A Savage Life
Chapter 6

Darrel and Anastasia stood there with their hands clasped low and a big, “welcoming,” grin on their face.

“Hello.” said Anastasia as if she was seeing me for the first time.

I threw a roll of toilet paper at each of them and they winced. I dashed out of there and suddenly I realized that that brown mush (or fruit medley as they called it) gave me a big lift to be doing all of this. Sweet. And to think, earlier, I was just going to slam the pudding into Darrel’s face, but I think I should keep it, a sugar snack might curve hunger and give me an extra energy boost. And now that I think about it, the future uses toilet paper! I felt the roll as I ran and it felt more like it was made out of actual cotton. How nice, and it was comfortable too. I should keep this. Maybe.

My thoughts were disturbed when a sound went off in my head. No, it wasn’t in my head, it was the actual alarm!

“Find the Guest,” a soldier woman called. “Find the Guest and eliminate him!”

Her outfit was pure white with what looked to be a black, netted bandana over her eyes. Her fingertips of her gloves were uncovered to show translucent fingers and her boots were glistening white with a good, thick tread on them. Boots that would be perfect for tracking somebody on tough terrain. But now I had a bigger problem; I had to outrun a bullet, and with that being physically impossible, a full-on melee assault would be out of question as well.

I started to run as fast as I could in a zigzag motion as I’ve learned to do over the years, but the bullets seemed to follow my every move. I head more troops going, “Head, shoulder, knee, arm.”

On their command, bullets shot out of those guns and toward my body. I could feel their silent whistle blowing on my body. I could smell the scent of the wide outdoors as they followed me, and the smell of salt as my body tensed for my finality.

I knew this was the end for Josh until I saw a lone figure in the hall. A woman wandering around the hall, her wide smile disfiguring her beautiful face as she opened her arms to embrace me, screeching out my new name like a hormonal teenager as at Led Zeppelin concert. Unluckily for her, she was the closest thing I had to duck behind, and I wound up grabbing the poor woman and using her as a human shield. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice. I expected to hear her dying shrieks as she was pierced by the bullets, but drum roll please, they didn’t hit her at all. The bullets went around her and toward me until I shoved to woman in front of me at the very last, by-the-skin-of-my-teeth moment and the bullets got her. I threw her body down and dashed even harder.