The Calling of Time

Soldiers of Misfortune

Driving closer and closer to the city was becoming an education in current events. Being locked up in my own house for so long, being so cut off from everything, I hadn’t even dreamed of the extent of the damage.  As we drove deeper into the city it became harder to avoid the broken down vehicles that had been abandoned in the road.

Garbage littered the dried grass along either side of the road, growing thicker as the road turned into the highway. I rolled down the window a crack, and the truck’s engine seemed impossibly loud on the silent open road. I wondered about stopping somewhere. We’d have to stop sometime. Would the rattling engine attract soul suckers?

We passed a couple of ramshackle houses. Boards had been ripped off the windows, the glass shattered. A few of the doors were open, showing flashes of dark emptiness as we passed by.  I felt my fingers tighten on the truck door handle involuntarily as a pack of mangy brown dogs loped alongside us for a few seconds, then dropped back, distracted by a fresh piece of road kill.

Were the dogs so desperately hungry that they chased after humans now?

I shifted nervously in the seat, aware that Jai was looking at me. His voice was quiet when he finally spoke, “Bit of a shock, huh?”

“Yeah, just a bit,” I murmured, gaze still fixed on the side view mirror as I watched the dog pack grow smaller. “Everything is so…so different.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a mess.” Jai grimaced as the engine made a sputtering nose, ducking his head to check the gas gage. “We’re gonna need to stop for oil. This old thing leaks like crazy and I don’t want the engine to seize up on us.” He glanced out the window. “That would not be good right now.”

My stomach twisted when I spotted what he was looking at. It was getting lighter now, as we entered the hours of twilight. The shadows were shrinking, revealing the stark ruins of the buildings we were passing. Here and there, black shapes slunk around the outsides of the houses. The  soul suckers' narrow faces whipped around to track our progress.

My fingertips were pretty much numb, I was gripping the handle so tightly now. I pictured the truck breaking down right now, the engine sputtering and dying. They would come at us, tentative at first, than more boldly, until we were outnumbered. Until they could pin us down and suck our souls out.

But the truck didn’t break down. The engine kept up its coughing and sputtering, and it got us all the way to a gas station, which Jai circled once before we parked, checking the area around it before we got out.

“Looks safe enough,” Jai said, peering out the dirty windshield.

“Safe,” I repeated the word dumbly, because “safe” was the last word I’d use to describe the gas station. Well, maybe that and “homely” or “inviting”.  The parking lot had two rusted out cars sitting crooked in the stalls, and one of the handles had been ripped off the middle gas pump. The convenience store windows had been punched in, and the door hung broken on its hinges. The windows were thick with dust, but from where we sat in the truck thes store seemed empty.

Jai parked beside one of the rusted cars and shut off the engine, and we both sat in silence for a minute. Of course, my stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, making Jai break into a smile. “Why don’t you go check for some twinkies in there or something, while I look over the pumps.”

“Alright.” I darted a nervous look at the store again. “I guess I’ll go check it out.”

“Just make sure to bring your scythe, and check it out before you walk in.” Jai swung the door open and got out, and I followed suit, grabbing the sythe from the back of the truck. Once the handle was in my grip again I felt my shoulders relax a bit. It made me feel better. Safer somehow.