The Last Date

"RUN!" Aaron's voice was strained, it was barely more than a whisper. Run. What Savannah felt like she had never stopped doing the past however many years of her life. Her chest ached, it felt like they had been going for miles through the woods.

"Up ahead!" He gasped. They were nearing a town and she narrowed in on the building closest to them. She willed her legs to pump harder and threw herself at the front doors, willing them to be unlocked. She wasn't actually prepared for them to open and when they did she fell through and rolled on the ground.

Aaron came in behind her and slammed the doors. "Quick! We need to barricade the doors!" He was gasping for breath and Savannah was trying to catch hers too.

She clambered to her feet and started pushing tables and chairs his way. They must be in a restaurant. Savannah unhooked a stanchion and thrust it through the door handles. The pair then took a few hesitant steps back and waited, still trying to recover. They didn't hear any signs of their pursuers.

Savannah whispered, "Come on, let's go hide in the kitchen."

As they made their way to the back of the restaurant, Savannah had the chance to take in their surroundings. Chairs and tables were upturned and glasses and plates laid shattered across the floor. It looks like they weren't the only ones to discover this restaurant.

Savannah didn't like the way it smelled. She looked at Aaron and saw that he was also crinkling his nose. Something smelled rotten. He whispered, hesitantly, "I hope there isn't anything dead in here..."

Aaron slowly opened the door to the kitchen, peering around the corner. It looked empty. The rotten smell came from a walk-in-refrigerator that had been left open. They let out sighs of relief.

"Let's see what we can find," Savannah said. She set about searching the refrigerator but nothing seemed salvageable, so she closed the door in the hopes it would keep the rotten smell contained. Aaron was poking around the shelves and cupboards and managed to find a stash of cracker packs that had probably long gone out of date. But it was better than nothing.

Savannah peeked into the pantry and found some cans of fruit. Poking around the corners, she gasped. "No way!"

She heard Aaron making his way towards her to see what she had found. Savannah had set aside the fruit and pulled out a bottle of what she assumed to be wine. She turned to Aaron and displayed the bottle.

He grinned. It was the first time Savannah had ever seen him smile. She didn't realize that he had a really nice smile, it softened his features that had been hardened by wariness and hunger. Savannah smiled back.

"Shall we dine on crackers, fruit and wine tonight?"

"Savannah, that is a wonderful idea." Aaron took the bottle from her and went in search for a corkscrew.

Savannah took off her backpack and set it by the kitchen door and peeked her head out. It seemed like everything was where they had left it, so she went and snagged two chairs to bring back into the kitchen.

Aaron had managed to find the corkscrew and two glasses that hadn't been shattered and was pouring them each some wine.

"What kind is it?"

He paused and looked at the label, "Merlot? I don't know what that means, but it comes out red." Savannah giggled. Aaron stopped and stared at her.

"What?"

"I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before."

"Well, I had never seen you smile before today, so I guess we're even." Savannah's retort was rewarded with another smile. She almost blushed. Instead, she pulled out a knife and busied herself with opening them each a can of peaches.

When Aaron sat down in his chair, he scooted a little closer to Savannah and let his leg bump into hers. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"What do you mean?" Savannah looked down at her leg and saw her pants were torn and she had some scratches on her knee. "Oh, I didn't even notice."

"Hold on." Aaron pulled out a semi-clean shirt from his bag and a bottle of water and dabbed at Savannahs leg. "How is that? Does that hurt?"

"Not at all." Considering all of the injuries the two of them had managed to rack up together, she was surprised that he would ask, a little scrape was nothing. She gave him a curious glance.

"We just don't want it to get infected. That's all." But his hand lingered for a moment on her leg before he balled his shirt back up and put it in his bag. He grabbed his glass of wine and turned to Savannah, "Cheers."

Savannah smiled and clinked his glass, "Cheers." They took swigs and Savannah forced herself to swallow it. "Ew." Aaron actually laughed. Savannah caught herself staring at his smile again and he caught her eye, but she tried to redirect. "What? I've never had red wine before. It's not what I thought it would be."

Aaron just chuckled to himself and poked at his fruit. "You know Savannah, it feels like we're on a first date right now."

Savannah stared at him, "What do you mean Aaron? We've been surviving together for years."

"I mean, like right now, both us always adverting our gaze whenever we catch the other staring. Despite our life-threatening circumstances, we've managed to catch a break right now and here we are with fruit and wine..." Shaking his glass a bit to emphasis his point. "And yeah, we've been running together for years, so... so I care about you Savannah." He stopped himself and lifted his head to stare at her.

Savannah was pretty lost for words and managed to stammer out a response. "Of course I care about you too Aaron. You saved my life. We've saved each other's lives. But do you really think this is the kind of world where you think about.. about relationships?"

"Why not? If we could die at any moment, then you have everything to lose by not loving someone."

Savannah had to break eye contact with him, his gaze was boring into her and she took a gulp of the Merlot. When she set her glass down on the table, Aaron tentatively rested his hand over hers.

"Savannah?"

She managed to brave herself to hold his gaze. He had gorgeous hazel eyes, how had she never noticed? She had never had the time to notice. How long had he felt this way about her? When did he have the time to even think of things like love? She barely felt like she had the time to think of it now and it was overwhelming.

"Aaron..." But before she had the chance to say anything else, Aaron leaned over and pressed his mouth against hers.

God, it had been ages since she had kissed anybody, she had totally forgotten the sensation. She leaned into Aaron, accepting his kiss. She suddenly felt hungry for him. He ran his hand up her arm as she pulled him in closer.

They both stopped. Aaron's face was a mask of horror and Savannah was sure her face was the same. A long, loud, screeching wail sounded from outside. They held their gaze for just another moment. Savannah thought it might be the last chance she would have to look into his hazel eyes.

"Grab your bag," Aaron hissed. Savannah tiptoed to it. Back at the counter, Aaron was carefully packing away the crackers and cans into his bag. He took one last drink of wine and looked at Savannah, longingly.

The wail sounded off again, it was closer. Then suddenly, they heard scratching sounds at front door.

"It must have followed our scent... Was there a back door?" Savannah whispered.

Aaron nodded and grabbed her hand and led her out of the kitchen. The scratching suddenly turned to loud bangs. It was throwing itself against the door, but the stanchion was holding for now. They went down a hallway towards the emergency exit.

"Ready? I say we head back to the woods towards that stream, we can lose it through the water."

Aaron had steeled himself before Savannah said, "Wait." She grabbed Aaron and gave him one last gentle kiss. He gave her one last aching glance before he pushed open the door and they made their way out into the fading light.