The War Game by Crystal Black Page A

that was going to be the next owner of the wristwatch, forced the book out of her long spidery fingers, scoffed, and walked away.
                  “You shouldn’t have done that,” the creature said to John and me. She made a big show of crossing her arms against her chest.
                  “Oh, what will you possibly do? Who would care?” John rationalized.
                  She uncrossed her arms, walked away muttering about something.
                  “Thanks,” I said, not that John couldn’t tell that I wasn’t thankful.
                  “Now we know the bastard that stole your stuff. Did you have anything else you need to get back? Because we should find it all before it gets traded away.”
                  “I would like my book on anatomy back. She probably ate all the food I had though,” I said sadly. I had a good stockpile of food.
                  “Oh.” the blonde got off her metal folding chair and fished the book out from underneath the encyclopedias. “I traded her an apple for this, but we actually get the apples from a tree out back.”
                  My anatomy book. The corners of the cover were now badly dented but I didn’t care. It found its way back to me.
                  “Thank you, appreciate it,” I took the book in my hands and opened it. I turned the glossy pages of knee joints, the skeleton system, and the female pelvis. It strangely comforted me. I guess I just feel relaxed when I have something that connects with something else that happened long ago.
                  “Yeah, thanks for the tip,” John added.
                  We walked around the strip mall to find this magical tree. It was actually outside of the camp but one of its branches was between the two fences. The fence closest to us had merely just a few coils of barbed wire. But the outer fence was electric. I’ve only heard warnings about what this other fence can do. Kill you faster than you could fall. It would actually be one of the easier ways to die, but it would suck if anyone had to witness it. I could just about stretch my arm out and pretty much touch the wall and the fence at the same time.
                  “I don’t know about this,” I started.
                  “Do you want to continue to eat that nasty stuff that looks like sewer backup?”
                  “No,” I didn’t really know what sewer backup would consist of but if it looked like the slop they gave us around noon, I could make a few good guesses.
                  John climbed to the top of the fence and started to reach for an apple. The branches closest to us had been picked bare. He still tried reaching for one way up high anyhow.
                  If he had been just a couple inches taller, he could have reached several apples. He tried shaking the branch but it was too big to sway much.
                  So I threw my book directly into the air and it knocked the branch but nothing came down with it. So I did it again, making sure I cleared its path in time for its return. I knocked down an avalanche of apples.
                  We giggled like we were kids who walked out from a candy store with a five-finger discount on peanut butter cups. John gathered the apples in his shirt, they were small but they were almost ripe enough to eat. And not too many worms, either.
                  We split the apples evenly and ate them all in silence.
     
    ~~~
     
                  The night came, which meant the soldiers made their rounds. They used some sort of cattle prod called the Ignis to round up the few stray crazies. There was this one guy that did nothing but laugh all day. It was kind of hard not to laugh along with him. He covered his mouth to suppress the laughter but it was still distracting. Jim once