A few plants, but only in clusters.
He had even seen some trees.
But most of all there was dust, metal, concrete and decay.
The cars here had once served a purpose. They had ferried people back and forth. Had been used to visit places.
Now they were all dead.
Eli turned to where he had come from and scanned the terrain. As far as he could see there was no-one following. He had been stalked for three days now. At first, in the snow, he had been easy to track. But as he had kept moving and the weather had improved, he had ceased to leave tell-tale marks as he went. He now hoped, he had left his hunter somewhere behind.
Wrenching the door open on a nearby car, Eli climbed inside and eased himself into the seat. It had been so long since he had rested. He had also not eaten for three days. Setting his bag down on the seat beside him, Eli leaned back and closed his eyes. He wondered how far it was to the next town. There would be a good trader there and Eli had a precious coin. That meant clothes, boots and food. Food. His stomach growled as if affirming this.
As he opened his eyes and began rummaging in his bag for his drink bottle, there was a loud crack and something ricocheted off the framework near Eli’s head. If he hadn’t of moved precisely at that second he was guessing he would be dead.
There was no time to try and see whereabouts the shooter was. Eli opened the car door, dropped to a crouch and scurried behind the neighbouring wrecked car for cover. At least he hoped it was cover as he had no idea regarding his enemy’s location.
After a couple of minutes of silence, Eli heard movement ahead and off to his left. He squinted in that direction and spotted the man about six cars away. He was holding a rifle. He was also looking straight at Eli.
‘Give me the coin’ the man shouted.
Choosing not to reply, Eli instead reached into his bag without taking his eyes away from the man and felt for his pistol, found it and reminded himself that he only had five bullets. Something else he was hoping to get as part of his trade.
Eli raised his gun, pointed in the direction of the man and squeezed off a shot. It missed but was close enough the make his target dive for cover. As he was doing this, Eli ran. A ruined building stood nearby and he saw this as his best chance. Halfway to reaching it, the man fired at him again. Eli wasn’t worried as he was currently a moving target.
The building appeared to have several rooms and much of these were shrouded in shadow; exactly what Eli had hoped for. Darting through a large hole in the concrete, he looked around for the darkest corners, found one and crouched there with his pistol in both hands. A few seconds later, the man walked slowly past the opening through which Eli had come. It then sounded as though he had entered the building somewhere different but close by, possibly the room adjacent to this one.
Eli fumbled in his pocket. He knew what he must do. The man wanted the coin Eli had travelled so far to find. The coin that would be worth so very much in a trade.
Footsteps. And then the man appeared at the other end of the room. He stopped and cocked his head as though listening.
‘I know you are here. I know because this is where I would have hidden too. Amongst the shadows.’
Eli became aware that he was holding his breath. He gripped the pistol with one hand and held onto his coin with the other. Slowly he got to his feet and exhaled quietly. There was no point in hiding anymore. He would only be found. His adversary was clever. Eli just hoped he wasn’t too clever. As he reached standing position, the man spotted him. He held his half-lowered rifle in Eli’s direction but did not yet take aim.
‘The coin is here’ Eli shouted to the figure at the end of the room. He then held it up so the small amount of light caught it. ‘I will give it to you if you let me walk out of here and go on my way.’
After a moments’ hesitation, the man nodded slowly and then began walking towards him. Eli too began to move across the room. He was still holding the coin where it was visible and he could see the man staring at it as he approached. He knew the man would still kill him after being given the coin. This was why he gripped his gun and kept it trained on his stalker. And why he held onto the small glimmer of hope even more tightly.
When there was a distance of about ten feet between them Eli stopped. The man stopped as well. He had lifted his mask at some point since entering the building so Eli was able to see the puzzled look on his face. This soon vanished and his greedy eyes moved back to the coin.
‘Give it to me’ the man demanded, starting to raise his gun.
Using as much force and accuracy as Eli could muster with his left hand, he suddenly launched the coin out through the opening he had entered by and into the few small bushes that still grew outside.
‘You fool!’ the man exclaimed. He was about to say more, and was also about to open fire when Eli slammed two bullets into him in quick succession. He then began to shake and to breathe long ragged breaths. He did not like to kill, even in self-defence.
Standing over the man, Eli felt obliged to say something before leaving.
‘I’m sorry but I could not give you the coin you were after. I travelled a long way to find it and also nearly died in the process.’
He crossed himself and walked away from the figure slumped on the filthy concrete floor.
Back through the opening, Eli did not stop to look for the coin. It was only a 2019 Shield and he found plenty of these. The coin with the Tower was still wrapped up in his inside pocket.
© Story and all images are the copyright of Mik Smith 2022
FOOTNOTE – the continuing adventures of Eli take a whole lot of work I can assure you. But they would never have been possible at all were I not so inspired by so many amazingly imaginative people; visionaries from many times and genres. The list of these is large but includes – Andrei Tarkovsky, Gary Numan, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Dean Koontz, David Bowie, Richard Matheson, Terry Nation…. the list goes on and there are many others. Just because I have not named them, their influence and input is in no way less. I am just aware that many of you will get bored! Thank you for reading. I hope I have managed to capture some post-apocolyptic atmosphere and excitement for you.
