Three Years Later

Celia and Julian's wedding rages into the night. Oriana and Neo chase the kids around the old cornfield in a game of tag, while the adults dance the night away. Just for tonight, all my living family is back together. For tonight, all is right in Hicksmon.

The summer after our final battle against Gunther, we began recolonizing the United States. The Nomads took Virginia and kept most of the Originals with them. Through their correspondences with Mom they've told us that they're rebuilding Richmond with the help of the rubble sweepers.

Jacob stayed in West Virginia to keep leading Hellhole, but the rest of us moved back to Pennsylvania. We set up a new Deathless camp on the property where my family's house stood before the Prowlers tore through it. As we settled in, we turned our camp into a town, and when it came time to decide on a name for our new territory, Mom and Eleanor suggested we name it after their parents who made that land into our home after the blast. Mom's maiden name Hicks mixed with Eleanor's maiden name Timmons makes Hicksmon.

Hicksmon, Pennsylvania. Home, where Mom is now the sole leader of the Deathless, though Dad is always at her side. Declan resigned to get back into the lab, and I resigned to join him. He and I are working on a new project, genetically modifying the seeds of medicinal plants to increase their medicinal value. Essentially, we are creating a living, growing pharmacy based off of Declan's original research.

An upbeat song plays over the field from the music center, and I take turns dancing with Dad, Ian, Declan, Julian, and Daniel. Mom sits with Eleanor and Joe by the fire, even though Dad and I keep calling her up to dance.

"Are you crazy?" she yells back. "I'll have the baby right there in the field." She and Eleanor laugh as Mom rests her hand on bump where my little brother is growing. Another month and he'll be here. Henry Blume, that's what they've decided to name him. After my uncle.

Julian spins Celia, and her dress flows out around her as she turns. Esther and Tempest take a break from tag to fluff the fabric of Celia's dress, lifting it higher into the air and laughing as they do it. Esther is beautiful, though she doesn't seem to have taken after me at all. Her eyes are richly brown and her hair is as golden as a pancake. She has all of Nate's genes, but since Eleanor has blonde hair and brown eyes too, Esther passes for her daughter without question.

Tempest is a perfect blend of both Ava and Ian's genes, with the dark hair Ian used to have before Raviv and his men saved his life, Ian's blue eyes, and Ava's lioness face. Tempest and Esther know they're cousins, that's how we introduced them last night. They haven't asked how they're cousins yet, and I don't expect they will for at least a few years. We'll deal with that awkward conversation then. For now, we'll let them be kids, unaffected by Gunther's toxic legacy for as long as possible.

Ava and Ian made it out from China for the wedding. They're living there for the time being as they help rebuild Chinese communities. In the three years since we've seen them, they've revitalized communities in eleven different countries. The light from the solar-powered string lights around the field reflects off Ian's chrome skull cap as he and Ava dance beside Jane and Dr. Guzman.

The two of them, Joe, and Daniel run the Patel Ward Medical Center we built down the road, where Eleanor also works as a nurse. Jane is a real caregiver now. Not because someone forced her to be, but because she worked hard to earn it. Pretty soon she'll be promoted to head of the ER and then she won't be directly supervised by Dr. Guzman anymore. Finally, they'll be able to go public with the relationship they've been hiding—badly—for the past few months.

I smile to myself when I see Dr. Guzman's hand brush over hers while they dance. A group of girls from the estate crowd them, blocking their secret flirtation from most everyone's view, including Tanya, the old comforter from the estate who tried to attack me.

Since her artificial insemination didn't work, Tanya was able to lift heavy things and help us clean up the remains of our house when we moved back to Pennsylvania. She's dating one of the former Workers who was in my troop during the battle, and together they work construction. She helped build the new house Celia and Julian will move into tonight. She also helped renovate some of the neighborhood houses into the Rivera Art Gallery where Celia gives lessons, the Nina Allen Center of Music, the Sato Kazemi Gymnasium, and the Hugh Quail Research Lab, in which we have the Phoebe Clark Laboratory of Mechanics, the Winston Fowler Laboratory of Physics, the Alexander Ovis Laboratory of Chemistry, and the Flynn O'Neal Laboratory of Natural Sciences. Tanya's had a hand in nearly all the new structures in our community.

Sometimes I forget how I met her. She's a new woman without Cooper's nonsense filling her brain. I'm glad Ava didn't totally destroy her in that fight.

Esther and Tempest run past me and Dad, straight into Eleanor's arms. Eleanor nearly falls backwards off the bench where she's sitting beside Joe, who is still confined to his wheel chair. No matter what we've done, we can't repair the damage Gunther did to him. Joe and Eleanor have really hit it off too, especially since she's been working with him at the medical center. Joe definitely has feelings for her, but I can tell she still isn't ready to move on. But mostly, she's just oblivious to Joe's feelings. Maybe one day he'll tell her, and hopefully one day she'll be ready to hear it. I like Joe. He'd fit well into to our family.

Declan cuts in as the song changes from upbeat to slow. He opens his metal fingers to me and as Dad gives me a kiss on the cheek, I place my hand in Declan's.

Daniel doesn't mind—he's already too busy scooping Esther into his arms to dance with her. He's truly embraced his role as older brother to Esther. No one would ever even guess he had ever felt any hesitance about her. He is the first person Esther wants to see when she wakes up and the last person who kisses her goodnight before she falls asleep. Nate may be her biological father, but Daniel is her dad. One day when Daniel and I are ready for our own kids (in many, many years), he's going to be the best, like he always wanted to be.

"This song's a little slow for a couple of weirdos like us," I joke with Declan.

His metal fingers wrap over mine. He can control each one separately now, which he couldn't do before. He's been pointing at everything, giving me the thumbs up whenever I do something even remotely positive, and giving me the middle finger whenever he disapproves of something I do. It's resulted in a lot of playful pushing and punching, as is normal for us.

"You're right," he says. He takes a step back, bends his knees, and starts swaying his hips, moving our hands with the motion. "This is more our style, huh?"

I laugh. "Yeah, this is definitely more us," I say, mimicking his silly dance moves.

"It's nice to have everyone home, right?"

"Home?" I ask.

He smiles. "Yeah, Isla. This is our home now. As much as I don't like to think about things before we came here, I have to admit, it's good to have everyone from our war days back together."

"It makes Julian and Celia's wedding more of an occasion." I look around at all the decorations, mostly pink flowers from the garden by the side of the road. When we first moved out here, I didn't mean for it to serve any other purpose than to bring color to the area, but it's done so much more than that. It's given Oriana and Neo something to be passionate about, and it's given me something to teach them. They grew all the flowers for this wedding specifically for Celia. Every flower holds a special meaning, and every single flower is pink, Celia's favorite.

Pink roses for admiration, pink tulips for love, and pink sweet pea for bliss. All things they wish for Celia and Julian in their marriage.

I smirk. "If it's even possible to make their wedding more of an occasion."

"I know of another wedding that should be made into an occasion."

I roll my eyes. "Daniel and I decided to wait until the town was established."

Declan shrugs. "I'd say it's established."

"We still have to expand the living quarters. There are more houses to build." I want to laugh that we've continued dancing Declan's goofy twist throughout this entire conversation, but I keep a straight face to match Declan's.

"There will always be more to build, more to do. Rebuilding the world is a job that never ends. Just live your life."

I glance back at Daniel and Esther as he bounces her in his arms to the slow beat. I smile. "Care to switch dance partners?" I ask Declan.

"Sure," he says with a grin. We head over to Daniel and Esther and cut in. Declan takes Esther into his arms, spinning her around over his head like a prize, and I fall into Daniel's embrace.

"Let's set a date," I say as soon as we lock eyes.

His face lights up the dark. "Are you sure? I feel like there's still so much more to do with the town. I'm fine with waiting," he says, though I know he's lying. He's been dropping hints about setting a date since Julian proposed to Celia last year.

I look around us at all the people we love and we survived the war with. This is what we fought for, what we survived for: family, love, and community. This night is perfect. I want it all over again.

"Yes, I'm sure. What about July 14th? My birthday. What an amazing present would that be?"

"That's in two weeks," Daniel says.

I shrug. "The flowers have already been grown, extra food already set aside. Why not? We'll get Jacob and Ava and Ian to stay a little longer so they don't have to make two trips. We can enjoy our family around us in Deathless for as long as we can before we have to all split up again."

He smiles and shakes his head. "You're crazy, Isla Blume, but I love you. July 14th it is."

***

The kids are all asleep, the party mostly cleaned up, and the last of the candles burned out. Jacob, Teresa, Ava, Ian, and Tempest agreed to stay the two weeks after some serious begging on my part. Of course now I'm too excited and hyper from dancing all night and thinking about our wedding to sleep.

Daniel and I climb to the roof of the government building. There's a corner of it we're pretty sure is the same place where we used to lay when the house was still here, so we crawl to that corner and lie down to watch the stars.

"There's Laughiticus," he points out. "And there's the dancing bear. I like that some things never change."

I smile and take his hand. The past three and a half years have brought a lot of change for us, and with our wedding, more will change; but he's right. Some things remain.

Twenty-eight years after the world ended, and we are still surrounded by reminders that survival isn't easy. But to find friends and family who make it easier and to carry them in your heart, even if they're gone, that's what makes surviving worth the fight.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading. Your support has meant everything to me. 

Thank you for helping me grow as a writer and for giving me a reason to keep writing even when I felt like quitting. You are the reason this trilogy was possible.

I can only hope that it meant as much to you as you have meant to my books.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

<3