Chapter 13 - Memories

"What's this place?"

"What? Never been to a theme park?"

"Yeah… of course I was but... what's the point?"

"Usually the point is to have fun… duh."

"You know what I mean…"

"Yeah… I know… but this is just for fun… today we are just having fun."

"We don't have the time…"

"There is always time… and if you really need an excuse. I actually brought you here for target practice at the shooting game."

"Tom…"

"Come one."

"TOM! NO!"

And Adeline only saw the world turn around as he took her over his shoulder and entered through the bright lit and colored gates. The place seemed pretty much deserted, even one of the bear doodle on one of the games fell as Tom let the girl down.

"Let's try the horse ride."

"You are like what 26?"

"Actually 25… UNICORN LAND!" And he dashed after one of the dusty rides.

"It doesn't have energy?"

"FUN! REMMEBER! STOP OVERTHINKING!"

Adeline shook her head but yet she couldn't stop the huge smile that slowly grew on her face. Running towards Tom she saw him fumbling with the controls of the thing. The ride lit up only to make a screeching sound and stop.

"See… no power."

"Shh… don't question me." Once again grabbing her by her waste Tom took the girl to one of the horses. After giving her a reassuring kiss on her cheek he went to one of the poles and started pulling it making the ride spin. After some time it even started, the annoying song as well.

"See it just needs a little trust." Adeline started laughing as she pulled the man next to her on to the horse. Twisting in the small saddle she stranded his waste cradling his face in her hands. His lips quickly came to hers and the world came to a still... literally because the ride stopped. She couldn't stop the smile forming even if the kiss didn't stop. Their lips nibbled at one another until she parted for his tongue to invade her mouth. A sigh escaped her lips and a moan escaped his as his hands clawed at her shoulders.

"Tom it hurts." But he didn't listen until the moment when his lips came to her neck. Her fingers came through his hair making his hoodie fall behind. She moaned as his teeth scraped the bare skin on her neck and she surely never imagined him being so brutal until the moment when her eyes fell on to her hands. "You're bleeding." Adeline snapped as if bitten and thin pieces of skin with long strands of putrid hair stuck to her fingers.

"TOM!" And that is when a shooting pain erupted from her neck and her eyes saw the man and her own skin between its teeth. The skin on his face partially decomposed. His eyes white and empty and as he chewed a huge maggot came out one of the huge gashes in his cheeks. "What the fuck?" The little creature climbed on to her hand and as she released herself from the man she fell from the horse on to the ground painfully feeling all the air in her lungs coming out at the impact. Tom was quick to follow and as his hands dug their way in her abdomen she saw his mouth open unnaturally wide and creating a shriek she never heard in a human being before.

Her eyes opened wide to find herself in the same room from that unfinished house. Just a dream of days long since forgotten.

"You finally woke up."

"Luke? Why did you let me fall asleep, we don't have the time…?"

"I thought you needed to rest. I was out anyway looking for the others."

"Any luck?"

"The car tracks went far on the main road and the footsteps… well a storm started and those are surely completely gone."

"A storm?"

"We should stay in here for today… I barely found my way back… "

"Ok…"

"Hey… are you alright?"

"Heh… just… just a bad dream. Don't worry."

"Ok… Now that you are awake we should make a plan."

"You don't think we'll find the others… do you?"

"Slim chances." He sat next to her on the bench warming his hands at the little fire. "There is one sure place where Kenny and… or Clementine would go."

"Wellington?"

"Yeah… but without a map we are fucked." The snow on his clothes started to melt for a bit as he thoughtful stared at his hands. "Maybe we could go to that city we saw before meeting with Arvo… with some luck there will be something to scavenge."

"Maybe… but that is a few hours behind…"

"I know…"

"How is your leg by the way…?"

"Those pills you gave me and the numbness created from the cold are quite a good anesthetic… besides a limp I am good."

"I am glad."

"What about your shoulder?"

"My… shoulder?" And as the burn in it began once again she remembered getting shot when they first met with that group of Russian…" Now that you mentioned… I am ok… but it sucks." She rolled her arm pulling at the sleeve to inspect the wound. It was just a graze of her skin but it was still a gunshot so it wasn't really nice. "Just a flesh wound."

Luke opened his mouth to say something but pretty soon his lips closed as his eyes fell on to his hands once again. After a few minutes in which Adeline sat next to him on the couch with a blanket tightly held between her fingers and him simply enjoying the warmth of the fire place, letting his thoughts free reign on to his mind he realized they are the only survivors. He missed the others… but the stupid thing is that the only part he can remember about them was how they died. Luke tried to shake his head and make the memories dissipate but he hadn't succeeded. There was still Pete disemboweled on the ground, a lurker still taking bits and pieces from what remained out of him and there was Adeline offering him her comfort, her warm hand on to his trebling one, helping him to put down the man, there were Rebecca and Alvin both of them left behind, Carlos that died so suddenly, Sarah as well, and at the little girl Luke couldn't but feel responsible, the only one that tried to help her was this stranger in their little group, this woman that shouldn't had cared one bit if the girl survived yet she was the one to try, Adeline was the one to care… and Nick. Nick… He's been there with him for like forever but the one to stay by his side in his final moments was Adeline, the one to cry for him, the one to share his final thoughts and desires… was her.

"How are we still alive?" He asked with his family's and friend's corpses in his mind.

"I don't know… "Luke's hand came through his slightly damped hair as his back hunched.

He knew why HE was still alive. Adeline was the only pillar still keeping him running in this world… He remembered all the moments when she had his back, even with those stupid fights of theirs she was there for him. When Pete died, on the bridge, when Carver arrived, she helped him get to Howe's Hardware, to survive those nights, to infiltrate the place and then she saved his ass from Troy an Carver himself… afterwards when she brought help for him and Sarah, when she pulled him from a straight bullet that hit her, God he simply froze when he saw her simply falling back landing in to the snow, a puddle of blood forming around her. Luke had to close his eyes to erase that image from his mind… another fucked up thing… her almost death is killing him more than all of the death images of the others… And now he remembered when she was the only one jumping to save him, her frail body piercing the freezing cold water, her head frantically looking around, the moment she spotted him and how her body swayed with the water. "It just gets better and better huh?"

"That's life for you."

"No truer words were spoken." They both laughed a bit awkwardly getting each others attention. "How did we get here… just the two of us?"

"Nick… shooting me in the leg? Quite ironically that you got shot in the leg as well…"

"Nick…"

Adeline's eyes opened wide and she stared looking around desperately until a cruel realization hit her. "Nick's cap… dammit."

"I think you lost it in the lake…"

"Looks like it. Dammit… I am losing everything today…"

"What do you mean?"

"Tom's photo… "

"It was in the backpack, wasn't it?"

"I think you crumbled it with the rest of the paper that I set on fire."

"Shit… I am sorry."

"Well… Kind of a sign that I should stop dueling on the past…I guess." The man shrugged as he laid a warm but heavy arm on her shoulder.

"Not trying to sound cheesy but you can keep them in your mind… keep them alive with you." Adeline nodded as she escaped a deep and desperate sigh. Her head fell on to his chest as she was too tired to hold it up anymore. His hand came up to caress her unkempt mane as he was trying to find something to say.

"We've been through so much Luke… "

"I know."

Her palms pressed his chest as she pushed herself up to look in to his eyes. "It's just the two of us now."

He nodded staring at the raw sadness in her eyes. "Maybe you should have taken my offer and just leave."

"What are you talking about Luke? You, this group did so much for me… if I were to choose again what to do I wouldn't change a thing…" The man smiled even if in his mind he was searching for what they did for her… besides the pain, the betrayals and the cheating. "You became my family…" The tip of her fingers came to his chin as she was obviously staring at his lips, obviously lost in her thoughts and memories just like him.

And in a blink of an eye their lips met in a searing kiss.

It looked as if every time they were alone and lost, freezing, hungry and in pain their feelings for each other would intensify and fill that emptiness bringing them closer. This time they both felt that they only had one another for a long time if not forever and since Adeline saved his life once again Luke couldn't but try to thank her for a change.

This time her hands came under the hem of his shirt and his whole body tensed as her cool fingers touched his abdomen. He almost flinched away but as she took off the bloodied blouse his skin eased under her touch. Adeline's hands traveled all over his chest, he squinted when she pushed at his fractured rib but their kiss continued even so. Her own shirt was gone soon enough and this time they parted as Luke wanted to look at her. Carefully caressing her abdomen his lips barely whispered.

"I am sorry." She smiled sadly as her hand came up to his face to move a few strands of hair that stuck to his skin.

A/N Should I, shouldn't I? Hmm… if you don't like it SKIP IT!

The whole moment when her skin brushed his forehead he couldn't but pay attention as her stomach pressed on to his body, as his hands unclasped her bra and the fabric slid down her arms releasing her soft breast and their tightened peak on to his tender sensitive skin. Dammit he was an ass.

Excitement coursed through him at the thought of having her again, how many times has he dreamt of her? How many fleeting thoughts and desires boiling in him when he remembered those moments they've spent together?

Her body softly glided over his as she allowed his hands to slide her jeans off and he couldn't but sigh in expectation. After everything he brought to her she still gave herself to him? Why would she? What would possess her to act so stupid when she was indeed a gifted and smart individual? He pushed her on to the small wooden couch.

The reddish flames danced on her features highlighting her natural beauty as she twisted under his touch, her red swollen lips slowly part as her tongue meets his, her black eyes shine with tears in the corner and she's just so perfect. Lowering her boxers and sliding a finger in her core she bends up pulling his head deep within the crook of her neck. He slowly laid soft kisses along her collar bones between her breast down her sternum, down the dark path to her navel and she unconsciously pushes his head lower.

She was already looking so disheveled that he couldn't hold back. Getting back and desperately trying to unbuttoned his pants she comes up and with an unnatural calm manages to lower his trousers with his underwear as well. Her wet tongue licks up his length and up his well-toned body. Her eyes met with his as she accepted him whole. He slowly entered her but when he hit one extreme point that painful speed of their suddenly raised, everything turning in to a more primal act than anything.

What followed was more of a blur for Adeline but they somehow ended on the cold floor, her gaze stuck to a small flicker of flame that died out as Luke slipped inside. Her back bent as he caught one of her nipples between his teeth playing with its peak. Her fingers dug in to his hair as that small flickered turned in to ash. Staring at it, dark and cold away from its fiery red brethren, staring at it between her almost closed eyelids her lips were barely parted expecting every thrust the man made in to her. Her muscles were tired but she was still to come. Her eyes looked up at the ceiling as her fingers clenched even harder in to his hair and her restless mind floated on everywhere and nowhere in particular until all of her muscles clenched and she escaped one last scream of pleasure as she came at the same time with the man, maybe feeling him release deep inside her gave her body what it needed for her climax.

He finally came up to stare in to her eyes and he could only awe at what he was looking. Their lips met again but this time it was just a soft brush and a small nibbling from Luke's part. Her hands finally released his hair simply falling around her head. His forehead came to hers and Adeline cradled his cheek with her right hand slowly caressing it with her thumb.

"You're so endearing." Her lips whispered. As a response his hand slid down her body making her shake as he was trying to get himself away from her. His action was soon stopped by her legs wrapping around his waist and pushing him back in.

"I love you Adeline."

"You are just so cheesy, Tom." She playfully punched him in the arm.

"No… I am not joking…"

"Tom…" Because she couldn't really say those three words she gave him a quick peck as she rushed for another one of the games.

He shook his head as he followed on to her footsteps. His hands deeply dug in to his pockets he stared at her through the hoodie over his head.

Her finger was pointing towards a Photo booth and he nodded at her to go in.

Luke's hair tickled her neck as he sat next to her. Looks like she hasn't parted with Tom's memories in the end… or with that stupid picture. Shifting, Adeline realized that somehow a blanket was covering the both of them. Pushing herself up with the help of one of her hands she stretched for a bit feeling her tired bones crack and her exhausted muscles relaxing. The man rose as well staring at her in complete and utter contempt.

One last kiss between the two before they finally go back to the reality they are living.

After they managed to get dressed they took what they had and left the small cabin besides the lake. The storm wasn't completely gone and they started missing the fire place as soon as they made the first step outside.

"Ok... so the plan is to reach the city before nightfall."

"Kind of."

"We have no guns, no food, nothing."

"Yup."

"At least we had our fun…"

"Yup."