Joel slowly awoke to the sound of someone moving around, he didn't know where he was.

Indoors. That's all he knew, that he was indoors somewhere.

Wait. Aimee found him.

"Aimee? Aimee!" He said and sat up after seeing his girlfriend.

"Hey, Take it easy. You're still pretty messed up from all the poison. How do you feel?" She asked, walking over to him and lowering him to lie back down.

"I feel...good, yeah" He said and looked at Aimee. It had been seven years since he saw her so he wanted to take a good look at her, he noticed how her hair was similar to how it was seven years ago which meant there must have been a hairdresser or something in her colony. 

"What was it like? I mean, you have to tell me everything." Aimee said, looking down at him on the bed.

"Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. I don’t know what everyone’s complaining about." Joel chuckled. Aimee looked surprised at his comment.

"No, it was terrible. I almost… died a lot. It’s so good to see you. I’m lucky you found me when you did." Joel nodded, he had almost died when aimee found him. From what Joel could remember, when Aimee found him, he kissed her before passing out.

"And hey, we… kissed." Joel said and smiled at her.

"You were hallucinating pretty hard." Aimee said, trying to stop him from talking.

"How amazing was that, huh?"

"You kissed Old Pete." Aimee cut him off. Joel didn't believe here and laughed.

"Oh. Yeah. That’d be hilarious......Oh, yeah, I really did." He said, realising that he actually did kiss Old Pete. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

A voice could be heard in the distance before it becoming clear who that voice belonged to.

"Joel?" Arrow came in to the room, relieved to see that Joel was alive and okay.

"Arrow! Thank god!" Joel said happily as Arrow ran over and hugged him.

"I'm so sorry I left, I shouldn't have left you but I'm so glad you're okay!" They said not letting go for quite a long length of time. Aimee cleared her throat.

"Oh Arrow, this is Aimee. Aimee, this is Arrow" He said gesturing to the both of them.

Arrow turned around to greet Aimee.

"It's nice to meet you" They said, outstretching their hand for aimee to shake it.

"Same to you" She said and shook their hand.

"What was that you said on the radio about...." Joel said, hinting at the mentioning of other rescuers in the colony.

"Yeah. This yacht captain and his crew show up out of the blue." Aimee shrugged, she seemed pretty grateful that this yacht captain showed up.

"Did you say a yacht captain?" Joel asked

"Yeah, he says he can find us a safe place to live and a new home. I’m trying to pack everything up right now." Aimee nodded, Arrow sat on the bed next to Joel. Although Aimee seemed nice enough, they were still not fond of her.

Totally not because they loved Joel.

Totally not...

"Why is he called a yacht captain?" Joel asked

"...I'm assume he's the captain of a yacht" Arrow said and chuckled at Joel.

"Oh shut up, you know what I meant" He laughed

"You two seem pretty close" Aimee said. Was she jealous of Arrow?

"Yeah, Arrow's a good friend now' Joel nodded

"I wouldn't say good friend" Arrow joked

"Anyway, Aimee I kinda need to talk to you about something.." Joel said.

Arrow assumed Joel wanted to talk to Aimee about their relationship. However, it seemed like they were going to have to do that another time since an old woman walked in speaking about some sort of leakage and water spewing everywhere.

"Can we put a pin in this?" Aimee asked Joel who just nodded and followed her outside, Arrow followed Joel.

"Aimee seems nice" They said as they stepped into the sun.

"Right? She's so amazing, it's so good to see her after seven years" Joel smiled.

"Seems like it. You're a lot happier than you were when we were travelling" They muttered, more to themselves than anything else.

Two, tough looking people approached them as Aimee finished helping out with whatever had went wrong. Aimee introduced the two to Arrow and Joel, their name's were Rocko and Dana, they were part of the team that came off the Yacht. Dana had a kickass looking arm cannon strapped to her arm, it was homemade too which made it even more impressive.

"So which one… which one of you is the yacht captain?" Joel asked.

That was when a tall, dirty blonde, muscley Australian man appeared behind Rocko and Dana.

"Guilty as charged. Captain Brooks Wilkinson. Royal Australian Navy. Retired, of course." He said, his accent was thick and, according to Joel, something that Aimee could easily find attractive.

"Oh dear god" Joel said under his breath.

"My mates call me Cap. How you doing, man? I see you’ve met these specimens, but this beautiful lady, that’s our yacht. A little showy for my taste, but she gets the job done." Cap said, gesturing to the yacht in the distance. It was a rusted, broken yacht that was somehow still afloat.

"Cap, this is Joel. Joel ended up traveling seven days to get here" Aimee said. Cap looked amazed, he was definitely impressed by how Joel had survived.

"That is one hell of a journey, Joel. I don’t get it. Why’d you leave your colony?" He asked. Joel glanced at Aimee and looked back at Cap.

"He came for love. Good on ya, mate. That’s beautiful. There is no mission more admirable than love. Every sailor worth his salt knows that." Cap said and playfully punched Joel's shoulder.

Arrow was not enjoying their time there at all, Cap was a bit too egotistical for them and Aimee...well Aimee didn't seem to appreciate Joel being there at all.

Rocko reminded Cap that they had some food to be cooking. They were about to begin a barbecue when Cap asked Joel to help him out with it.

"actually, I’m gonna… catch up with Aimee for a sec, if it’s…" His sentence trailed off.

"Old habits. You show up and… here I am trying to give you orders. I’ll give you guys some privacy, yeah?" Cap nodded and left them alone.

Arrow looked at Joel and Aimee.

"You guys go inside, I'll be fine out here....I think" They said. They were lying. Arrow was definitely gonna listen in to their conversation.

They didn't trust many people.

Especially not Aimee.

Aimee and Joel walked inside.

Soon after, Arrow followed them in, they stood just outside the room so they could hear what the two were saying.

"....why do you have to leave?" Joel asked. That was the first sentence Arrow heard, they missed the beginning of the conversation.

"It’s beautiful. It’s just not safe. Everyone’s afraid. Even your bunker got breached, and you’re all young and strong." Aimee said, it sounded like she was packing a suitcase. Which made sense since her colony were about to travel to a yacht.

"Hey, Aimee?
Sorry. I know you got, like, a lot going on, but, uh… you know, I came… I came all the way here to see you, and so I’m just… checkin’ in.
Just wondering how you’re… feeling about that."

Joel made a very good point. It was understandable that Aimee was busy but it was like she hadn't even processed that Joel was there at all.

"I think it’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done." Aimee said in a soft voice.

"You do? Okay. Okay, good, ’cause, um…" Joel's voice had perked up, however, that wasn't going to last as Aimee interrupted him.

"But listen, Joel, um… talking to you on the radio was such a nice escape from the stress of running this colony. I mean, you’re probably the only person left alive from my old life.
From Fairfield." Her sentence trailed off.

"There’s a “but” coming, isn’t there?" Joel asked, a little less hopeful that Aimee still felt the same way about him.

"But I didn’t think you’d actually come here, Joel. And I am so happy to see you.
I’m just not…
I’m not the same person that I used to be, you know?
Seven years, that’s a long time. I’ve… I’ve lost people. My mom, my friends, and…
Last year I lost someone…

and he meant a lot to me."

Ouch.

That felt like a stab to the heart for Joel. Someone he travelled across deadly terrain for 7 days for, didn't love him anymore.

That hurt Joel.

And that pissed off Arrow.

"Oh, man, I feel like such an idiot. I didn’t even ask you if I should come. I just got so excited, and I… I left. I don’t know what I thought.
Well, I know what I thought." Arrow could hear his voice. It was trembling.

He was on the verge of tears.

"I’d come and… and sweep you off your feet, and we’d be happy."

"But you… didn’t w-want… me."

"I am so sorry. I should have said something on the radio or…"

That was it.

That was what sent Arrow on a rant.

They walked into the room that Joel and Aimee were in.

"You idiot!" They yelled, obviously drawing attention to themselves.

"I mean what are you thinking? This man waited seven years for you! He travelled seven days on the surface for you! He almost died several times! For! You! I don't get how you could just let him go like this!
Joel is the perfect guy!
He's loyal and trusting!
He'd never let you down! He's never let me down!
You, Aimee, were the luckiest woman on earth! Because you had Joel as your boyfriend.
I would be so lucky if I had Joel as my boyfriend!
But now you are the dumbest girl on earth!"

Man, that felt good.

Suddenly, Arrow had realised what they had just done:

They had exposed that they were listening in.
They yelled at the woman Joel was in love with
And they basically admitted that they were in love with Joel.

Well done, Arrow.
Well done.

Arrow looked at Joel, then back to Aimee before quickly leaving the room.

Joel followed after them but lost them once he got outside, he couldn't see them anywhere. He groaned in frustration before turning around and seeing Aimee had followed him.

"I know this isn’t how you pictured this going, but… you’ll still come with us, right?" She said.

Joel sighed, he didn't know if he wanted to come or not. He missed his colony. He missed his family.

He missed Boy.

And he missed Arrow.

He didn't even know if he loved Aimee anymore.

Arrow didn't even show up when the entire colony had a nice campfire inside. Joel was getting worried about where they were, he didn't know if they fully left Jenner Beach or if they were ever coming back.

Cap then started telling his egotistical stories that all the old folk seemed to like.

"Four years post-Agatha. HMS Brisbane. First watch. I was the first person to see it coming over the wall.
Giant lizard, two stories high.
I sounded the alarm. Too late.
We lost 1,032 souls that night. Those of us that survived took to the sea.
I mean, make no mistake. We have lost this war. Right? There is no place for mankind on land.
But out there? There we got a chance." Cap gloated.

Joel was skeptical about that, he had survived seven days on the surface.

Joel.

The man who had no survival instincts. No weaponry knowledge. No courage. Nothing like that.

Yet he managed to make it seven days, with a few monster kills to count for it too.

Joel had basically said those exact words to Cap. Cap just sat there staring at him.

"I have a plan. And if you have a better one, mate, I’m… I’m all ears.
And I will stand by your side." He said, all heroically.

Joel had no plan.

He didn't even have a pla.

"I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, mate. It’s…
Well… Aimee tells me you make a mean minestrone. And you’re great on the radio. Lord knows I need a comms expert. Someone to teach Rocko how to cook." Cap said, trying to lift Joel's spirits.

Joel'd had enough. He wanted to go back to his colony.

He wanted to go home.

"Do you guys have a radio I could use? I want to contact my colony." He said. Aimee nodded and directed him to the communications room that they had.

"Oh, and if you see Arrow, tell them I'm looking for them." He said as Aimee left.

Joel turned on the radio, flicked a few switches and turned a few knobs.

"7045, this is 3022. Come in. 7045, this is 3022. Is anyone there? Tim? Ava?

Anyone. Over."

Joel was getting frustrated with the radio when no one was responding.

Old Pete walked in to the Comms room and placed down a bowl of berries and a glass of beer for Joel.

"Cap thought you might need a snack." Pete said

Joel nodded and silently thanked him before hearing the radio make a noise. Someone was on the other side.

"Hello? Is someone there?" It was someone from Joel's colony. It was Ray.

"Hey. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah, Ray, is that you? It’s me. It’s Joel. I’m at Aimee’s colony." He said happily. He missed his colony so much.

Ray had called everyone over to the radio, their voices overlapping each other in excitement.

"Tell us what you’ve seen!" Ava said

"I saw a queen Sandgobbler!" Joel said, loving the fact he could hear his family again.

"What’s a queen Sandgobbler?" Someone asked

"I don’t know, but we blew it up. We blew it up with a hand grenade! What else? What else?
Uh, I met these two really cool survivors. And they taught me all these things.They live on the surface and…
And, oh, oh, oh! I met a Mav1s. I talked to a real live Mav1s." Joel said

Someone asked what the Mav1s was like and honestly, the Mav1s was very comforting.

"Anything else?" Tim asked

"Yeah! I met this person that travelled the whole way with me! Their name is Arrow! I gave them the Nickname 'Bow and' which I thought was funny. Oh! And they have this sword that they won't let go of, it's incredible it slices through anything!
Arrow is just so cool, you guys should meet them! They protected me from so many things!" He rambled

"What do they look like?" Someone asked.

"Well they have long dark hair, brown eyes that have a hint of yellow in the middle...they're beautiful" He said

"You should see them in combat, it's the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed in my life! Once they said something really funny, they...." Joel trailed off.

As he was rambling about how amazing and incredible arrow was, he made a realisation.

He was in love with someone.

But it wasn't Aimee.