Dion raised his brow once more, explaining with a solemnity and earnestness to his tone, "Then what’s the whole reason? Because I can’t bring along someone who doesn’t have their own motivations.
Surviving, fighting to continue to live, none of this has anything to do with the next person when you have the ability to do so. It’s all about you.
If you don’t have any reasons of your own to keep going, even if I do bring you along, how are you going to keep yourself on your feet?"
Paris was quiet for a moment. His eyes dropped to the floor and then came back up.
"I... don’t want to be one of the people who stays here. I want to be strong..." he began a little hesitantly, "And the best way to do that is to follow someone who already is, and I don’t think I’ll stumble on find someone stronger than you who I can also respect as a person."
His voice steadied as he said so. "You’ve been mentioning a lot about hesitation... and I believe you’re right about it all, and properly thought about how even after that hard fight we saw you have, and despite so many things happening to the world, you are willing to drive yourself to not hesitate and keep fighting even despite the risk, so it’s not like you’re talking tough for appearances. You just... don’t hesitate when you believe in and see what needs to happen and you do it, and I think that’s..."
He paused, searching for the word, as his lips pursed faintly and then gave up searching for some kind of more eloquent way to say what he wanted to, simply spilling what he felt.
"And I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do."
Dion listened with enraptured attention, subject to the hurt of hearing what he said as his jaw faintly tensed.
Abruptly, before he could respond, footsteps came from down the hallway.
Dion glanced past Paris and saw Madeline and Anton, and Basil, as well as Yara, though there was no sign of Irvin.
They were heading towards him, and within the moment of their arrival, Anton began speaking for them.
"We talked it through," Anton said, his voice rather tired but steady. "You’re right. We need to get going, especially with people getting sick from the rain. We need to head to a pharmacy and then come back here so they can recover."
"It can’t just be the pharmacy, though," Dion said, shaking his head a little. Even without Florence having said what she had to him, he knew the guy needed to get to a hospital. Even if it was the apocalypse, the hospital itself would have the means for them to, however best they could, sterilize a place for him once it was clear. They couldn’t do that in this place. "You know Marcus needs Novamed. His arm is going to get infected in these conditions if it hasn’t already."
Anton’s expression tightened a little, just as the others did. Deep down, they had all known this, silently perhaps hoping that they would find something in a nearby pharmacy to help him instead.
’I get the hesitation, thinking about it rationally. It essentially comes down to whether they’re willing to risk sacrificing everyone’s life to try to make sure Marcus is able to heal properly. After all, no one knows how an awakened person’s body will respond to whatever infections he would get.
"If we go to the hospital," Dion continued, "then we have to take everyone. It’s too far to go and come back. But..."
"That’s exactly the problem," Yara said. She had come up behind Basil, her weight favouring her good leg as she leaned against the wall. "There are only six of us awakened, and five who are capable of fighting well enough. Even then, without having anyone to protect besides the four of us, we nearly lost our lives. If we force that march, people will die. A lot of them."
"Marcus is awakened," Anton said, "And with his lean to Enhancement, if we give him a day or two his body may recover it well enough that he can move on his own. If he can move, it would help a lot more than if we have to move him unconscious. Then we go to the hospital instead of dragging everyone out there while we’re down a man."
The corridor was quiet for several moments, accompanied by the loud sound of rain and wind.
Then they heard Dion’s sigh, and he shook his head.
"Then this is where we part ways." He glanced up, and immediately, his eyes fell on the reluctant tightness on Basil and Madeline’s expressions. "I can’t wait any longer. The rain has already stalled me for far too long, and I’m not going to lose another day or two hoping Marcus’s body does what you need it to do." Dion glanced back over to Anton and finally said, "If you aren’t leaving within the next hour, I’m going on my own, and this is thank you and goodbye."
"You’re serious," Madeline said. She looked at him, and the disbelief in her face was already giving way to something harder. "You’re going to abandon sixty people."
"I didn’t take them on," Dion said. "You gathered them and had them believe you’d keep them safe. I joined because our goals were aligned, and now they aren’t. I’m not going to compromise what I have to do so I can suffer for the sake of people I have nothing to do with making commitments to. I told you in that room not to place expectations on me. Just because I tried to have you all go along with me doesn’t mean I was lying."
No one spoke thereafter for several moments, though he heard Paris shuffling his hands within his pockets to his side. Anton’s jaw was tight and his eyes a little distant. Madeline’s arms were folded across her, hugging herself beneath her bosom, while Yara gave a heavy sigh beside her.
"Were you ever actually planning to stay?"
Eyes drifted over to Basil, who had spoken then.
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