Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle

like you’re a steak or invites you to a bar-b-cue.”  
    I winced inside a little at my careless choice of words, but Peter didn’t seem to care.   He nodded his head, pulling his backpack around and getting the weapon out.
    “Come on, Bodo.   Let’s go see what we can find.”   I took my gun out and nudged him in the arm with it so he’d take it.   He frowned at me but didn’t argue, taking the gun and putting it in the back of his waistband.
    We stepped through the door frame that remained locked together, using the convenient, giant holes someone had made in their glass fronts to enter.   The interior was one big open space.   There were rows and rows of shelves that held seashells of every shape, color, and size.   Some of them looked native to Florida and others obviously weren’t.   Someone with a glue gun and way too much time on her hands had made giant shell-covered knick knacks.   There were mirrors, lamps, clocks, bowls, vases, jewelry boxes, and a hundred other things.   Some of them had their natural shell colors and others had been painted, bedazzled, or shellacked.   It was crazy.
    Bodo walked over to the gaudiest piece in the entire store and said, “Bryn, imagine dat we livt in da real world, da old one, and dat I am buying dis lovely piece of art for you.   As a gift.   Happy birthday.”
    I laughed, walking over to a hula skirt and coconut bra on a hanger, holding it up for him to see.   “And imagine that I’m buying this for you, Bodo.   Happy birthday.”
    “Why thank you, Bryn.   Dat is very kind of you.   I think dat would look very nice on me, especially da bra part.   When iss your birthday, anyway?”
    “It’s next month, actually.   When’s yours?”
    “December twenty-fifth.   I am a Christmas baby.”
    “That sucks.”
    “Yes.   For da presents.   But my mom always gafe me extra in June at da half point.”
    “Your mom sounds cool.”
    “Yes.   She wass very cool, my mom.   I miss her sometimes.”
    I nodded my head.   I didn’t want to talk about parents anymore right now.   I had too many other things to worry about.   “Let’s go find some maps and brochures about places in the swamps.”
    We made our way over to a bank of racks holding all kinds of brochures.   They advertised water parks, butterfly parks, bird sanctuaries, snake museums, gator wrestling shows, and swamp buggy and airboat rides.   Everything and anything a person could do near the humid, hot Everglades was put on display here.
    I pulled one of everything off the racks, stacking them in my arms.   Bodo helped, going over to the other side and grabbing one of each from there.
    “We gonna read these later?”
    “Yes.   I don’t like leaving Peter alone.”
    “Yeah, me needer.”
    I put the stack of brochures I had in Bodo’s arms.   “I’m just going to check behind the register, see if there’s anything of any use there.
    “Okay.   I’ll go put dese in da trailer.   See you in a minute.”
    I was rummaging around on the shelves below the cash register when I heard a small noise behind me.   I shifted to my left before turning, and I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing that saved my life.
    A baseball bat came crashing down, glancing off my shoulder to hit the edge of the counter.   It snapped off a piece of the formica and left a crack in the underlying particle board.
    I dropped to the floor and rolled, coming to the balls of my feet in a not so smooth move on account of the incredible pain shooting through my shoulder.   I stood there, slightly off kilter, fighting off the urge to coddle my injured body part.   I knew it wouldn’t do to let the enemy know my weakness.
    I found myself facing a girl - a dark-haired angry one.   She was spouting all kinds of pissed-off-sounding weird words at me that I didn’t recognize, and swinging the bat a little from side to side, as if she were at home plate and getting ready to hit a high fly ball deep into left field.
    I held my fists up, ready to let her have it if she came any closer. I almost screamed at the pain that shot up from my injured shoulder.   The bone wasn’t broken, but man, was it bruised.  
    “Don’t even think about coming near me with that bat again, bitch.   I’ll friggin take it away from you and bash your head in with it.”
    “Oh, so you think you can just come in here to my parents’ store and take whatever you want?   Steal from me?”
    I smiled, for some reason