literature

Unexpected

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Literature Text

“Drop your weapons!” Beth and Kevin stared at the group in front of them. They were outnumbered and out gunned. “Come on, do it!” They glanced at each other and slowly reached for their weapons.

“This is a bad idea for you,” Kevin said as he tossed a knife onto the ground in front of him. Beth’s revolver hit the ground beside it and she scowled.

“You’re out classed by us. This is a great idea. We’ll take your supplies too.”

“Karma is a bitch,” Beth commented as she took off her pack and tossed it on the ground with a glare. She was small and slight of build, but Beth could intimidate even the most hardened survivor with her glare. As the pack hit the ground there was a gunshot. Instinctively Beth and Kevin threw themselves onto the ground. The highwaymen scrambled around trying to find who was shooting.

“Get down!” The leader yelled as he tried to dive toward the ground. His head exploded a few seconds later.

“Shit! Who the hell is shooting?” The rest of the gang was looking around, not paying attention to Beth and Kevin who were crawling toward their weapons. Beth reached her revolver first and took aim at the closest man. The bullet hit him in the side and then came out his back, he screamed in pain as he tried to move but found he was paralyzed. Beth turned to the next man. Kevin’s fingers wrapped around his knife and he got onto his feet. To make sure that if Aurora was going to shoot again that there was no chance of him getting hit himself he stayed low, grabbing people and sliding his knife into important places. The first man he killed he stabbed them in the ear, putting him down quickly and with little blood. The next man was up and running away. Kevin threw the knife, hitting him in the thigh. A gunshot boomed and his head flew off his shoulders as Aurora’s bullet went clean through his neck.

The rest of the highway men took off in different directions, not wanting to be around anymore. Their targets didn’t normally fight back.

“I hate this,” Beth muttered. “I don’t like having Aurora kill people.” Beth checked her bullets and popped out the empty one before sliding it back into its holster on her leg. Her pack, which had actually been empty of anything important, was light and she slipped it on easily.

“I don’t like it either. If we want to survive we all are going to have to kill at some point, as bad as it is. Best get her used to it early on instead of her freezing later when it becomes too much,” Kevin explained. Beth frowned and glared at him.

“What do you mean freeze?” Beth asked.

“Face facts, Beth, Aurora didn’t grow up fighting for her life, and neither did you. You had years to come to terms with what happened to you the last time you were on the surface, but Aurora has been thrown into the thick of it and there is no time for her to stop and think. It’s do or die.” Kevin ignored the glare he was getting from Beth and wiped off his knife before putting it back into the sheathe he had for it. He started to grab things off of the body and Beth followed suit.

After a few minutes Aurora appeared with her rifle slung over her back. She looked pale.

“Aurora, are you alright?” Beth asked. Aurora waved away her mother’s concern with a weak flick of her wrist.

“Fine,” she mumbled. Beth watched Aurora closely for a few seconds before going back to grabbing all the supplies off of the bodies. It wasn’t something anyone liked doing, but they were dead and weren’t going to need the supplies anymore. The minutes moved on slowly and Aurora was gaining color back to her face, a good sign.

“I think we’ve got everything,” Kevin stated as he stood up and looked at the bodies. They had their clothes on, but nothing else. Their guns were distributed between the three of them. Mostly they were pistols but there was a shotgun, and an M16. Beth took a few of the pistols, Kevin opted for the shotgun, and Aurora took the M16. “We should head out.”

“Where are we going?” Aurora asked as she looked around her. They’d come from the west, out of a town where they’d picked up supplies and left, only to be followed by that group of highwaymen. “Is there anywhere up here that is safe from people like them?” Aurora pointed at the dead bodies on the ground.

“There are a few communities that are welcoming,” Kevin answered. Beth looked nervous, but said nothing. She knew as much about the surface as Aurora did. “We just have to get to them.”

“Your information is 20 years out of date, Kevin,” Aurora snapped. “So much shit happens in 20 years that anything you know can’t possibly be the same. We are basically walking around like chickens with our heads cut off!”

“And what do you suggest we do, Aurora?” Kevin asked. “Go back to the city? It’s gone! Destroyed, burned, and there isn’t anything of value left. Dead bodies cover the streets, rotting away and attracting the spiders that like the dark. The generators are empty, and any technology that couldn’t be carried away with them has been destroyed beyond repair, there is nothing left there.” Kevin moved closer to Aurora. “You need to pull yourself together.”

“Pull myself together?” Aurora asked hotly. “I’m killing people! I am shooting them when there is an alternative way out. That’s killing them in cold blood! I close my eyes and you know what I see? I see their faces staring at me with maggots tumbling out of the bullet holes I put in them! Don’t tell me to pull myself together; there is NOTHING left to pull together!” Aurora shoved Kevin away from her and stalked away. Kevin glared after her.

“Aurora, honey,” Beth started as she moved toward her daughter.

“No! Don’t touch me! I’m pissed at you! All these years you’ve kept everything from me. Things I had the right to know. As soon as I was an adult you should have told me everything, or even before then. Instead you wait to tell me after our home, the only place I’ve ever known, is destroyed and we are running away from the raider that raped you and got you pregnant. The worst thing is I could have prevented that! If I had known that I got my eyes from my father, I could have known the consequences and lied when that man from the supply train asked me those questions. It’s my fault my home is gone!” Beth reached out to touch Aurora but Aurora avoided her grasp and stalked away back toward the area she’d hidden in when shooting those highwaymen.

“Damn it,” Beth cursed as she kicked the dirt with a scowl on her face. Her blond hair fell down, obscuring her eyes. “If I’d told her she wouldn’t be feeling this way,” Beth muttered.

“It’s no one’s fault,” Kevin consoled her. “It’s better she do this now than later. We can deal with it now but later it will be much harder. Aside from that, who would want to grow up knowing that they’re the product of rape?” Kevin asked. Beth let out a small, neutral grunt, and then stepped away from Kevin. She didn’t feel like talking anymore.

Aurora leaned up against the dead tree on the edge of the once living forest and slowly sank down to the ground. Her head hurt, she felt like she needed to puke again, and she was pissed. Her mother had lied to her, Kevin had lied to her, her home was destroyed, which was entirely her fault, her biological father was a monster, and the great hero that Beth had made her father out to be was a complete lie, made up to pacify her as a child.

“Damn it!” Aurora snarled as she grabbed a rock and threw it into the woods. There were a few good hits on the trees before the dull thud of the rock hitting the soft ground. It did little to make her feel better. The shaking of bushes made her look up, her hand going to her knife at her side, ready to attack if she didn’t know the person who walked through the bushes.

“Aurora, here you are. Look who it is!” Beth said with a smile as she stepped through the bushes; bring a young man with her. His hazel eyes found hers and she stared in open shock as he covered the distance between them in three steps and crushed her lips in a kiss. “Oh.” Beth stared with wide eyes. “Uh, I didn’t realize that you two had been a couple, Jonas,” Beth chimed.

“We’re not,” Jonas answered, finally breaking the kiss with Aurora, who was staring wide-eyed at him. “It’s just something I needed to do,” he added.
At one point I was talking canon things set in Aurora's universe with Stephany. We were talking about Jonas, who was originally going to die, but we came up with a few ideas that we fell in love with, like Jonas being in love with Aurora even though she's not in love with him, and how on his, at the time, death bed he was confessing everything to her, and he was just so sweet. We decided that he couldn't die, and somehow I'm going to figure out how to save him. And at some point in the story, I'm not sure if it is going to be before or after Beth's death Hardcore Aurora will meet up with Hardcore Jonas, and then he's going to kiss her passionately. We're romantics at heart. 
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NamelessShe's avatar
I love this so much.