JINSEN

 It's been a long time since I slept in a deep dreamless sleep. It's been a long time where I didn't keep constantly waking up in the night. And it's been a long time since I have felt safe again. But when I opened my eyes to find myself alone on the ground I instantly panic. Quickly sitting up with his name on the brink of my lips, freaking out, I spot him across the way helping put out the fires and talking to some of the people he came with along with Ezekeil.

"Don't worry, he's alive and he's real. You didn't dream any of it." Tanya's says to me from behind.

I turn to see her packing some things in a bag as she looks to me. "He knew you were going to freak out if you woke up while he was somewhere else, so I offered to stay right here in case that happened. Glad I did. He knows you pretty well doesn't he?"

My heart pounding in my chest from the panic I take a deep breath and allow my eyes to fully adjust to my surroundings. I frown at how high the sun was already. "It's late." I croak out, my voice barely waking up.

"You were sleeping so well none of us wanted to disturb you. That boyfriend of yours demanded we let you continue your sleep because you definitely needed it, and no one argued with him. He's a leader, you can sense it in him. Listening to the others that came with him it seems they're willing to follow him anywhere. Sound familiar?"

Rubbing my face I quirk a brow. "No one willingly follows me because they want too, Tanya. They follow me because they know that I can protect them."

She ties the bag and tosses in a pile with all the others that were already ready to go then stares right at me with a deadpan look on her face. "They may not like your attitude and your 'don't give a fuck about my life' persona, but I guarantee that if you were too walk off without saying anything to them they would all blindly follow you without hesitation."

I roll my eyes at that because again, I protect them that's all it was. Seeing me make that face she comes over to sit right next to me and whispers, "We didn't tell you this because honestly I don't think you really care but Chris tried to convince the group to leave you behind. He had taken your blueprints and your weapons when you finally allowed yourself to sleep, although I'm sure your body forced you too whether you wanted it or not."

Shock flows through me that Chris had gone through my stuff and even took it while I was completely knocked out. The fact that he took the blueprints without having any idea how to read the instructions was ludicrous. I didn't care he took the weapons; I could just make more. But the blueprints...that pissed me off.

Then what she says hits me. "They're all still here though."

She gives me a tiny smile. "They're all still here." She repeats.

Frowning I ask, "But why? They had what they would need to survive so why not just leave me?"

"Because they didn't want Chris or anyone else to defend them or follow. They may not say it, but they wanted you, Jinsen. They may complain and bitch about the shit you do and the lack of words you say but deep down they know you'll do whatever it takes to keep them alive. They trust your judgement. You kept us all alive for months when so many have died within a matter of days."

Listening to her, watching the others as they go about doing their part of cleaning and getting ready to move along I couldn't help a sense of guilt of how I have been behaving towards them. But it made it concrete that I seriously couldn't function properly without Zared by my side. And now that he was, I felt lighter, more like me a bit and none of these people here knew the real me at all.

Yet, they chose to follow me anyways.

I look over to Zared who senses my attention and swings his head in my direction. He smiles warmly making my heart flutter while thanking whoever was watching over us in this hell that he was still alive and whole. He starts heading my way as I stand to meet him when we hear thrashing of running feet and that kid Kyle popped out of the trees looking red faced and wide eyed.

"Alex found a field with overgrown vegetables!"

I stand there as both our groups get excited and follow the kid as he turns back where he had come from. Slowly walking up to Zared I frown as people rush past me as they drop whatever they were doing. Zared's face had a splitting grin watching them all go crazy, and I couldn't help wanting to kiss the crap out of him.

"It's been awhile since any of us had fresh food like that. Should we go check it out too?" He asks me, taking my hand.

"How do you feel?" I ask him instead concerned about his injuries knowing he needed more rest.

"I'll be fine. I need to move around otherwise I'll go insane." He admits.

"Maybe, but you need to rest more. Moving around too much is the reason you're not healing, babe." I scold him gently with a tug of his hand.

"Well, now that I found you I can relax a lot more." He tells me, pulling me after him as we head where everyone else ran off too.

We walk in silence as chatter of excitement reaches our ears and we finally break through the trees to find a farming field that had miles of land stretching to the mountains before us. The farmhouse was way off further down probably a good thirty minute walk I would say. Kyle and Alex were already in the rows of produce as they reached down and started taking veggies out of the ground.

"They're still good!" Kyle yells happily making me roll my eyes with a smile.

"Of course they are, they still have roots after all." Lacy calls back to him as she carefully digs into the soil for what looked like a head of cabbage.

"It's not just a single produce. If you look over there something different is growing." Ezekeil points further out and I noticed he was right. "Let's find out what's here. It'll take hours by the look of it but maybe we could use the farmhouse as a place to stay for the night."

I look to the farmhouse a moment and notice it looked quite abandoned from our position, but it was so far off it could just look that way. Watching as the others start heading down different rows and even further out as they gather what they could I look back to Ezekiel.

"I'm heading to the farmhouse to check it out. Make sure you get some people to grab our things from the campfire." I tell him.

He frowns, carefully placing the veggies he dug out down to the ground and stands to meet me. "You need me to tag along?"

"I'll go with him." Zared speaks up, tightening his grip on my hand.

"Let me go with you guys." Lacy asks as she adjusts the weapon on her back. As well as Jacob, Mateo and Seth who also wanted to tag along. Christina and Leo soon to join when they realized where we were heading off too.

I nod, having the slight nostalgic feeling hitting me. It's been a long time since I've been around the people I first traveled with in the beginning.

"Alight, guess you'll be safe enough with all these people. Send a signal once clear." I nod to him as we set off down the dirt road towards the house I look at our small group and can't help feeling the bittersweet moment.

"It's been so long since we were all together. It almost makes me want to cry." Seth jokes as everyone else rolls their eyes.

"I'm happy you all made it though. For a while there I thought..." I start out, looking to Zared who knew what I had been going through at the time we found the hotel in complete rubble.

"Believe me, we're definitely happy to find you all safe and alive too." Mateo mutters, looking at the ground as we walk. He had a slight limp, but it didn't seem like it was bothering him too much.

"Let's all promise each other that we'll never separate again. We stay together no matter what." Lacy pitches in looking to each of us.

"Honestly, now that we found each other I'm okay with that. As much as its taxing to meet new people, whether we can trust them or not, being with you guys is a whole lot better than being out there with strangers who end up not giving two shits about you." Leo states.

"So, from here on out we stay together regardless of what happens in the future." Zared voices next and we all agree. And maybe this time we will all stay together to the very end, whatever that end may be.