Above and Beyond by Riley Morgan Page B

afraid. Afraid that she wouldn’t be able to take care of herself. What did she know about surviving outside these walls? What would she do if her step-father came looking? It made more sense to her to learn how to survive in this world. It was the only one that she knew, and she didn’t see how it was going to change any time soon.
                  Ramon knew how right she was. He’d thrown himself into the world too, not that many years ago. He’d gotten along for a while. Found a niche for himself and put his back into it. But things piled up and the world got on top of him. He never found a way to get out from under it for long, and ever time he went back down, he went down harder than the time before.
                  “Do you have any friends? Any family?”
                  Lena didn’t have many friends. A few from school, but none that could keep her away from Zeus. Same with family. She thought that her mom might have some, but she’d never found anything about them, had no idea who they were or how to get in touch with them. She didn’t think they’d be able to help anyway.
                  “What do you mean?”
                  Lena took a second to answer, she looked like she was trying to make up her mind about something.
                  “My mom and dad, my real dad, they were really poor.”
                  Ramon knew what that was like. Lena said that if she had any relatives, they were probably in a shack out in the glades, or living in a trailer somewhere up north.
                  “What about you?”
                 

Lena
                  Lena had just shared more with Ramon that she had with anyone else in her whole life except for Tia and Michaela. Telling them things didn’t really count, since they always seemed to just know.
                  Ramon had been born in a little neighborhood in Miami. It was rough growing up. His family ran a small grocery store and made just enough money to make ends meet for their kids, their cousins, their grandparents. The whole family. They lived in a handful of row houses that Ramon’s dad had bought really cheap. Over the years, the family fixed them up and made them home.
                  Then some of Ramon’s cousins got into some trouble, and things got bad. They had to leave their neighborhood, and the family sort of scattered. Ramon didn’t know where his parents were. He’d lost track of them when he joined the Marines after school. He’d been a soldier for a few years, went over to Afghanistan a couple times, got kicked out his third time there.
                  He’d hitchhiked back to Miami, got back to town with the clothes on his back, and found that everyone he’d known before was dead or gone. For the last couple of years, he’d worked one shitty job or another until it broke him down. He’d ride out on any savings he had until he hit rock bottom, and then he’d do it again.
                  “So what’s this? Another shit job just to save up some more drinking money?”
                  Ramon only shrugged. He had become more distant than normal. Lena reached out with her one good hand and put it on the top of his leg trying to comfort him. He softened a little, and turned back towards her.
                  “I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m doing at all anymore.”
                  “Well you should keep doing this. You’re good at protecting people.”
                  Lena didn’t know what she said wrong, but Ramon turned away and went silent. A few minutes later he climbed out of bed and excused himself. Lena waited for him to come back, but she fell asleep before he ever did.
                  Tia woke her up the next morning. Technically, it was the afternoon. Lena had managed to sleep for the better