The Road

Man:
The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calender for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke.

Man:
I told the boy when you dream about bad things happening, it means you're still fighting and you're still alive. It's when you start to dream about good things that you should start to worry.

Man:
[to the boy] I will kill anyone who touches you. Because that's my job.

Man:
If I were God, I would have made the world just so and no different. And so I have you... I have you.

Man:
Everything depends on reaching the coast. I told you I would do whatever it takes.

Woman:
Like what? Like what?

Boy:
How many people do you think are still alive?

Man:
In the world? Not very many.

Gang Member:
That boy looks hungry. Why don't ya'll come on to the truck?

Man:
You look at him again, I'll shoot you in the head.

Gang Member:
I don't think you've killed a man in your life.

Man:
You have to keep carrying the fire.

Boy:
What fire?

Man:
The fire inside you.

Boy:
You one of the good guys?

Veteran:
You'll just have to take a shot.