When life throws different people into the middle of an apocalypse and the end of the world approaches, it's a matter of survival for all of them.
This is the story of the survivors, those who have seen their loved ones die to protect them. The one...
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Max must have been a torturer in his previous life. I hadn't been able to sleep after he'd tied them up, I imagined he'd do the worst to them. He and Daniel had hung up some sort of sheet to cover us for the night. It was quite cold in the evening, and Max's fire wasn't going to help much. I'd been listening to his conversation with Charles, waiting for the moment when, like every evening, Max would come out of our shelter to make the rounds outside. I knew he wasn't just doing that; I could hear him wandering off sometimes. I imagined he was keeping an eye on the surroundings. With two members of the Red Army, and me, I think he had something to worry about. I was there by choice, but who'd have guessed it from those two men tied to a post, and me locked up with Daniel. Then I thought of the soldier's reaction when he saw me. His big brown eyes on me. I didn't remember him, but he'd guessed my first name straight away. It was worrying to discover the world for the first time when you'd already been part of people's lives. Obviously, we'd met before. If I found out now, I don't even know if we would have been friends. Maybe we were before, maybe we were colleagues... If I'd been a soldier once? Would I forgive myself? I don't think so.
There was only one way to find out, and that was to question him. I got out of my hammock, was careful not to crush Daniel, then pushed back the curtain, doing my best not to make any noise. Once I'd done that, I approached the two men. Charles had a blanket over him, Max's, and the other was still tied up, his hands behind his back, red from the firmness of the tie that bound him. Then, when I reached him, I shook his shoulder. He didn't react immediately, but after a few seconds, he opened his eyes. Fire lit up our faces, and I wished I'd remembered that fiery brown gaze.
"What do you want, Lando?"
"How do we know each other? What's your name? Why are you here?" I whispered, afraid to wake the others.
"Don't you remember me?" I'd shaken my head. "Really?" I'd sighed, he looked shocked. "If you only knew how much I'd missed you.... You can't have forgotten me like that?"
"I don't remember anything..." Maybe confiding too much was a bad idea, but I had no one else to talk about it with. "Please tell me what you know about me."
"You were a great friend." We were friends. In all this destruction, I had a friend. "You were cheerful. You were always yapping about stuff. I was there for you and you were there for me. Then one day you disappeared, and the only time I saw you again you were someone else."
"What were we before?"
"Soldiers. We were trained to save lives." My heart cracked from imagining myself in that uniform I hated so much. "I imagine you must have a bad image of it now, but you were so happy..."
"I was. I don't want to be a part of this anymore."
"You were so good, you were the strongest in our group." I'd seen the pride in his eyes, then a dark wave of sadness. "And then one morning, I woke up, and you were no longer there. Vanished. All gone. I didn't know what to do without you... And they changed my option. I had to work to protect the pathfinders, and I've been following this guy ever since."
