Estranged [Completed]

The Other Side

Kalei passed beneath streetlight after streetlight, watching the night close around her when she passed under a burnt-out lamp, and then letting it retreat again as she stepped into the light of the next one. She felt anger, frustration, and pure hatred. She hated the bastard who killed her parents, she hated SWORDE, she hated the world, she hated herself. She wished she could take a knife, stab it through her heart, and then tear the blade down across her abdomen so she could reach in and rip out all the stupidity, futility, and stabbing pain that resided within her.

Kalei passed by the hollow husks of restaurants, shopping centers, and a decimated children's museum. Sitting on top of these corpses stood the ever-present skyscrapers, penning Kalei in and blocking out the sky, making the night feel all the darker. Kalei's eyes skipped from one building to the next, taking in what little she could see of their crumbling stone and rusting metal. She wished every one of these structures were on fire, burned to the ground so the people of Celan didn't have to be haunted by these dark memorials anymore. She hated it; she hated it all. Still, she walked on in the cold, dark night.

"Oh hey! Kalei!"

Kalei saw Lecia approach from an intersection up ahead, but she didn't respond. Lecia dodged a dormant delivery truck that sat deserted in the road, and gave a small Smart car a wide berth as she made her way over to Kalei.

Kalei watched as Lecia navigated the car-littered street, surprised an Estranged hadn't jumped out of one of the vehicles to attack the woman, and alarmed at the possibility. Lecia came up to a solid walk of four sedans and a sports car, all smashed bumper to bumper. Apparently, the woman decided the best way around the pile was through it, because she opened the door to the nearest car and climbed into it.

Kalei stopped watching and marched over to the heap of metal. "Are you some kind of stupid!"

The car door nearest Kalei shuddered and then popped open. Lecia climbed out, head first. "What?"

"How did you know there wasn't an Estranged sleeping in there, huh? And what the hell are you doing down here in the middle of the night?"

Lecia smiled as she brushed off the dust she had picked up from her excursion. "Research never sleeps. So, how are things going with SWORDE?" She looked up at Kalei and grimaced, "Sheesh, you'd think they'd at least give you some decent clothes. Why are you still wearing those grubby PJs?"

Kalei looked down at herself and saw she was still wearing the same shorts and tank top she had worn on the night she was turned. Only now, they were brown, frayed, and half the shirt over the left side of her stomach was missing. Kalei was appalled. But not nearly as appalled as she was at Lecia's implication that she was involved with SWORDE now. She clarified, "I'm not with SWORDE."

"Really?" Lecia seemed confused, her eyebrows came together. "You've been gone for two weeks. I just assumed—"

"Two weeks?" Kalei repeated. That didn't seem right. And yet— "How long has it been since the attack?"

"I'm guessing you mean the one that turned you Estranged? Let me think..." Lecia paused and muttered the names of months while absent-mindedly counting them out on her fingers. "Almost a year and a half now."

A year and a half? Had it really been that long?

Lecia continued, "So, why aren't you going to work for SWORDE?"

Kalei felt the muscles in her neck tense. "I'm not going to answer that. Wait, you know SWORDE is Estranged?"

"Yeah, of course. I can't get anyone outside the fence to believe me, though. Everyone seems to think I'm a coot."