The story so far

[the O.G.]

Chapter 1

A full bottle of purified water, a few strips of beef jerky, a few stale chocolate chip cookies, and a single piece of gum. These were Jordan's rations until he could find another house or camp to scavenge, or, as he often wished, manage to kill a small animal, like a rabbit. Jordan sighed. Hunger. The majority of the human race faced hunger every day. Jordan knew he really had no reason to feel unfortunate. These days, he usually ate at least one meal a day. That was more than could be said for a lot of people in the world.

Before Jordan left home he managed to stuff in his backpack a hunting knife, two plastic water bottles, a metal pot, and a handful of other things from his dresser which included a few pairs of socks, underwear, and a hundred dollars cash- birthday money that he never spent. Jordan was a cub scout when he was younger, and every day that passed he wished he would’ve stuck with it and maybe picked up a few survival skills instead of relying on pure luck and thievery. In any case, compared to everyone else Jordan saw fleeing their homes, Jordan was extremely well prepared. Most people were caught completely off guard, as the emergency broadcast channel claimed that the Society soldiers were three hours away from Jordan's hometown, but they arrived no less than fifteen minutes after the broadcast. Jordan suspected that the announcer either underestimated the Society, or was already under their control, forced to spread misinformation (just as all the TV stations were the previous night).

Daylight was approaching rapidly, so Jordan returned to the pine tree he’d stayed under for the past three nights. He placed more foliage over the wooden board that covered his hole to provide more camouflage, and climbed in while pulling the board over, very careful not to knock any off and expose the wood. The hole was about four feet wide and four feet deep, which wasn’t exactly spacious, but provided room enough for him to not be completely cramped.

Earlier that night, he’d salvaged a few things from a minivan on the side of the road: an MP3 player, a few matches, and $500 cash. He put on the headphones of the MP3 player. Better than falling asleep to the sound of distant gunshots and helicopters, he thought. However, Jordan didn’t focus his full attention on the music because, quite frankly, there were literally a million things on his mind. Will I ever see my family again? Are they alive? Are my friends alive? He increased the volume on the MP3 player. Ever so silently, he hummed along to the all too familiar lyrics:

Here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
Here I go
Playin' star again
There I go
Turn the page.

Chapter 2

Jordan awoke coughing. Apparently his mouth had been open while he was sleeping and he’d breathed in some dirt. Disgusting. He swished some water around his mouth until all the dirt was gone. He shut his eyes once again, but suddenly noticed an out-of-place sound. The crumbling of leaves. Jordan heard this sound from time to time, and when he was brave enough to look, it usually turned out to be a squirrel or deer. However, this time the crumbling was heavier, faster, and if his ears weren’t deceiving him, closer.

Jordan’s heart began to race. The only possibility was that it was a bear, or person. After a few minutes however, Jordan noticed the sound began to fade away and eventually, disappear. He lifted up the wood ever so slightly to take a look outside.

“Don’t move, or I’ll blow your fucking head off”.

Jordan froze. All he could see were a pair of sneakers and the bottom of a pair of jeans.

“Get out,” the man commanded.

Slowly, Jordan removed the cover to his hole and stood up, hands in the air. He found himself looking down the barrel of a .357 Magnum, which he identified easily due to the fact that he often flipped through his father’s Guns and Ammo magazines.

“You must be the little bastard that robbed us last night. Walked up from the tent this morning and found the car door open with $500 cash and my daughters music player thingy missing. That was our emergency funds. We were gonna try and bribe the Society border guards to let us go into Canada. Apparently, Canada’s still Canada,” the man paused for a moment, then added, “And there was muddy footprints all over my damn passenger seat. Knew I should have left those seat covers on”.

The man was shorter than Jordan and looked like he was somewhere between the ages of 25-30. And he looked scared.

Jordan tried to remain calm, and respectful. “Sir, I can assure you this is some sort of misunderstanding. There’s been looters all over the forest, I’m trying to protect my belongings just as you are.”

“Is that so?” The man looked down at Jordan’s pantleg. “I found a ripped piece of jeans on a thorn bush by my van this morning. Looks as though whoever stole our shit ripped their jeans, just as you did.”

Well, no use in lying now, Jordan thought. He didn’t quite remember when he ripped his jeans, but he did notice them before he tried to go to sleep earlier. Jordan thought as quickly as he could of what he could do. He noticed, first of all, that this man is shaking, and has a family. More than likely he has had no formal training in firearms and simply grabbed the gun from a store after the Society took over. He also hasn’t even cocked the weapon yet. Jordan considered attempting to overpower him.

“Sir, I’m trying to survive, just as you are,” Jordan took a deep breath, and then lied, “I’d be happy to return your money, and if you let me live, I’d be happy to bring you to a secret stash of mine and give you more cash to bribe those border guards of yours, ‘cuz from what I’ve heard, $500 is the minimum amount that would get one person across.”

The man took a few steps back, and lowered the gun slightly.

“Very well. Put my money in that backpack of yours and throw it over here. Then turn around, put your hands on your head, and start walking towards this ‘stash’ of yours.”

Jordan threw the man his backpack. He noticed that the man still hadn’t cocked the weapon, and made a mental note to listen out for the sound of the hammer once he started walking. Jordan looked around. There was a tall, hollowed out tree that he knew of and often kept things he found but couldn’t carry. He put his hands on his head, and started walking in that direction.

[bogusar]

Interesting. I like it. I like the Bob Seger song in the middle .

--bog

[the O.G.]

I was trying to find a symbolic song about lonliness and roaming the world, and it was the only one I could think of. Forgive my lack of musical depth.

[Liniya]

You don't try to be deep, especialy with music. Leave that to the pretentious idiots on MTV.

It's pretty good, fo sho. A bit short, but I like it. :3

[the O.G.]

I'm editing these 2 chapters right now I'll redit my first post later.

[bogusar]

I thought the song was a good choice .

--bog