After

It was hot, as usual, and the smell of rotting flesh was abundant as Charles and his dog came upon the pit. The stench was nothing new to Snoop, but the sight of it still turned his gut. This hole, like so many others, was filled with loyalists. They came in so many forms that it is difficult to tell exactly what breed these were. They could have been anything from constitutionalists to facists. What was certain was that they, like so many others, held fast to the need for some people to rule others. They remained Loyal to the idea of government. Even when Government poisoned the sky, water, food, and children. They remained Loyal, even when Government viciously attacked life, liberty, and property under the guise of protection. They remained Loyal to those who destroyed their lives and souls. This loyalty was their downfall. So many lined up for bread and circuses. So many lined up for the forced gun buybacks. So many lined up for a short train ride to a new life. So few realized that this pit, this stagnating, festering waste dump, is where all those lines led. As Charles and his dog stared out into the blood red sunset, he silently thanked his father once more for not standing in those lines, and for knowing what to do when the bombs came. His dad had been gone for almost a month now, but they were headed to Texas, and nothing was going to stop Charles from getting there. There were people in Texas that had seen this disaster coming just like Charles father did. People who prepared. Communications have been almost non existent since the bombs, but the story is that there are a quarter of a million people living in what they call Agora City. It is rumored to be situated somewhere between where the old cities of Dallas and Tyler used to be. His dad had contacts there. Friends that he had known since he was a boy. The whole place was supposedly ruled by a simple concept. I own me, and you own you. A concept that could have saved the world from the bombs if man would have just understood it. Charles was walking to Texas to see if mankind had learned our lesson. A man and his dog, carrying hope and a rifle across what used to be the united states, praying to whatever God will listen that humans are finally done ruling over each other....