Night of the Alphas

Chapter 42

My bedroom in Amanda's house was small, but cozy. I tried to keep it as clean as I could, but, in times like this, it started to grow messy and unkempt. My gray comforter was thrown onto my bed sloppily, and my desk was covered in notebooks and pencils and half-baked ideas for drawings. My computer had twenty-three tabs open, and I couldn't find the one that was playing music. Oh, and, my stupid scented candle had run out of wax, so instead of my room smelling like ocean spray, it smelled like dirty socks and pencil shavings.

It had been nearly two years since Night of the Alphas took place. After the wall was torn down, the city slowly started to heal. Businesses reopened, people came back home, and Amanda had come back to her house, bringing me with her. Other than the unkempt lawn and fine layer of dust covering everything, her house had stayed oddly untouched during the war. After we spent a few days cleaning up, her place was just like a home again. And it was the only home I had known for the last year and a half.

In addition to bringing me into her home, Amanda had enrolled me into the local high school. It opened back up three months after the wall was torn down, and I was the oldest student there. Well, besides the 21-year old that was held back four times. At 19, I was too old to be attending high school. But I had to do what I had to do to get my diploma even if high school was a relatively uncomfortable experience.

I glanced at the framed photo on my desk. It was the last photo taken of all of my friends; Mrs. Edger had insisted on taking it when we left the militia camp. We were posed in front of Mr. Edger's pickup. Adrian stood in the center, squished between everyone else. But despite that, she still wore her cheeky grin, which was almost identical to Joshua's. I stood next to her, my arms wrapped around her shoulders. Joshua was next to us, and he had blinked at the exact moment the picture was taken. Or maybe he was winking. I couldn't tell. Abel stood at the edge of the group, annoyed and brooding as ever. Jay clung to his waist, chattering excitedly to someone outside of the picture. Willow sat in the truck bed, holding Serena's arm up like she was waving. Alex and Miranda stood below them as they shared a kiss. And of course, Zaria was knelt down at Adrian's feet, giving the camera a peace-sign.

Mrs. Taylor had been horrified the second she saw the photo. She insisted that we took another picture, where we were all smiling and professional-looking. But Mrs. Edger had simply laughed and said that it captured the essence of our personalities. And everyone else agreed, so we kept the picture. Mrs. Taylor was pretty peeved, and kept on muttering to herself about how she would give anything to have a decent picture of us.

But to me, it was a decent picture. I sighed sadly and traced the frame with my fingers.

Adrian, Zaria, Joshua, and I were the only people who stayed in the city. Adrian was only a ten minute drive away, so seeing her wasn't a problem at all. It was nice to be close to her, especially since we were dating now. But I wasn't so lucky with Zaria and Joshua. They rented an apartment together on the other side of the city, and it was nearly an hour's drive to see them. And of course, they were always busy. Zaria was pursuing her dream job as a news reporter. She seemed to be pretty happy with that, even though she wasn't the one on T.V.. She wrote scripts for the afternoon news anchor on WCCB Charlotte, a half-cheetah lady named Kelly Karamella. Joshua, on the other hand, was a full-time worker at Ikea. He was trying his best to make it work, but it was easy to tell that his heart wasn't in it. He wanted something more for his life, but I don't think he knew what he should do. Adiran had a part-time job at a local motel, but she only did it because she wanted to get out of her parents' house. She told me that they argued a lot more now. So she spent a lot of time with Amanda and I.

Everyone else went to Lebanon. I wasn't sure exactly what they were doing there, but I knew a little bit. Abel moved into his own apartment in the quickly-growing small town. I was fairly sure he was still going to college, but he had switched his major from graphic design to forensic science. Willow was working full-time at the local Kroger, since it was the only job she could find. She lived in a small apartment with Serena. Abel was helping them out a lot financially, and tried to watch Serena whenever he could. Jay, from what I could gather, lived on and off in the local homeless shelter. The social workers were desperately trying to find him a family, but nobody wanted to take him in. They all saw him as too much of a challenge. Alex and Miranda were still living with Mr. and Mrs. Edger, and they were doing pretty well. They were both still trying to finish the school they'd missed during the draft.