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There’s a small horde of the dead down below tucked into the valley. Luckily, the walls are too steep, even if they create another climbing pile.

They’re good for now, so their sightseeing adventure isn’t canceled yet. They’ll steer clear of town, which shouldn’t be hard based on the map found in the cabin. Wade is more concerned about the smoke coming from another mountain house beyond that devastation.

Someone else is living directly across from them, easily accessible by an unblocked road.

“If we turn back every time there’s a hint of trouble, then we’ll never do anything,” Kara says, as they grab their packs and aim for a trailhead to another epic viewpoint.

He nods in return, already distracted by the beauty of the landscape just from the parking lot. Can’t imagine how much better it gets the further they go. He wants to find out and he wants to do it all with her.

Fuck whoever else is out there. For now, he’s happy to let his thoughts drift back to what’s been occupying his mind the rest of the morning.

He and Kara had sex, and it happened more than once, so it’s not a fluke.

She didn’t think it was an awful mistake after the first time.

In fact, they almost didn’t leave the house this morning when staying in bed seemed like a better adventure.

They’ve moved from best friends into something more and his mind is still spinning.

Operation Woo Kara was a success. Even so, that doesn’t mean he’s finished.

He’s gotten her. Now he has to keep her.

He must have a stupid grin plastered on his face as they begin the hike, because she elbows him playfully. “What’s that look about?”

“Nothing. Just feeling pretty damn lucky right now.”

She beams at him. Despite having seen it often by now, it never gets old. She’s only more beautiful than she was five seconds ago, and another ten seconds later, it’ll still be true then.

“I am, too,” she agrees. “Lucky.”

On the rare occasions he allowed himself to imagine what life might be like for them after it was always a little awkward at first. Strange after being friends for so long and then suddenly shifting that dynamic overnight, but the reality of it hasn’t turned out that way.

It’s so much easier than he expected to make this leap because the more he thinks about it, the clearer it is that they’ve been together for years already.

The only thing they haven’t done is what happened last night, but sex alone doesn’t make a relationship. Everything else does.

She’s seen all of him, felt all of him , and she’s still here.

He tries not to dwell on those moments when she’ll look at him as if calculating the outcome, ready to broach whatever subject she’s been hiding since admitting she’s got a secret. The conversation never comes.

Suddenly, he needs to know for sure that this is what he thinks it is. He’ll sound ridiculous and insecure, but if they can’t talk about the important shit, then they’ve got other problems entirely.

He’ll ask her today. Soon. Just needs to find the right moment.

They come to a stop in a field of lush greens out of place in the desert. The red rock formations jutting out of the ground remind him they’re still out west. It’s a blend straight out of a sci-fi movie. All that’s missing is their crash-landed ship as they explore a new planet.

“Food?” She shrugs off her pack, where they’ve stuffed a makeshift picnic of odds and ends.

“I can always eat.”

“I know,” she teases, her tone full of innuendo.

Suddenly, he’s hungry for something else all over again. The rumble of her stomach suggests they at least make a token effort at this picnic.

She hands him a leftover muffin, her knee resting against his because they’ve turned into cats now, always touching.

“Favorite TV show?” He fails at voicing his real question and reaches for the safety of that game instead.

Luckily, she follows him easily. “Golden Girls. “

He raises a brow. “Really?”

“Yes. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I dunno, you just seem more like a serious TV kinda person. I remember you loved that one about aliens and FBI agents back in the day.”

Kara shrugs. “Maybe I’m not as serious as you think. Or maybe I just wish I wasn’t, and Golden Girls made me smile when not much else did.”

His eyes soften, and he nudges her shoulder. “Which one did you like best?”

“Rose, of course. Betty White is always the favorite in anything she does.” Kara’s nose scrunches up. “Wow, just realized all the famous people are gone by now, aren’t they? Never really thought about that.”

“Guess so. Maybe some made it, though.”

“That’s so weird to think about. If anyone famous survived, they’d be just like the rest of us now, having to choose a side, good or evil. Money and fame are useless out here. At least I wouldn’t have to wonder about Betty White. She’d be one of the good ones.”

They pass another container between each other and he stabs the contents with a fork. “Okay, what’s a skill you’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t yet?”

Kara smiles. “I wanted to ask you that one.”

“That’s easy, your sniper rifle.” He’s surprised her enough that she wrongly assumes he’s joking with a purse of her lips. “Really. You’re damn good at that thing. I can manage well enough with a pistol, but I ain’t no sniper.”

“Sounds like a lesson is in order,” she says, after taking a moment to judge his sincerity and finding it acceptable.

He hisses between his teeth. “The army tried and failed at teaching me to hit anything further than twenty feet away. I need a broad target, you know that. Hand to hand is more my speed.”

“I’m not the army. ”

“Alright, then. I wanna see your tricks.”

She laughs. “Really?”

“Really.”

She shakes her head with a fond smile. “Next time we hunt, you’re on.”

There used to be some sort of stigma that says a man should feel a certain way about learning these types of things from a woman, but he’s never given that bullshit any thought.

Kara is the best shot he’s ever known, probably the best left alive on this planet.

If she wants to train him to hit more than the broad side of a barn, then he’ll happily learn.

“You can teach me anything,” he replies.

Her eyes flare with mischief. “Oh yeah?”

“Mhmm.” He remembers just how well that worked out in bed when she told him about that vibrator, and he felt her trembling around his fingers as he perfected that new skill.

All he has to do is listen. The answers are right there for the taking.

In the blink of an eye, she’s already climbing past the food to straddle him, thighs bracketing his, and her kiss on his lips.

He forgets for a second that he wanted to talk about anything else.

It would be so easy to let her slide down his shaft and push up into her until they’re both sore, but he forces himself to be as serious as possible with a beautiful woman in his lap.

“So ah…does this mean you’re my girl now?” he asks carefully, hating his own uncertainty.

She assumes it’s a tease and throws one right back. “Well, I hope so, considering you’ve been face-first in my—”

“Start talking like that again and we ain’t gonna get much further into this hike.”

She leans in, tasting sweet on his tongue. “That’s okay. I’m good with stopping here.”

“I mean it, though.” He tries again. “I figure you are, right? But, everything is always different with us. If there’s some other step or something, I’ll do it.”

She pauses, all that sass fading fast. Settles gently in his lap, arms around his neck, and the most accepting look on her face once she understands he wants a straight answer.

“I’m your girl,” she confirms. “I always have been. The only extra step is that you kiss me again.”

He can do that. Cole might call him a sap or worse, for how easily he melts just for Kara, especially after all the times Wade teased him about leading with his heart, but he doesn’t give a shit about that now.

They’re together. She’s his girl. He’s going to kiss her breathless in this park just like she asked, except when he goes to do just that, she stops him with her fingers on his lips, looking off into the distance with a curious frown.

“Hear that?” she whispers.

He squints. “What?”

“Sounds like crying.”

“Don’t hear anything.”

She’s off him quickly, grabbing the supplies to stuff into the bag. “Need to check. I hear it, I swear I do. It’s making this awful sound.”

He helps her load up, and then they’re following her radar deeper into the park, past a boulder and a cliff and more rocks forming towering clusters until he begins to hear it, too.

“Shit, that’s definitely crying,” he agrees.

“I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”

They spin a few times trying to follow the sound, make a couple wrong turns, and have to double back, but the third try is a home run.

Those cries become overridden by the unmistakable groan of rotters.

Once they round a corner, they’re faced with at least a dozen of them clawing and grabbing for a child on a rock.

She’s squished into the boulders with barely enough room to keep dead fingers from reaching her toes peeking over the edge. Before he can process what’s happened, Kara’s trying to bolt past him toward the girl, ignoring the dead in her path.

“Stop,” he hisses, reflexively grabbing her hard around the arm and spinning her to face him while fighting a vision of her being torn apart in his mind’s eye.

She simply stares at him like she’s not all here yet. Some part of her is still running into the fray.

“We’ll get her,” he continues, softer this time. “I promise we’ll get her, but we gotta do it smart.”

She focuses with a few quick blinks. “You’re right, I just saw her and…”

“I know.”

It’s not simple to clear the rotters, but it’s not exactly a horde either. They get some distance and pick off the fast ones before dropping the few left over with their knives. Soon, there’s a pile of the dead at their feet and a scared little girl sobbing on a ledge, afraid to come down.