Coffee for the Morning

“We're out of fire wood again...”

“There is nothing I can do about that, you want me to go out there?”

“No...no. I just wish we had more. It's cold, you know?” Two male figures huddled around a dying fire. The eerie light created shadows across their faces and shrouded their surroundings in darkness. The only thing visible besides the fire was a tarnished coffee tin, one of the large drums. The words and color had been worn off of the side and the the plastic cover had been replaced by a piece of sheet metal. The figure on the left held it tight to his chest like child holds on to his favorite toy.

“Can you give me some of that? I know there ain't much left...but it's been days.” The man on the right asked quietly. He tentatively stretched his hand toward the tin. The man who held the tin flinched away sharply and slapped the probing hand.

“No! Ellis, we need this to last as long as possible!...Do you want to have to do it again? Or me?” He was frightened and shaking as he spoke, each word grew closer to a whisper until he could barely be heard. The fire flickered and struggled to remain alive, a mirror of it's creators. Both men refocused on the flames and sucked in air tightly; neither wanted to breathe too strongly and blow it out. A tense moment passed as the fire tried to decide if it could keep burning. After a minute it found another small source of fuel and continued to crackle. Both men released their lungs and sighed deeply. The man on the left suddenly started coughing harshly and doubled over. He fell to the ground roughly and dropped the coffee tin. Ellis jumped up and snatched the can with a devilish whoop. The first man reached out weakly and shouted.

“Hey! What the fu�"” He fell to the cement ground again with a lung in his mouth. Ellis stopped trying to open the tin and looked at his friend sadly. He reached down and hefted him back up onto their bench of rock and rubble.

“Look, Sam, we both haven't eatin in almost...I'm not sure, maybe three days? We gotta eat something or we will die...” Ellis opened the can and held it close to Sam's face. Sam sniffed, looked away and sneezed, and then relented and reached his hand into the tin. He pulled out a piece of something and began to gnaw on it aggressively, each bite turning his neck into a trunk of corded muscle. Ellis took a piece of his own and sucked on it gently. He wanted every savory bit to be tasted. After a few minutes, both pieces were gone and the can was empty. Ellis stared into it tiredly and then placed it on the ground next to the bench. To his left was an undistinguished pile of metal. The fire grew for a moment and the pile was revealed for a brief second. It was bunch of tarnished coffee cans, just like the one Ellis had just added. They gleamed terribly in the fading light.

“We gotta do it again, don't we,” Sam whispered almost under his breath. Ellis glanced at him.

“Better quick than later, I guess.” Ellis answered.

The silence grew and the darkness crept in with silent footsteps. There seemed to be no sign of the sun or any other light; Time passed without notice. Sam coughed slightly and the movement shuddered through his whole body. He closed his eyes tightly.

“I'll do it,” he forced out. Ellis did not look away from the fire or even acknowledge that Sam said anything. The fire was on it's last breath.

Ellis leaped at Sam with a growl and slammed into him. Both men fell on the ground and scrambled for a few moments until Ellis pulled out a worn pocket knife from his pants. He flipped it open and stabbed it into Sam's side, pulled it out, and then slammed it back in. Sam cried and screamed as he felt his mind slip away. The fire swayed and gently disappeared. Ellis closed his eyes as the dark held him close.    

Reviews

[Marie]

Gruesome, but pretty good. Not quite original, though.

[Benjamin]

How could I make it more original? Give a more defined setting? Complicate the plot? Lengthen the dialogue?

[Marie]

It doesn't need, necessarily, to be original. I just meant that the idea of last survivors has been done before. But you told this very well.