Page 28 of Before Their After

Yeah, this will do just fine.

Downstairs was quiet. Too quiet for anyone to be putting up a fight anything close to what I’d seen in my vision. The tang of iron hit my nostrils as my feet hit the last step, and I rounded the corner.Too late. I’d been too late. Two strange men stood over my sister’s bodies, dragging them like dismembered mannequins after a holiday sale.

What was once the side of Kana’s beautiful face, was now nothing more than a clump of exposed muscles. Three undead pieces of shit lay sprawled off to the side, knives through their skulls. The stillness of my body and shadows in the downstairs hallway helped me avoid detection as the men made their way out the front door. I’d deal with them later.

Rustling came from the kitchen. Another set of men made their way into the living room, arms full of food, and my mother’s jarred tea.Idiots. I’d bet my life on their assumption of it being some sort of ale in its dark coloring. Their shirts were covered in dark blood, faces ashen, remnants of fear in every step they took. They were jumpy. On edge as they kept peering over their shoulders toward the back door.Open. This had been unplanned. Unexpected.

My vision from earlier had changed as quickly as it had arrived. Fate having other ideas on how my family wouldmeet their end. The undead had entered through the backdoor, foolishly left open from these assholes’ own intrusion. Diverting their plans and ruining my chances of saving my family.

I glanced back at their waistlines—knives again. No guns. My reach would be further than theirs, but I was outnumbered. I’d have to be both silent and quick. I could be quiet, but I wasn’t sure I was capable of being quick. I could fight, yes. A damn good fighter too, but this … this was new. My family had been cooped up in our home since the world had ended many moons ago. We went out when we had to, but for the most part had managed to get by with minimal confrontation.

They stepped over something on the floor. My eyes shot to the ground, following their movements. On the ground, my father lay in a pool of blood, slumped atop my mother with part of his neck absent. Her eyes wide, as if she’d seen their final moment coming. Even tied up, my father’s last efforts were to protect my mother.

I charged forward and lost myself to blind fury.

My katana swung through the necks of the men, not letting them get close enough to grab or stab at me. One lost his hand in the process, forcing the others who fled my parents’ room at the commotion to attempt to tackle me, lunging and limbs flailing wildly.Untrained.

I regained control outside. Rain slicked my hair flat against my skull as I stumbled over Kana’s crumpled body, hand on my other sister’s—June—stomach, wanting to cover the bite marks that now exposed her intestines. The smooth porcelain skin no more.

I removed my hand as I wished Kana peace into the next life, not wanting to drag June into the unknown. Kana and I had been treading averythin line. The idea of possessing unknown magic intriguing us, sending us down a rabbit hole to learn more. Obtain all the knowledge we could, a dance with darkness.Except it wasn’t dark. Not to us. It brought us comfort. Brought us peace.

“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of rebirth,” I said, using my blade to make a small cut on my palm to drop over Kana’s body.

Short on time and unsure if they had more men headed our way, I made my way inside. Desperate to honor my sister properly, I stepped over the dead to gather the candles from the living room. There was no accelerant. We hadn’t needed any with my family all possessing fire in their veins.

My sister would not get the burial or cremation she deserved. None of them would. Placing the candles around her body, I sniffled, pulling a lighter from my pocket and leaning it close to the sleeve of her shirt.

A soft whimper sounded over the rain. In a meditative state, I walked a few feet away. Taking my time, ensuring the last few moments of his life were spent in excruciating pain. Wanting him to know that he’d begged for his life to no avail.

“Please … help. I’m … I’m sorry,” the last of the band of thieves said, wincing under the weight of my bare foot now pressed into his ribs. “I didn’t wanna come. They made?—”

“You should be,” I said.

Letting Wrath guide me, his head rolled.

Change

TOMOE

Pointless.Everything now was pointless. Aimlessly wandering around by myself, no longer moving with purpose. Desire.

I’d fled my family home over a year ago, running off anger and adrenaline. Set out to find the group those disgusting excuses for men had come from, with no luck. No number of prayers, worship, or offerings had given me answers. Maybe the lack of answerswasanswer enough. The men had moved without training or structure. It was possible it was just a group of assholes hoping to score that had wanted my sisters for some nefarious reason and not a larger plan.

That was life now. It was the reason I’d chosen to stay away from larger groups, had watched the same situation occur from the shadows, stepping in when I could. Ending the worthless little lives of walking pieces of shit.

Then war had broken out and the crappy world I found myself living in became darker. Colder. There wasn’t much leftfor people to hang onto these days. Humanity was on the brink of falling.

War ruined what humanity most had left. The moral code we’d all clung to no longer existed. At least not in any places I’d wandered through since the war had ended.

Transient Nation was okay. Set up for people like me. People who didn’t want to exist without some sort of common law or rule, but didn’t want to settle in the confines of a city after watching the world crumble the way it had before. New Mexico was hotter than hell itself, which meant not too many people wanted to travel through it on foot. The place was barren in both population and landscape, the way I preferred.

My carelessness caught up to me on a simple food run. Accustomed to the schedules of the few who’d set up camp in the area, I’d decided to cut between buildings, wanting to avoid any interactions. Tunnel-visioned on sticking to the shadows, I hadn’t accounted for what may have once been attached to the walls.

A nail scraped against my side, breaking the skin and caused me to hiss in pain. I didn’t stop. Didn’t think about the cut again until the swelling started hours later. By the time I’d realized I needed to search for alcohol to cleanse it, I’d already succumbed to the confusion of infection. The layout of the house I was squatting in no longer made sense as I felt my way toward the street. At the second storefront, my breathing turned rapid, my body cold and clammy despite the heat of the day.

I didn’t make it to the next store.

I was lucky. A family had found me dying in the streets and decided that they couldn’t leave me there on the brink of death.

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