Chapter 3 ⭐️ Q

The Barefoot Rambler

There were flashes of lights in the sky, like a dull firework display behind the clouds and lightning in the open air. They were pretty lights of all colours, some bright and quickly over, others dull and longer lasting. People stopped where they were to look at them; they couldn’t stop looking and they couldn’t help but see them either.

The random few, some in high office, some ordinary civilians who had been forewarned of the supernatural event knew something was very wrong. There had been some idle threat from a lunatic, some weirdo with too much time on his hands, but that didn’t explain the unusual paper his ‘statement’ was written on, that when analysed in the lab came back with a source of ‘Unknown Origin’. It got filed with all the others.

-

There was one good thing she had left at the compound and that was Mannie; he had kept her thoughts there, he’d got her to the compound in the first place and that had been a saving grace for both of them. He had dragged her by the arm away from the seething masses of their city district, out into the countryside. She hardly knew him, but he seemed to know more her and he treated her with respect, keeping his distance, allowing her enough time and looking after her when death and suffering was around them. And it paid off for him in the end when they became lovers, but that was a few weeks after they had entered the compound as a ‘so say’ couple already. He knew of her escape and would be questioned and punished as a matter of course

‘What are you thinking?’ Q whispered in the darkness, the low sound of his voice breaking into her thoughts.

‘Someone, you know,’ Celine found herself saying. It was late, she was tired.

‘You’re lucky,’ She let a silence prompt the answer to that riddle. ‘To have had someone. I had no one,’

‘No one? no one at all?,’

‘No,’ he said poking the small fire with a charred stick. He kept his head down so all she could see of him was a mass of black hair.

‘I am sorry,’

‘Huh, well, anyways how’s your leg?’

‘Getting there, getting there,’

‘Good, we need to go further for safety and then we can go our separate ways,’

‘Here’s me hoping you’d be my guide,’

‘I would if I knew where Ultra was and if I knew where it was I might be there myself, if I thought it existed, if you know what I mean,’ he said in a gabble of words. They lay down on their bed rolls either side of the fire and she looked through it’s flickering flames at him and said ‘Tell me about yourself, about your life before,’ and he began.

‘I worked in the city, in finance, buying and selling, I was successful, very in fact and I’m not boasting. I had plenty of money, I could do what I want, and I did, drugs, parties, drink, gambling, fast cars, yachts you name it…,’

‘…and we’re there women?’ she asked.

‘Hah, there were, but there was no one for me. I had an apartment by the river that overlooked the city, it was all glass and steel, it had sweeping views. I expect it’s still there the same as I left it that day,’

‘I expect so,’ she said noticing how he had not really answered her.

‘That day, the day I left, I saw the destruction and chaos on the streets, fighting and confusion and I knew I had to get out. I headed for a place I knew that I had gone camping as a kid. It took me several days to get there and when I did I didn’t know what to do. So I set up a camp and waited for others to come, but no one did. The weeks went by and I lost track of time, weeks became months and I got bored so started back, having a look around and saw the few that had survived and were organised building the compounds,’

‘You didn’t try and become a part of one?’ she said.

‘No, I was an outsider by then,’ Q said. There was a shower of rain and the fire almost blew out, they both looked up at the sky. ‘That was two years ago and I’ve seen few people since,’

‘You’re better off not,’ she said wiping rain from her face.

‘Yes. I’ve rescued a couple of people, including you, fought two or three maniacs and killed one in self-defence and been attacked numerous times,’ he laughed. His voice low and slow, fading with the tiredness that was in him. The night closed in on them, wrapping around them like an envelope. The dogs began howling and eyes appeared between trees. She was part of this now, part of nature, part of the food chain, the natural order of things and all that there was between her and that was the fire and him.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A entertaining chapter dear Tertia.
"She was part of this now, part of nature, part of the food chain, the natural order of things and all that there was between her and that was the fire and him."
The closing lines were perfect. Thank you for sharing the amazing chapter.
Coyote