Undead Dread by Alex Gates & Steve Higgs

Author:Alex Gates & Steve Higgs [Gates, Alex & Higgs, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-02T16:00:00+00:00

Reunited. Thursday, July 6th. 1232hrs.

Maya and Alina sat side-by-side at a cement picnic table placed in the back of the treatment center. It was a tranquil location. A koi pond trickled with a peaceful water feature just to their right, and to their left, tall, broad trees protected them from the summer sun—a sun which heated the Sacramento region close to a hundred degrees that day.

Sweat glued Maya’s shirt to her skin. An occasional breeze cut through the heat, but it offered little comfort.

Alina constantly shifted and fiddled with her hair or her clothes or her fingers, tapped her feet on the grass, popped her lips. Alina hadn’t spoken to her mom in almost three full months.

Maya wondered what emotions streaked through Alina’s mind? Relief that Wanda was safe and getting better? Anger that Wanda had left her? Fear? Joy? Had they all combined into maddening confusion?

“When will she be here?” Alina asked, staring over her shoulder at the walkway leading outward from the facility.

“Soon,” Maya said. “I think they’re bringing us lunch, too. We’re probably waiting for that.”

“Am I allowed to hug her?”

“It’s not prison.”

“How does she look?”

Wanda had refused visitors. Maya guessed her sister felt embarrassed to be in there, that she wanted to finish the program to provide evidence that she had changed. Often, Maya knew, people thought others saw them as they saw themselves… but that proved far from the truth more often than not. A mirror is the ugliest version of one’s self. Who had said that? Maya couldn’t remember, but she understood how it could be true.

From behind Alina, an orderly carried a tray with three plates. Walking beside her, carrying a few cups and a plastic pitcher of water, was Wanda. Maya hadn’t seen her sister in months, maybe over a year.

“How does she look?” Alina asked again.

“Beautiful. Like a warrior queen. Strong and regal and… and imposing. Like if she wished, she could take over the entire world.” Maya spoke honestly, too. Her older sister, from fifteen yards away, walked on air.

She had never seen Wanda with so much confidence. The woman usually carried herself with her head down, shoulders slumped, feet dragging, waiting for the earth to reach out and trip her. That’s how she used to look, like she expected to get tripped and fall flat on her face.

“She looks like she can fly.”

Alina must have realized Maya described what she noticed in real time. The kid glanced over her shoulder and blundered out of her seat, nearly falling onto the grass. She caught her balance, and without a second of hesitation, Alina charged toward her mother. She slammed into her and hugged her.

Maya moved a lot more carefully than Alina had, standing and ambling toward her older sister. She stopped a few feet away and watched as mother and daughter reunited after months of separation.

“I’m so sorry.” Wanda muttered it like a mantra. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

After a minute, Alina pulled away and wiped her wet face with the blade of her hand.

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