Page 20 of My Apocalypse Biker

"Terrifying, isn't it?"

After breakfast, when Allie runs to her classes that volunteers put on to help the kids have some sort of normalcy, he pulls me close.

"Thank you," he says.

"For what?"

"Seeing something worth saving when I couldn't. Giving me a reason to stop running."

He kisses me with the confidence of a man who knows he's wanted. Who knows he's home.

"I love you," he says when we finally break apart. "Should say it more often."

"You say it plenty."

"Not enough. Never enough." He presses his forehead to mine. "I love you, Iris. I love Allie. I love this ridiculous, impossible life we're building together."

"I love you too. Now go. Those settlements need their medicine."

He rides away on his bike, the same Honda Shadow that carried us through hell, and I don't feel afraid. He'll be back. He always comes back.

The apocalypse took almost everything from us. My husband. His daughter. The world we knew.

But it gave us each other. Gave us the chance to build something new from the wreckage.

The dead still walk.

Raiders still hunt.

Winter will be brutal.

But we have each other. We have walls and weapons and a network of allies who've become friends. We have something worth protecting and people worth protecting it with.

Some roads lead to redemption. Some second chances are worth any risk.

And ours? Ours leads home.

Life goes on. It goes on despite everything the world throws at us, despite loss and grief and impossible odds.

Maybe that's the real victory. Not just surviving, but living. Not just existing, but building something worth existing for.

I think Stephan understands that now. I think we both do.

And tomorrow, when he comes home, we'll keep building together.