Journal of the Survivors

Chapter Nine--Kyra

Chapter Nine—Kyra

“Trace!” I screech at the same time Jackie does.

            “Don’t do it!” Jack begs. Trace looks her in the eyes, a complete neutral expression on his face.

            “You can’t really be thinking about going through with this,” I add.

            “What did you think I meant when I was saying the current state of affairs needed to be handled with? That we’d put her on a leash? Kyra Leigh, she doesn’t want to suffer,” he answers calmly. “Daniel, could you take them away please? Actually,” he glances down at Bailey, “let them say their goodbyes first. All of you that is.”

            With that, he sticks his hands in his pockets and shuffles away, giving us some privacy. I fall down beside Bails. “This is what you want?” I whisper.

            “Yea, it’s better for all of us this way,” she mutters back.

            I bob my head and start to stand, but she grabs my hand. “I didn’t mean it. What I said the other day. I was just jealous of you, Kyra. Archie, he loves you. He and I would never have worked out because all he ever thinks about is you.”

            I freeze in an uncomfortable half crouch position trying to process this impossible information.

            “I just thought you should know. Thank you Kyra, for protecting us and taking us in. Watch out for Jackie for me,” she continues. She seems so...at peace with the whole situation. She’s braver than I ever gave her credit for.

            “I will,” I promise her.

            She smiles and turns to Izzie.

            I walk over to where Trace stands, gazing off at nothing once again. I stop beside him and look into the same direction. Summer is approaching fast. The flowers are growing, young birds are learning to fly, blossoms are becoming fruits, everything is just beginning. But here, something is about to end.

            “Make it quick, and not painful,” I say. My voice cracks.

            “I will,” he replies softly, whispering the same words I said to Bails.

            A small hand taps my shoulder.

            “We’re going to start down the path now,” Tammy tells me.

            I join her walking at the back. Jackie stumbles along closer to the front, Danno and Graham both supporting her. I shift my line of sight away preferring the non-heartbreaking look of the dirt below me. I take a moment to glance over my shoulder. Trace sits beside Bailey holding her hand and quietly talking to her. He tucks her hair back around her ears.

            “Don’t look,” Tams mumbles from my side. “You don’t want to see.”

            I follow her instructions and just stare straight ahead of me which makes sense considering I’m The Girl Who Only Looks Forwards, Only Moves Onwards. And everyone knows that when you’re so determined to move on, there’s no time to look back.

...

“We’re almost here,” Trace calls out from the front. His hands are pulled into his sleeves hiding them from view. I imagine them covered, no dripping, with Bailey’s blood.

            “Whatever you do, don’t touch the fence or else you’ll d—” he cuts off his sentence at the last minute.

            “Or else you’ll die,” Jackie hiccups.