Payton suddenly took a hold of my hand and stopped me. I turned to him, but he said nothing. I looked around and found us standing in the middle of a very busy street in the good part of the city. I saw nothing weird, so I turned back to Payton. He nudged his head towards a bakery across the street.

“Hungry?” I asked.

“I’m starving… I haven’t eaten since yesterday morning,” he said quietly.

“Me neither,” I said. “I think I have a few coins somewhere…”

“We should save them,” Payton mumbled. “You know… Nine hundred dollars…”

I wanted to get mad at him. I almost did. There was no fucking way I’d lift a finger to get those guns back! Not for people who were fine with kidnapping babies!

But I held my tongue. This was not Payton’s fault.

I forced my clan out of my head and focused on getting us breakfast. I peered at the bakery, counting the people inside.

“It’s quite crowded,” I noted.

“I have my running shoes on,” Payton said confidently. “See you at the pond?”

“Sure,” I said, and stopped to wait while he made his way to the shop.

Once he was inside, I followed him, moving my backpack in front of me for easy access. When I stepped inside the bakery, I counted six more people and one cashier, then headed to the back corner to check the freshly baked breads in their baskets. I took a bag for myself and grabbed eight big buns for us, and once I’d closed the bag, I turned around, acting like I was looking for something else.

Payton was in the opposite corner, standing close to the door. When he knew I was looking at him, he took a few blueberry muffins from the shelves… And walked out of the door.

“Hey? Hey! You have to pay for those!” the cashier yelled and hurried after Payton when he left running as fast as he could, gaining everyone’s attention.

I put my bag of bread quickly into my backpack while no one was looking and hurried out with everyone else to see what was happening. Payton was long gone, and the cashier was cursing loudly in the middle of the street. I turned around and started walking, acting as normally as I could. No one paid any attention to me, so I just kept walking.

But I wasn’t in a hurry. I loved this part of the city, and my mood came slowly up as I walked through the small area. I’d always dreamed of living here… It was such a beautiful, modern, peaceful place, and each building had two floors of shops and restaurants and different kinds of small businesses. The rest of the five, six, even seven floors were filled with nice apartments for all families of different sizes, and each building had their own secure shelters below ground with enough room for everyone to hide in case the terrorists tried to attack.

The streets, too, were absolutely gorgeous with trees and little fountains and large flower arrangements behind almost every corner, and the people seemed so much happier and lively here compared to the residents of the old, crumbling areas the war against True Order had ruined beyond repair.

In this part of the city, it was almost like the war didn’t exist. I felt safe walking down these streets even after dark. Us omegas were never really safe. Any alpha passing me by could be a terrorist or a slave trader, and no one would come save me if I ended up getting kidnapped. But here it was different.

I looked away when I walked past a group of soldiers in their heavy uniforms and assault rifles as they stood in the corner of one of the busiest streets. The army was still on high alert because of what we did last night, and it showed. It was normal to see them everywhere I went, but today they were watching every single street like hawks. None of them paid any attention to me, thankfully.

I had mixed feelings about them. They fought True Order like rabid dogs and kept us safe, but at the same time, the government was pouring millions into maintaining the large army, while almost one third of the state was still homeless. Yes, new homes were being built, but if they’d spend even a little of the money they spend on their soldiers on rebuilding instead…

Too soon, I reached the area that was still under construction, and once I’d made my way safely past those few blocks, I stopped to stare at the abandoned dystopian neighborhood that was still waiting for the day when all the burned, destroyed rubble and debris would be taken away, and the new, beautiful buildings would rise from their ashes.

This charred land continued as far as my eye could see. This area, the old bustling center, got the worst of the war that started twenty years ago, just before I was even born. It got so utterly destroyed nothing could be salvaged from it. It was now almost completely abandoned with no electricity, no running water, nothing.

But there was beauty in this miserable place. Nature had settled in after the humans had left, and it was hiding another favorite place of mine.

I hurried my steps as I headed down the narrow pathway that led to the remains of the old city. I quickly arrived at a tall fence that was built to keep the civilians away from the dangerous area, but someone had cut a way through it. It wasn’t even that hidden, just behind some large bushes a few steps away from the path, but no one bothered to close it because someone would just cut a new one next to it.

Once I got past the fence, I returned to the pathway and kept going. I had some walking ahead of me to get to the pond Payton and I had agreed to meet at, but I welcomed it this time. It was easier to keep my clan out of my head when I had to focus on climbing past the collapsed buildings so I wouldn’t hurt myself. Fresh air cleared my head, and soon, I was daydreaming of my own little home in the good part of the city… And away from Kent.

I could almost picture my own little apartment far above the city, maybe with a little balcony where I could grow a couple of tiny plants. I’d fill my home with couches and fluffy carpets and two layers of large curtains and put little lights in every corner and table, and I’d bake cookies and tasty breads and large dinners… Maybe there would be an alpha too, a good, handsome alpha who loved me and wanted to take care of me and our–

I went too far in my daydreams, and my mood came back down.

Those dreams would forever be just dreams… I was never going to have that life.

I forced those miserable thoughts out of my head. The pond was right up ahead, and I could hear people close by. It was a popular place among the homeless, so I wasn’t surprised.

I entered the shadows of a partly collapsed building and blinked a little to get used to the darkness before I continued walking. It used to be some kind of an office building, and the first two floors had now formed a big tunnel with a river running through it. I stayed close to the strong pillars that had kept the upper floors from caving in while trying to avoid getting my shoes wet as I headed toward the light on the other side.

And soon, I arrived at the pond.

It wasn’t a natural pond, but a large crater in the middle of these big office buildings, and the concrete blocks that had fallen off them now formed the bottom of the pond. There used to be a street a bit above us on a small hill behind the buildings, and a river right behind it, but the street had collapsed a long time ago, and part of that river now came down here to fill this pond as a pretty little waterfall. Over the years, nature had taken over this area, and now the pond had turned into a beautiful little oasis with sand, grass, plants, and trees surrounding it.

“Joni!”

I heard Payton somewhere on my left, and spotted him under a tree close by. I smiled and headed to him while grabbing the bag full of bread from my backpack.

“You didn’t run into any trouble getting here?” I asked him as I sat down on the sand next to him.

“Nah. There were shitloads of soldiers though, but either they didn’t see me, or they didn’t care,” Payton said with a shrug.

“I noticed that too,” I said while giving him one of the buns. “Eat up.”

“Thanks!”

I took one for myself, pulled a piece off it, and started eating. It was really good bread. I almost wished I had some butter and cheese to put on it, but I stopped myself before I could go down that path again. I was just grateful I had something to eat.

But if I ever had that little home of my own…