"I love ya."

The words blurted out of my mouth in a split second's time. The middle of my rifle was pressed up against Andrea's chest. We'd been fightin', and it wasn't that pretty. Her and I were raising a ruckus and the moans outside the house proved it.

"G'damn it. I love ya...!" She didn't respond immediately. She just stood there with a frozen look on her face. She seemed to have no idea what I said. It hit her with surprise.

It was all about me and Andrea now. We had left the group just a couple of hours ago while we were on the road to Fort Benning. Made a quick decision and parted from the group. Figured they wouldn't come after us, and with luck, they didn't. We were partners in crime with the potential to be partners in love. Nothing could save us now. We had both gone all in on the game of life with nothing but an eight highcard.

There were moments when it got tough, even before we left the group. And then there's moments like these, where awkwardness penetrates the bond that only exists in friendship.

"Shane..."

"Shh. Don't talk." I slung my rifle over my shoulder via the strap. I put my arms on her shoulders and entwined my hands around her neck. Our lips touched in a moment of harmony. It wasn't a french kiss, but something deeper then that. "I'll protect ya, Andrea. You know that, right?"

"Yes, I-" Her eyes widened and darted to the side of my head. She began to tremble, and stuttered out words. "B-behind you!"

I barely had time to turn around before the walker crowded the doorway. The house we were in was small, and the room we were in had no exits but the doorway. I only had a second to realize what I had to do. "Aw hell. Don't make noise," I whispered to her. "Stay back, keep the gun trained on him in case something bad should happen."

I skirted around the edge of the room, withdrawing my knife from my bandoleer. Andrea's shaky hands pulled her colt out of the holster on her waistline. I sneaked up on the walker, knife in hand. I waited a moment before striking it in the head; blood and grey matter erupted from the entry point. The head was now in two pieces.

I sliced both parts off clean with my knife.

Andrea sighed in relief. "That was close, Shane. I wasn't sure we were going to make it..."

"It's okay, Andrea. I made you a promise." However, it was beginning to show that keeping that promise would be a challenge itself. I heard moaning come from just outside the open doorway. "Oh hell..." I peeked out into the hallway. A walker was shuffling into the house, and by the quantity of moans I heard, more were behind it.

I put my knife away and slid my rifle into my hands. "Andrea, get out your shotgun. We're going to need it."

Andrea took out our Ambrose from her sack. It was already loaded fully; ten shells. I sighed and ran my hand through my stubbly hair. "We need to get upstairs and barricade try to jump out the window. There's got to be one somewhere, and the house don't look too high to kill us in the fall. No way in hell are we getting out from the front door, and the windows aren't an option. They'd be on us in seconds. Are you up for this?"

"I am, Shane. Just get me the hell out of here, will you?"

I nodded and took off into the hallway. By the sound of footsteps, I knew that Andrea was right behind me. Together, we ran up the stairs and looked down the hallway. At first I didn't see any open rooms, but then Andrea pointed in the direction of a small doorway at the end of the hall to the right.

"There!"

We took off running. As we walked in, we saw a bolted window on the wall above a twin sized bed. Andrea spoke quietly after a sigh of defeat. "We're trapped, Shane. Oh my god. We're going to die." She began to melt down. Her shotgun slid from her hands to the floor.

"No, we won't. Get your shotgun out; you're going to need it if we're going to escape." I told her through gritted teeth. "Don't give up on me now, damn it. We'll survive after this.

"Not for long, Shane." She sighed, and looked to her right. I followed her gaze to see a desk of decent size rest in the corner. "Help me move this desk.. it'll give us time to think. Andrea rushed to the desk and began to drag it to the door. I wasn't sure of her intent for a moment, but nevertheless I helped her move the object. It didn't take long to put it by the doorway.

"It won't hold long once they get up here," I told her. I was beginning to get nervous. Can't give up.

Andrea had just begun to pry and try to raise the window. "It's bolted," she recognized.

"I already knew that. Step aside," I chuckled lightly and withdrew my USP from my waistline holster. A twenty-two was firmly packed on my left shin, right above my boots.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to blow out the bolts. Should be able to raise it up that way. If that doesn't work, I'm going to blast the window open. We can get out that way for sure." I took aim at the first of the two large bolts on the top of the window.

"Why don't you just shoot the window itself? No need to waste a bullet," she argued. I chuckled at that.

"The glass spatter'll leave us bleedin' for weeks, Andrea. I'd rather a replaceable bullet then you injured." And with those words, I blew out the first bolt from the window. Andrea covered her ears for the next shot.

Bang!

With both bolts shot out, I realized that I couldn't raise the window that way. "Oh hell..." This is going to hurt quite a bit.

I took off my black tee and wrapped it around my elbow. "Stand back a bit, Andrea. This won't make the glass fly for sure, but it damn well might."

"Okay." She walked backwards and to the side. With that movement, I heard the walkers pounding away at the door. Andrea nearly fainted; but she recollected herself enough to stabalize the desk against the attacks. "Quickly, damn it!"

I took a moment to breath. "Oh hell, woman. I'm going." With those five words, I elbowed the glass right out of the window. Several shards flew into the room, but I managed to avoid any permanent injuries.

"Are you hurt?" I could barely hear Andrea with the pounding of walkers.

"Nothin' serious."

"I don't like what you did there. You could've killed yourself."

"If I hadn't of, we'd have died a much brutal death. And besides, it got the window open. Come on." I stuffed my shirt into the back of my pants and slid myself out the window. There wasn't anything to put my feet on. I managed to hold myself until only my hands were on the window sill. After that, I was able to drop the four feet that remained until the ground.

"Oof!"

I landed on my ankle awkwardly. It brought my to my back; I wasn't able to get up for a moment. And to top it all off, several walkers were walking towards me. "Andrea...! Quickly!" The words escaped me without me even knowing. Andrea repeated what I had done, minus the fall.

"Shit! Shane, are you okay?" She gave me her hand. It took me a minute to realize what she wanted; when I did, I pulled myself up with her help. "Uh..there's.." She began to tremble and point at the horde approaching. I heard a large bang as they busted through the bedroom door above us.

I picked my USP up from the ground. "Oh hell...C'mon!" I started to run towards the road. Our van was parked just on the side of the sidewalk. Our commotion had driven them away for the most part. With some fancy footwork, we managed to get around the walkers and to the vehicle.

We both rushed to open the doors and get in. She didn't bother going around the van to hop in the passenger seat; she hopped into the middle row as I took the drivers seat. We were both panting. I turned the key to ignite the car's engine. It took a couple of tries, and it worried me for a moment. Walkers were shuffling to the van. They were almost there when I managed to get the engine to run.

I sighed in relief as I realized we were going to survive another day. "You alright?" I said, looking at her via the backside mirror.

"Physically, I'm a bit scraped up..."

"Emotionally?"

"I'm not doing too good, Shane. I'm missing the others."

"We can go to Fort Benning, if you want to."

"You would do that?"

"Yeah, I would," I replied with a sigh. "I guess it wasn't that smart an idea to head off, don't you think?" I let out a chuckle at myself.

Andrea didn't return the laugh. "Yes, I think."

"Listen, uh...about what I said earlier..." I was having trouble saying the words.

"I know you didn't mean it. Just...don't."

"No, I.." I paused before regaining my senses.

"I did mean it."