The Glass City [#Wattys2016]

Part 8

The Glass City is a smudge on the horizon behind me when I break into a coughing fit. I double over and clench my hands into fists at my sides. It feels like my lungs are about to throw themselves out of my body. My throat burns, and I fish my water bottle out of my bag. It is hard to drink through the gas mask, so I hold my breath and slip the gas mask off just enough to pour some water in my mouth. I pull the gas mask back on as fast as I can and take a shaking breath. My throat still stings, but with some effort, I stand back up. The coughing fit reminds me of the ones that Cass has, where she is left so weak that she can hardly talk, let alone stand. I keep walking, only to start coughing again, light coughs that I can just barely fight through. I stop in my tracks. Out here in the wasteland, I've been coughing more then I ever did at home, almost as much as Cass. Is it possible? Am I sick?
    Another coughing fit answers my questions. My lungs were always stronger than Cass's, but now I'm sick, almost as bad as she is. The toxins in the wasteland must've sped up the process, seeping through my gas mask and into my lungs. I am sick, and soon enough, I will die.
    I sling my backpack off my shoulder and open it. Resting on top is the box that houses the medicine. I open it and stare at the medicine. Should I go back to the Glass City and get more? No, I can't put the doctor that helped me in any more trouble. His words ring through my head. I wish I could give you one more, just in case, he had said, but giving you one is already breaking the law. If only he had given me two! Then I could take one and save one for Cass.
    Should I take the medicine now? The doctor had said two weeks at the absolute most, and it's been one and a half. There is still a two or three day journey home. Cass might already be gone by the time I get home.
    Compromise, I think to myself. I don't take the medicine yet, and if I get home and Cass is gone, then I take it. If not, I give it to her. I push away the one lingering thought.
    Either way, one of us will die.
~    ~    ~    ~
    The rest of the journey passes by in a blur. I travel through night and day without rest, keeping the Glass City at my back. I don't know how close I am, because the whole wasteland looks the same.
    But then I see the river. It's black water snakes below me, carrying with it the stench of dead fish. I wrinkle my nose, and look for the bridge.
    That is when I realize that the bridge is gone. I broke it. I turn back to the wasteland and stare up the hill, the one that was so daunting at the beginning of the journey. After all I've seen, this hill is nothing. I run at the hill, climbing it in a matter of seconds, and look out at the wasteland, the metal shavings, the tar, the wooden planks—
    Of course! The wooden planks! I rush down the hill towards them, and I pick the longest one. I grab onto it with both hands, and pull with strength I didn't know I had. I pull it a few yards, stifling my cough. I can't get sick now. Somehow, I manage to do the impossible and drag the wooden plank back up the hill and down the other side. Slowly but surely, I slide the plank across the water. It just barely reaches out to rest on the other side. I test the surface, and it creaks. I take a deep breath, and all at once, I dash across the water, ignoring the cough in my throat and the fear in my gut and fact that the wood is splintering wherever I step. I leap for the riverbank and keep on running, away from the water behind me, because I can see my house, its meager porch light and the dirty windows, and all I can think is Cass's name. I pause on the porch steps, exhausted, and my black lungs won't let me run anymore. I break down into another coughing fit, but I push open the door anyway.
    I pull myself up the stairs, one at a time, and halfway up, my legs give out underneath me. I dissolve into a fit of coughing, and that is when the truth really hits me.
    I am really dying, just like Cass, just like my mother before us. I thought I had accepted the fact, that I would give Cass the medicine, but there was one instinct that has been embedded in humans, one that was interfering with me now. It is what drove us against each other for those many wars, the very instinct that caused us to be divided, the instinct that built the bubbles. And I cannot deny it now.
    It is the will to live.
    No, I have to give the medicine to Cass. I have to save her. I push myself back into a standing position and drag myself up the rest of the stairs. I twist open the knob of Cass's door and see her lying there, in bed. For a second, I look at her, amazed that I'm back here. I missed her so much.
    I look for the rise and fall of her chest, the telltale sign that she is still alive, but she isn't breathing. I check her pulse, and I feel nothing. No pulse, no heartbeat, nothing.
    Should I take the medicine? Is Cass already gone? I zip open my backpack and take out the box that holds someone's life. Myself or Cass, I'm not sure.
    I take out the vial of medicine and attach it to the needle. The needle hovers above the vein in my arm for what seems like hours. Cass is gone. I will take the medicine, and I will live. I will survive.
    Just before the needle breaks my skin, I make a decision. I take the needle, and plunge it into Cass's arm. If Cass is beyond saving, then so am I.
    I choke back a sob when she doesn't wake up, but I know that she's in a better place, and I'll be there soon.
    There is one thing that is greater then the most powerful human instinct, the will to live, to survive. There is only one thing more powerful.
    Love.

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    Hey guys!
Thanks so much if you've gotten this far. I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on this story. Do you think that Kitty made the right choice? Who was your favorite character? What was your reaction to the end?

Cya!
>m<