Aftermath

Prologue

I sigh as the lights flicker off. It quickly turns into a scream.

Hands grab at me from all sides as something is held to my nose. I gasp without thinking and I'm done. Out cold.
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I bite down on my lip hard enough to draw blood, holding in my screams of pain.

Hour after hour of merciless torture I hold in my screams. As I'm dragged to my cell I look curiously at my new appendage. Well, appendages. Also, claws at the end of each finger. That ones new too.

I swipe at my cell experimentally, and I'm surprised when it parts as easy as the air around me.

So I run. I'm sprinting down the hall, running faster than I've ever gone before, my arms out at my sides, opening more cells.

And I'm free. For the first time in ages, I'm free.

I'm preparing to run once more when a girl stops me. She just nods, then takes a huge leap, bright white wings unfurling, the golden ends glinting. She hadn't said a thing, but I knew what she meant.
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I tense, a voice shocking me from my thoughts.

"Marcus, you stay right here and take a shower, okay? Mommy will be back soon with some food."

I hear the kid whimper but mumble his assent, then a door slamming. The mom doesn't come back.

So I take him with me, dropping him off at an Arizonian stronghold not long after.

That's how it begins. My life of constant travel, finding kids who've survived the sickness, bringing them to strongholds across the country.

It's been two years now, two years of no one except my constant companions and those who I come across, and they never stay longer than a week.

Then I go and get my leg broken by one of the nigh, and I have to run to a strong hold. That's where I am now. This is where my story begins.