Turns out that Plague’s test was a lazy, haphazardly put-together piece of shit obstacle course, but at least I got to shoot rubber paintballs at some targets, for whatever that may be useful for. The deadline was approaching quickly, and I was beginning to get stressed out. Mary kept having nervous breakdowns every day about “losing me” or “dying,” which shouldn’t be an issue considering how many people were going to be involved in this operation. Plague told me that it was a twenty-man gig in which staying at the back was a valid option. My brother kept trying to woo the tomboy and Mary and i hadn’t gone back to the fancy restaurant in fear of having a drama filled night like the last one. All in all, we were all fine.

  Plague had decided to give me the day off, as it was Sunday and I had done the test the day before. Mary and I decided to go out for a walk around the forest right out of town.

  “Man, it’s been ages since I’ve had to walk this much!” I said. It felt good taking a break from all the training and all the monotony of our new life.

  “Yeah, you don’t really realize how much you miss a casual stroll through the woods until you start walking. So do you think Donn is going to get with her?” She asked.

  “It would be really funny if they did; just imagine how hard we could tease him! Oh, we could make his life hell!” I exclaimed.

  She smiled and nodded. “Totally, like seriously, have you seen her? She’s like the caveman version of a bodybuilding tranny, or just a bodybuilding tranny.”

  “Yeah, my torso is the width of her thighs.” I said.

  She chuckled. “I know who I’m hiding behind.”

  “You might not even be seen at all behind such a monster.” I had to climb over a fallen tree there. The forest was primarily pine, so thick that you couldn’t see ten meters in front of you.

  “I’d hope so.” She hopped over the tree. She was surprisingly agile and light-footed. “Man, it’s so quiet.” We both went silent to appreciate the silence, but we were interrupted by some faint crying. “Do you hear that?” She whispered.

  “Yeah,” I whispered back. “Let’s find out who it is!”

  We crouched down and silently walked over to the source of the noise. It was clear it was a girl crying. It was soft and consistent.

  We slowly passed trees and brush until we found a little clearing where a girl a little bit older than us was sitting on a rock and had her face buried in her hands.

  We were hiding behind a tree out of sight from her, but given how loud we had been talking before, she probably knew we were there.

  “What should we do?” Mary asked me.

  “Fuck if I know. Should we help her?”

  “Maybe it’s a trap.” She said.

  “I don't think so. She looks like a girl to me.”

  Mary rolled her eyes at me. “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, but maybe it’s a trap?”

  “That’s what I said! And besides, she’s too close to dongle town; if she were setting up a trap, then wouldn’t she want to do it outside of the patrol perimeter?” She hissed at me.

  “Yeah... The perimeter. Maybe she is from the town?”

  “I doubt it; I’ve never seen her.” She said.

  “You hadn’t seen the next-door neighbors until yesterday, and they go out all the time.” I said.

  “That's different.”

  “How so?”

  “Will you two stop bickering and let me cry in peace!?” There was a loud voice behind the tree.

  I gave Mary a sideways look before coming out from behind the tree.

  “Sorry about that. Who are you?” I apologized and put my hands up in a sign of trust.

  “I'm Emily.” She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was wearing a pink sleeveless shirt with denim shorts. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Ayla. Why are you here?”

  “Me and my friends ran into a bunch of zeds... And I was the only one to survive. I ran away and ended up here.” She sobbed. Her face was swollen, and her eyes were red from crying.

  “Damn, I’m sorry to hear that.” I looked down uncomfortably. “Do you have a place to stay?”

  “We were looking for the safe haven for survivors, but then the zeds...” She burst out crying again, burying her face in her hands.

  Mary finally decided to make an appearance. She slowly walked out from behind the tree and looked sympathetic towards her. “We are from there; you could have walked a couple kilometers and found it. We can take you there if you want.” She spoke softly.

  Emily lifted her head slowly and looked at her, hope written all over her face. “Really? I'm nearly there?”

  “Yeah, we were just going for a little walk around here, but we live there now. You can come with us if you want.” I told her. She may have been small, but she had muscle, not as much as the tank that is Sofia Briggs, but strong nonetheless. However, her muscles didn't take away from her looks; she was petite but cute, kinda like Mary but even more so. She wiped off her tears and stood up from the rock.

  “I’d love to, thank you.” She smiled.

  Mary tugged on my shirt and whispered in my ear. “Are you sure? We just started our only day off before our mission, and we still have to do stuff. Can’t we, like, go for a walk and then pick her up?”

  “Are you serious? Pick her up later? Gosh, what's gotten into you? And I know you wanted us to be alone, and so did I, but we have to help her first.” I whispered. I can't imagine how rude we must have seemed right then and there, given that we were ignoring her and whispering right in front of her, but whether she was offended or not, we'll never know, as she masked it perfectly. “Sure, just follow us. We were going back anyways.” I reassured her. Mary gave me a very displeased look.

  “Thank you so much.” She said. I must have a magnet for depressed girls or something. I had found two of them in just one week and a half, and I was hoping this one turned out just like the last one. She smiled at me; she was pretty.

  “Ayla, don't you dare!!” Whispered Mary,.

  “Dare what?” I asked as if I didn’t know what she meant.

  “You know exactly what I mean.” She narrowed her eyes at me, and quite deservedly. I had to quickly do something to cheer her up.

  She turned around to walk, but I put my arms around her neck, putting my mouth close to her collarbone. “I don't know what you mean, but maybe you could explain?” I whispered seductively as I traced her side with my left hand and put my hand in her pocket. I kissed her neck gently.

  “Not now, and you better stop doing that, or I might begin not letting you out of the bedroom.” She said.

  “Oh, I wish you did.” I whispered. She had her eyes closed, and my quick maneuver seemed to work; she was happy now.

  “Ayla, I think she’s getting bothered by us.” She said.

  I got off of Mary and looked at Emily; she seemed fine.

  “Emily, let’s go.” We set off back where we came from. Emily was in between us, looking down at her feet.

  “I never thought I’d make it here; thank you so much.” She said. Her voice was much better now; she was a quick mourner. Come to think of it, it was almost as if it hadn't happened. But she was probably just really happy to finally have reached her goal.

  “So what's your story?” Asked Mary. I don't know what got into her; she was acting like a jerk to her. She spoke coldly to her.

  “I'm—well, was—a transfer student coming over here for the full year, but then the whole Zed thing happened, and that's about it, nothing interesting.” She got back to sounding mournful and down.

  That was kind of a bummer; she probably didn't know whether her parents were alive or not, which must suck a lot.

  “Don't be like that; it's certainly more interesting than mine.” I said.

  “Really?” She asked.

  “Yeah, I was just a city girl living with her brother in a flat financed by social services.” I said. She seemed overly interested in what I said; it almost seemed fake or something. “But nothing beats Mary’s, though; she has a real history.”

  Mary scowled at me, and then I realized my mistake. I probably shouldn’t have brought to the surface her burdening trauma that was still fresh in her mind. My fault. “Yeah, but I don’t want to talk about it.” Mary answered coldly.

  Silence reigned like a tyrant from then on, weighing like a thousand tons. Thanks to my ungodly skills of speech, I made everyone there really uncomfortable. Emily was quiet throughout our entire walk back to the town, a trek that lasted all of five and a half minutes.

  “You know, I'm quite surprised you didn't see the town; it's not small, you know.” Mary went ahead with a mood-lifting attack.

  “The forest was too thick to see.” Only to receive a convo-ender reply! What will our favorite girl do now? Will she try to pick up the pace? Will she ask a good question?

  “Hmmph, true.” Aaaand... She lets us down! What a crushing defeat, a truly humiliating loss for Mary. Will she recover? Will she do anything? Oh no, wait, we’re at the doors to the town now.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The guards let us through, and we told Emily where to get her shit together, and after she got her ID and room, we accompanied her to the flats. She got the room right beside ours, luckily. She seemed impressed by the town, but not overly so. I would have expected her to have been more ‘Wow! Cool!’ instead of ‘Wow, neat.’

  I remember how it struck me when I first came here. I was amazed at everything, but it all felt normal; I guess I was still not fully used to living as a nomad. I felt like I was in a time before the fall when I first entered. She, however, was even less fazed than I was, and I didn't even have time to process anything when I got there, as I was shipped off to see Plague.

  “So do you have any powers?” Asked Mary.

  “No, I haven’t gotten any. Do you?” Emily seemed overly disappointed, in a fake way.

  “Yeah, I’m what’s called a berserker. I can make weapons out of myself. Ayla, however, is special.” She said.

  Emily turned her head towards me, and I found two light blue eyes staring right into my soul. “Is that so?” She asked.

  I laughed nervously; that must have been payback for when I said the history thing before. “I don't mean to brag, but my power is kind of unique. I'm a psychic, more precisely, a telekinetic.”

  Emily’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Could you show me?”

  “I guess so. Mary, will you do the honors?” I winked at her. It was a little something we had been developing for a couple days. A little choreography of sorts.

  “I will.” She made a small spike from her finger. A sharp and pointy stabby thing. She tossed it in my direction, and it stayed in the air.

  I slowly brought it to me. Mary got the second part of the play on. She picked up a rock from the sidewalk and threw it in the air. I took aim and threw the spike against the rock, smashing it into pieces.

  I bowed down like I had just finished a play at a theater. “Ta daa!”

  Emily was grinning. I must have blown her mind away with my skills. “That's amazing!” She exclaimed.

  Just then we arrived at the flats. We were in the same building and on the same floor. She was placed in the apartment to our right. When we entered, we saw little of note. The house used to belong to one guy who was probably too busy to have bothered decorating the house much or simply didn't have the intention of doing so. Everything was either pale or white, and the sitting room was spotless, almost as if for display. Instead of three bedrooms, Emily had a master bedroom and a guest room along with an office. It wasn't anything special, to be honest.

  As Emily was looking around, I noticed how she didn't have a backpack. It was a very odd thing, but she probably dropped it while running for her life from the zeds. But still...

  Mary scooted over to me to whisper in my ear. “Hey, are we going to the nightclub tonight?”

  I had completely forgotten about that place. I had promised Mary that I would bring her there tonight, but with everything else happening, I simply forgot. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sure, we’ll go at night.” I whispered back. Then my stomach made noise. “Damn, I’m starving. Hey Emily, want to come over for lunch?” I asked her. I was going to prepare an exquisite omelette with the eggs I had bought. This town had a real surplus of eggs; they were dirt cheap.

  Emily perked up from looking in some drawers. “Um, ok, as long as I don’t bother you.”

  Mary looked weirdly at me. “We’re not going to have enough food!” She whispered.

  “Sure we will! And we can just make another! Honestly, what’s gotten into you?” I whispered back.

  It was around quarter to two in the afternoon, and we needed to cook. “Emily, come over when you’re settled in, ok?” Said Mary. And we left her alone.

  Now in our kitchen, I confronted Mary. “What’s wrong? Tell me.”

  She sighed and turned towards me. I couldn’t tell whether she was sad or disappointed. “I don’t trust her at all. I don’t like her.”

  I came closer to her. “But why not?” I put my arms around her waist gently.

  “I think she’s lying. And besides, you’ve been staring at her so vividly, just like you stared at me.” She squirmed a bit under my touch, like she wanted to get away from me.

  “I'm sorry, but wouldn’t it be fun to have her with us too?” I held her closer and tighter, but she tried getting away.

  I saw her face; she was angry now. “See!? This is why I'm angry! Every time you do something to me, your apologies are all the same! You just grab me by the waist and try to seduce me; well, that won’t work this time! I feel like I’m only a toy to you, like all I’m here for is to be used in the bed and made fun of. Tell me, and don't rush your answer, tell me if you love me.” I fucked up, simply said.

  Once she said everything like that, it really showed how right she was. I hadn’t realized how much I relegated her to the side.

  “I do. I love you.”

  “What do you love?”

  “You, all of you. I love how strong you are after all you’ve been through. I love how you talk and how you move, and I certainly love how you move in bed. But I love more than just that. I’m sorry I took you for granted; I felt as if we were just meant to be, and that made me think you’d put up with my shit. I’m sorry.” I held out my hands for her. She took them warily.

  “I forgive you, but please, take me seriously. I don’t mind you staring at Emily like that, but I do mind when you push me aside.” She pulled me in this time, wrapping her hands around me.

  “I don't know how you put up with me.” I said. “What do you love about me?”

  She paused for a moment and answered. “I love who you are.”

  “A sarcastic piece of shit?” I said.

  She laughed. “Yes, the sarcastic piece of shit that doesn’t care what anybody else thinks about her. I love how you’re careless and always find a way to make something into a joke. I love you because you’re what I want to be.” She slid her hand down to my ass. “And I also love how you scream my name at night.”

  “I never would have thought my attitude would be considered attractive. Now, let’s make this omelette before my brother and Emily arrive, ok?” I kissed her on the forehead. My girl, mine. I couldn’t let myself forget that. She is my life now. I know it sounds cliché; I thought it was too, but you never realize how much you need or want someone until you nearly lose them. I could go on and on about how much I love her, about how I adore her, about how I crave her. √§$￥...

  But it still wouldn’t be enough to describe what I feel for her. And words also couldn’t describe how bad I felt after putting her through my bullshit. It may not look like much, but even the weakest water drops can carve channels deep as mountains through solid rock, and I may have been throwing more than droplets at Mary.

  Suddenly (as always) my brother barged in through the front door looking unusually smug. Something was up.

  “What a great time to be alive! Wouldn’t you agree, girls?” He waltzed around the kitchen almost as if he was too excited or happy to sit down or something.

  Mary was intrigued and amused. “You sure are happy. What happened?” she asked.

  “I finally got some progress!” he exclaimed. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was talking about.

  Mary and I looked at each other, both of us trying not to burst out laughing. It got to the point where it hurt not to laugh, but we had to hold it. My brothers’ ‘love’ life was a really hot topic between the two of us, and we would always tease and speculate about it. This was some news that would fuel our conversations for hours or even months on end.

  “Wow, you really don’t have any self-respect, do you?” I said. It just wasn’t possible that he liked her; it just didn’t compute with my perception of my brother. After all, his last and only girlfriend was the definition of the ‘nerdy but stupidly hot and cute’ stereotype.

  “Why would I not have any?” he asked. He was genuinely confused by the looks of him.

  “Really? You don’t see the issues with Sofia Briggs?” I said. Suddenly, it clicked.

  “I wasn’t talking about that! Get your mind out of the gutter! I was talking about my powers; you’re not the only one improving, you know.” he shouted. But, and that’s a big but, he did seem a tad bit flustered when I said it, just a little but enough to make a couple good guesses.

  “Ok, chill. You’ve been so obsessed with her that it was the obvious first guess for us; relax. Anyways, we have a new neighbor who may be a little more to your liking.” Said Mary. She got away from me and finally began cooking. We had easily wasted around twenty minutes just flirting and having some drama. That reminded me that I was the one in charge of actually cooking it. Mary would make the batter, and I would prepare and fry the potatoes, and finally I would make the damn omelette. She got on with the eggs, and I picked about two small spuds and a knife and began peeling them. My brother just sat down and continued talking about anything that he could think of, even if nobody asked or cared. Now two in the afternoon, our food was ready.

  I put it on a plate and told my brother to set the table for four. “Who’s coming over?” he asked.

  “You’ll see. Just you wait.” I said.

  We sat on the couch until ten minutes later, when we heard a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” I exclaimed. I got up and went to the door, quite excited, to be honest. I looked through the peephole of the front door and saw Emily’s blonde hair. I pulled on the door handle as the latch was blown off and greeted her. She was still wearing her same clothes.

  “I hope I'm not too late.” She said,

  “Not at all, we took a while to cook, but you're just in time. Come in, please.” I led her in, and then I introduced her to Donn. Donn seemed surprised; I don't know what for, though.

  “Hello, I'm Ayla’s brother; pleasure to meet you.” He put his hand out to shake hers. She shook it.

  “I'm Emily; I just moved in.” She answered.

  I checked my watch, and it was half past two. “Let’s eat!” I said. The kitchen had a small island in the middle that we used to eat breakfast on, but for lunch and dinner we used the actual dining room in the living room, which could easily seat six people. They all sat down, and I went to bring the food. I debated internally on whether I should risk bringing the omelette with my hands or my mind. I decided to test myself and levitated the plate all the way from the kitchen to the table, which was really easy to do now. Two weeks ago I would have either dropped it or fainted from the effort. Emily saw me and was really amazed at what I could do.

  “Show off!” Said my brother. He said it jokingly, but I still decided to play along.

  “Oh yeah? Someone’s jealous...” I looked around and pointed teasingly at him. I laid the plate on the middle of the table, and Mary took it to herself to cut it. With two even passes of her knife, she split the omelette in two and then four pieces, which I then served to everyone.

  “I hope you all like it, and if you don't, then go cry about it.” I took a bite and was a bit disappointed. It wasn't necessarily bad, but not great either. When my brother took a bite, his lip curled up on one side, and he gave me the side-eye.

  “How did you mess it up this bad?” He asked. I couldn't tell if he was joking this time or not.

  “I did it solely so that you would complain, with love.” I pinched his cheek, and Emily giggled. I have a weird feeling about that girl; I can't put my finger on it, though. It’s almost as if she’s desperately trying to become my friend, Odd.

  “Next time I think you should properly fry the potatoes; they're sweet now.” Said Mary.

  “Give me a break! It’s my first time making it.” They all quieted down and ate their food without too much of a fuss. Emily, however, did seem to enjoy it.

  “I don’t think it’s too bad. Good job, Ayla.” She smiled brightly at me for some strange reason; after all, even I couldn’t see anything redeemable about my food.

  “Thanks, but I know it’s dogshit.” I replied. I finished the last of my plate and twiddled with the fork for a bit, waiting for everyone else to finish. Lunch was a complete bust, but I was hoping dinner would be better. We had agreed that my brother would be making some steaks for us, and I know for a fact that he never messes that up. My brother is a strangely good cook; I guess some people are just more innate than others when it comes to cooking.

  After we all finished, my brother cleared the table, and I and Mary did the dishes while Emily just stayed on the sidelines. Once done, we had to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.

  “How about the pool?” Said Donn.

  “Yeah, sure. Who here has anything to swim with?” I asked sarcastically.

  “I do,” said Emily.

  “Of course you would.” I muttered under my breath. “Does anyone else have some?”

  “If I remember correctly, there should be two bikinis in our closet.” Mary nudged me.

  I had completely forgotten that we weren’t the first people living in the apartment and that there were still clothes and belongings from the last guys. The wife had left a good few clothes that sometimes fit us. “Oh yeah, you’re right. Alright then, let’s go swimming.” I clapped my hands together to get things rolling. “Emily, meet us down in ten minutes, k?”

  She nodded and left our home. Donn went to his room, and Mary and I also went into our room to change. We got to the closet and found something concerning.

  “What a bunch of weirdos.” Said Mary as she held up one of the thinnest G-strings I had ever seen.

  “I don’t think she used that to swim, Mary. Call me crazy, but I think they used that while doing it.” I looked at the other option, which was a bit better but still really revealing. We found a pink g-string and a blue thong; basically, none were desirable, but one was definitely worse than the other.

  “Let’s do rock paper scissors for the blue one.” She said.

  “Ok.”

  We put our fists together and shook them three times together before throwing our sign. The first one ended in a draw, as did the second. In the third, I threw rock, and she threw paper. “Ha!!” She shouted. She snatched the blue one along with the objectively better top to go along.

  “Well, shit.” I considered just using one of my normal underwear until I remembered that they were all white, which is not great for covering once wet.

  We got changed and nearly made out. Now looking like strippers, we began wondering why we had listened to my brother. “Man, this looks like the thumbnail for a porno.” I said while we both stood in front of the mirror. She burst out laughing lazily at it.

  “You're right, it does.” She was looking nice with her white skin. I, on the other hand, looked like shit. All this time wearing shorts had given me a really hard tan, which, when paired with my pale, pasty white skin, made me look like I had been sprayed with orange paint while clothed.

  “I look stupid in this.” I said.