The world spins. I can't catch my breath.
The wound in my heart reopens, excruciating pain tearing at the muscles and cutting off all coherent thoughts.
That's it. Ash...gone.
No. No!
My chest bursts with emotions I can't contain, the pain unbearable. I can't breathe...can't see...can't feel... I fight Becca's grip and strain to reach Ash, to get back through the gates now closing, to return to the flames...to help him. Save him.
Save Ash...
"Scarlett, Scarlett stop!" Becca holds me by my waist but I can't...just can't... And the tears won't stop streaming and I choke on sobs and screams and everything hurts. I've never felt so much pain... Not just from Ash's death, but the reminder it brings. The memory of all that was lost. My mom. My dad. Losing Carter. Everything. Everything. Ash mended it all; he healed my wounds despite being the root cause of them, but now the wounds have reopened and I'm not sure I can survive this round. Not this time. I can't breathe. The air won't come. I'm drowning in a flood of pain, so much pain, and I can no longer stand.
"Ash!" I don't recognize my own voice and his name...it already feels unfamiliar on my tongue, already burning away in the darkness as the flames of the building rise higher and faster, smoke clouding my vision. Can't breathe...
Becca drags me from the scene and I finally let her. I let her because if I don't, we will die, too. The fire will spread and consume us. So we go. Just like that, we go.
Somehow we end up in a car. Somehow I climb into the passenger seat. And somehow, Becca speeds off from the scene. I spin quickly and look between the two seats at the building roaring beneath the flames, crying for our help. The zombies, the Hazmats, Dr. S, and...and... can't say his name...engulfed and destroyed not by the creatures, but monsters of mankind.
I twist in my seat again and look through the windshield. Becca swerves one too many times to avoid hitting poles, cars, buildings. The headlights of the car are out and we can't see anything. Where are we going? What are we doing? And the pain...so much...too much... rendering me numb and speechless.
"Becca," my voice is hoarse. She doesn't answer. "Becca!"
She slams on the breaks suddenly, though we're in the middle of nowhere. No dead meander through the streets. No people chase after us. Everything is quiet. Too quiet. A few cars litter the road and some buildings tower against the black sky in the distance, but otherwise, we're alone.
Completely alone.
Breathing heavily, Becca turns off the car and lowers her eyes. Her knuckles turn white against the wheel and her cheeks flush red. At first, she stares out at the road with a blank expression, emerald eyes empty and haunted. Does she feel it, too? The realization of what happened?
She finally meets my eyes. The pride and excitement behind them has vanished. Her full, bright red lips part as if she wants to say something, but no words leave her mouth.
My eyes well with tears. Don't. Don't cry. I look away and blink, but the tears spill over anyway and my chest collapses on itself as I clutch my stomach, sobbing quietly as I press my forehead against the window. He's gone...he's really gone...
"I followed them." Becca's voice is a hoarse whisper. I can't look at her while she speaks. Don't speak anymore. Don't say anything. But she continues. "I waited for you outside the mall like Ash said, by the bushes. I saw them come. I saw them take him away." Her voice cracks. "When I didn't see Monty, I knew they'd killed him. Or maybe he died on his own. But I snuck into one of the vehicles and hid until they reached the unit. The driver saw me but...I killed him. Scarlett, I killed him. It was so easy."
YOU ARE READING
Desolation ✔️
Action"Hope is the only thing stronger than fear." *** After a virus outbreak leaves the world in total destruction, Scarlett Evans is one of the few survivors left. Her only home was swallowed in an explosion during a war with the infected. The Safe Hous...
