The ringing is what brought him back. He forgot he had ears up until then. Like when you’re about to fall asleep and something wakes you up, everything comes rushing back. He could feel the scrapes and cuts all over his body, and the warm concrete on his cheek. Atticus opened his eyes and saw the mushroom cloud out in the distant south. It looked like downtown Manhattan; he wasn’t even in the city.
Atticus
got to his feet. He was in a neighborhood, a plain American suburban nightmare.
Housewives with their faces falling off came rushing at him. Atticus went for
his gun, but his holster was empty. Despite his pounding headache, Atticus made
himself run away. He turned the corner and the coast was clear for the time
being.
He continued
running up the street, when behind him zombies collided at the crossroads. He
was making too much noise. A horde was brewing, if Atticus didn’t lose them, he
would not be able to safely barricade himself in time for fallout. And the
clock was ticking; he had about five more minutes left to get inside. He stood
under a traffic light and looked down both roads. One way led to a train
station, and the other way led up a hill.
Atticus
wanted to go to the train station. His instinct told him the train station. But
something stopped him; something lied to him under the guise of needing to find
his crashed ship. Atticus surveyed the sky around him for smoke. He could not
make out the difference between smoke from the burning wreckage of his War Bird
and the rotten grey clouds accumulating up above from the burning city. Atticus
had to get inside. As he was looking up the hill at the crest before the grey
sky, a boy with long blond hair peeking out of his baseball cap was waving and
yelling out to him. Atticus ran closer, “OVER HERE!” he was saying, “THIS WAY!”
Atticus
ran
back up the street to get to the top of the hill when the approaching
zombies cut him off. He turned down an adjacent alleyway.
It could have been a bum in an ordinary day, but today it went for his
flesh. Atticus fell back with his hands on the zombie's shoulders,
keeping it out of biting range. He kicked it off him and swiped a busted
pipe from under a dumpster. Atticus plunged the pipe into the zombie's
gut. It was not fazed. Atticus kicked the pipe through and through,
tossing the undead bum to the floor. The noise from Atticus bashing the
brains of the bum in with the pipe attracted the rest of the horde down
the alleyway. To the Captain's avail he hopped a fence ending the
alleyway. Once he jumped enough fences, ditching the undead, he caught
up with the kid at
the top of the hill
“Hey
kid! Where are we going!?”
The
kid did not answer but brought him to a man who was waiting behind the wheel of
a pick-up truck.
“We’re
going to a shelter…a bomb shelter…it’s my Dad’s”
“Simon
that’s enough!” yelled the guy as they got into the truck.
“Wait,
I have friends…”
“We’ve
got her too,” The boy smiled as he showed Atticus a girl who was already in the
back of the pick-up truck. Atticus had a look for himself, and the kid was
right…it was Rebecca. Once he grabbed her hand she opened her eyes. “Atticus!”
“It’s
okay…rest…”
“Where’s
Samuel?”
“I
don’t know. But we have to go; it might be our only chance at surviving.”
Atticus put the blanket on her tighter and turned around. He tapped on the
window and slid it open, “PICK UP THE PACE, WE GOT ABOUT TWO MINUTES TIL
FALLOUT RADIATION!”
The
truck took the corner on two wheels and Atticus compensated with a lean;
standing strong and checking all the streets they passed for Dr. Chase. “Maybe
Samuel has the guns too…”
“I
have the guns.” Rebecca said casually.
“You…what?”
Atticus turned around.
“I
grabbed both guns while you were fighting and tucked them down my pants so you
wouldn’t find them.” She explained, “When you strapped me in I thought I was
going to get blown in half.” She took the blanket off and pulled her shirt up. The
cold steel pressed upon her boney hips. Atticus pulled his Desert Eagle out of her waistband, cocked, and loaded it. Rebecca
was not expecting that. When he tucked the gun into the middle of his waistband
instead of his holster, he said, “You can hold onto the Doctor’s until he gets
back,” and then covered the gun with his tan dirt-torn army-issued undershirt.
They
arrived at the abandoned building. It looked like an apartment building. The
boy and what turned out to be his uncle led them down the walkway and stairs to
the basement shelter. Sure enough, there was the yellow and black fallout
stencil spray painted on the wall. When they got to the lead-metal door it was
closed, but visibly unlocked. The uncle tried to push it in when an alarm went
off.
“GOD
DAMMIT ED!” yelled a guy from inside.
“Sorry
Clark,” the uncle apologized to his brother.
The
door opened and Simon brought Atticus and Rebecca in to meet everyone.
“Luther’s
gonna be pissed…”
“This
is my Uncle Ed and my Uncle Clark,” Simon proceeded, “Guys this is Captain
Atticus Ross and Doctor Rebecca Pratt.” Simon bowed and ran inside. Rebecca
must have told them their names, pretty quick for a kid who couldn’t have been
older than eight or nine.
“Ed,
what are you doing? Luther won’t let more in.”
“He
said it himself, the place can hold up to thirty people, we’re not even
twenty…this is a doctor and a soldier…”
“It
doesn’t matter now, come on!” Clark led Ed along with Atticus and Rebecca
farther in.
Simon
was hugging his father. He was a tall, stout-chested man with short blonde hair
who intimidated his brothers and family merely with his presence. His name was
Luther and he was king and ruler of his family as the oldest brother and owner
of the bomb shelter. Once he was told about Atticus and Rebecca he greeted them
with open arms.
“There
is still one more!” Rebecca shouted at him in a dire rebound of subtly.
“We
still have loved ones out there as well.”
“So
you will wait before you seal the door?”
“The
door can always be unlocked if need be,” Luther reassured them, “But in…one
minute and twenty-seven seconds…I will close it permanently.”
“What!?”
“OR
ELSE WE COULD ALL BE CONTAMINATED AND DIE!” His temper trampled anything else
and everyone else in the room.
Atticus
took Rebecca away, avoiding confrontation, as they met the other people in the
shelter. There was Clark’s wife Brook, and their twenty year old daughter Nora.
There was also their family friend Walter who was waiting for his father and
son. He was pacing back and forth as Brook tried to calm him, “They should have
been here by now…That crazy bastard is going to seal the doors on them…I just
know it…”
“No
he isn’t,” Brook reassured him, “They’ll be okay. They’ll make it in time.”
Walter
settled down when he saw Atticus and Rebecca, something about them made him
gather his frantic anxieties. He cooled off and met everyone along with Brook
and the rest of the kids. The final seconds Luther counted down for everyone to
hear. Walter pushed his fingers through his hair as he watched Luther seal the
door after zero. His family was still nowhere to be found. Everyone’s
cellphones were dead after the blast, along with almost everything else
electronic.
Through
the window of the door, Walter could see the rising dust from the tires. The
clouds were all around them and dropping quickly, soaked in gamma radiation,
toxic to human flesh. The car crashed through the apartment building, into the
walls, as they jumped out and ran down to the door.
“It’s
Frank and Wheeler!”
Walter
was devastated… What were the odds?
“They
have Mr. Summers and Walter’s boy!”
“And
some other guy with glasses!” Clark yelled out from the door.
“That
has to be him!” Rebecca grabbed Atticus’ arm. He didn’t want to crush her hopes
so he smiled. But he also didn’t want her to get her hopes up. Atticus knew
what kind of guy Luther was, he was the kind that never goes back on his word, and would do anything to keep his son safe, including letting other people die.
He was not opening that door for anyone. Walter got in his face immediately; it
took Clark and Ed to hold them back. Luther got free and punched Walter across
the face, lifting him up off the floor, and throwing him back down on his ass.
Clark
and Ed both went at Luther for resorting to violence so quickly. While Walter
jumped up and unlocked the door. After that, everyone knew Luther would kill
Walter. Even Atticus joined in to restrain Luther as Walter opened the door and
let them in. The old man and the boy rushed by, hugging Walter. Frank and
Wheeler carried the guy with the glasses in and the three brothers closed and
sealed the door. Luther grabbed Simon and ran into the shower room to scrub themselves
clean of fallout radiation. As he ran away he yelled, “YOU JUST KILLED US!” YOU
JUST KILLED US ALL!”
Frank
and Wheeler carried the guy past Rebecca and she cried out in joy. It was Dr.
Chase. Samuel in the flesh, he had a gushing blow to the head and was
unconscious but he seemed to be okay other than that. Atticus ran over and
examined him, “Was he awake at all?”
“When
we first found him…”
“…Crazy
bastard wouldn’t let go of his seat…” Wheeler grinned.
“He
was still in his seat?” Rebecca never would have thought.
“Looked
like some sort of alien space ship if you ask me…” Frank theorized.
Rebecca
shook her head up and down and pretended she had no idea what he was talking
about. She looked over at Atticus who was wrapping Samuel’s head and covertly smiling.
For the time being Atticus was relieved to see Samuel alive, but he knew the
shelter would not escape fallout, nuclear or otherwise.
