Winter's Heart (Luke X Reader - Trial!)

Chapter 9 - Howe's the Apocalypse Treating You?

You smartly decided to take the longer route to this Carver's place as the group who had searched the house wouldn't be too far ahead of you on the short route and you didn't want to risk catching up to them. Luke seemed awkward and didn't say much, you glanced at him. "You alright?" You asked him. He looked at you and nodded stiffly. You raised your eyebrow. "What's the problem? Things get a little too heated for you in that romantically dusty crawlspace?" You joked. He frowned at you but his frown soon changed to a smile.

"Maybe... something likes that." He thought, "Don't take this the wrong way but... I'm sure if I like you because of you or because ya know... I ain't been with someone for a while" You looked at him and shook your head slowly.

"Oh Luke, you sure know how to sweet talk a lady" You grinned and he rolled his eyes. "But seriously man, what's wrong with having a little fun" You shrugged, inside you were screaming at yourself. You had never been ballsy and upfront with anyone before, you were pretty low maintenance and passive in your relationship and now you were practically throwing yourself at this stranger. You couldn't tell if the apocalypse was fucking you up or making you more confident. But you kind of liked your new self. "It's the apocalypse Luke. Live a little dude!" You nudged into him and he looked at you as if thinking about something but then he just smiled and kept walking. Maybe you scared him, you mentally shrugged, and you didn't care. Right?

After a while you were getting bored, you and Luke had decided to have a joke telling contest, some jokes were kid friendly... the others were one hundred percent NSFW. You were having fun but now you were both struggling to think of anymore jokes and the silence was getting uncomfortable. Luke then suddenly tensed and stopped walking, he just stared ahead of him, and you looked at him from previously staring at your feet and followed his gaze. Just over the hill you had reached the top of you saw the huge area of tarmac, all the car park spaces indicated neatly with painted white lines and in the centre a large hardware store with a few other smaller shops behind it. It was like a fortress and you half envied the asshole that ran the joint. "I'm guessing that's the place?" You asked, turning your gaze back to Luke. He nodded. You watched him; he didn't seem too thrilled to be back. Understandable. "You don't have to come inside. How hard can the layout be" You shrugged. "My only issue will be actually getting in..." You could see people on towers behind the fences of chicken wire and corrugated roofing panels. Fuck, a hardware shop was a great base for an undead invasion; you wished you had thought of it first.

"No way are you going there alone, you'll be caught as soon as you enter!" Luke protested. You folded your arms.

"Bold of you to assume that...Go on..." You pretended to be offended.

"There are people everywhere... I know what shops aren't be used for anything, which ones we can hide in and wait until someone we know walks past." He explained. Why the so called 'traitors' would be roaming free you didn't understand but you trusted Luke and he was determined to execute his escape plan.