The Aftermath

My hands lunged out and wrapped its way around her throat, both of us clattering over the couch and to the cold floor.

“You bitch! You’re going to kill us all!”

Screaming and shouting went off behind me. Alex dove forward as I dug my fingers deeper into the warm flesh of her neck. She tried to scratch and claw at me, but I was too strong.

“Stop!” Alex heaved me off of her and my chest was jumping up and down. He stood between me and Lea. Kyle and Ryant both stood in horror. Rodney was still seated.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Alex snapped.

“Why are you yelling at me?! She’s the one that’s infected!”

Lea was busy coughing while producers and guards helped her up.

“Uh, Jasmine. She’s not infected…” Ryant murmured.

“What?! She just said-“

“That’s make up, you moron!” Alex cut back. “She probably did that herself to see what thrills she could get out of you!

My jaw almost wanted to drop. “B-but, how…?”

Kyle plunked back down to the couch and sighed, sitting near an amazingly bored Rodney. “Look, who cares, we’ve gotta finish up this stinking interview.”

“I am not staying for this crap! Jamie, let’s go!” Lea shouted, producers had handed her water and even I had to admit my hands felt weird from the force I’d put to her neck.

Producers and other people were scrambling around, trying to talk her into staying.

“Is that even possible?” I muttered. “Can that be make up?”

Rodney stood and came near Ryant and I.

“Look, as far as I know, there’s no strand of the virus that stays in the blood stream that long. Unless she’s…”

“Unless she’s immune.” Ryant answered. Rodney looked to him like a lizard to a fly.

“It’s a possibility. My uncle’s still trying to do research on those with the immune gene in their blood. He’s trying to find the effects of sexual reproduction on the genome.”

Ryant flinched, obviously concussed at Rodney mentioning sex in front of him. “Yeah, that’s nice.” Then, Ryant went back down to sit.

Rodney stood by me now and Jamie came storming over, angry.

“Did you put your hands on my sister?!” The dude was practically shouting in my face.

I rolled my eyes. “She provoked me. You and her aren’t the most compatible people.”

“That’s no excuse!” He shoved me in the shoulder. “You don’t EVER touch her! Especially after all the crap we’ve been through!”

“Don’t touch her!” Ryant and Kyle both shout out, standing up.

Jamie scoffed at them. “Oh, am I supposed to be scared of two blubbering idiots like you two? I could shove my foot up your ass before you even have the chance to sit down.”

Ryant’s mouth snapped open in disgrace.

“Don’t talk to him like that.” Rodney said icily. “I think it’d be better if you and your sister just left. You’re obviously the weaker asset in the show’s interview.”

Jamie glared his eyes at all of us before walking away, breathing threats under his breath.

“That was certainly fun.” Kyle remarked.

My shoulder was throbbing from where Jamie had shoved me and Alex came walking back over. He came to me first and no one else.

“The producers say if you pull another stunt like that, you’ll never be allowed on TV again. I advise you control yourself.”

I looked at him with all the disgust in my blood. “Do you think I honestly give a crap about being on TV as much as you do? I’m sorry that I don’t have my head as far up my ass as you.”

We tended to have these arguments sometimes. He never let me live crap down and I never allowed the same for him.

He just went back to his previous spot on the couch, silently fuming. Makeup artists came over and fixed my blouse, saying that it had lost some of its ‘glimmer’ and I was feeling sick to my stomach.

Before I knew it Robin Roberts was back to us and just seconds before the camera cut back on, she let out an animated laughter. “Uh, that’s a wonderful joke, Alexander!”

I saw Alex’s left eye twitch and I almost smiled. He hated when people called him Alexander.

“Well, since we’ve been on the break, me and these wonderful kids have been enjoying ourselves!” Robin said to the main camera. “I think know we’d like to take the time to get a little bit more personal, ask the questions that the nation has really been interested in.”

What questions were those?

Robin turned to Alex and I. “Since your arrival in Washington, there have been candid sources who report that you two are dating. What’s your response to that?”

I almost wanted to spit in this woman’s face. Is this seriously what she was worried about? Alex’s and I’s love life?

“Well, actually, there’s a long story to that and it involves me-“

Alex cut me off. He’d acquired quite a knack for detecting when I had a smart remark prepared. “Yes, we’re dating. 5 months strong and I love every day of it.”

He let go a slightly sheepish smile and I felt my heart tug, even when we were mad at each other he could manage to be all noble. Then, his hand crept into mine and all the hostilities released from me.

“How’d the two of you meet?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “He shot me and-“

“Wait, he shot you?” The reporter chuckled.

“Yeah, I was running and he refused to let me go, so he shot me in the shoulder. I still have the scar.”

Alex’s face turned a bright red and I had to say that I was enjoying this.

“Well, that’s lovely. I bet it was love at first sight.”

Alex and I didn’t even respond. Love at first sight, more like hate at first sight?

Robin went back to her index cards. “And here’s another question we’ve received a lot lately. How did all of you exactly make it out of that airport? Tell us from the beginning.”

This sort of seemed to be the first time anyone had asked us flat out. Rodney seemed to sit by respectively and all of us stayed silent.

Ryant spoke first.

“Well, for me it started with my dad. From a very young age, he always told me to take care of my brother, care for him and it wasn’t always hard since I loved Max so much. Then, we moved to our new state and I ended up meeting Jasmine on my first day of school. She was practically the only person I met that cared to even talk to me. She was nice.”

Robin smiled at me warmly and Alex squeezed my hand.

“Then, the virus broke out and I knew my brother was in trouble. It was hard for me to leave my first friend, but I had to do. I had to save Max.”

“And what happened after you saved Max?”

Ryant licked his lips. “Then, I protected him. We had to fight those infected people a few times and then, I found out that there was safe haven. When me and my brother went there, I knew it was a risk because it was Lexicon, but we hadn’t eaten in a few days. Then, I was kidnapped by Lexicon.”

Then, Kyle went next. Telling how him and his sister had skipped school that day, just walking around in a park when a woman went screaming past them, blood soaked all over her clothes and gushing from her mouth. How they’d managed to make it onto a shuttle bus to Southwestern Airport and just miles from the airport, how the bus had been attacked.

“After that we met Cece and her friends, me and my sister weren’t getting along and then…”

“Then, my father’s company took her.” Rodney filled in. “There’s surveillance footage proving her death was the cause of Lexicon guards.”

“Then, Jasmine and her friends helped me find that out. They’re the reason I know how she died.” Kyle remarked.

“Sounds very trying. We’re glad you made it, Kyle.”

The attention turned to Rodney next who just seemed bored. “You already know my story. I’ve done multiple interviews.”

“And what about you, Alex. Tell us your story.”

Alex’s fingers looped a little tighter into mine. I noticed how he made sure to keep his voice from shaking.

“Well, after my dad died when the virus broke out. My aunt, my cousin, and I did all we could to help people.” His voice seemed dry, sort of frozen in his throat. “We had this little boy along with us, but he died along the way too after my cousin died.”

“How’d your cousin die?”

Alex swallowed, eyes pulling together as he concentrated. I used all my energies to secretly will him, to tell him that he was strong.

“He was scratched by those things and his mother had to… end it.”

Sympathy crossed the reporter’s eyes for the first true time when she put Alex out of his misery and turned to me.

“And what about you, Jasmine? How’d you make it this far?”

“Me and my dad had issues so I moved in with my aunt and uncle. The virus came and I did whatever I could to find Ryant. He was one of the first people I trusted in a really long time.”

“So, you and Ryant are best friends?”

I giggled. “Yeah. If not he’s like my brother, love him to death. But, then Alex and his aunt and cousin found me with Eli, the little boy.”

I tried to tell as much as I could without being boring, telling the whole story without all the confidential details (like breaking into Lexicon illegally). While I spoke, everyone seemed to pay attention and take notice. Producers and workers on the show watched and listened, many of their faces drawn in sympathy.

It filled me with some weird sense of vulnerability to know I was telling everyone this: how it burned me up inside to see Eli die, how I’d learned to miss my father, and all the deaths that would never leave me.

“And of all things that have happened to you Jasmine, what would you has been most horrible?”

I just searched and searched inside my soul. “I can’t really say.” My answer was honest, kind.

But, then she came back with a slap in face. “Because there have been tabloids of a woman claiming to be your step mother, a Gladis Evergreen?”

My breath literally stopped in my throat.

My dad’s ex-wife… Ricky…

“She claims to have been married to your father and divorced due to irreconcilable differences. What do you have to say about that?”

Alex seemed more aware than ever of my frozen grip on his hand and he spoke up first. “I believe that’s enough questions. We’re pretty tired and…”

Robin’s eyes never left me until she had to turn to the camera. “Well, that’ll be all for today’s special edition of Good Morning America. Stay tuned for news of brand new Apple product to be released this Christmas!”

The cameras cut off and I didn’t even wait for signal.

I walked out of there and I walked out fast.