Earth's Survivors: Alabama Island

A black truck pulled into the rest stop and two men climbed out; walking toward the rest rooms that sat in from the road. Concrete bunker looking buildings that had been built back in the early seventies. They had been closed for several years now. In fact the Open soon sign was bolted to the front of the building; rust streaked the sign surface. It seemed like some sort of joke to Mike Bliss who used the rest stop as a place to do light duty drug deals. Nothing big, but still that depended on your idea of big. Certainly nothing over a few thousand dollars. That was his break off point. Any higher than that, he often joked, you would have to talk to someone in Columbia... Or maybe Mexico, he told himself now as he sat waiting in his Lexus, but it seemed that since Rich Dean had got himself dead the deals just seemed to be getting larger and larger. And who knew how much longer that might last. He watched the two men make a bee line for the old rest rooms.

"Idiots," he muttered to himself. He pushed the button, waited for the window to come down, leaned out the window and yelled. "What are you, stupid? They're closed." He motioned with one hand. "You can't read the f****n' sign or what?"

Both men stopped and looked from him to the sign.

"Yeah, closed. You can read right? Closed. That's what it says. Been closed for years. Go on into Watertown; buy a f****n' burger or something. Only way you're getting a bathroom at this time of the morning." He had lowered his voice for the last as he pulled his head back into the car, and turned the heater up a notch. The electric motor whined as the window climbed in its track. He looked down at his wrist for the time, 1:02 A.M., where the fuck was this dude. He was late, granted a few minutes, but late was late.

A sharp rap on the glass startled him. He had been about to dig out his own supply, a little pick-me-up. He looked up to see the guys from the truck standing outside his window. "Oh... Fucking lovely," he muttered. He pushed the button and the window lowered into the door, the motor whining loudly, the cold air blew in.

"And what can I do for you two gentlemen," He asked in his best smart ass voice.

The one in back stepped forward into the light. Military type, Mike told himself. Older, maybe a noncom. A little gray at the edges of his buzz cut. With the military base so close there were soldiers everywhere, after all Watertown was a military town. It was why he was in the business he was in. It was also why he succeeded at it.

"Did you call me stupid," The man asked in a polite tone.

"Who, me? No. I didn't call you stupid, I asked, what are you stupid? Different thing. The fuckin' place is closed... Just doing my good deed for the day... Helping you, really, so you don't waste no time," Mike told him.

"Really?" The man asked...