Customer Service

Okay, so I haven’t really done much with good ol’ Project H here. I’ve been in a real shitty mood lately and have felt very uninspired, even with all the great leafage. Today, I bring you a quick little one I find appropriate for the Halloween season. I call it Customer Service-

Customer Service

Fuck this shit!

I’ll do it Later!

Arrrgghhhh!!

May I take your order?

Brain Burgers, hold the piss

Finger fries, nails removed

Anything else?

I said fuck this shit

I’ll piss in your food

I’ll fuck your shit up

if I’m in a bad mood

You come back here

and make it yourself

I’ll show you the grill

and the fires from hell

Cut you up into pieces

and grind you into bits

You’ll make burgers so tasty

I’ll need an after-dinner mint

Customer Service is what I do

First you tell me

what you want

then I go and serve you

Coffee

I had to write something about my cat’s unhealthy obsession with coffee. I’m aware that it is bad for him, but you can’t even set a cup down with him locating it and lapping up a drop or two and sometimes (dammit) knocking over the cup and spilling it. So here it is, my food/drink related poem for the day:

Coffee

I like coffee

It wakes me up

Nothing like starting your day

With a nice, big cup

I like it black

And with sugar and cream

I like the White Chocolate Mocha

It tastes like a dream.

Well I like coffee

But there’s someone else too

He’s fuzzy, black and white-

You’ll never guess who

He’s my wonderful cat

and he’s a coffee fiend

when that scent hits his nose

you better watch your cup

’cause that bastard’ll tip it over

and lick it all up.

He’ll go crazy for an hour

and then go to sleep

While I sit there angry

and ready to weep.

I like my coffee

and my cat likes it too

to him it is forbidden

something taboo

To me it is a treat

Something I enjoy

So I hold fast onto my cup

And keep my eye

On the one

I call

Naughty Boy

Spaghetti

I find it easiest to write a quick poem if I’m actually going to make or have already eaten the food I’m thinking about putting together. Or whatever. Here’s a little quickie I wrote. I call it Spaghetti.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti, Spaghetti

toss it in the air

like confetti

Top it off with sauce

and call it a meal

Spaghetti, sauce

Meat and Cheese

Now that sounds

like a good deal

I like spaghetti

I eat it a lot

Complex carbohydrates

is what its got

Boil up some water

and throw it in a pot

It’s so easy to make

I almost forgot

Spaghetti is good

Spaghetti is real

Mix it up with meat,

sauce and cheese

And spaghetti makes

a great meal.

The Forest

I kept my word and woke up super-ass early to get a move on. The forest looked rather tranquil now, not scary or menacing at all. I’m sure those “eyes” were either my imagination or some fireflies. Which to me was a perfectly logical explanation. I shook Mac to get him up. Same thing with Gar, although a little harder, plus he appeared to be sober, which was strange. Mac kind of grumbled and made us our daily vitamin-enhanced miracle-slop.

Gar looked at me with disgust as he ate. Mac just looked annoyed. Gar looked like I had just punched his mom in the face. I decided it was just harsh sobriety and it would kick off a bit later. I shrugged it off. I was enjoying the silent meal for a change, that is until I was startled by a loud voice.

“Mr. Mac! Delivery, sir!” a uniformed geeky-looking kid shouted. These lo-techs sure knew how to adapt. Mac took the letter and the lo-tech kid was gone in a flash.

Mac opened up the letter. “What does it say?” I asked. Mac frowned.

“Nothing good, nothing bad,” he replied, “It just says four more lo-techs were killed, everything beyond the damage zone is suspected to be infected, oh and ‘Be vigilant when entering the forest. Good luck and godspeed.'”

“Shit,” was the only thing that came to mind, so that’s what I said.

Be vigilant. What was that supposed to mean? I thought about it for a minute, but then I just shrugged. I would keep my eyes open, but I was sure it wasn’t going to be anything us three couldn’t handle.

Slowly but surely we finished up our meal, put out our fire and packed up. I was eager to lead us up the hill, and boy was it a climb. The closer we got, the taller the trees appeared. The towered over us so far they appeared to bend with the dome of the earth. I probably should have slowed down and maybe stopped staring upwards because the next thing I bumped in to wasn’t so friendly.

“Halt! ID?” I was prompted by a large, ripped, guard as he pointed a gun at me. His clothes made him look like some kind of revolutionary. Olive drab and a combat rifle. Good thing the other two came not a second too late.

“Halt, both of you!” he shouted at Gar and Mac as they approached. He then proceeded to whistle a series of long, loud notes. Seconds later, two more guards showed up in the same uniform.

“We haven’t got any ID,” I told the guard, hoping he wouldn’t be angry.

“None of you have ID?” One of the guards asked. I looked back at Gar and Mac, hoping they had some ID, they didn’t.

“No, sir,” I replied, “My ID is somewhere on a hard drive, I’m sure.”

“Don’t get smart,” he said sternly in reply. He almost looked as if he were going to sock me with his rifle butt for a split second. I decided to be cooperative and not make any additional comments.

“No sir, we have no ID,” I said once again.

“Restrain them and take them in,” said the ‘roided-out looking guard, “Make sure they are neutralized and decontaminated. Oh and put them in cell D. Cell C is under construction currently. Okay boys, hands behind your backs.” We complied and put our hands behind our backs so we could be restrained. The big guard restrained me. And boy, was that asshole rough as he put those zip ties on.

“Owwww! Too tight! My hand is gonna fall off!” I complained.

“Fine,” He said as he cut off the ties and put new ones on. He put them on much better this time.

“Thanks,” I said. He grunted and shoved me around.

“Okay boys, lets neutralize ’em,” Roids shouted. The next thing I remember was a wooden-sounding CLUNK! I blacked out after that, or rather, was knocked out.

When I came to, I was alone in a locked cell made of logs and sticks. Kind of like a mini-log cabin. Gar and Mac weren’t anywhere to be seen. My head hurt, so I figured I had been clunked on the noggin. My stuff was in the corner of the shelter, about three feet away. The bars were made of wood, but they had been crafted in such a way that they were nearly unbreakable. There was no getting out for now, so I went back to sleep, hoping to get more rest until a guard came in, grabbed my bag, ordered me to get up, put a sack over my head and dragged me out of the cell. I regretted for a second that I wanted to get up so early to get to the forest, but in reality we would have been put in this situation no matter when we left.

Crossing the River to Near the Woods

The salve tingled and made my skin feel buzzy, but even this was nothing compared to what that water looked like it could do. It was filmy and disgusting. Mac and I stood there in ankle-deep water. My feet were still intact, no flesh-eating bacteria or viruses, no chemical burns.

“Damn, Mac, you are truly amazing with these concoctions of yours,” I said, still amazed my feet weren’t melting.

“Don’t mention it my friend. Now lets ford this river,” Mac said as he surged forward into the “water.”

Gar followed slowly behind as I crept forward into the river. Mac was already up to his shoulders.

“I think this is about as deep as it gets!” Mac shouted, “Hurry up guys, we’re almost there!”

I was lagging about ten feet behind him. Gar was another ten feet behind me, stepping haphazardly through the murky water. I quickened my pace as I made my way towards the deep section of the river. I could’ve sworn that something brushed by as I sped through that part.

Gar still lagged behind quite a bit. Mac was already at the other side as I looked back to check on Gar. I was about ten feet from the other side and that bastard was only getting to the deep part. He struggled to get through as if he were stuck in some kind of muck.

“Hey, HEY! God DAMMIT!” Gar screamed and splashed, “Some damn thing’s got ma’ leg!”

Gar panicked and struggled against whatever was restraining him. That was probably a bad idea.

“DON’T MOVE!” Mac yelled from across the river. He grabbed something from his pack, something shiny and some goggles it looked like. Man, this guy had everything. He tossed his glasses in his pack, strapped on the goggles and ran into the water. He swam at superhuman speed. Gar was still being an idiot, struggling mindlessly against his captors. Mac unfolded his shiny thing, a Leatherman tool to be exact, and took out the blade. He took a deep breath and went underwater, cutting whatever was restraining ol’ Gar. Chunks of green, weedy-looking, kind of even fleshy looking matter floated to the surface. Gar ran quickly across to the other side. Before I knew it, Mac emerged from the water and was right next to me, standing ankle deep in the water.

“Holy shit!” Mac exlclaimed, “That was some bad-ass river weed!”

“I’d say. Something in the water I’m sure,” I added.

“Must be. I’ll take note of that,” Mac said, noting it in a small notepad he grabbed from his pack.

He also grabbed us some hotel towels. Random hotels on each. I got to dry off with the Days Inn, Mac got the Holiday Inn towel, which looked much better than mine, Gar, lucky bastard, got the Hilton towel. They all dried us just the same, but the Hilton towel just looked so much more plush. It could have been my imagination too, like a placebo effect.

After we dried off we put our clothes back on and looked towards what was to come. There it was, at the top of the hill, not more than a half mile in the distance: trees. The forest was there and it looked beautiful. It looked that way from the outside, so I needed a closer inspection.

“Everybody ready?” I asked, eager to get going.

Gar went to lie down, he grunted in response. Mac looked at me with those stupid beady eyes. Ugh, we were going to rest here. The sun was about to set, so I went along with it. I was tired too, and after seeing the mutant river-weed, I was wise to go along with the whole rest and go tomorrow idea. I had no idea what was in the woods. None of us did.

“Oh, alright. Let’s camp here tonight. But I’m waking you all up super-ass early tomorrow,” I demanded.

Mac kind of nodded. Mac grunted.

“Well let’s get some firewood!” I said enthusiastically. “Okay,” Mac said as he got up. He didn’t sound as enthused as I, but he helped me pick up some driftwood and start a fire. Once he laid back down though, he was out.

So there I was, lying there. It was barely dark out yet, so I sat back up and stared at the forest and wondered. I wondered a million things. I imagined once again the possibilities. They were a bit different from before since they included the possibility of mutated wildlife. So much for my dreams of utopia. I stared at the fire for a while, then looked back towards the woods. I could see what looked like glowing eyes in the distance. I hoped they were fireflies. I laid back down and stared into the dark sky. This time it was glittered with stars. I stared off into the dark, glittery sky and wondered. Then I slowly closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The Crossing

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!!!!!

Mac woke us up at the butt-crack of dawn banging silverware on his steel cups.

“Time to move out guys, we’ve got a journey ahead!” Mac said excitedly.

Gar rolled over and over, slowly waking up. I got myself up to my feet, annoyed, but ready to take on the task. Mac had three cups of god-knows-what concoction and a breakfast of slop ready for us. Gar managed to find a way to sit up and take a swig from his never-ending flask.

“Gar,” I said, “You’d better leave that baby bottle behind, booze is illegal from here on out.” I chuckled a little.

Gar got a good kick out of that and laughed so hard he almost spit out his booze.

We ate, talked a bit about the weather and what was going on, bitched a bit about how early it was, and eventually finished up and got ready to move.

“Okay guys,” Mac started, “this is it. Hands in.”

It felt like we were some kind of team now. We formed a circle and put our hands in the center. I prayed we would have safe travels as Mac began to speak.

“Okay, now I know we don’t really know each other, but we’ve stuck together so far. We’re a team now, and a strong one at that. There’s no turning back now. Ready?”

I stared at our hands in the center. I could feel our energy flowing throughout. I felt positive, I was up.

” Let’s go on three. One, two, three,” Mac started.

“Let’s go!” We shouted and started to head on our way.

My head was all in the clouds. I had high hopes for this adventure. The highway would be a cinch. The river, no problem. The gray of the world seemed to glow purple for me. We all glowed as we walked on, grinning like idiots.

We were all on the same plane now, we knew this trip would be worthwhile. As we stumbled and strutted across the debris, broken down cars and concrete, I saw something moving.

“Did you guys see that?” I asked, concerned.

“See what?” Mac answered. Gar obviously didn’t see it, but grunted in acknowledgement.

“Over there,” I pointed “Maybe it was nothing. My imagination probably.” I shrugged.

“Let’s keep moving,” Mac insisted.

We moved on through the gray, towards the highway. We could finally see it in the distance as the sun rose up in the sky. It was another hot day. Shade was on the way. The highway drew closer and closer until finally we were there. It was a mess of cars and trucks, some overturned, some looking showroom new, mint even.

“Why don’t we take one of these four-by-fours and haul out of here?” I asked, forgetting about the EMP that destroyed the ECU’s of most of the cars. Mac answered before I could even remember this.

“Remember the EMP destroyed everything. We could find a classic carbureted car, but that would prove difficult. The EPA outlawed the use of carbureted engines not too long ago.”

I sighed. So much for that plan. We crossed the highway and hopped the safety fence. Not more than two hundred yards beyond was the river. The water was low, as Mac predicted.

“There it is!” Mac said out loud, pointing towards the river.

We started to speed up our pace. The river came closer and closer until we were right at its edge. The water looked disgusting. There was green slime floating on the surface. Rainbow colored swirls, like the kind that appears when gasoline enters water flowed all over.

“Is this safe to walk through?” I asked, fearful of what was actually in the water. Mutated fish had to be in there. That water looked more than toxic.

Mac pulled out a jar full of strong smelling powder.

“Take some of this,” He handed me the jar along with a bottle of water to wash it down.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Mostly ginseng. Some other herbs to protect against toxins and radiation,” he answered.

I shrugged. I took a spoon and passed it on. Drank some water. It tasted like ginseng for sure. Very rooty. Some bitter herbs in there too. Gar took his dose, then Mac.

“Okay,” Mac began to speak as he pulled a tin out of his pack, “Now take off your pants and rub this on your lower body, the parts that will be submerged.”

We all stripped down to our grungy undies. There was no time to question this anyways.

“This salve will protect your skin. Keep your pants off– the water’s toxicity will probably disintegrate them anyways– then you’ll have no pants,” Mac told us.

We finished up preparations as Mac stashed our pants in his pack.

“Okay, who’s first?” Mac said, looking at me, then Gar.

I laughed. “You look ready enough, you go,” I insisted.

“Okay then, at the same time. Let’s go,” Mac compromised.

“Sounds fine by me,” I replied.

We stepped towards the river. Gar was close behind us, wary of what would happen, or just too drunk to care. We got closer and closer to the drink. I put my foot towards the water, then Mac did.

“Ready?” Mac asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered back.

I slowly lowered my right foot towards the water. I watched Mac do the same. I hoped Mac’s concoctions worked as our feet entered the disgustingly slimy water.

A Long Day Awaits

The hot sun blazed over us as we traveled over the crumbles of what remained. As we trekked towards the forest-lands, I could only imagine what the pristine forest had to offer. I imagined a utopia of greatness, a clean, untouched land where we could start over and live sustainably. We would have hydroelectric from a stream nearby and machines that run on steam, just like the old days. It would be great, I thought.

“Hey, you guys think the forest is going to be as great as I think?” I asked openly.

“Who knows?” Mac answered, “It could be paradise, or it could be hell. Or something in between, which is what I’m betting on.”

Gar grunted before responding, “I don’ know, but anywhere I can rest my bones is good to me.”

Maybe I was being too optimistic. Who knows? The forest could have been taken over by mutated animals and humans for that matter. I kept silent most of the way as did Mac and Gar. Talk right now was a waste of energy, and our food was scarce. I sure hoped this forest was going to be untouched.

I became absorbed in myself as we walked. The pace we were walking was almost hypnotic. Images of greenery, streams, and plentiful wildlife filled my imagination. Fish jumped along the stream while deer scattered after drinking the cool, clean water. We would live harmoniously among Nature and its beings. Using the plants and animals of the land, we would heal and once again thrive.

Before I knew it, we had stopped. I kept walking before I even noticed that Mac and Gar had stopped.

“Nat!” Mac yelled at me.

I snapped out of my trance. I was back in the world of destruction, where it was grey and clouded. So much for my fantasy. Mac started up a fire and set up camp for the night.

“By late afternoon tomorrow, we should be there,” Mac said.

“But first,” I added quickly “We’ve got to cross the highway– then the river.”

“We’ll be fine,” Mac piped in, “The highway is dead, and the river is low this time of year.”

I had a feeling the crossing of both would be a chore no one of us would want to endure. On the other hand, like Mac said, it could be a cinch. I deleted all of my pre-existing notions and decided to jump into it with no expectations. You know, to reduce my own personal disappointment.

Mac started to cook up some weird concoction of different herbs and god-knows-what. He boiled and stirred it, then poured the fluid into his fancy stainless-steel cups.

“Bottoms up!” Mac exclaimed, raising his cup. We clinked cups and sipped the hot tea. It was bitter and sweet with herbal notes and hints of flowers and flavors of different barks.

“This will help us sleep and give us energy for the big day tomorrow,” Mac told us, “Drink up, we’re heading out early in the morning.”

Gar looked nearly passed out at this point as usual. I stayed up a bit and chatted with Mac about the science behind this disaster. It was nothing he hadn’t told me before: Seismic probe, EMP, two viral bombs. Something about a government test or screw-up or something. Did these get into the wrong hands? Or was it the government who was completely at fault? None of this really mattered, but I felt the need to get answers. My whole world had been destroyed and I wanted to know exactly how and why.

My thoughts drifted a bit and Mac’s voice became garbled. I mumbled something like “I’m going to sleep” before I laid my head down. I sure hoped Mac wasn’t planning some evil scheme by drugging us. Besides, we had nothing of use to him anyways.

I woke up suddenly in a sweat that night. I became paranoid because of the thoughts I had before bed. Before I woke up, I had dreamlike images of a dark figure standing over us, appearing very malicious in nature. I looked around. Mac was there, sleeping. I relaxed. Gar was there too. The drink was just a sedative. I calmed. The drink’s active ingredients began to kick in. I looked around again, no dark figures. I relaxed more and fell back asleep. Tomorrow would be a long day.

Slop and Poker

“Gar, get your ass over here!” I shouted in his direction. He grunted. I walked over there and gave him a good slap on the shoulder and helped him up.

The slop was hot and ready. Mac was still perma-grinning it over by the stove as he slopped the slop into his fine stainless steel bowls.

I inhaled deep smelling the slop. It smelled kind of like a meat-jello. Sounds gross, but it tasted alright. Then again, any food was a feast at this point.

I tried to imagine Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with my family: Prime rib, seafood, turkey, cranberry, stuffing– Just imagining the food and good times of the holidays made me ten times hungrier. That, and it didn’t make the slop taste any better. You really couldn’t polish this turd of a dish.

We finished eating in silence. Like men. Grunting and belches. No silverware. Sloppy. Okay maybe it was in silence because everyone was out to save any energy they had. More likely it was because everyday we were starving. Gar drank a bit of his booze, got up, and headed back to the lowly bed-corner.

“Oh, hey Gar,” I said, holding back a burp, “We’re gonna head out here in a bit.” Mac dug out some cards. Gar grunted. “Mac’s got some cards,” Gar turned around, I waved him over, “let’s play a few games and then head out.”

He grunted and sat down to play a few games. Texas hold ’em this time. Gar’s least favorite game. He was more into old school games like rummy and gin. I barely even knew how to play either, so I was glad to play something I was familiar with.

Mac dealt the cards out. We ‘bet.’ The flop. The turn. The river. Gar wins with a flush. Bullshit he doesn’t like this game. Gar laughed heartily as he collected the ‘pot.’ Gar won, Mac won. I got all the shitty cards, off suited. Dueces and tres. Maybe a Jack here and there. I’d win a random game here or there, but Mac and Gar dominated the table. Flip, flop, flam — Game over, we gotta get going.

I folded up my cards. “Well we better head out guys,” I suggested. Gar and Mac agreed. We packed up quickly and moved out, once again walking over debris. Everything looked the same: gray and crumbled.

“Mac, how far ’till we get to the Forest?” I asked, anxious to see some new scenery.

“Well,” Mac answered, “According to my maps and calculations, we have about a day and a half journey until we get there.”

“Good,” I said. Gar grunted and took another swig. Was that flask bottomless or what? Gar flashed his rotten teeth and laughed his creepy laugh.

“I gon’ go live in da woods! HA!,” Gar said drunkenly, laughing.

Mac and I looked at each other and shrugged. It was time to get up and head out.

I was hoping the woods would be just as imagined them: Free of disaster and pristine. Beautiful. Beauty was hard to come by here, but I’m sure you could have found some beauty in the crumbled remains of a once thriving city.

The sun was almost at its apex when we left, shining upon us. Even though my luck in poker left me something to be desired, as I felt the sun shine on my shoulders, I felt like the luckiest man alive.

A Disaster of a Morning

I tried to sleep that night over the droning of Mac’s voice, but it cut through everything. I tossed and turned. Mac played his game. Eventually I drifted of somewhere in between Mac explaining the whole disaster situation and him fumbling around in his bag for who-knows-what.

When I woke up I could sense something was wrong. Not with me, all my items were on my person and in my bag. My medicine pouch I nearly forgot about was secure around my neck. I’m almost betting it was this small item that had been keeping me out of trouble this whole time. It was like I could sense things others couldn’t. Either way, bad fortune hadn’t hit me yet, but soon enough, I was sure it would.

Mac was frantic. He dug through his bag.

“Where is it! Where did they go!?” he shouted, looking for a specific item. Or two. The sisters were gone.

I got up to see what all the ruckus was about. I rubbed my eyes awake and stretched.

“What’s the matter? What happened?” I asked.

“Those… Those BITCHES!” He stammered.

“Okay, calm down, I’m sure we can figure this out,” I said calmly in attempts to control the situation.

“They stole four bottles of painkillers and took most of my healing salve. Got like half a tin left only. Dammit,” Mac said. He was pissed.

I looked around the “apartment.” Gar was still passed out, bottle in hand. Now it wasn’t him I wanted to strangle. It was Mac this time. I thought he was a stupid idiot for having trusted these two, and now he paid the price. We all paid the price.

“Looks like they just packed up and left,” I commented.

“Stole my shit and got the hell out,” Mac added.

“Hey man, I’m sorry. It’s a tough break. But look where we are,” I waved my arm to the horizon, “everything has been destroyed. Even people’s values. It’s all about survival now. You can’t just keep helping people out,” I dragged on.

“I guess you’re right,” Mac said softly.

“I mean, we are an exception, we’re looking to build a team. They had a team already set up. Hell, they probably spotted us from miles. They had a pretty good operation set up there,” I rambled.

Mac sighed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find another crumbled pharmacy somewhere. Then you can loot the hell outta it. Sound good?” I asked, trying to make old Mac feel better about the situation.

“I, I thought they actually liked me…” Mac dribbled out.

“Yeah, me too,” I said in a sarcastic tone, “Look. They knew you had something they wanted, so they took it. They just played you.” I said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Mac said glumly.

“You should be happy we aren’t all dead. I guess those chicks weren’t that bad,” I added.

“True. We are alive,” Mac said in a happier tone.

“Alright, I’ll wake up Gar. We should make some of that breakfast slop and head out,” I said.

I went over and slapped Gar on the shoulder. He grunted and slowly woke up. He looked annoyed, grunted, and laid back down.

“Alright, Gar,” I told him, “We’re makin’ some grub so get up or get none.”

He grunted again, putting his hand over his eyes. Mac rummaged through his bag to find ingredients for his slop.

“Shit! Goddammit!” He shouted. I knew immediately what had happened.

“Those bitches stole our food!” Mac exclaimed angrily.

But we were still alive, Mac. We might have been hungry, lonely, confused, or just plain lost, but we were alive. Besides, he was probably just frantic about losing his other stuff. I decided to take a look just to be sure this wasn’t the case.

“Let me take a look,” I said opening up the bag. There were weird cans and bottles of all sorts. Some with labels, some without labels. I spotted a can that looked like there was food in it. The can was stamped “C-1500-R.”

“Here,” I grabbed the can and showed it to Mac, “What’s this?”

“Oh thank God!” Mac said, thrilled to not have another thing stolen from his life.

“One-thousand five-hundred calories of slop never looked so sexy,” Mac said, caressing the can.

That was kind of odd, but hey, I was hungry so I didn’t care what Mac considered sexy.

The coals on the stove were still hot. Mac cracked open the can with a grin, slopped it into one of his pans (which he was lucky to still have), and put it on the stove. Mac just sat near the stove and smiled.

“What are you smilin’ at?” I asked.

“Oh nothing,” Mac said, “Things are just looking up.

The delicious smell of the slop filled the air as I watched Mac with his permagrin. I couldn’t help but crack a grin myself.

Mac Attack

Now we were on a slightly different path, helping T and D, or was it Tea and Dea? I’ll go with Tea and Dea from here on out. We walked and walked while the girls talked and talked. They talked frantically, mostly worrying about friends and family they haven’t seen yet. From what I understood it was Tea, Dea, and Fee, three sisters. Fee was on the search for their mother, they had a little ‘place’ to stay with a bed and a stove and some food. At the least, I hoped we could score a free meal for our good deed.

Mac chit-chatted a bit with the girls too, mostly talking technical stuff that the girls clearly knew nothing about. And on and on with his knowledge, his know-how. It was boring. I stayed quiet. I was kind of pissed that we had to walk out of the way damn near five miles (probably less than one, actually) to help these chicks out. Plus it got me all wrapped up into thinking about my wife. I knew she was alive, somewhere, but I just couldn’t find her. Nothing could stop that woman. She was probably looking for me, too. It was frustrating not being able to communicate with her, but I could feel her energy in the air. I just couldn’t lock it down.

“Here it is!” Tea exclaimed. It was pretty much as I thought: A makeshift shed-type building. A bed and a couple of cabinets. There was a well put together stove in the corner. Whoever made it knew how to make a stove. The coals were red-hot and ready for cooking. Tea grabbed a can of some type of pasta and slopped in into a pan, putting in on the stove. Dea tended to her wounds, covering it with a clean cloth.

“So, where’s your sister?” I asked. Gar laughed. I hoped Gar wasn’t going to say something stupid.

“Well,” she said in a semi-bitchy tone, “if you were listening, Fee is gone searching for the rest of our family.”

“Oh,” I said stupidly, “that’s right, I remember hearing about that.”

I kind of wanted to get going. These were ungrateful bitches. I could even tell they probably weren’t going to offer us any food. I wouldn’t blame them if they did, they didn’t know us. We did help them out though…

“We don’t really have enough to go around, sorry,” Tea said. Sure enough.

“Well,” I started to say “we probably should get going.”

“Nat, lets just stay here for the night. We can head out in the morning. I’m pooped,” Mac suggested.

Gar laughed and grunted drunkenly. He wouldn’t care either way as long as he had his bottle.

I shrugged. “Fine,” I said as I put my stuff down and settled in. Mac looked excited to see a member of the opposite sex. He just wanted to talk and talk and talk and listen to these bitches jabba jabba jabba. Go nuts, Mac.

The sun was burning a firey orange-red hue. Purples on the outside. It was amazing. Mac bent down to observe Dea’s wound, rubbing more salve on it. Gar found himself on the bed, a comfy spot, and sucked his bottle. He’d pass out in a minute. We’d probably hear his drunken chuckles- him laughing at some random part of a conversation.

I pulled up a ripped up cushion and laid down.

“G’night ladies and gents,” I said before I hit the floor.

“Going to sleep already?” Mac said.

“Yeah, I’m pretty tired man,” I replied, closing my eyes.

I imagined Mac being in heaven. Two girls that would listen and pay attention to him! Oh, they’d have a time, I was sure. I was also sure Mac would be on the fast track to getting slapped in the face, especially when I kept seeing that damn grin on his face. I thought about my wife again for a minute, I could feel her presents in a forest. A large evergreen forest. I wanted to go West. I pondered the idea of waking up early and just leaving. By then Mac would probably have learned his lesson. Or not. I prayed for our safety before my consciousness left my mind. The last thing I remember was Mac talking about some research he was doing before the disaster. There were loads of “Really?” and “That’s amazing!” Those ladies sure sounded interested. I had a feeling they were after something else…