LEARNING TO FORGIVE YOU

5.

[Alex stared at the woman in front of them, still trying to get through the gate, moaning and making biting sounds. "I have no fucking idea."]

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"Alicia!" Travis called out for the brunette as everyone was already packed and sitting in the cars ready to leave. "Come on, we're going!"

"Alicia, come on," Travis repeated as Alicia came out of the house, shutting the front door.

"I heard you," she said, walking to the car as helicopters flew over them.

"Let's go," Travis replied, opening the car door for her.

"I had to pee," the brunette said before getting into the car.

After she got in the car, they started driving. As they drove out of the neighborhood, Alex saw the neighbor of the Clarks had come home. "Madison, isn't that the husband of the woman from yesterday?" she asked, tapping the older woman on the arm repeatedly.

Madison looked to where Alex was pointing, seeing Patrick, the husband of the woman who had tried to attack Alicia the previous day. "Patrick!" she shouted at the man, but he didn't hear her and proceeded to walk inside with his suitcase.

"Patrick, wait!" she shouted. "No, no, no," Madison mumbled to herself, quickly driving to the man's house. When she parked in front of the house, she and Alex immediately ran out of the car after the man.

"Patrick! Patrick!" Madison called out as she and Alex ran into their backyard.

"Don't touch her!" Alex warned, as the growling woman kept coming closer to her husband.

"That's not your wife." Madison said, walking towards the man who was frozen, staring at his wife.

"What happened, Susan?" The man asked, sadness evident in his voice as he went to hug her.

"Alicia, get back in the ca—" Alex began, jogging towards the brunette but got cut off by a loud gunshot.

They all ducked down before looking back and seeing the woman fall to the ground with a bullet hole in her head. Then military men stormed into the garden, pulling everyone back, as Madison fell to the ground, mourning the death of her friend.

>>>

Alex sat on the roof, smoking the last joint she had, after that, she would have to rely on cigarettes. It had been nine days since the military had shot Patrick's wife, and their green friends had moved in. The people outside of the fence, people like her, the Clarks, Manawa family, and the Salazars, were taken four days ago. They were rounded up like cattle, piled into trucks with one suitcase each. They were headed east, at least that was the rumor. Bakersfield, Vegas, who knows?

It was safe inside the fence, outside, everything and everyone was dead, at least that's what everyone thought. Turns out there's nothing you can ever take that nature won't take back. It all belongs to her again.

Alex let the smoke slowly escape from her mouth, leaning back against a stone block on the roof of the Clark's house, looking out at the horizon. Scanning the area, her eyes caught something; she thought she saw a light far away coming from one of the buildings in the distance.

She knew that nothing and no one was out there, so she initially dismissed it, thinking she was just having a bad trip. That was until she saw the light flash again. It looked like an SOS code. She sat up straight, staring at it. She clenched her eyes tight, not believing them, but the light flicker persisted.