Depression kills us more than war

"You should come back in Diana."
"No."
"Its cold.."
"No."
"..and the grown-ups are still about."
"Go away."

Misha and Gina looked at each other and left Diana alone on the roof of the mall. Diana had shifted her sleeping bag and belongings to the roof since Ryan died nearly a month ago. The only time anyone ever saw her was when Gina or Misha went to bring her food or when Diana walked past the supermarket to go outside to visit the graves of Ryan, Endo and the markers set up for the rest of the kids who had died. The shovels the kids had used were starting to rust despite Leon's best efforts to keep them maintained. Diana constantly clutched Ryan's Boy's Brigade cap in her left hand, refusing to talk unless she chased away her friends. Diana and Ryan had been good friends, perhaps given time, they would have become more so.

Diana stared into the streets, eyes registering the emptiness and ears receiving the silence other than her breathing. Before the disease, the streets below her would be filled to the brim with people and vehicles. Some of them included her and her friends and family. Friends. They were getting picked off one by one as the days went by. Diana still didn't know what had happened to her family but knew for certain her parents were dead. Or diseased like the grown-ups still living. If you were eighteen when the disease struck, you're dead. Or lived as a crazed, kid-hungry adult. Tears broke out in Diana's eyes at the thought of the disease. The students had barely survived seven months of complete mayhem and some of her closest friends had died. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. That was what killed all of them. Not the disease. Some got overconfident, some too scared or were just plain clumsy. What was the point of fighting, when everyone was going to die in the end? All of the kids would end up killing each other over food if the grown-ups had not got to them yet. Diana sat there and cried for the first time since Ryan died in her arms. She thought she had no more tears left.

Night had fallen. Diana was curled up in her sleeping bag, trying to sleep. She could not. She was terrified of her nightmares, which had grown more profound a month ago. She stared into the night sky, hoping to both sleep and to stay awake. Her thoughts shifted rapidly among her friends and the times they had. Swimming, cycling,barbecuing and more. She thought of her friends Misha and Gina. Ryan. William, Zhen, Gabriel, Sean and Bryan. It would be selfish of her to be up here, worrying her friends all the time. She should go back. Diana shook her head. She wanted to go back home. She did.

"What?!" cried Gabriel. Sean looked shocked while Aaron cursed. Gina had just gone up to give Diana her breakfast but discovered her dead. She had slit her throat, Gina shakily recounted. Ryan's knife, which was with her, was bloodied. Aaron and Gabriel went up the roof and brought Diana's body down to be buried. One of the shovels broke as they dug her grave behind the mall, next to Ryan's. Gina placed Ryan's cap in Diana's cold hands while Misha helped to put on Diana's cap. Diana's one solace that she did not die devoured alive by grown-ups.