Dad opened the bottle and poured himself another glass. I took a deep breath and he looked back at me before setting down the glass.
"Just go" he says
"I promised Maggie I'd bring you home safe" Rick says
"Like you promised that little girl?"
"Dad" I say
"So what's your plan? Finish that bottle, drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone and disappointed that you'd let alcohol come before them?" Rick says walking to him
"Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm" Dad stands up from his chair and turns to Rick "you people are like a plague. I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all"
"The world was already in bad shape when we met"
"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!"
"Well I'm here now, aren't I?" Rick breaks his calm demeanor and yells
"Yes, yes you are" Dad says before turning, sitting down and taking a sip of his drink
"Come on. Your girls need you now"
"I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming. That's when I knew what an ass I'd been. That Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse. That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out the barn, the look on your face, I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. You know it now, like I do. Don't you? There is no hope for any of us"
"Dad"
"I'll believe what I want to" he cut me off.
"Then let me shoot myself, right here, right now. If there's no hope, why should I even try?" I say raising a gun to my head
"Isabelle" Rick says sternly and walks to me.
Fear in his eyes. It felt like he was begging me not to do anything stupid, as if he cared.
"If there's no hope! He'll let me pull this god damn trigger"
"He's drunk, Isabelle"
"Too drunk to tell his own daughter not to kill herself" I say with disappointment.
"Do you think there's hope? Because if you do, and you pull that trigger, you end all the chances of what you believe in" Rick said firmly. There was no sugar coating.
I sighed and lowered the gun. My dad didn't even bother to turn his head, his focus was on the glass in front of him.
"Son of a bitch. They're alive" we hear a new voice say, I turn and see two men standing at the door.
"Let's have a drink" I suggest thinking what's there to lose.
I sit at the one table and the thinner man sits across from me. The bigger guy sits one bar stool away from Dad. Rick pours a glass for the man at my table.
"I'm Dave" he says "that scrawny-looking douche bag over there is Tony"
"Eat me, Dave" Tony says
"Hey, maybe one day I will. We met on I-95 coming out of Philly"
"I've been there" I say with a smile.
"what's your name, pretty lady?"
"Isabelle" I say with a smirk
