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| Hero 13 - Illustration by JJD |
It had stopped raining for a little bit.
"YOU ARE WHAT?" My irritability had been bubbling forth for a day or two as every older tourists I passed stopped to lecture me. I would always be hostile in return and they would be, 'shocked' and 'promised to pray' for me since I was such an awful person. I wanted to wreck some zombies with a cricket bat. I had had enough. I didn't use the F word to their face - what more did they want from me?
Hero 13 reached out a foot and booted me in the leg. "So
what do you think?" He said. I nodded dumbly. My emotional energy was sitting on zero. "Yeah" I said, "Get the hell out of here while you can"
Then from around the corner stepped the Commander and I realized he had heard the, "get the hell out of here while you can" comment. Ops. He walked on business as usual leaving us alone.
We were walking in the Rose Garden. For some reason I just never paid it a
attention but Hero 13 had chosen this spot to unveil his plan to go to Ft. Rilea where it turns out a
rather attractive marathon runner needed his help with pacing and training. Uh hu. Rilea was trading us a head set for our runner, but now we would have no fast or long range runners. I was training. I was trying. I had a long way to go. "So when do you leave in a week or two?" I asked mildly wallowing in misery.
"NO 5. Tonight. There is a transport to Rilea tonight and I'm going to leave." Hero sighed. "Here this is for you" he reached into his pocket and pulled forth a rubber ball. The ball I stole from him all the time so I could bounce it against the concrete wall of our barracks for hours.
*** Hero 13 Leaves***
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| Runner 5 |
I was in my bunk slamming the pink rubber ball against the concrete again and again ever angrier at the world and wondering if Hero hadn't had the right idea - maybe I should leave. No one here even liked me and I kinda sucked at running compared to Rilea's people. A knock came at the door. No one ever visited me, Hero 13 sure - he was popular. He had charisma to spare, but not me. "Come In" I yelled. The ball froze in my hand as the Commander came in the door. 'Oh' God - that comment I made earlier.. I knew I was in trouble.
"Can I come in?" He asked. He had a bottle in his hand that looked suspiciously like tequila.
"Oh' sure, sure, here please sit down" clearing off our only chair. He set down with two old dixie cups and poured us both a drink. I was in shock - the Commander DRANK? REALLY?
"We need to talk" he said. "Privately." Oh' hell another condescending lecture. No I won't ever deprive fat old bats of M&M's no matter how much in trouble the human race is in, I promise. "First, I'm sorry to hear about Runner 13" he said formally. I couldn't move, I was waiting for the boom. "Hero" I muttered under my breath.
"As of this evening I am no longer Commander of this base. In fact I am um' confined to these quarters as the rank of Runner." I dropped my ball into my lap my jaw hinged open eyes in disbelief.
The Commander a runner? Bunking in our dorm? What?
"You're bunking with me?" I asked thinking there was a joke involved getting me back for hating on tourists.
"For a few days at least, yes, which is why I brought the peace offering." He took a gulp out of the cup. I had never drank anything harder than a wine cooler so I eyed my cup like snake poison but also considered maybe I needed a drink right now very badly.
"What happened?" I asked in a small voice wondering if that was polite. Commander officially or not he was intimidating and now he was my BUNKIE? No more rude conversations before bed with Hero 13 or walking around half naked since neither of us cared - nor cared if we showered. We were good bunkies. Had been good bunkies.
"Council took a vote, Ethridge Carlson is now in charge." He said modestly like it was a perfectly sound and reasonable event.
"WHAT? He's a blowhard - that guy is a consummate bullshit artist." And he was right down to his brown suspenders. The Commander started laughing, and then laughed harder and finally I smiled a little embarrassed by my quick yet accurate assessment.
"Five, listen to me, you are stressed out and on the edge - I can get that. The Tourists have been giving you grief but please stick it out with me okay? Everything is about to change in a big way. This is just temporary." I poured him another drink. I wanted to find out his plan and I figured there was no other way of getting at it then to get the man drunk, if that was possible with someone as intimidating as the ex-Commander.
"Tomorrow the Tourists have voted and decided to take the travel vans back to Aldrige Acres to salvage what they can. I'm sorry but they took all the Petrol we had."
"They are going to pack into them pretty tightly. We need this. We need to send them off one by one."
"WOE!" I shouted, "You're hoping they get their asses in trouble and have to come running back to us for help....or....hey, do you want them to die out there?" He just smiled and took a drink. I had a sinking sensation. I took a sip of my drink. It was like fire and gasoline and everything horrible all at once and I couldn't breathe.
"Breathe 5, Breathe!" The Commander sounded slightly amused. I did not drink anymore after that.
"No, I do not wish them harm but we do need to make room for better assets to our colony. I have been negotiating the arrival of fifty families to the camp, most of whom are military in one form or another and have survival training. The old foundations outside will be built upon and the fence reinforced. This camp is going to grow 5, grow and shape hopes."
I was gobsmacked and had no words for him. Fifty families? Holy Goats!! That's a lot of people, we would have to expand our borders, we would have to have more fresh water supply, latrines dug.
"Five - always think big, think a few steps ahead of people and you won't find yourself stepped on." He said as he prepared to bunk out for the night.
"I'm not that bright Sir, I'm just a simple runner trying to survive. I've always left the cleverer bits up to other people." I said sincerely admiring his intellect while at the same time having a bit of horror at his dry assessment of the Tourists - was he weeding them out - killing them off? I wondered. Then I wondered if that didn't take a helluva lot of spine to make those kind of decisions. I couldn't do it, no way.
"You're smart Five, that's why you're my favorite." And then the lights went out because our new leader Carlson deemed they all go out earlier now. He groped around in the dark, found Heroes old bunk and laid down. I was still furiously thinking when he started to snore. Oh' great. Heroe never snored, I think he was too stuck up to snore. But the Commander had a real snozz for snoring. It was a long night and I vowed to find ear plugs. Living with the Commander would keep me on my toes for sure, now I was pretty damn certain I would never relax. The week just has to get better - has to.
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| Runner 8 - Walking the Perimeter |
