“Come on, boys and girls, we haven’t got all day you know. Not sure if you noticed, but shits going down. So come on, we’ve got to get across the city to my buddy Larry’s, after that, we’re home free.”
The two lovers had passed the view of the window now, but the sound was still pervasive, ricocheting into one ear, splitting the mind in two and screaming out the next as fast as it had entered. And that glow was still as constant as ever, fueled by so much burning, putrid, oily, meat. They knew that this place held nothing for them now but more fire, and more pain. There was no way to know for sure, but somehow they did. With only a glance it was decided once and for all. They followed Trip quickly out of his front door, and into the stairwell for the second time that day.
“We can’t take Valera, Trip, she’s not acting right!” Jack yelled ahead to his friend as the three of them raced down the staircase towards the relative safety of the ground below.
“You think I’d get in that frankencar even on it’s best of days? No thank you, my man, I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry.” Trip left it at that, and neither Jack nor Barbie had the mental capacity presently to question him further, they only followed as close as they could until finally they came to the street. Bursting forth from the stairwell entrance, all at once it hit them again. The flame, the fury, the irrationality of it all. The death that surrounded them, seemingly now on all sides. There were burning cars careening madly in the streets, screams of onlookers as well as those of the unlucky few to have been driving through the madness when the building had begun to fall coincided hauntingly, creating a kind of death chorus that filled the air with high pitched gloom. Everywhere there was panic. All at once neither Jack nor Barbara felt very safe at all. Trip only stared, wide eyed and grinning, as the world fell apart around him.
“Jesus Christ, this is worse than I thought it was gonna be… Let's get going this is not a good scene. Follow me!” A little too cheerfully, Trip whisked his arm around his body in a grand beckoning gesture, and set off running without looking back. Jack and Barbara were right behind him all the way.
That horrid sound could still be heard, gradually getting softer as the distance increased but still there. Still calling out for an expedited execution in the wake of its unbearable pain. Snaking through side streets and back alleyways Trip managed to run them around so thoroughly Jack was sure at one point that they were just going in circles. Somehow, even amidst the explosions and screams of twisting metal falling all around them, Trip remained somehow omniscient, choosing only those routes that were somehow apparently all but untouched by the chaos that ensued all around them. It had been a while know, Jack knew, how long for sure? He had no idea. All he did know is deep in his gut, a ball was forming and suddenly, he was worried about more than the city still steadily tearing itself to pieces around them. Somehow, suddenly he felt a new fear, one that shouldn’t have made any sense, but somehow... That for all his apparent knowledge, Jack couldn't shake the notion Trip was nothing more than a nutter, a crazy fuck, a fucking liar. Whatever you wanted to call it. When all of the sudden, Trip stopped, and Jack was jolted from his reverie and launched staunchly back into reality. As quickly as they had arisen, Jack’s strange trepidation melted away.
“Well, here we are boys and girls, my home away from home.”
There was a dilapidated single story building sitting on the corner, a blown out neon sign barely read ‘Larry’s’ in sputtering blue and red pulses.
“Is this a… A strip club or something..?” Barbara asked indignantly. “Because Trip, I understand the desire what with the world going belly up and what not, but is now really the time?”
Trip only looked back and grinned. “A strip club?” He laughed some more. “Well, I guess it’s something like that, isn’t it? Come on in and see for yourself.”
As he said these words he pushed the heavy door of ‘Larry’s’ open, and holding it open for the two lovers, welcomed them inside.
There were cars everywhere. Not cars like Valera, but Cars. Like you’d seen in an old digital movie from the early part of the millennium. And the place was massive. Way bigger than it looked from the outside, and cleaner too. Jack saw logos that read Toyota, Dodge, and Jeep, and others still that were just images of skulls or animals running. There were more cars in this place that Jack could count, and doubtless more than he’d ever seen in his lifetime, even when he was a kid and there were still a few of the old Prius’s putting around.
A deep voice came rumbling out from behind a hunk of metal to the trio’s left. “Trip!” The word was stretched in the middle, giving the ‘i’ a syllable all to itself. The effect would have been humorous if the situation had not been so dire.
Dear Reader, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read this story, and to let you know how much it means to me that you did! If you enjoyed this story (or hated it), please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments section! If you did enjoy this story, it would also mean a lot to me if you would be so kind as to upvote, resteem, and generally just let people know that you thought that what you read was worthwhile! Thanks again Reader, and I hope to see you next time! -Matthew Munsey