Bubble

Chapter Three

The next week was hard, but life goes on. Always. Somewhere deep inside, I cried, but for now I sucked it up and went on working, alone.

  "Terrin?" I turned at the voice of Austin. Austin is a real cutie- movie star cute. Golden brown slicked back hair with gorgeous deep browns.

"Hey." I tucked a piece of hair back, rolling up my sleeves. I didn't look all great, but I'd at least brushed my hair and had a clean face. That was more than someone could ask for.

"Where has Lilac been? You two always work together." My heart seized so sharply it seriously hurt. I clutched at my chest, before heaving in to calm myself.

"She.. Uh.. Lilac died, Austin." I turned away, nearly wheezing with anxiety. To lie, it made it more real. Reality was bad.

"Oh.. I didn't.. How?" He asked softer, and I heard him drop the items he was lugging to the Collectors.

I worked on the barrel I was loading neatly with fresh cleaned clothes for our family. "A.. Raid." I said softly, then wanted to hit myself. She didn't go on raids- he knew that. I heard him get to ready to fight, the tense of his breath, then a sigh.

"I'm sorry." He paused, and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. He reached towards me, leaned like to hug me, but then grabbed his stuff in what seemed like defeat and he walked away.

  I'm sure the charmer, aren't I?

  ......

You might not have a good prospect of me yet. I'm a dreamer, don't really care what others think. I bottle. Mom bottles, too, so I guess it runs in the blood. I'm smart, too. I'm not bragging, I just am. So it wasn't hard for me to not want to just drop Lilac leaving. My sister wasn't stupid, either. We had a few hours before bed. Angel and her brothers were visiting the Bright Cave and Henry, a dog of a family-friend they'd grown accustomed to. We knew they fed it left overs, but I wondered how they got so much food. Rations are only supposed to be for true family, as in humans. But I spent my time in the library.

Here we had candles, and I had my supply of matches to use to light a few. I lit twelve, surrounding myself in an aura of their light so I could see clearly. An old couch was the only room in this cavern. It was round and huge, a hole in the middle of the spiral ceiling that shed light, but not enough to read. A cardboard box with about ninety fresh candles, and makeshift rocks with books all over the ground to make room. No one was here besides me and the books. Everyone must've been working, or maybe they'd just given up on learning. I hadn't. I snuggled into the corner of the sofa, holding three books. The only books we had on the history of the creatures overtaking our planet. They were journals, but history books. Our history. Yet no one read them, because they were either disgusted or scared. But I did. Over and over, and only now did it register it was fact, not fiction. Not hope. Truth. Truth of humanity.  

I opened to the last page of the journal with a large 3 on it, the last entry.

"October Fifteenth, Day One Hundred and Eighty-Two."

'I, Bert Lindfold, am the only one to stay. Today is my last to write. Ink is terribly low. What I have learned is important. I cannot say it directly, just know you are among many. Half this population needs humans to survive.. Yet they are alive. Get it? You may think you are alone, but y'

And that's where I'm pretty sure Bert ran out of ink. It sounds so stupid, but with Lilac's choice, I can't help but wonder if her friend wasn't lying. And there must be humans alive, too. But how? Why? Something, somehow, we're not alone. This only makes my next choice easier.\

....  

I meet him at the tunnel raid exit.

"What is it?" He practically yelps. He seems a little scared, but I don't have time to wonder why. I look at him. He has a sort of weasel face to match his personality. Malcolm Gerri, a weird kid with all the hook ups in this little community. Dark brown hair with pale green eyes that searched mine now in desperation, and... Fear. He knows. I know.