2136: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

by Matthew Thrush

  ‘When was this?’ I asked. ‘My parents never told me anything about this.’

  ‘It was before you were born. Your parents were still young then. About your age, actually,’ he added.

  ‘So what happened when you got to New Jersey? Were the soldiers right?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘The facility was just as bad, if not worse, than the military base we had come from. All the roads and buildings looked like someone had come through and smashed them with a sledgehammer. They were hurting for food too. The beds the soldiers were talking about were car cushions stacked in rows along the inside of a collapsed building wall. There were no hot showers, just basins full of polluted rainwater or desalinated water from the ocean. People walked around like mummies. There was no clear focus to life. Your mother urged us to talk to someone in charge to see if there was something we could do. The following morning, your father and I went out in search of some answers. The world couldn't all be gridlocked. We had hoped we would find some answers to our questions, and something to hold on to for hope of a better future, but there was nothing. That is, until two weeks later when several military vehicles with the black and white emblem of the floating pyramid with a bolt of lightning striking through it to represent SIND showed up. “Finally,” we thought. Some answers. But we were wrong. Men in black vests jumped out of the Humvees and started taking people.’

  ‘What do you mean, taking them? Like, kidnapping or bringing them along somewhere else?’ By now my anger for Parker had completely vanished. In its place was an overwhelming curiosity, and the more he spoke and told the story, the more apprehensive I became.

  ‘Kidnapping them,’ he said, ‘though I'd call it more hijacking than anything, or taking prisoners would be more accurate a depiction of what happened.’

  ‘Why would SIND want to take people? I thought you said the soldiers said they were there to help, and were looking for people to assist in the rebuilding efforts?’

  ‘Some things get misconstrued as word spreads, I guess. Either that, or SIND had changed their mind. Your father and I were rummaging through one of the old appliance buildings for anything salvageable when we heard the gunshots. We both looked at each other and shared the same thought: It's happening all over again!’

  Parker backed away and sat down on the stone outcropping. He flexed his legs and groaned as he eased himself down into a sitting position.

  ‘This body ain't what it used to be,’ he said with a crooked smile. ‘I'm getting old, Willow. Don't you ever get old.’

  What kind of a statement was that? What control did I have over aging and my inevitable journey towards greying, wrinkles, and all the treacheries that old age brings with it?

  But instead, I said: ‘All right. I promise I won't ever get old.’

  He pursed his lips and nodded his head.

  ‘Thata girl...’

  ‘So, tell me this,’ I said. ‘If SIND was kidnapping people, what did they do with them? What was the purpose behind taking innocent lives?’

  ‘Innocent?’ Parker echoed. His eyes seemed to darken as a memory or a thought flashed through his mind. ‘Those people,’ he said, shaking his head from side to side in disbelief, ‘were not innocent.’

  I thought I saw a tear forming in the corners of his left eye.

  ‘I saw what those people were capable of,’ he said as his voiced cracked. ‘And they were far from innocent. They got what they deserved. Every last one of them.’

  ‘What happened?’ I actually felt pity for him.

  He sniffed and wiped his eyes.

  ‘You don't want to know,’ he said. ‘Let's just say they did things that no human being should ever do to another. Things that even the most psychotic murderer would cringe at. Let's leave it at that.’

  ‘I'm sorry,’ I said.

  He waved his hand. ‘I'm not a saint, either,’ he said. ‘I've had to do some things over the years that I regret; that I wish I could go back and do it all over again. But, what's done is done.’

  ‘I'm sure we have all done things we wish we could change. We do what we have to survive.’

  The way Parker looked at me was like been stared at by a ghost. As though his spirit and soul had left his body and all that remained was an empty shell of flesh and bone. The dark circles under his eyes weren't helping his case either. He looked dead, or close to it.

  We sat there for ten minutes or so in utter silence. He was staring off into space and I fumbled around with my own thoughts of what terrible things they could have done to warrant being kidnapped, and worse yet, why SIND had taken them.

  I decided to press forward in an attempt to get through the awkward silence.

  ‘So what happened next?’ I said. ‘After SIND came and took everyone. Where did they take them? What happened to them?’

  ‘I don't know,’ he said.

  ‘You weren't taken?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘How did you escape?’ I asked. ‘I thought SIND was taking everyone.’

  ‘They were,’ he said slowly as if picking his words carefully, ‘but not us.’

  My forehead crinkled with lines.

  ‘I don't understand,’ I said. ‘Why wouldn't they take you?’

  ‘They tried,’ he began. His head fell to his chest and he placed his hands over his face. ‘Your father and I managed to escape, but your mother...’ He paused. ‘They took her.’

  ‘What do you mean, they took her? Weren't you guys with her? Why would you let them—’

  ‘We tried,’ he said in his defense. ‘But, she was gone before we got back to warn her.’

  ‘How did you and my father manage to escape?’

  ‘We hid,’ he said. ‘We covered ourselves with rocks and pretended to be dead. SIND was looking for live bodies. They walked right by us and didn't give us a second glance. When they had gone, we pulled ourselves out of the wreckage and followed them. There was no way we could catch up with their vehicles. Fortunately, someone was looking out for us and we got lucky. Your father was always lucky. The entire way we were tracking them he kept saying we were going to find her. Your father wasn't an optimistic person like your mother, but something in him changed when she was taken, it was as though a part of him was taken too. He didn't say much for four days while we followed their tracks. I thought we lost the trail at one point after a light rain, but your father found it again. He never gave up, and because of him, neither did I. After six days, like I said, we got lucky. One of their Humvees had broken down and was abandoned along the road. We crept up on it in case any of the SIND soldiers were still there, but when we got close it was empty.’

  ‘How's that lucky?’ I asked. ‘Sounds like bad luck to me.’

  ‘That's what I thought. But your father was uncharacteristically optimistic in that moment, even more than your mother was, and he believed he could fix it. And he did. Fix it that is. I don't know how he did it, but he got the Humvee working again. It only had a quarter of a tank of gas left, but riding for as long as it would last was better than walking. The miles sped by after that. It was only a matter of time before we caught up to them.’

  ‘Did you ever catch up to them?’

  ‘Yes. The Humvee ran out of gas three hours later, but it had been enough. I say we were lucky, not because we found the Humvee, though that was fortunate, I would agree, but because our Humvee ran out of gas at exactly the right time.’

  ‘What do you mean? How could there be a right time and a wrong time to run out of gas? It seems to me that being stranded out in the middle of nowhere is always a bad thing.’

  ‘Not in this case,’ he said. ‘The Humvee broke down at the base of a hill. We had to walk the rest of the way. When we got to the top we stopped dead in our tracks. The SIND soldiers had made camp no more than three hundred yards ahead of us. I say we were lucky, because had we not run out of gas at precisely the moment that we did, we would have sped right over that hill and into the soldiers. We would have b
een dead within seconds and unable to avoid our fate.’

  Parker reached into his sack and pulled out a large water bottle. He took a long drag on it and held it out to me. I grabbed it and took several large gulps myself. I chugged nearly half the bottle without a breath. Jeez! I guess drowning makes you really thirsty. I handed the bottle back to him.

  ‘Someone must have been looking out for us,’ Parker said.

  ‘What did you guys do next? How did you find my mother and get her away?’

  ‘Well, that's the tricky part,’ he said. ‘Your father and I split up to circle around the camp to see if we could see any signs of your mother. Your father shook my hand and told me he loved me.’

  Parker paused.

  ‘I remember thinking how strange that was,’ he said.

  ‘Why was that strange? Did he never say that to you?’

  ‘No, your father was very gracious with his words and always told us how much we meant to him. It's just...it was different. It was the look in his eyes as if he thought he was never going to see me again.’

  ‘But you did see him again...’

  ‘When we parted ways that night to look for your mother, I didn’t see either of them again, until...’ Parker wasn't able to finish the sentence.

  ‘Until you killed them,’ I finished for him.

  He nodded his head.

  My mind was trying to process the information, but there were too many questions still left unanswered. What had happened that night? Nothing Parker had said shed any light on why or how he killed my parents. Something wasn’t adding up.

  ‘There's still something you're not saying,’ I said.

  ‘What is that?’ he asked, with a melancholy tone.

  ‘What happened to my parents that night? What happened to you?’

  His eyes darted to the ground again then back up at me. I was trying to force the answers I so desperately wanted out of his head. No matter how hard I willed it, I couldn't dissect his brain through telekinesis. No one could. So why was I trying?

  Parker's eyes flashed back towards the main atrium of the cavern. He stared towards the far end for several seconds. He suddenly jumped up and rushed out of the room.

  ‘Parker!’ I yelled after him.

  I ran after him. My toes tingled and burned as the blood rushed to my outer limbs. I had to stop and shake my leg to kick it into gear. Come on, I cursed.

  I rounded the corner and saw Parker frantically shuffling through the crates. He pulled out a rifle and stuffed a pistol behind his back. He grabbed several boxes of ammo along with a few loaded magazines and shoved them into his pack. Then he stuffed several extra clips for the rifle in his cargo pockets.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. ‘Where are you going with those guns?’

  He paused.

  ‘Parker—’

  ‘Shhh,’ he said. ‘Do you hear that?’

  I didn't hear anything.

  ‘If this is your way of trying to get out of telling me the truth, then I have news for you, you're going to—’

  My hand fell against the nearby wall to brace myself. I looked up at Parker wide-eyed.

  ‘Do you feel that?’ I asked.

  He nodded his head and began stuffing more supplies into a sack. He grabbed a handful of the MREs, three water bottles, and several more boxes of ammo and tossed them all in the sack. I grabbed his arm as he was reaching for one of the med kits.

  He shot his eyes at me.

  ‘We don't have time, Willow. Here,’ he said. ‘Fill this up!’

  He tossed me a backpack. I held the two camouflage arm straps and looked at him confused.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I asked again. ‘PARKER!!’

  He spun on me in an instant and looked me dead in the eye; his face only inches from my own. I could feel his heavy breath on my skin. His hand was shaking.

  ‘Are you going to hit me?’ I challenged. ‘Go ahead! Do it!’

  His eyebrows crossed. A flash of anger shot through his eyes and for a split second, I actually thought he might.

  ‘Willow...’ His voice was shaking. The vein along the ridge of his forehead was bulging from his skin. His raised hand hovered in the air for several more seconds before he lowered it. He huffed and waved his hand as if shooing the thought away; or was he doing it to me? He grabbed a radio, turned the knob to make sure it worked, then stuffed it in the bag as well.

  I stood there motionless, unable to move. I can't believe he was actually going to hit me. My own uncle. Who was he?

  ‘Willow,’ he said.

  I heard him say my name but I felt a thousand miles away. No matter how much hate I felt towards him for killing my parents, a part of me still clung on to the fact he was family. For some reason, the thought of him being responsible for the deaths of my parents didn't hurt as bad as the feeling of being betrayed by your own flesh and blood. I couldn't believe he actually had the capability of hitting me in anger.

  I felt a firm but gentle squeeze on both my arms. The fog in my eyes thinned and I saw him locked in on me, eyes wide, and face lowered with intent.

  ‘I know you hate me right now, and that's okay,’ he said. ‘Hate me for as long as you want, I can live with that. But we got to leave, NOW!’

  He spun and grabbed a few more items in the crates lining the inner wall of the cavern, stuffing them in the sack as well. He pulled the wire cord tight and knotted it.

  ‘Listen...’ he said, his voice lowered to a whisper. ‘I need you to fill this up with supplies.’ He held up the bag hanging limply in my fingers. His eyes suddenly softened.

  ‘Willow...’ His voice was warm, soft, sweet. ‘I would never do anything to harm you. I swear on my life. But right now we need to leave.’

  ‘What about my parents?’ I said. I felt emotionless in that moment. ‘Did you promise them the same thing? And yet, you turned against them when they needed you most and killed them. Your word means nothing to me.’

  His blue eyes stared into mine. I could see that my words hurt him. Good, I thought. He needs to feel sorry for what he did to me.

  Parts of the ceiling started crumbling to the floor. The smaller of the stalactites fell in heaps, exploding into a million tiny pieces of mineral dirt. Parker grabbed me by the arm to keep me from tumbling over myself.

  ‘What's going on?’ I asked.

  ‘They're here,’ he said with finite resolution. ‘We need to go.’

  When one of the tunnels to the left caved in, my hands were moving, stuffing as many of the MREs, med kit supplies, ammo, guns, and anything of use from the crates into my own backpack. I squeezed the cords tight and knotted them.

  ‘Let's go!’ Parker shouted over the noise of the earth vibrating all around us. I ran after him through one of the winding tunnels, praying that it wouldn't collapse on top of us.

  ≈ Chapter 29 ≈

  The darkness behind you is the same blackness that’s in front of you. Either way, you have to go through it before you see the light.

  I peeked my head out of the ventilation shaft right behind Parker. The world outside was dark, but I could just make out the headlights of multiple military vehicles circling the fairgrounds and heading into the open desert.

  ‘Pavers?’ I whispered.

  ‘I don’t know who they are,’ he said. ‘But, they shouldn’t be out here.’

  ‘What are we going to do?’ I asked.

  The ground beneath us shook violently. I heard a whoosh of air before we were engulfed in a sea of dirt. I held my hand to my face to keep from coughing as the flood of dirt and compressed air rushed over our bodies and out of the ventilation hole we were poking our heads through.

  ‘We can’t go back now,’ I said.

  Parker looked down into the dark hole we had climbed up.

  ‘You might be right,’ he said.

  With the tunnel directly below us quite possibly caved in, there was only one way to go: up.

  He pulled out the monocular from his pack and lean
ed his elbows on the top of the shaft. He turned the knob in the center with his finger to adjust the field of focus.

  ‘Can you see anything with that in the dark?’ I asked.

  ‘Sure can. Have a good look,’ he said, and handed me the military monocular.

  I placed my right eye against the soft rubber eyepiece and peered through. The world of darkness was lit in a bright green luminescence. I could see the contours of the sand banks, the mountains in the far distance, the line of eight Humvees and military vehicles in tow speeding through the desert basin.

  ‘This is awesome!’ I said. ‘I’ve never used night vision before.’

  I handed the monocular back to him. He held it up to his left eye and followed the route the military vehicles were taking.

  ‘Looks like they’re heading northeast,’ he said.

  He placed the monocular back in his pack and climbed out of the ventilation shaft. He held out his hand to help me.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said and pulled myself out of the deep hole. I repositioned my own pack around my shoulders and tightened the straps on the side.

  I started walking off into the darkness, not wanting to waste any time.

  He ran to catch up to me and grabbed my arm. I spun around ready to swat his arm away, but he released me just as my fist was coming towards him.

  ‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

  ‘After them.’

  ‘Why do you want to chase after a military supply?’

  Wasn’t it obvious?

  ‘I’m going after Roxx. If he’s still alive, then the Pavers will have him.’

  I went to turn away.

  ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘You’re going the wrong way.’

  ‘How is that?’ I asked. ‘I can see where they’re going and I intend to follow them. If you don’t want to come, that’s fine. I’ll find my godfather on my own. I don’t need your help.’

  ‘You’re wasting your time,’ he said.

  ‘You told me Roxx was still alive. And if you’re telling the truth for once, then he’ll be with them.’

  ‘If Roxx is alive,’ he said. ‘He won’t be with them.’ He pointed his head towards the dust trail following the military vehicles.