Rid of the Pain || Charley and Michael
The boy wanted to come closer and he stepped away from his mother just as Michael took a knee before them and asked about his missing father. Mike wasn’t dumb and he certainly wasn’t slow; he knew the look in the woman’s eyes before they closed. The young son’s father wasn’t coming home no matter how many people the poor kid asked. His father was dead. The pain of the loss was still fresh with his mother, the wife that most likely had to put her own husband down. The boy went to speak and Michael redirected his blue eyes to him. The boy had a glimmer of innocence about him yet; that was hard to come by in this world. “Daddy, huh? No, I’m sorry Sport; I haven’t seen a man named Daddy at all.” He smiled, chuckling lightly at the boy’s spirit. He hadn’t lost his childish disposition at all and that was something to attribute to his mother.
The woman directed her son to go away and pee, trying to shield the boy, once again, from the horrors of this world. The truth… Her whispers were so quiet that Michael barely heard her words but the more he listened and the more he tried the more he understood. The lone tear at the end of it all cinched his understanding and whatever sympathy he had left. “Oh…Jesus, I’m so sorry.” Mike’s eyes softened and he looked over at the boy. He was so young that it wasn’t surprising he didn’t understand it all but then, if he didn’t come to this knowledge soon he might perish himself. “I can’t imagine…”
There was a span of time that went by in which no one spoke. The little boy finished using the great outdoors as a restroom and returned to his mother almost emphatically. “Is there anything I can do for ya both? I mean, I’m on my way to find my sisters but I can waylay for a couple days…get ya both to safety or somethin’…” He knew he was asking a lot but he already cared what happened to these two and he refused to see them eaten alive while he was in their lives.
Charley's lips drew a tight line then. Her head moved to say no as her mouth said, "Thank you." She didn't know why she'd clung to this stranger in this manner, but it frightened her. "We have no real place to go. No home to speak of. I haven't seen another person in almost four days, I think. And the last ones that I saw weren't exactly friendly."
She'd narrowly avoided running into them face to face after witnessing what they'd done to an older gentleman they'd happened across. Her stomach rolled and she put her hand to her mouth. She felt like throwing up at only the memory.
"We could look for them together?" Sammy piped up excitedly. "Maybe my Daddy is helping our your sissies. Right, Mommy?" He tugged at her arm as he repeated the question. "Right?"
She took to her knee and spoke softly, "Sammy, you have to understand that Daddy is gone. He's not out there lost like Mr. Mike's sisters. He can't come back..." Her voice wavered.









