about trying to learn how to sing like a bird does. I do practice from time to time, but Piet tells me I’m not very good at it.” Raven smiled a bit and gave me a hug. I’m not sure what I did to deserve that.
Isaac finally showed up shortly after with Clark, Clark limping with Isaac helping him walk. They were just in time as the broadcast started up just a few minutes after they arrived.
“Hello Americans… There will be no further food or drug trucks. But fret not, humanity is saved if you are hearing this know that in three weeks time….” We all listened in closely, yet to no avail as the radio suddenly and violently exploded, a crossbow bolt being the cause.
We all looked around for the cause and quickly spotted a man with a bandaged chest, the same hunter who had been shot by his friend’s gun, the same friend I threw a machete at. The scary thing was that he was behind Piet’s wheelchair. “You killed my friends you BITCH!” he said, pointing the crossbow at me. Clint was too injured to use his bow and Raven couldn’t see. As for me, I did have a machete but the crossbow was pointed right at me so I’m not sure what good that did me.
“Your friends tried to kill us.” I snapped at him.
“Do you think that matters to me you little slut, my friends were all I had. To hell with you!” He said to me directly. “I just want you, give yourself up… and I let all your other friends go. Even that asshole who killed Dale”
“Or you could leave!” Isaac had the gun me and Clark lifted off the hunter I killed.
The hunter grabbed Piet’s wheelchair and turned him towards the lake. “If you don’t want him to go for a little swim I’d put the gun down.”
Isaac looked at Piet, and then at me. “....Gosh darn it…” he said putting the gun down after I nodded at him as a way to silently plead to do what he says. I don’t want Piet’s blood on my hands.
“Good, but just to make sure there’s no funny business you better swim after him!” The hunter said, hurling Piet in the water. Isaac immediately going after him.
“Now I’m gonna waste your friend and… Wait… what’s she doing.” Raven began walking towards the Hunter waving her blind stick. “Tell her to get back or I’ll shoot!”
“She can’t hear you… she’s… blind and deaf, no idea what’s going on!” I lied and attempted to hold Raven back, I didn’t know what Raven was doing but I had a good idea that going along with the ruse. I grabbed Raven’s hand and pretended to give her some kind of signal, in reality I didn’t know how to talk to a deaf and blind person, but I faked that I was. “Please don’t hurt her, I’ll, I’ll tell you where my house is before you kill me if you let me hold her back. It has electricity!”
“If you can’t keep her back I’ll kill both of you!” He screamed, I was lucky he appeared to be gullible or rather Raven was. Eventually he got tired of the blind stick being waved around and violently pushed Raven and myself down by hand, pointing the crossbow at me. “NO MORE GAMES! You die right no…..” and that’s when Clark had taken advantage of the distraction to grab the gun Isaac dropped and finished the assholeoff.
“Smart thinking you two! Raven,, how did you know that would work? Or that I’d know to play along?” I asked her, amazed by the teamwork that just saved the group.
“So why did you help her? I thought you wanted to die.” Clark asked me smugly.
“I wanted to see where she was going with it… so how did you know it would work Rav?” I asked Raven a second time, as Clark had just interrupted.
“I didn’t.” Raven faced the direction my voice had come from. “I just couldn’t think of anything else to do.”
Isaac swam back with Piet, both sustaining minor burns from the water. “So did ANYONE other than Michelle own a radio that still works?” he asked us, our worried faces said all that needed to be said. “I see… well… things are going to get tougher from here on out…” he said as we all disbanded, Raven and Piet had moved in with Isaac since Piet was now entirely devoid of mobility making it unsafe for them to be in their own home alone.
“I have my phone!” I said thinking quickly to check that all of us in a rush to find out what the radio was . “...There’s no internet signal…. at all... or any service for that matter.. Not even radio....” It was only a matter of time before the service and wifi stopped with no one maintaining either, it just could have waited a day. “Well… shit.”
Tougher things did get as the third week of August passed and I didn’t notice any change, just that I saw less people. Perhaps they were dying more often without food or drug. I was running out of the food I stocked up and long since out of hormones or even razors. I was cranky, weak, menopausal, and had a full damn beard. The only reason I hadn’t completely gone cuckoo was because of Clark, even then he could only do so much. One night when he was fast asleep, I walked outside with my machete. I couldn’t take it anymore, without my hormones or any further assistance from the food trucks I couldn’t go on. Damnation be damned, Hell can’t be worse than what’s already going on in my life. I ran outside so any screams of pain wouldn’t wake Clark and make him save my life. After stripping completely naked I looked at my masculine genitals and decided to start there. “I shall live for a few minutes without you…. Maybe I’ll know peace!” I screamed. “DEATH, TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT! I SHALL BECOME YET ANOTHER MEMBER OF YOUR LARGE FAMILY!” I yelled into the sky ready to cut at my most hated portion of my body.
I was just about to strike when something knocked the machete out of my hand which stabbed right into the ground, as I turned to pick it up I saw a falcon on the handle looking up at me. “Hey, I don’t think you want to do that. You might bleed to death!” The bird actually spoke to me.
“I was trying to bleed to death!” I snapped back, figuring I must have fallen asleep without realizing it. “So… another lucid dream eh… No, this is too real… Perhaps this is a full on astral projection. It’s so rare I have those without chemical aid.. but shouldn’t I be able to fly and shapeshift? I don’t normally have a phallus on my astral body.”
“No ma’am I’m an actual talking bird, and I’m here to help.” He informed me.
“Well you’re not my spirit guide or my higher self as I like to call her, she’s a giant spider and also female.” I responded being incredibly candid about this. “And you’re not an owl so I doubt you’re here to enroll me in wizard school.”
“They sent me.” The falcon pointed a wing upward to the sky. “To find any survivors, I happen to remember that you’re living with a friend, and know where an entire family lives. Besides, I kind of feel like you’re owed one.”
I giggled with glee as I re-dressed myself. I was positive the bird didn’t want to see my junk. He came from our Celestial Home “Because I’m transgender!?! You’re here to make me a proper woman and take us somewhere safer?”
“...Umm… yeah let’s go with that!” The bird scratched his head with his wing.
“Come with me, I need to rub Clark’s face in this if Heaven doesn’t mind.” I said offering a finger to the falcon.
“No it does not.” The falcon shrugged as he perched on my finger as I went inside the house and shook Clark awake. Irrefutable proof of the supernatural, this was delicious. As expected once I did wake him up he glared at me groggy.
“This better be good!” He said turning towards me irritated. “I am too tired for bullshit right now...” He said referring to the times I kept him up to help me combat my depression.
“What if I told you I can prove there’s a God?” I grinned with the smuggest glee I could muster.
“I’d tell you to cram it up your ass, it’s too early in the morning!” Clark bickered.
“Oh yeah?” I asked with a smirk, holding up the falcon to his face. “Say hello to Heaven’s ambassador.”
“Hey birdie….” Clark yawned, smiling a little. “I didn’t know you knew how to train birds.. that’s neat… Is he food?”
“No I am not, but can you get out of bed please, time’s a factor.” The falcon
responded.
Clark’s eyes opened wide as he hadn’t expected any response from the avian. “Getting up.” he said meekly.
He quickly dressed and the falcon demanded that we follow him towards Isaac’s house where we woke everyone up, they were cranky but when they realized I had a talking bird we all met outside as per the bird’s request. It wasn’t until the morning started to come that I realized this bird had looked strange, he was slightly bigger than falcon should be and there was a human-like quality to his body. It wasn’t straight up something out of an old cartoon about a hunter and duck, but, there was no denying it. His chest seemed more human like and his face seemed to be somewhat familiar, like I had seen this bird before as a man. When I brought this up he said it would be explained in time.
“So… that’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… SEVEN! Seven of you, three female, four male?” The falcon asked.
“I’m not a genetic female though if that makes a difference.” I said, rubbing the back of my head to display my nervousness.
“It won’t soon, just wait right here. There’s a crashed U.N. Truck
The Hummingbird:Feet On The Ground Page 7