Reckless - Memoirs from the End of the World

Superman [Part 1]

I probably should've stopped a while ago, I thought. My victims face had reached that stage where it was just teeth and even then, most of them were stuck in my knuckles. No seriously I should stop now; this is hurting me more than this poor guy now. I struggled to remember what he looked like before.

Most of my fights ended like this I honestly don't know how Blake got people for me to fight, they had to be stupid or more likely; desperate.

I'm still hitting him, seriously Namur, stop.

I stood over this lump of flesh, I honestly believed he died not too long ago. Knowing my luck he probably didn't have much trade to take.

I was very tired.

As they announced me the winner for the 23rd time this year. I did the whole hands in the air thing and took the winnings. It wasn't much, it never is.

I had enough for hot water and a decent woman; there was only one woman I took a liking too anyway; Penelope. Food was provided, if you want to call it that. They let me train for free and gave me a place to sleep; I just had to stay a winner.

To think not nearly ten years ago I was training to become a teacher. I was going to lead the next generation to success but I guess the world had other plans. It always does.

I took shelter with a few friends; let's get one thing straight I don't think I was that nice a guy to begin with. I had average intelligence and was always just looking out for myself. Well I guess everyone is like that to an extent, I wouldn't think much of saying whatever was needed to get out of a situation. Well it got me here anyway.

"Come on Namur, get off him now?" Blake shouted, causing me to come back.

"Shit." This happened too often; fighting was just becoming too easy for me, I was literally doing it in my sleep.

This time I actually stood up because Blake was forcing me off the poor soul and calling me an idiot.

Blake was definitely a better person than me when we met. He was my captor, the leader. A man named Robert Algero, had just gone from camp to camp, catching strays and people just trying to survive and in his own clever way convinced them that serving him was a good idea. He was a real talker; if it wasn't for him I don't think I'd be here in the ring beating down on poor souls.

Robert always seized the opportunity, telling people that together we would be stronger. He was good; it wasn't long before he had a little town named Dogville. He just said the name sounded right at the time. He had people out hunting, others building and so on. He had a good system going and eventually most realised they actually had a good chance at living with Rob.

In all fairness he wasn't a tyrant yet and he kept things pretty fair but he could be ruthless when he wanted to. I think it was that ruthlessness that kept things together.

So my captor was Blake, he was pretty big too; not as bulky and tough as me of course. At the time maybe we were nearly the same in size. But Rob was impressed that it took four of them to bring me down. That's right I never went down easy. When shit went down I switched. Changed into something more feral, like a wolf, a crazed wolf ready to kill anything. But I lacked training and like I mentioned, Rob always seized opportunities and this time it was me.

Before long Rob had ventured out and made relations with other nearby towns. That wasn't as easy as it sounded.

I became a member of the Dogs, a team that would go and either create relations with other places or coerce a relationship. 

The first time was the worst, but the most fruitful.

All we had back then in terms of an armoury was sticks, sharpened rocks and a machete. Rob had the machete.

The first mistake we made was to show up armed, nothing hidden and we were scared. Didn't matter if none of us admitted it. We came up close to this makeshift camp holding at least a dozen people. Most were men.

The second mistake was all of us approaching the camp at once. They did what anyone would do but they had a few guns and more knives. It didn't take long for us to back off, two of the Dogs were struck down and it was just four of us left now.

The smart thing would have been to retreat; anyone could see that we were way over our heads. Rob never saw it like that. He just saw a bunch of scared fools who had just stumbled upon weapons and a generator. Robert. Swung a rock hard into that generator and fucked it up pretty good. That just scared them even more but it was enough for Robert.

"Now listen up, you got anyone who can fix that?" Robert shouted from a distance.

"Why don't you worry about your own shit! Get the fuck out of here with your lives!" Came a reply.

"Okay that's the leader, give me another rock." Rob was always like that, planning without telling us. I handed him a rock, "No, give me a bigger one," so I did, "wish me luck."

God knows how he hit him but one thing Rob could do was throw. He was that kind of person; he would tell me later that he had been practicing rock throwing for a while just in case. Well, I'm glad he added it to his skill set because that leader of theirs dropped dead the minute the rock landed on his head with a crunch that stopped everyone in their tracks.

"Now put your fucking guns down before I kill the hierarchy to the throne!" He threatened looking at Blake and laughing.

They didn't put the guns down instead they opened fire at us. My body shuddered as the bullets bounced off the boulder we were taking cover in.

"Told you, they're so scared."

The gunfire stopped.

TBC...