Love Will Find A Way ( FreenxBecky)

Chapter 8

“She’s waking up.”

Freen's head buzzes as she gingerly opens her eyes.

“Here, drink some water,” someone says.

She feels the cold liquid hit her lips, but she is in no condition to drink it.

She coughs, and suddenly someone is turning her on her side. It makes the world swim back into focus.

For a minute, Freen thinks she's going to wake up to Becky, to their warm bed and sunlight coming in through the windows. That she’s going to hear Billy and Patricia run into her bedroom and then get to open her eyes as they jump into bed with her, all of them trying to steal a few more minutes of sleep from the new day.

That she’d see August standing in the door, looking at them, too embarrassed to walk inside and make himself at home like he did when he was little.

Instead, all she sees is dirt, in the low light of a led light. It’s dark. It’s night. And it comes back at once. Reality is heartless and ruthless.

Their vacation, the wave, losing Becky and August and Patricia, finding her girl but seeing no sign of her wife and oldest son.

The fear, the dread. Having to leave for the mountains.

Billy and Patricia waiting for her.

“My children,” she gasps, sitting up. Hands try to hold her down but she pushes them away. “I’m sorry-”

They look at her with pity, two men and a woman, and Freen just looks around, then kneels, looks over the metal wall keeping her from seeing around her.

She’s in the back of a truck. And she doesn’t recognize where they are.

“Calm down,” the woman begs her. “We’re going to the mountains, they’ll help you there.”

Freen shakes her head.

“They might even find your kids,” one of the men adds.

“They were with me!” She exclaims, finding her voice.

“What?”

“They’re at the hotel I was staying at,” she explains, looking for a way to get off the truck. Her leg is worse than before.

“They’re…they’re alive?”

“Yes!” She’s desperate now. She doesn’t recognize the road, how can she get back? Tears choke her. “I left them there. I went searching for my other son and my wife- Where are we?”

“Sorry, we thought-”

“Where are we?!” Freen demands again.

“I- I don’t-”

“What hotel?” The woman asks. Freen tells her.

“We’re an hour away, tops,” she says. Her accent is russian. Her clothes are just as torn as Freen's.

She looks to the road. She takes a breath and begins to calm down. They were trying to help.

“What happened?” She asks, softer now. “I think I-” She touches the back of her head. “I think I fell.”

“We found you on the ground,” one of the men tells her. “We thought you’d..survived the wave and no one had found you yet. I mean, you were pretty far way from the survivors.”

She nods.

“How long-”

“We’ve just been parked here a few hours,” the woman assures her. “The road is too dangerous during the night, and the sun was going down. Power is still down.”