"Heidi!" I scream once more as her hand falls to the wound, shock evident on her face when the Slayer yanks his knife back out of her skin.

Without thinking of any potential, deadly consequences, I stamp down on the foot of the Slayer holding me hostage, ignoring the gun pressed against my head, his grip loosening as he howls out in pain.

I quickly duck my head out of his arms before whirling around. Grabbing hold of the gun in the other Slayer's hand, I dig my nails into his skin as I bend his arm back, the gun now aimed at him instead of me.

I don't think, I don't question who I've become. Instead, I pull down on the trigger, watching as he falls to the floor, the gun now firmly back in my control.

My left elbow goes flying into my other captor's face, his hand flying up to cover his bleeding nose as he squeals in anguish. Good.

Suddenly he falls to the floor and I watch as Jen appears behind him, yanking her spear out of his back. Blood is smeared across her face as she glances around the place like a wild animal. Fucking hell, the humanity in the South is most definitely broken, and I'm pretty sure it's too far gone to ever be repaired.

Jen nods at me before turning, her weapon rotating in her hand before it flies into the stomach of a woman clawing at Anna's face.

Looking back, I see that Sam and Zac have surrounded Heidi, Sam's attention clearly distracted by his bleeding wife as she sinks to the floor. Zac is wrestling most of the Slayers for all three of them.

I launch myself towards them without wasting another second, slicing a knife into someone's neck before I launch myself onto the back of the Slayer currently trying to slit my husband's throat. Not today, buddy.

Zac looks in awe as the guy in front of him drops to the floor. I shoot him an amused smile before he reaches out, gripping onto my waist and yanking me to him before he raises his arm, a gunshot echoing around me. I close my eyes, waiting for the pain.

Nothing seems to happen and Zac releases me, my eyes flitting around just as he lowers the gun.

"Did you just save me?" I say and he shrugs, putting his gun back in his waistband.

"Whatever." He smirks. I look around to see that the group has the situation in hand, only a couple of Slayers left.

"Heidi!" I turn my attention back to my sister, throwing myself down next to her as Sam attempts to put pressure on the wound.

"I'm... okay... Mils," she splutters out and I struggle to maintain my composure as I shake my head.

"Damn it, Heidi, you're the one who's good with all this medical shit, not us!" I half cry, half laugh as she smiles, her head resting back on Sam's shoulder.

"You're all pretty useless without me then, aren't you?" She attempts to make a joke, a small, playful smile on her lips.

"Of course we are," I reply, my eyes tearing up as I raise her hand to my lips. "That's why we need you."

"What happened?" Myles suddenly pushes past Zac, kneeling down beside me.

"She was stabbed," Sam replies, choking on a sob as Heidi weakly shakes her head at him, reaching up and caressing his cheek in reassurance.

"I can try and have a look, but right now we need to get out of here," Myles replies, glancing back at the pile of bodies. "This won't be the last of them."

"You expect us to move her like this?" I can't help but exclaim, torn between knowing we can't stay out in the open, but also terrified that jolting my sister might make things worse.

"It's the only chance any of us have at surviving." Myles nods, looking down at her and reaching for her neck, the three of us watching nervously. "Her pulse hasn't slowed much. Can someone pass me a shirt or something?" He looks around at the group, all the Slayers now dead or knocked out on the floor. Kieran quickly pulls some material out of his bag, throwing it towards us.

Myles ties the black fabric around her waist, a pained squeal leaving her lips as he tightens it. Heidi's eyes are still closed, the worry inside me growing every second that she continues to bleed.

"We should carry her," Sam says, attempting to stand up. Zac instantly swoops in and hooks his arm under Heidi, the two of them picking her up together.

"If we try to get to the south-west of the town, hopefully we'll be far enough away that no Slayers will be around. Plus, there could be a pharmacy," Jen pipes up, both her and Kieran pouring over the map.

"An unlooted pharmacy and no Slayers?" Anna scoffs. "Do you two live in a dreamworld?"

"It's our only option," Kieran snaps back at his sister.

"Kieran and Jen are right," I reply, knowing that Heidi needs to be looked at sooner rather than later, a pharmacy being the best, sensible and logical option for our destination.

"Let's go," Zac retorts somewhat harshly. Sam and him step forward as Jen and Kieran begin to head towards the other end of the road. I drop my rucksack to the floor, opening it and grabbing some bullets to reload my gun.

"Are you okay?" Anna asks and I look up at her, somewhat surprised by her question.

"I'm sorry," I say, standing up and throwing the bag back over my shoulder. "Are you talking to me?"

She rolls her eyes. "There's no need to be catty."

"You're literally a bitch to me every single fucking day," I remind her and she smirks.

"That doesn't mean I'm a horrible person," she counters and I can't stop the laugh that leaves my lips.

"I'm fairly certain it does."

"Whoa!" she exclaims. "Being a bitch and being someone hated are completely different."

"Anna, I think you need to take friendship lessons," I reply with a cocked brow.

"Friendship lessons?" She laughs. "I don't need friends."

"You keep telling yourself that," I say, her playful smile giving her away. I look back at the street, following our group of friends. "How's your neck?"

"My neck?" She seems surprised at my question, her hand flying up to the bandage. "I didn't think you'd care."

"I didn't think you cared either, but you asked whether I was okay as well," I remind her and she grins.

"You're right," she says. "I think hanging out with Princess Innocent is rubbing off on me." She gestures towards Heidi and I smile.

"She did the same with me."

"She'll be okay," Anna says and I shake my head, the faces of Jace, Rayden and Claudia flashing through my mind. Death comes way too easily in this world.

"You don't know that," I reply bitterly, the two of us descending into silence as we follow the group, my bleeding sister in the middle of them, her head having fallen back onto Sam's shoulder.

Please, please let her be okay.

*~*~*

Jordan shuts the door behind us as Anna stares through the metal bars on the windows, her gun poised and ready. The first pharmacy didn't even exist anymore, not a trace of it to be found under all the rubble. The second we looked for was the same, eventually giving up and travelling another mile south to a village, managing to locate a tiny one on the outskirts, not a soul in sight.

"We should barricade the door," Jen says, walking over to a table in the corner and sweeping everything off, Kieran running over to help her move it. "I think it's the only way anyone would be able to get in."

"Because they'd ignore the damn hole in the roof?" Anna scoffs, pointing up at the gap above her head.

"That's a lot smaller than any other buildings we've been in," Jen replies.

"Agreed." Jordan nods, rushing over and helping them as I turn my attention back to Heidi. Sam and Zac are just resting her down onto another bare table as she groans. Her eyes are still squeezed shut as Myles fusses around her.

Within seconds she's rolled onto her back, Myles picking away the fabric from the blood, rolling her top up to take a look. The amount of red liquid has my stomach queasy, looking away to try and gather my thoughts.

Zac's hand wraps around my head, reassuringly running his fingers through my hair as I rest my face against his abs, the hard feel of them strangely comforting as he watches Myles work.

I shut my eyes in an attempt to distract myself, fingers curling around Zac's shirt. The action reminds me of when we were back in Nottingham, during the last few days at the group house. Zac was constantly frustrated by how many people were around, invading his private space. We spent way more time than we should have up in his room, laughing, joking, rolling around in his bed. Sometimes we'd just lie there, silently, in each other's arms, or like we are now, taking comfort in one another's closeness. I need Zac.

"I don't think it's deep enough to have hit anything internally," Myles announces, my eyes shooting open in surprise.

"It isn't?" Sam exclaims, reaching out and grabbing onto Heidi's hand.

"No." Myles shakes his head. "I'll have to stitch it if possible."

"What do you need me to look for?" Jen asks from the other end of the room, roughly yanking open the metal door to the medicine.

"You won't know what you're looking for," Myles grumbles, pushing away from the table and heading after his sister.

"Did you hear that, Heid?" Sam says softly, brushing her dark hair away from her face. "You're going to be okay."

She's going to be okay.

*~*~*

"Anna!" Myles calls across the room, the brunette looking over at him with surprise.

"Yeah?"

"I'd like to put some of this antiseptic cream on your neck too," Myles tells her. Sam is still holding Heidi's hand as Jen slides a rolled up top under her head to act as a pillow. "Just in case."

"Are you okay?" Zac asks from behind me, whispering as his head rests into the crook of my neck. I take a deep breath before nodding, turning around to face him.

"I will be," I reply and he takes my hand, leading me away from Heidi and back towards the pharmacy area of the shop.

"Let's get some of that blood off of you." Zac turns away from me, towards the sink beside him. Blood? What blood?

"What are you on about?" I ask and he raises an eyebrow, lifting a wet cloth to my face. "Wait, the taps work?" I look over at the running water in surprise.

"You have some splatters on you," Zac replies calmly, wiping away at my skin. Oh. "I'm so glad you're okay, Emilia."

"Did you ever doubt me?" I grin teasingly and he laughs quietly.

"Of course not."

*~*~*

My head is resting against Zac's shoulder as we lean back against the wall late in the afternoon. Everyone else is sitting around us in a circle, with the exception of Heidi and Sam, and a scowling Jordan who's keeping watch out of the window. I think we might be safe here. For now anyway.

"Why hasn't this shop been looted yet?" I ask out loud, the unanswered question haunting me since we walked in four hours earlier.

"You can see some people have been in here." Jen points to the meagre rations of food that are left on the fallen shelves.

"I would have thought this would have been completely emptied out." Anna scoffs, shaking her head. "Medicine? Isn't that what people go for?"

"Slayers don't care for anyone's life but their own, even in their own little packs," Jen explains. "They would probably only grab that if they needed it themselves. Anything extra is just extra weight they don't want to carry around."

"That's crazy," Kieran exclaims and Jen nods.

"The South is a crazy place."

"Anyway, Slayers are probably still living off of supplies from Milton Keynes," Myles pipes up. "That's where a lot of them started."

"Oh," I breathe out, Zac's hand reaching down and curling around mine in a tight, reassuring grip.

"We'll take what we can with us tomorrow," Zac says with a harshness to his tone. "We take care of one another, not like that fucking scum out there."

"True." Jordan grins, leaning back on the stool he's sitting on, his gun slacking slightly from its position at the window.

"We still need to get more clothes." Anna points out, leaning back and lying on the hard floor. "I'm fucking freezing."

"It's only going to get worse," Zac replies. "The English winter is always fucking worse in January."

January. Nearly seven months since we were thrown into these relationships and the mess that followed.

I wouldn't change it for the world. Thinking back to this time last year, I remember how Heidi and I would be cooped up in our room for most of the day, every single day unless we were working.

The only time anything was different was on the twenty-fifth December when the caretaker of the girls house, Jane, would hand out a small cupcake each, promising us that life wouldn't be this way forever. Oh, how right she was.

With sudden realisation, I shoot up, out of Zac's arms. He's clearly startled by my movements, standing up behind me as I walk over to the window, glancing out at the slightly frosty trees.

"Emilia?" Zac exclaims. I turn back to see everyone staring at me with shocked and guarded expressions. Quickly sending them a reassuring smile, my gaze then falls back to the outside, watching as a couple of white snowflakes suddenly appear on the ground. My eyes widen as I look up at the darkening sky.

"Is that snow?" Jordan asks from beside me. I nod before turning back to the group, Zac taking a step towards me, apparently concerned by my abrupt outburst.

It was always my favourite time of year before the war; the way the cities were covered with multicoloured lights, the excitement of busy, manic last minute shopping and watching my parents' reactions when they opened their presents.

Even now I live in hope that one day it'll mean what it always used to.

With a shrug, I open my mouth, "We missed Christmas."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I couldn't even imagine this life... A completely different world!!

Heidi's alive! Woohoo!!!

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