by Ryan King
Chapter 2 – Tipping Point
Nathan looked out the grimy window at a dingy snowy wasteland. Joshua was right about the bodies attracting the wild dogs, but that was not all bad. He worried less about someone sneaking up on them with several dozen ravenous, desperate dogs roaming the area. Being forced to stay put for five days also allowed Bethany time to recover and gain strength.
There were no signs of the dogs this morning though. Four bodies only fed them for so long. Maybe we should move on, he thought. We’re almost out of food anyway. Never in his life had cold, hunger and fear been such constant and faithful companions, but reality had shrunk to a small world of fundamental and basic necessities. Warmth, sleep, food, life.
He wondered at how quickly everything came apart. Nathan wasn’t exactly certain what led to the end of the world. It was possible this phrase was even an exaggeration. After all, lots of people were still alive and the world kept turning, but Nathan couldn’t help thinking of it in those terms. The 'end of the world' seemed apt and had arrived without fanfare or warning.
Three months ago, Nathan woke early in the morning to the worried whine of their shepherd Daisy in their home on Fort Meade Army Post in Maryland. She stared at him pensively like she needed to go outside. Strange light cast eerily moving shadows through the curtains and he thought he must have overslept. The alarm clock flashed a red 12:00 over and over. Nathan sat up and swung his feet out of the covers putting his hand comfortingly on Daisy’s head, but she crawled under the bed. He bent over to peer after her as a giant blast rocked the house knocking him to the floor. Glass shattered, shelves lost their contents, and car alarms sounded up and down the street. He lay still on the floor before climbing to the window and was stunned by the nightmarish scene.
He counted the expanding tops of three bright mushroom clouds rising over what must be D.C. in the southeast and two over Baltimore in the northeast. From deep in his subconscious, his brain retrieved a distant memory of a military class on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. He continued to stare outside for a few moments as that clinical information briefing replayed in his mind along with visions of blind Hiroshima survivors. He returned to himself jerking his head away to prevent frying his retinas. Even so, he could see the outlines of those hellish clouds everywhere he looked. At least I'm not blind, he thought.
He checked his watch to mark the time and then started yelling for Beth and the boys to get up while he got dressed quickly. Bethany, ever the deep sleeper, peered at him confused and groggily rubbing her eyes. He’d told her countless times in jest that she could sleep through an earthquake.
“Honey, you have to get up now! We don’t have much time!” explained Nathan nearly frantic. “Get dressed and start filling up anything you can find with water and put it in the basement.”
“What?” she said confused but smiling in anticipation of a punch-line. Nathan took a moment to notice how beautiful she was, even at a time like this. The malignant light outside highlighted her long dark hair, olive skin, and deep brown eyes.
“Just do it, baby! Please!” yelled Nathan as he ran down the hall. Another series of quakes shook the house knocking him to the floor and he heard a crash downstairs. He struggled up off the carpet and burst into his sons’ room.
The boys were standing together looking out the window. “Don’t look!” Nathan screamed as he grabbed their shoulders pulling them back. They stared at him with wide eyes. “Help you mother get food and water into the basement," he told them. "Also grab pillows and blankets. We’re going to be there awhile. Move! Fast!”
Nathan ran to the hallway gun case which was leaning precariously and grabbed everything he could carry downstairs into the basement. Once there, he picked up several pieces of luggage and took them back upstairs to find the boys and Beth at the window again. Nathan thought he was going to lose his mind.
“God Damn It!” he howled at them.
They all turned to him with looks of confusion and horror. “What is going on?” asked Bethany. Nathan knew he would have to explain if he wanted them to move with any sense of urgency. He took a deep breath.
“It looks like three nuclear bombs have gone off in Washington and at least two in Baltimore. We’re fifty miles from Washington and almost forty from Baltimore, but those are probably ten or twenty kiloton nukes. We’ve already been irradiated by the initial blast of gamma rays, and there’s nothing we can do about that, but we have to limit our exposure from now on if we want to survive. Those are fallout plumes you see rising into the air. In about fifteen minutes, thirty at the most, they’re going to start falling to the ground and more radiation particles will come down on top of us. If we aren’t protected when that happens…we’re dead.” The room was silent. “I know this is hard, but we only have one choice and that is to ride this out underground where there is some protection…but, we have to move fast!”
Bethany was the first to break the paralysis by grabbing a suitcase from Nathan’s feet and running downstairs. Nathan threw several other pieces of luggage to the boys and followed Bethany with a duffle bag. He went out to the garage and began tossing in items he thought would be useful: duct tape, tools, batteries, flashlights, ammo, candles, and plastic tarps. He saw two large bags of dog food and after slinging the duffle across his body, picked the bags up on his shoulders. Nathan knew adrenaline was running through him now and that he’d likely be sore if he survived. Moving towards the basement he yelled upstairs, “Boys, get Daisy, she’s under the bed!”
Nathan kicked the duffle and the two bags of dog food down the basement stairs and looked over to see Bethany stacking canned goods neatly into a nearly full box. He walked over, picked up the box and heaved it down the stairs. “Water, get water!” he yelled as he ran upstairs to find the boys. He met them coming down. David was first with bags stuffed full of clothes and blankets. Joshua came next with Daisy in his arms and a full backpack on his back. “Help your mother with water, fill any jug or container you can find and move, we’re almost out of time.”
Nathan looked at his watch. It seemed only moments since the blasts, but he was stunned to see nearly twelve minutes had passed. He turned to go back down the stairs but saw a portable radio on top of a book shelf. He snatched it up and leaped down the stairs three at a time to the ground level.
“That’s enough, let’s go. Come on, let’s go,” said Nathan breathlessly.
Bethany and the boys filed downstairs into the cool, darkness of the basement. Nathan picked up one of the rolls of duct tape and began sealing the edges of the door leading upstairs. He then went downstairs and sealed the air vents. Bethany and the boys were watching him and not moving. What now? he thought.
He scanned the room and saw their heavy ping pong table in the center of the room. “Here, help me,” he said as they pushed it into the corner of the room. He stacked their provisions and other heavy boxes and cases around the edge of the table and piled old boxes on top of it. “Put the bedding under the table, this is where we’re going to live.”
“How long?” asked David.
“I don’t know,” answered Nathan truthfully. “As long as we can, I guess.”
They settled down under the table close to each other, still now but with their hearts pounding in their ears. Nathan felt worried looks on him and wished he could manage some encouragement, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Daisy whined and he patted her head.
At that moment, the power went out and the world was dark.