Terrence woke up with a splitting headache. Caliax had long since departed, but he’d at least had the decency to sequester Terrence away behind a pillar, out of the direct line of sight of most monsters. Terrence groaned, rubbing his temples and dislodging about a dozen pale butterflies.
That succeeded in rousing him. He sat up, pressing his back against the pillar, and warily called out, “Chi-chi?”
The feathered monster chirped in reply, darting out from around the corner. She knelt next to Terrence and cooed happily, picking the butterflies off of his hair and shoulders. He cautiously returned her smile, feeling somewhat concerned about the red stains around his little friend’s mouth. He trusted her…mostly.
Well, he hadn’t expected to finish the journey to the surface with a monster in tow, but he’d just have to hope that things would go smoothly. He sighed, getting to his feet. It was time to end this perilous adventure. “Are you ready to get out of this place?”
She trilled happily, clearly in agreement.
The rest of the journey went off without a hitch, and about five minutes later, they had ascended to the surface and found the rare sight of a living, breathing human. The survivor didn’t immediately shoot them and Chi-chi didn’t swarm him with butterflies, so things were off to a great start. Together, they made it to the group of ragged fugitives and survivors that comprised the remaining population of New Jericho and its suburbs.
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Aurelien was there. His mother was, too. The rising sun had never seemed so bright. Felicia would not see it, nor would Cody nor Victor nor many others. But Terrence and his family did, and that would have to be enough.
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It was a few days before Caliax’s group came to take them. It wouldn’t have mattered if it had been weeks, with so few people left to organize their defenses. They were starving and injured and without hope, and by the time Caliax arrived with food and the promise of safety, they accepted regardless of the cost.
Terrence sat at the back of the bus with his family. Aurelien turned and gazed out the window, watching the ruins of New Jericho disappear. Perhaps in time, others would consider it home, or perhaps it would be swallowed by the dust.
The driver, a blue humanoid that was just a parasite in another stolen body, turned the wheel and the city fell out of view. Terrence’s mother took off her coat and offered it, but her son refused it. “Do you think we ever had a chance?” he asked her.
“I’d hoped.” She looked around the bus, watching the other passengers. They were ragged and tired, but at least they were alive. And having survived an apocalypse and the years that came after, she could say that she’d seen her fellow humans rebound from some pretty dire situations. “Perhaps we still do.”
He gazed back at the desolation, the land where the veils of reality were broken, and at its few survivors who still stubbornly, falteringly held on. Quietly, he turned away. “Perhaps we do.”