Free Broken World by Kate L. Mary

on the horizon and the
sky is a bright shade of orange. We set up camp outside what used to be a bar.
There’s a colorful sign on top—hand-painted decades ago—with an odd-looking
cowboy sitting on top of a horse. The words Water Hole #2 are painted
next to him. It’s boarded up, just like most of the other buildings we passed.
    “You guys can handle this?” Angus walks
up to us with a shotgun in each hand.
    Trey steps away from the gun. “What are
you doing?”
    “Huntin’,” Axl snaps as he takes the
shotgun his brother holds out to him. “You wanna eat, right?”
    “We have canned goods,” Joshua says.
    “Don’t waste that. Save it for later, in
case we have a night when we can’t shoot somethin’ to eat.” Angus spits on the
ground at Joshua’s feet.
    Joshua and Trey look at each other, but
neither one looks convinced. I’m not surprised. I bet neither one of them has
ever missed a meal. They’ve probably never eaten something that didn’t come
from a grocery store or a restaurant. I have. Plenty of times.
    “You’re going to kill an animal?”
Parvarti asks meekly.
    Angus’s face is red. He’s on the verge
of losing it, so I step in. “They’re right. We have to be smart about this.
Take precautions.”
    Joshua bites his lip and stares at me
for a second. Then he nods. “Yeah. That’s what we have to do.” He turns back to
Axl and Angus. “Go hunt, we’ll set up camp.”
    Axl raises an eyebrow and looks Joshua
up and down. “Can you start a fire? Set up a tent?”
    “I can,” I say.
    Angus nods approvingly. “That’s right.
Trailer trash. Helluva life, but it makes ya tough.” He turns and starts
walking. “We’ll be back. Shouldn’t take long.”
    Axl follows his brother, and for a
second, I don’t move. My insides boil. No one knew I was trailer trash except
the brothers, and if it had been up to me it would have stayed that way. I’ve
worked hard to distinguish myself from people like them.
    Get over it ,
I tell myself. You’re just as good as they are .
    Right. The doctor, the two students from
Cornell. I’m a stripper who was raised in a trailer park. I’m a walking cliché.
    “Let’s get this fire going,” Joshua
says, breaking through my thoughts.
    “Yeah.” I walk over and help arrange the
wood, breaking some of the sticks Parvarti collected into smaller ones for
kindling.
    “You’re not trailer trash,” Joshua says.
    I keep my eyes down, focusing on getting
the wood to light. “Yes I am. I’m just not redneck like they are.”
    The fire catches and I stay where I am
for a moment to make sure it doesn’t go out. It doesn’t. Trey is struggling
with the tent. These three are going to be in trouble if this really is the end
of the civilization.
    “Why don’t you get the camp chairs out
of the car?” I say to Trey. “I can do the tent. I helped with it last night.”
It’s a lie, but he doesn’t need to know.
    He smiles gratefully, then jogs off to
the car. Parvarti follows him. She doesn’t say much. I’m not sure if it’s
because she’s shy or if it has to do with the fact that she just found out her
parents are dead. Only time will tell.
    When the tent is up, both Trey and
Joshua wander off to call their families. Parvarti sits next to me and stares
into the fire silently. She wears Trey’s sweatshirt, and it makes her look even
more like a child.
    “So you and Trey seem to have gotten close,”
I say. I want to make conversation, but I’m afraid to ask anything about her
life. She seems pretty shaken, and the last thing I want to do is remind her
that her parents are dead.
    “He’s been great to have around. I was
worried about traveling with him. Going across the country with some guy I
didn’t know was scary, but I had no other options. If I didn’t have him…” A
tear slides down her cheek, and she stares at her hands.
    I look out into the darkness, toward the
sound of Trey’s voice. “He seems to like you.”
    To my surprise, she