Broken

Chapter 27

Seth's death was starting to set in. Tears flowed freely as I beat the ground with my fists. Every time I hit the ground, I yelled, "Why?!" My fists eventually became bruised and bloody, so I had to stop. I looked up at the sky as I shook with sobs. The sky looked so beautiful as it smiled down on me.

I wanted to die.

I heard someone come up behind me. It was Hank.

"Beth? We're gonna leave soon. Come on back."

I took a deep breath and stood. Then I remembered my bat.

"Hey, Hank. I left my bat in this clearing thing. I'm gonna go get it and I'll come back here."

"Okay, Beth. Be safe."

I swung my backpack over my shoulder, ignoring the pain in my stomach. I headed back to Seth's grave. The last place I saw him alive.

I stepped into the clearing and was surprised to not see Seth. I realized that the thugs with him probably dragged him away. I sadly looked around for my bat, but couldn't find it. That's when I heard someone moan. I jumped and yanked out my knife. It was coming from the bushes in front of me. I crept towards them, ready for a surprise attack. I burst through them and saw three bodies and my bat. I picked up my bat and gasped.

Two of them were the thugs and the other was Seth. Seth! And he was still alive! I cried out with joy and rushed over to him. I froze in my tracks when I saw him lying in a puddle of blood. I fell to my knees next to him and checked him for wounds. They had shot him in the arm and hand. I almost shouted for joy but kept my focus on Seth, who looked like he had endured the beating of hell.

I gently took his good arm and put it over my shoulder. I had to get him back to camp somehow. Seth moaned again as I put my arm around him.

"Come on, Seth," I said through gritted teeth. "I know you can do this."

I changed tactics. I hooked both of my arms under his armpits and began dragging him. My stomach felt like it was murdering my insides, but I continued anyway. I owed Seth my life. I watched Seth's limp legs follow us and I went faster. My determination outmatched the pain and I was practically carrying Seth by the time I got back to the others. I tripped over Scarlett's arm but stayed firm as I carefully set Seth down. Charles and Hank stared at Seth as I collapsed on the ground clutching my stomach.

"He's... alive! Help... him..." I choked out.

They went to work. I just lay next to Seth, watching his black and blue face. I took as deep breaths as I could, but I couldn't help but let a few tears escape.

Seth was alive.

When they were done fixing Seth up, they came over to me and bandaged up my knuckles. I said nothing. I could only stare at Seth, who was sleeping next to me. Charles knelt next to us and said,

"We're gonna stay here for one more night before we leave. That should be enough time to get that kid up and running again."

I nodded and crawled closer to Seth. I didn't leave his side.

He woke up the next morning completely silent. I woke up to his movement next to me. My stomach immediately started hurting again. I pushed away the pain and sat up. He was looking at me. His eyes filled with joy.

"Beth! You're alive!"

I nodded. "So are you!"

Despite all our injuries, we hugged. We both hissed in pain but ignored it. Seth whispered in my ear,

"I thought they were going to kill you."

"And I thought you were dead," I replied.

Seth managed to get a laugh out. "That was a fair bet. I can't believe you found me."

"All because of my stupid bat."

"That bat is a blessing."

We released each other and he immediately grabbed one of my hands with his good hand.

"What happened to your knuckles?"

I shrugged. "Nothing happened."

"Liar."

I sighed. "I beat the ground."

"Why would you do that?"

I lowered my voice. "Dexter and Benjamin are dead."

Seth dropped my hand. "What?"

"I don't know how, but they died."

Seth shook his head sadly. "How did you escape?"

"Charles and the rest of the group came to my rescue by ambushing the thugs."

Seth looked over at Charles and Hank. "They are good people."

"When they want to be."

Charles rolled over and accidentally kicked Hank in the face. Hank sputtered awake, swearing. He looked up at us and I saw his eyes widen.

"Kid! You're alive! That's great!"

He stood and walked over to us. He crouched down and inspected Seth.

"It looks like you went through-"

"Yeah I know. We should probably leave."

Hank nodded. "Yes we will. We're just... planning our moves more carefully now, after what happened."

I lowered my voice. "Hank, what happened with the boys?"

Hank leaned in closer to us. "We were almost there to the exit. We got ambushed by a couple of fellows from that group you kids were ambushed by. It didn't look good. We figured out they were cannibals. They were about to eat... the baby. Charles wasn't gonna let that happen. He open fired on some of the guys, which resulted in a fight. When the fight was over, we had won, but Dexter and Benjamin had been hit. They had died instantly."

I covered my mouth in shock. "No..."

Seth shook his head. "Cannibals..."

Hank nodded. "Looking at the bright side, they didn't get eaten. That's all I could ask for out of that situation."

"What are you talking about?"

Hank and I jumped (Seth didn't, of course). Charles's dim eyes brightened when he saw Seth sitting up.

"Hey! You're up!"

Seth nodded. "Yep."

"How do you feel?"

"Like crap."

"Great... That's, ah, that's great," Charles said.

Hank stood and helped me up. I cringed as my stomach protested. I offered my hand to Seth, who slapped it away. He managed to get up on his own.

"Sorry, Beth," he said.

I shrugged and threw my backpack over my shoulders. Charles woke Mary Grace and Danielle.

"We better get a move on."

We left quickly. Everything seemed to have changed. Well, everything did change. Danielle was holding the last bit of hope all of us were clinging to. Over the past couple of days, we had lost so many people so close to us. The CDC felt irrelevant... like there was no point. We were all gonna die in this world.