"Ahem."

I open my eyes. Jeremy is standing in front of me with a first aid kit in his hand. "May I?" He asks, gesturing towards my hand.

I nod but don't say anything.

He leans down in front of me and carefully takes my hand. The careful touch from his hand is enough to make me flinch from the pain.

"Sorry..."

I just shake my head and clench my teeth together.

I'd just threatened to blow this kid's head off and now he was apologizing to me as he tried to fix my hand. Why?

"So," I start, speaking in a tense tone from trying to ignore the immense pain in my hand. "I've gotta ask, why are you doing this?"

"Can we not talk? It'll be easier for both of us."

I chuckle a little. "If I'm gonna die, I don't want my final words to be something stupid like 'please' or 'don't kill me'."

"Just let me do this in silence." Jeremy pleads.

I let out a deep breath. "Bandaging it won't fix anything."

He raises his head to meet my eyes. "What?"

"My finger is laying on the ground five feet away from us and you think a bandaid is going to fix it?" I question, raising an eyebrow at him.

He sighs, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Then what will help?"

I take in a sharp breath. It hurts so bad. Get yourself fixed quickly. Think Sasha, you studied this before the dead were walking among us. What do you do?

"Stitches probably aren't an option..." I start as I try to rack my brain for a solution. "Do you have a lighter?"

Jeremy nods. "Why?"

"Cauterize it."

Jeremy seems a little stunned by my response. Then he nods, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lighter.

"How do I..."

"Grab a knife. Heat the blade. Hold it on the wound for two seconds, pause, then press it again for two seconds and repeat. You should be able to tell when it's done." I explain the process to him as simply as I can.

He nods, grabbing a swiss knife from the first aid kit and flipping the blade out. "I can do this." Jeremy says, presumably talking to himself.

"You'd better." I tell him. "Give me something to bite down on."

He nods quickly, turning to grab a rag from the first aid kit. He rolls it up and gently puts it in my mouth for me. He ignites the lighter then moves the blade over the flame.

"That's good," I mumble through the rag.

He nods, letting out a deep breath as he holds the blade near my hand.

"Two seconds." I repeat.

Why would he do this for me? I couldn't make sense of it as he moved the blade closer to the bleeding nub of hand where my finger once had been. I watch closely, my eyes getting wider as the blade approaches my hand.

Think about something else before he starts...

Jasper-

I let out a shrill of noise as the blade finally touches my skin. Two seconds. The burning sensation doesn't leave when the blade does. The pain in my hand increases as the burn on my hand continues. Soon I feel the pressure of the blade again. Two seconds. I bite down on the rag, trying to keep from making any more noise than I already am. I feel my throat vibrating, knowing some sort of noise is being made but it's all drowned out by the pain.

I beg my body to fall into unconsciousness and let my mind take over. I beg for the pain to be gone and replaced with running thoughts.

The blade doesn't touch my skin again. By now, I've screwed my eyes shut, hissing through the rag as the burning pain continues to antagonize the wound.

Then there's a voice dragging me out of it all.

"It's over,"

I flutter my eyes open, still biting down on the rag. Jeremy pushes some hair off of my face.

My eyes wander down to my hands, still tied in ropes. I hadn't even registered that Jeremy had bandaged my freshly cauterized wound already.

I push the rag out of my mouth with my tongue, Jeremy catches it and sets it aside. My breathing is heavy and rugged as I lay my head against the wall, closing my eyes again.

My finger is gone... All that's left is a burned up nub.

Jeremy gets up, moving a few feet away and sitting in a chair that was set up.

"So, Jeremy."

"I was serious about the not-talking thing." He tells me.

My hand is starting to go numb and the pain is beginning to disappear with the feeling.

"Come on, I'm really hurting and a distraction would be nice." I beg him.

He sighs. "Fine."

"How old are you?" I start.

He rolls his eyes. "I don't know, probably nineteen or so. You?"

"Something around twenty-four." I answer after pondering the question. It was hard to guess... How much time had passed since my last shift in Ed's Bar? I could hardly remember the name of that place, it wasn't relevant to my survival so why would it matter? I was twenty-one back then but now I didn't even feel like it mattered how old I was.

"Is it just you and your parents?" I ask him.

He just nods.

I try to pry more out of him. "Has it always been like that?"

Jeremy sighs. "At the beginning, my brother was with us but he died. We floated through a few groups but nothing ever stayed around so we just decided to stick to ourselves."

And from there they started robbing and murdering people? Makes sense.

"How did you get to this?" I ask gesturing towards myself and the room around us.

"That's a long story."

"Doesn't sound like I have much time so you better start now."

"Look, if it were up to me we wouldn't be in this situation."

"But here we are, I'm a lil woozy from losing quite a bit of blood after having my finger shot off and now I can't feel my hand."

By now my hand was numb which I knew wasn't good yet I couldn't help but be a little glad that I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

Jeremy didn't say anything at first, he just stared at his feet. Finally, he asked a question. "What do you fight for?"

What do I fight for? There wasn't one answer to that, I fight for so many things. I fight to survive but what makes surviving worth it? My promise to Cat, that I'd take care of Ahri for her. Being there for Ahren through everything, after all, we'd been together since the beginning of this. My spark with Jasper, something that seemed so dark nowadays. I fight for the station, for everyone there. Fletch, Luna, Dr. Kings, every person who stays there.

"I fight for a lot." Is my final choice to answer for Jeremy.

But he wants more from me. "Something? Someone? Someplace?"

"For Ahri, my little girl. She's not my daughter but she's pretty damn close."

He nods. "For someone."

"What about you?"

"I fight for myself."

I smile. For myself. A good answer.

I turn my head, resting my cheek against the cool concrete wall. My body was starting to get hot, the cold temperature of the wall felt nice against my face.

"Are you alright?" Jeremy finally asked.

I try to shrug my shoulders but my body just kinda wiggles a bit. "I'm gonna die so what does it matter?" I close my eyes, trying to relax.

"What's your name?"

I furrow my brow, still leaning against the wall with my eyes closed. "My name?"

"Tell me your name."

I take a breath, feeling the rise and fall of my chest. Suddenly I was just exhausted and all I wanted was to sleep.

"Give me your name." His voice starts to sound more affirmative.

"Sasha," I say in a breath.

"Your full name."

I let out a heavy sigh. "Sasha Isabella-Luciana Taferria." That was a mouthful to say the way I was feeling.

My body suddenly felt overtaken by drowsiness. I can feel myself drifting closer to sleep as the noise around me begins to drown out.

Take care of Ahri for me, do what I couldn't.

My mind relays a nightmarish scene to me. A single bullet on a plate pooling with blood as it dripped off my fingers.

I'd come back from being shot in the stomach and in a week-long coma.

Another horror I'd lived through flashes in my mind.

He moved towards me and grabbed the back of my shirt, dragging me towards the car that they had pulled the three of us from. "I'm taking her for a little ride and if either of you little pricks tries and stop me, my men here will shoot you dead."

I'd gotten out of that, with a little help of course, but I wasn't alone right now either.

Jeremy was clearly different from his parents. He still had morals and tried his best to live by them. He'd already saved me, without him I'd have been left to bleed out from my hand.

I opened my eyes, searching for Jeremy's. I locked in on his once I'd found them. He held my gaze hesitantly.

"Help me," I started to say. "Help me get out of this and back to my little girl."

He hesitates for a minute, pondering my statement.

"Okay."

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"I'll help you."

He moves forward, quickly reaching for the ropes tied around me. Unsuccessfully, he attempts to undo the knots.

"I don't know how to undo these knots..." he admits, brushing a hand through his hair.

"I have a knife..." I say slowly.

He furrows his brows at me. "What? Where?"

"In my left boot."

He chuckled a little, shaking his head. "I should have guessed that." Then he moves his hands to my boot. His wrist brushed against my ankle as he pulls the knife from my shoe.

He grips the knife and starts cutting the ropes, one by one they fall off me until he's gotten through them all.

"Come on, I know a back way out of here." Jeremy says as he hands me my knife.

We quickly get up, hurrying for the exit and hoping we'll make it before anybody notices we're gone.