Gardener Fall - Chapter 1a - by nova

"Hey Ninj."
"Yeah G."
"You ever heard a song that went like this?" I semi sang it to him, "If God is a bullet have mercy on us everyone."

Ninja was sitting sitting cross legged on the ground tossing his knife up in the air and hoping it would stick point first when it came down. It was, but not that often. It didn't seem to bother him when it didn't.

He shook his head and said "Can't say I have. When did it come out?"

That was a good question and one I didn't have an answer too. Music from back then, at least in my head, had drifted loose from its mooring of time and dates. It was just from "Then" and then was a time that was becoming more and more like a movie or dream that I could only half remember and even those parts I did recall were often pointless.

I had one of my Rugers in my lap and had the cylinder open and was spinning it. The rounds for it were in my lap. If you asked me what I was doing I would have told you "checking primers." The reality was I thought each .357 round was beautiful. The brass, the bullet at the tip, they were my diamonds and gold coins. I loved looking at them.

"I think it was in the early 1990's."

Ninj laughed "Shit G. That's ancient. Probably a Beatles thing. Ask Chief. He knows lots of old stuff."

We sat their in silence for a bit. It was good. Then he asked me, "Why? What brought this up? If you found a working iPod that's something you need to share."

"Naw. I doubt if there is more than three left in camp that work. If you really want one ask Night. She knows what everyone owns down to the amount lint in their pockets."

We both laughed. She did too. We both knew it was true.

He went silent and I knew Ninj. He still wanted to know why I brought it up. So I told him. "I had this dream, that song was playing in the background or maybe just in my head, I was standing in front of people I think. They were not happy with me and I was not happy with them." I paused to look at him. He had quit tossing the knife and was listening. I flipped one of my rounds at them and said "Here is the only god that's listening." I stopped talking.

Ninja waited a bit, then said "Yeah?"

"I don't know but it was important and it felt real."

He tossed his knife up in the air. We both watched it bounce grip first off the ground. He shook his head, and said "Did you kill them?"

"I don't know." I didn't know either.

"Damn G. It can't be a big deal then. Usually you kill them."