k_a_webb | Kim’s Earth: Bethany: Waking Up (part 6) (Reply)

This entry is part 22 of 34 in the Kim's Earth collection

He shrugged. “You look much more like a Beth than a Bethany to me.”

“Okay…” I honestly wasn’t sure how to reply to that, because I’d never really thought about whether I looked like my name or not, so I did the only logical thing I could do. “After spending who knows how many hours filming a film about the apocalypse you didn’t pick anything useful up at all?”

“Not really – to be honest I didn’t really think I’d need to. The end of the world wasn’t something we were preparing for, because we believed the World Government had tested the injection, but obviously they didn’t test it enough.” He nibbled his chocolate bar. “Maybe if I’d known in advance what was coming I would have acted differently.”

“I saw you reading every report you could on the injection.”

“That doesn’t mean I accepted what I was reading as the truth. Everything I read about the injection not being tested properly seemed like lies to me, lies about a Government that everyone hated, but looking back now…”

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

“Hindsight is a pain in the ass.” He sighed. “It looks like it’s just the two of us here, so we do need to think about what we’re going to be doing next. We can’t stay here, because all we’ll end up doing is starving to death, and I’m not entirely certain I want to go out there, as the one thing I do know about the apocalypse is that it changes people, no matter how old they are.”

“Do you have any family that you want to check on?”

For a second he stared at me, and I knew I’d said something wrong, but then he shook his head. “I’m an orphan.”

“Family isn’t always the people you’re born with. I know plenty of people who think of themselves as family, even though they share no blood. You could easily have someone you think of as a brother out there somewhere.”

Our eyes met. “Do you have anyone like that?”

“Not now.” I sighed. “There was a girl once I thought of as a sister, but our lives ended up pulling us in different directions. We never were all that similar, no matter how close we were, so I should have known that it would happen in the end – I just always hoped it wouldn’t. I don’t even know where she lives now.”
“Being alone was easier for me. I never really got close to anyone when I realised why I was an orphan, because I decided that people couldn’t be trusted, and it didn’t help that I was always seen as the weird kid, thanks to my love of acting. Now that I’m an actor everyone who used to bully me wants me to be their friend, but that’s never going to happen, not even now that the world’s ended.”

“Unfortunately being blood doesn’t make someone a good person. I know from experience. However the world has ended and you are going to have to learn to rely on other people. The only way we’re going to survive the winter is if we find a community who’re willing to take us in, because neither of us have the skills to be able to do that alone.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.