Reliance Sky: A post-apocalyptic survival adventure

Part 1

Pain stabbed the side of Sky's skull. She slowed to a stop, squeezing her eyes shut, and massaged behind her temples. Her head hadn't been right since the fall. Really, she shouldn't be alive right now; not after plummeting almost four hundred feet into a raging river. She'd shielded her younger brother, Alex, and taken the impact for them both.

She stumbled forward, and the throbbing intensified. Nausea crept up, searing her throat, before she gulped it down. Her memory of that day was blurry, as was her reason for jumping off the bridge. She let out a long breath, trying to suppress the pain, and opened her eyes to the giant aspens and oaks around her, soaring to the heavens. All trees that Earth's invaders had grown in the last seven years. On this new Earth, everywhere was dangerous, and Sky knew that only too well.

They'd been walking for a couple of weeks, heading north toward Canada. At least they were older than the last time they'd been traveling through the wilds alone with few supplies. The first time had been just after their mother died, less than a month after Earth fell. Alex had been eight and Sky fourteen. Now she was almost twenty-one and strong enough to protect them from almost everything that roamed the forests.

"Hey, kid. What are you doing out here alone?" said a male with an unusual accent—one she hadn't heard in years.

She whipped around. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Dammit. Alex had wandered off. She weaved through the trees, sprinting straight for the voice, and drew the machete strapped to her thigh.

"We're traveling north," said Alex.

At least he hadn't said they were on the run from the warlord. He shouldn't have said anything at all. He knew better than to talk to strangers. She should've been paying more attention and not wallowing about everything she'd lost like a heartbroken teen.

"We?" asked another man with a scratchy voice.

Sky sped up. Her pulse thundered in her ears. How had he gotten so far away from her? Alex was her responsibility! She caught sight of Alex's shoulder, rounded a tree, and grabbed his arm. Yanking him behind her, she raised her machete in warning toward the two men in front and evaluated which was the bigger threat.

The scrawny one on the left, wearing a navy jacket and black jeans, startled and stumbled back a couple of paces. She could kill him in her sleep, but not the bulky one, standing the same height as her, with a full coppery beard. His keen gaze took in all the details and sized her up as she did the same.

He gave a slight nod and raised his empty hands. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, love. We'll not hurt you."

A rustle sounded at Sky's two o'clock. She snapped her gaze to the potential threat. A woman with dark brown hair, holding a bow nocked with an arrow at chest level.

"John," called the brunette.

Coppery bearded, John waved to her. "All well here, Maven." He stared at Sky. "Right?"

Sky lowered her machete and narrowed her eyes. "Where'd you come from?"

The scrawny one jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "We got a camp about a mile that way."

Alex held Sky's elbow and popped out. "A camp?"

"Yeah, there's about sixty of us. We're just out hunting." John ran his hand over the hilt of a silver machete hanging from his hip. "What are you kids doing out here?"

Sky pressed her lips together. No one had called her a kid in a while. Although it had happened a few times before—people always thought she was younger than she was—no one in the Skin nation cared about her age. So when it happened, it irked her. He wouldn't be calling her that if he knew who she was.