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"You don't have to, Dru, it's not worth the risk." Caila had been trying to talk me out of ever since I'd finished my rounds twenty minutes ago. "I don't want you to do anything stupid, these people need you." Her voice pleading- her desperation growing as I reached the quarantine tents.

"She needs me too." I ignored Caila's furrowed brow and pushed aside the thin material that was serving as a wall. "I made a promise." I whispered to myself, eyes scanning for Abby. Beyond the wall there was a small section made for myself and Rukma- a cleaning station if you will. We had told each other we weren't allowed to go beyond the other wall separating the cleaning station and where the people lay- dying.

The people understood, the moment anyone felt it coming on they would walk here immediately- knowing it would put the lives of everyone here at risk. They all had loved ones here- ones they would do anything thing for if it meant them surviving. I really was in awe of how selfless these people were being.

Before me was about 5 make shift beds, but there lay about 15. People were doubled over, emptying the contents of their stomach, discharging blood all over the sand. There were tears stained on the cheeks of those who knew it was coming. There were no screams, however, to an outsider it look as if everyone had made peace with it.

"Druey!" The young voice perked up, catching my attention immediately. I ran straight to the wall, dropping to my knees as I watched Abby pulling herself along the ground to get over to me. My heart squeezed as it felt like all the wind had been knocked out of me- she wasn't far from the end.

"You came to see me." Her hands reached out for mine, I held onto them threw the material between. As much as I wanted to pull her into my arms and sooth her I couldn't even feel her hands and I hated myself for that. I reached out and some how tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The material was so thin and so see through I allowed myself to pretend like it wasn't there.

I pulled her head onto my lap as she collapsed; she'd used up all her remanding energy trying to pull her way over to me. I ran my fingers of the top of her head, wishing I could feel her delicate hair- press a kiss to her forehead and let her know it was all going to be okay. But I couldn't lie to her.

When she tried to turn her head up to look at me threw the material I was haunted by the look in her eyes. It was still so optimistic, full of life and love. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Mum left to you know, she promised she was going to see me soon so I thought you'd bring her with you."

"Don't worry, Abs, I have a feeling you'll find her pretty soon. I'm sure she misses you more than anything." I whispered comfortingly, my hands still on her head when I felt the first tear drop. My comments had caused her smile to grow even further and I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Don't cry, Druey, there's too much to be happy about to be sad. I mean you save peoples lives- mummy said that you saved ours and when we both go away you'll save everyone else too." She reached up to cup my face, her body shaking as she did- any movement was taking too much out of her. "If you ever cry- it should be from happiness."

How was this tiny girl, that lay dying in my lap, being the strong one? "It is happiness, Abby, I'm so happy because I got to met you." It was true, Abby had changed me for the better- I had to look at things with optimism and hope, I had to see the good of things if I wanted the stay in control of myself.

"I'm going to miss you when I go away, Mum said it'll be too far away for you to visit." She had grown still, motionless in my arms as her muscles finally gave up fighting. "I don't want to be selfish but I know that you'll try and visit me- won't you?" Her coughs left blood in her hands and over the material on my lap.

"I might be there with you sooner than you think." I whispered, pulling her to my chest. Her coughing didn't stop, it grew violent and her entire body was giving in. It showed no signs of stopping, more and more blood covering my chest- for the first time I was grateful for this barrier between us.

I held on hopelessly, there was nothing I could do except let her die knowing I was there with her. Telling myself all this suffering just meant she could be with her mother again.

The coughing continued, my arms growing tired but never losing their hold on her. It kept going until suddenly it stopped and Abby grew limp in my arms.

"Goodbye Abby, my beautiful little flower."

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We'd given Abby and Penelope a joint grave, right next to Darcy's. Caila and I spent lunch huddled over; decorating it with the most beautiful flowers we could possibly gather. I didn't let a single fall from my face the entire time. All I could see was Abby's eyes- shining with such light that I couldn't bring myself to disappoint her with tears. I was going to make sure she was proud of the leader I was.

I now found myself stood in front of Vincent, reapplying his dressings.

"You know, I could fix this up on my own." Caila shot at me, referring to how I insisted on coming with her- leaving Rukma in charge of everyone else.

"I trust you, I just don't trust him to not try and get his way out of this." I signalled to the sling, sure enough when we'd found him besides the fire his sling was at his side as he sharpened a batch of rocks.

"Aw, come on! I'm no use in a sling- if I'm going to help out I need the use of all my limbs!" He ran his fingers threw his hair, shaking his hear as he did so. I could tell how frustrated he was with himself at the thought of being useless.

"The more you wear this, the better it'll heal. The better it heals, the quicker it is until I can take it off you." I reached for it now, placing it on him- allowing him to put it on himself.

"Plus, I thought we agreed you'd be in charge of the fire. That doesn't require two hands." Caila added, throwing a large stick into the fire as she spoke.

"It also doesn't require full time attention. I could be doing so much more to help out- but I'm stuck here." He groaned, head dropping down.

"There isn't anything that needs to be done. The sick and injured are being looked after, food is sorted, and water is sorted too. We have more than enough shelter- what else could you be doing to help? Don't beat yourself up about this." Caila had taken over my argument, her hand fell onto his deltoid- causing him to look up from the ground. I could see it in his eyes when they met hers- she was calming him down. He softened immediately, hands falling out of the fists they'd balled up into. That was my queue to leave- Caila had this sorted.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"None of your business."

I was in the process of burning the cross bows, I had snuck into the forest and begun to start a small fire. Once it grew big enough I would use it to burn them down and I was deluded to think that no one would find me. Of corse Jesse found me.

"Do you have anything better to do? Other than constantly get in my way?" I kept my back to him, not bothering to turn- but I knew his face would be doing a great job of displaying how annoyed he was with me.

"I can't let you do that." He growled, her was right behind me now reaching for the weapon in my hands. I protested, pulling It out of his reach quickly.

"You can't let me do anything. I do what I want, and right now I need for these to be gone. We can't let anyone know that we have them." I was staring down at the fire, praying it hurried up and grew.

"We have the right to defend ourselves, you have no right to do this." He threw his bottle of water over the fire, putting out what tiny flames had begun to emerge. "I won't let you do that." He repeated, forcefully pulling the second crossbow from my hands.

"What do we need to be protected from? Having arrows isn't going to stop these people from dying of blood loss and diseases. Or is there something I don't know about how the human body works?" Obviously I knew what we needed protection from, that's why I would never get ride of the knives or rocks I'd collected. "What happens when someone like Wyatt finds this? I don't think it would take long for him to make it was to the quarantine and kill everyone who isn't already dead. Hell he might even take us out with them." I didn't breath as I spoke, it all coming out in a rush of anger towards the boy. "Why can't you ever just trust that I'm trying to keep people alive- why can't you just stay out of my way!" It wasn't a scream, but it wasn't far from it- somehow I still managed to keep my cool, although I did let it slip a little.

"At least keep them for hunting. We might be able to find some animals to cook up other than fish!" His eyes met mine for the first time in our conversation, he was noticeably pissed at me but he also seemed to understand me- for the first time. "I don't think we can afford to just throw away a resource like this." I knew we couldn't, deep down I did, but I couldn't figure out if it was worth the risk. "I can see that you know I'm right, just like I know you're right about it being dangerous. We can keep it to ourselves." Every time he spoke of the two of us as team I couldn't help the wave of confusion that washed over me- what was this guys deal?

"You said we make the rules, in some twisted way I think we just made our first decision together." I breathed out, my eyes searching for answers within his.

He nodded, "We keep them, no one else finds out about them except us and we try and get some real god damn food with them. Okay?" His eyes were digging into mine too, I could see the conflict within his- I understood what he was feeling. He couldn't understand how or why we were making a decision together yet neither of us could stop it.

"Okay."

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