Free Orpheus by Dan DeWitt Page B

did not want to miss anything. There had to be at least one photo somewhere that could lead to some peace for him, and she'd never forgive herself if it slipped by. He was counting on her.
    Someone knocked softly on her door.
    She yelled, “One sec!”
    She paused the slideshow and was about to slam the laptop shut when she heard, “It's Mutt. And I already know what you're doing. Open up.”
    She opened her door and invited him in.
    He looked at her slideshow. The picture on the screen showed two smiling young women in Stetsons. Mutt did a double-take at the photo. “Hell-o, cowgirls. God, I miss Texas. Anyway, find anything interesting?”
    “Mutt, we're not going through this again. Let it drop.”
    “No, I'm not gonna let it drop, Lena. You're not out there with him. The false hope that you're giving is killing him a little more every time we come up empty.”
    She squared her shoulders to him. “Who says it's false? There's still a chance. I know it's slim. But it's enough to keep him going.”
    “I want you to stop doing this. Just tell him it's over. He'll listen to you.”
    Lena spoke in a calm, but unmistakable, tone. “Not going to happen, Mutt. It doesn't matter what you want. Or what I want, for that matter. He asked me for help, and I owe him. You of all people should understand that.”
    That one hit home. “Yeah, I know. It's just that he's in a real bad place. If he ever has to put a bullet in his own kid...he won't last five minutes after that.”
    “Let's not think like that. He deserves to know the truth, if I can find it. Please don't get in the way of that. It's not fair to him.”
    “Fine. But I hope you never find anything.”
    “That's sweet.” She saw him forming a retort. “No, I mean it. It's really sweet how you want to protect him.”
    He cleared his throat. “So, what'd you need that picture for, anyway?”
    “Oh, I put it to good use.”
    “Sounds kinky.” He reached past her and hit a key to resume her slideshow. He left without saying anything else.
    Lena paused the slideshow once more. She knew how Mutt felt about her. It was pretty much the same way that she felt about Cameron. And so on. It was almost comforting to know that, even at the edge of the literal end of humanity, people could still find a way to have utterly screwed up emotions.
    The slideshow ran for another fifty minutes. She saw a wide variety of pictures, but nothing even remotely close to what she was looking for. She loaded the media from the cell phones next. She came up empty on those photos as well, but then she remembered the videos.
    She hit paydirt on the sixth video. The action started immediately. The scene was shot through the plate glass windows of the theater, the narrator was making fun of his friends as they approached the theater. It must have been just before the outbreak, as the street was teeming with the living.
    What initially caught her attention was the young man who walked towards the camera. When he noticed that he and the girl holding his hand were in the shot, he ducked sideways with a "Sorry about that, brutha." There was a louder, clearer, "No problem, man," as a response, then he was gone. The maturing voice, though not quite yet his father's, was unmistakable. She rewound the video and watched it from the beginning. She refused to let herself believe it until she confirmed his identity multiple times. She got to the point where she held up his photo side-by-side with the monitor and just looked back and forth.
    It was Ethan Holt. She didn't have to blow anything up, sharpen the image, or stretch her imagination in the slightest.
    She let the video play, but Ethan didn't make another appearance. The next video from the same phone showed the outbreak in its initial stages. The camera work was nauseatingly shaky as its owner ran to get clearer view through the picture window. The crowd reaction was mostly disbelief. Lena knew from firsthand experience that it would soon give way to