In all the books she'd read about the end of the world, there was always so much going on, some trial to overcome. Nobody ever focused on how little happened. How much time did the hero's spent just wandering? Not that she considered herself a hero of any kind; it wasn't like there was anything left out here to save. No, there were no heroes in this story, just survivors. Sampson didn't seem to mind all the wandering, and he turned out to be quite the fetch champion. He was a small light in her dusty world. She always liked dogs, man's best friend and all that. At least they were at some point before men killed each other and every living thing they could.
She sighed and looked at Sampson, his happy face gazing up at her as she ignored the pangs of hunger in her stomach. He was a good boy, seeing him so thin made her sad, and she'd only been with him for a few days. It was strange, even with the limited sunlight in this freezing world, she lost track of time. It just slipped away from her like sand on a beach. Beaches. She wondered what those were like now. She wasn't too far from one, but they were always so populated that she didn't want to see the corpses of people strewn about. She couldn't handle seeing that again. Edith shook her head, forcing the flash of burned and ravaged bodies from her mind. Her memories had taken on a red hue, the kind only a boiling flam produced, hot and violent. It matched how she felt, but somehow, it also didn't. She was angry, a dull burning always heavy in her chest as she gazed upon the remnants of humanity. But she was also sad, so much so the word sadness felt too light, too simple to capture the crushing weight she felt when she lingered too long on the past. It threatened to swallow her whole.
Edith paused, looking around at the road ahead, cars littered the highway, burnt, overturned, the trees were like toothpicks, and the ones that weren't had orange leaves. It was spring when the bombs hit, and already the cold was turning the world into autumn. It would snow soon; she wasn't sure how she knew it, but she did. The cold seeped into her clothes and prickled her skin, the only warmth coming from her body as she walked along. So much walking. The blisters on her feet stung with every step, but she couldn't stop. She needed food and water for her and Sampson now. It was funny, for her, the world had stopped on that fateful spring day, and yet, it kept spinning, day after day, month after month, and year after year. No atomic bomb could stop the senseless crawling of time ever forward.
She looked at Sampson, "Come on, let's go find something to eat and some water too." He happily bounded forward, unphased by their current predicament. She wondered if she'd run into other survivors or if she was the last one. It seemed impossible; the world was so big. How could she be the last? Out of all the seven billion people, surely there was more than one person left.
She started walking again, weaving between burnt and overturned cars, Sampson found them interesting, sniffing each one before running around, it was a miracle he had so much energy. She didn't. Her eyes fell on a small, partially charred beetle, and it tugged her thoughts back to a better time.
**********
Edith sat at the coffee shop, tapping her mug as she checked her phone, waiting for Lillian, her girlfriend. She still felt giddy every time she thought about it. Her first girlfriend, normally right now she'd be in her mathematics class, but she decided to ditch and grab coffee instead. Then Lillian texted, inviting her out for a drive, and she couldn't say no. That girl had a hold on her like no other. She was everything, and Edith was okay with that. She still hadn't told her parents, though, and the thought settled on her mind like a bad taste as her phone buzzed;
Lillian: I'm outside :) The green beetle.
Edith smiled and got up, leaving the little coffee shop and spotting the cute green beetle parked out front. Sitting inside was the prettiest woman in the world. Lillian hopped out of the car and ran over with a smile that made Edith's heart flip.
"Hey, Lilly." Edith smiled, hugging Lillian before taking her hand and going to the car, "Where are we going exactly?"
Lillian shrugged, "No clue, I just felt like driving and didn't want to be lonely." She smiled, that brilliant flash of teeth that made a dimple on her right cheek manifest. Gorgeous. "Aren't you supposed to be in math right now?"
"Maybe." Edith grinned, getting in the car and buckling in. Her car smelled like lavender, and there were doodles on the dashboard in paint marker. Cute flowers and peace signs, "So, do you take all the girls you meet out on random drives?"
Lillian chuckled, buckling in and starting the car, "Just the pretty ones." And she winked at Edith, the radio blaring some pop music as Edith's face heated up from the compliment. Something about the way she said it made Edith believe it. She could probably tell Edith the earth was flat, and she'd believe it.
"You flatter me." Edith chuckled, "I am pretty hot, aren't I?"
"Don't push it." Lillian chuckled as they drove through the town, starting to sing along to the music. Loud enough, Edith could hear her voice over the radio; she couldn't help but sing along, too, taking Lillian's free hand in her own.
**********
Edith swallowed the lump in her throat as she walked past the car, why was it that the good memories hurt the worst? She'd likely never know, not exactly a lot of therapists out here now. She sighed, forcing the memory away as she kept moving forward. That's all she could do now, Lillian, her parents, her friends, they were as good as gone. They were never coming back, all that was left was her. She and Sampson. Just like the world kept spinning, she had to keep moving forward; her memories would just drag her down.
Night fell by the time she reached the next town. Its condition was the same as the one she had just left, burnt and broken down, but it still had a few homes standing, and in the backyard of one, she'd found a hatch. "What do you think, Sampson? Think someone's in there?" She looked at Sampson, who gazed up at her without a care in the world, she gave him a few pats on the head before knocking on the hatch a few times and waiting. There was no answer, and after a moment, she opened the hatch. Dust wafted up to her from the cold hole, and she glanced at Sampson before climbing down. It was a bit bigger than her old hole, and after turning on the flickering light, she discovered her luck had not run out yet. There was food, water, and first aid supplies. She ran to a food shelf and grabbed a can of peaches, taking off her mask and cracking it open before scarfing down the contents. Nothing had ever tasted better in her life.
She grabbed a bowl and a can of some chili before leaving the hatch and going to Sampson, "Hey boy, look what I got!" She poured the contents of the can into the bowl and set it down, watching Sampson happily scarf it down. She'd gotten so carried away she forgot about her mask, and when she realized it hung loosely on her neck, she quickly put it back on again. Shit. She needed to be more careful. But even that wasn't enough to lower her spirits as she smiled at her dog, she'd found food, water, and supplies. She was going to be okay.
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Authors Note-
Chapter 5! Exciting, I'm having fun with this one, and who doesn't like a good dog companion, am I right?
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Beneath A Dying Sky
Fiksi Ilmiah26 minutes and 40 seconds. That's how long it took for a Russian nuke to hit the East Coast of the United States. That's how long it took to end the world. Edith was there, in what was left of the continental United States. Left to wander a new worl...
