Running
Genre: Futuristic
Length: 1,040 words
Publisher & ISBN
JMS Books LLC / 9781935753599
In a distant, dystopic future, a mysterious disease known only as "the rot" has killed many, including Arian's sister. Unable to face life in a place that had once held so much for him, he decides to head out to the Ruins in search of something better.
Though Dini knows she can't stop Arian, she must try. But she harbors a secret that would only hurt him if he knew it ... she has the beginnings of the rot. No matter how far Arian may go, some things aren't easily outrun.
This story appears in the print collection, Bones of the Sea and Other Stories.
Excerpt
Dini peered at her reflection in a dull scrap of metal. She squatted on the ground, the rusty tine clutched tight in her worn, fingerless glove and watched her dark-rimmed eyes watch back. Quickly, so no one would see, she bared her teeth in a grimace. Her reflection growled back at her, teeth shiny in the late afternoon sun. Lifting up one corner of her lip, she turned slightly and looked at the bruised flesh of her gums, purplish-red above the gleam of her molars.
Just as she had feared. She let her lip go and dropped the metal mirror. It clattered to the ground as she stood up and brushed her hands on her tattered leggings. I have it, she thought. I have the rot.
Dini didn’t know how she should be feeling right now -- scared, anxious, alone. The rot had wiped out vast cities, women and children and men, dying slowly back in the early years of the millennium. The worst part of it was, you didn’t know you had it until it was too late. How long had she had it? Who could’ve gotten it from her? And who in the Savior’s name could’ve given it to her?
Dini kicked at the stones lining the alley where she had hidden to check out the sore in her mouth and tried to think back. She had stopped popping ’thane three years ago when the rot seemed to suddenly resurface, killing through drug needles. Since then, she had had just two lovers -- Reese was clean, Dini was sure of that. And even though Gonda put up a tough act, Dini thought she might’ve been a virgin, so she was clean, too. And then there had been Arian ...
Shit! Arian!
Dini flew out of the alley, racing down empty streets clogged with trash and debris. Arian was leaving the Ruins tonight, this would be the last Dini ever saw of him. She should’ve been thinking of ways to stop him, to keep him here with her, and as lost as she was in her own problems, she forgot!
She just hoped he was still waiting for her at the old depot like he had promised.