A New Leader

Part Fifteen : Leaving

I watched as the group left in a celebratory manner, my heart was pounding in my ears and my eyes were blurred over by more tears. It soon became very quiet except for the rustling sound of lava moving and rocks colliding, I slid my way down the stone and let my feet hit the ground.

I seemed better at standing now, my legs walking almost effortlessly over to the lifeless body. They had taken his mask and exposed his scar covered face, his eye rolled back into his head. Blood was splattered over his face and across his chest, I grabbed ahold of his hand and held it tightly as I looked down at him.

There was no life left in the man who I had fallen for in only a matter of weeks, I bit down on my lip and tried to not let it hurt my chest as much as it actually was. I pressed my hand against his chest right over his heart, nothing pumped and his body was soon turning cold. I took in a heavy breath as I began to heave, I looked back at the monitoring desk behind me then back at Jack.

I stood up for a quick second, trying my best pick up Jack from the ground. I dragged him over to the monitor desk and leaned his body against it, I felt horrible dragging him and not letting the dead rest.

I looked around the desk and found a direct microphone to Helios and pressed the button as it went red, recording my voice over the intercom.

"Vault base to Helios base." My scratchy voice echoing through the air.

"Helios to vault, what's going on?" My stomach flipped, oh thank goodness.

"Jack is... he's dead and I need a carrier to come get us." I replied.

"Who is speaking?"

"Birde, I was working with him before the vault hunters got here."

"Do you have any proof?"

I thought for a moment, my cheeks growing hot and red as I stammered to think. I rubbed the back of my neck before slowly bringing it back down, my hand gliding over a bump on my neck.

"Yes, its on my neck."

It was quiet for a moment, the microphone popping as I waited for their response. The microphone clicked back, my heart racing.

"Ok, we will send a carrier."

"Thank you."

I turned off the microphone and sat up against the desk, more tears rolling down my cheeks as I looked at his lifeless body. For a moment, I thought that it was all just a dream and that I would wake up in a cot back at the bandit camp, but every time I would close and open my eyes I would still be faced with the lifeless man.

I brought my hand up to his face, rubbing the scar that was embedded in his face. I planted a small kiss on his cheek and curled up next to his stiff body, it seemed to be turning colder and rigid but all I could do was nuzzle myself closer to him. I brought my hand up to his shoulder and clipped the chain of his pocket watch from the shirt, bringing it to my large pants pocket just in case this would be the last of piece of Jack that's with me.

I felt my brain drift in and out of consciousness, my eyes lids drooping over my tired eyes and my body relaxing. I heard a loud booming noise but my body became unresponsive to it, I laid there as a small ship landed about ten feet away. Two men made their way out, looking at us before walking over, unarmed.

"Are your Birde?" One asked.

I felt so tired and exhausted that all I could do was nod my head, I exposed my neck and showed them the bruised hickey that laid there. They looked at each other before picking up Jack and I, I looked up at the man as he made his way back towards the ship and sealing the door closed. He buckled us in and the ship soon took back off, I looked down as Pandora became smaller and Helios became much bigger.

"Someone should really do something about that planet." One of the men stated with a sigh.

I stared back at the planet, finally leaving Pandora behind. Leaving the bandits without a leader, leaving the life and becoming whatever was waiting for me up on Helios. I felt my head nod as the ship hit some turbulence, I started to drift in and out of consciousness once again.