Sunscorched

by Jen Crane

  The grocer’s eyes were calculating as he led Norman to an office in the back. The second the door closed, he turned on him. “What do you mean, ‘takeout’?”

  “You know exactly what I mean,” Norman said with more confidence than he felt.

  “I know what takeout is, sure.” Nate nodded, but wouldn’t meet Norman’s eyes. “But what do you know about it?”

  “I know it’s been a substantial source of income for you for the last five years, at least. I know there’s a whole lot of inventory unaccounted for in your storefront sales. A whole lot. And I know from receipts that some of that inventory is products a grocery store like yours has no business keeping in stock, nor have I ever seen it here. Barrels of water, pallets of non-perishables. Survival-type things. You got some of that in the store, sure, but not the amount you’ve been buying.”

  “Well, so?” Nate said. “Just because you’re my accountant doesn’t mean you have to know every detail of my business dealings. Some things are my business alone.”

  “I understand that.” Norman’s voice was strained as he ran a hand through his hair. “And I’m not here to point fingers.”

  “Then why are you here?” Nate tapped the pads of his fingers on the top of the desk.

  “We’ve been friends for, what, fifteen years? You know what my family has been through—what the last sunscorch did to Nori.” Norman’s voice cracked as he said, “What it did to the babies.” He ran a fist high over both cheeks and cleared his throat. “Nori can’t make it through another one. Her health…she can’t stand the sun as it is now. She was bedridden for days from a few seconds at dawn. I thought the infection would take her, if the burns didn’t, but she fought through it. She sleeps most days. She’s depressed.”

  Nate sighed and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Norm. I didn’t know she’d gotten so bad.”

  He nodded, pausing before he spoke again. “Every day there’s less dark. Less time my baby can feel normal, that she doesn’t hurt. She doesn’t complain much, but I know the sunlight kills her no matter how we shield her from it. And with the sunscorch coming…”

  “What do you want me to do, Norm?” Nate stood from the desk chair to put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “What can I do?”

  “Let us come with you,” he pleaded and his eyes burned with unshed tears.

  Nate squinted. “Come with me where?”

  “Wherever you’re going. I know you’re planning for something, that you’re stockpiling all these supplies somewhere. You’ve moved enough inventory to live for years. Let us come. I’ve got a little money saved up, and it’s yours. Just let us come, too.”

  Nate shook his head at his friend, and his eyes held such pity. “You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t— I mean, I have a few things set back for me and Deanna and the kids, but it’s not what you think. Our plan is to stay home. We can’t stay here at the store—it’ll be looted first. We’re going to board the windows and doors and stay in our basement.”

  Norman lost his battle with self-control. “Don’t lie to me! I know you’ve got food, and lantern fuel, and water, and God knows what else stored somewhere for just such a time. Are you going to turn me away? Are you going to turn Nori away? She won’t survive, Nate. She won’t survive unless I get her underground.”

  Nate closed his eyes and his shoulders sagged. “It’s not what you think, Norm.”

  “Well, what is it? If you know something, help me. Help me save the only child I have left.”

  8

  Going Underground

  Norman stood near the rusty chain link fence with his family at his side. Darkness had fallen forty minutes before, which meant the man they were set to meet was thirty minutes late.

  “What exactly did Nate say?” Ana's shaky voice betrayed her fear. “Who is it we’re meeting? Does he have a place for us to stay?”

  Norman didn’t answer, but that didn’t stop his wife’s nervous rambling.

  “How will we find food? I only had room to bring protein bars. Where exactly are we going?” She looked up when she finally realized her questions had gone unanswered. “Norm?”

  His nerves were shot, and her barrage of questions didn’t help. “I know next to nothing, just like you. Nate arranged everything with his contact, the man he orders all the extra supplies for. Supposedly, he runs some sort of underground network of old doomsday preppers. Nate said he’d take us on for a few days for the right price.”

  “This whole thing makes me nervous,” Ana said and fidgeted with her shoulder bag. “Does Nate trust him?”

  “It’s not like we have a lot of options,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can to get us all through the next week. And the best plan I can come up with is getting Nori as far underground as possible before the scorch hits.”

  “Yes, I know.” Ana said as she surveyed the old piles of debris around them. “I know you are.”

  Nori, who’d been unusually quiet, whipped her head toward a noise at the edge of a collapsed building nearby. “What was that?”

  Norman stepped forward, putting himself between the noise and his wife and daughter. “Hello? Who’s there?”

  A figure emerged from the shadows, oozing from the night itself. Had he been there the whole time?

  “You Chisholm?” The man’s voice was like rocks rubbing together.

  Norm stepped forward, his movements tense and jerky with nerves. They had a lot to lose. “Norman Chisholm. Are you Barker?”

  The man nodded. Though he moved toward them, Norman couldn’t distinguish much more about him. His clothes and hair were dark. His skin was dirty, tarnished almost, with a dark gray dirt.

  “I’m doin’ this as a favor to Nate,” the man croaked. “Well, less a favor than a necessity to keep my supply movin’. I’m not happy about it, so let’s get this over with.” He eyed first Norman, and then his wife and daughter. “Where’s the money? Which one of you’s goin’?”

  “Which one?” Norman cocked his head. “The three of us. All of us.”

  “That wasn’t the deal. I’m takin’ one. A girl, he said.”

  “No,” Norman said at the same time Ana whined, “Norman?”

  “No,” Norman repeated. “It’s all or none. We all have to go.”

  The filthy man—Barker—opened his mouth to reveal pink lips under the smudges. Pink lips, gums, and no teeth. “Suit you’self,” he spat. “No skin off my back. Didn’t want stowaways no way.” He turned without another word and bled into the night.

  “Wait!” Norman scurried forward. “Please,” he said. “Wait.”

  Though the man didn’t re-emerge, his gravelly voice slithered through the darkness. “Change your mind?”

  “I’ve got this money. Plenty of money.” Norman thrust wads of cash in his direction. “Take the three of us. Please.”

  “No can do.” The man slid into sight again and produced a cigar from his shirt pocket. He lit it, pulling air into his mouth through toothless gums. “Only one passenger ’board this train. Take it or leave it.”

  “But my daughter…she has to go, and she’s not old enough to go alone. Please. Let one of us go with her.”

  The man threw a smoking match to the ground and pressed it into the soil with thick boots. “What part of ‘one’ don’t you understand? Now, I’m startin’ to lose my patience. You people decide who’s goin’ in the next three minutes, or I’m goin’ back alone.”

  Ana whimpered, but Nori stood still and quiet.

  “Just—just give us a moment.” Norman pulled his wife and daughter aside. “It’s just until after the sunscorch.”

  Ana wheeled toward him, disbelief distorting her fine features. “Surely you’re not considering sending her alone. Tell me you’re not thinking that, Norman.”

  “There’s no other way!” His words were angry, loud. “I’ve been over every scenario I know, Ana, and this is all we have. Tell me a better plan, and I’ll follow it. Tell me anything else that might save our daughter.”
r />   She held his gaze, angry tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks.

  Norman’s jaws clenched painfully. “There’s no other way. This is life or death, and you know it. We know it all too well.”

  “But we don’t know anything about this guy or where he’d take her,” Ana said. “He could be a thief or a psychopath, for all we know. Both, by the looks of him.”

  “Nate vouched for him,” Norman replied. “He’s done business with him for years. He knows how to find him, how to contact him. It’ll be fine.” His voice was softer, resigned when he said, “It’s our only shot, Ana.”

  “He’s right, Mom.” Nori had been so silent he’d forgotten she was there. “There’s no other way. And it’s just for a week or so. Just until the scorch passes. I’ll be fine,” she said. “I mean, it’s risky, but it beats burning to death in a fiery apocalypse.”

  Norman flinched at the images Nori’s words evoked, and the color drained from her face. Her eyes shot wildly between his and her mother’s, the regret clear.

  “You folks in or out?” Barker fell into a coughing fit, ultimately spitting something foul onto the ground. “Ain’t got all night.”

  “In,” Nori called, hitching her backpack over a shoulder. She set her feet wide as she faced him and her mother. “I’m going,” she said. “I have to. Is this,” she waved her hand at Barker, “whole thing ideal? No. But it’s necessary. It’s what I’ve got to do to survive. I’m smart, Mom. I’m tough. I’ve got food and supplies. And it’s just for a little while.”

  Ana nodded, wiping beneath her eyes. “No, I know. I just…” She looked away, unable to finish the thought.

  Norman squeezed his wife’s hand and led her toward Barker as Nori marched stoically beside them.

  “My daughter is in the most danger,” he said. “She’ll be the one to go, but under one condition. You must care for her like she’s your own. And you must meet us back here, at this location, at nightfall one week after the sunscorch. The fires will have died down by then, and any lingering risk of exposure will be gone.”

  Barker pulled the cigar from his lips and pointed it at Norman. “You seem to be operatin’ under a misunderstanding. I ain’t takin’ no one to raise. What I’m offerin’ is gettin’ her underground. She wants to meet you at the Surface, that’s fine with me.”

  “But where will she go? How will she find shelter?” Ana's voice was pitched high with emotion.

  “I’ll give ’er the lay of the land,” Barker said. “Tell her what’s what. She’s a big girl. She’ll either make it,” he put the cigar back between his gums and mumbled past it, “or she won’t.”

  “No, no, no,” Ana chanted as the old man cackled. “I don’t like this. I don’t like it one bit.”

  Norm looked at his daughter, at the old man, and back at his wife. Then, looking down at his hands, he whispered, “You have to go.”

  “I know.” She stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for trusting me, Dad.”

  Ana wrapped her arms around Nori and held on. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “Sorry this is the only way, that you have to do it alone, that it’s even necessary in the first place.” She drew a deep breath and stood back from Nori, still clenching her hands. “I know you’ll be so careful, so brave.”

  “I will, Mom. And hey,” she paused. “I’ve got one advantage. I can see.” Nori’s tight smile was forced. “I’ll meet you two right back here a week after the scorch.”

  Norman nodded, unable to speak. If he opened his mouth again, he might scream for her to come back, and that wouldn’t keep her alive.

  “Let’s do this,” Nori said to the old man and raised a hand to them in farewell.

  Norman clutched his wife’s shoulder with one hand and waved goodbye with the other, his arm extended long after she’d disappeared into the night.

  9

  Barker's Betrayal

  “Where are you taking me?” Nori asked a few minutes after she’d parted with her parents. She trudged behind the old man, thankful she’d worn hiking boots even though they made her feet sweat.

  “Subterranean,” he said without looking back at her.

  “How will I find my way back?”

  “Beats me.”

  “Well, can you help me draw a map or something?” she asked. “What if I get lost?”

  Barker did turn then, and the cold-blooded look in his eyes made Nori back up a step. “Listen, kid. What happens to you after we get underground doesn’t concern me. I made a deal with Nate, and I’ll keep my end of it. I promised to get you underground, and I will. Now, give me that money and put this on or we’re not goin’ any farther.”

  Nori balked. “A blindfold? What for?”

  “Protection. You think I’m gonna show you the way in here so you can bring back all your pasty friends? You people really are stupid.” His lip curled in disgust. “Put it on.”

  Nori tied the filthy rag around her head and tried not to think about where it had been. Like him, it was covered in gray soot and smelled of sweat.

  “The money?” Barker grunted.

  Nori fished out half of what her father had given her before they separated, and left the other half in the pocket of her jeans.

  “Where’s the rest?” he growled.

  “That’s my portion,” she said. “Even through the blindfold, she could sense his extreme displeasure.

  “The price I gave was for you alone. This ain’t enough. Either fork over all of it, or stay aboveground and melt.”

  Nori had no choice and she jerked the remaining bills from her pocket. Barker grabbed her wrist and pulled the cash from her fingers, grunting his approval.

  “This way,” he said.

  “I can’t see where I’m going,” she complained. “I’m afraid I’ll fall.”

  “Best stay close, then. And pick up your feet. I’ll tell you when there’s a step.”

  Nori ground her teeth and crept forward, hands stretched out in front of her. She was thankful her father had thought to put at least some of the money in her shoe.

  “Are we getting close?” Nori pushed herself upright with a groan after the third fall. The last one had left the palm of one hand bloody, she was sure of it. She wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans and moved blindly forward.

  “A mite farther. Then we go down.”

  Nori didn’t speak, but followed the old man, her hands outstretched to protect against another fall. Her heart ached for her parents already. They were probably worrying themselves sick on the way home without her, her mother a wreck and her father trying to control his own emotions and consoling her. Tears fell from Nori’s eyes, but were soaked up by the dirty cotton tied around her head, as if they’d never fallen at all.

  “Now we go down,” Barker finally said.

  As their angle changed, Nori shifted her weight, pulling her shoulders back and reaching out with her toes at times to explore before taking full steps. Barker wasn’t leading her down steps, but over the rough terrain of a rocky slope. Had they gone down the side of a mountain? No—there wasn’t a mountain nearby. How could they be going so far down? Where were they?

  With her eyes covered, Nori’s remaining senses worked overtime. The wind had stopped, and something smelled faintly moldy, like the stale air in a basement. Had he taken her to a bunker somewhere? Did they know she was coming? What if they were hostile? What if they wouldn’t let her stay? Lost in thought, Nori nearly jumped from her skin at a loud metal clanging. The slow creak that followed made her think a metal door had been opened, but she couldn’t be sure.

  “Through here,” Barker said, pushing down on her shoulder. “Duck your head.”

  She followed his orders, hunching her shoulders and head, inching toward the sound she’d heard. As she crept forward, the air pressure changed. The space around her became quieter, but also magnified. Some kind of tunnel or passageway? The air smelled different, too. Stale. Not bad, necessarily, just damp.

  “All right,�
�� Barker said. “No chance you’ll find the way in now.” He pulled on the blindfold, taking with it several dark hairs still attached to Nori’s head.

  She rubbed the tender spots and then her eyes. The tunnel was pitch black. Not a single lantern or light showed the way. And yet, she could see. At home, it was hard to achieve total darkness. Even at nightfall, some light remained. But this, this was darkness. She smiled in spite of her dicey situation, in spite of her perilous future. She could see. And it didn’t hurt.

  Barker slipped a headlamp onto his forehead and switched it on, taking off without a word. Focused away from her, the beam of light reduced her vision a bit, but not enough to matter. Nori adjusted her backpack and trudged after him.

  At first, she thought the constant low roar was nothing, just the background noise of being underground. But then a thought struck her.

  “Is that— Do I hear water?”

  Barker stopped mid-step, his body rigid. He didn’t turn to face her; he didn’t answer. After a few seconds, he simply stalked forward again.

  Nori knew better than to ask twice. His reaction suggested she was right anyway. She filed that, and the round shape of the metal door they’d come through, away for future use. They might be the only clues she’d have to get back to her parents.

  As she followed Barker deeper and deeper into the tunnel—and underground—the temperature changed. It was much cooler in the depths of the passage. It had been so long since she was anything but hot. Air conditioners could only do so much when temperatures rose into the 130s, even on solar power. The air was moist, too, not the blistering arid heat she was used to. She was energized, lighter. Despite her uncertain future, her lips pulled into a smile. She liked the underground…so far, anyway.

  Nori sped up to walk alongside Barker. When she reached him, he turned and snarled, and his headlamp shined into her eyes. Nori turned her head reflexively, blinking to regain her sight.