Read 600 Miles: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure for Free Online Page B

make sure, blood spilling out of him all over the road. She looked at me, the crazy, cold look in her eyes fading as she stared.
    There weren't no words. I bent down, trying not to get my boots in the blood, taking his rifle and whatever else I could find. Then we was walking on, that body left there for whatever was hungry to make a meal of, Gitty and I not talking for a while.
    "Wasn't no man to feel sorry about," she finally said.
    "I know, Gitty."
    Two days we traveled down that old highway, passing folks here and there, sometimes telling where we was coming from and where we was going, though sometimes we'd pass saying nothing at all, each stranger keeping a wary eye on the other. We learned it from some we talked to that these were dangerous parts, that bandits had been preying on folks going to and from the trading post that laid not too far ahead, close enough to reach before dark, if we was lucky. We never did get there before the sun went down though, and so we had to sleep that night alongside the road. Gitty wanted to keep going but I was too tired, and besides, it was hard to see what danger was lurking nearby or who you might come up on in the dark.
    Early the next morning we woke safe and sound. Now that the summer was getting done with, it were real chilly, though in a few hours that sun would still be hot enough to melt flesh from the bone.
    As we walked, Gitty didn't seem too happy and I worried about it, figuring maybe it was on account of that man she killed. I asked her what was wrong and she didn't say nothing at first, just staring off down that long highway that stretched on forever with a faraway look in her eye.
    "I don't like it out here," she said. "Ain't nothing around but bad men and death. We should have stayed on at the creek where we were happy. I liked it back there, like it was the kind of place we could make home."
    "Ain't like we can't go back," I said. "Let's just see what kind of trading we can do up at this post, and if you ain't wanting to keep on walking to California after that then ain't no reason we should go."
    "California? I thought we were just coming here to trade."
    "Well, yeah, just some trading then. California was just something I was turning over in my head."
    "Where in California were you thinking of taking us? You're still dreaming about Los Angeles?"
    "Well I guess I've heard so much about it that I just wanted to be able to see it myself. I heard a man can make a real good living out there digging up salvage, what if he can survive the dangers and all. Hell, if I could just afford a couple of mules let alone a horse and wagon, just imagine all the stuff I could haul back."
    "Oh, Elgin, you don't want to go there. I don't know who told you all those things about that place, but it's nowhere you want to go. There's hardly nothing left standing there even, just a bunch of crumbling old buildings and too many skeletons to even count. I've even heard that there were people living there that live on eating each other and drinking blood. Ain't nowhere a man's going and getting out alive, and that's the truth of it."
    "And who was telling you this?" I wondered. "Maybe them's just stories to scare people away. I know if I was striking it rich out there and didn't want everyone coming, I'd be telling all sorts of stories too."
    "You don't believe me? They ain't just stories, Elgin. But by the way you're talking about it though it sounds like you're planning on going anyway just so you can find out."
    "No, I ain't so ready to go anymore. Just forget it. We'll do some trading and maybe find you that nice dress you're wanting, then go back to the creek until it dries up."
    "Promise?"
    "I promise, Gitty."
    It made her happy to hear me say it, and she weren't sad anymore after that. She came up beside me and gave me a kiss, putting her arm in mine. All was forgotten after that, Lost Angeles and that man we'd done in who without a doubt had it coming, devil take his hide. And though we