I left a dozen roses on your grave today

[Ashton "Ash" Douglas]

Ashton Douglas knealed down on the smooth concrete floor, gazing at the small uneven grave in front of her. She brushed the dust and small amount of loose rubble from the surface and read the small badly engraved words in the face of the gravestone: Lindsey Grant, 30th May 1999 - 19th June 2019 May God have the same trust in you that I had.

She brushed away a tear and rested her hand updon the name. Her best friend, practically her sister, lay underneath there. She remembered back to 19th June 2019, painfully. They had been running for their lives from the zombies, chased from their own streets by the terrorised residents there to lure the zombies from their houses, to protect themselves. They had used Ashton and Lindsey as live bait.

They hadn't been fast enough. Or at least Lindsey hadn't. A zombie had managed to bite her just as they crossed the threshhold of the Hideout. Matt was behind them, cutting the zombies back, but there was nothing that could have been done for Lindsey. She had signed her own death warrant the second she had flung her arm out for the door.

They had kept her in the quarantine for three days while the saliva the zombie had injected into her bloodstream slowly changed her into a zombie. V.I.R.U.S had turned up too late to do their tests on her while she was in transition, and Annabel Toritz had shot Lindsey in the head seconds after she had Awoken.

They all knew how it felt to loose someone to the Dead. There were over 100 bodies buried here; 87% of those had Awoken when they were killed. Again.

Sighing, Ashton smiled a teary smile at her dead friend. "Why'd you have to go and die on me, huh, Linds?"

[Matthew Knight]

Matt walked slowly into the graveyard and saw Ashton kneeling over Lindsey's grave. Matt sighed. He remembered Lindsey Grant well. He remembered vividly how she had been bitten and how he had been too late to save her. Ash had hated him for a long time after that. In fact, it was only recently that she had started to open up to him again.

He walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed them. "I miss her too." he muttered to the gravestone.

[Ashton "Ash" Douglas]

Ashton leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed again. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you for all that time. I didn't really blame you for her getting bitten, you know. I was angry at myself for sprinting ahead. Lindsey and I, we'd always had this tactic - she runs first because she's faster, I run behind. I slowed her down because I was in front of her. It was my fault for a long, long time." She paused to wipe away her tears. "Until it wasn't." she muttered quietly. "Until I realised that it was their fault,t eh zombies'. They were the ones who had bitten her. They were the ones who killed her, really. I just didn't realise it until a few months ago."

[Matthew Knight]

Matt smiled sadly and leaned his head on top of Ash's. He caught the meaning behind her words, what she was really saying.

A few months ago was when she had started fighting back.

"A few months ago was when you went to Sarge and asked to become a Raider." he commented. "And when you went on your first Raid. When they chased us like they had when you first got here... You stopped for a moment. Annabel and I, we knew that you were thinking about Lindsey. We just knew. Annabel thought that you wouldn't do it, that you wouldn't take them out. She even went so far to say, later, that she thought you were either going to shoot yourself or give yourself to them. But I knew you were goingt o do it. And you did. You shot the fuckers." He smiled and rubbed her cold arms with his hands. "You think of her every time you take one of them down, don't you?"

[Ashton "Ash" Douglas]

Ash nodded miserably. She should have been thinking of how much she missed Lindsey right now, but all she could think of was that this was the nicest Matt had ever been to her. He was comforting her, just holding her, and that was what she really needed right now. Not somebody who would hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright. Not even somebody who would sit and cry with her about another lost human. She needed somebody who understood. Who understood how she was feeling. Who understood why she was feeling it. Who understood her. And Matt understood all of this, he really did. She thought back to what Maddie had said to her a few weeks ago... "Can't you see it, he LIKES you!"[/b]

Thinking about how Matt was now, she got it. He did like her. But it was more than just that - he acrually understood her and wasn't sitting here with her now just to earn points or to get her to kiss him or something. He was here because he knew Lindsey too (albeit a very short meeting) and he missed her like Ash did.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back. "Thank you," she murmured against his shirt.

[Matthew Knight]

Matt froze for a second, and then hugged her back. "S'okay, Ash. Nothing to thank me for. Besides," he sighed. "You're a better Raider than me. You're better at everything than me. Hell, you could give Sarge a run for his money on a Raid! And he's, like, a ninja God or something out there."

[Ashton "Ash" Douglas]

Ashton laughed a little. She thought of that. She'd never been out on a raid with Sarge, but it was a well known fact that he was like a ninja or something. It was an honour to be on a raid with him. She wondered where Matt had been on a raid with him and what had happened for Matt to say that he was like a 'ninja God'. "Sarge is one hell of a Raider, but I still don't know why he let me be one. I mean, I know I asked him and all, but he hardly ever lets someone be a Raider just like that." She snapped her fingers to show the time span she was speaking of. "Maddie said that she had to undergo tests and stuff, but I didn't."

[Ashton "Ash" Douglas]

(Here is a story I wrote about this thread: Broken))

[Matthew Knight]

Matt smiled at her. "It's obvious, isn't it?"