2136: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Read online

  Then the water rushed down my throat and I stopped breathing.

  ≈ Chapter 6 ≈

  When you die, do you feel it?

  I felt the pounding in my chest before I saw Roxx’s face. My ribs felt like someone had poured gasoline through them into my lungs and lit the match. My entire chest screamed in agony with every push of his palms.

  My first breath came as a gasp and then an uncontrollable whopping cough. He turned my body over on its side and patted my back.

  ‘Get it all out,’ I heard him encouraging. He continued to tap the groove between my shoulder blades with his hand until I stopped gagging up black water.

  My eyes finally opened and I saw the terror and relief on his face. I remember thinking, If he keeps this up, he's going to age fifty years before the year is up.

  I rolled over and saw Roxx staring at me with those dark eyes I grew fond of long ago. He was so handsome, despite his age. His features were still strong, and his figure chiseled from the constant pounding, ripping, and forging of metal as a Metallic. The secret to staying fit and skinny: work in a furnace and pound metal objects all day with a hammer and tongs. That was it. I just solved the epidemic that had stifled the entire world in the 21st century! Unfortunately, I was a century too late. The cracked ozone solved it for us. Now we were all walking skeletons.

  I saw Roxx's hand on my arm, even though I couldn't feel it at first.

  ‘You aren't looking too good,’ I said.

  His one dimple peeked its head through the week's worth of hair on his face as he allowed himself a half smile.

  ‘I think I could say the same of you,’ he smirked. ‘How are you feeling?’

  His eyes darted along my body; lingered on my leg, then moving back to my eyes.

  ‘What happened?’ I said. ‘I remember the cord starting to snap, and then I was falling.’ At least, I thought I had fallen.

  The feeling was gradually coming back to my limbs. I felt him give me a firm squeeze just above the elbow.

  ‘The wire is fine,’ he said.

  But how? I distinctly remembered feeling a jolt on my body as if I was being yanked down into the chasm.

  He must have sensed my confusion.

  ‘The cord didn't snap, but the remnants of the building must have shifted over the years and the exposure to the heat caused the metal to stretch. The cord had too much slack and you fell a hundred feet without any support.’ It sounded robotic the way he said it. You fell a hundred feet without any support. Oh, is that all? Well, thank you for the clarity.

  He brushed a strand of my auburn hair to the side allowing both my eyes to have full vision.

  ‘Luckily, your ankle got caught in the excess and when the cord had finally run out of its extra slack, it yanked your body along with it.’

  You gotta love Roxx. Always the optimist to a fault. I swear if his mother were still around she'd have given him a good whacking across the back of the head. Luckily? Who was he kidding!

  My head felt like two freight trains from a hundred and twenty years ago had played patty-cake with my skull. My vision was blurry at best. All I could really make out for the time being were shapes and hues. Or was it just that dark down here? I could only imagine what my balance would be like if my vision was this skewed.

  His eyes had a glazed look about them as if he was going to cry.

  ‘It saved your life,’ he said.

  My arm was fully functional now and I could feel everything. Trust me, not a good thing. There was a pressure in the side of my head, and a vibrant heat ensuing up my thigh. I couldn't even feel my foot past that. I tried to sit up but felt a surge of pain shoot down my leg again. Yup, I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon without help.

  ‘Don't move,’ he said. ‘Your ankle could be broken.’

  Oh? Is that why my foot feels dead? Thanks for the free diagnosis, Doc.

  He helped me to a sitting position and I leaned my full weight against the wall. The cold stone felt good against my cheek. Through the dim light filtering from the propane lantern I saw that we were in some kind of tunnel system.

  ‘What is this place?’ I asked. I grimaced as needles shot through my temple. My vision instantly worsened.

  He turned and peered down the corridor leading into more darkness.

  ‘It's an old friend,’ he said, and left it at that.

  Good. An old friend. A dark, menacing, cold, damp friend who had tried to kill me. Glad to see you have some good friends.

  I'm not sure what had gotten into me. I was not normally this pessimistic. I must have really dislodged something in my brain when I hit the wall. Yeah, that was it. It was the wall's fault. Glad we worked that out, now let's move on.

  The sharp pain descended into a throbbing sensation behind both of my eyes. Closing them didn't help so I kept them open. I shifted my weight and went to place my right hand to my side for support but there was nothing there to catch me. My hand started to vanish beneath a pool of dark something. Oil, water, I couldn't tell. I would have toppled over had Roxx not grabbed me first.

  It would have felt better to be smacked with a metal pipe than have him jerk my arm.

  The yelp came out on its own. My arm had gone into the liquid all the way up to my shoulder and it now dripped profusely. As I managed to balance myself against the adjacent wall, I brushed the tangled rat's nest that had become my hair out of my face. It was then, for the first time since waking up, that I noticed just how remarkably drenched I was. What in the world had happened when I fell? Where were we?

  As I tried to unravel the mystery, replaying the moments I could recall, it dawned on me that the details were inconsequential. All that truly mattered was that I was alive. I was one of a few living grounders who could actually say they took their first breath on this planet, twice. The pain in my ribcage and sternum were testament to that, bruised when Roxx feverishly pumped me back to life.

  I looked at him, but he was turned away from me.

  ‘You saved me,’ I voiced as if sighing.

  ‘What's wrong?’ Roxx asked. He hadn't heard me. Maybe the words had just been in my head. I felt like everything was loose.

  He was still kneeling near me but his attention had drifted off, caught on something else.

  ‘Where did I land when I fell?’ I asked him, holding up my hands to let the water drip through my fingers. Was this really water?

  He looked at me puzzled. Something else was on his mind. Such a short attention span. What would the men do without us women around to constantly remind them of things?

  ‘When I fell, where did you find me? Was I hanging from the cable or what?’

  ‘Your ankle was tangled. I had to unravel you from the metal cord.’

  ‘That's it?’ I asked questioningly. ‘Nothing else?’

  I saw it for the second time. Fear.

  ‘Your foot was trapped in the cable, but the rest of your body had submerged completely under that,’ he pointed to the pool of water.

  ‘I had to untangle your foot first before I could pull you out of the water. It took me longer than I expected. By the time I managed to unhook you and pull you out of the pool, you were unconscious and not breathing.’ His voiced cracked a bit and I saw his jaw muscles clench. His hand instinctively went to cover his mouth.

  I placed my hand on his.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said, and managed a genuine smile, bringing a wave of new pain to my face. He nodded and did something even more unnatural and unexpected; he continued to speak.

  ‘I suspected you hit your head on the way down and were unconscious before you entered the water. I believe that saved your life. You weren't breathing when I pulled you out so I started CPR.’ Again his voice cracked. ‘I thought I had lost you,’ he said, and this time his voice broke completely and his chin started quivering. He reached out to me suddenly and took me in his arms. He squeezed me tight. I could feel his labored breathing as the emotions threatened to overtake his normally stoic and calm demeano
r.

  ‘I promised your parents I would look after you. And I almost—’

  I cut him off.

  ‘But you didn't. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere.’

  He wiped the stray tear that had been forming on his eye and stood. He brushed down his pants, took a deep breath and exhaled, then held out his hand to me. Just like that. Back to business. God, I love this man!

  I took his hand and he helped me up. The moment I was vertical, the world started spinning. I instantly tumbled into his arms.

  ‘I don't know if I'll be able to walk on my own,’ I said. ‘I must have hit my head pretty hard.’

  I felt the back of my head and sure enough, there was a large lump already forming.

  ‘We'll take it slow, then,’ he said, and wrapped my arm around his neck.

  The going was slow, and so painful that I began to wish I had stayed dead.

  I felt like we were walking through this foreign, dark tunnel for a lifetime. Every step sent waves of pain up my thigh and through my head. There were several times I made Roxx stop so I could catch my breath. I know what you must be thinking right now: what a wimp!

  After two hours, we finally made it to our destination. Roxx sat me down in the dark and disappeared. I must have fallen asleep because I don't remember seeing the lights come on, nor my clothes being replaced.

  ≈ Chapter 7 ≈

  I woke up to a bright new world.

  I was alone in some kind of a den. I tried to lift my head, but quickly gave up. The pressure emitting from the back of my neck was crippling. My body quivered every time I tried to sit up. After the fifth attempt, I collapsed panting. My lungs struggled to pump air into my body, causing the air escaping my lips to sound like a rasp or as if I was wheezing. It would take several days before my lungs managed to pump the remaining liquid I had swallowed out and away from the alveoli sacs. Until then, I'd just have to deal with the random gasping spells and dizziness. I lay there examining my surroundings. It was about all I could manage for the moment. Roxx was nowhere to be seen. I’m all alone in an alien world.

  My left hand was bandaged around the wrist and, looking down, I could see my ankle was wrapped in a splint. I was wearing a new shirt, but my pants were the same. Although my head was still aching, I had to admit I did feel better.

  I shifted to the side, taking my time and not moving too quickly. I was, in fact, in some kind of a circular inlet. Three different tunnel entrances morphed into this one inlet. From my sideways vantage point, I'd estimate the room to be about twenty feet in diameter with a long curved ceiling no less than fifteen feet high. Smack dab in the middle hung a twenty-prong chandelier with half of its prongs missing or bent. The candles nestled in the grooves illuminated the room with their soothing warm light. The rustic chandelier was tied off to the side, a coil of rope knotted in one of the ceiling loops and tied to the corner of the wall nearby. All ten of these dancing figurines were the most beautiful things I have seen since my second birth. The way their light reflected along the golden beams of the chandelier, crisscrossed through time and space along the ceiling and walls. Even the stalagmites were magnificent in this otherworldly realm, reaching their hands toward the ceiling. Hundreds of candles added their light to the symphony sweeping up my mysterious enclosure in an array of sparkling white bliss. Other than the beauty in the light, there wasn't much else in the room, except for another cot, a few dilapidated stools that looked as though they were on their last life, and some books. Several large cylindrical barrels lined the walls, stacked three high. If I had to guess, I'd say there were at least fifty of them. They looked as though they continued out into one of the far tunnels and disappeared from view in the shadows beyond. They all had a radioactive symbol etched in the center in bright red and yellow. Hmm. That can't be good.

  I had this eerie feeling, as though I was intruding onto someone else's pad. There were evident signs of a human's presence. The way the stools were positioned, the cot in the corner that still had a blanket across it, the barrels, the books, and the candles. Whoever lived here, they definitely had a thing for candles. But from the looks of things, that person was long gone. Spider webs crisscrossed all along the walls, the ceiling, and ran along every smooth, rugged, round, or flat surface in the vicinity. If there were any living creatures that could survive a nuclear fallout, it was the creepy crawlers. I firmly believe that insects are basically immune to death. I mean, how else could cockroaches manifest into existence from the pit of a radiation pool? It boggles my mind!

  Maybe if I ever won the Stack Lottery and was lifted up into Proc 1, I'd find out. I'd do the research and pick the minds of the brilliant onboard then I'd have my answer. I'd unlock the mystery of the universe, and in the process, stumble upon the cure for mortality—all through cockroaches. It is my firm belief that cockroaches are descendants from a greater being. Sent to Earth to watch over us. I've only heard stories of these invincible beings, but I've never actually seen one. They're the only immortal creatures on the planet that I know of. You're not buying it? Fine, maybe it is a bit over the top.

  With how shaggy and frayed the cobwebs were, I'd say the spiders hightailed it out of here years ago. Maybe we weren't the only ones the nukes and solar radiation killed off. I guess everything was fighting to survive.

  I'm not sure when it happened but I dozed off. When I awoke, only a few candles were still lit. The rest had burned through the wick. Fearing being left stranded in the dark, I had to do something. I shimmied my body to the edge of the cot until my legs hung over the edge. The plan was to swing my legs down while pushing myself up with my good arm. If I timed it right, I'd use my momentum to get into a sitting position without exhausting too much energy. And then, well, I didn't know what I'd do then, but I'd figure it out. One step at a time.

  The knot in my head throbbed with every movement but I gritted my teeth and pushed through. I managed to position my side on the edge and readied my legs for the maneuver. I gave myself a three-second countdown. A chance to work up the courage to inflict sever traumatic pain on my body. I must be insane.

  3...

  2...

  1!

  I threw my legs down and pushed up as hard as I could with my spare arm. Just as I had planned, my body went rocking up nicely. What I hadn't accounted for was stopping my momentum. My body kept on going with no way to halt my rotation. Down I went with a loud painful plop, right off the cot and smack dab onto my face.

  There are no words for the pain I felt in that moment. I'm pretty sure an array of expletives spewed from between my squished lips and the dirt floor they were firmly connected with and echoed down the tunnels. I felt my heart lurch suddenly.

  ‘What are you doing on the ground?’

  Somewhere in all this silly madness, Roxx had returned. I couldn't help but wonder how long he had been watching my escapade. He probably stood in the shadows of one of the tunnels holding his laughter in. I must have looked like a flailing fish out of water. I promise I'm not always this pathetic.

  ‘Uh, you know. Just lying around,’ I said through pinched lips.

  ‘Interesting choice of surface,’ he said. ‘How's it taste?’

  I rolled over onto my back and glared up at him.

  ‘Kind of dirty,’ I said, spitting out the remaining evidence of my failed acrobatic trick.

  ‘That's because it's dirt,’ he said, and started laughing.

  ‘It's not funny!’ I yelled, trying myself not to laugh. It hurt to smile, but I couldn't help it. My situation was pretty funny, you had to admit.

  ‘It's a little bit funny,’ he said. ‘If you could see yourself right now, you'd be thinking the same thing.’

  I propped myself up on my good elbow and reached out my arm.

  ‘You mind?’

  He bent down, took hold of my forearm and gave a good yank.

  ‘Easy!’ I chided.

  ‘Oh, that's right. I forgot. You're extra fragile.’

  I glared at
him.

  ‘I'm not fragile, just hurt. There's a difference,’ I said.

  His left eyebrow rose.

  ‘Is there?’ He made a humming sound. ‘I didn't know there were different kinds of pathetic.’

  I punched him in the arm for that one.

  He laughed again.

  ‘All right, all right. I'm sorry. You're not pathetic, either.’

  ‘And don't you forget it,’ I added.

  ‘Maybe just delicate?’ he questioned. ‘Yeah, delicate like a flower.’ He waved his fingers in the air as if painting the picture.

  He got another wave of punches for that, too.

  It was good to see him smiling again. The seriousness the last several hours since the Pavers showed up were suffocating. I had never seen Roxx so distraught or fidgety. It made me nervous.

  ‘Think you can walk on your own?’ he asked.

  ‘You're kidding, right?’

  He raised his arms in self-defense.

  ‘I'm just making sure. Don't want to get punched again.’ He rubbed his arm for added effect. ‘It hurts, you know.’

  ‘Shut up and just give me a hand, why don't you!’

  ‘Yes, your highness.’ Now he was just doing it on purpose.

  He looped my arm around his neck, supporting most of my weight, as I waddled over to one of the stools. You know, the ones I said looked like they'd crack and split at any moment. Yeah, one of those.

  As I slowly eased my weight onto the stool, I fully expected it to shatter, but it didn't. Minus a few squeaks, it held firm.

  It felt good to sit and I let out a sigh.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ he asked, walking away into one of the side corridors that led out of the center room.

  ‘Famished,’ I said. ‘Who would have thought drowning would make you so hungry.’

  ‘Well, it's been a day since the fall. You haven't eaten or drunk anything since. Your body is probably in withdrawal right now.’

  He came back with a brown sac. He grabbed one of the other stools, plopped it next to me, and sat down. He ruffled his hands through the sac.