My civilisation (D.D)

(CHAPTER TWELVE)

CHAPTER TWELVE

( Lost )

(A/N: I haven't had a chance to read this over yet, so sorry if there's some mistakes.)

SHE FELT HER BLOOD RUN COLD.

       This couldn't be happening. It couldn't. There was a mistake, there had to be. Things like this just didn't happen to her. She wasn't going to lose her brother. It was all one big terrible mistake, a misunderstanding. That's what it was.

        "Ophelia," her brother said, gulping. "Say something."

        Ophelia looked up at her brother and paused for a moment. She just looked at him. She looked at his sweet face, his gentle eyes, the face she'd known all her childhood, through all her struggles, all her difficulties. It was his face where she felt the most at home, the most safe, a face she could always go to, who would never turn away from her. But now...she was just meant to accept that she was only ever going to see it again in her memories, in photographs? No. She couldn't just accept it.

       "Are you sure it's a walker bite? Maybe you just injured yourself fighting dad? You might just be overthinking." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "Looks like it might just be a punch mark to me."

        "You know damn well it's a bite mark," he told her. "Last time I checked, a punch mark didn't leave teeth punctures."

        "It's dark. You're seeing things that aren't there. It's just a punch mark." She nodded adamantly. "You'll be alright, you'll see. Everything will be alright."

       "Ophelia, you know how much I wish that was true, but it isn't, I'm...." he paused, closing his eyes tightly. "I'm dying."

       Ophelia quickly shook her head. "No. No, you're not."

        "Yes I am, I'm dying. I'm sick. I've been infected. I'm tired. I have a fever. I'm...i'm dying, Lia." He said, looking down at the pile of leaves he was perched on. "G-d damn it, I'm f-cking dying."

         Ophelia began to feel her head ache, ache with tears threatening to fall. "Eugene is going to Washington. He thinks he has a cure. We can go with him. He can make you better, Griff. You don't have to leave me. You don't have to die." She said weakly, pleadingly.

        Griffin sighed softly. "I want that to be true. But I'll be gone by the time we even reach Washington."

        "We can leave now," she said, desperately. "We can leave right now. I'll get you there. I will. I'll do anything to get you there."

         Griffin gave her a small smile. "I know you would. But, we don't even know if this 'Eugene' guy has the cure. We don't know if whatever his 'cure' is works. And even if through some miracle it did, I'd be dead before we even reach halfway to Washington DC. I've been hanging on for as long as I can and I...I don't know how much longer I can do that for. I'm tired, Lia. So, so tired."