WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? Shoot me? Going to shoot us all?” Haywood asked, his fury not subsiding even with a gun pointed at him.
The rest of the men moved slowly. Frank moved toward Earl and helped him to his feet. The man wobbled and relied on his friend for support. Everyone but Haywood soon found themselves positioned behind Melissa as if she had the sole means of stopping a charging rhino.
The smell of tobacco drifted through the woods and caught Haywood’s nose. His eyes narrowed.
“Lila. You brought her out here? Lila!”
“Yeah, I did,” Lila said, stepping into the dim light.
“You have no idea. None!” Haywood said. “Do you know what this monster has done? You heard about Kyle. About James. And yet here you bring her out here. You come out here to stop me?”
“The only monster I see out here is standing right in front of me,” Lila said as she took another toke, no doubt to calm her nerves. She stepped beside Melissa, who still had the gun outstretched.
Haywood smirked, a sarcastic evil smirk. “You know, boys. We are all in this together. You walk down that trail, you all will have to answer for this. Not just me. All of you. Every single one of you. But right here, we can bury this. We can wipe this stain away.”
“No, Haywood. We can’t,” Frank said. “Ain’t nothing we can do but stop. Stop what we’re doing and go no further.”
The woods fell silent.
“Lila, can you untie Michael?” Melissa said, keeping the weapon trained on Haywood.
The waitress walked over and did as she was asked, wary still of the ex-con comatose in the dirt.
One by one the boys started up the trail. When Lila was done, she turned and helped Frank walk Earl back to the trucks. Clinton and Davis followed until there was just Melissa and Haywood. Michael’s slack body gave no evidence that he was aware of the battle that was waging around him. Melissa stepped aside and, with a wave of the gun, ushered Haywood up the trail.
The light from the lantern over the grave soon dimmed behind them as they walked through the woods until the headlights of the vehicles parked in the clearing took over. Haywood and Melissa emerged from the path to find the company standing facing the lights, all lined up, silent. Melissa squinted her eyes and she could see another vehicle had joined the party. Its driver stood in front of the truck, leaning back against the grill.
As she stepped into the clearing, Melissa could feel her stomach flip over and she felt as if at any moment she could bend over and vomit. A throbbing like a low bass sound began quietly in her head and started to increase in pressure at the base of her skull. She looked at the others and could see that they were feeling the same effects, as if they all had just walked into ground zero of a radioactive blast site.
“By my counting, there is someone missing,” the man said. “The one I’m here for. Don’t tell me he’s run off on you again.”
The man stepped forward, and when he did, the pressure in Melissa’s head deepened.
The man, his face bruised and gashed, took another step and looked over the crowd.
“Now, where’s Michael?”