Epilogue

Griffin

T his is it.

This is everything.

I stare in awe at the view before me. It’s only been days, but it feels like an entire lifetime has passed since I was last here. Back then, I thought I had it all. Until I lost it all and fought tooth and nail and to get it back better than ever.

The town looks even better than I remembered, even with a few rotters roaming the streets. We take care of those first, and I can already envision this place as the sanctuary we’ll build together.

Our group of survivors are exhausted. They’re weary and battered, but their eyes light up with hope when they see this place. The buildings are all intact, still with the supplies we’d left behind. For the first time, I’m actually excited to share this place.

Looking over at Emily and the sheer happiness radiating off of her while she points out everything to Zoey is better than I imagined. It was only last night that I gave her every piece of me in that tent, and then I drove the entire rest of the way today, only stopping to tend to our wounded now and then, but we made it. With Emily in the passenger seat, we’d put together a plan for these first few days. How and where to put the survivors until homes can be situated, and then the next steps for their care.

Emily and Zoey dive right into setting up a medical building. The original doctor’s office here is a building in the middle of town. It works out well that way so it would be equal distance from all points and the last place to be reached by outsiders if there’s an invasion. There’s even still a good amount of supplies left behind, so after cleaning it up as quickly as possible, they move the injured in there, laying the worst off in the beds first.

I watch after them, wondering how Emily will react if Zoey opens up her stitches. It almost makes me jealous and want to get more stitches myself because I loved frustrating her with that. Luckily, my wound is healing nicely, even after all the events of yesterday.

My mind drifts back to the roadside stitches in the early hours of this morning while most of the rest of the group slept. Josh had come and woken us up to say something was wrong with Zoey. She was bleeding through her bandage.

It didn’t take long to fix her up, but Emily was terrified. We’d found a needle and thread in one of the car trunks, and Emily had stitched her up by flashlight while muttering words of frustration. I had to fight a grin when it reminded me of the first time Emily had been furious with me for messing up my own stitches. Now I only wish I had a reason for more stitches, if only to see her roll her eyes and tell me off again. I enjoy the feisty side of her.

Well, all sides of her, really. I still can’t believe she came back with us, and even trusted us with her entire colony. Her trust isn’t something I’ll put on the line again.

After Max finishes taking care of the straggling rotters, I pitch in to help him clear the bodies, dragging them outside the perimeter to a burn pile while William, Josh, and Kevin hash out plans for a wall. We want to get one up as soon as possible to keep rotters out, but everyone has agreed to not use wood. It’ll take some time to build a decent, sturdy wall, but at least we have the manpower to create a perimeter of guards in the meantime.

There’s even talk about reinforcing the buildings with less flammable materials, but that’ll have to be tackled later. The memory of their last home going up in flames is still fresh, and I don’t blame them one bit.

It’s only been hours since we arrived, judging by the position of the sun in the sky, but it feels like we’ve been here for months. We’re all working so well together, each person taking on a role and meshing in ways I only dreamed of.

Juliet runs toward me. “Director.”

Oh no, I have to cut that off now. “Call me Griffin,” I say, shaking my head with a smile. “Director isn’t a title I want, especially after the last guy it belonged to.”

“Right, sorry.” She points behind me. “Um, is that okay?”

I spin around, expecting to see something awful, but it’s Buddy with a rotter’s leg dangling from his mouth while he runs around. “Uh, yeah. We’ve realized Buddy is harmless to humans, but for some reason he loves running around with rotter legs. It’s fine. That’s a thing.”

“That is so not a thing, but okay?” She runs off in the opposite direction, and I continue watching Buddy, who’s now playing tug-o-war with the leg with Max, who’s laughing maniacally. Shaking my head, I go back to helping William with the last of the bodies, before starting work on my secret project.

The sun is disappearing over the horizon by the time soft footsteps come up behind me. “I’ve been looking all over for you. ”

I spin around, not ready for her to be here, but when she looks beyond me, I realize it’s already too late.

“Whatchya doing?”

“Oh, uh…stuff.” I shove my dirt-covered hands into my pockets. It’s no use, because my pants and shirt are covered in dirt, too. Wow. I really made a mess of this.

“Stuff, huh?” She steps forward, but instead of looking at me, she’s looking at the ground. She kneels down and runs her hands along the freshly filled dirt. “What is this, Griffin?”

I sit down behind her and pull her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her while we watch the last rays of the sun disappear from the land in front of us and the star come out. “One of the buildings here had a bunch of seeds. Mostly flowers, but some vegetables. So, I planted a garden for you. Well—not only for you. For everyone, of course. But it’s because of you.”

Her breath hitches and I kiss her cheek, her eyes sparkling in the faint starlight. “You did all of this? All by yourself?”

“Absolutely. There were enough people working on all the other things that needed to be taken care of. So, I thought I would get this started. It will, of course, be a little while before we get anything from it, but it’s a start. I also saved some of the flower seeds to plant around the house we live in. Have you picked one out?”

She shakes her head. “I’ve been busy with all the injured, so I told William to pick one out before they were all taken. A lot of the survivors said we should get dibs, after all.” She laughs. “They’re all going to survive, Griffin. Every single one of them. Some will have life-altering injuries, but they’re going to be okay. Better than okay, even.”

“That’s fantastic to hear. Now, I also have something else for you.” I reach into my pocket .

“What more could you possibly give me? You’ve already given me the world.”

I pull out my hand and present her with the small wooden object. “I made you a new one. The last one sort of got ran over by a car,” I say sheepishly. “Things have been pretty crazy, reasonably so, so I haven’t had a chance to paint it yet.”

She turns the small wood-carved rose over in her hands, admiring it from every angle. Watching her admire it this way puts me at peace.

“I finished it while in the jail cell,” I tell her.

She turns her head, resting her fingers along my jawline, and kisses me sweetly. “Thank you, Griffin. For everything. For kidnapping me and handcuffing me to your stupid wrist.” She laughs at the memory. “Thank you for being you.”

I kiss her back. My arms band around her waist and hold her close. I can’t believe that I’m going to be able to sit here every day and kiss her this way under the sunset. “Thank you for being you, princess.”

Footsteps approach, and I look up to see William balancing four bowls of carrots and berries in his arms. He hands them to us and then sits down on one side.

Max drapes a blanket over mine and Emily’s shoulders before dropping down on our other side and chowing down. “You won’t believe it, but carrots are growing wild out here. They’re everywhere.”

William swallows a handful of berries. “We start work on the perimeter wall tomorrow. We have enough materials gathered to give us a good start, and I have a team in place to collect more materials while we build the wall. Kevin even found some old metal doors in the basement of one house. I didn’t realize any of them had basements the first time we were here. We’re going to repurpose them into gates. There will be four of them, one on each side. ”

Emily rests her head against my chest. “We’ll be okay, won’t we?”

“Of course we will. We’re going to be even better than ever.” I rest my lips on the top of her head. “Welcome home.”

The End