Love Among The Ruins-Chapter 135

EPILOGUE

ROWAN’S POV

"Rowan. Rowan, baby. Can you hear me?" Nadine’s voice floated into my ears, but it was too far away. As if she was speaking from a distance.

"Is he dead?" someone else asked, and for a moment, darkness pressed down on me. I didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything for what seemed like an eternity.

I tried to open my eyes, to look for Nadine. But I...

I could not.

Pain pressed down on me from all sides, rendering me immobile. It was too much, and I tried to part my lips, to cry out and call for Nadine. To tell her that I was in hell, that my entirely body burned with the intensity of being flayed alive.

To tell her that I needed her to be with me. To hold my hand.

But I could not.

I had no eyes. No mouth. I had nothing.

I was nothing.

The last thing I heard before darkness claimed me was Nadine’s voice.

And she was screaming my name.

~~

SIX MONTHS LATER

My eyes blinked open, and the force of the light that streamed into them threatened to blind me.

I closed them again a groan slipped past my lips, before slowly opening them again. Letting my eyes get used to the daylight seeping in through some open windows, i sat up.

Or tried to, at least.

My arms were mush, and they trembled to hold my weight. By the time I managed to drag myself into a sitting position, I was covered in sweat.

I looked around. Where was Nadine?

That was the first thought that floated into my ears, immediately followed by another.

Where was I?

A door opened to my left, and my eyes followed the sound. It was as though I had conjured her with my thoughts.

Nadine stared at me with eyes as wide as saucers. She was carrying a tray, but it fell from her hands as shs stared at me.

Tears rolled down her face, and her entire body trembled. I smiled — a very shaky smile — at her as I spoke.

"Hello, Princess."

She flew towards me, her arms wrapping around my body tightly. I hugged her back too, my eyes fluttering close as I held her.

I inhaled, letting her very familiar scent settle around me. I didn’t know how long we held each other, only that she started crying at some point, and all I could do was gently pat her on the back.

When her tears finally subsided, she pulled away from me. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and her nose was red from all the tears.

But she was okay.

"Are you okay? Do you feel pain anywhere?" she asked as she looked me over, her brows furrowed in a worried frown.

"I’m fine, princess. Really. I feel a little bit weak, but I am okay. What happened though?" I asked.

And instead of the response I was expecting, Nadine reached out and slapped her hands over my chest instead.

It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it did sting a little.

"How dare you? How dare you scare me like that? I told you to wait for me! I told you to not move a fucking inch. But you didn’t listen to me, and you just...I was so scared. Terrified out of my mind. They said you weren’t suppose to survive the blast, but you did. It took you six fucking months, but you did. And I hate you for doing that to me, for making me scared and worried but I am so glad that you’re alive and..."

She was rambling now, and I grabbed her wrists gently, stopping her from hitting me.

"I am sorry. I am so sorry, baby. I just...it seemed cruel to make you die with me. I didn’t want to take you down with me and I am so sorry for making you scared," I whispered as i pulled her into a hug.

She stiffened against my hold for one tiny moment before she folded into me, her warm body flush against mine.

"How?" she asked.

"Trent lied to us. What I stepped on wasn’t a bomb. It was an empty gun casing. I had been too terrified to realise it. The bomb wasn’t where I stood. It was where he was instead. He knew, and walked around it, after setting it to a timer. My plan was to end it all anyway, to stop you from taking an immensely foolish decision, but when I stepped away and didn’t blow up, I thought he lied to us. But I didn’t make it past two steps before the bomb detonated."

"Which was how we found you buried under the rubble," she whispered.

I nodded. "I’m fine now, and you can get mad at me all you want, but I am glad that you’re alive, Princess."

She smiled at me then, a teary smile that made her eyes lit up.

"I’m glad you are too."

When we kissed, it was slow and unhurried. It was a kiss of grief and relief all woven together at once, and it stripped me bare for some reason.

"Tell me everything I missed, Princess."

She settled on the bed beside me, my hands circling around her waist as she got comfortable.

"I killed Trent, of course. It was surprisingly easy. The monsters died off one after the other minutes after he died, probably because he wasn’t alive to control them anymore.

We lost a lot of people..."

I listened as she mentioned the people who died, and the ones who survived. Solomon didn’t make it, and neither did Camden.

But the rest of the crew did. Jennifer. Joshua. Amy and her son.

"We survived. It’s hard work, and it takes a lot of time and effort, but we have people all around looking for other bunkers in an attempt to save the people and get them back into the real world."

A bittersweet pang hit my chest at her words.

We survived.

Humanity had survived, despite everything we had gone through.

It might take an insane amount of time, but we would be whole again. The scars ran deep, but we were humans after all. One of our best abilities was adaptation.

We would adapt. Build a new world from scratch. One that wasn’t corrupted with monsters.

"We could not have done it without you, Princess," I whispered into her hair.

"I didn’t do it alone," was all she said.

Comfortable silence stretched between us as we held each other for hours, neither of us saying anything.

Not like it mattered.

For now, we needed no words.

We had survived the worst of the worst.

"Nadine?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like to marry me?"