Amalia looked into the distance at the coming soldiers. She was hiding behind a tree, with Murphy nearby, chewing on an apple. Amalia shook her head in amazement at the soldiers, who still hadn’t spotted the two friends.

“I can’t believe it. First the carbon tax in December, and now we got these guys trying to make sure we’re wearing vaccination wristbands, or else it’s a thousand dollar fine everyday! I can’t believe it, Murph, I just can’t.”

Murphy tossed the apple he was chewing on carelessly away, and he got to his feet, eyeing the soldiers. “Amalia, I hate to break up your soliloquy, but we gotta get out of here. Now they’re sending people off to the camps!”

“Camps? What are you talking about Murphy?”

Murphy’s face took a grim appearance. “I’ll tell ya later, huh?”

Murphy nodded over to the open fence, and the two friends ran into it, escaping into the house they were staying in. Once inside, Murphy tossed his hat away and sat down grimly on a chair. “Amalia, Amalia. How long can we stay cooped up in your parents house? I don’t mean to scare you, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t coming back. They’re in Costa Rica. Who wouldn’t stay there in a time like this? Trust me, everybody is getting out of America right now.”

“Why didn’t you get out when you had the chance?”

“Because I live here. I always have. I won’t leave my home because the government turned psycho on me. I don’t know, I still feel like there might be hope to survive this dictatorship.”

“You think?”

“Amalia! C’mon! We fought off the British! Do you know how many Americans fought them in order for us to gain our independence? Less than nineteen percent of Americans decided to get and fight. That’s it.”

“I didn’t learn that in school.”

“Hate ta break it to ya, sister, but the so-called ‘public education’ is really a de-education process. People a hundred years ago, and even eighty years ago could speak five languages just by picking them up on their free time. Now you go to and they make you feel how difficult it is, so that failure is more predominant than success. You get me? They take away your confidence.”

There was a silence between the two friends. Finally Amalia spoke up.

“Murphy?”

“Yeah, Amalia?”

“Who are you?”

“Don’t know. Just a guy whose family died of the swine flu vaccine. And who are you?”

She stared at him in wonderment and confusion. “You rant all the time.”

Murphy was silent.

“Don’t you know that annoys me? Yes, I know the world is messed up, but do you have to remind me all the time?”

Murphy was silent as he got out of his chair and wondered into the kitchen. He got himself some filtered water and began making tea. “Sorry,” said. “I just feel alone alot. God knows that I want a future. But I want other people to live too. I feel that they don’t know some things, they’ll be suckered into the system like the rest and slaughtered like swine.”

Amalia got to her feet and stared at Murphy.

“Do I look like a swine?!”

Murphy looked at her, then stared at his burning kettle. Soon the fire went out, and the gas and the electricity to the house went out. Amalia looked around her house. “What happened?”

“Do you want to know my guess?”

“What, do tell! Seemly that you have all the answers!”

“I just have And I think that was an EMP.”

“An EMP?”

“Electric Magnetic Pulse. Do you have a battery powered watch?”

“Yeah. My dad had one over there.”

“May I check it?”

“Why?”

Murphy found the watch and looked at it. He smiled grimly, and tossed the watch to Amalia. “Did you break it?”

Murphy shook his head. “EMP.”

“So now what? No electricity?”

“Right.”

“So won’t that slow down the government too?”

“No. The military has all special gear. They’re just fine. I’m worried about nights now.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because they can see, and we can’t.”

They both stood looking down and thinking. Amalia looked up in surprise. “Does my car work?”

“Is it an old car?”

They both hurried to the driveway. She opened the car door with a key, and started the engine. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said, lying back in the car seat. “My dad would kill me if he knew that his birthday girl’s car broke because of an EMC.”

“EMP.” Murphy leaned on the outside of the car. He looked up at the sky. “Do you ever look up at the sky?”

Amalia was still sitting in the car. “Should I?”

“If you ever looked up, you’d see streaks of gas lining the sky.”

“What are the gases made of?”

“Metals. So they keep us from thinking well, and being healthy. Just like the food and milk they serve us at everyday places. But now we can’t buy anything.”

“Ah! those stupid vaccination wristbands! I heard they can never come off…”

“No. They can’t. Let’s go back inside, before anther patrol comes by and spots us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a thousand dollars on me.”

Amalia got out of the car. “Agreed.”

They went inside the house, and the outside seemed to ponder about these two; their cocoon of a life, their little existence…

At nighttime, Amalia lay in bed, and suddenly there was screaming from the house next door, followed by shouts of soldiers. She sprang out of bed, and ran downstairs and frantically looked around. Gradually her eyes came upon the lone figure looking outside the window, as if in deep concentration. “Murphy?”

“They came wearing night vision goggles, and they took your neighbor away. It’s only a matter of time before they knock down this door. We shouldn’t stay here.”

“What should we do?”

“Get away from the city. Before it collapses.”

“I thought you didn’t want to leave home.”

He turned to her grimly. “My home is wherever I say it is. This was never my home in the first place. You let me stay with you because you didn’t know how to live by yourself. I’m flattered, but I can’t baby-sit with you forever. You’re either coming with me or not.”

“Of course I’m coming. But let me guess, you need me to drive.”

“Would you?”

“Well, I hate to baby-sit you, but I’ll try.”

A silence. Finally Murphy spoke. “Thank you.”

The friends weren’t hauled off that night, and early in the morning they packed their bags and loaded into Amalia’s car. As they drove, they saw other cars stalled out. Murphy shook his head. “Electric this, electric that. People are getting locked in their cars because they can’t break through the glass. Look at that fellow there.”

They drove passed a man in a car, who was frantically trying to bash his car window. Amalia looked at Murphy. “Should we help him?”

Murphy thought for a moment, then nodded. The car parked beside the other, and Murphy drew a crowbar out from Amalia’s car. “Stand back,” said Murphy to the passenger. “Cover your eyes!”

He bashed and bashed at the car window, until finally the passenger was able to crawl out. “Ow!” said the passenger, as he held onto his bleeding hand.

“You shouldn’t have gotten out so fast!” barked Murphy, helping the man to his feet.

“Sorry,” said the man, “I’ve been in there since mid-night! I just got locked in, you know?”

Amalia looked at the man’s hand. “Do we have a medical kit, Murphy?”

Murphy seemed to growl at the passenger. “Yeah.”

While he went to retrieve the medical kit from the car, Amalia stood in front of the passenger and looked at him. “Are you a businessman?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“A rich, man?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“What are you still doing here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Shouldn’t you be out of the country? Or at least at your safe house?”

“No. Why?”

The three heard a great marching and pounding of clubs against shields, and Murphy tossed Amalia and the man into the car. “That police line is looking for blood!”

As they started to drive again, the passenger, while holding his hand, looked out the back window at the matching marching. “Look at them! All decked out in armor. To think they would have went right into me. Thank God for you two!”

Murphy and Amalia were silent. Until the police line was out of sight, then Murphy broke the silence. “So what did or do you do?”

“I manufacture wristbands. My dad owns the cooperation.”

Murphy turned back to the passenger. “Wristbands, corporation? What do you mean by that?”

“For the swine flu, of course. After the injections.”

“What are you still doing in this car?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you take the vaccine?”

“No, my dad warned me against it.”

“Why didn’t he warn anybody else? Have you said anything?”

“No, well, why should I?”

“Amalia, can you slow down for a minute? Just pull over right here, will ya?”

“Why?”

“Just do it, alright?”

After the car was stopped, Murphy hopped out of the car, opened the door near the passenger, and threw him out. “You know your pops helped wipe out my family.” He kicked the passenger on the ground savagely. “Pricks like you slowed down the human race to a trickle. Watching your own hides!” He kicked the passenger again, and Amalia came out of the car and pushed Murphy over, and he fell down and hit his head on a piece of cement, and he went unconscious.

“Get in!” cried Amalia to the passenger, and she yanked him into Murphy’s spot, and drove away quickly.

The passenger looked at Amalia questioningly as he held the place where it hurt the most from the kicks. “Who was that guy?”

“Beats me. I started housing him, and he always speaks nonsense. Man it felt good to give him a thought of mine!”

“Still though, do you really think you should have left him?”

She shrugged her shoulders, and continued driving.

Awhile later, Murphy awoke in the ditch. He held his head painfully, and rolled on his side, and finally got to his feet. He started walking the night streets, and eventually he came upon Amalia’s car. It was sprawled in the road at a curved angle, with both the doors open. When Murphy got to the car, he looked inside. He saw the passenger was in the seat breathing heavily as he held a pistol tightly to his chest. He had blood on the side of his neck. He looked at Murphy. “Sorry, they took your girl.”

“They took my what?”

“That girl, you know? They stopped the car, and took her out. When they tried to do something to her, I pulled out my pistol but got shot first in the neck. I’m…I’ve been bleeding for a couple of hours. This really sucks man. I would expect to see a lot of memories first, but I just keep thinking of that girl that was taken. Is that normal?”

Murphy looked at the man. “I don’t know. I’ve never been close to death.”

“Sure you have. My brother’s a doctor. That spill you took could have spread out your brains. It’s only by God’s grace that you’re…alive.”

“Why do you talk about God? Your family is wicked.”

“Maybe. But I’m ignorant. I didn’t think it was. I still don’t know…can you read me a proverb or something?”

“I don’t know any. Wait, I know only one.”

“Say it brother, say it. I’m dyin.”

“Alright. I know this one: The simple ignore danger and continue and are punished. The righteous foresee the danger, and seek refuge.”

“Charming, charming that that’s the only one you know…well, so long then!”

The passenger breathed heavily, clasping his gun tightly, and he turned to Murphy and fell on the opposite seat, holding the gun out, as if in a last act to give it away. Murphy picked up the gun, looked at it and put it in his pocket. He stared at the passenger, and eventually went to check if the keys were still in the car. They weren’t. Murphy went on the road, and continued to walk.