Rattler

Damn its cold. I roll over onto a rock. Sonfa that’s the ribs I hurt last month. I wish I could be in a nice comfortable bed.

“Fisher we need to get moving. We have long trip ahead of us today.” He says as he straps his ‘sword’ across his back.

“I’m movin give me time. Not all of us can go through a night with no sleep and be ready to hike 20 miles the next day.”

Walker heads out of the cave. Musta gone to listen to his voices about how to get us killed. I swear I wonder if he's human the way he goes on like he does. I take off my shirt to change my bandages. As I take off the last of the bandages I notice there is something in front of me. I look up and Price is standing right there.

“Dammit don’t do that. How many times have I told you no to sneak up on me like that?”

“I can make you feel better.” She takes a deep breath in.

“Not now, I'm still hurtin too much from Walker’s last fool’s errand.”

Walker is there standing at the entrance. Price heads in that direction. She looks back at me, smiles and then heads out. I wrap my bandages up. Walker turns around and heads out. I put my clothes on slowly. After gatherin my gear and go out and meet the others.

“We will be keeping a fast pace today.” Walker says as I leave the cave.

“How far are we going?” I ask.

“In two days we need to get to Franklin a settlement about 20 miles outside of the remnants of Denver.”

I drop my pack. “What that is almost 70 miles most of which will mountains. Do you really expect us to make it in time?” Walker must be crazy if he expects us to make it..

“We have to make it or else people are going to die” Walker says with the calm tone, still in his voice.

“Oh, people are going to die. You always say people are going to die. That’s why you have us running all over this country. Well this time the people may just die. We are not going to be able to travel 70 some miles in two days on foot. We could make it if we still had my hummer, but we lost that the last time we had to save people.”

“You are still sore about losing your vehicle?”

“Fisher it was nice having the Hummer but we can get along with out it.” Price adds in.

“But we wouldn’t have to if he hadn’t taken us into so much danger. He knew that things was going to be there.”

I was driving along in the Hummer. Walker was riding shotgun Price was in the back. We were approaching the settlement that Walker had been babbling about. Then I heard a low rumbling. The ground began to shake. Then the biggest worm I have ever seen came out of the ground. This thing must've been at least ten feet think and twenty feet long. I couldn’t even see an end to the thing. That thing had tendrils, and I've seen pythons that looked smaller than those things. I steer away from that thing. Then Walker jumps out and starts running towards the big ol' worm. Price takes the cannon and starts giving Walker covering fire. She hit that thing right in the middle of its belly and it didn’t even scratch it. That worm goes down to grab Walker. I don’t see Walker, the worm ate Walker. He may've been a pain in the ass but I didn’t want a giant worm eatin' him.

The worm comes up at there is Walker. He musta got out of the way. I head over to get Walker out of there.

Walker yells, “Ram it!”

Ram it? Is he crazy? It just took a blast from the ghost rock cannon and it wasn’t phased. The worm is turning its attention to us. Damn looks like I will have to ram it . I will have to ram just get away, I get the Hummer going 100mph then bail as I am about to hit. Price bails out of the back. The worm got knocked back the blow. The cannon musta got hit cuz next thing the whole Hummer just went up in a vibrant blaze. My Hummer's gone. That piece of shit just destroyed my Hummer. The worm is still movin too. It didn’t die. Well I'm gonna to finish off that thing. You know how hard it is to get a decent ride in the wastelands.

The worm buries itself down back into the ground. Damn it.

“If it hadn’t been for your craziness we might've been able to handle that thing without losing the Hummer.” I say looking straight at Walker. “It's those damn voices that you listen too. They're going to get us all killed one day.”

“I will die fighting the monsters that prey on the weak. I do not know about the rest of you.”

“You are a damn fool. I thought you templars only defended the worthy”

“The voice as you call it of Saint Blood drives me to defend all. Do you want to know why I continue to help these people despite all the problems?”

“Why?” I ask. This oughta to be good.

“I knew where to go with the rattler because every night for that week I saw ten different people die in my dreams. I lived their deaths. Even when there is not a monster to take down I see the deaths of all those close to me. The only time I get rest is when I destroy a monster. I get a rest for a couple days at best.”

“You’re still going to get us all killed.” I start to head off in the path he laid out.