Second Dawn

A nice little tour

"So, as you can see, our camp is a bit precarious. But we managed to install ourselves the more comfortably we could."

We were on top of a humpback, big enough to let everyone see all of the camp below. 

"Obviously, everyone must get involved in the camp's life in order to make it function. We will assign you to a job, not permanently but to establish an organisation."

"So we survived the end of the world only to end up in the hands of a dictator", I hear Aster comment in my back. I turn just in time to see her sister elbowing her.                                                         "I have not chosen to be the leader of this camp you know. I took this role to save everyone and I'm not planning on keeping it." I answer truthfully.                                                                                               "Don't worry honey, you can keep it... For now." She then turns to Peter to ask "is she always that sensitive ?!". 

The bitch.

I take a deep breath to keep calm. Angelonia gives me a timid smile before following her sister.      

"Where you woke up is our hospital tent. Don't worry, we only use it for splinters and obviously, when new people are coming in we put them here the time for the blood to take effect.  We actually don't have a lot of doctors among us so if you have any knowledge in medecine it could be really helpful." They all nod but none of them seems really interested in what I'm saying. It's only at this point that I notice that the two twins are the only youngs among the new group. They all look like grandparents. I was too focused on the blondie phenomenon. 

I take them down the hill towards the camp to present them to everyone. We organized our camp in multiple circles of little groups. "The point is to never leave anyone alone. We also all take turns to watch the camp and the surroundings. You can choose to join a group already installed or create you own circle among you if you don't want to separate. It doesn't have a real effect, you could always hang with each other."

"We have some place here if needed!" says James, while holding his asleep daughter, Mara in his arms. They weren't in the bunker with us. They were the first that we found when we left it. Actually, they came to us when we made some fire to keep us warm. To this day, we still have no idea how they survived more than two weeks before being injected the black blood. Kahula smiled to him "it is a really nice offer, thank you a lot sir". 

"We don't have a lot to do for now except preparing ourselves."                                                                      "Wait, wait, wait. Preparing for what ?" asks Aster. "We are not planning to stay here. There is a forest 50kms up north from here that we are going to reach." I expose to her. "And how do you know it's still here ?" "We don't actually. But we can't stay here forever." I show around with my arms. All of the houses are unrecognisable. I still remember what it looked like 2 weeks ago : a nice residential area, with all similar gardens aligned on the side of the road. Now it's just a bunch of bricks darkened by the smoke of the nuclear attacks. The sun had started to show again after a few days outside of the bunker and now it was almost blinding. The buildings were no longer creating shadows. It was a landscape worth of the best post-apocalyptic movies. And between those hopeless burned to the ground buildings there was our joyful, colorful camp. It might seem really deorganized from the front but to me it represents a safe heaven for everyone I had manage to save. 

I had already lost my best friend, and then Becca. I was not going to lose anyone else. 

While the elders are sitting with James and chatting with him and Aster disappears somewhere, I get closer to Peter. "Hey, are you... okay ?" I ask. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be ?" he laughs. "You were quite a lot earlier. And, you never actually told me about your girlfriend." "What do you want me to say ? She's dead, no doubt on it." "Well, how was she?". He softens at my question: "Awesome. You know, I may not seem like it but I haven't always been this brillant, handsome, smart and nice guy." I laugh. "I was quite lonely, and Ava was the only person I've ever met that made the effort to come and talk to me. Everyday, when we were still in highschool, she would wait outside my house to walk to school with me. She wasn't into the marchings as much as I were, but she always supported me. And she had hope in the world. That's what made me lose her." I frown: "what do you mean?". "She thought the politicians would never send the bombs. That's why she refused to join Second Dawn." I put an arm over his shoulders. "Also she was beautiful." He lets go of a little laugh. "Every time I was with her, it was almost as if all the other guy's eyes were watching me with envy. She had those shiny green eyes. Well, actually they were brown, but she kept saying they were green in the sun."

"Hey! I don't want to interrupt but I believe we have a tour to continue ?!"                                                I sigh in the sight of Aster and Angelonia coming towards us. "You can stay here if you want" I offer Peter. "Are you kidding ? It's not often that I can watch you get demoslished. It's my duty to always be here to witness it". I laugh and give him a little pat on the back of his head. 

"Here is our team of Seekers ready to leave!" I explain when walking in front of a little group with huge bags and even wheelbarrows ready to go. They give me a little wave before leaving the camp. "We call them the Seekers because it gives the mission a little more prestige than it's actually is. They go house by house and try to found useful objects left intact. They are also looking for people, but honestly, I don't think we'll found anybody new. If they are still alive, they are comfy enough and don't need us" I laugh. Peter cough really loud all of a sudden, stopping me. "Are you okay ?" I ask immediatly. He gives me a side eye towards the twins by our side. They look distraught. "What?" I whisper. "You know... Not everybody has their family with them, some still had hope of finding them". "Shit. I thought they were in France. Weren't they?"    "Well, for someone who wants to learn everybody's names, maybe you should also focus on their stories." I turn around to see the twins hugging one another. "Hey, I'm really sorry. Maybe they are still alive, I'm not an expert." "It's okay. Where do we go now ?" Aster saves me from the embarrassment. 

"We all share the clothes the Seekers found equally. That means that we don't have a lot of clothes, and we don't have showers either so we might soon attract the still alive flies with our sent" I try to lighten the mood. "Well, one more week in this outfit can't kill me right" laughs Aster. I look down at her said outfit. She had black baggy jeans, that seemed really comfy and a yellow tank top. She didn't seemed to have a sweater, but they had left their bags in the hospital tent. She had Doc Martens at her feet, not necessarily the best choice to survive the end of the world, but at the same time not the worst. Angelonia, on the other side, seemed to be right out of an add. She was wearing a white dress, quite large. The colour, which was still a sparkling white, was enhancing the pale tone of her skin, in contrast to her really dark hair. The difference between the two twins was quite striking: even though they shared their blue eyes and the waviness of their hair, they had opposite styles. Side by side, all I could see was the huge contrast in their posture: Aster had set her hair free and she was taking the spotlight whereas Angelonia was slightly behind, her hair still tied with nothing moving from an inch. 

"The Seekers are also bringing back all the food they can found. However, we can't live indefinitly with what they bring, and soon, we won't have enough to feed everyone. That's another reason for leaving, once we will have stripped this neighborhood from its goods. We have some designated people here that are cooking for everyone and we all eat together each evening and each lunch. All the Seekers have a breakfast too, but we can't allow ourselves to give everyone breakfast or we'll be lacking provisions way too soon."

"Well, I think the visit is over. You can do whatever you want now, and fyi, lunch is in 2 hours."

"You can come in our circle if you want, both of you" Peter offers. I give him a glare. What is he thinking? I have no desire for this girl to live that near to me. Her sister, I don't mind, I still haven't heard the sound of her voice. 

"Callie can show you where it is, while I go with Angel - you don't mind if I call you Angel, do you princess?- to retrieve back your things" suggests Peter.                                                                               Angelonia nods and starts to follow him while he gives me a big wink. "Have fun without me girls!". 

I sigh and turn towards Aster: "Let's go!".