Reentry

by Heather Carson

  “That’s not funny,” Jayden eyed her skeptically as she smiled at him.

  “It’s not funny,” Mia laughed. “But we might as well make jokes about it. It’s not like we can change anything. They dosed the earth in nuclear fallout, we just have to make the best of it.” James looked to Katrina and she shrugged. They both removed their suits.

  *

  Katrina sat on the ground with her leg elevated on a rock while James built a fire. Jayden began to heat up some cans of soup over the flames in the stainless-steel pot they took from the house. They all shared the box of Fruity Pebbles for dessert. James scrubbed the pot with dirt and gravel before carefully rinsing it with a small bit of water.

  Dreya checked out Katrina’s leg. “You didn’t break any stitches, so that’s good,” she said yawning.

  “Let’s go to bed,” Katrina told her. “It will feel much better in the morning.”

  They laid close to one another wrapped in quilts from the trailer. James extinguished the fire and snuggled up against Katrina’s side. She heard his snores and then turned to look up at the stars. Except there weren’t any stars, just a blackened grey sky that stared back down at her. A tear escaped her eye and rolled down her temple into her hair as she bit her bottom lip. Katrina rolled back over to see James sleeping peacefully. She was too tired to think. She closed her eyes and slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 6

  The sun burned bright red through the morning haze. Katrina woke up to the sounds of someone vomiting in the bushes.

  “Do you think the Takis were bad?” Dreya asked Jayden as she held her little sister’s hair back.

  Jayden read the bag. “They don’t expire until next year and the package was sealed.”

  “It’s probably a little altitude sickness,” Katrina yawned and stretched out her arms. “We went from 6 ft underground to over 8,000ft in two days. She sat up and frowned at the sudden pain in her leg. Pulling her knee toward her, she started gently massaging her calf. “How do you feel now Mia?”

  “Much better,” Mia answered while wiping her mouth. “Still a little lightheaded but nothing like before. I was having trouble breathing and I think I ate too many Takis mixed with the cereal.”

  Katrina smiled sympathetically at her. “There is less gravity up here and it makes it harder to breathe. We can take it slow though. Unfortunately, the only cure is to go back down. People say the air is thinner the higher you go but really it’s just your lungs working harder.”

  “Well I’m not going back that way,” Mia laughed. “Let’s keep going forward. I’ll be fine.”

  Katrina nodded to her as she slowly stood up. “In a few days you’ll relearn how to breathe. We will take it easy.”

  James started to make a fire for breakfast, but Katrina stopped him. “Why don’t we share some MREs instead? It will be faster.”

  “Ugh. I’m going to throw up again,” Mia gagged. “I don’t know how much more of those my stomach can take.”

  “You can have the crackers,” Katrina said winking at her.

  *

  They started off at an easy pace. Too slow for Katrina’s liking but she was sore, and it was hard to even maintain that speed. When they came to the top of the next hill, a valley dip lay stretched out before them that was thick with different types of pine trees dotted through with western juniper and quaking aspen. The tops of the trees were dusted with ash.

  Katrina pointed to another mountain ridge in the distance. “That is where we are heading,” she told her friends. “We still have a long way to go.”

  They climbed slowly down the mountainside and into the valley. Beneath the thick tree coverage, the ground was mostly free from the fallout. The pine needles crunched under their feet and a jack rabbit scurried away as they crashed through the underbrush.

  “Did you see him?” James smiled to Katrina as he turned to point where the rabbit went. “He looks healthy. I told you they would be okay.” Katrina returned his smile and they kept trudging through the brush. By midday they were exhausted, and Katrina was out of breath.

  “Let’s stop for a bit,” Dreya suggested. Katrina was glad that she didn’t have to ask.

  They sat in the shade of a thick overhead tree canopy and shared a bottle of water. Buzzing filled Katrina’s ears as she heard the insects of the forest move about. Out here it was getting easier for Katrina to distance herself from the events of the past few weeks. As they walked, she focused on taking each step carefully and tried to plan out the coming days in terms of food and water rations. Sitting there, the memories came in waves. Compartmentalize, she told herself. Take what you need and store the rest for later.

  Her mind began to wonder. “Two weeks should be enough time for the air to clear,” her dad had told her when he dropped her off that night at the fallout shelter. “This is the safest place for you… I need you to be safe so I can do what I have to do… If I’m not there when the doors open, get to the cabin.” Katrina shouldn’t have taken anyone with her. She was taught that people were liabilities and how to do things on her own, but she liked these people. She had been forced to live in the shelter and she made friends. And James. James was kind of cute, Katrina smiled to herself.

  They all had to run from the shelter after Lark and the rest of the kids tried to force them to stay in the society they were trying to build. The shelter could have been safe. It was run by an automated system, named Nanny, and would keep delivering food and clean water for a year. They could have stayed underground and waited to dig out. That’s not important anymore, Katrina pulled back her thoughts.

  Focus. What do I know about the surface so far? They blew up the planet and the sky is grey. Who blew it up and why? No answer to that. Some people had survived though, and they were scared. They didn’t trust the government and they knew about this Project Dandelion thing. Project Dandelion. Nanny had said it was the government’s attempt at repopulating the earth. Keeping a select group of kids alive after the world was blown apart. They had the dandelion gene and their parents had done something to better society so that’s how they got their ticket in. Except James wasn’t supposed to be there. His dad’s girlfriend snuck him in.

  Dang it, Katrina! Stop thinking about James already.

  Okay. People survived. How did they know about the project? And why don’t they trust the government? Probably because the government allowed this to happen. No, wait. Buzzcut had said he was going to use the kids as hostages to sell to the government. They are against the government now. Katrina put her head in her hands. The whole world was just a mess.

  “Where are you?” James asked pulling Katrina out of her rabbit hole. He sat on the ground in a circle with Dreya, Mia, and Jayden. Katrina moved down from the fallen tree trunk she was leaning against to join them.

  “Nowhere,” she sighed. “Just wasting energy trying to figure this whole thing out.”

  Jayden laughed. “No use. We’ve all been trying to do the same thing. Did you think of anything that could help us though?”

  Katrina shook her head. “Only that we need to stay far away from other people and get to the cabin.”

  “Agreed,” they all responded.

  “We should start hunting. We are going to need more food. And we need to think about finding some water, so we don’t run out,” James said while lifting Katrina’s leg onto his lap. “If we find water, we might be able to find fish too.”

  “Nanny said the fish would be poisoned though.” Dreya looked at him in confusion.

  “Yeah, I know she said that.” James scratched his head. “Hear me out. I have this theory that there might be pockets of water in some of the valleys up here in the mountains that aren’t affected by the fallout. Those fish would be okay.”

  Katrina was looking at James. “That might actually be a good theory. Up over the next ridge there are several glaciers and small lakes that are fed from the snow melt and underground springs. We can check them out.”

  Jayd
en wrapped a blanket over his head.

  “Are you cold?” Dreya asked.

  “No,” he said. “These bugs are driving me nuts.”

  “They aren’t even that bad right now,” Katrina said.

  “How is a guy that shoots like you do afraid of a few bugs?” James laughed.

  “I can’t shoot bugs,” Jayden shrugged. “You plan on actually using that rod to catch us some fish? It was hanging on the guy’s wall. Who knows the last time it was used?”

  “It’s a good rod,” James protested. “The line might be dry, but he had more right next to his box of flies. I grabbed it all.” He leaned back against the rock. “You’re just mad because you don’t know the delicate art of fly fishing. Don’t worry, I’ll rig you up with a hook and a worm if that’s all you can use.”

  “That’s all talk right now man. We will see if you actually hook something first,” Jayden said, and James smiled as he nodded at him.

  Katrina was amused at their banter, but her leg was aching so she stood up to stretch.

  “Are we leaving already?” Mia groaned. “I just barely sat down.”

  Katrina laughed. “We might as well get moving. If we are going to test out James’ theory, we need to make it to about 10,000ft which is out of this valley and up those mountains.”

  “Ugh,” Mia sighed as Dreya helped her up. “I don’t even like fish that much.

  Dreya laughed as she pushed her sister forward. “You’re doing great love. Let’s just keep going.”

  Chapter 7

  It took three more days for them to cross the valley and make it up the side of the mountain ridge. Their pace was picking up as they adjusted to the altitude and Katrina’s leg healed. James and Katrina showed the group how to construct lean-tos to sleep under each night. They laid branches and sticks at an angle against fallen trees or rocks to form a triangle hut. Then they weaved sticks or put grass and pine boughs across the top to make it more water resistant and warm inside.

  “Like Nanny showed us on the documentary,” Mia commented the first night. In the morning they scattered the makeshift shelters because Katrina didn’t want to leave a trail to follow. By the third night, they were all experts at building the huts and had discovered ways to build them close to each other so that no one slept alone.

  *

  In the early morning of the third day, Katrina woke to a chill across her back. She reached behind her to find James’ spot empty. Her heart skipped a beat as she sat up on her elbows to look for him. He probably just went to the bathroom, Katrina thought. She waited a few minutes but still couldn’t hear him.

  Crawling on her forearms, she carefully left their lean-to and stood barefoot on the dew soaked earth. How long had he been gone? She worried. She was sleeping so soundly since they had gotten to the mountains. There was no way she would have heard him when he left. Oh you big dummy, Katrina thought as she pulled her shoes on. She moved quietly so that she didn’t wake the others.

  She stepped away from the cluster of trees they had built their shelters beneath. The air was unnaturally still and the fog covering the dark sky only allowed a weak glow from the moon to pierce through. Katrina climbed on top of a boulder to extend her viewpoint, but it was useless. She sat down and pulled her knees to her chest.

  As the minutes passed, the fear that something happened to him kept edging on Katrina’s thoughts. She pushed it away and steadied her breathing so that she could listen better to the sounds of the woods. What would I do if he didn’t come back? she asked herself. Keep moving of course. Except, she knew that was a lie.

  Katrina kept herself pressed against the hard rock so that she didn’t go running around like an idiot in the dark. The moon was about to set. When the sun rose enough to give more light, she would wake the others to help her find him. Please don’t let him be hurt, she thought.

  The wind began to move. A cool breeze chilled her through her thin t-shirt. She was glad they had chosen to blow up the world during summer. Winter would have made this suck even worse. She was just about to climb down from the rock to go get her blanket from the hut when she heard the distinct crunch of pine needles and rocks to her right. The sound grew louder as the footsteps came closer.

  Katrina quietly slid down from her seat on the boulder and peered around the side until she saw James’ face clear the trees. “What is wrong with you?” Katrina blurted out as she came from behind the rock.

  James jumped. “What is wrong with me?” He put his free hand over his chest. “What is wrong with you? Why are you hiding behind a rock in the dark? You scared the crap out of me.”

  “I. Scared you?” Katrina’s eyes widened. The grey hazy morning light had broken into the clearing where they were standing, and she saw he was holding the rifle at his side. “You weren’t there when I woke up and you took my firearm. You scared me.”

  “A tough girl like you?” James winked. “Didn’t think you got scared.”

  “I don’t,” she stammered. “Well, I did. Ugh. Just don’t ever do that to me again.” She couldn’t stay mad while he was bouncing around and smiling at her.

  “Don’t do what?” He grinned ear to ear as he swung two dead rabbits from the rope on his shoulders and held them out to her. “Get you breakfast?”

  *

  “Bet you are glad I grabbed that can of enchilada sauce now,” Jayden said laughing as he built the fire. Katrina and James each skinned one rabbit and cut the meat off in chunks.

  “They don’t look sick to me,” James said. “But stay away from the meat near the bones just to be on the safe side.” Jayden browned the meat over the fire and then let it simmer away in the pot with the sauce for an hour. He threw in some rice during the last 30 minutes.

  Dreya winced as she took her first bite, but she quickly finished her bowl. “That was actually pretty good,” she said to Jayden.

  “That was better than good,” Mia exclaimed. “That was bomb. Alright guys, I want to learn how to shoot. I need to get us some more rabbits.”

  Katrina smiled at her. “We’ll teach you, I promise. Let’s get over that mountain today though. It’s going to be a rough hike and we will gain a lot of elevation, but James’ hypothetical fish paradise is right over that ridge.”

  They cleaned the dishes and packed up their camp. The climb was steep, but they kept slowly moving up. Katrina’s wound pain had eased. She was left with only a dull ache. She had been careful not to break any stitches and had kept it clean. It still needed more time to heal though so she babied it as she climbed. The group came to a rocky part of the hillside with no way to go around it, so they went single file helping each other over the rocks.

  Past the boulders, they were exposed on the side of the mountain with no tree coverage. It was getting harder to breathe and they began to walk even slower.

  “Hey,” Jayden smiled. “At least there are no bugs over here.”

  Katrina laughed as she pushed to keep moving forward. There was no comfortable place to sit and rest until they reached the top. They took sips of water, leaning against one another when needed, as they continued to inch up the hill.

  It was late in the afternoon when James stepped first onto the plateau that stretched about five feet wide and topped the mountainside. The edge descended steeply into a bowled out small valley beneath their feet. He reached down his hand smiling as he helped Katrina, and then the rest of the group, up onto the slab to stand beside him. Everyone was out of breath and they sat down with their feet hanging over the ledge.

  James spread out his arms. “Paradise,” he said winking at Katrina. “We found it guys.”

  Katrina looked up to see that the sky seemed more bluish grey instead of the thick grey smog that she had been accustomed to seeing lately.

  “It looks like we are higher than some of the clouds right now. Maybe the debris in the air is blocked by some of these mountains,” Dreya said.

  “Yeah but I am sure if it rains it will still be toxic or laced with fallout,�
�� Katrina shook her head.

  They looked down at the valley below. It was small enough to cross in a few hours. To the right was a little pond with water that shimmered in the daylight and tiny streams fed into it before cutting ribbons through the earth down the smaller hills in the distance. The ridge that they sat on was a part of the mountain that enclosed the valley below them at the highest peak and protected the oasis like a fortress wall. Katrina raised her eyebrows as she looked back to James who sat there smiling at her.

  “Okay. It’s a potentially toxic paradise,” he laughed. “But still a paradise.”

  The descent down the mountain was slippery as there were no trees or brush to grab on to. Mia sat on her butt and began to slide down instead of walking. The other kids laughed but quickly copied her.

  “I think technically we just went sledding,” Katrina said as they reached the bottom. “This is a glacier we are standing on.”

  Mia turned to look at the mountain. “Huh. I pictured a glacier looking a little less, I don’t know, dirty?”

  James took off running to the stream closest to where they were standing which rippled into the lake. He started lifting rocks and pulled Katrina over as she came near. “Look,” he said. “Look at the nymph castings. The May flies are getting ready to hatch soon. It’s the perfect time to fish.” He dropped his pack and took off alone to check out the brooks.

  Katrina and Dreya found a spot under some small pine trees to set up a camp.

  “Think he will actually catch anything?” Jayden asked as he carried over a pile of sticks to start the fire.

  “I think the question should be will he catch anything that we can actually eat,” Katrina laughed. She went off to explore the hillside after they set up camp leaving Dreya and Jayden alone to sit and talk. Mia left to skip rocks on the water. Katrina walked along the base of the hill and thought of the years she had spent tagging along with her father as they hiked all over these mountains. He would tell her to watch the horizon and to pay attention to the ground in front of her. She used to think you’d have to be cross-eyed to do them both, but she had practiced so much she was good at it now. Always aware of your surroundings.