Decisions

After gathering every last body from the wreckage and laying them in the hangar, Dreznor finally broke the silence.

“Do you have any way we can cover them for burial?”

{I can print them for you if you want,} Little Protagonist replied gently.

“Please do so,” he said, his voice subdued as he turned back to kneel before the body of his son, small, still, and cold, with a gaping hole in his chest where the energy round had ended his young life. Dreznor lowered his head and placed a cloth over his son's face with shaking hands.

“Rest in peace. I’ll join you after I’m done with all of them,” he whispered.

He moved to his wife next, then to his mother, repeating the same words, the same gesture, each time slower than the last. Each time it felt harder to let go.