Day's End

Innocence and Guilt

Ren nudged her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose as she limped forward, eyes darting in every direction for something or, at least, someone. She cursed to herself. She had left the cure with Sidney, and God only knows if they were still alive. Her dark skin was etched with scars the flames had left and still burned even now. Her stomach growled, and her tongue was swollen from dehydration. For all she knew, she was the only survivor, and, if Sidney had died, their last hope had died with them. 
        Winters had watched with her very eyes the Phoenix kill Rose, William, and Dr. Rowley; Hailey had run off in search of Sidney and left her alone. Lea had been up ahead, scouting out the path and was out of sight even before the fire started. Now that Rowley was dead, she and Lea were the only ones left that could secure the cure, supposing no one else had found one yet and supposing Sidney didn't lose the bag. 
        Her next immediate thought was how lucky she was to have survived, which, to her surprise, only made her feel guilty. Guilty that she was glad to be alive. Guilty that she had lived. Ren knew that she shouldn't feel guilty; that it was better for her to be alive, because if she had died along with Rowley, Lea might not be able to produce more of the vaccine. It was better this way. It was them or her.
        The guilt quickly subsided as soon as she adopted this mindset, and she began to drift off into thoughts of saving the world- of the cure. It cycled back to Sidney. Maybe she shouldn't have trusted them with it; maybe she should've kept it herself, and maybe she would've been able to do it alone. Ren was sure that she would be able to do it alone. All she had to do was find Sidney with the bag, even if it was their corpse, and leave. She didn't need the others. She could make it to New York alone and save everyone. Alone. 
        "Stop," she said aloud, surprised that she had. Ren caught herself. No, she does need them. If she can't have Rowley there to help her along, then surely she would have Lea; surely Lea was alive. Loneliness was already starting to take its toll; she knew the effects that it would have on her sanity, being a doctor who knew about the mind, even if only a little. Winters noticed she was mumbling her thoughts and stopped herself; it was something she did when she was deep in concentration. 
        Ren hardly noticed the figure walking ahead of her, shielded by a jumble of broken branches covered in ash. Her mind suddenly snapped to attention when she heard it push away the frail sticks and slowly meander toward her. It was still far away, and she could only see the vague shape of her pursuer. She didn't have a weapon; the only weapons the group had managed to keep was Sidney's gun, which Lea had taken, and Rose's bow, which Hailey had taken out hunting and hopefully still had with him. 
        Winters took a small step backwards. It was running toward her, slowly and messily, nearly tripping over a tree root as it advanced. She simply froze. It coughed violently and tried to choke something out. Ren's expression twisted into one of both confusion and disgust as she watched- and let- the dirty, bloody body collapse into her in a motion that wasn't exactly intended as a hug. Words rushed out of Sidney's mouth, their voice scratchy and hushed. The only thing that Ren could blurt out was, "What happened?" Through the sobbing and rambling, Winters could only make out 'Help,' and 'She's dead,' as the only eligible responses Sidney could give.      
"Rose? God, Sidney, I'm sorry, but-" Ren paused and pulled Sidney closer. "Did you see Lea? Or Hailey? William and Rowley are dead, too. I watched it happen."   
"D-Did you s-see him?" Sidney stuttered, slowly pulling away from Winters and wiping their face on their sleeve.
"See who?" She asked, one hand on her wounded leg and the other pushing up her glasses. 
"A-Andre," they whispered, still stuttering from the aftershock of sobbing. 
"No, I didn't," Ren responded, retying the strip of cloth she had torn from her coat above her wound. "But we need to find Lea and Hailey. They might still be alive." 
"You m-mean, you l-lost track o-of them?" 
Dr. Winters sighed. "Yeah. Hailey ran after you, and Lea was already up ahead and gone by the time they set the forest on fire." She took off her roundish glasses and cleaned them with a small part of her coat that wasn't burned or dirty. "Why'd you run off, anyway?" 
Sidney hugged themselves as they suddenly became aware of their painful hunger pangs. "I don't k-know. The first thing I thought when I saw them was 'run,' and now I wish that I hadn't." 
        Sliding her glasses back on, she tried to smile but instead made a weak, wavering grin. She tried to think of something to say or something to comfort the other, but nothing writhed its way from the back of her mind and through the clouds of fear and stress. Giving up on something comforting, Ren stated, "We should go and find food and water before one of us faints. You probably didn't, but did you find anything?" 
"There was a river where I hid, but it's almost completely dried out now."
"Can you lead me there? We can surely find something, and, even if the remaining water is dirty, I think it's better than dying of dehydration." 
"Y-Yeah, but that's where-" Sidney hesitated. "That's where I found Rose."
"We-"
"But it's fine," they quickly added, eyes darting up to meet Winters' wide ones. "We can go." 
"Are you sure? Maybe-"
"Yes, I'm sure," Sidney insisted, already starting to wander ahead. "I said it's fine." 
Ren sighed again and followed after them. "Alright."
        The stream was barely half of what is was before the fire, and Rose's corpse was just off to the side. The blood that seeped out of the wound on its head pooled over the rocks and wet its matted and dirty blonde hair. "Shit," Sidney muttered. "She wasn't dead when I left." 
"You left it.. alive?" Ren gawked at Sidney.
They shrugged and cast their gaze down and away from the corpse. "I didn't want to do it."
"It's fine, Sidney. At least, it's taken care of now."
"That's not the problem," Sidney roughly spat. "She wasn't dead when I left, so maybe it was Hailey or Lea?"
"Maybe. They both have our weapons."
        Dr. Winters knelt by the narrow current and gently waved Sidney over. She cupped her hands and dipped them in the uncleansed water. Sidney didn't bother with their hands and almost stuck their entire face into as much water as they could, the coolness easing the ache of their scars. Ren's breath hitched as she quickly pulled her hands away from the tainted water. "Sidney, don't!" She shouted, pulling them away by their arm. 
"What is it?" Sidney choked out, still trying to swallow some of the water. 
"Look." Winters pointed at the water.
        They coughed out the remaining water and held back the vomit that stung the base of their throat from the sheer force that they coughed. Ren put a hand on their shoulder to steady them. A thin, wispy trail of blood flowed with the clear of the stream, but, as they waited, it became as though the small current was completely blood. Their eyes were focused on the top of the short waterfall. They could just barely see over the top. 
Sidney leaned in and whispered, "Are we gonna check it out?"
She nodded.
        Sidney, for good measure, grabbed the biggest rock they could find on the bank next to the brook, which was about the size of their hand. The old, burnt tree, barely hanging on to its lower half in the middle as a result of being climbed too many times, was their only way to the top of the falls. There was the option of climbing the side of the 'valley,' but if you tripped, you would fall on the sharp rocks below. They could follow the stream further down until they were able to circle around, Ren thought, and they would have more of an opportunity of running into Hailey or Lea. "Hey, Sidney," She started. "I think we should follow the river a bit more." 
"What for? The tree's got a little bit left in it." 
She waved a dismissive hand. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." 
With more than a bit of unwillingness and an understanding that climbing the tree would be the best path, Sidney slowly walked to her side. "Fine. I guess you're the adult here." 
        And so they walked, leaving Rose behind. When they thought about it, Sidney felt a surge of guilt for just leaving her there. She had saved their life and had almost been able to replace Kegan in a sisterly way, if not Maria in a motherly way. Maria. The pressure in their chest pushed deeper at the thought of the name. Ren's groan brought Sidney to attention.  
        Another tree, thinner than the one that aided Sidney in hiding from the flames but still thick, had fallen over the path, elevated by the dirt wall of the valley, which had considerably dropped in height by now. It was low enough that they could climb over it with the help of one another and barely elevated enough that they could slip under. "Wait, wait, wait- What is that?" Sidney asked, pointing forwards toward the tree.
"Really? For God's sake, Sidney-"
"No, no, Ren, look. Above. Do you see that? The smoke?" Sidney was whispering by now. 
        Yes, she thought she saw something. A narrow line of smoke streamed its way upwards in small bursts. And were those..people? People gathered around; by the looks of it, only three or four. Soon, the smoke turned into a small, controlled fire. 
"A group, maybe?" Ren speculated.
"Maybe they have food," they eagerly suggested, trotting a bit forward.
"Hey, wait!" Ren grabbed their arm and pulled them back. "Maybe they aren't friendly. What group would just wander into a burned-down forest? What if they're with the Phoenix?"
Sidney took a few quick steps back, breaking away from Ren. "Too late now. They saw us." 
        It was true. Two of the four had slid under the tree; one was aiming their firearm at the strangers, and another was shouting at them, "Hey, you! Get the hell over here!" Another had risen from their seat and had joined the others, this time hopping on and off the tree. However, the fourth figure remained on the ground, head lowered and on their knees. The three men were fast approaching. Sidney wanted to run but was held in place by their desire to stay next to Ren, who was frozen, staring at the figure in the distance. 
 Was that-? 
"Ren, run!" 

And that's when everything cut out to black.