American Apocalypse IV - Heartland - Chapter 3c

I slowed the pace down so I could watch as they mustered. It was sad. Max, or anyone else who led people with training, and the weapons to use, would have gutted them. Either they didn't have anything worth taking, or they were backed by someone who had the muscle to make sure that what ever was taken was quickly recovered. Then again they could just be survivors trying to get by. I discounted that. Just getting by didn't cut it anymore. You didn't get participation awards anymore. Hell, second place was a hole in the ground if you were lucky.

A crow cawed somewhere off to my right. I cawed back. No reason other than I felt like it. Not every bird belonged to Freya but increasingly I felt like all crows belonged to me and my people. In front of us the village welcoming committee formed. I noticed they were looking around like they expected someone else any minute. He stumbled out of a house, noticed we were watching, slowed down an adjusted his robe and began walking towards us. He was armed with a black leather bound bible. “Truly a weapon of mass destruction” I thought “When deployed by the wrong people.


We came to a stop. In the old days, an even older movies, a dog or two would be in the street barking and watching. Maybe a couple chickens working the dirt for bugs. Not in this world. They had all been eaten. The policy of neutering everything with four legs wasn't going to help matters. Hell, if Woof was still intact he had a good chance of becoming immortal.

The others had slowed down their pace too. They were trying to time their arrival in front of us with the arrival of Brother Bible. Since he was going going for dignified that meant they had no choice but to wait for him while we stood off from each other. Maybe twenty feet of distance separated us. While we awaited his arrival we both studied each other. It was in many ways a dance with each movement falling into a certain expected form. There were different movements depending on what music was selected but they almost always started off the same way. The greeting. This would determine the tempo of the second movement and whether or not there would be a third movement. Myself, I listened to the music in my head which seemed to be beamed in from another planet entirely. I was okay with that. I had to be. It was the only station I had.