||Series Removed|| OTB

1 - Welcome To Apoca-Bliss

1

The unrelenting summer rain crashed down on the barren roadside as I collected myself, standing up from having looted one of the fallen bodies.

"Jesus, he just killed him! He's a goddamn psycho!!"

"Damn it Cal, don't look back! Let's make for the car, now!!"

Two men dragged each other away from me, barely able to see as they made their way towards the red lights of their station wagon. Splashing towards them, I scratched the back of my neck with their dead friend's Colt pistol.

"C'mon, fellas... I won your stupid three-on-one Turpin's Tilt. I was even going to let you go until your mate flipped out like a total sore loser. Shouldn't I get to keep your ride, at least?"

I watched them throw themselves into the vehicle, and waited for it... The scream, when they realised that I was twirling the stolen keys between my fingers. Smiling to myself, I reloaded my new toy and waited for the inevitable backlash. One of the boys came out, brandishing his own revolver with shaky hands.

"H-Hand them over!! I won't say it again, so just let us go, man..." I let a shot ring out, almost in slow-motion as my bullet hit the back of his hand and forced him to abandon his grip on the gun with a blood-curling howl.

Taking a few steps forward, I leaned in close to the unarmed man's ear just as his friend poked his head outside of my trophy car. The heavy rain rolled off of our faces as I reminded him of our initial conversation. "...And I'll say this again, one more time before you clowns try to start another fight. Can I have some directions, please?"

----

I had been driving for at least an hour into the night, rather enjoying the sombre weather's kiss on the windshield as I played around with my new station wagon's control dials. My inner child had always craved a shiny red car for when I was older, and it was a total rush to have 'acquired' such a sexy model for free.

It had been a lonely week or two, probably somewhere in between; the concept of time had escaped me in my troubled mind, hitch-hiking and roughing it to the West with only the clothes on my back... which I had also stolen from this car's previous owner, but that was another story.

There was a single rule that I had forced myself to abide by, which was to give everybody one chance only before pulling the trigger. Judging by the number of the people I'd encountered that had tried to rob, rape and kill me, I had to lower my standards from two chances to one at some point.

At least four Turpin's Tilt challenges had come and gone, each one I had ruthlessly powered through in order to get what I needed. Food, maps, guns... Now that everything I could possibly require was safely stored in the back-seat of my new set of wheels, I was ready.

It was time to start test-driving the new me, and as luck would have it, I knew exactly where to start.

As I rolled the car to a stop outside of my destination, I reminded myself to shift most of my possessions into a camouflage shoulder bag that I'd swiped previously.

I wasn't dumb enough to leave loose supplies lying in my car, especially considering the place that I was about to enter...

It seemed almost redundant to scout the area for any Lost, even their masses were becoming a rare sight in the dried-up wasteland.

I understood all too well that it wouldn't stay this way, though... The West coast grew closer with each mile, bearing the perfect conditions for these monsters to thrive in much larger herds.