Page 6 of Purgatory
It doesn’t take long till she decides to leave the house. Probably in search of the same stuff we are. She takes her time and heads down the main road towards the little grocery store in the distance.
Good luck sweetheart, we’ve already cleared that out. All that’s left are chickpeas and marshmallows.
We stay a few houses back as we trail her down the street. Looking around, I still don’t see anyone else. It’s been a couple of hours since we entered that house; Fuck, I think she actually is on her own.
She starts to bop her head as she walks. Her arms drifting up and around in a serpentine motion. Then, I faintly hear her singing to herself. Is that “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire?
Hah! Good song.
Cole looks over at me, chuckling under his breath and shaking his head when he sees me start rolling my shoulders, nodding my head and lip-synching to her acoustic version. What can I say? I can’t help myself when it comes to good music.
She finally reaches the market and makes her way through the broken door of the grocery store, cautiously stepping over the busted glass. We’re still a block or so away from the building when Cole grabs my shoulder and stops me, pulling me across the street to the post office to wait for her to step out again. The door’s already broken just like at the market so we just push on it and make ourselves at home.
“She’s got to be alone. It’s been too long for someone tohave just left her and she doesn’t exactly look like she’s waiting for anyone,” Cole says as we put our packs down on the floor, relieving our backs for a little bit.
I nod and solemnly reply, “Yea, I was thinking the same thing. Jeez, you gotta wonder how long she’s been at this by herself.”
“Honestly, probably a bit. Mentally, she doesn’t seem like she’s in the state of mind that a person, all alone, during a fucking apocalypse should be. I mean, come on, singing and dancing down the street where there are dead bodies lying everywhere you look? That’s some psychologically messed up shit.”
He’s not wrong. After a while, even I tend to forget that there are, in fact, corpses lying about. All over the damn place. I’m looking at one right now, lying just under the window I’m sitting next to.Sup, Bernie.I mentally wave to him, hoping he got his post out before he croaked. Granted, it’s not many since most that have turned into the literal walking dead have decided to migrate somewhere else but still, a dead body is a dead body, even if it’s just one. Eventually, they just turn into their own version of a shrub. You see that it’s there but you pay it no attention. But, regardless, a normal civilian that doesn’t possess the dark humor we have probably wouldn’t be so cavalier about the death and destruction surrounding them. They’d show some sort of reaction at least. Which means this girl has seen some shit...
Thinking back, I remember noticing a rather intriguing shape protruding from her bag.
“I wonder if her name is Harley. Kinda shows a resemblance, huh? Both physically and mentally. I mean, shit, she DOES have a baseball bat in her backpack.”
He laughs. “Yea, but if that’s the case then where’s the Joker?” He looks around with his arms out at his sides.
“Fuck it, I’ll be her Joker.” Pointing to myself and waggling my eyebrows. “She’s already ticking off a ton of boxes. Number 1: Female, Number 2: blonde, Number 3: likes good music, Number 4: confident, Number 5: crazy as hell...”
“Ok, ok, ok got it. You haven’t even met her yet and you’re already over the moon for her. Here’s a toast to your inevitably, impending nuptials.” He laughs to himself while raising an invisible champagne flute in the air.
“OH! If I’m the Joker, then Jax could be Batman! He’s a fucking dark knight already, all miserable in his McMansion.” I’m getting way too carried away with this but it works way too well for this scenario. And who the fuck cares, what else do we have to do while we wait? I left our poker cards back at the house anyways.
“If that’s the case, then who would I be?”
“That’s a no brainer... Alfred”
Cole was a Corpsman when we were in. Laymen's terms: a field medic. He patched up plenty of guys when we were overseas, including myself and Jax. Combine that will all of his other hidden talents, the dude is a modern-day renaissance man and can do just about anything yet will refuse to gloat about it. Totally Alfred.
“Fuck you! I’m not your fucking man servant”
“No, but you take such good care of us.” I pinch his cheek and he swats my hand away before he points a finger at my face.
“You bet your asses I do, but I'm still not fucking Alfred.” With a huff, he turns away and sits down on the window sill, focusing on the door where our self-proclaimedHarleydisappeared through.
He might think that Alfred was just a butler, but little does he realize that Alfred was one of Batman’s strongest allies.He cooked, handled all of the domestic business, was skilled in medicine and overwhelmingly protected Bruce Wayne and all of his secrets. Bruce wouldn’t have stood a chance without him. Just as we wouldn’t have stood a chance without Cole. Alfred all the way.
Chapter 5
Alessandra
I walk, tentatively, into the grocery store. Eager to get back to the safety of my newly acquired bungalow. While the house, itself, seems safe enough, the only food I could find was a few crackers and some tomato sauce. While it issomething,it’s not exactly substantial enough to last past tonight and since I still have a few hours of daylight left, I might as well be proactive.
The front door was obviously busted open by looters before me. The broken glass crunching under my feet as well as the over grown, well, everything, reminds me that this town must have been empty for a while. All the better for me while I’m trying to, actively, avoid confrontation as I loot and pillage through the local market.
“Let’s see what’s left...”
Doesn’t look like much...
