The Lands of the Rising Sun

What a Wonderful World

We left to the heart of the forest one morning. "They're not coming, c'mon let's get going," Nivy said pushing his body off the truck door with his back. He walked around to the driver's seat with his hands tucked in his buckskin jacket. "Yeah, whatever, lets go," Johnny said. I hopped into the bed and sat opposite of Pickle, between us were bags full of bullets, rifles and camping gear. The other hunter's had began leaving days before us. Without our originally planned crew it was just us four.

The mornings were cold; a good cold, a cold that touched the soul.

"Where are you gonna go?" Pickle asked me. "I don't know man, maybe I can head north into the mountains," I said. "The mountains huh?" the bags jumped on our feet as the truck ascended the rocky terrain starting the slope of the mountains. "Yeah, I need to find the others that escaped."

"How you gonna do that?"

"Johnny said half of our people left the swamplands for the mountains, so if anyone that escaped knows about them then that's where they'll be, either that or the Swamplands."

"I don't know nothin' about the Swamplands, but the only people I know about in the mountains are the crazies that try to live on their own, we run into a group of them every now and then, usually they're dead from either the cold or some bandits get to 'em."

"Yeah, well what choice do I have? I've already stayed here too long." I saw another truck following our tracks to the mountains, the dust it kicked up twinkled in the morning light. They followed for a little while then veered off in another direction. "So why don't you turn me in man?" I asked. "C'mon you really think I would do that?" Pickled replied. "I don't know, there's a lot you can do with that kind of reward, from what I hear the rich mother fuckers in the Wastelands are livin' pretty good."

"Yeah well... that's not livin' if you ask me," Pickle closed his eyes and sniffed the sky, "this is livin' man, and besides you're my friend if I trade you for money I'd have to give it all away for someone to even listen to me, you do it all for free, so the way I see it with you alive and around here I'm saving money anyways."

"Ya' know since I came to this place I've been trying to understand the point of money," I said. Pickle raised his brow at me, "what do you mean?" he asked. "I guess I don't really know... But I see people in the market all the time asking for money they always look so... I don't know sad or some shit. Why do they always get dirt kicked their face?"

"They're lazy, if they really wanted money then they'd find a way to make money," Pickle said. "I guess... but some of those merchants make enough to feed the whole town, why can't one of them mother fuckers throw someone a bone?"

"Cuz' then no one would work and if no one works no money is made and then we can't pay taxes and then the Pensington's will just kill all of us."

"Nah man, I'm saying people would still work it's just that we can help those "lazy" people out."

"I don't know I think if you're lazy then you're lazy and you deserve what you get."

"It ain't gotta be like that is all I'm saying."

"I'm sorry man but I don't see where you're going with this."

"I guess what I'm really trying to say is that instead of making it a competition, why can't people work together?"

"I don't know man, I don't think you should think of it that way."

"Then what way should I think of it?" I asked. "Not that way, I mean it doesn't matter what people do, they're always going to be competing with each other... it's just how things are."