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Earth’s Survivors: Los Angeles

Los Angeles in the midst of the largest extinction event in
thousands of years. Billions worldwide will die. Millions will die in North
American.

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EARTH’S SURVIVORS: LOS ANGELES

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This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places or
incidents depicted are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to
actual living person’s places, situations or events is purely coincidental. No
part of this book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, print, scanner or
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EARTH’S SURVIVORS: LOS ANGELES

ONE

March 1st 12:06
am.

L.A.

Billy Jingo
& Beth

Billy knocked back
the tequila and waved off Beth as she motioned to the back bar for another. She
came over smiling.

“A man that knows
when to quit. I like that,” Beth said.

Billy laughed. “A
recently acquired habit, I assure you. Shit will bite you if you don’t set your
limits,” He smiled at her, hesitated and then spoke again. “So it’s almost over
for tonight… Thought you would be singing?” He raised his voice at the end to
make it into a question. He knew it was what she wanted. He had heard her sing,
there wasn’t an act in the place that could hang with her. She was it, except
something was not clicking between her and Jimmy, or maybe it went all the way
up the ladder to Harry. Whatever it was Billy was curious about it.

“Curiosity killed the
cat,” Beth said with a wide smile as if reading his thoughts.

“Damn,” Billy said.
“It’s as if…”

“I read your
thoughts?” She laughed. “It’s been written all over your face since you came
in. I saw you looking at the stage, back at me, back to the stage. It’s not
hard to figure it out.”

“Hey, it’s not like
I’m some wacko fan, Beth. I just think you are way too good for…”

“If you say it I’ll
smack you stupid,” Beth told him. Her eyes were slitted, narrowed and focused.
Her right hand had doubled into a fist. Billy had no doubt she meant what she
said.

“Peace,” Billy said.

“Not that it really
matters,” Beth said with a sigh. “Jimmy knows, and that means Harry knows, and
they don’t care… That is not it. I would feel for the lame ass that came in
here if I was doing a set and had anything to say about my time on the
streets… We have all been there… At least the interesting ones.”

Billy nodded. “So
what is it?”

Beth shrugged. “I
don’t know, but I’m hoping Harry will be around later on and I…”

“Hey… Baby, what
the fuck with the drink?” A big guy, belly straining at the buttons of his
shirt. He smiled, but the smile was no more than a rough semblance of a smile. Billy tried to burn him with his eyes, but
Beth reached nearly into his face and said. “So you’re done here?”

Her eyes said do not,
he did not, but he would have liked to say something to the guy. Instead, he
nodded a yes and picked up the change she had laid on the bar. She was talking
to the fat guy before he got his change in his pocket.

“See that big guy
over by the door,” she asked nicely.

Billy watched the fat
guy turn to the door and then back to Beth. “Yeah?” The guy said. There was a
sarcastic edge to his voice that made Billy slow down. He wanted to see the
outcome.

Don, the big person on
the door had that bouncer six-sense and looked over at Beth and shrugged as if
to ask if there was a problem. She rolled her eyes, and Don left the door and
headed for the bar.

“I told you no more,”
Beth told the guy.

“And I said I don’t
take no orders from no bitch,” The fat guy said. He puffed up, but a line of
sweat trickled from under his too black hair and streaked his forehead with
whatever he had sprayed on his hair to get the color. He swiped at it angrily.
And began to bluster a little more when Don’s heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

“And I missed my
workout today,” Don told him as he easily spun him around, “unless you’re it?”
Don finished.

“This is a private
matter,” The fat guy told him, but there was a quiver in his voice that Billy
heard clearly.

“Tried to grab Jill’s
breast when she went past him. Jill laughed it off, said he’d been a perfect
gentleman all the rest of the night. I said cool, a little fuck up, he’s had
too much to drink and so I cut him off.”

Gentleman was a code
word for a creep that had been hanging around getting excessively friendly with
the dancers.

“That so,” Don asked.
He had stepped back to give himself some room just in case things took a
physical turn.

The guy noted the
movement and then he set his empty glass on the bar and put his hands in front
of him, palms up. “No interest in trouble at all,” he told Don.

Don nodded at the
door. “Time to go home and sleep it off, I think,” Don told him.

Billy watched the guy
walk to the door and leave. He looked back to see Don and Beth looking at him.

“You know, this guy
is becoming a pain in the ass,” Beth told Don.

“Ha, ha,” Billy said.

“Beat it Jingo. Leave
the honey alone. It’s off limits. In other words you ain’t getting none of it.”
Billy watched the cloud come over Beth just that fast. She had been teasing,
Don probably knew that, but Don had a thing for her and he hated Billy who
sometimes did small things for Harry. He did not wait for Billy to leave, but
headed back to the door, opened it quickly and looked out into the lot.

“Probably making sure
the guy ain’t fucking up his car,” Billy said under his breath.

“Sorry, Billy. I keep
forgetting Don isn’t human,” Beth told him. That made Billy laugh.

“Anyway, I’ll see you
around. I’ll be late tonight.”

Billy nodded. “Good
luck, Beth.” He turned and walked to the door at the other end of the club. The
one that let out onto the front sidewalk.

The night was
beautiful, Billy thought as he walked along. He knew pretty much everyone he
passed. He had been here for a little over six months having made his way up
from Mexico when things had gone bad for him there. Technically, he was on the
run. Warrants out of New York. Somebody had derived a conclusion and dug up
some prints from a crime Billy had been involved with. He had only found out
about it because he had happened to be away from the house when the Feds showed
up. His neighborhood had no municipal police, but even if it had, they would
not have come with shotguns and armor.

He had hid out for
three days until the word had trickled down to him that it was him they were
looking for to hand over to some federal agents from the U.S. It had not taken
much to derive a conclusion. He had managed to get a beat up old Ford pickup
truck and then filled-fifty five gallon drums full of gasoline that rode on the
back of it. He set off into the desert.

The rest had been
easier. Despite the laws and the changes in the U.S. It was easy to disappear
here. He had come with a little money, and that had helped. He had worked a
series of meaningless jobs as he worked his way up the west coast. LA had
looked good and so it had held him. That and Beth had come along.

Beth was out of reach
and he knew it, but that did not stop the fact that he wanted her to be in
reach. He had never met a woman like her. So he had stayed. He had watched her
arrival from God knew where, some other place in California or Washington
probably. He had watched her struggle to survive on the streets: Watched her
work those same streets, doing her act in any place she could get into by day,
walking the streets by night, and it was then he had seen something else in
her. Something hard, some will he himself had that was hard to define, but that
hardness in her pulled him to her like a magnet. It was that simple.

He had been working
for Harry by then and so he had mentioned Beth to him. He did not know how the
details had worked out, but a few weeks later when he had noticed she had
disappeared from the avenue, he had found her tending bar at Harry’s Palace.

Now, as he walked he
became immune to the world around him. He never heard Don until he was on him,
had spun him around and dragged him into an alley.

“Hey… Hey! Don…
What the fuck, Don… Hey!” But it did no good. The first punch nearly shut him
down. The second did. The rest he never knew about.

L.A.: 2:00 am.

Beth

The night wore on.
Midnight came and went and the club shut down for another day. Beth worked at
cleaning up the last little area of the bar as two of the dancers finished
their drinks and hushed conversations, smiled at her and walked away. A short
conversation with Don, probably some crude remark, Beth has seen how both of
them had instantly stiffened their backs after he spoke. It was not just her,
Don was an actual creep. Whatever he had said the two girls chose to ignore it,
turning away, making eye contact with Beth, waving as if they had been at the
bar talking to her, and when Don looked back to see who they had been waving at
they slipped out the door. Don made his way over to the bar.

“You scared my honeys
away,” he told her.

“I think you can do
that all on your own,” Beth told him.

“What’s that supposed
to mean?” Don asked.

Beth frowned and
shook her head. Sometimes she wondered if Don even knew what a creep he was.
How he made the girls who worked here, her included, feel. “It means that not
everyone is always on the same page,” Beth said. She had changed her mind at
the last second. She had to work here. Don was the nephew of the owner. Creep
or not he was part of the package.

Don looked confused.

“Donny, it means that
sometimes you just have to let things happen. Go slow. A girl wants to think it
was her own idea to like you,” she told him.

“Yeah… I can see
that, but when you need it, you need it. Some of these bitches need to be on
point.” One finger disappeared into his nose and then he seemed to suddenly
remember she was there. “You know, me and you need to hook up. I got …” One
massive hand settled onto his shoulder and he stopped in mid sentence.

“Disappear, Donny. I
need to talk to Beth right now,” Jimmy told him as he sat down at one of the
stools.

“We was just talking,
Uncle Jimmy.”

“Right. Now you are
done talking… Unless you are not? Am I interrupting you?”

Don turned beet red.
He laughed to hide the embarrassment. “No… No,” he turned and walked away.

Jimmy turned to Beth.
“I guess you’ll have to get used to the kid. He is a pain in the ass, but he is
my pain in the ass… Load to bear,” He turned and watched Don step out the
door to the parking lot. “Donny,” Jimmy yelled. Don poked his head back in the
door and looked at his uncle. “Take a good look around out there; make sure the
lot’s empty and the girls all got to their cars okay.”

“Okay, Uncle Jimmy,”
Don called back. The dopey smile that he usually wore settled back on his face
as he stepped out into the darkness. Jimmy turned back to Beth.

“Billy Jingo,” he
said.

Beth looked at him.

“I think that kid is
bad news for you… Not telling you how you should live your life, just
distributing advice… A girl like you, a singer, don’t need a distraction like
that. The customers do not want to see no boyfriend hanging around. Spoils the
fantasy that you’re singing just to them.” He held her stare.

“It’s not like that,
Jimmy. Billy is a friend only… Lives in the same building.” She had caught
the fact that he had said she was a singer. Something she was not yet,
unless…

“Uh huh, but he wants
you. The kid is like a lovesick puppy. If you could step back and look at it,
you would see it clearly. Are you telling me you are smart enough to handle
Donny and you can’t see this Jingo kid has it bad for you?”

Beth shrugged. “No…
I know… I know that… Nevertheless, he knows it is not going to happen. He
knows what the deal is.”

“Good… That is all I
am saying… However, you need to tell him to stay away… Can’t be hanging
around while you are working… See?”

Beth nodded. “I see.”

“Good, cause next
week you start as my lead act. I know you…” He stopped as Beth lunged across
the bar and hugged him, squealing as she did. He hugged her back, laughing.

She kissed his cheek
and then her smile went away a little as one of his hands cupped the side of
her breast. Her eyes focused on his own. “I think we’ll become good friends,
baby,” he told her. She nodded as his hand roamed a little further and then
trailed away across the flat plains of her stomach. She pulled back. Jimmy wore
a crooked smile on his face. “So we understand each other?”

“Yeah,” Beth told
him.

“So smile then. Let’s
have a drink… On me… Pour us something good, baby,” Jimmy told her.

3:00 am

Beth stepped out into
the darkness of the parking lot. She had spent over a month trying to convince
Jimmy to let her sing. The Palace had huge crowds every night. Everyone knew
that scouts were constantly cruising the crowd looking for talent. More than
one act had been discovered at the Palace. Harry knew that and played on the
reputation. Singing here could lead to the big break she was looking for. She
had gotten her wish tonight, and more than she had bargained for, a
relationship with Jimmy. She was not sure how that was going to be defined in
public, but in private, it was going to be defined as a sexual relationship. He
had just defined it for her, she would have to wait to see what the public
definition was going to be, but she had a good idea how it was going to be.

Nan, the dancer Jimmy
was currently seeing, was going to be upset. Jimmy was not subtle. It had been
clear that they had been seeing less and less of each other. She had no doubt
that her first night he was going to make it clear she was his. Like a dog
marking his territory. She sighed. Off the street, but still being fucked for
money. She hated putting it that starkly in her head, but that was the plain
truth. She was still selling it, just different terms, better money, and better
protection. She heard footsteps running behind her and her breath caught in her
throat. She turned as the club door that exited to the parking lot banged shut.

“Beth,” Don yelled. “Beth.”

She stopped and
waited.

“Uncle Jimmy said I
should drive you home… He don’t want you walking.”

She sighed. She had
half expected it. Don ran the twenty feet from the door to where she was. She
changed direction and walked slowly toward Don’s car. Well, she thought, at
least there would be no more bullshit from Don.

Twenty feet away the
prostitutes were just beginning to show up in force, waiting for the early
morning traffic.

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