The Last Cabin

Chapter 17

I held onto Finn one last time; taking in his scent, the touch of his face in my hand, the beating of his heart against mine, and the feeling of home I had with him. My wet face looked to the ground, unable to bear finding his eyes. I walked to Mitchel.

The basket to the hot air balloon was smaller than expected: it barley fit us. Mitchel's brother was right that Finn wouldn't have room. I climbed in with Mitchel's help. I stood looking toward Finn as he waved us goodbye. My chest stung while my heart bore so heavy it landed in my stomach, hot with pain. Everything about the moment felt wrong.

Without a word, Mitchel's brother pressed the gas to the balloon, lighting the fire to lift us up. The movement of it with me aboard made this all the more real. I imagined Mitchel wanted to comfort me, but he was smart enough to figure my heart was breaking. The balloon picked us up off the building and into the sky, taking us away to safety, but my body refused to feel that comfort. My nerves radiated through me as we got a little higher, then a thought popped into my head- my necklace.

I knew I couldn't leave it, and if there was ever a moment that I believed in its ability to point me in the right direction, I knew it was now. Without a second thought, and almost too far to go, I scrambled to the edge of the basket, propped my feet onto it, and jumped with all I had in me within a second. I felt Mitchel's hand try to catch me, but I was too fast, as I pushed the balloon away with my feet, lunging toward the building. Only a yard from the ledge, my jumping distance left a lot to be desired. I heard audible gasps from Mitchel and his brother, as I held on with my fingertips to the edge of the roof that would become overrun with those infected any moment.

As I hung, unsure if I could pull myself up, I heard Finn's footsteps running toward me.

"What are you doing?" he yelled, while grabbing onto my arms, pulling me up, making us both tumble to the ground. While we sat panting, I looked back at the balloon, much farther away now. Mitchel turned his head, embarrassed that I had rejected him for the last time. I didn't even have time to explain, and now he'll never know.

"What the fuck Poppy, what are you doing? You were safe, you were going to be fine. What is wrong with you?"

"My necklace." I mumbled.

He scoffed while closing his eyes, reached into this pocket, and pulled the necklace out with the broken chain.
"So this it worth dying over?" he said while placing it in my hand.

"You're worth dying over."

Finn held my face. "Poppy," he said with a laugh while shaking his head. "oh Poppy".

The door was making louder noises. I wondered how many virus filled people were waiting to get to us; I pictured the hordes of them packing the stairwells, and overflowing onto each floor.

Finn and I sat next to each other; It felt like we were the last humans alive. And to us, we were. Movement from the city had died down. Maybe everyone was in the hotel now, but the fires burned on in the distance. Those infected would get us long before the fire did.

I saw Finn look down at his phone with a panic on his face, and a tremor in his hand, something I hadn't seen in him before. There were no words left between us now, because for us, this could be the end, and we both said we were okay with that, but Finn seemed to feel differently. I thought about the pain we would endure having our limbs ripped apart; an agony far beyond what I could imagine. But I also wondered, are those people dead? When I was close to that woman before, you could tell her mind was still there; her aching eyes said so much. I wondered about a cure, if it was even possible at this point. Mitchel hadn't gotten into how they dealt with it in the 1700s other than killing the infected.