WE STILL EXIST

Chapter Thirty- *You Are A Good Man*

NOAH BLAKE

"One time at school, I found this really old book that had weird characters and they were all different colors." Maddie tells us about it, "it had like different colored fish and the words rhymed together."

Andrew scoffs, "I found a book that had scratches on it and scribbles." He stands up from where he is seated on the beach. "It kind of looked like a textbook from the two thousand."

"Okay, but I found this religious textbook that was held in a case in the basement..." Coden takes his hands and gestures opening a book, "it had words like 'thou, shall,' and 'celestial." He looks up at the sky, "I think it was a Christian book or something."

We all laugh at his attempt to recreate a praying pose we learned about in one of his history classes, "it was odd, to say the least."

"What about you babe? What is the weirdest book you have found at school?" I tried to think as hard as I could remember, but there wasn't any that stood out to me in the library. More often than not, I didn't look at any of the books that were saved in the apocalypse. "Mm, I found a poetry book once, but it was kind of lame."

I chuckle, "The words were all jumbled and it was a bunch of metaphors."

We fall into comfortable silence sitting around in a circle on the soft sand beneath us. The four of us decided to hang out at the beach today as the days are much warmer. It is the end of May now and the days are getting longer.

This is a period of grace for all of us. Coden is done with school, and the year has just ended for Maddie and me as Andrew continues to keep busy with work. The reservoir is almost complete, next week will be the first trial run and I am super stoked for it to open.

There hasn't been any word from Avery or anything relating to the monster. Since we have been grounding the filters, running different methods, and grasping the evidence, no one seems to have bothered with the fact there could be a monster.

Coden briefly told me that there was some discussion in meetings with his father, but he wasn't allowed to be in the meetings. 'Biased opinion,' is what they called it. It is hard to believe that no one knew of Avery and his father killing innocent people in a small group like ours, but I do understand the rumor manifesting... I believed in myself once.

"Do you guys want to start heading back?" Maddie asked the group with her hand on her boyfriend's thigh. She gives me a suggestive look and I roll my eyes.

Coden coughs, "Whatever Maddie." He gives Andrew a stone-cold look, but Andrew doesn't seem to care. These last few weeks, we've been getting along well. Coden has warmed up to the idea of Maddie having a boyfriend, let alone that it is Andrew. We have talked about double dates, moving to the cities together, and other little dreams we have.

"Okay, see you two later." They jump up in no time and jog up the hill to the trail leading out of the forest beach. Maddie giggles as she is near the top and Andrew pushes her to move faster.

Coden sighs, "I don't think I will ever get used to that." He shivers, "Ugh."

"She and Andrew are good for each other. He treats her good." I lean into his side, "it is all you can ask for."

Sitting in silence and looking out at the water, we feed into the other person. His arm supports my back as he leans backward on his hands and I wrap my arm around him to get as close as I can to him.

Sometimes when I am alone in my room or there is a storm with stronger winds and rain, I get nervous. The spatter and harsh bangs frighten me every time and it bothers me, it annoys me the most when the power goes out too.