Upended by David Milner

from Dystopia: A PUNK NOIR Magazine Series

He prayed there’d be enough fuel to get them to the harbour.

A journey of thirty-five miles on chicken shit. No laughing matter. They were dead otherwise.

“We have to wait.”

“We’re leaving now.”

“What if he…?”

“Enzo isn’t coming.”

Carrying Enzo’s child and coming to labour soon, Theresa was clinging on to hope.

“People are lying about him. They don’t know the truth.”

It had come to this. People turning on each other. In the winds of chaos scrambling for home, truth, something to rely on.When there is no more to rely on. Only yourself. And an aptitude for survival.

“He’s the commander of a Death Squad, Theresa. We’re nothing to him.”

Rape was joy to the Righteous Death Squads. Anyone deemed unfit, unnecessary was a hole to poke.

On the back seat she sits, tears in her eyes, the loaded shotgun across her big belly. Saul checks the magazine of his Beretta. You aim, squeeze the trigger. Surprising how easy it is to kill.

“The boat will be there? Saul?”

Her voice tremulous and tender. Sweet Jesus let him remember this moment…

“I’ve fallen in love with you, Theresa.”

“Like we haven’t enough problems? Drive!”

This story appears as part of Dystopia, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series.

Bio

David Milner’s stories have appeared in print and online at Punk Noir, Duality Books, Spillwords Press, Impspired Magazine. His plays include, I’m Still Here, performed live on Resonance 104.4FM Radio, and Shinwell: An Extra Break For Breakfast, published by Impspired Books. He adapted and directed his story, Into the Breach, as a short film for the Rise of The Resistance Festival, screened at Bloomsbury Theatre and Wellcome Collection. Afounder member of the punk band Vee V V (Edils Records), David finds his stories when he’s out and about, or they find him. He lives in South London.

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