The Aftermath

“Remind me why I’m doing this interview again?” I was looking Ryant squarely in the face. Ryant, Alex, Kyle, and I were all in a green room.

“Because it’s amazing opportunity to be on Good Morning America and Robin Roberts wants-“

“No!” I interrupted and stood up from the couch. “Why are we doing this?!”

Alex just simply sat in his chair, smirking for some unfathomable reason and Kyle answered my dilemma.

“Cause we wanna kick some more ass for Lexicon trying to take us down, duh.”

I exhaled. “I knew the president was a stretch, but Robert Robin-“

“Robin Roberts!” Ryant corrected.

“Same thing!” I scoffed. “What I’m trying to say is why? We don’t even have everyone here.”

Kyle shrugged. “Cece’s across town at some weapon expo. Ashley’s still locked up at home and Jesse’s…”

I saw Alex’s eyebrows crunch together excessively then and I uttered the word. “Jesse’s gone.”

Ryant put down his magazine and looked to me pointedly, him and I had talked about the topic of Jesse many times, how things had sort of ended between me and him.

Alex and I discussing Jesse?

There wasn’t even such a thing in the world. If it did happen, Alex would get all I haven’t kissed you today! or Why are we talking about him again?

It almost seemed unfair how no one really knew where Jesse was. Last anyone had heard from him, it had been our interview with Larry King just weeks after we’d arrived in Washington after Lexicon.

“What about Rodney? Is he coming?” Alex cut in, but I also had a feeling he was strategically changing the subject.

Kyle nodded, taking bottled water from out of a mini fridge in the room. “Yeah. He’s coming a bit later than us consider we’re early. He’ll get here though.”

Ryant’s eye sort of twitched at that. He’d always been saying how he got some weird vibe from Rodney. Whenever Rodney happened to come around, Ryant made it his deal to not socialize with him much. I’d asked him multiple times for his reasoning, but all he usually gave was a “I can’t explain it.”.

So, I sat back down on the couch which was right next to the arm chair that. I just leaned my head against the armrest and watched Alex as he read the magazine.

Since we’d come back from Lexicon, he’d made it an unconscious habit to let his dark hair grow. Now it sank nearly to his shoulders and he kept it contained in a ponytail, having his hair away from his face let me see his eyes more.

Now their blue irises flickered to me. “Is there a reason you’re staring at me?” The smartest smirk rested on his lips, something I tended to kiss away.

“Just thinking…” He hated it when I teased him like this. I love it.

“About what?”

“I don’t know. Maybe how ugly you are or just how far apart your eyes are.”

He took the magazine and swatted me in the head which got both of us laughing, and then he got to tickling me. His body over mine, his wiggling fingers digging into my ribs and I was screeching.

“Stop! Stop! I won’t make fun of you!” When he was finally done, I was somehow able to gasp the needed air back into my lungs. “God damn, I hate you.”

“Care to tell me what’s on your mind, then?” He seated back in the chair with his body leaned towards me on the couch.

“I was just thinking we could hang out later.” I proposed. “Maybe go bowling or that concert downtown…”

His lips pressed together and anguish crossed his face. “But,… I had plans with Kyle. We were going to try and get Ashley out the house.”

I almost groaned, but the empathy inside me dragged its way through. Ashley had been an absolute wreck since Ashton had died. Our first television interview together, she’d broken down crying midway through her explanation of the Rogue Virus’s implications on her life. She was falling to pieces.

“Do you think I could join?” I offered.

“I don’t know. We didn’t want to have too many people, don’t want to make it feel like an intervention, you know?”

I nodded.

“And I’ll make it up to you tomorrow night, we can go down to the boardwalk.”

I laughed. “Then, I can kick your ass on go karts just like the other 3 times.”

He chuckled gruffly and the door to our green room opened. It was an executive producer with a Bluetooth strapped to his ear and clipboard in hand.

“Hey, we want to prep you guys for your segment. It’ll be in 30 and we’ll have you guys take a run through in makeup. Ready?”

We all looked to the man in mock belief. He didn’t even wait for our responses.

“Well, come on!”

And just like the process we’d been through at least half a dozen times before, it began again. I went to make up. The stylist plopped me down in a chair, strategizing the best way to part my hair for maximum attractiveness or which lip gloss made me look noble enough. They spent years on which blouse brought out my eyes, the shimmering cream one or the midnight blue one. And they worked in record time.

If there was one thing I didn’t like about being on television, it was that appearances mattered so much before the news even hit the screen. And even the news could be distorted.

Then, we were all set up in a living room type area. Alex, Kyle, Ryant, and I all on one couch. Two other normal looking people on the couch to the right of ours and the infamous Robin Roberts to the couch on our left.

Looking on the television, you’d think we were in a comfortable enough home with nice bookshelves behind and a warm kitchen nearby. Instead it was all propped up with scolding lights and twenty feet high cameras watching you.

Remember what I said abut appearances?

“Good Morning America! I am Robin Roberts and we are here this morning for a very special edition of our show. We have the honor of welcoming seven very special guests today on the scandal that rocked a southwestern town.”

I almost groaned. Had she really described flesh eating zombies as scandalous?

It seemed like a pretty air head choice of words to me.

“We have the wonder Alexander Fields, Jasmine Rushman, Kyle Evans, Ryant Brown, Rodney Wiggins, Jamie Carter, and Lea Carter.” Robin Roberts with her warm brown skin and cropped short hair smiled to us. “How are all of you today?”

“Good.” Rodney answered first. In front of the cameras, he always had this ultimately prepared demeanor. Today his ash blonde hair stood in a wild main above his head and he sat next to me with Ryant next to him. Kyle sat next to Ryant and Alex sat on my left.

“How are you dealing with life outside of Lexicon?” Robin asked Rodney.

He smiled. “Best decision of my life to end my dad’s company. Lexicon was one of the worst things to ever face the world and it’s a pleasure to be the one that ended.”

The two people sitting on the couch to our left were twin siblings. Jamie was a boy with tan skin and always moving brown eyes. His sister held the same demeanor with her brown hair taped back in a scarf.

“Well, actually the company isn’t considered to have ended, correct? The girl, Lea, said.

We all looked to her like she was crazy.

“Excuse me?” Rodney said. I secretly swelled inside. Rodney could be as personable as hell, but he also had the pit bull side that I loved.

“Well, your father’s company still owns stocks and other things, correct?”

“Workers from my father’s company still own stocks, yes. My father wired an account with his investments for my trust fund, yes. But, I don’t exactly see your point in bringing that up. Do you have one?”

Kyle snickered lowly and Ryant elbowed him swiftly. I noticed the Carter twins had turned an alert scarlet as well.

Robin laughed. “Well, that’s certainly true and that’s we have all of you here. To discuss the horrors of that terrible virus and how the future will move on past this.”

Once again, I didn’t like this lady. She was speaking as if the Rogue Virus was just some simple flu.

“Well, considering it was a virus that killed thousands upon thousands of people and it was caused by a U.S. corporation, I’m not sure who we should blame, Robin.” I made sure to squeeze in a sarcastic smile.

“Personally.” Ryant began. “I think justice was served. Part of my father’s mission was justice and we helped to achieve that.”

Jamie snorted. “That’s a terrible lie.”

We all froze once again.

“Why do you say that, Jamie?”

“Because justice was never served. If you look at the reports released from Lexicon-“

“Reports that we exposed!” Kyle cut in.

Jamie glared at him for a bit then, continued talking. “Those reports showed signs of contamination possibly being carried in water. It showed probabilities of the virus spreading nationwide. Have we all forgotten that the virus we witnessed showed up in a other strange parts of the world?”

Alex blinked his eyes. “Wait, what do you mean we?”

Lea smiled back at Alex. “We were in Gleverdon as well when Rogue hit. We were on the outer edges of the town of course, but it still affected us immensely.”

“So, you’re sitting here trying to sprout facts when you got the easy way out?” Alex snapped. He had a pet peeve for bullshit like I did.

“No. We’re stating facts to inform the public of potential dangers.”

“So, Alex, are you saying that you believe those who escaped early are inexperienced with the virus?” Robin asked.

Alex hadn’t stopped his glaring match with the Carter twins until his attention was forced back to the news reported. “I never said that. I just don’t think these two of here are experienced enough to talk about the virus when there’s people like us who have fought it firsthand.”

“So, you’ve fought it firsthand?” she rose.

This time I actually groaned because she was asking a question we’d answered a million times.

“Of course we have.” Kyle answered factually. “How the heck do you think we got out of there?”

Robin nodded, a technique I’d seen before from reporters who wanted more on a topic. “Can you share with us the type of things you guys faced?”

Kyle swallowed, eyes moving to Ryant, Alex, Rodney, and I. It was sort of a shared rule, we didn’t talk about those things until we all agreed to them. Our lack of response was an obvious no.

“I can’t. Sorry.” Kyle sank back into his chair.

“See? This is exactly what the public needs to realize. That glory stories are nothing compared to the facts.” Jamie authorized. “The group that my sister and others are forming will make people realize that.”

None of us except for Robin replied. The Carters were obviously talking bullshit.

“And what exactly is the goal of your group, per say?”

“Our goal is to expose the fact that the virus isn’t eliminated yet. Our goal is to expose that the public isn’t safe yet. Our goal is to prove that idiots like these don’t know what they’re talking about.” Jamie went on.

“That’ s bullshit!” My voice rang across the room. “What the hell do you know about a virus that goes into the bloodstream and makes you love every trace of humanity? Have you even seen someone die in front of you? No. So, you’re fucking fake if you think you can talk all this shit and think that anyone will believe it.”

The camera was solely focused on me now and I saw Robin do all sorts of gestures to producers off set. Then, the camera rotated to her and she smiled.

“Well, that calls time for a break. We’ll be right back with this special edition of Good Morning America.”

The searing lights dimmed and Robin walked off set immediately, talking rapidly to her producers. Silence filled the set with us on the couches. Jamie walked off set as well and that just left Lea.

She tilted her head to the side, grinning smugly at us.

“What?” I snapped. “Having a sight problem?”

Lea shook her head. “Nope. I’m just getting more and more aware of the enemy.”

“The enemy?” Rodney went on.

“Yeah, the enemy is defined as the opposing force to one’s goal. You and your gang are so ignorant you wouldn’t even see what’s up your own asses, even in your blood.”

That next part got Alex’s eyes to slam to her. “So, why don’t you just spit out what you’re saying then?”

Another arrogant gleam crossed her face and she pulled up the sleeve of her arm to reveal her right wrist. And on her wrist was scarred skin shaped roughly in an oval.

“I was bitten by one of those things.”