Kenopsia - Chapter 60: Chapter 60

"Two windmills are standing on a wind farm. One asks, What's your favorite type of music? The other says, I'm a big metal fan."
I refused to look at the giggling Jasmine as I was braiding my hair, braiding it made it a bit shorter so out of the way, I had tied it in a pony tail so it was easier and I was getting to the end.
"I love elephants." She said but no punchline followed.... At least for a while it didn't. "Everything else is irrelephant."
I sighed heavily.
"Shut up you Z-nation knock-off."
"I will remind you this weapon is useful and it works." She said.
I had helped her climb over the wall as she is unable to pull herself over it like I can, I've been doing this for years I better be good at it and then fed the stuck in the bin chicken.... I was running on three hours of sleep as she had rolled of the couch I let her and she fell on me.
Currently I was out in the front yarn and she joined me not long ago.
"I see that but you should take care of it, like my bat." I kicked it lightly. "Is taped on the handle and the top of it so the wood can't splinter and break and as a result you can only feel a few dents in it, because I took care of it. Your's metal is rusted and the wood could snap any moment."
"Well how do I fix it?" She sat even closer to me as I was just sitting on my ass on the ground.
"You can't fix this one so if you don't want to break it I'd advise a new weapon." I stood up, picking mine up and holding my hand out for hers.
She was reluctant handed it, visibly not wanting to hand it over.
I weighed both in my hands and mine was clearly lighter.
"Your can cause a lot of damage to anything it hit, has weight behind it but you let the blood of husks... Or munchers as you call them, oxidize the metal and soak the wood."
"But I want to use it..."
"Jasmine, this weapon will be more dangerous to use then useful." I swung it, feeling just from it that if used this should break in the following months. "I will help you with finding a new one and you can retire this, making a weird house decoration with it."
"No." She pulled it from my hands and I let it go.
I rubbed my face.
I crouched down.
"Why are you so unwilling to part with it?"
"My dad made this, it was his, this is one of the only things I have left from him." That threw me for a spin.... What have you left for me dad? A crowbar? It wasn't even one you made yourself...
I guess she was with her dad before being alone.
"You know my bat?" I crouched again to her level, holding it by the middle with my one hand. "Is also a gift from someone?"
"Really?"
"Really... I got it the first day I escaped my apartment, when I didn't know anything of this world... I screamed down at a boy I saw in the streets.... I caused the husks the perk up and as he jumped and tried to sign to me to shut up with waves they noticed him.... I watched him die and leave this bat behind.... I killed that boy but he helped me survive with this bat and this long."
"That's not really a gift."
"Not really but I consider it at such, with his unfortunate death he taught me what the world become and gave me to first steps to follow and how to live in this world, his death is the greatest gift I could get."
"... I guess this is really a gift of my dad." I sat next to her this time but laid down on my back, uncaring of the cold and rough ground, watching the clouds in the blue sky.
"How did you lose him?" I asked but was answered with silence. "Mine died like a coward.... He slipped on ice in winter and knocked his head on the ground, it was snowing and he was out there for who knows how long before I found him, he died the next morning, probably passing in the night, hypothermia we thought.... He'd have hated himself to have died like that, he was a fighter, he'd have wanted to die for a reason not an accident...." I looked at her, she was looking back with those blue eyes, so bright in this dull world. "He survived travelling cross-country to find me and then died to ice, not even the husks."
"One of those graves..."
"His? Yeah.... Yours?"
"Well.... It was always him and I for as long as I remember, we always went camping and I found it so boring, he was like 'you need to learn to fish' or 'this is how to make a rabbit trap', we went camping, it was one odd night that a scrap wearing man stumbled into our camp and dad took care of him without fear, then he told me the reason for this last trip, you know the whole end of the world shtick so endless camping time for me woooow...." She sighed, feigning enthusiasm about the endless camping. "I guess there was nothing better to do then learn what he had to show which was a bummer because us going to the park or a forest trip was way better then being cooped up in our little camp all times of the day and not even being able to go around the forest I knew."
"I was in this town since the start, I always have so much to do I just wish I had nothing for once."
"Well I wished for something new so I thought one night I'd skip back to town to hang with people, I didn't think everyone was munchers now and I was proven wrong. Some people rudely tried bringing me away, I kicked one in the balls like dad said I should but well I took a bit of time finding my home, can you believe those rude people didn't even tell me where my home was? Anyhow, it was a while but I found it and well I also knew the forest."
I wanted to sigh, chatter box I tell you but I let her speak, crossing my hands behind my head.
"And like I don't know what happened, dad was a muncher by then but he had his foot tied to a tree so he didn't move away. I tried to wake him up he didn't he tried to munch on me too."
"Husks are not alive Jasmine."
"Well I know that NOW. I was like eleven and three months." She stuck her tongue out. "But he was really hurt and he hit the other munchers we met in the head until they stopped moving, he explained what he was doing but I guess it was that day I got the just of it, when I still thought it was painful to be a muncher since the wounds, I didn't want him to be in pain... I stayed in my forest for quite some time but I got bored so I left to explore."
"This is the ocean shore, which is we there is a lot of rain in this region so just how far away from do you come because there is non mountains near here."
"I never spoke of mountains tho, how did you guess?"
"More often then not forests sprout at the foot of mountains because they disturb air streams and rain often falls near them too, here it falls at least every three weeks on the biggest stretch because of our proximity to water."
"I was bored so each time I got bored I moved, I wanted to see something new."
"It almost got you killed."
"You too."
"True." I nodded. "This is a reason I don't want other people around.... They either hurt me or die."
"Well I won't hurt you, you are much too big, I'd lose." She grinned.
"But will you die?"
"I won't, I traveled from far away and didn't die, it is boring alone, you must be bored too, together it will be much more fun."
I sighed, not believing her.