AN: Holy crap, it sure has been awhile since I last updated!
For that I am truly sorry. As some of you might now, I went off to join the Royal Danish Army back in February. After 4 months of service to my country (as required), I went back to the civil life again. I got my old job back and I've been working like usual ever since.
Now for my excuse for not doing any writing for almost 2 months (it seems that I always have an excuse for being lazy :P): Well, I've been busy :
I've started doing some running to stay in shape, and generally I'm exercising a lot more than before, so naturally that takes some of my time and energy.
Also... I've started another hobby besides writing; namely drawing! Haven't been doing that for many years, so I decided to start up again. You can check it out at my DeviantArt page, if you feel like it, that is. (There's a link at my profile)

Anyway... I'm gonna stop ranting about my personal life and bring to you what you've all been anxiously waiting for the last 6 months or so (yeah right :P).
Here's the newest installment of Chambered. Enjoy, dammit!

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.

Willa Cather
US novelist (1873 - 1947)

Chapter 26

Gone Away

With pinched eyes locked on the armed men with gasmasks, Sean tightened his grip around the pipe he was holding up as if he was ready to strike. His mind was racing as his eyes wandered from one soldier to the next.

Ever since the elevator doors had opened and revealed those inside, Sean had been locked in this position. His muscles were tightening in cramps from standing there for so long. He felt like they had been standing there for minutes measuring each other out, but in reality there hadn't passed more than a few seconds.

The man in front had spoken to him from behind his mask. He knew Sean's name for some reason unknown to him. One thing he was sure of, though; these guys weren't from the army or any other government task force, which only led to one option.

"You're from Umbrella, aren't you?" Sean asked, through his gritted teeth.

The man let out a muffled chuckle.

"You're smarter than you look," the man said as he slowly took a step towards Sean.

"What's your business here?" Sabrina then asked with a menacing tone as she cocked the Beretta. It was a bold move, but it paid off since the man stopped moving instantly. She saw right through his game and she was getting tired of playing it.

The man wasn't intending to answer the question apparently. Neither were the other soldiers. It seemed that the man in front was the leader, so naturally the others wouldn't say anything. He spoke for the entire team.

It was obvious these guys were here for Sean. They knew his name and had recognized him, so they had been searching for him. Why they would do that was beyond him, but they weren't going to let him go, that was certain.

This is bad… really bad, Sean thought, trying to figure a way out of the corner he and Sabrina had ended up in.

"What do you want with me?" Sean asked the leader, straight forward. He didn't really want to know, because he figured it involved him either being their captive or getting killed. What he really wanted was to stall them, so he could figure out how to get away.

Unfortunately it didn't stick with this guy. He was obviously not born yesterday since he didn't reveal anything to Sean. Also, they were all wearing gasmasks so he couldn't get a read from their facial expressions either. Not even their eyes could he see, since the glass in the masks was only one-way. The masks didn't just protect them from the virus, but they also worked as a way to put the fear in the soldiers' opponents. It gave them an advantage, one that Sean couldn't ignore. It made the situation even more dangerous than it already was.

The only reason they hadn't made a move yet was that Sabrina was pointing a gun at the leaders head. If they shot her, she would kill him. But Sean was getting the feeling that they were gonna make a move soon. They were just waiting for Sabrina to make a mistake.

The leader was only a few feet away from Sabrina, but she had made sure he stayed out of reach. The few steps he had tried to make earlier were clearly his way of testing her. He was trying to get a read on how much control she had over the situation. But Sabrina had him perfectly under control. Sean noticed how she kept her distance, her stance and her eyes that were only focused on the leader. One wrong move and she would pull the trigger, stone cold. He didn't doubt her for a second, he knew her too well for that. She was stubborn as hell, but she was also equipped with an almost infinite amount of patience. If she had to, she could stand there for hours.

Just when Sean thought that the situation couldn't get any worse, an all too familiar sound could be heard from the end of the hallway. From the ventilation shaft, by the patient room they had found the antidote in, a dark clot fell down to the floor with a wet splat. And with each splat he heard, the chill down is back got colder and colder. He could tell Sabrina had noticed it too, yet she didn't take her eyes away from the Umbrella soldiers.

Now there was no way out. They couldn't wait any longer. They had to get out of there now. Soon the Leech Man would crash through the cover of the ventilation shaft and he would come for them. Sean had to come up with something, fast.

He couldn't tell if they had heard the leeches dropping to the floor too, but the way Sean had been glaring down the hallway before, they had to know that something was up.

"He's coming," Sean said.

"Who's coming?" the leader asked, his voice cold, without a hint of surprise. It sounded like he didn't care at all.

"The Leech Man," Sean said, looking at him. "I bet you've seen them, haven't you? The leeches?"

He didn't answer him, but yet that was answer enough. He could tell from his silence that they had seen something.

The elevator pinged and the doors tried to close, but was stopped by the leaders foot. The doors returned to their open position. It had done that several times before during their time of waiting. But Sean had noticed a pattern, one that he could use to his advantage perhaps. He just needed a little good fortune, but sadly Lady Luck hadn't been on his side these past few days.

Or perhaps she has been… Sean wondered, thinking about all the mess he'd been able to crawl out of more or less unscathed.

The doors would try to close every ten seconds, and with the right timing Sean and Sabrina would have a way of escaping. He just hoped Sabrina was thinking the same as him.

Five seconds…

Just a little more, Sean begged.

Three seconds…

Bang!

The cover for the ventilation shaft fell to the floor and just as it happened Sean threw himself to the side, yelling to Sabrina; "Now!"

She let herself fall to the side as well, out of the soldiers' line of fire and then she started shooting into the elevator. The leader threw himself back into it to avoid getting hit, but by doing that he removed his foot from the doors which were closing the same second he did it. The doors closed completely, and Sean and Sabrina were safe for now.

"Come on!" Sean yelled at her, already on his feet. "We only have a few seconds!"

He ran over to her and pulled her up, but as he did he saw the Leech Man behind her, rising to his feet after falling from the shaft.

"What is it?" Sabrina asked him when she noticed how he froze.

"It's him!" he said and took her hand as he started running.

They headed towards the stairway at the end of the hallway, but just as they reached the door they heard the elevator ping and saw the doors slide open.

The soldiers swarmed out, spreading out in both directions. He didn't see more than that, because he and Sabrina had already gone through the door and were heading down the stairs.

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"Sonovabitch!" One yelled as he fell backwards into the elevator. The girl with the nine-millimeter kept firing into the elevator, but stopped when the doors closed.

One had been lucky. The side wall of the elevator was now riddled with holes. If he hadn't quickly fallen back into the elevator, it would've been him who'd ended up as Swiss cheese. But he hadn't been fast enough. The girl had hit him in his right arm, or rather grazed his biceps. It stung like hell, but it was nothing compared to how it could've been.

Furious at himself for being played by a couple of civilians, he quickly got on his feet again and slammed his hand at the control panel.

How could I have let this happen? He blamed himself. He should've acted sooner, before they had the chance to find an opening. He knew better than to wait for an opportunity to arrive. He should've created an opportunity, he should've acted instantly.

Underestimating his enemy would've been the dumbest thing to do, but yet he had done it. These kids knew their way around combat, he could tell. It was probably the only reason why they had survived this long. That and the fact that Hayter was resistant to the product. He would have to be more careful with them next time. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

"Come on!" He said to his men and they all stormed out the doors the second they sled apart.

They fanned out into the hallway, Two and Three to the left and Four and himself to the right. He just managed to catch a glimpse of Hayter and the girl fleeing through the door to the stairs.

Behind him, Two and Three had opened fire, and One turned to look while Four kept covering the door to the stairway. What he saw matched the description of the creature the kid had talked about before; the Leech Man.

Slow, heavy and simple minded was the traits One labeled it with right away. It didn't seem to be much different from the zombies, except for the fact that even after about 15-20 well-placed shots from his men it still wouldn't go down. The leeches that were covering its body dropped to the ground like rain as they got hit. But everytime there seemed to be an opening more leeches came and covered it. It seemed as if there was no end to them.

It wasn't the first time One and his team had encountered leeches. Several locations in the city housed them: the sewers, the forest and the park. Basically, everywhere there were moist, they had seen them. But this… this was different. These leeches were showing some kind of social behavior. They worked together, moved in packs like they had some sort of shared intelligence. They seemed a lot more intelligent than the others, which hadn't been much more than oversized bloodsuckers. And that wasn't all. They had apparently found a way to utilize a human body to move around with, like it was some kind of puppet. One guessed that they must've found some way to control the basic motor functions of the body, perhaps by digging into the spinal cord in the neck and attaching themselves to the brainstem. How they controlled the nervous system was beyond him, he was only a soldier after all. He'd been taught a lot about the anatomy of humans and other creatures used for experiments so he would have better insight on how to bring them down, but he hadn't exactly studied advanced neurophysiology.

But if there was one thing he knew, then it was that everything could be killed by severely damaging its central nervous system. Five bullets through the skull was almost certainly a winner. The problem was that every bullet his men fired got blocked by the leeches. That was the down side of the hollow-point rounds they used: they didn't have much penetrative power. They would need a rifle to shoot through the thick bodies of the leeches before they could damage the body beyond it.

"This isn't working!" Three yelled back to him. "What the hell do we do?"

The Leech Man continued towards them, not slowing down at all. The mass of leeches just wouldn't thin out.

"Forget it," One said, not seeing a whole lot of options left. "We're gonna back off. Two and Three, you'll cover us as we fall back to the stairs."

Two, who was looking back at One, nodded and then resumed firing position, but as he did the Leech Man lunged its arm at him. It couldn't possibly have reached him from that distance, but somehow it did. Its arm stretched 7 feet and hit him hard in his face. Two fell on his back with a loud thump.

"Shit!" One hissed, and started towards Two. "Three, keep firing!"

Three did as he was commanded and kept firing, this time more rapidly than before. One quickly grabbed Two's combat vest by the grip in the neck of it and started dragging him along the tiled floor. His hulking body was heavy as hell, but One was a strong man, he could drag him a mile if the situation demanded it. Three needed some help on the other hand.

"Four!" One yelled at him, and he turned his head. "Help Three! He's running out of ammo."

It was a bold strategy since it would leave his team vulnerable from the back. Hayter and the girl could decide to open fire from the stairs, but it was highly unlikely. One figured they were pretty far down the floors by now.

Four turned around immediately and joined sides with Three as he opened fire at the Leech Man. One kept dragging Two across the floor, but it was getting harder since Two was struggling with a few leeches that had stuck on him when he had been knocked down by the Leech Man's arm. They were trying to find a way through his tear proof clothes, but Two didn't give them any chance of finding their way to his flesh. He let go of his P90 sub-machinegun and grabbed his knife instead. Then he grabbed them one by one and cut them clean in half, calm and cold. Where any other person would have panicked and started flailing around, screaming for help, Two kept calm and handled the situation safely. Fear didn't exist in his mind. That was why One had picked him for his team back in the day.

Once he had killed the last of the leeches One helped him back up on his feet.

"Three, Four!" One yelled to his teammates and assumed firing position alongside Two. "We've got him, head for the stairs."

They stopped firing and turned around immediately, running alongside each of their walls to avoid getting in the line of fire. Once they got to the door they turned around and covered One and Two.

"Go!" Three yelled, signaling them to pull back.

One and Two ran towards them and went through the door. Two entered first and One went right after him, tapping Three's shoulder as he went by him. He then tapped Four's and they both came through the door.

The Leech Man was getting pretty close now. He was only 10 feet away, so One decided to do one last thing to slow him down. He stood in the door and then started aiming for the staggering legs of the Leech Man. It seemed the leeches were in lesser numbers down there, so he opened fire at his knees. Five or six shots did the trick and he fell to the ground.

But One wasn't finished. He pulled an incendiary grenade from his combat vest, threw it at him and slammed the door shut.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sean ran down the stairs, two steps at a time. Sabrina was right behind him, constantly keeping an eye on the floors above incase their pursuers were getting close.

He could hear them firing their weapons, rapidly. The loud bangs traveled unhindered down the stairs. The Leech Man was keeping them busy. Hopefully long enough for Sabrina and him to get out of the hospital.

The one Sean had labeled as the leader of the team, was yelling loudly between the gunfire, commanding his men around. He could tell that they were fighting it tactically, as expected of a bunch of professionals.

Things can't possibly get any worse, Sean thought. Zombies he could handle. Heck, even a handful of Leech Men was to prefer over being hunted by professional soldiers. At least they weren't smart enough to follow him all over town. They'd lose interest in him as soon as he'd break their line of sight. At least he and Sabrina had a fighting chance against the creatures.

But these Umbrella soldiers… they would stop at nothing. They were larger in numbers, better equipped and extremely well trained. He and Sabrina didn't stand a chance against them. All they could do was to run as fast as they could and hide.

Yet Sean stopped when he heard a terrifying sound from the floor they had just left. It was like nails on a blackboard, only much worse. He looked back at Sabrina who'd also frozen in her tracks.

"What the hell was that?" she said, her voice trembling.

Sean didn't answer; he just grabbed Sabrina's hand and continued to run down the stairs. He knew exactly what it had been and he suspected that she had an idea too. The soldiers were done and now they were coming after them.

The two got to the sub-ground floor where they had entered; the ambulance entrance. They rushed out the door and started up the slope, running straight for the road.

"Where the hell do we go, Sean?" Sabrina asked, gasping for air as she kept running.

Sean had no idea. He couldn't think right now, everything was happening too fast. All he knew was that they had to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. The soldiers were going to be on their tail in a matter of seconds.

But then it struck him: how did they know that he and Sabrina were in the hospital in the first place? They must've seen them enter somehow. He hadn't seen or heard any helicopters or anything when they had walked back to the hospital. The only other way was…

"Wait! Stop!" Sean said and stopped, right before they got out under the night sky.

"What is it?" Sabrina said, stopping right behind him, but then she realized why he had stopped. She nodded up towards the sky. "They're watching us, right?"

Sean nodded, sighing. "Yeah… that's how they knew we were here in the first place."

"Oh, come on!" Sabrina exclaimed, angrily. "What the hell do we do then?"

Sean shook his head, throwing his arms up in the air. It all seemed too much; he couldn't deal with this anymore. He was tired, hungry and sore all over his body. He felt like giving up, just so he could finally get some rest.

He looked over at one of the ambulances. The rear doors were wide open, and he could see a comfy stretcher inside. Man, I could so lie down right now…

"Come on! I got an idea," he suddenly said and grabbed Sabrina's hand again.

"Wha-," Sabrina exclaimed, but Sean tucked her so hard that the air got knocked out of her. He pulled her towards the ambulance. "What the hell, Sean?"

He jumped inside it and started looking for a blanket. Sabrina kept standing outside, staring dubiously at him.

"Look, we can't leave without them knowing where we're going," Sean said as he pulled out a couple of blankets from a shelf. "If we hide in here it'll at least buy us some time before they realize we haven't left the hospital grounds."

"They'll see us!" Sabrina insisted.

"Maybe, but we have better odds staying here, than just running out into the open. Besides, they're not gonna expect us staying here. I'm sure of it," Sean told her. "Now, get inside and lie down on the stretcher before they show up!"

Sabrina obeyed and jumped inside, closing the doors behind her. Sean went first onto the stretcher and Sabrina lay down on top of him after she handed him the Beretta. They covered themselves the best they could with the blankets and stayed still. Now it would seem like there was just a dead body lying there. A huge dead body, sure, but if the soldiers didn't look closer they wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

They both listened closely, but they still couldn't hear anything. Sean carefully lifted the blanket a little and looked towards the driver's cabin. The side window had been rolled down, so they should be able to hear what was going on outside of the ambulance. Of course it also meant they had to be really silent so those outside didn't hear them either.

For a minute they were just lying there, looking each other in the eyes, trying their best to lie still. Sabrina had placed her arms down Sean's sides on the stretcher, so she wouldn't crush him completely. She wasn't a heavy girl, but she weighed a little more than most girls her size. It was mainly because of her muscles, since she liked to exercise. She wasn't buff, but tight as Pat would've put it.

Sabrina's chest was resting on Sean's and he could feel her heart beating heavily. It seemed to slow down gradually, and it was the same with her breath. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and took some more deep breaths. Sean did the same, trying to calm himself down a bit. If he could do that then maybe he could get a grip on his mind that was running loose. Right now his thoughts were a mess of despair and what-if's. Fear, stress and exhaustion clouded his mind, blocking his ability to think clearly and rationally. He had to calm down and figure out what they were going to do next.

Outside of the ambulance Sean could hear the doors to the stairway creaking as they slowly got pushed open. Both Sabrina and Sean opened their eyes wide open with a jolt, and he could feel her heart dancing in her chest. They held their breaths as they listened carefully.

It was difficult to hear, but Sean could just make out the sound of boots on concrete. The soldiers were moving slowly down the slope to the asphalted parking lot. He could tell they were spreading out, and one or maybe two of them came closer and closer to the ambulance.

Sabrina's heart was beating much faster now, and so did Sean's. They were fighting with their breathing, trying as hard as they could to keep it down, but it was nearly impossible. He just hoped to God that they wouldn't hear it. On top of that, Sabrina was getting tired in her arms so more and more of her weight got shifted down onto Sean's chest. It made it harder for him to breathe, but maybe that would stop him from hyperventilating.

Now the footsteps could be heard just outside the ambulance. They were slow and careful, but the sound seemed to be traveling around the car. The sound stopped when it reached the back of it, and Sean was afraid that they had looked inside and seen something suspicious.

Sean tightened his grip around the gun, ready to fire if the back doors got opened. Hopefully it didn't come to that, since him and Sabrina would be royally screwed if it did. They could get lucky and get one of them, but the other three would without a doubt be too much for them to handle. They would surely lose in a gunfight.

Keep walking, keep walking, Sean prayed with his eyes closed.

As if he had heard his request, the soldier started to walk again, this time away from the ambulance it seemed. Sean heard someone yell "clear" from a distance away, then another "clear" and at last the man outside the ambulance yelled it as well.

Sean and Sabrina waited two, maybe three minutes while nothing happened and then decided that the soldiers had taken off. Sabrina let out a deep sigh and sunk down on top of Sean, resting her head on his chest. He noticed that she was trembling, so he wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank God," Sabrina said with a muffled voice, her face buried in Sean's t-shirt. "That was too close."

"Yeah," Sean sighed. "But we're safe now… at least for awhile, I think."

Sabrina looked up at him from underneath the blanket. "How much time do you think we have?"

"Not too long, I think," Sean said, thinking about it for awhile. "I guess we'll have about fifteen minutes or so before they suspect something, then they'll need to contact whoever's in charge of the satellite surveillance to figure out where we went. So, I don't know, maybe 20 minutes or so."

Sabrina nodded. "I saw that the key is still in the ignition. We could drive out of here… get some distance to these guys."

Sean lifted the blanket and looked towards the driver's seat. Just as Sabrina had said, the key was there, a little teddy bear hanging from the key ring.

"Wow," Sean said, surprised. "You noticed that when we got in here? I'm impressed."

"What can I say? I've got an eye for things," Sabrina said sarcastically and smiled.

"Yeah, that you do," Sean said and chuckled. "And the way you handled things upstairs… if you hadn't started shooting when you did, we wouldn't have gotten away. It was like you read my mind back there… how did you know?"

"I don't know… I guess we just think alike," Sabrina said, putting her head down on his chest again. "We make a great team, don't we?"

"Got that right," Sean said. "I probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't because of you."

"Right back at you," Sabrina replied. "You've saved me countless times now… I'm sure Mike and Pat would say the same."

"We've all looked out for each other… As long as we stay together, we'll make it out of here. I'm sure of it," Sean said, staring blankly up at the ceiling of the ambulance.

"I hope they're alright, back at the radio station…" Sabrina said.

"I'm sure they're fine," Sean said, trying to comfort her. "There might be some serious assholes in charge there, but it's probably one of the safest places in the city right now."

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He was gone.

His protector, his guardian angel, his only family, his brother was gone.

Mike sat in the bathroom surrounded by darkness. He hadn't cared to turn on the lights. He didn't care about anything right now. All he did was sit there against the wall, looking down at his blood soaked fingers. Even in this dark he could see the blood, like it was blacker than the darkness around him. It felt cold and sticky on his skin, like his brother had been bleeding oil in his last minutes.

You always had been a grease monkey, Bro, Mike thought, wanting to laugh at the irony, but couldn't; the grim reality hanging over him like a dark and heavy cloud, smothering him whenever he tried to move his thoughts to a better place.

But there was no better place… his thoughts just kept returning to his brother's last moments. Patrick hadn't died peacefully. He hadn't said anything to comfort his little brother, no last goodbye. He had died screaming in pain, crying his heart out in a river of his own blood and guts. It was awful. And Mike kept replaying it before his eyes again and again.

There had been nothing he could've done about it. That was the worst of it. No doctors or anyone with enough knowledge about first aid was present at the radio station. They had done the best they could with bandages and torn shirts to try and stop the bleeding, but the wound had been too big, too critical for them to handle. And even if they had managed to stop the bleeding temporarily, then they couldn't get him to a hospital. Pat had been doomed the second he had been stabbed by that "thing" that had come down at them from the ceiling.

Mike remembered it clearly. How his brother had come to his aid, throwing himself on top of the monster, beating, tearing and crushing it with all the strength he had. But as Pat had tackled it, it had jabbed its claws into his stomach, ripping his organs into pieces as a last desperate measure before Pat had cracked its neck.

His big brother had sacrificed his life for him, but Mike wished he hadn't. He wanted to trade places with him if he could. Pat deserved to life so much more than he did. He was a great and noble person, who had dedicated his entire life to protecting his little brother. Ever since their parents had died, Pat had taken care of him. He had worked hard to keep food on the table and roof over their heads, and he had made sure that Mike had gotten a good education. He had raised him, taught him how to live again. He had been like a father to him.

It should've been me, Mike kept thinking, his tears starting to fall on his hands, washing his brother's blood away.

Out in the hallway Mike could hear some of the other survivors talking. They were discussing the matter of his brother's dead body. Pat had bled out just about half an hour ago. His body was still lying on the table they had carried him onto after the attack. Nothing had been done about it. No one dared to do anything without talking to Mike about it first.

"We can't just leave him there!" a man stated.

"No, but we're not gonna move him or do anything before Mike has said it's alright," someone else said. Mike recognized him as Terry, the radio-dj.

"You know what's gonna happen if we don't do something soon!" the other guy said, raising his voice in frustration. "We're lucky it hasn't happened yet!"

"Look," Terry said, lowering his voice, though Mike could still hear it. "Give him a break, okay? He's just lost his brother. The last thing he needs is someone mutilating the body."

"Yeah, but-"

"I know. I'm gonna go talk to him now, alright?"

There was a few seconds of silence, and then Mike could hear footsteps coming towards the bathroom he was sitting in. The door slowly got pushed open and the light from the hallway found its way inside, and eventually to Mike who had to strain his eyes to see who was coming in. It was obviously Terry.

"Mike?" Terry asked out. "Is it okay that I come in and sit with you for awhile?"

Mike dried his eyes in his sleeves (higher up on them where they weren't soaked in his brother's blood). "Su-sure," he stuttered.

Terry went inside, closed the door, not completely, but just enough to let a little light in. He chose a spot at the opposite wall of where Mike was sitting and squatted down.

"How are you holding up?" Terry asked.

Mike scuffed and said: "How do you think? My brother just died on a fucking table, screaming in pain!"

Terry looked down, probably regretting ever asking such a stupid question.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Everything is just awesome!" Mike continued, but then realized what he was doing. It wasn't Terry's fault that Pat had died. He was just the first person to talk to Mike after what had happened, and so Mike had just let out all of his steam on him. He wasn't being fair to him at all, and he felt bad for snapping at his attempt at comforting him.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Terry," Mike apologized. "It's just…"

"I know… I don't blame you. I'm the one who's sorry for not being more sensitive," Terry said and took off his glasses. "It was a stupid question."

Mike looked down at his hands again. "He was my only family, you know… He's always been there for me, always looking out for me."

Mike curled his hands into fists, tightening his jaw, trying not to start crying again.

"And now… he's dead, Terry," he said as a tear inevitably rolled down his cheek. "Who's gonna look out for me now? Who's gonna protect me?"

Terry didn't say anything, but Mike didn't expect him to come up with a smart answer. He wasn't asking Terry as much as he was asking himself.

Pat had been the light shining in the dark ever since their parents died. He had shown Mike the way, had kept him from drowning in the darkness of depression. But now that light had been turned off, and yet again Mike was standing in the dark, with no way of telling where to go.

"I'm lost without him," he whispered.

In the opposite side of the bathroom, Terry put on his glasses again and looked straight at Mike.

"Patrick saved you, Mike. He gave his life for you, so that you could keep on living."

Mike looked up at Terry in surprise, his heart jumping in his chest.

"So you can't give up… for his sake, you gotta keep moving. That's what he would've wanted."

Mike started sobbing. Terry was right, and he knew it. He couldn't just let the darkness consume him. He had to be his own light in the dark; that was what Pat would've wanted for him. He had to look after himself now.

Terry got up and walked over to him, offering him his hand. "You have to move on, Mike, and for you to do that, you know what you gotta do."

Mike glanced at his hand for a long time, but then he grabbed it and Terry helped him to his feet. It wasn't until now Mike noticed that Terry had a gun in his other hand. It was his brother's .357 revolver; the one Mike had been borrowing over the last couple of days.

He wiped his eyes again, this time for good. No more tears.

"Yes, I know," Mike said and Terry handed him the gun.