The Fade

6

Today is my first day of training at my new job... yike.

***

It's early evening when we come across a small town, if you could even call it that. Really, it's just a short stretch of road lined with rundown storefronts.

"Hungry?" Jamison asks, pointing to the one shop with an OPEN sign in the window.

I eye it warily. "You're joking, right?"

"No, why?"

"Do you not remember the situation in the woods?"

"Sure I do. What's your point?"

I stare at him for a long moment, trying to figure out if he's serious or not. "People are desperate. And desperate people do crazy things. Walking into that café could get us killed."

"Or, it could get us some warm food. Come on, I'm starving."

"You're seriously willing to die for a muffin?"

He pulls out a pistol that I somehow hadn't noticed holstered under his jacket. "Yeah, but I'll also kill for the muffin if it comes down to it."

I roll my eyes. "Fine. We'll go in. Just... put that away. And we're leaving if anything seems weird."

"Have you looked around lately? Everything's already weird."

"You know what I mean."

We start walking again, me hyperaware of his hand gently resting at the small of my back.

There's one woman behind the counter, and about half a dozen others scattered amongst the café's tables.

"What can I get you?" the woman asks, closing up the display case she was organizing.

Jamison pulls out a handful of change and quickly counts it. "What do you have for two dollars? Or, actually, a dollar."

"Such a gentleman," I mutter. I fumble around in my own pocket, coming up with a couple of wadded up singles. "I have three dollars."

The woman just smiles. "Don't worry about it. Tonight it's on the house."

"Wow, thank you."

I pick out a chocolate-filled croissant, while Jamison opts for an iced cinnamon roll.

"This has got to be the best thing I've had in weeks," he says, taking a huge bite before we even sit down. A gob of icing threatens to plummet to the table, but he catches it at the last second and sticks his finger in his mouth, savoring the sugar.

I blink and then bite into my own treat. It is pretty freaking amazing.

"So" -he takes another large bite- "how exactly are you planning to catch up with your friends? You know, being that they could be literally anywhere."

"Our plan was to go east. If we just keep going east, we're bound to run into them sooner or later."

A stricken look crosses his face. "Why didn't you tell me that in the first place? We've been going west all this time."

I can almost feel the blood drain from my face. "What?"

He laughs. "I'm just kidding. We've been going east."

"You- you-" Unable to think of a good enough insult, I settle for kicking him viciously under the table.

His expression barely changes, even though I know I've landed at least a couple really good hits. "You need to learn how to take a joke, Hals. You don't need to be so serious."