8: North and South

Ellis sat totally still for minutes, he could hardly believe that Zoey had said yes. "Can it really be true", he thought. He looked directly into her beautiful green eyes. She smiled at him and he felt himself melting away. This feeling was like nothing he had ever had before. He had never been serious about anything in his life. His mother had often admonished him for his carefree attitude and what she perceived as his lack of seriousness. And yet here he was, at what could well be the start of the rest of his life.

Zoey too was quiet for a moment, and she looked at Ellis. His baby blue eyes were staring at her. Now that he wasn't wearing his mechanic cap she could clearly see his somewhat messy and curly brown hair. He was very handsome with his cap off. She was the first of the two to break the silence. "Ellis… Ellis… you can talk to me… Ellis are you there?"

Ellis suddenly realized that he was still holding Nick's little box with the rings in it. "I'm… I'm… ehhh… I don't know… emmm… oh yes I was going to give you this. Is it OK if I put in on your left hand? I mean with the machine and the wires and blood plasma thing on your right side?" Zoey nodded to him and saw him smiling at last. Finally Ellis' nerves calmed down and he took her left hand, softly caressed it and took the red sapphire ring out of the box, and slowly slid it on her ring finger. "I will have them all cleaned up and all that but there was no time and I didn't expect…".

She interrupted him again, "It's beautiful, Ellis. Can you put the other one between my fingers? I can't use my right hand but I want to do this. Ellis did what she asked him. Then he extended his right hand and slowly she managed to put it on his finger. He started his next sentence "I would like to…" but then decided to lift himself up out of his wheelchair and reached with his lips to hers and they kissed. It lasted but fifteen seconds but to Ellis it seemed like forever in heaven. Ellis sat himself back down. He held her hand. She told him he had no reason to be nervous around her. "You weren't so nervous the first night when I slept in your arms, back in that safe room. But you look very cute when you're nervous", she giggled.

Ellis then started to tell her how he had gotten the rings. "They were a gift from a friend". Zoey was incredulous and asked if that friend was Keith. "No. It's someone you know. In fact, he was one of our survivor group. I doubt you would believe it". Zoey was thinking to herself who could it have been, it was certainly not Francis, and it could not be Coach or Louis, nor Rochelle… but that left… Nick? Ellis confirmed it. "Wow", she said. "I never expected that". Ellis added that Nick had said sorry for his behavior, and that Nick was going to look for a ex-girlfriend that might have been pregnant when he had left her.

Zoey was starting to feel very tired. She had been as overwhelmed as Ellis though not nearly as nervous. It all felt so strange, two people who basically hardly knew each other, yet were both deeply in love with one another. It made no sense, not in a world of tragedy and loss, but yet it felt right in every way. Zoey thought that if her dorm roommate Fiona from university heard about it, if she had survived that is, she would not believe it. Zoey, a typical Northern girl with a Southern boy? No way.

"Ellis, I don't want you to go away but I think I need to rest now. And you too. Don't forget to come back tomorrow because we have so much to talk about". "I will", he promised. It was right at this moment that the doctor came into the room with an apologetic looking Keith behind him. "I couldn't keep them out any longer", Keith said. Zoey looked at the young scar-faced man with the red hair and Ellis told her that it was the Keith she might have heard about. The doctor told her she needed to get some rest, and was about to order Ellis of the room before he noticed the ring on her hand, and then the one on his hand. Immediately he started to apologize, "I'm sorry… I didn't interrupt anything did I… your friend here did his best to keep me out of this room… I'm sorry". "I was about to back to my room anyway… we both need rest", Ellis told him. The doctor kept apologizing and promised to be back the next day to check up on her progress. Ellis said goodbye to Zoey and she waved at him. "See you tomorrow sweet Ellis". She fell asleep almost immediately.

As Keith pushed Ellis back in his wheelchair, he laughed and patted Ellis on the head. "I guess she said yes, from the look on your face". Ellis told him that it felt so right but he still had difficulty believing it himself. "Imagine that", Keith laughed, "My buddy Ellis is going to get married. So you decided to skip the dating stage eh? I'm totally jealous of you, man, she is very pretty". "Well, first dating days are over, I mean that the moment was right for this. It makes no sense but that's why I trust it". "There's only one thing I wanna know right now Ellis, where's your cap? I mean you look so strange without it, I've hardly ever seen you without a cap". Ellis realized suddenly he had taken it off and hadn't put it back on. It was still in Zoey's room. But that was just fine with him.

At the urging of Ellis' mother the rest of the survivors and she and her daughter had gone back to their temporary homes. While Ellis and Keith were away, she had told the others that they should all wait until the next day. They agreed to that, but none of them had been aware that Zoey had actually woken up.

When Ellis' mother and sister visited him the next morning they got the news. His mother burst out in tears and hugged her son. "I knew you were up to something. Oh my little boy, you've become such a handsome man, just like your father was. I still miss him so much. And when are we going to meet her?" Ellis' sister Jennifer also gave him a big hug. "My little brother has finally grown up", she laughed, "I never expected you to get so serious. And now you're getting married before me!"

Keith arrived not much later, and Ellis said it was time to go visit Zoey. Just as they passed through the main hallway to the intensive care department, they came across some familiar faces. Coach, Rochelle, Louis and Francis were there. Ellis greeted Francis, who expressed his hatred for hospitals but that he had come to check up on Zoey. Rochelle was the most perceptive of the four and pointed at the ring on Ellis' right hand. "I haven't seen you wearing that ring before". They all stopped for a moment as Ellis explained what had happened the previous night. Rochelle and Coach each gave him a hug, and Louis and Francis shook his hand. "I don't hate this", Francis told him. Rochelle put her arm around Francis, and whispered to him "Looks like they will beat us to it". Coach was especially happy as he and Rochelle had put in some effort to try and push the two young survivors towards each other.

The doctor and some of the nurses were standing at Zoey's bed as the door opened. Keith pushed Ellis into the room. The doctor turned around and saw the young man coming in. "I reckon that you had something to do with all of this", he said. Much to the delight of all present the doctor declared that Zoey's recovery was going miraculously fast and she could be moved out of intensive care. "The room next to yours is available", he said to Ellis.

Zoey was very happy to see the other survivors. Nick was not there but Ellis had already told her why. Coach promised that he, Louis, Rochelle and Francis would keep coming back to visit them in the hospital, and how he hoped the group would keep in contact even after that. The four of them left after about an hour. Ellis' mother had been very happy to see her future daughter-in-law but she wanted to give her son some time alone with her. They would need to talk about many things, she figured. "We will also be back later", she said to Ellis. She then dragged her daughter Jennifer out of the room with her and Keith followed them. The doctor and the nurses also left.

"Hi sweet Ellis, you came back again", Zoey smiled at Ellis. "I will never leave you alone, you know that. I will always be there if you need me", Ellis smiled back at her. "I need you now, Ellis". "I'm here", he said. She reached with her left hand under her pillow, and she put his mechanic cap on her own head. He smiled some more at her and told her it looked good on her. They spent some time just looking at each other, and both of them felt like they were falling ever deeper in love.

Ellis asked her if she would be willing to move in with him and his family, until they could get their own place just as soon as the authorities would allow people back out of the safe zone. "Yes, I think that's the best idea. But there are things I need to do". Ellis saw that she was trying to hold back her emotions and offered the fresh handkerchief he had in his pocket. "Sweet Ellis, you're so caring. I need to do things… I need to get closure. I have to go back to my father's apartment, and not just to pick up some things. And also, I want to ask veteran's organizations if they know any family Bill might have had. You never saw Bill alive, but you know he is the one who sacrificed himself to keep Louis, Francis and myself safe. I owe it to him". "Ah reckon the Veteran's Administration is the place to go, if it's still standing", Ellis said. "Zoey, I will go up North to do these things with you, just as soon as we both get better. It might take some weeks with my ankle and all that."

Ellis started telling her about his life, and how he had been on so many adventures, driving cars, riding horses, and generally spending lots of time outdoors with his buddies. Zoey then told him she had been so wrong about him. She had figured she was the adventurous type, the confident Northern girl and he the Southern boy who had hardly ever left his home city. "Now I realize I'm the one who always stayed at home, indoors, locking myself up to watch movies, which I also did in my university semester. You've seen and done so much more than I ever have. And I want to do all these things with you. I've never been on a horse in my life". Ellis' eyes started lighting up and he promised to teach her to ride. "There's another place I want to take you", Ellis said. "And that's Whispering Oaks Amusement Park, I used to love to go there. I hope they reopen it". And next spring…

Several weeks passed and during this period the authorities announced that they were going to start cleaning up the mess the Green Flu had caused. State authorities in Georgia were going to start with Savannah. People would be given the opportunity to return home, which most who had survived did. Cemeteries would be replaced with memorial parks, and many other measures were announced. It was going to be a whole new world, and it would take some time to get back to normal, as far as that was possible. There were going to be many tributes and memorials and also much remembrance.

Ellis' mother moved back into her house in Savannah, and Ellis and Zoey moved in with her and Ellis' sister. It was a temporary arrangement until they could get a place of their own. It was now midway December and both Zoey and Ellis had fully recovered from their physical wounds.

They were sitting on the couch, and she was curled up in his arms. Nothing made her feel more comfortable than that. And Ellis loved holding her, they would often look and smile at each other. To Ellis, her green eyes became ever more beautiful. She often would run her fingers through his hair whilst he enjoyed caressing her hands and face. She was wearing his mechanic cap again. He repeated his promises to her to take her to all the places he had once been to and to teach her to ride a horse. "You're forgetting something important", she teasingly said to him. Ellis turned all red and felt embarrassed and started to apologize before she owned up to just playing around with him. She was now wearing the ring on her right hand. "Next spring", she said to him, smiling. "Next spring", he said to her, still red-faced.

Ellis then told her how it had been arranged for Keith's father to clean up and adjust their rings before the wedding, Keith's father was a jeweler. And Ellis had more news for her, he and Keith had agreed with Dave's father that they would take over the automobile repair shop they had worked at. Dave's father would help them get the business started up again the next year, but would no longer be involved in day-to-day activities. The loss of his son had made it impossible for him to do so.

That night, with his mother and sister present, Zoey and Ellis watched a news report on TV about Philadelphia. It had been one of the first places to be evacuated. The city authorities and the state of Pennsylvania had now decided to demolish some of the inner city apartment blocks to start the rebuilding process. "We have to go", Zoey said to Ellis, "My dad lived there". Ellis agreed that they would leave at first opportunity. "I've never been up North", he told her. "If we get there, I know the way", she said. The two agreed to go to the nearby airport and check the schedule for flights the next day. Some airports had reopened and there were flights going to several places already.

The next day they arrived at the airport, and discovered they could get a flight to Philadelphia that very day. Ellis said goodbye to his tearful mother who told him she was very proud of him, and to Zoey she wished all the strength she needed. As they waited for the plane to leave, Zoey grabbed hold of his right hand. "I need you now Ellis, I'm not sure I can control all my emotions when we get there". "I'm gonna be there for you all the way, Zoey". "I love you so much, Ellis, and I really appreciate that you are coming with me, I need to do this". "Zoey, I'll always be there when you need me". The plane was now in the air. She leaned over to him, thinking about what she would have to face in Philadelphia, he wrapped his arms around her and told her he loved her.