The Restoration Project

2.08 - Righty

Righty knew Skillet jerked off to pictures of Charley at least once a week. What surprised him was that Skillet continued to do so even after they found a collection of Playboy magazines in the back of an old variety store. For some reason, Skillet adored her, which meant he would do anything for her, including this fool's errand of searching for a person that was, more likely than not, dead. It made little sense to Righty, but he was used to having his opinions routinely and succinctly silenced.

So he learned to shut up.

"Can you pass a packet?" he asked, holding his hand out to Charley.

They sat on the shoulder of a two lane road, Skillet to his left, Ludwig to his right, and Charley across from him. His legs already hurt from the  morning walk and the afternoon promised more of the same. 

"It doesn't need it," Charley responded, as she bit into her sandwich of stale bread and spam. Regardless, she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a packet of ketchup.

"Can you even taste food?" He snatched the packet, opened it with his teeth, and doused one of the slices of bread. He was sad this was the last of the loaf; making a new one would be a lot harder now without his good hand. At least they had Pop Tarts.

"She probably can't. This tastes terrible. Who made this shitty bread?" Ludwig mumbled.

Righty raised the butt end of his rifle to ensure he didn't speak again. He was still sore about the whole knife to the neck thing. Ludwig snarled at Righty as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"I like it," Skillet said, smiling at Charley.

"Suck up," Righty jeered.

A silence fell across them as they chewed. Skillet devoured his sandwich in four bites and picked his teeth with a dirty fingernail. Righty popped the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth and craved more. Ludwig still had half left.

"We should get going if we want to find her before sundown," Charley said, finishing her sandwich too and rising to her feet. Righty and Skillet stood with her; Ludwig took another bite.

"Better save that for later," Righty said, taking the sandwich from Ludwig. He stuffed it in his mouth. "I'll keep it warm," he added, spewing crumbs.

"Thanks," Ludwig said, staring down Righty.

"You can be such a dick sometimes," Charley scolded.

Righty avoided her gaze as he slipped on his backpack and swallowed the sandwich. When Charley started to walk, he shoved Ludwig forward to follow her. Skillet brought up the rear. Aside from the occasional abandoned car, the road lacked anything interesting. Until they neared an intersection.

There were more cars near the intersection, although most of them were pushed into the nearby ditches. A collision occurred in the centre, where a car rammed into the back of a pickup. That wasn't the interesting part though; it was the man sprawled across the trunk of one of the cars near the ditch. His neck ended in a bloody stump, his head blown off by a shotgun blast. Blood puddled around his neck and pooled in the dirt of the shoulder.

"Gross," Ludwig said, turning his head away.

"Is it just me or does that look fresh?" Righty pointed out. Flies swarmed the body and some of the blood on the car hadn't congealed yet.

"Where are we?" Charley asked, keeping her eyes on the scene while holding her hand out.

Righty unslung the backpack and pulled out the map. She snatched it and opened it up, checking the signs on the street corner to locate their position.