payment page
Rye no longer needs to go to Pasadena. She is no longer alone and can choose to believe that her brother and nephews are alive. As she and Obsidian drive, she thinks about how “the animal across the street”—the neighbor who wants to possess Rye—will leave her alone now. She won’t have to kill him.
Obsidian brakes suddenly when someone runs in front of the car. Rye sees a fleeing woman and a man who pursues her, shouting wordlessly and waving a knife. With nowhere to hide, the woman grabs a shard of glass to defend herself. As Obsidian goes to the woman’s aid, Rye gets out of the car, scanning for more danger. Before Obsidian can reach the woman, the man stabs her. Obsidian shoots him and motions for Rye to help the woman, but she has already died. As Rye touches Obsidian to get his attention and let him know, the wounded man grabs Obsidian’s gun from its holster and shoots Obsidian in the head. He aims at Rye, who shoots him before he can fire again.
Rye kneels by Obsidian’s body, feeling somehow that he deserted her, like everyone she loved. Then two children come from the boarded-up building the woman had fled. Holding hands, they walk to the dead woman. Rye feels sick. The boy and girl, probably only three years of age, can scavenge, she tells herself, and will grow up only to be “hairless chimps.” She still knows how to drive and heads to the car, but as she thinks of Obsidian’s body lying in the street, she vomits, struggling to grasp how quickly her life changed—twice—in so few hours. Kneeling by Obsidian’s body, Rye realizes that she cannot leave the frightened children alone, just as Obsidian could not choose to drive past the terrified woman.
Rye pulls Obsidian’s body to the car so that she can bury him at home, near her husband and children. She decides to bury the woman’s body as well but is shocked to hear the girl yell, “Go away!” The boy warns her to stop talking. Rye wonders whether the woman, probably the children’s mother, could speak and had taught them. Perhaps that ability provoked the attack. The children are so young, born after the illness passed, and could be immune.
Rye regrets that she understands what drove the woman’s killer—the same raging need she briefly felt to kill Obsidian for having what she lacked. Obsidian can no longer protect the children, but she can, and she can feed and teach them. As she puts the woman’s body in the car, the children start crying, but she whispers that she’ll take them, too. As she picks them up, the boy covers her mouth, but she assures him that as long as only the three of them are there, they can speak. They get into the front seat, and Rye tells them her whole name—Valerie Rye—and assures them that “it’s all right” for them to talk to her.
