Beside The Dying Fire/Issue 16

This is Issue 16 of Beside The Dying Fire, and the finale.

Issue 16
After driving around for a while, we decided to camp out on the road, we are all sitting next to a fire, but it’s not shining that bright, it’s kind of dying. I grab a stick that’s next to me and toss it into the fire, watching as it rose a little, and fell back into the same sorry state as before.

“Something bothering you kid” Daniel asks.

“It’s just, I put down my own sister over there, then my friend, and then my brother is god knows where, it’s all fucking with my mind, the thought that if I had just been able to make a decision in time, she and the rest of the group would probably be here” I say, sighing a little.

“It’s okay sweety, it’s going to be okay. It’s just going to get better from here I promise” Martha says, playing with Daniel’s hair a little.

“I hope, I lost all my family you know, I think the only one left is my uncle, who is god knows where, I hope he’s happy. I hope he’ll find us, maybe have a group that’s doing good, and take us in, but hopes aren’t shit in the apocalypse” I say, tossing another stick into the fire, and watching it do the same routine of rising, and falling back to regular.

“So, you guys got any family that you got separated from, or that are out there” I ask them, staring at the road.

‘Well my mom and dad were at a nursing home, never really went to check on them, I had to get Samantha and Martha to safety. Then there’s my brother David, he was never really much of a family man, he was that bang a different chick every week and not care type of guy. Well David was going to meet me at a baseball game.” Daniel says, yawning a little.

“What about you Martha” I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Well my mom left me and my dad when I was three. My dad is dead, died a year ago, heart attack. Then my sister went to Africa to help the starving children and all that heroic stuff, but she never came back. Then my uncle was at the CDC when this started, never really heard from him.” Martha says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“I did some things today I never would have thought I would have in a million years” I say, allowing a tear to flow down my cheek.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“So did I, I shot that man right in the chest, saw him clutch it, then fall suddenly, never would have thought I would ever kill a man, but I had to protect them. But, it felt like a huge chunk of me was removed when I killed that man, like a piece of my humanity that I will never be able to get back” Daniel says looking at the ground.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“I shot so many of them, just killing them, like some fucking psychopath or something. I just shot them out of blind rage, they killed my fucking sister, as if I didn’t endure enough already by seeing biter’s just tear people apart, yards away from me.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Just then a big RV had stopped in front of us, me reacting quickly I took out my pistol and pointed it at the truck. Daniel looked back and picked up his axe also looking at the RV. Then the door opens and a man walks out of it, but I quickly recognize the man.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“UNCLE” I say and run towards him, hugging him.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Ken, I can’t believe I found you” My uncle says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">Then the fire dies out, and I continue hugging my uncle, not knowing of the hardships that were to follow this.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">

The End