This Is What's Left

Chapter 3, Unity

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

-Helen Keller

-Thomas-

The door swung open, and the first thing I saw was her red hair. It was messy, on both sides of her head, hanging low. I knew her, of course. It was the same woman I had already encountered, the same girl who accompanied the man who was currently dead on my floor. Her eyes moved to his body, no longer twitching, but still freshly dead. She was holding a gun, a small piece, which clattered to the floor with a hollow thud, accompanied shortly after by the striking sound of her knees hitting the ground.

The sound that came out of her mouth was something I have never heard. It was like an animal, guttural, coming from her stomach. She leaned over him, pulling his lifeless form closer to her, and she screamed out in pain as if she herself had been harmed. I knew she could see me, and I had only wished that I could shrink in my corner into nothingness. I couldn't move, she was blocking the door, and my beretta was on the table behind her, so I couldn't even arm myself. Slowly, her head looked up to me, and I backed away as I watched her grab her pistol off of the ground, her hand trembling as she raised the gun to me.

"You. . . You did this!" She half cired, half yelled at me, punctuating her words while pointing her gun. I raised my hands talking another step back.

"Lets just take a deep breath now okay? He came into here, he attacked me. I wish to god I could have let him go, but he had a gun to my head. He almost killed me," I straightened up, the gun, as if it were getting heavier each and every moment, continued lowering until finally it aimed at the ground.

"God dammit John. I told you we should've just kept looking for more food." She cried, her body seemingly like it wanted to grow inward,her breath ragged.

"Listen, I can give you a couple of canned goods, but I can't have you just sitting here, I have to get going. I can't stay in this room any longer." As I tried to move, her gun began to move again. I froze, the floor creaking slightly under my movement.

"I. . . can't, not without my John. I'm. . I'm sorry," As I figured out what she meant I dived towards her, but I was too slow, as she pressed the barrel against her head, pulling the trigger , and her body slumped to the floor on top of johns. I lurched forward, openly vomiting on to the floor.

No one needed to die today. If they just left me alone, if they just chose to stay away, two lives could have been spared.

"Why. . . Why did you come here!" I screamed, but no reply came from the silent room.

Amber

He was late, again. His trip should have had him back in the middle of day, but here we were, the sun setting down on the horizon, and it was just Bailey and I. She was in her room, sleeping, while I was outside cleaning the panels. We had four solar panels rigged up in the backyard, which connected to some generators that Jacob rigged up two months ago. He wanted to still be able to use some electrical things, and he planned on increasing the number of panels, but for now four were plenty. Kept anything we needed charged, and allowed for there to still be a nightlight for Bailey. I had just finished the first panel when I heard an engine, and looked from the backyard to see Jacob's car pulling up. I put the rag down, running up the backdoor and making my way through the house, careful to not disturb whatever Bailey was up to. When I got to the front door and opened it, however, I didn't see the messy brown hair of my best friend. Instead, there was a woman at my door.

"Hi, you must be Amber, right?" I nodded my head, my hand slowly moving for my knife, "Jacob's in the car, but he's lost a fair bit of blood, we needed help carrying him in."