The Real Loneliness

A Wedding, A Funeral... and another wedding?!

It had struck so fast that no one had time to prepare for it. This strange aging disease, called “the virus” was said to have started somewhere in Australia or New Zealand, and spread when people who didn’t know they had it visited other countries. The first case in the U.S. had been in California, and the virus had spread around the country within weeks.

Eagle’s parents had resisted the virus for a very long time, and people were asking themselves if maybe these people were immune to it. But finally, and to her great dismay, her parents had taken ill, her father going downhill much faster than her mother. Watching her parents grow weaker and weaker in those hospital beds had been complete torture, and had it not been for her fiancée, who had nicknamed himself Falcon, she may have gone as crazy as some of the gang leaders in the area.

“Oh, Falcon, I’m so scared,” she said, crying as he held her in his arms after her mother’s funeral. “I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

“I can’t say that you won’t, Babe, but I know you’re going to be okay,” he said. “You’ve got lots of friends in your tribe, and you’ve got me.”

“Thank goodness,” she said, sniffling and hugging him tighter. “I love you, Falcon.”

“I love you too, Sweetheart,” he said, kissing her softly, then increasing his loving kiss until it left her nearly breathless. “Want to come back to my place? You need to get some rest.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. Unbeknownst at least to Eagle, there was a young man watching them that was longing for the girl whose heart was breaking over the death of her mother. Ever since they had begun communicating a year or two before over an Internet fan site, Caleb had slowly come to fall in love with Eagle. But she didn’t know he was even in the United States, let alone there in her little community, watching over her to make sure she didn’t get hurt. Falcon had seen him, as when he had given Eagle the hug, their eyes had at least seemed to meet.

“Eagle,” he whispered as they walked away.
“So she’s taken already?” Laura asked as Caleb was talking to her an hour or so later at the library of the small elementary school in the center of town.

“Yeah,” he sighed. “She’s hurting so badly, and yet as much as I want to be the one, he gets to be the one who comforts her.”

“They’re not married or anything, so you still might have a chance to win her over,” Damon said, sitting down with a cup of hot coffee.

“Not married, but she’s got a rock on her hand,” Caleb said. “They’re engaged, and I doubt anything will keep them apart.”

“Go get her, Mate,” Damon said. With that, Caleb nodded and got up from his chair. “Go take care of business.”
A few hours later, having been unable to sleep because her mind was spinning with all of her responsibilities, Eagle left Falcon’s house and began walking back towards her own home, a mile or so away. She had set up a rather large tribal headquarters in the local high school. As the school mascot had been the hawk, her tribe had been aptly named The Hawks. Most of the tribe was made up of the theater club, their younger brothers and sisters, and a few other friends. Because the surrounding areas were mostly peaceful until nearly the very end, when anarchy had begun to run rampant, most of the tribe members had helped each other use the last of their monetary resources and gasoline in their cars to make a massive move from their old homes around the county to the school, including hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables from people’s “year supply of food storage” (in addition to a large amount of the last foods that the local supermarket had for sale), mattresses, a huge amount of batteries, and enough toilet paper and feminine hygiene products to stock every bathroom in the White House and the Pentagon combined… for a year. A huge room was filled with shelves, and even when all the shelves were packed full, there were still things left over, and these extra things were divided between the members of the tribe.

“KIM!” Eagle suddenly heard her real name, and stopped in her tracks and turned around. No one had used her real name for a long time, other than Falcon, and this definitely wasn’t him. “It’s me! Caleb!”

“Caleb?!” she cried. “Oh, I can’t believe you’re actually here!”

“Believe it, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m here, and I came to see you.” She ran to him, and he threw his arms around her. “Oh, God, it’s so good to see you.”

“You too, Caleb,” she said. “But how?”

“Your Mum, shortly before this whole mess started, somehow found a phone number directly to my home in Wellington,” he explained. “As a surprise for you, she wanted to arrange for an appearance for me and the others at your Drama Competition, which she said you’d be competing for the state title in. But the day that we touched down in Salt Lake City, the world-wide quarantine went into effect, and so none of us have been able to get home.”

“I’m sorry, Caleb,” she said.

“Don’t be,” he said. “I’m near a woman that I love, and that’s really all that matters to me.”

“You what?”

“I love you,” he said, taking the opportunity to kiss her. She gave in for a few minutes, but then she pulled back a bit, but not out of his arms.

“Caleb, I… I can’t,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I can’t cheat on my fiancée. I want to so much, but I can’t.”

“At least kiss me again, one more time, and I won’t ask for anything more,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, kissing him full-force. Their kissing deepened as her mouth opened slightly, allowing his tongue inside, which she met with hers. “Oh, Caleb…” she moaned softly. He pulled away from the kiss and looked into her eyes. “Mm, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Babe,” he said. “The offer will always be on the table, whether you ever accept it or not.” Just then, a loud clap of thunder caught their attention, and Eagle knew that it could have been gunfire. Suddenly, her heart sank.

“Oh, God, please don’t let it be him!” Eagle cried, running back toward Falcon’s house, Caleb following close behind. She let out a scream when she saw her fiancée, laying in a puddle of his own blood, barely moving, but his eyes still open and looking at her. “Falcon, baby, please talk to me!”

“Baby…” he whispered.

“Who did this to you?!” Eagle cried.

“D..mn..dgs…” he breathed.

“Demon Dogs?!” she gasped, and Falcon nodded as best he could. “We have to get you inside and get the bleeding to stop and…” Eagle was cut off when Falcon placed his finger weakly to her lips.

“You know that I’m dying, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said, straining to get the words out coherently. “I love you, Baby.” Looking to where Caleb stood behind Eagle, Falcon stared at him. “You…” he said, the light in his eyes beginning to go dim. “I don’t know who you are, but take care of my girl for me.”

“Sure thing, Mate,” he said, briefly squeezing Falcon’s hand. Eagle was already weeping, so he placed his arm around her.

“Eagle, I love you,” he whispered, squeezing her hand one final time before it went slack.

“NO!” Eagle screamed. Without a second thought, Caleb pulled her into his arms as she wept, whispering comforting words into her ear, holding her as wave after wave of tears over her dead fiancée washed over her. “No, this can’t be happening,” she would repeat over and over. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of weeping, she finally regained most of her composure and sat there in Caleb’s arms. Though she was far from being past the bereavement, at least she was relatively calm.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said. “Is it just you, or are some of the others here?”

“Everyone who has called him or herself a Mall Rat, including me, are staying at the primary school a few blocks away,” he said. “Even the some of the Chosen and Technos are there.”

“I still can’t believe it,” Eagle said. “We have to get Falcon to someone who will perform a funeral, and then maybe we can get married too.”

“Whoa!” Caleb cried. “Are you sure about this, Babe?”

“Caleb, I love you,” she said. “I know you love me, so that’s all that matters.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” he laughed.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” said an ailing man who was one of the last who could officially perform the marriage ceremony. Others had been appointed to do the job, but none had been properly trained. “You may kiss your bride.” Gazing into his new wife’s eyes, Caleb remembered the times in the past that he had played the groom in various parts he had played. Actually being married, kissing the woman who was now his wife, was an incredible feeling. With Amy, Michelle, and Megan, they had just been part, but this was for real.

“I love you,” he whispered as their lips parted.

“You too,” Eagle whispered. She then looked to the man who had performed both the wedding and Falcon’s funeral. “Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice, especially the funeral.”

“Not a problem, Eagle,” the man said. “I’m sorry for your loss. We’ll take care of the burial, and if you come back in a week or two and look at the books, the burial spot will be written in our records. I probably won’t be here, and this place will probably be closed, but I’ll write it down and leave it where I know you can find it.”

“Thank you again,” she said. As Eagle and Caleb walked out of the small funeral home, arm in arm, they realized how late it was getting, and that the sun was going down. “Beautiful…”

“Yes, you are,” he said, hugging her tightly. She giggled, and he pulled her in for a kiss.

“Come on, let’s get back to my place,” she said. “I’m sure that my tribe will be wondering what’s going on, plus I’ve been waiting a long time for my wedding night.”

“That, I’m sure of,” Caleb said. “We’ll have to see what we can arrange to keep you from having to wait too much longer.”