Exiles

Fade In. later Mags would always describe what happened as if it had all been a  movie and in some way it had probably should have been. She  was never really sure where to start. Maybe she  should explain  how the two of them had ended up on that road in sight of the mountains, but like  some  movies, she figured they would get it sorted out eventually.

There they were on a lonely stretch of country road somewhere in Eastern California in sight of the Sierras Nevada's. All around their immediate vicinity the land was moderately flat. Her vision stretches out beyond eyesight to north, south and west. The road is made of gravel and dust. The grass is waist high along either side of the road, Which runs north to south parallelling the mountains in  the east.  An old road-sign leans to the right beside the road as Mags looks up and down the road.
The sign has the symbol for no passing on it worn exterior and Mags wonders why would anyone care if some passed  way  out here in nowhere land. Hell, there was no one  to pass out here in nowhere land.
Mags shaded  her eyes as she looked back to this guy she was with, Mars he called himself- well that was what it sounded like when he said it anyway. Mars  stood a little way off from her down the road. Right now  he was holding  this  gun thing in his right  hand- it looked more like a squirt gun from the 5& dime shop back  in Trenton than a real weapon. He's holding it on another man who stands in the grass  off  the side  of the road.
Mags looks down at the weapon in  her own hands,, she just took it way  from this other  man. This other man hand been shooting  this thing at them just  a few minutes ago. It felt heavy in her hands. She ached from the weight of it- well she ached period. She hurt all over since Mars had helped her  crawl  out from the remains  of her Mazda  which lay  about a  mile up the road on its side. She  could still see the smoke from the wreckage of her car, even at this distance and the amount  of  time it had taken from running away from it and the man. She had barely had time to notice the explosion  as they had sprinted down the road.

"Is that all you have to say?" Mars is  speaking again. 
The other man says nothing. He looks at Mags then back at Mars. He smiles in a knowing fashion as if he is  in on the joke and holds up his arms as if to say 'who cares."
Mars shoots him.
Mars shot him in the chest! the action slams into her like a axe into a tree.
She  stumbles a step back.

The man falls backward into the grass.
She watches  as the man falls,  arms spread wide to land in the grass without a sound.
She stares in horror  at Mars.