End of Death (manxman)

Survival: Part 4 - Friend or Foe

Rita and Sebastian returned to camp as the morning light started to lighten up the forest floor. The tents and cargo had been packed and put into the cop car already. Sissy's leg had been bandaged but she was already exhibiting signs of a flu.

"How was the last campground?"

"They were dead." Rita answered. "Fucking bullets through their brains." She said not softening her language.

"I-I don't think we should leave Kayla here." Sissy mentioned and the group went quiet. Sissy had not only become more irrational and illogical over the past few days but her behavior was worrying to the group.

"Mom, Kayla isn't with us anymore." Grace answered.

Sissy quickly slapped her daughter and then having a moment of lucidity held her hand. "I'm sorry." Sissy said then walked over to a tree and leaned on it sobbing.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked and Grace nodded. "Here, let me talk to her." Alice walked over to Sissy who was inconsolably sobbing at a nearby tree. She put a hand on Sissy's shoulder and the woman quickly shrugged it off.

"No," Grace tugged at Alice's shirt and shook her head. "Let me."

Alice looked at the young girl and nodded then returned to the police car.

"Mom," Grace started and Sissy looked down at her daughter her eyes wet and her body language remoseful. She was looking sicker by the minute. "Mom, I'm sorry that this is what is happening. I'm sorry about dad. About Kayla. About Auntie Sonja."

"Thank you Gracie." Sissy hugged her daughter and dropped to her knees. Grace felt her eyes well up with tears as she said the hardest words she probably would ever have to say in her life.

"Mom, if you want to stay with Kayla you can." Grace sniffled and Sissy pulled back looking at her daughter realizing the gravity of what she was saying.

"Grace but you need..."

"Mom. I don't know what's coming next. I don't. I'm terrified and I love you and Kayla and dad so much but I know...this isn't a world where you need to survive. You have to want to survive. We've been pretty lucky and I know more is coming."

"Gracie." Sissy whispered, her voice weak.

"Mom I love you." Grace responded hugging her mom tightly.

"Gracie. I am sorry I am not strong enough but will you help me be with Kayla." Sissy whispered in her daughter's ear and squeezed Grace even tighter.

"Mom I don't" Grace couldn't believe her mother's ask – but in some ways it was the kindest thing her mother could say.

"I want it to be you. I need it to be. I don't know those people and..."

"Okay Mom." Grace agreed.

The agreement made, the two walked through the woods to the mound where Kayla was buried. Sissy knelt by the grave and put her hands on the dirt. Grace stood behind her mother and pulled out a pistol aiming it at the back of her mom's head. A bang and Sissy fell to the ground twitching. Another bang and she stopped: a lifeless corpse a few feet above another lifeless corpse. Grace stopped to the hands and knees and burst out crying. It was all so surreal and too much. All the emotion she kept hidden from her family, so she could appear strong, flooded out of her. The strength a blanket for her mother and sister no longer needed.

Rita picked Grace up who cried in her arms as they walked back to the car. By the time they reached the cop car, Grace had finished crying, more out of necessity than lack of emotion. Now wasn't the time for feelings, although they felt overwhelming. Everyone piled in and they left the campground leaving the recent deaths behind them.