Apocalyptic Love - The island

Chapter Nineteen - The Beach

One week later..

In any other circumstance this place would have been amazing. A huge white home along the shoreline, the patio doors leading straight onto the sand. I was imagining it before the apocalypse, huge windows following the living room, a white wooden porch with a swing set. The furniture inside was worn, but it had a modern feel to it.

"I cannot wait to sleep in a bed" Sarah groaned from the first floor, her hands leaning over the landing as the rest of us carried our bags in.

Since we all reunited we had been non stop travelling to make it to the coast, each of us decided the island was the best bet, we had no other options at this point. Ben had been silent for the most part of the week, we all knew he was having a hard time coming to terms with Brents death, Carter along with him had barely spoken more than a few words.

Matt was putting on an act, that was obvious to anyone. On the outside he was the normal bubbly guy who was even more overprotective than ever to all of us, when no one was watching his face would automatically drop, his eyes full of sadness.

On the way here we'd been searching for a boat with the capacity to hold all of us, the vehicle wouldn't be hard to find it was the gas that would be the issue. "I'm going to head out with Ben to look" Maddie nodded the moment we all settled on the couch.

I hadn't spoken to her much, I'd seen her around the park a few times but we hadn't really interacted.

"Be safe" I smiled to the girl who nodded back, Ben didn't say a word as he hunched behind her.

I knelt down to Hayley's height ruffling her hair as she smiled brightly "Wanna go upstairs with Sarah and get some rest?".

Hayley nodded running up the stairs as I turned to Carter ready to speak, but the same as the past week he smiled lightly before walking away.

"I'm going to walk around the perimeter and keep an eye" Matt broke into the silence.

"Be safe".

Watching Carter walk away again sparked a fury in me that hadn't surfaced in a while, i'd gone weeks without him, suffered every moment for him to now revert to the closed of guy I first met. I followed his footsteps through the house watching as he climbed up to the patio roof, I was moments behind on his trail. The moment he noticed me climbing up to his spot his face contorted in confusion. "What are you doing?".

"What am I doing?" I whispered but my tone was enough for him to know I was angry as I kneeled next to him "You have barely said a word to me, you can barely look at me and now I'm not allowed to be around you?" Carter stared at his feet fiddling with his fingers "I know you're hurt, angry, I feel the exact same. But don't shut me out again".

The boy didn't look to me as he spoke "I don't know how Katie. It's like I don't know how to be in this world anymore" I pulled myself in front of him, pulling his fidgeting hands apart to hold them myself "I'm so angry at everything. Losing our home, being apart from you. Losing Brent.." Carters voice wobbled as he looked up to me with teary eyes.

"I know baby" I reached a hand out to cup his cheek, feeling his tears roll down my palm as he leaned into my touch "But the more you hold it in the more it will break you".

"I know that" His hazel eyes glistened under the moonlight "But I don't know how to let it out without bringing you down too".

I climbed into his lap wrapping my legs around his waist as I pulled him against my chest, it was a short moment until his hands gripped around my waist pulling me into him. "I can take it. I'm here for the good and bad, if you are hurting I'm hurting too" My hands drifted into his chocolate locks, running my hand softly along his head as he finally started to calm down "You don't have to do it all alone, okay. I didn't go through hell and back to lose you again Carter".

When he finally looked back up to me I felt his old self slowly falling back into place "I just really miss him, he was the first person apart from you who really got me" Carter sighed leaning his forehead against my own "And Ben is shutting down, anyone can see that. I don't think I can lose anybody else".

"I know. But people deal with grief in different ways, everyone just needs a bit of time to process but it wont be like this forever" Carter nodded softly before leaning up and pressing a chaste kiss along my lips before leaning back into me "I have a really good feeling about this place".

"That's enough for me" My husband smiled. I turned around leaning my back into his chest as his arms wrapped around my front, the calming view of the ocean crashing against the shoreline now in both of our sights.

"If we met before this, do you think we would have ended up together" I laughed to ease the mood.

Carters fingers smoothed down my arms as we sunk into the comfort of each other "I'd hope so. But if we did, I would have wanted a house like this for us. Maybe not this big, but along the beach so we could watch this view every night".

I couldn't help but smile at his response "Two kids. One boy and one girl" I smiled twisting my neck to watch the smirk on his face grow.

"God help the world, another version of you and me would be chaos" The boy's laugh only grew as he watched me stare daggers to him "I wouldn't mind a double of you, that I could handle".