Final Truth

Chapter 49: Funerals and Forgiveness

Adam's point of view:

As I sit at my desk in the former headquarters building, the massive expanse of window behind me and the relatively untouched decorations still adorning the walls, one might believe that nothing's changed.

Quite the opposite, actually, when practically everything has changed.

I rise from my desk and go to the window, careful not to aggravate the soreness in my stomach that still lingers from the surgery. For the first time in what has likely been months, people are finally able to walk freely around the city once again, a few kind souls even offering to help the cleanup process concerning the ruined prison.

The Dome looms in the distance, and I find myself grateful for the protection it provided my citizens with while I could offer them none. Within the past few days after I made the announcement that it was safe to come out, I have seen families reunite, seen people open their businesses and try to resume the life they once had.

This healing will take time, but it will be successful. We will rebuild, and we will be stronger than before.

That much is certain.

But despite the good spirits I so desperately want to envelop myself in, today is a day for mourning.

Today, we will bury our friends.

I look down at myself, feeling out of place in a black suit that marks the occasion, feel the heavy burden of grief pressing down on my shoulders.

Kyle's death was never meant to happen. Evelyn and Victoria's deaths were never meant to happen. Everyone working inside that prison that lost their lives...it should not have happened.

Nobody ever prepares for a thing like this, and it's impossible to attempt to do so. Death is as constant and natural as life and will call for us all one day, but when it does call, it will take us to a place much better than here. That much we can take comfort in.

I hear the door to my office creak open, turning my head to see Maria and Samantha, my two sisters, stepping gingerly inside to inform me that it's time to go.

I nod, turning back to the window one last time while feeling a knot form in my throat, not ready to bury my friends. But then my sisters have their arms around me, hugging me tight as a form of consolation.

Their embrace shows me that I am not invincible, that I am human and will feel sadness, but it also reminds me that aside from being a leader, I am someone's little brother and will therefore always have someone looking out for me.

And so as I stand there for a minute with my sisters, having seen them for the first time in months only days ago, I feel the strength of family and how it stands as the one true refuge from grief.

"Let's go bid our friends farewell."

***********************

It seemed fitting to hold the funerals in the memorial area from the last war, given the unspoken fact that our friends would be buried there in the end.

There's a lovely meadow toward the back, a rather vast expanse of land behind the other graves and statues that allows all who wish to attend to be present.

More people came than I expected, the vast majority our citizens making an appearance for what I deduce is out of respect for Kyle; aside from Cassia, he was also everyone's doctor.

A couple row of chairs are laid out before the coffins, mostly occupied by myself, my friends, my sisters, what remains of Evelyn's family, and the relatives of those who also died in the prison. All other visitors stand behind them.