Final Truth

Chapter 42: Who Is It?

Susan's point of view:

"Hey!" A voice calls out from a few dozen yards away, sounding anxious and rushed. "I think I found someone!"

It was Cade, calling over Cassia and Genevieve to a particularly large pile of ruin. I watch him point at something underneath, the two girls nodding their heads at whatever he's trying to explain.

Something that must've been too heavy for Cade to lift on his own blocks whomever they're looking for, so all three of them grab onto the piece of debris to try to move it.

Their faces contort painfully as they try to push what looks to be an entire section of a semi- intact, cinder block wall, barely moving it at all.

They stop, catch a breath, try again, and then the same disappointing result.

I feel my heart catch a bit at the sight, something unspoken telling me that I could help, that I needed to help.

I still had Kyle's body cradled in my arms, not entirely ready to leave him just yet on the foolish hope that maybe, just maybe he would wake up. But I've been holding his body for hours now with no such thing having happened. Deep down, I do understand that he won't be coming back to me, but it doesn't mean that I've accepted it.

I look at my friends again, still unsuccessfully pushing on the wall.

Cade found Jacqueline about an hour ago, miraculously still alive with a piece of wood impaled in her shoulder and a huge gash on her head. Cassia healed her as best as she could under the current conditions, and she now lies comatose not far away from me.

If we had all survived somehow, then perhaps whoever it is underneath that wall could do so as well.

I have to help them.

And so, feeling my body ache with every tentative moment, I finally set Kyle's body down on the ground and shakily rise to my feet, giving him one last look before I walk toward my friends.

Haunched over slightly from my only half-healed back, I try not to trip over everything that litters the ground, a shaky hand rising to my face to straighten my crooked glasses.

Genevieve sees me coming before Cassia and Cade do, tapping them both on the shoulder to alert them of my presence.

"Need...some help?" I rasp out, surprising myself with the broken quality of my voice. I quickly mask it however, offering them a weak smile despite the emptiness I feel.

"Are you sure?" Cassia asks uncertainly, knowing what the toll of today has done to me. I can see it in her eyes, that silent but full permission from her that it's okay for me to go sit back down, okay for me to keep holding Kyle's body.

"I'm sure," I tell her, sounding a bit stronger this time.

Cassia doesn't press the issue further, slowly scooting away from Cade a bit to allow me to shuffle between them.

"Alright, we're gonna push on the count of three," Cade says, his arms tensing in readiness.

"1..." I take a breath.

"2..." I hold said breath.

"3!" We all push with our might.