I looked through the store windows as we moved down the ‘one-road town’s… singular road. Most of the shops were empty and long-abandoned; they had “Closed” signs that looked to have been placed sometime in the last half-century. The only ones that looked like they had seen foot traffic in the last century was ‘Jean’s Central Store and Compounding Pharmacy’, Darling’s Antiques, a suspiciously well-adorned clothier, and some sort of diner that only had a sign that said ‘Food’.

As we crossed one street I saw a free-standing building, a farmer’s supply store. My barely healed wounds made that a priority to visit. I was running out of amoxicillin. Would that help a zombie bite? Otherwise it felt like my base constitution had gotten stronger. I was definitely healing faster than normal, not that I had a wealth of pre-apocalypse injuries to compare it to, but if someone was asking, then yeah, I was healing faster.

We were running toward the only two storied building in town, something like a school with a big auditorium alongside it. Before we even got close, big shocker, there was already another fucking gun pointed at me. I turned on a dime and punched through a plywood-boarded up doorfront.

“Shit! That boy was quick!” I heard them yell, then a question half-shouted from the girl as to why I ‘did that’.

I called back out through broken door as I looked around, making sure to keep the entrance in my sight at all times, “Pretty fucking obvious if you ask me.”

It was a shitty old building, I had to hold off the sneeze as a nuclear bloom of dust refused to settle after my entrance. I kept my shotgun aimed at the door. Fuck these hicks.

Order of operations. Hole up here, secure it, wait for near sunrise, loot everything I can find, then get the fuck out of here. Oh yeah, I was definitely looting them blind on the way out.

“What’s obvious?” Huh? It took a moment for me to recall the conversation we’d just had, I’d been on solo-apocalypse-survival mode, not conversational mode. Ah, this chick was oblivious. Likely her grandfather was responsible for her still being alive at all. Suddenly, I wanted to be alone again.

“You new or something? Tell the old timers that if they want a fucking shootout, they’ll get one.”

She came inside to a rash of protests sounding from outside.

“Can you come out of here already?”

I eyed her, “You can stop right there,” then I found a chair over to the side. I moved over while keeping track of her, no telling if she had a pistol behind her or what. I sat down and put down my shotgun as I raised my pistol.

“If you want to make a sudden move, then you can and it better be right back out the door.”

She slowly raised her hand and walked further inside.

“You’re not going to shoot me are you?”

“I don’t know, do you have a weapon on you?”

She nodded and my hand tensed, my finger slipped down into the trigger guard.

“Can I take it out? It’s behind my waistband.”

“Fuck no you can’t.” I stood up, “turn around.”

She hesitated a second but whatever she must have seen in my eyes shut that down.

I left my shotgun against the chair, padded her waist for another one then grabbed the pistol and stepped back. 9mm and not even a glock. Shit, of course it wouldn't be a .45 because that was the heavy ass ammo I’ve been carrying with me.

I sat back and kept it in my right hand, my left hand was getting pretty comfortable with the .38.

“Can I turn around again?”

I was tempted just to tell her to leave, and maybe if I could have separated myself from this situation entirely with a newly looted .45, I might have. But she didn’t, “Sure, don’t be stupid though.”

She turned then looked down at my hands, I shamelessly didn’t care.

“Make sure no one else comes in.”

“No one else will come in.”

“That’s not what I said.”

She rolled her eyes then went to the door and yelled for no one to come in and that she was fine.

“Good enough?”

I nodded, “As long as no one else comes in, then yeah.”

She nodded and smiled a bit, “Can I sit down?”

I looked around, “If you can.”

It looked like she realized it was an easier than said thing, she eventually settled on the display ledge near the front. We sat in comfortable silence for a while, comfortable for me since I didn’t care much. I was getting tired though and I needed to get this moving regardless if I was going to camp down in this building or have to find and secure another one before nightfall, “So? What’s the plan here, girl?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

She snorted, “Girl? You’re not that much older than me, grandpa.”

I waved the 9mm dismissively, “No thanks, I’ve had enough experience with people you’ve called grandpa.”

She laughed then turned a bit serious, “I am sorry about that and so is he-”

“He didn’t seem that apologetic.”

She responded with a dismissive wave of her own, “You know how… they are. He probably thought he didn’t have anything to apologize for considering he didn’t even hit you.”

I pointed her, what I assumed to be, Beretta directly at her head, “Should I see how well you take a close call?”

She paused, I assumed that she could tell that I wasn’t totally joking, I continued, “Maybe you’ll start to realize how fucked it all is.”

I saw the fear instantly drain from her face, “You don’t think I know this is fucked?”

I pulled the pistol away from her and bitterly laughed, “Spoiled rotten, probably had gramps do all the heavy lifting.” That seemed to hit a nerve.

“Fuck you. I was blind and had to listen to Jo- my mom’s dog fucking murder my mom and grandma and then I had to murder him while blind.”

Maybe the wrong nerve.

I didn’t know what to say but honestly, it sounded terrible and all, I mean really awful, but it wasn’t like I’ve been on fucking vacation myself.

I settled on a sigh.

“Right, so the world sucks and, you know what, the shit you’ve gone through, the shit I’ve gone through? It’s all pointless, you know that right? All the good people went to Heaven and we’re stuck rummaging around in the shit.”

I sat back, that had been rummaging around in the back of my head for a while, why had it come out now?

“You sound depressed.”

Maybe it was just nice to talk to another person since this had gone down. I laughed, “No shit, I mean what’s the point? What’s the fucking point of it all?”

“To survive?”

She was looking at me strangely. Hearing constant animal hate and slurs for the last week-plus had been getting to me. I hadn’t even reacted that much when her old man had, maybe, misfired.

“Survive and…. Do what? Live another day, murder Fido and Rover as they’re taking a shit so they don’t rip out my throat in the middle of the night?”

“Don’t you have a family? A girlfriend?”

Was this bitch for real? Asking about a girlfriend? I stopped myself, I felt the doom spiral now start to settle in a bit. She was probably just being friendly.

It chapped my ass a bit, but she did have a point. Damn, I was a shitty son. Check on my parents? Yeah, I probably should do that. They were still in LA though and I REALLY couldn’t even start to imagine how shitty the city had gotten. Too many people, too many pets. Fuck. I should go check on them.

“So…?”

Oh? She was still here? “Ah, yeah my folks are in LA,” she winced sympathetically, “still, I should check on them if it hasn’t sunken into the sea or some shit.”

She nodded, “I couldn’t imagine what you’ve gone through to get here, do you want to talk about it?”

I studied her at that, “Do you?”

“No… but I think it would be helpful. I don’t know what you’ve gone through but if it makes you feel better, everyone is dealing with the same stuff. For me, I was visiting from college-”

“Freshman-psych major. Though you're kind of old for that.”

The scandalized look she gave told me I had been right on target.

“Old?? I took a year off before college and how’d… how’d you know?”

I laughed, feeling a small portion of the tension release. Damn, I kind of missed talking with people. Even in apocalyptic conditions I could tell that she was pretty. Talking to a good-looking girl was nice despite any supernatural conditions.

I didn’t have any plans for any of that or anything, Duck was still alive though I wasn’t sure how ‘Raptured to Heaven’ counted on whether or not it was technically cheating. Despite how that calculation turned out, it would be much too soon for that. Again, I didn’t have any plans on doing or pursuing anything, but who didn’t like having an attractive girl that was taking on the burden of moving the conversation along?

“It’s kind of obvious,” I started ticking my fingers, not even realizing that I had holstered my .38 and set the 9mm onto my lap.

“First, you said ‘I couldn’t imagine’ and most people without any training say ‘I know how you’re feeling’ or some crap like that. Second, a young, attractive girl who’s from this town and well-spoken? Definitely college or some sort of crazy or complex there. Third, I recognize that you’re trying to talk me down…”

“You think I’m attractive? I’m not going to sleep with you. AND did you call me crazy? I’m not crazy.”

I put my hands back on the 9mm in my lap, “A) It’s just an objective observation not a compliment, and whoever says they’re not crazy is definitely crazy. Plus you’re a psych major, I mean, come on.”

She glared at me, “You said ‘A)’, what’s ‘B)’?”

“Huh, I guess there’s no B.”

“I liked you better when you were depressed and moody.”

“Don’t worry, it’s the apocalypse, my next nihilistic-”

“Breakdown?”

“Psychological crisis,” She nodded sagely at that, “is probably just around the corner,” I managed not to roll my eyes.

“You okay to come back with me?”

I saw her eyes dart to my hands, I realized that my hands were tight on the pistols.

“Are guns going to be pointed at me by some old dickheads?”

She looked uncertain.

“What’s your plan?”

“Well, until about 5 minutes ago it was basically don’t get murdered by rural hicks or Fido, but I guess spend some time here then try and make my way to LA.”

“You’re from there?”

I nodded, “My folks are there, I’d like to check on them… even if… well ya know.”

She gave a distracted nod, “Did they… have pets?”

I had thought about that, “Yeah, my mom had a little shitdog. My dad never got along with it though so I don’t think he was slow on the uptake…”

I must have had a look on my face. She added, “but…”

My head rocked up and down itself, “But yeah, who knows? I gotta check either way. So, is that good enough? I’m not gonna steal shit, or attack anyone. I have coffee, ammo, and maybe some other stuff to trade.” I couldn’t help myself from laughing, “Damn, shit like this kind of makes you wish for a nuclear winter.”

“Did… did you just quote Fallout? Really? In the apocalypse you quoted Fallout?”

"On three..."

"New Vegas." "Fallout 5."

"I knew something was wrong with you," then I shrugged, “Thermonuclear wa…” I paused and my eyes opened.

She nodded, “Don’t want to jinx it. Smart.”

That’s just what we fucking needed. No, I wouldn’t push my luck. I took out the magazine and popped the bullet out of the chamber by pulling the slide back, then refed it into the magazine before popping it back in. I held it by the barrel out toward her.

“Here.”

“You’re not going to keep it?”

“Plenty of dead people to take shit from, and since heaven’s actually real and presumably so is hell, I don’t need to start stealing from living people. Well, not until I have to.”

My words seemed to send her mind off a bit, into the distance. She snapped back to look at me, then down to my shirt, and tilted her head.

"I luuuuuuv cats?"

I filled my lungs through my nose as I closed my eyes for a long-second, I breathed out.

"No. No I don't."