Preciliano wakes up feeling completely famished, thirsty and drained of all energy, he rubs his eyes and sees that Kelly, Leslie and Dayjanay have squeezed in together on the bed, he slowly slides of the bed to avoid waking them up and walks out the bedroom, where he is met by the gazes of Troy's lackies from the football team and Tracy's best friend Ashley, he asks weakly.
"what did I sleep through?"
Tracy jumps up with joy and hugs him tightly, completely surprising the group of friends, since Tracy and Preciliano have never shown anyone that they were close, but he smiles not caring what they think.
"hey sis, I'm feeling a bit thirsty and hungry."
Troy who is sleep deprived, notices this and thinks to himself, feeling more hatred being built up towards Preciliano.
"fucking bitch, you should have died."
William gives him a cup of water and a granola bar.
"here you go kid, most of the food that is stocked in the winnebago, there is no gas here to turn on the stoves to cook them properly."
Preciliano opens up the granola bar and takes a bite out of it.
"that's fine, we'll just eat what we can until we arrive at the house."
Tracy shouts a question at Troy.
"are we almost there?!"
he shouts back.
"yeah, we are pretty close."
Preciliano looks at the familiar faces who have in the past participated in the bullying alongside Troy and thinks to himself.
"I'm stuck surviving with people I fucking hate."
Paul who is sitting down next to Lisa with his arm around her, notices Preciliano's sour expression upon seeing them and stands up.
"what's wrong loser?"
Tracy tries to prevent this from escalating.
"hold on, don't start now, we are all fine and alive so let's just enjoy that shall we?"
Preciliano ignores his sister and retorts.
"I see nothing has changed, people are being eaten alive, and you are still Troy's ass licker."
he angrily approaches Preciliano, and just as he is about to punch him, William intervenes and grabs his wrist.
"enough, we don't need this shit right now, you two better put whatever problems you had behind you."
Tracy gets in front of Preciliano and pleads.
"please don't do anything, and let it slide."
Preciliano grits his teeth.
"so you want everything that has been done to me from all these fuckers, to just let it slide?"
Alex and John stand up with a look on their face like they are ready to put down Preciliano, William let's go of Paul's wrist, Troy watches all this go down and grins thinking to himself.
"I could use this opportunity to show that I'm capable of putting them in line."
he shouts.
"all of you, settle down and shut up or you will be left behind here on the road."
Paul angry expression relaxes and sits back down next to Lisa, obediently following Troy's orders, Alex and John also follows suit, Preciliano smirks witnessing this and thinks to himself.
"at least Troy still has them following what he says, and since they've spent their high school lives being his obedient lap dogs this group dynamic shouldn't be too bad, as long as me and Troy don't clash."
William whispers to Preciliano, getting him away from the group.
"kid I need to talk to you."
Preciliano sighs.
"go ahead."
he asks.
"what's the deal, no matter what happened you can't be acting up like that."
since he used to people putting the blame on him even for things that have happened, he answers him completely detached from he is saying.
"yeah, okay."
Preciliano looks over to Troy and walks over to his
seat, he then places his hand on his shoulder and said.
"I know you and me got problems but thanks for that."
Troy replies.
"no problem and besides we can't be at each others throats when we've got bigger problems happening out there."
Troy thinks to himself.
"that turned out better than expected, if I continue on like this, I can slowly gain Percy's loyalty and won't question me when I declare myself the leader."
George turns to Preciliano and shakes his hands, to show Troy that he is willing to try.
"let bygones be bygones and get along better."
a few more hours pass by, and Troy parks up to the house and shouts.
"welcome home everybody.
they all step of the winnebago, with to cold mountain air hitting them, Kelly guides them all inside, and said.
"we have five rooms available, me and Troy will take one."
she looks at William.
"you, your wife, and daughter will take one."
he replies.
"thank you."
she continues.
"the other three, I'll leave it up you."
Troy wanting to share a room with Tracy said to his mom.
"no, I'll be sharing a room with Tracy."
she gives him a disapproving look and replies.
"Troy don't argue with me."
Ashley chimes in.
"it's okay I'll share a room with Tracy."
while not what he wished for, he felt it was better than Tracy sharing a room with her brother, then
Paul said.
"me and Lisa will share a room."
George adds on.
"me, Alex and John will share one."
Preciliano knowing he was going to be left out asks.
"do you have an attic or basement?"
Kelly responds.
"yeah, but wouldn't you rather stay here in the living room?"
Preciliano replies.
"thanks, but I'll be better off taking either, instead of the living room."
Kelly sighs.
"alright everyone, I'll lead you all to your rooms and then I'll make us some soup for dinner."
after showing everyone their rooms, Ashley stays with Preciliano and Kelly, to follow them to the attic, Preciliano thinks to himself.
"why is she coming along?"
they arrive at the end of the second floor hallway, and then Kelly pulls the string hanging from the ceiling and a ladder leading to the attic unfolds in front of them, Kelly then said to Preciliano.
"we should have a floor mattress around, I'll go look for it and bring it to you."
Ashley grabs onto the ladder and said to Preciliano.
"come one Percy, let's check it out."
she climbs up the ladder, not letting Preciliano get a word in, he sighs and follows her up the ladder, where the light of the moon barely shines through the only window in the attic, he asks her feeling curious on why she is keeping him company.
"did you want something Ash? you only talk to me when Tracy is around."
she replies.
"yeah, I just wanted to talk to you, without any of them bothering us."
Preciliano responds.
"okay, you have me all to yourself, so go ahead and tell me what you wanted."
Ashley thinks to herself, trying not to psych herself out.
"you've been waiting for this moment for a while, don't hesitate anymore and just do it."
she takes a deep breath and said.
"when we first met, you immediately blew me off and that bothered me alot, and I took that as a challenge to make you like me, but all the time I was doing that, I got to really know you and I was the one that ended up liking you."
Preciliano unsure if he heard her correctly asks.
"does that mean you like me?"
she nods with a smile.
"yes."
Preciliano asks curiously, since he finds it unbelievable that the notorious ice princess is admitting that she likes him.
"when did it start?"
"last year, I spent most of last year admiring you, when I spotted you attending mixed marital arts training at the gym by my house, and also seeing a caring side of you when you would do volunteer work at the dog shelter."
Preciliano thinks to himself.
"holy shit, she saw me do all that? I never noticed."
his thoughts continue.
"I kept that a secret from everybody, since I didn't want Troy to find out."
she grabs both of his hands and said.
"when Tracy told me that you survived being bitten, and didn't turn into one of them, I was relieved and decided that I wanted to reveal my feelings for you."
Preciliano thinks for a moment about Tracy.
"even though we've shared a few moments together, my feelings for her are mixed since she has always been my sister."
Ashley comes in closer to Preciliano and caresses both his cheeks with both her hands at the same time and said while staring deep into his eyes.
"you probably don't have any feelings for me and you don't have to reciprocate it, I just wanted to let you know how I felt about you since I don't want to live with any regrets, especially with how things are now."
he gently takes her hands of his cheeks and thinks to himself.
"I don't know what I feel, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to find out."
Preciliano puts his hands on her waist and pulls her towards him until their bodies are up against each other, feeling their body heat, he then leans in close to her face and plants a kiss on her lips, Ashley who is taken by surprise by his sudden kiss, thinks to herself as they kiss.
"ooh this is unexpected."
she wraps her arms around him, following his lead, they pull away for a moment and rest on each other's foreheads using their foreheads, they chuckle not knowing exactly how to react on their kiss, Ashley said with a grin.
"wow, that was something."
Preciliano who is still caught up in the moment, finds his hand wandering from her waist to her buttocks, but she doesn't stop him, she instead takes the initiative and kisses him, and while they are sharing this lovely intimate moment together,
they are unaware that Tracy climbed into the attic
and watched the whole thing, she thinks to herself feeling completely heartbroken that Preciliano and Ashley are kissing.
"how could he do that to me?"
Tracy leaves the attic not wanting them to know that she watched them kiss, she leans on the closet wall, thinks to herself.
"don't overreact, you always knew Ash had a thing for Percy, and I have no right to say anything, since I'm still with Troy technically."
Ahsley pulls away from Preciliano and sighs feeling relieved.
"this whole situation feels surreal, us kissing each other in a dark attic."
Preciliano responds.
"yeah, I wasn't really expecting you to hold those type of feelings for me."
Ashley steps back, and is glad that Preciliano can't see her properly, since she feels her face blush, she then asks still feeling unsure on how he feels about her, even though they kissed.
"so how do you feel about me?"
not wanting to lie to her, Preciliano replies.
"honestly I wasn't expecting a confession from you, and my mind has been all over the place since the dead started coming back eating people, but since we are here, can I get a chance to sort out my thoughts, before giving you a proper answer."
feeling a bit deflated with what he said, even though they kissed passionately, she replies with disappointment.
"alright, I don't want to pressure you into anything."
Preciliano responds.
"thanks Ash, I'll see you at dinner."
Ashley climbs down the ladder and spots Tracy leaning against a wall, she walks up to her and asks concerned.
"hey Tracy, you feeling okay?"
Tracy turn around, and nods.
"yeah, my stomach felt heavy for a moment, but it has passed."
she then asks Ashley, even though she is aware why she is giddy.
"so what has gotten the ice princess in a good mood."
Ashley couldn't help but answer with a huge smile on her face.
"I finally told Percy how I felt about him and we kissed twice."
not wanting to show her, how hurt she is feeling, she smiles weakly.
"I'm glad that it finally happened, I'm happy for you Ash."
Ashley grabs Tracy's hand and said as the head downstairs.
"let's explore the house a bit more."
meanwhile Preciliano stares at the ceiling, thinking to himself.
"there was something there when I kissed Ashley, it couldn't hurt to give us a try, hopefully Tracy doesn't take it the wrong way."
Kelly comes up to the attic with floor mattress and blanket, she then gives him a candle and matches.
"this should help you see better."
as she climbs down the attic, she said.
"come down for dinner when you are ready."
he nods.
"thanks Missus Morgan."
he scratches his head in frustration and then sighs as the end of the world became more complicated with these new emotions.