The Thirteenth Colony (State Humans/Country Humans)

Chapter 26: At What Cost?

North splashed his face with water as though it might give him strength for what lies ahead. It had been three weeks since the end of the fighting, and since he had seen his brother's lifeless corpse. He shook his head, trying to push the thought out of his mind.

Behind him, he heard the door creak open, "North...it's time." South said, her usual vigor and cheery attitude drained from her voice. North nodded, "No point putting it off any longer I guess."

Same Time

Virginia walked alone through halls of the colonies' mansion. Usually, the only way to describe the place was chaotic, with colonies arguing, fighting, playing around, ect.

He always said that if their was just one, orderly day in the place, where he could focus and not be interrupted by his siblings' antics, he'd never complain again. But now that he had finally gotten his wish, he only wanted to go back to how things were.

Looking at his pocket watch, he sighed. It was time.

Walking outside, he saw several other colonies heading in the same direction, either by themselves or in pairs. Nobody felt like being in a crowd today.

Finally, he saw the spot he was heading. On top of a hill overlooking the mansion, was a tree that gave plenty of shade to those beneath it, those being Connecticut and Delaware. In front of the pair was a recently dug hole that the colonies had worked on through the night.

Ten Minutes Later

Almost all the colonies had gathered by now at the grave. Ame gave a nod to Maryland, who stood fifty feet away from the others. Maryland nodded back, then motioned for the the other three colonies with her to begin their grim task. The siblings lifted the coffin holding Georgia into the air, and began marching towards the rest of their family.

The loss of Georgia had hit everyone hard. The colonies had never lost a sibling before, never mind one who was as ingrained into everyone's lives as Georgia. Ame looked around at each of his colonies. They all to be in bad shape, for one reason or another. South had been almost completely silent ever since she saw the body, all of her previous merry attitude seemingly drained from her soul.

North almost seemed to mature from the event. Where as before he would frequently complain about so many small things, changeable or not, Ame hadn't heard him complain once, not even at the death of his brother.

Ame considered Virginia to be the colony who was taking the tragedy the best, probably due to the his previous experiences regarding the deaths of those around him.

Finally, Ame's eyes landed on CT. She had been the opposite of Virginia, taking her younger brother's death the worst of them all. She stopped eating for weeks and had dark rings under her sleep deprived eyes. Whenever anyone would try to get her to open up a bit, she just talked to them in short one word sentences or not at all.

Georgia's coffin was lowered into the ground without a single word from anyone. It was hard to tell if that was because everyone was so lost in though, or because no one truly knew what to say in a moment as strange as this.

Finally, someone broke the silence. Through lips dry as sand, Pennsylvania said, "Does anyone know why we were even fighting?" He didn't speak it as rhetorical question, but instead just sounded confused, as if he was trying to put his finger on exactly why his brother was dead.

Hampshire muttered out, "Because England told us to." He didn't sound argumentative, instead he sounded lost, much like his sibling had.

Penn's eyes removed themselves from Georgia's corpse and focused on his brother. "But why did England tell us to. What good did it do any of us?"

Nobody had an answer for that. The silence from before returned, though this time for different reasons. Finally, Delaware spoke, "I'm done." Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate. After a moment, he did.

"This isn't the first time we've fought the French. But this is damn well the last for me at least. If England has a problem with that, he can go to hell."

"Same here." Said North, stepping forward. "One dead brother is more than enough. If Scotland couldn't get off his ass quick enough to come help us in time, and if Wales is so afraid of her precious boats getting sunk she'd rather leave us behind, than I sure as hell ain't gonna risk dying for them." North's speech was the first one to not sound lost or confused. He spoke with certainty about what me meant, and what he believed. Ame thought he saw Virginia, for just brief second, give a nod of approval at his younger brother.

One by one, the colonies all made clear their agreement on the matter, with Ame doing the same. Finally, the only one left was CT. Everyone fixed their gazes on her, waiting to hear what she had to say. Not s single one of them excepted her to start laughing. And yet, that's what she did.

After a few moments, she finally began to explain what was so funny to her. "Georgia was never able to decide what he would do or specialize in. He used to hang out with all of us, and help each of us. I didn't really care what he he became as long as he didn't become one thing. Me. I used to always try my hardest to make sure he didn't turn out like me. I never told him about all the people I'd killed, or how I used to torture whoever I needed info out of, or how every time I aimed down the sights of my rifle at an animal, I imagined, no, I fantasized, about killing another person."

Pulling out her journal from her pocket, she continued, "I kept telling myself I was trying to live a different sort of life so that I wouldn't rub off wrong on him. I even had this fantasy that one day I could put it all behind me. I even started keeping a stupid journal to keep track of how well I was doing at hiding it." She threw the journal down at Georgia's feet.

The colonies looked at one another in worry. They all thought someone should say something but didn't know who or what. And so, CT continued on.

"This journal is as dead as Georgia now then! I don't plan on keeping myself, my real self, documented and contained like a disease any longer. If I had done all this sooner, maybe Georgia would still be alive. But by doing it now, I'm not taking that chance with anyone else. If someone seems like a threat to any of us, I'll kill them, simple as that."