“No,” I protest but the arms dragging me back are too strong. It's Harry and he drops me onto the other side of the path. I scramble back up.

“You must leave him,” Harry says, pushing me back down.

“Get out of my way!” I shout back, digging my fingers into the dirt as I claw my way back to Travis.

Harry grabs my shoulders. “Don't you understand? Travis is infected. He's about to turn!” Jed is standing behind me with a scythe. He's waiting, ready for Travis to turn. Ready to end it.

I reach for the gleaming blade. He must think I'm trying to stop him, trying to keep him from Travis, because he struggles against me.

“Mary!” Harry tries to pull me back from Jed but I shove him with such force that he stumbles down the path, crashing into Cass and tumbling to the ground.

“Give it to me,” I tell Jed.

“He has to be put dow—”

“Give it to me!”

“Mary, you should not be the one to—”

I lunge for the scythe, screaming, and this time I'm able to grasp its handle. I'm the one who loves him. I'm the one responsible for his infection. I'm the one he was trying to save, the one he sacrificed himself for.

“Mary, let me—”

“Release it.” My voice is a growl.

His hand slips from the handle and in one motion I swing the scythe away from him and toward Travis.

I want nothing more than to close my eyes, to pretend that none of this is real. Everything just a nightmare. But as I swing the blade toward Travis, I see his eyes open.

Those impossibly green eyes.

He used to hunger for me with those eyes but never in such a vicious way as now.

I bury the scythe in his neck, shuddering as I feel it slice through his spinal cord. His eyes lose focus as if he sees through me. His body falls limp, every muscle releasing at once.

He is gone. Forever.

Blood slips down his chest and I am sobbing on the ground.

Jed takes the scythe and picks me up. I'm too weak to resist. I want to reach out and grab Travis's hand, to feel him one last time, to let his fingers lace through mine. But he is too far away.

Already I forget what he smells like, the smoke of the fire searing away everything.

Jed carries me from his body.

“No!” I yell. I scream. I beat against Jed. I can't even draw in enough air to sob. My memories of Travis are jumbling, rolling together, twisting, corroding.

“You did what needed to be done,” he says. As if those words could be any comfort.

“I loved him,” I whimper. “He was everything. Why couldn't I see that he was everything?” Regret eats away at me, stripping through my veins as if to replace my blood.

“I know,” Jed says. I'm thrown over his shoulder and I can feel how his body shakes and I know that he is crying. For me, for Beth. And I wonder if there was ever a crueler world than this one that forces us to kill the people we love most.