After The End

by Jamie Campbell

“I’ve been trying to get a signal but so far it’s only getting static.”

  “How are the batteries still charged?”

  He grins as if he knows a big secret. “It’s solar powered. I guess they knew batteries wouldn’t last too long all the way out here. It’s genius, when you think about it.”

  I don’t know about that, but it is very practical. “It will only work if there is someone else broadcasting on the radio waves, right?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I’m not exactly an expert, it’s the first one I’ve ever seen,” he admits. “But I’ll scan through all the channels and see if—”

  Garlind is interrupted as a loud noise comes through the radio. He stops fiddling with the dial as we listen. A man’s voice comes through the box. It’s not all that clear but the signal is strong enough to make out what he is saying.

  “This is an emergency broadcast. You have to hide from them. They are everywhere and extremely dangerous. If you see an alien, run for your life. I’m not joking and this is not a hoax.”

  Our eyes are wide as they meet. Other people know about the aliens. And they know enough to warn everybody about them.

  “Do you know what this means?” I ask, trying to clamp down on my excitement. I’ve been disappointed once, I’m not going to let my hopes soar too high again.

  “What?”

  “If they know enough to warn us and radio out this message, they might be part of the government. There might be a whole part of this country that is actually functioning,” I reply.

  Garlind’s expression doesn’t change. I have no idea what he’s thinking right now. “We should tell the others about this.”

  I agree and we rush inside to gather everyone. They all trudge out to listen to the radio. The message loops around on itself a few times before Garlind switches it off.

  Nobody says a word for a long time.

  Sarah, as usual, is the first to speak. “So what?”

  “There might be humans out there that can help us. They might be part of the government,” I tell her and the others. “If we know where they are broadcasting from, we can find them. There has to be safety in numbers against the aliens.”

  I can’t work out why everybody isn’t as excited about this as I am. I understand people don’t want to get their hopes up, but there is so little that we can get excited about that every little thing should be celebrated.

  “Garlind?” I prompt, trying to find someone to back me up.

  He turns off the radio and holds it against him. “They might be able to help us. The guy sounds like an adult. If anything, he might be better equipped to deal with everything than we are.”

  Lincoln is the next to speak. “I guess it could be worth a shot. But we have no idea where this guy could be. He could literally be anywhere in the country.”

  “Or even the world,” Tabitha adds.

  “No.” I shake my head, they aren’t understanding me. “Radio waves can’t travel great distances. They are fairly localized. If we can hear the signal, then they can’t be that far away.”

  “The government used to be headed by a president. He was in Washington DC, right?” Rhys asks. “Could the radio waves come that far?”

  “Maybe,” I offer. If my dad was here, he’d know exactly what the range is. He would be able to answer without hesitation. I wish I was able to better remember everything he ever taught me. It feels like I can only recall snippets here and there.

  “Would the president still be in Washington DC?” Tabitha asks. I can tell from the tone of her voice that she’s skeptical of the whole thing.

  “They might have had a secret bunker for him to hide in,” Rhys replies. It sounds like he’s on my side. “They would have had a contingency for a disaster like the meteorite, right? They wouldn’t have just let him die like everyone else.”

  “Well?” Lincoln asks, addressing all of us. “What do you think? Should we give Washington a shot?”

  “I think we should,” I say first. There is a little flicker of hope inside me and I am going to clutch it with both hands. It’s better than roaming the country randomly for the rest of our lives.

  Lincoln looks at everyone individually, one by one. He’s silently asking for their decision. Garlind looks at me before he says, “I’m in. I’ve never seen our country’s capital. It might be fun to see all the monuments—if they’re still standing.”

  “I don’t know about this,” Tabitha says.

  “Let’s just go,” Sarah whines. Always the impatient one. If she’s standing still for more than two minutes, the boredom drives her crazy.

  “I’m in,” Rhys replies when the attention is turned on him.

  Lincoln shoves his hands into his pockets. “Okay, then. We’ll head to Washington DC. But first, we need to find supplies. We’ll continue to head up the mountain and check it out. Then we’ll continue on.”

  Nobody argues with him. Everybody is well aware that we need supplies more than anything else. Our food isn’t going to last forever and Sarah can’t spare the time to hunt every day.

  With the decision made, we head back inside the cabin and pack up our things. I hope we find more hiking rest stops along our journey, they are far more comfortable than sleeping outside. Plus, it’s nice not having to worry about being caught out in the rain.

  Lincoln heads our group back into the forest and upwards over the mountain. My thighs are still sore from yesterday’s trek but it can’t be helped. Maybe by the time we get to the other side of the range, I’ll be used to constantly walking uphill. It would be nice not to feel the burn anymore.

  Sarah appears beside me, questions burning away in her expression. “What’s a government?”

  Sometimes it’s easy to forget she’s so young and hasn’t learned much apart from survival skills. I’m more than happy to explain things to her. “It’s an organization that runs a country. They look after things like laws and run schools and hospitals. They work for the community.”

  “And the president is the boss of them all?”

  “Yeah. The president is elected by the people and helps shape the country. There’s only ever been male presidents in the U.S.”

  “Why did he let the meteorite hit and kill everyone?” she asks, in the most innocent of ways.

  “I guess he didn’t know how to stop it.”

  She looks down and frowns. “Maybe he should have tried harder.”

  “I’m sure he did everything he could,” I assure her and hope I’m not telling a lie. I would like to think the safety of his people was in the forefront of his mind and not his own survival. My parents said it was chaos at the time and nobody had any answers. At the end of the day, it was up to individuals to find a way to stay alive.

  “What about if we get to Washington and there is nobody there?” she asks.

  “I guess we find somewhere else to go.”

  She nods with acceptance. I’m never going to have all the answers for her. None of us know what is ahead of us. All we can hope is that one day, we’ll find a way to make our lives easier. They can hardly get any worse.

  Sarah wanders away and starts a conversation with Rhys. She’s taken to him like a big brother and he seems to always have time for her. I’m glad she’s getting used to being part of a group. She was alone for so long I feared she wouldn’t get along with everyone. It seems quite the opposite.

  We continue our climb all day and only stop once to eat lunch. No more rest cabins appear in our pathway. Our view is a constant stream of trees and shrubs. Every one of them looks the same as the last.

  Thank goodness Lincoln knows where we’re going.

  When the first house comes into view, I’m ready to drop and sleep for a million years. Soon, we’re walking on what used to be a road that leads to a small village.

  The houses here are small but cute. They have roofs that slope and are mainly made from wood. The paint has mostly flaked off but a few patches show what color they used to be. I think I would like this place i
n its heyday.

  “Split up and check each place for items we can salvage,” Lincoln barks. He immediately veers off and takes the first house. The rest of us follow his orders and find a house of our own to search.

  I take the third one in the street. It’s a single floor dwelling with a small porch out the front. The door is locked tight with absolutely no give. I forage around until I find a rock and smash the window nearest the lock. There is just enough room for me to reach inside and turn the handle.

  The house seems completely untouched. White sheets cover all the furniture, like the owner expected to return one day and didn’t want their things ruined in the meantime.

  Like all the places I visit, I wonder who used to live here. I gather clues of their lives that paint a picture for who they might have been. In this house, I think it was a man and a woman with no children. They were young, the décor looks modern and stylish underneath the sheets.

  No toys litter the floor. No family portraits hang on the walls. This was a couple that looked after their possessions and probably enjoyed the fresh air of the mountain. They would hike together on the weekends and then have cozy dinners around the kitchen table.

  This couple probably retreated to a place down from the mountain range before the meteorite struck. Being so high up, they might have thought it was more dangerous being on the mountain. So they packed up everything they owned and locked their house tightly.

  They probably didn’t live much longer than that. They would have either had to find a bunker or place far underground to wait out the end of the world. As we now know, taking a Generation Ship wouldn’t have been an option.

  I feel really sorry for the owners of this house. I’m sure they were full of optimism and the last thing they wanted to do was leave. They cared about their home and all the things in it, they lovingly cared for it all. Little did they know they would never see it again.

  Despite the picture I have conjured in my mind, I still have to rifle through all their precious things and find things to steal. I know it’s technically not stealing because they’ve long abandoned their stuff, but that doesn’t make me feel any less of a thief.

  When I open their kitchen cupboards and take anything that looks like it might be okay, I make sure not to make a mess That is the concession I give to these people long gone. I will not make a mess of their lovingly kept home.

  I stalk through all the rooms as quickly as I can. There is more than just this house that I need to steal from today. I go through the two bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. I take a few warm sweaters that haven’t been eaten by moths and shove them in my backpack.

  For some reason, it feels right to lock the door behind me. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about the broken window. Hopefully they’ll forgive me for that.

  I catch a glimpse of Tabitha as she moves onto the next house. I take the one farther down the road and continue my search. The images of the occupants stir in my mind once more. This home belonged to a single mother, I’m sure of it. There are kids toys everywhere and the only people in the faded photographs are of a woman and two children—a boy and a girl.

  Her life was probably chaotic as she tried to fit everything in. Working during the day while the kids were at school and rushing home afterwards to pick them up and then cook dinner. She probably didn’t have time to worry about the impending meteorite.

  There is nothing much to take from here except some cigarette lighters. Not all of us can start fires from two sticks like Sarah can. The rest of us need help.

  The six of us work methodically down the street until we’re smack bang in the middle of the village. There are only a few stores which don’t yield very much. It looks like they sold out of all their stock before people disappeared.

  I find Garlind sitting in the cab of a huge truck after I’m finished searching. I climb into the passenger seat and marvel at how high up we are. The truck must have been used for haulage of goods. It wouldn’t have been practical for anything else.

  “I think I can get this radio working,” he says as he fiddles with knobs and buttons on the dashboard. It all looks confusing to me. How did they know which dial did what?

  “Have you ever tried driving?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “Nah, never found a car with enough gas to make it go.”

  “This truck would take a heck of a lot of gas.”

  “Sure would.”

  For the record, I’ve never tried driving either. Garlind knows that already. He has known me the entire time I’ve been out of the bunker. I’m sure if I had tried driving, he would have been the one to teach me how to do it.

  Static white noise suddenly booms from the truck’s speakers and gives me a heart attack. I cover my ears with my hands while Garlind quickly turns the knob to make it quieter. I only remove my hands when I’m certain I won’t be deafened again.

  The static buzz continues as he twists the dial. The volume changes but still remains at a bearable level. Garlind is a picture of concentration with his brows furrowed and his lips pursed. I want to ask him a bunch more questions about the radio and the truck and the village but don’t want to interrupt him.

  The buzzing turns into a voice.

  We exchange a look as we struggle to listen. Garlind moves the dial around some more until it becomes clear.

  The voice is male and is the same one we heard this morning. He’s repeating the same message.

  “This is an emergency broadcast. You have to hide from them. They are everywhere and extremely dangerous. If you see an alien, run for your life. I’m not joking and this is not a hoax.”

  The signal is much stronger here, I assume because we’re on the top of the mountain range. There is little to interfere with the radio waves. The man’s voice is strained, like he’s speaking in a hurry. Is he on the run? Perhaps he’s hiding from the aliens and he has to get his message out before they capture him?

  We listen to the message a few more times but it never alters. It has to be a recording. I hope the man is still alive and the aliens haven’t got to him. If he’s smart enough to get the radio working, surely he’s smart enough to hide too.

  Garlind picks up a little box attached to the dashboard. A curly cord keeps it attached to the radio. My father told me about these things. What were they called? They were a way for truck drivers to communicate with each other through the radio.

  He presses a button on the side and speaks into the little black box. “Is anyone out there?” He releases the button and waits. Only static crackles in the silence.

  He does this several more times before replacing the box in its little hook. His head sags with defeat. I guess he was hoping someone would answer his call.

  “It doesn’t mean nobody is out there,” I point out. “They might be listening just like we are but don’t know how to respond.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” he replies, but I don’t think he believes me. I’m not used to seeing him so deflated. Garlind is normally so full of optimism that it borders on annoying. Charleston changed him irrevocably and it’s just one more reason why I hate the aliens invading our country.

  “Ships!” Rhys yells from outside.

  Garlind and I both look through the dirty window of the truck and search the sky. It only takes a few seconds for us to see the ships. Nothing else can make me go as cold as ice as seeing several of the alien ships in the sky.

  Chapter 4

  “Get under the truck. Now!” Garlind urges. He slides from the cabin a moment later.

  I open the door and hop down onto the ground. I drop to my hands and knees and crawl underneath the huge truck. There is plenty of room but it feels too open. What if the aliens decide to bomb the truck? No amount of steel could stop the impact from reaching us.

  Remembering what they did to the wooden cabin reminds me how dangerous they can be to everyone on the ground. All they have to do is send out a weapon and we will be obliterated.

  I take
my eyes away from Garlind and look outwards. I’m quick enough to catch a glimpse of Sarah as she goes inside one of the stores. I want to yell at her to get out and hide in the trees outside instead. The buildings can become tinder boxes all too easily.

  My heart thrums in my ears as it pounds a fast beat in my chest. All I can do is wait and hope the aliens haven’t seen us. Like always, they are heading south. I’ve never seen one going in the opposite direction. Do they just constantly circle the globe? Or am I seeing a different one each and every time?

  They are practically soundless as they move. I can’t see the sky so I have no idea how many there are or if they’ve gone yet. I can only let my imagination fill in the blanks and it’s never a pretty picture. I always go to the worst-case scenario which only makes things worse.

  Garlind covers my hand with his own. Instantly, I feel just that little bit better. At least we’re together. If the truck gets bombed, we’ll both go to Heaven at the same time. Nothing like having a travel buddy.

  The ground is cold beneath me. The wild foliage hasn’t claimed the town yet. All the tires on the truck have deflated, leaving it lower than it would have been before the world ended. I briefly wonder what happened to the driver before reverting back to panic mode.

  At any moment, I expect to feel the impact of the bomb. Maybe it won’t be the truck that gets hit, but it could very well be any of the surrounding buildings. The aliens don’t care. They have no need for any of this place.

  The seconds tick by painfully slow.

  Over Garlind’s shoulder I can see Lincoln emerge from underneath a bench seat. It wasn’t the greatest place to hide but I guess it did the job. He looks up at the sky and turns in all directions.

  “It’s clear out here,” he yells. “They’re gone.”

  A whoosh of air whistles out of my lungs. “Thank goodness.”

  Garlind squeezes my hand before crawling out. I roll over and climb out the opposite side. I immediately check the sky, just to make sure. It seems clear. Not even clouds linger against the vast blue expanse.

  I always feel like I won the lottery when the ships are gone. I can live for a little bit longer. Until the next lot of ships come by.