Set some years after the apocalypse. Jamian is a character from my first webserial, Addergoole.  Miryam came from Addergoole: Year 9.  This is just a little bit of them on a beach, to Rix’s prompt and Wyste and B’s choice of characters.  Oh, and Cay and Vi are also from Addergoole.  Arna has most of her mentions in Addergoole: a Ghost Story but also comes up  in Year Nine. 

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Jamian still loved the idea of summer vacation.  The world had more or less fallen down around their ears; the resort towns were all boarded up, fallen down, or walled off into compounds; there was no office job to take a vacation from, no school to get the kids out of, and his kids were all out of the nest anyway.  But he still would take a week and just walk down to a beach somewhere to dip his feet in the water, while Cay and Vi laughed at him from a solid vantage point.

This time, there was someone else on the beach.  Jamian walked slowly toward the petite figure – a strip of a dress that barely covered her, another strip of fabric wrapped around her head in a strange pattern, leaving parts of her head bare, no shoes, no back to her dress – showing that he had no weapons by the way he held his hands.

It was only as she spoke that he recognized her.

“I’m just here for a little vacation, if that’s not ridiculous.”  She smiled crookedly at him.  She’d been in school when Arna had been there, a 9th Cohort.

“I’m here for the same reason.”  Jamian wracked his brain for a name.  “…You’re from Addergoole, right?”  He kept his hands spread wide and non-threatening.  “I brought a really big blanket…”

“I’m from Addergoole.”  She was was the one with the addictive smile, wasn’t she?  But she wasn’t making him feel particularly tipsy at the moment, that was a good start.  “Miryam.”

“Jamian.  Fifth Cohort.”  He lay the blanket out, making sure there was plenty of room for both of them, and stripped off his shirt.  “Nice place for a little vacation, mmm?”

She lay down carefully on her stomach.  Wings, he thought.  Something like that.  “As long as you keep to your side of the blanket.”  She shot him a friendly smile that told him that she was both not being antagonistic and definitely being serious.

“Oh, believe me.”  He grinned back at her in a far wider and more open manner, “I wouldn’t dare do otherwise.”

Not with Cay and Vi watching.  He’d never hear the end of it if he did.

“I miss summer vacation,” she murmured into her folded arms.

Jamian stared up at the sun, half-hidden behind a cloud.  “Me, too.  But this isn’t a bad imitation.”