Part 1: The Runaway

Chapter 1: The Southbound Stranger

Crunch.

The gravel under her feet gave way as her shoes pressed forward. She wore a black head covering and jacket, specially made to prevent the beating sun from eating away at her flesh. She had chosen red pants and white shoes to go with the black attire. The day was hot, even hotter than the last time she’d been here.

She proceeded now into a more populated area, after walking nearly a mile to get here. It was early when she stopped yesterday, as she’d chosen not to set up her camp in town. When she’d left Winchester the city had about two-hundred people in it, it seemed less now. It was silent. Houses were either gone or boarded up, and tumbleweeds traveled past her, headed north with the winds.

Would she be seen as a friend here still? Was anyone she had known here? Was ANYONE here?

Winchester was made up of only a few blocks of buildings, and she was pretty deep into main street now. Everything was sand covered; abandoned. The sun was beating down relentlessly on everything. The streets were shattered like glass, the lone traffic signal hung in its intersection, withered away with time.

To her left was a place she knew, a barber shop she’d been taken to as a child, now empty, cracks in the road filled with shards of glass from the shattered windows. It had been a place of work for some, but for them, it had been the studio for their art. A dream; a passion; a burden; a heartbreak. And then it fell to ruin.

Across the street was a bar, still standing, but boarded shut. From the rotted bar stools and empty tables behind a door barred by wood warped and cracked by the endless heat, a hollow remnant echoed.

She let her hand feel the rough texture of the brick building on her right. It was abandoned before she left. A new change however, was the next plot of land. An older gentleman named Mr. Wright lived in a small square house there. Or at least he had. The building was ash now, and the soot from the accident had long since blown away. Tears were coming to her mind, the sight bringing up memories of Reno.

Ahead of her was a familiar place, the Winchester 7Eleven, still faintly displaying it’s color-scheme and logos. Hanging over the roof were a set of solar panels, clean.

Someone was living there.

“Oh thank heavens.” She jokingly mumbled. Jetting towards the door with a new speed, she parted the glass doors and was greeted by the rush of cold AC and the familiar two tone ding of walking into a 7Eleven anywhere in the country, she presumed anyway.

“Take your solar gear off, stranger.” A woman behind the cash register said in a somewhat unfitting deep voice. She gestured to a coat hanger with four sets of gear already on it. Two unfamiliar girls were cooking some kind of meat on an old roller machine. One of the girls had blonde hair and was missing an eye, the other had dark hair and looked Asian. The shopkeeper was probably a little older than 30, her hair red and skin fair.

The stranger walked the space, likely where the shelves formerly lived, but now cleared out. The store still had it’s soda and Slurpee machines though, the latter was covered with dust, plastic yellowed with time.

She reached the hooks and began undoing the main jacket first, shedding the garment. From under the covering that protected it, her clammy and fair skin peeked out. She wore a yellow tank top under the protective black jacket. Next she removed her goggles and head covering, a long braid of dirty blonde hair falling to her backside. She looked back to the shop-keep now, she was the only person in the room wearing a mask.

“Hang on.” The older woman said as she approached the stranger with a flashlight. She grabbed her face and shined the light painfully into the strangers’ eyes.

“You’re fine, you can take that stupid mask off. no one here has the ‘34.” The stranger still had stars in her eyes as she unfastened the mask and added it to her other gear. With her face now exposed it was clear she was in her late 20s.

“What brings you to Winchester, stranger?” The shopkeeper asked.

“I’m not necessarily a stranger. I was born here. My name’s DD.”

“Welcome home then, DD. I’m Tess.” The shop-keep extended her hand at DD, and she took it for a firm handshake.

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“Sorry for the flashlight test, can’t be too careful.” Tess rubbed the back of her head.

“It’s fine, normally I’m the one doing it to other people.”

“Come sit.” Tess began walking to a back corner between the soda machines and where the clerks stood. The 7Eleven was actually remarkably clean, considering the state of the town, and the world really.

“Do you work here?” DD asked as she pulled a chair out from the table with a slight screech.

“I maintain this place with another lady, Vick.” DD’s face cringed abruptly at the name. “Take it you have some history with Vick?” Tess looked a bit curious.

“You could say that. She’s my mother.” DD moaned.

“Oh! You’re Darla!”

“DD.” The girl harshly corrected.

“People still talk about you from time to time. Hah ha! The computer whiz!”

“Yeah, that’s what they said when I was a kid.”

“We ain’t got many computers in Winchester. I get why you left. Vick said you were going to help people.”

“Well it ended up backfiring. Over, and over.” DD recalled the years of grunt work. “Who else talks about me still?”

“The boys who run the radio station do.”

“You mean someone is still using the school’s radio tower?” DD chuckled a bit thinking about the outdated radio station from her school. Last she saw it, the tower was leaning hopelessly. They even referred to it as the radio tower of Pisa.

“Yes, that’s where the music comes from in this town.” Tess pointed to a ceiling speaker. The 7Eleven was down to about half it’s ceiling tiles, and the rest were some shade of discolored. DD hadn’t even noticed the music quietly playing since she’d been here. It was a hit song from the early 2000s, by Avril something. DD had little interest in popular music. The song ended and a tinny voice came over the little speaker.

“You’re listening to 101.1FM KICK, Winchester’s only radio station. The time is 1500, the temperature is 125, ‘n coming up we’ve got another nonstop hour of pop music from the first 28 years of the 2000s because it’s all we have! This is one of your two dedicated hosts, Trent! Keeping Winchester kickin’ it.”

Trent. DD’s heart skipped a beat. He was still here?

“So DD, why did you come back?” she broke the spell DD’d been under.

“Things just never worked out anywhere. I had nowhere else to go.”

“Really? Everyone talked about you like you were going to change the world.”

“Stop talking like that. I’m not that special, that’s all I ever learned. So what if I know a bit about computers? It never amounted to anything!” DD let her head fall to the table, any emotional walls now down. “I’m useless.”

“Oh hun, I’m sure that’s not true.” Tess pat her back a bit before getting up. She walked to the back of the store for a bit and returned with a shiny bag.

“Potato chips?” DD asked. “Are you sure?”

“I can’t promise they are fresh, but someone has to eat them eventually. You know they don’t make them like this anymore.” She was right. DD couldn’t recall the last time she’d had factory made chips. They weren’t as healthy as handmade ones, but there was something calming about old world junk food.

“Next you’ll tell me you have soda.” DD smiled a little.

“God I wish.”

“Employee Tess, please return to work.” A mechanized voice said. The pair looked up to the speakers again.

“Shut up machine!” Tess yelled, then turned back. “It’s just the automated manager. All the stores used to have them. They monitored things like if employees were not moving or cleaning enough and reported it to corporate. It’s totally integrated with the store so I can’t turn it off without turning the power off.”

“Yikes.” DD knew about these sorts of things, but it was always jarring to be reminded they existed.

“Anyway hun, don’t worry too much about coming home. So what if things didn’t work out for you up north, it just means you’re meant for something else. Plus everyone in town assumed you were dead because of what happened in Reno. They’ll be elated to see you alive after all this time, and frankly, drop dead gorgeous at that.” Tess smiled.

“Was that a flirt? What terrible timing.” DD let out a snorting laugh which Tess joined in on as well.

“Sorry. I’ve been thinking about it the whole time.” Tess was now blushing a little.

“I’m straight unfortunately.”

“Damn.” The pair smiled and laughed a bit more. They shared a glass of water from the soda machine after. Apparently it was all it could serve.

“Do you want me to wake Vick up?” Tess asked.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to see mom.”

“You have to eventually.” Tess patted DD’s back before vanishing behind the ‘employees only’ door. DD was certain her mother wouldn’t have been either alive or still here. Same for Trent she supposed. The two people she wasn’t ready to talk to the most, possibly in the entire world. What would she even say after years of radio silence?

Tess pulled the door open again and a short frail woman with brown eyes locked eyes with DD. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“Hi mom.”

To Be Continued.