Alex woke up hearing something in the bathroom connected his bedroom. He grabbed the pistol from the bedside table, and cautiously opened the door. Julius was riffling through the medicine cabinet, and muttering. “What are you doing?” Alex asked.

  “I ran out of pills, and my bullet wound is killing me. I was hoping I could scrounge some up.”

  “Here let me take a look at it.” Alex pulled up Julius' shirt, and peeled away the bandages. At some point the wound had been professionally stitched, and it seemed clean. “Maybe it's a good thing, we didn't even know what they were.”

  Julius hung his head. “I guess you're right, it's just pain after all.” Alex put fresh bandages onto the wound, and slapped Julius on the back. “Why don't we go out and get some more supplies. Maybe we can find a gun shop or something, and I can get some more ammo.”

  Julius brightened. “Maybe we could find a pharmacy?”

  “Sure,” Alex replied, hoping not to.

  They asked the locals, and were directed to the local gun shop. Coming up to it Alex wasn't hopeful. The windows had been smashed, and looking inside there didn't seem to be any stock left. It would figure that others would have beat them to it.

  They went in and poked around. Alex hoped they could find some more ammo for his pistol at least. Julius looked through the glass display cabinets, and paused at one of the few unbroken ones. “Hey Alex check this out,” He grabbed some refuse, and smashed it open pulling out a small gun.

  Alex recognized it as a derringer model. A type of pocket pistol, it could chamber two bullets, and was almost half the size of the pistol he had. “I guess everyone thought it was too small to be worth something.”

  All the other pistols in the shop had already been taken. Julius pulled a contraption out of the same case, and started fiddling with it. Alex searched the shop, and found a whole rack of hunting rifles that hadn't been disturbed. People seemed to have been more concerned about easy to handle personal safety. Considering these had been left alone, whereas all the handguns had been stolen. He took one, looked it over, and was satisfied with its condition. By the time he was finished searching he had, along with the rifle, two boxes of ammo for it, a box of 9mm for his pistol and two boxes .45 for Julius' gun.

  Julius along with his derringer had found a spring loaded arm holster. It could release a telescopic rod, and extend the pistol forward along a track on his forearm, right into his hand. He had spent ten minutes now practicing with it. Rven when he could get it to trigger by flexing his bicep, more often than not, he failed to catch the gun. At least it was distracting him, Alex decided. “I'm going to check out the strip mall across the street, find some more clothes,” Alex told him.

  “Sure. I saw that hospital a few blocks back, I'm going to search it,” Julius replied.

  “Are you sure about that gun Julius?” Alex asked.

  “What? It's cool.”

  “But not the most practical you have to admit.”

  “What isn't practical,” Julius said in a lecturing tone. “is having anyone you're planning to shoot have any idea you're going to. Anyone can see your gun, and be ready for it. The element of surprise is vital when you only want one bullet to be the deciding factor.”

  “I suppose,” Alex conceded. “Wouldn't have done much against that wyvern though.”

  “Sure, but you can't plan for the worst. You just have to hope for a nice middle ground of danger.”

  Julius never let someone else get the last word so Alex just shrugged, and handed him a handful of bullets for his pistol.

  Alex had found a tent along with a sturdy pair of boots for himself and Julius. He was picking out some more clothes, when he heard a crashing noise in the distance. It had been in the direction Julius had gone. He rushed out the store, and sprinted towards the hospital. As he came into the hospital's parking lot, he saw Julius rushing out. Julius turned towards a safe, that was laying bent and broken open on the pavement. “Julius what happened?” Alex shouted.

  Julius looked up unconcerned. “I threw the safe off the roof.”

  Alex slowed down with no immediate danger in sight. He came up to Julius, who was rifling through the safes contents, putting aside broken bottles. “What happened?” He repeated.

  “The hospital was pretty well looted, but no one had gotten the pharmacies safe open. I lugged it to the roof, and threw it off. I saw on a show it would break open. Aha!” Julius pulled out a bag, and read its label out loud. “Oxycotin five hundred.” He stared at the bag rapturously, and Alex considered taking it away from him, for his own good. Julius had only been on those pills for at most a week, and it might not be too hard to kick it now. A look passed over Julius' face, and he put the bag down. “I was just thinking Alex.”

  “Yeah?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

   “Money isn't really worth anything now, what with the government defunct.”

  “That is the traditional thing to happen in an apocalypse,” he agreed.

  “So we are back to a barter economy. People will still want some generic thing, that can be made but is limited, that can be an easy stand in for cash. We're too used to the concept. It has to have a universal worth to though, every person needs to be able to know that it has some inherent value.” Julius shook the bag of painkillers. “Something lightweight and small. I could get in on the ground-floor of the new economy. I could be rich.”

***

  The next day Julius ran off towards a pig farm on the outskirts of town. He had instructed Alex to find a map, and figure out where the closest town was. Julius had been filled with a manic energy since the hospital. Alex figured it was a good thing and would run its course. At least the bag of pills had stayed closed.

  Alex had found a road map in the gas station. He and stared at all the dead cars, scattered through town. It would be a different world now without them. He would have to find a motorcycle, so he could head back home. None of there phones worked, and he need to know how everyone was fairing. He chose to ignore the distinct possibility that it would be bad back home.

  He found the nearest house someone was living in, and saw a woman of almost forty working to set up a garden. He approached her, and confirmed the next decent sized town was called Crikside. It was fifty or so miles down the highway. Alex was going to ask her more, when he heard an abominable noise drawing closer. The woman hearing it too fled inside her house.

  Alex unslung his rifle, and took position behind a car, looking out towards it. Some mass of writhing flesh was coming closer, and screeching with a dozen voices. He sighted on the mass, took a shot, and hoped it would be scared off. The shot landed, and the creature let out a tremendous squeal. The creature seemed to try and surge in all directions, straining against itself. A mass broke free, racing across the open land.

  A humanoid figure came out from behind the mass, screaming and racing towards him. Alex froze as he recognized Julius. He left the rifle leaned against the car, drew his pistol, and ran forward. As he approached, he saw the monstrosity wasn't what he had thought. It was actually a herd of pigs. He could make out a rope tied around each pig as a halter. Each was then knotted onto another halter. This in effect created thirty or so pigs unable to move more than a few feet from each other, and unable to move in any direction, with any consistency. “You shot one!” Julius yelled at him.

  “Sorry!” Alex called back. Julius turned away, and chased after the loose one. It must have been tied poorly, and broken free from the swarm of pigs when they panicked. Alex came up to the pig herd, which had calmed somewhat, and the few nearest the one he had shot were nosing it. Closer he could see the ropes were tied in no particular order, the whole thing seeming like a tangled web of swine. Alex couldn't help himself, and began laughing as he watched Julius chasing after the loose pig.

  He was on the ground wheezing, when Julius dragged the pig back to the herd. He tied it back in with a series of knots, most of which were useless. “This is why you went to the pig farm?” He asked incredulous.

  “You shot one!” Julius accused. “That is coming out of your cut, I hope you realize.”

  “I heard it from a mile off, I thought it was some monstrosity. I acted like any sane person would.”

  “We are going to have to get a scope for that rifle, if you are going to insist on shooting things on the horizon. What if it had been children?”

  “In what circumstance would thirty children be tied together in a horde?”Alex asked

  “So they don't get separated obviously.”

  “Was that your intention here, with the pigs?”

  “Well herding them was proving difficult. So I found a pile rope, and decided to try this. The best part is that we could tie a sled or something to them, and we wouldn't even have to walk.”

  “The horde of pigs would just pull us to the next town,” Alex joked.

  “Where we can sell them,” Julius replied, seeming to take him seriously. “I paid two pills a piece for the males and five for the four females I could buy from him.” Julius suddenly rushed over to the dead pig, and looked it over. “Good it's just one of the males.”

  Alex rolled his eyes, and pulled out a combat knife. He cut away the ropes on the dead pig, not even attempting to undo the snarl of knots. “So what's your plan?” He asked.

  “We drive these to the next town where I sell them for a profit. Then I buy something they have a lot of there. Move it to the next town, supply and demand. I was thinking we load the sled up with those boots you found, and sell them too. I'm betting people haven't realized how useful they'll be, but they will understand if I'm selling them.”

  “So what am I there for, if you're doing all the selling?” Alex asked.

  “Protection. You can be the guy with the gun, and then if people think they can get past you...” Julius fiddled with his arm. “I put the latch up, there we go.” He reached out his arm, and his pistol launched out into his hand. “They won't be expecting me,” he said confidently.

  “Sure, what about Philip?” Alex asked. Philip had been coming and going from the house, and always seemed to be reading a book when Alex saw him.

  “He's welcome to come along, I'll ask when we get back. Can you make the sled for the pigs to pull.”

  “I think it'll be more a skiff, but sure.” Alex conceded. He didn't really have any goals for now. Perhaps he could trade some of the drugs, or pigs, for a motorcycle in the next town.

  Alex settled for tying together a few pallets, and attached that to the pig herd. It worked, but not as well as Julius had hoped. If Julius just sat on it the pigs would stop moving, or drift away from the road. Alex convinced him that if they both walked on either side they could keep the pigs moving. They would have to settle for just loading the skiff with supplies. They reached the house, tied the pigs to a lightpost, and headed inside.

***

  The next morning they were ready to set off. The skiff was loaded with food, water, a tent, and several dozen pairs of boots. It would take a little over two days of walking to reach the town Alex figured, and they manage that. Philip had come outside to see them off. “Are you sure you want to stay here?” Julius asked.

  “I think I need some time to sort everything out. A lot has changed, and I don't think I want to always be moving.” Philip replied, putting a hand to his eyepatch.

  “I get it, but who knows what's out there beyond the next hill?”

  “The likely-hood of getting killed. At least if I stay in one place the danger will have to come to me.” Philip replied.

  “Well the offer stands if you ever want to be rich. If I can find something good in Crikside I'll probably come back here. If not, I'll ask someone to come here and let you know we made it,” Julius said.

   “What if there isn't anyone in Crikside?” Alex asked Julius, the thought coming to him.

  “Then we keep on to the next town. There has got to be more people, Charles was able to contact people.”

  “I guess.” Alex turned to Philip. “Keep safe Philip.” Philip nodded back.