American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 6b

He watched me approach. He was old. At least 50. Maybe older. I knew that because he had Old Guy ears and nose. I never saw it much before the crash but nowadays all the Old Guys had it. Some of them had so much fur growing out their ears that they reminded me of elves. Others had hair growing out of the tips of their noses. Sometimes it was long enough to look like nose antennas. He had both. I didn't find it endearing.For4 being so old he looked like he was in good shape. He had some broad shoulders under that shirt. When I got closer I was going to see if he was wearing pads under there. The only weapon I could see was a short handled sledge hammer standing head down next to his rocking chair. It looked well used an as old as he was.

The dogs moved reluctantly out of my way. I didn't see any reason why they had howled briefly before. They sure were quiet now. I climbed up the stairs and said "Hey." I was tired now. The blind desire to kill had retreated into where ever it spent most of its time. Probably hanging out in front of my minds equivalent of a 7-11.

He replied "Hey. Them your dogs?"

"Yep,"

He nodded his head, thought about it for a couple beats, and said "They gonna eat me too?"

"I doubt it. They're pretty full and you don't look like you got a lot of meat on your bones."

He laughed. "Yep. This is true." He leaned forward a bit, stopping the rocking motion, and said "Well I think you kilt about everyone and you got a good start on burning the town down. Whatcha going to do next?"

I wanted to say "Go to Disneyland." Instead I looked around, some of the houses weren't burning like they should. Others were roaring. There wasn't much of a breeze other than what the fire was creating on its own.

I told him "You know if that truck runs?"

"Yep." He hesitated, then said "I should. It's my truck."

rewritten