pill bottle and the unbearable quiet aft

eyes sna

of the trailer. The same

ls, but from a life lived twic

right, my hea

. C

attress, my bare feet hittin

m, a small, sha

ker, raspie

were

w I still had stre

fever would take Leo, before Carol's he

idered that medical trial, the one with the wh

this

low poisoning of myself for m

e, I wou

of glass in my throat. My hu

while we rotted here in rural

of his fallen comrade. The

fell on David's old hunting rifle, propped in a corner

ut it had t

lled, my vo

s voice was

He was burning up, h

whispered, smoothing his damp hai

myself to say "

dy but aware. She looked at me

, a resolve I hadn't possessed in my first li

cker of something – ho

me to waste. No

ne chance. Ou

n't let the