Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle

but somehow I got it done without damaging myself or the equipment.   Buster wisely stayed far away until I was on flat ground again, but as soon as the bike was upright, he ran and jumped into the trailer, turning a few circles on his Hello Kitty backpack before lying down.   He rested one paw over the edge of the trailer and then looked at me expectantly.   Sometimes he was so humanlike, it was scary.   It was easy to see why George had been so attached to him.   I was really glad Peter had brought him along, even though having a dog wasn’t necessarily the smartest choice we’d made.   He ate some of our food and he did bark occasionally when he shouldn’t - but I guess I couldn’t argue about his watchdog skills.   He’d alerted us twice already, and one of those times he’d been a life saver.
    “Good dog, Buster Pink.   Good boy.”
    I was rewarded with a doggy grin and a tail wag.
    Peter led the way up the ramp, heading south on the highway again.   I drew up parallel to him so we could chat.   It was still dark, but the sky was light enough that we could make out the hulking forms of cars along the way.  
    “I was kind of excited about having a third person in our tribe,” said Peter wistfully.
    “Yeah.   Me too, actually, which surprises me.   I honestly was fine with it being just us.   But having Bodo there with this goofy accent and way of saying things was entertaining.”
    “I’m sure we’ll meet some other fun people on our way or once we get there.”
    “I doubt it.   Maybe on our way, but I kind of hope not.   I think we got lucky finding one good guy when we could have found a lot of bad ones.   I’m starting to think the bad ones are the majority now.”
    “Yeah, like a gang mentality kind of a thing,” suggested Peter.
    “Exactly.   I mean, maybe one person alone wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to eat a person for dinner tonight’, but when a group of people are together and they get each other all wound up, I guess it’s different.”   I was trying to figure out how a civilized society could degenerate so far and as quickly as ours had.
    “I think it’s more like you have a group led by someone who’s either very charismatic or very vicious, someone with a screw loose obviously, and he decides for everyone that cannibalism is a valid way to exist.   And the rest of the group goes along either because they’re just as crazy, or brainwashed, or just afraid to go against him.”
    I laughed.   “Yeah, can you imagine?   You’re at the bar-b-cue and you say, ‘Oh, no thanks.   I’m a vegetarian.’”
    Peter got silent all of a sudden and I wanted to smash myself in the face with something.
    “Jesus, Peter, I am such a jerk.   I’m sorry.   I don’t mean to be so flippant about that stuff.”
    Peter shook his head.   “No, don’t apologize.   I know you don’t mean anything by it.”   He started to cry, using an arm to try and hide his face while he kept riding.
    I held my hand out to him to get him to stop moving forward.   “Stop for second.”   I got off my bike and went over to where Peter was standing, straddling his bike.   “Time for cuddles,” I said, pulling him into a hug.   “Don’t cry, please.   I’ll never say anything about the stupid canners again.   I’ll try harder to be more sensitive.”
    “No, don’t change.   I like the way you are just fine.”   He sniffed hard and cleared his throat.   “What happened to my sister wasn’t funny, but if we can’t laugh about the terrible things happening in our world right now, I’m afraid we’ll eventually go insane.   And that’s what led to Lily’s death, so we need to avoid that.”
    “Okay, avoid insanity.   Check.   I’m down with that plan.”
    Peter rested his head on my shoulder for a minute.   “You know, for a girl who mocks the cuddle, you’re pretty good at it.”
    “Yeah, well, my dad taught me.   He was a great hugger.”
    “Um, Bryn?”   Peter picked his head up.
    “Yeah?”
    “I think we have company.”
    I stiffened, standing up straight and releasing Peter, turning to see what he was looking at.
    Off in the distance, in the dawning light of the day, I could just barely make out a bright orange, wiggling flag coming down the highway towards us.   “What the hell?”
    ***
    The orange flag got closer and closer, and as it did, I finally realized what I was looking at.   Bodo was on a bike - a beach cruiser with a basket