Secrets to the Grave

65

Crawl, G. Don’t just lie there. Crawl!

Marissa was on her hands and knees in the mud, bending down in her face.

Crawl! Damn it, Gina! You can’t give up now!

But I’m so tired, and it’s so nice right here.

No, it isn’t. Are you stupid? It’s raining. You’re facedown in the mud!

I’m so warm. I’m hot. Why do I have all these clothes on?

Oh my God. You’re not hot. You’re cold. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?

Shut up, Marissa. I hear something.

A very distant whup, whup, whup, whup.

It’s a helicopter, stupid.

Don’t call me stupid. This was all your idea.

I was trying to do good. We did something good!

You’re dead.

Then how can you see me? How can you hear me? Gina? Gina!

All she wanted to do was go to sleep, but Marissa grabbed her good arm and pulled it straight out in front of her, and tried to drag her.

Crawl! You have to do this for Haley! You have to get to the fire road. If you get to the fire road they’ll find you!

The fire road. She remembered being driven onto the fire road and marched up it with a gun in her back in the dead of night.

Who?

Who what?

Who will find me?

I don’t know! Firemen. Big, hunky firemen.

I love firemen. My dad was a fireman.

No, he wasn’t. Your dad sold insurance.

It’s my hallucination.

Oh, for God’s sake! Crawl, Gina! You’re going to die if you don’t start crawling! You don’t want to die. You can’t die! You’re the only one who knows the truth. You have to do this for Haley! Crawl, Gina!

For Haley. Gina gathered her strength to try. She tried to dig into the rocky ground with her good hand, feeling fingernails break. She had to gain some kind of purchase. She pulled her good leg into position and pushed off, shoving herself forward.

She expected to feel pain, terrible, blinding pain. She felt nothing. It was as if her brain had become unplugged from her body. She was so weak, so very weak, but she was free of the pain.

Marissa grabbed her arm again and pulled. Gina moved her good leg and pushed. She gained maybe a foot.

How far is the fire road?

Not far. Keep going. Keep pushing.

The process was repeated again and again with rest breaks in between. With each effort she felt weaker and weaker until she couldn’t pull her good leg up more than a few inches, and she couldn’t move herself any farther than that.

I can’t, Marissa. It’s too far. It’s too late.

What else have you got to do with your time? You might as well go until you die.

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.

She didn’t want to die. She couldn’t die. She was the only one who knew the story.