In Between Seasons (The Fall) (13 page)

“Sorry, I forgot,” h
e said with a smirk.

“I thought you might be here,” Hunter took
a seat next to me on the ground,
“Hiding in the library again?”

“The company isn’t always th
at great when you’re not around,”
I
sighed
.

“So what are you reading?”

“All kinds of things. W
hat’s with all these books about the world ending in 2012?”
I asked
.

“The Mayan calendar ended in 2012
and
there was a prophet who was interpreted to
say the world would end in 2012,
”
h
e explained
as he rolled his eyes.

“Well, I
guess they were wrong
,
huh?” I asked
,
shutting the book
and
standing
to put it back on the shelf.

“Kind of…
T
he world didn’t end
,
but
it
did change
. It’s why things are the way they are now.
Do you know anything about the collapse?” He asked
as I sat back down next to him
just
close enough to feel th
e heat of his body
.

“I was only
three
, and my parents basically said that they didn’t have anything to do with it…
I know that it started in 2012, and was done by 2016, but other than that
I don’t remember what really happened
—
do
you
?”

“I
t’s hard f
or me to forget.
A lot
of the people here are old enough to remember
,
but
chose to believe my father’s version of the truth. Just like he alwa
ys wanted me to
,
but
I remember
and
the deceit began before the war even started…
”

“I didn’t think you were that much older than me…?”
I interrupted
as
my curiosity was g
ot
the best of me. It seemed the perfect time to drop the age question in, and I felt my palms dampening as I waited for his answer. Although our conversation was serious, the question made Hunter’s eyes lighten with amusement. It was as if he knew I had been dying to ask, but hadn’t had the guts.

“I’m twenty-five,
so
that made me ten
when everything changed,”
h
is eyes darkened in an instant
,
“
old enough to
remember if a person wanted to.”

“Why not believe what your father tried to tell you?”
I asked. My question about his age now seemed petty and was quickly forgotten in the depth of the conversation.

“You
and
I are
a lot alike…you were just too young to get a
real view of what was going on,” he answered,
knoc
king his shoulders against mine,
“People are easy to influence when the world they know is falling apart. My father took advantage of that
and
here we are…a world permanently at war.”

“What happened to all the cars
and
roads that the movies show? I can’t imagine they just di
sappeared in an instant?” I questioned
,
alluding to the poof of everything with my hands.

Hunter furrowed his brow looking at my hands
and
then shook his head.

“Some left before the government actually collapsed. We all knew it would happen
,
and
the lac
k of safety once it did happen
made a lot of people leave the populated areas.
From what I know your father moved the people he had convinced to
come with him shortly before the collapse. You were lucky—once the riots started it was a mess to get out of without being followed. People resorted
to their mos
t primal nature—
shredding
the world we knew to pieces. It’s scary to see civil people resort to that
,
but
my father wanted to relish in the government’s failure.”

“But here there isn’t even a remnant of the pas
t except for this house?” I observed
,
shaking my head.
It hardly made any sense to me that people could tear things down piece by piece without emotion.

“This area was never really populated
,
so
it didn’t take much for
Mother Nature
to take back what wasn’t
up kept
,
”
Hunter explained, and the answer seemed rational to me, but left me with more questions.

“So how is this house, in the middle of nowhere
,
this nice?”

“The riots. F
or the most part everything here is stolen. The ones who were prepared for the fall prepared for the riots. It was all strategized. My mother thought my father was insane
,
but
she loved him so she went with it.
The
y used to joke about dooms
day preppers
,
but
my father was—is a much worse version of w
hat those people displayed. My m
other
was lucky
she died before
he got really bad
—
before
she could see that he was right
and
what he would become because of it
. He understood the evil because he had conquered it
and
mastered it inside himself.”

“How long was it before there was nothing left?”
I continued,
still shaking my head in disbelief.

“I’m not really sure;
we left within a week because we had everything we needed
and
then the war began to keep what we had pillaged.”

“How many tribes are there
at war
?”
I peppered him with yet another question, but his face didn’t show any annoyance. It was a relief to finally get some answers, to finally gain some sort of understanding.

“At least ten that I know of
,
but
there could b
e more in further territories,” Hunter answered with a sigh. I could tell he didn’t like not having a solid response to that question.

“Wh
at are we fighting over?” I asked
,
pulling my knees to my chest
and
resting my cheek on t
hem as I took in his
darkening
expression
.
It was as if he was fighting with whether to protect me still, or to let me see the evil of the world through his eyes.

“My father would like me to believe that we are fighting to keep what is ours
,
but
if everyone is fighting to keep what’s theirs
and
not trying to take what is someone else’s then why are we at war? I suppose the truth behind the war is different to everyone
,
but
my father only
wants us to believe his truth, whatever the hell that is.”

“It seems that
the truth is indefinitely gray,” I commented,
closing my eyes.
I felt as though with each truth I was sinking deeper into the lies. There was no way out of this.

“That’s not true,” Hunter assured me
,
and
I felt him brush a hair out of my face.

I opened my eyes
as he laid his hand on my cheek,
and let his touch calm me.

“There are some things that are black
and
white,
”
he whispered as his thumb grazed over my lips.

“The truth with you is clear…it’s just t
he gray of my past that bugs me,” I replied,
letting my hand fall into the plus
h carpet.
His touch couldn’t wipe clean my memories.
I started to pull at the fibers
of the carpet as I thought
of Trevor’s face
and
the cold gun
pressed
against my skin.

“You’re going to drive yo
urself insane thinking about it,
”
Hunter commented
as he dropped his hand over mine.

“I just kee
p thinking about it
and
now I’
m seeing things differently—remembering things that I never saw before.”

“What do you mean?” Hunter asked
with
his brow furrowed
as tension boiled
in the air
.
I knew that his mind had gone to the secret weapon, but I still had no answer for that.

“My d
ad use
d
to mention the names of people that I had no clue
who
they were
. I guess I
thought they were
people
from before the war happened. Now that I think about
it
everyone
but
me
seemed to know who he was talking about—including
Sara
and
Trevor. It just seems the betrayal goes deeper
and
deeper every time I think about it. I mean…
my mom
—
she must have known…she must have
been involved,” tears began
to well in my eyes
and
blur
the room,
“
My d
ad wants me
dead
;
that
means they all must want me dead
. Yet, I still think about them—I still don’t want the same things for them that they want for me.
I don’t want them to die…how could anyone want to kill their own daughter? I
mean
—
what did I do?”

Hunter pulled me into his arms,
“You didn’t do
anything
Kate. They want us to be monsters like them
,
but
we aren’
t
and
that’s enough for them. If my d
ad knew who I
was he would do the same
to me
as they did to you
.
You’re too good of a person to want them dead.
No matter what you remember there’s one thing that won’t change.”

I looked up at him,
“What?”

“
That we know the truth—the truth they didn’t want us to see.”

“And what’s that?”
I asked, my breath catching in my throat
.

“
That there are good people left in the world—and we have the free will to be one of the good people.”

I laid my h
ead on Hunter’s
chest,
“It still hurt
s,” I took
a deep breath,
“I think I preferred being angry to this pain...”

“At some point the pain will be overrun by the
rational
,
and
it won’t hurt so much anymore,” he
stood
and
grabbed
the itouch off the
chaise. He turned with a s
mirk that I couldn’t quite understand
on
his face, but it still made me smile.
He pu
lled the ear buds out
and
swept
his finger over the screen before putting it back down
and
holding his hand out to me.

“What are you doing?” I asked
,
taking his hand
and
standing.

He pulled me into him
and
used his hands to wipe the tears f
rom my face,
“Getting back that smile.
”

“What if I can
’t
dance?”
I joked as the music began to pour out of the speakers.

“Then I’ll teach you,
”
h
e responded
, his hands slipping
to down my hips.