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The author “Chance” is me, “Larkin” This is an effort to re-compose my old roster into a new roster comprised old and new works, re-written and done with more careful editing. (omitting junk) I hope you will understand.

Please send comments to larkin@tutanota.com...And I will respond

Max, Newt and Raif

by Chance

The Conclusion

The Mismatched Duo

"Ever since you run off, you've been fuckin ruined, When we get back, I'm gonna lock you up in the storage locker and you'll be lucky to ever see the sun again. You won't listen to nothin. You turned into an evil little fucker! You'll pay for almost biting my dick off, I'm still pissing blood!"

Newt started tugging on the rope again and pulling away from the man as hard as he could.

"Fuckin stop it, stop it! You're drivin me fuckin crazy!"

He bore down on the boy hitting him and punching him. It didn't seem to do any good. Then Newt started screaming again. Phil grabbed the boy and covered his mouth tight to stop him and held him until the his revolt and struggle subsided.

Newt looked up at the man. The boy's eyes narrowed with hatred and he spit at him.

Newt yelled at him." You know what? You're a fuckin dumb bell!"

"See what I mean! You're gonna push me too far and I'm gonna snap and I won't be able to stop myself from murdering your stinky little ass."

Newt really was wearing the man out. He got up and tugging Newt harshly with the rope, then continued with the journey.

 The Seed

After a 2 days and a night Max was thirsty, hungry and dizzy with weariness. He would sit periodically but only for a minute or two. He was on the right track because the man at the defender's camp told him that he had seen a man pulling a barefoot boy along. Phil was taking Newt back to where Max had first found him. He was tired but relieved in knowing at least that much.

Off the road and half way up a hill and almost hidden with overgrown grass he saw small rustic house trailer with smoke coming from a tin chimney. He was desperate for something to drink. Just some cool water and he would be fine and able to press on. Max thought he could do without food as long as he could get some cool water. He was sweating from his brow and chest and he slipped several times trying to climb the steep hill. At the top, he rose up on his feet and was met with a woman aiming a rifle right at him. She was dressed in the same old Chinese cottons. Her sweatshirt said, "College Drinking Team."

"What the fuck do you want! You know, I know how to use this and I can, and I will, blow your fuckin head off!"

Max was weaving on his feet.

He said, "Nothin."

Max turned on his feet and fell. The woman cautiously approached. She studied the motionless prone figure that lay in the dirt. Once she removed his pistol, she was sure that the boy was harmless. She stowed her rifle and got down to see what was the matter with him.

"Hey! You ok?"

She was a middle-aged woman and had a pleasant but sandy voice. She got him a jar of water and helped him drink.

"What's goin on with you?"

Max told her about Newt being kidnapped and what had happened.

"How long you been on the road?"

Max said three days.

"Well you better stay here for the night to like, recuperate, ya know what I mean? They won't get that far ahead of you, they gotta sleep too."

Max didn't want to but he was hardly able to sit up. There was a small stream that came from up above, went down the hill and then disappeared under the interstate.

She tugged at his sweatshirt and sniffed at it. "You're clothes aren't so bad but you are too smelly."

by the side of the stream she washed him and looked after him like a put-upon mother.

She looked at him and said, "You boys are a menace to civilization."

The inside of her trailer house was small but warmed by a make-shift wood stove.

"You can lay over there, there's room."

She told him her name was Lucy and he felt safe enough to close his eyes.

"This is your lucky day, we're havin rabbit for dinner, rabbit and puny potatoes. We'll be eatin poor Reggie. I didn't want to but I had to kill him this morning because,"

She looked right into Max's face. "Because why?...Because, that's life, that's why!"

She gave out a world weary cackle. She was proud of her earthy observations.

Lucy tried to make the dinner almost like a fancy romantic dinner from the old days and she sort of succeeded. It was obvious that she was happy to have company. The meal was topped off with some grape juice that had turned a bit hard. It passed for wine, sort of.

"You know, you are better lookin than what I seen on the road these days. Mostly it's the poorest excuse for human beins are no better than half alive, scarecrows."

Max was pleasantly trapped in the corner of a rusty old house trailer with a woman he didn't really know. There was something about her that warmed him and made him feel strangely secure.

"You're safe here with me. If some motherfucker sticks his head in my door I'll shoot at it like it was a bullseye target and the only thing I'll regret is cleanin up the fuckin mess.."

It was plain to see that she enjoyed saying things like that. She laughed a bit and then calmed herself down.

"Max, I'm not the type to play games and tricks with people. I always like to be upfront and honest, you know what I'm sayin?"

Max nodded yes.

"I like, shared my meal and my house so now I have ask you a real important favor."

Max began to feel uneasy.

"I could have taken advantage of you but I'm not like that."

Now he was puzzled.

"I need you, I need your..... It'll be a real simple thing, I promise.....I want help havin a baby."

Max sat up. He didn't really have any idea what that meant.

He looked at his surroundings and then at Lucy. "Um, I don't know, I have never been with a woman before. I don't know if I even know how."

"It's not real difficult, no more difficult than stuffin a chicken and I won't laugh at you neither, I promise. I know you gotta be on your way but you're healthier than most so far and it 'll all be over in a jiffy. I already shot two ugly men that were tryin to get me and you're not so bad."

Lucy looked rustic but fairly attractive in the light of the wood stove and candles. She moved in closer and placed her hand on his leg .

"So what do ya think would happen if you go back and tell your buddy friends that you met this woman and she offered to let you fuck her and you said no?"

Max looked down at her hand moving up and down on his leg.

He said, "I don't know."

"Oh come on Max, they'll call you stupid and a jerk for not doin it."

Max shrugged his shoulders and said, "I guess."

The situation was vaguely uncomfortable but the food made him feel better and it really was a favor owed. He closed his eyes.

Max got his boner and it was roughly pulled out of his pants, there was no way that this wasn't going to play out.

Lucy was in earnest. She tugged off Max's clothes and her own and they coupled. Max thought about Newt and even in the heat of the moment he thought of being with him. It was all he knew.

Lucy breathed into his ear and said softly, rude words of instruction. "Whatever you do, don't go losing it, get it in my pussy, please because that's the only place its gonna work."

She climbed into his lap and sat down on his boner. "Do you come right away or do you have to work hard at gettin off? I don't care. Whatever makes you happy."

She put her arms around him and whispered, "I don't care who you are but you are good lookin and young and I am in love with you right now and that's all that counts. Please come, come inside of me. It's not so much to ask, please give me a baby."

It was a strange kind of hard affection but he responded to it like she was a mother telling him to hurry up and do your chores. With Lucy's help the objective was achieved quickly.

Lucy elevated herself to keep all of Max's juice inside of her increasing her chances of pregnancy.

They ate more food and talked. She asked him all about his life and how he got this far without already being dead.

"Max, I know that this is a really fucked-up time to go and have a kid, but I can't help it, I want a baby more than anything in the world. It's not goin to be something you're goin to have to worry about except until he or she is growed."

She gave out a private laugh like she knew things about life that Max couldn't.

She kissed Max and said, apologetically, "I'm sorry I was so mechanical and all, but it was important to me and maybe it was coincidence or sumthin in the stars but I know it is the right time for me. If I have a baby you and me will always be connected. So many bad and broken men out there and I've had to fight 'em just to stay alive. I looked at you and I can tell, you are going to survive. So someday, after I'm dead and gone, this girl or this boy will come looking for you and they will want to take care of you and you will look back and be glad that you met me.."

Max was thinking that the whole thing wasn't so bad and if she hadn't been so instructive he might have even had fun. With Lucy's help, his first experience with a woman was successful but a little disorienting.

"We can do it again in the morning just before you leave. I promise that we'll take our time and it 'll be more like makin love."

Max was drifting off to sleep.

Lucy whispered in his ear, "Max, you are going to be a father. I can feel it, I just know it. Max, you have given me a wonderful gift."

Max furrowed his brow and opened his eyes wide....and then fell asleep.

She put his pistol back into his back pack.

He dosed for barely an hour and then he was up preparing to go. "Lucy, can you get a message back to Raif? He is my family and I know that he is worried."

"Sure, I can do that, write it down and I'll take it."

Max said, "I can't write.. Can't you just tell him?"

"You boys are so fuckin worthless!"

The Visit

Raif lay in the dark room. The mattresses were still pushed together but no one was there except him. The small room was held in dreadful silence because Raif couldn't or wouldn't make the slightest sound. He didn't have a word for the heavy weight that lay inside of him but if he did it would be despair. He hadn't eaten since the last time he had seen Newt and he could not get rid of the image of him in his mind. Raif blamed himself for everything. When it got too much he would sleep for awhile. He opened his eyes, partially at first, and then the realization of all that had happened came crashing back down.. Raif wanted to die...

He was suffering. Even in the closed off room, he could sense the sun traveling across the sky, lighting the world along the way and then sinking into darkness. Early morning and evening are indistinguishable and unimportant.

His last ray of hope was Max. "I wish he would come back so I would know." But Max didn't and another day wore on.

The fifth day dwindled into afternoon. Raif heard an intruder in the floor down below. He lay quietly listening. Intruders come now and then but as long as the room door is bolted it didn't matter. He sat up to listen. It might be Max. If it were Max he would have come right up to the door. Raif lay back down hoping the intruder would move on.

"Hey up there, anybody home!"

Raif lay quiet. He heard someone climbing the stairs.

"Shit!".

There was a knock. "You in there?"

Raif climbed to his feet and confronted the bolted door.

"Wot!"

The voice on the other side of the door said, "I gotta message for ya."

Raif opened the door. It was a woman, older maybe late thirties, slim and not unattractive.

"I got a message from a kid named Max. You know him?"

Hearing this revived Raif and the hope that he might be freed from this terrible state. He frantically pulled her into the dingy room.

"You look like crap d'ya know that? When was the last time you ate? You better take this. It's a rabbit leg, don't worry, it's only a day old."

She looked around the room and said, "Men! Look at this place. What a fuckin pig sty!"

Raif apologized but prompted her to tell him any news about Max or Newt. She introduced herself as Lucy.

"You know Max don't even know how to write? What a dumb asshole! He wanted me to write for him but I said fuck it and since he did me a good favor I came up here to find you."

Raif said, "What did he say?"

"I live two counties down and that's where he run into me. He was in a sorry state and I got him all cleaned up and let him get some rest."

"What was the message!"

"You know, I even killed Reggie so's he'd have something to eat. Reggie is my rabbit.. that's his leg your holdin there."

Raif put it down on a wooden crate.

"Did he say that he saw Newt and the Man that took him?"

She said, "Yup."

"Well, what else did he say!?"

"He said that he figures that those two are headin back to where that guy lived before and now he knows that he can get'em."

Raif was grateful but was beginning to get impatient with the woman. "What's he want me to do."

"I don't know, he didn't tell me what you should do but if you go after him you'll probably criss-cross and miss each other and put alla'yus in more danger and then Max will have to come looking for you. Don't worry about Max, he's got a gun. I can tell, he'll be fine. I got an instinct about these kinda things."

"How long do you think it'll take for them to get back?"

Lucy thought for a moment. "If he got what he's looking for, maybe, ...4 days?" after 6, I'd be worried but I got a 2 day journey in front of me so I better get started."

She only just got here and she was heading back out onto the road. Lucy called after him. "Eat that rabbit leg before it rots, It won't be good for nothin if it does!"

 The Killing

They had stopped for the night to rest but they continued fighting and arguing. Whatever sway Phil had with Newt before he had run away was completely gone.

"Shut-up!"

Newt fired back, "No you shut-up!"

“I said Shut-up!”

"No, you shut-up!

Like a child himself, Phil fell to his knees and bellowed, "Shut-up, shut-up, shut-up, shut-up, shut-up!!!!

Newt was feeling that in some small way he was getting the best of Phil, "No you Shut-up!"

"You know what? I fuckin hate you, I'm sick of putting up with you. I should have hung your stinky ass from some tree ten miles back in full view of the interstate!"

They were still in the dark woods off the road by 100 yards. Newt began his screams again. they were not screams of fear but screams to drive Phil crazy and screams for alarm to sound out anyone to come and help.

The ground was covered with dead leaves. A large man and a small boy tied to each other, struggled. Phil came down on the boy and started choking him hard. Newt clawed and squirmed under the weight of the crazed man.

Phil heard something, maybe a twig breaking. He looked up and against the dark blue starry night, he saw a black silhouette. Then he saw a yellow flash. No one will ever know if he actually heard the pistol shot.

The bullet hit him in the forehead but he wasn't dead. He stood up and staggered around like some fearsome monster in a movie. He spoke horrible jibberish and then he ran off dragging a prone Newt along with him and,... ten yards further, he finally fell dead.

Newt ran to the figure and jumped up on him "Max!"

At the same time Max fell to his knees. He was stunned over the fact that he had really killed someone. He never wanted to kill anyone. It was the first time Newt was really crying since his capture. He cut the rope connecting Newt to the dead man and carrying him away on his back, Max refused to look back at the dead man. He didn't even bother to search the man, he didn't want anything the man had. He turned and walked towards home. Max and Newt were back together and that was all that mattered. He knew that by sunup flies would find the dead man and soon there be would swarms of black flies obliterating the idea that Phil had ever existed. It didn't matter because, Max and Newt were alive and they were going to be miles away.

Reunion

When the sun came up, the two boys stopped to eat the tuna. He gave the cigarettes to an elated Newt. Before he cut the rope from around his neck, Max examined it saw where Newt had tried to gnaw through it during the night. The boy proudly smiled up at him. Max had to admire his cunning drive to survive. They hugged each other and continued on their journey home.

Two more days of waiting and Raif could no longer bear it. He gathered up provisions and started out late that night hoping that he could find Max and Newt. The woman seemed confident that Max was going to be able to find Newt but he wasn't sure and he just didn't know. He headed towards the interstate. It was not safe to travel alone and more so without a gun. To walk down the middle of the interstate made you a target. The only ones that did that were Clan members, armed convoys or stupid people. The best was way through the woods, just out of site of the road.

It was morning when Raif saw them coming over the rise from the old Post Road. The ran to meet each other in a joyous reunion. Such happiness was novel in their lives. It was the profound realization that they were all they had in the world. They spent the day together talking, playing and swimming in a pond that they had found. It wasn't until evening that they started back.

Death Squads

As they got closer to their tumble down house and the overpass and the market where the Soup Mother's set up, they heard shots. The three boys ran around the back of the village to where the elevation was higher and they could observe without being seen.

It was mid-morning and two Vengeance trucks drove into the village. In the back of each truck was 8 to 10 black uniformed men wearing black masks and shades. They drove up to where the Soup Mothers were doing the chores and with the music blasting from their truck players, the men got out and started killing people. Most scattering but they were pursued like quarry in a hunt. These were death squads sent out by Vengeance for some undisclosed retribution. It was old fashion heavy metal music full of aggression and no heart. They were killing everybody. To save bullets the ones that didn't run out of disbelief were hacked to death with machetes where they stood.

As horrible as this scene of death was the boys had no idea that events like this were not unusual. It was the signature of the human animal. You might learn from the past, but all the history books are gone and now few still knew how to read. What do you need history books for? The truth was that this was a common event in the human timeline. From the beginning until today, nothing had really changed. The collapse that brought forth this broken world wasn't any different from the bloodbaths of the past. The human animal is taking natural selection into its own hands.

Raif wondered if Lenny and Clark were down there murdering and killing. He knew they probably were. The boys saw them breaking into their tumble down home and when they came out, they set fire to it along with all the other houses. By early afternoon they climbed back into their trucks and drove away leaving bloody streets strewn with corpses. Raif knew that they were done for the day and that they would not come back. Their work was done. It was over and if you managed to evade them it was your good luck. The killing fever had broken. The boys could go back if they wanted to.

Max and Newt didn't really know what to do. Raif stood up and looked distantly towards the South.

He said, "You know, I've never seen the ocean. They always say it is beautiful."

He looked at Newt and Max and he said, "We're not going back there. We are going on a journey to see the ocean."

They hugged each other and started walking South, away from the burning village.

The End

Please send comments to larkin@tutanota.com...And I will respond