In the Aftermath: Burning of the Dawn

by Coleman Thompson

  The day was still young and Serena wasn’t ready to rest yet. If she slowed down she would fall asleep, and she didn’t want to do that with daylight still left. It was decided that they would leave a few items behind, mostly Mary’s stuff, and head back into the towns just south of Lake Tahoe. Mary, too, was tired, but she was not going to let Serena wander off with Anthony alone. Tahoe was safe enough during the daylight hours, but mother and son could still get lost.

  It was quickly established that Serena was not one for getting lost. She easily navigated her car back to South Lake Tahoe without any assistance from Mary. Once there, Mary gave her the option of guns or grub. Serena chose sustenance over self-defense, so Mary guided her to one of the grocery stores in the area. She pointed the way to a supermarket in a shopping center near the state-line. From the supermarket parking lot, Anthony spotted a gondola lift-track which led up into nearby Heavenly Mountain. Once a destination for skiers and sightseers, it now stood ominously dormant in the distance. The gondola lift had been long out of commission. The cable cars had taken some minor damage due mostly to the Sayona’s rambunctious ideas of amusement, but the beasts had not caused any significant damage. They actually enjoyed the odd apparatus. Anthony had no desires to visit the lift or ride in any of its cable cars even if it was still in working order. Those things were too precarious for his liking.

  The once automated doors leading into the supermarket stood ajar as Mary led the way inside. It was dark; the light from the sun only reached in a short distance through the frontend, leaving most of the store shrouded in shadows. Debris crackled beneath Serena’s feet as she followed Mary past the registers and into the darkness. With the click of a switch, Mary illuminated the mess around her with her small flashlight. Serena and Anthony did the same with their own flashlights.

  “This place looks like it was raided by somebody.” Serena commented as she gazed upon her gloomy surroundings. The place was a mess. Most everything nearby had been torn from the shelves and appeared as if it had been devoured on the spot as packaging and other remnants of consumables lay scattered upon the floor.

  “Something, not somebody.” Mary corrected. “Don’t worry, they didn’t take everything.”

  “Is it safe in here?” Anthony asked. The store was very dark, but was it dark enough for the Sayona? How much darkness did they need? To his own bemusement, Anthony actually felt more comfortable inside the gloomy grocery store than he did in the outside world. There was a quiet calm to the dimness, and he could somehow tell that they were alone in this desolate place.

  “Yep, just watch your step.” Mary answered as she began patrolling the aisles. “There could be animals in here, maybe, but nothin’ else, probably.”

  That was good enough for Anthony. He went his separate way as his mother and Mary continued on together. Serena watched Anthony go off on his own route. She was apprehensive about letting him leave, but Serena said nothing. She trusted Mary’s word, and she trusted her own instincts even more. Like her son, she had no ill-feelings regarding the forsaken supermarket. Mary had made her way through the mess and shined her flashlight down one of the aisles. Serena trudged forward to see what Mary had found.

  “They don’t care for canned goods for some reason.” Mary spoke. Some cans had been broken and others were lying on the ground, but many more remained intact and still sat upon their respective shelves.

  “Why’s that you think?” Serena didn’t much care actually; she was just glad to see that the Sayona had not taken everything.

  “I don’t know,” Mary answered as she kicked around a few of the cans at her feet. “Who’d’ve of thought a monster that sucks down tree bark and dines on human guts would be too finicky to eat canned food?”

  “Got me.” Serena walked ahead of Mary and began examining what was left on the shelves. She had a burlap potato sack with her that had long been empty of any potatoes; though it occasionally held clothing or other utilities. Now its purpose was to plunder the supermarket for whatever it could carry.

  “Why the west coast?” Mary asked as she danced the light of her flashlight upon the ceiling. “Why were you so eager to get there?”

  Serena looked away from the shelves for a moment and over to Mary, who was playing with her flashlight like a bored child. “Instincts I guess,” Serena answered as she watched Mary. “I just wanted to take my son to someplace safe. Maybe that was dumb on my part – thinking a place like that exists.”

  “Nah,” Mary scoffed as she pointed her light towards Serena. “An allusion to an illusion of a delusion… I get it. Been there myself.”

  “I wouldn’t say I was delusional,” though Serena was fairly certain that Mary might be to an extent. “Just scared, and I had nowhere to go, so I took what I thought was the safest route.”

  “Nothin’ wrong with havin’ delusions from time to time,” Mary turned the light away from Serena and pointed it to herself. “Real life tends to suck, a lot. Fantasies rarely disappoint.”

  “Fantasies are the most dangerous delusions. I have a son; I can’t afford to daydream.” A pang of remorse struck Serena. She remembered the struggles of life before the world she had once known faded into the nightmare that it was now. She use to embrace life’s challenges: doing all that she could to better herself, her son, and all her friends. When she failed, she learned from it and grew stronger because it. It did not work that way anymore; a person was rarely given a second chance. Failure usually meant death. “Neither can you, Mary. I need your help.” Serena feared failure, but she could clearly see that Mary did not. The idea of failure simply did not seem to enter the young woman’s erratic yet unperturbed mind. Mary’s equanimity was invaluable to Serena, as she had little of her own to rely upon. “I’ve proven I can’t protect Anthony on my own. Please, be his big sister, for real.”

  “You’re too hard on yourself, woman.” Mary looked funny with the flashlight casting odd shadows across her face; this was not done by accident. “I’d delightedly give my life to protect our boy – not that he needs it. Young he might be, but he’s also clever and very brave. We don’t need to deny him that.”

  Anthony was searching the checkout lanes looking through drawers and cabinets to see what he could find. His mother would take care of the food and if she needed any assistance Mary would be close by. What Anthony wanted was something less practical; something more interesting. He soon found it in a small, handheld, electronic tablet tucked away beneath an old register at the end of the checkout lanes. To his happy amazement the device still worked. He placed it upon the register counter and powered it on. A small laser from the bottom of the tablet produced a red grid upon the countertop which instantly transformed into a keyboard of crimson light. The laser keyboard was fully functional, but the tablet itself was less accommodating. It failed to respond without some form of a network signal. The battery was low anyway, so Anthony switched off the device and placed it into his pocket for now. He was currently drawing a blank on how to recharge the thing. Wireless electrical hubs were commonplace in public places, but none of them were operational. The device could also be charged via sunlight if necessary, but that could take many hours with the battery so low, if it worked at all. The light of a flashlight was pirouetting around the ceiling of the supermarket. Anthony was confident that it was Mary’s. He could hear her and his mother speaking, but could make out little of what they were actually saying, until he heard his mother mention his name. Anthony went to them. There was something else close by that he was interested in and he wanted consent to investigate it further.

  Mary turned away from Serena and pointed her flashlight towards Anthony as he made his way to their location. “What’s happenin’, bro?” Mary asked as he came into view.

  “Not much,” Anthony answered. “I saw a sporting goods store next-door, can I go check it out?” Mary turned back around and pointed her flashlight to Serena.

  No; not yet; wait until we’re done here: all of these answers came t
o Serena, yet she said none of them. She wasn’t even sure if it was from her that her son was seeking permission. Mary was avoiding the question, so the answer was rightly left to Serena. The notion of her son going off on his own was something Serena just could not and would not allow, not yet, no matter how brave and clever he might be.

  “If Mary doesn’t mind going with you.” Serena answered. She would’ve preferred that they all stay together, but Mary and her son were clearly less interested in collecting food than she was. Although she didn’t completely understand their lack of interest, she did accept it. “I don’t want us to get separated.”

  “Mary would be delighted!” Answered Mary.

  “What about you?” Anthony asked his mother. “You’ll be alone.”

  “She’ll have this!” Mary procured the revolver from the back of her shorts and handed it over to Serena. “Just fire a shot off if you need us. We’ll be close.”

  “Now you don’t have a weapon.” Serena spoke to Mary as she accepted the handgun. Serena still didn’t like the feel of it. She preferred the rifle, but they had left it back at the house above Emerald Bay.

  “She is the weapon…” Anthony mumbled. Mary and his mother both heard him.

  “Amen to that!” Mary laughed as she left Serena and joined Anthony. “Besides, we’re goin’ to a sporting goods shop. There’ll be plenty of things there for me to bludgeon a bitch with if I need to.”

  “Just stay safe.” Serena responded. Mary gave her a salute and then marched away with Anthony behind her. Her son gave her a wave and then vanished down the dark aisles. As soon as Serena was left alone she went back to collecting canned goods. The revolver made it awkward. She didn’t want to put it into any of her pockets, but she didn’t want to set it down either. Ultimately, she opted to put it into one of her large sweater pockets and kept one of her hands near it at all times for fear of dropping it somehow. Serena really wished Mary had kept the gun.

  Reentering the light of day triggered another yawn from Mary. Despite her knack and fondness for hunting and killing people and for occasionally starting small proxy wars, Mary never was one for losing out on naptime. She enjoyed it immensely and was not fond of going long intervals without her beauty sleep.

  “So, is that a computer in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me in the sunlight again?” Mary asked Anthony as he joined her outside the supermarket.

  “Both.” Anthony replied. “I found it underneath one of the checkout stations.”

  “Did you now? Does it still work?”

  “Yeah, but its battery’s almost dead.”

  “Batteries can be resurrected, but the Internet cannot.”

  “I can get around the network stuff,” Anthony spoke as he and Mary headed towards the sporting goods store. “But it’d be dead before I could do much, unless we can recharge it somehow.”

  “I can charge it, if you can break it.” Mary confidently declared.

  “How?” Anthony asked as he peered into the sporting goods shop. Like the supermarket, it was completely dark – void of any electrical outputs, or inputs.

  Mary did not reply to Anthony with any words; she merely smiled and pointed to his mother’s car sitting all alone in the big parking lot. She then skipped her way into the sporting goods store.

  “Duh…” Anthony chastised himself as he followed Mary inside. He had been too long gone from technology. All Mary would need to recharge the tablet was a simple car-charger, and there had to be one in Tahoe somewhere, surely.

  Mary and Anthony lit up the place with their flashlights upon entering. Initially, Anthony was disappointed by what he observed. He was expecting baseball bats and hockey sticks; mostly he just saw skiing stuff and hiking equipment. There were still some useful items to be found: water bottles, pocket knives, lighters, and even some rope. Mary had taken up a flashy, titanium golf club in one hand, and in the other hand she held a ski pole with a stainless steel pick fixed into the grip. She examined them both carefully with her little flashlight placed between her teeth. Mary was debating which one would have more killing potential: the golf club had more power, yet the ski pole was more versatile. It was a strenuous decision. Eventually, Mary opted for the golf club. Sure, she could both spear and slash with the ski pole, but the blunt-force trauma potential of the club was just too enticing.

  As Anthony was wandering around the back of the shop he noticed something out of place. A portable short-wave radio was sitting upon a glass display case and a partially opened package of rechargeable R14 batteries was nearby. Anthony had seen a radio similar to this one years before. His father had acquired it from a job; he showed Anthony how to use it and together they listened in to broadcasts from distant lands. He wondered how much he could remember. Anthony unpackaged the batteries and placed them into the radio; he then powered it on. The volume was cranked high and the radio let out a blast of white noise as it came to life, which immediately drew Mary’s attention.

  “Hey, nice find,” Mary spoke sardonically as she approached Anthony. “See if you can get any Merle Haggard or Kathleen Hanna on there – I love those guys!”

  “It’s not really for music,” Anthony spoke as he cycled through the megahertz ranges. “You can use these radios to listen to broadcasts from all over the world.”

  “I know what they are, little brother. Just don’t get your hopes up. There’s nobody out there.”

  “I know, I just… it never hurts to check every once and awhile, right?”

  “If I am anything, it’s a hopeful motherfucker.” Mary spoke as she clubbed a nearby snowboard with her golf club. “But what are you hopin’ to find exactly?”

  “Voices…”Anthony answered. “Friendly ones preferably.”

  “You might get some ghosts with all that static, but I don’t know how friendly they’ll be. People have radios, they’re just not broadcasting anymore. That’s a dangerous thing to do these days.” Mary remembered some radio broadcasts in the early days after the war, but they quickly vanished as the Sayona seized control. “They’d have to be some really optimistically stupid sons of bitches to publicize their whereabouts in this part of the world.”

  “But they could be anywhere in the world.” Anthony jested; though he was also genuine in his remark. However, something Mary had just said had garnered his concern. What did she mean by this part of the world? Anthony wondered. Wasn’t it uninhabited by humans?

  “Yes they could be, and how many languages do you speak, darlin’?”

  “Just one, but it’d still be nice to know that there’re other people out there somewhere; people that are just tryin’ to communicate with us, and not kill us.”

  “We can listen, but don’t expect any…” Mary stopped short as a voice came through the white noise of the radio. She thought it was an actual ghost for a moment. Anthony readjusted the dial to hone in on the frequency. The voice was no ghost; it was human – a woman’s voice. Mary and Anthony both listened quietly for a moment. Mary then thrust her golf club into Anthony’s arms and spoke, “You keep this; I’ll go get your mother.”

  Serena was no longer in the supermarket. She had filled her potato sack full of canned goods and had taken a couple of garbage bags from the store and filled them with food as well. She also threw in some toothpaste, toothbrushes, iodine, coffee, and toilet paper for good measure; currently she was loading them into the trunk of her car. As soon she had them situated, she closed the trunk and turned around to find Mary standing right in front of her. The sight of Mary gave Serena a startle – the girl could be as silent as death when she wanted to.

  “Miss me?” Mary mused.

  “Where’s my son?” Serena demanded.

  “Still in the store. He found something you should hear.”

  “Something I should hear? What?”

  “Follow me and find out.” Mary turned and ran back to the store. Serena followed at a slower pace. She did not want to run with the revolver still on her.

  Mary wai
ted by the door as Serena approached. As soon as she reached Mary, Serena took the gun from her sweater pocket and gladly handed it back to Mary. Serena realized that she needed get comfortable with that weapon eventually, but today was not the day. Right now she could hear a voice, a woman’s voice, coming from within the sporting goods store. Mary lighted the way with her flashlight until Anthony came into view. His light was on the counter, beside Mary’s golf club, illuminating the radio.

  “It’s a recording,” He proclaimed as Mary and his mother approached. “It keeps repeating itself, but it’s coming in clear.”

  The woman’s voice was sympathetic, but also strong. She had a slight Latin-American accent: “Anybody who can hear my voice, take comfort; you still have friends left in this world. I ask that you join me, and many others, in the city of Los Angeles. We still have power; we still have light; humanity is not dead. There are thousands here already and we have room for many more. My name is Dinah Ortega – lieutenant general in the United States Air Force. I assure you, there is no hierarchy of power in Los Angeles; there is no military rule. We are a democracy governed by ourselves – everybody is equal; everyone wanting to live in peace and safety is welcome here. I pray for your safety, and I hope to see you soon… but be warned, any road through Nevada is a road that should not be taken. It is a very dangerous place. Terrible men roam the deserts and the cities, and if they find you they will kill you. Please, find another way to reach me. I will be waiting for you. There are dangers everywhere; we all know them now. May God be with you.”

  The broadcast went silent for a moment and then repeated itself, but this time in Spanish. The same women did the speaking. After the Spanish version had ended, the English dialogue ran again. Anthony was correct; the message was on a repetitive loop.