Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Erin and Flash arrive back at her home colony. Erin notices a fog over the people. After parking, Scout runs into her arms, sobbing. Fear, panic, and sadness wash over Erin as she already knows what happened. But there’s also a bit of a weight lifted off of her. No more suspense, no more trying to figure things out. Now it’s time to just start new and find a new way to live. Erin hugs Scout back, rubbing her back. After a few moments of intense emotion, it seems to all melt away to numbness.

 

Scout pulls back after a while. “She--she passed away a few days ago. She was so sad that you weren’t by her side. She…kept calling out to you.”

 

The emotions hit her again, her heart sinking into her stomach as the realization hits her. Her little sister, the girl she raised for years on her own, is no longer here. Just like Lance. She’ll never see her again, never talk to her again. 

 

“You already buried the body, then.” Erin whispers. Scout nods, tears still falling down her face. “Take me.”

 

Scout takes her to Skye’s grave. Erin kneels down next to it, talking to her sister like she’s still there. Crying and laughing, reminding her grave of the stupid things she had done. She finally breaks down.

 

“I miss you already, Skye. I won’t ever be able to fill the hole you’re leaving. But I--I’ll do what I can to take care of the kids, to take care of Scout.” 

 

Erin does her best to pull herself together before facing Scout, finding Flash and her talking. Scout smiles slightly as he talks to her. Erin walks over to them. “There’s a briefcase on my bike. It’s needed to keep him alive, so they need to be hidden.”

 

“Al--alright.” Scout nods. “I’ll go get it then.”

 

“I need some time, Scout. I’m going to go to my room.”

---

Erin sits in her bedroom alone, broken and crying. She regrets it all, regrets not just taking her to Roan, thinking it could’ve saved her life. Or at the least, given her a chance to say goodbye. She’s hurt because she didn’t even get to see the body before they buried it. She didn’t get to hold her in her arms one last time to tell her how much she loves her.

 

Erin makes the trek back up to her grave site, falling to her knees in the mud. “What do I do, Skye? What do I do with the knowledge I found out about Biotech and Neo Angeles? I--I can’t believe that our own father had a part in this shit, that he was one of the people who poisoned us. It’s just some fucking game to them, to gamble people’s lives away. I don’t know how to fix anything. I always try to do what’s best for everyone, but I never seem to get it right.”

 

Eventually, Erin gets up after pouring her heart out. She finds Scout behind her, flowers in hand. “You…may not want my opinion, but you should do the right thing for everyone out here. Whatever that might be.”

 

“Then I think there’s only one thing I know left to do, Scout.”

---

Erin arrives at the Ranger HQ, saying she needs to talk to Sioux. They let her in, and she goes to talk to him, though he’s surrounded by a lot of Rangers, looking like they’re already preparing for something.

 

“I need to talk to you about something, Sioux.”

 

“Oh, but I already know.” He smiles; it’s rather more of a sneer. “I’ve been listening. That freak did a wonderful job of giving us the synopsis.”

 

She scowls. “What are you going to do then?”

 

“Nuke them.” The smile hasn’t left his face. “Take out the roach nest. And eventually, after that, Biotech, the wasps’ nest.”

 

“You can’t.” Erin’s voice is low. “There are children, innocent people who had no idea there. You can’t just kill a bunch of people. You’ll be just as bad as them.”

 

“We will be the cure to this disease.”

 

“Have you seen firsthand what the bombs from the Republic of America did to  New Hope right after the outbreak? Because I have.”

You are reading story The Divided States of America at novel35.com

 

“I don’t care.”

 

“What about the injections? What happens when all of us who are infected don’t get our next batch and turn? Then it will really be a no man’s land.”

 

“Sir.” One of the Rangers speaks up. “She has a point. We can’t carry through with this.”

 

“Shut up.” Sioux scowls at the man before turning his attention back to Erin. “We will be making our own cure.” He shrugs. “Now.” He signals his men. They all point their guns at her. He pulls out his own gun, pointing it at her, and walking down the steps from where his desk is. “Thing is, I don’t need your approval. You were just a pawn. You were helpful, but now you are an obstacle.” Sioux shoots her, causing her to fall to her knees, holding onto the bullet wound. “Get her out of here. Dump her in some ditch.”

---

Erin and Lance sit on the bank of a peaceful river, their toes dipped into the water. Lance is playing his guitar, singing softly. Lance finishes his song before saying something.

 

“I’m so glad you’re here with me now.”

 

“I…am too, Lance.” Erin reaches over to touch his hand, but he’s oddly cold.

 

“I can’t wait until this all ends so we can finally have a family and grow old together.”

 

“Me too. I want our world to go back to a better place, before the infection.”

 

“You need to keep fighting, then.”

 

“I don’t want to anymore. I’m--I’m tired, Lance.”

 

“But you have to.” He touches her face gently.

 

Lance gets up, placing his guitar down. Erin can’t help but feel that something is wrong. She gets up to follow him, but he disappears in the tree line. In that moment, pain in her stomach hits her. She grabs onto her stomach, and her hand gets drenched with blood, causing her to panic. She looks around and yells out to Lance, but no response.

 

She makes her way over to where he disappeared, pushing through the tick branches, she sees light at the other end, but when she reaches it, it’s nothingness. She falls to her knees and cries out, begging for him to come back. To not leave her alone again.

---

Erin slowly dismounts her bike, the stabbing pain in her stomach stopping her halfway before she can finish. Scout runs over to her.

 

“Where were you?! It’s been like two weeks?! What happened to you?!” SHE rambles off her questions.

 

“One person isn’t strong enough to change the tides of it all. I--I can’t keep fighting against the rapids.” She weakly shakes her head. “Get the kids into the bus. We’re leaving.”

 

Scout seems unsure of this idea, taking a few moments before heading over to the house to get them.

 

Erin walks up to the graves, picking some wilting flowers along the way. She sets them on both Skye’s and LAnce’s graves, stopping at Lance’s.

 

“It’s your turn to take care of my sister now.”

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