After a few years of wanderin' around, I walked into this town. Rough-lookin' joint with barely a single damn road sign that doesn't say "Dead End."
 
Passin' the hospital and the police station while I was just lookin' around pretty much confirmed why. Seems people thought that this town really was a dead end.
 
The whole place looked like a movie I'm sure I'd seen. Pretty bleak and desolate but the main difference is that there aren't any cars with armor jerry-rigged to it  and all these tribal types fightin' tooth and nail over feul.
 
Plenty of vacancies in the apartment buildings. Streets are broken and about the only two bustling industries in town are the law enforcement type and thugs.
 
Walked by this place called "Lulu's" and stepped in. Whole buncha unsavory characters doing a whole lotta unsavory shit. Bikers hanging around wearing colors and it didn't look good. I didn't hang around too long. All those guys gathered up like that could only mean one thing. Someone was going to get beaten down or some shady deals were going on.
 
I didn't stay long. No good reason to. Sorta looked like all hell could be unleashed at any moment. I've been wanderin' for days lookin for signs of civilization and Lulu's didn't count. My feet started beatin' the street again. This time, I wasn't really lookin' for anything in particular. Just a place to rest for awhile. Found a nice bench that I stretched out on for awhile. Truth is, I thought I'd fall asleep on it at first but after layin' there for about thirty minutes, I knew what the score was...it only looked like a good spot to sleep.
 
I was hungry as hell and my stomach wasn't going to let me sleep for one moment. I had to find food and Lulu's didn't look like the kind of joint I could consume a meal in peace. After beating the streets a few minutes longer, I found The Jade Dragon. Looked empty as hell. Even if the food was horrid, I knew that it was the only place for miles that I could eat and be pretty much left alone.
 
When I walked in, a young, pretty lady looked at me as I sat at the counter and began looking through the menu. She smiled the first warm smile at me I'd seen since the nuns at Our Lady of Fatima church in my younger days. The ribs and egg rolls looked good. The tea was what really caught me. I was going to have the coffee but, for some reason, I just wanted the tea.
 
I decided to ask about the place. It was the one place in the entire town that didn't look like God had turned a blind eye, deaf ear and a cold shoulder to. She shared a vague description of what happened to the town. The police headquarters had been under siege by a small group and the flood....well...it's no wonder the place looked as it did.
 
A man resembling a younger version of that guy from Kung Fu, Grasshopper's Master, entered as she served up the food. I began eating and the ribs were nothing short of wonderful. He, on the other hand, had deplorable English and pronounced his "L"s as "R"s. He introduced the waitress and cook as "Rouise." Now, I had a name to go with that face. Talking with them after the meal was a pleasure. They made a regular outta me, that's for damn sure. I left after paying and bagging the remainin' egg rolls. I needed to find a place to crash for the night. Not that there was ever any sun around this place. With egg rolls in hand, I walked again. Passing Lulu's one more time, I saw the flash of police lights and a young female officer emerged, askin' questions to the patrons about a dead man on the floor of Lulu's. If my intuition had led me out of the joint, maybe I could use it. Not that I particularly cared but, if there was anything here, maybe it was worth my time to help clean things up a bit.
 
I walked to the Dead End P.D. station and filled out an application. Not a soul was in the joint. I decided to stretch out there and sleep. No tellin' when I'd get the chance to do it again.