All My Friends Are Dead

Part 9

"Because of your dumbass," Cody replies and he pulls out his army knife to attack Michael.

Michael puts his arms up. "You guys plan for this? How messed up is that?" he asks.

"Shut up, you were going to strangle Ralph," Cody snaps back.

"I have no other choice," Michael states.

"Why me?" Ralph asks.

"You would be the easiest," Michael states.

What are these people waiting for now? For time to fly.

"Two against one seems hardly fair," Michael says.

"What do you have on you?" Cody asks.

"Nothing," Michael replies.

"Bullshit. Show us what you have," Cody says aggressively.

Michael pats down his clothes to show he has nothing.

"Fuck," Cody says and puts down his knife.

"What the fuck are you doing now?" Ralph asks.

"If one of us goes down, then at least make it a fair fight," Cody says honorably.

"This is not a fucking video game!" Ralph exclaims.

"I'm down with that," Michael states with his fist up. "Come to me."

Cody throws the first punch, then Michael. They keep going at it even after their skin is filled with bruises and blood.

Ralph races to the gun where Cody left it and set it up for the shot. I see him struggling to aim, but in reality, that isn't the only struggle he's facing.

He's not going to shoot. He's too soft to shoot anyone.

Cody has the upper hand on Michael and begins to throw fists onto his face. Michael's nose is bleeding then, Orion pulls Cody away.

"He's dead. That's enough," Orion states. "We need to get him out, we wasted too much time here. I saw some people around."

Cody and Orion lift up Michael's body and toss him overboard. Ralph is gathering their things to load up their car.

"Fuck, there's so much blood," Cody states.

Orion pulls out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and sprays it all over the bloodstains. "I figured there would be blood for a gunshot wound," Orion says. "We just got to wait five minutes before we can wash it away."

"Five minutes? You're joking right?" Cody questions. "Why did we think this fucking plan was going to work?" he says with hands in the air.

"Just help Ralph get the cooler filled with cold water and some sponges and gloves to clean it," Orion states.

"Mind as well, wouldn't want to look too suspicious," Cody says sarcastically.

Ralph comes back with the supplies.

"Why didn't you shoot?" Cody asks him.

"I didn't have a clear shot," Ralph says.

Cody was about to say something until Orion interrupts him. "This is not the time to chit chat. We got to clean whatever blood is yours before we can leave. Not a lot of people come here at this time, but that doesn't mean we aren't time-pressed."

With that, they all gear up and scrub away as much as they could before leaving the vicinity.

All I learned from this is that not all friendships are meant to last forever.

Chapter 22

Some time has passed and I did as I promised. I left them alone for 7 years, and for some of them, it was longer.

Cody got his master's degree in computer science. He did it for the money and fills his voids with women. Some of them were just flings, others he wants to fall in love with, but there is still a dark, lingering feeling that prevents him from getting close to anyone.

Ralph has multiple undergraduate degrees. He couldn't decide between finance or computer science, so he chooses to do both. I met him once more before the long, quiet period.

Hello Ralph.

Ralph spits out his toothpaste. "I thought we got rid of you," he says coldly.

I'm hurt. Did you forget about our anniversary?

"I try not to think about it," he says coolly.

You know the deal. Kill someone or your parents die.

His face tenses up. People like him don't do well in survival. They feel too much and are considerate of others to fight for themselves. After our little chat, I knew exactly what he was going to do before he ever does.

His parents are going to die this time and within a matter of days, they do. A tragedy really, the plane crashes on one of their flights, and they didn't make it. On the other hand, he will receive millions of dollars from his inheritance alone upon his 25th birthday in a few months.

Still, even for someone as soft as he is, he knows I will appear in the next 7 years. At that time, I will be greeted like an old friend because he hires hitmen every time to kill greedy businessmen he has meet and any other professionals he has met who are unethical.

Orion and Julia got married and he works his way to becoming a chief. From a distance, they seem happy, but she knows that there are things he still hides from her. She has some ideas about what it could be knowing how close he was to some of his high school friends, but approaching the subject is out of the question. They live together in peace and have talked about starting a family.

At this point, Orion only pretends to feel emotions. When it comes time to lengthen his life, his plans have improved and executes with minimum mistakes. He knows that his feelings have become numb, but he keeps up an appearance because there is a schema for what his life was supposed to be with.

Each of these men stays connected from time to time. Occasionally, they just want to talk about the meaning of life and other times they just want to game and keep to themselves about the tragedies in their lives. In the end, they believe all of this was done to survive the injustices that were thrust upon them.