Universe (Part 10) (FINALE): Final

Chapter 98

They walked out of the chaparral at last, and continued west. Through the chaparral they than came across an enormous swamp, the swamp stinking and flooded with water up to their hips and they walked through the dirtied water with struggle and through the thin trees that barely let in any sunlight. They camped out that night on a very tiny circular patch of land that went slightly above the water level. They both say across the campfire and Brick looked up at Marilyn and she looked up at him.

"Tell me than about yourself."

"Change."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Well, I guess I have nothing. When I was a little girl I don't remember my momma or my papa, they just weren't there. I was raised through other means, sometimes by other families or a times just our on the streets. The streets... They're horrifying. There was a time I didn't think I was going to make it. There was a group of men... Five of them. I can still see their shadows over me as they got closer and closer. It was only because of my than brother in one of the families that took me in that I was saved. And they beat him to death, but I got away."

"What happen to the family?"

"I never went back, I promised myself that I couldn't, I couldn't even face them. I hated myself for that. Many times where I've been in a situation which... I felt powerless, felt like I was on the last stretch of my life or maybe they I was pushing how far I think I would've ever gone in my life."

"But you made it."

"Is it really making it if you're the only one who lived?"

"I guess... I just guess there's more to this life. Y'know there is God."

"Yeah... That's about it though."

"Is that not enough? God is everything, and you're acting luke you have nothing, when you have everything."

"Well- I guess than that I do." The fire roared slightly and the sparks went up in the night sky, "Why did you do it? Kill the man?"

Brick was silent for a second, "Something about the West. He knew something that only I should know. But that thing is long forgotten now, it is now long gone. It doesn't matter anymore, it is all pointless!"

"Pointless? Like wars?"

"Yes, it was like a war, like a battle. It used to be an issue to know what he knew before than in my eyes, but now it doesn't matter in the slightest bit. Because by than I had lost my mind, I had nothing, truly nothing. I didn't follow God before than."

"Well, what was your upbringing like if I may ask?" Brick was silent again, taking a long pause. He looked up at her, "Sorry, I don't mean to bring it up."

"It's all past now. It's alright, it's alright." They stared at the fire for a while, keeping it going.

"I just realized, this is the most we've ever talked."

"Do you think that is pitiful?" He asked.

"Well- it's maybe the longest I've ever spoken to someone in a long time."

"Do you ever feel that the fact that we're destined to die is cruel? That we are all inevitable to suffer through something like that."

"Come on, it may be cruel to us but God made us so we can love one another, and so long as we do just that than death will not matter to us until those very last moments."

"I'm afraid of those last moments, of how I'll die."

"How do you think you'll die?"

"I don't like to think about that, think about the pain that is to come from such an event. Y'know I actually don't like to think about the future at all, because there is always some conflict up ahead for as long as I live. I know surely though that I will die from a conflict, and I cannot do anything to stop it."