Looking like the thumbnail for a lesbic porno, we left our room, each covered in a towel and wearing shoes, because we sure as hell weren’t going to wear the flip-flops the last woman left behind. God knows we already looked ridiculous without wearing sharks on our feet. My brother was waiting in the living room, reading a book he had nicked from the shelf. “Why the towel?” He asked.

  “You don’t want to know.” Said Mary. After he gave us a weird look, he got up and got his stuff, and we all headed out downstairs, where Emily was wearing a normal bathing suit. I have no clue where she got it from; she hadn’t brought anything with her when she came with us into town, but maybe she found it in the house, like we did.

  “Sup?” She said. She was leaning against the community board at the entrance to our building, where so far there were three official papers about rules and shit and about five really talented drawings of random characters from different media portrayed really disgustingly, you know what I mean...

  We set off at about half past three in the evening towards the community area that was a really decent sports center. It was where I had been training with Plague, and it was also where the town’s gym and the pool were. The walk there was pretty uneventful, as everyone was probably eating in their homes and enjoying Sunday. During the entire walk, Emily wouldn’t shut up about anything. She was just assaulting my ears with the first thing that came to her mind. Whether it was her hobbies or her old life. I had enough and just ignored her and talked to my brother in the meantime.

  “So what have you been doing today?” He asked.

  I shrugged. “I was originally going for a long walk through the forest, but we found Miss Headache instead. How about you?”

  He also shrugged. “Just practicing a bit on my own, nothing much.”

  Yeah, right, as if I was going to believe that.

  “C'mon, I know you were flirting with Sofia Briggs.” I gave him the side-eye.

  “I was not!” He sounded genuinely offended. “Why do you think so? What makes you think that I would want her?"

  I honestly just thought it was funny. “Shits and giggles mostly. But you do act quite weird around her, like you're trying to impress her.”

  “I do not! I'm not going to argue with you; also, you look stupid with that towel.” He said.

  “I look even dumber without it.” I remarked.

  “I'm sure it's not that bad. Scared of people looking at your fat rolls?” Ok, first of all, I am not fat. You can literally see my ribs through my shirt, not skin, shirt. My stomach is stretched over my abs. I barely have a fold when I sit and hunch. I am NOT fat.

  “If by that you mean my big ass, then yes. Bet you wish you got half the attention I’d get.” I answered.

  “Oh, I do get that attention for these babies.” He rolled his sleeves up and flexed his arm. I mean, it wasn't bad, but Briggs had more.

  “You realize Sofia has more than you, right?” I said.

  “Yeah, she’s such a hulk.” He said.

  “She’s so your type,” interjected Mary. Her comment was really funny to me for some reason.

  “Yeah, and your type are selfish, whiny nympho bitches, so even if I were into the walking muscle, your taste is just as bad as mine.” My brother exclaimed. That was a bit far, even for his standards.

  “Hey! I can hear you, you know!” I shouted.

  “My point exactly.” He said. I then realized that I had identified myself with his words, which was kind of stupid.

  “Tomboy fucker!” I shouted.

  “Nympho!” He shouted back. We both laughed; after all, we didn't mean it hurtfully, but we did mean it. We continued with the banter until we reached the pool.

  We went to a secluded patch of grass where we laid our towels down, and that was when my brother saw us and our clothes. He burst out howling in laughter. “You look like hoes!” He said.

  “Yes, we know. You don't need to rub it in!” Mary yelled. “Not that you look any better!” She was just trying to say the first thing that came to her mind that sort of hurt, but it really wasn't working. Unlike us, Donn actually looked normal.

  “Just leave him; let’s go swim.” I nudged Mary on. The pool was moderately empty; there were only about five people in all twenty meters of the pool.

  I was about to jump in when something caught my eye. Swimming with the technique of an Olympic swimmer and a skin so nice that it looked out of this world, Cooper was doing laps. Mary stood beside me.

  “You see what I’m seeing?” I asked.

  “Yep, what a show.” She also had her eyes fixed on him; his muscles were hypnotizing us. Such a big back, such a well-defined body.

  “I think we’re being a little bit too obvious.” I said.

  “Yes, but I do not care.” She replied. We were standing at the edge of the water. As Mary was staring, she didn't notice my hand going up her back. With a quick push, she went into the water. “You bitch!” She screamed while falling. I couldn’t keep myself from laughing then.

  Suddenly, I felt something push me from behind. I too went headfirst into the water. I resurfaced and saw my brother standing where I had been and laughing, and right beside me was Mary, also giggling. This was the first time in the week where we all could freely relax and enjoy ourselves, if you ignore the time we went to the nightclub.

  “I should have known...” I said.

  “Yes, you should have. Cannonball!” My brother sprung up and curled up into a ball. He almost landed on me as he splashed down, making everyone irritated.

  “Jackass,” said Mary. “Yo, is the other girl going to get in?” She asked.

  I shrugged and said a quick ‘I don’t know.’ To be honest, I didn’t know what her deal was; she was reluctant and eager at the same time to join us. She got closer to the water and looked at us from above. “Is the water nice?”

  “Yeah,” the three of us said.

  She dipped her foot in and jumped in. Her blonde hair stuck to her mouth like a crawling vine. She resurfaced and shook her head. “It’s nice.”

  We then spent a while just relaxing in the cool water. As July was around the corner, it was getting increasingly hot. Mary and I had gotten to the point where we would sleep on the floor on our bed mats from when we travelled because the bedsheets would stick to us and make us sweat and just be uncomfortable. After ten minutes, we were approached by a tall, muscular, and handsome man, Cooper.

  “Hey guys!” He said with his hypnotic voice. When the angels come to take me, I want them to sound like him. His body really was sculpted by the gods. His toned muscles were all in perfect proportion. “I hadn't seen you here.”

  My brother was the only one of us who hadn't fallen for his charm and answered. “Hey Cooper, how's it going? How's training?”

  Cooper ran his hand through his thick and luscious hair, making us three girls feel some way. “I'm fine. Briggs has been pushing us right proper hard, but nothing we can't handle. You?”

  “Tyrone has just been focusing on teaching us how not to die; this week he might actually make us train for good.” My brother answered. “However, Ayla has apparently been working really hard. She has improved significantly, right, Ayla?” He looked at me. I knew exactly what he was doing, and it was working. I got flustered and stuttered a bit.

  “Well yeah, I've gotten a bit better at my thing. But Plague has been giving me one hell of a time.” I said.

  Cooper chuckled. “Yeah, he has no sense of how much he pushes someone, but it’s always worth it with him in the end. He may act a bit strange at times, but he knows where he is, and his mind is in the right place. If anyone is going to help you, it's him.” Again, someone with the trust. I honestly still couldn't see why people trusted him so openly. Plague was the kind of person you knew would never hurt you, but you'd be a bit skeptical about if they offered advice or help. He was fine, sure. But both Cooper and Tyrone would probably trust him with their lives, and I have a feeling they're not alone.

  “Yeah, he pushes a lot, but I guess if we’re going to go storm a facility swarming with carnivorous freaks of nature, it’s better to go prepared, right?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but these things usually go smoothly. We have good intel and a huge team. We’re going to steam through the place, just you watch.” Cooper smiled at me, with his perfect white and straight teeth. It was impossible not to feel something when he was around. He had an aura of attraction.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear nervously and looked away, blushing. My brother noticed me and sniggered. Mary was also falling for his charm, staring at him with rosy cheeks.

  “Well, I’ll be going now; I promised Firstimosa that I would help him move his furniture around. I’ll see you around then.” He waded around us to the edge of the pool and hoisted himself over gracefully, giving us a real show of his muscles. The water glistened on his skin, and it seemed to splash away in slow motion as he walked away from us.

  It wasn't until he was out of sight that Emily, Mary, and I stopped staring at him, which somewhat annoyed my brother for some reason.

  “Show off...” Donn muttered under his breath. Mary and I gave each other a side glance, both meaning the same.

  “Ok then, I think that's enough swimming for me.” I exclaimed. I was hoping that Mary would also join me, as I needed a word with her.

  “Yeah, I'm also done in here.” Said Mary. She too got out, and we headed together to our towels.

  “Mary, I need to tell you something.” I took her hands in mine. She seemed worried. Her brow tightened, and her eyes were piercing my soul.

  “What is it?” She asked.

  “I really love you.” I pulled her in for a kiss. She relaxed and let herself be consumed by the embrace.

  “I also need to tell you something. I too love you.” She muttered. Our bodies were still wet from the pool, and it added a little extra spice to our make-out session. We stayed a bit like that for a bit until we both unanimously decided we should be getting ready for the night club. We dried ourselves and left with our towels wrapped around us.

  “Ayla, do you ever think about what would have happened if you hadn't come across me?” Mary asked me. What an odd question, but I did sometimes wonder about it.

  “Well, I know for a fact that my life would suck. My brother and I wouldn't be here, and maybe we’d already be dead. Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious. But I'm glad I found you; I would have died if I hadn't.” Oh yeah, her depression. She didn't really like talking about it, and it's not hard to see why. She was really strong, but she didn't think so herself.

  “Yeah, but now I'm never going away.” We came up to the little park where the four flats were. It was a pleasant little thing; sometimes there were kids playing on the slide or the swings. We got into our building and took the lift. This time we didn't do anything in there because we had our hands busy with the towels. We then went to our apartment.

  “I call dibs on the shower first!” Said Mary.

  “How about both of us?” I asked, whispering in her ear in a seductive tone. She smiled and pondered the idea.

  “You know what? Fine, let’s do it together.” She grabbed my waist and led me to the bathroom. Thankfully, the shower was pretty big, big enough for both of us.

  Now cleaned (on the inside too), we got dressed in our nicest clothes, which were the blue dress I had worn to the restaurant and her black dress, the one that meant so much to her.

  “Mary, did your mother give you that dress?” It was a logical assumption; after all, her mother was dead and the only one to have had a nice dress.

  She nodded slowly. “Yes, it was her last gift to me. She told me, ‘Wear it for more than I will.’ Of course, I didn't know what she meant by that. Now it’s the only real memory I have of her, this dress.” She seemed ready to cry. I put my arms around her gently and put her head on my shoulder. “Why did everything have to happen? Why couldn't I have a normal life? I hate this!” She sobbed.

  “Life just sucks.” I said. She did a little ‘hmmph’ in agreement. “Let’s just try to have a good time now, ok? Let’s just forget everything for tonight and get smashed, ok?”

  “Ok, yeah.” She sniffled her tears up. “C'mon, I want to enjoy a good dance tonight.” She cheered up a little, enough for now.

  We held hands all the way down. The town was beginning to darken; it was nine o'clock now. We saw Emily and Donn coming up the park; they were chatting about something. We waved at them and continued. The same titan we had seen was in front of the club, doing his usual job. The queue wasn't long this time, and we got inside with little effort. Now this time it would be different; this time we had money to spend at the bar. We didn't have to rely on Briggs today. This time I ordered a mojito, and Mary got some whiskey on the rocks.

  “Going strong, are we?” I asked her.

  “Yeah, got a problem?” She smiled.

  “As long as you're awake for what comes later, no,” I answered teasingly. We stepped onto the dance floor as there was a sick song playing; I think it was called Blink-182, a good song in my opinion.

  We danced wildly, without much coordination. It was more of a shake than a dance, but fun either way. It was nice letting go of our worries. Right then we weren't thinking about how in less than a week we were going to go liberate a military complex; we were just thinking of having a fun time and nothing else. The lights were flashing and the music was loud. We were losing our sense of decency, among other things. Not a coherent thought was going through our minds as the hours went by. The alcohol is making us giddy and carefree. I've never had this much fun before.

  Eventually, I just stopped being conscious. I wasn’t knocked out per se; I was simply not in control. I was unable to remember anything that happened after that. Mary was getting hammered; she was drinking hard liquor like water. I eventually had to hold her up while we danced, which made us do a sort of weird old two-step dance. We drunkenly swayed and stumbled our way through songs, laughing with giddy delight. We didn't know the time or how long we had spent there. Eventually, our drinks were empty, and we both had to get more. I decided this time to try Coke and rum, which wasn't entirely unpleasant. Mary switched from whiskey to vodka now, for some reason. We thought of going to the dance floor again, but we were both so smashed that we weren't able. We went into one of the booths instead.

  “Oh man, this is great!” She exclaimed.

  “Yeah, I haven't been this irresponsible since way before the fall.” I said. We both were jamming it right then to Absolute Territory, by Ken Ashcorp, which is the best song ever, and that's final.

  “So what do you think about Emily?” Asked Mary. “I don't really fully trust her, you know?”

  “Yeah, I also don't fully trust her, but I don't know why.” I did have a feeling about Emily, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. She acted sort of normally, sure. But we found her crying and without a backpack, which is a lifeline in the apocalypse. But the thing that caught my attention was just how quickly she had stopped mourning her deceased friends; it was almost as if it were a play from the beginning. I was getting increasingly drunk, and my coordination skills were getting worse by the moment, like Mary’s, only that she was a lot worse than I was.

  “Yeah... Could you give me a little smooch?” She hovered towards me, her glass threatening to spill. I didn’t think of a reason not to, so I let myself be kissed by her. I could taste her alcohol breath and the booze on her lips. We were hammered. She closed her eyes and collapsed on me, snoring her heart away.

  I was trapped underneath her, and I couldn't get out. I struggled and failed. Eventually just giving in to the drunkenness and going to sleep.

  When I woke up, I noticed two things. Firstly, my head was properly killing me; the hangover was extreme. Secondly, our drinks had been cleared from our hands. Mary was still on top of me, gently snoring. She never snored normally; it seems the alcohol made her change a bit. Now a bit more conscious than last night, I got up from underneath her and was greeted by a harrowing sight. The place was completely empty save for the janitor, who was sweeping the disgusting dance floor.

  “Morning, I was told you two are going to be charged extra for sleeping here; I just thought I’d let you know beforehand.” He said whilst sweeping a particularly nasty patch of sick.

  Great. I had already been spending a lot of money recently, and now this. I was being too irresponsible. I walked around and stretched a bit before going back to wake Mary up. She tossed a bit and eventually opened her eyes and groaned for a solid five seconds.

  “Ugh, my head is going to burst. We shouldn't have done this, Ayla.” She groaned under half-closed eyes. Her chestnut hair was sticking out; she looked like a witch.

  “Yes, I know, but we had fun, right?” I helped her get up, and we walked to the bar. On the countertop was a receipt, which was expensive. “We really need to stop being teens; we can’t afford it.”

  She sighed, watching me place money on the counter. Luckily, the receipt was a whole number, and I didn't have to wait for change.

  We left through the front entrance and found it was already almost midday; I was going to arrive late for my training, as was Mary. We speed-walked our way to our apartment, hoping nobody recognized us. Once inside, we took turns getting changed and making coffee to help with the hangover. The coffee worked miracles with us, even when we didn’t have a hangover. I got changed first and made myself a long cup while Mary got dressed. I also began making hers. She got out, and I handed her the mug. She always liked it with milk and a lot of sugar.

  “Thank god for our elixir. We are so getting scolded for half an hour.” She muttered.

  “Yeah, this is going to be bad.” We both finished and bolted out of the house, running down the stairs. Mary almost fell after tripping on a step, but I managed to catch her just in time.

  Mary had to run to the gate doors, and I had to book it to the sports center, so we had to part ways. I began moving my legs so fast I felt like I wasn't even touching the floor. My legs moved on their own, it seemed. I was obviously not used to sprinting, but I couldn't care about getting tired; I had to get to Plague first.

  The field was now in sight, and I saw a man standing on it, looking at his feet. The man looked up and saw me. I got to him; it was Plague. “I thought you weren’t going to show up.” He spat.

  “Yeah, sorry. I had a bit of a fun night yesterday. I promise it won’t happen again.” I spoke between choked gasps from having sprinted all the way there.

  “Save me the excuses; just get to practicing.” He sounded tired.

  I had to do as he said in fear of not getting my paycheck at the end of the day, which I desperately need. We started off with some weightlifting, which involved me using my telekinesis to lift increasingly heavy objects. I started with a bag of bricks, and that day I was able to go all the way up to a small car, which is probably more than a thousand times heavier than what I could lift a week ago. After that, I took a small break and continued with target practice, which involved throwing bricks at targets with the forceful push. I was getting confident about our chances of winning without casualties. Maybe I was getting cocky, or maybe we really did stand a chance. Whatever the outcome was, I was delighted with myself.

  Mary also showed her effort’s fruits. She could make bigger and bigger things, with more intricate shapes and functions. My brother had also been improving; he could make more electricity, more voltage, and more amps. Just us three alone would probably be enough to clear out small towns of zeds, but probably not the military complex.

  After my session, Plague called me to go with him to the mission operation building, whatever its name is.

  “Why? What are we going to do?” I asked him.

  “Tyrone, along with the other tacticians in other towns, has made a foolproof plan, and Tyrone is going to walk us through it.” He sounded annoyed at having to talk to me, probably for coming late.

  I followed him. We walked without much conversation to the old museum. I found my brother and Mary already inside. Everybody was there. I went to talk with Mary and my brother.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

  “Not much, really. We’re going to get sorted now.” My brother answered. He also didn't seem fazed by me.

  Suddenly, the projector screen lit up, and we saw the same diagram we saw the first time, only now it had different drawings on it. Tyrone went in front of the screen and walked us through everything.

  “Listen up. We’re doing this at night, and we’re doing it loud. The main plan is going to be the same, but the nuances have changed. First off, we are still going to be in charge of the main server building, but Briggs is going to be in charge of clearing out the lower floors with Ayla’s help. Meanwhile, my squad is going to be working on restoring the mainframe, along with other things.” Tyrone looked at Plague and nodded. “Once everything is restored, everybody is going to have help clearing out everything that moves. No Zed can remain, got it?”

  There was a communal noise of agreement.

  “Sadly, we don't have the internal layout of the base, so once we’re inside, we’re going to have to navigate on our guts. The operation starts in two days; good luck, everyone.”

  Two days!? That's all!? That's bullshit! Last week they said two weeks! Not one and a little bit! How are we supposed to get ready!? Plague hasn't taught me shit about tactics or shit like that!