Because You Exist(72)

“If she doesn’t get out of there then it will be for nothing,” Bentham mumbled. I looked over at him, my ribs stinging from the day’s many adventures, and I realized that he might actually love her. Something that made him a little less vile.

“Come on. Let’s go,” Jo’s brother yelled and the four of us started to run again.

About two hundred feet from the hospital we stopped. I kept scanning the horizon waiting for some sign that I hadn’t made the biggest mistake in my life by leaving her in the building. I liked to think it was because I trusted her, but maybe it was because I was a pussy.

Suddenly, I could see something. Two people rather. A woman was carrying a child and running like her life depending on it. Which, of course, it did. Bentham bolted forward and met the woman, taking the child from her arms. The three sprinted to us.

“Where’s Jo? The girl who helped you?” I yelled.

“She...she said she needed to get supplies,” the woman stammered, reaching for the little girl Bentham held in his arms.

And then it happened.

Before another word could be said.

Before another second could pass.

The building exploded.

I fell to my knees. I’d lost her. She was dead. I left my partner alone. The girl who had been abandoned by the whole damn world. My throat tightened. I tried to force down the sob that wanted to break free. I didn’t care if the others saw me cry. I just knew she wouldn’t want me to. She’d want me to finish the mission.

“Hey! Start the car!”

I jumped up and spun around to see Jo running towards us.

I pushed off with all the strength I had and ran to meet her. The minute she was close enough, I grabbed her and wrapped my arms around her. I crushed her to me.

Thank God.

There was still time to save her.

Jo pulled away and looked up at me. She smiled. “It’s good to see you too.”

“How?” I asked.

“I ran out the back. I had to get supplies,” she explained.

“We sure were worried about you,” Randall remarked, the group had now crowded around us.

“The supplies weren’t worth the risk,” Bentham added, a little pissed as he bent down to pick up the gauze and bandages Jo had dropped when I hugged her.

“I’ll remember you said that when you ask for a band aide,” Jo replied, running her fingers through his hair.

I looked away.

“Lookout!” Jo’s brother yelled.

Before I knew what was happening, I was falling to the ground. Someone had shoved me out of the way. I looked up just in time to see it happen. An arrow flew into Randall’s throat. As his blood squirted down onto me, I realized he had just saved my life.





Chapter 36





One moment of silence.

Before all hell broke lose.

“NO!” Bentham yelled from the very core of his being.

Randall’s body dropped down next to me on the ground. His trembling hands moved to his throat. Bright, red blood gushed everywhere. I never knew blood could be so bright.

The woman with the child started screaming.

Jo aimed her gun in the direction of the arrow and fired.

“We have to get out of here! Now!” Jett yelled.

“An arrow? Who uses a an arrow?” Jo’s brother asked, pulling at his hair and backing away from Randall’s body, which had begun to twitch.

I didn’t do anything. I just sat there. I felt nothing. I carelessly brought my hand up to my face and wiped off the blood. Bentham crouched down next Randall, his face streaked with tears. I looked up at Jo who was pointing her gun everywhere trying to figure out how much trouble we were in.

I didn’t feel the need to stop her.

I was surprised how calm I did feel.

Whatever was going to happen was going to happen.

I looked over at Randall. He seemed to be trying to talk. Bentham reached out his hand toward the arrow, perhaps contemplating taking it out, when Randall grabbed it. He gave the smallest shake of his head. His free hand moved to his shirt and it began to move. He pointed down to his shirt and then looked back at Bentham. Begging him. He had painted the word WIFE in his own blood. Bentham choked back another sob and nodded.

“Everyone in the car,” Bentham yelled out suddenly.

We didn’t wait to be told again.

We left him there. Randall. Dying.

I wondered if the survivors would eat him.

Would we come back one day to see his body hanging from some light pole?

And then we started to drive.

No one talked.

What was there to say?

The little girl started to sing from the backseat.

“Ring around the Rosie...”





Chapter 37





I heard the door to the bathroom open. I still didn’t move from the sink. Jo leaned across me and turned on the water. She took my hands in hers and moved them under the water. I couldn’t even feel the touch of her skin against mine as she washed them. I wondered if something had happened to me. Maybe the explosion had made my nerves go all haywire.