Doomsdays

Kayle's story

Smoke billows up to the sky behind the hill to her right. The blackness of it almost covers the orange rays of the setting sun.

"Idiot," she mumbles under her breath. Don't they know that's calling for their death? They will see that smoke from miles away.

She pulls her homemade ghillie suit's hood back over her head. Soon she will have to use it. She holds her bag now in her hands. She won't have enough time to take it off when she hears their approach. She keeps making her way north to the safety of the tree line.

The sound of their flying machines cut through to quiet sunset. The person huddled around the fire would hear them now. She can see them approaching from the west. With the blinding sunset it's almost like they appeared out of nowhere.

She drops to the ground, her pack tucked under her. She watched as the machine hovered over the smoke. If they were smart they would have started running the second the sound of the machine could be heard. She watched as soldiers dropped down ropes to the ground.

"Only two of them," she sighed, "must be a couple of kids."

She heard a couple of screams as the soldiers first hit the ground. Another scream abruptly cuts off. The machine lowers down a basket. It goes back up with a single wiggling form in it. There is a couple second pause before the soldiers follow.

The kid doesn't know it yet, but they are lucky to be found as a kid. She reaches up and grabs her locket that hangs from a tattered strand of braided leather. She runs her fingers over the etching on the back of the heart made of gold. The words, 'Carpe Diem' are almost unreadable after so many generations of wear. It wasn't too long ago that this locket was passed down to her.

Her mother used to talk fondly of the world before the war. She made it sound as if she remembered it. Even though she was just a baby when everything started. She would pull the locket out and show the picture of her parents, "Look, Kayle, these are your grandparents. They were both soldiers. They fought in the war. This is the last picture of them." She would continue with stories of them as she was growing up until they were killed in action when she was twelve.

By then the war had changed for the worse. People now lost all faith in the former government. She spoke of a government where people were voted into office by the people who governed. Kayle always found this story to be a fairy tale. No more real than dragons and knights in shining armor coming to save the princess in the tallest tower.

When the house was raided after Kayle's grandparents, they found her mom sitting in the corner trying to use a letter opened to keep them away. The soldiers took her to an education center as an orphan. A place with thick walls, and guard towers with their guns pointed inwards rather than out. They kept her until she was eighteen. On the morning of her birthday they moved her out to a work camp and set her up with a job. No longer can someone pick a job they want or live where they want to live. Now the government told you. The land of the free has become the land of the enslaved.

For the first few years she lived like that, her life becoming work and sleep. She heard rumors of small towns still holding on the freedom of the past but they were still at war with the normal society. She began to save up supplies for her escape shortly after the rumor of forced military service was enacted. After many months of prepping, one summer evening she loaded her bag and walked out of the big city, sticking to back roads and ducking every time a car passed by. She followed the rumor across the high desert land created by the last world war.

When the dunes of sand finally gave way to scrub land she was already half dead. One early morning, after walking all night, she finally collapsed. Her legs are too weak to take her any farther. She didn't remember much as she sat under that hot sun. Only that it was nearly nightfall when someone finally found her. When she came to it was my father leaning over her checking her vitals. They kept her under guard until they verified her story about passing the desert. Once free to move, they put Dad in charge of getting her up to date about what's going on. Her parents became fast friends that eventually became more.

As the years passed they found a place for her Mother working in the med unit alongside her father. Until they were working one late evening when a person walks in with a bomb straped to their chest and blew up the entire area a couple of years ago. Taking every one with them including the leaders of the rebel forces. It didn't take long for the groups to dissolve into the shadows never to be seen again.

It's been almost 10 minutes and the machine is still hovering there. Its engine humming and its wings creating an unnatural breeze through the area. Then suddenly it turns 180 degrees and flies right back in the direction it came from getting lost in the falling sun.

Eventually Kayle just walked out one evening wondering in no particular direction. She had reached the point of no return last year, if the government sees her now they wouldn't hesitate to shoot. Now she trusts no one and looks for nothing. During the early spring and on into late fall she wonders. As winter takes its hold she finds a place to shelter until the first thaw. Last year was some old fallout shelter. The technology choked from decades of dust. It took her the better part of a week to get it running so she could turn on the heaters.

It's only after the machine's engines dies off in the distance does Kayle dare to stand up again. Soon it will be fully dark making it safer for travel. Kayle returns her bag to her shoulders again. Over the years she has learned to travel light. Other than a couple changes of clothes she has a one person tent tied to the bottom, a mess kit with a fire starter, and a small propane gas stove for when a fire is too dangerous to use. Most of the weight in her back now comes from the MREs she found in a bunker a couple of days ago.

She found it next to an old house whose roof had fallen a long time ago. Behind the house was an unusual hill that caught her attention. On the back side of the hill was a door spray painted with a bold red X, marking the occupants as thieves. They probably stole the MREs from some military supply truck and were followed home.

For the military, it's not about the supplies so much as the control they have over the public. They left everything in the bunker besides the bodies. Those they left on the far side of the house with their arms open wide on a cross. Mother talked about how this government loved to bring back passed tortures. They probably got this one from there too.

Once safely 50 feet into the tree line Kayle flopped to the ground next to a couple of overgrown bushes. She pulls out a couple of tan packets. One reads 'breakfast #3' and the other 'lunch #5'.

"Well, that's helpful." she grumbles to herself as she shoves the lunch back into her bag. "There's no way they can mess up breakfast."

She was wrong. Even after she heated some water and poured it into the bag to rehydrate the food packet, the food looked like gruel. I must be some sort of stew, there are protein chunks that never fully hydrated. The veggies were somewhat identifiable but still looked gray. The bread that came with it was hard as a rock and had to be soaked until almost falling apart to have any sort of flavor, no matter how bad that flavor was. By the time she was finished her stomach no longer protested the food.

She leaned back on her pack and watched the sun set completely. The air cools bring a light breeze that ruffles the needles of the trees above her. The breeze brings a light smoking smell. It's funny that she can be so far from the glass pits but still smell the heat coming off of them. So many years and they still burn with so much heat that it can blister the skin of a person who walks too close.

Soon she will need to move on. Even the dark doesn't bring safety. She will need to find some high ground or climb a tree. The government may not look for you but that doesn't mean something else won't. No one risks getting caught outside 3 hours after dark. Even those that are armed.