600 Miles: A Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Read Online Free

before he told me to stop. He came forward, stooping down and picking up my pistol, still aiming at me the whole time. Then, his face lighting up, he let out a whistle as he looked it over real good.
    "Hot damn," he said. "Genuine Smith and Wesson. Man, nice gun. Prettiest pistol I've seen in a while, no doubt."
    "I reckon so," I said.
    "Just you shut your mouth." He shoved my pistol into his belt so that it was tucked nice and safe under his gut. "Now come on. Start walking. And don't even think about running, cause this time I ain't gonna miss."
    He motioned me with the point of his rifle and I started walking, him following right behind. We didn't go far before I spotted them standing there, only shapes in the darkness at first until some flames started licking up from their campfire, though it didn't seem like there were as many as before. Then, as we reached them, I saw there was only the two women and a couple of men, one of those men lying on the ground. Their faces were hard and grimy, the man standing up wearing a dirty, bloodstained bandage around his head, the one on the ground looking even worse off than he did, sweating and groaning, his shirt all bloody and torn.
    "What the hell?" the man we came up on exclaimed, nearly jumping as he saw us appear. "Bill, am I seeing who I think I am?"
    "You damn straight you is. Caught this son of a bitch napping over yonder. Quite a catch, wouldn't you say?"
    "Well fuck me!" his buddy said.
    "Hell you bringing this piece of trash here for?" came one of the women. Old. Rotten teeth. She came up to stare me in the face, that cold nasty breath shooting right up my nose.
    "He ain't got no business here!" she said.
    "Yeah, should have just shot him and been done with it," said the man.
    "Say, what happened to your friend?" I said.
    "He ain't none of your concern."
    "Yeah, none of it!" said the old woman.
    "Well maybe he should know, seeing as it was his friends that done it," Mr. Dog Shooter chimed in. "Your Mexican buddies, they done sneak attack us. Took all our stuff and killed two men."
    "You mean your truck?" 
    "What do you think I mean by it, asshole?"
    That rotten breath hit me in the face again and I almost gagged. "Big John!" the old woman screamed. "They done killed Big John!"
    "I'm sorry to hear it. Ain't nothing to do with me though."
    "It's got everything to do with you, you lying, Mexican piece of shit!"
    "Hey, I ain't no Mexican!" I said. "In fact, them boys attacked me yesterday too, jumping at me from the bushes and shooting their guns, telling me they wasn't going to accept no surrender. Must have been the same ones that attacked you. Damn, so much shooting! I still can't believe I made it out alive!"
    "How many?" the man asked.
    "I don't know. A dozen maybe. Real tough-looking fellas. I managed to kill a couple before making a run for it. Almost did me in, them bastards."
    "Liar!" the old woman yelled. "Weren't that many and they didn't even have no guns! But those dirty Mexicans sure knew how to creep up on us, shouting in that dirty Mexican gibberish of theirs and throwing rocks and sticking a knife right through Big John."
    "I ain't no liar!" I said. "Well, maybe wasn't so many. Man can't quite remember things the way they really was in situations like that. But I fought them Mexicans, guns or no. You go look for them bodies if you want. Hell, I don't know why you got it in for me anyway, because I ain't ever been nothing but peaceable with you folks yet you shot at me for nothing, and if I hadn't been so fast or the lot of you such lousy shots I'd be as dead as them two Mexicans I drilled right between the eyes. Surely that ain't escaping your memory, now is it?"
    The man pointing the rifle at me grunted. "We shot at you cause we know a lying, murdering Mexican when we see one," he said, "and maybe we missed before, but we's sure gonna take care of you now."
    "Now hold on! I told you I ain't no Mexican!"
    "Then what? Because if you ain't Mexican then you sure