Happily Ever After the Apocalypse

Chapter 1: A New World

It's been five years to the day since Serene Fordstealer's mother died. This day is always the hardest for her. No matter how hard she tries to focus her mind on other things, like her work making armor plates and horseshoes in the blacksmith shop or taking her horse, Darwin, for long rides across the high plains around Fort Biltmore, she can't help but to feel that old feeling of panic and misery. 

She's battled with despair for what feels like her whole life. It completely overtakes her sometimes, leaving her feeling utterly lost, like there's no hope. Only her mother and her grandmother have ever had the ability to help the fog lift. And since her mother died, it's been so much harder to escape that hopelessness. Now, today, it seems that no matter what she does, no matter how hard she works, her mind always keeps coming back to that day when her mom was gone from her life forever.

Every time she pictures her mother's lifeless body being carried into the fort by her dad, she pounds even harder on the red-hot steel plate with her hammer. Unable to drive away the vision of the horrible look of utter despair and weakness on her father's face, she shoves the metal plate back into the hot fire. 

Beads of sweat begin rolling down her neck as she remembers the way the heat of the flames from the pyre felt against her face. Even though it's summertime in the United States of Carolina, she would normally find herself feeling cold. For some reason, she always seems to feel cold and numb in her core, no matter what the season is. Ever since she can remember, she's always felt a chill that no fire or drink could cure, except for when she thinks of her mother. Thinking about her mother, and especially about her mother's death, ignites a warmth within her that she finds comfortable at times, but most often it just burns, causing her excruciating pain. 

Finally, she's had enough, unable to drive the memories back by sheer physical willpower; she succumbs to her anguish, and throws the plate into the metal bucket filled with water next to her anvil. As it bubbles and hisses, she quietly walks out of the blacksmith shop with her head held down, so no one can see the tears streaming from her eyes. She heads straight to the stables and finds Darwin, who always seems to know exactly how she's feeling. She saddles him in one quick motion, mounts him, and is off.

She rides him at a full gallop away from the fort, through the sheep pastures, across the potato and wheat fields, and into the only patch of woods within many miles of Fort Biltmore. Fort Biltmore is the capital city of the United States of Carolina—one of the only free countries left in the fractured remnants of the Great Country of America. Although Fort Biltmore is a wild and rough city, the fort in the center of the city provides a stable sense of protection for those who are lucky enough to live within its walls.

After riding for some time, she begins to clear her mind and drown out everything except the rhythmic thumping of Darwin's hooves against the soft ground. For no particular reason, she decides to head down a derelict trail that she's never taken before. She nudges Darwin's sides, bringing him to full speed. He gracefully jumps over fallen logs in the path and turns seamlessly back and forth with the winding bends in the trail. She can see where the trail ends up ahead and a fast flowing creek that lies beyond. 

She's just broken out of the woods and is just about to the rocky bank when suddenly a man dressed in a leather hood appears almost directly in front of her. Darwin, surprised, immediately rears back, throwing Serene to the ground. She feels a sharp pain radiate down her back and into her legs as she lands on the small jagged rocks.

The man cautiously walks toward her with his hand slowly reaching for the small blade obviously sheathed in his boot. Serene rolls over on to her side, sees him approaching, and so full of sorrow, pain, and angst, moans, "Oh just kill me for fuck's sake."