Clean Slate/Chapter 5

This is chapter 5 of Clean Slate entitled: Life In Solitude.

Chapter – Life In Solitude
October 19, 2014. Colorado. Eli walked through the abandoned city alone. He kicked a can right in front of him into an alley on his left before crawling over another vehicle. He hated how this was his life now. Everyday moving, searching for food, trying not to get eaten alive.

His mind drifted back to his old group as he moved down the nearly empty streets. To Darla. As soon as the picture of her popped in her head he pushed it away. Too painful to think about.

“You gotta forget it about, man.” He said to himself.

But he knew he could never forget about it. Not after what happened. Not after what he did.

As he walked along the street he noticed with no particular destination in mind, he noticed something on the ground. An unopened can of something. Upon closer examination he found it was a can of beans. He quickly looked around for any sign of the person who left it there but found non. Eli picked it up an tossed it in his backpack. Now all he had to was find someplace to eat it.

Voices began to echo from an alley on his right. He his baseball bat out from his backpack and moved over to the alley. He listened carefully, trying to make out if it was just roamers or people. He was kind of hoping for roamers. He peeked around the corner and saw two guys standing there, one looking like he was in his late thirties and the other closer to his own age.

“I'm not leavin' here to I find Sam.” The older one said as he moved around the other.

“What would Anna say about this, Leo?”

Eli watched as the conversation between the two quickly got heated, eventually turning into a fist fight. He wondered weather he should break up the fight or not before finally deciding against it. It wasn't his problem. He returned his bat and walked away from the alley deciding it was time for him to find somewhere to spend the rest of the day.

The other side of the city. Eli sat in an empty apartment that had a view of the whole city. It stared out it as he ate a disgusting can of beans. The skyline almost reminded him of his home town. As he reminisced about his old life he began to see movement on the street below. He placed the can of beans to his side and turned to get a better look at the ground below.

“Oh fuck...” He said to himself.

He spotted an Asian girl running down the street, a trail of blood following after her every step. A group of about twenty men followed after her until she tripped over a curb and fell to the pavement. The men crowded around her, all of them wielding a variety blunt objects. One of the men forced his way through the crowd and stood over the girl. This man was different then the others though. He wore bandages or gauze around his face. The man, who seemed to be the leader of the group, said something to the woman. After a few seconds, the leader turned to say something to two of the others. They nodded and picked up the girl. She struggled but eventually they managed to carry her away with the rest of their group following behind.

Eli sighed and made a mental note to get out of the city first thing the next day as he pulled the curtains over the window.

Credits

 * Eli Barnes
 * Asian girl
 * You Know Who
 * Mr. Angry