As the bloody wound on Neri's neck was revealed, her eyes rolled back and she fell to the ground.
"Neri!" Eleni ran up what little of the hill she had formerly descended, and kneeled by her side.
She smiled. "Quiet, Eleni."
Eleni already felt frustrated tears coming forth. "Neri, come on! We'll make it to Ottawa! We'll be safe there! I'll carry you!"
Neri shook her head as Eleni began to tug her onto her back. She pushed herself away, falling back onto the leaves. Most of the colour had receded from her face, and while she had been growing steadily paler throughout the day, now it was worse.
"Neri, stop that!" she yelled. "They'll have a cure in Ottawa, I know it!"
She shook her head again, closing her eyes with a deep, steady breath. "They won't, or it would've been...released by now. There is no cure."
Eleni shook her head fiercely. "We won't know unless we get there! So get on my back and I'll carry you!"
"There isn't one. I'm not going."
Eleni was maddened by her calm response. For the first time, she broke her good, innocent, calm demeanour. "Are you just okay with dying?!" she yelled. "Dying such a horrible and painful death, after we've come this far?! Of all times, you're abandoning me NOW?!"
As Neri was about to tell her to stop the futile argument, a small cough made her fold her jacket to her mouth, violently hacking once again. This time, Eleni did see the blood splattering the dark cloth as Neri coughed, and her eyes widened in horror. Neri's eyes squeezed shut, until the fit that wracked her body made her fall back onto Eleni's lap. A thin trail of blood went from the corner of her mouth to the ground.
"They won't let me in...Eleni. You have to go without me," she murmured.
She shook her head again for the third time. "No! I'm not doing that! I can't go without you!" Eleni sniffled, and rubbed away the bleariness in her eyes. "You have to come! You don't have a choice!"
Neri quietly chuckled, causing blood to bubble in the back of her throat. All she tasted was iron. "I had no idea...that you were so stubborn."
"You of all people should know!" Eleni clenched her jaw and averted her eyes. "You were one of the people who knew me best. I'm really stubborn, I've told you that."
Neri sighed, and folded her arms across her chest. Her body felt stiff, and she couldn't command her fingers or legs to do the simplest actions. Paralysis was the only thing that felt similar to what she was experiencing.
"This was too soon. We just met," Eleni muttered.
Neri smiled. "Yeah, it was. But even though the world ended...these were the best days of my life."
Eleni took a breath.
Neri swallowed thickly, and looked up at her friend. "They were amazing...because I spent them with you. Someone that I'd always wanted to meet in person."
"I never thought we'd meet in person," Eleni whispered.
"Neither did I. I'm happy I did."
Eleni blinked back her tears, and her brown eyes glistened with unshed tears. "How many years did we just talk to each other online?"
"Four, I believe. It would've been five next month," she whispered.
Eleni sniffled, and a tear landed on Neri's cheek, mixing with the blood. "Don't go, Neri."
Neri rubbed Eleni's back, and didn't move from her spot in Eleni's lap. "I won't. Not yet."
Eleni kept holding Neri in her arms as the sun set, and it gradually grew darker. The cloud's wispy ends thinned as they neared the horizon, giving away a beautiful crimson and fiery sunset behind Ottawa. Neri wanted Eleni to leave so she could make it to the safe zone before it grew dark, but she didn't have the energy to argue with her. She didn't want Eleni to remember her as a flesh-eating monstrosity if she did turn before Eleni left. The cold ground almost soothed her as she felt her fingers and toes go numb. Her pale skin looked like grey ivory, and her lips were blue from the cold and the sickness that was taking over her body. Sweat covered her forehead and Neri's became laboured as she fought for oxygen. Neither one knew how much time passed as Eleni kept her hold on Neri strong, refusing to let go.
When Neri felt the last of her strength draining after the hour or two that they'd spent, the light grey clouds darkened with the sky. As she was about to slip away, a snowflake landed on her cheek.
Neri's eyes blearily opened, and looked up at the fluffy little flakes of snow beginning to fall from the night sky. Eleni looked up too in wonder, in a trance as she saw snow for the first time. She held out her hand, allowing a snowflake to dance into her palm. When it landed, it began shrink until a droplet of water reminded her of what she had touched a moment ago.
"The snow," Neri whispered, and cleared her throat. She felt freezing, but her forehead was roasting. If the fever continued, her passing would be more painful than she had anticipated.
"Wow," Eleni muttered.
Neri let her head roll to the side, and shakily stretched out her arm to let the flakes fall onto her pale arm. "Look...how beautiful it is. This is your first time...right?"
Eleni nodded, and bit her quivering lip. Finally, she squeezed her eyes shut as tears flowed down her cheeks. She bent forward, resting her head against Neri's chest.
Neri patted her head and combed Eleni's wavy hair with her cold fingers, attempting to comfort her. In reality, the chilled corpse-like hand that Eleni felt resting on her head only reminded her of how weak Neri truly was. How close she was to...slipping away. That only made her sobs become worse. Eleni wailed into her chest, dampening Neri's hoodie in her tears.
"Shhh... Don't cry. Stay calm," Neri whispered into Eleni's ear as she stared up at the snowy sky.
A thin layer of snow dusted the leaves and trees around them, casting a relaxed, yet grave aura around the two of them.
"How are you not scared?" Eleni whimpered, balling up her hands into fists.
Neri smiled again, parting her blue lips. "I was...when I found out. After I...accepted it, I ignored it. I thought that...maybe...I should tell you, but told myself...that I'd get you to Ottawa safely."
"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.
Neri shrugged. "I didn't want you...to worry. If you did, you...would've made us stop and tried to solve things."
Eleni rolled her head to the side, letting tears run down her face as she stared at Neri. "I would've wanted to know."
"Guess it's too late...huh?" she tried to say jovially, but the predicament they were in ruined it. "I always knew...you were stronger than me."
Eleni sniffled. "Neri..."
"You were so confident, and calm...you wanted to help everybody no matter what. Death...made you sad." Neri licked her parched lips. "Me, on the other hand..." She chuckled. "I was almost weak...compared to you. My attitude always turned foul... I was selfish. My temper was short and dangerous. It was because I...I always tried doing everything myself that led to my downfall. It's because of how...how you carry yourself that you're stronger than me."
"Please stop, Neri," Eleni begged.
She sighed heavily, her breaths rattling in her throat. Neri felt hot and uncomfortable, and her throat was starting to swell and close. It scared her that she might suffocate, but she knew there was nothing either of them could do about it.
"You have to go now," Neri whispered. If there was any more of a breeze, then Eleni wouldn't have heard it.
"What?"
"You have...to go now," Neri said more firmly.
She shook her head slowly. "No, no... I'm not doing that. I'm staying."
"Do you want your...last image of me as being one of those mindless things? I think not..." Neri coughed again, sputtering blood into the leaves because she was too weak to raise her arms. She didn't want Eleni to become sick too. "And don't remember me as being like this."
More tears rolled down Eleni's fair cheeks. She had always claimed that she wasn't tan, but she had much more colour than Neri did now. Her face was almost pure white, and bordered on grey. It was hard to tell in the bitterness of dusk.
"Remember me as I was before... Headstrong, stupid, and selfish." She laughed again. This time, the laugh made blood rise in her throat, causing her to start coughing again.
"That isn't what you were like." Eleni reached out her hand, and intertwined her fingers with Neri's stiff ones. She closed her hand, and Neri tried to squeeze her hand reassuringly, but it was more like a convulsion as she lost her control over her limbs.
Neri's grey eyes watched the snow as it fell to the ground, and said in a hushed tone, "Look. No two are the same."
Eleni looked up from Neri's hoodie, and looked at the fluffy layer of snow that engulfed them. Snowflakes were tangled in her hair as well, and made her fingers numb as she touched them.
"That one has...six spokes, and the one next to it..has eight." Neri's faint smile began to return. She had to stay happy for Eleni's sake.
"It's beautiful," Eleni mumbled.
"Nothing beautiful lasts." Neri closed her hand around Eleni's, and gently rocked their hands to and fro.
"You're right..."
She looked up at the sky, letting the snow hit her frozen cheeks. "Stay strong for me. Live...struggle, and make a difference," Neri whispered, the wind carrying her voice.
Eleni gasped as Neri repeated the words the fallen police officer had said to them in the police station back in Florida.
Neri's chest lifted with a breath, and then dropped without rising again. Eleni's heart stopped. The hand that she was holding was stiff and cold, like stone.
"Neri?" She pulled her hand from Neri's grip, and gently shook her shoulder. "Neri? Neri! NERI!" she wailed, and cried as Neri's still face looked up at her. "NERI!"
A smile remained on her face, frozen into her features even in death. Tears rushed down Eleni's face, and she furiously brushed them away with the sleeve of her cowhide jacket, but new ones always filled the other's places. Her friend was gone. The one she'd been waiting to meet in person for four years was gone.
Before she could allow herself to fall over in pity and devastation, she leaned against Neri's body. Her hand touched her cold forehead and drifted down, shutting Neri's blank grey eyes. Eleni grabbed the hand that had been holding her own minutes before, and folded both her arms across her chest. The snow landed on Neri's cheekbones and forehead, but didn't melt because there was no heat to warm them.
Eleni shakily stood up, leaning her weight against a tree. She wiped away her tears, and bit her cheek to stop herself from crying. Squeezing the strap of her bag, she clenched her teeth and sprinted down the deep incline, grabbing onto trunks and carefully propelling herself over the rough and uneven ground.
After a few steps, she glanced back at the body on the ground, already covered with a thin layer of snow. Eleni covered her mouth as another sob threatened to surface.
She looks like she's sleeping, Eleni told herself. Yeah. Just sleeping. Somewhere better than here.
Even though her lungs burned, her neck and face stung as the snow and branches mercilessly pelted her, she didn't slow down. If she did, Eleni knew she would just collapse into sobs again.
She wanted to leave before Neri had a chance to turn. Like Neri had said, she didn't want to have her last glimpse of Neri as being a Restless. Even if she did turn, Eleni didn't have it in her to shoot her.
Eleni continued her run, drowning out her emotional pain through physical pain as she ran. The walls surrounding Ottawa and the military monitored the metal gates that steadily opened and closed every time someone was let it began to near her, until after twenty minutes of jogging, she made it to the back of the lineup.
As people arrived at the front of the line, one of the personnel dressed in camouflage pricked their finger with a needle connected to a transmitter to read their blood. The insides of their mouths were checked, and their eyes too. They had to get rid of any supplies and spare clothing as they were patted down and searched for blood or bites. Only then would the creaking gates open again. The lights of the helicopters above Eleni occasionally flashed light into her eyes, causing her to close them.
She still felt hollow inside, like something wasn't there. When she turned around to ask Neri what she thought of the high-security, she was faced with the forest behind her instead. It was that moment that forced her to acknowledge Neri as gone.
Eleni stood in line for another half an hour, waiting in the cold and snow as the wind chilled her legs to the bone, still only wearing the jean shorts from weeks ago. The line began to wane, until she was second from the front.
"You're next."
Eleni turned around, holding her bag to her chest. "P-Pardon?"
His eyes landed on hers. "You're next. Give me your hand, please."
Eleni held out her scratched hand, and when she felt no prick of the needle that otherwise would've bothered her, she turned back to him.
"These scratches are from..." he trailed off.
"A car accident."
He nodded, and pricked her thumb. The process was a blur. His words floated through one ear and out the other. She opened her mouth when told as he probed around with a flashlight, and looked up like she was told when he analyzed at her eyes. Eleni dropped her bag and took off her coat when told, and then the gates began to open for her, directing her to safety.
"You're clear," the officer said. "Be safe."
But at that moment, safety didn't matter. The thing that she had fought for the past few weeks became less of a priority, and she looked back at the crest of the hill where her friend laid in peace. It was dark out, but she could still image the snowflakes caressing her face as they fell from the sky to land on her.
An image of Neri grinning flashed in her mind. Eleni's brown curly hair whipped her cheeks in the brisk wind as she continued to stare at the incline of the hill that was miles away.
This is the start of a new reality, Eleni thought to herself. That confident thought made her fists tighten. I will live and struggle, and make a difference.
And Neri will be here with me every step of the way.