Anthony’s nose started to pour blood. The
blood that splattered on his shirt that was identical to the splatter on my
shirt. “Gaw! I should have seen that coming. Time always does that.” Anthony
laughed, then he grabbed me by the ear, and pulled me toward the store front.
As we walked through the door, there was familiar chime of the bell hanging
from the door. “Black Market Jones!”
“Is that his name?” I struggled out. That
was a much cooler name than Ketchup, Ranch, or Victoriann. Perhaps, I’d rather
spend my time with him.
“Stop thinking. It is hurting my brain.
Keep your thinking at a minimum, so that I can get these shoes from Black
Market Jones. Black Market Jones!”
Jones appeared from the backroom and
smiled. “You summoned me?”
“You are damn right, I summoned you.” Anthony
lifted his foot so that the shoes were evident on his feet.
“How did you get those?” Jones asked. He
turned around, so that he could see that his version of the shoes were on the
shelf behind him.
“You gave these shoes to him?” Anthony
said.
“I have a name!” I shouted.
“We know stupid,” Anthony yelled. I was
getting sick of Anthony calling me stupid.
“He isn’t worthy,” Jones said as he
began to walk away. Before he got too far away, he grabbed the shoes and
continued.
“It’s about time. I’m sure that you
can make the space,” Anthony said. Without saying anything, Jones threw the
shoes to Anthony, and he caught them both with one hand. “Thanks.”
“You know what needs to be done.
Make it quick. You are on thin ice as it is,” Jones said.
Anthony took a knee next to me and
set the shoes by my feet. “Here’s the thing. Time is running out. So, you are
going to run. You need to put some distance between us, because it is the end
of the line, right here. So run forward, until you bleed. You’ll be me soon enough,
but that isn’t important. Go. Run. He is coming.” I hadn’t noticed, but he had
slipped the shoes onto my feet while he was talking. For some reason, probably
because he looked just as reliable as I did, I took his advice and ran with it,
literally. As I exited the storefront, I looked back in time to see another
version of me walk in. It was a me-a-polza.
I ran down the street, everything
blurring around me, until I tripped. I fell forward, the world became normal as
I fell. Not my kind of normal, but apocalypse kind of normal. Everything was on
fire, the buildings were windowless, and the sun was twice as bright in the
sky. It seemed as though I might have gotten the hell out of there, only to be
placed in that same hell. “You are so, young looking.”
Chapter
Two
Time
Flies
Instead
of being surprised that someone had recognized me, in the post apocalypse, I
was glad there was someone there for me to talk to. Nothing like having to talk
to yourself during the entirety of the end of the world. I mean, I already knew
all of my stories, so they would get dull really fast. Yet, this was not the
first time that I had seen this face. The girl, who was leaning against a tree,
lovingly stroking a shotgun was Ketchup. She moved closely, and then very
quickly lifted me up and kissed me on the face. “What’s the matter? You don’t
know who I am.” She set me down with her muscular arms, and she let out a short
sigh. “Did you just get the shoes?” I nodded. “Unfortunate. I hate to have to
explain everything to you. Did you explain everything to you?”
That sort of hinted that the guy who
had given me the shoes was actually me. “No, he just told me to run.”
“Sounds like something you would do
to yourself.” She put the shotgun on her back.
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