The island was okay. Loathe as I was to admit it at first. We’d been there for six months so far, and after the initial shock everyone had upon being told of Alex’s deal with the president, they were quick to cooperate as he’d hoped. They didn’t want to disrespect Alex’s sacrifice by refusing.
They flew us all out on a large plane, and the whole flight there all I could think about was our family. All of our families really. Had they all really been convinced of our deaths to some new outbreak? Were they okay without us? I had a hard time imagining that an entire city could be torn apart like that, kids ripped away to some off-limits hospital and not allowed to communicate with their loved ones ever again. How could they just accept that? What time I didn’t spend obsessing over the bleak truth, I spent desperately staring out the windows, trying to find some landmark and figuring out where they took us. I didn’t have any luck on that front.
The island was small, but well equipped if nothing else. It had plenty of housing for our small group, now just over sixty people left. The first supplies were given to us as we arrived, and I was tasked with dividing them up. It wasn’t as much as we had at the lab, but it was enough to live off of comfortably. Besides the housing we had a small makeshift hospital, equipped with basic medical supplies.
Most people spent their days at the beach, given the lack of other options for entertainment. It was like an extended remote vacation. The only real jobs that needed done was occasional medical care by our few remaining doctors, and the inventory and requests for supply changes each month when the men showed up to deliver everything that was requested the previous month. Despite the president saying we would be monitored to ensure we didn’t leave the island, no one stayed with us. I assumed that they had some remote way of viewing the island, perhaps cameras we hadn’t located just off shore.
Lucas and Isabelle were settling in okay, both of them checked on me a lot. Jake was torn up at first, and refused to leave me alone for a while. We shared one of the houses on the island, and it helped a bit to feel like we had a home again, even though our parents weren’t there. Jake started spending a lot of time with the girl from the lab, Melissa, who had checked up on him after the battle.
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As for me, it took awhile to grasp the situation, and see it as a positive. I spent a lot of time angry at Alex for leaving me, for giving up. But the longer I thought about it the more I realized there was no other way. Madison had told us in no uncertain terms that ideally, he would have us all killed. He’d already gotten away with the story of how we died, and I had no doubt in my mind that he’d succeed eventually. Powers were one thing, but they could only do so much against the president’s direct order to have us killed. If we’d tried to refuse the deal he would have killed us all right there in his bunker, and taken out everyone left at the lab before they even knew what happened. There was no way around it.
Heaven’s Gate, Alex had named the island. I couldn’t help but smile at the last jab he took at me. All those months ago when my wings first developed and I worried more than ever before about the whole angel thing. It seemed silly now. I knew deep in me that he’d named the island that so I wouldn’t forget him or the laughs we shared over the years, and it made me happy to think about.
We had to come to terms with this being our new normal. I didn’t take a single day for granted, no matter how much I missed Alex and my family. If I felt sad I’d look out at the ocean, and just tell myself that I was only alive, only free, because Alex gave us this second chance at an almost normal life. Above all else I was determined to keep my promise. I’d be happy here, as often as possible, and make the most of this life.
One day, as I was watching the sunset on the beach in a calm trace-like state, I couldn’t help but notice something start to form on the horizon. As it crept into focus I finally recognized it for what it was. A large boat, headed right for our island. It wasn’t the plane that usually delivered our supplies, and it wasn’t even that time of the month yet. It was an unfamiliar boat that threatened to disturb our permanent vacation.