In the Remains

One

Annalyn's POV
I was sitting there laughing, having a good time.  That feeling felt so unfamiliar by now.  It was strange, all of a sudden feeling it again.  It was my family and me sitting around a tall evergreen tree. Christmas.  We were all in our pajamas, opening presents.

I knew this was too good to be true though.  I knew it was all a dream.  It pained me to know the world that I live in today.  I knew that I would awake with more heartache and pain if I sat there feeling like this was real, only to wake up and find that I still live in a world where sunlight was closely valued to that of a human life. I told myself to wake up and I did.  Same bed, same concrete walls.  I could remember a time when I would wake to a room that had red walls.  My room.  I remember all the other girls saying I should've painted it purple or some other "girly" color, but the color made me feel so calm.  The memory brought tears to my eyes.  I knew that there was little chance of me going back, and if I did it would never be like before.

An unfortunate thing was the fact that my best friend Brylee and I were on our way to our first day of college the day the catastrophe broke out. It's hard to believe that that was already a year behind me.   We were eighteen and we thought that we would one day get a house and start a family and live like the rest of society. That all changed in matter of minutes.  It changed because of the Beasts.

The annoyingly high pitched sound of the morning alarm went off. I jumped down from the top bunk and saw that Brylee was still asleep.  I don't know how she slept through that stupid alarm, but she did.  If I didn't wake he up, she would have been kicked out of the Intelligence Program ages ago on account of her being tardy.  And the Government thought that they could rely on a bunch of 18 to 21 year olds to stop the Beasts when half of us barely make it out of bed in the morning.  Before those wretched "animals" came along, people our age took up getting drunk at parties as a hobby, but know the Government expects us to solve a nearly impossible problem that they created.  I don't know if they can see it, but I think that there's a slight difference between the two.  I quickly dismissed my annoyed thoughts and shook Brylee awake. 

"When will they let us sleep in, Annalyn?" she asked me in a groggy voice. 

"They haven't for a year now and I don't think that they're going to start any time soon," I responded.

We both reluctantly made our way to the showers to get ready for the day. Attendance was taken at 7:30 every morning so we all had to get up at 6:00 in order for everyone to be able to take showers. Most of the kids considered that an "early morning" , but considering the fact that we've all been living in an overcrowded underground basement for the past year, with so little resource that we've had to skip multiple meals at a time, I really don't see why people can't, I don't know, SUCK IT UP! It's really annoying to see that people can't understand the fact that our species has a chance dying in a cold, cement basement. They still aren't getting that we are no longer the dominant species on Earth anymore.

After showers, everyone lined up for attendance. Brylee, our other group friend Sharli, and I headed down to the cafeteria. After we got our trays we went over to our usual table where later Levi, Aden, Trevor, and R.J. joined us with. Today's breakfast was the usual: mush. When I first arrived here, the stuff made my stomach to front flips, but by now I was kind of used to it. It really didn't have any taste. After all, it's kind of the least of my problems. We all sat there with minimal conversation until something Levi said made us actually pay attention to our conversation.

"You guys hear that there going to be cutting some of the kids from the Program?" He asked looking directly at Aden, as if his name were going to be called out to be cut. Aden turned bright red. Last time they cut people from the Intelligence Program, he was one of the people that got called down. Thankfully we all followed him and said that if he left, we all left. Fortunately we were able to change their minds, but we were going to be a lot more miserable without him if he left.

"The day Aden leaves is the day we all leave, and it won't be because we are smart or not. It will be because they won't need us anymore because this whole mess will be over. We can go back and be normal," said Brylee in a matter-of -fact kind of tone.

"Amen, Brybug," said R.J. trying to lighten the mood.

"It's Brylee," said an annoyed Brylee, stressing the "lee" part.

"Okay, Brybug," continued R.J., a huge grin growing on his face.

"Ugh," groaned Brylee.

"You know you think that it's a cute name deep down," pressed R.J.

"Yeah, so deep down that it will never find its way into my thoughts," responded Brylee coldly.

"Ouch," said R.J. making a fake pouty face.

After R.J.'S final remark, Sharli spoke up, who is usually pretty quite.

"Do you guys think that we won't be "us" anymore after all of this? I mean, you guys were kind of my first actual friends, actually, make that family that I've ever had, and it would kind of suck to go back to having the kind of friends that didn't have your back and a family that didn't care about you. I'm not saying that I don't want the Beasts to be gone just so I can see you guys every day. I just really don't want to lose the only real friends I've ever had." She made a good point. We might literally DIE without each other.

"She makes a good point. The Beasts won't last forever and when it ends we can't just forget about each other. If we forget about each other so easily that it didn't hurt enough for us to try to stay in our little "gang", then we'd be just like the rest of the world: heartless and careless." said Trevor. I've never heard him speak so seriously before, so he must have meant it.

"Can we all agree to not lose touch with each other?" proposed Aden.

"We agree," we all said awkwardly in sync.

"Great. Now that we got that of our shoulders, first training period starts in five." said R.J.
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This was for you Tarramiller