The Lands of the Rising Sun

Changes

When I woke up, we were stopped in the middle of the road and Ruby was out cold snoring. The sun was peaking over the mountains that lined the horizon. I shook Ruby. She let out a couple of snarling sounds then threw a hard slap. I dodged backwards, "Shit, sorry." I looked out the window; the road was different, black and hard with faded paint all over it. The sides of the road were lined with shrubs that looked almost as thirsty as me. I opened the door to a cool breeze. Ruby shivered and yelled, "Dad close the damn window!" She woke herself with her screaming shortly after. Her hair covered most of her face and her eyes seemed glued shut. I looked back and laughed at her. "What the fuck are you laughing at?!"

"Not much of a morning person huh?"

"I drove for fucking ever last night while you got to sleep the whole way I don't wanna hear it."

"Calm down," I said as I looked over the mountainside to the half dead land below. I could see farmers herding animals trying to find the hidden patches of grass. "Where are we?" I asked. "We're on a highway, going toward Mur'ring hopefully," Ruby said.

"Yeah but are you sure we're going the right way?"

"I honestly don't know, but I think so,"

"Well let's go then," I said. "No way I'm driving any more and I'm hungry as hell, also we need some gas." Ruby said as she struggled to get out of the car. "Gas?" I asked. "Oh right I forgot," she said with a playful smile, "You don't know much bout' cars do you?"

"Can't say I do."

She walked to the trunk and began searching through the bags. She pulled out a rifle and held it up. "No way, they didn't throw away my dad's bag!" She leaned the rifle on the bumper and grabbed the map. She walked over with the rifle and laid the map across the hood of the car. The rifle was painted black with white lettering across the side and notches carved in the wooden stock. She looked the map up and down and pointed to a road leading into the mountains. "See this is where we are, we can go to the next town about twenty miles north, it's out of the way but we really don't have a choice..." Ruby seemed short tempered. "Let's go then," I said. Ruby searched the trunk again and brought forth a gas can. She shook it by her head pressing a smile. She walked to the side of the car and poured the gas in. "You're driving... I'll teach you real quick it's not hard," her smile was glued to her face on her way to the passenger door.

I rolled the map up and opened the driver's door. "I kind of know how to, don't you just push one of those pedals and it goes?" I asked. Ruby turned the keys. "The right pedal makes it go and the left pedal makes it stop, it's a good thing this isn't a stick," Ruby said. "A what?" I asked. "Never mind, anyways use the wheel to turn, and yeah that's it, just don't go too fast."

"Wait where are we going?" I asked. "Oh right, shit, umm" Ruby unrolled the map. "Just follow this road until you come to a fork in the road," Ruby said. "Come to a what?" I asked.

"Look," Ruby pointed to a section of the map, "Just look for when the road splits and wake me up."

"Okay," she could tell I was nervous to be driving. "You can do it, Ma'tuk," Ruby said sarcastically as she laid the seat back. I drove off toward the sun; the dirty windshield left a huge glare as the rays beamed into the car. The scenery had changed so much from the empty flatness. The roads went up and down, mostly cracked pavement and dirt; plants lined the mountains and the overlooks pushed a new perceptive of the wastelands into my mind. It was almost peaceful to look at from this distance. I was delusional from my hunger and it seemed as if the world was caving in on itself. My eyes were heavy and the road never ending.

I drove until I came to a series of strange signs with arrows all pointing to the same direction it was a fork in the road. I woke Ruby to read the signs. "Sanctum Hills," Ruby said. "That's where were going follow that road right there," Ruby said pointing to the road leading right. We drove by a few more signs. "Hmm that says this is a trade town, if we go here you need to be careful the Pensington's do trade all over the Wastelands," Ruby said. "Fuck it what choice do we have?"