Finally, Seth stepped back and said, “I’m not doing it.”
“See that golf course?” asked Blaise, pointing. “I’ll stand in a bunker and you do what needs to be done. Then just cover me with plenty of sand. All right?”
The twins watched this confrontation with looks of quiet devastation. Thomas was also watching, at least until he glanced at Skylar to share a look of disapproval. She wondered if this was the reversal. It was obvious what Blaise wanted Seth to do. It had been obvious ever since he said, When people are hungry enough, they’ll do what they have to do.
She wondered if Seth could. She wondered if she could kill someone begging to die.
They walked past an electrical substation that had been blackened by fire, past industrial businesses, past apartment buildings. A couple of times Skylar swore she heard an automobile engine, but the vehicle never appeared.
“I would say just leave me behind,” Blaise said, and now he was crying. “But I can’t bear the idea of someone desecrating my remains.”
“Seth,” Natalie scolded. “Please do something. The twins shouldn’t have to hear this.”
Skylar wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. Natalie longed for independence from Seth but also expected him to take care of her.
“Nat, come on. This—”
But then they reached a place in the road empty of human interference, an opening of grass and trees and stillness. Blaise looked at it with eyes that were barely open.
“This is it, man. Just walk with me out there. Right in that little stand of trees. Everyone else can keep going. It won’t take long.”
Skylar watched as Seth considered a response. The look on his face could have been confusion or fear, at least at first. Then a transformation occurred, or so it seemed to Skylar, as Seth’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Fine,” he said. “Start walking.”
The silence, always oppressive, seemed to swell around them as Blaise raised his hand.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ll be all right without you.”
“Dad,” said Ben. “What’s happening?”
“Just go on with your mom.”
“But Dad—”
“I said go on, Ben.”
Natalie ushered her sons forward. She rubbed her head as if suffering from a migraine. Thomas seemed to linger as if he were required to say something profound, but finally he turned and followed Natalie. Larry approached Skylar and whispered in her ear.
“Intense, isn’t it? This scene?”
She recoiled. She could have spit on him.
“What?” he said. “I realized you were right about all this. I’m on your side.”
“I don’t have a side,” she hissed. “Get away from me.”
He looked at the ground, wounded, and then slithered toward Blaise.
“Is there anything I can do?” Larry asked.
“Nah. You done enough already. Just make sure you tell Tim what I told you. So he trusts you. Got it?”
“Sure. But Blaise, I mean, do you want me to—”
“Nah. Seth needs this more than you. He’s been searchin’ for redemption.”
Larry gestured to Skylar, beckoning her to follow him. She replied with a look so threatening that he gave up and started toward the others.
Now she was left alone to watch the two men wander away from the road.
“I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” Seth said to her in a determined voice. “It’ll be all right.”
But if Seth expected her to walk away while he disappeared into the trees to shoot a man, he was fooling himself. Because this was it. This was the end of a very long scene, and Skylar was going to witness it. She wanted to be propelled into a grand, final act where the horror of this world would be resolved. Where all would be revealed. When Seth and Blaise were almost out of sight, Skylar stepped off the road surface and moved toward the edge of the forest.
The ground under her feet was uneven. The weeds were wispy and grew to hip level. A fine haze hovered in the air, as if immune to gravity. Skylar imagined what the ending might look like, how the final reversal would take shape. She lost her focus and could no longer see the two men. She couldn’t hear them, either. She stopped and listened. Nothing. Seth and Blaise might have disappeared.
Eventually she leaned against a tree, and that’s when she saw the two of them barely twenty feet away. Blaise stood a few yards ahead of Seth, facing away from him. Birds chirped and sang in the trees around her. A string section of cicadas rose like a wall.
“Will you just do it already?” cried Blaise.
“You don’t want to say anything?” answered Seth. “You want me to just shoot?”
“Please just get it over with. I’m about to lose my nerve. You don’t even have to dig a hole. Just cover me well enough that—”
“You boys aren’t a couple of queers, are ya?” yelled a voice.
Skylar whirled around. She couldn’t see anyone, but whoever had yelled sounded like Floyd… which was both unexpected and the perfect complication for this awful scene.
“Oh, God,” said Blaise. “This is no good. No good.”
“Just leave us alone!” yelled Seth in a general direction that made it clear he couldn’t place Floyd’s location, either.
“Can’t do that,” said the voice. “You’re getting ready to shoot your man, are you not?”
“That’s not your business!” yelled Seth.
“It’s my business when my boys are starving. There ain’t no reason why you can’t turn your man over when he’s passed.”
Blaise moaned. He dropped to his knees and then sat down.
“What difference does it make to you?” yelled Floyd, who sounded as if he were closer now, though Skylar hadn’t heard any movement. “Once he’s dead, what does it matter?”
“It matters to him. Can’t you find anything else to eat? It’s too soon for this kind of thing.”
“The stores are empty, and all the ranchers have pulled their livestock indoors. Or they’ve hired armed guards. And there ain’t enough wild game to go around. You need to make a good decision here, or I won’t be asking anymore. Understand?”
Blaise tugged on Seth’s shoelaces.
“Come on, man. Don’t let them do it.”
“I won’t. I won’t.”
“This is the way it’s going to go,” said Floyd. “You take care of your man like you already planned, and then you turn him over to us. In return, we’ll drive your group to Melissa.”
Skylar could see it now. They were rescued. Daylight was already beginning to fade and there was no other way to reach their destination before dark.
“Please,” said Blaise. “Please don’t let them have me.”
Skylar watched as Seth turned back around. He raised the gun from his side and pointed it at Blaise. Pointed it at his face. Skylar took in a hitch of breath, and though she wanted to look away, she didn’t. Because the entire point of coming out here was to witness the reversal, was it not? To solidify her faith? To know for sure this was a film? A fever dream?
“I’ve changed my mind,” said Blaise. “I think I can make it. Let’s keep walking and maybe…”
Seth’s hand shook but he did not lower his weapon. A cold look came over his face, as if he could no longer hear what Blaise was saying. For that matter, neither could Skylar. She watched the weapon shimmy and shiver and she wondered if Seth would—
The sound of the gun was like the slam of a door, sudden and irrevocable. Blaise’s body jerked as if he’d been hit by a baseball bat. Blood and bone burst out of the back of his skull in a fine red spray that made Skylar go weak in the knees. The body toppled over. Its arms jerked and its hands grasped as if reaching for someone. Skylar knelt and threw up. She moaned and wailed and wished she were dead.