Merritts of Writing 3

Chapter 35

Jam

I’d always been good at following orders. I guess it was the soldier attitude my father had instilled in me over the years after the canisters fell.

Was that one of the reasons I was so willing to die? I’d told my sister that my death would mean I could fight again. So I guess it was true. Death was my path.

DEFYING MY SISTER

I stared hard at Char, wondering why exactly he was still with our group. He’d disappeared for most of the day and inwardly I had hoped that he’d been gone for good. But no, the look in his eyes told me that he wasn’t going anywhere. And the way he kept studying Em sent a chill up my spine.

I reached over and gripped Em’s hand. She squeezed my fingers and then latched onto me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Carter. Of how he was dying, of how if he died his death would effect Em, and of how I was going to lose the friend I’d come to look on as another younger brother. I missed Jake. As annoying as he’d been at times, he was still my little brother. And as my father had stressed to me on several occasions, family meant everything. Worth fighting for…worth dying to save. Carter wasn’t family but would I die to save him? The answer was simple…yes.

“Is the kid still alive?” Char asked.

I felt Em’s hand tremble in mine. Her breath hitched and I glanced sideways to see her face take on an unhealthy pale in the campfire glow.

“For the moment,” I replied, sending Char a glare.

“Well, he committed a noble act and put up a daring fight…but in the end the battle will be lost…there’s no escaping death.”

Char’s callous words irked me and I lunged to my feet. I wanted to smack my fist into the older man’s face but Em’s grip turned into a death. She wouldn’t let go.

I looked down at my sister and saw the fear on her face. I heeded her destress and turned back to Char. “Fuck you.”

Char’s smirk made me want to shove my fist into his face even more.

“Char, stop,” Donahue cautioned in a low voice that also held a threat.

“Young Carter is strong,” Calvin pointed out, “I have confidence he’ll pull through.”

“I’m sure Stevron is doing everything he can,” Dirk added.

I looked to Dirk, who gave me a reassuring nod. Angie had asked me to trust Stevron and that’s exactly what I would do.

I gingerly sat back down beside my sister. The pain in my creaking joints slapping me upside the head for my folly.