Neither Taylor nor Veronica was on duty, and they wanted to get away from the bunkers for awhile. So, for the first time in months, they put on regular clothes, and, hand in hand, walked out of the headquarters building. Veronica took a huge breath of the air and remarked,
“Oh my God, that air is beautiful.”
Taylor chuckled softly.
“I suppose, if you haven’t smelled fresh air in six or seven months, that this would smell good, yes...”
A hand clamping over his mouth cut off his sentence. He heard Veronica trying to scream, but a different hand muffled the sound. While they were unaware of what was happening, they knew they were being dragged away somewhere. But they didn’t know where.

Taylor looked around. He was tied to a wall, and Veronica was beside him. He could just barely reach over and grab her hand, and when he managed to do so, they didn’t let go. A man, probably about forty or so, dressed in a German uniform, appeared in front of them.
“Well, well, well. What have we here? Lovebirds? How sweet. Well, mine kinder, do I have a deal for you."
Veronica whimpered, and Taylor squeezed her hand reassuringly. The man continued.
“I’ve been talking with the Americans, kinder... I said we’d give peace if I could personally kill two people of my choice. And you two were the first two I found! Don’t you feel special!”
Veronica had begun to cry, and it was all Taylor could do not to start himself.
“Please...untie me. If you’re going to make her cry, at least let me hold her,” Taylor reasoned. The man shrugged.
“You’re going to die anyway...I don’t see why not.”
He was quick to cut the ropes around Taylor’s wrists, and sneered as Taylor fell to the floor, then stood up and untied Veronica. When she was free from the wall, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“Shh...it’s okay. No matter what happens, I’m right here...”
The man in the uniform chuckled with an evil tone.
“I’ll give you two five minutes, and then the gunmen come. Please do get your priorities straight in the next five minutes.”
He left, and Veronica sobbed harder.
“We’re going to die, Tay. There’s no way we can get out of this.”
Tears started to slide down Taylor’s cheeks, and he knew she was right. They were going to die. Every special memory he’d ever made began to flash before his eyes, and he cried harder. There was his sixteenth birthday, the day Zac came home from the hospital after he was born, the day Jessie came home, and Avie, and Mackie, and even Zoë. His first kiss was there too, and the first time they had heard MMMBop on the radio...even the X-Streme Skyflyer at Canada’s Wonderland from a few years before. And the day he had met Veronica. That was clear in his mind, at the top of the list. For five minutes, they held each other, crying until they couldn’t cry anymore. There wasn’t much time left. Taylor suddenly turned Veronica’s face up. “Ronnie, I love you.”
She sniffled.
“Taylor, I love you.”
They kissed deeply, making their last one the most special. When they pulled away, Taylor said softly,
“This isn’t goodbye, Ronnie. It’s only for a little while. I promise...we’ll be together forever.”
She nodded.
“I know we will...I trust you. Just know that if we die, the rest of this world will be in peace. And Zoë and Mackie can grow up not knowing anything of the war that once happened.”
Taylor nodded this time, and they kissed one more time.
“This is goodbye to everyone else, though...goodbye, Dawn. I love you...” Veronica said to the ceiling. “And goodbye to everyone else who has ever meant something to me...even that guy I stalked for all of the seventh grade.” Through her tears, a hint of a smile appeared. Taylor sniffled.
“Goodbye, Mom. Goodbye, Zoë, Mackie, Avie, Jessie, Zac, and Ike...you guys mean so much to me,” he mumbled to the same spot in the ceiling. Just as he finished saying it, the man in the uniform came back, this time with twelve other men, each armed with a rifle.
“Ready, kinder?”
They nodded, and stood against the wall, each with an arm around the other’s waist. They both closed their eyes, waited for the call, and after only a second of excruciating pain, everything went black...and peaceful.