The Sunny Shore

Chapter one

The world had become a place with very few memories still intact. Gloriana could in fact not remember a lot of her past. It was all blurred out to her. Religion, ethnicity, culture and ... family.. It was all in this massive blur of nothing. Sometimes remembering the memory loss would make her cry. She was mere four years old when it all happened. She was bound to forget much and she still had no idea why surviving was easy to her. Sometimes she would think it was because of her great way of putting logic into things and other times it came down to the fact that trust had not been in the picture for many years after a massive betrayal that was close to steal her life away. She only knew one person now. Though, Mateo seemed rather untrustworthy from times to times. He seemed like this brave young man with so many skills, but at the same time she would not count on him to help her. In fact, she had been told by Mateo before that he valued his own life over anything. Makes it rather clear to Gloria where she would be standing in a hard situation. 

They were now sharing a rather large looking house. Yes, they stole it, but only for survival. The deceased house owners died when they went out of the bomb cellar ten years ago, thinking the whole mutated creature apocalypse was over. Spoiler alert - it was not. They were all brutally ripped apart by the creatures roaming the night. Mateo swears the house still reeks of death, but Gloriana knows to disagree. They spend all nights in the bomb cellar. You might wonder how they know the hours of the night is over and that is very simple to answer. You might recall that Mateo has many skills. One of those being electricity. There was non left to produce the electricity they had all those years ago, but Mateo was a legend with solar panels and he proved it time after time. With this electricity, the boy had put up security cameras that was charged during the day. Besides, the creatures knew to stay away from the house when they had nothing to collect. The mutants, also known as the magicians, was mainly noice and movement activated. This wouldn't be a problem considering the fact they hid in the bomb cellar all night. 

Mateo would after a lot of self discussing sit down by Gloriana one evening. She seemed so out of it and in all honesty, it stressed out Mateo just as much. "Gloriana.." he would start off, though his words was barley over a whisper. He was scared to discuss this matter with her. No one had told them how many people was left and Mateo felt like he needed to salvage what was left of humanity. He felt like it was a duty. "Gloriana, we need to think of a future-" he then tries but is quickly shut down by a long no. "Mateo, I will not have babies with you out of whatever responsibility we have for this godforsaken world. Ive read far too many romance novels down in this hole for this", Gloriana would spit back. She would have nothing of it. As a spicy Hispanic she would be on her legs faster then he could argue with her logic. "No Mateo! I belive there's still people out there and instead of sitting here we should start searching! We need to start helping the world. What good would it be to put a little child to a world where we can barley find food that isn't poisonous for us? I will tell you what good it will do, and that's no good!" she exclaim in a rather powerful speech before she is shushed by Mateo. Right, there could be monsters upstairs and neither of them knew if the acidic powers could melt the steel door. Better be careful. 

The silence between them after that would go on for a while. Sure it was awkward but that really was not the worst of it. Both of them was sure they were amongst the last people alive. They had tried police radios to connect other places in the world, but if there was more people alive they apparently wasn't as gifted as Mateo was with solar panels. "Mateo, I know you feel like all responsibillites are laid on our shoulders, but I assure you there's more people out there. They just .. remain hidden, and for good reason", Gloriana would eventually say to her partner in crime. "Don't you think I know that? it is just the fact that they might be on the other side of the world. Gods, for all we know all survivors are located in bloody Norway!", Mateo would say back. Frustrated at that. Gloriana knew that Mateo might be right. Spain wasn't exactly one of the countries that dealt with this the best of ways. Europe was the last continent to go under due to Russias huge weapon front, but like every other continent... It didn't take too long before large vehicles like tanks, trucks and bomb cars was melted. Thats the exact reason neither Gloriana nor Mateo was too convinced the bomb cellar was completely safe to be in. It worked for now.

"Alright, Gloria.. You sleep first and I will hold guard alright?", Mateo said, trying to be brave at this. Gloriana would laugh at him, finding it funny how this boy with blue rings under his eyes would try to get another night of standing guard. "No way in hell, it is basically written in the stars that I am staying guard tonight", she says as her body leans towards the wall. Mateo would not put up a fight this evening. "Do not worry your little man head, I am basically Wonder Woman. If anything comes in here I will just drop kick it", she continues. Getting laughter from both of them. "Mateo?", she then asks and make sure he is looking at her before she continues. "We should leave tomorrow. Start searching for other people. We have to-", Gloriana starts to argue but Mateo nods so she does not finish her argument. The silence this time is comforting. They are both content with agreeing. Gloriana sits down by Mateo again, taking his hand. She feels the need to, just to make sure he knows how thankful she is for the opportunity to leave. "Gloriana, if we are doing this... We need to stick together. Our lives needs to be one, not two. We need to look out for each other. The world out there? it is not like this safe little bubble we have built", Mateo says to her with drowsy eyes. Glorianas eyes was glittery at this point. Mateo had never said something like this. She has viewed him as such a self centered person and hearing this made her whole week. "Of course.. I could not agree more", Gloriana answered. She held back those tears the best she could, but could not hide the sniffles. 

Mateo and Gloriana sat cuddles up against the cement wall the rest of that night. Mateo would fall asleep, letting out short-lived snores. Gloriana was not a fan of snores and eating sounds, but her friends snores did not bother her one bit. It was a part of what she saw as home. He had become home. Gloriana did not wanna admit to herself how much this guy meant to her, but she played it off as a familiar feeling. Something safe. Not something she loved. However, she was so excited to see more of the world. They both knew about a big boat near the bay close where they now lived, but what they were unsure off, was if the underwater life was also affected by the mutation roaming the world. There was therefore two choices here. One, they could roam the lands of Spain or two, they could take the boat and gamble on the underwater life being completely fine. Issue there would also be gasoline, but Mateo had insisted he could make the boat solar panel driven. Gloriana had doubt in this, but she could never tell him that. 

To be continued...