Page 12 of The Last Man on Earth
“Where?”
I look over at Ariana, who’s laid out with her back against a tree, her wounded leg in front of her. I almost forgot she was here.
“It hurts everywhere,” Ms. K whispers, like speaking with a full voice is too painful. “But mostly my stomach, I think.”
“I got percs and oxy,” I say. “Which one do you want, K?”
Ariana shakes her head. “Of course you have a stash of drugs.”
I snap my head in her direction, teeth gritting in anger. “What’s it to you?”
She ignores that. “She needs to eat something with it.”
“Why?”
“Because people who don’t take drugs for recreation usually can’t tolerate stuff that strong on an empty stomach.”
I scrub a hand down my face, wiping tears, and also wiping away the frustration this woman makes me feel.
I pull myself to a standing position and approach the pile, flames crackling a few feet behind me. They’re slowly dying, just like my will to live.
I grab the first loose thing I see, a package of dried apple slices, then I find my LV bumbag and dig out a baggy of white pills. I rack my brain for a minute before deciding to give her just two. I can handle three or four at a time, but K is new to this.
I snatch a bottle of water out of the pile and position myself next to K.
“You want me to feed you, or you got it?”
She holds her hand out.
I tear open the shiny black bag and pour the dried apples into her hand.
“Just enough to line her stomach,” Ariana says. “We can’t waste supplies.”
“Fuck is you talkin’ bout?” I snap. “We got way more than enough to get us through the next few hours.”
“Hours?”
I turn to look at her, my face balled up. “What you think this is, Gilligan’s Island? I’m a fuckin’ superstar! They out lookin’ for me right now. With this big ass fire, ain’t no way they don’t find us.” I turn back to K, pressing the pill into her other hand. “Eat what you want. Lemme know what else you need.”
She nods, a grimace on her face.
Silence falls over us. The only sound is the crackle of the wreckage burning behind us. I glance up through the trees to the blue sky above. No cloud in sight. No planes in sight either, though.
Ariana might know private jets, but she don’t know shit about this right here. I’m one of the most famous men in America. Ain’t no motherfuckin’ way we don’t get saved tonight.
“Vincent.”
I look over at Ms. K, my eyebrows raised.
“Please don’t fight with her,” she says softly.
I shrug a shoulder. “She think she know every fuckin’ thing. She’s pissing me off, K.”
“Okay, but y’all need to work together.”
“For what? Somebody’ll be here soon.” My eyes drift up to the empty sky again.
The fire is weak now, burning orange instead of the angry red and black from before, and I have a thought that makes my stomach turn.
