Those Who Remain

Welcome Aboard

Aries's Point of View

I could cut this tension with a knife. Even now, as I sat in front of the three guys who were trying to keep calm, the one standing behind them continued to give Ander daggers. As we sat in silence, I let my mind review the strange turn of events that got us here. It all seemed to play out in slow motion, these four boys turning up out of absolutely nowhere. I was still in awe of them, barely believing Ander and I happened to stumble upon another group of people.

“Right, well,” the tall blonde across from me cleared his throat, breaking the momentary quiet. “I’m Luke. This is Michael and Calum.”

With that, Luke gestured to the two sitting next to him. The dark haired one gave a small wave, and the other simply nodded.

“And this,” he continued, pointing upward toward Poker Face. “Is-”

“Ashton,” the boy said cooly, continuing to look straight at my friend.

“Ander,” she spat back at him, whipping her name out like an insult.

Luke gave me an expectant look.

“Oh,” I said, glancing up from my feet. “I’m Aries.”

“Great,” Ander muttered, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Now that we all know each other, we can hold hands and sing Kumbaya.”

That earned a chuckle out of the four of us, but Ashton remained stone-faced.

“Let’s start with where you came from,” he quipped, never breaking eye contact.

“The desert,” Ander replied curtly, looking away and back again. “How about you?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Aston said.

“Calm down,” Luke intervened, looking between the two of them. He sighed, roughing his hair with hands and turning his gaze back toward me. “We’re just trying to make sure you aren’t infected.”

“Infected?” Ander questioned, her dark eyebrows furrowing together.

“You’re kidding, right?” Michael said with a look of utter bewilderment. “How could-”

“One week ago we woke up in the middle of the desert floor with nothing but the clothes on our backs and each other,” I deadpanned. “We’re not exactly up to date.”

“You really don’t know?” Luke inquired, leaning in toward us.

“No,” I replied quietly. “We don’t know anything.”

“The world’s gone to shit,” Calum kicked the dirt. “Where do we even start?”

“About a month ago, deadly disease broke out,” Luke began, taking a deep breath. “Thousands died in a matter of weeks. Most fled to the cities, but we ended up in a facility a few miles from here. It was all going well until somehow that got infected too. We took as much as we could and set up camp out here.”

“Oh God,” I whispered, my mind flicking through fragmented memories of the world before this.

“Wait,” Ander interrupted. “How do we know you guys don’t have it?”

“If we had it, we’d be dead already,” Ashton replied.

“And why should I trust you?” Ander said, stepping out to the middle of the fire pit, hand instinctively resting on the grip of her gun.

“Ander,” I called, standing up next to her. “We really need their help.”

With that she nodded, slowly letting her anger diffuse.