they'd be. He rested his hands under his chin, making his arm muscles bulge. I bit my lip. I followed his body down to his side and that's when I stopped gawking. His side was scarred in several places, as well as having a long, diagonal scar across the side of his ribs. He must've seen me staring because he coughed and began to point at it.

"I uh, got this a few years ago." He traced it with his fingers.

"What happened?"

"I was in a car accident. We had just won our homecoming football game, and my mom and dad took me out to eat to celebrate. We were heading home and..." He paused and I saw him swallow before continuing, "a drunk driver crossed into our lane and hit us head on."

"At least everyone was okay, right? I mean besides your scar?" I asked, reaching over and lightly tracing it.

"The drunk driver barely had a scratch on him. His big truck took most of the impact. Me? Well I bounced around the back seat, taking a piece of metal into my side in the process," he pointed to the big scar, "Which caused this."

He paused after himself. I stopped tracing and leaned forward to look at him, "And your parents?" I instantly regretted asking. I saw him look off into the distance as if he was replaying that night. He looked down at the water between his legs as a tear slid down and dripped to the pool.

"They uh, they didn't make it." He paused again, "then Ma and Pa took us in, but we lost touch with them when all this happened."

I didn't even hesitate. I stood up and walked around the hand rail and wrapped him in a hug.

"I'm so, so sorry Luke." I felt my eyes get hot, and I fought back the tears. I can't imagine what he's gone through. He returned the hug and we stayed like that for a few minutes in each other's embrace.

I sat next to him and placed a hand on his leg. "I'm sorry I brought it up..."

He shook his head, "No, no it's okay. I needed to get that off my chest. I haven't talked to anyone about it. It's not a good conversation topic, you know?" He gave a soft laugh and wiped a tear away.

"You don't need to put on the tough guy act when I'm around, okay? If you need to vent, I'll listen." I made sure our eyes met. He reached over and squeezed my hand.

"Thank you, Annie." His smile gave me butterflies. It was sweet and genuine. He smiled after talking about that horrible night. He smiled with tears in his eyes. He's endured so much to get this strong.

"He doesn't have to go through it alone anymore."

"Shall we swim?" I stood up and stretched my arms above my head.

"We might as well. We already stole someone's swimsuit." He teased.

When he stood up, I grinned and gave him a gentle push into the water, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me with him. We surfaced and I cleared the water out of my face.

"I can't believe you did that!" I said jokingly, splashing him.

"You push me and I'm the bad guy?" He splashed back with the biggest smile on his face.

"Yep."

"Well I say, whoever loses a race is the bad guy." He arched his eyebrow.

"Deal." I gave him an evil grin. I'm a fast swimmer, so I'm confident in my speed.

"First one to swim to the deep end and back to the stairs first, wins." We prepared to start swimming.

"Ready? Get set.... Go!"

The water was splashing around so much as we kicked. We both were laughing and trying to beat each other. He had a grin on his face the entire time.

My hand touched the coolness of the metal rail first. "Ha! I win!" I shouted with enthusiasm.

"Dang you're fast. I guess I'm the bad guy, for today anyways."

He let me win, he sooo let me win. I'm fast, but he was clearly holding back.

"Gosh... I think I'm in love with Luke.

★★★★★

After we were done swimming, we each took a shower in the separate bathrooms and got into our new clothes. When I walked out to the living room area while drying my hair with a towel, I saw him making a sleeping area on the couch. He pulled up a pillow and a blanket, making his own little bed.

"You know, that bed is way to big for one person right?" I said, hanging the towel over the chair.

He paused his bed making and his face flushed red. "Well, uh, I thought I would sleep out here and you could get the bed, you know, because the bed is too soft for me."

"Too soft, eh?"

"Well, okay then. But if you get cold or something, there's plenty of room on the bed." I flashed him a smile and a wink and I disappeared into the bedroom.

I got into the big bed, and sure enough, the bed was super soft. I sank into the mattress a little bit as I lay there, but I'm not complaining. My body was sore and I was just happy to get off my feet and rest.

"Hey Luke, you still up?" I shouted from the bed room.

"Yeah. What's up?" I heard his reply travel through the doorway.

"I had fun today, you know, with the pool and being with you."

There was a slight pause, "Me too. We should do it again some time."

I laughed to myself, "I'd like that. Well, good night."

"Sweet dreams, Ann."

"He gave me a nickname! It's really just the first half of my name, but still. He didn't call me Annie! I'm so happy..."

I snuggled my face into my pillow. Finally sleep won me over, with a smile on my face.

★★★★★

"...Annie...Annie!" Luke's voice sounded far away and muffled.

I slowly blinked my eyes open and realized he was in the bed, gently shaking me awake while calling my name.

"Annie, wake up. We need to go, now."

I sat up, rubbed my eyes and yawned. "Why? What's going on?" There was a faint smell in the air. I couldn't identify it at first, but the more I sniffed, the more I figured it out.

Smoke.

He threw the covers off and helped me to my feet, wrapping his arm around me and walked me to the door.

"Annie, the hotel's on fire."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~ZeB