by Logan Keys
“The guns still work.” Matt said it as a joke, but no one laughed.
What about radiation? Sierra wanted to ask but she didn’t dare.
“They aren’t close. Maybe a few blocks over,” Kai said, standing up, his gaze alert.
“Kai,” Sierra whispered.
“I know, Sparky. I know.”
He grabbed her hand, and they started warily down the street once more. She had to get her medicine. Soon.
They had only gone a few blocks, all of them skittering into the corners of the street like cockroaches when gunfire sounded. They’d had to run the last distance at breakneck speed when they heard it get too close, and Sierra was sweaty and pale when they arrived.
“Breathe. You got this.”
But Kai’s face floated above her in a haze.
Her mouth moved but no words came out.
His expression darkened, and he helped her lean on him as they trudged on. She scraped at her throat knowing it did little to help.
It was a blessing when they saw the drugstore just at the end of the next block they turned down. The buildings around it were all completely destroyed, but that one mini-mart with a pharmacy, a little mom and pop shop, had somehow miraculously made it through the end of the world.
Jennifer stopped them. “I’m going next door to see if there’s a bathroom. That one might be locked.”
“Not alone,” Matt said.
She looked through the window and then waved him away. “It’s empty. I’ll be fine.”
She went into the other building while they stepped through the shattered door of the store.
Only problem was, as they walked inside, they were met with a group of looters who were well armed.
“Put your hands up!” The man closest to them shouted.
He had on black clothing from head to toe, and a mask pulled up on top of his head so it was useless.
“You got any guns?” a small woman demanded; her pistol tight in her grip. She lifted it to point at Sierra’s face. “Huh?” she said.
Sierra shook her head, hands raised, but wavering as her knees threatened to give out.
“We just need to get some medicine for my sister,” Kai told the girl and she laughed.
Her pistol moved to aim at Kai instead. “I didn’t ask you. Where you from anyway?”
His teeth gritted, and Sierra’s stomach dropped.
“Yeah, man,” another guy nearest the counter, leapt over it and in a rain of snacks and lighters, he landed on their side before striding over, his face pulled up into a sly grin. “Where you from?”
“I’m American,” Kai said, his voice barely containing his rage.
“Hey,” Matt said stepping forward, “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Nah.” The guy lifted his gun and poked Matt’s chest until he stepped back. “Nah, bruh. You don’t want any trouble. Not with me and certainly not with her.”
The second guy just laughed, pulling his mask down, and then he filled his bag with snacks. Sierra had the strange and fleeting thought that if she were loot this place, she wouldn’t do it for Ding Dongs.
“This isn’t right,” Quinn said softly, and the sly guy’s gaze snapped to her like a hyena to a gazelle that just fumbled during its escape.
His eyes narrowed, and he grinned. “Who’s going to stop us? You?” She shook her head and he closed the gap between them so swiftly that none of them had time to react. He grabbed Quinn and drug her over to their side. She screamed, and Matt moved to intervene, but the woman placed her gun in his face.
“No heroes,” she bit out.
Quinn sobbed and shook as the man held her close and wrapped an arm around her stomach before placing his cheek to hers. “There’re no more police, no more government. Word is Washington is gone. Wiped off the map. It’s just us now,” he said.
“Let her go,” Sierra said, coughing.
“Let me think about it. No.” The guy laughed like he’d told the funniest joke he’d ever heard.
The other guy finally lifted his bag of junk food and together they all headed for the door.
A chorus of “Hey!” “Wait!” and “You can’t just…”
Followed them out the door but the guns were trained on the three of them and they helplessly watched as poor Quinn struggled to get away.
Sierra felt the ground fall out from underneath her feet. This was her fault.
Kai moved as if to follow them but before he could, Sierra grabbed her throat and took her last breath. After that, nothing was getting through.
Blackness swarmed, but Sierra felt herself stumbling through the store and tripping over items that had fallen from the shelves. She felt along, nearly blind with panic.
When she rammed into the pharmacy counter hard enough to bruise, she gaped like a fish and climbed over, to fall straight onto her head on the other side. Her medicine. She had to have it or else…
She distantly heard Kai already rummaging through, dumping glass and plastic onto the floor in a rain of fury as he searched.
He cursed and slammed his fist into the casing when he didn’t find what he was looking for before starting again.
Matt was there, too, she sensed, but he hovered around her instead, seeming to try to be there when she finally fell.
But Sierra wasn’t going down without a fight. She lifted a weak hand to the very top and she pulled. The entire shelf fell, and she dropped to her knees, hands searching, body screaming with every heartbeat Air!.
Soothing. Life giving. Air!
Her brain fogged with thoughts of death and defeat. Her fingers grew numb as she shoved the medicine beneath her around, barely registering the cuts on her legs from the shattered glass.
Her vision shrank but something caught her eye.
She lunged.
When she landed it was in the jackpot.
Albuterol, Prednisone, Zileuton…Inhalers and tablets galore!
She latched onto the Zileuton, hands shaking as she tried to bring it to her lips.
Kai was there in a flash, his fingers around her wrist, and he pressed it to her mouth. The all-important whoosh of the inhaler gusted in. She tried to breath it in but couldn’t.
She shook her head.
“Okay, try again.”
Kai pressed and nothing.
She was passing out.
Her eyes flashed to his in panic. His were narrowed with mostly determination.
“Breathe!” he roared, gripping her hard and shaking her.
“Breathe!” Pressing the inhaler down desperately, she felt her lungs suck in the medicine just barely.
She nodded and again, together, they pressed it down, and she sucked it deeper this time.
After a third time, she sighed, her head lolling back loose on her neck as the medicine began its work on her body.
Her eyes fluttered and then focused on the man with the bag of snacks standing behind Kai. His eyes locked with hers, dark and serious. “Glad you didn’t die,” he said quietly. He shakily lifted his gun to point at Kai’s back. “Swag says he wants you to come with us.”
Kai’s head spun around, and his mouth dropped open in horror.
The gun went off and Sierra screamed a scratchy strained sound that barely made noise.
Matt rushed to Kai’s side as he fell backwards.
Sierra lunged for Kai but not before the man snagged her arm. He lifted her up even as she fought to get to her brother.
She turned around, her wrath giving her energy even though she’d been sapped before. Sierra moved in close just like her brother had taught her in self-defense and she brought her knee up into his groin hard enough to make him grunt and let her go.
Sierra rushed for Kai’s side.
She touched what she realized now was his blood streaked across her cheek. “Kai!” she cried landing at his side, seeing his shoulder soaked and dripping red.
“It’s okay,” he said, his face white with pain. “I’m okay.”
The man had come over, and he
put his gun between them all, moving it from person to person.
“Please!” Sierra cried as he settled to aim at Kai once more.
“Come with me or I’ll make sure I kill him this time. Swag don’t mess around, and he said he wants you to come with us.”
“Okay,” Sierra shouted, laying over her brother’s body. She sobbed. “Don’t hurt him.”
She let the man pull her to her feet.
“No!” Kai shouted, trying to get up. “Sierra. Don’t let him take you. I don’t care what he does.”
Sierra spoke desperately. “I can’t let him kill you. I just…. can’t.”
She grabbed her medicine and pocketed what she could before letting the man lead her away.
Kai got to his feet and he followed them to the counter, but Sierra screamed at him to stop.
“Back off,” the guy yelled, and he pointed the gun at Sierra this time, and Kai froze.
He was there, leaning on Matt, holding his shoulder, bleeding all over the place.
Kai’s eyes were bleak when he said, “I’ll find you. I promise.”
4
Two Years Earlier
Griggs knew that the world was going to end. He knew that the sun was dying. He knew that the government, in its hubris, thought to fix it with nuclear weapons. Project Sol was not just top secret, it was the toppest of top secrets there ever was.
He sat down with General Wirtz in his office, but the wedge between them was made, and it was sad that he’d lost the respect he’d held so long for the old General who was his boss for the last year.
“You have to tell the people…. sir,” Griggs said, and the General steepled his fingers, tapping them against his lips, with a strange smile.
“You can’t just…”
“I can,” Wirtz said. “And I will. And so will you.”
“What do you mean?” Griggs asked.
“I’m not sure how much you know, but… close the door.”
Griggs did as he was told.
“Now,” Wirtz said when Griggs returned to his seat. “I’m going to tell you the full story, because once you know, we’ll be in the same predicament together.
Griggs held out little hope that the man could say anything to change his mind. “All right.”
“They think the sun is dying but that’s a tough thing to predict. Now, if they were to announce that the sun was dying anyway, perhaps it would destabilize the allied countries. Perhaps the ones who figure they would never use force should use it. Why not? If tomorrow we dine in hell, then today is a good day to do it, you follow? Perhaps the small thread that keeps this world from another world war, would snap. Should we spend our last days fighting for our lives?”
“But you have to let the American people prepare.”
“I’ve asked them a million times already, Griggs. They have assured me there is no bunker, no source of food, no amount of ammo, and no preparation, that is going to save Americans or anyone else for that matter. The sun will die, or so they feel certain. When that flare strikes a countdown begins. No matter where you are, you need the sunlight to go on. Each day, the sun will slowly lose its power. At a certain point, the light dies, and the earth turns into a frozen tundra of water and ice. If you have a bunker, you’d have to heat it at a rate that would sap your energy within days. Once the countdown is over, roughly a year after it begins, not one thing on earth survives aside from bacteria.”
“They can’t possibly know this.” Griggs’ mind reeled.
Wirtz nodded. “That’s correct. It’s a very educated guess. The best guesses we have.”
“So, why not let the people decide how they will deal with the end?”
“First, because we might spend our last days at war instead of anyone actually preparing. North Korea might say why not? And send nuclear missiles here, impeding our ability to make one last try to save the world. One ditch effort. One final hurrah to keep all of humanity from extinction and not by saving the whole, but instead… a portion of the population.”
“A portion?” Griggs felt sick
“Yes. A portion. And this is why they asked me. Because I’m able to deal in portions. To make those sacrifices. To see the bigger picture.”
Griggs scoffed. “You mean the greater good? Since the dawn of time dictators have used that line as a reason why they annihilate the rest.”
Wirtz sighed in disappointment. “I’m not annihilating anyone. Nature is. I’m simply trying to protect the few from the cold fact that our universe isn’t actually inhabitable for the most part, and Earth is just late to the party.”
“Explain to me how you mean to protect the few?”
“Look, Griggs. You’re a smart guy. If we tell Americans, the nuts who don’t agree with our plan would find a way to stop it. You know that it would be chaos if everyone knew they had only two years left. Many would hold tight to their family. Maybe. But even a small bit of the population would be enough to start an army of rebellion.”
“And that’s their right.”
“Is it? If it means everyone dies? Who has more rights? The few that would live or the whole? Everyone dies, or some die. You choose.”
When Griggs said nothing, Wirtz added, “And that is the choice I’ve been given and so I’m giving it to you.”
“What? Why?”
Wirtz leaned forward. “Because despite what you, no doubt, think, I am not a monster. And you are one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. And since no one would ever call me kind, you, Griggs, are going to be my conscience.” He pulled out a folder and set it on his desk.
“What is that?”
“This is the file that will end it all. You leak this to the press, and everyone knows about the project, about the sun, everything.”
Griggs stared at the file as if it was a snake about to bite him. “What….what do you mean?”
“I mean what I’m saying. I am giving you the power. I want you to know the full story first, and to not make your decision rashly, but after you go over pros and cons, I want you to decide. For all of humanity. If they should know or not.”
Griggs touched the file before pushing it back towards Wirtz. “I can’t…. I... you can’t ask me this.”
Wirtz pushed it back. “I can. I am.”
Griggs saw it in the General’s smile this time. What he did not see before. Sadness. It had been a sad and weary smile. He truly was giving Griggs the power, and the General felt guilt over that fact.
After several seconds of quiet, Griggs took the folder.
It was the longest drive of his life through the neighborhoods of Fort Riley and then when parking at his house, he felt numb, as if someone else was inside of his skin.
He unlocked his front door and sat at his dinner table with a beer staring into space with the file abandoned at his elbow. He didn’t feel like cooking. Eating.
Then he did something he always did when he was upset or unsure. He called his sister and told her everything.
5
Between Arizona and California
“What is that?”
Clive growled out his frustration and paced back and forth. “The Colorado river.”
“Why is it so huge?”
“It’s always been pretty big, but my bet is the dam burst.”
Siri nodded wisely. “The Hoover Dam. I’ve seen pictures. Must have been like WOOSH and then gurgle and now nothing but rapids for miles…” She made a sound and smashed her fists together. “Sun took that out, too, huh?”
When Clive said nothing, she asked, “So, how do we get across?”
“No idea. Maybe go north as far as we can or south. I’m not sure which is better. The bridge is somewhere under that water now. We can’t take a boat in this, it’s rapids and rocks and debris. I’m not even sure.”
They stared at the rapids that raged where the ten freeway had been before.
“I got friends just outside of Redlands. I think we should go there. They live in the orchards, what used to be the
orchards, I mean.”
“How do you know it was destroyed?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t, or maybe it was, I dunno. But the orchards were left untended for a while before all this.”
“Why there?”
She shrugged again, “Why anywhere? The city is going to be a hot mess. We can’t go back. Any other place to look for your wife?”
Clive shook his head sadly.
“Then let’s bed down. We have to sleep at some point. I dunno, eat some food. You’re exhausted. Then with clear heads we can think about how to get across. You want to go to Texas still? I mean maybe she crossed before the dam let loose.”
Clive didn’t say, ‘Or maybe they are all dead.’ He didn’t have to. It was like a dark cloud bubble of words hanging above their heads. “I do want to go still.”
“Okay, we turn around, and we try to get to my friend’s house. They grow a bunch of weed and stuff, too, I dunno if you are into…. thought not. Anyway, they have supplies. They’re a bit anti-establishment. Kind of like hippie preppers. He’s ex-military, and she’s ex-convict. A match made in hell.” She grinned.
“Hippie preppers? Is there even such a thing?”
“There is now. It’s super weird. Lila and Daniel are one in a million. I think you’ll like them, though.”
Clive tried not to think as he drove. He almost asked Siri to take over because there were minutes it was if he sort of time warped and an hour went by that he couldn’t recall. Was not knowing the fate of his family worse than knowing? Well, that depended on if they were okay.
He felt certain they were alive. Maybe that was an ignorant and tenacious hope, but he held onto it.
The river had indeed stopped his search dead in its tracks.
“Almost there,” Siri said, interrupting his misery.
“Yeah,” he said, hollowly.
They had driven around several areas of destroyed highway. One large plane crash had made a crater in the earth and Clive had gotten stuck several times trying to drive through the desert-like landscape that was closer to the Arizona border.
