AWOL: A Character Lost

by Anthony Renfro

  He leaned over and rubbed his legs. They were aching and in desperate need of a good run. He felt like he hadn’t run in a very long time.

  Why?

  Why hadn’t he run in so long, when he rarely missed a day?

  Something about that dream he couldn’t remember, something hidden in those dream fragments, something there had caused his lapse in running; but he was blank when it came to the reason why.

  He could hear his boys talking down the hall, so that pushed him back into father mode. He decided to leave the mirror and go down to check on them, but something stopped him again; and it wasn’t the mirror this time. It was something else.

  He walked over to a small picture that was sitting on a nearby table. He picked it up and looked at it. The image was an older photograph taken some time back in his childhood – the seventies, ugliest decade for mankind. In this picture, he was being held by his grandfather, and they were standing outside a small cabin. For some reason this cabin meant something to him, something about the dream he woke up from involved this cabin, but again, blank was the answer when he tried to remember anything about it. He held the picture a moment longer before sitting it back down. His eyes found his wallet lying beside his keys. He picked up this brown leather package, dusted off the dust, and opened it. He thumbed through it – mostly pictures of his family, useless credit cards, a few dollars, and a driver’s license. He took out the license and looked at it, held the square piece of yellowed plastic in his hand. All of the stuff was there – name Danny Tall, height 5’8, eye color brown. He also noticed that he was an organ donor with a class C license, all typical stuff.

  He put the plastic thing back in its holder and made his feet move to the end of the hall where his boys were talking behind a closed bedroom door. Before going into the room, he checked a small thermostat like instrument attached to the interior wall. This instrument was a small white square box about 12 inches high and 12 inches wide. It had three small lights on it, green, yellow, and red along with a button that said: PANIC! Below this PANIC! button was a small speaker, which would sound an alarm if the lights decided to shift from green to yellow. This was supposed to give you enough time to get suited up before the red button started to flash; supposed to, though it had never been tested in this house.

  Beside this box was a big cabinet that held four hazmat suits, two adult sizes and two kid sizes. There were four sets of gloves, four sets of boots, four bottles of air, and four breathing tubes each attached to masks, just in case that PANIC! button needed to be punched. Luckily the green light was flashing, which meant the air inside the house was still clean, everything was holding tight.

  While he stood there, he tried not to think about the horror stories he had heard concerning homes that had lost their protective seal. Nuclear air can do a number on the human system, because we were never meant to live in air that toxic.

  He turned away from the instrument panel and knocked on the door, which lead into Johnny’s room. When he got the go ahead, he entered.

  The room held a single bed with Batman sheets and pillowcases, posters on the walls of favorite super-heroes and movies, a desk with a chair, a TV, DVD player, and a shelf full of books, DVD movies, and CD’s. Johnny, though young, hadn’t adopted the download philosophy like peers his age, or his brother for that matter. He liked to keep it old school.

  Danny looked at Johnny and Michael as they sat on the bed talking. It warmed his heart to see them sitting there. Sometimes the greatest tragedies can do the best of things, so was the case for his two sons.

  Johnny was four inches shorter than his brother, standing five feet tall while his brother Michael stood about five foot four. They both had dark hair like their dad, and it was long and shaggy. Both boys were in pretty good physical shape, but it was Johnny who had taken to running. Michael, on the other hand, didn’t care much for that activity. He spent most of his time playing video games.

  The boys looked up at their dad who had turned to look at the two windows in the room. He walked over and checked the special plastic covering them. It was a space age plastic that covered the windows without blocking the light or the night. You could still see the world outside, so you didn’t feel like you were trapped inside a tomb even though you sort of were.

  This material also held another function other than just the ability to let you see outside. It filtered out the harmful particles of radiation by taking in those particles and converting them to breathable air, so people could live in their homes without worry of running out of oxygen. This eliminated the use of a machine, because a machine was unreliable. It was okay if it handled the heat and central air, because you could live, though uncomfortably, without it until the machine was fixed; but when it came to oxygen the survival rate was much lower when a machine broke down. This handy plastic solved that big issue; and as long as the seal held, all was good, no maintenance required.

  Danny grabbed a small instrument on the table and waved it over both windows. The light on it came back green, no leaks.

  “What’s the matter dad?” Michael asked.

  “It’s nothing, just checking, always checking.” Danny turned to face his sons as he put the instrument back on the table. “You never can be too sure.” Danny walked over and sat down on the bed. “Are you guys okay?”

  “We both had a bad dream,” Michael replied.

  “Can you tell me about it?”

  “I honestly can’t. I only remember something about vampires, but that’s it,” Michael replied.

  “And I remember being lost in all these nightmares until you found me at my grandfather’s cabin.” This time it was Johnny who chimed in.

  “Can you remember anything else?”

  “No. I just know they were nightmares, but like Michael, I can’t remember the details,” Johnny replied, looking up at his father.

  “It’s like you know you were there, but you can’t remember anything else,” Danny replied.

  “Exactly.” They both said this in unison.

  “I guess dreams are just like that; at least we are still safe, and together.”

  Danny, as he sat there, thought back to the days when his sons were just babies – newborns. He could remember them both lying on his chest as they slept their peaceful baby dreams. They both looked so grown up now, and he wondered how the time had slipped away so quickly.

  “Well you both look like you’ve recovered from whatever it was that was bothering you. Maybe you guys should try and get back to sleep.”

  The boys looked at one another. Michael spoke for them both. “Could we just hang out here, a little bit longer? We will be quiet, promise.”

  Danny thought about it for a moment. “Okay. Just keep it down. I’m going downstairs for a run. Promise me you both will get back to sleep.”

  “Sure,” Michael replied.

  Johnny remained quiet as he nodded.

  “Okay.” Danny got up and walked out into the hall. He closed the door and let his sons fall back into conversation. He walked to the master bedroom, and tried to be quiet as he entered the room. His wife wasn’t in bed, and the bathroom light was on. A second later he heard the commode flush.

  His wife appeared at the bathroom door. “How are the boys?”

  “Good. I’m going to go for a run.”

  “I’ll probably go once you get done.”

  Danny watched her walk across the room, pajama pants on, bare feet, loose fitting shirt with no bra underneath it. She was a stunner, standing about five feet tall, trim and fit, soft skin, and hazel eyes, 36 years of age. She wore her sandy brown hair short, shorter than his or his sons, and she walked with a mother’s confidence.

  “Okay. I’ll keep it warm for you,” Danny replied, watching her climb into bed.

  As she tried to settle back to sleep, he put on his running gear. When he was finished, he checked the windows. The light on the machine came back green, air tight and sealed, just the way he liked it.

  He put
the machine in his pocket and grabbed his running shoes from the closet. He had only a couple of boxes left of these shoes, and the pair he had in his hands were nearing the end of their mileage cycle. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he ran out of them, because he was hooked on everything about this brand; and as any runner will tell you, once you find a perfect shoe you stick with it.

  Danny closed the closet and left the room. He walked down the hall and descended the stairs, checking each window as he went. All were air tight and sealed, just like the others, just like he liked it.

  Once downstairs, Danny moved into the office and checked the one window in there – air tight, of course. He started to move out of the room and stopped. In the murky light something caught his eye. It was a course schedule. This piece of paper had been laying there for who knows how long, and he had walked by it so many times before; but today the yellowed page caught his attention.

  He picked it up, blew off the dust, and looked at it.

  The title read:

  “Class 101 – Celluloid, a beginner’s course for dissecting film”

  Below this title were three words:

  “Professor Danny Tall”

  Danny scanned the page and thought back to all those youthful faces and how they had looked up to him each and every day. Where were they all now? Where were those hopeful few who had dreamed of life in the cinema, a place that no longer existed? Had they known then what they know now (if most of them lived through this) would they have even chased such an elusive dream? Danny thought they would have, maybe more would have joined in that pursuit instead of going into subjects that guaranteed steady jobs and pay after their college years were done. He put down the paper, placed the memory back in its box, and made his way out of the office. No use going back to that time and place. That world was done.

  From there he checked the rest of the windows, and the door that led into the garage; everything was perfectly fine, the light always reading green. His family was safe and sound, again, just like he liked it.

  Finished with his inspection, he took a key off a hook nearby and unlocked the door that led to the basement. He opened the door, turned on the lights, and took a couple of steps onto the stairs. He stopped, locked the door, and put the key on another hook.

  He ventured down the stairs and into the basement, which wasn’t too big of a place. It was mostly open, except for two small rooms. One was a full bath with no tub, and the other an open area or exercise area, currently being used to hold a treadmill and weights. Two small windows let in light; both were sealed, of course.

  At the exercise area he put on his shoes, stretched, and climbed on to the treadmill. The treads started moving as he selected music to play. Judas Priest seemed to fit the moment. He wanted to hear the song “Living Bad Dreams” because that was what kept running through his head after he woke up.

  As the music poured into his ears, he set his pace and let his mind go.

  Danny found his groove.

  This was going to be a good run.

  While Danny is running, let me tell you about one more thing that is in this basement; something I haven’t mentioned yet. It is a dull metallic door, closed and locked tight, just past the entrance to the bathroom. There’s a tunnel behind this door, clean and shiny, smooth and polished steel. This tunnel leads to The COMMON Area which is an enormous space that can hold a thousand people, maybe more than that. Its limits have never been tested, so no one really knows for sure. From this main area there are six connected tunnels going off into various things we humans need in order to sustain life.

  The Food Tunnel – follow this one and you wind up in a gigantic grocery store where you can find most of what you need, including fresh produce and meats. There’s also a restaurant inside this store which takes reservations a year in advance. Currently it is booked for over two years. Along with the store and restaurant there’s a large livestock area, mostly consisting of cows and chickens.

  The Hospital Tunnel – follow this one for any emergency you might need.

  The Exercise Tunnel – follow this one to find a gym the size of a small stadium.

  The Entertainment Tunnel – follow this one to find a movie theater (the only one working in the entire Raleigh area. The rest, like I said before, are long gone), and a place to check out DVD’s. This movie theater has one large screen, stadium seating, and surround sound. Each week it shows a different movie, and those movies vary. It might be a classic one week and then a brand new movie the next, well, as new a movie as they can get these days. There are also three bars and two coffees shops here as well, and a place to hang out, for those who just need a break from their trapped homes. This hang out area looks like a tropical beach, complete with sand, beach chairs, umbrellas, and a fake ocean painted on the walls complete with sunny skies and pumped in wave crashing sounds.

  The Communication Tunnel – follow this one if you are part of the government or you have a special job to do after the war. This is the room where people sit and make contact with the outside world. This is also the place that monitors all the tunnels and will take orders for anything needed, such as a repair on an exercise bike or a leaky window in a home. Anything broken that needs fixing you tell them right here and they will find the right person for the job.

  The Sixth Tunnel – follow this one for a couple of things. First, it leads to a fully functioning police station that monitors everything connected to The Raleigh District. Say, Danny smacked his wife around, which he wouldn’t do because he thinks hitting a woman is a sin; but, if he did, this Police Station would have authority to arrest him, charge him, and try him with domestic abuse. There are sixteen cells, a court, and a judge to oversee it all. There’s also a small, non-denominational church for anyone who wants to attend services on Sunday morning.

  Now folks, I have to stop the forward progress here for a moment. I want to take you backwards in time. I want to take you on a trip back before the bombs. I want to give you some insight into how all of this came to be. It all started with Danny doing what he does best, running, but this time he is outside in the fresh North Carolina air, enjoying a day that won’t exist for very much longer. Now let me take your hand as I guide you back to that time and place before the Earth as we know it stopped. Don’t worry I have your hand. You will be safe. So turn the page and let’s get started.

  PROLOGUE

  Danny stopped just as his watch clicked 7 miles. He started to walk, cooling down, letting the run settle into his body. Sweat ran off of him like a river as his wick-away clothing did its best to keep him dry. This was another good run, and he was ready for the 5K next weekend, which was only 3.1 miles, but Danny was feeling good today, so he just let his legs run until they had said it was time to stop.

  He looked up into the blue North Carolina sky and sucked in the cool spring air of early morning. He loved living in this state. The weather was never so bad that he couldn’t run, even in the late summer or the deepest parts of winter when Mother Nature always seemed to be at her absolute worst.

  He walked towards his house and thought about the day ahead. He had a class to teach at 11:00 that morning, and he wondered if the kids would be up for his latest discussion, because college kids came in all kinds of variety and sizes. Some were just there for the party, and in a year or so they would be gone. Some were there to actually study and to make something of themselves. While some, actually most of them, were there to do both – enliven their minds and party their asses off. He was part of that third crowd when he was in college.

  Danny reached home, stopped, and did a few light stretches; the heavy stuff would come once he was inside.

  His home was nice and modest – built in the seventies with a large basement area completely finished. It had soft tan vinyl siding and dark black shutters that were more for decoration than anything else. The door was white with a gold round handle. The driveway, free of stains in front of the two-car garage, the grass neatly cut, the landscap
ing neither grand nor large, just enough to spruce up the outside, with the knockout roses, the blooming flowers, and mulch, lots and lots of mulch. You had to mulch it up if you were going to make it all pull together. Don’t get Danny wrong, he wasn’t trying to compete with the neighbors. He just wanted it all to look nice.

  The inside of the house was just as neat as the outside, clean and tidy. The way they liked to keep it, the colors matching and reflecting the choices his wife had made, from the walls to the furniture, it all matched with a woman’s sense of detail and design.

  Danny finished stretching, walked up the steps, and took out his key. He slid the key in the lock and opened the door to an empty house. He closed the door behind him, locked it, and stood there a moment letting the silence take over. The wife was at work, the kids at school, so he had the place to himself for a couple of hours. This kind of time was rare, so he knew he had to take advantage of it. After his brief pause, he put his running stuff (watch and hat) on the table by the door and went into the kitchen. He re-filled his water bottle, and put it back in the fridge.

  He yawned and put on a pot of coffee then made his way upstairs to the master bedroom, laid out in colors of blues and greens, with family pictures spread out on the walls, and on top of the dressers.

  Danny stripped down and threw his clothes in the laundry basket. He flipped on the TV and started to stretch, because stretching before a run was wise, but not completely necessary; however, after it was over, it was crucial. You had to work those muscles out or you would wake up stiff and sore the next day.

  On the TV, an older newscaster, late fifties with grey hair, and well-manicured features was busily going about his daily routine, delivering the news people wanted and didn’t want to hear.

  NEWS CASTER:

  . . . The Middle East Nuclear Arms Association has stirred up more conversation today. They have announced that they have reached enough capital to take their nuclear program to the next level. We are unaware of what the next level means, but The United States and many other countries, have been pleading and bargaining with this rogue group of nations to cease all operations or else drastic measures . . .