The following is just a small glimpse into the lives of the Deathless ten years after the end of the trilogy.

Esther, Henry, and Tempest run on the playground outside the school in Hicksmon, though thirteen-year-olds Esther and Tempest are really just looking over ten-year-old Henry. They are almost too old to play now, so Isla Blume doesn't interfere in their game of tag, even though that's why she took Toben outside with her: to call the kids in for dinner.

Tempest is staying with Isla and Daniel this winter, since her parents Ava and Ian worried it would be too cold in Russia this year for her to join them for their newest community rebuild. Esther, of course, was happy to have her cousin with her, even if she still doesn't know how they're related. She grew up assuming they were cousins the same way Aunt Isla and Celia Guzman are sisters. The term family means something different in Hicksmon than it does in the dictionary. That's how home works.

While Isla Blume bounces her six-month-old son in her arms, she watches Tempest and Esther tire from running after Isla's brother Henry. "Henry, stop. You won, okay? You won," Esther pants.

Henry laughs in victory as Tempest wraps her arm around his shoulders. "Way to go, Henry," she says.

"Thank you, thank you."

Henry looks up and sees Isla watching over them from the front yard of her and Daniel's home. It was built especially for them as a first year anniversary present from the community. Huge tiger lilies bursting from the ground are painted all around their home and a bright orange door welcomes all who enter. It's a funny and conspicuous house, but Isla and Daniel don't mind. People come to their home often, whether for Daniel's guidance or Isla's stories, and always seem to leave as bright and cheerful as the door. Especially now that Toben is there to play with.

Toben has his father's warm skin and his mother's bright green eyes. From what anyone can tell, he will be just as brilliant as his parents, if not more so.

Henry waves to his sister. "Is it time for dinner?" he calls.

Isla simply nods, not wanting to yell to the kids with Toben so close, and she gestures for them to come inside, where it's warm. With the sun setting, the shadows of evening cool the autumn air. Isla shivers, clutching Toben close to her.

"Are they coming?" Daniel asks from the open doorway.

Isla turns back, smiles, and nods. "They're on their way now."

Daniel smiles, pushes his glasses up, and opens his arms to take Toben. As soon as Isla passes the boy to his father, Daniel lifts Toben into the air, causing the boy to squeal with happiness.

Henry, Esther, and Tempest run past Isla, and for a moment--just a split second--Esther looks so much like Nate, with her crooked smile and her rich brown eyes, that Isla's heart flutters with momentary shock. She loves Esther, but every now and then, Isla swears she sees Nate living through her and it gives her the chills, as if she's seen a ghost.

Isla is left alone outside, the orange door open behind her. She crosses her arms and looks around with a long breath. The town she and the Deathless created in the very place where her ancestors survived the blast has finally become everything she always hoped it would be: a developed, knowledge-centric haven for survivors. Thirteen years later, Hicksmon is nearly perfect.

The old cornfield is a community park and garden that she and Declan Kunkle created. The government building where Beatrice Blume works is getting an extension in the spring for the new congressional chamber. Just in time for the fifth annual World Alliance conference.

"Isla, honey?"

She turns back to find her mother Beatrice leaning in the door frame.

"We're waiting for you," Beatrice says, tilting her head down with a kind smile.

Isla relaxes her arms and leaves the cool air behind her. She links her arm with her mother's and together, they join their family at Isla and Daniel's holiday table, the one that stretches from the dining room to the living room for family occasions. Everyone is there for Thanksgiving. Even Jacob and Teresa have made it out for the holiday.

Celia, Julian, and one-year-old baby Xenia sit at the end of the table beside Dr. Guzman and Jane Guzman. Eleanor, Esther, and Joe sit next to the Guzmans. Beneath the table, Eleanor and Joe clasp hands.

Next to them sits Todd Blume and Beatrice with Henry seated between them. Todd has been practicing putting his poems to music with an old friend's guitar, that rests propped against the wall behind him. Todd is the first to admit that Henry is already better at playing guitar than he is, and with only half the years of practice.

Declan sits across the table from Eleanor, Joe, and Esther. He flaps his napkin open on his lap and pokes his fork into the turkey in front of him. Laughing, Daniel slaps his fork away. "Not yet," Daniel says.

Toben sits in a high chair between Daniel and Isla, across from his grandparents and uncle. When he starts to fuss, Daniel lifts him out of the seat and bounces him on his lap. Toben's parents smile at each other and hold hands from behind the high chair.

"Give the little stinker to me," Declan says, opening his mechanic hand to Toben.

"Here you go to Uncle Declan, little man," Daniel says as he passes the boy to Declan.

Jacob and Teresa sit at the end of the table with a bowl of mashed potatoes. "Anyone going to say grace?" Jacob asks.

Eleanor stands up. "Actually, I'd like to say something." She lifts up her glass of mead, and everyone else follows suit. Except the kids, of course. They lift their cups of juice. "Thirty-eight years ago, my dad and Beatrice's parents survived the apocalypse here. Now, a new generation of survivors are thriving in the same place. Jacob, it was many Thanksgivings ago when my dad and Beatrice's parents welcomed you and Ben into our home. It's always been a special day for me, because of that. I am thankful for all that has happened because the first generation of survivors opened their doors, and I am thankful to be part of a family that still opens its doors. I only hope that this next generation of survivors--Esther, Tempest, Henry, Xenia, Toben--I only hope that you remember what it means to celebrate Thanksgiving in the apocalypse." She raises her glass higher. "To family."

"To family," the other survivors echo.

Together the family feasts for Thanksgiving, with hope in their hearts for the next generation.

***

Continue reading about the next generation of Deathless in my newest book ALL THE SPACE BETWEEN US! 

https://www.wattpad.com/story/63522936-all-the-space-between-us-a-deathless-series-story

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Sneak Peek at ALL THE SPACE BETWEEN US:

Prologue-

Before human beings took over the earth, there were five mass extinction events.

Forty-four years ago, the world experienced its sixth: the nuclear holocaust of nearly all the earth's population. Unlike the first five events, the sixth was man-made, engineered and planned for by a clandestine group of the world's wealthiest and most influential men and women known as Roberts and Cooper.

John Roberts prepared for the event by joining a collection of the world's most intelligent minds to an Earth-like planet known as Janus. George Cooper prepared for the event by building bunkers, as well as a fortress estate just for himself.

When the bombs went off, those who were prepared and those who were chosen to carry on living survived. Citizens who survived were resourceful preppers who created communities to sustain life. Scientists, soldiers, and politicians who survived were cryogenically frozen until the Great Reanimation. Out of those reanimated survivors arose a group of rebels, determined to fight back against Roberts and Cooper's oppressive grip on the earth. They called themselves the Deathless.

When Roberts and Cooper began a campaign to implant control chips in the brains of the survivors in order to rebuild the world more quickly, the Deathless declared war on the group. Many fought and died for freedom of action and thought, but due to their bravery, all were truly deathless.

Those who survived the war began colonizing around the world in accordance with the World Alliance Treaty, which stated:

1. Disputes will be resolved through diplomacy, and taken to the World Alliance if no resolution can be reached. The World Alliance will then resolve the dispute through a vote.

2. Violence and oppression will not be tolerated, and those who wish to break this term will be housed in a World Alliance approved incarceration center after a fair trial finds them guilty.

3. All human beings have the right to freedom of their mind and their bodies, as long as they do not use them to inhibit the freedoms of others.

4. Treat the earth and its resources with respect as the World Alliance institutes new infrastructure, technology, and policies to combat the damage already caused to Earth.

5. There are no distinctions between groups, countries, or beliefs in terms of respect. All human beings are part of one people, an alliance of survivors who benefit not from the oppression of others but from the empowerment of all.

Over the years, new countries developed over the old, including Appalachia and its capitol of Hicksmon, where President Beatrice Blume has presided since the end of the war nineteen years ago. Hicksmon is where most of the Perfects live now.

The Perfects are the children who were genetically engineered for perfection by the late geneticist and Roberts and Cooper ally, Gunther Quail. These children were created using random DNA pairings of people who lived in George Cooper's fortress estate in the years after the Great Reanimation. It was decided long ago that the Perfects would never learn who their biological parents were to avoid bullying and ostracism.

In all of Hicksmon, only one document contains the secret of the Perfects, and only those who had been influential in developing Hicksmon are aware of the DNA pairings of the Perfects.

Until now.

Continue reading in ALL THE SPACE BETWEEN US!