End of Days

Getting to Know You

(9)

I sighed leaning back against the wall, looking over at Blake as he sits in a chair across from me. "Why do you want to know?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Because I do, it's a simple question." Blake leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands in front of him. He stares me down, a hint of a smile on his face as he waits for my answer.

I sigh, roll my eyes and cross my legs, "Orange." Blakes smile grows instantly, knowing he won the little waiting game we had started.

"I knew you weren't a pink kinda gal." he chuckles softly leaning back in his seat. "Well, sadly, I have actual questions Cyrus wants me to ask you. He just wants to know more about you, your group, and how you guys found us. Tell me more about this soldier you guys ran into. Where'd you find him? How'd you get him to talk? Where is he now?"

I gulp a little as he adds more and more questions. I think back to the story my dad just spewed out, he didn't share many details, but if they were asking James these questions too, what if they didn't line up. I should stick as close to the truth as possible, that's what James would do. "Am I going to have to wait ten minutes for this answer too?"

"If you are going to be an ass about it you will," I say, his smirk grows and he chuckles once again.

"Fair enough." He puts his hands up in defense before sliding them into his pockets and waiting for me to speak.

"I found him, well Alec and I did. We were going through a store in town before we noticed soldiers walking out on the street. Alec and I ran from them, but Alec got shot. We lost them in the woods and stopped at a house, so we could rest and I could patch Alec up. The next morning I heard something in the house and that's when I found him. We took him back to our house and started questioning him. He didn't speak at first, so they tried beating him. I got tired of it and convinced them to just let me talk to him. That's when he told me about how the Republic had came through here. He said that you fought them off. Once he told us where we could find you, we just let him go. He went off in the other direction." I say, maintaining eye contact, hoping he won't see a flaw in my story.

"So you just batted you eyes and he told you everything?"

I roll my eyes once again, of course he would think that it was because I was a woman that I got him to talk. "No, I treated him like a human being. Cleaned the blood off and reasoned with him. I didn't even have to get naked." I add sarcastically, tilting my head a little.

His eyes widen a little and he sits up straight, "that's not what I meant. I-I... well I just... nevermind. Uh how do you know the others in your group?"

"We all lived in the same neighborhood." I look toward the door, praying for someone else to come in. It's silent for a moment, I glance back at Blake to see him already looking at me. He doesn't look away nervously like most guys would, he holds my gaze and smiles a little.

"Favorite book?" He asks, still holding my gaze.

I clear my throat and think for a second, "I guess A Long Fatal Love Chase, my mother gave it to me when I was younger. I must have read it a thousand times." I say and smile back at him.

"What's it about?" He wonders.

I smile and look up to remember how it starts."Okay well, there's this girl Rosamond and she falls in love with this dude, Phillip, who's not the best guy. Even though she knows this, she marries him hoping her love can change him. They sail off her grandfather island on Phillip's yacht. But then after like a year she discovers he's already married and has a son. She escapes to Paris and changes her name. He follows her for like two years, but she keeps moving, after each move when she's in a different city she changes her name and gets a new job. Well finally she stops in German and meets this catholic priest. She ends up falling in love with him, but Phillip comes and tries to ruin it all, so Father Ignatius tries to help her get back to her grandfather's island." I finish and look back at Blake. He smiles and shakes his head a little.

"Sounds crazy. Why did she marry him if she knew he was an asshole?" He asks bluntly.

"It's not that he's an asshole to her really, he's just a little off. And she thought that she could change him." My smile widens as he nods, rolling his eyes a little, mumbling something about how she should have known he was a douche canoe. I chuckle and shake my head. "You can borrow it if you'd like." I reach into my bag and pull the worn book out, extending it to him. "It's pretty old, so some of the phrasing is odd." I warn him as he takes it from my hand, examining the front. He flips it open and his eyes widen a little.

"1995? Dang this books is older than my grandparents." He chuckles and looks up at me. I smile and shake my head.

"Hey, some things get better with age." I defend. Before Blake can fire back there's a knock at the door. I stand up and walk past Blake who continues to examine the book, now reading the description on the back.

I open the door and am surprised to see Cyrus. I open my mouth to ask him why he was here, but he speaks up. "Sorry to disturb you, but I came looking for Blake. Not to mention it is quite late." He clasps his hands behind his back, like usual. I hear the chair scrape against the ground as Blake stands up and walks over to the door.

"Yes sir, sorry to keep you waiting. Thank you for the book Mazlynn, and I will see you tomorrow morning. I have a few more questions for you." He says, standing next to Cyrus.

"Well, I have some questions for you too then. See you tomorrow." I say before shutting the door. I smile to myself as I sit on the bed. I lay down and pull the blankets close as I start thinking of questions for Blake.

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I wake up to a knock on the door. Yawning, I make my way to the door. I tug on it only to be reminded that it's locked. I shake my head a little and knock back. I hear a soft chuckle on the other side before the door opens.

"You know it's locked from your side why didn't you just open it?" I ask.

"I didn't want to just walk in on you, you could have been changing or something. You would have preferred that?"

I think for a moment, hating that he's right. "Alright you win." I mumble and moving back to the bed. I sit criss cross once again and hug the pillow to my chest. "So what does Cyrus want to know?"

"Well, what do you know about the Republic for one?" He asks, sitting in the same chair he was in last night, pulling it a little closer.

"We know that they came in through Canada, that after the two bombs were dropped on them they gave up and let the Republic come in through Canada in exchange for not dropping anymore bombs. We know they've at least set up one camp here, we don't know if they've done the same in other states and we don't know what other states they're in." I realize just how little we actually know about the Republic.

"They came through Canada? Hm." Blake looks away for a second, deep in thought.

"How did this place come about?" I ask, snapping him from his thoughts.

"Oh uh well, most of the people here lost loved ones and homes in the bombings. Cyrus lost his wife from the radiation about a week after the bombings stopped. He built this place to try and save her, he thought if he could get a hospital of sorts running he could help her. When she passed he just kept going, he let more and more people in and trained everyone to protect themselves. It was kind of his way of honoring her I guess." He explains, scratching the back of his neck and sighing. "It's been rocky."

"How did you find it?" I wonder.

"I lived in the same apartment building as Cyrus. Most of us did, Cyrus kept us all safe, he's the reason most of us are alive." He pauses and shakes his head, looking up at me and smiling. "My turn, how did you guys avoid the bombings?"

"Uh my dad built a bunker of sorts, we lived in it for a couple weeks until the bombings stopped. When we came up there was no one left in our neighborhood. What happened when the bombing stopped? Did they evacuate everyone?"

"That's actually really smart." He chuckles lightly, "Um they evacuated as many as they could, but the radiation took out almost as many as the actual bombings." We both sit in silence for a moment before he shakes his head once again, "alright enough of these kind of questions, I want to know more about you."