Toxic

Chapter 13

Calum gasped and ran to a crying and trembling Joy lying on the ground. "MOM!" he yelled. "Mali," she said crying even harder. There was blood on her hands and shirt and Mali's body lay with a bullet wound in her head on the ground about 10 feet away. There was a chunk of flesh missing from her midsection and as I put pieces together, I assumed Mali had been bitten and Joy had had to do the difficult task of killing her once she returned. "It all happened so fast," she said crying into Calum's chest. "She went to get the gun from the shed because they were breaking through the back fence and- MALI KOA," she screamed. I was holding her too now and we all cried together. The gun was still firmly in Joy's hand. I got up and took the blanket off the couch to cover Mali's body with it. "Thank you Tara," she said, "I have no idea what to do anymore, we dont know if the government is still intact or if we're just waiting here to die. If this is the end of the world." It hit me just then, that it actually could be the end of the world. That the end of humankind would be one person eating another and making them one more monster. The world would become a land of death and self destruction. "What do we do with..." Calum started and broke down into tears again. Mali. "We need to bury her," Joy said in tears. "I'll take care of it," I spoke up, "It will have to be in the back yard." "Thank you," they both said. I wrapped Mali's body in the blanket better and went to work on digging a hole in the back yard.

I had dug about 4 feet down and figured it was enough so I placed the body in and began covering it with dirt again. I broke into tears after the first shovel full of dirt was tossed onto her. What was I doing? Only hours before, Mali was alive, my mother was at home safe, everyone was fine. Now, I was burying a friend in her own backyard, my mother was nowhere to be found and there were people eating each other outside.

I finished packing the dirt down and laid down a cross made of pebbles on top. Flowers, I thought, so I hopped the fence to my house and picked some roses we had. "It's time," I said when I walked back into Calum's house.

The "funeral" was short and consisted of mostly me speaking since Calum and Joy were too upset. "Mali- Koa was one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. She was always so kind to everyone, putting them before herself. I'll always remember her as the beautiful girl she was. "Nothing gold... can stay," I finished as the tears I was holding back hurt my throat. I decided to use the quote I so loved from The Outsiders because it was true.

We all said a prayer and went back inside, wondering how the hell we were going to survive in this cruel, new world.

RIP Mali :(

How ya like my The Outsiders reference

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