by Kody Boye
“I know we can,” Wu replies.
I smile.
“You think so too, Kel?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “I… I think we can.”
“But how will we get home once we get to Gladberry?” she asks. “I mean… it’s not like it’s just a few days from here on foot.”
“We’ll find a way. We always do.”
“Yeah,” Ceyonne says, and tilts her head back to the sky. “We always do.”
A single star shoots across the horizon.
“Make a wish,” Wu says.
And so we all bow our heads.
And do.
Epilogue
One Week Later
We are tired and sore. Hungry and famished. Alone and seemingly without purpose.
But we have made it.
Gladberry—noted simply by its single faded wooden sign—looms in the distance, and with it, a sense of belonging is inspired within all of us.
“This is it?” Ceyonne asks, careful to support her tired frame on her walking stick.
“Yeah,” Wu says. “It is.”
We continue onward—through the grassy landscape and along the road.
After a tumultuous night, dawn’s first light is just beginning to creep across the horizon, striking the path before us in a splendid shade of gold. It seems almost too good to be true—because for the past week, we have simply been walking, only stopping to drink from rivers and streams, to sleep for the nights and then rise in the mornings.
Now that we are here, though—
It seems only right that it begins on a new day.
As we walk, and as we make our way along the road, people are drawn from the depths of their home. Strangers in a strange land would be a fitting metaphor for us three girls in hoods, so it isn’t surprising to see that they are concerned.
Has word of the Glittering City reached here?
I don’t know, and yet, a part of me believes that it may have—that, despite my intentions, our declaration was made ever so clear even across such a distance.
Before I can think much further, Wu lifts her hand to point. “There,” she says. “That’s my house.”
“You think they’re awake?” Ceyonne asks, drawing up alongside her.
“I think they are,” she says.
It takes us only a few moments for the three of us to make our way to the home, which sits upon an old wooden foundation, whose door is marked with a welcome mat from ages past.
Seeing Wu climb up the steps, and watching as she knocks on the door, is enough to make my heart flutter.
Within moments, the door is opening.
A woman is staring out.
A cry is made.
Then she falls to her knees and wraps her arms around Wu’s legs.
Though I cannot understand what she is saying, given that it is in a language that is not my own, I hear the woman’s lamentations—understand her cries of relief and sorrow. A man appears in the threshold. Then he, too, is upon the girl.
After several joyous moments, Wu turns to face us and says, “Mama, Papa… these are my friends.”
The woman smiles.
The man steps forward to look at the two of us.
He says, “You are… Kelendra Cross? And Ceyonne Marsden?”
“Yes sir,” I say. “We’re them.”
“How do you—” Ceyonne starts.
She stops before she can finish.
At first, I’m not sure why she’s gone silent.
Then I turn my head and realize why.
In the threshold leading to the Dao family home is none other than Ceyonne’s mother and her younger sister, Baylea.
“How?” I ask, turning my head to look at Mr. Dao as Ceyonne hobbles toward the front porch. “The Sandstone Hills are hours away.”
“They made the trip when the man named McGee said you would be coming home.”
“They?”
A hand touches my shoulder.
I lift my eyes.
And almost immediately begin to cry.
Standing before me is the one woman I could’ve never imagined seeing again.
“Hello, Kelendra,” my mother says.
“Mama?” I reply. “Is it… is it really you?”
“Yes, dear. It’s really me.”
I collapse into her arms soon after.
“How?” I whisper, holding on to her as tight as I possibly can.
“We came by vehicle,” she replies, continuing to hold on to me for dear life. “The man named Dusty said that you were heroes—that you sacrificed yourselves for the good of the people, for the good of the country.”
“But why are you here?”
“We were rallying the people to march upon the city,” she says, “to take back the country that is rightfully ours. I couldn’t just let my little girl’s memory go up in flames.”
“But… Mama,” I say. “You can’t fight. You… you don’t—”
“We all can fight, Kelendra. You’ve proven that for all of us.”
As I stand there, holding tight to the one remaining family member in my life, I close my eyes and take a long, deep breath.
“Father,” I say, tears burning down my eyes. “He… he didn’t make it.”
“I know, honey,” she whispers. “I was told.”
She holds me tight for several long moments, during which time the people from the surrounding homes come out, then draw forward. Questions are in their eyes, on their lips, in their voices. They don’t approach, however, for in this moment, it is simply me and my mother and all our pain and suffering.
In but a moment, it occurs to me that, while I’ve lost almost everything, I’ve gained something in return.
“Mama,” I say, lifting my eyes to face her as the sound of vehicles begin to come up the road—as men and women who can only be from neighboring settlements jump down from the heights of open-topped trucks with weapons in their hands. “I… I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asks, taking hold of my face and lifting my eyes to face hers. “Tell me.”
But rather than speak, I take hold of her hands, then press them to my abdomen.
She stares at me for several long moments.
Then, slowly, she smiles.
As around me the people begin to make preparations to take back the world that is rightfully ours, my mother laughs and draws me into yet another hug.
In the moments that follow, Ceyonne, Wu, and their families draw forward.
“So,” Wu says, turning her eyes to the distant south, whereupon the single road that stretches into the distance a few vehicles begin to drive. “What happens now? What’re we doing?”
“We wait,” I say, “for those who are capable to reclaim our world.”
“And if they can’t?” Ceyonne asks.
I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then expel it.
“They can,” I say.
“But how do you know?” Wu frowns.
“You know that thing you have, Wu?”
“You mean faith?” my friend says.
“Yeah. I have it now. And I know, deep down, that everything is going to be okay.”
Though my mother once told me that only the Beautiful Ones survive, I know now that she was wrong.
We won’t just survive.
We’ll thrive.
The End
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About the Author
Though he was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho, Kody Boye has lived in the state of Texas since 2010. His first short story, [A] Prom Queen's Revenge,was published at the age of fourteen. He has since g
one on to publish numerous works of fiction, including the young-adult novels When They Came, The Beautiful Ones, The Midnight Spell and ALT CONTROL ENTER, as well as fiction for adults. He currently lives and writes in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
You can visit him online by clicking or tapping any of the icons below.
Other YA Novels by Kody boye
Kody Boye has multiple young-adult books and series across many genres available for purchase! If you like young people who fight against monstrous creatures, corrupt governments, alien beings, and more, consider checking out some of his other works. Simply click or tap on the banners below!
In the world of The Beautiful Ones, beauty is a currency, and to have it means you can be granted freedom from poverty, at the cost of your free will. For Kelendra Byron, she will soon find that her beauty holds a price—one she may not be willing to pay.
In Dagana: The Last Mermaid, one young woman’s life in inexplicably changed as her parents are viciously murdered by something at sea.
In Kingsman Online, a young woman by the name of Sophia Garza longs to save her terminally-ill mother. To do that, she enters a gaming competition with a prize of a lifetime, only to become trapped in the very game she loves to play.
In The Plague Bloom, follow a young woman as she and her people journey to a promised land atop the backs of their massive Guardians—not only to escape the monstrous Fallen that lurk in the lands below, but to forge a new future.
In The Red Wolf trilogy, a young woman must come to terms with a young man’s strange past, and his even stranger abilities, as the wolves of East Texas return to the small town of Red Wolf.
Scarlet Jane had it all. Until her mother was murdered by a monster. Now, she must either learn to hunt the renegade supernaturals that haunt her world, or forget everything forever.
For best friends Christy and Adam—a witch and a gay young man—life hasn’t been easy. To remedy this, Christy casts a love spell to try and bring Adam’s true love. But has she brought Adam’s first boyfriend to Trinity Springs, or a monster?
When They Came, humanity thought They were their salvation. But six years later, aliens still rule the planet Earth—and one young woman is about to change history.