𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝟏. 𝐈 𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄

ADDIE

DAY ONE

Massachusetts in December is cold.

The kind of cold that bites at your cheeks and makes your sinuses sting, much like it was doing now as I inhaled deeply through my nose. The air permeates right down to my bone, but it probably doesn't help that I'm only donning a puffer vest over my sweatshirt, a basic pair of black leggings, and my trusty winter boots. It isn't ideal road-tripping weather, but I don't have much of a choice.

Jared needs me.

I haven't seen my older brother in almost a year, but that's because he's a soldier in this world we live in. If you could even call it that. It resembles more of a barren wasteland these days, and after five years, the living population is scarce. The world belongs to the clickers, the bloaters, and the runners now. There's more than that, I know–but luckily, I haven't encountered any of them. Not long after everything fell apart, he was sent across the country to help protect what was left of us at the military camp in Montana. It was apparently in a much worse state than we were at the time.

Meanwhile, I stayed here because...I'm not soldier material.

I'm food rationing material. Nursing assistant material. Preschool teacher material. Not that I don't like my jobs or the part my role plays in this community, but it was hard being separated from the only family that I had left. But Jared was one of the best soldiers they had.

I just never expected something to actually happen to him.

It was my fault for keeping myself in my bubble of denial. Of hope. I still try to live a relatively normal life, even while the world is crumbling around me. My clothes, my makeup, my hygiene...it's all important to me because it makes me feel like me. Letting go of all that felt like giving up, and I wasn't ready to give up yet.

One day, we'd be normal again. I have to believe that.

At least, I had to try. It was significantly harder to hold out hope once Marlene broke the news about Jared. I didn't know all of the details, just that he had gotten hurt on a run. She'd always tried to protect me after he left, so I couldn't even be angry with her for not wanting to tell me the extent of what was going on. All I know is that it was bad.

So, I had to go.

The only way Marlene would let me leave was if I went with Joel Miller. He was well-known at our camp because he knew his way around outside of all the camps. Out there in the unknown with the clickers. I'd never met him before, but I'd heard the rumors, and those were enough to leave me feeling nervous about this whole thing. He transported groups on runs all the time, and he was the only person she trusted enough to take me to Jared.

"Are you sure about this?" Marlene asks for the hundredth time, breaking me from my train of thought. Frown lines etch into her forehead and around her eyes as she stares at me.

I smile softly. "Yes."

"It's dangerous, Addison," she warns. "I don't think you fully understand the risks here."

She means well, I know that. I've never had to see what most people have, instead, I was sheltered at this camp since the beginning. Just an inexperienced, silly girl stepping out into the territory that she had no business in, that's all I was seen as.

"I know, but I have to go." The wind whips my blonde hair around my face. "Nothing is going to stop me from going to him."

Being away from Jared was always hard. It felt like a part of me was missing when he wasn't there. I had to learn how to be independent quickly when he left.