After Death

Chapter 2 (Shared Vulnerability)

Chapter 2: Shared Vulnerability

Aiden Palton

Estimated, January 2024

About 20 months after outbreak

California

Season 3

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We met up with Leah, Dallen, and Airianna a few weeks ago. Rudi was ecstatic to see Airi again but I know it bothered him that Juna was still missing. Marcus has been acting weird ever since we met him. I can't exactly explain why but he just doesn't seem to have the best of intentions. He had supplies that we needed and because of that, I haven't made him leave yet.

We were still waiting for the others. Khai, Ethan, Steve, Juna, and Edin still were nowhere to be seen. Dallen thought that it might be a good idea to give them a few clues as to where we are so that's what we did. We ripped off small pieces of fabric from our clothes, left behind some useless objects that they were sure to recognize, and even wrote in big red letters with paint on a billboard: "Coast''.

I had a weird feeling now that Ethan wasn't here. I felt like it was my job to keep these people together, to keep us safe. I was nowhere near qualified for such a position but I guess, Ethan really wasn't either.

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Rudolph Alinsky

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I loved being back with Airianna, it made me feel a sense of control. I was losing a lot of sleep, thinking about what could have happened to Juna. I made a promise to Olivia and I really wanted to keep that promise.

We seemed a little scrambled without Ethan. Aiden's trying, kinda unknowingly, to take up being the leader but so has Leah. She saw Ethan being gone as an opportunity to change how we are. I don't think there's that much wrong with us. I mean, we did watch one of our own be shot for no reason. We were at least a little better than that.

I think Leah was trying to do the right thing. I want to say I was on her side in this but I was kinda sick of all of the bullshit. Everyone yelled at each other while trying to figure out a plan. The sound drew more of the dead so then we had that to deal with. When we weren't fighting the silence was the worst part. It reminded me that we really had no idea what we were doing.

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Leah Souixer

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I appreciated Aiden trying to grow a pair and take charge when that's what we needed most but we needed to start being realistic now. We needed to start thinking about what we were going to do if the others never showed up. We've been searching around for weeks, there's no boats anywhere. The island idea was out of the question. We either were going to have to build something here or keep searching out there. I feel like we would have better luck with building our own community rather than trying to join an existing one.

I really didn't want to leave Khai behind. I cared about her, she was there with us in the cafeteria. She had gotten Amy to safety even before we met Ethan. And I know Rudi would be completely devastated if we went anywhere new without Juna. I couldn't take her away from him too, not after everything he's already lost.

I made the painful decision that if the others weren't here in a month and there were no signs that they were close we'd either start building or continue our search. I made sure we were all in agreement and I saw how some of them didn't like this plan, but I knew they strongly considered it's potential.