Solitary Chapter 2

Chapter 2:Love & Death

Sarah had been struggling for a few hours now, trying to stay warm. Her lips had turned a shade of blue with the tiniest hint of pink. She had no color in her skin and she was shaking uncontrollable. We had formed a sort of vigil, to make sure she would be ok. It was Josh's turn to watch her when he came over to Shaun and I.

"She...she's dead. I tried to keep her alive...but she fell asleep, and then...then she stopped breathing. And she wont, wont wake up." Josh said with tears in his eyes.

We tried to talk to him, but he was silent, and he became dispondent as he walked over to Sarah's body.

"Tess, can I tell you something serious?" Shaun asked quietly.

"Always. After that though, I must tell you something too." I replied nervously anticipating what he was going to say.

"These things, these recent events. They are horrible, and the worst time to bring this up. But I have to tell you in case one of us dies. Im in love with you. I love how you are the most beautiful girl in the world, and you dont realize it. I love how you arent the classic definition of beauty, but you are more of a chaotic beauty..."

"Shut up, just shut up." I interupted him, "I love you too, I have loved you for a long time. But please do not compliment me like that."

He said nothing else, as he wrapped his arms around me, adding just enough body heat to feel a change. Through all that I hadn't noticed that my stomach was screaming for any form of nourishment.

"Im hungry." I whispered, not wanting to be a burden.

"Lets see what we can find in the packs." Shaun replied loudly.

"Thanks." I said.

Shaun came back after a few minutes of scavenging with two cans of Slimfast Optima, that was most likely from Sarahs pack.

"It says it controls hunger for four hours. So it should sustain us for a while." Shaun told me.

I thanked him and cracked open the can. It tasted like mud, but I drank it anyway, I could stand anything that would take away my increasing hunger.

We sat in silence for several minutes broken only by Josh's crying. Josh had moved from sitting to laying down next to Sarah's body. Hopefully the rest of us would share a fate better than Sarah's. That seemed like all we could do. Just hope for something, anything better than death at this early age.

"We'll be ok." Shaun said, as if he had read my thoughts.

"I hope so." I told him.