Manhattan Wilkes (cornbreadblues) wrote in the_quarantined, @ 2010-01-28 22:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | carmen harper, manhattan wilkes, status: complete, status: in progress |
Who: Manhattan Wilkes and Carmen Harper
What: Wandering around the city.
When: Early Afternoon
Where: Not too far from the safe zone.
Rating: PG
Status: In Progress
There comes a time in every man's life when he stops to smell the proverbial roses. When he reflects on where he's been, where he is, and where he's going. Manhattan Wilkes always thought he'd be a much older man when that time came around to him. He imagined that time would involve his romantic life, or lack thereof. Or his occupational choice. Or when he finally decided to hit the open trail back home to Boulder. Of course, then the impossible happened. And that time came a lot sooner to him than he had expected. The biggest surprise to him, however, wasn't his pain or feeling of futility, though those emotions were there. Nor was it the loss he felt for friends, family, and his former life. What most surprised him, as he traveled along people-less roads, beside broken cars and broken bodies, was a most unexplainable and intangible sense.
Manny missed the smell of manure.
And, after two years of relative solitude (not counting the few periods when he made contact with other wandering souls,) he firmly decided that it was absolutely normal for him to miss that smell over all other smells. Kind of like missing the taste of chocolate ice cream, which would be a rarity in its frozen state in America these days, or a steak. He spent a lot of time thinking about what he wouldn't do for a nice New York strip steak. Medium rare. Pink on the inside, blood on the plate. Of course, this desire was often dissuaded whenever he came across a zombie mauling mosh pit scene. Then he wondered why he'd never become a vegetarian. But that didn't matter much now. Meat and vegetables were equally difficult to come by, and for all he really knew, he had scurvy. Or some other vitamin-deficient disease. Though he certainly hoped he didn't. He tried to make up for fresh greenery and fruit by eating canned pineapples and candied yams. But he was awful sick of beets.
Manny didn't have much. For a while he stopped by his home in Jersey and picked up a few personal belongings that were important to him. His acoustic guitar (which was slung over his back,) some nonperishable food items, a few sentimental photos, his daughter's Kermit the Frog muppet. All the essentials. Somewhere near the Brooklyn Bridge, the dog started following him. Manny was a dog lover, tried and true, but he didn't have the heart in him at the time to worry about another creature other than himself. But the mangy mutt was relentless, and it continued to travel behind him as he made his way into the city. So, taking a page from one of his favorite novels (and movies for that matter,) he gave the dog a name. Unfortunately, Two-Socks didn't fit as well as it had in Dances With Wolves. So the poor dog would have to put up with Manny's love of TV crime dramas. Kojak would have to do.
After a few nights spent near the harbors, Manny found himself a shopping cart, which he piled up with anything and everything useful that was lying around, and began heading towards the center of the city. Though, he'd never really been very familiar with the NYC layout. So he couldn't say exactly where he was going. But he'd heard the transmission, so he was bound to find someone. Somewhere.
Kojak barked.
"What?"
The dog looked up at him with one of those pathetic expressions that only a canine could properly pose. Manny sighed and then moved around some of the stuff in the shopping cart. Then he lifted the dog up into the cart. Kojak immediately began chewing on Kermit's head.
"Hey! Don't eat that! You're gettin' a free ride. Show some respect."
Manny snatched the muppet from Kojak's mouth and placed it up front in the child rest section of the shopping cart. Then he continued pushing it along the messy street.
"Never liked this city..."