Final Gift

"Wait!"

Murphy murmured.

Everyone stilled under the tense moment.

George, alarmed, took a battle stance, one hand on his makeshift knife and the other on a mid-grade C-stone, standing protectively near May and Murphy.

The tunnel stank of burnt flesh and old sigils. In the stale silence, Murphy smiled, a strange, unsettling smile that didn't fit the boy who flinched when blood touched his skin.

Murphy's face held that unreadable expression for most.

To some, eerie. It wasn't the face of anyone who was born ruthless, or who'd been groomed in this world's cruelty; it was the face of someone who remembered—a person with a grudge.

Those two bastards. The one who pushed him into rotten flesh. They sure-as-hell shouldn't be in the first group, Murphy thought. He didn't want them dead, no, that wasn't his kind of justice.

He wasn't a killer, not yet anyway. He had dreamed of clean gloves and sterile rooms; not muddy floors soaked in grief.

Medicine was his passion, yes. But if he were telling the truth, it was the take-home pay that first seduced him as a child.

Seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year, after his residency.

That figure had gleamed like salvation. Ten years in university. Five more to go. And what do I get out of it? He smirked bitterly.

"Just debt and blood."

A soft sigh escaped him.

"Ha. Pitiful."

George broke the silence by questioning, "Murphy."

"Is something wrong? Did you feel something coming?"

Murphy blinked away from his reverie and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Huh? No. No, nothing... but I do have thoughts on who should go first."

The men, those two in particular, glanced over at him, palms twitching, faces set. Pearl's big eyes blinked at him questioningly. Her mother, next to her, was not giving her a look of suspicion, but one of comprehension.

George motioned toward him, a little bit relaxed but still alert.

"Let's hear it."

Murphy kicked his brain into overdrive, the part of him trained to act under pressure.

"The buffer time... between trigger activations. Do you know how long?"

George frowned.

"Depends on the strain, but yeah, anything can happen in between. What're you thinking?"

"We separate into three groups," Murphy said.

"You cloak the first set, move toward the rendezvous near the stream, east side of that collapsed tunnel. The second group follows once you recover, and then the last group... last person."

George nodded slowly.

"Reasonable. Who do you suggest for the two quotas remaining in the first group?"

Murphy didn't flinch beneath the accusing stares. Thank God I can't see their faces.

"I propose we take Pearl... "

He hesitated and then indicated the man who had thrown him into rot.

"And him."

A wave of shock rippled through the tunnel. The man's eyes widened, panic rising in his chest.

"What is he thinking?" he thought to himself quietly... But no matter what, he was elated to be chosen in the first group; the possible revenge would be dealt with later, once he survived.

Even George raised an eyebrow.

"You're sure?" he asked.

Murphy with a serious expression.

"I'm sure."

His inner thoughts were far more complicated. Revenge is best served cold, but survival is even colder.

Pearl was the smallest and most delicate, making her the logical choice in human form. And that man? A ticking bomb. Left unattended, he'd ruin everyone, thinking that he would be left behind.

Let him burn or survive, Murphy had options. Four have died already on their way to this point. There's still time for revenge.

Pearl's mother leaned forward, her face carved with gratitude in every wrinkle. She knew... She knew Murphy's heart, even if words didn't spell it out.

She knelt by Pearl, clasping her tightly.

"My princess," she whispered.

"Yes, Mommy?"

Pearl's voice cracked, as fragile as frost. Her eyes had cried too much. Now, only dust remained where tears once lived.

" I need you to stay with your big brother Murphy. Mommy will be behind a while… but he'll be your family while I'm gone. "

Pearl tilted her head, puzzled.

"But … I don't have a big brother. Besides, he already has a beautiful little sister."

She indicated across to where May lay, still, beside Murphy. Her mother smiled. A smile of love infinite... backed by unbearable sorrow.

"Who says you can be stuck with only one little sister?" she asked gently.

"Let's see if he's okay with one more."

She looked at Murphy, her voice quiet and a little shaky.

"Murphy, my son—"

Gasps filled the air.

Some whispered, others scoffed at her shameless gamble. Pearl's eyes widened, innocence and confusion tangled together in her expression.

"Son…?"

"Mother, you have another son?"

Murphy detected the tremor in the request.

He'd seen eyes like hers in hospital's waiting rooms... begging eyes... even blind, they burned behind his ribs.

"Yes, mother," he answered softly.

"Don't worry. I love to take care of my sisters. You see this one here?" He motioned to May.

"She became such a pretty young lady under my care, the pride of heaven."

"I'm confident Pearl will shine no less."

Pearl's lips curled upward slowly. She looked at May's peaceful face, at her own trembling hands.

"Really? I'll be beautiful like big sister?"

Murphy smiled.

"Why should I lie to my little sister?"

Pearl giggled and sat down next to him, a bit closer than before. He stroked her head and ran his fingers through her messy hair before giving her a gentle nose pinch.

"Bad, big brother," she pouted.

"You're hurting your little sister!"

Her eyes welled up with tears, stammering between pain and delight. A joy she hadn't felt since … her elder brother's death just months prior, due to a hereditary condition, a plague that has wrapped the planet since the crimson outbreak.

Her family had fought a long battle to keep boys alive and failed.

That silent curse was now, once again, looming over her.

She looked at her mother for permission.

One solemn nod. That's all it took.

She lunged, her small arms wrapping around Murphy's neck with fierce resolve.

"From this day … Pearl is your little sister," she whispered.

"I… I'll be a good girl. I… I won't misbehave. You won't leave me, right?" She clung tighter.

Others watched in silence, smiles fading under the weight of the moment.

They saw joy. But they could not see the layers beneath.

Pearl wasn't just happy.

She was heartbroken.

She knew what her mother was trying to do despite her age.

She knew if she was separated, her mother's odds were... only equaled death.

Now she had a duty.

A final one.

She would be obedient.

She would welcome this new brother so that her mother would not worry. So, when the inevitable arrived, her mother would think of her, the brave little girl who smiled and was happy to have a new member of the family.

And so, she wept deeply but silently.

Her tears fell onto Murphy's shoulder, like whispered apologies to a mother she loved too much to cling to.

"Goodbye, mother."

Let this be my final gift.