Ara

I awoke slowly, and in pain.

My head throbbed. My eyes felt like cement. A scratchy wool blanket covered me. The metallic symphony of rain pounded above me. Each of these sensations came separately and each threatened to overwhelm me.

Finally, I opened my eyes.

I was in a small metal shed. No. We were in a small metal shed. Four cots lined the other side of the room. Kaden lay in one, not moving. Sam and Issac sat on the cot next to him, talking quietly. I sat up slowly and they both stopped talking.

"How are you feeling?" Sam sounded genuinely worried, and his footsteps echoed on the metal floor as he walked over. Issac said nothing, but his eyes still swept over me, assessing.

I retraced my thoughts of bolting, running in the rain, the taste of triumph. Then it came back to me. The darkness as I ran, , turning a corner, and...someone. I couldn't bring his face into focus, only a glimpse of lightning long enough to see shadowed pits for eyes, and the butt of a rifle smashing into my head. I touched my fingers to my forehead where a tender bump was already raised.

"Is Kaden alright?" I pushed myself out of the bed, and was hit by a wave of nausea. Sam caught my elbow, steadying me.

"You okay?"

"Yah." I shivered as I walked over to Kaden. He looked worse.

He was shirtless, and his muscular form drew my eye to his shoulder, where a bandage failed to hide the inflamed skin. His face was flushed and sweaty, even though the shed was cool and damp. It was hard to look at him.

"Where are we?"

"We're under quarantine," Issac said, voice calm. "Either he dies by the morning and they kill us too, or his fever breaks and they let us out."

Sam continued to watch Kaden, but I could see him shaking. What sort of heartless people would kill us all if only one showed symptoms?

People who had done anything to survive. People like me.

"They?" I asked.

"Welcome to the clan, Ara." Issac's eyes were sad.

I surveyed the heavy metal sheeting of the small shed. There would be no escape. But as I looked, I realized something else. We were missing one of our number.

"Where's Jeb?"

Sam and Issac exchanged a look.

"Sam, what happened?"

He looked at me with his deep, brown eyes, too serious for one so young.

"You ran into one of the guards at the front entrance," he said in a small voice. "Issac caught up to you before the guard could do anything more than knock you out. That's when it all went bad. Jeb ran... there was a gunshot... They put us in here."

"Do they know? About me?" I tried not to let him see how worried I was. If they knew I was a girl...

"No. It was dark and raining. Jeb ran when they told him they were going to quarantine us. They wanted to examine you, but Issac picked you up and wouldn't let them."

I was strangely touched by this. Issac had saved me? But what would happen to Kaden? Sam gazed down at him, his thoughts following my own as he said, "You don't really think he's infect-?"

"No," I interrupted.

I had always been a terrible liar, but I tried for Sam. "I think he will be fine. He's strong." At least that much was true. In this world, only the strong had survived.

The rain drummed above us while thunder rolled. We were both quiet for some time, and finally I made my way back to my cot. I patted the space beside me and Sam smiled as he sat beside me.

"Ara, you..." Sam stopped and looked down at his feet. "You don't have to run. You don't have to be afraid of us. We won't hurt you." His voice was soft, and now I looked at the ground. Something in his words shamed me.

"I know that, Sam."

He opened his mouth then shut it again.

"What?" My headache throbbed, and I wasn't in the mood to dance around words.

"Then why do you keep trying to run? Why not stay?"

I heard the curiosity in his voice, but I didn't expect him to understand. For him it was simple. He could belong to the clan, and Kaden would always watch over him. But it wasn't so simple for me. I wondered how much I should say.

"I'm trying to find my family. Or what's left of them. I just thought it would be better if I left...and found them myself." I trailed off, surprised that I felt guilty. They had taken me prisoner. Why should I feel guilty? But Sam wasn't one to dwell. Instead he smiled, too young and innocent for this world.

"You should have just told us! Wait until you meet the clan, we can help you go out and search. We can find them faster together. Maybe they can come live here and be safe."

"Sure, Sam." I sighed and closed my eyes, my heart too heavy to tell him everyone in my family was dead, and I searched only for answers. I didn't want to crush his hope. He didn't understand that once they found out I was a girl, I would never escape. I would be a prisoner forever.

A sudden crack and boom of thunder shook the shed, and both Sam and I jumped, landing a bit closer together.

"Kaden said he came to find you," I said, moving the conversation away from me.

"He told you that?"

"He also said you're brothers."

"Half-brothers. I'm surprised he told you. He never tells anyone that. Said it was better 'kept secret'." He made air quotes and grinned, but I couldn't begin to understand what went on in Kaden's head.

"He told me you were brothers when he thought he was-" dying. "When he was hurt."

Silence stretched out between us, until, to my surprise, Sam laughed. It sounded strange in the cold room amid the noise of the storm. He ran his hand through his hair, so that it stuck up at odd angles. I had a moment of déjà vu, trying to remember when I had seen Sam do that before. Then I realized it was Kaden I'd seen, not Sam.

"You know, he used to be such a jerk to me. He was always teasing me. One time he hid my Lego castle on top of our neighbor's house! Then he showed it to me through my binoculars and couldn't stop laughing."

"Has he changed since then?"

"No, he's still like that! Only now he stands up for me. You should see how mad he makes Gabriel! One time he caught a possum and put it in Gabriel's room. Kaden calls him a prick, but I'm not allowed to." Sam stopped and then added quickly, "Not that I couldn't, if I wanted to."

I nodded encouragement and noted the name Gabriel.

"He pranks, but Kaden is one of the best unit leaders in the clan. And he always takes me on his expeditions." His chest swelled. "Usually he works with the horses. It was how he found me. It took him three months, but he came on horseback to find me. My mom somehow got him a message." For the first time, his shoulders caved forward a bit, and a dark memory passed over his eyes. I suddenly wanted the happy, young Sam back.

"How old is he?"

"He's twenty-five. I'm fourteen."

I pulled the cot blanket around me and laid my bruised head against the cool metal of the shed.

"We have the same mom. She married my dad later, and Kaden went to live at his dad's ranch in Montana. That's where he learned to ride." Sam frowned at the memory. "I never got to visit. He said his father wasn't much of a dad." I tried to picture a wild, blonde, green-eyed boy on horseback.

"Does he have any other family?"

"A half-sister and two other half-brothers who didn't make it. But even though we weren't raised together, he still came for me." Sam smiled and leaned up against the cold wall beside me. It was nice, his weight and warmth on the bed while the storm raged outside.

"Of course he did. You're family. Families stick together."

Sam smiled, but the lie punched me in the gut. Kaden had come for his family. I had left mine.

"What about you?" His question surprised me, and I drew back, suddenly wary.

"What about me?"

"You said you were looking for your family? Did you mean siblings or parents?" His question was innocent, his eyes wide with genuine concern, but I had to fight my natural tendency to say nothing. I could trust Sam... couldn't I?

"I had a sister. Her name was Emma." The words were thick and hard to get out. "She's gone now."

"Who are you looking for?"

I didn't want to answer, but I managed to say, "My father." Or what was left of him.

Sam squeezed my hand. Without the light bringing out the red in his hair and the freckles on his face, I could see the resemblance between him and Kaden. The same straight nose and strong jaw. Sam's face was free of stubble, a softer version. It surprised me I hadn't noticed the similarity before.

"Are there others? Other female survivors?" Sam asked. Even in the dark, with the storm pounding into the shed, I heard the desperate hope in voice. It made me sad.

"None I've seen," I whispered.

"Why did you survive?"

The sound of the rain almost overpowered his voice. But it didn't matter, because the question had echoed in my head nearly every day for three years.

"I don't know." I kept my deepest secrets and suspicions to myself. My father had known something. Sam gave me a small smile.

"Well, I'm happy you did."

I felt riddled with guilt. I couldn't understand why he trusted me so completely. Was it because I was female, or just that he was young? I couldn't take his innocent stare another moment, so I said the first thing that jumped to mind.

"Tell me more about Kaden."

Hours later, it finally stopped raining. Sam had told me story after story about Kaden, and I even added a few of my own to fill the night with laughter. We had reached an unspoken understanding. Neither of us could sleep with the thought of what morning might bring, so we talked the night through. Issac lay still in his cot, but a few times I thought I saw his lips twitch. Now, Sam finished a story about Kaden bringing a wild raccoon into class for show-and-tell, and afterwards, I decided to push my luck.

"Who's Gabriel? And why does Kaden think he's a prick?"

Sam laughed, and I joined in, even though I didn't know why. I was in that giddy, exhausted stage. Slap-happy.

"He's our leader. And only Kaden can call him that." Sam gave me a mock serious look, his eyebrows scrunched up. It made me laugh even more.

"He meets everyone and decides if they can stay with the clan. Just... be careful." He said this in a mysterious tone.

"Why?"

"He decides everything. And he and Kaden don't get along."

"No, we don't."

The voice made Sam and I jump. Kaden watched us through the darkness.

"Kaden!" Sam sprang off his cot and ran to him. I stood, then stopped when my head throbbed violently. I made my way over more slowly.

I sidled up next to the cot, wondering how much Kaden had heard of us talking. I ran through the many embarrassing childhood stories I had told. I couldn't meet his eye.

"Ara, put your jacket back on, and put your hair in the baseball cap."

My eyebrows rose at his bossiness. But I did what he said regardless, and after he looked me up and down before nodding approval. I rolled my eyes.

"Sam, go see if there are guards out front. Ara, help me stand up."

I grasped his forearm and bent over his bed. Kaden groaned when I pulled, and I realized from the pained look on his face I'd need to help more. I hesitated.

"Something wrong?" he said with a teasing smile. I bent over him and slipped my other arm around his back. His skin was warm to the touch, and I was suddenly hyper aware of him; his smell, the way his hair curled, the way his skin felt under my fingers.

"Thanks." His good arm rested on my shoulder for balance as I held him upright. The bandages on his shoulder had soaked through in spots.

"Can you help me put a shirt on?" I was about to refuse when I realized he swayed where he stood, his eyes and mouth pinched with pain.

"Where's your stuff?"

"Under the cot, there should be a shirt on top."

I crouched and pulled his backpack out. A moment of déjà vu hit me as I remembered crouching over my father's backpack, searching desperately through it one last time, my hands shaking because I knew they were coming.

I stood up abruptly. No more memories. Not today. Something told me it was going to be a long one.

"This okay?" I held up a tattered red button-down.

"You're the girl, shouldn't you be giving me the fashion advice?"

"Oh, my goodness," I said in my girliest voice, "This is soooo your color, holes and stains are just IN this year." He laughed, his eyes crinkling at the side.

I helped pull on his shirt, unsettled by the way he watched me as I reached around him. His back and shoulders were broad, and I had to lean in close to manage it. I tried not to let my fingers trail across his skin. Around Sam I felt comfortable, but there was something about Kaden that made me more alert. My fingers stumbled on the buttons. I hadn't realized how tall he was until I stood next to him, so close I could watch his chest rise and fall.

"Thanks."

"Yeah."

I stepped away and a silence hung between us.

"Someone's coming," Sam called out. Issac stood and came to stand beside us. The door opened, framing a thick man who held a rifle like it was part of him. Kaden stepped slightly in front of me, his good arm pushing me behind him. It suddenly made sense why he wanted my hair hidden and hood on.

They didn't know what I was. Not yet.

"Gabriel wants to see you all. Now."

(Should you have missed my earlier note, this book is a part of the Paid Stories program, which means you will need to purchase coins to continue reading. Before you hate, please know that while I've tried feeding my kids and cat the wonderful comments and votes you all send me, they always complain and ask for real food instead- the nerve! ;) In all seriousness, I so appreciate any of you who choose to continue and are able to support me, it really does make a difference in my writing career and long-term writing goals. I also understand those who choose not to or are unable to at this time. 

If you haven't noticed, this book is a sort of 3-in-1, as hinted in the title "THE LAST SHE SERIES". The first two books, The Last She and The Last City, are completed within this book. The third book, The Last Creation, is being updated in this book in weekly or biweekly enstallments, as of August 2019. So all three books are right here, no need to look elsewhere! Also, Wattpad is the ONLY place you can purchase this series.

If you choose to buy the complete series, you'll get the first two books and you'll pre-purchase the third book and can read each chapter as it comes out. Or, you can simply buy each new chapter of the third book as they're released each week. 

Thanks so much and hope to see you in the third book soon! :D 

-Hannah)