Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Apocalypse

6) Summer Camp

From the time I was six until we left my dad at age 12, I went to camp every summer. It was liberating for me because it was an opportunity for me to be a normal kid, and not a kid training for the end-of-the-world Olympics. While I enjoyed my early years of time with my dad, even at a young age it was not lost on me that everyone else's dad didn't let them target practice in the back yard when they were in elementary school. Sometimes I just wanted to be like other kids, and summers at Camp Raven Hill gave me that chance to be a kid.

My parents would travel in the summers to visit their clients and grow their business. They would fit in side trips to visit with old college buddies with outlandish names like Booger, and Clementine, and Carrianne, and Spider. I always wanted to meet someone called Booger, but I never did meet any of them.

Before they left on their own summer adventures, my dad would give me instructions: "Nothing is going to happen while we're apart, but on the small chance that it does, you know what to do."

I would repeat his instructions: "Find my escort. Gather my weapons, food, water. Wait three days. If you don't come for me, head home. Stay off the main roads. Hide during the day, travel at night. When I get within twenty miles of home, lose the escort."

I memorized every route between the camp and home. I had an emergency pack ready to go in case of emergency. Dad paid a counselor or two an undisclosed amount to get me home in case of disaster. He always told them that there would be "More where that came from" if they got me home safe. The counselors always took the tip from the crazy dad, but I was never really sure if they knew he was serious or not, or if they were trustworthy. Fortunately, I never had to find out.

My cousin Carli grew up in a normal household with my aunt and uncle. I knew this because when they visited, my dad would not let me share all my secrets with her. Oh, I tried when I was little, who wasn't proud of a bird shot right through the eyeball, but I quickly figured out every girl didn't think this was the height of cool. Dad would let her in on our fun and our plans when Carli visited - it was a game we played - but he never told or taught her everything.

I learned to hide my secrets from Carli. I didn't want her to think I was gross. She was older. I looked up to her. I wanted to be just like her - smart and athletic (when I was younger) and sophisticated and desired (when I got older).

Carli's mom and dad were not like my mom and dad. My mom's sister was a nurse and my uncle was an accountant. They were good people. Good people who would never drop their baby girl off at the camp for summer while they traveled around the country without her. Good people who would never let their baby girl handle a gun. Good people who would never tell their daughter how to get home if the world ended while they were on a trip out west.

After the lights went out, It took two weeks to hear the news about New York City. Destroyed. What wasn't destroyed by strategically placed bombs a few days after the EMP was annihilated by the fighting for food and survival in the weeks that followed. Millions died. My aunt and uncle were on the early lists of the missing/presumed dead before even lists weren't making it out of the city. That left Carli as the only living relative I had, other than my dad who was hiding in his hole and my mother who may or may not have plummeted to earth in a fiery ball that was on repeat in my brain.

I was sure that Carli would never come to my rescue. She couldn't rescue a puppy. The poor girl had been in college for more than the usual four years and wasted too much time on sororities and the next party. I only hoped she was ok and knew enough not to head North. I thought about going to look for her, but I knew this was a waste of valuable time and what little resources were left.

Once New York City completely fell and there was no new news from there, I quit looking for family to come home. Thank goodness, I had Steven because otherwise I would be all alone.

A couple of days after the news of New York City, we decided to do something to be proactive in our quest to survive the apocalypse. Steven and I moved outside. We moved out and when the power came back on a week later, we stayed put.

It's not safe, I told Steven. And to prove me right, the power soon went off forever.

It was summer camp all over again.... for everyone.