Ella

The gunshot still rings through my ear. That's all I can hear even after moments of it being over with. There was silence, darkness, then the shot ringing throughout the room. I don't know who or what it hit, I don't know what happened, but my body is rigid all over, the thought that it took someone I care for is flooding my thoughts.

The light comes back on, almost as fast as it goes off. I don't know what's going on, but I begin to hear screaming and shouting. My helmet is almost suffocating me, and I try my best to breathe through the heat that's encasing my head.

I try to make out what's going on, but after my ears adjust to the reason of why people are shouting, I almost wish I didn't try to understand what was going on.

I look over across the room where most of the commotion is coming from, and everything inside of me breaks.

There, lying in a pool of red liquid, is Hunter. His helmet is lying a few feet away from him, while he's choking on his blood trying to breathe, and I forget about everything else, except my best friend that's dying on the floor. Dying for real this time. I'm not going to lose him, I won't lose him.

I push my way over to him, just as Edmund steals the gun back from the Guard that stole it from him. The culprit, I tell myself as I look into the face of the Guard that's only wearing his pajamas, horror in his eyes as he sees Hunter lying on the floor and Edmund holding the gun that was once in his own hands. The reason for Hunter bleeding.

Another shot goes off, and the Guard falls to floor, before Edmund threatens to shoot anymore of them if they don't stop all of this.

They tell him they won't stop, no matter what that we need law and order to rule us, and this super race is what we need. After those words are spoken, an entire round of shooting erupts in the room, and I bend over to hold Hunter's bloody body against me, nothing else mattering right now.

Kill them all, I think to myself. Just end this problem once and for all. Kill off the Guards, kill off everyone that ever thought this was a good idea. I'm so tired of innocent people dying, and these Guards are in no way innocent.

"Stay with me," I cry, taking off my helmet so we can look into each other's face. "You're not going to leave me, you're never going to leave me," I cry, holding both his and my hand over his wound, the blood seeping out as if it's a small stream.

"I'm--I'm sorry for--for lying," he chokes out, his body trying to hold on with every breath he continues to take. "You didn't deserve--to be--treated like that--from your--best friend."

"Hush," I tell him, my eyes blurry from the tears that are streaming down my face. "You did what you had to, I understand," I cry. "I love you, Hunter, okay? We're going to make it out of here. You promised to get me out and--and I'm going to get you out." My body is shaking as I hold him against me, my hand soaked in his blood as I try to keep him as comfortable as possible, knowing that there's not much time left.

"I love you, Ella. I've--I've loved you---forever. My heart--is yours." His lips quirk up into a small smile, a smile that's barely even there, before his eyes roll back, and he becomes limp in my arms.

"No!" I scream, shaking him, cursing at him, telling him he's not really gone, that he would never leave this Earth without me. "Don't you dare leave me!" I yell, my voice turning hoarse as I sob into his neck. "You can't leave me." I don't know what's going on around me. I don't know if Hunter's friends have taken down all the Guards. I don't know if Mark, Carol, and Dean are okay. I don't know anything except the fact that my friend throughout my life, has died in my arms.

My heart--is yours.

Another loud sob shakes throughout me, as I think about what Hunter told me. He loved me. He loved me and Dean loves me. I don't think I can take another person telling me they love me in such short timing. I love Hunter with all of my heart, but I could never love him like that. I know he knew that, too, and maybe that's why he saved those words for his last breath--so I wouldn't be able to break his heart from rejection.

I don't even know if I have a heart to give anyone, not after all the things I've gone through in these short--yet long--twenty-four days. I am broken inside, destroyed, and I don't know if I will ever be repaired.

I begin to scream. I scream profanities and things that don't even make sense. I just scream. There is nothing else for me to do, there is nothing else for me to say. Dean was right, this was a bad idea. If I didn't have the idea to fight, Hunter would still be alive. I've killed my best friend.

I scream even louder, but all of that fades away when I feel a pair of arms around me. I hold onto Hunter even tighter, however, not wanting to face the Norovian that has changed so much. I can't lose him either, no matter how much I may want him to go away, or may want to stop these feeling brewing inside, I can't let him go. He's all I have left, and without him, what is living?

"He's dead," I mutter as I squeeze Hunter's hand, hoping I can still feel a pulse.

"I know," Dean whispers. "It's over, Ella." At first, I think he's meaning Hunter's over, and I'm about to scream at him, but once I look up, I know what he means.

Lying all across the cafeteria, are bodies. The bodies of the men we brought here to threaten not kill, lying in pools of green and red liquid. "Did you kill anyone?" I ask him, I have to ask him. I know how he feels about murder, and I need to know if he's changed.

"No," he mumbles. "I'm not a soldier, I couldn't do that."

"Good," I tell him, my bottom lip trembling as I set my best friend's lifeless body on the cool floor, and let Dean comfort me. He holds me tight, and I cry harder at the thought that I'm the first human he's ever showed affection to. I now know I was never his first's experiment, but something more. I was cruel to Dean as well, it wasn't just his part. I pushed him and pushed him in the desert, not being able to accept him slowly changing. Now I know, however, that he has changed, that he is a good person, that he is no longer an alien to me.

I let all of my sadness burn away into my tears, as I lie in Dean's arms, trying to forget about Hunter's lifeless face, and his confession of loving me.