Here is the next installment in Dashed's journey, it's kindof slow so I will be uploading this and the next chapter Saturday <<< PREV | FIRST | NEXT >>>

Chapter 4
Invigorated with new found hope he quickly packed up his things. Before going he checked the refrigerator and found that Carla was thoughtful enough to leave a map and several dozens of canned food in the fridge. As he packed up he took a look at the map that was left by Carla, wondering who Carla was or why she had chosen that house was beyond him. With these thoughts in mind he headed out of the door. He had walked about a mile when he saw a billboard with the same message that he found in the house painted on it. He took a small break and searched the area around the billboard and discovered a sealed crate with a crowbar on top of it. He pried the box open and found dozens of canned goods and event some aspirin. After taking the aspirin and hammering back the nails on the box he started on his way once more. The day was surprisingly cool as clouds hung over him. Dashed had been living outside long enough to tell that the clouds weren’t going to spew rain on him but instead provide a nice shade perfect for traveling. By noon he had already made 6 miles, which is faster than he has ever made in just one day in over 2 years. He stopped at the town of Engin and realized that he was only 10 miles away from Bolder.

He took a lunch break and thought about Carla and Olivia. He sat there for an hour wondering about Carla and thinking of memories of Olivia. Carla was just a mysterious person who left a note for him; Dashed didn’t know anything else about her. The only thing that he could even begin to guess is that Carla is a girl, since he never met a man named Carla, and that was it, he didn’t know about what she was like, if she was attractive at all, or even if she hadn’t gone insane. As Dashed began to think about this he wondered what Olivia would say about him going to meet with Carla. Dashed immediately dismissed that thought, Olivia always said to have fun and not to worry, so if meeting Carla would make Dashed happy Olivia would have been more than happy to meet her too.

Dashed really truly loved Olivia but she is dead and gone and while he still loved her it was time to move on. He remembered her final days, all the pain from her injury and the infection she eventually caught. He looked at the sun and saw it was just barely above moving to the west and broke into a jog on his way to Bolder. As he jogged for the first time in a long time, he watched in amazement on how much the rest of the animal kingdom survived. Everywhere he looked he saw squirrels, foxes, deer, now wild horses, wild dogs, and a few cats as the day went on. He began to think about all his ancient ancestors and how they decided to start to walk while the rest decided to remain on four feet. Dashed still remembered how in the days when people cared about stupid stuff about how they would fight over whether it was right to be in a relationship with the four-legged version of your species. Dashed didn’t care either way if someone loved an animal as long as you did it behind closed doors. As he thought about this he, once again, noticed that the sun was going down and looked for a house to sleep in.

When he found a fairly nice house he sat down on the front porch and took a look at his map. He was once again overjoyed when he saw that he was only 4 miles away from Bolder! With this realization he sat down and prepared a feast. The fest started out with creamed corn with a side of pork and beans. Then he got out the Spam he was saving along with some beef jerky as the main course. For dessert he took out the one thing he had refused to drink for a month, a Coca-cola BOTTLE, not in a plastic bottle or in a can, but an actual bottle of Coke and a Mars bar that he had saved for a month. He drank it slowly knowing that if would chug it that the caffeine would shock his system. As he cleaned up he realized that he didn’t even have the energy to write in his journal; he got up and went inside his house not knowing what he would see when he got inside.