A Work in Retrogress

He stumbled across an instant, while hiding behind a dumpster with the smell of hot trash engulfing him, where he wondered if Bone were presently running with AK-47s. He stood up keeping his head out of sight, below the brick wall surrounding the dumpster. He lifted his backpack onto his shoulder, crept to the edge of the wall and scanned the parking lot: pretty quiet. He sprinted from his hiding place across the parking lot towards a closed Starbucks. He picked up a river-rock sitting in a planter and threw it through the window. He knocked out a few standing pieces of glass from the huge window and stepped inside. An Alarm buzzed at him. He walked over to a small open-faced cooler and started grabbing muffins and water bottles. He took a bag from near the register and filled it. He removed the packaging from a poppy seed muffin and began eating it, relaxing in a small, thickly padded armchair. His legs and arms were sore and getting weak, he needed this food. The muffin was delicious, the water cool in his body, he sat in the chair his head leaning back eating and drinking, his eyes closed.
A vibration in his pocket, pulled him from the rest, he answered it.
"Yea?"
"Where are you?"
"In a starbucks in Glendale, you?"
"Beverly Hills."
"Hey, Alex?
"Yea?"
"I shot a guy."
"Who?"
"Some thug, he pulled his piece on me, what could I do? Self-defense right?"
"Yea, self-defense, don't worry. Do you need to get picked up?"
"Yea, what's downtown like?"
"Crazy apparently, should we go?"
"Definitely."
"I'll call you when I get to Glendale."
"Roger." He hung up and replaced the phone in his pocket. He pulled the bandana off his head and wiped his damp hairline with his forearm. He felt exhausted, but he wanted to shout with excitement. He stood up and put the bandana back on his head, he paced around for a second and then stepped back out through the broken window. It was warm that night, he had sweat and begun to dry and begun to sweat again, he couldn't find the right temperature. He looked out and saw the hills and watched the light from them flicker and move, it was beautiful. He sighed and smiled. He began walking towards the dumpster again, to wait in the peace of the shadows at night.

He crouched down and lit a cigarette. He heard the sound of an engine, and saw lights passing against the walls and windows of the shopping center.

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"It's not that I'm depressed, that's really not it. I'm upset. I'm more than upset, I'm furious...What is left to believe in? There's no God. Man is the devil. I want to do good, but they leave evil as my, our, only option."
"There's more to it than that. It's more complicated, more simple than that. Everyone gave it all away without knowing what it meant. A 14 year old giving her virginity to some aloof 18 year old. Like that. Now we're crazy, you and I and everyone...all insane. I want to fight, my father wants me to teach, I want to fight..."
"The sign of a young man."
"While he bears the sign of the old...seems to me that it's better to explode than to fizzle out."
"I'd agree. I want to explode, it's simple, the brave do not fear the grave."
"They don't seek it either."