Hey guys, here is the last chapter of this story.

Enjoy


Chapter Twelve: I'm Alive

"…ax. Max. Where are you?" a familiar voice breaks through the darkness as a hand pulls me up from the water over to the side of the reservoir. Once I reach the surface, my eyes open to see Chloe's concerned eyes looking back at me. When she sees I am finally awake, she pulls me into a hug, "Oh Max, I thought…" her voice breaks, "I thought I had lost you."

She shakes as she holds me, her hands gripping onto me for dear life. I feel my arms wrap around her, returning the hug, "I'm here."

She breaks away, gazing deeply into my eyes. Water droplets trickle down her cheeks and her hair is slicked back, "I was so worried, Max," she whispers, placing her forehead against mine.

I stare into those expressive blue eyes of hers. Who is this girl? She is everything to me. Without her, my life… or death, has no meaning.

Her breath is warm against my skin as she whispers, "Max…"

I reach out to her, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear before placing my hand on her cheek. I trap her body against the wall of the reservoir with my body and gently press my lips against hers. She wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me as close to her as possible as our lips collide. The kiss starts out almost shyly at first, but this soon disappears as the seconds pass. I slide my tongue into her mouth, deepening the kiss. Our tongues dance, exploring one another as our saliva mingles together. Chloe gently pulls at my lip, sending shivers down my spine. I can't get enough of her.

I feel… different. The beast inside me urges me to devour her, but I clamp down on it. I will not let it take over, not ever again. As we kiss my body begins to tingle, but it doesn't deter me. After a few moments, we reluctantly break apart. As I stare into Chloe's eyes, her irises shimmer and change from sky blue to pewter gray just like mine, but then flicker to gold. It is a bit like before when we kissed, but much stronger now.

Chloe looks as confused as I feel, "Max, your eyes…"

I can only assume she is witnessing the same thing I am, "Yours too."

Just as I am about to lean in again, a loud gunshot rings out into the silence and a piercing pain enters my right shoulder, causing me to wince and reflexively reach up. It's been a long time since I've felt pain. Normally any wound we obtain are superficial, often we don't even realize until a fellow corpse points it out for us. I always seem to have so many more than any of the others due to my clumsy nature.

An almost guttural roar erupts from behind us and I turn back to see David stood there.

"What the fuck are you doing, David?" Chloe angrily questions.

When he sees the change in her once blue eyes, his face clouds with rage and he aims his gun with shaking hands directly at me, "Chloe, step away from the corpse, now."

She moves in front of me protectively, "No, David. They are changing…"

He sighs with exasperation, his entire body tensing up, "We have been over this. They cannot change. They will not take anything else away from me."

Chloe gives him an almost pitying look as she guards me, "You don't understand."

His eyes turn steely and his teeth grit, looking as if he is about to explode from the buildup of rage as he growls, "No, it's you who doesn't understand…"

Suddenly, a new voice enters the fray, "David, what in God's name are you doing?" everyone turns to the voice to see an older woman with a kind face, her blonde hair clipped back, "Why are you pointing the goddamn gun at Chloe? Wait, is that… Max?"

I recognize the woman as Joyce Price, Chloe's mom. My memories come flowing back to me as if someone has suddenly turned on a tap. While they are not infallible, I can mostly piece together the strands. Joyce is like a second mom to me, especially when I was a kid. I always used to spend time at the Price house. That was when William was still alive, Chloe's biological father. He died in a car crash when she was fourteen and it devastated her. It was around that time that I left Arcadia for Seattle and didn't keep in contact with her for the next five years. I returned to Arcadia to attend Blackwell Academy and met up with Chloe again under… strange circumstances to say the least. I saved her from getting shot by Nathan Prescott and obtained rewind powers. We spent the whole week trying to find Rachel among other things, and by a twist of fate managed to save her, but then the storm hit and I have no recollection of my time after that. That must have been when I died.

"I go away for five minutes just to get our food rations and I come back to this," Joyce sighs as she approaches us.

"Max is infected, Joyce," David growls lowly, "she needs to be put down, now."

Joyce gives him a disapproving look, "What the hell are you talking about? Put that gun down, right now."

While this is all going on Chloe glances back over to me, her eyes widening when she sees my shoulder, "Max, you're…" I inhale sharply as she presses her hand against my wound, her fingers coming away bloody, "bleeding."

There is a tense silence as all eyes turn to face me. She stares down at her hand and then at the thick red liquid oozing from the bullet hole, her face cycling through so many different emotions before finally settling on realization, "Corpses don't bleed."

David's eyes fall on the blood now spiraling from my shoulder into the water as Chloe turns to him, "Look, David. Corpses don't bleed," she turns back to me with tears in her eyes as she presses another tender kiss on my lips, then rests her forehead against mine and laughs with relief at this normally worrying sight. From an outsider's perspective, this little scene would seem so bizarre.

He falters, then puts his gun away. Joyce grabs it before he has a chance to change his mind and then rushes over to help us out of the water, "Are you two ok?"

Chloe places her arm around my shoulder to help me walk and quickly kisses my cheek, "I'm fine."

"Me too," I mutter through gritted teeth, "In pain, but alive."

It is so surreal to hear the word alive once again used to describe my state. I had gotten so used to being a reanimated corpse that it seemed like a distant dream to hope for more.

Chloe narrows her eyes as David strides over to us, "Max, I… I'm sorry. I just… wanted to protect Chloe and it seems that I failed," his face drops slightly at this thought, "Thank you for taking care of her."

I shake my head at him, "You didn't fail."

I swear I can see the ghost of a smile tug at the corner of his lips. This soon vanishes when he turns to Chloe with a somber expression, "Chloe… I'm sorry. I know I am not the easiest person in the world to get on with."

She scoffs, "That's an understatement."

He rubs his face with his hand, trying to search for the right words, "I do care about you, whether you believe it or not. I yell at you because I know you can do better. I got into all sorts of trouble when I was your age, I don't want you to make the same mistakes."

Chloe seems to be considering a few things before she sighs, "I guess I'm sorry for putting you through so much shit."

They regard each other with confliction, before they exchange the briefest of smiles. This is the most civil I have ever seen them.

He turns his attention to me once more, "Let's get you to the medical bay, Max."

I lean on Chloe as we make our way over to one of the medical tents down the main street. As we walk, I am slowly starting to notice other parts of my body aching. My throat feels incredibly dry and my stomach grumbles quietly. Blood trickles from a few of the fresher wounds I have acquired. While these new sensations are uncomfortable, it proves to me that I am alive… really alive.

David side eyes me, "You're still bleeding aren't you, Max?"

"Yes, Sir," I confirm.

"Good," Chloe gives him a harsh stare, causing him to backtrack, "Sorry, you know what I meant."

"I do," I agree as I hobble down the street like a wounded soldier returning home from the war. In a way, I guess that's exactly what I am.


A couple of weeks later…

Victoria walks down the middle of two lines, one of the Dead and the other of the Living. The very fact that this bizarre situation is possible is almost beyond belief. If you had told anyone three weeks ago that the Dead would cure themselves and the Living would be accepting them back into society, they would have been laughed at… yet here they all were.

"Ok everyone, this is going to be a bit awkward at first," Victoria shouts loud enough for everyone to hear her, "As you all know, the Dead have started to cure themselves. This is more than we could have ever hoped for. Now all that remains is for them to be re-integrated into society. No-one is going to get hurt here. We all need to communicate with each other," she turns round to see the eyes of everyone present on her, "Ok everyone, begin."

Victoria strides down the lines, watching as the Dead stumble towards the Living and the Living cautiously approach the Dead to initiate first contact. Halfway down the line, she spots someone she recognizes. A girl with blonde hair tied up into a bun and a golden cross hanging down from her neck.

As the girl's kind hazel eyes fall on her brown ones she grins, "H-hi Victoria."

Victoria's feet carry her until she stands directly in front of Kate Marsh, "Hey, Kate."

Flashbacks from before the tornado enter Victoria's mind. Kate on the roof, ready to leave the world all because of her endless tormenting. If only she could go back… if only she could…

She feels a hand on her arm and glances down to see that it belongs to Kate. Her skin is still carries a tinge gray, but it is not quite as pale as before and the scars are starting to heal, "D-don't look so w-worried," Kate smiles and the world seems to get a little brighter at its presence.

"I am so sorry, Kate," Victoria mumbles, stopped when Kate shakes her head.

"N-not your fault. Besides, Max saved me," she stutters.

"It is my fault. If I hadn't-" her words are cut off when Kate hugs her unexpectedly. Before she could really register what was happening, Victoria feels her own arms wrap around Kate, returning the hug.

"Y-you're forgiven," Kate whispers as she pulls away and motions with her head towards the main street, "W-want to get out of here."

Victoria smiles. It is not her usual smug condescending smirk. For the first time in a long time, her smile is genuine, "I'd like that."


Three Months Later

"Max."

The voice calling out to me causes my eyes to open, "Hmm…"

I turn my head to meet Chloe's eyes. We are laying on an old red checked blanket as we stare up at the blue summer sky. She shuffles closer to me, her breath tickling my ear as she whispers, "I love you."

I lean over and tenderly kiss her cheek, "I love you too, Chloe Price."

She smirks amusedly at me, "I should hella hope so," she reaches out and finds my hand, intertwining our fingers and giving it a gentle squeeze, "How long do you think it will take to get everything back to the way it was?"

I rest my head on her shoulder, "It won't."

Her brow furrows in slight confusion, "What do you mean?"

I bring her hand to my lips and place a kiss on the back of it, "It will never go back to the way things were, it will be better than that."

She playfully nudges my shoulder, "Look at the beat poet here."

I shrug, "I'd rather be a good photographer."

She shakes her head as if I've just said the most ridiculous thing in the world, "You are. You just need to believe in yourself."

I smile at her warmly, "I do, because of you."

She shuffles closer to me if that's actually possible, her heat mingling with my own, "If you could, would you go back and have your old life?"

I shake my head without hesitation, "No, I want this one. I want the life where you are here with me. Before I was such a coward. I would've never had the guts to tell you how much you mean to me. I didn't even admit it to myself. I kept finding excuses," I kiss her briefly on the lips before continuing, "Death has given me a new perspective of life. I now know that I can't wait around forever for something. Life is too short to wait around. I have to grab what I love and never let go."

Chloe chuckles heartily at that, "Nerd."

She kisses my cheek, leaving herself open for my attack. I see an opening and maneuver myself so I am straddling her. Once she is sufficiently trapped, I start to tickle her.

"Hey… no… no fair," she stutters in between laughter. Her laugh is a sound I want to hear for the rest of my life. In my moment of distraction, Chloe manages to flip me over and pin my arms on either side of my body, "Ha, who is the vulnerable one now?" she grins at me triumphantly.

I can't help but smile at her childish display, "Ok, you win. I surrender."

Chloe reaches down and takes a strand of my mid-length brown hair, twirling it around her finger as she smirks at me tauntingly, "What's my prize? For winning I mean."

As I lay on my back, I gaze deeply into her mischievous eyes… eyes I have come to adore, "I guess that's up to you."

She offers me an impish grin before leaning in inches from my face. Her proximity and husky tone sends shivers down my spine, "Well, I can think of a few things."

I look up at the girl I couldn't envision ever living without and smile, "I can't wait to find out what you have in mind."


That is it for the main story, but I shall be continuing this as a few spin off series. Keep an eye out for those. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in another story,

Olivia