The Earth Died Screaming by Chuck Rogers

Author:Chuck Rogers [Rogers, Chuck]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-07-26T06:00:00+00:00

* * *

I WATCHED THE BAROMETER ON THE WALL RISE.

It looked like it was going to be clear tomorrow.

Hang'em High weather.

Normally, once they've got you in the holding cell they take the handcuffs off. With me they didn't. But, they'd handcuffed me from the front so I could eat and shit without their assistance.

That was their first mistake.

Their second was leaving me alone with Larry.

Larry was at his desk watching some action movie with a lot of shooting on his laptop.

"Hey! Larry! Can you turn it this way so I can see?"

Larry didn't even look up. "Fuck off."

Starting not to like Larry.

"Don't I get a last meal or something?"

So far I'd been given a plastic bottle of water.

"You get beans and cornbread in the morning, Geddy. Just like the rest of us."

Geddy . . .

"Me? I wouldn't waste it on you, but the Marshal would insist."

"You're not really going to hang me, are you?"

"I am going to tie a rope around your neck and push you off the overpass, asshole. You're going to shit yourself and twist in the wind for all your Gedhead friends to see."

Gedhead? That's mine, Larry. You stole it.

"You're not a real cop, are you Larry?"

Larry flinched.

Larry had a tell.

"What are you? Forestry service? Deputized firefighter? No, I got it. Simi Valley Town Center security guard."

"Fuck you, asshole."

"No! Really! Good for you, Larry! I bet the apocalypse is the best thing that ever happened to you. You're not in the mall any more. Far fewer alpha males for you to compete with, you got your junior safety patrol badge, you're wearing the big boy pants, and hey! The Marshal let you have a gun!" I lowered my voice conspiratorially. "Does he let you put bullets in it, Larry? Oh, wait. Let me guess. He gave you one bullet, but you have to keep it in your pocket, right?"

Oh, he got the reference.

"You know, maybe you're not going to get that last meal."

"Oh yeah, well, let me tell you this. I--"

Larry took out a pair of ear buds.

"Oh, c'mon, Larry! You and me, awe man . . ." Larry put the ear buds in and hit the volume key on his laptop twice.

Bad move, Lawrence.

Then again, he really had nothing to fear. I was in a cell with steel bars. I'd been beaten to a pulp, strip-searched and I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, socks and handcuffs. My resources at hand consisted of a half roll of toilet paper and a recently emptied 16.9 oz. plastic bottle of water.

That would do nicely.

You might have heard the bit about there being three kinds of people in the world, dicks, pussies and assholes.

Larry was an asshole, and he was about to learn about dicks and their dick-move ways.

Larry studiously ignored me as I chewed a small hole in the bottom rim of the water bottle. Then I put a finger over the hole while I peed in the bottle.

I capped the bottle tightly, went to the bars and tilted the bottle to aim it at Larry.

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