|TPEC|Glowing Embers Book 1|

Chapter 20: The end

"There's gotta be something we can do! We can't just sit here and kill him!"

Rose sobbed. Jake sat on a chair, his eyes were black, with white pupils. His arms were tied, as if they were glued together and would never separate. Jake had a smile, a sort of sad smile, knowing it's the end.

"There's only one thing we could do. I suppose we'll give you your options. For one, we'll either just have to kill him, two, we could send him out into the wild, or we could lock him in the basement if we ever find a cure."

Mr. Jenkin looked at them, saying 'kill' felt strange to him when nobody was talking about the infected, or maybe a bug. He felt guilty, knowing he should have watched over the kids, and also feeling guilty that the kids were getting the blame when they just wanted to explore, besides, they didn't know any better. Everything was so new to them.

"I- this will sound kind of creepy but, could we keep him in the basement? I don't want him to die. I don't want to lose him. I don't want my child to grow up without a father."

Rose looked down. Mr. Jenkin nodded, and proceeded with her request.

"I love you Jake. I'll take good care of Jade."

Rose weakly waved, Jake smiled at her.

"There could be a cure one day. Patience."

Jake replied.

Patience

Roman and Lizzy sat on the bed, covering themselves in blankets. They couldn't walk around without being shamed. They had nothing but each other.

"What if we go to the playroom?"

Lizzy asked suddenly.

"I dunno, people might yell at us again if we come out."

Roman replied. He shuffled around the blanket. Lizzy sighed and turned her head away, fiddling with a toy car. Roman felt a tap on the shoulder. The blanket was then pulled off of them. Lizzy covered her ears.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean too! Please don't yell at us!"

Roman opened one eye.

It was Mr. Jenkin.

"Sorry to startle you kiddos. Don't be afraid. I told everyone to stop shaming you."

Lizzy and Roman nodded. They uncovered their ears slowly.

"I'm sorry about all this. I shouldn't have told Jake to lie to you. Don't think this is your fault, it's not completely."

Mr. Jenkin patted the kids backs, and handed them each a statue. It said TPE, the abbreviated name of the building they were in.

"This is a memory of Jake. You may not have known him well, but he made these. Helped at least."

The kids took the statues and set them on the desk in between their beds.

"Thanks Mr. JJ!"

Lizzy exclaimed.

"You might want to get some rest. It's 9:00."

The kids nodded and Mr. Jenkin tucked them nicely and cozy into their beds. He switched off the light, but flipped it back on when he noticed there were other people sitting in their beds. He left the room quickly, people noticed he was in a rush, but to what, they didn't know. He entered the basement again. He left the door slightly open so he wouldn't have to deal with the struggles of opening the lousy piece of rust. Mr. Jenkin walked down the steps, carefully, staring at the patterns of the mold on the walls.

Stupid. These don't mean anything.

Mr. Jenkin reached the bottom and entered a nearby room. Jake sat there, gloomy and tired.

"Oh hello, why are you here?"

Jake asked, his voice was unsteady and echoey.

"Jake, there's a secret I've had for a long time. You've been a great co-worker with me, and it's hard to see you go."

Jake said nothing. He waited patiently for Mr. Jenkin to continue.

"You see, back in, god, I can barely remember, 2006, maybe 2007, something like that. I- to put this all short- I knew this infection was going to happen. All of it. I wasn't sure when, and wasn't sure how it would be, but I knew. It's-it's those scientists. The ones at the old lab. They planned it, on purpose. I don't know why. I know it's weird that I'm telling you when you're about to change, but I've never told anyone. It feels nice to have someone to let things out too."

Jake did have a look of pure shock in his eyes, but his expression was calm.

"Why didn't you tell anyone..? You could have saved everyone!"

"Because nobody would ever believe me!"

"That's not an excuse, you wouldn't know if you didn't try."

"I did try!"

"When?"

" As a child. Nobody believed the crazy things I told them. NOBODY."

"You knew all this was going to happen, you could have at least tried to stop them! You- you know I might not be locked in a moldy basement for the rest of my life if you did something! Nobody would have lost anyone. ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T HAVE THE GUT TO TELL SOMEBODY!"

Mr. Jenkin already had tears of rage on his cheeks. They came out like waterfalls. Mr. Jenkin slammed the door shut.

"WAIT"

He didn't hear what Jake had to say. He ran up the stairs and quickly left the basement, avoiding as many people as possible, he didn't want to explain. By now, Jake would have turned. His secret is safe for now.

For now.