Second Dawn

Incipit : New Arrivals

"hey, hey Callie, wake up". I frown before opening one eye. "Why can't I sleep in peace Peter?!" I sight.
"you're the one who told me to wake you up if the seekers had found someone"
"they found someone??". In less than two seconds I was up and looking in all directions. "where are they? Have they injected the blood yet?"
"Hey Callie, calm down". Peter put his hand gently on my shoulder. "They are under the tent. And yes, I am saying they because the seekers found a whole group" "Yesss!" I can't stop myself from smiling. Peter looked down on me with a sneaky smile. "If I had known it would only take finding people to make you smile, I wouldn't have let you eat my portion of crumble yesterday". "oh shut up Peter!" I say, but without holding my laugh any longer.

Peter hadn't lie : they were 6 people laying on some fortune mattresses. "Where did you found them? Another bunker?" I ask. "No. They were in the underground but with those suits that protected them from the radiation. I don't think they really knew what was happening cause they didn't had enough food. We found them as they were leaving." I turn around towards the girl who had answered me."thank you, and the injection went down without any issue? " I'm still worried that one day it will stop working on people. "Nothing to signal" she laughs as she passes a hand in her short auburn hair. "However, I should warn you, they weren't quite up for the shot so we had to use tranquilizers. That's why they're still asleep". I smile softly to show her that I heard. The idea of using all of the medecines we found to force people to let us help them isn't really my cup of tea.
"Call me when they wake up" I say while leaving the tent, Peter following me.

"What was her name?" I ask Peter about the girl in the tent.
"Melissa. Why? You're trying to find other friends than me?!" he mimics the shock emoji face.
"No. I could never find a better friend than you" I laugh. "I'm juste trying to learn all of their names".
"All of their names? Callie we are more than a hundred now. How are you gonna do that? And more important question, why?"
"I'm trying not to be my father. They all look at me now for guidance. I never asked for this."
"Well, now's a little too late to step away from leadership."
"I know. If I must be a leader, I would rather be a fair one".
"You know you can be fair without learning all of the names right?".

...

"Callie, they are waking up! " shouted Melissa. "On my way!" I shout back.
I ran through the fortune camps and manage to arrive at the tent without being breathless.
As the 6 people are waking up, they start to look around themselves.
I notice that two of them are twins after a short instant. They definitely look totally alike but all in their attitude is different. Whereas one of them, with darker hair, gathered in a slick backed ponytail, is emotionless, the second one is infuriated. Her hair, blonder than her sister, is positioned around her head as a crown, but all of her mèches were starting to leaving it.
When our eyes eventually meet, she gets up and points her finger at me.
"so you're the one leading this thing? Have you ever heard about consent? What is this? Fucking America, are you really forcing people to inject some dark shit in their body? And you expect no revolt? Are you fucking mad?".
While she was monologuing, I notices she had a little French accent that made her arguing look really funny.
"What the hell are you laughing at? My fucking face? I know I'm hilarious, but I didn't even made a joke yet".

"Well, if you're all up for a walk, I can explain everything to you." I say as I smile to her.

I still need a few minutes to get everyone to wake up and follow me.
Before the start of the tour of the camp we installed a few days after our departure from the bunker, I declaim my speech to new arrivals:
"as you can see, we are a little bit more than a hundred here. 87 people are from the same bunker as me but we left as we had the ultimate cure..." I get out one of the tube with the black blood in it right at the end of my sentence. "Invented by the unique Becca Pramheda, the famous scientist. I won't be able to explain to you how she created it actually but it changes our blood. As you have probably notices, you are all standing outside without any suit. And that is because the black blood resists nuclear radiations!" I wink to Peter watching me on the side.
"We are really sorry for the way you have received the doses. Actually you were the first ones to refuse it so I present you our sincerest apologies. We all hope it's not too late to build peaceful relations here, and make some friends. In this light, maybe we could all present each other? Peter? "

" Yeah, that's me! I'm 22 and I found my girlfriend's body a week ago just in front of the bunker we had taken refuge into. I have not slept since. But welcome! "

Everyone stared at him in silence. Even I was too stunned to speak. I knew obviously the pain he was in, but he did a great job hiding it with jokes and laughing at everything. I was about to go and hug him when I heard a little giggle behind me.

" You want to compare? I lost my boyfriend too you see, except he's still in France, so I'll never get to see his body and to start my grief. Oh, also my little brother and my brother in law disappeared during the attack and we have no idea where they are, and if they are alive or not. At least we have hope, contrary to the rest of our family that we saw dying before our eyes. See, I have lost everything too. Nice to meet you" the light-haired twin reaches out for Peter's hand and shakes it.

I realise after a short instant that my mouth is open in shock. That was quite ruthless. But at the same time, we all lost somebody and that is maybe our main common point now.

"Hum, so..." I cough, "my name is actually Callie. I lost my best friend. Thankfully I still have my mother with me."
I turn towards the twin.

"I'm Aster. This is my twin sister, Angelonia. We're 18."

"Ooh, flowers. You mother chose well. I'm Katarina, I'm 67 but I'll tell the other I'm 45 okay?!"

We all let go a little laugh.
"So, shall we start the tour?!"