Embrace

Axel stared like a fool as his mouth was left wide open. Hazel eyes hid under long, attractive eyelashes. Full lips stuck out in a sort of pout as a cute button nose scrunched up in pain. Thick, dark brown hair was tied up into a braided ponytail for ease of movement. From what he could feel on top of him, she was the fit, curvaceous figure that was chasing after him. He wasn't usually the type to gawk at pretty girls, but it'd been months since he saw one, especially one that could easily steal his heart away even before the apocalypse.

At the same time Axel was left dumbstruck, the girl was also shocked examining him. From afar, she had thought he was an old man due to his limp but his youthful, defined features proved otherwise. Axel had taken the best aspects of his Colombian parents. He was six feet tall with broad shoulders, had long eyelashes covering his dark brown eyes, and a sharp jawline underlying attractive medium-sized lips.

She blushed as she tried standing up, only to fall back down on his chest as strength left her arms. Her group had been running and fighting for the past hour, coupled with the last climb upward, she had already lost her strength by the time she reached the top. The others in her group wouldn't have been much better if it wasn't for the fact that she was repeatedly splitting apart and leading away zombies from the rest of them.

Axel also tried to lift himself up in failure as he shifted his hands to lift the girl by her waist, only to have his strength fail him as well. Their sweat and erratic breathing was quickly forgotten as they struggled to get up. Seconds seemed like hours as their gazes locked on to each other.

"Um...hey there."

"Hi..."

Their embarrassment slowly faded as ambiguous emotions flickered in their eyes. The intensity in their gazes surged up like waves as they leaned into one another subconsciously.

Right as their lips were close to contact, the moment was interrupted by footsteps crashing onto the floor. They turned their heads simultaneously to see the girl's two companions coming inside and staring at the two people caught in a compromising position on the floor.

"Oh! What do we have here?" the other girl asked. She was grinning ear-to-ear as the relief of surviving hell coupled with the excitement of seeing her best friend caught in the embrace of a cute guy. Axel's arms had traveled to circle the girl's waist as she had snuggled up to his embrace unknowingly.

"A little help here? Angela? Dylan?" The girl had already resigned herself to the fact she couldn't get up by herself and it seemed as if the guy beneath her wasn't any better.

"But you guys seem so comfortable," Angela teased.

"Stop messing around," Dylan said. He got up from his half-crouched figure as his breathing started to calm down. For a guy with asthma, the apocalypse is a bitch and a half. He walked over and lent a hand to the girl on top of Axel. When he tried pulling her up, he almost collapsed onto the two himself.

"Angela, come help. I'm too tired for this shit."

Acquiescing, Angela walked over and pulled up the girl with the help of Dylan. The run had tired them all out and it was a miracle that they had even made it up there. Meanwhile, the three left Axel stuck on the ground.

The relief and relaxed atmosphere had dissipated slightly as the inherent distrust of the apocalypse resurfaced. Though, this didn't stop the girl and Axel from sneaking glances at each other.

"Who are you?" Shawn asked. His body was full of tension as he eyed Axel wearily.

Axel gave a raspy, exasperated laugh.

"Are you fucking serious? You brought all those infected to me and that's the first thing you have to say to me? Go to hell."

It was a pretty ballsy move. Cursing out the people who can at least move when you're laying on the ground completely defenseless. But the stress of losing his parents, getting infected, and then getting chased to hell by a horde of infected while his little sister is alone worrying about him all finally hit him at once and he couldn't care less at the moment. The passion that clouded his eyes earlier was gone. His muscles contracted and loosened up as he stretched them out inconspicuously.

Dylan widened his eyes in surprise. He chuckled as he realized that they fucked over a complete stranger. Well, it was the apocalypse. Sucks to be him. Shawn was more surprised that this guy still had the nerves to talk to them like that when they could easily kill him.

"I apologize for my friend. Hi, I'm Angela. That's Dylan. And the girl you were hugging so closely is my best friend, Elena."

"Elena..." Axel muttered subconsciously.

Angela held a smirk on her face as the girl in question tried hiding the blush creeping up on her face.

"Yeah, that's her," she said as she gestured toward Elena. "Now, can you tell us your name? And how safe we are here?"

Axel glanced at Angela. "Axel."

He steered his gaze back to Elena.

"Cute name," Angela giggled. "But how safe are we?"

"Safe enough."

"Bro, how 'bout you give us more than two-word answers?" Dylan asked.

The stress of not knowing when they had to keep running was putting Dylan on edge. It worsened when he saw Axel completely ignore him as he rushed up to him and kneeled down to lift Axel up by the collar of his shirt.

He realized his mistake too late as he saw Axel let out a small smirk.

Before any of them could react, Axel pulled on Dylan's arm. As they both fell, Axel twisted his body to land on top of Dylan as he firmly held his arm behind his back. He promptly took the pistol from the holster on Dylan's belt and held on to it loosely.

"Now we can talk," Axel said as he looked at Elena and Angela's shocked faces.