AFTER THE WORLD FELL (1)

AUTHOR’S POV 

By dawn, Elena had led twenty-seven survivors into an abandoned mountain settlement.

The last man stumbled through the broken entrance and collapsed against a weather-beaten wall. Behind him, the narrow trail disappeared into the mist, swallowing the mountainside they had spent the night climbing.

“Count everyone!” Elena called. “Check for injuries. Nobody wanders off alone.”

Garrick immediately began gathering the survivors while Elena surveyed their surroundings.

A row of rotting cottages stood beneath the trees. Moss covered their roofs, and weeds grew through cracks in the paths. The largest building, a former communal hall, leaned slightly to one side, but its stone walls remained intact.

It was shelter.

Barely.

A child began crying behind her.

“Is this where we're going to live?” a woman asked, clutching a sleeping baby.

“For now,” Elena answered.

“But there's nothing here!”

“Then we'll find what we need.”

Elena turned to Garrick.

“Send the hunters around the perimeter. I want to know if anything has followed us. Nobody goes far enough to lose sight of the settlement.”

Garrick nodded and began issuing instructions.

Elena pulled her medical bag higher on her shoulder and started counting the survivors.

Twenty-seven.

She counted again.

Still twenty-seven.

Relief came first, followed by the faces of those who had not made it to the northern path. She pushed the memories aside before they could overwhelm her.

The living needed her.

“Anyone with a fever, unusual confusion, or a bite wound comes to me immediately,” she announced. “Don't hide symptoms. I won't turn anyone away for being sick, but I won't allow anyone to put the others at risk.”

A man near the entrance scoffed.

“So now we're all prisoners?”

Elena looked at him. “Do you have a better suggestion?”

He said nothing.

“Good. Then help me inspect the buildings.”

The communal hall smelled of damp wood and old ashes.

Elena shoved open a warped door and stepped inside. Broken chairs littered the floor. A section of the ceiling had collapsed near the back, and rainwater had stained the walls.

Still, the stone fireplace was intact, and most of the roof remained standing.

“Bring the injured here,” she told Garrick. “We'll use the front room as a temporary infirmary. Keep the back rooms closed until we've checked the ceiling.”

“What about the cottages?”

“Inspect them before anyone sleeps inside. Mark anything unsafe.”

Garrick glanced at her. “You haven't slept at all.”

“Neither have you.”

“I'm not the one trying to keep twenty-seven people alive.”

“Then stop wasting time talking to me.”

He stared at her before letting out a tired laugh.

“There's the healer I know.”

He left to organize the others.

Elena dropped her bag beside the fireplace and began examining the building. They needed dry bedding, clean water, and somewhere to store food away from animals. They also needed a way to keep anyone who developed symptoms separated from the rest.

Without those things, their new shelter could become a graveyard.

A shout came from outside.

“Elena!”