2040

The summer breeze was growing cooler now that autumn was threatening to show its face. No clouds to speak of while the sun was slowly settling into the horizon afar. Two figures lingered within a grassy plot, surrounded by various crosses in different mediums. Some were simple sticks, while others were crude chiseled rock plates or even some piled stones to mark their loved one’s place for eternity. Two beings rested in front of a newly made marker. A feminine figure stood behind a broad-shouldered young man. She was hesitant to touch him, but they had been there for what seemed like hours in silence. Her long dark blonde hair danced with the movement of the breeze while her gentle hand moved to rest upon the leather clad shoulder of the man before her. Her voice squeaked slightly when she first spoke up to him with an apprehension of interrupting him, “Azrael, it’s getting dark. Let’s go back.”

The black-haired man’s eyes opened, revealing dark red irises that could pass as brown if someone wasn’t looking too closely. He stared forward to the marker of his father’s grave. He had made a promise now as he sat upon that grave, and he planned to keep it. Slowly, he moved up to his combat booted feet and gave a soft sigh, “Okay…thanks, Judy. Let’s go.” As he turned with her, he thought of taking her hand as they walked back towards their homes. The moment felt like an eternity to him, but she slipped away so quickly. He lost his moment and just stopped walking to linger there and watch her walk away. A smirk crossed his face as he heard the voice of his father in his head, making fun of him for being a chickenshit. It seemed you could kill the man but not get rid of him.

With a shake of his head, he continued towards his own home. It was a decent single-family house that now only gave shelter to himself, his twin brother, and his mother. The latter seemed to be busy working the sandbag that hung from the porch’s rafters. “Hey mom…” He spoke up to her, but she didn’t answer. She continued to punch and kick the suspended bag with trained movements. He sighed softly and ran his hand over his face and fingers through his black hair as he opened the door and walked into the house. The door led to a breakfast nook that attached to the kitchen in an open floor plan. It was there he saw his brother looming by the window and staring at their mother. Ever since that trip, when they were eight years old with their father, Ethan had remained closer to their mother. He had been to the funeral but was one of the first ones to leave. While he knew Ethan cared about the old man…he also knew he would miss him more than his twin would.

“You think she’s going to be okay?” Ethan asked with a voice filled with worry while he watched his mother, not bothering to even look at the other man. Ethan looked a lot like his brother, as he should since he was his identical twin, but he didn’t work on his muscular stature as much, so his build was slimmer, more like a trained swimmer than a muscular football player. He also kept his hair cut shorter to keep a spiked look more than Azrael’s tendency to keep his a slightly longer length and slicked back.

“I don’t know, but mom’s got it. She’s tough.” Azrael dismissed his brother’s concern while he fixed himself a quick snack from the pantry. He needed something to eat before he went out on patrol. The roaming undead weren’t as plentiful these days, now they roamed in larger groups. It was like some sick sense of instinct that brought them together in herds.

“She’s like forty years old…she’s working out like she’s our age. She’s going to push herself too hard.” Ethan spoke up again with his worry for their grieving mother.

“She’ll be fine.” Azrael rolled his eyes as his back still faced his brother while he finished the simple meat and cheese sandwich. The bread was always fresh, and the people seemed to have finally perfected cheese. Not that he knew much different… He had no idea what the world had been like before all of this. He had been born years after the downfall of the world happened. His dad always liked to comment on how things used to be and who he’d screw just to get a decent hoagie or whatever the man had been craving at that moment.

“Her knuckles are bleeding…” Ethan frowned, turning to see his brother’s back, but it satisfied him when Azrael finally turned to look in his direction again. He wasn’t thrilled with the irritated look on his face, though.

“Leave her alone, Ethan.” Azrael’s words grew a little harsher to him. He couldn’t stand how much of a worry wart he could be. Always second guessing things.

“You’re being naïve, she’s going to self-destruct at this rate.” His hand threw up to gesture towards the window as if that alone would make this argument turn in his favor.

“And you’re an idiot! Let her fucking grieve in the way she fucking wants to. We just fucking buried him! She deserves to be the fuck alone for now…” He tried not to yell, but Ethan was just pushing his buttons and turned on his euphemism button with his frustration.

“But, what if this pushes her? What if her heart can’t handle it? Didn’t uncle Ethan tell you what could happen?”

“Yea, he loves to shove that information in my face every chance he gets. She is fine! I’m fine! I’m tired of talking about this and I better not see you harassing her.” Azrael pointed his finger at his brother just for emphasis. He hated that they kept clashing but unfortunately as much as they had shared their own mother’s womb their mindsets couldn’t be any more different. Azrael sighed and shook his head before leaving the house with his sandwich in tow. Eating could be done on the way since Ethan was being less than good company. The sound of his mother’s grunts of effort in her ‘exercise’ made him look in her direction once more. That punching bag had been resting from the rafters of the porch ever since he could remember. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her work the bag, but this was the first time he saw her push this hard. Ethan had a point, but Azrael learned the same lesson his father had to over his lifetime. When Silurian was mad, you stayed out of her way.

Windham was booming, the community nestled within what they formerly called Connecticut. Every community within their network was growing successfully. They had implemented windmills to help with processing grains and electric generators. While cars became a rarely used commodity, horses were the new staple of transportation. Cows, chickens and fields scattered around the old and new homes physically showing just how long they had survived. They even had to expand the wall a time or two to keep up with their own populations.

New people were scarce these days, it seemed if you ever saw anyone new that they were already with a group. Then that was an entirely different bag of worms. Thankfully, things had died down in the way of conflicts. There weren’t as many masses of human beings trying to make a name and territory for themselves. It also helped to have the backing of other communities in case one popped up.

Azrael couldn’t help the smile on his face as he took in his surroundings. It had changed so much, even from when he was young. This was his home and the stories he heard of what they had to do to keep it standing, made this the most beautiful thing on earth. With the setting sun the lights slowly turned on, lights in houses and lights along the street held power from rigged generators. They had repurposed old large bulbed clear Christmas Lights to keep the street lit for travel. The lights would shut off in a few hours, long enough for everyone to finish their work and settle into their homes for the duration of the evening.

He walked while finishing his sandwich, keeping an overall brisk step while moving across town. It was his turn for watch on the south wall and he was running a little late. Given the circumstances, he doubted anyone would mind, but he still hated to leave the other guard there longer than necessary. There really didn’t seem to be a need for the guards they had these days. You were lucky if you even saw something undead staggering through the grass. But it would be their luck the moment they eased back that something would make them regret it.

Azrael’s thoughts were interrupted, and his pace, as a perky redhead popped in front of him. Her hair pulled back in a ponytail and dressed in a simple pair of jeans with a button up long-sleeved shirt. He ate the last of his sandwich as she showed a piece of paper to him, “Hey…I know Sil usually wants to know the inventory and everything, but I’m not so sure I want to bother her with it now. She seems to be in that scary zone.”

“Yea, thanks Anna, I’ll take it. I’ll put it on her desk when I get home. She will probably see it in the morning when she’s feeling better.” Azrael took the page and glanced at it himself. “This is pretty low.”

“I know. Our crops aren’t doing too good this year. Nothing seems out of ordinary just isn’t producing like before.” Anna frowned and placed a hand on her hip while she adjusted to standing still for the moment with their discussion.

“Okay, maybe we need to make a call to Arcadia or Seraphim. See if they’re having the same problem. We might need to do some extra trading come fall.” Azrael felt his heart racing some as he thought of possibilities to fix this issue for his community. His father was barely in the ground, and it seemed that he needed to take the reins already. He knew his mother would stubbornly keep control, and he really didn’t mind that, but when she was ready to finally relax and let someone else run the show, he would be there. He only hoped that he had the community behind him as well.

“If they aren’t having the same problem. Come winter, maybe we should make plans to move the fields around.” Anna offered her own advice to the younger man. She wasn’t that old herself, early forties, but she had a bit more experience when it came down to the fields.

“Right. Like I said, I will put this on her desk. We can all discuss the field movements when it comes to that. I have to get to my post before the guard thinks I’m not going to relieve him.” He flashed a smirk to the woman before he folded the paper in his hands and placed it in the back pocket of his dark jeans. “Have a good night.”

“You too.” Anna watched as Azrael moved away from her towards the south gate. It was hard to know what exactly was going to happen to their community now. With one leader down, the weight was going to push heavily on the shoulders of the widow. She knew that Silurian was strong enough to handle it. What she worried about was when the weight shifted to the brothers.