Nuclear Summer by Matthew S. Cox

Author:Matthew S. Cox [Cox, Matthew S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Dystopian
ISBN: 9781950738120
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Published: 2019-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

16

A Good Place

The tennis ball bounced on the pavement, again and again, the soft pop it made echoing into the nearby trees. Harper approached the child at a nonthreatening pace, waiting for him to look up and make eye contact. He didn’t. Long, wild light brown hair framed a cute, narrow face with large hazel eyes. If he’d been wearing anything, she wouldn’t have known him a boy. He didn’t appear too skinny, but everyone now more or less had the same sort of build due to rationed diet of mostly vegetables plus fresh chicken or venison and no overly sugared junk. Also, rationing kept people from overeating.

Maybe in a generation or two, people would have to worry about getting fat again. Maybe.

She watched the boy bounce the ball a few more times, trying to put a name to him. Untamed hair concealed most of his face, but an obliging breeze gave her a decent look at him. Still, she didn’t recognize him. Then again, this far south, he probably didn’t go to school. Anne-Marie Kirby, the town manager, tried to get everyone with school-age kids to go north. Granted, this boy looked a bit young to start school yet, so maybe his parents hadn’t bothered relocating.

“Hi. I’m with the Evergreen Militia. My name’s Harper. What’s your name?”

“I’m Elijah.”

She smiled. “Is everything okay?”

He caught the ball and looked up. “I dunno.”

“You don’t know?” She crouched to eye level and poked one finger into the hair over half his face, pushing it aside. “Why don’t you know if you’re okay?”

Elijah looked past her at Darci, then back to her. “I made a mess. I’m gonna get in troubles when Daddy wakes up.”

“Is that why you don’t have any clothes?”

He bounced the ball once, wobbling his head in an exaggerated nod. “I took shirt off afore open the can so’s it don’t get all sauced. But I messed up wif a can open machine, an’ puhsketti-Os went splat onna floor.”

Harper’s worry increased. “You opened the can? While your Daddy was asleep?”

“Yeah. He won’t wake up.”

Darci sucked in a breath.

Harper grasped Elijah’s shoulders, staring into his eyes. “How long has he been asleep and not waking up?”

Elijah jammed a finger up his nose. “I dunno.”

“Couple hours?”

“Longer.”

“A day?”

Elijah pulled his finger out of his nostril and looked at the snot. “Yeah. I sleeped two times.”

“Crap,” whispered Darci.

Harper guided the boy over to her. “Keep an eye on him?”

“Sure.”

“You gonna wake Daddy up?” He peered up at her.

“That’s what I’m hoping,” replied Harper in a brittle voice. “Where’s Mommy?”

Elijah pointed up. “Inna sky. Mommy went away when the sky lit on fire. Daddy says she inna good place now.”

I hate this stupid world. Why does it have to be like this? A lump formed in Harper’s throat. “Be right back.”

She stood.

Elijah resumed bouncing his tennis ball. “Okay.”

Harper walked from the road to the tree-shrouded driveway marked by child-sized footprints in cheap tomato sauce. A length of sidewalk connected to the front porch of a house nearly three times the size of her new one with a double garage on the left.

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