The sun was making its lazy trek back down the horizon. It had been no more than 6 hours but no less than 4 since the dam erupted.
Nick limped along the canal, down river from the explosion site. Fate was a fickle bitch. The thought whipped through his mind again that he'd have rather died up there on that bridge. He had actually thought of jumping through one of the holes torn in the chainlink. Let the water take him; wash away his sins along with his life.
Now, he wasn't really sure what he was seeking. He knew the Zodiac that Victor, Alicia and his mother were in ended up getting sucked through the chasm in the dam. Chasm. His brain lingered on the word. Washed down river. He hadn't hoped to find any of them alive. But, he needed to know. If he was looking for a person, or a body, or their body, up and walking, souless now.
He didn't much care to find his mother. Chasm. The word echoed around his skull. He continued to walk lazily down the side of the canal; the water was still flowing, but at a much more meandering pace now. He would find absolution, if he found her though. Whether she be alive, or dead, or undead. She was dead to him now.
She had finally come full-circle. Unleashed the person she had always secretly been. Feeding the beast that always secretly craved, even before this new life.
Troy had been the breaking point. Madison had been the dam, Troy had been the C-4. Strapped to the walls, just waiting on Madison to make that decision. To push that button and let all the water, her real self, through. Of course, Troy had never been a good man. But, he was becoming something more.
If Nick had looked forward, just a few days ago, he couldn't have imagined a day at the Bazarr, or in the truck, out in this mindless, hot sand of a wasteland that is Mexico, without Troy by his side. They had come far together. And Nick couldn't, wouldn't express the pain he felt as the hammer made contact with his cheek. Couldn't, wouldn't express the sheer rage he felt at the woman who'd given him life, especially when she was taking what made his life meaningful, right in front of him.
Sure, there were ups and downs. You share the same self destruction. He'd heard his sisters voice again. But, Nick made Troy better, and Troy challenged Nick. It was a feast of emotions that you just had to be in it to understand. They were like fire and gasoline. But some things needed to be set on fire. Nick would've set the world on fire with Troy.
He coasted down the canal, passing under bridges, not much sign of the dead. Although there were locals out in abundance. Praising the gods and filling buckets with the dirty water. Limbs, trash, bodies floating lazily down stream. He inspected every one. Hoping beyond hope that he would find his sister, at least. Or something that would perhaps lead to her.
She didn't deserve this. Strand? Probably. Madison? Definitely. Alicia? Not a chance. Alicia had been the good egg. The last hope for humanity in this lifeless apocolypse. Sure, they had all made some hard choices. But, Licia had that morality still about her, even now. Well, even then, he thought, grimacing. He just needed to know.
The canal came to a split then, left towards the business district of the town, and right towards the more urban area. The signs of life diminished. Replaced by the dead. Not many, most had stalked towards the sound of the explosion, and the rippling after effects as the concrete damn opened. He continued to the right, pulling his knife from his waist band to grant a last act of mercy to those wandering the earth, hungry but never full.
Its what he came across next that made him stop in his tracks.