Daily Flashfic #1: Just back to town

Original URL: http://www.livejournal.com/users/gisho/60309.html

When it was all over, I sat down beside the wreckage to have a joint. The buzz came on slowly, and the sky was a pecuiliar gradient from yellow to blue when I finished, outlining the trees in black. When the policeman arrived I had lost track of time entirely.

He was a handsome fellow, in his way, tall and dark. I offered him the joint, but he declined, and pulled out his notebook. 'Sir, were you a witness to the incident?' Well, I was wearing a dark shirt; he probably hadn't seen the blood.

'I was,' I told him. 'He was going so fast when he passed Signal Rock - ' it was directly to the west, so it stood out - 'and then he started swerving, like he was trying to outrun something. But it was just the one. I went over, but I couldn't get the doors open, and I didn't see anything.'

'It was unmanned,' he informed me solemnly. 'Probably some sort of malfunction.'

'Yeah,' I said, and stubbed the joint out on the afterburner casing. 'Look, can you give me a ride back into town? I'm kinda shook up. Don't want to keep walking in this weather, anyway.'

'Certianly, sir,' he said. Good man. I stood up and brushed my knees off, then made the jump. He gasped as I settled in, but only a little, and it took me just a few seconds to accomodate him. He had an artifical bone in his left leg, and it felt very pecuiliar, so much I almost didn't notice the height difference. I picked up the joint and took a last drag, then closed the eyes of the corpse.

Just back to town, I promised myself. I'd have to report the hiker's death before I left, but there was no hurry.