Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle

metal barrel to the back of his head, pushing it forward ever so slightly.   “Don’t fucking move or I’ll blow your stupid head off.”
    The girl with the rifle spun around and I ducked behind the wheelchair, keeping the guy between us.   “Shoot me or my friend, and I’ll kill this asshole right here in his chair.   I don’t give a crap if he’s paralyzed or whatever.”
    “Go ahead and shoot me,” he said, nonchalantly.   “I don’t give a rat’s ass.”   He put his hands on the wheels of his chair and started to turn it around.
    I panicked.   I didn’t really want to shoot him, but I needed to use him as my shield.   I grabbed the handle of the chair with the gun in my hand and pulled him back, jamming the rebar into his wheel spokes with the other.   “You’re not going anywhere, dick.”
    “Hey!   What’d you put in my wheel!   Take that out!”
    “Jimmy, just shut up and let me handle this!” shouted the girl.
    I turned my attention from Jimmy to his protector.   “All you have to do is let my friend go, and I’ll leave you two alone.   But if you try anything funny, we’ll take this place down to the ground.   I have friends outside who are waiting for me to get back.”
    She narrowed her eyes at me.   “I don’t believe you.”  
    I could see her strength was waning.   The rifle was pointed more towards the ground now, even though she kept trying to hitch it up, using her elbows braced against her sides.  
    “I don’t care if you believe me or not.   Let my friend go, or you and your boyfriend here are going to have an extra hole in your heads.”
    “Good!” yelled Jimmy.   “Shoot me!”
    “Shut up, Jimmy!” both the girl and I screamed at the same time.
    Both of us were startled at first and then I smiled.  
    She smiled back, a little sadly.   “He don’t wanna live,” she said with a heavy southern accent.
    “Who does?” I said.   “The world sucks right now.   I just want to get my friend and go.”
    “Bryn, she has dose jaw breakers you were talking about.   I was just trying to get you some and dey jumped me.”
    I shook my head.   “You got jumped by a ten year old and a gimp.   I’m so proud right now, Bodo.”
    “I ain’t ten.   I’m fifteen.   And that ain’t very polite, callin’ a guy in a wheelchair a gimp.   And he’s my brother by the way.”
    “You got pregnant with your brudder?” asked Bodo, the look on his face not hiding his disgust.
    “Pregnant?” I said, noticing for the first time that she did look a little round in the middle.
    “My brother?   Oh gawd, that’s disgustin’.   No, it wasn’t my brother, you idget.   It was one o’ them wild boys runnin’ around out there in the night.   Attacked me when I was out gettin’ water from the well.   But Jimmy killed ‘im right where he stood when he was done hurtin’ me.   But it was too late.   I got knocked up.”
    “Holy crap , that sucks,” I said, before I could stop myself.
    “Yeah,” she sighed.   “Tell me about it.   Havin’ a baby in the middle o’ this mess.   And with the father bein’ all crazy an’ such.”
    The father being a cannibal rapist, you mean.   I thought it but I didn’t say it.   Poor girl had enough on her plate to deal with.   “Well, at least you have this nice place to live.”
    “Yeah, well, we got weapons.   And we’ve killed enough of ‘em that they stay away.   Only you two dummies have come here in the last couple weeks.”
    “Well, we’re not bad people and we don’t mean to cause you any harm or any … stress.   We’ll just leave you alone if you let us go.”
    “I’ve a mind to let you go,” she said as if measuring her options.   “Where’d you say you was headin’?”
    “Orlando,” I said, at the exact same time Bodo said, “The Everglades.”
    I shook my head.   “Bodo, do you not listen to anything I say?”
    “Hey, dey’re nice people.   Dis iss like a place people can go for information.   Maybe one day dey can sendt people to where we liff so we can grow our community.”
    “Or maybe they’ll tell the canners who we are and where we’re going so they can all show up and eat us!”
    “Oh, hell no,” said Jimmy, struggling to turn around.   “Them freaks done ate our dog and raped my sister!   You think we’d help them sons-a-bitches?   Sissy, gimme that gun so I can shoot this girl and her foreigner friend.”
    “Shut up, Jimmy.   You don’t need