Wanderers (1st Draft)

Desert Shootout

Alice

Alice pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and smooths it out. Scribble on the paper is a map with directions written on the top left hand corner. Alice studies it for a minute then looks up at her surroundings. Cracked pavement stretches out in front of her. On her right are the remains of what used to be a house. In what used to be the front lawn of the house stands a charred oak tree. Alice looks at the map again. According to the directions, she should be getting close to the gas station, only another mile or two to go. Alice shifts her backpack and starts walking. A rocky mountain looms up in the distance just like the directions on the map said.

"So far so good Snake." Alice says to herself.

Fifteen minutes later she spots a building in the distance that resembles a gas station.

"Snake for once you weren't lying!" She exclaims as she quickens her pace.

Alice is a wanderer. A wanderer is someone who braves the desolate lands between the major cities scavenging the old building for anything of value. The day before she had reluctantly taken the map from Snake, the debt lord of Las Vegas. He told her that the gas station might have money left in it.

After the government fell apart casinos had become the ruling power of the county. Every city had at least three casinos and at least one of them controlled that city. Soon so many people went to casinos that paper money was running out. The factories that printed dollars had to close. To fix that problem people replaced money with poker chips. It made sense, seeing how the casinos had become the main source of income for the country.

Snake didn't want to risk any of his men venturing into the dry lands so he hired Alice. Reluctantly she had agreed. She didn't like Snake, and she certainly didn't trust him. But this time he had something she wanted.

As Alice nears the doors to the gas station she rests her hand on the handle of her gun, ready to draw it at the first sign of danger. She picks her way across the cracked cement to the doors of the building. Grabbing a hold of the handle she pulls on the door; it doesn't budge.

"Seriously? You should be falling off your hinges by now." Alice says to the door.

She pulls out her pocket knife and tries to pick the lock. After a few failed attempts she looks around for something to smash the window. On the ground a few feet away lays a metal pipe. She picks it up and walks back to the door. After a quick glance around to make sure no one in sight, Alice swings the pipe forward and smashes the window. She steps back as glass shatters to the ground. Knocking the last bits of glass out of the frame, she carefully steps into the building.

Inside Alice takes a moment to scan the room. Refrigerators line the back and right walls of the building. Rows of shelves are lined in the middle of the floor. Most of them are empty but a few have boxes of candy and bags of chips lining them. Alice goes straight to the cash register. It's old and rusty. The numbers on the keys are faded, and the screen is cracked. Alice grabs the money drawer and tries to pull it open. It doesn't budge, just like the door.

"Seriously." Alice huffs. She pulls out her pocket knife again and pries open the drawer. A smile spreads over her lips as she sees a stack of five-dollar bills laying in one slot. She picks it up and counts it, forty-five dollars total. She stuffs the cash into her bag then moves onto the rest of the station.

Alice inspects each shelf in the station, pulling off anything that isn't rotten or falling apart and shoves it into her backpack. After she looks through the shelves she walks over to the wall of refrigerators and opens one door. She tosses bottles of water and soda into her backpack. She's about to open the next refrigerator when she hears the click of a gun behind her. In a whirl of red hair she spins around, pulling out her gun as she goes. She aims at the person behind her and pulls back the hammer.