The Light At The End Of The World

The boy.

The campground was completely destroyed. Tents lay shredded and stuck blowing against the trees trash had littered the ground. Soda cans were stringed up on a wire slowly clanking in the wind. Grace was still not in sight and I gave up trying to call out her name. The wire itself didn't look too sharp as it had been coated with the melting ice that made it easier for me to grab and go underneath. I moved through the campsite trying not to make a sound and alert any Changed that could be hidden inside the torn dirt-caked tents. The woods surrounding the camp had trees with wire strung between them creating a full enclosure for the entire camp.

I walked through the wreckage quietly looking for any unusual movement. Nothing. Where is she? I saw movement coming from a tent a few yards away from me and saw a young girl dart from her hiding spot and trip and face plant before she could really get anywhere.

Grace let out a sharp cry of pain. She rocked back and forth crying as fresh blood came out of her already cut knees.

The pain in my left cheek was now forgotten and I started to tear up at the sight of my lost friend crying in the snow. I dropped my bags off my shoulders and ran over to her. Without hesitating I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around the girl I felt like was the only thing that I had left in this world.

"Please. Please don't do that again.." I choked out between my tears. "Don't leave me, I love you."

I felt her small hands wrap themselves around my back and pull me closer to her small chest, it was warm. Even though she was warm I still felt a slight shiver go up her spine.

"June?" Grace said in a small voice that I could barely hear. It made her seem even cuter.

"Yeah?" I said pulling away from the hug kind of embarrassed for holding her that long. It did feel strange. It was a good strange, one that I liked feeling after being alone so long.

"I found something." She cried and pulled me back into her arms.

Her voice made me want to kiss her but I wanted to know what she was talking about. I placed my hands gently on her shoulders and pushed her away at arm's length looking her straight in her eyes engraving every detail of her face in my mind. Her tear stained face was beautiful; the tears washing away some of the dirt leaving pale streaks.

I crouched down in front of her, looking straight into her eyes, "show me, what is it."

She led me around a few trees to the edge of the camp, letting me take in more of the scenery of destruction. Blood was in a sort of dragged trail from most of the tents, the camp was probably attacked during the night years ago. Dark clouds began to form in the sky creating a darker feel of what was around me. Nothing good happens in the rain.

Grace stopped and pointed at a dead body half naked clothes ripped and torn to make a shelter to sleep in using sticks and most of his shirt to fill in most of the cracks. The boy was half decomposed leaning against a tree with a Beretta still in his fingers, and blood from his skull caked the barrel. He shot himself. He was lying near a burnt out rocket stove, used matches, a couple tea light, and birthday candles burnt halfway down.

Grace turned away, looking like she was going to be sick. I looked back to the body with sadness in my eyes; he looked only a few years younger than I was. By the looks of it he was abandoned to die here, with no empty food cans by his campsite. His skin was stretched over his ribs; it looked like he starved before he shot himself in the head. Nothing around his body could be used to identify him, but who cared. Everyone he ever knew probably died in this camp.

I sighed, bending down to see what I could salvage of what remained by his body which was the Beretta and only a few unused matches. The gun still had a few bullets left in the gun, other than the gun the rest of the things he had were useless. I leaned back on my knees and got back onto my feet, looking at grace with sorry eyes.

"His name was, jack." Grace said looking at the boy again.

"What? There's no ID on his body how do you know?" I asked raising an eyebrow in her direction.

She sighed kneeling down to the boy. "He was my brother."

"Grace.."

"I was here when this all started. They said it was a safe place, that survivors could live in and be protected by the military."

I nodded taking it all in, "I've heard of communities like this before. Was it all the radio stations said they would be?"

"Yeah, most of us were put on a waiting list to actually enter the camp. Military health precautions and all. If you were accepted you were in. If not, you received a lead bullet to the brain."

I listened to her and I realized where her story was going to go.

"My parents didn't pass the test compared to their standards."

"Grace.. I'm so sorry.."

Grace snapped sounding angry. "No! They were healthy as ever. They weren't bit. There was no reason why they shouldn't have been let in."

Grace's eyes were red and it looked like tears were glistening in the corner of her eyes. She lost both of her parents in the same day too..