Page 32 of Before Their After

“An election that will probably begin and end with the two of you,” Luna added, pushing her long black hair behind her golden ear.

“Not if I can help it,” I said under my breath as I looked to Tomoe to free me from the conversation.

“Lovely picnic chat,” Tomoe said with a mouthful of food. “We should do this more often.”

Reina sighed, laying back to admire the sky. “Death this. Death that. God, y’all are so morbid, I don’t know how we’re friends.”

“Considering there ain’t anyone around here begging to be your friend, I’d expect more appreciation for the group.” Seth removed his hat, brushing back his red hair slick with sweat before replacing it on his head.

“Come on,” Riley nudged me, a small smile breaking his usual neutral expression. “Live a little. Go. I got your six.”

Reina rolled to her knees, cheese and salsa smeared around the edges of her mouth. “Wait, I’ll come with you. Just let me finish this taco.”

We’d gone all out for the event. Harvesting everything we could spare, we had encouraged our residents to gather in The Kitchens early this morning and challenged them to make the meals they missed the most. Ingredients allowing, of course. The tacos had been a big hit, Reina eating at least five on her own.

“I think the taco is finishing you more than anything,” Prescott teased.

“What?” Reina asked, the situation having gotten worse as she stuffed the last half into her mouth. Luna reached over with a napkin, wiping Reina’s face while choking back a laugh. “Okay, I’m ready. Off we go, lovebug.”

“Hold up, not without a photo. Get close. Ladies first,” Jax called, making his way back to us with an old camera we’d found on our last trip outside the walls.

“Ew, no. My hair is crazy,” Reina said, toying with her long brown hair and smacking her cheeks gently until they turned a rosy pink. She stopped and took in Tomoe before reaching over to fix her braid. Tomoe smacked her hand away playfully before leaning away and forcing Reina to sprawl against my lap. “Get back here. You need to look good for the camera!”

I scowled at the camera. Jax peered over the lens. “Smile pretty, Mai. The world needs to see it.”

The sound of a teasing gag sounded by Riley and Prescott. They exchanged a knowing glance as I bit down my grin. Seth pushed to his feet, lifting Reina upright by her shirt as he walked off toward the tables full of festival foods. Taking a look around, it was hard to contain a true smile. In truth, I was happy to be here. Happy for all I’d survived, in all I’d created, and what the future had in store. Forever. This was the forever I had to look forward to.

Everything from before didn’t matter anymore. Who we all were, what we had become after … that was all I could focus on to keep moving forward. There were two Amaias. The Amaia before the world ended; the soft one, the one that laughed carefree, the Amaia who cared about trivial things like wedding colors and finding the next trendy restaurant to try. Then there was who I’d fought to become. Killed to become. The Amaia that did what she had to in order to survive. There was no going back. There were two versions of us all. Who we were Before and who we’d become After. In The After, the only thing that mattered waskeeping the people around me alive and happy. Doing what we could to build anew.

“On the count of three.” Jax held up a finger to count down. “Everyone say ispíní.”

Reina kept a smile but peered over at me from the corner of her eye as I fell into a fit of laughter at a joke that had become our own. In that moment, I was grateful for the blinding flash of the camera, capturing a memory I wished I could live through a million times.

Part Seven

THE BLOODHOUND

First Friend

Alexiares

Forty-eight hours.

The outer parts of Chicago lasted a hell of a lot longer than I would have figured. Joliet was fucked from the first hour, Waukegan a day later. All of Aurora followed nearly a week after, once everyone realized there was no coming back from this. The farther out we walked, the more areas we found that had remained relatively civilized considering the conditions.

That wasn’t the truth of our situation anymore. Three people had been murdered in the night within the neighborhood we’d shacked up in. No one had heard shit. I didn’t let us stick around long enough to find answers. A lack of answers was something I had forced myself to be comfortable with these past two days. The only definitive thing I knew was that bombs had dropped, and we were all fucked.

I wrapped my shirt around my knuckles, forming a fist with my hand. It was dark out now and we needed a place to crash. The walk from Naperville to Schaumburg had almost killed us. We couldn’t run forever. We needed shelter, food, a place to rest up and come up with some sort of plan. Schaumburg was good for the short term, but this much radiation couldn’t be good for anyone. The wind had picked up, sweeping out radiation disguised as the dust of the remnants of Chicago.

“Stay out here, I’ll clear, then signal,” I ordered, lining myself up with the class window on the door.

Life had humbled us a lot recently. Just because the place looked like no one was there didn’t mean it was empty. With the windows not boarded and from what I could tell, there wasn’t any movement inside. Worst-case scenario, there was one of the undead shits lingering in a room upstairs.

Evander’s fingers clutched the grip of his gun. “I’m coming in. I’ll cover you.”

“Don’t need your help.”

Even though I hated the thought of my brother having to kill someone before everything fell apart, it was the harsh reality we faced now. At this moment in time, however, he was a liability. Evander had gone from creeping up to my height, to toggling the line of seven feet tall. Almost a foot overnight.

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