Hope On The Rocks/Issue 158

This is Issue 158 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "You Live Only Once, but if you do it Right, Once is Enough".

1208; You Live Only Once, but if you do it Right, Once is Enough
I remember something my philosophy teacher used to tell me. He was a nice man, old, but very nice. ‘You live only once, but if you do it right, once is enough’ He would say that so often, that it would loose the meaning. Now, I haven’t thought about it for so long, that it now makes a whole lot of sense. I only live once, but I’m okay with it. I’m okay if I die. I have done it right, and to me, living once is enough.

“Lia?” Jim says, silently poking me. “Are you... Hey?” I snap out of my thoughts, smile and look at Jim. “We need your help. There’s more zombies approaching.” I look. The IT store, where the others are now, is now slowly being surrounded by zombies. I reload my rifle, and I take aim at a zombie approaching the store. I shoot. Garrett lets out a loud sigh. “What’s wrong?” I ask, taking aim again. “It’s just... if they die, we die.” He sighs. “They wont die.” I say. “They probably will.” “Don’t say that.” I say. “They’ll be fine.” I shoot, then take aim again. “Look how many zombies there is.” Garrett says. “Nobody can survive that.” I look through my scope, into the store. I want to see if I can see Miles. I can. He’s leaning up the window I’m looking into. He’s talking with the others. “How much fuel do we have?” Garrett asks, looking at Jim. “Don’t we have even a drop?” “We have nothing.” Jim says. Garrett sighs again. “We’re all gonna die.” Garrett says. Zombies has now surrounded the IT-store completely. I see what Garrett means. But we’ve made it this far. We’ve survived herds before, we’ve survived kidnappers, murderes, crazy people. We’ve survived a boat crash and living on a deserted island. We’ve got to survive this. We will survive this. “I can’t imagine this is how I’m gonna die.” Garrett says. “Not after all this.” He drops his rifle, sitting down. He has given up, and I understand why. The zombies are very close to the store now, not many left on the street. Then I get an idea. “Jim, don’t we have some flares?” I ask. “Those red ones you can throw?” Jim smiles, understanding. “We do.” He says, also dropping his rifle. He heads into the helicopter. Garrett gets up again, patting me on the shoulder. “If this doesn’t work,” Garrett says very silent. “I think I’m going to kill myself.” “Don’t even say that.” I say. “That’s how it is.” “Please.” Jim leaves the helicopter, a few flares in his hands. He gives some to Garrett and me. “Here we go.” Jim says, and takes a lighter. He lights up the flare and throws it. Garrett and I do the same, and we watch as only a few of the zombies turn around. “This isn’t working.” Garrett says, throwing one more. “This... isn’t... fucking... working!”

Deaths

 * None

Credits

 * Miles Vance
 * Lia Camper
 * Garrett White
 * Jim Iroas