"Outcast"

The Town

    I rode on my ATV to the auto repair shop, which was owned by Cedric Croglop, a bulky black man, who resembles that one guy called, "Mr. T". His blond afro looked like it wasn't his, for it made my eyes hurt switching from his hair to his coffee colored head. He, like me, was an orphan kicked out when he was little. He learned the ways of cars and machines, and took over his father's business when he got terribly ill. He has problem with learning, and i think he might have ADD. Me? I was born with the brains, although Alex is smarter than me by a mile. Mr. C has been a good friend of mine ever since we brought Sev in for his first repairs. He was all rusted up back then, and I was 11 at the time, and Mr. C was 17. He wears really loose clothing, with jeans that have stains and holes in them. 

    "Bryce! My man! What's up?" His friendly smile gave me a feeling of peace and sanity.

    "Nothing, just came in to check on Sev." He looked at me as if i had just said something stupid.

    "Sev, Sev..." He flipped through his papers he had on his clipboard and frowned, "Nope. He was checked out by...you." Me? What ludicrous. 

    "What? I haven't been here since last month when my engine stalled." He looked through his papers again, "Oh! Here you are! Sorry, forgot you last name!" He chuckled a deep, humorous laugh and guided me back to the repair rooms. 

    It looked almost like a insane asylum, with each room caged in with only a fence keeping whatever was in there contained. As I thought about how many times robots have gone on a rampage, He opened the gate to "Room 314". Sev was in there, standing all shiny looking, he'd obviously been polished off, or something of that nature.

    "Bryce! It's you!" HIs voice seemed higher pitched than it was before. 

    "Hey Sev!" I walked up and gave him a sort of half hug/pat on the back. I looked at him for a couple seconds serving him, checking out what they'd done to him. He had gotten polished over, there was a splotch of paint over where his wound had been, and other than that, nothing really stood out, other than something on his head. It looked like a metallic box no bigger than my palm, attached to some wires and connected to his USB drive. I walked over to him, fingered with it, and looked at Cedric.

     "What's this?" I continued looking at what this thing might do.

    "It's a HD camcorder, lets you see everything that happened in a 36 hour span. Of course, If it gets disconnected, it will stop recording. Free of charge, for my best white boy." I managed a stifled laugh and he gave me a polite, but firm handshake. I filled out all the paperwork, and waited for Alex to come and get Sev. Her ATV is much larger, hence why she wanted it in the first place. I took my seat in the waiting area, hoping Alex would hurry up. I wondered what the hell she was doing that was taking so long. Probably getting me that gun I wanted, thank God, I continued to get lost in my own thoughts when Sev suddenly broke my chain of thought, and chimed in.

    "Thank you for what you did for me, Bryce. I appreciate you for jumping in and taking the hit." He managed a smile, although he looked...disappointed.

    "Oh, no problem, if it wasn't for you, I would have been dead! Thanks for protecting me!" I laughed, but he didn't.

    He broke in, "No. I failed you, i didn't protect you. I've let you down ever since you saved me from the dump that day. I can never repay you for what you did, let alone save you." I tried not to feel sorry for him, life can wait for forgiveness. I looked up and saw Alex walking through the front door, her bright orange low-cut tanktop almost hurt my eyes and I had to look away. I was sort of confused, Why would she be wearing a tanktop in cold weather? I didn't really let it bother me, girls and clothes are an ancient mystery not even Einstein could solve. Her dirty blond hair was in a frizzy mess, and I tossed her a hairbrush from her purse, (that I took), and she immediately got red and looked away as she combed her hair. She slid the gun and medication into my hands and said, "You owe me one," and managed a fake smile as she mumbled, "Hurt like shit." and took Sev onto her ATV. I took the advantage of being by myself and hobbled back onto my ATV, took the meds, and sped off into town. I stopped on by at the Black Tavern to see if they had anything I could use that would come in handy. You see, the Nukeout practically wiped out any monetary system in the world. So, to make life easier on everyone, if that was possible, was to trade. Having a gun is a very good thing to bring into a bar of drinking, trigger-happy rednecks. They'll trade you mostly anything for something like that, and when I walked in, I was hoping to get a better transport than that shitty ATV I was riding in. I walked in, flashing my gun my letting the holster that Alex got from Mr. Haley, and almost instantly, the entire bar seemed to quiet and were eying me...er, the gun. I walked up to the bartender and ordered a drink. I wasn't going to drink it, but I wanted to get that 'badass' look as I flashed my pistol some more. The bartender leaned over as she handed my drink and said, "You better be careful, showing that thing off. You might get more than you bargained for." She walked over to tend to someone else. I went up to the stage, where a band that was playing soft jazz was. I shooed them off the stage as i took the microphone. I tapped on it twice to check the volume, and made sure to speak clearly as I said,