"Shane, I'd like you to meet..." Dale starts, but I quickly interject, seeing that the man he was about to introduce me to I had known in what was now my past life. "Maci?" He yells to me, hands running through his hair in disbelief. "Dang girl, felt like I haven't seen ya in foreva!" I press my small frame to his larger one and hold onto my childhood crush with all my strength. Our fathers had been best friends for years so even though we were more than a decade apart, we had always been very close. "Damn!" I say when I pull away from the embrace. "What?" He looks a bit flustered that I pulled away that fast. "I forgot how tall you are!" I draw out the syllables in 'are' as I step back in admiration of him. "5'10," He answers but then continues "And I see ya haven't grown a bit!" I laugh in agreement and shyly say "Yeah, I'm a full foot shorter than you." "Well then, my Barbie doll," He bends down to pick me up and carries me like a sack of potatoes down to what looks like a quarry. "Let's go have some fun!" He smiles deviously at me but not dirtily, like other guys would when they say to go have fun. I could tell with Shane it was just going to be good, old fashioned fun. As he carried me toward the water, I realized how quickly this had escalated. One minute we were just being reunited and the next his hand was dangerously close to my never, never land. "Can you swim?" He asks me as he takes my boots off. "What are you doing Shane?" I inquire, with a bit of fear in my voice. Before I even have time to think, I am soaking wet in the quarry. "What the hell Shane!" But before he even answered me, he joined me in the surprisingly temperate water. I looked at him, wondering why I was so strongly attracted to someone who had basically been raised as my brother. Now, I didn't believe in love at first sight or anything, but I had had a crush on him since I was 10 and he was 21. From the time that we had met, Shane had always protected me like an older sibling would, but maybe, since I was finally an adult, did he see me as something more? "Shane?" I hear a voice about 10 yards away yelling to my companion. "I hear yelling, is everything alright? A gray haired woman then comes into view with what appears to be her ten year old daughter. "Don't worry Carol, we're cool!" He smirks at me and for some reason I do the same. "Ok hon, but be sure to grab some dinner later!" She exclaimed and then went back to playing with her daughter. "So," I said, swimming closer to Shane "I thought we were gonna play." He laughs and wraps his arms around me. "Fine, what shall we play?" I pretend to go into deep thought and that just makes his dark eyes shine brighter. "I have an idea!" I start to tell him my idea but he stops my thought with covering my mouth with his hand. "Do you trust me?" He asks, looking deep into me. I nod and smirk at him. "Than lets go!" All of a sudden, both of us are completely submerged. I open my eyes, and even though the water stings, I'm glad I did because I see Shane looking back at me. At that moment, I knew I couldn't hold back my feelings anymore. I pushed myself to him and kissed his mouth. I had no idea what came over me at that instant, but for that moment in time it just felt right. Why not kiss my childhood crush? I could die tomorrow and he would if never known how I'd felt about him. So I said, to hell with it, and allowed my sweet emotions to get the best of me. When we finally resurfaced, both red in the face from holding our breath underwater for so long, we just smiled. I couldn't believe that any of this was happening, from the dead walking to my heart pounding from pure joy. After a period of time of just swimming in the quarry together, asking each other questions, we finally went up to get dinner. The walk up to camp was difficult, seeing that we were soaking wet, hungry, and watching our backs for walkers. However when we got there it was well worth it, apparently the Dixon's had caught a baby deer earlier so we were having venison. "I've gotta go plan the next mission with some others, I'll see you after suppa'." He gave me a quick kiss on the head before walking away to a few guys. "Oh, wait Maci!" I turned around and gave him an inquiring look. "Do you hav'a tent?" I shook my head no and said, "Guess we're roomies!" I yell back and and then start off to get some if that venison. As I ate I chatted with a girl just a bit older than me, Amy. She seemed really nice but I've always just been more of a reserved person so she did most of the talking. During the meal I just wished Shane would hurry up planning the next trip so he could come and share his body heat, because standing at only 4'10 tall, I didn't generate much. Oh if only the outbreak would of started in the Spring instead of Fall. Here in Georgia, days were hot and nights were cold so there really was no way to get comfortable. At what seemed like 9 o'clock, I retired to Shane's tent. It was one of those family sized ones that could easily sleep four people and it had little zippered windows to cool us off at night, as if we needed to be cooled off in forty degree weather. As I walked toward my new room, I couldn't help but wonder what had become of my family. When the outbreak hit my little Georgia town, I had been at a high school friends home, about three miles north of where my parents and siblings had been. Half if me was kicking myself for not going to see if they were alright. I knew deep in my heart that they weren't alive, but what about my baby brother? He was only seven years young so chances were- "Stop!" I said to myself "He could be with a group just like you Maci." I ran my hands through my hair to keep myself from crying, it was unsuccessful. I collapse onto Shane's blow up mattress and wonder what made him think to bring a luxury item when he was packing for the end of the world. I stay there for a while, emotionless, until Shane comes in. He sees me just sitting there and immediately wraps his arms around me, smoothing my hair as I cry into his dingy shirt. "The pain doesn't go away, Maci, we just make room for it." Hearing those words come out of his mouth hurts me but I know it's true. I need to be stronger and not let the pain control me. "Shane," I say smiling gently, pulling away slightly so I can look into his eyes. "I don't have pajamas." He fakes a disbelief expression, grabbing my face gently in his large, calloused hands. "How could you forget the most vital instrument for survival!" I giggle, yes giggle, as he pretends to be exasperated at me. "And you know what?" He continues as he reaches for something in his duffel. "I bet you think that I'm just gonna let you 'borrow' one of my shirts." I get down on my knees mocking a plea. "Please, Oh Mighty Walsh, may I be granted the honor of sleeping in a semi-clean t-shirt of yours?" I can tell now that every single one of his guards are down because of me. Surprisingly, he did the same thing to me. "Ya know," He said with a smirk slowly spreading across his face "If ya want something, y've gotta work for it." As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed a mock F.B.I shirt out of his bag, and I lunged for it. "Gimmie it!" I yell from on top of him, my left hand on his face as I reached for the garment. "C'mon babe, I don't give in that easily." He flips me over and sits on top of me. As soon as he does that, his expression changes instantly. It went from a playful smile to mouth slightly ajar, breathing heavily. Licking his lips slowly, he whispers, "Your last birthday was your...?" I place my hand on his cheek, gently stroking it with my thumb. "Nineteenth." I see a small smile cross his face as he leans into me, about to place his mouth on mine. However, at the last second I pull away and flip us both putting me on top of him. "No way dude," I say, smirking. "I call the shots." He opens his mouth to protest but is cut short by the quick appearance of my lips. I kissed him hard, yet slowly, as if to savor each delicious morsel. He made me feel so wonderfully carefree and almost made my mind forget the hell that was now reality. "Damn," He moaned when I pulled an inch away to gulp some air. "Your good." I smiled and kissed his earlobe gently, working my way down to his jawline. He pushed his chest just a bit upward to press us even more together. His kisses start to spread all over my face, neck, and shoulders before landing back on my mouth. I bite on his bottom lip and slowly drag my hands through his curly brown hair. I break free and smile at the person who I knew,for sure now, I loved. Especially since he didn't give me grief for not wanting to go any farther. "I'll take my shirt now darlin'." Shane smiles and playfully rolls his eyes, tossing the navy colored cotton t-shirt at my feet. "Turn around pig!" I yell, pretending to be mad, and wiggle my pointer finger around. "Geez, doll. Ya don't needa be so...commanding." He finishes his sentence with a smile and I retaliate with a quick flip of the bird. "Ok...ah, done!" I had pulled off my own flimsy tee and replaced it with his heavy cotton one, slipping off my denim shorts too. I don't know why I felt so happy when I put on Shane's clothing, almost like I felt some sense of familiar in something of his. "Um," He started, looking down at the mattress shyly "I can sleep on tha' ground if ya want." "No, no," I say "I'll share." I smile and lay down next to him on the full sized blow up bed. "Now hop in, I'm losing body heat!" He chuckles lightly and climbs in behind me. "G'night moonbeam." Even with my back turned toward him, I can feel him smile on my neck then places a small kiss on me. Being with Shane proves for me that, even in a world where the dead are king, we can still have normal human emotions...like lust and love. I just hope that with all that is going on, we can still lead a semi normal life. But with Shane, I know that everything will work out in the end.