'Wakey, wakey.'

Opening my eyes, I squint against the brightness until the two blurred figures in front of me come into focus. Haiden grins with her hand on her hip while Bo frowns with his arms crossed over his chest.

I shuffle and the material of the sofa squeaks underneath me. Zach's warm body is pressed up against my back, his arms around me and his legs entangled in mine. I close my eyes trying to make sense of my surroundings.

Me and Zach must have fallen asleep on the sofa last night.

'I would poke you if I thought you wouldn't attack me.' Haiden laughs.

Why are they waking me up? I mumble something incoherent which makes Haiden laugh and Bo huff.

'Ethel is looking for you, Kit. She's not happy that you didn't sleep in our room last night. If she finds you here, like this, you'll be in a whole world of trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if she bans our trip, and I really want to go, even though I'm scared. I've been mentally preparing myself and if we don't go today, I'll mentally un-prepare myself and then I'll never go. And instead, I'll be a coward for the rest of my life, wallowing in regrets. So we really need to get going now.' Haiden says rapidly.

I reopen my eyes to see her pouting at me.  'By the way, you were meant to save me a spot last night. I can't believe you missed the chance of watching your first ever movie. I was really excited about watching you, watch the movie. Then again, I would skip it for fun times with my boyfriend, if I had a boyfriend. I really want a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. I'm not fussy really.'

Zach buries his head into my back in a bid to stifle a laugh.

'You don't want a boyfriend or a girlfriend. You want Roman,' I say, rubbing my eyes. I attempt to sit until I'm suddenly aware of Zach's hand which is under my top cupping one of my breasts, and that my trousers are unbuttoned. I close my eyes in mortification while extracting Zach's hand.

'Oh, Kit, you get me! We're going to be best friends. Actually, scrap that, we are best friends. But on a serious note, untangle yourself and get up. You missed breakfast, but I grabbed you a jar of something to eat on the way. No idea what.' Haiden bends down and peers at me. 'Did you two have sex on this sofa because if you did, I'm going to find it really difficult to sit on it in the future without visualising you two-'

'Ok, let's go.' I jump up.

Zach is laughing out loud now as he stands up. He tugs my top down and buttons up my trousers while he kisses me on the lips. 'I'll distract Ethel so you three can get out of here.'

'Thanks, Zach.'

Zach disappears from the room and I face Haiden and Bo. 'Ready?'

'We've been ready for ages. You've got five minutes to sort yourself out,' Bo says flatly. Turning on his heel, he strides out the room.

What's the matter with him? I look at Haiden who gives me a sympathetic smile. 'Come on. He'll cheer up once we get out there.'

Walking out to the pile of bicycles, I look at the small moving dots among the fields, picking weeds no doubt. It's the only plant that seems to have survived the past with no damage to it's growth, no awareness of the trauma inflicted on the Earth.

The fields remind me of home. What are my parents and Mattan doing now? I try to imagine them here. I can't.

If I tried hard I could make things work here. I could create a new life, one where I'm not fearful of touch all the time. Once I've done that, maybe, I could go back to the settlement and convince my parents and Mattan to move here.

Would they come? 

'Are you alright, Kit?' Haiden says from behind me.

I wipe my eyes and clear my throat. 'I was thinking, you should sit in one of the trailers. If there's a lot of loose stuff we'll need someone to hold onto it.'

Haiden swivels to face Bo. 'I can't believe you got her to do your dirty work. Bo, I can ride a bike, I may have only one lung but Fara said I can still do everyday tasks and activities. I can ride to the town and back, just fine. Seriously...'

'But I can't,' I interject. Think of a convincing lie. 'My leg muscles spasm up sometimes from cycling. Me and Zach often had to break because of it. If I can share with someone that would help me out, and I'd prefer to share with you.'

Great lie. My legs spasm up from cycling?

'Ahhh... you should have said. That must have been terrible. Is that how Virulence affected you then? What did Fara say when you had your medical check? Any other problems?' Haiden says.

Bo sends me a grateful smile.

Maybe, my lying skills are improving. 'Yeah, it might be to do with Virulence damage. Fara has to do more checks to know for certain.' I shrug.

I glance at Bo who arches an eyebrow at me because he knows I'm lying. I still haven't returned to Fara for the checks they want to complete. Bo quickly switches his expression to a smile when Haiden looks at him.

'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have accused you. But you do always try to stop me doing loads of things which you think are too strenuous. I don't mind most of the time, especially when you send me on errands so I don't have to do any of the heavy lifting. Don't think, I didn't know your little tactics. I know you care, Bo,' Haiden says.

'Let's get going.' Bo shakes his head, throwing a bottle of water and two baseball bats into a trailer then mounts the bicycle attached to it. He points to another. 'That's yours.'

'Can I ride first?' I ask Haiden.

'Of course.' Haiden climbs into the trailer. 'This is so exciting. We will be alright, won't we? I mean, I know we haven't had trouble from outsiders in years but, still, you never know. Roman came to see me earlier, he'd heard about our trip and gave me a bat to take with me.' She waves a wooden bat in the air. 'I've never had to hit anyone with one of these before.'

'You won't have to today either,' Bo says. 'There hasn't been an attack from Outsiders for years.'

'So you haven't come in contact with any outsiders recently?' I ask.

Bo starts cycling and I follow. Riding a bicycle is a lot harder when dragging a trailer carrying a person.

How is a person who only eats vegetables so heavy?

'There are two other communities we know of. They don't come here and we don't go there. Ethel and Roman can contact them over the radio, and sometimes we trade with them but that's rare.'

'Faith and Raz actually came from one of them but they don't talk about it. Must have been horrendous, especially if they were willing to leave. It took them months to find us. They'd heard about us and sought us out,' Haiden says. 'Is that why you left? Did you hear about our community too?'

'No. We hoped there were others but we didn't know,' I say.

'Why did you leave then?' Haiden asks.

'I didn't have a choice,' I say. 'Bo, did you know this place existed before you came here?'

'No,' Bo says flatly.

'But you met others didn't you, Bo,' Haiden says.

'We also learnt to avoid others,' Bo's shoulders tense as he pedals faster.

'It's mad, isn't it. Normal people who would have followed laws, suddenly do whatever they please as soon as society breaks down. I bet psychologists would have loved to study the changing behaviours and actions of people during and after the Virulence pandemic. I wonder if any psychologists survived. Did you meet any psychologists on your travels, Bo? Not that you probably spoke about past jobs, bit pointless when most of the world has died, kind of becomes obsolete really. People never speak much about their life before Virulence. They mention the odd thing, mostly they focus on finding food and not dying of starvation or some waterborne disease. That's a real problem you know. Lots of animal corpses in the water, spreading disease. Took the people who started this place a while to figure that out, a few people even died. Finally, someone, with a little common sense, suggested filtering and boiling the water, lucky for us. Anyway, it's baffling, all these people going mad and treating people badly. Why can't we all get along? I might think one way, but I'm not going to force them to do something they don't agree with,' Haiden says.

'Sometimes, a person's heart is in the right place even if their actions and rules suggest otherwise.' I shrug.

'And sometimes, a person is cruel and manipulative and wants to simply be in control,' Bo retorts.

What's your problem?

For the remainder of the ride to the town, we don't talk. Bo is concentrating on the road, I'm absorbing the surrounding area whilst Haiden is uncharacteristically quiet. The odd occasion I look back, she's biting her bottom lip while gripping the bat, Roman gave her, tightly.

Houses start to appear on either side of the road. I glance behind at Haiden, her knuckles have gone white from how tightly she's gripping the bat. She's going to snap it in half if she's not careful.

'Have you never left the grounds of your settlem-... community before, Haiden?' I ask.

'No, not since me and Roman arrived. Roman hasn't either but, like Bo said, there hasn't been an attack for a few years. We'll be fine. You survived. You didn't have any problems, did you?' Haiden's voice trembles slightly.

'No. We didn't see anyone the entire time.' I look around. 'What would you like to do first? Look for a garden centre or search the area for plant life?'

'Garden centre. If they have the seeds we want then we don't need to worry about searching. I really don't want to come across any bodies. Did you see many bodies? They must have been gross. Would you search places before sleeping in them? Of course you did, that's a silly question. Could you see facial features? Actually, don't tell me, I don't want to know.'

'We saw bodies. Unfortunately, the houses with bodies normally had the most food but we'd never stay in them.' I shudder.

'I bet Zach made you search the houses while he stood outside,' Bo says under his breath.

'What?' I frown.

'He's not here, you don't have to pretend to us, Kit. Anything you say won't get back to him.'

'You don't know anything about Zach. He's risked a lot for me,' I snap, braking sharply.

'If you say so,' Bo says, cycling off.

Confused, I look at Haiden for some indication to what just happened and why Bo is so against Zach.

Haiden shrugs and sends me a sympathetic smile. 'He's one of those people you were talking about earlier. His heart's in the right place, even if his actions suggest otherwise.'

'I'll take your word for it,' I mutter.

Haiden beams at me. 'You should. Bo doesn't often say what's on his mind or talk about feelings but he's kind and caring. He'll go out of his way to help people. His dad was the same.'

'What happened to his dad?'

'A few months after they arrived here there was an attack and his dad was taken.' Haiden turns towards the direction Bo cycled off in. 'You can trust Bo. You can trust me too. You're lucky you were discovered by us. As Roman always says 'there are people out there with less than good intentions'.'

People me and Zach are trying to run away from. Part of me wants to tell her everything. I think she would understand. I don't think she'd say I should return to do what I was created for. The part of me which is unsure stops me saying anything. 

Author's note:
Next chapter is an exciting one!!!