I never imagined I would get to see him again.

When I escaped with Alicia, Madison, and Travis, it tore me apart. It tore me apart to imagine a world without Nick Clark in it. We'd known each other since diapers and I'd been madly in love with him since the early days of Paul R. Williams High School where his mother worked as a guidance counselor. We'd been a grade apart yet magnetically drawn to each other.

I knew the trouble Nick always seemed to be in and how his mother and sister worried about him. So many things should have been red flags but my attraction to Nick overrode my sense of self, logic, and security. I found myself in strange places, strange times - back alleys, obscure diners, and his own personal favorite drug den.

Somehow, I'd felt responsible for him - like I could look out for him, watch over him and keep him relatively safe from his own self-destruction. I was wrong.

Because I couldn't shelter him from the storm of the apocalypse brewing. I couldn't shelter him from the masses of rotting corpses taking over L.A. or the virus they inflicted when you were bitten. I couldn't shelter him from having to be uprooted from all we'd ever known.

I couldn't protect Nick Clark from any of those things. There are times, I still wish I could have. But instead of destroying himself as he'd been doing his entire life, in this strange new world Nick was thriving. He'd always been an electric force to be reckoned with but now he was finally beginning to realize it. Everyone around him was terrified, just trying to survive. But Nick? The apocalypse was his oyster - so to speak.

Even so, I still found myself panicking when the image of a blood-drenched Nick stumbling through a horde of walkers resurfaced in my mind in the late night hours between sleeping and waking. I would bolt upright in my bed in a cold sweat, gripping pristine white sheets in my fists. But no matter where my eyes landed, Nick was never anywhere to be found.

Yet, we still moved forward - as a team, as a family. I'd almost broken away once or twice but Madison insisted I was as much a part of this family as anyone and that I stay. So I did. I can't tell you how long it was or just how many months had passed before we eventually got word that Nick was alive. It was a boon in my life at that point, simply knowing the man I loved was still here on this earth.

That's what we were doing when got taken. A group of soldiers captured us, took us to a foreign military compound, and separated myself and Travis from Madison and Alicia before shoving us into a dark holding cell of sorts. The floor along the walls and around the shelves were littered with people sitting, awaiting their fate. I looked down at my hands, noticing the dirt caked under my nails. My thoughts began to spiral into something much more sinister and depressive when my shoulder was bumped from the left and I glanced up to meet Travis' eyes. Nodding slightly as to not call attention to himself, he gestured to the other side of the room directly across from us.

Sitting opposite us were two people - one, a female, seeming very ill and worse for wear. And beside her... I had to stop myself from the gasp that threatened to climb out unbidden from my throat. It felt like my world was spinning on its axis. It wasn't...wasn't possible...or was it? Then, almost as suddenly as these thoughts raced through my mind, a pair of achingly familiar chocolate-brown eyes locked on mine.

It took him all of three seconds for his eyes to widen in shock before an expression of confusion etched itself onto his handsome features. He was obviously wondering how in the world Travis and I had ended up here. The girl beside him, whom I now noticed was a dark-haired beauty with mocha skin, moaned in her sleep and snuggled deeper into his shoulder. My mouth morphed into a hard line, shock and jealousy erupting inside of me suddenly. Who was this girl? And why was she so familiar and loved-up to Nick?

When no one was watching us, Travis and I moved silently to the other side of the room to get closer to Nick and the unknown girl. Travis began to slide over to allow me to sit beside Nick but I pretended not to notice and took a seat on the opposite side of him. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nick frown but ignored that, too. However what I couldn't ignore was the scent of Nick, so tantalizingly, achingly familiar and painfully close as it filled up my senses. It took all of my reserve not to reach over and brush my fingers across the skin I knew all too well.

Travis was the first to speak.

"Your mother and sister are here," he told him without preamble, "They took them somewhere else."

Nick was silent for a beat before opening his mouth, "Chris?"

I felt a jagged flash of pain and saw it etched there on Travis' face as well as he slowly shook his head, unable to say the words. Nick closed his eyes briefly, pain evident in his features.

"They do this to her?" Travis asked, hooking a thumb towards the nearly-unconcsious girl beside him.

"Her name's Luciana. And, yeah, at the crossing. We were ambushed," Nick nodded, explaining what had happened to them.

"Did you see anyone at the border?"

"Just the dead... I saw this place, I thought it was a refugee camp,"

"You couldn't have known. We didn't. Thought the patrol was military until they were on top of us,"

I piped up then, feeling sympathy for him well up inside of me despite my irritation over the girl I now knew as Luciana, "You were just doing what you thought was best - like always,"

Nick's head whipped in my direction, dark gaze locking on mine, "You came looking for me?"

I swallowed hard, feeling hypnotized by those cocoa-brown eyes I had fallen so hard for years ago, "I had to."

And I did. I couldn't live in this crazy world, knowing that Nick was somewhere out there and not go find him. It was an impossibility to think that I would ever willingly leave him.

Silence reigned again then as the woman stirred beside him and he leaned into her. The sight left me feeling physically sick and I turned my head to spare myself the heartache. Minutes later, another man dressed in a military uniform walked in. The name-tag on his shirt read 'Troy' and as attractive as he may be, I could tell he was going to be trouble.

After briefly talking with Travis, he left the room before we were herded into a small yet undeniably dirty bathroom. The tile walls were covered in grime and splattered blood stains that made me shiver. Just what were we walking into? For a split second, I almost grabbed Nick's hand for comfort but denied myself that pleasure. He was too preoccupied with holding onto that girl anyhow as she flinched at the gunshot ringing out in the room once the soldiers murdered one of the hostages.

I can't tell you how we escaped exactly, it all went by in one massive blur of gunshots, blood, and fighting until we had made it outside into the bright sunlight. A group of soldiers ran after us, their footfalls loud on the concrete behind us.

Travis stopped then, keeping them at bay as he yelled over his shoulder to Nick, "Get them safe. I'll find your mother and sister. Run! Go!"

Nick grabbed Luciana's arm and she faltered, his eyes going to mine instantly as he silently asked for my help. Begrudgingly, I grabbed her other arm and together, the three of us left as quickly as we could. Nick, with help from another escapee, found us the opening of a sewer far below and we all began to pile in. The other man didn't make it, being caught and shot by the soldiers but Nick, the girl, and I managed to escape somehow.

It was dark and the air was stale and moist, full of the rotted stench that only a sewer could bring. It was revolting and yet somehow, I didn't seem to mind it as much as I minded the arm Nick had wrapped so gingerly around Luciana. Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't happy the girl was ill. Nor was I happy that there was a real possibility she would die - I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. But the simple fact that the man I had loved for half of my life may have moved on with another...

Well, it just brought up bad memories. He'd been with Gloria for the drugs mostly but it still hurt to think that after how much closer we'd grown after the outbreak, he still would choose someone else. He still wouldn't choose me...

"Nosotras tenemos que parar," Luciana pleaded suddenly, shaking me free of the thoughts that threatened to consume me.

Nick shook his head adamantly, "No, we can't stop. Not yet. I'm gonna get you safe,"

I felt a pang in my heart at his choice of words, effectively leaving me out of the equation but I bit back the surge of hurt. Gasping in pain, Luciana pushed herself off of myself and Nick then and moved to rest against the wall.

"I'm slowing you two down," she said, her voice soft as her dark gaze flicked from Nick to me and back again.

Nick glanced over at her for a split-second before moving to gently cup her face, "No te dejaré,"

His hand dropped to her chest, resting just over her heart.

"Nunca...okay?"

A stab of anger blended with jealousy erupted inside of me like a volcano. I had been the one who taught him Spanish when we were teenagers. It was my mother tongue and Nick insisted to know the words being said whenever he would come to my house. So I indulged his whims and taught him. Admittedly, he pronounced some words wrong but it always made a flood of butterflies erupt in my belly when he did. It was the effort that counted.

But to hear him speak the words only we would share to a stranger? It was a low blow.

Luciana nodded once to Nick as tears pricked her eyes.

"We gotta move." he repeated then, glancing at me curiously as I reluctantly grabbed Luciana's other arm once again, my expression stormy.