Radiation Face

by Phil Skaggs Jr.

  I’m sore, too. Very sore. I need to stop getting the crap beat out of me. I decide to go outside now. Or I’ll just end up on the couch watching tv for the rest of the day. I get to the sidewalk but I can’t even muster a decent jog for more than a few steps so I just walk as fast as I can.

  My phone had a few missed texts from Melanie last night. The first two were the usual. The last two seemed concerned though she still wanted me to meet her at our usual place. If I hadn’t knocked out so early I might have taken her up on the offer. It would have been a nice little pick me up for a pretty shitty day.

  The gash on my nose seems to be doing okay. I put a bandaid on it before I hit the bed last night. It felt worse than it actually was.

  I keep walking quickly. I’ve got no real plan in my head so I just walk on instinct. I notice that I’m headed over to Sam’s. I should check to see if she’s doing alright. I don’t even know if she’s home or not. I really should have called her last night to see how everything was. I’m such a shitty friend.

  I head that way and a familiar siren blips next to me and I slow down. It’s the same guys as before. It’s always the same guys around here. They probably have just one squad car to keep track of the mutant in the neighborhood. Make sure I’m not up to any of my mutant ways.

  ‘Hey, shouldn’t you be in school?’ A cop yells from the window.

  I look over at him and frown. ‘I’m sick.’

  ‘Jesus, buddy, what the hell happened to you? You look like you got hit by the Titanic.’ He nudges his partner to take a look at me. The partner twists up his face and looks away.

  I didn’t think I looked too bad when I saw myself in the mirror while taking a piss in the bathroom this morning. I guess my standards are little bit more shaky than theirs.

  ‘Look, if you’re sick you shouldn’t be out wandering the street. Where are you headed?’ The cop asks.

  ‘Uh, just over to Willy Barnes. Like last time.’ I point down the street.

  ‘Oh, Willy. Alright. He got something cooked up for you or what?’

  I don’t know what to say so I nod my head.

  ‘Alright, you mutants and your weird medicine shit. Alright, just try to keep the walking outside to minimum if you can. Will ya?’

  ‘Sure thing.’ And the car pulls off. The cop speaks into the radio as it does.

  I make my way to Willy Barnes’ place with no other interruptions even though the damn cop car passes me twice during that time.

  #

  I knock on the door and wait. The door opens and Willy Barnes is staring at me across the threshold. I can see his mind trying to remember who I am or maybe just why I’m there.

  ‘Yeah?’ He final says.

  ‘I just dropped by to see how Sam was doing.’

  He just continues to stare at me.

  ‘I’m Abe. I train with Sam.’

  ‘Yeah, I know who you are.’

  ‘Well, I was just seeing how she’s doing. I’m not in school right now so I don’t know if she’s alright or not.’

  He nods his head slowly. ‘Come on in.’

  I follow him through the doorway.

  He starts talking again. ‘She’s asleep upstairs. She took a real spill, you know. I won’t let her back in school just yet.’

  ‘But she’s fine?’

  ‘Oh yeah. She’s like me. Got a tough noggin.’ He knocks his knuckles against his head. ‘She’s just a little shook up. You want a drink?’ He offers me a seat as I follow him into the kitchen.

  ‘Sure.’ I sit down.

  He grabs a couple of glasses out of the pantry and fills them both with tap water from the sink. ‘Here you go.’

  ‘Thanks.’ The water’s warm. I take a look around the kitchen and really see how empty the place it. There’s an island with a few stools and a table off to the side with two chairs, but there’s nothing sitting out on the counters or any magnets hanging on the fridge. the whole place seems barely lived in. Willy sits there drinking his water and watches me in silence.

  ‘She told me what happened.’ Willy smiles roughly.

  ‘Yeah...’

  ‘Yeah. Don’t worry. This shit happens. It ain’t easy being like this. I know. Don’t beat yourself up over it.’

  ‘I’m not. I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I say.

  ‘I know. Well, if you thought you did, I’m just saying you don’t have to worry about it.’

  ‘All right.’

  ‘You know it’s funny I used to be just like those guys.’

  ‘Yeah, Sam told me you were normal.’

  He shakes his head and waves the comment off. ‘No. I mean I was like those guys. I was an asshole. I was pretty bad out there on the job. I’d lay in pretty hard to the mutants out there on the line.’ He paused and took a drink. ‘They’d bus in all the freaks and weirdos from the zone to do clean up. They were in the thick of it. I was on the normal side. We just handled containment. This was before the zone started growing and spilling over and this happened.’ He points to his face. ‘We used to toss shit at them. Call them every name in the book. Shit like that.’ Willy starts to laugh to himself and let’s out a slow sigh.

  ‘Sounds, uh, interesting.’

  Willy looks at me and pats me on the back after taking anything swig of water. ‘Don’t worry, kid. Those days are behind me. It’s hard to be an asshole looking like this.’ He smiles and that large tongue of his rolls out of his lopsided head and swings freely in the air.

  ‘Well, that’s good to hear.’ I smile. He gives me a wink.

  ‘So, let me ask you. Is Sam a decent coach?’ He leans in close. ‘Now be honest.’

  ‘Yeah, the best I’ve had so far. Not that I’ve ever had a coach before.’

  Willy let’s out roar of laughter and his tongue bobs up and down as he smiles and slaps the table. ‘Well, that’s a good. Best you’ve ever had and you haven’t had any. I guess I’ll take that as best a compliment as one can get.’

  He raises his glass and I raise mine, but I don’t know why. He shrugs and there’s a clink and he finishes off his water and asks if I want anymore. ‘It’s no trouble.’ He adds.

  ‘I’m good.’ I reply.

  He tells me about his experience fighting and all the trouble he used to get into before he turned into a mutant. He tells me there’s a whole bunch of guys like him downtown. A bunch of normal people just started to turn into freaks after a while. No one could explain. At first, the town tried to chase them out into the zone, but the zone wouldn’t take them. Not enough room they said. So all the new freaks and weirdos got little rooms downtown. The shitty side of the city.

  ‘No one would talk about it for years. We were invisible. Completely gone. But slowly, people who lived downtown already started to get to know us and they’re all cool about it there. Here. On the other side of the tracks it’s a different story. Still ignored. Or harassed. They don’t like us being here.’

  ‘Why’d you stay then?’ I ask.

  ‘It’s my home. This place has always been my home. Not that I lived in the good area all my life, but I always wanted to so when I could afford to I moved here. And I plan on dying here. This is where I belong. No one is going to chase me out.’ He smiles again.

  He’s shocked that I’ve never heard of any of this, but I tell him nothing really gets into the zone. It’s a deadzone. No one bothers us except for some census people every few years, but hardly anyone tries to leave or stay gone for long. Even then they can’t communicate. No post office in town.

  ‘Well, shit, son. That sounds pretty rough.’

  ‘Nah, it’s alright. I didn’t think it was weird until I moved here.’

  ‘I can see that.’

  We keep talking for a few more hours. He offers to deliver any messages I might have to Sam. I tell him just to have her call me when she’s ready to train me. He says he will and I leave my number. And head home.

  #

  I get in to the door and Mom greets me. She asks where
I’ve been and I tell her I’ve been out just getting some fresh air. She says, ‘That’s good. Just don’t look like you’re enjoying your suspension too much. Especially when Dad gets in.’

  ‘I won’t.’ I say. I kill some time and watch some tv and take a nap on the couch before Dad finally shows up from work. He’s dragging himself.

  ‘Rough day?’ Mom asks. He just looks at her and smiles and gives her a kiss. He says hello to me and I say hello back to him. He asks me how my day off was. I tell him it was pretty boring. He says, ‘Good.’

  Mom makes some beef stew and some vegetables on the side. For whatever reason I’m starving then I realize I hadn’t really eaten anything all day. I don’t know where my head has been. I dig into the food and start to put it away. Dad starts talking about work. I’m not really paying attention. Mom is talking to him about it and I hear a few things in between mouthfuls. I finally slow down from eating and look up. Dad says my name a second time.

  ‘Hello, Abe. Earth to Abe.’ He waves his hand around with a tired smile. ‘I’ve got some good news for you.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘Yeah, I talked to some guys at work and they’d be happy to let you come in this month.’

  ‘Let me-say what now?’ I swallow the last of the chewed beef in my mouth.

  ‘They’ll let you come work. You know. Work. Get paid. All that stuff.’ He smiles a little wider as if to seemed enthused, but he just looks even more tired.

  ‘Oh. I see.’

  ‘Yep.’ Dad keeps smiling.

  ‘So when do I start?’

  ‘Right away.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’

  ‘Yeah. Tomorrow. Bright and early. You won’t work under me, but you have the same schedule so I can take you there and bring you back.’

  ‘All day?’ I ask.

  ‘All day, every day. Full time for the rest of the month. I’m not going to have you sitting around here doing nothing. I’m not going to have it. Who knows what kind of trouble you’ll get in to?’

  ‘Well, Dad. See, that’s going to be a problem cause I’ve got training to do.’

  ‘Oh right. Training. That’s important. Did you train today?’ He asks.

  ‘No, but-’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘The trainer was sick today so I couldn’t do anything.’

  ‘Well, did you run or something?’

  ‘No.’ I say.

  ‘Then you had a whole day to do some training and you chose to do nothing instead. I’m sorry, son, but that’s not good enough. You need structure in your life. You need to realize what it means to work so you can get some responsibility in that head of yours. You haven’t done much for the last couple of days. Have you been training since you were kicked out of school?’

  ‘Well, no. But I am now.’

  ‘That seems convenient.’

  ‘What’re you trying to say?’ I ask.

  ‘I’m just saying that it seems to be convenient you don’t have anything to do when your days are free. Just like it’s convenient when you all of a sudden have training when I start to get after you to get a job.’

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘Well, it’s not going to kill ya to go out there tomorrow and miss another day of training. You might even like it. It’s decent pay. You’ll be making some money.’

  I just stare back at him.

  ‘Abe, your mother and I just want you to get yourself together. Life’s hard enough out there without you making it difficult. We wanted you to do well and go to school here and we still do, but this past week showed us that there’s still a lot of problems out there and finishing school might not be for you.’ Dad looks over at Mom.

  ‘Wait. What do you mean? I not going back to school after this?’ I ask.

  ‘We’ll have to see, but we really need you to try this, Abe.’ Mom says. ‘You need to have a back up plan. So just give it a shot for me.’

  The phone starts ringing and I just sit there. I start to wonder how long they’ve been planning for this. Mom gets up to get the phone and comes back to say it’s for me. I get up and answer. It’s Sam. She’s calling to thank me for coming over. I ask her when we should start training again and she’s says in a couple of more days. She’s still getting dizzy when she gets up. She says she’ll be fine in a few days and that she’ll call me when she’s ready to go. I ask her what the doctors said. She say it’s nothing and that she’ll be fine and she’ll see me in a few days. I say okay and hang up with her.

  I get back to the table and cross my arms and ask my dad how much the job pays. Mom and Dad smile and Dad starts to lay it all out. I sit there listening as best I can, but all I can think about is the fight. Getting back into the fight again.

  #

  ‘Rise and shine!’ Dad says as he kicks open my bedroom door to wake me up for my first shift. I lift my head from the pillow and slowly shake it. He tells me to be ready in half an hour. I lower my head back to the pillow and let it sit there for I don’t know how long. Dad walks by the door again and says, ‘Twenty minutes!’ in a voice that is louder than anything I have ever heard.

  I jerk my head and my shoulders follow as I am sitting on the edge of the bed trying to get my legs to lift me up and take me across the room to my closet. I finally get up and stumble around the room looking for the light. When I find it and flick the switch. I wish I had stayed in bed as the brightness pierces through my eyelids. I get my pants on and a t-shirt on and grungy hoodie from the back of my closet and head downstairs.

  Dad is already down there packing up some lunches. He’s dressed in a work shirt and jeans like he is every morning.

  ‘Aren’t you going to eat?’ He asks.

  ‘It’s too early for food.’ I reply and sit down in one of the chairs in the kitchen to put my shoes on.

  ‘You’re going to wish you had once we get out there for a few hours.’

  ‘Fine.’ I say and I reach for a banana and spend the rest of the morning chewing on it. Dad finally finishes up and we head out the door and to the truck.

  The ride is silent. We take the old highway out of town. It's the same one we took out of the zone. The old highway has been the only way in or out all these years. When the monsters first appeared it was the exit out of the zone for a lucky few. Local authority cracked down on it pretty quickly once the radiation readings went public. No one went in or went out without an okay from the President. No One watches it now, it’s just too damn hard to get out.

  And for the first decade it was the army's job to maintain the borders. Mostly clean up. Then it went private somewhere along the way. At least that's the story we hear in history class. That version’s pretty similar in the zone or out of it. But I've never heard much about the riots and the shooting that happened in the early years, not out here anyway. All you hear about is how considerate the local government was to grant the mutants equal rights, after the federal government stepped in. Doesn't mean any from the zone stands a chance out here.

  We pull off the old highway onto a newer looking ramp. Dad takes it down into a little ravine. Toxic Crusaders Inc. is written across a large board tied to a chain link fence. There are trucks scattered around the inside of the fence. Some guys are pulling in like us, others have already been there for a while and are headed home. A few trailers are lined up right behind the trucks.

  Dad parks and we get out. Immediately I feel that familiar pulsing warmth that the zone has. I never really noticed it until I left.

  'Come on.' Dad motions for me to follow as he heads towards one of the trailers.

  It’s a simple pale color that has rusty moving up the siding like mold. The air in the trailer is warmer than it is outside. It’s filled with the smell of old coffee and men. There are a few tiny desks lined up against the wall and at the far end is a large one facing out over everything. A large man sits behind it. He has a gruff face and large neck that hangs down over the shirt collar from age and weight. He’s puffing on a cigar and looking at some
thing on his desk when we walk up.

  ‘Mr. Arnold.’ My dad says. The large, white haired man looks up and pulls his cigar from his mouth.

  ‘Ah, Jennings, you brought the boy along finally.’ He smiles at me. I don’t respond.

  ‘Yep, This is Abe. I finally talked him into coming down and seeing what this is all about.’

  ‘Well Abe, it’s good of you to join us. Never too early for a kid to learn some responsibility you know?’ He looks me over and mumbles to himself a bit. He looks down at some papers on his desk. The cigar is back in his mouth. ’Let’s see where was I going to put him. Oh right, I was going to put him over there with Blyberg. That shouldn’t be too much for his first day.’

  ‘Oh yeah, I know Blyberg. That sounds good.’

  ‘Good. You could walk him over there if you want. So he doesn’t get lost out here.’

  ‘Sure. Thanks again, Mr. Arnold. I appreciate your help in this.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Mr. Arnold waves us off and places his concentration back to his desk. He’s chomping on his cigar. Going over it in his mouth.

  Dad says, ‘I’ll see ya at the meeting.’ as we head out and Mr. Arnold waves us off one last time. His eyes still on his desk.

  Dad takes me over to Blyberg. Along the way he points out as much as he can. He shows me the lead blocks that are put in place to stop the radiation from pushing it’s way out of the zone. They replace them every few years. He shows me the trucks that haul out all the old sludge that’s sitting on the edge of the zone. He tells me that the company takes it out and processes it to make their money off the project. He shows me the clean up crew when the sludge spills. Finally, he stops to talk to some guys working the line. Guys in brown coveralls and face masks breaking up the sludge from the ground and pulling it out to be put in the truck. It looks like real grunt work.

  The sludge pulsates a bright green at its very edges as it touches new earth. The deeper you look into the zone, the darker it gets. It become a dark purple after a few yards.

  Dad walks up to one of the workers standing on the edge. The guy isn’t dressed like the others. He has a full hazsuit on. Covering him from his head to his feet in bright yellow, plastic protection. He turns around and I can see him smile as the speaker on his chest crackles.