Waiting for death chp. two

Two

          Kadin was awakened from a restless sleep. He was having a nightmare about the “Pirates of the West” chasing him through the high school like they were creatures from some B rated zombie movie. There skin was a gray color and they had spit foaming out there mouths. The back up singer was the closet to him. She was wearing a corset that pushed her breast up until they looked like they would pop. She was signing something about brains.
          Kadin was awakened from that nightmare into another when he felt the cold nozzle of a pistol being pushed sharply into his back. For a moment he thought he was still sleeping, but the gun pressed painfully to his back promised reality. His Amber eyes blinked sleepily as a male disembody voice barked an order to him.
          “Get up slowly, and put your hands in the air.”
          Kadin briefly thought of the knife that rested on his belt. A knife really wasn’t an effective weapon against a gun, besides he was not alone. He could hear the shuffling of feet walking trough the store. The Thumping sound had gone. Either they had passed by, or it had not been the crazies at all. Kadin stood up slowly and raised his hand in the air. He tried to glance back to see his assailant, but that resulted in the pistol being pushed harder into his spine.
          “Move to the wall,” the voice said.
          Kadin complied. He looked around hearing the shuffling footsteps, but he couldn’t place any bodies in the shadows. He walked to the wall, and felt strong hands pat him down. They gripped his muscles through his baggy banned tee, and then reached around to his stomach before moving to his back and legs. The hands found his knife and removed it along with the belt it was attached to. They used the belt which was more like a rusted chain to bid his hands behind his back. He shivered as he felt the metal bite into his skin. Despite the circumstances Kadin was happy that there where people out there. The crazies wouldn’t bother with a gun, or tying anyone up, they just bite.
          He was turned around, and he sat against the wall. He finally got a good look at his assailant. The man was at least 5 ’11 with 300- 350 pounds of pure muscle. He had a shinny bald head, and sullen brown eyes that pulled of the brooding look and the crazy look at the same time. He looked like he might have once worked for one of those high class clubs, where he kicked people out when they had one to many. He was wearing a police uniform that was a few sizes to small. It looked like he appointed himself to the job of policing the post diseased world. This was made clearer by the shining gold sheriff star that was pined to his chest. It looked like it had come out of a cereal box.
          Kadin turned his head to see some skinny man with long scraggily hair. He was dressed in tan rags and appeared to Kadin like one of the rouges in one of his fantasy games come to life. He was digging in his book bag with great interest.The other men and women were strolling through the aisle shopping as if it were a normal day at the store. Most of them were older then Kadin, He did see a few children scampering around, and a boy and girl who were either lovers or siblings that had reached adolescents not that long ago. He tried to struggle out of his restraints but only succeeded in making them feel tighter.
          “I’m only passing through, you could let me go.” Kadin suggested.
          “You were stealing”, the sheriff accused.
          “What?” Kadin asked in a shocked voice. Was that even considered a crime in this day and age Kadin wondered. “What are you doing?”
         " Don’t put us down on your level thief we pay,” The sheriff answered self righteously.
          To Kadins surprise they were telling the truth. He saw a woman go to the cash register and lay a bunch of hundred bills down. Kadin gave her a ‘you got to be fucking kidding me look’. He had to bite his lip to keep himself from bursting into a fit of giggles. He was not I any position to make them angry. He wondered who it was they thought they were paying. There was noting but ghost here. The money would stay there until it crumbled away into a thousand pieces.
The rouge that had been digging through his bag, seemed satisfied and added a few more cans to it, before brig it to the sheriff.
          “UP” the man commanded.
          Kadin slowly stood up, his eyes fixed on the man. They placed the bag which had now doubled in weight over one shoulder. The male of the adolescents came over with another bag that weighed about the same amount. It was placed over his other shoulder.
          “Move “the sheriff commanded.
          Kadin had always had a problem with taking orders. His transcript back at Oaks Valley high school was full of examples of how much he despised authority. His eyes narrowed.
          “What Am I you’re pack mule?”
          “Move”, the sheriff said again.
          He kicked him in his bad leg sending him tumbling down to the ground. Kadin saw flashes of white as pain ran up to his knee. The bags hit the floor, one bag opened and a can rolled across the floor. Before Kadin could get back up, he was hoisted to his feet by strong bouncer hands. The bags were flung across his shoulders once more. The can forgotten, left lonely in the aisle to lie until someone else came in need of food.
          The man pushed the gun at him.
“           Yeah, I know, I know.” Kadin said rolling his eyes,” Move”. He started to walk, his limp was a lot more intense and his muscles complained with every step about the weight he was carrying.
          The other shoppers were bustling out the door, giving him nothing but curious glances. He walked out of the grocery store out into the cold autumn dawn. It was still early, Kadin thought; the sun hadn’t even waked up. It was still stretching. The only evidence of the sun were the bright pinks and purples that dotted the horizon, it had yet to even touch the sky.
          Apparently Kadin was not moving fast enough for the sheriff he hit him on the back trying to encourage him to move faster. Let’s see how fast he walks with a ton of junk on his back and a bad leg, Kadin thought bitterly.
          “Where the hell am I moving too anyway?”
          There was no answer which led Kadins mind down a frightening myriad of possibilities. What if he was marching to is own execution? What if they were going to just make an example of him, what happens when you break a law? Perhaps they were going to feed him to the crazies, so they would leave them alone. Or perhaps he was destined to just be there slave, or…. He shook his head. If his hands had been free he would have put them to his temple, he was getting a bad headache.
          Instead of contemplating his fate he put his attention into examining his surroundings. He had not seen much of the place before, but it was a lot nicer then some others he had visited. The roads they were walking on were clear here. Except for the occasional broken down car on the side of the road, there was no sign of accidents.
          In the town that he had come from there had been a big pile up completely blocking his way out. He had to pick his way carefully through the tangled metal, and he kept half fearing that someone would open one of the car doors and jump him as he walked by. He had kept his head down for a while whistling on of his songs to keep his mind off the task, but after he got scrapped up by one of the cars. He stopped that, and just speeded up his processes.
          The other thing which made this town so nice was that he could see patches of green. There were bushes and gardens that had grown wild without there owners care all green, all seemingly healthy. It was like the taint of the plague had never come this far. It was the perfect place for survivors to be, perhaps that was why there where so many people here.
          His eyes moved away from his surroundings to the people who marched in front of him. No one paid much attention to him except the adolescent girl who kept glancing back at his directions and receiving mean looks from the adolescent boy.
          The girl didn’t look that bad, Kadin thought. She was a sort skinny thing who was wearing a shirt with a low neck line showing the tops of her small breast, and black jeans that were so baggy he wasn’t entirely sure how she kept them on. Her hair was cut short and dyed a mixture of red and black. It hung in random spies on her head framing her delicate face like a mane. Her eyes were a slightly orange color and he could tell she was wearing contacts, but why anyone would keep up with the false illusion when there was no one to see, was a mystery to him. The girl became a mystery, which edged into his curiosity.
          The other people just keep on marching in the same rhythm like soldiers. They all had a determination in there pace as if they were all on some unknown mission. Most of the ones whom even chanced to look back seemed to have a special breed of craziness in there eyes. He had seen that look before. Before the world had changed, but his mid was on so many thing he couldn’t quit place it. It would continue to elude him until they reached there destination.