Last Stand

The good guy fled and the bad guys followed. Well, he was good relative to the bad guys at least.

The last anyone ever saw the good guy was in a town on the edge of a dark forest. He had a backpack on, and a worn baseball cap. He headed down a shadowy trail. I was told the same thing by the owner of the general store and by several townspeople who happened to be in the square.

The bad guys arrived in a rickety old car. They asked questions sharply, demanding answers. They got their answers, because nobody wanted trouble. Especially not from the main bad guy, who was skinny and raggedy and cruel. The bad guys followed the good guy into the black.

I imagine this is what happened: the good guy trekked across the dale and up the mountain. He arrived at the abandoned school that has not seen children since, you know, the incident. He knew he could not hide there, but he was tired of running. So he made his last stand.

He wasn’t able to defeat any of the bad guys, and they took what they wanted from him. I imagine it wasn’t just revenge. Revenge does not pay enough to justify a long chase. Not even to very evil people. I imagine it was something that was useful, so useful, and it’s a shame the bad guys got it.

They emerged from the woods late at night, probably, and they got into their rickety old car, and they drove away. The good guy was never found. But without the thing they took, he was no longer a good guy. In fact, he was of no consequence.

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk