𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | an apocalyptic novel ©

Chapter 29

Childhood Memories

2031

Aidan

"What?!" I call to Suraya, startled.

"No way, they have Slinky Hands here?!" she exclaims. A groan escapes my throat. "Are you fucking serious?!"

She holds up a packet with a green rubber hand attached to a rubber rope, grinning in victory. "Yes, this shit was my childhood!"

I throw up my hands in frustration. "Don't scare me like that again, Rujii, I thought you were in danger."

Suraya shrugs. "Sorry." But telling from her tone, she isn't.

Can I blame her? I'd freak out the same way if I saw a bike similar to the one I used to have here.

My eyes trail through the store while I try to block out her giggles about her new acquisition.

"Why are we gathering things for ourselves?" I ask and scan the shelves in front of me.

"I guess it's because they slept on preparing dinner for us tonight," Suraya's voice sounds from across an aisle, heavy with sarcasm.

Is she ever not sarcastic?

My flashlight hits the labels of the food and I narrow my eyes to focus on the font. "So, we're picking up food to eat at the campfire then?" I ask and look up to spot her head peering over the shelves.

"Damn right."

I drop my backpack and unzip it, sweeping the entire stock of a shelf into it. Hopefully, it has expired to an extent where it's still edible. At this point, canned food overdue for three months is still good in my view.

I'd be ready to eat anything besides whatever the lunch service at the base was offering before.

"A human takes three minutes to bleed out when they are shot. But if you aim it right, not so long," Suraya randomly states.

That's not a fun fact.

"Damn, I almost miss your fun facts. That's just bluntly harsh," I huff and continue my trip along the shelves, listening to Suraya's monologue. Internally I think about my mother.

Did my father aim it right? Did it take three minutes?

"Birds shit black on white cars and white on black cars. They have the perfect strategy. I've seen it!" Suraya tears me out of my memories.

I laugh. "That one's good."

The sound of crinkling plastic and rummaging and cluttering of cans echoes to me from her and suddenly, she stands right next to me.

"I didn't know you actually listened to them..."

There is almost a tone of admiration swaying in her voice as if someone finally listened to her.

"All the time," I mumble, "all the time."

When my flashlight illuminates Suraya's face, she smirks. "I will annoy the shit out of you with that thing now."

Promptly, she holds up the green Slinky Hand and smacks it against the glass door of a freezer across from us.

I shake my head with a sigh and scan the rest of the store.

It's huge. Too huge to gather all I could think about.

Be back before dawn.

We started our trip early in the morning.

"Seriously, that thing was your childhood?" I ask about the Slinky Hand, lost in thoughts, when I trudge through the store again to look for possible items I want but wouldn't need.

Food is settled and checked, but leaving right now is too early, once we're already here.

A glass bottle clinks against another, a little farther behind me, causing my head to jolt at the oddly familiar noise. But it isn't my father, only Suraya holding up a bottle of rum. "No, alcohol was."

She sees my confused expression. "I'm joking, man."

However, her hands twist off the cap and she lifts it to her lips.

She's fourteen, I remember her telling me on the way here at some point.

"Rujii, you're fourtee-"

"Fuck my age. I'm going to die from either the weather anomalies or alcohol poisoning, and I guess you can tell which one I'm more fond of."

She has no idea what she's doing.

I just stand still and stare at her taking a gulp, that she immediately spits out in disgust. "Argh- fuck, no, nuh-uh..."

"Told you," I shrug with a sly smile, to which Suraya smacks her Slinky Hand against my shoulder.

"Fuck you too."

I laugh while my hands flick through some shirts on hangers. I'm practically sick of seeing the color sage green in clothes - already after such little time. Some change would be optimal.

"What was your childhood?" I hear Suraya ask from somewhere in the store.

Oh. "Uh-"

Happy, happy, happy memories, Aidan.

"Riding my bike." is the best response I opt for. "I had this mountain bike my mom found at a garage sale and that was life for me. I was out and gone on it every day and only returned for dinner."

There surely wasn't another reason like an abusive father figure for example. Surely not.

Suraya saunters over to me, keen. "Did you have friends you spent time with?"

I laugh coldly. "Hah, no, you wish."

"What about your family?"

My stomach twists when I think about them all.

Should I be honest?

"It's the apocalypse, not worth anything. We're all fucked in the end," Suraya said herself.

Fuck it, here goes nothing.

"My mother and sister are dead, my father... I don't know what happened to him but he just dropped me off at the base and didn't care from there on. He shoul- could be dead, for all I know," I sigh, desperately thinking of a way to escape this conversation, to change topics.

Her eyes flicker momentarily, a mix of pain and resentment washing over them. "Didn't expect another answer. You're practically a clump of trauma."

Suraya's words cut into my heart like a dull blade, though she doesn't know they would have this effect on me.

Happy thoughts. A black shirt my size, there. It's mine now.

"Aidan?"

I whirl to her. "Sorry, you... said something?"

Suraya fiddles with her hair again. "Nothing."

But by the way she taps her foot again, I can tell something is up.

I don't ask further.

By the time we arrive at the base again, with our backpacks full to the brim, the preparations for the campfire already have begun. Recruits are carrying wood to the wide space between the female and male barracks, stacking the wood up to a construction that'll be later lit.

Everyone is helping, even the General carries kindlings.

Over the heads of the few already gathered recruits, I can't seem to make out Sina. Or Jason.

I get it, we are here quite early, considering that some stores are spread further away from the base than Suraya's and mine, they'll surely be here soon.