The Resistance: Book 5 of the After The Event Series by T.A. Williams Page A

then took a large bite of her own. The meat only lasted a few minutes between her and Tiger but by the time it was gone her stomach was full and sleep called to her again. Ally started to push herself away from the table when she noticed Dena hadn’t moved an inch. She just continued to sit and stare at the flame. “You okay?” Ally asked.
                  Dena looked over to her as if she hadn’t been at the table the entire time. “Yes hon, I’m ok.”
                  Ally didn’t move.
                  Dena turned her attention away from the girl and stared back at the dancing flame. “I should have known.”
                  The pause stretched on. “Should have known what?” Ally asked.
                  “I should have known what he was doing. He was always disappearing and then showing back up with food. I…I suspected it, but I never knew he was hurting people.”
                  Spence. She was talking about Spence.
                  “He was a bad person.”
                  “He wasn’t always,” Dena fought back tears but her resolve gave way and they began to flood down her cheeks. “He was always headstrong but he never would have hurt anyone.”
                  “He did hurt someone. I saw him do it.”
                  Dena wiped the tears from her eyes. “It’s my fault. He did it so we could survive.”
                  “I survived without hurting anyone,” Ally said coldly. “He chose to hurt people to survive. He didn’t have to and you didn’t make him.” Dena nodded her head and went quiet. For a while they sat there watching the candle burn down. Ally’s thoughts turned to what Dena wanted to do. “You know your daughter isn’t at the college anymore.”
                  Dena’s body stiffened. “We don’t know that.”
                  “Everyone we talked to said that there is no college. It’s nothing more than a crater.”
                  “I still have to see it.”
                  “You’ll risk your life to see a bunch of destroyed buildings?”
                  Dena slammed her fist down on the table, causing Tiger to jump. “I just need to see it! It’s where I saw her last. You wouldn’t understand.”
                  “My family is dead.” A cold anger ran through Ally. “Every single person I have ever cared for has been killed and left me all alone.”
                  A look of shock and realization appeared on Dena’s face but before she could say anything Ally continued.
                  “I know what it’s like to lose people, but it doesn’t give you the right to put other people in danger.”
                  Dena put her head in her hands and Ally watched as she wept. Some of the anger slowly melted away but a large portion of it remained. Everyone still alive in the world had lost something or someone. To continue to survive you had to continue to stand even when things got rough, and all Dena wanted to do was lie down.
                  Dena stopped crying and wiped the tears away. “I know she’s out there.”
                  “Then Adam and I will keep looking, but there is no point in going to a bunch of destroyed buildings.”
                  Dena got up from her chair and was on Ally in seconds. The woman squeezed her in a tight hug. “Thank you, Ally. I love you so much.”
                  Ally squeezed her back as the last of her anger melted away. She wanted to be mad at Dena because the woman wasn’t strong. Ally had learned to be strong and the fact that this woman refused to do the same filled her with rage, but Ally couldn’t hate her. She was just a woman looking for her child.

Ben
     
                 
                  The winter