Our Broken World

Chapter 22

Before I disappear out of their sight, Dylan notices me and yells: ''Tay, hold on. Where are you going?''

He runs after me and I can hear Jonah say behind us: ''Yeah go ahead and run to her. Leave us behind.''

Dylan ignores him and so do the others. I notice they follow us too.

''Back to the house,'' I say, ignoring Jonah too. ''I'm not walking to New York in my PJs. And I need to get Mr. Dino.''

Dylan catches up to me, holds my hand for a moment and gives me a small, reassuring smile. Together, we return to the house. And it is exactly as I thought – a truly horrific sight awaits us there. There's bodies everywhere, but not all of the people that we met the last night. The kids and Deborah are among those lying still on the floor. I feel bad. They didn't deserve to go out like this. Even if they did terrible things. It's what this world forces us to do. Terrible world makes us do terrible things.

I go to ''my'' room and change quickly, grab my stuff and meet the others downstairs.

''So we're still following her? Even after what just happened?'' Says Jonah.

''What just happened had nothing to do with her. Stop blaming her and take some responsibility,'' Dylan responds calmly.

''Look Jonah, Blast would want to follow her and Ghost. So I'm sorry, but I'm going with them,'' Says TJ.

''Yeah, I agree,'' Adds Benson. ''You did shoot first. And I shot second. We killed everybody. Ghost's right, we need to take responsibility. And I think we owe it to them to follow them.''

''Are you serious?'' Says Jonah, but everybody is already out of the house, slowly walking towards our final goal, our final destination. And yes, I am aware of the movie reference here and the irony it entails. I truly hope that death is not our final destination.

''You're all crazy. That girl's got your brains all scrambled up. She's clouding your judgement,'' He adds.

''If anything, she's making it clearer,'' Dylan says next to me, more to himself than Jonah, and I can't help but smile to myself.

I continue to walk with Dylan by my side, not really caring if Jonah's following us or not. But he is.

Before we really set off, Dylan leads us to Blast's body and the guys bury him. It's not a proper burial, like Blast would've deserved, but it's something. It's thoughtful, peaceful and it's a goodbye that comes from the heart. From our hearts. So do Dylan's words, when he says them to honor Blast and to say goodbye to him. I know they mean a lot to him. So did Blast. 

''I hope we don't let you down, brother,'' He finishes. Jonah snorts quietly, as though to say they've already let him down.

Soon after that, we're on our way. We continue to walk in silence for some time. But there's something heavy hanging over us. A lot of things actually. Blast's death. The tension between the guys – which I'm afraid I caused. Jonah's attitude towards Dylan and me. I think I understand more what Dylan was so afraid of when he first didn't want to go with me.

We continue walking until we reach a small lake and rest there for a bit. Dylan goes down to the water alone, to wash off. He disappears from our sight, because there are a few big rocks between our temporary camp and the shore of the lake. I can't see him, so I decide to follow him. I don't even know whether I want to do it – he might need some space after everything that happened – or if I'm just doing it instinctively. I just feel like I need to be there for him. Like I need to be next to him, at his side.

I find him sitting on a rock, with his bare feet in the water and his back turned towards me. He's shirtless, so I can enjoy the view of his perfectly shaped, strong back muscles for a few moments. He's washing his neck with water and I can see he's wincing, even if I can't see his face. His body language says it all. I step closer to him and gently put my hand on his shoulder. He jumps at the touch, immediately ready for an attack or anything else for that matter.