Survivors of the Sun

by Kingslie, Mia

  Something in the back seat caught her eye; a child seat. Buckled into it was a toddler. She felt bile rise in her throat. That the child was dead she had no doubt, its swollen face said it all. She walked over to the car on unsteady legs. Where were the parents? Had they just left the child in the car to go get help?

  The windows were wound up. She tried the door. It was locked. She bent down and peered in through to the other side, but in the glare of the sun, she could not see if the locks were all down. She walked round to the other side of the car and found who she assumed was the father.

  He was seated on the ground, legs stretched out before him, leaning back against the car door. He was also dead. And he was dead, Georgia realized, because he had been shot. There was a neat black hole in his temple. The other side of his face was gone; sprayed across the door by the turning twisting bullet that had ripped through the skull and brain on its destructive, lethal journey.

  Blood and lumpiness all that was left of the lifetime of memories that had once been stored in that coagulated smear. The horror of it all built up in her. She wanted to scream and she wanted to be sick, and she wanted to lie down on the road and …. Instead, she turned and ran, ran back to the children sitting under the tree.

  ‘Will the dog be alright?’ Rebecca asked her as soon as she reached them.

  ‘The dog?’ For a moment Georgia was confused. ‘Oh, the dog…,’ she had forgotten all about the dog. ‘Sure, it will be,’ she had replied numbly, ‘it is probably home right now, and its owners are probably thrilled to bits to see it.’

  She did not want the kids to see anymore, she wanted to take them straight home, but now she had seen this, she knew it was imperative that they get to Prestos. They would need to get more than dog biscuits. This had gone beyond the point of wondering if it was time to panic.

  Chapter Six

  They made a tight little group, as they walked along the sidewalk. Prestos, was a couple of blocks away, a ten minute walk along the tree lined road. Georgia did not want to think about the freeway. She did not want to think about what she had seen. As she had turned to walk back up to the road, she had thought she had heard moaning. She had paused to listen, but only heard a crow call and a rustling of the breeze through the grass. The children had not heard anything at all. The imagined sound had triggered disturbing imagery in her mind, of cars, vans, trucks and SUVs stretching along the ribbons of road in every direction.

  The dead everywhere, but it was not the thought of the dead that was haunting her now. It was the thought that in those vehicles, under the burning sun, were people not yet dead, people badly injured, desperately hanging on, in their own private hell, waiting for the help that would never arrive. In her mind there were hundreds, no, thousands of them.

  This was going to give her nightmares for years to come. She worried that it would do the same to the children. She tried to think of something light hearted to say, but words failed her so they walked on in silence.

  Prestos would have food and a clerk who would know what was happening. Possibly even a phone that worked, and if there was a phone that actually had a dial tone, she would ring Nathan’s work. No doubt, he had stayed at work. Yes, he would have stayed the night there, with his colleagues, and no doubt slept in the rec room.

  She would ring from Prestos, and the nice receptionist at McNair, Caswell & Associates, would transfer the call through to Nathan. Then everything would be all right.

  Nevertheless, she knew even as she had these thoughts that they weren’t true. Nathan was out there somewhere, but one thing was for certain, under these circumstances, he would not have stayed at work. No doubt he had started walking, getting closer to her and the children every minute.

  They reached the gas station, and with considerable relief they turned right onto the forecourt. Although there were several cars still at the pumps and a semi-trailer parked alongside the building, the place looked abandoned.

  The usually impeccable forecourt was scattered with trash. Prestos looked bleak from the outside with its absence of lighting. Georgia swung open the door and stepped inside, followed closely by the children.

  ‘Holy cow,’ Jamie whispered.

  It was total chaos inside. The shelves were stripped bare and one of them was even tipped on its side, the cabinet next to the coffee machine seemed to have been ripped off the wall, white powder sprinkled everywhere. ‘Creamer,’ Georgia thought absently as she stared at it. The fridges were empty as well. What made everything worse was that there did not appear to be anyone there. None of the much hoped for checkout clerks.

  ‘Watch where you walk kids,’ Georgia said, ‘there is broken glass everywhere.’

  ‘Hello,’ she called. Her voice echoed into silence. There was no reply. ‘Is anyone here?’ she tried again, and when again there was no reply she picked her way carefully over to the counter and peered over it, looking for the phone.

  She knew there would be a phone and she knew it would not work but she still had this tiniest of hopes that it might. There, lying on the counter, on its charger, what a joke, was the phone. She snatched it up and pressed it to her ear. Not even a dial tone.

  No! She wanted to scream, no! no! no! She wanted to hurl the stupid phone across the entire length of the store. Instead, she remained silent, unconsciously biting her bottom lip.

  ‘Is it working?’ Rebecca asked

  ‘No,’ she replied, gently laying it back down on the counter.

  ‘Is there any food left at all?’ she asked the kids.

  ‘I want my mummy,’ Deedee said.

  ‘Course you do,’ Georgia pulled her close, ‘but right now we need to see if there is any food left here. And who knows maybe by the time we get back, Auntie Maggie will be there and maybe Dad…,’

  It suddenly struck her, what if one of them had come back, and found the house empty. She should have left a note.

  ‘There’s some stuff over here,’ Jamie said, ‘and over here,’ Rebecca called, from the other side of the store, ‘some cans of dog food.’

  They stepped out of the store a few minutes later. Georgia had left forty dollars on the counter with a hastily scribbled note listing what she had taken. She had been going to put it in the till, but the till hung open, gaping and empty.

  ‘Someone will just take the money,’ Deedee said.

  She was probably right, Georgia reflected, but she was not going to get them all shot for looting. Not that she had seen any law enforcement, but with the way their luck was running she would step out of the shop, and they would be mowed down in a hail of gunfire, for looting.

  The silence outside was frightening, an eerie tension in the air that affected them all. Deedee clung to her arm as they left the shade of the filling station canopy and walked towards the sidewalk.

  ‘Hey lady,’ a male voice called out behind them, just as they reached it.

  Georgia gave a start and her heart began to beat a little faster. ‘Keep walking,’ she hissed. Heads down, they quickened their pace.

  ‘Hey wait up,’ came the voice again, a bit closer now

  She turned around nervously. A man with his hair pulled back into a long black ponytail, wearing faded jeans, and a red checked shirt was walking hurriedly towards them. As he drew nearer, she noticed he had recently shaved. Very recently, he still had a dab of shaving cream just under his left earlobe. She took a step back, pushing the kids behind her.

  ‘I paid for what I took,’ she said, holding up the grocery bag to emphasize her words.

  He laughed and it was a bitter sound. ‘No point in doing that. Money isn’t worth shit now, pardon my language, money isn’t worth a thing now.’ He made a move as though to come closer.

  ‘Stop right there,’ she said, ‘I don’t know you.’

  He stopped. ‘Sorry,’ he said, holding his hands up. ‘I won’t come any closer. You are safe though, got a wife and two young ones myself, out of state. I was just starting a run up north when this happened.’
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br />   Georgia said nothing.

  ‘Here, let me show you a picture of them.’ He pulled out a worn leather wallet and flipped it open. He looked at the photo himself for a moment, before offering it to her. Georgia took a couple of steps towards him and then hesitantly reached out to take it.

  ‘Can I see?’ Deedee craned up to look, so Georgia held the wallet a little lower. The photo had obviously been taken in a park. A woman, wearing a tank top and jeans, was sitting on a bench with two young boys, behind them and slightly out of focus, was the shimmer of water and flowering bushes.

  ‘They look lovely,’ Georgia said. She meant it too, the boys both had cheeky grins and the woman had been smiling up at the camera. The photo seemed to emanate love, contentment and happiness.

  ‘Are those your boys?’ Deedee asked.

  ‘Yes, they are,’ he said, smiling down at her.

  Georgia found herself softening towards the man, not because of the photo, but because of the way he had looked at it. There had been sadness and longing in his expression.

  ‘I live just up the road,’ she found herself saying, ‘I came out this morning to try and work out what was happening. I didn’t want to leave the kids alone, but I had no idea how bad it was,’ then she added, ‘my husband was out at the time, but he should be back soon.’

  He looked at her. An unfathomable expression on his face, and then nodded. ‘No doubt he will be home soon.’

  She had the awful sensation that he didn’t believe that at all. That he was only saying it for the benefit of the children. ‘Why are you still here?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t rightly know, I don’t want to leave the truck, it is full, but I am beginning to think that it doesn’t really matter if I leave it or not.’

  ‘Not full of food is it?’ She asked, suddenly hopeful.

  ‘No,’ he laughed. ‘Electronics.’

  ‘Just my luck,’ Georgia said, before she could stop herself.

  ‘Mine too, though I do have some food, enough for a couple of days anyway. I stocked up yesterday before it happened. Good thing too, seeing as how they stripped the place bare. They made a lot of noise, but knowing that the place was technically closed for the night I decided it would be wiser to just stay put in my cab.’

  Georgia agreed with him. Behind her, she could hear the children getting restless. She could not blame them, it was swelteringly hot out here, even though they were partially in the shade. Georgia shifted the grocery bag to her other hand. ‘I need to get going.’

  ‘At least let me see you home safely.’

  Georgia was taken aback by his offer. She didn’t know anything about this man, but at the same time, the impact of seeing Prestos after it had been ransacked, made her feel very afraid. She was dreading the walk home, scared that they might be attacked for the little food they had managed to obtain.

  ‘Come on,’ he urged, ‘let me, I wouldn’t feel right just watching you walk away, you and the kids.’

  She considered him for a moment. He stood there silently, waiting, understanding on his face.

  ‘Tell you what,’ she said, ‘walk us home and you can join us for lunch. There is a whole lot of meat in the freezer, that isn’t going to last past tonight, so you may as well have a good feed before you start your walk home.’ Was she crazy? Yes she was crazy. But who wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t be after what they had all witnessed.

  They waited uneasily while the man went back to lock up his rig. The tension in the air was palpable, the unaccustomed silence of the suburb weighing heavily upon them. But he was soon back, holding out his hand in greeting as he reached them. ‘Guess I should introduce myself, I’m Jack Deschene, truck driver from Las Cruces, New Mexico.’

  Georgia took his hand, feeling the roughness of his fingers as she introduced herself and the children. She noticed with a little smile that in the short time he had been away, he had combed his hair, and wiped away the dab of shaving cream.

  As they set off, Jack insisted on carrying the bag of groceries. She didn’t argue, the bag had been cutting into her fingers and really, all she wanted to do, was get back to the safety of the house as quickly as possible. She decided that this time they would take the back road to the house, avoiding the freeway.

  Deedee, Rebecca and Jamie kept very close and all the while Jack chatted away about his wife, Josie and their two young sons. Georgia nodded occasionally, listening with only half an ear and wishing they were home already.

  All at once Deedee screamed, propelling herself backwards into Georgia as a disheveled young man suddenly came running down the road towards them, yelling at the top of his voice and waving his t-shirt above his head. At the last moment he seemed to notice Jack, and veered away disappearing out of sight.

  ‘What the hell?’ Georgia exclaimed. Shaken, she gripped Deedee’s hand and picked up her pace. (If it had been up to her, they would have run the last couple of hundred feet.) But then, the sight of Jack’s calm countenance, one eyebrow slightly raised as he caught her eye, left her feeling a little sheepish and she slowed down to match his step.

  As they turned the corner into their street, they could hear the raised voices of a man and a woman arguing at number 98. But they were always arguing, so nothing to worry about there. Even so, she was very relieved to finally reach the safety of the house.

  The dogs were overjoyed to see them. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Georgia said, as she tried to stop them jumping up all over Jack.

  Smiling, he bent down to pat them, ‘No, really, it’s fine, we have a golden Labrador at home, I am really okay with it.’

  Once the dogs had calmed down, she went into the kitchen, dumping the groceries on the countertop.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ She called back through the doorway. ‘I only have lukewarm lemonade or tap water, which would you prefer?’

  He came into the kitchen, ‘Water will be fine.’

  ‘Sorry there’s no ice,’ she said as she handed him the glass.

  ‘Now that’s a surprise,’ he chuckled. Georgie found herself laughing as she opened the chest freezer. ‘Now for lunch, Okay, so we have two packets of sausages, some beef hamburger,’ she paused, leaning in a little further and pulling aside a couple of tubs of ice-cream, ‘and two roasts. Everything has practically defrosted, but it still feels really cold in here.’ As she spoke she lifted one of the packets to her nose, ‘Smells okay, what do you think?’ She handed Jack the pack.

  He took a deep sniff, then nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s still good.’

  They took the drinks outside and as Georgia showed him the grill, he spotted the smoker. Walking over to it, he asked if it still worked.

  Georgia nodded. ‘No idea how to use it myself though.’ It had been a much desired Christmas present, but Nathan had only used it once, and then declared it too much work and as far as she could remember, he had never gone near it again.

  ‘It might be an idea to smoke one of the roasts and keep the sausages and the hamburger for the grill.’ Jack lifted the lid, examining it as he spoke. ‘The meat will last a lot longer that way.’

  ‘What a great idea,’ Georgia said. ‘If you are happy to do all that, and providing of course that you agree to take some of it with you.’

  ‘I was kind of hoping you would say that.’ he grinned.’

  Outside Rebecca and Deedee jumped rope together, and Jamie was running round and round the yard chased by the Bostons. They all seemed totally unperturbed by everything they had seen earlier.

  Chapter Seven

  Around noon, while Georgia made a salad with the last of the lettuce, the kids, now all hot and sweaty from their romp, set up the picnic table under the shade of the old oak tree out back. Then Jamie and Deedee made several trips in and out of the house, banging the back door each time as they ferried crockery, cutlery and a wide assortment of sauces and condiments to the table.

  She glanced out of the window and was surprised to see Rebecca painstakingly folding red serviettes into complex fan
shapes and draping them across each plate. Sometimes it was really hard to understand that girl.

  She carried the salad and a plate of buttered bread outside. Jack was standing at the barbeque, turning over the sausages, and occasionally doing things to the sliced onions that were gradually changing from pale white to a golden crisp honey color.

  She was sure she would not be able to eat a thing, but knew she had to force herself to eat, for the sake of the children, if for no other reason. The morning had left her feeling numb.

  Jack set the platter of grilled meats on the table, pulling out a chair and joining them. He smiled round at everyone. ‘This sure looks good.’ Georgia smiled back, wondering how they both could be so calm. It occurred to her that perhaps she and Jack were, playing a form of charades, totally for the benefit of the kids, staying calm, and behaving as though this were a totally ordinary day. But out here, right now in the garden, Georgia observed, everything did seem normal.

  With squirrels leaping from branch to branch, the children chatting and giggling together, the dogs laying asleep at their feet. In fact, Georgia decided, anyone looking over the fence at them would come to the conclusion that they were one big happy family without a worry in the world. Providing of course, they overlooked the giant palls of smoke that stretched far up into the sky overhead, a sky void of planes, and they ignored the occasional spattering of gunfire and the dull thump, thump that may or may not have been explosions far off in the distance.

  After lunch, she stood at the kitchen sink, and Jack, unasked, found a dishcloth and started drying the plates as she laid them on the draining board. ‘You don’t have to do that,’ she said and she shut her eyes, so normal, it could be Nathan standing next to her drying the dishes. Except it wasn’t.

  ‘It’s my pleasure, but, I will let you put them away,’ he said as he stacked the dried dishes up.