Afteroid

Chapter Three

Mallory's Point of View

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened between you and Aiden?" I ask, looking over at Dawn who seems to be already observing me.

"I got feelings for him," she tensed up, looking at me before walking away.

"Wait, isn't that the point of a relationship?" I follow her in a news reporter manner. She stops and turns to face me.

"What happened between us is none of your business. It is between me and him." With that, she spins back around and continues to walk. Looking over, I notice Drew throwing her spear into the air and catch it, again and again lost in thought. Violet is observing trees and the surroundings, and Dawn seems to be looking for Aiden.

What could've happened between them? Why is she so over protective of her feelings?

"Wait! Dawn!" I shouted running after her.

"What do you want now?"

"Look, you're going to need to open up to us and tell us things, we're all going to have to do that. For all we know, it could be important information that we would need to know later on. And besides, we're all stuck together here- for who knows how long," I say. Out of nowhere, Violet comes in and speaks.

"First of all, we don't need to know anything about anyone. All we need to do is survive and find any remaining survivors."

"How do you suppose we do that? Everything is ruined. What if we're the only people left!" I practically yell back.

"Exactly, we're only exploring the 'what-ifs'. Don't you find it strange that it's only us four that survived? Us four who were right near the asteroid? It's too weird. There are others, even if the chance is low." Violet raises her eyebrow and fixes her gloves.

"We still have a long journey to go, we should at least get to know each other."

Suddenly, we arrive to a big crack in the Earth, preventing us from moving on. Violet began constructing a bridge with building and tree parts over the crack.

"Fine," she finally sighed as she placed down some connected pipes.

Looking back at Dawn, I smirk.

"Now are you gonna tell me?"

"I don't even know you, maybe later," Dawn says shaking her head before walking over and watching Violet.

"I might be one of the last people you'll get to know," I muttered under my breath. Drew chuckles quietly as she walks past me to help Violet with the bridge. She threw her spear end-first into the rubble before ripping a large branch off a fallen tree.

"Where do you want this?" Drew asked. I'm pretty sure my jaw had dropped, she wasn't struggling at all!

"We could use it for supporting the bridge," Violet replied, observing the wooden limb.

"Got it." She placed it down next to the two long pipes. They proceeded to place part of a metal roof onto the "support beams" and shove sticks and chunks of cement under the sides that were rocking.

"Alright, bridge is stable, let's keep going," Violet crossed first and was carrying extra rocks. "And try not to look down, it's pretty grotesque." Drew grabbed her spear and followed Violet across. I waited for her to put the rocks under any part that might be unstable before going after them.

I had accidentally looked down despite the warning and automatically wished I hadn't. At the very bottom lay bloody bodies. Limbs were twisted out of place and some of them had their glassy eyes open, staring right at me. I covered my mouth with my hand, trying so hard not to throw up.

"She said don't look," Dawn hissed behind me. I walked the remaining six feet looking straight ahead.

"You looked down, didn't you?" Violet deadpanned. I nodded slowly with my hand still on my mouth. "It's weird, don't you think?" I looked up at her. What? What is she talking about? The dead bodies?

She shrugged. "We're girls, we see blood every month, but when it's on other people, we freak out." Dawn walked ahead this time.

"There's a difference," Drew said.

"Because it's on them?"

"Because they're dead." Violet hummed in thought. "How do we know if this Aiden guy is still alive?"

"We woke up further away from the asteroid," Dawn explained. I looked over at Violet. I thought she would've said "I told you" by now, since there was a chance people could've survived further away from the asteroid, but she doesn't speak.

"Wait a minute," Violet furrowed her brows in confusion. She turned towards Drew. "Are you telling me you don't feel dead during your period?"

"We have more important things to do than talk about Drew's periods, Violet," Dawn chimes in, determined to find Aiden as soon as possible. As we were walking, Dawn kept glancing at Drew.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Dawn finally asked.

"See for yourself," Drew says while running her hand over a carving of the letters "SS" on a tree.

Violet walks over and examines it.

"It's new, at least half an hour ago someone did this." She says still staring at the tree.

"Why the heck would somebody carve SS on a tree?" I asked. I could feel my hands begin to shake.

"We were all together the whole time, so that could only mean one thing.." Dawn pauses and looks over at me.

"Someone was here."