Vitality In A Wasteland

16

Ace opened his eyes, they felt like they were torn out, all he could see was brightness and his ears rung. He tried to reach out, somebody lowered his arm. It was almost impossible to hear the man's words, "Don't move too much. It will only hurt more."

It was the hardest pain Ace had ever felt for his eyes to finally catch the silhouette of the man before him. It was Mackenzie's companion from before everything turned black and empty. He was doing something, wrapping a piece of torn clothe over Ace's knee which suddenly sent an entire ripple through his body, Ace winced.

"You're lucky your mask only cracked a little," said Schrodinger. "That would have been a much worse fate."

"Where... I..." Ace let out a hoarse cough.

Schrodinger sighed and stood up. "We are stuck. The car tire burst half an hour ago and I can hear he screams coming ever closer. Now I can't talk boy; I have to fix this tire before we all die!" His words sounded fuzzy and muffled yet even through Ace's spinning mind he could hear the man's utter terror. When Shadinger ran off to the car he returned to a distant blurry image. Ace could barely see his own hand when he painfully reached out. Beside him somebody coughed. Ace turned to see Mackenzie slumped to the floor clenching desperately to his chest.

"Don't look too hard," he said. "This is only a minor scratch."

"This is screwed!" Yelled Schrodinger. "What were you thinking! This was a death wish from the start, I should never have agreed to come with!"

Mackenzie coughed again and said, "You knew full well of the dangers and you accepted the money anyway."

"But you never said it would get this bad!"

Mackenzie retorted, "Listen to yourself, man! What kind of mercenary whines like a baby!"

"We are going to die!" Yelled Schrodinger. "You son of a bitch! How are you so calm about this!"

Mackenzie was silent for a moment before saying, "Well because this is my last gunfight, you still have the car to escape with."

Schrodinger shot up and ran over to Mackenzie, he yelled out, "Don't you die here and leave me when there are Griefers all over!"

"You baby," said Mackenzie with a soft chuckle.

Shadinger pulled up his arm and landed a fist to Mackenzie's face. "Shut up!"

He ran back to the car, hurriedly pulling at the tire and bolts, Ace's vision still blurred but his image was slowly placing into one view.

"You know what," said Schrodinger, "your right about one thing. You are going to die here." He cheered, "Fixed!" He threw the door open and shot for the ignition. "Come on, come on, start you piece of junk!" The car roared as its engine flared, "hah! See you around Sherriff!"

"Wait you can't just leave us here," Mackenzie coughed.

"The kids too banged up to walk and well you've seen your last sunset! Enjoy being mutant dinner!" The car shot forward, sand rolled from the tires and sprayed across Mackenzie and Ace, they coughed out and Mackenzie yelled.

"Get back...." He coughed more and more; blood sprayed across his mask. He felt at his chest, the burning was all too clear and the blood coming from the piece of metal lodged right through his chest was clear proof he wasn't going to survive... but the boy? He was just left to die. And by Griefers... a fate he could not have ever wished for even his worst enemies. They were close, their wicked screams so close he could smell their venom.

"Kid! Kid! Listen to me," he coughed again and tried once more to talk clearly. "You need to run; you need to before they get here!"

Ace tried standing but his legs gave in, he yelled out.