Run. Faster. Don't you dare look back. I turned a corner, muscles screaming for me to stop and rest my under-used leg. But stopping now was not an option. I had to get away. I didn't have time to worry about the larger male running beside me or what we might be running straight for, all I knew was here wasn't safe enough for them anymore.

Looking around for a place to rest, I found more than I could have asked for. I spotted a building around 15 yards ahead with boarded-up windows and a strong looking door that could stand great amount of force before it gave way. Perfect. Maybe their situation wasn't so bad. Maybe.

"Snake, keep up! Follow me!" I yelled. He had to run faster or the walkers would catch up. My partner, Snake, had cut his calf on a large rusty nail yesterday and, due to the infected gash, he had began to lag behind. I could tell all this running was terribly painful and excrutiating for him, but they had to do this for me, for the small being inside of me, he just had to. It was run or die. I pulled on his arm. He had lost a lot of weight and, in turn, some muscle and fat due to his malnutrition and exercise. He desperatly needed it all back right now. The arm was thinner than I remebered it being the last time I had truely taken time to observe it, but I still could barely get my hand around half of Snake's fore arm. I tugged him in the direction of the building. He got the message We ran for the concrete safe haven as fast as our legs would carry us. We practically tripped over each other in an attempt to get in.

"Scott, the door," Snake panted out. I understood. I ran over, closing the door and locking all of the nummerous lock. I was so worn out and spent from the run, but my own exaustion was not important right now. I went over to where Snake had collapsed against the wall in a puddle of misery and exaustion. He closed his eyes tight as the adrenian wore off and the pain set in. I saw blood begin to drip from the cotten bandages I had wrapped around it that morning. It would be infected, but I hoped Snake's coming to me almost immediatly and my beyond needed cleaning of the wound would prevent the deadly tetanus that might claim his leg or possibly, his life. Or what was left of it. That was pretty much just me and the unborn child I was carrying. So little remained of our past, it might as well be forgotten by now. We never really had time to think about it anyway. But I guess I can humor myself for a small while.

I started think back to the times before all hell broke loose, before the dead came to life, before the infected, before it all, right back to the good old days. I remembered playing vieo games with our frierds and afternoons with Snake just hanging out, I remembered holidays with our families and the sight of a full moon overhead while I slept peacefully in my husband's arms. The sweet memories I had, they felt like they were a lifetime beyond us. Such beauty seemed frivolous and out of place in this dark reality that surrounded us. Any hint of innocence and sweetness in the world was irraticated.

...Well, almost any.

I placed a dirty hand over the decent sized and obvious bulge of my stomach. Almost exactly four months before the infected began to invade, Snake and I decided we wanted to have a kid. The obvious choice was adoption. But we decided this child was to be ours, and only ours. After a month of extreme surgeries and medications, it was possible. I was now female in the eyes of docters and physicans though, having a uterus and vagina. Neither Snake or I liked that fact, but this is the sacrafice we both knew would have to happen in order to live out our dream having a family. It didn't even take 2 weeks before Snake came home to find ten different pregnency test sitting on the bathroom sink next to a stuffed pink teddybear. We had hoped for a little girl, so I thought it could serve as a good omen. At first, I couldn't believe it, so I got some more. Two lines, pink, smiley face Every single test confermed it. I was pregnant with Snake's child. At first, I was exstatic. I couldn't wait to be the best father possible for my new little one. It couldn't come soon enough back then. Now, with only 2 and a half months left, I thought about the terrible truth. I would bring a child into a world full of the living dead. They would never know the feeling of a permanent home. This precious little human being growing inside me will have to face the same fate as her fathers, running, hiding, surviving. Our daughter wouldn't get to experience being a child.

A rather load grunt pulled me from my deep train of thought. I looked to Snake. The bleeding in his leg was slowing down, but it had began to show inflammation around the cut. I quickely cleaned and dressed the wound. I had to be gentle because I didn't want to hurt him too much. After finishing off his leg, I reached into one of our two backpacks and pulled out a bag of trail mix and a bottle of water. We ate sparingly and only drank a small amout of the water. I took moke than I would have, I mean, if it were just me I was trying to keep healthy. Eating for two wasn't an easy thing to do. Some days, Snake went hungry just to make sure I got what I needed, what she needed. I always tried to tell him it was fine. He didn't buy it. Once he had said that he would starve if it ment we were fine and safe from anything that tried to harm us. I knew then, Snake was going to be an amazing dad when the time came. He would do anything for us, even if it ment dying for us.

I crawled up to my huband. A cold chill had settled in the room and Snake was like a heater most of the time. I slipped myself under his large arm and layed my head on his chest as I curled up close. He wrapped me up in his arms indearingly. I wasn't the Snake I was used to, but still, I loved the feeling Snake's arms around my heavily pregnant body.

"So, what do you think," he whispered, his warm lips brushing against my ear. I smiled lightly.

"About," I ask.

"Should we sleep in shifts tonight," he asked. I looked around at all the windows and the door. Strong and sturdy. Inpenitrable in a way.

"Nah, this place is like a fortress. No walker could ever get through. I think it's safe enough to sleep together," I concluded. The room grew silent for a few minutes.

"How are you and her doing," he asked. I glanced up at him. He looked concerned in an almost loving way.

"Fine as we can be, concidering the cercuimstances. She's moving more than she used to. It's like she's doing gymnastics in there," I pointed towards my swollen stomach, giggling. Snake chuckled but quickly became straighfaced again.

"Not trying to say offensive, but it seems like your a little bit bigger than you're supposed to be at this stage in your pregnancy," Snake raised his hands slightly, arms stiil around me, "Not trying to be mean, just thinking out loud."

I bit my lip a little as my cheecks flushed. Crap, not now. "Yeah, I know and I am. The doctor in the last town said it was most likely just going to be a larger child, but something doesn't feel right about that idea. I just think it might be something else." I let Snake contemplate this lie I constructed

"So what do believe is happening," he asked.

"I'n not too sure myself, could just be water weight or something stupid like that, but I'm scared to say what I think it might be." Come on, tell him already. It won't get easier

"What do you think it truely is if it isn't a larger child or water weight?" I thought about how I was gonna say this to him many times before, but now that I could, I was scared that I'd get stuck on the words he so desperetly needed to hear.

"I-I don't think it's anything as simple as t-that. Sometimes I f-feel like ou-our little girl isn't alone. At night, when you were asleep, I went to t-the doctor in the last town one last t-time before w-we head-eaded ou-out and told h-him about ho-ow sometimes I-I fe-feel a se-sec-second set of fee-et. H-he d-did an ul-ultras-sound a-an' t-to-told m-me th-that -I w-wa-was hav-ving twi-in-ins," I couldn't help it as the tears began to fall. Twins, both girls, were currently resting their sweet little heads inside of me. The innocent children that Snake and I had wanted for so long were going to have to be born facing challenges from the outside world that their parents could barely overcome. By creating life, he had destroyed their chances to have a happy one, a real life filled with long summer days, jumping into piles of leaves when autumn came around, Christmas mornings, hours and hours of playing with them and all their friends, birthdays, New Years celebrations, school, everything you remember from your childhood, it would never happen for my little girls because of me.

Suddenly, I felt strong arms make their way around my waist. I clung to him as I cried. I didn't care who heard me or that I was soaking Snake's shirt with my tearful sobs, I just let it go, all the stress and pain of the last 6 or so months slip down my face. Every bit of angst and guilty and frustration manifested into sobs, gripping Snake's as though he would leave me there if I didn't keep a good grip onyo him Fuck being strong for a little while, right now, it felt good to just cry and hiccup into Snake's sholder while he whispered soothing calming words into my left ear. I wanted to cry until I was numb with depression, but I knew tha wouldn't be good for our girls. I slowely calmed down as fatique hit me life a ton of bricks. I layed my head on a dry part of his shirt while he stroked my hair, telling me reassuringly:

It's okay, I'm here, nothing will hurt you, any of you. I love all of you

And with that, I allowed my heavy lidded eyes to fall closed as I slipped off into unconciousness with Snake still whispering "I love all of you."