“Jack, I’m tired…”

“We’ll rest soon, Susan, we just have to keep going a little longer.” Jack caught Susan as she stumbled over a rock, kicking up hot ash in the process. “It won’t be much further, I promise.”

“Tears trickled down from Susan’s blue eyes, carving canyons to the beauty of her cheeks beneath the dust.

Jack couldn’t bear to look, so he turned his face to the sky, still shit brown with dust, then back at his girl, and wiped her face carefully. He made sure to avoid the small cuts on her face. “How about I carry you?” he asked her quietly.

“No, no, Jack, you can’t…” she turned away, looking back toward the ruined city in the distance. “You’ll hurt your arm even more.”

Jack tested his arm for the thousandth time that day and recoiled again. He looked at Susan and sighed, her need for something he couldn’t give her made him feel worse than any injury ever could.

“If we don’t get going now, I won’t be able to,” she whispered as she turned to the city again.