In the end, ignorance and greed killed the planet. During the gas shortage of the 70’s, they told us that oil was running out. It wasn’t, but we were given an off handed choice, pay more at the pump or wait in the endless lines. We paid more, a lot more. And we continued to pay, but the oil never ran out as expected. The fossil fuel boys bought politicians at discount rates. They paid very little, if no taxes.
  Any attempt at ‘clean” energy was shot down. If there was a hurricane, prices doubled for months. These businesses did not ever lose money, we paid whatever they wanted. Other things changed, people became ignorant as that was the plan. Things children needed to learn weren’t taught anymore. These people wore their ignorance as a badge of honor. They were cleverly manipulated to violence by the politicians they blindly followed.
  Then Mother Nature said ‘fuck you”. Again, we ignored her. Summers were blisteringly hot, so hot that it became a health hazard to stay outdoors. Around 2016 forests started to burn. Some fires were caused by lightning strikes. Some were set by religious fanatics eager to bring The Rapture to earth. Some just started because it was too fuckin hot. Then we had a pandemic that our leaders ignored. Hundreds of thousands died as a result. By 2020 half the world was on fire, the other half under water. Then it stopped raining.
  Crops died, animals died, rivers and lakes started drying up. Food riots broke out, a reality TV Star was elected President. He ignored everything, disputed scientific facts, and had ‘crackpot” cures for the virus that ravaged the world. His hardcore followers murdered anyone who spoke out about the situation. Abortion clinics were bombed, everyone had a gun, the daily carnage was appalling. Then the solar flares started.

  In some areas, the heat was a killer. With everything dry, fires started easily and there was nothing to put them out . The entire East and West Coasts burned. Nothing was spared, nothing. At Riker’s Island, a prison in New York, prisoners were baking in their cells. One convict was determined to get out. He was a rough old bastard, age was around 60 or so. His name was Leroy Davis, but people called him The Blindman. He wasn’t really blind, but was near sighted and had the start of cataracts. He was a career criminal and was doing time for two murders, one that he committed in prison.
  Leroy smelled smoke and knew he had to find a way out. He kept hearing screams and gunfire. The guards were getting even, they were shooting the prisoners in their cells. Leroy made a dummy out of his blankets. He used his boots to make the figure on the bunk look real. Then he got to a rather difficult position close to the ceiling and waited. A guard named Taggart walked up to his cell with a shotgun. Bye, bye, you blind fuck he said as he blasted the figure on the bunk. The figure was turned to rags. Taggart muttered “Where the fuck could he be? ” Taggart unlocked the cell.
  Leroy dropped on him, and grabbed the gun. He blasted Taggart and ran. He kept running. A guard saw him and Leroy blew him away. Leroy got out of the place as the flames increased. He found a Ford station wagon with the keys in in it. He started it and burned rubber. He headed west avoiding people trying to flag him down or stop him. He knew once the gas in this thing ran out, he’d be on foot. He had the shotgun and the orange jumpsuit . He needed to ditch the jumpsuit. 

  He was on the Pennsylvania turnpike. He was almost to Ohio when the car sputtered and died. “ Looks like I’ll be strolling a bit.” he said to himself. After a couple of miles, he spied a rest area ahead of him. It was deserted except for the dead. Seems a battle took place here. The buildings were pocked with bullet holes and a few baked bodies were lying on the ground. 

 A quick look around found no one waiting in ambush. Leroy found a place that had clothes. He found a pair of black jeans, a rust colored thermal shirt, some work boots and a floppy hat, plus some socks and underwear. He ditched the jumpsuit. He needed ammunition for the shotgun. He prowled around in the service station and came up empty.
  Then he decided to check the abandoned vehicles. A bullet ridden squad car had what he needed. The cop in it had been shot in the head. He had a 12 gauge Remington pump shotgun and a full box of shells. He also had a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol that was still in the holster. He took that and the cop’s ammo for it. Then he noticed that the car had a full tank of gas. “ wonder if it will start,” he said to himself. 

  Expecting nothing, he turned the key. It started right up. It seemed that the only thing vital that was hit was the cop. Leroy took the dead cop out of the car and drove it closer to the shop. He found some food, some bottled water and a lot of liquor. He loaded what he could fit in the car. Blindman stayed on the interstate, driving around dead and wrecked vehicles. Nothing was living, the dead littered the streets. He hit a roadblock when he crossed into Indiana.
  It was a crude barricade built out of junk. Several men were sitting around drinking. Blindman took a swig out of a pint of Old Crow. He jacked a shell into the Sig Sauer. A fat, sloppy man with really bad dental work, approached The Blindman. He was followed by a skinny guy wearing the colors of a biker gang. That guy carried an AK 47. Blindman counted four others behind the barricade. “ This be a toll road, stranger, “ the fat man said. 

“Since when “? The Blindman asked
“Since me and the boys took it over, that’s when. “
“So what’s the toll?”
“Everything you have in that car, but we’ll let you sample some young pussy before we send you on your way.”
“So your raping little girls?” 

“Yeah, like who’s going to stop us?”
“Me ,that’s who.” Blindman pulled up the Sig, fired at the fat guy and missed. But he clipped the skinny gun in the chest. Five guns exploded in his direction. Blindman emptied the automatic without hitting anyone. He ducked behind the squad car as bullets ripped though it. 

“Damn this nearsighted shit.” he said to himself. He picked up the shotgun. Two of the group rushed him, firing AK 47’s from the hip. Blindman waited, then blew them to rags.
“Throw down your guns or we’ll kill a couple kids” the fat guy yelled. Blindman didn’t move. A few minutes went by. “ Didn’t you hear me?” Blindman said nothing. He heard them discussing what to do.
“He must be dead.”
“Yeah, I think one of the boys nailed him.“
“Wait a few minutes, then we’ll check.“
Blindman laid on the ground next to the squad car. He saw the three walking slowly toward him. He let them close in, then opened up, firing under the car. Five loads of buckshot shattered their legs and dropped them. The fat man was the only one still breathing. A shot to the head cured that.
“ Whoever is in there, ya might as well come out, these scumbags are all dead.” Four men, six women and ten children from ages 10 to 14 fearfully came out.
Blindman looked at the group, they were battered and beat up, visible bruises and cuts on them. It was obvious the women were raped. The squad car was leaking coolant and other fluids. His ride was ruined. One of the men thanked him. Blindman gave him a hard stare. “ I’m not judging you, but you people need to defend yourselves. I’m not hanging around, take their guns and ammo , anyone fucks with you, kill them. “ 

  “We appreciate what you did, we really do,” a man said, but we have no supplies, those bastards used them all. “ Blindman pointed to his ride. “ That car is loaded and now I’m on foot, I’m taking what I can carry, you people take the rest. “ Blindman filled a sack with liquor, a bottle of water and a lot of beef jerky. He started walking away as the group cleaned out the car. “I’m not taking anyone with me he muttered to himself,” a care giver I ain’t and I need to figure out a better weapon because I can’t see for shit.” Little did The Blindman know what the fates held in store for him.
 A day after losing his ride, he wandered into a residential neighborhood. The place was deserted, bodies lay around, mummified by the heat. Finding a downtown shopping area, he spied a gun store. The store hadn’t been looted. He found a lot of 12 gauge shells, some with big slugs of lead in them. Pumpkin balls, they used to call them. He found a .38 revolver with a long barrel that he pocketed. He looked at the boxes of buckshot. He remembered reading Civil War history and how soldiers would put any kind of metal in shotgun shells. 

 “Might as well make some custom loads” he said to himself. He emptied a box of two dozen shells. He opened them up and dumped out the buckshot. He looked around for plunder. Sheet metal screws, a roll of dimes, snips of barbed wire, steel nuts washers and broken safety glass filled the shells. Sealing them up with wax, he felt he was better armed now. Loading up, he saw no reason to linger. 

 Blindman was almost out of the town when he heard something, a mournful howl. “If I was smart, I’d keep on walking “ he said to himself. Following the howls, he came to a brick building with a caged in small yard. Pacing around the yard was the biggest dog that he ever saw. It was brown, shaggy and had to weigh in the neighborhood of 150 lbs. Blindman and the dog locked eyes. The dog snarled, then whimpered. Not trusting the beast, Blindman ripped open a package of beef jerky and threw it into the yard.
 The dog pounced on the bag and ate the contents. “It must be thirsty” . Blindman opened a bottle of water and stuck the neck though the fence. The dog approached cautiously, then guzzled down the water. It then sat down and waited . “You want out , don’t you?” he asked the dog. The beast’s ears stood up and it wagged it’s tail. The cage was padlocked, Blindman smashed the lock with the butt of the shotgun. The door swung open, the dog took off down the street. The Blindman watched as the dog vanished from sight.
 “I guess that’s better than trying to eat me “ Blindman chuckled. Blindman started walking , he was a couple of miles from the town when he was challenged. Two men with rifles stepped out of a wooded area by the road. “ Well looky here,” one said. “ Guess you wandered from some nursing home, old timer, we’ll just take the pack. “ The guy had a filthy sleeveless denim vest and dirty jeans. His rotten teeth said he was a tweaker. The other guy had on a ragged flannel shirt and cutoff shorts. His hands shook as he held the rifle. “ Why don’t you two assholes just suck my dick?” Blindman told them. The tweaker raise the rifle, “ That was rude, you old bastard, now you can die.” He never got off the shot. A brown blur crashed into his back , slamming him to the pavement. Before the other guy could move, the dog ripped his throat out. Blood spurted out of his ruined throat. The tweaker tried to get up and Blindman kicked him in the head, snapping his neck. 

 Blindman searched the bodies and came up with nothing except a pair of brass knuckles. He slipped them in his pocket. “ Might come in handy.” he said to the dog. The dog looked at him and wagged his tail. “So I guess we are either even or we are pals.” Blindman said. I never had a pet and I suck at naming things, so I’ll just call you Dog.” Dog stared at him. “ Well lets got to moving, nothing for us here. “

  As they got deeper into Indiana, the terrain changed. Lots of fissures in the earth, crumpled buildings, burnt out wrecks, and sand, a lot of sand. “ I guess we missed the Apocalypse “ he said out loud. Dog just snorted. A free standing bodega type store was riddled with bullet holes. Blindman looked inside, he saw a few bodies. “ These guys ain’t been dead too long “ he muttered to himself.
  The store had been cleaned out, nothing much left. It looked like an organized clean out. “ Now I wonder what I’m going to walk into.” he thought. They walked a couple of more miles and they came upon a bus. Dog’s hackles started to rise. “ Yeah, dog, something is off here. “ He jacked a shell into the breech. As he got closer, he smelled the stench of death. Dead women and children were in the bus. They had been used badly and slaughtered. Three men in the bus had been bound and their throats had been cut. 

  “Fuckin scumbags, this was a massacre.” he muttered. He punctured the gas tank and set the bus a blaze. “Best I can do for yas, no time to dig a grave.“ he and Dog watched as flames consumed the bus and it’s unfortunate occupants. “Let’s go“ he said to Dog. They kept on walking wet. Blindman wondered what kind of people would massacre a bus full of people. He would find that out shortly.
  About a mile from the bus, there was a turned on it’s side Ford F-10 pick up truck. Three bodies by it, one still breathing. “Well if it isn’t RT Tyler, pedo and rapist, guess you got out of Riker’s a bit before I did. “said Blindman. RT was an emaciated piece of human garbage. Right now he was leaking blood from a bullet in his shoulder. “Hi Leroy, he said “ good to see you , I could use some help. 

  Blindman nodded to the two corpses. “Had a little falling out with your pals I see ? “Yeah, they are part of the Drunken Master’s bunch, thought I was too, but they felt different about it.” RT explained. “ Now who the fuck is this Drunken Master ?” Blindman inquired. “ Remember that big biker , Satan he used to call himself ? Well he led a bunch of us off Rikers, then we got to that federal pen in Marion Indiana and let those boys out. He set everything up in an old depot.  It’s a regular army we got and we take anything we want.” 

  “Like that bus a few miles back?” Blindman asked. “Yeah, that was fun, we made the men watch. Boy could those women hollar, we had then for a couple of days.” Too bad the Master got tired of it.” R T finished. “ And you want me to patch you up so you can join up with that scumbag and rape and kill again? “ Blindman snarled. “Hey, not my problem if people can’t protect themselves. You got anything for pain, or can you get this slug out?” 

  “Oh, I forget that your hurtin’, pain really that bad? Blindman asked “ it’s fuckin killing me. “RT replied. ‘ It’s not going to kill you, RT, I am. Blindman blew off his head with the shotgun. “Never liked you anyway.” Blindman pondered while he worked on a fifth of Maker’s Mark. If RT was telling the truth, this Drunken Master has gathered an army of thugs and is wiping out anyone in his path. If I keep going, odds are we will tangle ass down the road. But then, what do I care? “ Dog, lets go”. 

  After two more days of walking, they came upon a small group walking toward him. Six men armed to the teeth. “ Your going the wrong way. Blindman told them. “So are you” a tall scarecrow of a man said. “That Drunken Master and his band of psychos is behind us, they are fighting everyone including each other. “Seriously ? Blindman asked. “Yeah, they are having gunfights, like in the old western movies. The Drunken Master got his hand shot off and he’s looking for the guy. Too bad he was a bad shot. “
“Where are you going ? “ Blindman asked “ Away from here, I wish you luck if you keep going, but be warned, these idiots will try to take you out.
“Thanks for the advise” Blindman said “ but I know what’s back there, nothing.“
“Suit yourself, there maybe nothing back there, but there is something really bad in front of you,”

  Blindman wished them luck and continued on. They came to some big sand dunes when they heard gunfire. Climbing to the top of the dune, he saw what looked like a store and a battle was taking place. Raiders were trying to take the store. Blindman jacked a shell into the breech, looked at dog and said “Let’s go”.