mess'n all around

Kale woke up with a jolt. He wondered how long he'd been out. Was it just 8 hours, a couple of months? Longer? He was in a sweat but he was shivering.

Maybe he wasn't where he thought he was. Or he should be for that matter.

His head had a slight ache. Just a little. Not bad. He kept telling himself. He could hardly swallow the saliva in his mouth. It was a tough call to make. Was he ill? Or just the aftermath?

He knew what he was supposed to do with Ellie that day that everything went down. But he didn't. He couldn't. He just wouldn't.

Could you just love somebody from a far? It was less work that way. Or so it seemed in the beginning and then he became a part of her world, and..

"And its not suppose to be that way, kid." He thought Sal's teeth were perfect then. It just irritated him that Sal could take orders like that.

"Of course." This was a duty of some sort. Wasn't it?

"You take her out. And you know what I mean by out? Don't you?" Sal meant business. "She knows to much. Thanks to your dear little friend Evan. She could blow this out of the water for all of us. It has to be done."

"Got it." Kale knew what he meant. Totally. It would get done.

But it didn't.