Radioactive

Chapter 8

Its been three days since the nukes went off. The military has made us sign all these forms and papers saying stuff like, who our parents are, if we had seem them in the past 72 hours and if we had any relatives in the area. I sit down with the form on an unoccupied bench and start to fill in the form. Writing the word deceased under both of my parents names makes me pause and shudder. Tears start to blur my vision and I can't stop crying. I feel someone poke my shoulder and turn to see Alex standing behind me, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

"Hey." I sniffle.

"Hey." he says, barely audible.

He sits down next to me and glances down at my paper.

"Don't tell them your parents are gone," Alex whispers.

"What? W-why?" I stutter.

"They'll put you in the orphanage." he answers while taking my pencil and paper from me.

He erases the word deceased and writes fake times in when I had supposedly last seen them. Alex then goes and grabs two more registration sheets and begins to write my dads name in cursive. I wipe my tears while taking the second sheet from Alex and begin to forge my mother's signature.

After a few minutes of careful writing Alex gives our forms to a man dressed in Army fatigues and then comes back to sit down next to me on the bench. Then suddenly my mind flicks back to my sister's hand on the glass and her body falling to ground with a thump. The tears start to stream down my face and sobs escape me. Alex moves closer to me and puts his arms around me. He seems to be shaking even more now.

"Shhh. I'm here for you. I-I'm here. Don't w-worry. It's going to- going to all work itself out..." Alex chokes out.

I lay my head on his shoulder as my crying becomes less and less intense. My eyelids feel extremely heavy by the time I've cried myself out. Alex's warm clothes and easy breathing cause me to drift into an undisturbed sleep.

I wake up slowly, and just feel the softness of the couch and the heaviness of my blanket. I try to move my feet but find them hard to move upward. I look down at the end of the couch to find Alex, with his head tilted back, drooling all over himself. His arms are draped over my feet as though he had been trying to keep them from hitting him in the face.

I shake him a little bit with my feet and lean back on my arms. He opens his eyes one at a time and looks over at me, concern creasing his eyes.

"Morning." he says, "How'd ya sleep?"

"Why are you out here?" I answer sleepily.

"You were screaming in your sleep, again. You woke up and said you wanted me to sit here with you." Alex answers, quizzically, "You don't remember?"

"Nope. Must've been half a sleep still."

I yawn and sit myself up next to him.

"What time is it?"

"7:23...Sooo, too damn early." Alex says leaning his head back again.

"I take Amy isn't up, then?" I say throwing the blanket off of me.

"She woke up at 7:00 and left. She wanted me to wake you up for some super early breakfast." he says stretching his legs.

"I dunno. I could totally go for some bacon and pancakes right about now." I say standing up and putting on my jacket.

I grab my revolver and stuff into the back of my pants.

"Alright. Let's go to the Mess then. I'm sure your brother wants to talk with you anyway." Alex says walking over to the door.