"Liam! Liam, where are you?" Ness called, her voice wavering. Everyone was keeping their eyes peeled, but Ness used all her energy to find him. She wouldn't rest until he was by her side.
Branches scratched the group's exposed skin, leaving bright red marks that stung. But nobody cared. They were too engrossed in their own thoughts and worries.
Lilly, not so much. The only people she cared for were right in front of her. Ness and Harry. She didn't have to worry about Ness at all. She knew Ness could handle herself. Harry, on the other hand, she was protective of. He was her friend and she didn't want to lose him. She couldn't stand to lose another person. It would break her.
"Liam!" Ness whispered harshly. She refused to give up despite the boys' exhausted pleas for a rest.
All of a sudden, an acorn pelted Lilly on the head.
"Ow! What the hell?" she cried out, looking up. Her eyes widened. "Liam! Ness, look, it's Liam. In that tree."
Ness turned around and grinned. "Liam? Oh, my God, you're okay! Thank God."
Ness stood at the base of the tree, reaching her hand out to him, but he backed away. She put her arm down and stared at the bark in front of her. The way the lines all curved and swirled together amazed her because they all joined together to create the magnificent tree in front of her. It was a nice little distraction from the way he had flinched.
She took a deep breath, calming her nerves as she tried again. She smiled softly up at him. "Hey, Liam. Do you want to come on down? I'll help you."
He shook his head, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion. While he had been wandering through the woods in search of Ness, his tampered mind had created hallucinations that haunted him. People with deformed, bloody faces ran up to him, trying to touch him or hurt him. He ran from them in fear, his brain not comprehending anything about them except that they were dangerous. Then, he had seen Danielle appear in front of him, petting his hair and telling him that he'd be okay. Yet, he couldn't feel her touch. Her fingers fell right through him, and he watched as they did.
Ness soon appeared, telling him that she would come find him, but she was sitting right there. Right next to him. His weakened mind couldn't take the confusion, and soon his mind collapsed again, taking all that he had built up and crushing it until it wasn't at all salvageable. When the clouds in his foggy mind faded a bit he picked up acorns and started throwing them at the ghost people that he knew weren't there. He'd watch as the nut fell through them and hit the ground, their bodies evaporating into the thick, humid air. It had surprised him when one he threw at someone did bounce right off like it was should have, their body staying as it was supposed to be.
Ness stood at the base of the tree, still waiting expectantly. He would come around. She knew he would. But soon her patience wore thin, and she started to climb the tree.
Liam, startled by her movements, started to climb, too, to get away from her. He went towards the thinner branches, sending Ness into a frenzy.
"Wait!" Ness called, watching as Liam looked back down at her with fearful eyes. "I'll go down if you agree not to go up. I don't want you to fall."
This only confused him more. The others hadn't stopped coming after him until he threw something at them, which was why he had his pockets overflowing with acorns and any other little pebbles he found. He threw one at her now, surprised when it smacked her in the face and bounced right off of her, landing on the grass near her foot. She gasped when it made contact with her face, moving to rub the red mark that had started to appear. He felt like he should apologize, but didn't in fear that she was one of the monsters he'd been hiding from.
Ness tried again. "I'm not going to hurt you, Liam. Please come down. I won't touch you, I promise."
Then, to his surprise, she did something none of the others had done. She drew an 'x' over her chest and said, "Cross my heart."
It was their new sign for whenever Ness promised not to leave him when he needed her most. At the sign, he slowly climbed back down, starting to believe that she wasn't one of the apparitions he had been seeing.
Ness backed away when his feet hit the ground, giving him the space she promised. But he didn't follow through with her plan of keeping distance. Instead, he went straight to her and pulled her into a hug, holding her as close to his chest as he could. He had missed her and the calm feeling he received whenever she was near. She kept him sane and always yanked him back when he drifted too far away.
"I was worried about you," Ness said to him, hugging him back like she never done to anyone before.
He didn't answer, his mind too jumbled to form a single word. Ness just hugged him tighter, knowing the words that he wanted to say, but couldn't.
I missed you.
Thank you.
She couldn't think anything beyond those few words, not letting herself believe that he wanted to say anything more.
Liam tried to tug her closer, needing to be entirely sure that she was real and not just a monster baiting him into a trap. When she gasped at how hard he was holding her with his death grip, he let her go. That was all he needed to surely believe it.
Ness smiled at him, so happy that she had found him in one piece. Well, mostly. She could tell by his bulging eyes that he had seen things-- terrible things. He lost himself again, but she vowed that she wouldn't leave him until he could do well enough on his own.
To make the deal official, while everyone else was hugging Liam, she crossed her fingers over her heart, drawing an 'x' where her heart beat the blood through her body that would forever protect him as long as it could.
"So, the island thing didn't work out. Where else is there to go?" Harry asked. Ness and Lilly had talked about a place before, but they weren't sure if it was still standing
In those endless nights of talking over their military survival plans, Lilly had brought up her grandpa's house. It was heavily armed and surrounded by a large metal fence.
"Lilly?" Ness asked, standing by Liam's side.
Lilly grinned at her, already knowing that Ness was on the same page as her.
"Um, care to explain, Lilly?" Louis asked what the whole group was thinking.
"My grandpa's house. It's protected, but I'm not sure if it's still safe," she said.
"Well, let's find out," Ness said. "We need cars first."
Lilly threw her hands up in the air in celebration. She loved hot wiring cars. She had learned how to from her brother when she was younger, and it came in handy many a time. The only thing she could of at the moment however was that her and a ness had spent so much time walking instead of driving. Her faulty mind pushed the thought away. They couldn't do anything about it now.
"Let's go!" Lilly said excitedly, running in the direction of the main road.
"Lilly, wait!" Louis called after the retreating girl. He ran to catch up with her. But right before he reached her, she was knocked to the ground by a zombie.
"Lilly!" Ness' yell echoed throughout the trees.
Louis sped up as Lilly fought off the walker. She was strong, but the creature was larger and stronger. It fought hard to reach Lilly's neck, but Lilly put up a good fight. She felt her strength deteriorate slowly, but right before the walker dropped to her level, it was stabbed through the head by a certain brunette boy.
Lilly shoved the walker off of her and scrambled to her feet, breathing heavily. Louis grabbed Lilly by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Lilly nodded her head, trembling. "Y-yeah. I'm fine," she whispered.
He smiled slightly at her then pulled her in for a quick hug. She struggled to get out of his embrace, placing her hands on his chest and shoving hard. Louis chuckled and just held tighter.
"Louis, let me go! You know I hate hugs." she said, her voice muffled by his cotton t-shirt.
He laughed harder. "I know. That's why I'm hugging you. It makes you uncomfortable and it's quite funny."
She huffed in annoyance, finally giving up her pointless antics and standing still with her hands by her sides as he continued to celebrate her experience of not dying. He then surprised her by pressing a kiss to her cheek saying "just returning the favor" against her skin.
And then he scampered off, running back to the group, who hadn't seen the interaction. Lilly held a hand to her face, pressing it harder and harder against her flushed cheek as if trying to make the feeling of his soft lips reappear. The way his lips had moved against her cheek had mesmerized her, for not even her brother had ever touched his lips to her in such a way. The vibrations had run through her body, warming her insides as they squirmed in delight.
Realizing her dilemma and remembering what Ness had said, she pulled her hand away quickly, waving the gesture away as nothing special. He was just returning the favor, as he had said. She had saved him; he had saved her. That was the end of it.
Ness saw Louis burst through the trees, his face pallid from the realization of what he had just done. He was supposed to be looking for Eleanor, not kissing other girls. No matter how friendly the kiss had seemed, it meant a lot more to him than he would ever let on.
Once Ness set eyes upon the fresh blood on his shirt and pale face, she screamed, running up to him and holding a knife to his throat.
He was knocked back into reality by her harsh gaze and tried to take a step back. Ness only took a step with him, keeping the knife just barely off of the skin on his bobbing Adam's apple as it moved while he swallowed.
She hadn't fully learned to trust them all yet. He could've killed her for all she knew.
He knew what she was thinking, putting the pieces together, so he called out, "Lilly!" His voice cracked in the process, giving off the indication that he was in danger.
Lilly rushed through the trees at his cry, sighing when she saw what was before her. Ness had such a crazed look in her eyes that even Lilly took a few steps back, wary of the limits of her partner. No matter how strong someone is, they all have their limits. It is possible to push them a little bit too far off the deep end. Do that, and there's absolutely no chance of getting them back.
"I'm right here, Ness. He didn't kill me, if that's what you were thinking, which I know you were." She talked slowly, inching forward towards Ness and taking the knife from her shaking hands. She hadn't looked away from Louis. "He was just returning the favor."
She gave Louis a sideways glance and he met her gaze. Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone before she could identify it. Little did she know that it was nothing but regret.
Ness took a deep breath, taking at least 10 steps back until she was next to Liam again. All she did was nod, motioning for everyone to follow her as she started in the opposite direction Lilly had gone. She was so excited about jump starting the cars that her mind had overloaded with too much excitement for her to think clearly. Ness didn't have too much of that problem anymore. She never got excited. She used to, but the true feeling of excitement was one she hadn't felt in a long, long time.
Everyone followed, not objecting to Ness' silent orders. They all saw that something had clicked in her, for she was silent for the whole walk, not telling everyone to hush or walk in a straight line as she usually did. She was lost in thought, the military portion of her mind leading the way while the rest of her went into that deep dark cavern of thoughts she hated visiting. Yet, her mind found itself wandering there anyways despite her pleas for the horrifying memories to stop rapping at the wall she had built to lock them in.
XxXxX
Great job getting to the goal so quick, guys! We moved it up a little this time, haha 😄
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LOVES,
~Nezza and Lillay