Detrmination

At this point the survivors are struggling with the loss of Gary, now all of their hopes are on Jack.

Jeremy was the one to catch Jack collapsing body; he didn’t know how you can sleep in this smell but Jack was probably exhausted and Jeremy knew that to be true, he never knew how many he stabbed. If he wasn’t jolted with adrenaline he too would fall but he knew he needed to carry Jack with the others. He couldn’t see everyone, the bodies just seemed to blend in with everything and the blood in his vision didn’t help he tried to wipe his face and accomplished smearing everything on his face.

Travis was the one who saw Jeremy carrying Jack he was worried. He said, “What happened to him is he going to be alright?”

“Yes, he just crashed is all; look I need you to look after him and the kids. Can you do that?” Travis looks at Jeremy and nodded.

“Good we’re going to move the bodies before more show up.”

Jeremy saw Matt and Alexander gathering over a pile of bodies and he walked over to them confused. Then he saw what they were looking at, Gary. He looked surprised but smiling, we knew he was dead; he wasn’t breathing and wasn’t moving. A moment of silence crept to the three of us. It was Matt who broke the spell.

He said, “What do we do now?” It was Alexander who replied

“We burn him, not with the dead, but, just giving him a funeral of some sort seems reasonable enough.” Jeremy agreed and they began making a pile of the dead and were able to hide Gary’s body from the rest of the group.

They borrowed a piece of the wood from the fire and torched the pile. They assembled the pile a little away from the camp and set it on fire. The flame grew and grew until it reached the top of the pile and the bodies burned. They didn’t see how fast the bodies burned because they had to burn a precious friend that they had. They wrapped Gary in his sleeping bag and tied the top closed with a fishing wire that Matt had in case they had a chance to fish.

They made a separate pile of wood and lit the fire and watched as Gary began to burn. Travis and the kids started walking up, he asked, “Where’s Gary?” then he saw the fire and grew silent, the kids started to cry but to themselves. The only person who wasn’t there was Jack and he’s the only one who doesn’t know about Gary. We watched the fire burn for a while then one by one they joined Jack and watched their tiny fire until it was Jeremy and Alexander who stayed.

Alexander said, “Did you see Jack fighting, he was a bloody monster. What do you think he will feel about Gary’s death?” Jeremy didn’t have an answer he just blew out air.

Jeremy said, “I don’t know any more Alex it’s just this happened so fast, first Gary was alive and was leading, now dead.” He signaled the fire to prove his point.

“Should we go back home?”

“No.” Alexander was surprised by how fast Jeremy answered.

“We need to continue, for Gary and plus you saw where the zeds came from the right, we would’ve been trapped there until more came and we would have lost more. I say we should’ve left a long time ago.” Jeremy finishes his sentences and left to join the group and ending the conversation.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Said Alexander, to nobody in particular, “Goodbye Gary, we’ll miss you.” With that, he left the fire to burn and he joined with everyone else to be solemn to sadness.

With everyone facing the truth about Gary they must also realize that rather or not Jack likes it.

He’s our new leader. Jeremy knew this, so did Alexander, and they knew that they would fight with Jack until they’re forced to stop fighting.

He’s going to get us to the city and we’ll remember those who fell on the way there.