Special thanks to my beta reader, theblacklister23. (check out her stories… they are AWESOME.) Sorry it took me so long to update. Life got in the way and to be completely honest, I got a little lazy. Anyways, love you guys! Please review and give me opinions. It keeps me wanting to write more.

I DO NOT own any characters from "The Blacklist"

It was around eleven o'clock at night -at least that's what I guessed- when everyone started to get up from where they were and go to bed -or more like tents. Ressler and I had chosen to stick together, without it having to be said. We both got up and said goodbye to our friends, thanking them for their time. I heard Ressler from where I was waiting for him talking about who was to take watch since he apparently wasn't going to tonight. I saw a smirk crawl up on Conner's face as he looked from me to Ressler with eyebrows raised. My mouth hung slightly open as I giggled at what Conner was most likely assuming why Ressler wasn't going to take watch. I shook my head at him as he came towards me with Ressler trailing behind him.

"Knew it." He said with a wink and a loud burst of laughter. "And make sure you guys aren't too loud about it. Wouldn't wanna attract any more roamers over here." He said while walking away, trying to contain another fit of laughter.

"Far as we know, roamers can only smell." I yelled back at him in jest. I heard him chuckle as he walked farther away.

"What was that about?" I heard Ressler say as he settled himself close by my side. I just looked at him and chuckled. He was so clueless sometimes.

As I walked beside my former partner I looked around and saw groups of four go into their assigned tents… I'm guessing they were assigned at least, or maybe they got to choose who to be with? The rules around here I still had yet to learn.

"Res." I said getting his attention. He looked at me but didn't say anything, silently telling me to go on.

"Where are we going?"

"My tent."

"Who else shares the tent with you?"

"Nobody." He said still looking straight forward. Oh. Well that changes things.

"Oh, uh… Well where am I supposed to go?" I said confused. Did he not want me to intrude in his private space? Did he even want me to follow him?

"My tent." He said as if it were obvious.

"I'm supposed to go… In your tent?"

"Yes." He said dryly.

"But you just said that you don't share your tent with anybody." I said more confused than ever. He sighed heavily, getting annoyed at my confusion.

"Liz, you aren't just anybody." He said raising one eyebrow up at me. "Plus, I wouldn't want you sharing with anyone else. At least I know if you're with me I can protect you." He said while picking up the pace. And why did my heart have a mini attack when I heard that?

I jogged a few steps to catch up with him until finally we got to his tent. It had a few small holes and gashes in it, but so did all the other ones. I followed closely behind him as he unzipped the tent and went inside. Then I realized that there was only one sleeping bag and pillow. My stuff was already set inside and I wondered how it even got there.

"You can take that one. We've got more in the supplies truck." I heard Ressler say. I nodded and he climbed back out of the tent to go get another sleeping bag. I walked over to my stuff and grabbed my small circular battery-run CD player and pressed play wondering how long it was that Ressler went without listening to music. Maybe it wasn't that big a deal but I just wanted to remind him somehow of what the world was before this.

The music started to play. It was a little scratched which made it sound a little bit jumpy in the beginning, but it was better than nothing. A plus was that it brought back only good memories of my father when I was just a little girl. Sam played it all the time- it was his favorite song. I struck gold when I found the old and battered cd.

"She packed my bags last night preflight…." As the song played all I could see was the memory of my father's bright smile.

"…. It's lonely out in space on such a timeless flight." Then I thought about Ressler. Although the new world brought on loneliness, I finally wasn't so alone anymore. We found each other again and I knew he would do anything to protect the whole group.

Ressler jerked me out of my thoughts as he stepped back into our tent. He had his hands full with a sleeping bag and a pillow. I patted the spot next to where I was in my own sleeping bag. He obliged, unraveling and setting out the things next to me.

"And I think it's gonna be a long, long time till touchdown brings me round again to find: I'm not the man they think I am at home. Oh-no-no-no. I'm a rocket man. Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone."

"Is this Elton John?" I heard Ressler's familiar voice as the song played on.

"Yea." I mumbled. As I snuggled myself more into my sleeping bag. Ressler got into his and looked like a cute burrito. I laughed out loud at my own thoughts, earning a confused look from Ressler.

"Wow. This is one old ass CD." He said shrugging off my sudden laugh.

"Yea." I mumbled again as sleep begun to already take over. My eyes started to droop and I almost had to smack myself to stay awake.

"Haven't listened to music in a while."

"Yea." I had to stop myself from telling Ressler to just be quiet.

"Yup." He said yawning, finally ending the conversation.

I drifted off into a dreamless, peaceful sleep. I haven't slept so well in ages. I have no doubt that it was because my partner was by my side. I've always felt a better sense of security when I was next to him. And all I could think -even in my sleep- was that I was happy. I was so very happy and it hasn't even been a full day with him. I felt safe here, oddly enough. I had hope for the future. What I didn't know is that it would all come crashing down so fast.

We were all only about two hours into sleep when I woke up to someone screaming.

"Ressler! Get up, now!" A man was in our tent- it was the sandy haired man that was always following the brunette woman who hated me. Except this time he wasn't just covered in dirt and grime like we all were… He was covered in blood.

I saw my former partner bolt upright with all means of sleep disappear from his face. And I knew he could hear it too, it would be impossible not to hear the Roamers grunts and moans… And the shouts and screams of the people of our group. By the sound of it, there was a pack... and a huge one at that.

Then as fast as a blink of an eye the roamers piled in. The sandy haired man whipped around and let out a guttural scream as one roamer sunk it's rotten teeth into the skin of his neck. There were already five roamers fully in the already too small tent. More were fighting their way inside.

My heart started beating faster as I realized the dead were blocking us from our only way out. The five roamers that were in the tent feasted on the sandy haired man, not really caring much for us right then.

"Ressler!" I screamed suddenly having an idea, grabbing two pocket knives out the front pocket of my dirty jeans and tossing one to him.

"Cut the tent open. Now!" I ordered and he obeyed. The roamers all seemed to look at me as I screamed. Can they see? The report said they couldn't, but… It also said they couldn't hear. But my scream proved otherwise as their attention went from the man they were digging into on the floor to me.

As the first roamer approached I smashed the pocket knife into the temple of its rotten flesh and the thing sank to the floor, taking my pocket knife with it.

"Shit!" I cursed as I backed away. Two other roamers were closing in on me. Snapping their teeth together and it sounded as if they were growling. Ressler grabbed my arm violently and tugged me to the gash he made in the tent.

"Behind me!" Ressler growled. He was now the only one armed as I left my gun inside the roamer filled tent. Roamers infested the area I just started to call home. I held down my scream that was threatening to escape my throat. I took a sharp intake of breath as the roamers started to come towards us from all sides. The roamers from the tent made their way through the gash that Ressler made.

"Stay behind me." Ressler commanded again. But I wasn't going to listen. I couldn't let him do this alone. I had to find my inner strength and do what I had to do for our survival. I knew I couldn't kill them with just my bare hands (because they needed to be shot or stabbed in the brain, unless I smash their heads into the ground. But that would take a while.) but at least I could knock a few down.

I lunged at the nearest attacker and threw the snarling thing into two others. I looked back and saw that Ressler had found a gun and was starting to shoot. I felt a cold decayed hand try to grab at me and I crashed my elbow into its head. I heard something inside the roamer snap from the impact of my hit as it stumbled backwards. Then it started coming towards me again with its head tilted like nothing happened to it.

I ran and jump kicked it to the ground as another roamer came up behind me. I spun myself as fast as I could and wrapped my hands around its neck and pushed it back into a tree. It's head tried moving towards me to get a bite but I wouldn't let it. I unwrapped one hand from its neck as the other stayed and punched its forehead twice. The pressure of my fist and the tree together was too much for the delicate bones and it went limp. I heard a two gun shots close to me and what brought it slumped dead at my feet. I looked at Ressler who was now dealing with other roamers and rushed over to help him. I grabbed the collar of a roamers tattered clothes and pushed it into the large group of the dead that was focused on us now. It knocked a few other roamers down, effectively tripping more as they weren't smart enough to go around.

"Ressler! Let's go!" I screamed as I saw our group retreating towards us with a hundred or more roamers chasing after them. I grabbed his hand and ran to the cars and horses as our group caught up to us. I let go of Ressler's hand so he could quickly mount the giant Clydesdale horse. He offered his hand to me as he helped me haul myself up behind him. I wrapped my arms around his sturdy torso as soon as I was on. Everyone else was in the cars starting their engines. All except for one.

"Reddington! What the hell are you doing?!" I shrieked. The roamers were catching up to us increasingly fast and there he was looking around like he was lost.

When he heard me call his name he looked up to where I was on the horse and looked to give out a sigh of relief. He suddenly didn't look so lost anymore and made his way to the car that Dembe was driving. But he wasn't fast enough.

"Red! Look out!" I yelped as I clutched onto Ressler. There wasn't anything I could do, I didn't even have a gun. Three roamers approached the man who always wore a fedora and I almost made my way off the horse until Red grabbed one roamer by its neck and lifted it completely off the ground. He looked menacing, and I noticed he was covered in blood… And I couldn't tell if it was his own or someone else's. My heart sank into my stomach as my mind raced to think what could've happened. Dembe was out of the car and racing towards Red with his gun drawn. He shot down the three walkers closest to Red. Including the one he had lifted off the ground from its neck. The roamer he was holding went limp as blood from the gunshot wound splattered all over Red's face. Dembe grabbed Reddinton's arm as he dropped the roamer and ran towards the car, shoving Red into the back seat.

I let out a sigh of relief as I saw that he was safe for the moment. I was still irked at Reddington's little melt down with the roamer. But then again it was Reddington. So I tried to shrug it off.

"Hold on." I heard Ressler say to me as the horse started to move and I did. I held on like he was my lifeline. I pressed my ear in between his shoulder blades and listened to his heart. It was going a little fast from adrenaline, but was his all the same. I snuggled myself as close as I could to him as the cold night air nipped at us. Ressler made his way- or was it our way- to the front of the group, leading them into an unknown direction. The roamers moans and grumbles started to vanish as we went farther and farther away from the camp.

Sleep slowly stole away the last bit of adrenaline I had left. I felt myself slip away a few times, but Ressler kept whispering my name so I wouldn't fall off the giant horse. I had a feeling of loss for the camp even though I hadn't even been there a full day. Then I realized as Ressler straightened his back that he is my home. As they say, home is where the heart is… and Ressler had mine right in the palm of his hands.