This chapter is still in the third person but is revolves around Joel instead of Delilah
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"Delilah, wait!" Joel called after the girl, but she just kept walking.
What had just happened?
In the last half an hour they had gone from being best friends to being bitter, to running for their lives, to saving each other, to screaming and now they were going their separate ways.
The moment had definitely gotten away from him, he knew that much.
And she had kissed him. Delilah Moon had kissed him. And then asked whether or not he still loved Aimee.
Could someone love more than one person at one time? Yes.
But that wasn't the case here. He still felt something for Aimee, but not like he used to. Not the way he loved Delilah.
He wanted to tell her, turning in a small circle in search of her, but the dizziness in his head was making his head feel cloudy. She wasn't there anymore.
Deciding that the best option was to walk in a direction he knew, he began to head towards Jenner Beach again. He could feel the toxins running through his body though, even if he weren't completely aware of it happening.
Dear Aimee, it's not looking good. And by "it", I don't remember what I was talking about. I can't feel my feet. Or my face.
Joel narrated in his head like he'd been doing the whole trip. He had planned to recount all of the key events to Aimee when he finally found her. If he found her.
I think I'm dying, he thought to himself, screaming to try and see if it would bring his hearing back. It didn't.
He tried to push through the pain but eventually, it became too much, the toxins overwhelming his body. Joel dropped to the ground, a soft whimper escaping his body as he tried to breathe.
"I'm gonna kill you, Joel Dawson! I'm gonna eat you like broccoli!" a plant that sounded an awful lot like Minnow growled at him.
The plant shifted shape, its voice deepening to sound more like Clyde, "Ferns like these have an antivenom. Good in a pinch for snakes, slugs."
Joel gasped as the plant pointed to the fern. He reached over and grabbed it, shoving some of them into his mouth. His eyes remained on the plant, watching as it morphed again.
"You're going to be okay. Just breathe," he heard Delilah's voice say.
Joel did as he was told and began to breathe, dragging deep intakes of air into his lungs as he tried to get his body to function normally. He slowly began to get feeling back in his limbs, but he still felt awful.
That didn't matter though, he needed to keep moving. There was no way monsters hadn't heard his scream.
Joel climbed to his feet and continued through the woods, coming across a small house hidden up in the hills. He walked through the yard, accidentally ringing a bell and scaring himself.
Growing tired, he dropped down against a fountain, thinking out a message to Aimee.
If you find the best dog ever, that's Boy. Please, look after him.
He looked around, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Something appeared to be moving in the distance.
And if you see a girl with him, that's Delilah's. She's the one I told you about that I met along the way. I think she's my best friend. Tell them both I'm sorry.
Seeing blurry figures approaching him, Joel managed to get a few words out, "Have you seen Boy, the dog? Lilah? Have you seen her? We argued. I yelled at her. Boy, too."
Don't take his blanket away from him. He doesn't like that. And help Delilah fix her bracelet.
"And now I might not ever see them again," he whimpered as the blurry figure grew closer.
Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her I love her.
"Joel?" one of the blurry figures said as it knelt. "Oh, my God. It's you."
Joel's vision began to clear and his eyes widened at the sight before him, "Aimee?"
"I can't believe you made it," the girl said, clearly surprised. "Oh, my God. I can't believe you made it. You made it, are you okay?"
She helped him to his feet, and he nodded. He was about to say something when he noticed someone standing behind Aimee.
"Lilah, it's you," he gasped, letting go of Aimee to go over to the girl. He put his hands on her waist, pulling her towards him.
"It's me, Joel Dawson," she smiled sweetly.
He shuddered a sigh of relief, considering he thought he'd never see her again. "I'm so sorry for everything."
"You don't need to be."
"I do," he nodded. "Because I don't want to see you walk away again."
She reached up, running a hand through his hair gently. "Is that the truth, Joel Dawson?"
"I love you," he told her. "That's the truth."
He then leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. When he felt her hands on his face, he deepened the action as he pulled her closer, not letting her leave again.
One of his hands left her waist to raise a fist in the sky as he'd seen in a movie he watched back before the monsters attacked. When he first set out on his journey he had imagined this moment differently, but this somehow seemed better.
When they parted, he smiled down at the girl, "I should have done that the day it rained."
And then he passed out.
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When Joel opened his eyes, he was no longer in the woods. He appeared to be in a bunker, but it wasn't his own.
There was a light above him but the room was still rather dark. Not as dark as his bunker, though. Looking down at himself, he also noticed that he was wearing new clothes which he definitely didn't mind since the other clothes he had been wearing for over a week.
His eyes found a table where he saw a girl he recognised sitting there. "Aimee."
The girl turned around with a smile on her face. She rushed over as the boy went to get out of the bed he was laying in.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey. T-t-take it easy. Take it easy. Still pretty messed up from all the poison. How do you feel?"
She placed one hand on his shoulder to keep him still while the other went to his forehead to check for a fever. They had cleaned him up a bit and bandaged his wounds, but there was only so much they could do about the poisons. He had found his own antitoxin, so they left it to do its job, letting the poison work its ways out of his system.
"I feel- I'm good," the boy answered, still a bit dazed from waking up somewhere he didn't recognise. "Good. No, I'm fine. I-I'm okay."
He pushed the blanket off and sat up so that he was at eye level with Aimee. She removed both of her hands from him, taking half a step back to cross her arms in front of her chest.
"What was it like?" she asked. "I mean, you have to tell me everything."
The boy shook his head lightly, "Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I don't know what everyone's complaining about."
"Oh?" Aimee said just as sarcastically.
Joel sighed with half a smile, "No, it was terrible. I almost. . . died a lot."
Aimee laughed, watching the boy. "Good to see you haven't changed."
"It's so good to see you. I'm lucky you found me when you did."
Aimee's smile fell, "About that-"
"Where's Lilah?" Joel asked, thinking back to when they'd found him.
"I kissed her," he mumbled to himself.
"You were hallucinating pretty hard."
"What's that mean? Where is she? Behind that curtain?" He leaned to look at the curtain that a man had just walked through, calling the girl's name.
"You kissed Old Pete," Aimee said quickly. They both turned to look at the older gentleman who had entered the room, Aimee giving him a small wave. "Hi, Pete."
"Oh, yeah," Joel laughed, giving a small clap. "What? Did Delilah put you up to this? That's fair, I probably deserve that. That'd be hilarious."
Aimee didn't answer, wincing as she shut her eyes for a moment. Seeing the look on her face, Joel realised that she was telling the truth.
"Oh, I really did."
Pete left without a word, wanting to discuss what had happened about as much as Joel did.
"I don't know how to move on from this," the boy said, causing Aimee to chuckle softly.
"So, where is Delilah then?"
The girl's smile fell, "I'm sorry, Joel. There was no one with you."
The boy was noticeably disappointed but nodded. They had had a terrible fight, what did he expect? He decided to change the subject.
"What was that you said on the radio about, uh-"
"Oh yeah," Aimee nodded, picking up on what he was talking about immediately. "This yacht captain and his crew show up out of the blue."
"Did you say, yacht captain?"
"Yeah, yeah. And he says he can find us a safe place to live and a new home. I'm trying to pack everything up right now."
Joel gave her a strange look, "Why is he called a yacht captain?"
"'Cause he's the captain of the yacht, you moron," an elderly man said from where he laid in bed.
Aimee frowned, "Oh, my God. Be nice, Bill."
"What?"
"I'm trying to listen," the woman beside him, who Joel assumed was his wife, said.
The boy decided to ignore the two, turning back to Aimee. "So anyway, I just wanted to say something to you, though-"
He tried to stand, almost falling over as he did sp. Aimee caught him, helping him to remain upright. He was about to continue talking when another older woman walked in.
"Aimee! Aimee! We got another leak in the mainline. Bastard's spitting freshwater all over the beach!"
Aimee nodded, "Yeah, yeah, thank you, Janice. I'll be right there."
"Hi, Joel," the woman said kindly before leaving.
"Hey, Janice. Good to meet you," Joel said, recognising her as the woman he would speak to over the radio sometimes.
"Everyone's so old," he whispered to Aimee.
The girl laughed, taking a step back, "You came at a crazy time. Can we put a pin in this?"
"Yeah," Joel said softly. "Put a pin in it. Sure."
A few minutes after Aimee left, Joel decided to follow. Their bunker was quite large, but not underground like his own had been.
Stepping out the door, he found himself on a white sandy beach. The salty air was refreshing, something he hadn't felt in seven years. Aimee's colony were all hard at work preparing to leave. People were packing the supplies and food while Aimee walked around making sure everyone was on task.
When she looked his way Joel waved, "Hey."
"Perfect timing," she smiled, gesturing to a woman and man walking up behind him. "Guys! Joel, this is Dana and Rocko. These are the guys from the yacht."
"Cool," Joel nodded, looking the two over. His eyes widened when he spotted a weapon on the woman, Dana. "Is that a- is than an arm cannon?"
The woman patted it with a smile, "Homemade."
"So which one- which one of you is the yacht captain?"
"Guilty as charged," a separate, heavily accented voice said. A man came to stand between Dana and Rocko with a smile. "Captain Brooks Wilkinson. Royal Australian Navy."
"Oh, dear God," Joel said beneath his breath at the sight of the man who looked like he benched three times Joel's body weight, and was ex-navy.
"Retired, of course. My mates call me Cap. How you doing, man?" He shook Joel's hand, still smiling as he pointed to his shipmates. "I see you've met these specimens, but this beautiful lady, that's our yacht."
Joel looked out to the water to see the boat he was referring to. It looked fairly dirty, but it floated and did everything else a boat was supposed to do, so who was he to make comments?
"A little showy for my taste, but she gets the job done," Cap explained.
"Cap, this is Joel," Aimee introduced. "Joel ended up travelling seven days on the surface to get here."
"Seven days?" Cap repeated, sounding like he might not have believed her.
Joel nodded, "Seven- yeah, seven days."
"That is one hell of a journey, Joel."
"It was. Yeah."
His mind went to Delilah, worried about what had happened to her. She was supposed to come here so that she could contact the base in the mountain to find Brax, Clyde and Minnow again, and now she was out there alone with Boy.
"I don't get it. Why'd you leave your colony, Joel?" Rocko asked.
"You get caught stealing food?" Dana questioned.
Joel was quick to shake his head, thinking of everyone who had asked him that on the way here. "No, I didn't get caught stealing food. Why is that such a thing?"
"He came for love," Cap told his shipmates. "Good on ya, mate. That's beautiful. There is no mission more admirable than love. Every sailor worth his salt knows that."
Joel had been nodded, growing uncomfortable when Cap reached out and placed a hand on his chest. His face was completely serious, so Joel was really unsure of what to make of this interaction.
"Yo, Cap. We cooking this shit or what?" Rocko asked, referring to the monster parts he had clung over his shoulders. "I feel like I got King Kong's nuts on my shoulders, man."
"That's charming, Rock, really," Cap scoffed as he dropped his hand from the boy's chest. He then proceeded to look Joel up and down, "Joel, you look like a man who knows his way around a barbecue. Come help us get a fire started."
As Cap and his crew walked past, Joel shook his head. "Actually, uh, I'm just gonna catch up with Aimee for a sec, if it's. . ."
"I apologise. I- old habits," Cap said, putting his hands together. "You show up and. . . here I am trying to give you orders. I'll give you guys some privacy, yeah?"
"Thank you," Aimee smiled.
Joel mirrored the man's actions, putting his hands together, "Yeah, namaste. Uh, I was gonna just, if you-"
"Hey, Joel," Cap interrupted.
"Yeah?" Joel asked, growing frustrated.
"We're throwing a killer going-away party tonight. Nothing fancy, but. . . we'll have a drink together to welcome you to the colony."
"Okay," Joel practically shrugged, wondering why it couldn't have waited.
"First beer's on me," the man said before walking away.
"Thanks. He's nice."
Aimee nodded, "Brews his own beer."
"Course he does."