The car was packed, they were fed and it was only midday. Time to regroup. They parked down by the waterfront, where few infected gathered and tried to enjoy the day in spite of everything. Lauren was laying on the hood of the Camaro, reading a book she had found in the mall. Bo was feeling frisky and devoured her with her eyes, the glint in them telling the full story. She hopped onto the hood and slid beside Lauren.

"How's your book?" she asked conversationally.

Lauren smiled and nodded at Bo. There wasn't much to say about it, after all she had just started reading it.

Kenzi hopped up on the hood from the other side, sandwiching Lauren in the middle. "Whatcha reading?" She lay the book in her lap, half-annoyed.

At this onslaught of bored compatriots, Lauren had to smile. There was no use being mad that she couldn't even find time to read during the apocalypse because what did she expect, really? Instead, she embraced the journey she was on, with the characters she was on it with.

The water lapped at the shore and a cool breeze blew across the Camaro, dulling the heat they felt from the midday sun. A small contingent of infected approached.

Kenzi pointed at Bo. "Zombieball?" She pointed at Lauren. "Zombieball?"

Zombieball was played with baseball rules, however many swings they took determines the placement on the bases. One hit was a home run, two hits was a triple, three hits, a double, and four hits, a single. Kenzi popped the trunk and sifted through a pile of weapons as the zombie troupe approached ever so slowly.

Brandishing a golf club, Kenzi went running toward the infected that had broken away from the pack. "Fore!" she shouted before swinging for its head. The horrendous splat was heard for a mile away. Kenzi celebrated with a hip thrust and jazz hands as only Kenzi could and returned to the Camaro. "It's all you Bo-Bo."

Bo was a purist and therefore always borrowed Lauren's bat during Zombieball. She walked down the embankment toward the six or so infected that approached. Separating one from the pack, Bo teed up on its head and dropped him like a ton of bricks.

"Flawless victory!" Kenzi exclaimed. Truth be told Bo and Lauren only played Zombieball to keep Kenzi happy. Lauren didn't derive much joy from smashing in skulls unless her life was in danger and she tried not to memorize the face of the thing that once was a person when she teed up on a straggler. "Oh, damn!" Kenzi covered her mouth as Lauren flattened the infected with one swing. "You've been practicing, Doc."

Lauren wouldn't call it practice so much as practical usage. Since their world had gone black, Lauren had to adapt, to become a killer before the healer that she was. It was a difficult transition but life as she knew it depended on it.

Bo could tell that Lauren needed a break from all the carnage. "Kenzi," Bo said, "Would you mind retiring the side?"

"Would I?" Kenzi's eyes grew bigger as she walked off toward the infected that were still standing.

Lauren put a hand on Bo's knee. "How are you doing?"

Bo smiled like she had never been asked that before.

"I'm good. I mean, there's this," she gestured at the infected and Kenzi taking swings at them. "But there's also this," she motioned at the space between them. "I'm so glad to be with you."

"We've lost a lot," Lauren said with a nod. What she wanted to say was how could they ever truly believe that they weren't going to die out there?

When Dyson turned, Bo had been inconsolable. He had hidden his wound from Bo, from Lauren and so when Dyson stood, growling as he flipped a table in the Dal, they were all caught by surprise. Dyson was the first Fae to illustrate the deadly effects of the toxin on his system when, eyes aglow, he self-immolated right there in the middle of the Dal. Lauren had held Bo as she sobbed and tried to decide how she felt about it. All she could remember thinking was "Asshole, you asshole." He was an asshole for not even giving them the chance to try to save him, for not even giving Bo the chance to say goodbye, and for not even having the decency to leave the establishment all of his friends were occupying as they tried to avoid infection. But Lauren didn't have an opinion about it if Bo asked. Life was literally too short these days and Lauren wasn't going to spend her last hours fighting with Bo over Dyson.

It was amazing that a genetically engineered virus could kill a thousand years of evolution, Lauren thought. Science was amazing, but in the wrong hands, she shook her head. It was wasted. A waste of life and that was contrary to everything she had ever learned as a doctor. The purpose of science was for the betterment of society. It was not to arm rogue messengers of the apocalypse and begin a mass extinction.

"Ladies? We have a situation developing," Kenzi called from a distance.

Bo looked up and saw a much bigger horde approaching, one that would not so patiently wait to be taken out one by one in a rousing game of Zombieball. Kenzi scuttled up the hill to the car and reached into the back seat. She pulled out a slingshot and a satchel full of marbles. Taking one marble at a time, Kenzi took out the infected Fae before they could get close enough to explode. She pulled back the sling and fired. A large boom was felt as much as it was heard as Kenzi cleared out a chunk of the horde. She aimed again, hitting the infected right between its glowing eyes. He left a crater that the zombies that hadn't been blown up, fell into. Unfortunately, as cunning a technique as Kenzi's was, it left a little to be desired in the stealth department and the infected were beginning to close in from the other direction at the noise.

"Wrap it up, Kenz." Bo called.

So much for the quiet afternoon on the waterfront Lauren had been promised. They were on the move again.

Bo's arms were wrapped around her and she felt safe there but sleep still eluded Lauren. The loss of life had been astronomical. The fact that the city wasn't overrun by the infected gave her hope that the healthy had been evacuated. It also made her fearful of the possibility that the infected had been evacuated, too. They didn't have access to television news or radio broadcasts anymore, they were all static and Lauren could only surmise that they had run or that they were overrun. There were few happy endings Lauren could conceive anymore.

She stared at Bo's features in the dark and appreciated, truly appreciated her beauty. Lauren never knew what she did to deserve Bo, but she was beginning to understand why she deserved her. Bo had taught her more about humanity than any other Fae or human had. She was coming of age under Lauren's watchful eye and she never wavered. Human's were her companions, they were her best friend and her lover.

Bo roused. Perhaps she had been staring too long, too intently. "You okay?" she whispered into the darkness.

They were crashed at a motel, the Camaro hidden by over brush a ways away. Kenzi was asleep on the double bed beside the one they lay on. The drapes were pulled tight and a chair was butted up against the doorknob. They were as safe as they could be in their situation.

"Yeah," she replied, unable to qualify what she was feeling. "Can't sleep." Lauren said simply.

Lauren couldn't sleep most nights. Their constant movement kept Lauren in a state of unrest. Her life had gone from a routine scientific existence to a chaotic brutish call to arms. She knew Bo understood and, god love her, she tried to make things as routine as possible to help Lauren with the transition. Transition. This was all there was left for her. Never again would she look into a microscope or prepare a slide, her lot in life was now to bash the heads in of pseudo-zombies. It was hard not to feel depressed. The one thing that never wavered, that she clung to, was her love for Bo. It had carried her this far and if she was lucky enough to wake in the morning she knew it would carry her through another day.

"I love you," Lauren whispered into the dark.

"I love you, too," came Bo's reply. "Now, sleep. I'll see you tomorrow."

The morning seemed so far removed from where the three women stood now. They found themselves in an apartment building looking for shelter, but found a hive instead and in the process of fighting the horde, they were overwhelmed and wounded. They made their way up the stairwell to the roof and barricaded themselves there.

Lauren inspected the bite on her forearm. The teeth marks were deep and she was sure she was infected. Kenzi was bitten on her leg and Bo, who appeared to be on the receiving end of the worst of it, held her neck to slow the bleeding. Lauren retrieved a stack of gauze from her bag and applied it to Bo's neck.

"You're a mess," Lauren said, trying to keep it light.

"Looks like this is where we part ways." Bo said in her best cavalier tone.

"Nobody's going anywhere." Lauren checked beneath the gauze, the wound bled still.

"Jesus," Kenzi paced. "What just happened here?"

"We got our asses handed to us," Bo grunted in pain as Lauren pressed harder.

"I guess that's my cue." Kenzi reached into her knapsack and pulled out a bible.

"Kenzi, what the hell?" Bo griped, holding her neck.

Kenzi opened the book and ripped a large strip off a page. She dug around in her bag again and pulled out the stinky little baggy. Lauren smiled and shook her head as Kenzi crumbled the green herb onto the paper torn from the bible. As sacrilegious as it seemed to light the bible page afire while smoking illegal substances, the trio welcomed one last memory. An absurdity. A fleeting thought they might share as their last breaths are but exhales into the wind. Lauren scooted closer to Bo as Kenzi prepared their last supper as it were. Bo took Lauren's hand into her own and threaded their fingers together.

A lighter sparked and soon the unmistakable scent of marijuana encompassed them. Kenzi took a long drag and looked out on the skyline as she exhaled, passing the joint to Bo. Acceptance of their situation spread between them as they continued to hand it off.

The pot had done the trick, Lauren's head swam. Bo looked at her sadly. This was where it ended for them. Badly wounded, on a rooftop in a city that hadn't done either of them any favors. They would die today, in each others arms and no amount of wishing or hoping was going to change that.

"Lauren," Bo finally spoke. Their eyes met only briefly as Lauren couldn't bear to see the pain in her eyes. "You know, I was just getting used to the idea that I was going to live for hundreds of years-A zombie apocalypse wasn't even on my radar."

"I miss my lab," Lauren moaned. "I was never cut out for this."

"I dunno, if you ask me you were way better at this than that doctor thing." Kenzi couldn't have dodged the eye roll if she tried. "I mean, I miss my shoes," Kenzi corrected.

Lauren looked down at her arm, still oozing from the bite she suffered in the stairwell, Bo still held her neck, blood flowing from her wound, and Kenzi limped across the rooftop, leaving a bloody trail from the bite on her ankle. They were a mess and Lauren was having a hard time determining how long they had left. Bo was sure to bleed out soon, her breathing had become labored as they sat together on the rooftop. Kenzi seemed fine, able to limp from ledge to ledge waiting for inevitability to take hold. And Lauren, well, she fared somewhere in between.

The sky turned from a dusky purple to a vibrant pink as the sun began to rise. Kenzi sat on the edge of the building, feet dangling precariously over the side. Bo led Lauren to Kenzi's side and sat beside her, straddling the ledge. Lauren stood behind them both, looking out over the city. The cramp in her stomach became overpowering. Is this what it felt like to turn into one of them, she wondered. All thought went out of her head when she heard Bo sputter. She was coughing up blood, it wouldn't be long now.

She put a hand on Bo's back and smoothed over it.

"It's time, Kenz," Bo turned and looked up at Lauren.

"You're fine, you're not going anywhere," Kenzi protested.

"Kenzi…" Lauren warned.

Lauren watched as Kenzi's denial finally dissipated. "This isn't happening. I'm not ready for this. You can't leave me. You promised." Her lip trembled as the tears that were threatening to fall finally broke loose and trickled down her cheeks.

"You're the best little sister I never had." Bo brushed the bangs from Kenzi's eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow, kiddo." Bo smiled, reaching out a hand to comfort her. Kenzi sniffled. Lauren bent over in pain, clutching her stomach. "Lauren-" Bo started to move to help her but couldn't find the strength. "Come here."

Lauren kneeled beside Bo who held Kenzi with her other arm. She smoothed a hand over Lauren's hair and held her against her chest. Lauren could hear Bo's heart beat gradually slow as the sun came up over the city.

Bo struggled to breathe. "I love you," Bo whispered to no one in particular. "Lauren?" she asked, "tell me again about when you fell in love with me."

Lauren smiled and sat up, Bo rest her head on her shoulder as she began to talk. "I loved you from the moment we met…" she started, pausing to share one last kiss with Bo. Their lips came together as they had so many times before but the soft press grew still as Bo's final breath blew across her cheek.

"See you tomorrow," Lauren managed to choke out as Kenzi collapsed into her arms.

Fin.