Sunny Side Down

I hoisted the last bit of scrap from the wreck into the bed of my truck and wiped away the dirt scattered across my goggles. A look down to my watch and then an eye toward the glaring suns confirmed it: it was closing on midday and it was time to head home before I ended up salvage for a more fortunate crow. I gathered my equipment, my tools and portable shade, and strapped down my take from the days scavenging. Once inside, I took off my mask, my head-wrap and goggles, and cranked the engine, basking in the glory of air conditioning. A moment to track home and another to calibrate excess rear weight then I was off, kicking up dirt through the desert tundra against interdigitate suns.

After escaping the rolling dune hills I relaxed at the wheel, one eye on the “road” and the other counting the cash I would get for this hull. Perhaps I would have enough to finally employ a crew —

My full attention snapped to the road again and unto wreckage ahead. Smoke billowed just off the dunes, possibly from a recent attack. I slowed and steered wide, weary of looming raiders, until I spotted a figure stumbling away from the carnage. I had half the mind to turn around and divert my route but instead I continued forward and audibly cursed my heart.

One hand on the wheel and the other gripping my sidearm, I approach though they hardly seemed to notice me and kept to a lumbering pace, a daze, bound for no city. Their tattered and scorched clothes explained little but I knew one thing: the bolstering sun of midday could bake the life right out a soul.

I eased up to them and lowered my window, “where ya headed?”

They must have taken this as an open invitation. “Next town over…anywhere… whatever” A young voice, possibly just a teen. Without so much as an introduction, they hoisted up on my rear -driver wheel and tumbled into the bed of my truck along with the piles of junk. I huffed and grumbled and turned in my seat, reaching out to open my truck’s rear slide window.

“Hey!” They were face down, unmoving, legs still half way out of the bed. I grumbled again and quickly stepped out into the sand, peering across the dunes with my pistol in hand. I saw nothing moving so edged over to the stranger and nudged them once before pulling them out of the bed of my truck. “Hey!” Still nothing and I holstered my gun. I grabbed one of their arms and shouldered them at the waist then carried them over to the passenger side of my truck, still swearing up and down that this would be the death of me…

ToBeContinued

~~~~~

Something I may continue. Of course, it’ll need work, but let me know what you think.

Daily Prompt: Sunny

Word of the Day: interdigitate