AN: Howdy guys, I know I said that this wouldn't be up for a while, but here it is anyway, the sequel to Until Dawn. I've got quite a few stories that will be uploaded over the next few weeks, hopefully including the next chapter to Better Than Paris, which I've been having some trouble with. All the stories that are uploaded, including this one, will be long term fics, which means that they won't be uploaded regularly, because I like having each chapter perfectly thought out before I upload them, and that takes me a while. But hopefully, it'll help us pass the time until the third season comes out.

There are no real spoilers for season two here, as Until Dawn started at the end of season one, but there might be a few references to scenes from the past. Piper/Alex's relationship, etc, etc. And as always, none of these characters belong to me, they belong to the wonderful Piper Kerman and Jenji Kohan.

Rated M for sexual scenes, extreme violence (if you read Until Dawn, you know what I'm talking about) and for some very bad language. This story will be a bit darker than Until Dawn, if that's possible, though there will still be some humour thrown in. It's also set around two years after the end of Until Dawn.

Enjoy!

After Dark

Prologue

One hundred and forty six days, that is how long it's been since I've seen her. Once upon a time, I would have given anything, everything, just to forget her; to forget what she looks like, what she smells like, how her body felt beneath my fingers. But now, now that I am actually started to forget the lines of her face, the color of her eyes, the thought of forgetting her fucking terrifies me. For so long, she has been the one thing that has kept me going in this fucked up world, the one thing that forced me to open my eyes every day, to fight, to live. For half of my life, she has been the one constant, always there, whether it was in person or in the back of my mind, she was always there and I never forgot.

I always thought that there was some fucked up deity that kept bringing us together, since it seemed so impossible that I ever even met her in the first place, and kept on meeting her. It started as a chance meeting one night in a bar, which turned into another chance meeting weeks later at a party and then another that led me to her home where we fucked for the first time, and I experienced the awkward and crazy situation of meeting her girlfriend up close. After that, the chance meetings weren't so by chance; I began to pursue her as she had pursed me and it was the start of something beautiful which turned into something so ugly and I thought it was the end. But I found her again, almost ten years later in prison, and I thought there was no way it could just be a coincidence; something or someone was trying to give me a sign that we were supposed to be together.

But now I'm starting to think that maybe the deity is just some cruel bitch that likes to fuck with me, by bringing her back into my life only to tear her from my grasp again. Because Alex is gone and the chances of finding her again are slim and I feel the last bit of my hope beginning to fade with each passing day.

I once promised her that I would fight a thousand zombies with my bare hands to be with her, and I will not break that promise as she never broke hers. I will find her, and that deity so hell bent on keeping us apart can go straight to Hell, because I've never put much faith in the gods anyway, and I'm not about to start now. My destination is Litchfield Prison and my search is for Alex, who I can only hope is out there somewhere, searching for me too.

/

Chapter One

The streets are quiet, eerily so, immediately raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck as I listen intently from my place in the shadows. It's so quiet that I can hear the steady thump of my heart beating in my chest, as I sit upon the floor with my gun held tightly in my shaky hands. My eyes are completely focused on the too empty road, watching and waiting for the slightest hint of movement, and I'm grateful for my patience when I see the shadows begin to shift and form into figures.

I am currently in a city just outside of New York, one that I passed through what seemed like a lifetime ago, with a rag tag group of women. My destination is the one place that I never thought I'd willingly go to again, but I don't have any other choice. It's my only chance to ever see her again and I am completely willing to risk my life on the dangerous journey to get there. My memories of the last few months are hazy at best, though I am entirely aware of where I am and how I got here. My memories are hazy, not because of some blow to the skull or a bout of amnesia, but because I've been alone for so long that my days have begun to blur together. It is the same routine, day in and day out, wake up just before nightfall, eat, creep, attack, hide, and rest as the sun comes up. I have only one goal, and that it to hopefully find her; no stone has been left unturned and no city has been left unsearched as I look in every corner for a glimpse of her face.

The scrape of a boot on concrete alerts me to the fact that I'm not alone and I curse violently in the safety of my own mind. As silently as possible, I bolt from my hiding place, but it is no use; they are following me and they will not stop. They feel no fear, have no need for sleep or sustenance to keep going, they just want to eat and I'm the only meal in a fifty mile radius.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, I groan as I skid around a corner and inadvertently crash into a garbage can, full of empty bottles and cans, which had to make the loudest noise in the history of the earth as they spilled across the pavement, alerting my followers to my location. I didn't dare to look behind me, and instead just kept putting one foot in front of the other, ignoring my exhaustion after having been up for the past three days straight in my desperation to reach my final destination. I was so fucking close, and in an act of complete stupidity, had decided to travel through a town while it was still dark and had walked straight into a pit of starving zombies.

I should have kept to the woods; it was fucking creepy as shit in there, but the chance of walking into a stray zombie was minimal, but I was unwilling to take the long way around. I had been alone for so long, and while I had more than a six by six square of space to pace in, I felt as if I'd been locked up in SHU for half a year. It had been so long since I had seen another living being, even longer since I'd had a conversation with one, touched one, I felt as if I was losing my mind. Ever since America and all the surrounding countries had been put through quarantine, the lack of human life had become devastatingly obvious. The US Government, or what was left of it, were taking absolutely no chances, which meant that they'd kill innocent people if there was even the slightest chance that they'd been infected.

I was almost surprised that they hadn't just nuked the entire country already.

As I sprinted out of the city and onto the main road that would lead me to Litchfield, without any of the supplies I'd been hoping for, I once again cursed the US Government, for the thousandth time. Taking out every one of those bastards was on my list of things to do, right after I found Alex. They had taken me from her and I planned to pay them back for my misery tenfold.

"I'm going to throw up."

"You better not," a husky voice responded, laced with amusement. "I've already seen enough vomit today, thank you very much. Can't you hear Lorna down the hall? She sounds like a dying cat, it's disgusting in there."

"You're supposed to love me," I pouted, earning a husky chuckle in response. "You're my girlfriend, you're supposed to support me in the hard times, you know? Hold my hand when I'm sad, reassure me when I'm insecure and comfort me when I'm about to throw my fucking guts up, you asshole."

"Piper, I killed a fucking zombie with my bare hands for you, not three days ago; that's fucking love right there," Alex said as she sat down on the edge of the bed, gently caressing my back as I sat with my elbows on my knees, white knuckling a, so far empty, bucket. "Plus, since when have you had a problem with boats? I've never known for you to get sea sick before."

"I've never been on a boat in the middle of a fucking storm," I grumbled in response, groaning when the boat suddenly pitched forward, almost throwing me from my seat. Thankfully, Alex managed to grab me just before I pitched into the wall of our secluded little cabin, her thumbs caressing my arms as she pulled me back against her chest. "See? This is fucking ridiculous."

"I don't think that was the storm, babe," Alex murmured softly in my ear before going silent, her thumbs stilling in their movement. I turned my head to look at her serious face, frowning as I watched her features slowly harden.

"Alex? What's wrong?" I whispered as my girlfriend's grip on me tightened, but my question was answered before Alex even opened her mouth. A door slammed open somewhere nearby, and suddenly, I could hear people yelling and screaming, and my entire body jolted as I heard the sound of gunfire. "What the-"

"Piper, grab your shit." Alex was suddenly off the bed, scrambling around on the floor as she packed our meagre belongings into our bags. I watched her with wide, shocked eyes, unable to move until Alex's glanced at me over her shoulder, her eyes burning with worry. "Come on!"

I immediately stood from the bed, my hand reaching for one of the double barrel shot guns wedged in between our cot and a crate that had been nailed to the floor. My fingers were barely wrapped around the handle when the door slammed open, and Janae's worried face was filling my vision. "We need to go."

"What the fuck is going on?" Alex threw our bags over her shoulders as we followed Watson into the dimly lit corridor as the ship swayed beneath our feet. I caught sight of Nicky, Red and Lorna leaving their room just down the hall, looking equally as worried as Alex sounded and Janae looked.

"We've been fuckin' boarded," Janae spoke hurriedly as she ushered us down the corridor, throwing looks back over her shoulder every few seconds. "I was up on deck with the crew, helping out 'cause of the storm and these fucking assholes came up alongside us. Fucking quarantine, man, we gotta get the fuck out of here."

"Fuck," I breathed, feeling panic begin to seize me as I practically started running down the hallway with my friends behind me. We had just left Spain after the government had shown up to put its citizens through their fucked up version of quarantine and I had no intention of sticking around just to be killed if I had the smallest scratch on my person.

"Where are we going?" Morello's voice was tinged heavily with the fear that I could feel coursing through my own veins and I listened intently for Watson's reply.

"There are some boats on the other side of the ships where we're heading," Janae responded hurriedly. "The crew is holdin' em off up there, they might even win, but I ain't takin' any chances."

I had never been so thankful for a group of old navy marines in my life as we climbed up the stairs that would lead us onto the deck. A cold blast of wind slammed into my face like a block of ice, but I pushed forwards as I stumbled across the swaying deck, ignoring the sounds of fighting from the other end of the ship. It wasn't a large ship, and the lifeboats were small, old husks of wood, but it would be enough to get us as far away from here as possible. They were strapped to the deck and attached at each end by thick pieces of rope, and with Watson's help, we finally managed push one over the edge to land with a splash in the water, thankfully upright.

"Go," I hurried to Nicky, Red and Lorna, herding them to the rickety ladder that led off the ship as Watson began to cut the rope that attached the boats to the deck. I gestured for Watson to follow as I started on the other line, watching her out of the corner of my eye as she headed down the ladder.

"Hurry up, Pipes," Alex was waiting by the ladder, her eyes on my rapidly moving hands. I turned to snap back at her, and had only barely a moment to react when her eyes widened with horror.

"STOP!"

"Alex, go!" I turned as a group of men rushed towards us, rifles pointing in our direction. I knew that reaching for my weapons would only cause them to fire, so I continued sawing at the thick ropes in my hands. "ALEX, GO, NOW!"

"DON'T MOVE! WE WILL SHOOT YOU!"

I felt one of their hands on me, the moment I cut through the last of the rope and I immediately began to struggle. I heard more than saw the moment that Alex moved towards me, more willing to die than to leave without me, but the moment the man's hands wrapped around my arms, I was fucked and we both knew it.

But Alex wasn't, and I wasn't about to let her die for me, not after I'd put so much effort into keeping her alive.

I knew it the moment she was within reach, felt the guard that was holding me stiffen, as the rest of the men readied their weapons to fire. I struck out with my legs and felt them hit something solid, and was rewarded with the sound of my girlfriend exhaling painfully as I knocked the breath of out her, and then the blissful sound of her body hitting the ocean.

Using a technique that I had learnt after being grabbed from behind by zombies a thousand times in the last two years, I slammed my head back into the face of the man holding me and heard the satisfying crunch of his nose breaking. His gripped loosened just enough for me to surge forwards, to get a glimpse over the side of the boat, before strong arms were wrapping around me and pulling me backwards.

But it was enough. I had seen Nicky gripping Alex's drenched clothes as she pulled her into the boat, which was rocking dangerously on the angry ocean. I had seen Janae swiftly unlashing the oars and guiding the boat away from this godforsaken ship, hopefully to safety. I had caught her eye for a bare moment, had seen the regret that reflected my own; her regret at leaving me behind and my own regret at being unable to escape.

But I hadn't completely failed, even though I could feel my heart shattering in my chest at Alex's heart wrenching cry of my name. I felt relieved, even as I was pushed face first onto the deck of the ship, cruel hands digging into my arms and the barrel of a gun pressed to my temple.

"PIPER! NO! PIPER!" It hurt more than the butt of the rifle that slammed into my head, but darkness took me quickly and then I knew nothing at all.