After The End

Secrets Trilogy

Chapter One Never Say Never
He said it so passionately. "I'm not risking it. Not risking.. You." I didn't want him I let go. Or stop talking. I loved the hum I felt while he spoke. I just loved him.
Everything he did to ensure my safety was just amazing. I wanted to hug him for hours and just lay under the stars with him for eternity. It's all I wanted. It's what I needed.
When that gun went off, I wished whoever that was just wouldn't find us. Couldn't find us.
Ellis tensed immediately.
"Why in Sam hell, does this always happen to us? You know?" He whispered, ever so gently.
His arms held me tight, pressed up against his chest, I heard his heart beating like crazy. At one point I wondered if he was gonna have a heart attack.
"Stay here," He again whispered so softly. "Don't pay any attention to me. Be right back."
His voice said one thing, his eyes said another. He didn't want me to watch. But I did anyway. He ninja-sprinted to the truck, and climbed on the back. He grabbed a revolver and waited on the guy to swift himself close.
He came, closer. Closer, and closer.
Ellis jumped from the back of the truck, onto the pavement road. The pistol went from Ellis' hand, to the man's forehead in a split second.
"Name yourself and what's your biusness."
"I'm just- I'm-"
Ellis shot him, right between the eyes.
I jumped, and shrieked- almost even starting to cry.
"I had to, he could have- he could have hurt you..."
"Well he could've been an innocent man.."
The conversation stopped right there. I didn't know what had gotten into him recently. It was like, walking through a field of flowers, as the forest burned behind us. While at the same time I was fine with this.
He seemed to be changing in so many ways all at once. It was so... Strange. Ellis was developing another personality, of sorts.
I needed the old him. This new one was controlling every move I made. Dictating me.
"If I harm you... In any way... Just tell me. I'm sorry I've been so.. Different..."
I said nothing. I wasn't sure what, exactly to say.
I moved closer, to get a long hug. I just wanted to feel his strong arms hold me one more time.
"I love you. I could say it a million times. It's meaning would never change."
"I can't even express how much I love you, princess. Promise me something?"
"Yeah.."
"Promise, you'll always be my princess."
I looked into those emerald and blue eyes. They seemed to change colors, repeatedly. So- Magnificently.
"I pro- Swear I'll always be your princess..."
It was just so, odd how everything we both used to love, had ran and fallen apart. He was all I had left. All I wanted, being glad it was that way.
Just then he wrapped his arms around me even tighter, and kissed me. He always tasted like brown sugar, so sweet... Such a symphony to me. Nothing could change that. Never.
Chapter Two It'll Be Us
For the longest time, we traveled place to place, searching for safety.
"You see that..?" Ellis asked me, softly.
"Yeah... What is that?!"
"Looks like a house.. With.. People."
"Should we go check them out?"
"Yeah, sounds good. Remember- Be careful. Call me... John. You're, Kylie."
My stomach was hurting at the time; it was the early morning and not to mention how cold it was-when we walked up to the porch of the house and knocked on the door, so out of instinct, I moved the insides around with my hand.
Immediately, the people of the house opened the door and had a gun pointed into our faces, to no surprise. In this new lonely, lonely little life you didn't just show up on people's porch step.
"Who are you, and what's your business?" The man asked, suspiciously.
"I'm John, and this is Kylie. We're just looking for a place to settle down and... Have our child."
Right then, I panicked. "Our child"?!
The man paused for a moment. Slowly, he lowered his gun, and started barking questions again.
"Where y'all coming from?"
"You know, here n' there."
"C'mon in.. Don't try any funny business.. Or I'll shoot you, and your precious there."
That obviously didn't work over too well with Ellis. He hadn't become a big fan of threats.
Ellis gave me a sad sappy look, and seemed to know something I didn't. I'd never seen that face before.
Ellis grabbed onto my hand, and pulled me into this guy's house. We'd been shy of other survivors since... Last time.
Suddenly- I felt so sick inside.. Like I was going to throw up all over this man's house.
"Ma'am, are you alright? You look- Pale," The man said, right before I was face down in a trash can.
"No.." I said, shakily when Ellis and the man jumped in.
"Is she infected?"
"Can't be, but it's probably these hormones settin' in. Only found out about a week ago."
I felt dizzy. Very, dizzy. The entire room was spinning and got very hard to hold onto. Ellis walked over to me, and helped hold myself up. He started to look worried.
I fell to my knees, and everything became silent.
Ellis picked me up and asked, "Is there a place I could lay her down, so she could rest?" His voice almost cracked, he was being so polite. The sincerity scared me.
"Yeah, right in here." The old man exclaimed with no tension in his voice whatsoever.
Ellis laid me down on what felt to be a large bed. He pulled a blanket over me and sat on the edge while the other man sat somewhere in the distance. Everything became so, distorted at this point.
"How far is she?"
"Don't know for sure. Not very far though. She's just barely gotten any bigger."
After that, I couldn't hear anything else. But my sense of touch was delicate. Ellis had moved next to me, and had his hand on my stomach-ever so lightly.
Chapter Three Strange, Stranger, Strangest
I didn't know what was going on. I thought I was infected for the longest time. No fever, no bite, and no scratches, how could I have been infected?
"Should I tell her?" I heard Ellis' voice, do what sounded like a cry, or whimper.
"..She needs to know John!"
"I'm aware. How do I tell her- What do I tell her? I didn't know this'd happen!" He was seriously upset... I laid there in bed, pondering what I didn't know.
Ellis walked in, a few seconds later. He was sobbing heavily, and touched my hand softly and began to speak.
"Princess. I can't hide this from you, any more. I don't know if you can hear me but if you can, just listen," His voice straightened up, and then he started to fall apart again.
"Dr. Olive, or Ollis whatever his name was, he did this to you,"
I tried to think back to Dr. Ollis, and what happened-But came up short. "While you were sleeping that time, when I got bitten... He caused that. You were out so long. It wasn't just a few days. He.. He violated you. He took from me, and gave to you what would make the perfect solution. The perfect... Combination of both of us. What he had to have to save his own ass. I tried to stop him but-"
I was fully conscious, but thinking distortedly.
"I get it. You did all you could and that's enou-"
"It's not, you don't know what's going in inside you right now. It's.. Us."
"You're saying, I'm pregnant.."
"Yeah.. I'm.. Sorry princess.."
He held my hand so tightly and kept crying. Ellis got under the covers with me, and held on just as tight as he did my hand, and continued sobbing.
"It'll be, us." I murmured it aloud, and inside.
"I'm sorry princess... I'm so sorry..." Ellis repeated over and over again, but I turned over and kissed him, one last time. We exchanged a look of security, and he embraced me. Ellis' chin was on my forehead, and he wasn't letting go.
Chapter Three Hidden
The next few days, were rough. No matter what I said to Ellis, he was still ashamed. My sickness showed itself during the morning hours more commonly.
"It's time you and your lady go. As you imagine."
"Yes, sir. Thanks." It'd been about a month since we'd arrived, and going on nearly another entire one since we'd left the Ollis'. He watched us walk away.
It wasn't hard. We'd been ready to leave for a while then. God had to be on our side. On my side.
Chapter Four Seemed
Everything sped up into a streak of darkness. Summer came and went, while Ellis meanwhile; thought up a storm. He was planning on rooting through cities and scavenging through the entire thing nearly. I had to admit, it could have been a success.
The entire thing had been dedicated to disease. We lived on top of the world, at that point. The only thing left, was the truck and the remnants of supplies.
One night, Ellis decided to start near the country side to create a place worth staying, for us. Then, it was in the midst of fall, and the evenings had gotten colder as the leaves changed.
Three months had passed since then, I was going on six months in.
Soon to be, the house was out near the mouth of Odle Creek- On a beautiful hillside. The grass was amazingly green, and lush. It just seemed to have such a twinkle in the moonlight, and in the early twilight.
Everything seemed to be falling apart again. All of it. Late night cuddles, were still there, but I could feel the worry inside of him. Growing faster than the rate of I was, myself.
I still hadn't absorbed the fact that Ellis and I were soon to have a child. Even through everything, I knew it was happening- I guess I didn't understand. Each day eye contact got harder to find. I couldn't look Ellis in the eyes, anymore.
Then, everything seemed to open itself to me.
The days seemed to get colder and colder- past a shallow "chilly outside".. Things got a bit awkward. In the truck, Ellis put his hand on my knee and drove silently. Moments seemed to fly by now that this child was just a few months away from seeing the real world. Outside, of it's haven.
Hugs got harder to get. So much, tension between us. I was nearly ready to pop. Ellis would casually slip his hand over my growing belly, and just listen. I couldn't understand what was so intriguing about it. The slow, gushy sound of life. Knowing we wouldn't last too much longer, with this baby coming into this. I didn't want to let a child come into this world. Not this... World.
Suddenly, a strange feeling overwhelmed me. A sharp- sharp pain.
"Are you alright?" Ellis asked, signifying whatever it was he felt it somehow.
"Not really, that hurt... A lot,"
"I felt that little sucker beatin' on' you like a punching bag.."
It hurt a lot- but it was starting to fade. Immediately Ellis sensed my cringe and crutched me to our room, in the new house. It was sincerely amazing how he threw up a house in just about five or six months.
Maybe it'd been seven. Either way, it was all but painted.
That night, I decided to sit down and actually count up how long it'd been. For real. Thoughts crossed my mind about the things we'd collected. The entire baby's room was stitched together by luck. I walked into that room, which wasn't to be finished until the baby was actually born.
I remember we left the Ollis' in March. That's April, May, June, July, October, November, December and we were already half ways into January. I only had about two weeks left..
I walked into Ellis in a hallway, and looked at him closely.
"We've got two weeks."
"..No way. Are you sure?"
"...Positive..."
Ellis went to hug me and hesitated. His muscular chest and below squeezed the baby bump and made me cringe, and squeal a bit.
Instead, he slowly got onto one knee and told me not to move. His hand grasped my
hips and he just listened. I wasn't sure if I wanted this baby.