Days of Love and Blood

killers for a while. I thought it was the rapture or something and I was too much of an asshole to be saved. I got on 65 and went north. Then I took some exit and drove through the country for a while. Marianna flagged me down. It wasn’t until then when I even found out what was going on - with the homicidals. It wasn’t the rapture but it sure was the apocalypse.”
    “ Or purgatory. Why did you decide to stay?”
    “ I wanted answers. I didn’t know where else to get them. And I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
    “No parents? Siblings?”
    “Nah,” he shook his head . “My dad died when I was a kid and the state took custody of me. No clue who my mom was. I left the state home when I was eighteen and it was just me until Cameron. His mother walked out on us when he was only six weeks old. She was never a thought in my mind.”
    “She sounds like an awful person.”
    “She was. Hope the bitch got axed by a homicidal.” Cooper laughed over at me and quickly shook the smile away. “Sorry.”
    “Don’t be.”
    “We never really had any kind of relationship - me and Cam’s mom. We never got married. I never had a relationship with no one, I guess. I never saw how one worked since I never really had parents. I could never figure them out - relationships with women. That’s why I’m always doin’ and saying the wrong things. The only relationship that was real was with my son. My boy.”
    “You don’t have to explain yourself there,” I said with a smile as I leaned my head back against the rest. “I’m not exactly the easiest to get along with myself.”
    “I think you are. Sometimes I don’t know how to deal with it, with the way I feel so easy around you. Sometimes I want to push you away or fuck it up ‘cause that’s the only thing I know how to do. And sometimes I’m just an asshole. But other times, I really like it. It’s the first time I’ve ever liked it.” He scratched nervously at his neck and cleared his throat.
    “And sometimes you say things that are so perfect, I want to wrap my arms around you.”
    “Really?” He snapped his head in my direction a few times. With his left arm propped up on the windowsill, he rested his head on his hand and looked at me with his mouth slightly open. He cast his gaze downward slightly, as if in contemplation. He sighed a few times before turning back to the road.
    “Really. When you want to be, and only when you want to be, you can be the most emotionally honest person I know, and the least presumptive person I’ve ever met.”
    “I have no idea what that means.”
    “It’s good. But just so you know, at other times you’re the exact opposite. A complete one-eighty.”
    “In other words, a n asshole?”
    “Not my words, ” I giggled.
    I woke up after dozing off in the chair when Cooper slowed down and shook me awake.
    “Hey, hey, hey.”
    “What? What is it?”
    “Look.”
    Small flashes of lights were moving back and forth across the darkened road in the distance. It was ten o’clock already and the night was pitch-black.
    “What is it?”
    “I don’t know.”
    We edged slowly toward the lights. There were two of them , moving side-by-side. As we got closer I could make out the faint outlines of two bodies. They were holding flashlights, flagging us down. I suddenly remembered the camp we passed the day before.
    “What do ya think?” he asked.
    “I think they’re survivors. Let’s go talk to them.”
    “Johnson?” Cooper said into the walkie-talkie.
    “What’s going on?” he replied.
    “People. Two men. Rifles. Pull up next to me and keep your lights on. Keep your pistol in your pants, so they can see it.”
    Cooper left the R.V. running with the lights on and we stepped outside and entered the lit space in front of the cars. The men were dressed similarly in camouflage. Both were tall, large and muscular with square jaws and crew cuts.
    “Hey,” said one of the men. He had a reddish tint to his chin and a bulbous nose. “Are you the ones who left us a note?”
    “We did,” said Cooper. “Is it jus’ you two?”
    “Just us two. I’m Willie. This is Anand.” He motioned to his friend with dark skin and thick lips.
    “Are you guys military?” Johnson asked.
    “Us? No. Not at all. Just keeping safe.”
    “You’re not too safe staying on the road, in tents,” I thought out loud.
    “We wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for that note,” said Willie. “We waited for you. And now, I’m