At the beginning of the movie Book of Eli, we see Eli walking down the long abandoned highway, then under an overpass... on the other side is a young girl, she's on the ground with an overturned shopping cart, she's bait for a trap laid on by a group of Reapers.
The following started as my rewrite of that scene and has grown now into something else. I hope you enjoy...
ALL characters, despite any physical description, are OVER 18 YEARS of AGE.
*****
1
He'd heard whispers of Reaper's, road bandits, working the roads between his home and some of the small communities, several days out, that had managed spring up. 100 miles in either direction, at least, before any kind of what passed for civilization now. He thought of this as his land, and he didn't like the idea of someone working 'his land.'
Alex put together his pack the night before, just a few of the bare essentials. some clean under clothes, extra socks. The water bladder for his pack and a few canteens were topped off from the well that was well hidden from view, in the secret basement of the dilapidated barn at the rear of the property. A box of ammo each for both the sawed off shotgun and his pistol. 5 cans of Spam, a few packages of ramen and few cup o' noodles. A really big, sharp knife, known once as a kukri.
It was barely sun up when he stepped out the door. The dogs looked up, Harvey actually sat up, and looked at him, "Stay here, guard the castle," he knew they were just as protective of their refuge as he was. Harvey had even walked with him for the first couple of miles before heading back up the long dirt road.
Days later Alex walked along the warped and broken asphalt. With the landscape barren and featureless, the road lined with dead trees and littered with burned-out cars and debris from a world long dead. A warped metal sign by the side of the road read: LITTER REMOVAL NEXT TWO MILES BY: "CIRCUIT CITY". He knew they were out there, but had seen no sign of the Reapers.
Glancing up at the sun, it seemed that each day was hotter than the last. A bead of sweat slid down his cheek, then wound it's was thru the days of scruff on his face. Looking ahead he saw the shadow from an overpass, and was pleased to be a little break from the sun beating down on him.
It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the radical change in lighting as he stepped in. He immediately felt some relief from the sun above. Up ahead, past the end of the pass, was a figure hunched by the side of the road. Alex arrived to see that it was a young woman, a girl, somewhere in her teens. Not quite bone-thin, dressed in a most unexpected way.
Her skin was almost flawless, just a touch of a sunburn on her shoulder made it obvious she didn't wear these clothes often. Her blonde hair was dirty as it was long, figuratively as well as literally, and pulled into handlebar pigtails, obvious that it had been a while since she had last washed. Large hoop earrings glimmered in the sun, so did the ring that pierced her right nostril. She wore what Alex had always thought of as State Patrol Issue sunglasses, just like Poncherello had worn on that TV show.
Her chest was barely contained in a far too small and worn thin pink baby t, her nipples just barely visible through the thin material, a bead of sweat trickled its way down into her cleavage. Her bared midriff showed that her belly button was pierced too. What looked like a pair of super short short shorts clung to her, the pink straps of her panties clearly seen high on her hips, and a peek of pink and white could be seen sneaking around the minimal amount of denim cloth that tried to cover her goodies. Garter straps snuck out from under the shorts and attempted to hold up what looked like thigh high tube socks, while her feet were in what looked like a pair of sneakers that sported at least a 3 inch heel.
In other words, she would have been expertly dressed for a rave 12 years earlier and was the best eye candy that he'd seen in a long damned time.
That's when he knew... and decided to play along.
Next to her was a shopping cart she must have been pushing and overturned into a roadside ditch, spilling its contents. Blankets, tins of food, old clothes. She was on her knees trying to gather it up. She looked up as she saw Alex approaching. Instantly she cowered from him, raising her hands to protect herself. Terrified.
In a shaky voice she pleaded, "Oh! Please don't hurt me. Here, take anything you want. You want some food? Take it." She offers him a can of pet food with a trembling hand. Alex stands there looking at her.
His expression was impossible to read behind the mirrored Oakleys, "I'm not going to hurt you."
"That's what the last guys said," she mumbled as if to herself and looking at the broken ground, causing Alex to smirk.
He bent down and picked up a couple of the cart's spilled contents and stepped forward and offers them to her, "Here."
She blinked. Unsure. Cautiously she reached out and takes it, "Could you help me? The wheel came off. I can't fix it. Maybe if I could get it out of the ditch. But I can't."
Alex looked at the cart. It had come to rest in the ditch just inches from a thick broken hedge road that lined the road. He looked again at the girl. Her faded baby t was strained against the flesh of her tits.The fly of her shorts was undone too, her legs bared all up her thigh.
He sniffed the air. He eyeballed the hedgerow warily. Just like the cat he had hunted, his senses heightened and on alert.
Behind the hedge, three roadside bandits, called Reapers, crouched, waiting to pounce, each armed with a crude blunt weapon. They exchanged anxious looks.
Alex sniffs the air again - then backs away from the girl. "One good thing about no soap any more. You can smell Reapers a mile off," she said loudly enough for everyone to hear.
The girl's face fell as Alex backed up. The three bandits rushed out from their hiding, Embershing their weapons. A couple of them wore old sunglasses and goggles similar to Alex's.
Their leader grabbed the girl by a fistful of hair as he passes, yanking her painfully to her feet, "Dumb bitch. What did we tell you?"
He pushed her away, she crumpled to the road in a heap crying while Alex backed away, as more armed bandits dropped from hiding in the trees on the other side of the road, trying to cut off his escape and surround him.
The leader of the Reapers asked, "What you got there in the pack?"
Alex gave a simple reply, "Nothin'."
"Yeah, that's what they all say. How about you take it off real slow and tip it out so's we can take a look?"
One of the other bandits noticed the sawed off shotgun strapped to the pack, "He's got a gun."
Their leader snickered, "Shit, it ain't loaded. They never are. Ain't that right, old man? Now...Open the fucking pack."
Alex let out a slow breath, "No."
The bandit leader stepped forward aggressively, within striking distance of Alex. He grinned, teeth filthy and rotten. "Want us to do it for you? We can get it off real easy after we've hacked your fucking arms off."
Alex remained perfectly calm. And though he spoke with a soft, even tone, there was something formidable about his voice. "It's real important you boys listen to me and understand. This is MY land. One way or another, you're leaving. For good. It's up to you how."
The bandit leader looked at Alex incredulously, and then laughed. The other bandits laugh along nervously. "What the hell are you, some kinda law man?"
Alex said nothing, slowly taking a another step back, inching towards the shadows of the overpass tunnel. "Well I got news for you, law man. Whatever you reckon yourself to be, it all left these parts a long time ago. Ain't no one here to protect your ass, to back you up. Now take off the pack and set it on the fuking ground, or fucking die."
Alex doesn't move, doesn't say a word, the shadows just a few feet behind him now. The bandit leader takes another step forward and shoves him in the shoulder.
"You fucking listening to me?!" the leader of the bandits asked.
"I hear you. And if you touch me again, you will never get that hand back."
The other bandits exchanged nervous looks. This was not how it was supposed to go. The leader had become fed up, "All right, I had just about enough of this shit..." and lunged forward, grabbing the shoulder strap of Alex's pack.
If you'd blinked, you would have missed it.
Somehow Alex had drawn his kukri from behind him. Now rivulet of blood snaked down along the blade to finally drip onto the asphalt. The bandit leader's hand was still gripped firmly around Alex's shoulder strap. But it was no longer connected to his arm. The severed hand hung there from the strap, dripping blood. The bandit staggered backward and raised the bloody stump where his hand once was. He looked at it in shock and horror.
"What... you just... he just cut my fucking hand off! My fucking hand!"
Alex used the blade to pry the hand loose from the strap, letting it fall onto the road as bandit leader's legs give out and he slumps to the asphalt.
The leader of the bandits eyes darted around, as though confused. Finally he seems to be able to speak, "What you standin' around for? Kiss him!"
Another bandit, this one had a chainsaw, got confused, "What's he talkin' about, kiss him?"
Alex smirked, "He's in shock. He meant... 'kill him'," and stepped into the shadows.
The other bandits looked at each other and then the five of them started towards Alex all at once, weapons flailing.