CHAPTER 19 Again: You didn't see that one coming, did you? Part II
I sat at the edge of the cave, next to the pathetic little fire that was doing it's best to stay alive in spite of the thunderstorm that had just come up the side of the Mountain. I dipped my hands in a puddle of rain water that was collecting at my feet. The cold, acrid water smelled like the air of The City, and stung the cuts and scrapes on my knuckles. The water tuned a rust brown color as I rinsed my hands. I turned, and wiped them off on the pantleg of the corpse lying beside me. A pool of blood framed what was left of his head like a congealing halo. I know, I had been stupid; I hadn't taken the hood off before smashing his face into nothingness with the cane, and now there was no way of telling who he might have been.
I huddled near the fire, nibbling on the roasted meat the dead man had been cooking. It tasted gamey, and it was stringy & tough. To my mind came unbidden memories of what I had witnessed in that room and I began to retch, but my hunger overcame the nausea. Initially, I had been worried that my escape had been discovered, but it had soon become clear that except for this one man, everyone had disappeared. So why did this guy stay around?
"It was a sacrifice. Musta been." My own words, gruff and harsh, echoed in the cave. Some fucked up sense of Fairness must guide those fuckers. And, like a sucker, I fell for it. I let myself be lured into playing by their rules. I had proven their point.
I smacked the dead man's leg. "Asshole. The least you could have done is be awake, so I could feel that I was defending myself." Groaning, I sat down next to the body, and listened to the rain, with the occasional bursts of thunder. I stared at the shadows flickering on the wall of the cave, and I wondered what the hell I was going to do next. The weather prevented me form trying to venture outside, but even if I could, where would I go? Even if I was able to get down The Mountain, I'd still have to find a way to get back to The City, and I was a fugitive there. No doubt they'd have found who I was by now, and they'd be pissed about me killing that cop.
I could stay on the mountain, but even if I held my ground and established a place among the battling factions, I'd always be reminded of Erin. No. I can't think about there right now. But I can't not think about her.
Right. I realized there was only one thing to do. I had to get to the Ocean, to finish this fucking thing. It started with a face-raping bat, it was gonna end at the Ocean. Fuck it, I'm not even getting paid anymore. There's just nowhere else for me to go.
I leaned over the body, and rummaged around in the packs on his belt, until I found what I was looking for: a flask of cheap whiskey, and what looked like standard-issue pain killers. I washed one down with the other, and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible. The next few days were going to suck.
The next few? Fuck, maybe all the rest of my days were gonna suck. And I didn't even know how many of them I might have left.
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