The Summer the World Ended

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Those won’t help much,” said Luis. “You step on them and the tail will still come up and over.” He poked her in the foot with a chicken bone. “You got boots?”

  “Sneakers.” She frowned.

  Kieran patted her knee. “It shouldn’t be too much of a problem… just watch where you step and be careful around dark places.”

  “I don’t wanna be near it.” She reached up.

  Kieran hooked an arm under her legs and carried her a few steps away from the old car. She stared at his face and her heart pounded. As embarrassing as it was to be ‘the helpless girl,’ having his strong arms cradle her sent electric tingles down to her toes. She held on, wishing the short distance to where they sat would take all night to get there. Her body tensed as if about to step into molten magma when he moved to set her down.

  “Scorpions… Great, now I’m going to be staring at dirt all the time.”

  Kieran sat on the ground and held his arm out, offering a spot. “If you had held completely still, it probably would have walked right by. You might not have ever seen it.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.” She slid in under his arm, sitting with her legs tucked to one side.

  He started off by talking about scorpions, but wound up telling her about his meeting with a jaguar when he was ten. Riley couldn’t quite imagine Kieran as terrified as he explained himself to be, and tried to ignore her suspicion this was another Robbie Zimmer situation. Kieran seemed happy to be with her. She got no sense he wanted to lure her into some embarrassing prank. More surprising, not one of these kids had yet said a word about her figure. An hour later, she’d mostly forgotten about a scorpion coming within inches of her foot.

  “Ready,” yelled Luis.

  Riley glanced over, where all four members of Black Chakra, plus Lyle, had lined up with their backs turned.

  “Aim,” yelled Luis.

  Five zippers opened.

  “Oh, my…” Riley hid her face against Kieran’s arm. “Are they?”

  “Fire,” yelled Luis.

  “Yeah. Come to think of it… that’s not a bad idea.” Kieran got up with a grunt, and went over to join the firing line.

  Three bottles of water had also created an issue for her, but she was not about to join the guys. Camila noticed her urgent look and walked over. Riley twisted around and spotted a crumbling building by the entrance. The front face had the appearance of a concession stand, though a sign of a stick figure in a dress adorned a door on the far right side. She set off for it, but the other girl caught her by the arm.

  “Oh, no. You don’t want to go in there.”

  Riley glanced at the boys. “I’m not just going to…”

  “No one has cleaned that bathroom since 1971. I don’t even want to think about what’s growing in the toilet.”

  “But… but…” Riley whined.

  Camila smiled. “Now you know why I’m wearing a skirt.”

  “I can’t believe you and Lyle―”

  “Hah.” Camila laughed. “We were just making out. He’d never do that in public.”

  “I’ve never… you know…”

  “Pissed outside? That just means you’ve never been to a real party.” Camila took her hand and pulled her upright. “There’s a little ravine over there for cover. I’ll go with you.”

  Riley shrank in on herself. “I don’t want you to watch either.”

  “I’ll stand guard, and then you can do the same for me.”

  “Okay.”

  Riley followed her to where a cut in the ground deepened to a ledge running around the right side of the old drive-in theater. Innumerable bottles, cans, and cigarette butts accumulated at the bottom, as well as some rusted car parts. Terrified of finding more creepy-crawlies, Riley took her sweet time going down the hill until she could no longer see any of the people up top. Desert stretched off in three directions, open for miles. The boys horsing around above and behind still sounded way too close.

  Maybe I’ll just hold it. She cringed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Off in the distance, several tiny specks appeared in the sky, emitting a heavy, thudding drone. They were far away, but had the look of something military―and drove right toward Las Cerezas.

  Or not.

  Riley flailed, waving her arms in an effort not to lose her balance while climbing a steep embankment in flip-flops. She snagged a handful of rough roots, and pulled herself up enough to see Camila with her back turned. At the sound of her grunting, the other girl whirled around.

  Camila grasped her hand to help her up the last of the ridge. “You okay? I was about to come down after you with a search party.”

  “Uh… yeah. Fine.” Riley swatted dirt and green leafy crumbles off her legs.

  “Okay, my turn.”

  Riley rotated away while Camila descended. Shooting guns, peeing in the wild, almost getting bit by a scorpion. What’s happening to you, Riley McCullough?

  “Hey, Riley, check this out,” yelled Camila.

  “Gross. No thanks.”

  “No, not that. Look.”

  Against her better instincts, she did. A cloud of dust out in the sands trailed behind what appeared to be a military convoy. She watched the vehicles approach, until they turned onto the dirt road leading past the front of the old drive-in, heading toward Las Cerezas. Five semis covered in fluttering camouflage tarps, surrounded by Humvees with machine guns, crept in a single file. Soldiers manning the guns glowered as if annoyed she dared look in their direction. Through a gap in one tarp, she made out what appeared to be large, green missiles with angular contours and little wings.

  The thudding of helicopters going overhead a second time made her shiver.

  Camila climbed the hill, tugging at her gypsy skirt until it sat right. “Wow. Looks like they’re on their way to Holloman. Never saw a caravan like that before.”

  That counts as weird.

  Riley lost one flip-flop as she sprinted over to Kieran, and grabbed him. “I need to go.”

  “You’re trembling.” He let her cling. “Relax, it’s only the Air Force.”

  “Whoa,” said Lyle. “They kinda look like AGM-129s… but those were supposed to all be decommissioned in 2012.”

  “What’s that?” Riley dug her fingers into Kieran’s shirt.

  “Nuclear cruise missiles.” Lyle shielded his eyes for a moment, and shook his head. “Nah. They’re probably some kinda UAV we haven’t seen yet. ‘Course, maybe some idiot from Texas forgot a storage unit. Oops, sir, found some more old nukes.”

  “Weird,” said Luis.

  “Fuck you, Lyle.” Wayne raised a middle finger.

  “He’s from Texas,” whispered Kieran.

  “Yeah.” Jaime took a long swig from his Corona. “I’ve never seen them ride like that in the middle of the day. Must be important. Especially with an aerial escort.”

  Dad’s pallid face leapt to mind, followed by the overflight of bombers days ago. She glanced up at Kieran. “Please take me home.”

  Kieran looked disappointed by her decision, but offered no protest. She ran over to her errant flip-flop, grabbed it, and carried them with her to his car. Her mind raced, drawing connections between the Korea thing on the news, Dad talking about the Ukraine, bombers, now nuclear missiles transported out in the open.

  No, no, no. This is bad. Dad’s gonna shit his pants.

  “Hey…” Kieran said, as soothing as he could get his voice to sound. “You’re acting like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s wrong?”

  “I’m scared.” She dropped her flip-flops and stepped on them.

  “Obviously.” He looked her in the eye. “What of?”

  “World War Three,” she muttered, reaching out to take his hand.

  Kieran held in a chuckle. “You’ve been watching too many movies. It’s not going to get to that point. No one is crazy enough to hit ‘the button.’ The idiots want to control the world, not melt it. If someone does something, they’ll all do something, and then there�
�ll be nothing left. Even the craziest dictators know that.”

  Okay, that makes sense. She stood up on tiptoe and kissed him.

  Kieran seemed surprised. “Random. Not that I mind… I could stare into those deep green eyes of yours forever.”

  She blushed, grinned, and looked down. “I couldn’t do that at the house. Dad will shoot you. He’s got a problem with them.”

  Kieran glared. “Native Americans?”

  “No.” She held on to his shirt. “Oh, God, no. He’s not a racist. I mean the people in town. He thinks everyone in Las Cerezas hates him.”

  “He’s so reclusive. Anti-social behavior gets people suspicious. I hear people at the restaurant talk. They say he’s up to something.”

  Riley leaned up as if to kiss him again, whispering. “I shouldn’t say this, but he works for the government.” Shit. That’s exactly what Dad’s afraid of. “Uh, he―”

  Kieran silenced her with a kiss. A bit different from the childish peck she’d opened with. She moved with him as he twisted and pressed her back against the car. Riley closed her eyes and followed his lead, not wanting the moment to end. This was her first kiss.

  Robbie Zimmer can go to hell.

  She lowered her weight off her toes, gazing up at him with a giddy half-grin.

  “He probably has good reason to keep his secrets. I don’t need to know.”

  Wow. He didn’t paw me at all. “Yeah,” she whispered.

  “S’pose we should get you home.”

  Riley forced her fingers into the tight pocket of her jean shorts, adding a little shimmy to help slip the watch out. Sun glinted off the display as she tilted it over to check the time: 4:49. She stuffed it most of the way back in before threading her arms up around his head, grasping her wrist behind his neck. He set his hands on her hips. Riley’s heart skipped about, getting into a boxing match with the butterflies in her stomach.

  “I got a couple minutes.”

  n uneasy feeling sat like a stone in Riley’s stomach, agitated by the deep, throaty rumble of the Trans Am engine vibrating through the seat. She kept her eyes pointed down as they passed through Las Cerezas, twirling a strand of loose denim between her fingers.

  Farther east, a cloud of dust whorled across the desert. With the intimacy of the once-in-a-lifetime moment of her first real kiss gone, she couldn’t help but dwell on the convoy full of missiles.

  “You okay?” Kieran reached over.

  She took his hand and clung. “Yeah. It’s nothing.”

  His touch doused her fear under a wash of warmth that spread over her face and chest. She tried to think of what to say; talking about something would stop her from worrying about what the military was doing or what Dad might be dealing with. Before anything came to mind, she caught sight of the speedometer at fifty on the nose. He didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry.

  “Maybe this town doesn’t suck all that much.”

  “Oh?”

  You’re here. Her brain kicked in before the words slipped out―too sappy. “I guess I could get used to it. Jersey was so loud and busy.” And didn’t have you.

  He pulled up to the house and stopped. “Oh hey, I got you something.” He reached behind her seat and came back holding a plastic bag, which he handed to her.

  “Mrr?” She peeked in at a DVD case with an Xbox version of The Last Outpost. “Oh, that was expensive.”

  “It wasn’t that bad.” He winked. “It’s like three years old now. Like I said, the story mode is much cooler. We could co-op between platforms.”

  “As soon as we get internet, yeah. Thanks.” She crawled up as if to kiss him again, but thought better of it. “Uh… Dad’s in the window.”

  She slid back to her seat and opened the door, using one foot and both arms to push the massive thing open. Kieran followed her to the porch. Again, she came close to kissing him, but Dad continued to hover.

  “You wanna hit T or C maybe Saturday? Little more to do there than out here.”

  She grinned. “Okay. Um… does this mean I’m like, your girlfriend now?”

  He shot an appraising glance at the sky. “Do you want to be?”

  Riley bit her lower lip, looked down, felt all sorts of weird, and giggled. “Maybe.”

  “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Mom… She looked into his eyes. “I’m… uh… I―”

  “I know. You’re not glad to be here. That’s not what I meant.”

  “I’m glad I met you.”

  “Me too.”

  Before they could kiss, Dad pulled the house door open. Riley sensed him about to say something mortifying and cut him off.

  “He was just leaving, Dad.”

  “Mr. McCullough.” Kieran nodded at him. “I’ll stop by… Saturday?”

  Dad offered only a blank stare.

  “Okay then.” Kieran winked at Riley. “Maybe I’ll see you then.”

  “Bye.” She waved.

  She didn’t move until his car was an indiscernible speck in the distance. Dad waited a few steps inside the house, startling her with his ‘looming titan’ routine.

  “Dad?”

  “Put your arms out, legs apart.” He held up a device similar to what security guards waved over people at airports.

  “Uh, Dad?”

  “Just do it.”

  She stood as if frozen in mid jumping jack while he ran the wand up and down her arms, over her fingers, and around her body.

  “Okay, you’re clean.”

  “What’s that? A ‘did my daughter just have sex’ detector?”

  “No, I’m checking for electromagnetic signals.”

  “Like a bug?” Just a little melodramatic. She let her arms fall against her sides. “Dad, I saw something strange.”

  “A clown on a unicycle juggling flaming piglets?”

  “I said I saw something strange, not dropped acid.” She wandered to her room. “An army convoy with trucks went through town.”

  Riley leaned into the doorway of her room to toss the Xbox game on the bed, intending to get started on supper before doing anything else. When she turned to walk back, Dad was inches away.

  She screamed.

  He caught her before she fell. “What? You okay?”

  “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry. What did you see?”

  “Uh, five big trucks with camo stuff on them and Humvees. Looked like they were loaded up with missiles. Lyle said they weren’t supposed to have them anymore, like ‘decommissioned’ or something a couple years ago. Then he said they might have been UAVs.”

  Dad went pale again, and wandered to the living room where he paced an erratic figure eight. His lips moved as though he spoke, but he lent no voice to his breath. Riley stood motionless. All the worry she’d felt at the strange sight came back in triplicate. Dad stopped pacing two minutes later, blinked, and looked at her as if he’d forgotten all about what was on his mind.

  He smiled. “You seem… happier than you’ve been since you got here.”

  That was… messed up. “I think I have a boyfriend.” She kicked her flip-flops into her bedroom and walked to the kitchen. “I’m gonna try to make tacos tonight.”

  Dad chuckled. He headed for his room, but paused by the fridge. “I suppose you’ll have to get used to that food now.”

  “He’s not Mexican, Dad. He’s Native American.” She thought about his father. “Well, half.”

  “I know. It’s pretty obvious when you look at him.”

  Riley skimmed over the directions on the back of the box of taco seasoning. “Yeah, I guess I was thinking about stuff. Can we get a phone?”

  “They won’t run a wire out here.”

  “What about getting my cellular turned back on?” She grabbed cans of refried beans and a frozen packet of chicken. “I so need to tell Amber about Kieran.”

  Dad ducked into his room. “I don’t trust cell phones. They can watch you through them.”

  “Which ‘they’ are you talki
ng about? The people in the town, the government, or the KGB?”

  “Little of column A…” His chair creaked. “Oh, and they’re the FSB now.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Well, I doubt the townies care. Anyone with the knowhow can tap a phone and watch or listen to everything going on around it. I handle too much sensitive intel for that. Why do you think I live out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  Pain in the ass. “I can’t call her from Kieran’s house… that would be too awkward.”

  “Why would that be awkward?”

  “Because!” Geez, he is so clueless. “I can’t talk about a boy with him right behind me. When is the Internet coming? I suppose I can wait and chat her.”

  “Wednesday, remember? Six days.” Dad lowered his voice. “Copy, sir. Go ahead.”

  Oh, that’s not too bad. “Okay. Dinner’ll be ready in like, forty minutes.”

  ad went straight to the radio after supper. Despite not having Internet access to get any help from, the tacos came out okay—if a pale shade of what she’d had at Tommy’s. Of course, Dad couldn’t stop going on and on about how amazing they were. She smiled as she packed the dishwasher with plates, forks, and pans. He seemed in a much better mood after eating, maybe he would let her go see Kieran again in the morning. The setting sun made the little window over the sink look more like an oil painting than a view to the outside, and cast the kitchen in a warm shade of orange. Riley wiped down the counter, tossed the cloth into the sink, and went to her room.

  The DVD waited where she’d left it. She scored the plastic open with a fingernail, snagged the disc, and popped The Last Outpost into her Xbox. She started playing at 7:18 p.m., after an annoyingly long installation finished. The plot centered on a man and his daughter who managed to survive a nuclear apocalypse, and then reemerged in a world full of irradiated zombies. She chose to play the girl, a sixteen-year-old whose non-fatal exposure to a virus had given her some kind of special powers. The ‘Dad’ was all guns and long range while the girl seemed more like an ‘agile melee’ character.

  She started with a pair of standard combat knives and a basic crossbow with eight bolts. After an hour and change of creeping through the sewers of a nameless city, she found a crowbar, which the game portrayed as a two-handed weapon. Apparently, the character Lisa was strong enough to knock the shambling enemies twenty meters away on a single hit. Eventually, Riley stopped rolling her eyes at the superpowered heroine, and got into the storyline.