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“The highest authority?”

“Doug.”

She laughed.

“So that’s it then?” she said. “No more police presence in Wakan?”

“No, we have to have at least one. They sent us a new guy named Wade. He just parks the police cruiser by the walking path and plays on his phone. I think he’s bored out of his mind.”

“Well, maybe he’ll be better than Jake at curbing the teenager crime wave,” she said.

“Maybe.”

We went quiet again.

“How’s your new job?” I asked.

I pictured a shrug. “It’s a lot. I work fourteen-hour days. My feet hurt all the time.”

I didn’t want to tell her that if I was there, I’d rub them every night. I’d have a bath ready for her when she got home, I’d have her scrubs for tomorrow washed and pressed and laid out, dinner ready. I’d take care of her.

I felt a lump form in my throat.

Nobody was taking care of her. That hurt almost as much as the thought of some other guy doing it.

Almost.

She got quiet on the other end. We were quiet for so long I’d have thought we’d lost the call if I didn’t hear the occasional shift through the line. The rain outside my window filled the long silence, and I wished, so much, that she was with me. That she was lying next to me and I could smell her hair and wake up and make her breakfast. That all the things we talked about could be things we both already knew because we’d been together when they happened.

My chest felt tight, and I clutched a hand over my heart and squeezed.

I missed her so much it was physically painful. It was a form of grief. A withdrawal. Starvation.

It was unnatural. Because I wasn’t supposed to be without her. My eyes started to tear up.

There’s something more final than forever. It’s never. Never is infinite.

I would never see her again. I would never touch her again. I would never make her lunch or listen to her breathing while she slept. We’d never get married or have children or die on the same day. And I wouldn’t do those things with anyone because it would just be the poor man’s version of what I’d had with her and I’d always know that.

“Daniel…”

I had to swallow hard to answer. “Yeah?”

I heard her sniff in the darkness.

“Will you still come for me?” she asked quietly.

“What?” I asked gently.

“If there’s a zombie apocalypse. Will you come get me like you said?”

I had to move the phone away from my mouth. Tears squeezed from my eyes. “You mean if the world ends and none of this shit matters anymore?” I said, my voice thick.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Hot tears slid down my cheeks.

“The world is ending, Alexis. That’s what this feels like. So come with me now.”