The four slid from town as the dawn sun turned the westward mountains into beacons. None had slept much, but they had rested more than the dry store owner who fixed their provisions and had them waiting. The man also buttered some bread for them to work over as they rode, in place of a proper breakfast.
They left through the western side of town: Herman, then Samuel, then Abner, and finally Ottilie. As their misfortune had it, their path took them by the undertaker’s shop. The two men Ottilie had killed the day before were propped nearly upright in their open coffins, on display for all to see need a $100 payday loan now .
Herman felt a hot swirl in his ribs and the skin around his eyes tightened. He sucked in a chestful of air as tears burned his morning eyes.
“Why are they like that?” he croaked.
There was a quiet moment as Abner and Ottilie came to understand what they’d heard on Herman’s voice. In this same silence, Samuel estimated their reaction.
“He asked a question,” he said, a pillow still about his voice, but the menace was not far.
Abner cleared his throat.
“McAllister, he pays the undertaker to put them out like this, as a warning to anyone else who doesn’t pay their debts, or crosses him.”
Herman was stiff in his saddle, the motion of his heavy breathing the only clue to life for the group behind him. He nudged his horse ahead faster to part himself from the dead men.
Samuel didn’t press his horse to follow close behind, and so neither did Abner and Ottilie.
“Is your brother crying?” Abner asked.
Samuel winced and softened.
“Ah, uh, maybe a little. Pay no mind. He doesn’t take well to seeing dead people. Fresh dead is okay, he’s fine in a fight, but once they’ve been out for a while he doesn’t sit right with him. It’s from the war.”
Ottilie heard the question and the answer but said nothing.
Abner nudged his horse faster toward Herman.
“Shit,” Samuel muttered.
Abner came up alongside the older brother, who by now had dried his eyes and wore only the look of a man who wished he hadn’t cried in front of other men.
“Herman. You alright?”
“I am. Just seen enough unburied dead for a hundred lifetimes, is all.”
Abner studied his gloves before returning his gaze to Herman, leaning gently in his saddle towards the other man.
“Ain’t no shame, ain’t no shame in it at all. No man who sees war needs to apologize for not caring to see more death.” Abner’s words came eagerly. He wasn’t accustomed to speaking so earnestly out loud, and there was a jolting thrill to it. It was a sharp feeling, but one he didn’t dislike.
Herman didn’t look to Abner.
“You work for that man?” Herman asked in a voice Abner could barely hear, but it was as much an accusation as if it were shouted.
Abner’s energized face fell and he sat back in his saddle.
“A man’s got to make a living in what way he can. Seems like you know that well enough.”
The clenching of Herman’s jaw was the signal he didn’t have anything else to say on the matter. Silent, they rode next to one another, scanning the same horizon separately.
Behind them, Ottilie caught up to Samuel. She paid him the first real attention since they’d met.
“You sure he’s fine in a fight?”
Samuel didn’t dispense any charm in his response. “You’ll wish you hadn’t asked.”