The Apocalypse of Plants

Tally

At first, I don't know anything's wrong. Then Laina shoves my hand away from his head, the knife slipping through my fingers and slicing a clean gash down the palm of my hand, just narrowly missing my purlicue.

I mutter a stream of curses under my breath as blood starts pouring out of the wound.

I quickly grab my bottle and pour water all over the slash. There's a burning sensation and I cry out. I see Laina and Morgan's concerned looks darting between me and Preston and I want to scream at them to worry about me. Only about me.

The guilt for being that selfish starts to gnaw on me and it hurts almost as my laceration.

The pain slowly dwindles and I'm able to breathe again. I wrap my hand up in another piece of cut-up cloth.

"You good?" Morgan asks. I think I hear sarcasm in his voice, so I glare at him.

"I almost just cut off my finger. Yes, I'm perfectly fine," I fire back.

Sensing the tension, Laina steps between us. "Okay, me and Tally are going to go look for firewood. We need to stay warm. We'll also look for food, unless, Morgan, you have any meat?" He shakes his head. "Okay, then. Morgan, you stay here and watch over Preston."

"Why do I have to guard the guy who can't even remember his own name?" he whines. I smirk and stick my tongue out at him. He shoot me a glare. If looks could kill...

"Tally?" I realize I've been staring at Morgan with a sour look on my face. I turn toward Laina.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

I nod past the lump in my throat and start walking into the woods, picking up Scout and not waiting for Laina.

"Tally!" she calls after me. I stop and sigh. Then I roll my eyes. I don't look at her until she reaches my side, and even then, it's more of a sideways glance. I wait patiently for her to apologize for making me cut my hand open, but the apology doesn't come. "I yelled for you to stop. Why didn't you stop?" She sounds close to tears. I shrug.

"I didn't hear you," I say nonchalantly.

"You could have killed him!"

"And I could have cut off my finger. Your point?" I'm acting like a brat. I can't help myself, though. If she wants me to apologize, she's going to have to apologize first.

She huffs. "But you didn't cut off your finger. You're just going to scar."

"And I didn't kill him. He just got a bloody nose." I can be so childish sometimes.

I can tell she doesn't know what to say. I want to smile triumphantly, but I don't.

I sigh. "Look, I was just trying to help. And a bloody nose? That's nothing if it got his memories back."

She swallows hard. "You tried to cut off one leg and blood just spurted out of his nose. Imagine what could have happened if you'd tried to cut another leg off." Visions of his eye popping out or his brain just simply exploding fill my head. I shudder involuntarily. That would be terrible.

"I wasn't thinking, okay? I was just trying to help," I protest defensively. She looks strangely at me.

"Are you really that prideful that you can't apologize for almost killing him?"

"Oh, yeah, like you're one to talk," I mutter, enraged. How dare she lecture me about being too prideful when she can't even say she's sorry for making me cut a huge chunk of skin out of my hand?

"What?"

"Are you really that prideful that you can't apologize for making me gouge my hand?" I snap, twisting her words.

She winces like I've hit her. To be honest, I'm seriously considering it.

"I'm sorry," she whispers so quietly that I can barely hear her. Then she shoots daggers at me with her eyes. She and Morgan are both really good at doing that.

Since I'm afraid she'll actually kill me if I ask her to say it louder, I just nod. "I'm sorry, too." I avoid her eyes by putting Scout on the ground and watching her chase her tail.

"Can I ask you something?" she asks.

"You just did," I reply. Sawyer always said that to me whenever I asked him if I could ask him a question. She sticks her tongue out at me.

"I'm taking that as a yes. Why did you run? When you saw Johanna?"

My eyes fall to the ground.

"My brother killed himself. And I guess I just freaked out a little when I saw Johanna," I mumble. I see the sympathy in her eyes but I am very grateful that she doesn't apologize.

"Wow," she mutters. "My brother died, too. Not suicide-well, I don't know what you'd call it. A sacrifice, I guess."

"At least you know why your brother did it. To save you," I say bitterly, assuming that he sacrificed himself for her. It makes sense that way.

Her face softens. "That must suck, not knowing why he did it."

I laugh dryly. "Just a little." This is exactly like my conversation with Morgan earlier, although Morgan had no idea what it was like, having a brother that died.

"What was his name?"

"Sawyer. Yours?"

"Spencer." I notice how both their names start with the letter s. It's kind of funny, actually. Insignificant, but funny.

"So has it just been you and your dog this entire time?" she asks. I smile at Scout who's finally caught her tail, but has no idea of what to do know.

"Yeah. Her name is Scout, by the way." She wrinkles her nose.

"Scout? Like from To Kill a Mockingbird?"

I nod. "Yeah. We got her after Sawyer died and named her after Scout. To Kill a Mockingbird was his favorite book and Scout was the main character."

"I hated that book," Laina says.

"Really? I thought it was pretty good. Not my favorite, but it was still good." She shakes her head with disgust on her face. "Well, I'm sure they're some books out there that you like and I don't."

She shrugs. "Probably."

"Look, there's a pile of wood over there," I say, pointing to a spot below a tree. There's a couple of logs, perfect wood for fire. I narrow my eyes. Something seems off. Laina doesn't notice anything and starts to walk over.

I'm scanning the trees and their branches but I don't see anything. Still. Something's not right.

Laina bends down to pick up the wood.

Suddenly, a net yanks her up into the air and she screams.