Alright, so I lied about waiting at the eights.

After a few hours of constantly checking back and forth between the street that came from the church end of the city and the street that came up the hill from the corner where Dixon’s garage sat, I couldn’t sit there anymore and I decided to make one more pass towards the hospital, taking a swing by the church.

I grabbed my backpack, my knives and Therion’s stuff that I got back from the security guard, you know, just in case I found him and he wanted to wear his boots instead of whatever he had on his feet.

Arklay was very quiet, barely a sound. I still think it’s so eerie that you can take a walk through city streets and hear nothing. No car engines, no people talking on the streets, no clanging of dishes from sidewalk tables in upscale restaurants, no birds..just the sound of your own feet hitting the pavement.

I left the eights early, I walked towards the church. I yelled out for Father Frank or Sister Theresa but got no answer. I gave their door a knock as well but it didn’t seem like anyone was around. Maybe they go out scavenging as well? Who knows.

Continuing down the street, I walked towards the hospital. I almost hate that hospital now. Creepy security guard Porkins, crazy nurse lady Peaches..it being the last place anyone had really had a confirmed sighting of Therion. It isn’t almost, I do physically hate that hospital. They couldn’t keep him safe long enough for me to come get him? Ridiculous.

When I got to the hospital, I decided to make a pass at the rooms, just to make sure he had in fact left. There were a few people in there, and though every lump that was covered in sheets gave me hope that it was him, they all turned out to be people I had never even seen before.

He was the only one who mattered, I wasn’t there for anyone else.

Surrendering to the thought that I wasn’t going to find him here, it was time to turn back and go wait at the eights. Maybe Jim or Serena can come out with me and look for him later. She did promise she would wait for him at the apartments, but they had to understand that I couldn’t just sit and wait forever. I felt so helpless…he was out there but where?

I walked up the street to the eights, I could hear Jim and Serena talking to someone who was on the other side of the iron fence. My backpack was driving me crazy, the straps weren’t sitting right, I was struggling to fix my straps and still balance all of the stuff that belonged to Therion that I was carrying around with me. I passed the gates still completely distracted by my straps, they were really poking me.

The only thing I heard when I passed that gate entrance was the noise of metal and wooden beams hitting against each other, I turned and it was like I saw a ghost. It wasn’t a walker…

It was Therion!

I immediately drop his shit, he picked me up and lifted me, he didn’t say a word. Not a hello, not asking where I was, he brought me down and kissed me in the most loving way I could ever have even imagined being kissed. He had tears streaming down his face…oh hell, so did I.

Pulling back just for a second I asked him where the fuck he’s been. The story of his last few days ended up being told to me later after I was done hugging the shit out of him was an amazing one. That man…he put himself through so much, and it was all for us. None of what happened was a result of his being selfish and wanting things for himself, it was all to get us a place to sleep that was our own.

Well we have that now, we’ve rented the apartment next to Serena and Jim. We have a garden on our balcony, it’s almost like rebuilding a society.

My concerns still lie with the jets who were seen around the bridge. There are whispers in the city of Arklay about those jets..most seem under the impression they may blow the bridge, which just causes more questions of why they would want to cut off this island from the rest of the world. Is it so much better here they want to protect what’s here? Or is it getting so bad here, that they don’t want it leaving this island?

My hunger to protect myself and Therion is much stronger now. I love this man. I will allow my life to be taken before I let anything else separate us.

Serena and Jim, and everyone else from the eights, they are slowly getting passed my barriers and I am starting to consider them as family, I will protect them fiercely, they have been good to us when we needed them.

Arklay is still a riddle of a place, there is no clear answer to whether this place is a saving grace, or a trap. There’s still some really weird shit going on.

But when I finally got to hold Therion again, and when we finally decieded to be honest with each other and allow emotions into today’s world…for a split second, everything wasn’t so fucked up…just for a second…

That second was over pretty fast, but I’ve got him back and clearly, we can handle anything that is thrown at us.

Challenge accepted, apocalypse.