Both the girls jumped and squealed with delight. “Yay! Slumber party!”
Marty smiled, and his daughters hurried inside the portable. Once they had jumped on the bed and were giggling, Sarah turned around.
“Thank you,” Marty said. “I haven’t been much fun to be around lately.”
“Mr. Schwartz, I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you,” Sarah said. “Ali was an amazing person with a beautiful soul. And I see her smile in both of the girls.”
Marty felt the tears gathering in his eyes. His voice caught in his throat when he answered. “I appreciate that. I’ll swing by and collect them in the morning. But if they become too rambunctious this evening, just come and get me.”
When Marty returned to his portable, he sat down on the cot and closed his eyes. He needed to find a way out of the darkness that he had crawled into. But he was lost and didn’t know which direction he should go.
Ali had always been his compass. No matter what was going on, he could always count on knowing that she would help him down whatever path they walked. But now that he was walking alone, he didn’t know what to do. He had wandered from the safe path and landed in dangerous forests. He hadn’t even cried since he had found out she was gone. It was like all the anger and hate had blocked any attempt for grieving.
But as he thought about what he had done tonight, how he had betrayed one of his oldest friends, and what Ali would say to him about that, he felt nothing but shame.
“I’m so sorry,” Marty said. “I never should have left you.”
The first tear broke free in the corner of his left eye and rolled down his cheek. The next tear followed shortly after, and before he knew it, he was bawling silently to himself. He made no attempt to stop his tears because he knew that he needed to feel this. It was an important step into moving on, and that was something he desperately needed to do.
Once Marty had finished crying, he wiped his eyes and reached for one of the small liquor bottles stashed beneath his mattress. He drank the entire thing and then dropped the bottle onto the floor. He closed his eyes, feeling incredibly tired and groggy. It was like someone had given him a drug to relax, and it was currently pumping through his body. All of the tension that he’d been holding inside had finally relaxed.
Marty was about to fall asleep when there was a knock at the door. He forced himself to get up, thinking that maybe the girls needed something. He hadn’t thought to give them any other change of clothes or any of the toys that have been found in the city to help give the children some form of entertainment.
Marty opened the door, expecting Sarah, but instead, he was bum-rushed by someone and immediately gagged.
Marty landed hard on his back, and the back of his head cracked against the floor, causing the room to spin. Before he could get his bearings, the man who had tackled him, a man whose face he couldn’t see in the darkness, punched him hard in the face.
The sound of broken cartilage and bone proceeded a warm gush of blood that covered Marty’s mouth. He stuck his hands up to try to defend himself, but the man continued to beat him with a fury of punches along his ribs.
Marty thrashed, trying to escape, but the man was too big for him to buck off. Every blow to his body sent an explosion of pain through him, and in his disoriented state, he reached to his left and right, trying to grab anything to use as a weapon.
Eventually, his numbing fingers fumbled over something sharp, and he stabbed the man hard in the arm. The attacker cried out and then removed the small cutting blade from his arm. Marty tried to use the moment as a distraction to escape, but before he could make it, the attacker jammed the blade down into Marty’s back.
Marty opened his mouth to scream, but the pain was so intense that he barely gasped. The attacker then flipped Marty over and repeatedly stabbed him in the stomach. The first few stabs were painful, but after that, Marty grew numb until he felt the life draining from him, and he slowly slipped into the cold grip of death to be reunited with his beloved wife.
Jane paced her portable nervously. Lester was with her, but Danny was still waiting by the fence where they had snuck in one of Buford’s men.
“He should be finished by now,” Jane said.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Lester replied.
But Jane shook her head. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“It’s a little too late to have second thoughts, babe,” Lester replied. “What’s done is done.”
Jane could hear the frustration in Lester’s voice. He had been the one who was against involving his father from the beginning, and now that Jane was having second thoughts, she could understand how he might be feeling.
“You’re right,” Jane said, hoping to backtrack her fears. “This was the decision we made, and we will live with the consequences.”
Lester kept his head down as he remained sitting on the edge of the cot. Jane walked over to him and sat next to him.
“Thank you for getting on board with this,” Jane said. “I know it wasn’t easy for you.”
Lester rubbed his palms against his thighs. He exhaled and shook his head. “I just hope this works. Because I know how he gets when plans get changed.”
Jane reached for her husband’s hand and held it tightly. The door opened quickly, and Jane saw Danny standing in the doorway. She knew something was wrong just by the look on his face and the abruptness of his entry.
“There’s a problem,” Danny said.
Jane didn’t waste any time as she got up to follow
