Episode 2: Tough Choices

        Andy collapsed while carrying wood to the fire. It was nighttime, and I was cuddling with Lily in front of the flames. Everyone else was around the bonfire as well. There was John, Principal Berm who sat with his wife and two kids, my friend Logan, Gabriel Harper, a surgeon who had made it out of the hospital across the street, brothers Daniel and Spencer Wright, Roger Black who was sitting with two kids, my school counselor Cynthia Brooks with her husband and three kids, war veteran Albert Hamm, Brett Rogers, Ellis Jackman, and soldiers Joshua Barnes, Samson Edge, and Rebecca Soren.

        Andy fell right behind me, and the wood he was carrying fell on top of me. Pieces of wood rolled into the coals, spraying sparks everywhere. He fell on his back in a large thud.

        “Oh no! Andy!” Cynthia called. She got up and ran over to him.

        “What happened?” John asked, coming around from the opposite side of the bonfire.

        “Andy passed out!” Cynthia replied.

        “Gabriel!” Principal Berm shouted.

        Gabriel got up from where he was sitting and rushed over to Andy.

        “What’s wrong with him?” Spencer questioned.

        Gabriel ran his hand along the bloody bandage on Andy’s forearm, and I knew what he was going to say before he did.

        “He was bitten,” I said solemnly. Gabriel peeled off the wrappings and nodded.

        Daniel was on me in seconds. He grasped my shirt and threw me to the ground. John stepped between us and held Daniel back as Lily helped me back up.

        “You knew he was bit, and you didn’t say anything?!” Daniel shouted.

        “I didn’t know then,” I retorted. “I saw that he was hurt, but he told me it was just a cut!”

        “You put us all in danger!” Daniel screamed. “What if he had turned?! We have kids here!”

        “Daniel, calm down.” It was Spencer, Daniel’s brother. “He couldn’t have known that Andy was bitten, and even if he had, what was he supposed to do?”

        “He should have killed him!” I heard Ellis say. “He has a gun! He should have used it!”

        “Enough!!” shouted Berm. “Gabriel, get Andy into a tent. Daniel, Spencer, help him. Everyone else just calm down and try to get some sleep. Gabriel’s going to do everything he can, and if the time comes, we’ll do what we have to. If you want, when he wakes up, you can tell him goodbye. Mr. Dawson? I believe it’s your turn for watch duty.”

        John nodded and grabbed his gun, heading to the wooden watchtower we had built. Daniel, Spencer, and Gabriel lifted Andy’s heavy body and put him in his tent. Everyone else finished their dinner and headed to their own tents.

        Lily walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek.

        “Don’t blame this on yourself,” she said as if she was reading my mind. “You did everything you could.”

        This time, she kissed me on the lips.

        That night, I tried to sleep, but I kept waking up to Andy’s cries of pain. Finally I left my tent without waking Lily or Logan, my tent mates. I approached to tower where John was perched. I climbed up the ladder and sat next to him. Andy’s moans resonated over the whole rooftop.

        “It started about an hour ago,” was all John said.

        I looked down.

        “I know,” I said. “I couldn’t sleep.”

        We sat in silence for a few minutes, looking over our town of St. Peters. I had never gotten to see a view like this before the world ended, but I’m sure it would be even more amazing with millions of lights dotting the land all the way to the horizon. I had lived here all my life, and I’m sad to say I had never gotten this kind of perspective of my own home. I could see my own house from here. It was full of walkers the last time I went there a few weeks ago.

        Andy cried out in pain from his tent not too far away.

        “It sounds like he’s in a lot of pain,” John said. “Gabriel came by earlier and told me it won’t be long now. Problem is...no one is willing to do it.”

        I knew what he meant. When you were bitten or scratched by a walker, eventually you got a deadly fever. When you die, you become one of them. By shooting one of them in the brain, they die for good.

        “Maybe he’ll get better,” I said hopefully, but all I got was a look from John.

        “Yeah,” he replied, “and maybe I’ll go back to watching football on my plasma screen while eating wings.”

        We sat listening to Andy’s moans of pain for another few minutes until Logan crawled out of the tent and walked over to us. He rubbed his eyes and scowled.

        “Will someone just kill him already?” he said.

        I looked at him surprised. How could he say something like that? How could he be so heartless?  I didn’t know Andy that well, only that he had been the drama teacher at my school. He was a great guy. He didn’t deserve this. Before I could say something, John beat me to it.

        “You want to pull the trigger? Be my guest.”

        What? I looked at him in surprise then back at Logan who got a strange look on his face. He turned and went back in the tent. When he came back out, he was clicking off the safety on his gun.

        “Don’t mind if I do,” he said and walked quickly towards Andy’s tent.

        I looked at John. He seemed…conflicted.

        “Wait! Logan!” I called.

        I ran after him, and John followed me. We weaved through the tents with curious heads poking out. We found Logan in Andy’s tent with a gun to Andy’s head. Andy was awake, and he seemed strangely calm. Logan’s hand was quivering.

        “Logan?” I inched closer. No one made a move for what seemed like forever. Logan’s whole body seemed to shake even more and more.  Andy was drenched with sweat and either coughed or moaned in pain every other second. John remained at the doorway, silent.

        Suddenly, Logan backed away quickly, dropping the gun to the floor and falling into a chair on the opposite side of the tent.

        “I…I can’t…I can’t.”

        Andy closed his eyes and let out a deep breath after a brutal cough.

        “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s okay son. It’s not easy to kill a man…I would know.”

        He looked over at John as if he just realized he was there.

        “John? Did I ever tell you about my family?”

        John shook his head.

        “I had a wife and a daughter, John. They were both so beautiful. After all this happened, the walkers, we hunkered down in this one restaurant. One day, a man came through, a big man with a big gun. He found my family while I was out looking for supplies. He—" Tears began to flow down his face, and he choked a sob. “I found my family dead and him standing over them.” He shuddered at a wheezy breath. He tried to compose himself, but he failed and broke down. “I grabbed his gun and killed him. I didn’t even have time to bury my family before walkers got there. So yes, I know about killing—“ He hacked up a bloody cough that racked his whole body for two straight minutes. Eventually he settled, and all he could do was weep.

        I cried too. Logan buried his face in his hands, and John had to turn around. I walked forward, and picked up the gun from the floor. I stopped crying. It had to be done. Andy looked up at me as I put the barrel against his forehead.

        “I want to see my family again,” was all he said.

        “You will,” I replied.

        Andy closed his eyes as I pulled the trigger.