For the brief moment he was in the living room, he saw the bodies in such an advanced state of decomposition, Stephani would have learned nothing of what he’d done by seeing them. Jared gathered himself and faced the now scared woman. He’d scared her, and now he felt ashamed of what he’d just tried to do. Jared realized it wasn’t for her sake, but more for his own sake that he’d felt compelled to show the woman what he was capable of doing. It was an immature thing to do, and he regretted it wholeheartedly. Hard lessons didn’t always need to be taught in the worst possible way.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize they would smell like that. Also, you don’t need to see a bunch of dead guys to know what times we’re living in.” Jared breathed, a grim smile appearing at the corners of his mouth, which seemed to relax Stephani marginally. “The day is going to come though, where you will have to do something like what I had to do back inside that house, and I just want you to know it won’t define who you are going forward. It doesn’t make you a bad person when someone forces you to make a decision like that. You may feel like a bad person, but you’re not,” he finished, his voice weakening as the tension began leaving his body.
“I didn’t shoot back when Dwight got—”
Jared held up a hand. “Don’t,” he said. “Don’t do that to yourself. You didn’t kill him, and you’ve never lived a life or had any experience with anything even loosely resembling what went on back there.” Jared jerked his head at Essie’s former home. “Let’s go make a little girl very happy.” Jared turned and started towards the house.
“I’ll shoot next time,” Stephani asserted.
Jared looked over his shoulder without breaking stride. “I know you will.”
Jared led Stephani around the side of the house in order to enter from the rear and avoid what he knew lay near the front door. Essie’s father was in a similar state as the boys next door, making the search for the girl’s belongings less than enjoyable. Jared took a single look at the downed man’s remains, then turned and took the stairs two at a time. Jared easily found Essie’s bedroom, stopping in the doorway, a flood of emotions washing over him as he took in all the little girl’s belongings from before the solar flare. The room was painted a soft pink with a white waist-high chair rail around the perimeter. Her bed was small and covered with a Princess Jasmine comforter. Her dresser was white; the top was covered in hair bows, brushes, small dolls and the pony box. Jared secured the box in his pack and began looking for the lovey.
Stephani stood in the doorway, watching Jared, a look of wonderment on her face. Not five minutes before, Jared had behaved like a crazed madman, trying to show her the men he’d vanquished in battle, but now, Stephani watched him collecting hair ties and some sort of teddy bear for a seven-year-old girl.
Jared found the bear on Essie’s bed next to her pillow. He lashed the bear to the outside of his overstuffed pack and gave the room one last scan. His heart ached as he again took in all the pink unicorns, dolls and myriad other little-girl accoutrements Essie possessed before everything came apart at the seams. Jared thought about searching for a photo album, but with no place to carry it, he turned and left, following Stephani down the staircase and turning left to exit the rear of the house the way he’d come in the day he found Essie.
Jared purposefully averted his eyes from the front of the house, where he knew Essie’s father’s rotting corpse still lay. Once he was out in the clear crisp night air, he felt better. He’d done what he came to do.
“Do you know when her birthday is?” Stephani queried.
Jared stopped dead, whirling around and giving Stephani a quizzical look that told her Jared not only had no idea when Essie’s birthday was, but the event almost certainly never crossed his mind.
“October fourth, she turned eight. It was on the calendar hanging on the side of their fridge.” Stephani smiled.
Jared stared at Stephani wordlessly as he ran a hand through his beard. Another reason why kids needed women around. He would never once have thought of asking Essie when her birthday was much less taken the time to seek out information regarding the date. “Guess we should have picked up some cake mix back there,” Jared said in a futile effort not to feel like a heel.
Stephani held her warm smile. “I think you got everything she would ever want for her birthday in that pack of yours.”
Jared glanced up the side of the house toward the street, then nodded his head. “I suppose so.”
Jared estimated he and Stephani had a three-hour walk back to Solar Green if they were lucky and nothing caused them to divert or hunker in place. The two made their way through neighborhood streets, keeping to the shadows and shrubs as much as possible. They made their way quietly through a mostly dead city towards the longed-for security of Solar Green, where they would both rest easier in the company of friends. With less than a mile to go, Jared heard a faint clang of metal on metal to their rear. Instinctually he crouched and moved toward some bushes, his mind racing as he maneuvered quickly into the cover of a large hedge.
Stephani followed, not hesitating as Jared dug out his binoculars. He strained to see into the blackness farther up the street, but could decern nothing. He’d considered bringing the night-vision goggles, but with space in his pack
