Rewound

Chapter 79 Pittsburgh

Meanwhile in Pittsburgh…“Come on. We don’t have all day to transport clothes up and down thirty flights of stairs! Hayley, go check on your sister… I think she needs some help making it to the bathroom.” I wanted to leave at daylight, but they had already dragged out the leaving process, and it had been two and a half hours, and it didn’t look like they’d be ready anytime soon. At best, we’d be leaving before noon, and we might not even make it home before nightfall if something popped up to stop us.

I let out a groan of pain as women decided what to keep and what to leave behind. Leaving behind a mountain of stinky clothes because none of them had the luxury of washing them as they worked together to fit everything they needed into the suitcases they were carrying. I didn’t want to support all these women, but Sophia’s sister wasn’t leaving without them.

Most would end up going down the same path if they’d been captured, just the conditions would be a little better. Most of these women would need to sell their bodies for food; it was gross to think about, but that was the way the world was developing. Weak women like them, without powers, had no chance of living a comfortable life unless they found someone strong to protect them.

While I could take all these women in for a short time, they’d have to do something to support themselves; otherwise, I’d have to kick them out of the protected area, where they’d end up in the same exact position where they couldn’t control what happened to themselves. I could see it in a few of their eyes; they still didn’t realise how bad things were, they still had hope that things would go back to normal… But it wouldn’t.

I hoped that some of them would realise the chance they’re getting. A week of comfortable living until they decided what to do was far better than others would get, and once they saw the gigantic group of refugees outside our gate, it might finally sink in how much the world is fucked. It isn’t just Pittsburgh that went to shit, but almost all of America has been displaced.

My storage was already completely full, and they were still deciding what to take. Serena(Sophia’s sister) guided them through the process, still defiant and ready to support these people. It was going to be a rude awakening for her once she made it back. If she tried to take in every woman who needed her help, she’d be overwhelmed by a tide of people who just wanted to use her kindness to their advantage.

I've seen it over and over again. Even as late as the second or third year in the apocalypse, people would try to stay true to themselves, to the person who grew up in a safe environment that punished wicked people, but it wasn’t that world anymore. Anyone kind would be exploited. How many times did I see a ‘food and shelter ahead’ sign only to come across a burnt-out camp? More than I could count. The one bit of kindness I had to an old friend got me rewarded with a year of torture and slavery.

Humanity might have eventually recovered… If people didn’t suddenly develop powers as well. That was the true catalyst, and the reason humanity didn’t recover from the disaster. Hours later, we were finally loaded up into a school bus I brought with my storage. I could now store three vehicles, and although it was a cramped ride, it was better than trying to walk out of Pittsburgh the same way we walked in earlier… Now we just had to avoid the idiots who would see our bus and shoot at it.

We didn’t even make it an entire block before the first jackass tried his luck. The worst part of this was that the bus wasn’t armoured like some of my other vehicles. I didn’t assume we’d be coming with more than a handful of people, not an entire group like this. It meant that when someone shot at the bus, the windows shattered because they weren’t covered in metal.

The glass shattered, and the girls screamed as I yelled out. “Hey, someone take over. I’m going to kill that idiot real quick.” I let go as the vehicle starts to swerve, opening the door, I lift myself to the top of the bus and pull out two peacemakers before starting up a song I prepared beforehand. The Tupac song from Django Unchained began to play.

He poked his head out again, preparing to shoot, but I beat him to the punch, putting a bullet through his head as he fell out of the fourth story of one of the buildings. As if people waited for one of them to die, several dozen men poked their heads out now and began firing at me as the music started fully. “Am I wrong cuz I want to get it on till I die? Am I wrong cuz I want to get it on till I die?”

I fired away, both guns aiming at each building on opposite sides of the bus as I killed a person every time I pulled the trigger. I fired at a similar speed to all the men firing on me. In just a second or so, my guns ran dry, and instead of reloading, I stored the guns before pulling out fully loaded ones, this time going with two .45s.

Many men were already giving up, cowering and fleeing their windows as I gunned down their friends. Bullets riddled me, but the worst they were doing was ruining my clothes. I once again ran dry, this time switching to something other than revolvers. I just didn’t have enough stored, but I had plenty of magazine pistols.

Pulling out two desert eagles, I kill the rest of the men just as the song stops. I wait until we’re moving at a pace it would be hard for people to get the drop on us again before jumping back down into the vehicle. The next song begins to play as the women not attending to the two women near the broken window stare at me in slack-jawed amazement.

I twirl the guns around before throwing them into the air and storing them just as the next song begins to play. “Baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo. Baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo.” Half tempted to just destroy the CD player. I store it as I curse out. “Damn you, Vicky! I’m going to fuck you so hard for doing this!”

Sophia kept driving as she began to chuckle, breaking the tension on the bus immediately as we kept making our way out of the city. We had a few more idiots firing at us, but not the cluster of men like the one when we first got the vehicle moving. Most of the time, it was when we had to move around large debris or go off-road entirely, which slowed us down enough for people to get their shots in.

Many were generously rewarded with a bullet or bone spike for being such dumbasses, but some were smart enough to duck behind cover after firing and not pop back up again. I put on some more music to comfort the girls, and every silly song that pops up breaks the tension again. We only have to get off the bus a single time near the exit of the city and walk a mile before I can place it back down.

The remaining trip would still take hours; the fact was, many vehicles clogged the roads up making them extremely difficult to drive. Many times, you’d have to exit the highway just to get back on again a few miles down the road because it was faster than moving all the clusters of vehicles blocking the way. Slowly, we began to make our way home. I just hope Vicky will be ready for the punishment I was going to give her once we get back.