* * *
Alex found Tabitha crouched on the rocky shore of the Great Lake just as Sarah had told him he would. Her special place was on the outskirts of the city, far away from any homes. She stared morosely out at the calm water, openly weeping. He could see that she had been for quite some time.
Before he was able to say a word, she told him that she loved him. She told him that she understood why he’d killed her father. She didn’t look at him as she spoke, but somehow it made her words feel truer than if she had, as if she were admitting it not just to him, but also to herself. Allowing feelings that she’d long since given up hope of ever finding to re-emerge.
When he moved to take her into his arms, she raised a cautionary hand and finally met his eyes.
“Do not go back to the surface,” she pleaded. “Stay. We will find some other way.”
Alex knew she would never say the words.
She would never say, I don’t believe I’ll ever see you again.
But he could see it in her eyes.
“Tabitha, can’t you see? There is no other way. None that I know! We just don’t have the time! We have to do something now, and I can do this! I can give our warriors the advantage.”
Tabitha smiled bleakly. “Are they our warriors, Alex? Are they truly as much a part of you as they are of me?”
“Yes,” he insisted. “Yes, they are!”
Tabitha didn’t answer. Instead, she turned back toward the Great Lake and stared out over the water again. Alex took a seat beside her and she didn’t object, not even when he put his arm around her, but there was a sadness to their time there. As if it might be the last moments they ever spent alone.
He tried everything to make her believe it would be okay, that he would be back before she knew it, and although she tonelessly assured him that she believed him, it was all too clear that she didn’t.
In the end no one truly believed he would come back except Winston.
And Abner, of course. When he got back to the city many hours later, Abner slapped him on the back and chuckled, as if Alex were just going to be running down to the corner store and back.
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