When August Ends

A Friendly Reminder

     I stare blankly at Adam's lifeless form. It can't be true. It can't be. Troy approaches Adam's still form and kneels beside him. He checks his pulse and then runs his hand over his face. I look at Grace whose eyes are filled with tears. She rises and hugs me. I hug her tightly, this sweet girl I'm beyond grateful for. Tears fall down my face as I hug her, and everyone just stays where they are in complete silence. I don't know how long we stay this way, and I don't remember leaving the kitchen, but I find myself sitting on a bed of blankets beside Grace. I don't see or hear anything else, I just sit there. I am cross legged, and my hands are folded in my lap. Grace sits behind me and half heartedly plays with my hair, and then we switch. I braid her hair elaborately, and then undo it. Unconciously I begin to hum a song. Grace hums the same tune in harmony. "I remember tears streaming down your face, when I said I'd never let you go. When all those shadows almost killed your light." we sing simultaneously. I braid her hair again. "I remember you said don't leave me here alone. But all that's dead and gone and passed, tonight." we continue. I undo the braid and brush her long locks out. "Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be alright. No one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I will be safe, and sound." we sing quietly. Suddenly Liz walks up to us. I don't look up but Grace does.

"We've cleared a place out and fenced it in," she says quickly.

"Okay?" Grace replies dully.

"We're bruying Adam." Liz replies flatly. Her words hit me like a sledgehammer. I feel a vicious pang in my chest. Apparently he tried to readjust his leg and they weren't able to patch it up properly because they didn't have the right supplies. He bled to death because they didn't have what they needed to fix his wound. What Troy and I brought back was what would have saved him. I can't decide whose fault all of this is, but somehow I feel like it's mine. Grace looks at me and I meet her gaze.

"We need to go." she says firmly. I nod and we stand. We follow Liz out the back of the YC towards the wooded area and little ways back we walk into a fenced in circle that is filled with our friends and Adams body in the ground. The three of us enter and watch as Stevo and Mace cover Adam with dirt. Troy stands by holding a Bible in his one hand. Once the grave has been smoothed over, Mace takes the Bible from Troy. He opens it and flips through the pages and then stops. He begins to read, and this is what he reads:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written. 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

     These words ring in our ears in silence after Mace reads. Then Mace gives a farewell speech to Adam. And with these final words: "Thank you for all you did for your friends here, and thank you for living how God called you too.", we filed out of the enclosure, locking the gate with a padlock. No one speaks as we return to the YC. What are we going to say? That we miss Adam? Because that's an obvious factor. There really isn't anything to say in reguards to his passing other than it truly is a shame to have lost such a good person today. We lock the doors on re-entering the building and then everyone files into the dining room area of the YC. Grace, Rache, Cat, Chey, Liz, Molly, and I all sit on the beds we've made while the guys sit on a table. Suddenly Stevo speaks up.

"What happened to your hand!" he shouts all of a sudden looking at Troy.

"Oh I took it off because it was getting in the way." Troy replies sarcastically.

"Oh," Stevo says and looks at his hands. "Wait what?" he asks snapping his gaze back to Troy in confusion. Troy chuckles.

"Seriously, Troy! What happened?" Grace asks knitting her brows together.

"Well it was obviously removed." Troy smirks. I sigh and suddenly all eyes are on me. Troy looks at me as if to say don't say a word, but I think they should know.

"Well I-" I begin but Troy interrupts.

"I got bitten and if it wasn't for Maya I'd be infected right now. She did what she had to do." he states flatly. Everyone looks at him with wide eyes, as if he might lunge at anyone in a moment.

"He's not infected, he would have shown signs by now obviously!" I snap. "And he wouldn't have been bitten if it weren't for me so don't let him make me seem heroic because I'm not." I conclude. Troy shakes his head and exsasperatedly swings his hand through the air dismissively. Mace looks at me with concern, but the others just seem shocked.

"You cut his hand off?" Stevo asks, eyes wide and white as ever. I am about to answer but Mace errupts in laughter along with Troy. I look at them in confusion.

"This is all so unbelievable," Troy mutters running his hand down his face. Mace just looks at me in amusement and... confusion?

"I think we should make dinner. Get ourselves doing something other than moping around because it's accomplishing nothing." Cat says standing up.

"She's right." Rachel says rising along with Chey and Liz. "We'll start cooking dinner, the rest of you find something to do!" Rachel says.

"Wait I want to cook too!" Stevo says leaping off the table.

"Alright, let's go." Liz says. "Food prep came in handy like I never thought it would." she chuckles.

"Can we make fried chicken?" Stevo asks as they walk towards the kitchen and it makes me smile.

"You wan't to  make fried chicken with the-" Rachel does qoutations with her fingers, "chicken, here? No Stevo." she chuckles.

"I at least want some watermelon." he says and then vanishes into the kitchen. Grace and I exchange glances and errupt in laughter.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life!" I say in a ghetto accent.

"Its' a watermelón," Grace says in her own accent.

"Inside a watermelón!" Troy concludes in his accent and we all laugh. I'm not sure if we should be enjoying ourselves so soon after Adam's passing, but i'm not going to stop it. Cat is right. Moping get's nothing done. A friendly reminder.

     Grace, Troy, Mace, and I all sit in a square on the blankets talking and joking. Troy is being really kind about his hand. I think he's just trying not to be serious about it or else he'll be really upset. I still feel awful. I don't know what to do about it and I don't think he does either. So we do the natural thing for both of us. Put on a strong face and be sarcastic. It's gonna blow up in our faces one of these days, but hey, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Mace begins to talk about how to hot wire a car when all of a sudden we hear extremely loud shouting and noise coming from outside. Grace and I are up first and dash to a window and pull the boarding off slightly. Outside we see the sight of a young man surrounded by four infecteds we don't recognize. He is holding a chain and swinging it wildly. He kicks one infected back but the others begind closing in. This sight causes Grace to scream one single word: Jack.