Disclaimer: AMC owns the story and characters from The Walking Dead, this is actually more mine than theirs but...well, legalities.

Author's note: I promised this little trilogy for my very dear friend jdntwritesthings, whose story Why I Love is something you need to check out, totally. I borrowed some of her characters, and I just hope you like this tiny piece that ties with The Marks of Running Ink.

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Before

Vancouver, WA

Chase Owens was six when he skinned his left knee after falling from the swing back in his family's backyard.

He had cried all the way to the house's backdoor and cried a bit more when his mom took him upstairs to shower off the dirt.

While his mom went to get him some clean clothes, Chase showered, wincing a bit every time soap touched his sensitive, tiny wound. At six, Chase didn't really care, nor did he notice the neat letters that appeared over his burning flesh.

Vera L. Osborne.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Before

Marietta, GA

Vera Louise Osborne liked visiting her aunt and uncle, they were kind and she loved her cousins to death. Addison and Madeline were sweet and fun to be around. Madeline endured Vera and Addison's excessive attention whenever Vera visited. They did so many things together, shopping, baking, reading, swimming, giggle like crazy, but their mission was clear.

"Taking care of you is our thing, Maddie." Addison would say.

This summer, however, things were simply wrong.

Vera noticed the frazzled looks Addison's parents exchanged every other minute when they thought the girls wouldn't catch them.

Addison wouldn't say much, but Vera noticed the stiff way in which she now carried herself, taking care of Madeline almost obsessively.

She would have never imagined the way they had to run from the city, leaving their family behind, escaping with nothing but their life and clothes on their backs.

The crowds were enormous and they just didn't know what to do. People dropped dead and then reanimated to eat their loved ones and bite everything in their way.

Then…then the worst thing happened.

Vera lost them.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Before

Columbus, OH

Chase Owens was the star of his college football team when the world went to shit.

He was about to get a fucking contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

The damned Seattle Seahawks.

Then corpses started walking and everything had gone to hell.

Campus had become chaos and one day, a guy walked up to him in a blood-stained suit with a machete in one hand and a gun in the other.

"Place is about to be overrun, gotta move out, pretty boy." The man had warned him.

Chase had taken the sensibly packed survival bag he had prepared weeks ahead of this event and followed the man.

It was three days into their walk that Chase asked for his name.

"Lucas Emilio Fernandez." The man answered, a smirk tugging at his lips. "I don't need to ask for yours, though, champion boy."

"No, I don't think you do." Chase laughed. And once he started, he found it difficult to stop until tears ran down his cheeks. He didn't know shit.

His mother and sister were supposed to be back home, but home was the other side of the country, a world away from him.

Chase Owens received the pain of his soulmarks with joy.

I lost them.

Worry gripped his heart and that night, he prayed whoever was his soulmate found what they were looking for.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

After

Unknown

Vera had felt hungry once or twice in her life. Hungry in the sense of being able to calm her belly with a snack or a drink before real food made its way to her stomach.

Hunger pains were the worst thing that had happened to her, listed right under the end of the world and losing Addison and Madeline.

She was tucked away inside a closet, in the second floor of a little house in some suburb, feeling so much pain she could barely move. She was clutching a knife in her hands, with as much strength as she could muster.

Vera didn't know how close she was to dying, but she felt that she was on the very edge of it. Gone was the healthy girl from months before, she was emaciated and pale, looking more like one of the dead with every passing day. The young woman knew she was still sane because she was worried for her sanity, after not talking to anyone for months on end.

Today was bad, but also good.

The extreme cold weighed on her for long hours. Vera was always cold now, even warmly dressed and inside the full closet, she was shivering, and her body was unable to produce anymore heat.

Her hand stung and Vera whimpered as she took off the thick woolen glove she'd found inside one of the drawers so she could read the words in the inside of her left palm.

There's still hope, buddy.

For a moment, her heart ached with longing and despair as the realization hit her.

Vera felt hopeless.

For days, she had wondered if the hunger would finally defeat her. In her darkest moments, Vera thought of simply stepping out of her hiding place to scream her lungs out until the dead came for her.

She'd tried to do it twice, but her hand always shook uncontrollably over the door handle. Those were the really bad days, she thought.

Before today.

Vera didn't think she could even scream and her pride didn't let her burden her soulmate with pointless requests of help.

What could they do, wherever they were at?

"I'm sorry."

Dizziness made her head swim and…

• • • • • • • • • • • •

After

Greenbrier, WV

Ben Barnes knew his men were tired.

They had walked in the snow for more than two days, it was their new routine after realizing such stunting cold made the walkers slow down even more than they were already. The little street they chose to make camp was made up of two rows of pretty houses that had seen better days.

Scouting was out of the question in the oncoming blizzard, but he knew what to do. Houses with open doors could mean walkers and they for sure meant abandoned buildings. A house with closed doors meant either inhabitants or people who had escaped carefully.

"Ben." Tyson called and the lieutenant turned to look at him. "There."

One of the houses was mostly intact, and there were details to it, it looked slightly cared for, even with its covered windows.

Ben called for them to stop and some tired groans reached his cold ears, but the group gathered around him. Tyson and Tyler were the only ones left from the original troop, the others were strays he had picked up in the way.

"What's up?" Lucas asked, a hopeful look taking over the man's face.

"We're staying here tonight." Ben said, pointing at the kept house.

The group's heads turned to the house and then back to him.

"We aren't killing anyone unless we have to. Tyson will stay here with Tyler, Chase and Ross." The men nodded. "Lucas, you come with me." The man nodded as well. "You guys come inside if none of us comes back in five."

Tyson set the clock and Lucas followed Ben inside.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

The house was clean, almost too clean, bordering on immaculate, and it was horrifyingly eerie.

"This is weird, dude." Lucas whispered, a bit too loud, making Ben shiver.

They heard the shrill creaking of a door opening and then a soft thud overhead, and Ben ordered Lucas to follow him upstairs.

Room by room they discovered the too clean places. It was even weirder to see the old blood stains had been left and everything had been put back in place and tidied to exhaustion.

"Barnes."

Ben turned around to look at Lucas, who was suddenly pale and serious.

Bad. His mind warned as he walked towards Lucas, who was standing, almost frozen at the threshold.

And he saw the long, mated hair and the pale skin, tight over bones, all under a bunch of seemingly warms clothes. They both stepped in the room and the bundle groaned quietly.

Lucas readied his gun and Ben his knife.

The silence was only interrupted by their breathing.

Then a shuddering breath and a sob.

Ben knelt and bent to uncover whoever -whatever?- was under the cloaks and coats.

A girl.

"She's alive!" He exclaimed in shock.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Vera woke up to warmth.

The toasty air felt heavenly over her dry skin and she could hear the cracking of a chimney. The room smelled of food and she thought she was imagining things.

Had she died and actually gone to heaven?

It was possible.

Then the pain dashed her hope.

All of her body was hurting.

"Don't move, you're too weak." A soft voice commanded. Vera opened her eyes, she needed to see whoever had that majestic voice, the first one not coming from the inside her head in months. "You're safe."

Kind blue eyes found hers and Vera noticed how she couldn't be imagining things. Someone had gotten her out of the closet and created a big, burning fire in the chimney of the house she'd found and taken over months ago.

Had it been him?

She tried to ask but a raspy, ugly sound emerged from her throat instead of words and the man smiled.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Chase took her hand in his, trying to soothe her crying.

She was so cold.

Ben wasn't sure she would live, but Chase hoped she would. Her sobs almost broke his heart and he wished…he really wished he could tell her about the words he had seen, etched in the palm of her hand.

He wished he could tell her that he wouldn't take the apology she had given him, because there was nothing to forgive. Alas, he could not. The shock could be her undoing and he wasn't willing to risk it, so, Chase lifted the girl carefully in his arms and cradled her to his chest.

"You're okay, you're safe. I promise. I'll keep you safe."

The sobs stopped minutes later and Chase held his breath until he noticed her chest raising and falling.

He'd keep his soulmate safe, even if it was the last thing he did.

• • • • • • • • • • • •