It took two weeks.
Just two short weeks for America to be reduced to rubble, nearly uninhabitable and thought to be empty, save for the corpses.
Fighting for survival and to figure out where to go next, three teens agree to a suicide mission adven...
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I miss when the sky was blue.
I miss morning sunrises that were a quiet serene moment of golds and pinks that would fade into the baby blue of the day, all while birds sang songs to one another from across town.
The sky is just a yellowish blue all the time now from the bombs and fires. If you wanted to go outside, it was a wise decision to wear a banana so as not to breathe in the ashes. The air was definitely better than it was a few days ago, but still not totally breathable.
I stretched my aching legs and leaned against the cloth seat beside me. We still slept and lived in the broken fighter plane, but I chose to sleep on the metal floors at night instead of the chairs because the fabric on the chairs reminded me of those uncomfortable chairs in the doctors' office waiting rooms. Opting for comfort was still very much on my agenda, no matter my situation.
Bracing my eyes for the blinding morning sun that cut through the ashes, I found Colby sitting on the trunk of their car. They were focused, fastening a flag to the antenna. Their philosophy was if America is no more then we can have our own government, even if it's just the three of us. This meaning, the only flag that matters to them was their rainbow Pride flag. It was the last thing their parents had given them before all this happened, so it meant a lot to them already. Colby's parents tried hard to find a non-binary one for them but got a rainbow one as a last resort. They really tried to understand and support, Colby knew they tried really hard and accepted it with happy tears. Now, it's our symbol of hope.
"You getting it okay?" I called to them, sliding a cracked pair of sunglasses over my prescribed ones. I found them on the corpse of, well I couldn't really tell you who it was, but whoever it was wasn't going to be using them anytime soon. They were cracked and a gaudy shade of lime green, but they got the job done.
Colby hopped off and marveled in their work with a smile. The flag was secured on with some rope and duck tape, billowing softly in the wind. It really made Colby's beat-up black car look better, like how women in the early 2000s would put rhinestones on anything as a fashion statement. It was a hit or miss on whether it would look good of course back then, but I think it could be compared to one of those good ones.
Colby chuckled under their breath and turned their head slightly, "Gays for reformed America, that's what I'm going to tell anyone we meet. They also gotta sign it too, it's like a welcome card." Colby made JJ and I sign it the day prior. With Colby being non-binary and me being Bisexual, JJ felt him signing it wasn't right because he was straight, but Colby made sure to assure him that allies have every right to sign this flag just like us. It's weird to think that a few months ago, I came out on my social media and so many people supported me, while my family blocked me. Problems can really change fast.
I rolled my eyes and smiled, "Where's JJ anyway?"
"In here Lyra!"
I heard a muffled voice yell from the front seat of the car. Sure enough, I found him sitting in the front seat, messing with the wiring of the radio. His bandages were covered in dirt and ash again, even his red shirt was covered in ash. It was stained to almost the color of his Carmel skin. His black hair was a muted brown from the ash as well.
