The Surface

Darkness

26th December 2058,

I woke up early or late we don't have the time down here anymore, the clocks broke last year none of us know if we are counting the days right. My family and I are bringing the last remnants of food with us wrapped in a blanket that my oldest brother Carter  will carry. Just as well we are leaving today the water ran out, the taps stopped working late last night. We walked down the dimly lit yellow corridor and entered the elevator that hadn't been used once in fifteen long years. My father pressed the button to go up and the button made an unfamiliar dinging noise. All five of us were squished up against each other as the elevator slowly crawled up to the surface. Shuddering to a stop the doors opened and I was the first to step out carefully. It was night time according to my mother, so we had been getting the hours wrong, I couldn't really see anything it was so dark, no stars like my parents and brothers had talked about, nothing.

A group decision was made to wait until it got light to see what was around us. Our aim was to get to the coast and find civilization or any other humans but us. Waiting those last couple of hours was hard, I had waited fifteen years for this but I have to say those last two or three hours nearly killed me I was so impatient to see what the world looked like. 

My eyes opened to see bright light shining down on us reflected back by the water that surrounded us. Water. Crawling down the shores of the little island that was the elevator I cupped my hands quickly and dunked them into  the warm clear water. That was when my mother shouted at me to stop, I startled and rolled forwards landing in the shallow water, taking a breath I breathed in salt water and began coughing uncontrollably when I was lifted out of the water by Carter. Chase and Cole my other two brothers sniggered at my waterlogged appearance. I told them they were idiots and to shut up. That was when my mother and father told me about the water, sea water, we were at the coast already. The glaciers that were almost gone fifteen long years ago held enough water to cover the mountains, they thought that all of the permafrost in the arctic and antarctic had melted too, the only reason why was because of all of the nuclear heat that was released all those years ago.  Getting bored with the geography lesson I began to wade out into the water, enjoying the feeling as it washed against me. I surveyed the surroundings, there was a green patch not to far away and long tall things that looked like trees, not that I could remember what trees looked like but I had been told with stories. I was in awe, the world was so beautiful and even though it had been terribly damaged it was slowly repairing itself. I snapped out of my trance as my family members too began to wade through the water to the green patch. Following them we slowly got closer and closer to the trees until we were standing on the shore. That was when I was told what the new plan was, find fresh water and food first then we would look for other signs of civilization, other humans. 

Sticking together we made our way through the forest of leafy trees looking of any sign of movement. My brother Cole was the first to spot the monster. We had probably been walking for around three hours and were all exhausted when Cole made a startled noise and pointed to our right. It's just a cow my father spoke in a hushed voice. Cole shook his head at my dad then and told us to look closer. That was when the cow turned its head towards us with wide eyes, four wide eyes on two separate heads. My father began to swear then, It's the radiation, It's mutating the animals and probably the plants too, he spoke quickly then, my mother still staring in shock at the two headed beast. We had to keep moving not knowing if the cow was safe to eat or if it was full of radiation. We continued on with parched throats and only the preserved food to keep us alive.

Mum was the first to sit down, we weren't going any further today she said, I was glad my feet hurt and I was thirsty and I still hadn't gotten to properly look at the forest around us. The light that penetrated the trees had darkened and it was hard to see, Carter unwrapped the food packages from in the blanket opened two and we began to eat silently. Later we used the blanket that held the food to drape over all of us as  we  all curled up together for warmth and slowly drifted off to sleep all but Chase, who was to keep watch first.