“Matt,” she called him. No reaction. “Matthew. Get up.” She put a hand on his shoulder and gently but firmly shook him awake. He slowly opened his eyes, still drowsy. She thought it odd how he was able to sleep so well for someone who had been so troubled about killing a man only a few hours before.

“What’s up?” he asked in a yawn.

She told him about the bad dreams and asked if he thought they had any meaning. He didn’t, but she then insisted that he tell her what secret knowledge he withheld, especially if it was about her. It was only fair: nobody would not want to know, if they could.

“Fine,” he said. “It’s not much, though.” He took his time to straighten up, sitting comfortably against the wall next to him. “Your strength. Our strength,” he rephrased. “We need to learn to control it. Power corrupts. Morality may not be as important to you as it is to me, but you’ll get crushed by it. Get overconfident. Not think things through.”

“Explain.”

“I can’t, because I don’t know. I can’t predict your future; I just see a pattern, and I know your personality.”

She sighed. Maybe he was right. She was usually peaceful, but she did have a very explosive temperament when she was pissed off.

“Since you've warned me, I’ll try to remain in control of myself.”

“I sure hope so,” he said. “I would hate having to fight you. It would probably hurt me more than it would hurt you, but I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“You know I would win.” She smirked.

“True, but it doesn’t matter,” he said with a hint of concern in his voice. “It’s not a contest of who’s got the biggest dick. If we keep getting stronger, who’s gonna keep us in check? If we’re not careful, we’re just other monsters in the making.”

What he said somewhat frustrated her. Did he think that she had absolutely no self-awareness? He had only known her for a few days, yet his half-accusatory tone implied he was in a position to judge her. It sounded like he was attempting to manipulate her to be who he wanted her to be, and she had enough people in her life who had tried that already. Still, in these dire circumstances, he was her closest friend. She would have to put up with it. Thus, even if he was three years older than she was, she chose to be the bigger person. She took a deep breath.

Maybe I’m just grumpy because I had a shitty night, she thought.

“I’m sorry,” Matt said. He then got up and walked away. Amy looked at him passively.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I gotta pee,” he answered.

–

The tense atmosphere over the course of thirty minutes, eventually sitting down for their meager breakfast, consisting of a chocolatine each. They had found a pack of eight in a freezer shortly after they left and, while they used to be fresh at one point, the feeling of melted ice in the bread was now unpleasant and gross. They chose to save their nearly-depleted water reserves for later emergencies, having some apple juice to drink instead. The sweetness of the chocolate made it taste sour and bitter. They didn’t have the luxury of choice, however.

“Matt,” she called out to him as they packed up their stuff. “I still want to keep looking for Isabelle.”

They had come here in hopes of finding Amy’s sister. The school she attended was right across the road, but it had been empty for some time, save for a few cockroaches and the silent memory of those taken by the Corrupted.

“Yeah, I know. Here’s what I think: we go through Cape Deadstone today. Maybe there’s still people over there. If not, then we move on and try to find another community.”

Cape Deadstone…it was not its proper name, but that was something Matt did: he would rename the villages to something that reflected his perception of them. Cape Deadstone was originally Cape Grindstone. Amherst became Desert Harbor since nobody lived there anymore. Northpond had been changed to Northern Kingdom when they visited two days ago, due to the newly-established authoritarian government. As far as she knew, in theory, the town was still a democracy. In practice, The Lebel family had managed to accrue a significant amount of influence, becoming the de facto leaders, thanks to their knowledge of construction and electrical engineering.

The head of the family, Michel, was the former president of some firm she didn’t know. His habit of bossing people around stuck even after the apocalypse. People failing to do his bidding were often punished and threatened to be kicked out: a life of servitude for a little bit of fake safety. Because of this, Amy considered the people of Northern Kingdom to be weak-willed, only good at doing what others told them to do. She didn’t wish death on them, but she knew it was only a matter of time before their fortifications crumbled, before someone or something found a flaw in their defenses.

She attempted to chase away the recent memories from her mind, waving her hand in front of her face as if to repel an annoying fly – and comparing Mr. Lebel to one was accurate, she thought. She looked at Matt. He appeared to focus on something on the horizon, which meant he couldn’t have seen her gesture to herself like an idiot. She grabbed the backpack; though she appeared frail, she was physically much stronger and enduring than he was, so she agreed to play the pack mule when they traveled. Besides, she was worried that one of the Corrupted would catch her new friend if he was slowed down by their belongings, even if it wasn’t much for the time being.

She walked up to him. “What’s up?” she asked. He didn’t answer, remaining silent for a while. She went next to him, looked at his eyes and followed his gaze, unsuccessfully trying to figure out what he was staring at. She shrugged and made a questioning sound, indicating she failed to understand what his deal was.

“You know… I’m having second thoughts. How many days has it been since it all started? Since the first Corrupted started popping out? Maybe two weeks? How come nobody we’ve never met anyone who lived in Deadstone? And look – these clouds. Not a lot of sun. Could be riskier than we thought.”

“You’re probably overthinking it. The village there has the biggest docks out of all the islands, and they had a lot of ships. They probably were smart enough to get out when it all went to hell.”

She tried her best to be reassuring, but he wasn’t convinced.

“I don’t know”, he said. “The were rumors that Northern Kingdom sent people over there to scout out the place, but they never returned. We should have investigated for more details when we had a chance. Damn!”

“Look,” she said, losing patience. “I’m going there. I’m strong now, and you have a gun. Besides, we don’t really have a choice. You said it yourself, we’re out of… everything! You wanna freaking walk for a whole day to beg Arthur to let us back in Basin, that’s your choice. But I’m not doing that.”

“Nah,” he said, more relaxed. “All I’m saying is, let’s be careful. Let’s try to find a good spot where we can look from some distance. I hope your eyes are good, though, ‘cause mine are shit and I don’t have glasses. You’re gonna have to be the one looking out for us.”

She smirked. “I know. I have to do everything.”