text: What are you doing here? So alone, so far away from home. Let’s take a look at you. **Hands off! I’m not dead yet.** Oh, I see. No, you’re not dead. But you’re not far from it either. So if you’ll allow me... **Can you at least let me die first?** You got the entire rest of your life to die. Me at the other hand... I would like to walk a few more miles before the sunset. **I’m not in the mood for this. Don’t touch me or I’ll cut you.** Well, let me get straight to the point then: Could I please “borrow” your things for an undefined amount of time? It doesn’t look like you’ll be needing them any time soon. **Can’t you... can’t you just wait until I’m dead? You can steal from my corpse all you want, but don’t fucking touch me.** But that’s exactly what it’s all about. You see, I’m no thief. I’m just an opportunist. What I’m trying to say is that if I had your permission it would be much easier to walk away from here in your shoes. **In my shoes? Have you seen my shoes? They’re torn, they have holes in them, they barely hold together...** It’s still better than no shoes. **You have... Did you walk all the way here barefoot? I can’t really move. Could you move over here so I could look at you?** I’m afraid I can’t do that. **If you’re about to rob my corpse you could at least look me in my eyes before that.** I’m really sorry but I just can’t. **Coward. You’re just a fucking coward. Curse you and curse my shoes you’re about to walk away with.** Now, that’s not very nice. You have to realize that I’m pretty much just like you. We have exactly the same goal and both of us are currently in the middle of nowhere trying to reach a better life. The difference is, you ran out of luck, friend. You failed. Noone will get to see you again with your skeleton not exposed. But me? I’m still holding on. I still got a chance. So why not help me when you know you’ve already finished your own journey? You might even be the reason I survive. **Bullshit. You’re dying here too. We share the same fate. Nobody is making it through here. It can’t be done.** The way I see it, you have a choice. Either you’re going to be stubborn and die thinking noone can make it to the other side of this wasteland, which would mean you literally threw your life away trying to cross it in the first place... Or you could help me and you could die knowing there’s a chance for me to reach the other side and that it would be your death and me finding your soon-to-be corpse that helped me on my way there. **Either way I’m dead.** Yes, but either you die in vain or you die for the greater good. **Stay with me until I stop breathing. Then you can take whatever you want.** So you want me to just sit here until you die? **Yeah.** And what will that be good for? Will it make you happy that you had your way? That you made me lose time and potentially even caused my death as a result of that? **No. I just don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to die alone out here...** Ok, I get that. But I really just don’t have time for this. I’d rather probably leave you here with your shoes. I wouldn't be a good company anyways. I'm used to dealing with dead people out here. **No, wait! I have an idea... Kill me. Kill me right now. You have my permission to take whatever you want and you don’t have to wait for it at all.** ... **So what do you say?** I can’t... I just can’t. **Do you wanna make it through to the other side or no? What are you willing to do to get there? I was willing to give my own life for it and I still couldn’t make it. How do you think you will end up if you can’t even kill a man out of mercy... let alone in self-defense.** It’s just... I really can’t do that. **Look at me! My bones are broken, my blood is leaking. Everything hurts. Every breath hurts. There’s a knife in my pocket. You don’t even have to use your hands. And you can take the knife with you too when you’re done.** But I never hurt anyone in my life. I just can’t hurt people. I can't do it. **I’ll tell you how to do it. I won’t feel a thing. You will cause me more pain if you just leave me here to die. And then you can take my things and leave knowing you helped an old man along the way. Sounds good?** I just don’t know. **I’ll die before you can decide.** Ok, ok. Shit... shit... where’s the knife? \ H.