"Zara!"
"Zara, wake the fuck up!" Thomas yelled at me, pulling me to my feet.
"What?"
"Where is Cole?" He questioned me.
My eyes widened as I looked around the tent.
Cole is gone.
He was sleeping right next to me.
Where is he?
Thomas looks terrified, his clothes are all bloodied and filthy.
"Where is he? We need to find him now!" I scream out and dart out the tent, throwing on my shoes as Thomas runs behind me.
"We just got here, Crawford and some of the guys went North, Claire went down to the town road. You and I can check down at the waterfall and... and... I don't fucking know!" Thomas threw his hands up, breathing rapidly, "We need to move, we don't know how long he's been gone." Panic is ripping through him.
Me? I feel numb, my stomach turning and I feel dizzy.
We yell out his name repeatedly as we ran through the camp and down over the bridge to the waterfall.
No sign of him.
We can hear faint yells from the others that scan the surrounding for him too.
"Right, you run down and I'll go up. His blanket isn't there so he has it." He grabbed the back of my head with one hand. "I promise we will find him, Zara."
I'm speechless, the idea of losing my baby brother has me sick. I have been an awful sister to him, always pushing him to the side, sending him to Thomas every time he got out of control or a dream would scare him. All the regrets are now coursing through my body and I drop to the floor and sob out.
"Cole, please come back to me!" I scream out in loud cries, repeatedly.
I manage to pull myself up, lying down and feeling sorry for myself isn't going to find him.
Then, I see it... a blue blanket with little stars on it, puddled on the grass full of mud. My heart drops.
"THOMAS!" I yell out loud enough and it takes him seconds to sprint down to me. He noticed the blanket too and grabs it out my hand.
"He wouldn't leave this here, Zara, he loves this blanket. He must be close." He searched our surroundings, stuck on where to go, where could he be?
A horrid realization had taken over me that Theo wasn't there, had he taken him? To prove a point.
"Thomas... where is Theo? What if he took him and...oh, my god." I started to panic again, dizziness taking over me as my knees drop to the ground. "What if he hurt him?"
Thomas mimicked my position. "Theo doesn't have Cole, one of the pricks from A-centre got him. They have him, Zara." I shake my head, confused. So, Theo didn't have Cole then, where was he?
"We need to keep going." Thomas lifts me up and clasped his hand in mine that catches me off guard and I pull my hand back.
"Oh, that's not what that meant... just trying to help you calm down." He mumbles, trying to explain his random gesture. "It used to always calm you when I held your hand before."
He wasn't wrong. Every time I got scared, I would grab his hand tight and count to five, every time I felt worried or feeling panicked thoughts about to kick my ass.
That was all before I met Theo. I got my comfort and calming from Theo now, listening to his voice as he spoke me through my panic attacks.
We walk on, searching. A few times he would raise his hand to help me descend on the rocks that I hope Cole didn't attempt.
That's when we see a small boy curled up at the bottom of the small cliff, big enough for us to leap off but to a five-year-old, it was massive.
No, no, no. "Cole?" I shrieked, sprinting to him. Thomas lifted him carefully, talking softly to him.
His eyes flashed open, crying out in pain, holding his arm which was obviously broken from his fall.
His small bone is sticking out the skin and through his avengers Pyjama top.
'Thomas it hurts!" He screamed out while we run back to camp to have Claire treat him, she was a trained nurse before the world went to shit, so she will know what to do.
"I got you...I got you..." Thomas kept repeating all the way back as I ran behind them, the neglect of my duties are obvious as he didn't bother to call out for me, again, my own fault.
Thankfully, Claire is back when we reach the camp and she instantly got to work on him. I sat next to him and held his hand while Thomas hovered over behind me, uttering words of encouragement to the brave kid.
Everyone made their way back from the search, crowding around to see if he was okay.
Drew asked what happened, since he split from the earlier mission and lost everyone.
The guy doesn't have a sympathetic bone in his body, shrugging it off when I said he broke his arm and ignored me when I asked if they are going to find Theo.
Cole fell asleep from the medication Claire had given him, some sedatives for the pain. Thomas took him straight to his tent and not my own, maybe it's just an automatic reaction for him. He lay him down and wrapped him in his blanket.
"You can sleep here with him if you want. It's my watch tonight, remember. If you want to take him to your tent, just make sure you take my blanket with you." His tired eyes gazed down to my brother, sadness and pain.
He really does care for him like his own.
"No, I'll sleep here. Besides, your bed was always more comfortable than mines." I tell him as he looks up at me with a smirk before it falters.
Well done Zara, make it awkward again!
I feel nervous around Thomas, he's so closed off this time than before and it hurt me. It hurts me that he doesn't throw his flirtatious comments at me during serious moments and he no longer tried to grasp my ass or the intentional squeezing by me, so my breasts rub against him.
All the things I shouldn't want, but do.
I wanted that person back and I do the only thing I think will fix it all.
I climb up on to his lap and straddle him, wrapping my hands in his hair and pull his face so his lips crash against my own, instantly, our tongues meet.
It was the moment he started to kiss me back that turned me to putty in his arms, our tongues massaged each other's, slowly, then became deeper and intense. He bit down on my bottom lip and sucked hard, causing me to moan out against his mouth. His hands roamed my back then squeezing my hips.
"I would really love to... do this... but I've got to go switch around for Drew before he comes looking for me." He leans his forehead against mine while we catch our breaths. I can feel that he was enjoying it as much as me and I mentally high five myself that I may have MY Thomas back, I'm just not his.
Stop this, Zara! Z yells at me again, scolding me for my behavior.
Once he leaves to do his duty, I cuddle in next to Cole, kissing him on the cheek and telling him how much I love him.
Thomas is a friend to me, a friend I sometimes think that I have feelings for. Then, other times I just see him as one of my friends here, like Claire. I had no idea why I felt so horrible that he's no longer interested in me, but I soon cleared that up.
This push and pull with Thomas has been going in since school, always hiding and seeking him out.
Ignoring him when others are around.
I never had to do that with Theo, he wouldn't let me.
I snap back to the reality that my fucking boyfriend was taken.
-OLD VERSION-UNEDITED