Out of the Metal Cage

       She got out of the car.  She really did it.  Left him.  It’s over, she thought.  It’s really over.

       At first she ran, down Eisenhower Street toward Market Avenue with her purse flowing out beside her clamped with one hand to her shoulder.  She looked to the road.  He wasn’t following her.  She decided to walk.
       It’s for the best.  From her wallet she pulled two 20’s and a 5, with her gift card for Chili’s.  Phone.
       Thank the Lord, still 20% battery.  “Uncle Jim,” she said.  “I’m in Carlsville, at the intersection of Eisenhower and Market.  Could you come pick me up?”
       “Well sure,” he replied in his soft-but-gritty vocal fry.  She hung up.
       The headline on the Carlsville Monitor declared “The War On Mars Is Over!”  She crinkled her bow, looking at it through the glass.  After a few lines, it was clear that the headline was just the usual media bait.  The war between the U.S.A. and China was still very much blazing on the Red Planet.
       What an age it is, she thought.  The wars on Earth had virtually ceased after the obliteration of the American East Coast and various parts of the other world superpowers.  Yet despite the peace on our home soil, humanity decided it could not survive without the taste of blood in its mouth.
       Isn’t that what I’ve been doing all along?  Giving up on Stephen just to go and date a bunch of low-lifes?  But I never needed any of them, did I?