Blacktail Deer Plateau If I die Young

He'd known that his father wouldn't be far from his side but he had come past the point of caring about being strong and hiding his fear and pain. This had gone on for so long and he wondered how much longer he'd have to continue dealing with it. As his father spoke up he shivered and finally cracked open his eyes, a feverish glazed look in them as he tried to spot his dad. "Dad... Dad I don't want to die yet." He came right out with it. There wasn't any reason not to speak about what was happening here. "But I don't want this anymore. The sickness. It hurts... I'm tired." He swallowed, his dry mouth and throat protesting and causing him to cough and sputter out another globby chunk of mucus. "But I don't want to leave you and Dawn and Adi. I want to see Dawn have babies and I want my own babies. I want to become someone you can be proud of. I want to love a girl and grow old and die happily in  our sleep" he croaked it all out still laying limply on the ground, but by then his eyes had focused in on his father with an intensity that showed the boy knew he needed a miracle at this point to live.