Those Who Remain

Drowning Lessons

Aries's Point of View

From behind a white wooden door, I could see golden rays of sunlight peeking in through my parent’s bedroom window. I approached it quietly, my tiny feet making soft sounds until I finally reached my mother. She said something to me, but I couldn’t make it out. All I knew was that her face shone with tears.

I woke up crying along with her.

“Aries?” Luke asked, startled with concern. “Are you okay?”

I rubbed my eyes, horrified upon realizing that his shirt was stained my sobbing.

“Yeah, sorry to wake you,” I replied, meeting his eyes. I immediately glanced away upon realizing how close our faces were to each other’s. Still disoriented, I took a deep breath, absentmindedly pressing my forehead into his chest.

“Bad dream?” he questioned.

“More like bad memory,” I breathed, shifting over onto my back, looking up at the early sun making its appearance through the treetops. “Sorry, again.”

“It’s alright,” he replied, not prying any further. “About time we wake up anyway.”

I exhaled again, this time letting my pounding chest settle into its normal rhythm before unzipping the sleeping bag and climbing out. Luke followed, pulling on his jeans and boots before moving to wake the rest of the group up.

“Good morning!” he called, softly kicking each sleeping bag lying on the dirt around the fire pit.

Making myself useful, I made my way over to the bucket of edible plants we’d picked up yesterday, leafing through until I saw light blue flowers popping out among the branches. Carefully, I picked the plant up, ripped off its roots and leaves and placed them in a bucket of clean water to boil.

“What’s cooking?” Calum said, stretching his arms over his head before plopping down on a log next to Michael.

“Chicory,” I replied, stirring the leaves for a bit before leaving it to cook. “Full of vitamins to get us going.”

“Nice,” Ander said to me, combing out the tangles in her hair with her fingers as she made her way over. “I didn’t know you knew so much about this stuff.”

“Me neither,” I remarked, following suit and reconstructing my hair back into a braid. “I guess the knowledge just triggered somehow.”

“Good thing,” Michael said with a laugh. “I was getting sick of that canned stuff.”

After a few more minutes of talking and eating, Ashton once again stood to announce the plan for the day.

“Alright,” he stated, lively as he was yesterday. I couldn’t help but wonder what triggered such a change in attitude. “As Calum and I were discussing yesterday, more people means more mouths to feed. And frankly, we’re running out of cans.”

Everyone remained silent.

“We were already running low on food supplies before Ander and Aries came,” Calum chimed in. “Now, they will be used up in an even shorter amount of time.”

“Right,” Ashton added with a nod. “We need to start looking for other forms of food. Aries has helped a ton with finding edible plants, but we can’t survive on those alone. We need to hunt.”

“Did animals survive the infection?” I questioned him.

“As far as we know, yes,” Ashton said to me. “Calum and I spotted some tracks in the woods the other day while we were getting firewood. We’re thinking it’s a boar. Couldn’t tell for sure though.”