***

With Nelson pinpointing the location of both Todd and Emma in separate farm camps, Luis begrudgingly accepted the fact that he couldn’t be in two places at once, and despite the gunshot he had received, he wasn’t going to forgo the opportunity to retrieve his sister, no matter what.

Alex admired the man. Luis was someone who valued family, brotherhood, and loyalty. He was the silent guardian in the background, only coming into action when called upon by those who needed him most.

Most of Luis’s men, along with the units they met up with the closer they moved to Topeka, had accepted Alex, and his previous acts of valor seemed to have forgiven him the debt of his betrayal. But there was still one who wouldn’t take his eyes off him.

“You’re one smug prick, you know that?” Ray asked. “You think you have everyone fooled with the hero act. But I know who you are. I know what you do.”

“I’m just trying to fix what I already broke.”

“I won’t let you get away with this.” Ray edged closer to Alex within the confines of the tank, and Alex kept a watchful eye on the pistol attached to Ray’s waist. “Did you tell Luis what happened to his sister when you came into town? I bet he’d be interested to know how you got her whipped. I bet he’d like to know that it was you who put her on that post.”

“Gordon had a gun to every member of my community. It wasn’t just your friends who were caught in the line of fire, Ray. It was mine too.”

The accusations and guilt were becoming too much. Alex knew what he’d done. He’d lived through it. The knife of betrayal was a blade he’d stuck in his own gut for a very long time, ripping apart his insides, feeling the taste of disgust fill his mouth.

“And who the fuck are you to make those types of decisions? You came into our community and played god! You chose your own people over mine!” Ray said.

There wasn’t a pair of eyes that weren’t looking at the two of them. Alex could feel the rage welling up inside. It was the same rage that was there the night he came back from Wyoming. It fueled him into a stratosphere he could never reach without it, and he was dancing dangerously close to the tipping point again.

“Enough!” Luis said, his words ending any potential for escalation between the two of them. “You want to help, Ray? Then focus on getting Todd and Emma back.”

Ray cast his eyes down, and Alex moved to the other side of the tank. The cramped space wasn’t doing anyone any good. “Where are we now?” Alex asked.

“Just entered Kansas,” Luis answered.

“I need some air,” Alex said and exited through the porthole at the top of the tank and sat outside. The tank was cruising along at forty miles an hour, and the wind whipped his face as he glanced at the familiar terrain of his state.

Then, in the distance, Alex saw it. It was the lone tree he’d come across so many times on his hunts. The barren branches twisted into the air, and the black trunk and bark contrasted against the blue sky. The tree had been dead for some time, but still it remained, waiting for the time when its roots finally released their grip on the earth beneath and collapsed to the ground.

With everything that happened, Alex wasn’t sure how much longer his own roots would be keeping him alive. The past weeks had only accelerated the decay spreading inside him for the past three years. It wouldn’t be long before his own roots unearthed themselves and were exposed to the light above.

The tree out there was alone. Still defying the odds of life by standing strong in a world where it was surrounded by nothing but death. Alex couldn’t help but feel the same way. The only difference between him and the tree was the fact that he was still more alive than dead. At least for now.