13. Rue

Rue

The death toll from yesterday was over three billion. Billion. With a B. We're now at half the world's population gone. Every single coastal city or town or fishing village was hit. Every single island was hit. While no one had physically checked on every island—some 16,000—estimates were suggesting that the entire populace were likely murdered.

There was nowhere for them to run. Drown in the ocean. Their ships being sunk. Without an escape, they'd succumbed to the murderous rampage.

I stood on top of the wall, looking out. We were about a hundred miles from the nearest coast, and while I didn't have a visual this far away, I could see smoke and debris giving the coast a hazy look.

The news showed bodies upon bodies. Blood everywhere. Body parts strewn about like someone was spreading cremated remains.

As with the first attack, the assailants left as quickly and suddenly as they came. This time we saw their departure more clearly—via the water. But they quickly disappeared on the horizon, leaving the world devastated once again.

I'd always known the world was going to become a dark place when Silence finally made their move, but I stupidly thought I'd never see that day. They had better things to do. And never had I thought they'd put humans on their extinction list. But they sure as fuck were trying.

The wall to the compound was eight feet thick, so there was a very wide path all around the top. I'd been wandering for an hour, but now I just stared ahead. Watching the haze of what had once been a thriving city on the coast.

Food chains were going to break down now. Silence could probably stop and just watch as humans reduced themselves to tribes, fighting over resources. They'd likely kill themselves off at this point.

Then again, four billion people wasn't a small number. That was still a lot of zeros. The rest of the population was somewhere inland, in suburban and rural areas. I imagined that Silence's next move was going to be to just let the beasts run loose until they'd killed everyone.

Were they toying with us now? Was that why they'd left our little compound alone? Or maybe they were saving us for the end. Making sure we were watching what they'd done to the world before they came for us.

It was probably the latter.

The two attacks were only six days apart. How long before the next? Would it be tomorrow, or did we have another six days to wait and see what they threw out next?

My phone rang, making me jump slightly. It was so peaceful up here. It felt wrong to feel such peace when I was seeing a mass death bed in the distance.

"Hello?"

"Hey," Bryn greeted. "What're you doing? Where are you?"

"I'm staring at the city on the ocean in the distance."

"You're not outside the walls, are you?" he asked, tension in his voice.

I smiled. There was something awfully humbling about knowing someone was worried about you. "No. I'm on top of the wall. Why?"

His sigh filled my ear and I smiled. "Want to take Koa to the park with me? We're going to meet Blythe and her littles."

"Littles? Like Koa?"

"Oh. No." He laughed. "I meant her kids. Koa's getting restless inside. Tyrus and Bael are playing at the orphan room with the mutant kids and he has Shadow with him. I think Jasper will bring his young ones over, but they're a little old for Koa and Blythe's kids."

"I'm not sure I recognize most of those names," I said, laughing.

"Sorry. Our friends might join us. How's that for a summary?"

I laughed again. "Yeah, that's good. I'm on the south wall. Where is the park?"

"I'll text Blythe back and we'll head to the park closest to you. I'm going to try to get Koa to ride his bike, but he gets shy when we're in public. But this kid needs to get his energy out before he starts jumping on the bed."

I could just imagine him doing so. It made me grin. "I'm on my way."

"Good. See you in a few minutes."

After taking one last look at the city in the distance—could it still be called a city with no one left alive?—I headed for the stairs. I was sure that there was magic woven into the stairs. From the top of the wall, the compound looked like it was miles below. But it was easily only two flights of stairs. Not eighty.

I touched the sidewalk a few minutes later and oriented myself to where I thought the park might be. To the left was the front gate and while there were grassy areas in that direction, I hadn't seen a lot of kids that close to the gates. So I ventured right.

Sure enough, I came across a large park. There were already kids playing, but none of them were Koa. I mean, he would be easy to pick out. My big Little man. Since I wasn't sure what Blythe looked like, I wandered for a while until Koa glided up to me on a bike with a big smile.

"Hi," he said.

"Hey, baby. Look at you riding your bike. You're such a big boy, aren't you?"

Koa beamed at me. He looked back over his shoulder to Bryn with that smile as he approached with his hands in his pockets.

"Where do you want to play?" Bryn asked.

Koa looked around. I could tell he was interested in the other kids, but his nervousness won out. He chose one of the empty play areas and pointed.

"Go ahead. We'll follow you," Bryn told him.

Koa nodded. He turned his bike and started pedaling in that direction.

Bryn offered me his hand and I laced my fingers with his. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just… mourning, I think."

He sighed. "I get it. It feels wrong living our lives like the world isn't falling around us and yet, what are our choices right now?"

"I feel like… it's hopeless."

Bryn squeezed my hand. "I know," he said, quietly. "I secretly think that's why we've been at such a stalemate for so long. We're overwhelmed. We already feel defeated. Afraid that if we move forward, we're going to fail, and we'll lose everyone we love. So we've locked ourselves away and live in a false sense of safety that they won't come after us."

"But it's only a matter of time," I muttered, sighing.

He nodded. "Yep. And yet, I'm going to say we're done talking about this for a while and we're just going to concentrate on family time and our friends."

I didn't argue. More than anything, I think we all wanted to pretend that what was happening outside of these walls wasn't real. Or at the very least, it couldn't touch us. Bryn was right—we were living under a false sense of security.

Koa had parked his bike under a tree—and by parked, I meant dropped it. He was already on the merry-go-round, helmet still on. With one leg bent on the surface of the ride, he gripped the bar tightly and used the other leg to spin. I could hear his giggles from where we stopped by his bike.

Bryn picked up the bike and set it against the tree. "Koa. Come here a minute?"

Koa dragged his foot in the sand to stop himself. He swayed slightly for a few steps, laughed madly, and then came running toward us. Bryn caught him with an oof before Koa dropped to his knees with laughter.

"Silly," Bryn teased as he unclipped Koa's helmet. "Want to take off your bike pads, too?"

Koa looked at his elbows and nodded. "Yes, please."

Bryn helped him undo the Velcro. They were finished when a woman joined us with two small kids. Koa grinned at them widely.

"Hey, doll," the woman said. "You're already covered in sand."

Koa shrugged, pointing at the merry-go-round. "Want to play?"

"Be careful, okay? Remember that they're younger than you so you can't go too fast," Bryn said.

Koa nodded. The three of them ran back toward the playground. The youngest, a little boy, toddled more than ran. Actually, so did the little girl.

"This is Blythe," Bryn introduced. "Our new wife, Rue."

I smiled. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

Blythe smiled in return. "You too. So glad you're here."

This place was unlike anywhere I'd ever been. Everyone was welcoming. Everyone expressed just how happy they were that I was finally here to complete the Savages' family. It was… probably the warmest welcome I'd had my entire life.

"Me too," I agreed .

Bryn winked at me. I hadn't noticed the backpack he carried, but he took it off and opened it, pulling out a blanket. He handed it to Blythe. I helped her spread it out on the grass under the tree. Then the two of them started pulling out different containers of food. I recognized nearly everything from Bryn's bag as some of the feast I'd cooked a couple days ago.

"We're having a picnic, huh?" I asked.

"I think we've all been cooped up inside for a while," Bryn said, taking my hand and pulling me toward the blanket. "We need some fresh air and to let the kids run around."

Blythe joined us. "Adlai's on his way. He's taking the afternoon off. I think he needs a break from looking at all the numbers. He's been saying he's going to take up some shifts at Edison's café just so he can think about something else for a while."

Bryn nodded. "Yep, I get that."

We sat in silence for a while, watching the kids play. At a glance, it looked like a father and two kids. But Koa's laughter was just as loud as Blythe's kids.

"How old are they?" I asked.

"Malia is four. Jonnus is almost three. They're actually my cousins; the only two members of my herd that we were able to recover."

My breath caught. "What do you mean?"

"Right before Silence decimated ORKA, ORKA attacked my herd. They killed everyone except the littlest kids, whom they abducted. We only ever found Malia and Jonnus. I'm… not sure what happened to everyone else, but I would assume nothing good."

"I'm so sorry."

Blythe glanced at me, offering me a smile. "Thanks. I'm glad the three of us are here. I'm thankful for my husbands and the life we have now. They know peace, happiness, laughter. I'm hoping that because they were so young, the horrors they faced will fade over time. More than anything, I hope they don't remember the murder of their entire family."

I swallowed, closing my eyes. Bryn wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close.

"Sorry," Blythe said, laughing. "I didn't mean to bring us down. I prefer to offer it up instead of feeling blindsided by questions. It's just easier when I can control the conversation."

"No, that's completely okay. I'm not sure I would have asked if I'd known to ask."

She smiled. Blythe and I jumped when a man dropped onto the blanket beside her, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Fuck's sake," Blythe said, laughing and shoving at him. "That was rude. Why do you always do that?"

"Because you're adorable when you're flustered," he said, pinching her chin and kissing her softly.

Bryn rolled his eyes, meeting mine with a grin. "This is Adlai and yes, he's a tool sometimes and likes to pretend to appear out of nowhere."

Adlai flashed me a big smile. "Pleasure to finally meet you, Rue. Are the monsters being good to you?"

I looked at Bryn, who was still smiling. "Yeah," I said. "I've waited for exactly this moment my entire life."

He rested his forehead on mine. "We have too, precious. For so, so long."

I settled into his side and the four of us quietly watched the kids play. They stayed on the lower equipment though sometimes, Koa went down the slide while the other two clapped and cheered for him.

"No Bael today, huh?" Bryn asked.

Adlai snorted. "I swear, Tyrus would live in his shadow if we'd let him." There was a fond smile on his lips. "But I think it's good they spend so much time with the orphans."

"I'm not sure I even want to know what that's about," I said.

All three of them shook their heads. "You really don't," Blythe confirmed. "More horror than I think we should live through."

I honestly didn't think I could learn anything worse than what I already knew, but that thought felt like a challenge to the universe so I quickly dismissed it. My mind wasn't a particularly dark place, so very easily there were probably a whole lot worse things in the world than I knew about.

"Bael is another child of yours?" I asked instead.

Both Adlai and Blythe pulled out their phones. We laughed as they raced to show me pictures. However, I was startled at the dark little boy I saw.

"A demon?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Something like that," Adlai agreed, setting his phone down and pulling Blythe into his lap. He rested his chin on her shoulder as Blythe continued to turn her phone to me so I could see pictures of their three kids and a whole array of adults. Their repetition in pictures suggested that they were family.

I didn't question his answer.

"You going to have kids?" Blythe asked after a while, setting the phone down next to Adlai's and leaning back into him, wrapping her arms over his around her waist.

Bryn and I exchanged looks before simultaneously shaking our heads.

"We have Koa," Bryn said. "Our perpetual kid. I think we're all happy with that."

I nodded in agreement.

Once again, we sat enjoying the quietness of the park, listening to the kids play, the birds singing, and a gentle breeze through the air. Conversation continued, but I thought, like me, someone spoke whenever their thoughts reverted to what we were up against. As if we couldn't stop thinking about it, but tried like hell to focus on literally anything else.

Eventually, we called the kids over for lunch and it was a very messy affair filled with laughter and at least a little bit of eating. Then Koa laid down, placing his head in my lap. He quickly fell asleep and I just stared at him.

Bryn fed me bites of dessert while we sat in the silence of the kids napping. Blythe and Adlai's positions hadn't changed, but now she had both kids in her lap, draped over each other, and sound asleep.

I could live forever in these quiet family moments.

My husband brought another spoonful to my mouth, and I accepted it. When he pulled the spoon away, he pressed his lips to mine.

Yes. Forever. I just hoped forever was longer than what the dark cloud hanging over us suggested it would be.