Apocalypse Life/Issue 31

Preview
“Alice?!”

They both rush toward each other, and embrace tightly, as tightly as they possibly could.

“Oh my god—”Her eyes start to glisten with wetness. The heaviness in her chest vanished. Her worries, gone out the window. Her heart starts to beat rapidly.

“I—I was just about to look for you—” He didn’t want to let her go. The feeling of her long hair, brushing against his ears, was something out of this world. Her smell, the warmth of her breath, like flowers; he hoped this wasn’t a dream. A hallucination. He hoped this was real.

She looks at him, eye-to-eye, their warm breaths mixing in. He brushes the hair that hides her eyes, her deep, enigmatic, mesmerizing eyes, a bright blue and yellow. Their lips make contact with each other, after what seemed like an eternity.

He didn’t want to let it go. They kiss, for ages, until he finally needed to look at her again.

“I thought I lost you.”

A smirk slowly forms in her mouth. “I thought you left me.” They look at each other again, until she rests her head on his shoulder.

They sat in the stairs of the front porch, their hands wrapped tightly together. Julius rests her head on the side of her shoulder.

“So… where to start…”

“So you’re real, right?” he asks, looking at her for a second. She smirks at him, leans in, and gives him a peck.

“Okay,” he replies, reverting back to her shoulder.

“I saw you guys pass by. Saw the car. Kept watch.”

“So you were here the whole time?”

She nods. “About… about two days ago. Who was she?”

Julius’s expression grows into a frown. He looks at her. “She helped me get here. Met her back at the city.”

“Did you guys have sex?” Her expression was stern, serious, the smile long gone.

“No. She… she isn’t exactly… straight, I guess, is the right word for that.”

Her eyes start to curve down. “Not straight? Because I swear to god, if you guys did it—”

“No! No. We—she’s not even into guys—”

“You sure?” She leans in to him, her expression making a turn for the sinister. “I will end you, I swear—”

Julius holds his ground. “No. Look, look—” He takes out her wallet, and scans through it, trying to look for the piece of paper she left.

“Y-you had a piece of paper here—piece of a map. She knew where the town is. Helped me get there. We talked a lot, but nothing like that—”

She looks down, her expression riddled with both guilt, and disappointment.

“Here.” He hands her the wallet. “I love you. Loved you. Always love you. I won’t ever, ever replace you. Look—look at me—” She slowly turns her head to him, face-to-face.

“Did you see how we said goodbye? Not even a hug. She’s—she’s more like a sister to me.” Her eyes look away timidly.

“I love you, alright? I love you so much. I got… lost, after I lost you. I still couldn’t believe it. I just—pretended we broke up—like I thought you intentionally left me. Because I cannot, for the life of me, live with knowing that you’re… dead. Lost forever.” Her eyes start to glisten again. A tear doesn’t seize falling from it.

“I won’t betray you. I can’t. Because I love you.” He turns away, starting to feel something in his nostrils.

“Okay…” she shyly mutters.

“Okay? That’s—well, what about you? Did you have sex with anyone else when I was away?”

Her saddened, timid look almost vanishes instantly, as she assumes a more abashed expression.

“I was… bed-ridden for nearly a month. Could barely move, do anything. That my… my injuries were more serious than they thought.” Her tone made Julius almost immediately regretful of bringing this up.

She raises her voice. “Jen kept a close eye on me. I … didn’t do much. Most action I did was in a week. I-it was pretty much just me, her, and a handful of other survivors—” She looks away, off to the distance, anger evident in her face.

“So no—I was single, just as much as you. But can we… c-can we just forget about this? I’m here, you’re here. What matters is what we have now. I love you, okay? Do you want me to prove it?”

She pulls Julius’s face to hers, and gives him a stern kiss. Julius could really feel the heavy emotion on it, as she pushed herself toward him. “W-wait, wait—” He pulls away as she was already leaning in, invading much of his space, her hand on his chest.

But he didn’t want it to end, after all; the passion in her kiss made him want more. And so he leaned in against her, kissing her in a similar fashion.