ragnarok - rim of the world

Back At It

A loud crashing sound erupted from the outside, waking us up abruptly. The night had passed, and now the sun had begun to rise, dimly lighting the room.

I looked to my side to see Gabriel mere inches from my face; however, we didn't move away; instead, our eyes darted to each other's lips. I looked aside, remembering we were in the presence of others. 

Zhenzhen shushed us, killing any lingering whispers before Gabriel spoke up, saying we needed to go.

We were outside, the wind softly blowing against the bedsheets that hung on the clothing lines. The sun duskily rested in the sky, casting a blueish purple tint over us as it rose.

"You see anything?" I whispered, Dariush right beside me.

"No, come on." Gabriel gestured for Dariush and me to follow him.

Followed by a loud shush from Zhenzhen, we continued to weave our way through the bedsheets, hoping an alien wasn't on the other side of one.

"Guys, we should turn back," Alex whispered.

"We can't now, man. We're already here," Dariush responded.

"Dude, I'm telling you this is how people die in movies."

"Maybe we're the main characters?" I said, optimistically.

"Guys. You see anything?" Zhenzhen inquired.

"You need some Febreze on these sheets," Dariush remarked, earning a small smile from me. He always makes a joke in serious situations; you either love it or hate it.

Dariush exclaimed after finding himself face-to-face with a horse statue. I rolled my eyes, but then a masked man revealed himself with the cock of a gun.

Oh shit!

Multiple of these people had started to gather around us, trapping us.

"Not another step," one man said, holding his gun towards us.

"The hell you doing out here? We're in the middle of an alien invasion," another man spoke.

"Oh, yeah, I mean, and you're the ones with the Purge masks. Wrong genre, bro," Dariush retorted. Seriously? It wasn't the time; they were the ones with guns!

"We got a comedian here," Another man spoke up, taking off his mask and cocking his gun, taking a few steps closer.

"No! No! Stop! Don't! There are aliens out here, okay?" I exclaimed, not wanting them to shoot my brother.

"Yeah, we're not the enemy," Gabriel chimed in.

"You guys have something we're looking for."

"Dignity?" Zhenzhen remarked. I held my head down, pressing my lips together in an attempt to not even smile.

"What'd you say?" The man asked, pulling his gun higher toward Zhenzhen, shutting her up.

"Everybody calm down," a man exclaimed, taking menacing steps in our direction, "Look what we found."

He removed the mask he wore, revealing a bearded man that Alex, Zhenzhen, and Dariush seemed to recognize.

"Lou!" he called out, "Oh my God, Lou!"

"Thank you, Baby Jesus. Thank you, God!" Dariush seemed awfully appreciative. However, I stayed suspicious of him. He didn't seem trustable. He was holding a gun after all, with his men towering around us menacingly.

"Hold on, you know this guy?" Gabriel questioned, seemingly angry.

"Do we know him? Hell yeah, we know him! We go way back. Lou, my negro! Lou, you know me. We're like this. I wanted to free...Alex was the one who was like, "Leave him in there," and I was like "Dude, let's free him. He's a human." For whatever reason, I felt that Dariush didn't say this. "Do you mind if you could just tell these handsome men, the ones...pointing shotguns at our faces to, you know, not...not do that?"