ALL THAT REMAINS Book 3

Chapter 9; The line

My eyes opened instantly, there was a bright light shinning in my eyes. I wasn't tied up, but my eyes felt droopy. The light burned my eyes like a torch. I could hardly make out the rusted brown walls that where surrounding me. I heard a door latch open and saw a figure come in front of the light. It was Jaziel, he was looking down at me, I was lying on the ground.

"What happened?" I asked rubbing my eyes and face. Jaziel did not respond to my question, instead he helped me up. I pushed him away to let him know I was capable of walking.

"You never answered me, what happened." He breathed heavily as if he knew he did not want to give me information. He looked down at the ground with his hand on his hips then back up at me.

"You shot her" he said quickly. I was confused.

"Shot what? Who?"

"You shot Jessica, you killed her." My eyes widened, as if I forgot the night before. Everything flood back to me instantly. I remembered shooting her, I remembered the hallucination, I remembered Jaziel knocking me out. He pointed outside the door, I looked through the window. Her body still laid there where she was when I shot her.

"How long?" I asked under my breath.

"What?" He asked in a concerned response.

"How long has it been!" I hissed.

"A couple of hours" he said without a worry. I quickly ran out the door and over to her body. I could see the shot that went right through her spine, separating it. Blood covered the area, already dried. I swallowed trying to hold in tears. I felt one tear fall down my face. Looking down at her she looked so peaceful. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes and looked down to the side. I walked away from her body and out the big metal doors. There was an old rusty bench that was still standing outside the doors. I sat down and wiped my tears and leaned back on the bench. It wasn't long before Jaziel followed me out. He opened the door and looked over at me.

"Arguing was the last thing that happened between us" I said in a mellow tone voice.

"The last thing I did to her was push her to ground and yell, then I killed her...."

"None of that is your fault" said Jaziel trying to lift my spirits.

"What do you know. I shot her, I killed her. Then to finish it off the last thing she remembers is me yelling at her." I looked over at him.

"Look at it this way, she's in a better place now." I smirked and laughed getting up on my feet.

"Fuck that, I don't choose to believe in that anymore. What has any of that done for me?"

"Your alive aren't you?"

"It wasn't worth it..." Jaziel nodded his head.

"What do you want to do?" The wind made a loud moving sound as he asked that question, just adding to the silence.

"I want to give her a proper burial." He nodded his head and we both heading inside. It was probably about two hours later that we where ready to bury her. I carried her body all the way to the top of a hill. It was lush with green grass and had a peaceful wind speed. We dug a seven foot hole and put her in a bodybag. I always carried a copy of the ROTC photo I gave her ever so long ago. I put the picture in with the body bag and we lowered her body into the ground.

"Rhett I'm, I'm sorry this happened" said Jaziel as I began to cover her up with the earth. I nodded my head holding back the many tears that just wanted to explode.

"Yeah, I am to" I said under my breath nodding my head. I threw in the last dirt and stomped the ground flat.

"May she forever rest in peace" said Jaziel looking down at the grave. We turned around and headed back down the hill to his hideout.

"When we get back and situated, tell me what your whole plan of coming through her was." I nodded and looked down unto the sunset. As we walked down the hill back to his factory I felt my sanity slipping. As if it hasn't gone far enough. There's nothing human left of me, morally that is. I killed without even thinking twice, without think that the person I'm driving my knife into could have a wife, husband, or child. My humanity made me weak, but now I am strong! I am powerful, and this world is meant for my taking. Was this me talking, or just my mind? I didn't know anymore.

We reached the back entrance to Jaziels hideout. It was a small rusted door, a lot smaller than the main entrance which was more like a garage door. We walked to the center of the room and set out stuff down on a table. He pulled a map of the United States out and laid it across the table.

"Alright, what was your plan?" I smiled. Here goes the story, I would cut it short.

"I'm infected" I said bluntly. His eyes widened as I showed him the wound on my leg.

"But immune. Our plan was to go to Washington D.C, there under the White House lies the machine. You see Jaziel, this machine produces this plague, it's the source. The US was just stupid testing ground." I could see he wasn't taking this information well, these past years have been a lie to him just like it was for us.

"My plan is to shut down the machine, at least get one step closer to returning the world back to normal."

"It's suicide though, if you get close to that machine won't it just enhance you infected body and kill you?" I haven't though about that, but I didn't have to will to live anymore.

"I would assume so, but in am willing to do anything to stop this infection. No matter the costs!" He nodded his head in approval.

"Well I'm going with you then, recon you won't survive alone out there anyways." I smiled and we grabbed our stuff. He folded the map back up and put it in his bag. We gathered all the food and water we could and started to head out. It was becoming night but we where behind schedule. We walked out of the warehouse and onto the road. The sunset made everything beautiful. We began our way down the road and I looked up at the hill Jessica was buried on. I smiled and looked back down at the road. After all, we had a long hike to endure.