"I'll say it one last time, boys. Get the fuck off my property. Milton ain't here. You talk a big game, but I haven't seen you usethose big guns of yours once. You wanna know how many times I've used this?" I pulled the hammer back to lock it.
They dropped the guns, leaving them to swing on their straps.
"If you know anything, it would be stupid to hide it, sir," the one on the left said.
"Don't talk to me about doing stupid shit,sir."
I kept the gun pointed at his head as they backed up and went back to their four-wheelers. They nodded to us before turning their vehicles on and heading back toward town.
I relaxed my gun and put it back in its holster. I turned back to my friends, who were shaking their heads.
"You are the bravest fucking kid out here in the wastelands I've ever met," Boone laughed. "And you've never even left this town."
"Why would I need to?" I opened the gate and went into my house. "Although, I am tempted to go find that stupid fuck's corpse."
"You think they'd actually pay you for a dead body?" Soda asked, skeptical. We went to the kitchen, where the ladies had made stew of some sort. We poured ourselves bowls and stood around the room.
"I don't care about the money so much as showing them how ridiculous they were for thinking he was still alive. You can't go that long without taking off that helmet."
"Let's do it." Boone finished his food and reached for his flask, washing down the food with whiskey. "Tonight. I bet he didn't get far from that park."
Soda and I exchanged looks. I was tired, and my muscles screamed for rest, but... it was tempting.
"Fuck it. Let's grab the body and toss it at their feet. They're staying at Desperate Pleasures, aren't they?"
I rinsed my bowl in the basin in the sink. Desperate Pleasures was the town's hotel. We'd seen them coming and going from there.
"Hell yeah!" Boone howled. He liked adventure. It was why he only popped in every once in a while. He was growing bored already.
"What if he's still alive?" Soda asked. The room fell quiet for a moment. We'd all seen the fight that night. We'd heard what they were arguing about. "If we find him and turn him in, is he going to go back to the bunker just to rape women?"
That was a good moral question. What did we want more, the money, or our souls?
"Let's worry about that if it happens," I said, reaching for the backpack I kept packed for long-distance trips. Cherry kept it filled with a med kit, water, non-perishables, bullets, and other stuff I might need to survive a few days in the wastelands. She made one for Soda too, and Boone had his pack.
We bid the girls goodbye and left the house, hopping onto our bikes and zooming off into the night, in the direction of Risky Rush Park.
The lights had been shut off the same night they'd been turned on. They realized their mistake pretty fast. We made it there within an hour, hopped off our bikes and pulled out our weapons.
Creepies, crawlies, and other animals and beasts loved dark, abandoned places. We had to be prepared to kill on a dime. We stepped through the park in a line, slowly and cautiously. It was a large place, he could be anywhere.
I started to wonder if Milton had managed to survive this long. If he had, what would he look like?
The only reason the human population was currently surviving was because of the shot. Created in some lab, the shot made you immune to the toxins in the air. Radiation didn't affectyou and while life was still hard in the wastelands, the air was no longer a threat.
We passed an empty pool with a sign that said:The Gallows. Above us was a platform with trick doors.
There was movement above us. We spun and Soda shot into the darkness.
"Don't shoot!" A man's voice screamed above us. "Please, I need help!"
"No fucking way," Boone whispered as a man stepped to the edge of the platform. "He's alive."
"My name is Milton Hapschatt, I'm a DIT, from Bunker 237. Please, don't kill me. I need help."
Soda and Boone looked at me, waiting for instructions. We kept our guns on him. We had a choice. Save him, or kill him.
Milton begged again, and I took a deep breath. I knew I was going to regret this, but my curiosity was too strong.
