Alyssa is dead.
Childbirth for women is like walking through the Ghost Gate, a matter of life and death. And the end of the world conditions are even more harrowing, with no medical equipment and deadly bacteria viruses floating in the air.
Even if Alyssa had been lucky enough to cling to life, without adequate postpartum medical treatment and professional care, she would have struggled to survive in these conditions.
It was destined that either her child or herself could survive, and that was already the best outcome she had anticipated. She knew this well and so she had left all her remaining strength for her child.
Her body is buried in a cemetery outside the city, next to a hundred-year-old tree.
Some English letters carved on one side of the trunk bear the names of Alyssa and Aria.
Unable to share a bed in life, but in death, they rest in the same grave plot.
That was Alyssa's last wish.
*
