Tomorrow Will Be Kinder {IHOFIL Sequel}

Chapter 14: "So Long, Sunshine"

 Kind of messy but I personally love this chapter. Hope you do too! A bit long as well so hopefully this makes up for the dry spell for the past days. I've had mega writers' block. Anyway, can't remember who it was- it'll come to me- but whoever submitted the character of Bree, congratulations! I loved her so much, she's now in the story and a badass-in-training!

Love,
Amy.

It was very late noon and the sun was low in the sky, the first twinkle of night stars hanging in the sky. She’d remembered hearing that if you saw the first star in the sky- the lone one all by itself- then you could make a wish and it might come true. So, she wished for love. She wished for someone to come along- whether romantic or platonic- who could make her feel whole instead of the dull and hollow aching in her chest. Her eyelashes came to rest against her bumpy skin, the curses of being a teenager in a world infested by the likes of the dead.

Nearby, the woman who saved her laughed, her hand reaching up to ruffle the red-hair of her older boyfriend; how they met was beyond her.

Another man, Eugene she’d come to know him as- sat nearby to her, legs crossed and his face holding a mutual expression. He had the cure, she knew that much.

“What’s with the mullet?” she decided to ask and he launched into a discussion holding words she didn’t know the meaning of.

She’d been ten- now seventeen- when the dead had started to rise and she wasn’t exactly the brightest child; she just scraped by and she didn’t mind that.

Rosita- the woman who saved her- joins her at the campfire, sitting across from Eugene. Rosita was pretty, she knew that much, and what she wouldn’t give to have an ass like that.

Another man, one they found, lies asleep in the back of their truck, passed out from what Eugene guessed was dehydration but like he reminded them, he was a scientist, ain’t no doctor.

“How long does he have?” she decided to say, her own voice unfamiliar to her ears. “Beardy,” she cleared up, their confusion written on their slated faces. “If he doesn’t wake, we shoot him in the head? Make sure he don’t come back?”

It was when she heard a noise behind her did she turn, almost smiling as ‘Beardy’ stumbled down from the car, shaking his head back and forth. They’d found him a few hours before, walking around lost, unable to speak.

He’d uttered six names before he’d succumbed to fatigue; Carl, Judy, Michonne, Beth, Daryl, Aislynn. They’d each taken guesses as to who all the people were, except Eugene.

“Judy is definitely the girlfriend,” Abraham had guessed. “Carl the brother, Daryl the girlfriend’s brother, Aislynn and Michonne are the sisters and Beth the best friend.”

“No way,” Brie had said, shooting him down. “Beth is the girlfriend, it’s obvious. Beth and Beardy, right? Carl is the dad, Daryl the brother, Michonne the friend, Aislynn the sister and Judy the mother.”

Rosita had laughed, her mind concocting up her own guess. “How do we know he isn’t gay? Daryl’s the boyfriend, Carl’s the best friend, Aislynn the mother, Judy the sister, Michonne the cousin and Beth the ex-girlfriend.”

“Ask him yourself, Brie,” Rosita smirked, looking at the young girl.

“W-Where am I?” he asked, pressing his hand to his forehead, subtly knocking away wisps of hair that were blowing in his face. “I have to get back-”

“You’re dehydrated, not going anywhere,” Abraham barked.

“You don’t-“

Brie stood up, holding her hand in front of her to signal for him to be quiet. “You were almost shot, bullet just grazed your head, you’ve been walking non-stop for who knows how long and you were half-dying of thirst. You can’t leave, not until you’re better.”