HIs to Take, page 3
part #1 of New Earth Series
The fact that he sometimes turned into a werewolf didn’t bother her either. It frightened her at first, but the family had learned to sense when an episode was coming on and they’d lock themselves away. Over the years, the feral animals they would become had also become tamer, and the need to lock themselves in their own quarters dissipated. Sometimes, Rex would still lock himself away, but his parents would often sit with Ann’s family, as wolves, and wouldn’t cause problems at all. Amanda even came to Ann for petting sometimes.
The first time that had happened had been odd, and it had taken a lot of courage on all their parts to let the wolf family out in their animal forms, but it had become a part of their reality over time. At first, they’d all been rather freaked out. The Wolfsons wanted to leave, terrified they’d somehow get out and kill the Adamses in their sleep, but over time, they’d all learned to accept it. As they’d learned to accept so much already.
Ann even found it a little dangerous, in a romantic way, that Rex sometimes turned into an animal. What other form should a bad boy take but that of a wolf, she’d wondered after a while. It was only natural that he’d become something like that.
The adults had discussed the entire matter at length, more than once. Her father, always the caretaker, had refused to let the family leave. They’d have died almost instantly if they had, and he couldn’t have that on his conscience. They’d all talked about it and had decided that it was safer for them all if the family stayed, even in their animal forms.
Rex hadn’t liked it, he’d wanted to go, even back then. He’d thought their animal forms would protect them, that the new ability had given them some kind of special powers, but it had never been proven. And as his mother had pointed out to him, what would they eat, even if the cold and the changes in the air didn’t kill them?
The Earth had shaken for eight days after the event. The bunker had just rolled with the tremors and had never shown any sign of damage. That had been a relief to them all, but they’d all wondered what had happened outside. Was there even a world left out there?
Amanda had reminded them all that the atmosphere had likely changed if that many volcanoes had gone off at once. The atmosphere would be different now, composed of far more gases that might make the air unbreathable. That had finally convinced Rex to stay put. For a while, Ann had wondered if Rex would try to run away from the bunker, but that reminder had settled that question. If he couldn’t breathe, he’d die, so it was pointless to go out there. Even if he took all of the available oxygen tanks, which he couldn’t possibly carry, he’d never make it to somewhere with more oxygen before he ran out.
Rex had only become more complicated, more morose, as time had gone on, and in Ann’s mind, he’d become a tragic, romantic figure. He was misunderstood, and he had been taken from everything he’d known. Of course, they all had, but that didn’t matter. She’d have lived underground for the rest of her life, and probably would, if the air up there was unbreathable. She’d endure it all because it meant she was close to him. And he’d thrown all of that right back in her face with his snide little remarks earlier.
Even in her sleep, the scene at the hatch disturbed her, and she relived the moment until her out of control emotions woke her up. She sat up on the edge of the bed, her hair tangled around her, and quickly braided it with impatience. She used a hair tie that was nearly useless, but still managed to cling to her hair, and took a deep breath. This couldn’t go on. She wasn’t a child anymore, and she had to see Rex for the man he was.
Rex was a complete asshole, she decided, a jerk even, but she still loved him. She could forgive him this, but she wouldn’t forget it either. Besides, if he was the only man her age that she’d ever meet in her life, well, she’d have to just get used to his ideas. Even if they were disturbing.
Feminism was dead indeed. She didn’t think so. She’d give in to her parents' wishes, because they were her parents, but she wasn’t about to let him run ragged all over her, just because he was a man. Not always, anyway. There were times when she knew she’d give in, just to keep the peace because she hated arguments and tension, but she wouldn’t always let him push her over, either.
Or she’d try not to let him do it, at least. He didn’t deserve to be treated like a king just because he’d been born with a penis between his legs. Even if he was the last man her age on the planet, she knew she couldn’t let him treat her like that. She’d have to find a way to make sure he fell in love with her, but also understood that she wasn’t his slave.
Which might be taking it a little far. Maybe his sneer was mockery, and he’d only been joking, she decided. Her nap wasn’t exactly peaceful, but she did feel a little bit better. She had never been the type to sit and cry anyway, and she would have to make that her last pity party, she decided. She headed back up to the safe room and found the two mothers in deep conversation.
The air down here was still, even with the ventilation fans, and she felt almost suffocated as the hours passed. By the time the little window had gone dark, all the women were pacing. Each one stared up at the window and hoped for some sign of the men.
“What if the air was bad?” Amanda said. “Or one of them fell and got hurt?”
“I’m sure they’re fine. But, well, I wonder if it’s still cold? Even with the sun shining earlier, it must have still been cold.”
“Do you know? When I looked just before the sun set, I could have sworn the ice and snow were gone.”
It had been snowing for well over four years now, it seemed impossible that the packed snowfall could just… disappear.
“That’s impossible, surely?” Mary asked.
“The sky cleared in a day, Mom,” Ann reminded her, and Mary nodded.
“You’re right.”
“What do we do?” Amanda asked, and they all looked at her. Mary was about to answer when a noise from above told them the hatch was about to open.
The women all ran back to the safe room and waited for whoever had come back. They were all nervous, on edge, as they waited. Had they all returned? Had something gone wrong and somebody left behind, is that what had taken so long? When the safe room door finally opened, and all three men walked through, the women all but leaped on them in relief.
“Ladies! It’s okay, we’re fine,” Stephan called out as he got a hug from Ann, Mary, and his wife. “You won’t believe what’s happened out there.”
The men had already removed their suits, and they all made their way down to the lower level to have some dinner from a bag. Ann heated water as the two mothers prepared some powdered mix drinks for the families to have with their meals.
“It’s amazing,” John finally said after a few bites of food. “It’s all… gone.”
4
“What do you mean, it’s all gone?” Amanda said, her eyes bright with excitement.
“Just that,” John replied after he wiped his mouth. “The snow, the cold, the bad air, it’s all gone.”
“We took our suits off,” Rex said around a mouthful of reconstituted beef stew. “It was still a little chilly out, but by the time we made it back here, it had warmed up. Can you believe that?”
Ann looked at the other women and knew they were thinking the same thing. This couldn’t be right. The skies had cleared, the snow had melted and there wasn’t any flooding?
“The ground must have been soaking wet,” Mary chimed in, but the men all shook their heads.
“The ground was moist, like it would be after a light rain, but it wasn’t soggy at all. We searched for hours and didn’t find one sign of flooding. It’s all… normal again.”
“And none of you find that strange?” Ann asked, her eyes on them all now. “What, do you think some god came down from the heavens and magicked it all away?”
“Well, no, Ann,” John said. None of them had ever been religious and hadn’t brought any kind of beliefs down into the bunker with them, but they kept using words like miracle, and our prayers have been answered. Yet, none of them prayed, that she knew of.
“What else could it be?” Stephan asked. He’d always been the quiet one, the most contemplative of them all, and Ann turned to look at him.
“Aliens? I don’t know. Maybe the volcanoes stopped, and a new jet stream started up, finally.”
“It would still take months, maybe even years to melt all of that snow, Ann,” Amanda, the most scientific one them all, chimed in. “It could be something that someone on the other side of the Earth has done. I don’t know what exactly, but it’s possible.”
“But not aliens, or god, or some unknown goddess, because feminism is dead, right, Rex?” She couldn’t miss that chance to rub that into him.
“Well, yes, Ann. I would think that women taking on classic roles again would be obvious.” He smirked at her, and she wanted to hate him, but his smile took the sting away. “It can’t be gods, though, unless they wanted to get rid of everything and start all over again.”
“You can knock that nonsense off right now, buddy,” his mother said and glared at him. “You might be taller and bigger than me, but I can still take a baseball bat to you. Don’t forget, I’m the one that used to play catch with you and taught you which end of a bat was which.”
Stephan had always been too busy, caught up in writing his books, to play with his son, but Amanda had always been there for him, which was why it sounded so odd to hear him spew such nonsense about women’s roles and their places. His mother had been a shining example of what women could do, with her athletics and her job as a science teacher.
Ann tried not to roll her eyes at him but saw that he’d astonished even himself. Did he really think that could happen? She’d never been raised to believe in creationist stories, but she could see now that he was thinking about it. Her lips pursed and she looked away. She couldn’t fall out of love with him in the span of a few hours, could she?
This sudden feminist urge she had was sparked by his words, though. She’d been complacent, forgiving, and understanding of him throughout all of these years. Life had changed, all over again, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. She hadn’t been the last time, but back then, she’d been young, too caught up in happiness at being so close to Rex to give in to shock and despair, but now? She wasn’t sure she actually liked him, right now.
And she definitely wasn’t sure she was ready to go outside of these walls again. It felt safe here, like home now, and she’d started to think of it as the place she’d spend the rest of her life. Sure, the food was awful, and boredom could set in if you didn’t find something to fill your time with, but it was home. It had kept them alive when countless others had died.
From what her Dad had learned over the years, it wasn’t just North America that had suffered with the sudden tectonic shifts that had set off the volcanoes, as many had postulated. Europe had also borne the brunt of the volcanic activity. Oddly, the Ring of Fire around the Pacific had been quiet. There’d even been reports that Antarctica had completely melted because of all of the activity. Ann hadn’t known there were even volcanoes down there, but Amanda had told her there were.
Life wouldn’t have been pleasant, even for those that escaped the volcanoes. The nuclear winter, caused by all of the ash spewed into the sky, had cooled the planet down significantly, and there would have been snow in places that had never seen it before. Not in this lifetime, that was for certain.
“I don’t care what caused it right now, even if it was aliens,” Mary said. “I just want to feel sunlight on my face again.”
Ann turned to her mother. She was 40 now, the same age as Rex’s mother, but without the sun damage that Amanda had suffered. Five years ago, Mary would go outside, spend her days outdoors, planting, weeding, and taking care of the home John provided for them. It was almost like a jungle in their backyard.
Amanda, on the other hand, had spent her time indoors most of the time, but when she was outside, she’d never bothered with a hat or sunscreen. Fine lines around her eyes now told the story of her life outdoors while Mary’s skin was still smooth. They were good friends, despite their differences, and that was one of the reasons her father had asked the Wolfsons to come along when the world decided to rip itself apart.
“You know the first thing you’ll do is find a hat, Mary,” Amanda ribbed her friend and they both laughed. They both knew it was true.
“You’re probably right, but to feel warmth that isn’t from a blanket or body heat again would be nice.” That had been a shock to them all, how quickly the bunker had heated up with them in it, despite its size. The concrete and bedrock walls just seemed to absorb every inch of heat they gave off. Luckily, the ventilation system kept it at a constant temperature.
“I’m going to find something to wear besides these horrible coveralls,” Ann said, but wished she hadn’t. Everybody looked at her, surprised that was what she wanted to change. But then they all laughed, and she didn’t feel so bad.
“Wow, you know, you’re right,” Amanda said on the tail-end of a chuckle. “What I wouldn’t give for a pair of jeans or sweat pants. Anything that didn’t mean we had to unzip these stupid things to go to the bathroom.”
“A dress and some heels would be nice too,” Mary sighed wistfully. “I used to like to dress up a little when we’d go out. Hard to do here, isn’t it?”
“You don’t know how many times I thought about turning these things into some kind of dress. I just couldn’t do it, though. I haven’t sewn anything since I was a teenager, and I knew it didn’t matter what I’d do, it would still look like coveralls when I finished.”
“Well, you ladies can have all the dresses that might still exist. I’m looking for a pair of work boots and some trousers. Mainly for the same reason as you two.” John laughed and looked over at Stephan. “What about you, buddy?”
“Books, John. Always books.” He’d gone through the library, as they all had, and had even commandeered a few notebooks to write in. He hadn’t been wasteful with his time, either.
“And you, Rex?” Stephan asked his son, but Rex just stood up and walked away.
“There won’t be any baseball teams for him to sign with, I’m afraid,” John said softly, and Stephan nodded.
“No, he’s going to have to do the same as the rest of us from now on. He can’t mope in his room anymore. He’ll have to pull his weight out there.”
“Out there? So, we’re all going?” Ann asked, hope alive in her eyes.
“We’ll all go tomorrow, test it out, see what it’s like. Gasoline will be dead by now, so we’ll have to walk out. I doubt there’s any animal or plant life that can sustain us, so we’ll have to take plenty of MREs, but I know there was a town not far away. We can see what’s there.” John wiped at his face and leaned back in his chair.
Amanda and Stephen got up from the dining table set up at the edge of the patio area and said their goodnights. There was an excitement in the air now, a hope that hadn’t been there before.
“Do you think it will be safe out there for us, John?” Mary asked, her worry evident.
“I don’t really know, Mary. I can’t promise anything. I do know I’m tired of being in this bunker though, and if we can get out of it, even if it’s only for a little while, it will be worth it, won’t it?”
“I’m with you, Dad,” Ann cut in, her mind already on the possibilities of what could still be out there. “I want to see what’s left.”
“Then that settles it.” Mary’s smile spread over her face as she spoke. “We’ll go. On one condition.”
“What’s that?” John asked, but his eyes said he already knew the answer.
“We leave this place secure so we can come back to it if we need to.” She paused and looked at her husband and daughter for a long moment before she spoke again. “And we don’t go more than a couple of days away from this place. I want to come back to it quickly if we have to.”
“Sensible as always, my dear. I agree. Now, I’m going to bed. I have to get up early to make sure everything is ready. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Dad.” Ann kissed his cheek when he leaned down as he walked by her. “See you tomorrow.”
“That you will, sweetie.”
They watched him go and then they got up. They weren’t tired yet, and knew they’d need to start packing now. Mary went and found enough rucksacks for them all and they started to fill each one with the necessities. If one became lost, they’d have what they needed to survive, and the others wouldn’t suffer without if it happened.
Each bag contained MREs, matches, an extra pair of coveralls, combat boots in each person’s size, a pot for boiling water, a knife, fork, and spoon, toilet paper that they took off the roll, a camping blanket, first aid kits, and quite a bit more. The bags were heavy when they finished, but it would be possible to carry them with a few breaks to rest.
Their coveralls would also carry more gear they might want to take, and Ann added a couple of notebooks to each bag. Paper might come in handy for a variety of reasons. Mary added a variety of hygiene products that both men and women might need, and an extra first aid kit, just in case. By the time they finished, it was late, and both were exhausted but happy with their work.
All that would need doing in the morning was to take the place offline, seal it up, and get on their way, soon after breakfast. Ann went back to her room and stared at the metal box, full of her drawings and thoughts. She had the key around her neck on a slim chain that ran down between her breasts. She didn’t want to leave it all here but knew it would just be more weight she didn’t need to carry.
She went through the notebooks as she sat at the piece of smooth plywood that served as her small desk. The tiny lamp was on, an old-fashioned desk lamp, but it illuminated the pages well enough. Her skill had improved over the years, and she could draw each member of her apocalypse family perfectly now. She’d learned a lot these few years, and it made her sad to leave it all behind.
