“Alright, Miss Sasha, I’m just gonna reach in here for my keys…”

He took a step back and moved toward the door. The bottom fell out of Sasha’s gut, and she screamed at him to stop.

“DON’T MAKE ANOTHER MOVE!”

He dove for the door, pulled it open, and reached a hand down beside the driver’s seat. Sasha saw a flash of metal in his hand and she opened fire. She wasn’t sure how many times she pulled the trigger, but soon the gun was empty. Sasha watched as Darryl stumbled back into the truck and then slid to the ground. Most of her shots had gone wide, very wide. She’d shattered two of the truck’s windows and put four or five rounds into the vehicle’s body. But at least one had hit Darryl right in his throat. A kill shot.

He slumped to the ground, gagged on blood, and jerked like an electrified marionette. Part of her wanted to run to him, to hold him while he died and say she was sorry. Then she saw the gun at his feet. It didn’t dissipate her guilt, after all she’d drawn on him first, but at least at least she hadn’t shot and killed an unarmed man. She’d killed an armed man.

An armed man who only ever helped me.

Sasha slumped against the hood of the truck and lost herself in a storm of sobs. She didn’t realize she’d dropped her gun until it hit the asphalt with a dull clank. She couldn’t control her hands or her breathing. Her frantic sobbing had robbed all the air from her lungs. Her legs weakened and she started to stumble to the ground when a pair of warm, semi-strong arms caught her from behind.

“Hey, hey. It’s alright. It’s alright.

Manny.

“It’s OK. You’re going to be OK.”

Her world went black for a little while. Sasha felt Manny lift her up, heard the sound of the truck’s engine rumble back to life. But she couldn’t see, and she couldn’t move, and she couldn’t stop crying. Time lost any sort of meaning. When she came back to herself they were in motion. Manny sat next to her, and Rick next to him. Tule drove. Sasha’s eyes were drawn to Manny. He held Darryl’s pistol in his left hand. She couldn’t help but stare at the four spots of dried blood on the silver slide.

“Are you alright, Sasha?” Manny asked. His question passed through her ears without hitting her mind.