[sylvanSpider]

“A better place? This world can never be a better place. Not when it's this,” Bek lifted her hand as though to gesture to her room, but Riley would be able to tell she was referring to...well...everything. She closed her eyes, “We all have. There isn't one among us that hasn't lost someone. Shit. Most of us watched loved ones die. Some of us were responsible for it.”

Bek could sense the thoughts running through Riley's head, untold stories that he would probably keep to himself, just as Bek was doing now. How could she tell him that he hadn't yet turned when she put that bullet between his eyes? How the trigger slid too easy for an action that would take a life, an action that would take the most beloved life? How she watched the fear disappear from his eyes as his life disipated? No. There would be no talking about that. She was hero. But at what cost? Her brother was dead.

“An entire world of what? Death? Decay? It's the same shit, just on the other side of the fence,” she shook her head. There was no reason to get terse with her friend. He'd simply acted out of what he thought was right. She couldn't blame him for that. “Well. It's the same either way. So why not? Shit. I'll go with you.”