Atomic Comets by Gabriel Tuggle

Author:Gabriel Tuggle [Tuggle, Gabriel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-08T07:00:00+00:00

The Outside

The protestors were gathered around the municipal building, squabbling like wild turkeys. They pulsed up the concrete steps, toward the door. Picket signs bounced up and down from within the mob.

“We want answers; we want them now! We want answers; we don’t care how!”

A stray woman’s voice: “Climate change isn’t finished! We won’t go out there!”

Quentin Yates stood and watched them from the street corner. He slinked around in broad daylight. His eyes were open in horror. They were protesting because of him.

The crowd overflowed and surged further up the stairs. The front glass doors swung open. Five police officers barreled out into the street with batons in their fists. The crowd dispersed into a thunder of frantic footsteps. The unlucky ones were thwacked in the head, flopping to the pavement like limp noodles. Bloody spit flew from their mouths.

Quentin ducked further behind the corner wall. His back sweat was a dark stain against his dress shirt.

Picket signs dropped to the sidewalk. The street was quickly deserted of anyone. The policemen dragged three beaten protestors, bound in handcuffs, into the municipal building.

Quentin continued his walk to work.

…

Murphy’s Convenience Store wasn’t a total shit hole. It was just a regular hole, around the corner from Quentin’s apartment, and he passed it everyday on his way to the university. He popped in early that morning to get his usual work supplies: three packs of peanut butter crackers, a can of instant motivation, and a bottle of generic brand ibuprofen.

He bundled all of it in his thin arms, clasping the cargo to his chest. He stopped and glanced down at the newspapers. There was a whole stack of them in the wire rack near the register. He never usually read the paper, but it also wasn’t everyday that his face appeared on the front page.

“LOCAL UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SPREADS MASS HYSTERIA OVER CITY BORDER”

Was that what they were calling it? Hysteria? They made him sound like a mad scientist that just created an apocalyptic virus in his lab. But Quentin was not a scientist nor did he have a lab. He barely had an office, for that matter.

He moved past the newspapers and dumped his daily supplies near the register. The clerk was situated behind the tall counter like a judge in court.

“Say, I saw you in the paper,” he said with a curious half-grin. “Media is having a field day over that, ain’t they?”

“I suppose so.”

“You suppose so.” The clerk nodded and scanned the items. After a pause, he said, “You think climate change is really over?”

“Well, yeah.” Why the hell would he have written about it if he didn’t think so?

“I haven’t read your actual article, but I read the summary the news put out. Sounds pretty funky to me, but then again, I didn’t go to college and I ain’t particularly smart. So what do I know?”

…

His walk to work was short, especially from Murphy’s Convenience. But on that morning, Quentin held his head low and clutched the paper sack to his chest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.