Chapter 14 (Family)

Chapter 14: Family

Arwen Swanter

Unknown, 2029

About 7 years after outbreak

Miami Sewer System

Season 3

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"I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna fucking kill both of you!" The little girl violently grabbed the rifle off of the man's shoulder and swung it frantically at the both of us as he began to sit cautiously on the ground, yelling back at the girl and holding his bleeding shoulder.

"Kingsley, put the gun down!"

"Blake?" Maverick asked, confused.

"Kinglsey, put the goddamn gun down!" Tears were streaming down her face, she clenched her jaw as she shot a bullet into the wall behind us. Andie was screaming and throwing his limbs in every direction. Kinglsey dropped the rifle to the floor, hugging herself as more tears flowed from her eyes. Blake grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled her down into his embrace. "I'm okay, Kings, I promise. Didn't need that shoulder anyways, did I?" He laughed. A reassured smile spread across her face as she wiped her eyes.

"This your daughter? The one you were looking for?" Maverick asked as he took Andie off the floor and into his arms in an attempt to soothe him back to sleep.

"She's not the one I told you about, no, but she's a good friend."

"You know these people?" Kingsley's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, we met on the beach. They're good people."

"He shot you."

"I didn't know it was you, man," Maverick was honest. "I wouldn't have if I did but y'know it's late, it's dark and my kid-"

"I get it but I'd really appreciate it if you stopped confessing and helped me not die."

"I knew someone who got shot in kinda the same place," I interrupted, everyone turned to face me. "We don't got much here but I can try to figure it out."

I spent the rest of that night stitching Blake's wound with loose thread from Maverick's backpack and a rusty sewing needle. The dead banged at the door until dawn, none of us got any sleep. Blake needed to rest and Maverick felt too guilty to leave so we stayed in that small room for 6 days. I didn't like Blake. I didn't like Kingsley either but I didn't know why. If anything they should both hate us instead.

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"Indiana?"

"Nope."

"Dammit, Minnesota?"

"You were closer with Indiana."

"C'mon, Mav, you gotta give me more than that, I already guessed Kentucky."

"And I told you you were close with that one too."

"It's obviously Ohio, old man. They look like they're from Ohio."

"Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner!"

"Maverick knock it off."

"You got something better to do while we walk through literal shit, Arwen? What about you, Blake, where you from beside just an island?"

"Well I was born in Manzanillo, Cuba but after I married Jennie we moved to Atanagildo."

"That's really amazing, what about you, King?"

"Miami, born and raised. My parents died when I was five, been making my way from place to place via this lovely form of transportation since the world went to shit."

"Did we run into each other sometime around a year ago? Because I remember seeing a really scrawny kid sneaking around down here once but I don't know, I swore it was a little boy though. I left a can of peas with a note-" Kingsley fell silent. Blake noticed her discomfort and chimed in, "You guys don't have to follow us all the way to my daughter, you know, right?"

"Yeah, I don't think we were really planning to, I heard a rumor from some guy about a place out west so we were actually gonna head there once we got out of the city."

"Really? Is that place real?"

"We're hoping, I mean I know at least I am. I just want a place for my boy to grow up happy. Normally I probably wouldn't do this but if you find your kid, Blake, you should go to Texas. You too, King. Maybe there's something for all of us there."