AM13 Outbreak Shorts

One Year On - Eleven (Katie)

Katie

I like this place, I do. It's much better being in here than out there. At least here, we're safe. It could be a home for all of us if we just try and see positives. There are houses, people, walls sky high...it's been a long old time since I saw one of the infected, which is everything.

But I don't like what it's doing to Oliver.

He's changing, day by day, minute by minute. There's a black cloud clinging to him and he can't shake it off. I'd like to work out what it is, but with Ryan hanging around me like a bad smell, it's hard to do anything.

"He's going crazy again," he whispers into my ear like an unwanted unreasonable voice. "He'll end up getting you killed. Remember what happened last time..."

"What happened last time wasn't his fault. He was trying to protect me."

I wish everyone would stop bringing up that day like it's something we should all judge Oliver by. It was a momentary lapse of judgement. An accident.

"If he was trying to protect you, he wouldn't have gotten into that car. And even when he did, he would have kept his eyes on the road..."

"Ryan, we had a crash because Oliver was trying to get me away from those monsters..."

"They weren't infected."

"I know, which makes it even worse. They were animals, threatening to do all kinds of terrible things to us, and they would have followed through as well. If you remember rightly, Oliver nearly sacrificed himself to protect everyone else from those beasts."

"Yes, then he got you into a car when he wasn't in the right frame of mind to drive and he nearly killed you. You would have ended up dead if he didn't find that doctor..."

"But he did, and I'm still alive."

"Well, he had a darkness in his eyes then, a real menace. It's there now too. You should be worried."

I gulp down my own feelings and refuse to get sucked into Ryan's games. I don't want to see any darkness in his eyes because I love him. Through this world, Oliver has become mine and I'm his. I don't know if we would be together had it not been for the situation, but that doesn't make our love any less real.

This world has pushed us together, given us love and something to hope for, and I refuse to give up on that.

"This place is good for all of us, Ryan, the sooner you start accepting that, the better. There are plenty of people here, you can mingle, you don't need to stick with..."

I don't say 'me' but the implication is there. I just want to breathe without him. A moment of peace to just be would be perfect, but he won't let that happen.

"Trust me, Katie, you don't see it yet becauseyou're blinded, but this place is going to be the death of Oliver. It's time foryou to start accepting that."