I stared at Oliver, a thousand words passing between us in the look we were giving each other. It's happening again. We haven't escaped it. And we never will.
I nearly lost it. Standing there, listening to Savannah's panicked cries, to Danni and Natalie trying to comfort her in there French English accents, made me want to sit on the floor, curl up into a ball and never come out again.
Oliver saw the hopelessness in my eyes and pulled me into his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder and cried. I felt his hand running circles on my back, trying to comfort me. I cried until I couldn't cry anymore. When I pulled away from Oliver I looked back at the others. Savannah had fallen asleep, curled up in a ball between Natalie and Danni, with her head rested on Danni's knees.
He looked up at me with eyes that had all but given up hope. "We're not going to get away from this are we?"
Before I could answer, Oliver stepped in front of me. "We will. We did it before, we'll do it again. We know what to do. We know how to hide and we know how to run. We'll leave here. We'll leave the hotel, we'll find a car and we'll drive. Drive as far as we can go, away from the infected."
I looked up at him. "You think we can do it?"
"Yes. The infection hasn't spread that far. We can outrun it, but we need to leave. Now."
"Okay. Let's go."
Not long after, we were walking down the street, away from the hotel, trying to find a car. It'd be hard, considering that the infection hadn't spread this far yet and everybody still valued their cars and cared if someone stole them. But Oliver didn't seem to be fazed by this. He looked around, trying to find a car that would be easy to take, and would fit all of us, plus the dog, inside. Suddenly I heard a noise to my left. I jumped, expecting the worst, but it was just a cat. Oliver put his arm around me and pulled me towards a house that looked pretty much empty. There was a board across the door and one broken window. The lawn was overgrown and looked like it hadn't seen a lawn mover and a pair of sheers in about three years. Yet there was an old 4x4 lying in the driveway.
"Probably squatters. Though why they'd park it in such plain view is beyond me."
It was risky attempting to steal the car in broad daylight, and the infection wasn't going to spread this far into the country in one night, so we agreed to go back to the hotel, sleep, and wait for night. Then we'd take the car and drive as far as we could. After that, we had no plans. I just wanted to get away from the infection. We walked back to the hotel in silence. Even Sasha walked ahead, her tail held low, her legs looking like they didn't want to walk. It's like she knew we were about to go through it all again.
When we reached the hotel, I lay down on the bed and curled up into a ball. I missed my family, my children and my husband, it had killed me to see them like that. It was even worse that the first infected face I saw was that of my husbands. I tried to stop thinking about them. I missed them, but I had to move on. I had to stop thinking about the past, it's in the past. But I missed them so much it was like thorns in my heart. But Oliver and the kids, they were like my family now. Suddenly I heard Oliver come back from the bathroom and sit down on the edge of his bed. I stayed curled up in a ball.
"Eve?"
"Hmm?" I mumbled.
"You okay?"
It was a stupid question. Of course I wasn't okay. He knew that, but he probably couldn't think of anything else to say. I sat up and looked at him.
"It'll be okay, you know." He looked like he didn't believe what he was saying. He came and sat next to me on my bed and put his hand on my knee. "I'll get us out of this. I won't let anything happen to you"
"I know." I said, looking down.
He pulled his chin up with his hand so I was looking at him. "I'm sorry. I wish all this had never happened. But I'm glad I met you. I wouldn't have got this far if I hadn't. I was ready to give up, and you saved me. You brought back my will to fight. I won't let you give up. Not even for a second."
I smiled. I thought only of his as a friend, but in that moment I felt more. "I'm not going to give up. It's just hard to look at it positively"
He looked down. "Yeah." He was about to stand up and walk to his own bed when I pulled him down by the sleeve. I moved over so he could fit on the bed and I placed my head on his chest, feeling safe, and lay there.
I was about to drift off when a scream suddenly ripped through the air from the lower floor of the hotel.