* * *
Kody coughed violently, rolling over on his side. As he tried to inhale, his stomach lurched, leaving him on all fours, vomiting. He struggled to breathe while his lungs and throat adapted to the burning pain that now came with each breath. He leaned back onto his feet, helping clear his stomach and regain his sense of gravity. After a minute, he managed to sit back and look around. Nightfall had settled in, the air still full of smoke.
“You stupid jerk.”
Alma, covered in soot, sat against a tire of the truck, teary-eyed.
“Alm…what happened?” he gasped.
“You damn near died, you fucking moron. What the hell were you thinking?”
He caught his breath, looking around some more. He was sitting behind the bar. Adelais walked out of the ruins, scavenging what little remained of the burnt-out hovel of a bar. Lorena sat nearby in front of a small, freshly dug mound. Kody looked around, trying to see if he could find Elvia anywhere.
“The little girl…she okay?”
Alma looked up, confused. “Little girl? Your arm was wrapped around someone, but I don’t think it was a little girl. Couldn’t really…” she trailed off.
Kody took a moment. “They okay?”
Alma shook her head. Kody lowered his, catching sight of what used to be his shirt. The little fabric that remained hung off him like a poncho carelessly draped over a burnt log. Kody sat up, trying to sort everything out in his head when Alma tackled him back to the ground. She pulled him up, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“Thought we weren’t friends.”
“Just like a boy to believe everything he’s told. Friends or not, doesn’t mean I want you dead. Lost enough people already.”
“Help me up.”
Alma stood, helping Kody to his feet. He wandered around to the front of the bar, surveying the damage. Little was left of the town other than charred building frames and smoldering ruins. Kody walked over to Elvia and Josue’s house, supported by Alma. In front of the building lay a small body. Judging from the location and drag marks in the dirt, Kody guessed it was Josue. The smell alone would’ve made tolerating or keeping anything in his stomach impossible, if he hadn’t already liberated its contents.
He looked inside the wreckage of the house, seeing two more bodies in a charred rocking chair next to the scorched remains of a guitar. A small child held by an adult. Elvia and her father. Kody let Alma go, cautiously making his way into the remains of the building. He stopped in front of the two bodies, still resting in their chair, and pulled a knife from his pocket. He cut the necklace from his collar and laid it around Elvia’s neck.
“I didn’t forget.”
Kody fell to his knees, weeping before the two bodies. He remained there for some time, until Alma helped him up and they walked back to the truck together.
“Adelais, I don’t…what happens in this situation? Do we bury them?” Alma asked.
“I’m prolly the wrong person to ask.”
Adelais finished loading up the truck with the few items he managed to salvage from the bar. Lorena sat in the passenger seat of the truck, staring off vacantly. After some time, she spoke up.
“I dunno. If it was jes’ one person, then yeah. But…” Lorena trailed off.
“Do we know what happened?” Kody asked.
“If I had ta’ guess, fire started in the chantry an’ burned through the town,” Adelais answered. “I’d bet banditos.”
“I thought you and Estaban—” Kody held his tongue.
“I dunno…he said some banditos workin’ fer ‘im were ‘causin’ trouble. Could be they heard about our deal. Could be Estaban changed his mind. Hell, could even be Jake.”
Alma shot Adelais a dirty look, but quickly dropped her head. Kody had considered the possibility as well.
“What now?” Alma changed the subject.
“Now that my home’s gone?” Lorena spoke up. “We go somewhere else. The closest town ain’t too far away. Guess we start there, an’ figure things out after that. I won’t let ‘em keep takin’ away everything I love.”
Kody stood up on his own as Alma let him go. She climbed into the back of the truck and helped him up onto the tailgate. They made space near the cab, moving their scavenged personal effects aside. Alma dug through a bag Adelais had salvaged and pulled out an old jacket. She handed it to Kody. He looked it over for a minute, eventually recognizing it.
“I took it when I left. Don’t ask.”
Kody nodded and pulled it over his patchwork-stained skin. He wrapped his arm around Alma’s shoulder, holding her close as they waited for Adelais to start the truck. Kody rested his head on hers and closed his eyes, thinking back to only a few days ago when he had played with Elvia in the street. He thought of Glenn, and whether his old friend would ever forgive him for always failing to save the people he cared about. As his mind began to drift, Kody wondered if his sister had had a good birthday.