Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (5 page)

Chapter four.

I tossed and turned all night long with dreams of getting out, alternating with dream of never getting out and all the imagined horrors of both. Some good dreams were sprinkled in, I’d just go home and everything would be back to normal, like nothing ever happened at all. Others were nightmares where the world was something dreadful, one had no sunlight, it was always night time, and another the tornadoes started swirling coupled with never ending earthquakes. In yet another we spent the whole dream trying to get out of the shelter, unable to escape and eventually we ran out of air. After that one, I woke up nearly paralyzed and drenched in sweat while I gasped for air.

Knowing it was morning only because of the time displayed on the clock, I rushed out without dressing or brushing my teeth to check the TV. I was the first one up and I needed to know what was happening outside. My eyes frantically searched the room for the TV remote as if I were in some kind of timed competition. When I finally saw it, it was propped up on Ryan’s chest. His left hand clutched it while he lay peacefully asleep on the couch with his feet sticking out the bottom of the blanket. He must have woke in the night and checked the cameras, or maybe he was anxious for morning so he could be the first to check them. If he had checked during the night and went back to sleep that either meant he hadn’t seen anything or it was not good news. I crept towards him like the Grinch, ready to pry the remote from his clenched sleeping fist.

I wiggled it back and forth gently avoiding any sudden movement. It was sort of a three step process which seemed to be working, wiggle-wiggle-pause, wiggle-wiggle-pause. Right when it was about to pop free, he turned over onto his side taking the remote with him. Crap. I peeked over trying to find a way to get to it, but I’d probably be crossing some sort of line. I gasped audibly when he muttered, “It’s still snowing Ros, go back to bed.” I stumbled backwards, the heat that filled my cheeks felt like it was burning me.

I shook it off. No more Ms. Nice Girl. I reached down between him and the couch, ignoring any invisible line that may or may not exist and pulled the remote out, spun on my heel and clicked the TV on. It turned out I didn’t actually know how to get the TV to display what the cameras showed. When the obvious power button didn’t automatically display what I wanted to see, I started pressing random buttons. The TV came on blasting the fuzzy crackle of static, I located the volume control at record speed before waking everyone up. The next button took me to the DVD player, then the next I was back to the fuzz, everything but the actual camera display.

“Ugh, give it here,” Ryan groaned.

“No! I want to see for myself, just tell me how!” I sounded way whinier than I had planned. I might as well have just stomped my feet while I was at it.

“I’ll put them on for you.”

“Promise?” I asked keeping in my childish character.

“Of course, why would I lie about that?” He sighed making his annoyance with me known.

It was a good point though why would he lie about that? I handed the remote back to him. Without turning around, he pointed the remote over his shoulder and turned the cameras on for me. He tucked it back against his body instead of giving it back. I wanted to sigh, but really what good was it to me when I had no idea how to use it anyway.

I couldn’t stop the air from escaping my mouth. My body locked up before I fell to my knees and crawled towards the TV like a crab running from a pot of boiling water.

Ryan grunted, “What?”

For a moment I couldn’t get any words to form, they were getting stuck in my throat, they were hot and burning but I couldn’t make them come out. I felt a ridiculous grin spread across my face and there was no stopping my hands as they clapped against my cheeks. A squeak of a laugh leaked out like steam. I heard Ryan moving on the couch behind me. He was next to me so fast it seemed impossible, like he had used some form of teleportation. He reached out and touched the screen. Was this for real? It was still snowing, but it was clear to both of us that it was slowing down, it was only a bit heavier than what weathermen would refer to as flurries. The sunlight filtered through the fluffy pieces of snow and made the untouched snow on the ground glitter. It looked magical.

“I hate to say it, but that’s beautiful,” he said shaking his head.

“The sparkling snow or the fact that we may actually get out of here?”

“Both!” he said with a bright smile plastered on his face. He pulled me in for a hug. He squeezed me but let go abruptly as if I had been soaking wet, “Sorry,” he said, as I was about to let him know it was OK he blurted, “Let’s get the others! I can’t wait to see their faces!”

He bounced up, but I grabbed his hand to stop him, “Wait! What if this is just temporary? What if it starts back up? Do we want to get their hopes up? What is the right thing to do here?” I dropped his hand when I realized I was still holding it. He hadn’t seemed to notice or care about my awkwardness, or perhaps he was too polite to let it show, but more likely he was pondering my questions.

“Jesus Ros! I have no idea.” Ryan appeared to be in thought then asked, “Are you glad you saw it? I know I am. I would want to know if I was in their position, wouldn’t you?”

My hands ran roughly through my uncombed hair tugging at the snarls, I must look like I stepped out of a Tim Burton movie. There was no doubt I was probably in desperate need of a shower too. It was no wonder why he let go of me. I shook my head, “I would. You’re right, I just… just don’t want to disappoint them, Sienna is already in bad enough shape, can you imagine getting her hopes up and then finding out we really can’t get out?” I crossed my arms over my chest suddenly extremely self-conscious about being in my pajamas.

Before we could decide, the sound of a plate crashing into a thousand little pieces against the kitchen floor brought us back. Startled, I jumped reflexively towards Ryan, grabbing his arm.

“It… it’s over?” Dean choked out the words. He stood there with his hand positioned as if he were still holding the plate, and the other pointing at the TV screen. He looked as though he had seen a ghost instead of potential freedom. “Is it fucking over?” he demanded loudly his voice cracking in as many pieces as the plate had.

“Dean,” Ryan said calmly walking over to him. He lowered his arm, “We don’t know. It appears as though the snow is letting up, but again, we don’t know. Maybe another storm is coming, we just can’t know. We have to remain calm and have patience.” Ryan grabbed the broom and started sweeping up the pieces surrounding Dean’s bare feet.

“Are we going to get out of here?” Dean asked again as if he hadn’t heard a word Ryan just said.

“We aren’t sure,” I responded slowly using as few words as possible, trying to keep is extra simple so his brain had time to process the words.

“What are we waiting for? We have to tell the others… Sienna! She has to know! She’s got to see this,” Dean said stepping into the broken glass, “Christ!” The mini shards stopped him from rushing off and gave him a moment to think, “Did you guys try the radio? Or search the TV for any sort of broadcast? Maybe they will start coming in now with the weather clearing up.”

“Sure, we can try,” Ryan offered, dropping the pieces of the plate into the trash. He got his radio out and started searching. Nothing. Not even the bible lady. Next he checked the TV but nothing came in except for the cameras. “The towers are probably still down from the storms, it’ll take time for repairs,” Ryan guessed.

“Unfortunately, we are still stuck under that layer of ice,” Dean said stating the obvious.

“Yeah… but if this is ending, the ice will melt… right? And the water will just go away?” Ryan said scratching his head, “eventually,” he added.

“How long do you think that would take?” I asked them like they were experts. As if this wasn’t the first time they’d been trapped under inches, possibly feet of ice.

“No clue. Days… weeks?” Ryan said rubbing his hands together as if washing them with air, “It’ll depend on the temperature I suppose. The warmer it gets the quicker the process, if it stays cold, it’ll take longer, much longer I imagine. I don’t know… it’s a lot of water up there.”

“Maybe we should open the door to see what’s on the other side?” Dean suggested.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea. We have heat down here, it would melt any ice around the shelter, in fact, it’s probably water between us and the layer of ice. Opening the door could flood the place,” Ryan said shaking his head vigorously, vetoing the suggestion.

“We have to wait.” I didn’t like it any more than they did, but it was really our only option. At least maybe now we had an end in sight. We had some hope. Maybe it would be all we needed to boost spirits for a while.

* * *

At breakfast we decided to tell the others, mostly because Dean had told us he was going to tell Sienna whether we liked it or not. When Ryan shared the news, Sienna cried. Owen and Seth looked like they wanted to join her. They asked questions we didn’t really have the answers to, but Ryan tried his best and shared our speculations. Sienna wanted to know how soon before we could leave. Ryan explained it could be days, weeks or even months depending on the outside temperature which we didn’t know. She told Dean she couldn’t wait to go home. Dean’s face crumpled knowing their home, as they once knew it, was likely gone. Blown away with the rest of our homes. I could see the effort he was putting into keeping his mouth closed, and instead he forced a small smile for her sake. After all, this was the first time in a few days she looked awake, animated… alive. She had gone days without talking, and this little droplet of hope had gotten her to talk. He couldn’t take that away, not yet. He wasn’t going to be the one to shoot a devastating word bullet into her paper-thin heart. What was out there would be a discussion for another time. We’d all have to cross that bridge eventually as none of us knew what was or wasn’t out there.

The rest of the day everyone was exceptionally cheerful and optimistic. Sienna showered. Seth and Dean prepared a big dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce and garlic breadsticks made from scratch. It was a feast! They prepared twice as much food as usual and we stuffed ourselves until spaghetti was coming out of our ears. We sat around the table for a long time after the meal was over fantasizing about all the things we missed and wanted to do again once we got out. We didn’t talk about what we’d find after we got out, just how amazing it was going to be to actually get out and breathe fresh air. No one allowed any of the bad discussions to surface at this dinner.

“I don’t remember what fresh air feels like anymore. I honestly cannot imagine a cool breeze against my skin,” Owen said with a sparkle in his eye.

“I can’t wait to feel the warm sun on my skin,” Sienna said closing her eyes with a child-like grin, everyone nodded in agreement.

“I want to run. Just run and run and run!” Dean said which reminded me that he had been on the school track team. He was always moving. All this sitting still must have been harder for him than he had let on.

“Ros, what do you want to do?” Sienna asked leaning forward to hear my response. The others looked at me, I felt all their eyes on me at once and it made my skin warm, and surely my cheeks pink.

“I don’t know… anything. Everything and nothing all at the same time,” I said nervously with all their eyes on me.

Ryan quietly snorted. He was mostly staying out of the conversation, and I hoped it stayed that way. He was pessimistic and always so skeptical. And he worried a lot about everything. He’d bring everyone down if he spoke, which is why I was happy he was keeping quiet for the most part. I wanted to roll my eyes at him but instead I found ignoring him was just as easy.

“God, with all those tornadoes I wonder what’s left out there,” Owen wondered out loud, forgetting about the unspoken agreement to not talk about the negative around Sienna. The pinched look on his face showed that he had regretted letting the words out, but it was too late they were out there dancing on the table, taunting us and waving their arms at Sienna.

“I guess we’ll see when we get out of here,” I said carefully attempting to steer the conversation back to the positives by reminding everyone that we might actually get out of here. That was what was important for now. The aftermath? That would be something to worry about another day.

“I’m going to watch a movie,” Seth announced launching himself off of the barstool, “Who’s in?”

Everyone picked up their plates and threw away their trash before heading to the living room. I lingered in the kitchen listening to them decide on a movie. I decided to stay and wash the plates and cooking pots since Dean and Seth had prepared the meal, least I could do was clean for them. There was no part of me that felt like I could sit through a movie, I needed to move. Like Dean, I wanted to run and run and run, my mind and body needed the movement.

“Aww Christ!” Owen shouted from the other room. I draped the washcloth over the faucet and started drying my hands as I went to the living room. I flipped the dishtowel over my shoulder, noticing they had put on the cameras. The snow had picked up again. It hadn’t been as heavy as it was before, but seeing it thicker than it had been this morning was clearly heartbreaking.