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The petite redhead interrupted my thoughts. “Just so you know, Ray and I, we never… uh… it’s not like that.” A bright red blush spread up her neck and across her cheeks.
I tried to pretend like that hadn’t been exactly what I was envisioning. “Ray and I haven’t been together for a very long time.” Even though it was the truth, it tasted like a lie.
We hadn’t been together. But last night also felt like no time had passed.
“Still, I’ll let you know. Ray’s not like that.” She shrugged, and stepped toward the door. “Come on. I’ll show you where to find the cereal that isn’t stale before everyone gets bored of the fight.” With no other option than to trust her, I followed her out the door and into the hallway Ray had led me down the night before.
It was different in the day, sunlight streaming in through the partially boarded-up windows. It made the corners less spooky, the edges less jagged. But it also illuminated the wear on the wood, souvenirs of everything that happened over the last decade.
Hannah made her way down the stairs, toward the common room where the Choosing had taken place. As we walked, she spoke to me quietly over her shoulder. “On days we don’t have Ceremonies or a Choosing, we’re left to our own devices for the most part. The doors are locked with keys, obviously, and they leave a couple of the lower-ranking brothers to keep watch over us. But the day is mostly ours. Sometimes we even have water and can alternate showers.”
A shower. With running water. I knew the water wouldn’t be hot – gas was long gone, and electricity was iffy at best.
But I couldn’t remember the last time I had bathed inside and not out in the open. Still, a thought nagged at me. “Why don’t you just leave? Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to overpower a couple guys. Hannah shrugged. “They leave the brothers on duty with guns. It may not be the life I envisioned for myself, but it’s better than being dead most days.”
She paused, chewing on her lip. “Some of the girls… theylikebeing here.”Even horrified, I could understand how being a captive could be tempting to some of these girls. Sure enough, just like Hannah had said, one of the brothers sat next to the door, watching us as we walked to the other side of the room.
“Good morning, Brother Tybalt,” Hannah murmured as we passed. The Kingsnake tipped his head toward us in acknowledgement, but said nothing. We stepped through the door into an ancient kitchen. “How can you tell them apart?” I whispered, not knowing what was allowed and what wasn’t in this surreal environment.
Hannah hummed, opening a cupboard with only one door remaining. She stuck half her body inside to rummage through the mess. “You learn pretty quickly based on their voices, and how they act. Tybalt isn’t usually a bad one, as long as you don’t piss him off. Others you’ll want to steer clear of completely.” I wanted to ask her more, to know which brothers I needed to avoid, but she was already pulling out a plastic bag of what looked like kids’ cereal.
“Here we go! One of the brothers raided a storage facility a few weeks ago and found loads of unopened cereal. I’ve hidden some of it at the very back, but I’ll share it with you.” I smiled, oddly charmed at the easy comradery we had developed.
I wasn’t surprised Ray hung around with Hannah, but I was shocked at how long she had managed to survive after the Collapse. In my personal experience, most of the sweet ones were long gone.
I took the proffered bowl filled with the neon hoops, and sat cross legged on the dusty floor. Hannah sat across from me with her own bowl. The cereal was dry, of course. Even the Kingsnakes wouldn’t be able to procure milk that didn’t exist. “How long have you been here?”
She chewed slowly, savoring her meal – a look I knew all too well. “The city, orhere?”
“Here.” I took a handful of my own cereal. Slightly chewy, but Hannah was right – it wasn’t overly stale. “When did they… take you?”
“About a year ago?” Hannah was quiet, staring into space past me. She sighed. “Yeah, I think it must be almost a year at this point. I haven’t gotten pregnant, so if it was longer than that I’d know. The ones that don’t get pregnant apparently don’t stick around for longer.”
My heart froze in my chest. “Where do they go?”
She shrugged, casually, as if she wasn’t discussing her own potential near future. “Who knows? One day they’re here, the next day they’re gone. Anything’s got to be better than this bullshit though.”
I was about to say something in retort, something hopeful, uplifting, but really, what was there to say? What were the chances I’d be able to get myself out of here in a month, let alone myselfandHannah? It didn’t matter though, because loud footsteps clattered through the doorway, interrupting our quiet breakfast.
“Well, if it isn’t Little Orphan Annie and the new girl who thinks she can steal another girl’s man.” My jaw tightened, already annoyed without caring to see who stood behind me. Hannah looked up past me, and then back at me with a shake of her head. “It’s not worth it, Mila.”
I turned around to see the girl who had been in line next to me last night. Lauren? No. Laura. She wore the same dress, same shoes, and an expression that screamed trouble. “Good morning to you, too,” I said, taking another bite of my dry cereal.
“It would’ve been a good morning, if you hadn’t stolen my man on the first night here,” she accused, slapping her hands on her hips. I did everything in my power to not roll my eyes. As far as I was aware, we were captives in the middle of an apocalypse, not in a high school cafeteria.
“Look, if you’re wanting to fight, I think two girls upstairs already beat you to it. I just showed up here yesterday and did what they told me to do.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “You realize I had no say in who chose me, right?”
Laura sneered. “Brother Prospero was supposed to choose me yesterday, and he would’ve if you hadn’t shown up. You could’ve said no when they offered him to you.”
I set my bowl of cereal down, staring up at her in disbelief. Surely, she couldn’t be serious. “Are you kidding me right now? How was I supposed to know any of this?”
“Maybe if you’d spent a little less time sucking dick when you got here, and a little more time learning your place, you’d know we have a hierarchy amongst the girls. And new girls are on the bottom of the totem pole.” She smirked, a cruel twist of her lips. “Brother Dogberry is probably more your speed anyways,bitch.”
“Laura,” Hannah hissed. “Stop it.”
I considered de-escalating the situation, explaining to Laura that Brother Brutus was the one who made the decision. But it was too late, because Laura was already circling, and my fight instincts kicked in. “Excuse me?”
Laura’s grin grew wider, a shark smelling blood in the water. “You heard me. The only way a new girl would’ve landed Brother Prospero is on her knees begging for Kingsnake dick.”
