The Blood Will Dry

by Mary, Kate L.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Told you we could do it,” Daisy gasped.

  Bryan looked ready to fall over by the time everyone was up and we were on our way home. We were only a few blocks away, but those last ten minutes seemed to take the longest. Even worse, it was early in the morning, so when we stepped through the door the lobby was buzzing with activity and everyone wanted to know what had happened.

  “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Is the queen dead?”

  “Are the bugs coming?”

  The questions flew at us so fast that it was hard for me to concentrate on them, but impossible for someone with a head injury. Bryan looked like he was going to fall over, so I ignored the crowds who were dying for news and pulled him back toward the infirmary. As much as I wanted to get to my room, I knew that he’d never make it up there.

  We slept the day away as much as we could. The building never settled down after everyone learned that we’d won, and when the next wave of people came back from the hive it got even louder. Even worse was the fact that Alex refused to let Bryan sleep for more than two hours in a row, and since I’d pushed two beds together so we could sleep side by side, my body insisted on waking with him.

  Two days had passed before either one of us felt rested or whole enough to hear what had happened after we left. We learned that the bodies of our fallen had been buried in the tunnel instead of carried back, Anderson included. Some people in the settlement were upset about it, but I understood. The walk was too far and there were just too many people. They were at rest, which was the important part.

  The bodies hanging inside the hive had also been removed and buried, but not before making sure all the bugs growing in them were killed. Just thinking about what our people had been forced to do made me glad I’d been too hurt to stay behind and help. I wasn’t sure I could have cut a human open just to kill the bug inside, no matter how necessary it was.

  Bryan and I returned to my room and continued to rest, and for a few days the settlement lived in a suspended state of celebration. We’d succeeded, but we were still waiting to see what, if any repercussions there would be. If bugs from another hive would come get revenge, if some of the ones that had fled would show up. As each day passed with no sign of the things though, people grew more and more relaxed. Things returned to normal and people began to talk about the future. The mood lifted and stayed that way. It was like we’d started a new era.

  The building was getting more and more empty by the day. Part of me loved it, loved knowing that we had a tangible opportunity for a life, but there was another part of me that hated it. It signaled time passing, just like my slowly healing shoulder did, and I knew that with each passing day there was a chance that the remaining members of the militia would pull out. They’d been talking about it since we got back, about splitting up into smaller groups and spreading out across the country, searching for settlements who were willing to fight the aliens and take down the hives closest to them. So far no one had done it, mainly because so many of them had been injured during the fight, but I knew they were getting restless. I could see their impatience growing and I had no doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t be long before they decided they couldn’t sit still any longer.

  “It’s like a ghost town now,” Daisy said.

  We stood side by side in the lobby, each of us admiring how empty the first floor now felt. The once buzzing building had slowly emptied, leaving only a handful of people who were still living here—not including the militia, who I knew were only biding their time. I got why people were moving on. With the hive closest to us destroyed, they felt like it was safe to start something new. They’d fled the old, smelly office building we’d been crammed into for the last five years and moved to real homes. Apartments and condos, places with actual beds and living rooms. No one had ventured far, at least not that I was aware of, but they’d spread out across several streets. They’d taken the claws we’d cut off the bugs and used them to slash away vines, letting light and air into homes that had been closed up for five years.

  For the first time since the aliens came to this planet, the vines didn’t regrow, and I could only assume it had something to do with the queen’s death. They had all originated from the hive, after all, and I remembered how the vegetation had moved aside for the bugs when I was inside the cell, almost as if the creatures controlled them. The rain and clouds had eased as well. The atmosphere was still damp, the air still cool and sticky at the same time, but it wasn’t always wet. We had times when the storms receded completely, when not even a light mist fell from the sky. When a ray of sunshine somehow managed to break its way through the gray clouds.

  It had all been connected, the aliens, the rain, the vines, and the red tentacles that had impregnated so many of our people. All of it had been part of the hive. But against all odds we had prevailed, and now we were being rewarded with the chance to start over. The blood had finally dried. At least in Dayton.

  Despite the mass exodus, Daisy and I hadn’t moved on. Since returning from the hive three weeks ago she had remained devoted to Tyler. I’d never seen her like this, and I wasn’t sure what to attribute it to. The man, or the knowledge that things could actually be better for us from now on.

  As for me, it would have been nice to say that I’d stayed in my tiny room with Bryan because we’d been too busy going at it like teenagers, but the truth was that we’d both been too injured to do anything else. The concussion he’d suffered during the raid had been more serious than we’d originally thought, and I was still nursing a shoulder that would most likely never be the same. The first week after coming back we’d done very little but lay around, me rolling out of bed painfully every few hours to wake him up, Bryan trying his best to pull himself together even though his brain wouldn’t quite cooperate.

  There was more to it though, only I hadn’t really admitted it to anyone. I was afraid of what would happen when the militia finally decided to pull out. Bryan had told me that he wanted to settle down, but he’d also said he had to wait until the bugs were gone, and they weren’t. We’d taken out one hive, but we had no clue how many more were out there.

  Things had slowly gotten better, he was now up and helping out around the city, but we still hadn’t discussed the next step in our lives. I was terrified that if I brought up the future he’d tell me that he planned to go with the militia, and even though it was his right and I had no real claim to him, I wanted Bryan here. With me.

  “People want to move on,” I told Daisy.

  “I guess so,” she mumbled in response.

  I turned to face her, realizing that if I was going to talk to anyone about the future it should be her. I’d locked Daisy out for so long, but it was time to stop doing that. She was the best friend I’d ever had, both before and after the aliens, and I knew I could trust her to listen to my fears without judgment. Plus, there was a good chance she was just as torn as I was.

  “Do you want to move on?” I asked.

  Daisy frowned and I began to wonder if I hadn’t misread her relationship. Maybe she and Tyler weren’t as serious as they looked. Maybe she would be okay sending him on his way when the militia left.

  “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “In fact, I was thinking I’d go with the militia when they left. I know it sounds nuts, but I want to be a part of reclaiming the human race. I want to know that I’m doing something big with my life.”

  For a moment I couldn’t speak. It had never occurred to me that Daisy would want to leave Dayton. That she’d want to hit the road and help take down the hives, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d been hardcore when I met her in the early days; back when we were both part of a group trying to kill the aliens. I should have known that she would always remain dedicated to wiping the bastards out.

  “Have you talked to Tyler about this?” I asked, because it was all I could think to say.

  “Yeah. It looks like everyone who wants to go wil
l be ready in a week, two at the most. Tyler is leading one of the groups, and I already told him that I’ll be coming.” She paused long enough to reach out and take my hand. “I’m going to miss you.”

  “Me too.” My throat was suddenly clogged with tears, and for the first time in weeks my mind wasn’t on Bryan and whether or not he was going to leave me. It was on my best friend and how in the world I would manage without her. “I just can’t believe this.”

  “I’ve been putting off telling you.” Daisy squeezed my hand. “I’ll come back. When all this is done, I promise I’ll come back and see you.”

  Her face blurred when tears filled my eyes. I wanted to turn away so she couldn’t see them, but she didn’t give me a chance because she pulled me closer and wrapped her arms around me. When that happened, I couldn’t do a damn thing to control the tears. Not that it mattered, because I could tell by the way her body trembled that she was crying too.

  “I love you, Diana,” she whispered in my ear. “For the past five years, you have been the only constant thing in my life, and I love you for that.”

  “Thank you for putting up with all my bullshit. For loving me even though most of the time it probably didn’t seem like I wanted you to.”

  Daisy started to cry harder, and then so did I. We stayed like that for a few minutes, sobbing like two little kids in the middle of the empty lobby. The building was so silent it didn’t feel the least bit familiar, and I felt so vulnerable and open that I barely recognized myself. So much had changed in such a short time.

  Daisy finally pulled away and wiped the tears from her cheeks while I did the same. My nose was running too, and in the absence of tissues I was forced to wipe it on the hem of my shirt, which was gross but par for the course in a post-apocalyptic world.

  “What about you?” she asked when she’d managed to get her emotions under control again. “You don’t want to stay in that shitty little office, do you? Don’t you and Bryan want something nicer?”

  I shook my head, but the mention of Bryan had the tears welling up again. It had been years since I’d cried this much. “To be honest, I’m afraid that he’s going to want to leave with the militia.”

  Daisy’s eyebrows shot up. “You haven’t talked about it?”

  “I’ve been too afraid to bring it up.” I rolled my eyes in hopes of making the tears less noticeable. There was no way it worked. “I get why you’re going, but I know it’s not something I can do. Even if I hadn’t hurt my shoulder I wouldn’t want to. I’ve spent the last five years avoiding life, and now that I have a chance to have a real one, I want to take it.”

  “I think you should talk to Bryan about this,” Daisy said.

  “What if he leaves?” God, I hated how much my voice trembled.

  “Diana, he’s in love with you. You have to know that.”

  I shrugged, but there was a part of me that knew Daisy was right. Bryan and I had a connection that rivaled even what I’d had with Michael. It wasn’t that I’d loved my husband less; it was that we’d had to work so much harder to make it all come together. But things with Bryan had been natural and easy from the first moment. There had been a connection even before I’d let him apologize, one I’d never felt before. It was something that was hard to explain, but I couldn’t deny it. I was in love with Bryan.

  “I guess you’re right,” I finally admitted.

  “Of course I’m right,” Daisy said. “Grow a pair and just talk to him. It will all work out.”

  To say I took Daisy’s advice to heart was an understatement. After we finished talking I couldn’t even bring myself to go back to my room, but instead headed out into the city in search of Bryan. Not that finding him ended up being easy. I knew he was working on vine removal duty, but so were most of the people in the settlement. Pretty much every able-bodied person, regardless of age, was doing the same thing these days.

  The street outside our building was a different place than it had been three weeks ago. The vines that had covered the streets for the last five years had been cut away, revealing asphalt and concrete that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. We knew that bringing cars back would be impossible, the gas had long ago gone bad, but we were hoping that we’d at least be able to ride bikes up and down the streets, or even pull carts. Anything to make moving around easier, especially now that we were more spread out.

  Since our road was pretty clear, I went one block over, following the chopping sound that echoed off the buildings. There I found groups of people hard at work, hacking away at the vines that had felt like a plague for the last five years. People stopped to say hello when they saw me. I didn’t know most of their names, but everyone knew me. I’d been the one to take the queen out in the end and it hadn’t taken long for word to get around, which had made me a hero around the settlement. Something I was still getting used to.

  I was as polite as I could be, considering the situation. It was nice that people were grateful, but the constant praise was getting to me. Yet another reason to move into my own place. Maybe if I laid low for a while people would forget who I was. Unlikely, but still a nice thought.

  I spotted Alvarez hacking away at a vine that was as big around as him and headed over.

  He looked up when I stopped in front of him and smiled. “Diana.”

  “Hey.” I had to squint when I looked up at him and it took me a moment to realize that the sun was in my eyes. I’d missed it so much that I didn’t even mind the way the rays made my eyes tear up. “Have you seen Bryan?”

  “End of the street.” Alvarez ran his hand over his bald head, wiping a layer of sweat away. “How’s the shoulder doing?”

  I shrugged, which only hurt a little. “Better. Alex says it could still be weeks before it doesn’t hurt anymore. Chances are it will never be perfect again.”

  “Will any of us?” Alvarez asked.

  I shook my head, but smiled. “Maybe. Who knows what the future will bring?”

  He nodded as he turned back to the vine in front of him. “Very true.”

  I said goodbye and headed down the street, passing people who were hacking at vines and others who were dragging now unattached sections away to be burned. I doubted that our plants would ever be able to come back from this, but it was nice to know that we might be able to create a livable city despite the vines.

  I was still three blocks away when I spotted Bryan. Like everyone else he was busy hacking away at the vegetation covering the street. He’d removed his shirt sometime during the day and I admired him as I walked. The way the muscles in his arms and back flexed when he brought the claw down on the vine, how the dark lines of this tattoo stood out against his flesh. His skin had turned a soft pink, and it hit me that that was something we hadn’t had to worry about for a while: sunburn.

  Bryan turned as I approached, almost as if he knew I was there. The smile he flashed me lit up his blue eyes and made my heart contract. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if he told me he wanted to leave. After Michael died I never thought I’d be able to care about anyone else, let alone another man, but I did. I cared about Bryan enough to consider going out with the militia if that was what he planned to do. With my shoulder messed up I wouldn’t be much help, but I knew I couldn’t let this man get away.

  “You should be resting,” he said as he ran his hand across his forehead, wiping sweat away.

  “I’m not here to work,” I said. “I just needed to talk. It’s important.”

  Bryan’s smile faltered, but he nodded. “Okay.”

  I took a deep breath. “Daisy said the militia is going to move out in a week or so. She’s going with Tyler.”

  Bryan nodded and the expression on his face told me that he already knew. “So I’ve heard.”

  “Is that what you want to do?”

  “Is that what you want me to do?”

  I sank my teeth into my bottom lip and shook my head.

  Bryan set the claw he’d been holding down and crossed the space separating us s
o he was standing in front of me. “Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”

  “I know I can’t make you stay, but I don’t want you to go. I mean, I know you said you couldn’t settle down until the bugs were gone, but I was hoping that this would be enough. I was hoping that even taking out the one hive, that things getting better in Dayton would be enough.” It came out in a burst, so fast that it took my breath away, but I was glad I’d laid it all out for him. Glad he finally knew that I wanted him here. With me.

  Bryan’s lips pressed together like he was trying to hold in a smile. I wasn’t sure why, but something about his expression eased some of the tension I’d been carrying around for weeks. I’d been dreading talking to him about this so much, had run through every possible scenario in my head a dozen times, but I’d never considered how much better I would feel when I’d finally told him how I felt.

  “Did you think I wanted to leave?” he finally said.

  “I wasn’t sure,” I admitted.

  Bryan chuckled as he shook his head. Then he took my hand and started walking, pulling me with him.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “I have something I want to show you.”

  He didn’t look back as he led me down the street. We passed more people working away, most of whom looked up or called hello. They’d been working on this street for a while and it was well on the way to being as clear as the one I’d just left.

  Bryan didn’t stop for a few blocks, and when he did he turned to face me. His eyebrows were raised and he had an expression on his face that I could only describe as mischievous.