Survival

Alaric

Skyrah came back after an hour. She didn't tell me where she went, or whether she found Ember, she just came back and was quiet. Unusually quiet. Gabriella shows us to a room filled with seven beds. She tells us that a man called Wesley and a girl called Alora will be sharing the room with us. The beds are made from a simple black iron frame and the mattress is lumpy. I sit on the bed with my arms behind my head leaning up against the wall. Skye looks angry, like really angry, her jaw is clenched, her fingers digging into her palms, her whole body tensing especially when Gabriella comes in and to be honest I don't blame her, what she did to her kid wasn't good. It was awful. I look over at her, she's like another part of me and somehow I know when she is worried, which makes me worried too. So I ask her.

"Skye, what's wrong?" I say sitting on the foot of her bed. She scuffles over to sit next to me, her legs crossed she leans into me, her head on my chest as I wrap my arm around her.

"The whole time my mom was in the government Rick" she says her voice holding every inch of hopelessness she feels.

"How do you know?" I ask rubbing her arm comfortingly.

"Ember was sent to go listen to government meetings and she took down notes and she had all the members' names and-"she says holding back a sob, she doesn't need to continue, I get the idea. Her mother is a terrible person, there is no denying that. Not only was her mother involved in the idea that will kill her own daughter, she helped come up with it. The. Ultimate. Betrayal.

"You know there was some part of me that wished that there was still an inch of good left in her, but she made the serum, she came up with the whole idea, her and Morrisa were the main people" she says and I know that she's crying, she isn't making any noises, she isn't sniffing, I just know. I realise that this is the first time I have ever seen her cry. I have seen her eyes water, I've seen her hold them back, I've heard her but I've never seen her. I look at her, eyes swollen, her bottom lip quivers slightly as her face become wetter. The hair that falls into her face soon become wet so I brush it away. I just let her cry because I know she needs to. No one else is in the room. Wesley came in and asked if anyone was hungry, everyone else went apart from Skyrah and I. Her feet are curled up underneath her, her head is on my chest. She is crying but I have never been happier. I know how bad that sounds but it means that she is finally opening up to me. I can feel her tears seeping through my shirt but I don't care. I need to let her cry. I don't blame her for crying, her mom has practically been out to get her since she was born. The scars left on her heart are permanent, they won't fade away, they will become less painful with time but right now they hurt more than I could begin to imagine because although my parents weren't there for a year they never tried to kill me. I move my hand to the middle of her back and start patting it softly. She looks up at me again. Her eyes are red and sore, in fact her whole face is red, water marks running down her face like she is a window that was just rained on. Her eyes are puffy. She still looks beautiful to me. I smile. A watery smile is returned.

"I feel like an idiot" she says rubbing her eyes, only resulting in making them redder.

"It's okay, I understand, you know I do" I say stroking her hair. She tries to smile, her lips curve up slightly but fall back down again. I lift her head up with my finger.

"I know this is hard baby, but please, you have to stay strong so we can do this and we can have a normal life, okay?" I say pressing my lips to hers, I can taste her salty tears and the sweetness of her breath. I don't know what the future will bring, but I know something that is certain, her. The only stable thing in my future is her. I have to hold onto that, and so does she. I pull her head into my chest again and breathe out relieved because my whole family would be dead. I would be dead if it wasn't for her. At that moment everyone pours in laughing as we share an intimate-admittedly intense moment. They all pause awkwardly when they see us. Skyrah sits up and smiles, trying to act like everything is okay, if only she could see her tear stained face. They all walk in anyway. Wesley tells us we should go get some food and meet Alora, so we decide to go, not because we are particularly hungry just because I guess we weren't ready for them to come back yet. We walk silently hand-in-hand down the hallway, I have no idea where the dining area is, and we sort of follow people around for a while. I see someone coming out of a room with something resembling food in their hands so I go inside. There are tables lined up in rows, the room is loud people are laughing, banging tankards together, cutlery clinking. The room is alive with sounds and smells. I wasn't hungry, but I sure am now. So many smells flood my mouth. There seems to be a queue so we stand in line. The queue moves quickly I guess. We get to a stack of trays and we take one each. There is some sort of rail I see people putting their trays on so I copy them. I get to a window in the wall but it doesn't have any glass, it's just a gap. A woman with bright red hair and golden-amber eyes. She had a small nose and smiled at us.

"Alaric, Skyrah, Wes said he would send you down, I'm Alora" she says smiling happily. We smile back and she puts a chicken breast, some form of mushy potato and some peas on our plates. We move over and the next woman-not so happy to be doing her job as Alora- hands us a bowl of this creamy gloopy stuff that Skyrah tells me is rice pudding. I move down and a man-with an expression somewhere between Alora's and the other woman's- hands us a cup of steaming brown liquid. We sit down on the emptiest table. A woman with short brown hair sits opposite us. Her arms are covered in tattoos and she has a nose and lip ring. There is a general harshness about her. She looks like one of those people that doesn't care about what people think. There is an elderly woman with greying blonde hair a few seats down, she looks around like she doesn't really know where she is. She mumbles to herself whilst pushing her peas around the plate. The younger woman looks up at us and her eyes light up in recognition.

"So you're the ones everyone is talking about" she says taking a bite of chicken. I look to Skyrah and shrug.

"I guess so, I'm Skyrah, and this is Alaric" Skye says softly.

"I'm Trayce and this is my mother Juna" she says motioning to the woman talking to herself.

"Is she okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, she's just always like that I guess, you learn to put up with it" Trayce says shrugging. I start to eat. It's good to eat a solid meal. We have to start training tomorrow. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.

"You guys Insurrectional then?" Trayce asks and we both nod.

"Have you lived down here all your life?" I ask and she nods.

"My mom used to live up there" she says motioning to the ceiling "but then Gabriella recruited her while she was pregnant with me, my older sister refused to move down her with her, she always was stubborn, or so I've been told" she says. I finish my meal pretty quickly and start to drink the brown stuff in the cup. It tastes kind of earthy but sweet.

"It's called tea Rick" Skyrah points out and I just nod.

"How can you not know what tea is?" Trayce asks.

"Because I'm from the outside" I say and we get up and put our trays in a large bucket at the side of the room. We go back to our room because we have a long day tomorrow and let's face it; we could use all the sleep we can get.