"We're gonna go pick up a friend of mine." she said as she took an exit and pulled into a part of town that made my car look horribly out of place. She sped down the street like a bat out of hell and pulled up to the curb rather fast. In a few graceful movements she was out of the car and halfway to the stoop. I realized what had happened and followed quickly. A bit too quickly, actually, and I got choked by the safety belt. She laughed and after I had disentangled myself I slammed the door and met her on the stoop. The sound echoed throughout the neighborhood, and it rang with such a clean sound that I was sure the whole place knew a beautiful car was being left alone on that dark street. I took one last look at it hoping I'd get another and turned my attention to the door set into the dark building.

Every window had bars but some were crooked and hanging on by a few screws or less. It was eerily quiet, like the whole place was holding it breath and everyone was watching Faith and I. Me and her were, after all, the only splashes of color in the whole drab place.

The door opened swiftly and there stood a kid about my age give or take a year. His head was clean shaven and he had a mustache that attached to his goatee in that trendy way people wear them. A gold hoop hung from each lobe and he had coke bottle glasses perched on his nose.

His face lit up at the sight of Faith and they hugged tightly before they peeled away from each other and he offered his hand to me.

"Oh, my bad. Virgil, this is Robby. Robby, Virgil." What a perfect name for this man, I thought to myself as I shook his hand with a smile. He seemed interesting. That was my first impression of him and he didn't disappoint.

"So, where you from, my man?" he asked with a smooth voice.

"California." My voice didn't seem as nice as his, but I didn't allow myself to grow self conscious.

"Wow, how's it out there?"

"Ah, nice. Cold."

"Cold?"

"Well, compared to here." he laughed and nodded in agreement. With his hands he ushered me and Faith into the building. We walked up a flight of steps and followed him through a half open door that soft music flowed from.

A comfortable looking couch was calling my name, but I was gonna wait till he offered me a seat until Faith plopped down onto the slightly beat up leather recliner across from the TV. I took a seat and glanced around the room. The whole place was cluttered to the point of being homely, and I immediately felt comfortable. The music was nice and when I asked about it, he said it was some band named Modest Mouse. I liked them.

"So, where we off to?" Virgil asked as he took a seat on the arm of the couch. Faith shrugged and directed her gaze towards me.

"Oh, there's a party... somewhere." I said with a laugh realizing how stupid that sounded. I pulled out the cell and dialed Angeline's phone while Faith and Virgil dissented into their own conversation.

"Hello?"

"Hey. What're you guys doin'?"

"Nothin'. Where you at?"

"This guy Virgil's house. You guys haven't left for the party yet?"

"Actually we were just gonna get going. You haven't?"

"I don' know where it is."

"Ah." She said. She then launched into some directions that lost me halfway through, and then Nick took the phone. His directions were a bit better, but I had to give the phone to Faith seeing as I had no sense of direction. She would dictate to Virgil who then scribbled shorthand on a notepad he produced out of nowhere. In about ten minutes we were done with a job that should have taken two.

"Thank you guys. We'll meet you there, then." I said after I took the phone back from Faith.

"Who's drivin' you?"

"Me."

"In what car?"

"Oh, some guy gave me a nice Mustang." The other line was silent. "I was gonna steal it, but he came and gave me the keys. Nice guy, actually."

Angeline laughed, said she'd see me later and hung up. I ended the call and put it in my pocket as I asked Faith for the keys and she tossed 'em to me casually.

"Wait, you let her drive?" asked Virgil incredulously. I nodded and he laughed. "You do know she's gotten two DWI's, one ticket for driving without a license, and she has a speeding ticket, too, right?"

I looked at her and she seemed to be interested in a painting hanging on the wall.

"It's two speeding tickets actually." she said. After a moment, I smiled and then laughed.

"You are a horrible driver." I said. I got up and stretched a bit and the other two followed my lead. We all left his apartment and it occurred to me that he looked a bit young to own his own apartment. It did look like he lived with other people since the apartment was full of contrasting tastes, but I didn't ask about it. No need to draw attention to unpleasant things.

We got to the car that was miraculously still there and I opened the door for Faith and pushed the seat forward for Virgil. After we were all settled in and the radio was playing again, I pulled out and sped out of there quickly for fear that the car thieves who were jus' waiting for the perfect opportunity could run fast as well.

A few red lights threatened me, but I took them to no consequence. I looked over at Faith and she seemed relaxed. Her feet were up on the dash and she turned her head every now and then to talk to Virgil.

"So, what was that?" I said as I caught a little bit of the conversation.

"I said I like butter." he answered. I laughed and waited for him to elaborate. He didn't, so I prodded it.

"That came out of nowhere."

"Well, I was just thinking I could really go for some toast, and I realized I love butter. Especially butter with jelly."

"And nothing spurred this?"

"Nope."

"So, you jus' said it out of nowhere?"

"I don' t believe in waiting for it to come up in conversation. I think you should say it just as it springs into mind. While its still fresh. No need for it to go stale before it leaves your tongue."

"I'll take your word on it." I said with a smile as I got on the highway. The car glided over the asphalt as I avoided abandoned cars and weaved through a few wrecks. The night was nice and the music soft over the stereo's speakers. Faith and Virgil were quiet and left me to my thinking.

"When do I get off?" I asked as I dodged a Suburban.

"Keep going. I'll tell you when to exit." said Faith. The car receded into silence once more and I tried to look for cars abandoned on the highway nicer than mine. I found a Benz and a Crossfire, but they were crashed into one another.

After a few minutes like this, Virgil brought up the topic of vacation spots. Faith joined in with a story about her excursion to Minnesota and Virgil countered with his story of Tahiti. I lied and said I had gone to Canada.

And that's how the rest of the trip went, Faith and Virgil making small talk while I drove on through the desolate highway. We saw a convoy of cars drive on the opposite side of the median and we just waved at them as they passed. They stared at us gravely.

Eventually we reached the exit, which I missed and had to double back to turn around and find my way through the silent streets.

Civilization started to thin out and I found us on a desert trail surrounded on either side by sagebrush and more dirt. The headlights made only the next hundred feet visible in the glare and the rest was bathed in moon and starlight. The whole scene looked silver. Serene.

My headlights looked harsh in the beautiful night and for a few brief moments, I considered turning them off to not disturb the nature. A coyote running across the road a hundred feet ahead changed my mind seeing as I barely had time to stop and avoid hitting it.

"I think you're lost, man." said Virgil from the back. I looked at him through the rear view mirror and then back at the road.

"I am not lost. They said to take this dirt road after the barbed wire fence ended."

"Then where is it?"

"I don' know." I said honestly. A few more minutes and then a faint glow behind some hills. The road became steeper and turned a bit to the right, so I took it and pressed the pedal a bit harder. We went over the crest and I almost laughed out loud.

Before us was a huge bonfire with other smaller ones scattered here and there. The magnitude of the party rivaled that of the downtown bash, but even if it didn't have as many people, it made up for it in caliber. A band played off to my left a ways and a DJ was about 300 yards ahead of me. A ring of cars contained and cast their headlights on the crowd so I parked mine outside of the inner ring and left the lights on.

"Looks like a good party." observed Faith. I nodded and smiled as I opened the door and let the dry air rush in. We didn't get out for awhile as we sat there and absorbed what we were watching. The people around the turntables crowded and pulsed like the streets in downtown but with more of a purpose. They surged inward and rippled like a pool of multicolored water. The rhythmic motions were almost hypnotic and the music was jagged and fast. The beats made my blood jump in accordance to the music and I sat there to enjoy it.

I couldn't hear the band from where we had parked, but judging from the crowd's participation, it was some good music. And in the center of all the festivities was a huge bonfire. I couldn't believe the size of it. It seemed they had dug out a crater and filled it with wood and gasoline. It blazed gloriously and a pillar of smoke rose in a thick black column into the sky. Beyond that, there seemed to be some more entertainment, but I couldn't really make it out. I think it was another stage with another band and it looked like some jumping balloons farther off.

I called Angeline's cell and Nick answered after two rings.

"What's up?" He asked as I heard some giggling in the background and voices I couldn't distinguish.

"Jus' calling to see where you guys are."

"We're by the band."

"Which stage?"

"Um... the one closer to the DJ."

"Gotcha. Find you soon."

"See you then." He clicked off and I tucked the phone into my pocket. Without a word, Faith and I got out of the car and Faith put the seat forward for Virgil. I sat on the hood for a bit just looking around at the crowds that danced and relaxed here and there. Virgil joined me on the hood and Faith leaned against it. "What did you wish you had done before it all ended?"

"That's a loaded question, my man." said Virgil. I had to wait a moment for his reply, but he sighed and went on. " I wish I had found that true love everyone talks about. That significant other."

"You know that's a myth made up by the communists to crush our morale." said Faith as she got up on the hood. I chuckled and Virgil smiled.

"Nah, its not. It exists. And I didn't find it." He didn't seem crushed or even sad really, just matter of fact. Just another fact in his life. He treated it like it was a choice, and now he was wondering what could have been if he had acted differently. "How 'bout you Faith?"

"I wish, that through all of this, I would have never lost my innocence."

"The end of the world?" I asked understandingly.

"No, life. I see it now. Its all a big trial to see how much you can take before you lose your innocence, and it got me."

"I think its a test to see how much you can take. You know, before you break." said Virgil as he stared off into the fire. "I think I failed."

"I for one think its just a gigantic school where you can learn or ditch as much as you like." I said. "I just hope I learned what I could."

"What do you wish you could've done, Rob?" asked Faith after a moment of letting that sink in. A few kids tossed a football around in the glow of the night and one kid got tackled into the sand. They rolled around for a bit and raucous laughter met my ears.

"Honestly?"

"Yeah, honestly." I looked at her and smiled as I thought about it.

"I would've learned how to dance." She nodded and grinned and Virgil just chuckled.

"That's your regret?"

"Oh no, no regrets." I answered. He cocked his head to listen. "I wouldn't change anything I've ever done, but if I had a tomorrow or a next week, I'd want to learn how to dance."

"But you regret not getting the chance?" he asked.

"Not particularly." I answered as I got off of the hood. "I'm happy with everything."

"Everything?" asked Virgil.

"Everything."

"Is that why you're so calm about all this?" Faith asked as she turned her attention from the football players to me. I thought about it and nodded.

"Yeah." A beat. "Why are you so calm?"

"Because I found out the world's not so bad."

"How so?" said Virgil as he watched some girls walk by.

"Because I found out people care about me." she said as she looked at me and smiled. I smiled and realized that no one else knew about that. It was our little secret. I smiled wider and nodded slowly as she turned away to stare at the bonfire. "It makes things worth it."

"I care about you." pleaded Virgil confused. Me and Faith glanced each other and chuckled before looking back at the bonfire. "I do."

"I know, Virgil." she answered with a distant grin on her face. What he didn't understand is the most intimate act is to spend someone's death with them. To talk them out of it is just as high on the list. "I know."

A few moments where we were all lost in our thoughts, and then Virgil jumped off of the hood. Me and Faith stared at him for a bit and he smiled.

"I'm gonna get going. I know Henry and Virginia are here, so I'm gonna go look for them." Faith smiled and waved at him and he gave a little bow and began to walk off. A moment passed and Faith jumped off the car and ran towards him. She tackled him and they rolled around in the dirt for a bit, laughing and kicking dirt everywhere.

Finally she had pinned him down on the ground and she kissed him on the cheek and hugged him tightly. He smiled as he looked up at her when she loosened her grip on him, and after a moment she stood and helped him up. He waved at me and then walked off in the flickering, orange light as Faith walked towards me.

"C'mon. You wanted to find your friends, right?" I nodded and stood up. With one last look at Heaven, Faith took my hand and we started to walk off in the firelight.