Until The Very End

The next morning comes, I slowly wake up to a feeling of someone is laying on top of me, then start lifting my head up to look at the person and realize that Amy is sleeping peacefully with her head on my shoulder, her face is in the crook of my neck. Fortunately, she sleeps well and hasn’t moved when I ran my fingers through her hair. I let out a small yawn against the back of hand before carefully lifting her up and put her back down to the bed, head on the pillow, then start climbing off the bed to make my coffee while running my fingers through my hair to make it looks presentable.

I begin to walk over to the kitchen, stretching my arms a little bit, and start making the coffee, then suddenly a small knock on the trailer’s door, walking over it and open to see Troy stands outside with a tray that fills with various of breakfast kind of food.

"Hey. Can I come in?" Troy asks.

"Uh, Amy is still sleeping so I don't think you should." I say apologetically while gently taking the tray of food from him and put it on the table next to the bed.

Troy pouts slightly at my answer, then looks at me with those beautiful baby blue eyes of his and my heart starts melting and I let out a small sigh before answering his non-verbal pleading.

"Okay, how about this? I'll make coffee and we can sit and talk about whatever you want. Deal?"

His pouting immediately disappear, then smiles and nods his head quickly. If he has a tail, it's probably wagging like crazy right now. I chuckle softly, then tell him to wait outside.

After a few minutes, I walk back out of the trailer and gently hand him his coffee before sitting down on a chair outside.

We sit in a comfortable silent, sipping on our coffee and watching everyone walking around, doing their thing in the ranch before I decided to break the silence.

"Thank you for bringing us breakfast. Even though you don't have to." I say with a soft smile.

"I know. I just worry when I didn't see you two this early morning at your usual table."

"Oh, I overslept and Amy was kinda sleeping on top of me. I didn't wanna wake her up, so..." I say with a soft smile.

"Is she okay?" Troy asks concerningly.

"Yeah, she's okay. Just went to bed a bit too late last night. But why are you so concerned about us having breakfast or not?" I ask confusingly before taking another sip of my coffee.

"I just do." He answers, then clear his throat before turning away to hide his blushing cheeks, and also take another sip of his coffee.

I roll my eyes, playfully, then suddenly someone calling his name. We both put the mug down and immediately rushing over to the gate with everyone else, stop abruptly when we see the RV of the Trimbols family going back to the ranch behind a pickup truck.

And when both of the vehicles got inside the ranch, there's something on the truck bed floor and under a tarp. Madison starts getting out of the truck and opens the tailgate, flipping off the tarp to reveal the member of the Trimbol's family as walkers, leaving a few people gasping and sobbing. I let out a small sigh, before gently holding Troy’s hand and rubbing his thumb, soothingly, as Madison turns around to face the group of people and starts her speak.

"I’m sorry. They were good people. They didn’t deserve this end. Our family, we...we weren’t prepared like you. We were strangers, but you took us in. We’ve come to love it here. I wish...my husband had lived to see it. But he was killed. Travis was killed. He was killed by the same people who killed Phil and our people at the outpost. The same people...Walker’s people...have now killed our friends...Vernon, Kathy, Mike...Gretchen. I’ve seen firsthand how Walker treats his victims. I saw it at the outpost, and I just now saw it again. You built this place together. Because of that, you’ve been safe and sheltered. You haven’t been out in the world. We have. I’m telling you, there’s nothing out there. If you leave, you’ll die. Walker’s people aren’t strong enough to force us off this land. They’re trying to scare us. That’s how they want us to go... A family or two at a time, out there alone where nobody can see, where our militia can’t protect us. We cannot let ourselves be fractured. There are more of us. We’re better armed. If we stay here together, we live."
She finishes and a few people nodding their head, agreeing with Madison. Troy starts pulling his hand away from me and walks away. I decided not to follow him, giving him some space before going back to my trailer to check on Amy. When I open the door, Amy's looking up at me while still eating her breakfast. I let out a small sigh through my nose, glad that she doesn't know what just happened, then also start eating the breakfast.

After breakfast, Amy starts going off with some of her friends at the ranch while I decided to go for a work until I see Troy standing at the fence.

"Hey. You good?" I ask softly after approaching him. He takes a small glance at me and goes back to look at whatever outside the fence, stays quiet for a few seconds and speaks up.

"I didn’t go out there to do that, I swear. He owed me. He had to look me directly in the eye. He had to say it to my face, say it like Vernon said it to my father. He owed me that."

"He didn’t want to do that, did he?"

"He said some things, and...I did some things. Then it went bad. Not what you want to hear, is it?" He says bitterly.

"You could run this place, Troy, but not if you let things break like that. Last night you had command. I saw that. Your militia saw that, and they responded. Your brother doesn’t have what you have. He’s not of this place. You’re the survivor. You’re the heir. So, no, the last thing I want to hear is how you lost control. That can’t happen. I don’t care how you did it. I don’t care why you did it. All I care about is that you can control it. Can you?" I say firmly while gently cradling his head in my hands making him to lean against my touch, slightly.

"Yes, ma'am." He says with a soft smile before turning his face and gently kissing my palm, holding my hand in his bigger one, wrapping his arm around my waist, then pulling me closer to him, leaning down and starts giving me a gentle and soft kiss on my lips, making me lean in and kiss him back, instinctively with my hands are still on his cheeks. The kiss last a few seconds before he pulls away first and giving me a small smirk.

"Smart ass." I joke softly after rolling my eyes at his previous comments, earning a small laugh from him.

A/N: Hi, guys. After a long wait or not, I don't know how long I haven't really sat down and wrote the new chapter. But it's here now. Ta-da. 🤭 I hope you guys enjoyed it. As usual, English is not my first language so feel free to comment and correct me or just tell me what you think of this one. Also don't forget to click on the small star if you like this chapter. Bye. See you next time.