I sit in the hospital for the second time this week, but this time, I'm not the one lying on the death bed. Lying below me was Ethan. The doctors say that since he was shot in the right side of his chest and was suffering from internal bleeding, he wouldn't make it. That's not even counting his injuries from the fall, a broken arm and a concussion.

I put my face into my hands. This was all my fault. Maybe if I would've seen the guy, I could of took him out and Ethan would be alive right now. Maybe, just maybe...

"10k?" A voice says from behind me.

I don't bother to turn around.

"I understand that your upset right now, but I have something that might cheer you up."

I hear footsteps walk to the edge of Ethan's bed, but I leave my head down, staring at his crippled body.

Suddenly, A piece of chocolate cake comes into my view. I look up to see Cassandra holding out a plate, grinning. The grin on her face causes me to smirk.

She laughs, "Here, I saved you some cake."

I reach my arm out and take the plate and fork, then set it on my lap.

"Are you not going to eat it?" Cassandra asks.

"I'm not sure if now is a time to be celebrating. Sure we won, but we lost Ethan. Maybe if I could of done something-"

"Stop. Don't blame this on yourself. You didn't do anything wrong. No one saw the man who shot him. Besides, if he was up now, he would want you to be celebrating so eat some cake."

I look down at the cake sitting in my lap and begin to eat it. A taste I haven't had in five long years floods my tastebuds. The smile I had before appears again on my face, only this time wider.

I hear Cassandra laugh as she's stands up, she walks towards the door and motions for me to follower her. We make it through the doorway and into the hall, only to be stopped by the sound of a heart monitor. I turn around to see the once moving line grow still. I hand my plate to Cassandra and sprint as fast as I can to the nearest nurse. The woman I run into cant be much older than 15, but she's wearing a nurse badge.

"You need to save the patient in room 134, his heart monitor stopped."

-

"Tommy," Cassandra says when she opens the bedroom door. "I brought you some coffee."

The smell French vanilla coffee finds its way into my nose. I roll over a sit up in bed. I take the mug from her gentle hands and take a sip. The stream of warm liquid warms my throat as it goes down. I notice Cassandra fiddling with a stray string coming off our comforter.

"Cass, what's wrong?" I ask.

"Oh, it's nothing." She answers.

"Well, it sure does look like something is wrong. Tell me."

She lays her head down on my lap, "I'm just not sure if this place is safe anymore."

"How is it not safe?"

"How could those guys just roll up to our gates and none of us notice until they were right there? And how could none of us know where they came from? They obviously had a base."

I take another sip of coffee and stroke her hair with my other hand, "But we stopped it."

"But their people will come looking for them soon. It's only a matter of time for when they find us."

I set my coffee down on the night stand and wrap her up in my arms. All I'm able to say is,"We'll be alright."

--

I stand in the armory with the rest of the run team around me, in the middle of us is a map.

"The plan is still normal, get the supplies we need, but we need to keep out for anything out of the normal. Those people have a base around here somewhere, we need to find it before the rest of them come for us."

Everyone nods their heads in agreement and picks up their guns from the shelves.

I pick up my rifle and swing it over my shoulder. I roll up the map and put it into one of the bags we're taking.

-

Our truck slows to a stop in front of  a small plaza in a town. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, so I tap the side of the truck signaling to them that it's safe to come out.

We split into pairs and Mack and I start looking through an antique store, while the rest spread out into the other small stores in the plaza.

A typical store these days would have very little to nothing left, and covered in dust. But this store, was the exact opposite. Everything from old forks to jewelry no one wanted sits clean on the shelves. Mack walks over to the jewelry counter and picks up a ruby necklace. He looks it over for a few seconds then puts it in his bag, I'm assuming it's for Addy. Mack continues wandering around looking at some old furniture.

I walk over to the jewelry counter and look at all of it, there could be something of value still here. Everything looks the same then something catches my eye. A golden band with two small diamonds and a larger one in between them. It's beautiful. My mind wanders back to what Doc said to me, 'I'd rather die having someone know I love them that much than die knowing no one loved me at all.'

With that in my mind I pick the ring up and put it into my bag.

~~~~

Sorry it took me so long to update, if read my other update you know why. But I hoped you enjoyed this story part!