Consequences (Warm Bodies fan fiction)

Chapter 26

"N..No... no... don't..."

"R?" Julie blinked awake and frowned when she saw how tense R was in his sleep. His face was contorted in fear and pain and he was sweating lightly.

"N-No!"

"R!" Julie whispered, kissing his chest lightly. "R, wake up, you're having a nightmare," she said softly. When he didn't respond, she moved a little further up and cradled his face. "Wake up, R," she said again and leaned in, kissing him tenderly. She kissed him again and again, feather-light touches, until his face relaxed and he slowly opened his eyes. "You okay?" she asked gently.

"I... they had you..." he voice was hoarse with emotions.

"You rescued me," she reminded him.

R said nothing and simply pulled her against him, his eyes shut tight as he held her close. "If we had been just a day late..." he trailed off.

"R," Julie sighed. "Would you stop? You really need to get a grip, buddy. Life's a bitch, life will always throw curve-balls at you... but if you manage to beat it at it's own game, you shouldn't take it lightly," she told him. "You weren't a day late, you got to me in time and even saved a bunch of others too."

"I know... but I can't stop thinking about-" Julie didn't let him finish. She took him and kissed him. She kissed him like the world was ending again and they had only a moment alone until the world exploded. When they pulled away he looked confused and slightly aroused. "That was... are you going to kiss me every time you want to shut me up?" he asked with a blush.

"Yep," Julie nodded and kissed him again. R sighed in the kiss and let her have her way. "I love you, R," she whispered against his lips, letting her hands trailed down his body.

"M'love y'too..." R muttered, his mind already shutting down. He rolled them over and then neither of them thought of the nightmare or their worries again, for at least another hour. When they lay sated and relaxed, they let their thoughts wander, watching the early morning light just beginning to banish the darkness of the night. Content to be together, they drifted off to sleep once more.

Elsewhere, M stared at the tent ceiling, his mind lost in the past. He hadn't been able to sleep so well last night, not that it's been very easy to learn how to sleep anyway. His mind kept taking him to that moment, that instance that he lost control, that the virus took a foothold on his body. He remembered the boy and Nora now. He remembered waking up in a diner, high up in a very tall building, and being led out by Boney, though she looked more like a gaunt, filthy woman at the time. He had an attachment to the girl, Nora, though he hadn't known why. Maybe he had met her before his death? Whatever it was he had found her scent familiar and followed it. At first the Boney left him alone, went out hunting maybe, but M kept on walking.

He had first found them hiding out in a rotten old motel. The girl had spotted him watching them and tried to communicate with him. Communication made him feel good and he tried to talk back, but he wasn't able to. After a while the girl and her brother left, asking him not to follow. M tried to do as he was asked but the Boney led him on. After a few miles of walking, nearing the city, it was there he met R. He looked about as confused and lost as ever, though perhaps maybe more so at the time since he didn't look like he had been dead for very long, like him. They walked into the city and searched around for more, the Boney had been trying to build a hive.

M had a vague image of a water fountain and some furry animals, dogs maybe? He couldn't remember every detail. What he did remember was not so long after they found the airport, they wandered into the city again and M found the girl and boy again. There was a fight. The Boney wanted them to eat the living. Some of the dead resisted a bit at first, M included, and R just hung back, his will had always been just a little stronger than most. The Boney was about to target the boy but M had taken him first. The Boney told him to eat the boy, so to appease it, he had bitten him... but refused to eat. The girl screamed in pain and loss and managed to escape... that was the last he had seen from her.