𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐔𝐬

CHAPTER 10: H.H.H.

I felt it was my fault, even if it wasn't. If I had followed him, maybe he would still be healthy, and we wouldn't have to do this.

I and Maya left the bunker, leaving Mason behind. It was rushed. He told me everything he could before he literally pushed us away from him, yelling for me to go find the cicadas and bring the cure to them.

"What about you?!" I had yelled.

"I am dead!" he had shot back. "It's been less than an hour and it's already worse!"

We kept discussing until Maya had started crying, and we stopped at once. Mason was looking at her with pain in his eyes like he wasn't able to fulfill his obligation.

"I need you to take care of her, Nate. Please," he had asked. "Nathan, I'm sorry for everything bad I did for you, but please, please, take care of my sister,"

His sorrow was something I never thought I could see in him. Often he was sad, reluctant, and despaired, but he was never sad. Mason never, ever, showed a single drop of suffering in his act.

I refused to let him go, telling him that after we made the cure, we'd come back and save him.

"It doesn't work that way," he had said, not ranting anymore. "The bacteria produce enzymes that break all the prions in my body. After I'm fully infected I'll be almost 100% prions, meaning that, even if you managed to, somehow, restore my brain to how it was before... I'd still die,"

I was still reluctant in doing so. He was my best friend, my only friend. I wasn't going to let him leave and throw his life away, not after we battled this much.

I tried to fight him so he wouldn't leave, but he grabbed his bow and pointed at me. I knew he wouldn't shoot, but being on the other side of his aim again made me fear for my life once more.

"I put the journal in your backpack. It says that the cure is inside his 'greatest creation', and I'm sure it is at the OhioHealth Great Medical Center, I marked it on the map for you," he said. "The books here say that he passed most of his life in that hospital, it must be there,"

He had even planned the way we were going to pass, and that outraged me. I let the tension leave my arms and stepped closer to Mason. He calmed down too and put the bow away, and was very surprised when I hugged him.

He hugged me back after a few seconds, without a single word, and I felt so terrible about what I was going to do.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Wha-," he started but didn't finish.

I grabbed Mason and turned him around, putting my arm around his neck and choking him. He grunted, yelled, and scratched me. His claws penetrated my arms and burned me, but still, I didn't let go. His grasp got weaker and weaker, and he was trying to say something, but nothing came out. His arms fell down and so did his head.

I let him go, putting his unconscious body on the sofa and grabbed Maya, who watched the whole scene without a sound.

"Sorry, Mai," I said. "But I needed to do this,"

I got myself dressed and ready to leave, and was going to lock Mason inside the bunker, so no one could enter, and most importantly: so he couldn't leave.

I looked at his inert body and said:

"This time I can do something,"

I promised him I'd save her sister and him. I promised I'd take the cure to the Cicadas, and most importantly: I promised that I was going to tell him how I felt.

And I was about to fail at every single one of these promises.

We spent the night outside, at the spot of our old camp, and my stupid ass forgot that corpses of Gluttons attracted more Gluttons, so the one Mason killed last night was a lighthouse calling every single infected in our direction.