Graffiti

~o~

"No Ellis," Nick said with a small distained look on his face, watching the younger hick wave the large blue sharpie in his face.

"Aw, c'mon, Nick! I bet'cha it'd be a whole lotta fun, look, I wrote tuh meh budeh, Keith." Ellis spoke, clearly excited and happy, wanting to have Nick join him in the fun activity. "Look!"

"Keith, it's me, Ellis. I don't know if you'll ever read this, but I'm safe, I'm traveling to New Orleans with 3 other people, they're great! Anyway, I hope to see you at the evac!

-Ellis"

In between and around Ellis's message were things like "CEDA LIES" "It only takes a day to turn." "No, I seen it in an hour" "Ten minutes". Propaganda of all sorts and messages to loved ones. "Stacy, we had to move on, if you read this, go to Jacksonville, we'll be at the evac" Someone had written "Jacksonville is dead" under it. Nick had never really spent time to read some of the things written on the walls, not interested in finding notes or propaganda.

"Hm," Nick hummed, after reading both Ellis's message and some of the other ones. Ellis blinked and quirked his head, making a small questioning noise in the back of his throat, the kind that usually made people explain what they just said. He then smiled and gave the sharpie another wiggle.

"Change yer mind?" Ellis asked the older man, hoping that was the case.

"No, overalls, your writing. It's not dumbed down by your hick accent. It's mildly surprising." Nick explained before Ellis wiggled the marker again, the gambler glaring heavily at Ellis before snatching the damn thing away from him. "Fine! God, I'll write something." He said before turning to the wall and uncapping the marker.

"There are no evacuations left. Time to bunker down and tough this shit out." He wrote, obviously lying about the evacuation part but hey, he was self preserving and if other people got to the evac first than their chance of being saved was diminished.

"Wha? Nick, tha evac we're goin' tuh is open!" Nick rolled his eyes and tossed the marker back at the mechanic.

"Survival of the fittest, kid."

~o~