The Great Alone

The most destructive forces on earth. Fear had turned her inside out, love had made her stupid.

Dad drove through the open gate, still muttering to himself. Leni thought: When he gets out to close the gate, I’ll grab the wheel and put the truck in reverse and stomp on the gas, but he left the gate open behind him.

Open. They could run in the middle of the night …

In the clearing, he threw the gearshift into park and killed the engine, then grabbed Leni and pulled her across the grass and up the steps and across the deck. He shoved her into the cabin so hard she stumbled and fell.

Mama came up behind him, moving cautiously, her face studiously calm. How she could pull that off, Leni didn’t know. “Ernt, you’re overreacting. Please. Let’s talk about this.” She laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Do you think you need help, Cora?” he said in a strangely taut voice.

“She’s young. She didn’t mean anything by it.”

Leni saw the violence of his breathing, the way his fingers spasmed. He was on the balls of his feet, energy pouring out of him, anger transforming him. “You’re lying to me,” he said.

Mama shook her head. “No. I’m not. I don’t even know what you mean.”

“It’s always the Walkers,” he muttered.

“Ernt, this is crazy—”

He hit her so hard she slammed into the wall. Before Mama could get to her feet, he was on her again, yanking her hair back, exposing the pale skin of her throat. Wrapping his hand in her hair, he smashed his fist down, cracked the side of her head on the floor.

Leni hurled herself at her father, landed on his back. She clawed at him, pulled his hair, screamed, “Let her go!”

He wrenched free, cracked Mama’s forehead into the floor.

Leni heard the door open behind her; seconds later she was yanked off her dad. She got a glimpse of Matthew, saw him pull Dad off Mama, spin him around, and punch him in the jaw so hard Dad staggered sideways and crumpled to his knees.

Leni ran to her mother, helped her to her feet. “We need to go. Now.”

“You go,” Mama said, looking nervously toward Dad, who moaned in pain. “Go.” Her face was bloodied, her lip torn.

“I’m not leaving you,” Leni said.

Tears filled Mama’s eyes and fell, mixing with the blood. “He’ll never let me go. You go. Go.”

“No,” Leni said. “I’m not leaving you.”

“She’s right, Mrs. Allbright,” Matthew said. “You can’t stay here.”

Mama sighed. “Fine. I’ll go to Large Marge’s. She’ll protect me, but Leni, I don’t want you anywhere near me. You understand? If he comes after me, I don’t want you there.” She looked to Matthew. “I want her gone for at least twenty-four hours. Hidden someplace he can’t find her. I’ll go to the police this time. Press charges.”

Matthew nodded solemnly. “I won’t let anything happen to her, Mrs. Allbright. I promise.”

Dad made a groaning sound, cursed, tried to get up.

Mama hefted up Leni’s bug-out bag and handed her the pack. “Now, Leni. We need to run.”

They ran out of the cabin and into the bright sunlit yard toward Matthew’s truck. “Get in,” he yelled, then raced over to Dad’s truck. He opened the hood, did something to the engine.

Behind them, the cabin door cracked open. Dad staggered out.

Leni heard the cracking sound of a gun being cocked. “Cora, damn it.” Dad was on the deck, bleeding profusely from his forehead, blinded by blood, holding a shotgun. “Where are you?”

“Get in!” Matthew yelled, throwing something into the trees. He jumped into the driver’s seat and started his truck.

In a spray of shotgun pellets pinging loudly, Leni leaped onto the seat and Mama crammed in beside her. Matthew jammed the gearshift into drive and stomped on the gas. The truck fishtailed in the deep grass before the wheels grabbed hold. He sped down the driveway and through the open gate and turned onto the main road.