In the After

pointed toward the rising sun. “Here comes the copter. When they open the door, be prepared to detain the post-aps if they bolt, but only use violence as a last result.”
    “I never thought I’d hear you say that,” I told her.
    The hover-copter landed almost silently, only making noise when its bulk hit the soft ground. The door slid open and a child stepped out. He was about ten, sickly and malnourished. It was clear he was frightened. I smiled at him and to my surprise he smiled back, relief evident on his face.
    The next person off was a woman—young and pale, with black hair. She looked around, bewildered, then found me. Her eyes went wide and I froze. Betrayal and hatred instantly flooded my system. “You!” I barked out.
    I covered the distance between us in a few strides and within seconds my hands were around her neck. My fingers squeezed, her face turned red. She couldn’t breathe but I didn’t release her. I saw nothing but the girl’s darkening face. My anger tuned out every sound but her last gasps for breath.
    Like lightning, Kay’s arm shot around my neck and the other Guardians grabbed my wrists. Something hard hit the base of my neck and I fell into blackness. The last thing I saw before my vision blurred was her, gasping for air.
    Amber.
    “Let me see her,” I insisted from my hospital bed in the clinic. Kay brought me, told my mother I fainted on my morning run, that the heat was too much.
    “You almost killed her. What the hell?” Kay asked.
    I recounted all that had happened, a deep bitterness in my voice. I still despised Amber for her betrayal. I hated her for taking from me the one thing, the only thing, that was normal—my home.
    When I finished, Kay whistled and shook her head. “Now I get why you wanted to choke her. There’s no way I’m letting you near that girl.”
    I tried to sound calm. “I won’t hurt her, Kay.”
    Kay raised her eyebrows at me.
    “I want to hurt her, but I won’t. I promise. I just need to talk to her and ask why she did it. Baby loved her. I trusted her.” I couldn’t continue. I wanted to cry and it was hard to swallow after the choke hold Kay had put on me.
    Kay considered me. “You can see her, but only if I come along,” she said at last.
    “Agreed,” I said quickly. “Where is she?”
    “Two doors down the hall. She needed medical treatment too.”
    I stood, woozy. I held on to the bed for support until my head cleared. Eventually I was able to stand without fear of falling over. “Let’s go.”
    “Be calm,” Kay warned, motioning to the door, and I walked inside a room identical to mine. Amber was in bed, her eyes closed tight.
    My eyes narrowed. “I know you’re not sleeping,” I told her. She still pretended, but I heard her breath quicken. “You sound like a bullhorn when you sleep.”
    She opened one of her eyes, then the other. “Are you here to kill me?” she asked, annoyingly innocent.
    “I’m here to ask you why.” I stared into her eyes until she looked away. “How could you do that to me and Baby?” I demanded.
    “I didn’t expect your voice to be so sweet,” she told me. “You were so stubborn about not speaking with me . . . I always thought you’d have an irritating voice, high pitched, you know.”
    “I’m not here to discuss my voice,” I said between clenched teeth.
    She sniffed. “Oh, Amy, I didn’t want to do it. But how could I say no to Paul? They saw you and Baby one day. They wanted to know where you were staying. You’d survived so long on your own and you didn’t have a gang or bows or anything. They wanted to know how you did it. I thought about telling you the truth, staying with you and Baby, but I couldn’t leave my brother. After what happened, when that Florae almost got you the night I left . . . I didn’t think you’d want me around anyway. I had to go back to my brother, even though I hated the basement.”
    “What basement? I thought it was a bomb shelter. Did that not exist?” I growled.
    “It did. Paul and I lasted six months in there. He protected me until we made our way to the city, and then he found the group to hook up with. He found us a safe place to stay. He saved me. We lived in the basement of some bank building. The Floraes couldn’t get through the bars. . . .”
    “How do you know to call them Floraes?” I asked. Until I came here, they were nameless creatures. They were just Them.
    “That’s just what everyone calls them in the other