Chapter 9 (Teeth and Flesh)

Chapter 9: Teeth and Flesh

Valentine Evans

July 2023

About 14 months after outbreak

Florida, Parking Garage

Season 2

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"Say it again!" Maverick yelled as he threw me into an open doorway. I winced in pain as my back collided with the wall behind me. Maverick slammed the door behind himself, inching closer to me as panic overflowed my mind. His face was contorted with anger, and his eyes were blazing with fury. "He was my friend," he spat, his voice dripping with disappointment and betrayal.

"I wish I hadn't."

"'I wish I hadn't.' That's your fucking excuse for killing my best friend?"

"Maverick, he was going to hurt people-"

"No! You don't get to make those calls, Valentine! You don't just get to kill people because you feel like it! He was like a brother to me, and you just-" I ran up to him; I didn't think about what he wanted to do to me. I held him in my arms as he broke down and cried softly. "Valentine, your arm."

"I'm okay." I smiled as tears formed in the corners of my eyes. I gently brushed his tears away, my heart aching for his pain. "Maverick, I understand that you want to kill me; you have every right to. Trying to accept it is too much for me to even handle."

"Val, you're bleeding."

"I got bit, but it's okay. I promise."

"What the fuck do you mean, no, it's not okay."

"I know you want me dead for what I did to him. I want myself dead for what I did to him, so it is okay. Just don't tell the others, not until I'm gone, please?" His face turned sympathetic, and he brought my body closer to his, but before I could move, his hand wrapped around my throat, and his grip tightened until I couldn't feel anything anymore.

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Arwen Swanter

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I had watched Snow die and I held Riley's hand in a dark room as she cried into Abby's chest. I could still see the way the dead attacked him, I couldn't erase the image from my mind. I know he brought it on himself but it didn't make it feel any better.

Maverick and Valentine were missing, and before Aspen, Riley, Abby, Skylar, and I had managed to make it inside the building the garage was attached to, I had watched Maverick drag him by the wrist in the opposite direction. I wondered if they were still alive, and I wondered if I would be able to handle it if Valentine wasn't.