Chapter 1
After the FAYZ had fallen and all of the financial and legal mumbo-jumbo had settled down, Astrid found herself sitting down in front of her macbook, struggling to turn their events into words. She had never had trouble with speaking or putting words into coherent sentences. But when it came to their struggles, their wars, she was stumped. With a sigh, she closed to laptop and laid her head in her hands.
In the six months having been out of the dome, she had gained some weight. She was maturing- she could see it as she put on the said weight. She had a steady period- yay, she thought sardonically. Her hair had begun to grow out and she had gotten it professionally styled so as to not look like a deranged child. She looked older too. She could never look in the mirror without seeing the grotesque whip scars across her abdomen and all the miscellaneous beatings her body had taken. She could never face her reflection for more than a few minutes at a time because she saw broken blue eyes staring back at her, permanent worry lines etched into her face. She was wrinkled and she wasn't even 16 yet. She had even grown a few inches. Not many, but a few.
But she wasn't the only one who had changed. She looked over at Diana, who lay stretched out on an Ikea leather couch, flipping through channels as she normally did in the afternoon when Sam was away with Quinn. "God," she mumbled. "I swear, if I have to complain about nothing being on one more time..." she trailed off, pausing on a cooking show. Diana hadn't gained as much weight as Astrid had. For the first few months, Diana had refused to eat much and refused to sleep. Not that any of them could sleep much anyway. But Diana's hair was nourished and had returned to its rich black and her skin had that olive tone to it. Her lips were no longer chapped and her eyes cheeks had begun to fill out again. Her curves were slowly returning. She still had dark, heavy shadows beneath her eyes, but no one blamed her. She was still getting over Caine. It would be a long time till the old Diana came back, if ever.
Astrid left her on the couch and walked to the kitchen. She opened the pantry. The three of them- her, Sam, and Diana- had become hoarders of sorts. Their cabinets were filled to the tops, no crevice big enough to fit even a rolled up sock. Their fridge always had fresh food, extra jugs of water. They even had emergency kits and storages full of cases of imperishable goods, crates of drinks, gallons of gas and multiple generators. Mountains of toilet paper and oceans of shampoo. They would never be unprepared again. She pulled out some peanut butter crackers, opened the package, and savored the salty-sweet taste.
Since the FAYZ, she had learned to savor her foods. she had learned the importance of it all. She had a heated discussion with Albert a few times about how greedy people were, how over-weight and wasteful they were. Countless times she had walked into a McDonald's to see piles of uneaten food buried in the trash bins. Disgusting. People could be so disgusting and cruel.
No, Astrid and company never wasted their food. If they didn't finish it, they wrapped it up, and put it back in the pantry, in the fridge. They never wasted their food. It would get eaten before it went bad.
Chewing her cracker, she walked around their house. It was a nice house. Far too big for three teenagers, but no one else had been allowed to move in. Edilio was still waiting to become a legal citizen. But once he did, Sam had offered him- and Roger- a house to live in. She peeked into Diana's room; the light purple painted walls, the queen sized mattress with clean, new sheets, a grand vanity with a full length mirror, a walk in closet full of nice, clean, well fitted clothes. A photo of Caine lay on her bedside table with his letter beside it. Astrid sometimes heard Diana crying into the night over the letter.
She peeked into the bathroom- well stocked, clean-, and the guest rooms- neat, bare, orderly, books lined on some of the walls-, and the fitness room- they all exercised every day, determined to be fit and healthy. And finally, eating her last cracker, Astrid found her bedroom. The bedroom she shared with Sam. She walked in, lay on the comfortable bed with the lingering scent of Sam, and took a nap, simply because she could.