Apocalypse Rising, Book One: From Ashes
acts i - iii - [ tarot: part five ]
Wheel of Fortune
Bruises were forming on Maddie's stomach and back and arms. She felt out of breath and tired. She felt like she'd been bludgeoned. Then she would see Allison again and she looked the exact opposite. She was doing flips in the air like it was nothing when usually, for Maddie, it was. She saw Allison and the girl almost looked energized. Confident. Alive.
Allison had just sent Maddie stumbling into the cage door of the gun cabinet head first and Maddie collapsed to her knees as the world spun.
"Allison," she heard Chris say in a warning tone.
Allison didn't seem to hear as Maddie unsteadily got back to her feet and tried to get back to her defensive stance. Allison was already on her, kneeing her in the ribs and Maddie coughed like her lungs were about to come up through her throat.
"Come on," Allison said, quietly at first. The second time, it was a shout. "Come on!"
The Empress
“Whatever. So they named us ‘Team Alpha’.”
“Because we’re too dangerous, Em,” Terra bit back, tossing the file folder across the room, the papers flying out of it and scattering all over the floor. “Dana, me, you...we were put together for a reason even if no one wants to say it.”
“You want to tell that to those kids that just got lumped in with us?” Emery’s eyes narrowed on Terra before she picked up a paper with a photo in the corner. Charlotte Jheon, 14. She grimaced at the girl in the photo with the shy smile and pin straight black hair and shook her head. “No. Screw that.”
“You gonna tell that to Dana?”
“Dana’s not the leader of us.” Em continued to pick up the papers on the ground, glancing at her own photo, then Terra’s, and then Dana’s. She looked wild, untamed - with dirt and blood on her hand and her hair greasy and matted. Em didn’t even recognize the girl compared to who she saw every day now. Still, behind the thin layer of cleanliness and more coherent sentences, Em knew Dana hadn’t changed, that she would never overcome what had been done to her. “I love Dana, you know that, but she’s not who we are.”
Terra had gingerly picked up the last paper and sighed, handing it to Em with a softer expression, one that Em knew she wouldn’t show anyone else. “Right. And who are we?”
Emery smiled only slightly as she looked down at the photo of a girl with wild blonde hair and a wide grin. Anne Marie Drake, 14. Dana wouldn’t always be around and that was fine - because Emery would, come hell or high water. She glanced back up at Terra, eyes shining and smile growing a bit. “We’re the A squad. Like, the go team. The front line. Hell yeah, we’re dangerous and that’s why they’ll come to us first to get the job done. We are boss. Ass. Bitches. I will make damn sure they know that. And do you realize what that makes me?”
Terra quirked an eyebrow. “Head bitch?”
Em’s lips curled into a smirk as she gave a nod. “Damn right.”