The New Dead World

Chapter 14: Goodbye, My Santa Monica Dream

It's been a couple of hours since that girl went to talk to her father. I need to get back to Wren. If she is holding me up on purpose, I'll kill her and her father. The night is starting to die, and the sky begins to get lighter. The air seems to get a bit warmer. I'll give him twenty more minutes before I break my promise to come here with Wren and pay that girl and her father a little visit.

"Man, did you see that Freaks head explode! That was crazy!" A man yelled from nearby, startling me.

"As soon as your bat hit her skull...Pop! Just like a watermelon, bro!" Another laughed loudly.

A group of four men came from around a corner heading to the pier, talking and boasting about Basics they killed. They were all wearing simple clothes, like T-shirts with assorted colors and pants that looked to be a couple sizes too small. Two of them had guns, one pistol and one assault rifle. The other two had a wooden baseball bat with nails hammered in to make it all spikey, and the other had a dinged-up machete.

They stopped in front of me, too busy boasting about their simple kills, to pay any attention to me. They laughed about how one Freak looked sexy and wondered if it was safe to have sex with them. They were very loud and stupid. It wouldn't even be a challenge if I attacked them.

"Woah! Holy shit!" One of the Stooges finally noticed me, sitting Indian style on top of the scorched car that probably got blown up in the firebombs the military dropped on major cities to slow this plague down. A load of shit that did.

The two-gun toting stooges raised their guns at me, shaking like a couple of frightened chihuahuas.

"Put your guns down before you get killed," I said in a dead voice. I realized that I hadn't spoken like that in a while which is another thing Wren changed in me.

"He can talk?!" One said.

"I'm not a Freak, you idiots!" I said.

"Hey, we are not idiots!" Stooge 3 with the bat said.

"We should teach this punk a lesson about messing with us!" The Stooge 4 with the machete said.

"Who's that girl? She said her father's like a doctor on the pier?" I asked.

"You mean Alpha?" Stooge 1 said with the assault rifle.

"Short brown hair, twenty or so?" I said.

"Yeah, that's Alpha and her dad Charlie," Stooge 1 said.

"They run the only med shop on the pier," Stooge 3 said.

"Ok... seems she wasn't lying. You, Stooge 4, with the jank knife. Go tell her the hurry up!" I said.

"W-what did you call me!?" Stooge 4 said, disagreeing with the name I gave him.

"You too stupid to listen? Go. Get. Alpha." I said slowly, so he could comprehend.

"You son of a bitch!" Stooge 4 decided to charge me. I kick my leg free, connecting right to his throat. He collapsed, gasping for air in an instant.

I got to my feet and looked down at the three stooges remaining.

"Anyone else wanna try me?" I asked in a monotone voice.

I flipped off of the car and landed on my feet in a fluid motion with a spin. Drew my sword and placed the tip against Stooge 1's throat. Just pressing hard enough for a tiny drop of blood to form. Stooge 2, with the pistol, pressed the metal barrel against my temple.