ROAD - Rain, Orange, Anger, Dynamite

At about noon it started to drizzle. Abby didn't complain but I could tell she wasn't happy about the spell of rain. Neither of us had spare clothes which meant we had to rely on the weather to reveal a scorching sun afterwards to dry us off. 

She kept looking over her shoulder, something a true city kid never did. Making yourself seem nervous attracts danger. "You shouldn't look back so much, Abby. Nothing's back there." 

"I know." 

"Then don't get in the habit. It could fuck you up."

"Okay."

I realized I'd been a bit harsh but wasn't sure how to apologize. So I didn't. It started to rain harder, soon it was really pissing. It was the kind of rain that makes your vision blurry and hits your skin like bullets. The little drops sprung off the ground, so it seemed to be storming from below as well. 

We didn't stop walking. There was one positive side to the downpour. Whatever we'd heard last night wouldn't be following us. Not in this weather. 

"You know." Abby started. "You're kind of an asshole." 

"Everyone's an asshole sometimes." I realized how much of a asshole-answer that was. "I'm sorry, Abby. I got used to talking to myself."

"You talk like that to yourself?" She asked almost pityingly. 

"Yeah. But only because I'm an asshole." It made her laugh a bit. 

We kept on trodding through the rain for about an hour. Than it turned into a drizzle again. Soon but not soon enough the clouds gave way to the shining sun. 

We were completely dry innert an hour and a half. We stopped only to eat, take a leak and then kept on going. The soles of my feet were sore. I was looking forwards to the hard callouses that would form on them eventually. 

"You ever worked on a farm, Abby?"

"No. I never even went to one."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. But I'm a fast learner and I'm good with my hands. Might be surprising for a math genius, but I am."

I wasn't sure which work I could give her. I didn't know in which condition we'd find the farm. Would there be dust and rust everywhere? Would it be ruined, completely sabotaged by other people who'd pulled through the area? Would there be anything left for us to start up a running farm? There was no point in trying to make a plan without knowing which scenario I'd find there. I hoped for the best. 

Luckily for us we passed through a smallish town at around four o'clock. It was deserted, but the shop still had some food. We stuffed out bags with what we could carry and allowed ourselves another quick break to eat an early dinner. We were both as hungry as lions. 

As Abby searched the store for medical supplies I headed out to do some sight-seeing. Ha-ha. There were only two more shops, one was a textile shop, we could use some new clothes and the other was a shop selling dynamite. Pretty based. I peered into the shop's windows. It didn't sell any guns (sadly) neither did it sell any other weapon or tool. Just dynamite. Packed up in orange bags. I considered taking some but realized it'd be too heavy and I didn't have anything in mind that it would be useful for. I circled the town on my map and scribbled; dynamite and designer next to it. The clothes were far from designer, but there were some quality items. I exchanged my old boots for a pair of new ones, picked myself a baseball cap that had a large american flag on it (all the other one's said: I'm a Dad, or I love Burgers). I thought about taking a pair of jeans but decided against it. My sweats were enough.

Abby joined me in my shopping spree. It was a good thing that she was my size, because there weren't any womans clothes. She swapped her sneakers for boots and plucked a cowboy hat off one of the mannequins. "Now I look like a farmer." She joked. 

We head back down the road. There was another town about five miles up. We could make that by sundown. And five miles more were five miles closer. 

It was a close call, but we made it. I picked a two-story house for us to stay in. Sadly the store had been raided. Funny how this one was but the town five miles down wasn't. 

We both chose a bedroom. Usually I was against lodging in other people's rooms, but the doors had locks which provided extra safety. We locked ourselves into adjacent rooms. 

I punched the pillow until it became softer and the clumps smoothed out. The matress was hard but nowhere near as hard as the dirt I'd slept on the night before. I lay down and closed my eyes. 

I was drifting off to sleep when a quite but prominent scratching noise woke me. I opened my eyes. There it was again. I got up, crossed over the room and pulled the curtains back just enough so that I could see the street. It was too dark to make out what it was, but something was at the door of the house. It looked as if it was sniffing the ground and scrathing at the dirt and occasionally the door. It was obviously some kind of large animal. I couldn't tell if it was a mutation or not. 

The beast had tracked us all the way here. Even though our smell had probaly been washed away by the rain. Of course it could have been a different animal but my paranoia told me it was the same one. If it really was I'll never know. 

I though about waking Abby but decided against it. She hadn't slept enough last night. I watched the animal for a good half-hour. It didn't seem to want to give up but it also wasn't making any progress on getting in. I lay back down and closed my eyes. 

I prayed that it wouldn't get in.