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He points at the wound, "We tell thelance at Sarah and Star, lowering my voice, "I need you to stay with them"

He clenches his jaw My eyes dart to Jack’s son really quickly He gets what I’, thank God, and nods, "You hurry"

Leo juotta stay with Sarah She needs you"

His yellow eyes get confused and sad for athe lu hi I sotta stay with Sarah"

He looks at her as she wipes her face, and tries not to look at Will’s still and bloody body He ets out of the truck His li, k?"

She nods, "Be fast"

Bernie passes them weapons It dawns on me that we are near the place where I killed the infected and Will was in the tree I shudder and drag my exhausted body closer to his lifeless one I lift his still face into my lap and press my back into the back of the cab Bernie and Anna ju the crinkled pass in his back pocket

The truck pulls away fro on the dusty road, looking lost

Sarah drops to her knee, wrapping her ar were different

Chapter Five

The apartment isn’t the same without Will there I pace back and forth and wonder how Bernie lived in such a tight place before The walls feel like they’re closing in around me

I hold myself and pace Anna doesn’t move She stares out the , like she doesn’t kno to be in here either

I walk to the kitchen, grabbing soot the stuff from the stores supply place I eat because I should I know that if I’ain, I need food It’s the same reason that I eat when I cory, I know I need them

Anna watches out theand then turns to seeher two She stuffs one in herlike a snake

I sigh, "You think it’s close to being over?"

She shakes her head and gets up She comes back ater for both of us

The sun sets in front of the hugein the living roo city appeared to be on fire with the orange light

My sto I can ione"

She nods slowly, not looking at me

"It seems like we should have found the creepy baby killers and killed the, then killed my dad, and then went and started over I don’t even kno to ain I don’t care about the babies, and the people, and the suffering" My words are cold and they burn ue a little, but that can’tthe dead stare on her face, like she knows he’s dead and she’s given up I hate that I probably look like that too I bite ain, "When it’s over, whether he ive up"

She looks at ive up, alk away, and we say screw this I don’t wanna be some flashy crow, and I don’t wanna have the responsibility of the whole of what’s left onher pinky finger out like Meg always did I wrap o hoet the rest of the She isn’t a coward She doesn’t take that path ever; it will be her first ti people"

We sit on the odd couch that feels too stiff, like no one ever sat on it, and watch the sky get dark again, like it has for the three nights we’ve been here All I can do is pray that Jake, Star, and Jack’s son, who I still have not for care of Leo and Sarah I need that to be the case I feel spread so thin that there isn’t room for me to worry about them too

The door opens; itin

Bernie’s eyes are red and tired He nods, "Hetears back into thehs over and over into my hair

I turn to face him, "What happened?" We hadn’t seen Bernie since the first day we arrived He brought us food and left again