Daryl's Girl

Chapter 1 (edited)

Another tear slipped down my cheek as I looked around. There was nothing around us for miles and no one to turn to other than each other. Once again, because of my own selfish choices, I had risked both mine and Tyler's lives and now we were paying for it. We were stranded. If he hadn't have waited for me when I ran back below deck to grab it, he'd be safe and with the others. I should've just jumped when I had the chance.

"We have to find them." I panicked, turning back to Tyler.

"First thing's first, we have to find land somewhere. Get out of this water." He panted, shaking his head as he tugged on my arm softly. 

"No! We have to find them!" I replied, shaking my head as I pulled my arm from is grip, struggling to keep myself above the water.

"We will." He coughed. The smoke from the fire slowly starting to choke the both of us. "But now, we need to go." 

I knew he was right, but I still hesitated, waiting a second longer and looked down at the picture in my hand. It was of my best friend, Briana, another member of our group. I'd known her for as long as I can remember and just before the explosion, we'd had an argument about something stupid. The picture was the reason I went back below deck before Tyler came and found me, pulling us both into the water. I'd had hoped the photo would've been some sort of peace offering to help us get passed what had happened, but now she was gone. They were all gone and it was all for nothing. The only thing I had left in me was the hope that that wasn't the last time we'd see each other. 

I took one last look at the photo and sighed as I began following on after Tyler. He'd already began swimming away, I think assuming that once I'd seen him leaving, I'd follow on behind. He was right. After everything that's happened, we were the only two left. We had no choice but to stick together. Neither of us could go it alone. I definitely couldn't. Not anymore.

All of a sudden, there was another explosion, sending another wave of water over my head, Tyler's too. I was in complete shock, disorientated as my ears began ringing. Then, I was pulled back to the surface, shaken, just in time to see a fireball emerge from the wreckage.

"Oh my god." 

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked, still holding onto my arm.

"Yeah...yeah. I think so." I replied, tying to process what had just happened, to stop my body from shaking.

"Hey, we're gonna be okay." Tyler said, wiping a tear I hadn't realized was rolling down my cheek, again. I could only hope we would be.

After a while, it felt like we'd been swimming forever. My arms hurt and I felt myself getting weaker and weaker with every stroke. The current making it so much harder than it needed to be and I was getting to the point where I didn't know how long I could keep going, considering if it would be better if I just gave up. If I just drowned and ended it all. I mean, there was nothing left in this world to see anyway.

All sorts of thoughts began crossing my mind as I looked over at Tyler. Knowing him, my guess was he was already sick of my complaining, but he did well to keep it to himself. It made me wonder how in the hell he'd managed to put up with me for this long. I wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with. That, and I had little to no fighting experience, which he knew. Although, he had managed to teach me how to kill those things, even if I was still pretty much useless. It's easy when it's just target practice on the boat, but come face to face was a different story. it's like I freeze every time. Tyler finishing the job before it's too late, which only lead me to believe that he took pity on me. That that's the only reason why he's still here, and it's something I hated.