The fire burned brightly from within the pit. All around me people were revisiting their last hours on Earth. Some of them decided that life was more important- even if their days were still numbered- and fled the scene. The government called it the solution to overpopulation. We were told that it would be better to kill ourselves than waste ammunition by shooting us. "Call it spring cleaning" was the last thing the president said before he left us all to die. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. This wasn't spring cleaning, it was mass suicide.I didn't want to go through with killing myself. Her face in the glow of the flames as she jumped into them tainted my mind. As she fell her lips formed the words that would change my life forever. I sprinted to the burning whole, watching as the tears in her eyes started to boil, and the flesh and muscle melted off of her bones and on to the massive log fueling the flames. The guards threw me to the ground and beat me repeatedly with the butts of their rifles. Between their stomps to my face I screamed her words still stained my thoughts like dead flies on a wall. The guards suddenly turned away from me and looked into the fire where she used to lay. She was but ash now. I reached to my thigh and wrapped my hand around the cool wooden handle. I ran it across the leather pouch shrouding the hunting knife she gave to me. "It belonged to my father." She said. "Why do I need this?" I inquired, eying the blade with pleasure. "Maybe some day I'll tell you." She replied ask she faded out of what was perhaps my only pleasant memory of her. The three words flashed my mind again. Her final words. I rose from the ground, my face stained with my own blood. I drew the knife from its scabbard and focused on the first guard. As he turned to face me the knife ran across his throat. His blood sprayed onto the other guard as he spun around, punching me hard in the I hunched over, the guard charged. I threw out my leg and as he hit the ground implanted the knife into his eye. I stood up, hearing the other guards regroup, and ran. I uttered her last three words one more time to my self. "Kill them all." I said.