I didn’t listen to Past Mata, for that I am extremely annoyed. Past Mata said to have over 4,000 words written and Present Mata’s eyes keep trying to close. Procrastination reared its ugly head over the weekend so this is what you get for days 2-4. Don’t judge me. I will do better tomorrow.

Currently Untitled: Day 2, 3 and 4

Word Count: 878

Eli immediately slid back down to where her shovel lay, but before she could reach it the cool barrel of a hunting rifle was pressed against the back of her neck.

Crud.

A different voice to the one they’d heard before, injected with the same self-satisfaction, crooned down at her. “Come on love, no need to be so hasty aye?” Eli squeezed her eyes shut, cursing her own cockiness and stupidity. She didn’t dare look at Dex now, knowing all she’d find in those light brown eyes would be a silent ‘I freakin’ told you so.’

“Aw mate, what’s that? A shovel?” The voice they’d heard earlier shouted out from the other side.

“Yep.” Replied Rifleman. “Now be a good girl and make your way out, so that your boyfriend there can also come out, and have a chat with us.”

If voices were anything to go by then all they had to deal with were two men, two grown men and one had a rifle. Eli started to think their way out, Dex had some muscle to him she thought desperately- and Eli could fight her way out of a scrap any day. And this was even before the Incursion. Their problem lay in the gun.

“Nice and easy love.” She stood up, feigning nonchalance as she dusted the front of her jeans as if she was just getting up from having a picnic. Not that she’d had many picnics before the Incursion; her family wasn’t the picnicking type. She looked at the man’s shoes, worn work boots, and made a note of the fact they weren’t steel capped. It could come in handy.

“Now you, boy. Get out from under there.” Eli could see Dex’s jaw clenching as the rifle nudged his head, “We don’t have all day, son.” Rifleman muttered, Eli glanced back at the other man, who was walking over from the other side of the car, and back again- only just making out a lone bead of sweat making a hasty retreat from Rifleman’s receding white hairline. When Dex finally stood, Eli found it difficult to disguise the amusement she felt bubble up at the fact that Dex was a good head taller than either men. It could definitely come in handy.

Noting, with a smidgen of hope, how Rifleman’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to discreetly gulp, Eli fixed her gaze on the other man who seemed slightly younger than Rifleman, he pushed his glasses up his hawkish nose. “What do you want from us?” Her voice sounded raspy to her own ears. She tried not to scowl.

“We’re just curious, is all. No need to be worried, love.” Rifleman said from the other side of Dex, the younger one, stood beside Eli eyes taking in her bunned hair, calloused and dirty hands and fraying clothes.

“Then why’s he holding a fricken’ gun to my head?” Dex growled, there was barely a step back from Rifleman, but it was enough for her to realise that he wasn’t at all prepared to shoot anyone today. It was in the way his murky grey eyes could barely bring themselves to meet theirs. If Eli wasn’t mistaken, it was almost as if Rifleman wasn’t someone who shot people on a daily basis, either for survival or not. He definitely looked more and more like someone who couldn’t kill a teenaged boy and girl in cold blood.

“Precaution.” Glasses responded, his thin lips almost invisible, as his beady black eyes regarded the two teenagers with something that looked an awful lot like disdain. Eli wasn’t convinced he wasn’t possessed by something. She couldn’t see any signs that he was, there was no cracking beside his eyes, and by now it would have either attacked them or tried to take possession of their younger bodies. “Where are you two headed anyway?” Glasses asked chattily, looking between them as though they were old friends. He leaned on the shovel, my bloody shovel Eli thought, and gestured towards Dex, “Looking for a nice place for your little tryst?” Although he had a head full of hair it was so thin you could see his white scalp and at this moment Eli wanted nothing more than for him to fall flat on is face and for that scalp of his to crack open.

Glasses moved towards Eli, his tongue licking basically non-existent lips. “Because while you may appear to be rather uncivilized, there’s a certain charm that proves magnetic each time we meet one of you street dwellers.” Eli wasn’t so sure what to think, mostly she was angry because he still had her shovel. The handle looked particularly uncomfortable under Glasses’ kneading fingers. She considered immediately jabbing his face. She prepared herself to do so; she looked over at Dex whose brown eyes caught hers. She hoped she could convey exactly what she was thinking to him, judging by the way he nodded without taking in any of his surrounding she knew her plan wouldn’t be making it past the first stage. Public reading.

“Now, tell us what you’re doing out here during the day.” Rifleman’s voice wavered only once, Eli noted how he glanced nervously at Glasses.

“Yeah, actually, we’re on our way to see your mum.” Dex muttered.