Warrior ‣ Bellamy Blake

Bonus Chapter Four

I'm trying to prewrite some chapters, so I hope this is enough to suffice until I get a legit chapter up again.

Also just wanted to let y'all know that I am not a fan of torturing my characters I'm just trying to give you a glimpse of why and how Aella has changed so much. And, if you were wondering why I changed her so much through the five-year time jump, I just wanted to say that I think stagnant characters are boring. She had grown a lot, but to see her kind of focus on primitive instinct and survival instinct is quite a change. I wanted to explore that side of her and I figured this was the best way to show it.

This has a lot to do with attempting suicide. I am not trying to glorify it or anything and I know what it feels like to seriously try to end it all. I am, fortunately, in a better place in that regard. If any of you at all...IF ANYONE needs someone to talk to anonymously, my messages are open. They are always open for anyone who needs to get anything off their chest. I am no therapist at all, but if you need someone to listen, I am here always. But if it is really really serious, please call the Suicide Hotline (1-800-273-8255 or whichever one works in the country you live in). You are not alone.

And I don't mean to do this, but I might have to post slower updates (as if that's even possible, right?) because my physical health has been up in the air. We're trying to diagnose me, so I'm in and out of the hospital whenever I'm not at school, doing homework, or working. I'll try my best, but these updates will be pretty sparse and I'm sorry.

To add one more thing: I will be trying to update "Costia" ASAP. If you guys like my writing and want more, you can check out my other stories as I try to write and prewrite chapters. I love y'all and thank you so much for the support. Over 100k reads??? That's bonkers. Thank you.

***

On the 1894th day Aella Kane spent alone on the scorched wasteland that was Earth, she woke up covered in sand, as per usual. She had wrapped her neck and chest when the sandstorm hit the previous night. Since she had no way to escape it, she covered what she could with her clothes and ran as far away as she could. When she was out of the way of the storm's path, she collapsed onto the ground.

The damage was minimal: a few glass shards were embedded into her skin, but they were only superficial wounds. She pulled the shards out and doused the cuts in water, wondering how long she could consume the black rain water until it finally killed her. At that point, she was almost wishing it would already.

She emptied what was left in the canteen and looked to the sky, swearing violently in her head when she noticed there wasn't even a single cloud in the sky. The black rain storms almost seemed to come out of nowhere sometimes, but Aella knew if there wasn't a cloud in the sky, there wouldn't be a rainstorm for at least a week, which was why she normally conserved her water.

Lying on the hot sand, she knew she had to get up.

"Get up," she told herself. "Come on."

She weakly stood up, surprised at how her legs could still hold her up when she hadn't eaten in so long. The last meal she had was of a dead vulture. They were normally alive when she found them and she had tried many times to find where they came from, hoping it was one of the patches of land A.L.I.E. claimed would be habitable, but it never showed her. Sometimes they dropped dead before they got there and other times, Aella found herself starving and, in a moment of weakness, would kill them before they reached her destination. This time, it was already dead, making her wonder if she was going in the opposite direction.

The sun had already risen beyond the horizon, so using that as her compass, Aella continued west. 

She could've laughed at the thought. Going west. She had read old stories on the Ark of western heroes. A long time ago, there were old western movies with sheriffs and shootouts. Runaway trains and bandits. The pretty tavern maid in distress the hero had to save. Every cliche in the genre. Just once, Aella wished she could've watched one of those movies.