Page 16 of Camriel
“I’m just passing through!”Victoria called out, staying out of sight.“Why the fudge are you trying to kill me?”
“You’re an evil witch!”one of the old women shouted.“Everyone who wasn’t raptured is evil!We’re just defending our belongings!”
“You’re evil, too, you cork sucking azzhole!”Victoria pointed out.
Gasps of outraged shock came from the old timers.“Only someone with a black soul would swear like that,” one of the women muttered.
“I don’t swear!”Victoria retorted.“It just sounds like I do!”
“Let’s end this,” the grizzled man with the rifle said grimly.“That black truck that looks like a tank has passed through here too many times.They’re bound to start looting soon.This foul-mouthed witch is probably with them.We’ll kill her first, then set a trap for the others.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.These people were all batshiz crazy.So were the folks they intended to ambush, probably, but she wasn’t about to walk away from this fight.“Come get me, mother fudging azzholes,” she muttered, then went on the move.
Leaving the two young women to their grief, the oldsters split into two teams.At the grizzled man’s direction, he and his wife went right.The other couple headed to the left of the house.Victoria had already climbed over the six-foot tall fence into the neighbor’s yard.She waited for the grizzled guy and his partner to pass her, then quietly climbed back over.
They had no idea she was right behind them as she followed them along the brick path.“Hi there,” she whispered when they’d nearly reached the back yard.
Gasping in shock, they tried to spin around, but Victoria was too fast.She grasped hold of their heads and bashed them together, killing them both instantly.The other couple hadn’t reached the back yard yet, so she quickly heaved herself over the back fence.Her foot landed on something squishy.She looked down to see she’d stepped on a body.
“Fudginggross,” she whispered, shaking her foot to try to get the rotting flesh off it.She stuck her sneakered foot in a bucket full of rainwater and swirled it around.The stench was going to linger, but at least it was cleaner now.
“Where is she?”the decrepit old woman whispered loudly to her partner.
Victoria hoped they were too deaf to hear her wet shoe squeaking as she crept back over to the fence.
“We’ve got her cornered, dear,” her husband said, but his tone was doubtful.
Tired of this farce, Victoria heaved herself back over the fence.She ran over and smashed their heads together to end their miserable old lives, then returned to the driveway.It felt wrong to murder the two young women while they were so distraught, but they felt just as evil as the others to her.Victoria gave them a quick, merciful death by bashing their heads together before they were aware they were in danger.
“The people in the black truck will be safe when they come back this way,” Victoria said, wrinkling her nose at the smell of corpse juice that still wafted from her shoe.“I’m sure they’d shower me with thanks if they knew,” she added.In reality, they’d probably try to shoot her, then steal her clothes.
Snickering beneath her breath, she grabbed her bags and resumed her journey.She remained on high alert, watching for the black truck and for lunatics.In the back of her mind, she was also scanning for the being who’d brushed her mind twice.
Plenty of people were hiding in the burbs as she passed through them.That would change once their food ran out.They would have to find a way to provide for themselves soon, or they would starve to death.
“A new government will form and force people into food production,” she figured.Victoria couldn’t see any of the fools she’d run into so far picking crops or working in canning factories.They were too crazy right now.Maybe they’d regain their sanity if their paranoia subsided, but she was doubtful.
The only scenario she could envision was for the remaining population to be rounded up.They would be allocated jobs whether they liked it or not.It wasn’t just her country that would be facing a grim future.All nations would be in the same boat.
“They’ll either sink like the fudging Titanic, or figure out how to get everything working again,” she said.Used to talking to herself from spending so much time alone, Victoria didn’t think she was actually going crazy.She hoped not anyway.If so, she would be less dangerous if she holed up in the mountains.Someone like her could do a lot of damage if she went on a killing spree.
