Hello everyone! I'm so thrilled to see this story picking up some traction :)
Thank you, thank you to all my lovely reviewers (always nice to see more SweetBetts joining our very small ship!): Der Schwarez Prinz, Guest, thebluefeather!
Guest: I'm gunna try to hit about every once a month for an update!
Song for this Chapter is 'I'll Follow You Into the Dark' by Death Cab for Cutie, although there's a cover by The Running Mates that I just adore, so I'd encourage you to check that out too!
September 16th, 2018
The drive into town doesn't take too long, or not as long as Betty anticipated. If she had Google Maps still working, she could have known exactly how long, but instead she has Sweet Pea turning the map around to view it from different angles and using a finger to measure the distance, guessing from there.
It's less than half an hour.
"So, this is what the pilgrims felt like, or something."
"Or our parents," Betty says, neatly folding the map back into the glove box, since they figure out it's pretty much a straight shoot to Niagara, WI. For as good as Sweets is with that map, left to his own devices, he'd shove it away crinkled and hastily. This is the best map they have. They aren't in a position to be tearing it any time soon, even if they have zero plans of leaving their safe haven in any near future.
At the fork, right after exiting the back county road that led them here, Sweet Pea jumps out and scouts left and right.
"Left; town. Right; suburbs," he says once he jumps back in, "So?"
Betty gnaws on her lip.
"What are you doing?"
"Weighing the pros and cons in my mind," she snips back, a little grumpy about his interruption.
Okay, where was she?
If they go to the suburbs, the pros are is that it's less likely to have been pre-picked through. Plus, as they've established, people here keep continually surprising and helpful things.
Cons; they can't possibly know what a house has (if anything at all) until going through it. It will take time. More chances to run into walkers or people still surviving. Lastly, it feels strange to pick through someone's dead life, to nod to Carol in a picture who was a waitress as she carried the late owner's valuables out into her own car. It feels...slimy.
And, despite Sweet Pea's strange list, combined with her own, they do have objectives.
"Town," She says, but is already turning left.
"Who are you using the blinker for?" Sweet Pea scoffs.
"Just because it's the end of the world doesn't mean I'll act like some sort of animal who doesn't use common road courtesies." Betty replies, but it's more of habit than anything else.
The first place they come across is an animal hospital. The car idles as Betty draws up to it, tapping her fingers on the dash.
"It probably has medical stuff," She whispers, but makes no move to leave the car.
She's been seeing dead humans this whole time. Heck, she's been seeing dead humans since before the apocalypse, so that doesn't freak her out. What does make her panic is the idea of seeing all those dead animals in the cages, poor dogs and cats that were left by their owners, that probably died wondering where they went. It actually makes her tear up a bit. Nothing is worse than a dead dog.
"Look, one of us should actually stay with the car. It's pretty open here," Sweet Pea is already adjusting his weapons to maximize effectiveness, "I'll go and be right back."
"No, no," Betty shakes her thoughts away. She appreciates what Sweet Pea is doing, but Betty is stronger than this, "Together. Always."
She turns the car off, hops out of the car and grabs a pillowcase, slinging it over her shoulder like a rag, "Coming?"
Sweet Pea offers her a watery smile before grabbing his own Transformers pillow case to loot the office.
The door has been barricaded. It takes Sweet Pea and Betty's combined efforts to open it; Betty managing to unscrew the door handle right off and Sweet Pea slamming his body agains the door until it budged.
One step in and Betty is overwhelmed with the stench of death and decay. It's a smell she's been able to put out of her mind for weeks now, but one that reminds her of the ruins of Riverdale. She slaps both palms over her nose and mouth, making a disgusted noise while trying not to inhale.
Sweet Pea gags a little bit, before reaching into his back pocket and pulls out two bandanas. He hands one to Betty, who just stares dumbly at it for a second, watching as he ties his own around his head and pulls it up right below his eyes.
She gets the reasons. Sometimes, Sweet Pea thinks ahead. Sometimes, the Serpent can be smart.
"They tried to hide out," Sweet Pea says, kicking aside a couple boxes from the doors, before opening one to see just stacks of papers and binders.
It wouldn't have mattered, the walkers had found their way inside.
There are three to kill and none of them even get a chance to try to attack the pair.
They look well fed. Since there's few hints of other humans besides the three, it draws Betty to a conclusion that makes her stomach lurch. The door to the cages where they kept the animals is partially open and the floor is covered in blood. Betty thinks of Vegas. It's been a long time since she thought of the Andrew's sweet dog with his chocolate eyes. She remembers playing with him in the yard as a very young girl, begging her own father for a dog of her own. She knows there's no possible way that Vegas would be in that room, but the thought of all the pets and owners forever separated breaks her and-
"There's likely nothing good in there," Sweet Pea's hand leads her to the offices and break room. She glances up, blinking. Sweet Pea's body is shielding her from that door, from that room. It's not a brotherly sort of way either, but it's sort of similar to the way that Jughead had protected her, but still, entirely different.
"What do we take?" Sweet Pea asks once they enter the first office.
Betty spies a bottle of hand sanitizer and can't help but squirt some on her hands before clunking it into the bottom of her bag.
"Everything."
They fill their pillowcases three times over.
Betty selfishly shovels all items into her bag, not taking time to read through bottles or consider that others may try to come here later. It's the end of the world and Betty wants to live. Sure, horse tranquilizers might not seem like something useful right now, but she doesn't want to rule out the possibility that they'll find something for it eventually.
Continuing up the road, they both make the choice not to check out the Child Care facility. They offer up meager jokes but they both know the choice is similar to ignoring a certain room in the Vet clinic.
The Bank on the next street has far better prospects.
And then, after that, it's just a matter of getting into a rhythm. Not every location is as pristine as the Vet's office, as to say that no one had bothered here before. In fact, most places have been picked over at least once, if not more times. However, from the dust collecting on shelves, the last looters weren't recent.
Sometimes they nearly strike out and only find a Snickers, a box of paper clips, and three bullets (along with a whole bunch of other random things Betty insists they take, because she is going to be prepared from here on out) and sometimes they take multiple trips to and from their van.
Sheriff's office, Police Station, local dive bar- actually, multiple bars and liquor stores ("I heard once Wisconsin had eight of the top ten drunkest cities in the US," Sweet Pea says with a gleam in his eyes that is undeniable), gas station, hair salon, auto shop, a smattering of grocery stores, post office, a school or two, some offices of small businesses...basically, they're not picky about it.
The Library turns out to be, very unexpectedly, one of the best locations.
"We have a whole winter to sit inside bored," Betty says, trailing her fingers along the spines, "Think we have enough room in the truck to take the entire lot?"
It's a small town library, but not minuscule. She knows they can't, but Betty is going to try.
"I wish," Sweet Pea snorts, "Idiots." He's lingering overly by the non-fiction instructionals. Sure, a book on how to can food isn't xactly food to can, but it's information, which is surely worth its weight in gold by this point. They mutually agree on the space in the van they'll give books, which is far more generous than one may think, but winter can be a very, very long time.
They start with the non-fiction instruction books. Load up every single one that seems applicable.
Then, they give each other free reign of the library to loot to their heart's content.
It's sort of like a dream come true to Betty. She used to go to Riverdale's library and check out the max allotted books at one time as a child, read them with a fevor, and then do it all again the next week.
She, methodical as always, starts by making piles. Piles of the books she most wants to take, and so on, so that she doesn't miss any novel she's been dying to read. Betty has no qualms switching between genres. Autobiography, comedy, art, fiction romance, historical, thriller- Betty is a connoisseur of anything with text and decides to give herself a wide variety to pick from in the coming months ahead.
"Lordy, hallelujah, we're saved," Sweet Pea says, throwing down some battered CDs at her feet. It's a strange mix of pre-iPod favorites, such as 'That's What I Call Music 6' or a Fall Out Boy disc, but it's something, "No more weird Christian rock. They also have DVD's."
By the time they've decided to break for lunch, sitting on the top of their van and eating a box of stale Ritz with peanut butter, they've cleared out nearly all of the DVD's and CD's, as well as what might be a fourth of the library.
"We should find hobbies, for winter." Betty licks the crumbs from her fingers, "Things so we don't go cabin crazy."
"Redrum." Sweet Pea says in a creepy low voice.
"What?" Betty says, snorting, giving him a confused look.
"I'm agreeing," Sweet Pea says, "Redrum? The Shining?" At Betty's vacant gaze, he chokes on his laughter, "Oh, seriously? Jughead never showed you it? He's the type I woulda swore would love that sort of shit."
"I mean, I've heard of it…"
"Luckily for you, we have a copy, thanks to the Niagara Public Library. That movie night will be awesome," Sweet Pea says in a decisive tone.
By mid-day they've picked over the entirely of the town without breaching private homes. It's smaller than Riverdale, and Betty had truly thought no town was more pitiful than theirs. At least theirs had a 7-11, whereas the only gas station here was a strange non-branded one.
"No use going home this early," Sweet Pea says decisively.
It's sweltering. It's at least 80, and combined with the manual labor of lugging items (some, probably heavier than Betty herself) into their truck has made both of them very sweaty. Betty is in just a tank and a pair of shorts, along with ensemble shoes. Her Serpent Jacket is on the driver's seat, but it seems ridiculous to try to wear it. Sweet Pea had been wearing his, but had gotten overheated, which had caused him to not only take off his jacket, but also his flannel, leaving just an undershirt.
She's seen him with less on, but something about the combination of scuffed jeans and a simple white T is driving her mad.
She's happy they have a purpose, a goal here.
Sweet Pea slaps the map against the side of the van.
"So, across state lines is another town, uh, Quinnesec. However, it looks like it's just houses, not much for things. However, up and west, across the border, is Kingsford and Iron Mountain and these look much more promising."
"Well, there it is, then." Betty says, giving a pair of thumbs up.
They're nearly out of town, "Wait!" Sweet Pea yells, causing Betty to slam on the breaks.
"What?" Her voice is frantic.
"We might not come back through town this way. We should...you know, spray paint," He makes an accompanying little 'pfft' sound with it.
"Oh," Betty runs her hands down her face, "Yeah, yep." For people to find them, if anyone they know is still alive.
They go to the center of town, the grocery store. Sweet Pea throws the green spray paint between his palms. They'd always just written, 'Jughead/Betty/Sweet Pea' with some other words in a combination, or 'Sweet Pea and Betty passed here' of more recent times, but this felt different.
"We're here, by all means," Sweet Pea explains out loud exactly what Betty's thinking, "It's not a stop, it's the destination."
The stone wall is large, which is a good thing. Betty swipes the can from his hand, standing back.
The first thing she writes is 'Sweet Pea and Betty' and nothing else. Then, she goes into her pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. It's even laminated with clear duct tape, so not to be ruined.
Even if she nearly forgot while leaving, it's a thought that she didn't forget about at home.
"Directions, so they can find us."
"We can't just write it up there, all sorts of crazies will come knocking," Sweet Pea sends her a horrified look.
"I'm not saying that!" Betty rolls her eyes, "We'll hide it somewhere."
She adds onto the message, 'if you want to find us…', then pauses.
A giggle erupts from. her lips, "I'm going to make it a cipher."
"A what?"
"Like, you know, National Treasure, where the words are all different letters? It's very Nancy Drew." She explains, smiling as she recalls fondly all the letter she'd sent to Polly. At Sweet Pea's still confused expression, she runs through it quickly.
"It will need a keyword to alert the person to which letter they should start with to decode it."
"Riverdale, I'd say. A level of security."
He grabs the can back. He writes as neatly as he can near the side of the message, 'Keyword; the town we're from'. Because, logic stands, that anyone who they want to see would know that answer.
Betty sits down and using a pen and the back of one of the cereal boxes they'd packed away starts to write it.
"You know?" Sweet Pea says, just as she's nearly done switching 'look in the loose brick for instructions' to code, "Someone if they really were adamant about finding us that we don't know could theoretically crack the code without the keyword, if they were super dedicated."
"You're right," Betty sticks the pen in her ponytail.
"Easy fix. We put another layer, another security question, so that only the people we want finding it do." Sweet Pea says. He roots through the front of the van and finds a sharpie. His eyes scan the entry to the supermarket, and Betty can see the thoughts in his brain.
He goes over to the rack of newspaper stands, and very carefully draws a maple leaf, but makes it look like someone didn't just draw it on, but lets the half-torn stickers overlap it and scuffs it up.
"Maybe have it say something like…map to us hidden with Cheryl. So, they won't know it's in a box, they'll think it's a person. But, you get it Cheryl and the Maple Syrup and a maple leaf-,"
"It's brilliant, Sweet Pea!" Betty breathes, nodding, "And you used the sharpie so they didn't just look for the green spray paint, which would have been a huge giveaway. You're brilliant." She amends her thought because she thinks he should hear it more often.
Sweet Pea's whole face is red, "On occasion, I have the intelligent thought."
After all it's said and done, the note (not counting the cipher key at the bottom) says 'Sweet Pea and Betty. If you want to find us...Jrn sm tq bceedk wcsb Vbdpyh.'
And then, they tape the map to the top of the metal box, folded really small, and get back in their car.
"Think anyone will ever find it?" Betty asks. She's filled with visions of Archie or her mom or Moose stumbling upon them.
"I'd like to hope," Sweet Pea replies honestly, "But, at the same time, I don't mind just us."
"Me either."
She knows it's not how it sounds like. Still, the admission sends a tingle down her spine.
XXxxXX
There's two hospitals on their way in, which is a big improvement to what they'd found. It bodes well for the remainder of their day. They agree to stop here last, on their way back out.
Sweet Pea was a good judge; between these two towns, there are many more modern or names of store that Betty is familiar with.
There's a strip mall right near a hospital, with a supermarket, a couple clothing stores, a McDonalds, and two pharmacies all within close range.
In the clothing store, they stock up on winter gear. Betty swipes a coat from a hanger that makes her cough at the price, until she remembers she can take anything she wants here and folds it up for later. She also takes all of the underwear and bras because these are things that aren't remembered, often, but are vitally important. At least, to her.
The pharmacies are mostly empty, to be expected. However, in the town one, they find a small haul. In the Walgreens, they split up.
For this, Betty is thankful.
She goes to the women's section first, very much looking to empty the area of any pads and tampons, because her monthly unwelcome visitor, albeit more spotty of late, isn't going to stop just because it's the apocalypse.
As she's going down the aisle, she hits the 'Family Planning' section.
She spots Sweet Pea's head a couple isles down. Furtively, she looks back up at the array of condoms and morning after pills.
Her arms are swiping across the shelf and grabbing off the hooks before she thinks hard about it.
"It's for later. I mean, if others show up," Betty whispers to herself.
Keep telling yourself that, sister. The sneering voice in her mind sounds a lot like Dark Betty.
Betty locks her jaw, continuing to take medicine and fleece-lined leggings and maybe some makeup, just for fun.
"You good?" Sweet Pea asks, kicking her bag lightly, "You get what you needed to get?"
"Yeah. I think we can move on," Betty says.
She for sure makes sure that she's the one to empty the pillowcases into some of the plastic bins they found, and not Sweet Pea, and she for sure stuffs the condoms and morning after pills in a ball of shirts.
Sweet Pea is outside the truck, just looking out at the town. The way the light is hitting his profile, the casualness of his stance...Betty swallows. She feels butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
One of the condom boxes slips to the floor.
As Betty picks it up, her gaze still on Sweet Pea, she can't help but have that association. The next thing she knows, her mind is overrun with the thought of both of them naked.
You wish, Dark Mind Betty scoffs.
"Yeah," Betty mutters to herself, "I do."
XXxxXX
By the time they turn back for the hospitals, Betty is satisfied. She feels like they don't even have to bother with personal houses this time, because their haul is so good. They have a lot of things clanking around in the back.
No, not clanking. They've filled this baby up nearly to the brim.
"I'm taking up knitting," Betty informs Sweet Pea, "Among others." She found a small knitting corner store and took a lot of yarn. It's a sensible hobby.
She has some more non-sensible ones. There was a generic art store next to the yarn store and she's always wanted to be a better painter. She's bound determined to learn at least one language fluidly, and picked up a Rosetta Stone set at the library. There's a couple other things too.
She has all the time in the world.
"What about you?" She asks.
"Planting. Working my green thumb. Going to try to grow some stuff inside, and we'll also have things like tomatoes or what have you in mid-winter. Also, music."
"What about music? Listen to every bad album we got?" Betty asks.
"For as much as I enjoy music, frankly love it, I can't play any instruments. I mean, it was a bougie privileged sort of thing to be able to learn it as a kid, and I was too rough for that, but I've always wanted to try. So, I found a guitar and violin. Keyboard too. If we can spare the energy, it's electric so I have headphones on. Dunno what I'll be good at. Also, thought a trombone or something might be too loud. Still, I doubt grabbing that saxophone or French horn or trombone is a priority to most at the end of the world, so I figure we can always come back."
"I look forward to hearing your concerts," Betty teases.
"By the end of winter, you'll be begging me to stop."
XXxxXX
In the way that it's easy to forget that certain wild animals that have lived with humans their whole lives are still wild animals and terribly dangerous, Betty almost forgot that walkers have killed nearly humanity as she knows it.
Well, she hasn't forgot. But, it's been awhile since they've been a true terror.
Tucked away in their cabin, walkers will on occasion get past their many traps and tangle themselves in their fence. Then, Betty or Sweet Pea will kill it. End of story. It's almost an annoyance rather than a terror. She'll get a little jolt of fear if it snaps too close to her, but in all, they've been unspeakably lucky as to not have to deal with a large number of them for at least a month.
All the stores they've been in were small enough to only have one walker thumping around, if at all. The sounds of their van have attacked a few groups, but Betty only sees them in the rear view as they drive away, or wait for them to pass.
In general, there wasn't large populations of these towns to cause a herd in the first place.
Or, so she thinks, until they reach the hospital.
Hospital number one is fine. It's actually sort of a bust, but they don't walk away empty handed. It seemed like it wasn't used much pre-walkers, and is the smaller of the locations.
The next hospital, the one on their way back to the cabin, is much bigger.
Betty is using her flashlight to clear through empty boxes in a closet near a nurse's station. She found a pot of very cold coffee, and it tastes a little off, but she's not necessarily complaining. She had put the half-used bag of coffee beans into her bag already.
She has a Fall Out Boy song stuck in her head. The really popular one where she's not sure what words, if any, the lead singer is saying. It sorta sounds like gibberish. It makes it very inconvenient to have it stuck in her head, so she's not exactly 100% in the headspace of survival mode. She's trying to figure out some lyrics, because she thinks maybe if she can identify just one line this dude is saying, she can get it out of her head.
She blames Sweet Pea for putting that album on in the car. She is much too casual right now, as though this is the cabin. She's breaking her own biggest rule; never turn your back, literally and metaphorically.
Sweet Pea skids around the corner.
"Betty," He whispers frantically, grasping her arms.
"Wha-?"
Sweet Pea slaps his hand over her mouth, his eyes wild as he makes a frantic and sharp shake of his head.
She stiffens. She can hear the moaning and thumping of walkers near. If Sweet Pea didn't kill them, that has to mean that there's too many.
If she hadn't been so caught up, she might have heard it or realized the signs or-
Sweet Pea shakes his head again. He puts a finger to his lips, his other palm still over her lips. Betty tries to carefully set her pillowcase on the floor, as not to alert the group to their location. She unsheathes her knife, holding it close to her.
Sweet Pea pulls her down the hall.
She can see the frustration and terror in his shoulders. They are too straight, too locked. There's a quiver, ever so slight, one that tells Betty just how afraid he is.
This, in turn, makes Betty afraid.
He links his fingers in hers, tugging her down the hall. He almost is at the stairwell, before Betty sees another group of them through the door.
"We're trapped," The words escape her as one big rush, uttered in the softest of tones.
Sweet Pea's look is hard to describe. It's angry, it's sadness, it's terror. He looks younger here, younger than he ever has. It does not escape Betty that as he backs them up, he always puts her farthest from the noise.
"In here, quick," Sweet Pea whispers under his breath, opening a door to one of the cabinets of the nurses station. He shoves Betty in first, motioning for her to lie down. It's a little cramped for her, and there's a shelf right above her, so it's very claustrophobic. It's about to get even more so, as Sweet Pea tucks himself inside too, but not before smearing a walker's guts with a hospital gown all over the front of the cabinet.
He closes the door behind them as softly as he can.
"I have a theory that they use smell," He whispers, his breath warm, "And that maybe, if I make our area smell like walker, they'll pass by. Once they move on to the other end of the hall, we run for it." He says.
Betty is about to reply, but the stairwell and doors open and it's just shuffling of the dead feet.
Betty makes a squeaking noise at the sheer amount of them, not meaning to. Sweet Pea instantly tugs her against him, pressing her nose into his shoulder, quieting her.
From this angle now, Betty can see the walkers through the thin slit of the cabinet doors.
She's not sure who's shaking; her or Sweet Pea. Her knife is between them, but at some point, her grip loosens and she puts her arms around his back. They're both shaking, she comes to conclude. There's no way in hell that if the walkers found them they'd be able to fight their way out of this.
He can't see a thing from this angle, not at least out the way they came in. He could have turned around, his back to her face. Or, she could be in front of him, he could have gotten in first.
This is when she realizes that his hold on her is very deliberate.
He is, once again, protecting her. He'd rather have her curled into his chest and farther from the danger than anything else.
And, well, his hold isn't sexual but it's also not-not sexual.
She's sure that her mind isn't the only mind that always seems to have the dirtiest lyrics on repeat when she's in Church or class, so she's not surprised when her mind jumps—even from the beefiest of seconds- to the way that his front feels molded against her, and how if she tilts her hips forward, she'd be able to feel him, hard or not.
Just as she's contemplating this, a band of walkers come terrifying close to their hiding place.
Sweet Pea must be listening raptly, because he tightens his grip on her. Betty bites into his shoulder to keep from crying out as she sees them approach.
And, that's when it hits her.
She could die like this.
All of their work, all the time they spent, and it could end like this. Others probably came to a similar fate, somewhere.
If the walkers found them, they'd either die from the wounds-going mad at the end- or be descended upon by the hoard and be eaten alive.
It's stupid it takes her this long to realize it. That's the reality of their situation, of this new world. Somehow, she almost let herself believe the world wasn't totally fucked. In their little cabin, she could nearly think that her mom had booked her some weirdo off-the-grid trip in the woods, and she'd go back to the world of Instagram and Facebook soon enough. That there weren't undead cannibals walking the earth. That things were normal.
Nothing was ever going to be normal again.
The smaller group moved on, but they still weren't safe. Betty felt tears spring to her eyes. She had never felt such fear as she did in this moment, not even staring the Black Hood down.
One of Sweet Pea's hands was curled in her hair, and he pulled her closer against him, legs tangling in hers, so there wasn't an inch of space between them. She could hear the frantic beating of his heart, like a hummingbird. Neither of them even dared to breathe louder than normal. If this was it, was she happy with her life? Was she satisfied? Were there things she should have said to others, to Veronica or Archie that night? To Jughead? To her mom, and fucking hell, even her dad? Was there something left unsaid between her and Sweet Pea that- if she was ever going to say them- now would just about be the opportune time?
It seems endless. Limitless. It seems like there's too much to say to him, no possible way to thank him for saving her and staying with her. For being a friend. For being her partner. She doesn't have the time and it kills her, because they had days and days of silence at the safety of the cabin, where she didn't imagine having to say these things to him, at least not now. She thought they'd have time, the long winter, to sort it out. She wishes she could go back to the Betty that was working on the heater even three days ago and shake her, and tell her that she should tell him.
There's a sentiment that, if she's going to start, seems like a good place to do just so. It's quietly intimate, as she considers the words in her head, in the sort of way that if he doesn't feel the same way, it will be easy to brush it aside as friendly goodbyes. However, if he did feel as she did…
She inhales first, as though preparing herself. Then, she speaks.
"If we go, I'm glad I'm not alone," Betty said, her voice a hair above silent air. She was inches from his ear, so he heard. She waits, giving him the moment to reply, so that she knows how to go from here, knows where he stands.
"Betty," She couldn't see his face, but his voice was rough, "I…" For a moment, it seemed like he was going to say more. It's hard to see him, there's only a small amount of light casting into their cabinet, but Sweet Pea looks more unsure of himself than he ever has. Then, he quieted. Betty strained, begging for him to continue. The next action he took was abrupt.
"Go, go!" He was shoving her out of the cabinet. Betty skidded onto the floor in a daze, before Sweet Pea was grabbing her up, "Run!" He said in a whisper-yell.
Betty didn't need to be told twice. The pair booked it down the other end of stairs, dodging a few strangler walkers. Betty didn't even bother going for her pillowcase. She didn't even catch her breath, not truly, for a long time. Not in the car, not out of the city, not even when they were back in their driveway. It wasn't until they were inside, door locked, that they collapsed into each other.
Betty tried to hold back her hiccuping sobs, but failed miserably.
"Hey, hey," Sweet Pea said, but he was still shaking all over, "We're home. We're safe now."
"I never want to leave again," Betty croaked.
"Yeah, me either," Sweet Pea said, "That was a close one."
Not much else needed to be said on the topic.
As Sweet Pea continued to rub soft circles on her back, Betty just replayed a mantra in her mind.
We're safe, we're safe, we're safe….
Not unexpectedly, it didn't really feel like it.
Things couldn't be too comfortable forever, right ;)
I spent WAY more time than probably normal creeping on the Google Maps of Niagara WI and looking up shops and stuff, as well as trying to get layouts XD I mean, I know this is a zombie story, but I still wanted to be realistic!
But damn how do you all like that UST?
Sorta just a reminder, even though we're only getting Betty's POV on stuff, remember that Sweet Pea is making this apocalypse playlist that is the song titles, so HE picked out 'I Will Follow You Into the Dark'...take that how you will!
I think you all will very much enjoy the next chapter I have planned. Won't say much more than that, other than reviews will make me update much faster!