Hope On The Rocks/Issue 140

This is Issue 140 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "Love, Hate and the Rest".

This issue is Doug-centric.

1102; Love, Hate and the Rest
First, I lost my wife. That’s one thing; my kids survived, so I wasn’t totally broke. Then my son. Of course, I did kill the father of Jamie’s murderer. I thought I’d be with him again at some point. Now I’m not so sure. And my friend, Junior, he tried to kill me. He even killed Ridley’s former girlfriend and that poor kid, and afterwards shot Ridley. And then he tried to kill me. And I had to kill him. But the worst one so far, that was my daughter. Kristen. I shot her. I still don’t know why I did it... it feels so wrong now. “Hey, are you okay?” Jim asks, stopping with his work to look at me. I snap out of my thoughts. I have to stay alive for these people. “Yeah, sorry.” I say and manage a smile. Jim nods and returns to the helicopter. I am holding a piece of metal as Jim is screwing it back onto the helicopter. “I’m sorry about your friend. Ridley.” Jim says. “Death is normal now, isn’t it?” I mutter. “No, I mean, I’m sorry because I caused his death.” Jim looks at me. “I feel bad for not flying more carefully. He could still be alive if...” I stop him. It wasn’t his fault. If anyone’s it was mine. I was told several times as the helicopter were going down, to hold on to Ridley. But I wanted to safe myself, and so Ridley slipped out of the helicopter. “It wasn’t your fault, Jim.” I say as Jim finishes the plate. “We were out of gas. None of us saw it coming.” Jim lets go of the screwdriver and I let go of the plate. “I guess.” Jim says. “Well, I’ll finish up here. You can just go and help the others.” He nods towards the door, going into the office building.

And so I do. I walk down the stairs, ending up on the top floor. I check a few conference rooms before stumbling upon a person sitting in the corner of the room with a notebook in his hands, silently sobbing. As I see who it is, I consider turning around. Since he dumped Kristen like he did, I’ve hated Miles. He turned the group against my daughter. And I hate him for that. But I can’t just leave him like this. I’m not that bad of a person. “Miles?” I say, entering the conferecne room. Startled, Miles looks up. He swallows hard and looks back onto the notebook. “What’s that?” I say, nodding towards the black notebook. “It’s... I found it on the table.” Miles says, getting up. “It’s from a company that used to sell printers. It’s just... my mother’s name and number is in here.” I nod, understanding. His mother must have bought something from here. “It’s overwhelming, I know.” I say, and lay my hand on Miles’ shoulder. “Ridley dying, and now getting reminded of the people we’ve lost.” Miles opens the notebook, and looks at a page, seemingly the one with his mother’s name on. He rips it out and puts it in his pocket. Then he drops the book, and hugs me, crying. I don’t know what to do. I hate Miles, but this if confusing. But I hug him back. “I don’t know why I’m crying.” Miles sobs. “Because it’s overwhelming.” I say and let a single tear run down from my eye.

Deaths

 * None

Credits

 * Miles Vance
 * Douglas Tallie
 * Jim Iroas