Born 01 - Born

presses his lips against mine and guilt rips through me. I push on his chest and think about his brother's lips against mine only days before.
    He looks hurt. "Is there something I should know about? Something with you and Will?"
    I shake my head. "No." It's a lie. I know this but my lips speak before my brain can think. I can't bear the thought of hurting him.
    He kisses me softly. "I think there is."
    I close my eyes. I feel like I might cry. "I need to save the world before I can have this conversation." I can feel his lips curl into a smile against mine.
    "Let them all kill each other. Stay here with me."
    I open my eyes and let the few tears that have built up drip down my cheeks. "I can't."
    He looks hurt again. "You mean you won't."
    I bite my lip. "Does it matter? I can't leave them there."
    He shakes his head. "You've changed, Emma. You never cared for anything and now you care about everything. You pick up strays every time you go out there."
    "My dad warned me that if I cared about anything, I would care about everything."
    He kisses my lips once more. "We broke you."
    I shake my head and pull away from him."You saved me." I walk up the hill fast. I know he can't catch me. Tears blind me.
    I break into a run and flee for the safety of the forest. I know the guards in the trees can see me running but I don’t care.
    My hands dig into the soft dirt on a hill as I pull my way up it. I jump over the other side and let the sadness of it all flow out of me.
    Images of the garbage bags tearing open flash behind my closed eyes.
    I cover my eyes with my hands. The dirt on them blends with the tears.
    I hear a loud snap. I look up expecting Leo. He always knows when I'm sad or lost.
    Through the waterworks, I see a man. I know who it is instantly. I can smell him.
    He sits and pulls me into him. I want to fight him but I can't.
    I sob into his shirt. "They were hollow. The bags ripped open and they were hollow. No eyes. No guts. Just flaps of skin. I can't leave them there. There was a girl. A little girl."
    He strokes my head. "Okay. Okay. We won't leave them there."
    His fingers brush the top of my head.
    Will kisses the top of my head. His hot breath on my scalp calms me.
    "When I was there, I met a guy named Dillon. He was young like me, eighteen. We worked an apple orchard together in Southern Utah. When the doctors came through looking for young, healthy men, they picked us both. We went to the breeder camp you were at. They tested us and made sure we were healthy. I passed the tests but I guess Dillon's blood showed he carried a gene for Huntington's disease. He didn’t have it but if he had kids they could get it, maybe. Maybe not." His voice lowers. "They told him he was going to be let go because they couldn’t use him. He shook my hand and told me best of luck. Said he would see me again. Told me he was going to try to find his mother and father in Idaho."
    He quivers and he takes a breath. "I was walking through the halls, past all sorts of windows. Dillon and three other guys we had been brought there with were walking out in this garden area. Through the window I watched as a man came out with a gun and shot them all before any of them could register what had happened."
    I had stopped crying halfway through the story. I hold my breath and look up into his watery eyes. "They said it was an accident that they walked us that way. They didn’t mean for us to see it. But I knew. They did it as a warning. Bullshit wouldn't be tolerated and each of us meant nothing to them."
    He doesn’t look at me. He speaks like he is inside of the story and can't break away, no matter what. It is his guilt to live with. The guilt of being the one to live.
    "So I know what you feel about it all. When I met the scientists who were there with a gun against their heads, I knew there was still a chance. They wanted to stop it and let mankind start over. Humanity exists, Emma. It's inside of every one of those garbage bags. It's inside of the people trying to eke out a life in the mountains like you were."
    The memories of my old cabin fill my mind and I smile.
    He laughs. "The smile that crosses your lips when you think about that old cabin is hilarious. You go from slightly insane and moody to Susie home-maker."
    I frown. "Who's Susie?" He's one to talk about looking grumpy.
    He laughs again and kisses my forehead. "We need to go back."
    I stand. "Thanks for letting me, um, cry."
    "You are the most incredible person I've