Chapter 1 - The Bombings
Maria grabed her teenage daughter, Jose's hand. She scooped up her toddler son, Ryder and like that they ran.
Maria was a women of 29. While she had her first born daughter at just the age of 16, that didn't stop her from pursuing her dream of becoming a Navy Seal. Well, an ex - Navy Seal now. Maria had dark, brown hair that went just below her shoulders. In the military, it had to be short but long enough to put up. Accompanying her brown hair were penetrating dark eyes that poured into your soul.
As the world collapsed behind her and her children, she kept running. It was more of a quick jog that could keep you moving for a while but also be going quickly. Ryder, at only 4 years old, sobbed into her shoulder. She could tell Jose was crying too, just not as hard or as loud. Her and her children ran into the woods as Atlanta was bombed behind them.
"GET DOWN!" Maria yelled, going full military mode. She covered her children's head with her body while they all plugged their ears.
After what seemed like hours, the bombs stopped. "Mami." Ryder cried. Maria had taught her children Spanish and English, being a Latina herself.
"I'm here, bebé." She said soothingly, going back to mom mode.
"What do we do?" Jose cried.
"Stop," Maria whispered soothingly, a smile on her face. "Don't act like you kids have never roughed it."
It was true, ever since Maria had gotten back last year, she had taken the kids on many hunting and fishing trips because she wanted them to know how to use guns and get food in the wild. Her kids smiled. Maria knew they'd like to think of this as just another camping trip.
"But we have no supplies, other than what's in your backpack." Jose said, her smile turning to a frown.
"Chica, have you met your Mami?" She asked sarcastically, "I can rough it."
After a minute of being thankful they were alive and together, they stood and started up Stone Mountain. It was one they could see from their apartment in downtown Atlanta. Maria wished she could have gotten out of the city earlier. But that would have been impossible since the military had been blocking the roads in and out of the city. She was lucky her and her children had made it out.
They hiked for what was probably hours before Ryder started begging for a break. Maria could tell Jose was tired too, but hadn't started complaining yet. Maria could've kept walking on her own for probably another two hours. But she definitely did want to deal with a sleep deprived, hormonal teenager and a cranky toddler. Plus it was only early morning, they could get a few more hours of hiking in before the sun went down.
Ryder immediately fell asleep on his jacket and Jose wasn't too long after that. Maria would allow her kids to get a thirty minutes if rest before they started walking again. Maria opened up her backpack to take a look at their supplies. She had Ryder's favorite blanket (a blue one covered in tiny yellow elephants),four tampons, threw water bottles, one half empty and the other dry as bone, a camping travel sized pot that she carries everywhere, two pocket knives (one that was disguised as lip stick and the other was double sided. She'd got it from a military friend), and three granola bars. She always kept snacks with her.
Maria listened hard for a water source nearby. Without the stomps of her sleep deprived children she could here a stream. She decided she'd rather be safe than sorry and wait for her children to be awake to get the water they needed. Maria chuckled to herself. Motherhood had made her soft. She leaned back against a tree and rested her eyes. The rustling of a leaves was what made them snap open again. She jumped to her feet, her gifted pocket knife held out. It was one of the undead things that had started to take over the city before she left.
She knew that those things would kill her and her children if she didn't puncture the brain. Maria took a moment to focus on the beast. She addressed it and without another moment of hesitation threw the knife at it. The blade landed in the undead things right cheek. It's growl cut off as it fell to the ground. Her shoulder aches for a moment as she pulled the knife from the dead ones face.
Maldición, I'm rusty. Maria thought to herself, chuckling.
She pulled the body away from her children. She didn't want death to be the first thing they saw when she woke them up. She sat down and starts to clean and sharpen both of her blades. It was the loud shearing sound of her lip stick knife against a rock that made Jose wake.
"Buenos días." Maria said to her daughter.
"Good morning." Jose repeated her mother in English. She didn't speak Spanish as much as her mother and brother. "What's that smell?"
Maria took a sniff before recoiling. It was the undead thing she'd killed before. "It's one of those cannibalistic things from the city." She saw fright in her daughter's eyes. "Don't worry, I killed it."
"Oh, that's nice." Jose says sarcastically before resting her head on her arm again.
"¡Chicos, estoy durmiendo!" Ryder growled, rolling over.
"It's been about thirty minutes. Time to get going, niñas." Maria said enthusiastically. Her children reluctantly got up and she started towards where she'd hear the stream.
She made it to the body of water and emptied the half empty water bottle into the trav pot, her children watched her, interested. She then filled the two empty bottles to the top with the stream water. She'd need to boil it before they drank it but it'd be safe then.
"Let's stay upstream. Food and water." The mother went military mode again as she stood to look at her kids. They had confused looks on their faces. "I mean, we shouldn't stray far from the water." She simplified.
Like that they continued up the mountains.
The sky was now filled with darkness and little drops of light. Maria had made a small shelter in between two trees that her children were now sleeping in now. She had made them walk for a while in the darkness, much to their disliking. Maria had a small fire set up as she started boiling the water. She allowed her kids to have half of the granola bars. They had split the last of their drinkable water between the three of them and that bottle was now filled with water from the stream. It would take a while for all three bottles if water to boil, but at least they wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow. Maria was use to the woods and preferred it to the city of Atlanta.
When she got pregnant at 16, her mom had a mix of emotions. She had allowed Maria to move in with her mother in the city, from the cabin she had lived in with her father. After Maria had had Jose, she bonded with her baby for two years before she went overseas. She had been sent home for a year because of her mother's death and her children (Maria was good friends with her boss). She planned to go back next week, but when the planes were shut down she was stuck in Atlanta with her kids. Her father had lived in the Adirondacks so there was no way to get to him now. She and her kids were on their own.
But at least they were on their own together.
Maria knew she needed sleep, but she couldn't leave her children. Even if they were awake. Especially if they were awake. She watched Jose's hand move and brush her hair out if her face. Maria watched her daughter for a minute with an uncontrollable smirk on her face. Jose's eyelashes fluttered.
"Why are not sleeping?" Maria teased. Her daughter sat up and crawled out of the makeshift shelter to sit by the fire with her mother.
"I can't." She pouted. She slouched next to her mom.
"Why not? You seem tired." Maria asked.
"Oh, I don't know, because the world ended?" She snapped sarcastically. Maria gave her a stern look. "I'm sorry Mami, I just. . ."
"You don't have to explain it to me. I was a teenage girl once too." Maria rubbed her daughter's shoulder sympathetically.
"Are we going to be okay?" Jose asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Of course. We always have been, always will be." Maria said. Jose leaned into her mother and Maria cradled her like she was a baby. Maria hesitated before singing to her. "Mi hija, mi hija, oh José Díaz es un espectáculo digno de ver, se parece a su mami sí, se parece a mí, mi hija, mi hija, ella es dura por sí misma, mi hija mi hija mira cómo has crecido," (My daughter my daughter, oh Jose Diaz is a sight to see, she looks like her mommy yeah she looks like me, my daughter my daughter, she is tough on her own, my daughter my daughter look how you've grown).
That poem was written for Jose by Maria while she was away at boot camp. Maria had mailed it to her mother, telling her to read it to her daughter on her every night. After a while of cradling her daughter, Jose went to bed. Not only a few minutes later did Ryder come out. "I love you, Mami." He said while sitting next to her. He had been jealous of his sister and wanted attention as well, but did not want to interrupt. "Can you tell me my story?"
Maria sighed, remembering that night, four years ago. "Mami, had been on a ship. She was in Mexico with some of her Military buddy's helping out after a hurricane had taken place in Todos Santos. Mami, had just gotten ready for bed when you," She tapped him on the nose playfully. "Decided to enter the world. Mami's friend Paul had to take her to the hospital. When I left the room the next morning the entire ship crew was there. They had presents for you and for Mami." She finished the story while laughing, remembering the confused looks on the men's faces.
"Nací en Mexico." Ryder mumbled falling asleep in Maria's arms.
