Crimson Hood

O N E

 swear I can never write a decent summary. Give my book a chance?

The sky was filled with cinerious clouds swimming in an unidentifiable fuscous gas that was caused by the factory over there pumping out toxic smoke.

It glared over the quaint little town watching the citizens below. The pungent stench of burning debris and gasoline floated around town sticking itself in every possible corner causing a higher sick toll from bad lungs.

The diner was full today. It was always full. Men filed in bustling through the doors like cavemen, rampaging through the small diner like they owned the place. Their voices raised so the small black radio playing soothing tunes was no longer heard.

I watched them with narrowed eyes and a glowering stare. They laughed, joked and nudged one another in a sense of happiness while destroying others peace and quiet. I watched, appalled, as they approached an elder and roughly pulled her out of the white painted metal chairs then took it for his own pleasure. She stood there confused and disgusted at their horrific behaviour.

I went to storm over to give those men a piece of my mind when I was pulled back by Kelsey, one of my fellow co-workers. She shook her head no and looked back at the bulky men. They were round men that would pop around every day at 5 and stay until closing. Their gut filled laughs made their pudgy round stomach dance and rumble.

I watched as they took one of our complimentary edible straws and downed three at a time.

"Stop staring and get to work." Kelsey hissed out quietly. Not sparing her one glance I nodded and turned back towards the piling orders.

The orders came in quicker which resulted in me pushing back the small order of tea for the cute elderly couple in the back and replacing it for bacon and grits.

Those men were all coming from the construction site nearby trying to add on to the already sky-high wall separating us from the rest of the land. They say the unidentified assailants wreaked havoc overnight and destroyed everything. All our beautiful buildings were ruined because of the hate those 'people' displayed. They didn't like us, so they ruined our land. It caused an uproar, people were petrified trying to find safety from these ruthless killers. My parents weren't lucky enough.

They were murdered first.

Everything is blocked off. The rubble from the once bustling city is separated by a huge steel gate that acts as a shield to protect us from the outside world. If you happen to get close enough to the border, you could vision the once boisterous, noisy and over-productive city that used to stand tall and proud.

The land had traces of destruction lying around, some out in the open, others that were stuffed in a corner so no one would find it. The rubble left behind were still scattered around despite the war happening decades ago.

The plate of grits and bacon travelled towards the bulky man sitting on one of the bar stool in the diner. He smirked at me and winked showing off his golden tooth that also acted as a bottle opener. I saw his beady brown eyes roam around my figure all with a satisfied smile on his lips. I shivered in disgust. One thing men in this town don't have is respect.

My shift was soon to be over and my replacement would soon come. The clocked perched on the beige coloured wall ticked by slowly, too slowly. I wanted to throw a chair at it to see if it would move any faster.

I sighed quietly and rubbed at the back of my neck.

"Sore?" Jennifer, my supervisor, voice rolled in.

"More than." I winced as I pushed against a tight knot in my neck. I glanced at her and put on a fake smile even though I wanted to impale her with a plastic fork. This Job has me standing constantly for 8 hours with no breaks and a 19-minute lunch thanks to Jenny over here!