The Lucky Ones by Matthew S. Cox

Author:Matthew S. Cox [Cox, Matthew S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950738045
Publisher: Division Zero Press
Published: 2019-05-10T22:00:00+00:00

15

Fish Dinner

A whole grilled trout sat on a plate in front of Harper, staring up at her with an expression of open-mouthed shock.

She hadn’t yet touched it. So far, the only conversation to drift across the table had been Renee asking Harper if she was okay about six times and Cliff cautioning the kids to be wary of bones. He’d cooked the fish out back on the cinder block grill because he said it would taste better, and also because the power grid had crapped out again.

Madison didn’t appear to have an issue with eating fish. It remained unclear if her vegetarian nature allowed an exemption for lake trout or if general hunger and desire to survive suppressed it. Jonathan looked like a little surgeon, taking his fish apart with precision, searching for bones before eating each bite. Lorelei, as usual, represented an extreme. She picked her fish up with her bare hands and savaged it brown bear style.

“The fish came out wonderful,” said Carrie in a low tone. “You did a great job.”

Cliff glanced at her. “Just hit it with black pepper and salt, and whatever that red stuff is.”

“Cayenne,” muttered Harper. “Least… it smells like it.”

“Are you gonna eat that trout or just try to communicate with it telepathically all night?” asked Cliff.

Harper almost smiled. “I’m worried about Logan.”

Lorelei looked up, her fish draped sideways from her teeth. She play snarled and shook her head like a dog mangling a rabbit it caught.

That made her smile. “Okay, okay.” She stabbed her fork into the trout. “Sorry, pal. You’re already dead. Don’t look at me like that.”

Lorelei giggled.

“Why weren’t we fishing before when food was running out?” Harper stuffed a forkful of fish in her mouth, and coughed. “Yep, cayenne.”

Cliff flipped his trout over and started on the other side. “Ned thought the lake was full of radioactivity. He got it in his head that water picked up a crapton of fallout. He’s still paranoid about the rain.”

“So there’s no radiation in the lake?” asked Carrie.

“Well… I’m no nuclear expert, but we did have some training on the aftereffects of an attack. Fallout distributes byproducts of a fission blast, primarily strontium-90, which is a pretty nasty radio-carcinogen. Wide open areas like the lake can soak up a bunch of fallout, and fish tend to absorb all the toxins in their environment. Remember that whole mercury thing? Considering the number of weapons that went off around here, it’s almost guaranteed we’ve soaked up some strontium among other things. No way to avoid it. Question really is how bad? The training had studies from surveys they did back in the Fifties and Sixties from above-ground nuke tests, measuring levels of strontium-90 in baby teeth of children born both before and after.”

Everyone got quiet.

Harper peered down at the fish. “Is this fish glowing?”

“The Army didn’t pick up alarming levels in the lake.” Cliff tossed another piece of fish in his mouth. “So it should be reasonably safe. A somewhat elevated risk of cancer is already our reality.

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