I stared at his body for a few seconds, contemplating what to do, then walked over and bent down.
“Are you ok?” I said in a low voice.
I put my hand on his shoulder and waist to roll him over, only then realizing his head was not turned in a normal direction possible for a human, maybe an owl, but not a human. He was dead, I just had to make sure, I had already expected it, but still, I had to check.
Sam was sniffing at the man, and I shoved her away a bit. “Sit,” I said to her and she sat down, I did not want her near him, it seemed disrespectful somehow, for her to be poking her nose at his body.
Where was his gun? It was, I’ll admit, what pushed me to go over to him, if he was dead, he would have no use for his gun.
I did not like, that it was that thought, that made me go over to him, but with the day I had been having, I wanted something better than a knife, to protect myself, from what, I did not know. From the look of this guy, it had not been of much, if any use.
I checked his belt, it was an old-style belt, but I guess that went with his outfit, the gun was not in the holster. I got up and walked around a bit, trying to see if it was anywhere on the ground.
I found a leg, still with its pants leg on, and a shoe… Who did that belong to, I looked back at the broken neck guy, and then out to the body I could see on the lawn, both had two legs. This was from a third person. I stood there looking down at it, part of me wanted to touch it to make sure it was real, and after a few seconds, I just shook my head and continued my search for the gun.
I found the gun, not too far from the leg, it looked undamaged, it was an old revolver, a very old one, a Colt maybe. I was not a gun enthusiast, I have never, well… had never held a real gun before, they never interested me, and the only knowledge I had of guns was from games and movies.
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I tried to figure out how to get the barrel out, I wanted to check how many bullets were left, this thing was dirty and full of sod, and after a few seconds I gave up, this was not the place to figure out how this gun worked. I walked back to the body, he had a gun belt with bullets, as well as a leather pouch, I also found some matches and a pocket watch.
‘This guy took his cosplay seriously,’ I thought, everything from his boots, pants, vest, coat, and so on, looked like they came out of an old western.
I was about to leave the watch but thought about it for a second, if my phone was damaged or ran out of power, I could use this to tell time, and since I was already robbing a dead man…
I put the watch up to my ear, it was ticking, and the seconds timer was spinning when I opened it, the time read about 1.22 from where the hands were pointing. That gave me pause, over 15 hours since last night, if the watch was showing the correct time. I found a can of peaches in his coat, I guess I was not the only one looking for food, was he the one that had broken into those apartments?
I found myself looking up at Sam for a second, she was sitting and staring at me, no she was not sitting, she was taking a dump, on the edge of the lawn, 2 meters away from a dead body.
I just looked at her, dumbfounded.
“Are you seriously taking a dump in front of a dead man, while staring at me?” I found myself saying to her in an angry whisper.
She just continued to stare at me, while a big dump landed on the grass, I just sat there on my knees, with a dead body in front of me, staring at her.
‘What the fuck am I doing,’ I thought to myself, she is a dog, it's me, that's uncomfortable with this.
“Strange thoughts, in strange times,” I mumbled to myself.
I put everything but the watch and matches in my backpack, those went into my pocket. I looked over at Sam, who had already finished relieving herself, and I looked down at it.
‘I don’t have a bag, to pick that up’ I thought, then realizing it did not matter.
I got up and looked out at the body on the lawn, the lawn was big, larger than a football field, and the body was lying almost in the center. I did not want to go out to check it, the area was too open, and I did not want to be seen by the troll.
Troll… that thought, seen by a troll, I... my head will not accept it, I saw it, I saw what it did, I ran for my life, and still, when I think back on it, my brain tries to categorize that information into watching a movie or playing a game on my computer, I don't know what to do, I just want to get out of here, find someplace safe, eat and sleep, just... sleep.
I looked down at Sam, and took her leash, “Let’s go,” I said to her.