Hard Future
Feb 22, 2018 1:00:26 GMT -5
Post by themirrorthief on Feb 22, 2018 1:00:26 GMT -5
It never pays to trust to luck. I have heard that said many times in the past. Unfortunately luck is all I have to work with. The war changed everything, the horrific devastation and the mass killings just crushed the life out of all of us. I guess I survived although sometimes I feel as dead as those decaying bodies I see everywhere in the streets and beside every road.
I deserted the army, the commanders were dead and soldiers were slipping away like rats deserting a sinking ship. This ship had been sinking for a long time. Nobody was looking for me, the damned fools were still off somewhere fighting!
What the hell they were fighting for would be anyone’s guess. The world had gone mad and twenty years of war hadn’t provided a single solution other than dramatically reducing the population.
There was almost nothing to eat. I weighed about 150, down from 188 when I joined the army five years ago. At least we got fed in the military, occasionally anyhow. Starvation had led to depravation…horrible things were happening. People were eating their pets and worse. I had a pistol and a knife and a few packs of cigarettes. I had it a lot better than some. I had quit the army after killing three enemy troops. I rifled through their bodies and found cigarettes, booze, and the pistol. There had been plenty of ammo too. I got raging drunk and when I woke up my unit had moved on without me. They probably thought I was dead and that was all good with me.
One day a girl, about twelve, tried to kill me with a machete. Her blow glanced off the side of my head taking a bit of my ear with it. I shot her. It was a horrible experience and it weighs heavily on my thoughts. Later some creeps asked if they could have the body. I said yes and walked away. I didn’t want to know why they wanted something like that. I couldn’t sleep for a while though. A few days later a bunch of half crazy people chased me through the streets. They threw rocks and chunks of metal out me. They would have killed me but I outran them. Thank goodness I was still in pretty good shape physically.
I found a refuge of sorts. I stashed myself on the fourth floor of a six story building. I barricaded myself in with some boards and nails and just sat there smoking and wishing I had some food. One day I heard a noise and peeked out to see some dudes sharing a bottle. I chased them away with my pistol and took the booze for myself. It was good and I got wasted proper for the first time in days. These days were a fabulous time to stay drunk, if you could find it of course. When the bottle was gone I wanted more, and I wanted food, and I wanted a woman. Lots of wanting going on back in those days for real. I went out and walked the streets. The stench of the dead was horrible but fortunately the living were few and far between.
“Can I have a smoke?” I heard a feminine voice ask. She startled me, somehow the girl had gotten up real close without me knowing. She was dirty but not ugly. That thought went through my mind. It had been a long time. I gave her a smoke and she looked happy about it. The conversation was a little awkward at first. “Where are you heading?” She asked.
“Thinking about getting out of this city, there has to be something better out there in the country.”
She shook her blond head. “I dunno, rumor is lots of soldiers and ex-soldiers out there running around shooting everybody that moves…unless you are a female and then they screw you before shooting you.”
“It’s bad everywhere I guess,” I said in response.
“Yeah.”
I saw the shadow first. Good thing for me it was midday. The man crept up behind me with a claw hammer. His intentions were not good. I whirled and shot him right in the chest. My hand never leaves the pistol in my pocket. He dropped with a surprised look on his face. The girl ran to him then started screaming at me. “You bastard, you shot my brother!”
“He was about to brain me with that hammer.”
“No he wasn’t, he was just going to scare you and rob you.”
“Hmmmm,” I groaned. “Robbery is a damned risk business.”
She glared at me. “I’ll kill you for this you slimy bastard son of a bitch!”
I put the pistol right in her face, “give me one good reason I shouldn’t shoot you right now.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it. He wasn’t really my brother after all, just my step brother. Please don’t shoot me.”
“Get lost bitch,” I growled. She ran away without a backwards glance. She didn’t get far when two freaks dressed in rags ran her down. I guess they were going to rape her. I walked away rapidly in the other direction. It had truly become as dog eat dog world. For the time being the pistol made me a big dog and that was a good thing…if it could truly be said there were good things in this shitty world of today.
I passed a body lying in some ruble. That didn’t make a big impression on me but I saw something just barely poking out of his pocket that did. I snatched it up. I had found a sealed bag of pork skins. They tasted like nothing I had ever had before. They were a bit stale but I kicked back in my little fortress on the fourth floor and delighted in every single bite. I thought about the girl as my stomach growled happily. I hoped they didn’t kill her. I wished she hadn’t messed with me because she was cute and I would have definitely done her…with relish. Such is the luck of the damned. Damn it.
It began to rain, really pour. Good, it might wash away a lot of the filth on the streets. It rained for a long time. I fished around in my pocket and found my last roach. It only had a few puffs left but that would suffice. I torched it and let my mind flow where it would. What a damned shamed they had legalized weed one week and total war had broken out the next. Did that mean something? Hard to say but it seemed ironic to me.
The next day was beautiful with a little sun peeking out from the soot blackened skies that the war had left us. In the distance I heard artillery. They were still at it the damned fools. Maybe I should join back up, this time with the enemy. It would at least mean a couple of meals now and then. Besides, if I got killed, so what? No, I had had enough fighting. From now on the killing I did would be for my own benefit. I face the world with those thoughts on my mind.
Another jerk tried to rob me. I shot him, then carved a chunk of meat from his thigh. I ate well that night, first time in a long time. I didn’t feel like a cannibal and I didn’t feel hungry either. The guy I shot had carried a bottle on him too. It was good booze and I got good and drunk. I felt like singing but didn’t, to risky. I didn’t want to shoot anyone else and besides I wasn’t that hungry at the moment. I fancied myself and accommodating cannibal. Clever huh?
That day turned out to be lucky for me. A big dog was running loose in the street and the first running car I had seen for a long while stopped close to where the dog was resting. Two guys jumped out and chased after the dog. I suspect they wanted to eat him but who knows. They left the keys in the car. I crawled in and drove away. There was nearly half a tank of gas. I left town, it wasn’t easy but I managed to maneuver around the bodies and junk and other stuff in the road. Sometimes I got off the road altogether but it was a good car and I persevered just fine. Outside the city the road got better tho it was still pretty bad. I took a side road and made my way ok despite having no freaking idea where I was going. A few miles later I saw a girl hitch hiking. She looked pretty beat up and I think she had been crying. She peered in the window at me very carefully. “I don’t bite, get it.” She hesitated and finally complied. She crammed herself as close to the door as possible and away we went with Johnny Rivers blaring on the cd player.
“I like your car,” she mumbled.
“It’s Ok,” I replied.
“Want to smoke some weed?” She asked meekly.
“Sure.”
She pulled out this hug bag of dope. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.
“Where in heck did you get that?”
“We grew it out in the country. My dad gave it to me just before some asshole shot him after robbing him.”
“A helluva lot of that going around,” I said as she rolled a joint. We smoked it and another one. I hoped the gas lasted as long as the buzz. We made our pretty well. At one point we stopped and I siphoned some more gas off an abandoned tank. It gave us almost a full tank. We smoked more weed and I could see she was a pretty big pothead. Then we just rode, and rode.
“What’s your name,” I asked?
“Amanda Seyfried,” she replied. The name sounded familiar somehow.
“Do I know you?”
“Well, you have probably heard of me, I was a movie star before the war…did you ever see Dear John?”
“No, sounds like a chick flick.”
“Did you ever see In Time with me and Justin Timberlake?”
“Hell no, I hate that guy, he was in NSYNC…they were gay as fuck.”
She rolled her eyes. “Did you ever see Mean Girls?”
“Oh yeah, those bitches were hot.”
“I was the blond.”
“There were lots of blonds in that one.”
“Well, that’s true, anyhow, that’s all water under the bridge now, one of the first big bombs hit Hollywood. Blew everything to hell in a hand basket. I was out of town taking a break on my dad’s ranch at the time. Otherwise I would be dead.”
“We might all be better off dead, things are pretty damned bad.”
“Yeah, I still don’t understand why Canada declared war on us.”
“Well, that only shows what can happened when some dipshit nation gets the bomb.”
“That’s true.”
We smoked some more weed and coped a couple more cds from an abandoned car. Prince sounded great, it was like déjà vu all over again. Amanda, if that was who she really was which I doubted, had nice legs, big eyes, and nice hooters. Cleaned up she would look pretty hot for real. I wanted her. I think she liked me too cause she finally smiled at a couple of my jokes. “It sucks that all the hotels are abandoned now. Road trips aren’t quite the same.”
She shrugged. “We could still visit one. There just wouldn’t be any room service and dead bodies would probably floating in the pool.”
“I killed a little girl a while back.”
Amanda looked shocked. “Why in hell did you do that?”
“She tried to kill me with a machete. I don’t know why. Look, she clipped off a little of my ear.”
“Damn,” Amanda said and rolled another fattie. “We gotta find some food somewhere. I’m about to starve to death dude. Any ideas?”
The words had barely left her mouth where a full grown buck dear walked right out in front of our car. It was like he was a gift from God or he was trying to commit suicide or maybe he was just plain stupid. I smashed right over him. We got the car stopped and loaded the deceased buck in the truck. “Shit, we gonna eat now!” I declared quite joyously. “For real,” Amanda replied.
That night we camped in an old abandoned farmhouse. We stuffed ourselves with venison and got stoned a couple of times. It was a lovely starry night. It would have been even better if I’d had some booze but you can’t have it all as they say. There was a little, somewhat unpolluted stream nearby and we both washed ourselves off. Amanda looked smoking hot with the filth off her face and out of her blond hair. My balls began singing her praises. It was a cool tune too. I tried to embrace her but she pushed me away. “I don’t even know your name and you think you can grab me and breed me?”
“My name is Jim Ironlove. I can’t believe that I forgot to tell you?”
“Well you did and that means you are no gentleman.”
“I ate a dude’s leg.”
“What the fuck??”
“I am a cannibal, I was starving.”
Amanda started to say more but then she sorta shut down. After a long period of silence she whispered. “I ate my dog.”
“Damn,” I said.
“I only did it after I found myself tempted to eat…his poop.”
I nodded, “in other words it was a choice between the lesser of two evils.”
“Dog meant is not a lot different than dear meat,” she mumbled.
“What kind of dog was he?”
“A collie.”
“You mean like Lassie?”
“Totally.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.”
We stayed at the farmhouse for a couple of days before we got restless again. We still had over a quarter tank of gas and plenty of weed. We dried some of the dear meat until we had a decent supply of eats. All seemed to indicate go and we did. Our road trip through hell was about to enter a new chapter. For the first time in a long time I was eager for the next day to come. I was also hoping to get laid and prayed it wouldn’t be a whole lot longer. I had snuck off in the woods to masturbate but it hadn’t helped much. Like they say, there is nothing like the real thing baby.
It rained again the day we left. We didn’t talk much for some reason. I think Amanda had fallen to thinking about her family. We didn’t even get high. I was glad that I was an orphan. There is some baggage that people might just as well be without I mused. Besides, I wasn’t a deep thinker. I had barely passed school. I just couldn’t understand a damned thing the teachers talked about. I was into football, drinking, and sex. I had had lots of sex videos. I missed those, but not my family. How can you miss the things you never had. Maybe it’s a damned sad thing to say but the closest thing to a sister or mother I ever had was a porn star. What can I say that will add to that? I guess it was a lot different for Amanda. I decided to not make another pass, at least for a little while.
We drove a long time before stopping beside some woods to take a pee. We both got back in and I was about to request that Amanda twist up another when she suddenly put her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her tongue darted down my throat and suddenly we were at it hot and heavy. I’m not kidding when I say it was the best sex ever. Maybe she was or wasn’t a former movie star but let there be no doubt that she starred in my sex dream come true that day!!
When it was over we smoked cigarettes and stared out at the falling rain. I was as mellow as a melted milkshake. We took a long nap with her head on my chest. I stroked her hair and wondered about my sudden change of luck. Was this love? I had no idea but whatever it was, it was nice.
I woke with a shotgun pointed at my face. A big dirty redneck told me to freeze or he would plaster my face all over the windshield. I felt a cold chill run over my body. When I saw his eyes roam over Amanda I knew what was up. It was a robbery and more. I felt pretty sure he was gonna kill me and rape her. It was a hopeless, helpless feeling to have and I didn’t like it. “Get out asshole, I’m taking the car and the girl.”
I looked real scared and harmless as I got out and he got in. He was grinning as he ordered me to walk around behind the car. He cranked it up and got the car in gear before I shot him through the back window. His brains got all over the windshield but better him than me. We dragged him out and cleaned the car up best we could. He didn’t shoot me because there were no shells in the shotgun. I decided to keep it because maybe I would run across some shells eventually and if nothing else I could scare someone else with the damned thing. Mainly I wanted it for a reminder to keep a better watch out for similar situations.
We drove away, it had been just another day in hell.
That night we slept in each other’s arms a good distance from the car. I figured it made us a target and we needed to sleep somewhere away from it but close enough to kinda keep tabs on it. Amanda said it was a good idea. We didn’t make love again. We were tired and a little depressed. Things had come to close to disaster to feel anything close to being happy.
Whatever happened in the days to come, it wouldn’t be easy to survive. In a world teetering on the brink of total obliteration anything was possible and that anything most likely meant death…maybe worse.
I deserted the army, the commanders were dead and soldiers were slipping away like rats deserting a sinking ship. This ship had been sinking for a long time. Nobody was looking for me, the damned fools were still off somewhere fighting!
What the hell they were fighting for would be anyone’s guess. The world had gone mad and twenty years of war hadn’t provided a single solution other than dramatically reducing the population.
There was almost nothing to eat. I weighed about 150, down from 188 when I joined the army five years ago. At least we got fed in the military, occasionally anyhow. Starvation had led to depravation…horrible things were happening. People were eating their pets and worse. I had a pistol and a knife and a few packs of cigarettes. I had it a lot better than some. I had quit the army after killing three enemy troops. I rifled through their bodies and found cigarettes, booze, and the pistol. There had been plenty of ammo too. I got raging drunk and when I woke up my unit had moved on without me. They probably thought I was dead and that was all good with me.
One day a girl, about twelve, tried to kill me with a machete. Her blow glanced off the side of my head taking a bit of my ear with it. I shot her. It was a horrible experience and it weighs heavily on my thoughts. Later some creeps asked if they could have the body. I said yes and walked away. I didn’t want to know why they wanted something like that. I couldn’t sleep for a while though. A few days later a bunch of half crazy people chased me through the streets. They threw rocks and chunks of metal out me. They would have killed me but I outran them. Thank goodness I was still in pretty good shape physically.
I found a refuge of sorts. I stashed myself on the fourth floor of a six story building. I barricaded myself in with some boards and nails and just sat there smoking and wishing I had some food. One day I heard a noise and peeked out to see some dudes sharing a bottle. I chased them away with my pistol and took the booze for myself. It was good and I got wasted proper for the first time in days. These days were a fabulous time to stay drunk, if you could find it of course. When the bottle was gone I wanted more, and I wanted food, and I wanted a woman. Lots of wanting going on back in those days for real. I went out and walked the streets. The stench of the dead was horrible but fortunately the living were few and far between.
“Can I have a smoke?” I heard a feminine voice ask. She startled me, somehow the girl had gotten up real close without me knowing. She was dirty but not ugly. That thought went through my mind. It had been a long time. I gave her a smoke and she looked happy about it. The conversation was a little awkward at first. “Where are you heading?” She asked.
“Thinking about getting out of this city, there has to be something better out there in the country.”
She shook her blond head. “I dunno, rumor is lots of soldiers and ex-soldiers out there running around shooting everybody that moves…unless you are a female and then they screw you before shooting you.”
“It’s bad everywhere I guess,” I said in response.
“Yeah.”
I saw the shadow first. Good thing for me it was midday. The man crept up behind me with a claw hammer. His intentions were not good. I whirled and shot him right in the chest. My hand never leaves the pistol in my pocket. He dropped with a surprised look on his face. The girl ran to him then started screaming at me. “You bastard, you shot my brother!”
“He was about to brain me with that hammer.”
“No he wasn’t, he was just going to scare you and rob you.”
“Hmmmm,” I groaned. “Robbery is a damned risk business.”
She glared at me. “I’ll kill you for this you slimy bastard son of a bitch!”
I put the pistol right in her face, “give me one good reason I shouldn’t shoot you right now.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it. He wasn’t really my brother after all, just my step brother. Please don’t shoot me.”
“Get lost bitch,” I growled. She ran away without a backwards glance. She didn’t get far when two freaks dressed in rags ran her down. I guess they were going to rape her. I walked away rapidly in the other direction. It had truly become as dog eat dog world. For the time being the pistol made me a big dog and that was a good thing…if it could truly be said there were good things in this shitty world of today.
I passed a body lying in some ruble. That didn’t make a big impression on me but I saw something just barely poking out of his pocket that did. I snatched it up. I had found a sealed bag of pork skins. They tasted like nothing I had ever had before. They were a bit stale but I kicked back in my little fortress on the fourth floor and delighted in every single bite. I thought about the girl as my stomach growled happily. I hoped they didn’t kill her. I wished she hadn’t messed with me because she was cute and I would have definitely done her…with relish. Such is the luck of the damned. Damn it.
It began to rain, really pour. Good, it might wash away a lot of the filth on the streets. It rained for a long time. I fished around in my pocket and found my last roach. It only had a few puffs left but that would suffice. I torched it and let my mind flow where it would. What a damned shamed they had legalized weed one week and total war had broken out the next. Did that mean something? Hard to say but it seemed ironic to me.
The next day was beautiful with a little sun peeking out from the soot blackened skies that the war had left us. In the distance I heard artillery. They were still at it the damned fools. Maybe I should join back up, this time with the enemy. It would at least mean a couple of meals now and then. Besides, if I got killed, so what? No, I had had enough fighting. From now on the killing I did would be for my own benefit. I face the world with those thoughts on my mind.
Another jerk tried to rob me. I shot him, then carved a chunk of meat from his thigh. I ate well that night, first time in a long time. I didn’t feel like a cannibal and I didn’t feel hungry either. The guy I shot had carried a bottle on him too. It was good booze and I got good and drunk. I felt like singing but didn’t, to risky. I didn’t want to shoot anyone else and besides I wasn’t that hungry at the moment. I fancied myself and accommodating cannibal. Clever huh?
That day turned out to be lucky for me. A big dog was running loose in the street and the first running car I had seen for a long while stopped close to where the dog was resting. Two guys jumped out and chased after the dog. I suspect they wanted to eat him but who knows. They left the keys in the car. I crawled in and drove away. There was nearly half a tank of gas. I left town, it wasn’t easy but I managed to maneuver around the bodies and junk and other stuff in the road. Sometimes I got off the road altogether but it was a good car and I persevered just fine. Outside the city the road got better tho it was still pretty bad. I took a side road and made my way ok despite having no freaking idea where I was going. A few miles later I saw a girl hitch hiking. She looked pretty beat up and I think she had been crying. She peered in the window at me very carefully. “I don’t bite, get it.” She hesitated and finally complied. She crammed herself as close to the door as possible and away we went with Johnny Rivers blaring on the cd player.
“I like your car,” she mumbled.
“It’s Ok,” I replied.
“Want to smoke some weed?” She asked meekly.
“Sure.”
She pulled out this hug bag of dope. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.
“Where in heck did you get that?”
“We grew it out in the country. My dad gave it to me just before some asshole shot him after robbing him.”
“A helluva lot of that going around,” I said as she rolled a joint. We smoked it and another one. I hoped the gas lasted as long as the buzz. We made our pretty well. At one point we stopped and I siphoned some more gas off an abandoned tank. It gave us almost a full tank. We smoked more weed and I could see she was a pretty big pothead. Then we just rode, and rode.
“What’s your name,” I asked?
“Amanda Seyfried,” she replied. The name sounded familiar somehow.
“Do I know you?”
“Well, you have probably heard of me, I was a movie star before the war…did you ever see Dear John?”
“No, sounds like a chick flick.”
“Did you ever see In Time with me and Justin Timberlake?”
“Hell no, I hate that guy, he was in NSYNC…they were gay as fuck.”
She rolled her eyes. “Did you ever see Mean Girls?”
“Oh yeah, those bitches were hot.”
“I was the blond.”
“There were lots of blonds in that one.”
“Well, that’s true, anyhow, that’s all water under the bridge now, one of the first big bombs hit Hollywood. Blew everything to hell in a hand basket. I was out of town taking a break on my dad’s ranch at the time. Otherwise I would be dead.”
“We might all be better off dead, things are pretty damned bad.”
“Yeah, I still don’t understand why Canada declared war on us.”
“Well, that only shows what can happened when some dipshit nation gets the bomb.”
“That’s true.”
We smoked some more weed and coped a couple more cds from an abandoned car. Prince sounded great, it was like déjà vu all over again. Amanda, if that was who she really was which I doubted, had nice legs, big eyes, and nice hooters. Cleaned up she would look pretty hot for real. I wanted her. I think she liked me too cause she finally smiled at a couple of my jokes. “It sucks that all the hotels are abandoned now. Road trips aren’t quite the same.”
She shrugged. “We could still visit one. There just wouldn’t be any room service and dead bodies would probably floating in the pool.”
“I killed a little girl a while back.”
Amanda looked shocked. “Why in hell did you do that?”
“She tried to kill me with a machete. I don’t know why. Look, she clipped off a little of my ear.”
“Damn,” Amanda said and rolled another fattie. “We gotta find some food somewhere. I’m about to starve to death dude. Any ideas?”
The words had barely left her mouth where a full grown buck dear walked right out in front of our car. It was like he was a gift from God or he was trying to commit suicide or maybe he was just plain stupid. I smashed right over him. We got the car stopped and loaded the deceased buck in the truck. “Shit, we gonna eat now!” I declared quite joyously. “For real,” Amanda replied.
That night we camped in an old abandoned farmhouse. We stuffed ourselves with venison and got stoned a couple of times. It was a lovely starry night. It would have been even better if I’d had some booze but you can’t have it all as they say. There was a little, somewhat unpolluted stream nearby and we both washed ourselves off. Amanda looked smoking hot with the filth off her face and out of her blond hair. My balls began singing her praises. It was a cool tune too. I tried to embrace her but she pushed me away. “I don’t even know your name and you think you can grab me and breed me?”
“My name is Jim Ironlove. I can’t believe that I forgot to tell you?”
“Well you did and that means you are no gentleman.”
“I ate a dude’s leg.”
“What the fuck??”
“I am a cannibal, I was starving.”
Amanda started to say more but then she sorta shut down. After a long period of silence she whispered. “I ate my dog.”
“Damn,” I said.
“I only did it after I found myself tempted to eat…his poop.”
I nodded, “in other words it was a choice between the lesser of two evils.”
“Dog meant is not a lot different than dear meat,” she mumbled.
“What kind of dog was he?”
“A collie.”
“You mean like Lassie?”
“Totally.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.”
We stayed at the farmhouse for a couple of days before we got restless again. We still had over a quarter tank of gas and plenty of weed. We dried some of the dear meat until we had a decent supply of eats. All seemed to indicate go and we did. Our road trip through hell was about to enter a new chapter. For the first time in a long time I was eager for the next day to come. I was also hoping to get laid and prayed it wouldn’t be a whole lot longer. I had snuck off in the woods to masturbate but it hadn’t helped much. Like they say, there is nothing like the real thing baby.
It rained again the day we left. We didn’t talk much for some reason. I think Amanda had fallen to thinking about her family. We didn’t even get high. I was glad that I was an orphan. There is some baggage that people might just as well be without I mused. Besides, I wasn’t a deep thinker. I had barely passed school. I just couldn’t understand a damned thing the teachers talked about. I was into football, drinking, and sex. I had had lots of sex videos. I missed those, but not my family. How can you miss the things you never had. Maybe it’s a damned sad thing to say but the closest thing to a sister or mother I ever had was a porn star. What can I say that will add to that? I guess it was a lot different for Amanda. I decided to not make another pass, at least for a little while.
We drove a long time before stopping beside some woods to take a pee. We both got back in and I was about to request that Amanda twist up another when she suddenly put her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her tongue darted down my throat and suddenly we were at it hot and heavy. I’m not kidding when I say it was the best sex ever. Maybe she was or wasn’t a former movie star but let there be no doubt that she starred in my sex dream come true that day!!
When it was over we smoked cigarettes and stared out at the falling rain. I was as mellow as a melted milkshake. We took a long nap with her head on my chest. I stroked her hair and wondered about my sudden change of luck. Was this love? I had no idea but whatever it was, it was nice.
I woke with a shotgun pointed at my face. A big dirty redneck told me to freeze or he would plaster my face all over the windshield. I felt a cold chill run over my body. When I saw his eyes roam over Amanda I knew what was up. It was a robbery and more. I felt pretty sure he was gonna kill me and rape her. It was a hopeless, helpless feeling to have and I didn’t like it. “Get out asshole, I’m taking the car and the girl.”
I looked real scared and harmless as I got out and he got in. He was grinning as he ordered me to walk around behind the car. He cranked it up and got the car in gear before I shot him through the back window. His brains got all over the windshield but better him than me. We dragged him out and cleaned the car up best we could. He didn’t shoot me because there were no shells in the shotgun. I decided to keep it because maybe I would run across some shells eventually and if nothing else I could scare someone else with the damned thing. Mainly I wanted it for a reminder to keep a better watch out for similar situations.
We drove away, it had been just another day in hell.
That night we slept in each other’s arms a good distance from the car. I figured it made us a target and we needed to sleep somewhere away from it but close enough to kinda keep tabs on it. Amanda said it was a good idea. We didn’t make love again. We were tired and a little depressed. Things had come to close to disaster to feel anything close to being happy.
Whatever happened in the days to come, it wouldn’t be easy to survive. In a world teetering on the brink of total obliteration anything was possible and that anything most likely meant death…maybe worse.
