Chapter 16 (Breathe With Me Until You Can't Anymore)

Chapter 16: Breathe With Me Until You Can't Anymore

Valentine Evans

September 2023

About 16 months after outbreak

Miami

Season 2

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Arwen helped me to my feet and let me put my arm around their shoulder because I couldn't stand on my own. I knew what was coming and with every passing second the thought of dying scared me more and more but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Arwen wouldn't admit it but every time we took a step down the stairs to get out of the hotel they knew I wasn't gonna make it much longer.

When we burst through the exit of the hotel the dead were everywhere in the streets of the city. I couldn't remember why we were here, I couldn't remember where the others had said they were going, but I knew I didn't have enough time to make it to them no matter how hard I tried. I could feel the infection spreading inside of my bloodstream, my skin was hot and my bones felt cold and as if they were to shatter with the next quick movement I made.

We got out of the city, I don't think Arwen meant to get us out of there but that's where they led me, and of course I had no choice but to follow. We ran along the coast, the tide was low and the dead washed up in the sand, tangled in fishing nets and seaweed. We had lost the dead that followed us from the city, there was nothing out here except broken lounge chairs and seagulls feasting on roadkill from the highway a few miles east.

Arwen walked in front of me, yelling for Maverick and the others. I guess this is where they had agreed on meeting, I don't know if I was awake for that conversation or not. The sound of their shouting rang in my ears, it made the world feel dizzy and like my steps weren't my own. My last breath was sweet, death is easy, I even think I smiled. I didn't have to pretend to live a life I didn't want to live even from the start anymore. This is the only thing that truly feels like freedom.

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Arwen Swanter

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I had been too focused on just getting back to the others I hadn't realized the bigger picture. I thought that once we made it back everything would be okay again, we would have medicine, we would be able to put this past us because Valentine would be okay. I got my mind so wrapped up in pretending like nothing was going to happen that I forgot what really mattered.

Valentine passed out behind me, his face fell into the sand. He didn't move, he wasn't breathing.

"Val? Val, wake up," I turned his body over so he was facing the sun directly above. "Val, what's wrong? Why won't you wake up? Please don't leave me, Valentine, we're almost there, you can make it a little bit longer, we're almost back to the others. We're gonna get you medicine and you're gonna get better. Valentine? Please, please I need you to wake up."

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Blake Rhodes

Unknown, 2029

About 7 years after outbreak

Miami Coast

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I had finally made it off that island. It took me so long I had lost track of the days. I was hungry and overheated. The feeling of the sand between my fingers felt like heaven in and of itself and the sound of the infected on the shore made me smile knowing I had gotten this far.

When I lifted my head from the ground I slid the rest of my body out of the yellow raft, I grabbed my backpack with my left hand and effortlessly tossed it over one shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see the beautiful setting sun and the city skyline, how I had longed for that sight, however, instead I was met with an unfamiliar face and the barrel of a handgun pointed between my eyes.

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End of Season 2