It’s a matter of seconds before Will has all three of them cowering. I stand at Will’s side, the barrel of the gun pointed at the man who has positioned the unconscious girl onto his back. “Wait! Please, we are just hungry!” He calls out, staring at me. Seems he’s figured out if mercy is in their future, it won’t be from Will. I glance at my partner as he rubs out his fists. “..come on..Ethan no.” He pleads in an annoyed groan. But my gaze doesn’t waver. With heavy reluctance, he walks over to the fire, grabs a single roasted prairie dog, and tosses it onto the floor in front of the trio. “Take it, and if we see you again…” I trail off, my gaze moving back to Will as I rest a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll kill you,” I finish, letting the barrel fall to my side as the three scramble back into the darkness. 

I startle when Will wraps his arms around me in a hug. I almost instinctively comfort him before I hear soft, suffocated snickering from the place his head rests in my hair. I deadpan and push him away. “You were so cool, El!” He trills out, grabbing my shoulders in praise. I feel the back of my neck heat up from his words. “Get off me,” I huff, shrugging his hands away from my body before I reclaim my place by the fire and begin to break apart the cooked meat. The taste of it makes the tension melt away from my body, and we eat in relative silence, too consumed by our hunger to keep our banter going.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble long after we’ve finished eating and put the fire out. I feel Will’s confused gaze on me instantly. “For giving up last time. When he had the knife at you, I realized how scared I was he’d take you from me, and that you must have felt like that then. I shouldn’t have let go like that.”  The silence is overwhelming now. I’d expected an awful joke in an attempt to cheer me up. Instead, all he does is scratch his hair and glare up at the sky like he’s angry at it. “Is this life we have together that unbearable for you?” He asks after long, awkward minutes. I flinch almost instantly.

“Will… that’s not-”  I don’t know how to finish that sentence. It’s an unfair question. Of course, I can’t stand this world. Just four years ago, I was a new teacher with my entire life ahead of me. I glance at the ring Will wears around a chain on his neck. Four years ago, Will was a firefighter about to get married to a girl I’m sure would have given him a wonderful life. And now we spend every day trying to survive an enemy that more than 90% of the population has already succumbed to. The only thing we have left in this world is each other. It’s an unfair question because, of course, I hate this world, but without it, we would have never met. I would have never rescued him from some looters, and we’d have lived entirely separate lives. I can’t even imagine not having Will by my side anymore. “No, it’s not,” I whisper back as I lay my hand down on his own. My fingers thread with his. He instantly squeezes my hand and traps it in his grasp. His head flops down on my shoulder, and I, for once, don’t shove him off. Instead, I run my free hand through his blond curls, as expected, it’s rather tangly and scratchy from years of neglect. But from the way he relaxes into my shoulder, my touch must feel nice nonetheless. “Good,”  Will calls out in a soft, somber voice.