"I want you to kill yourself,"

All my life, I had admired him. Despite our fate, he remained strong for the family. Everything I know was acquired from him. He was the only reason I had survived that long.

Yet, after all those years trying to keep me safe, he just wanted me to... end it. That's it.

My dad's last words had destroyed years of admiration within a second, covering all the love with a dark cloud. All of a sudden, I hated him.

I had no idea how long I stared at his body. Seconds, minutes, hours — who knows?

A warmth filled the atmosphere, breaking me out of my trance. The sun had started to emerge from the horizon. Its rays tore through the gaps between skyscrapers, illuminating the city.

I remembered Amanda, all alone at home, worried sick about us. That was my motivation to get up.

I retrieved my backpack and took one last look at my dad's body. A part of me wanted to give him a proper burial. That was the same part of me that secretly agreed with him.

He wasn't completely wrong about what he said. Killing myself might have been better than carrying on with my usual life - looking for the next family to slaughter. But I was done with a life like that. My dad had the nerve to say that the world would just give me pain and suffering without even daring to explore it. I wanted to prove him wrong. And I had a plan.

Finally, I turned away from his body and headed back home, following the path we took earlier.

The walk was tiring, but it at least kept my mind diverted. The second I would have let my thoughts invade my mind... well, I wouldn't want that. So, I remained focused on only one task–reuniting with Amanda.

Just when the silence was about to drive me mad, I saw the roof of our house emerge at the far end of the road. Our house was pretty much engulfed by ivy from the outside. The roof was badly damaged and there was also a hole in it, directly above our training room. Even the door was covered in stains and looked much worse from the outside.

As soon as my footsteps came closer to the house, a face peeped at me through the window. Upon seeing that it was me, the door opened and Amanda came rushing to me.

For a moment, I could see joy in those pearly eyes. Then her face turned pale and her legs froze. She realized that it was just me coming and no one else.

"Mom? Dad? Where are they?"

Despite Amanda being the only priority in my mind since the last hour, I was totally unprepared for how to break the news to her. All of a sudden, I was surrounded by dread. Staring at the ground seemed much better than facing her.

"Jaden! What happened to them?" she screamed.

Knowing her, she was probably still holding hope. That positivity always annoyed me, but not this time.

"I am so sorry," I went in for a hug.

She wanted to protest but ultimately gave in to reality. For a solid minute, she sobbed on my shoulders while I remained silent, not knowing what to say to her.

"What really happened?" she asked, pulling away.

"Let's go inside first," I replied.

We entered our house and sat down at our dining table. I fetched her a glass of water which she took with shaky hands, spilling half of the content.

After giving her a moment to settle down, I started narrating the entire incident to her. I told her how we were spotted and mom got shot down, how we charged ahead but had to retreat later, only to find that mom had been killed. Finally, I came to the most painful part.

"So, dad just...collapsed?" she asked.

"Yes. He was already shot and couldn't carry on anymore."

"And did he say anything? He was still alive after collapsing, right?"

There it was. The memories came flooding back, and the words started ringing in my mind.

"I want you to kill yourself."

"What?" Amanda cried.

"Huh?" I was snapped back to reality. I didn't even realize I had said that out loud.

"Did he just–" Amanda covered her mouth, letting out muffled sobs.

Once again, staring at the ground seemed much better than looking at her. An awkward silence spread around us. She was my sister and yet I didn't know what to say to her.

The silence remained for a long time. The only sound I would hear were occasional sobs and sniffles from Amanda.

"Jaden?" Amanda broke the silence.

"Yeah." I raised my head to face her.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked in the softest voice I had heard from her. "How are we gonna survive?"

"I don't think you are ready to hear that just yet."

"You aren't actually thinking about–" Amanda didn't even need to finish that.

"Not at all," I snapped.

This brought some relief to her.

"I need to know what you plan to do for us."

'Us'. Hearing that put me under more pressure. Amanda depended on me and the outcomes of what I intended to do. This made me doubt my plan even more. Yet, this was the only way I could think of.

"Alright listen," I straightened my posture, "Dad wasn't completely wrong when he made his last request. We can't survive long if we keep on raiding. So, we have to change the way we live."

"What?"

"I know this may sound ridiculous. It's too much to take in at the moment. That's why I wanted to wait before telling you about it. But you insisted on telling right now so here it is," I observed her expression for a second before continuing, "We need to see the world beyond our city. There is no point in living like animals anymore. Look what it took from us. We need a new life."

"Jaden, are you sure about that? It will just be the two of us against unknown threats. How are we going to survive like that?"

"No, it's not going to be just the two of us."

"What do you mean?"

I sighed. What I was about to tell her was even more insane than all the things I said before.

"We can reunite the remaining survivors of the city and bring them with us."

Amanda paused for a second. She looked like she was about to yell, but then composed herself.

"Jaden, I think you need rest. You are not thinking clearly."

She wasn't completely wrong. But I was so angry at my fate that all I wanted to do was change it.

"This is the only way left for us. What happened today was eventually going to happen someday, anyway. And if we continue living like that, our ends will come someday as well."

"What makes you think the outside world is any less dangerous than where we live?"

"But there will be hope for us. There has to be someplace in the world which is better than where we live. And even if our chances of finding it are very slim, there is at least a chance."

"We have been living here our entire life. It may not be the best place, but we do have some happy memories."

"You were too young to understand how bad our situation was. All I remember was becoming a mass murderer before becoming an adult. You don't know what it's like being on a raid."

I lowered my voice. "Look, I want a better life for us. Even Dad didn't want us to carry on with a life like this. It's a risk we have to take."

Amanda turned silent. She wanted to protest but had no idea what to say. Or maybe she didn't want to give me any more pain.

"So, how do you plan on convincing the survivors? They won't ever listen to us."

"I am not planning on convincing them. I will force them. The choice will be really simple–join us or die."

Author's Note

Not much action in this chapter, I know. It was purely dedicated to emotions. But the main plot shall begin from the next chapter as is evident.