A Savage Life
Chapter 23

When I jerk myself up, I’m expecting to see Damien adorned in a traitorous smile, Officer Greysing standing beside him, those mutants, and a boatload of scientists just waiting for me to wake up so that way they could nab me and do God knows what to a troublemaker like me.

Instead, I see the road behind me, and I hear Damien panting, as if he’s been running a long while. I, of all things to be worried about, take my tongue and brush it against my teeth. I’m missing two molars on my right side and I feel sticky. I look down and see the blood from my body and shriek, once again, ten octaves higher than a prepubescent choirboy. Damien jumps and drops me, sending me screaming in pain. Then I gasp in pain as he leaps onto me like a joyful puppy, shrieking, “You’re awake! Good! I was starting to get worried that you had died on me and that I’d have to drop your body into a hole!” Oh that’s real nice.

I push the galoot off of me, spiraling more pain into my muscles, joints, and bones, and then I look at him go, “How long have I been out?”

He flinches back because I raised my hand to him, and I all but shout my words. Why? If you remember, some time ago I nearly got killed by mutants for glass jugs, so I beat the living heck out of him until he turns around then does the same to me.

“Oh, you’ve been out for two days now.” Damien tells me.

I nearly choke on that revelation. With him, I could be anywhere by now. I could be in Mongolia, Australia, even Antarctica with him doing all the leading. I look around at the despaired landscape, and see some reddish black sand up ahead. Where am I? Damien is opening his mouth again, and pointing at me, and I know that he’s either going to freak out, or he’s going to say something foolish. I just know it.

“I fed you like a bird while you slept.” Damien smiled. And then I almost throw up.

Do you remember science class? If so, you know that the mama bird pukes in the baby bird’s mouth to feed it. I had a grown man vomit into my mouth. A grown man vomit into my mouth. Let that sink in for a minute. And where did he get the food to even accomplish that? It’s not like there’s anything out he- Oh my God! He didn’t. Did he?

“Uh Damien,” I gulp awkwardly. “Did you perhaps eat anybody or sever the flesh from your own leg to, ya know, feed me?”

Damien stares me down for a long time, and I realize how weird he must feel inside. Anybody would be too if somebody just asked them if they decided to just sever the meat off of their own leg, eat it, and then vomit it into someone’s mouth. I might as well of just asked him to kiss me, that would’ve at least gotten me a blush from him, if not an attempt to do so, instead of that long, blank stare enameled onto his face.

Those eyes pierce me as he sneers, “You’re a crazy old man! If this is your idea of a joke, I am not amused. I ate dirt and mealworms. I fed them to you! Why in God’s name would I feed you the flesh off of my own body?”

“I dunno,” I answer, red hot, and stomach tingling with embarrassment and guilt stricken fear, the same feelings a child might display if they had been caught lying about something. “I just thought may-”

Damien places his hand on my mouth and shushes me, saying, “Enough now, let’s go What’s-Your-Name before I put a leash on you like I would an animal.”

He started to huff off, until I asked, “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“The Badlands.” Damien replies darkly.

Well, that just took a dark turn rather quickly. Then something else hits me.

“Wait, how do you know that?” I ask him, raising an eyebrow at his sudden knowledge.

“Oh, that sign over there.” replies Damien blandly as he points to a sign that says “Badlands.”

Okay.... but what got me even more, was the smiley face, and the words traced in crayon, and the stickers, almost as if the sign had been vandalized by eight-year-old girls.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I murmur to myself, scowling at the happiness of this sign.

“It looks fresh.” Damien pointed out.

He’s right too. A mother and a child passing through here? Why? There’s literally nothing but rocks and volcanoes out there. I look at Damien and he looks at me, and we both know that we can either turn back into the desert and die, or go into the Badlands and die. I don’t want Officer Greysing to replace my body and bring me back to the scientists, claiming that he had to shoot me because, “The Neanderthal was crazy and I had to put him down.” I’d hang myself before I’d let that happen. So that left me to march my aching feet into the Badlands.