It had been approximately three years since the world ended. One day, Isaac Ellis was a high school senior. The next day, he became an apocalypse survivor as the infected roamed the streets. The Ellis family lived in a small, suburban neighborhood outside of Los Angeles. Having moved to California a year before Isaac was born, the remainder of the young man’s family still lived on the East Coast. When the mother and father of Isaac moved to Los Angeles, the Clark family was befriended. Madison Clark and Aurora Ellis became pregnant just months apart from one another. So, after each child was born, it was only natural that the two children became close.<br/><br/>The friendship grew stronger between the couple. In middle school, when ‘dating’ first became a thing, Isaac Ellis and Alicia Clark began a relationship. Of course, nobody could anticipate the romantic connection to be strong or long-term. After all, boyfriends and girlfriends in middle school lasted for a couple weeks before passing a note across the classroom saying that it was time to break-up because of who sat with someone at the lunch table. With this couple, though, it quickly became a mature relationship.<br/><br/>Four years of high school could not even change that. Even at the end of the senior year, their relationship was strong with college looming. Instead of college, the two began working together in the apocalypse, surviving with one another. Even multiple years into the outbreak, the relationship did not lose any strength, even through tragedy. Madison died, sacrificing herself at the stadium. Nick was killed. The loss was great, but Isaac was not going anywhere. It was going to be tough, but they were going to get through this. Al finally agreed to drive the group of four to the location where she found the infamous flag with the black number painted on.<br/><br/>For the night, an abandoned house was found to settle into. Al took the living room couch, Strand and Ofelia shared one of the bedrooms while Isaac and Alicia took the bedroom upstairs. The couple had been on the mattress, cuddling for half an hour before falling asleep. It did not take long for Isaac to wake up due to soft crying, alerting him within seconds of starting. Clearly, the female had not fallen asleep. Instead, she had eyes full of tears, sadness on her face. Cuddling in a position where her back was against his chest, Isaac took the hand of the arm wrapped around her neck to wipe away the tear. “Hey…” He whispered. “I’m here.” There was nothing he could say to make things better, to reverse what happened to her mother and brother. Instead, all Isaac could do was be there for her, hold her, keep her safe. She was not going to lose him, too. “We’re going to get through this, Alicia. I know we are.” Then, his lips pressed gently against one of her cheeks, holding it for a couple seconds.