EPILOGUE
ROWAN’S POV
"Rowan. Rowan, baby. Can you hear ?" Nadine’s voice floated into my ears, but it was too far away. As if she was speaking from a distance.
"Is he dead?" soone else asked, and for a mont, darkness pressed down on . I didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything for what seed like an eternity.
I tried to open my eyes, to look for Nadine. But I...
I could not.
Pain pressed down on from all sides, rendering immobile. It was too much, and I tried to part my lips, to cry out and call for Nadine. To tell her that I was in hell, that my entirely body burned with the intensity of being flayed alive.
To tell her that I needed her to be with . To hold my hand.
But I could not.
I had no eyes. No mouth. I had nothing.
I was nothing.
The last thing I heard before darkness claid was Nadine’s voice.
And she was screaming my na.
~~
SIX MONTHS LATER
My eyes blinked open, and the force of the light that stread into them threatened to blind .
I closed them again a groan slipped past my lips, before slowly opening them again. Letting my eyes get used to the daylight seeping in through so open windows, i sat up.
Or tried to, at least.
My arms were mush, and they trembled to hold my weight. By the ti I managed to drag myself into a sitting position, I was covered in sweat.
I looked around. Where was Nadine?
That was the first thought that floated into my ears, imdiately followed by another.
Where was I?
A door opened to my left, and my eyes followed the sound. It was as though I had conjured her with my thoughts.
Nadine stared at with eyes as wide as saucers. She was carrying a tray, but it fell from her hands as shs stared at .
Tears rolled down her face, and her entire body trembled. I smiled — a very shaky smile — at her as I spoke.
"Hello, Princess."
She flew towards , her arms wrapping around my body tightly. I hugged her back too, my eyes fluttering close as I held her.
I inhaled, letting her very familiar scent settle around . I didn’t know how long we held each other, only that she started crying at so point, and all I could do was gently pat her on the back.
When her tears finally subsided, she pulled away from . Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and her nose was red from all the tears.
But she was okay.
"Are you okay? Do you feel pain anywhere?" she asked as she looked over, her brows furrowed in a worried frown.
"I’m fine, princess. Really. I feel a little bit weak, but I am okay. What happened though?" I asked.
And instead of the response I was expecting, Nadine reached out and slapped her hands over my chest instead.
It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it did sting a little.
"How dare you? How dare you scare like that? I told you to wait for ! I told you to not move a fucking inch. But you didn’t listen to , and you just...I was so scared. Terrified out of my mind. They said you weren’t suppose to survive the blast, but you did. It took you six fucking months, but you did. And I hate you for doing that to , for making scared and worried but I am so glad that you’re alive and..."
She was rambling now, and I grabbed her wrists gently, stopping her from hitting .
"I am sorry. I am so sorry, baby. I just...it seed cruel to make you die with . I didn’t want to take you down with and I am so sorry for making you scared," I whispered as i pulled her into a hug.
She stiffened against my hold for one tiny mont before she folded into , her warm body flush against mine.
"How?" she asked.
"Trent lied to us. What I stepped on wasn’t a bomb. It was an empty gun casing. I had been too terrified to realise it. The bomb wasn’t where I stood. It was where he was instead. He knew, and walked around it, after setting it to a tir. My plan was to end it all anyway, to stop you from taking an imnsely foolish decision, but when I stepped away and didn’t blow up, I thought he lied to us. But I didn’t make it past two steps before the bomb detonated."
"Which was how we found you buried under the rubble," she whispered.
I nodded. "I’m fine now, and you can get mad at all you want, but I am glad that you’re alive, Princess."
She smiled at then, a teary smile that made her eyes lit up.
"I’m glad you are too."
When we kissed, it was slow and unhurried. It was a kiss of grief and relief all woven together at once, and it stripped bare for so reason.
"Tell everything I missed, Princess."
She settled on the bed beside , my hands circling around her waist as she got comfortable.
"I killed Trent, of course. It was surprisingly easy. The monsters died off one after the other minutes after he died, probably because he wasn’t alive to control them anymore.
We lost a lot of people..."
I listened as she ntioned the people who died, and the ones who survived. Solomon didn’t make it, and neither did Camden.
But the rest of the crew did. Jennifer. Joshua. Amy and her son.
"We survived. It’s hard work, and it takes a lot of ti and effort, but we have people all around looking for other bunkers in an attempt to save the people and get them back into the real world."
A bittersweet pang hit my chest at her words.
We survived.
Humanity had survived, despite everything we had gone through.
It might take an insane amount of ti, but we would be whole again. The scars ran deep, but we were humans after all. One of our best abilities was adaptation.
We would adapt. Build a new world from scratch. One that wasn’t corrupted with monsters.
"We could not have done it without you, Princess," I whispered into her hair.
"I didn’t do it alone," was all she said.
Comfortable silence stretched between us as we held each other for hours, neither of us saying anything.
Not like it mattered.
For now, we needed no words.
We had survived the worst of the worst.
"Nadine?"
"Yes?"
"Would you like to marry ?"
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