"Watch me," I said, hoisting myself up into the bed of the crashed pickup truck. "Last I checked, time was really the only thing we had to spare."
"Yeah, well that was before they started chasing us," she said, and gestured over her shoulder with her gun.
"Let them. It's not like we have anything worth stealing," I said. Debris littered the bed, but I figured it couldn't really hurt to take a look. I dug through the trash and the sand and the empty cardboard boxrs for a few moments with a sigh of exasperation, but my efforts were rewarded. A cooler sat at the very back of the bed, undisturbed. I opened it, and whooped in laughter.
"What is it?" she said, craning her neck. She tried not to look curious, but she couldn't help it.
"Lauren, we're saved!" I said, grinning.
"Why, what did you find?" She said excitedly. "Water?"
"Better," I said. I held up the bottle. "Vodka!"
Lauren again ran a hand through her hair, in exasperation this time. She had nice hair, Long, black, it fell in curtains. "Jake, vodka is the last thing we need," she said.
"The last thing we need," I said, hopping down, "is to stay out here too much longer. They're chasing us, remember?"
She laughed and shook her head. "I can't stand you, Jake."
I cracked the bottle and pulled out the cap that stops you from pouring out too much at once and I took a big drink. I winked at her and held it out. She scowled, then eyed it, and finally took it from me. She took a sip and swallowed with a grimace.
"It gets better as you drink more of it," I said.
"That's Stockholm Syndrome, Jake."
I barked in laughter and closed the bottle. "How does that building look for tonight?" I said, pointing to what looked like it had been an apartment building at one point.
"You don't think they'll find us there?" She said.
I shook my head. "They can't check every single door in every single suburb, can they?"
She nodded, and we made our way over. The door swung open and we swept the building, guns drawn, and once we determined we were alone we put our bags down. I chose the couch in the upstairs apartment's living room, and she chose the loveseat. We set about making dinner, and slowly night fell.
The scientists had blamed solar cycles for the earthquakes, see, but I had never been a scientist. I had never been much of anything, actually, until the rain stopped falling and people started starving. Then I was a thief for a little while, and then a killer, and then alone. But... That's not important anymore.
"Say, Lauren," I said, around a mouthful of Spam. I swallowed. "What were you before everything changed?"
"I was a nurse. I worked at the children's hospital in the city." She smiled wistfully.
"That's... Great, actually. You really like kids then?" I said.
She nodded, grinning. "My mom ran a daycare when I was growing up, so I was always around little kids. It just kinda became part of me, you know?"
I nodded. "It's great that you have something you're passionate about."
"You look surprised," she said, frowning. Her eyes were smiling though.
"It's not that, it's..."
"What is it?" she said.
"You're just the last person I'd expect to like kids is all," I said with a shrug.
She slugged my shoulder and I burst out laughing. "You're such a shmuck, Jake!" she said.
"Please, you're glad we bumped into each other!" I said.
"Maybe." She got up and went over to the window. "What about you? What did you do before all this?"
"I was a gigolo," I said seriously. I looked her in the eye, my face stony.
Lauren squinted at me. "I can't tell if you're screwing with me."
"Only one way to find out..." I said with a wink.
Lauren laughed. "No chance that's happening until I'm six drinks in. Maybe seven."
I pulled the vodka out of my bag and took a sip. "Well, there's one. Besides, you haven't even seen my six pack yet."
She laughed and took the bottle from me. She drank more deeply than I had and passed it back. "So, what now?"
"What do you mean?" I said. "I figured you'd give me a sensual massage and then we'd find a hot tub someplace."
"No, I mean... Like, what's next? Where do we go?" She said. "They're after us, we're kinda on our own here. What can we do?"
"Well Lauren, you got one thing wrong," I said. She raised an eyebrow. "We're not on our own."
Her eyes widened a little bit.
"Listen, you're right, the world's gone to shit. But, I mean, we're both alright, aren't we?"
"We... Yeah, I guess we are," she said.
"I need a partner, Lauren. What do you think? I dunno what we're gonna do next, but I know we can do it if we stick together. You watch my back, I watch your back... What do you say?" I extended my hand.
Lauren narrowed her eyes, and then got up off of the loveseat. She sat next to me and took my hand. "Let's do it."
I grinned and took another drink. Yeah, we were gonna make it. I had never been much of anything before everything else fell apart, but maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the end of my world after all.
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