A World Apart

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Stella

The world around me has stopped. 

The infected, the prisoners, Logan and Ava calling me back. They've all faded out until there's only him. Max. My Max. Alive and within reach. No more obstacles in our way. No more clubs or museums. No more schools or bandits. No more hordes of infected or county lines. Metal wire and grass the only thing keeping us apart now. So trivial and insignificant compared to the rest it feels like nothing. 

Shock and disbelief explode on his face, probably mirroring mine. And then he's smiling, and I'm smiling back. Big, toothy grins that have waited too long to grace either of us. I push my fingers through the fence, wanting to get my whole arm through, to reach out and grab him and never let go again. 

He looks so different, and yet, somehow exactly the same. Features roughly chiseled by this new world while still managing to reserve that boyish youth. The dimples in his cheeks visible even from afar.  

I'm scared to look away, too afraid to even blink in fear he might vanish. Some of the other men have turned to watch us, the fence beginning to bend inwards as their attention is distracted, but the infected aren't.

Max calls out my name, a question and statement mixing with the sound. Then he says it again, the word now twisting with joy in his throat. For awhile longer he stands still, as if debating whether I'm more than a mirage. He must reach the conclusion that I am, because slowly, he starts taking steps towards me, finally beginning to close the last distance between us. 

He only makes it a few feet when it happens. The weight against the fence reaches its limit and gives out before toppling to the ground. Max doesn't even look, keeps walking in my direction when one of the other men pulls him back, starts dragging him towards the prison. We're screaming out each other's names as infected trample their way into the yard, some getting caught in the barbed wire but most managing to stream inside.

Now someone is pulling me back as well, hissing things in my ear while two of the men in jumpsuits are caught and tackled to the ground. The rest manage to make it back inside. I keep watching, only looking away once Max has disappeared with them. Then I'm ripping myself out of Logan's reach, millions of thoughts strangling my mind. I haven't listened to a word Logan has said, when I finally do, it sends me into more of a panic.

"We gotta go, Kid," he says, trying to herd me back towards the truck.

Go? We can't go! Not now! Now that we're finally here. Now that Max is here. So within reach that I'm not willing to let anymore distance separate us. 

"I'm not leaving without him," I say. Whether Max joins us in the truck or I join him in the prison, wherever we go or stay, I'm adamant it be together. My reaction is expected, but still not what Logan wants to hear.  He's having to forcibly push me back towards the car while I think of a plan.

"It's too dangerous, Stella! They're safe inside, we can come back later!" Logan says, but I'm hardly listening. 

Later isn't good enough. Max might not be here later, he might be dead. But I know he's here now and that means I have to be. All this time I've spent not knowing if he's alive, if he's moved somewhere else. Now I know that he is, and where he is. I'm not losing him again, not when I've just found him. 

I need to get through the fence. I could try scaling it, but I'll be torn to shreds and tangled up by the barbed wire on top. The main gate is locked, I'm too small to try breaking it down. My ideas turn ridiculous from here, they even consider digging my way under, that's how frantic I am to get inside, when I remember the tools I saw in the bed of Ava's truck. Surely one of them will prove useful in getting through a friggin' fence.