Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (7 page)

Owen, Seth and Dean allowed themselves a bit of hope again, especially after I explained that I’ve been watching and for how long I’d been keeping my eye on it. Sienna had fallen pretty far into her depression again, worse than before and showed no emotion whatsoever, no matter how much Dean tried. Ryan, no surprise there, was skeptical. He told us it would probably change back, only giving a small glance to Sienna, maybe wishing he could take the words back. He advised everyone not to get excited until we saw a puddle of water on top of us. And even then he wasn’t sure.

I was up bright and early the next morning to check again, and this time what I saw was almost frightening. It was impossible. Almost all the snow had melted, a deep pond sat above us. How could all of the snow melt that fast? And it continued to melt throughout the night? What was the temperature out there? I didn’t know what I was going to tell the others, so I decided I’d show them.

* * *

Later that day, everyone had been busy in other rooms which gave me an opportunity to quick check the cameras again. I flicked them on. The sun was shining and parts of the ground showed signs of drying. There wasn’t any grass on the ground and what remained of trees was just rough, worn down stumps. The only vegetation that remained was brown, dried up shrubs. The pond above us was a buffet of mud, dirt, crusty dried dirt, scattered dead plants and sticks all illuminated by a beautiful, bright glowing sun.

I wished I had a way to check the temperature. My fingers clicked the remote surfing through the channels looking to see if any of the TV stations were back up and broadcasting. As I suspected, there was nothing. I’m sure most, if not all forms of communication were gone, or at least temporarily under construction. I pulled out the radio and zipped through the stations, but everything was fuzz as usual. As I was putting the radio away, Owen and Seth stomped like zombies into the living room. I had left the TV on but wasn’t sure if they had even glanced at it.

“Just checking the cameras,” I said. I quickly flicked it off figuring I’d wait for everyone so I wouldn’t have to show it multiple times. “Where is everyone else?”

“Ryan’s in the sho—”

“Thank God,” Seth muttered cutting Owen off.

I smiled.

“Dean and Sienna are talking or should I say Dean’s trying to reanimate her, bring her back to the land of the living. They should have stocked this place with antidepressants,” Owen said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“No one probably anticipated anyone being down here this long,” Seth suggested.

“Um… OK… I can’t wait. I’m too excited. You guys really have to see this,” I said, pushing them towards the TV too anxious to wait for the others. I flicked it back on enthusiastically pointing at the screen. Things looked to be even drier than they had when I first checked only a short time ago. It was like all the water was just being sucked out of the earth with a giant wet-vac.

“Holy shit,” Owen said clapping his hand against his mouth. He folded himself in half leaning forward staring in disbelief.

Seth turned on me, “You’ve known about this? How long? Why haven’t you told us?” He clearly wasn’t too happy with me.

“Only a few days… I just wanted to make sure it was for real this time,” I explained and it was the truth. “After it had stopped the second time, no one really seemed interested… so I just kept watch and then this happened. This is good though.”

“A few days? That’s not possible!” Seth shook his head, he was probably trying to think back to the last time they had checked the cameras, and the ground was still covered in snow. It really hadn’t been that long. And it really was that unbelievable.

“I know it seems totally insane, right? That’s why I didn’t say anything. I’m still not sure I even believe it. At the rate things are drying up, we can try to get out of here in what? A day or two?” My face was contorted with confusion in my eyes and my mouth with a big silly grin. Even though I didn’t understand what was happening out there, I was excited by the possibility of leaving our underground home.

“Let’s tell the others, they’ll piss themselves!” Owen roared slapping his knee. “Go get them Seth,” he ordered and Seth obeyed.

Moments later he came back. Dean was practically carrying Sienna, and Ryan was shirtless. I pretended not to notice, but I noticed. His hair dispersed droplets of water on his shoulders as if Seth had pulled him right out of the shower. His sweatpants hung low on his hips as if he’d barely had a chance to pull them on.

“What is it?” he groaned glancing at me standing there holding the remote and still donning my oddball expression.

“I know, so annoying,” Sienna chimed in like she was having such a good time in her deep depressed state.

“As if you guys have better things to do?” Owen said pointing his thick finger at them.

“Just get on with it,” Ryan insisted, “I’m cold and wet and tired.”

With that Owen moved his big body away from the TV screen revealing the mud, crusty dirt and most importantly the bright white glow of sunlight lighting up the desert-like earth.

“Are you kidding me with this?” Sienna asked with an oh-so-tiny glimmer of hope seeping back into her voice. She was obviously tired of riding her emotional roller-coaster with all its ups and downs, and twists and loops.

“Nope,” I said with that stupid grin still on my face. She smiled back, leapt towards me and hugged me as if I had been responsible for the sun coming out. I wish I could have taken credit for it, but I couldn’t. If it would have been up to me, I would have put the sun out much sooner than this.

“How long?” Ryan demanded.

“Ros said a few days now, she wanted to be sure before telling anyone,” Seth said. I was glad he said it without any indication that he had been annoyed about me keeping it from them.

Ryan started to pace back and forth while we all watched him. I tried working on making myself stop smiling but all I could think about was getting out of here and I believed it was really going to happen.

“Well….” Ryan’s train of thought seemed to have vanished but after a few blinks he started again, “that’s just not possible.”

“That’s what I said,” Seth agreed.

“It seems impossible, but look,” I shrugged, “it’s actually happening, and practically right in front of our eyes.”

Everyone started to get really excited, “We should seriously celebrate again,” Dean said.

“No way!” Sienna said in a nervous squeaky voice, “that totally jinxed us last time! Let’s ignore it until we can get out of this stinky hell hole!” She must have felt Ryan’s eyes on her, “Sorry Ryan, it’s not that I don’t appreciate everything you did for me, I’m just in dire need to get the hell out of here ASAP!”

Ryan nodded. He seemed to understand, what he did for us, bringing us here, probably saved our lives. He didn’t have to bring us here, he was extremely generous sharing his family’s shelter with us. We owed him and sadly it was probably something we’d never be able to repay.

“OK,” Dean said with a small chuckle, “no celebration this time.”

“Christ, we are actually going to get out of here,” Owen said putting his hand on the top of his head and pressing his hair down.

“It must be hot out there,” Ryan said, “like really hot, maybe even too hot for us to be outside,” he added shaking his head trying to understand it all.

I had considered that possibility myself. It was obvious it was hot but how hot we wouldn’t know until we could open our door and feel it ourselves. I had to be hopeful we’d manage. People live in the desert where it’s 110 in the shade, like in Nevada, or in Death Valley. It would be uncomfortable, especially after spending so much time in the cool underground. We would just have to be smart, stay cool and hydrated and we should be fine. At least that’s what I told myself. I had to wonder if things dried up this fast in the desert? For all I knew what was out there could be far worse than any desert.

“I guess we’ll find out in a few days won’t we?” Owen grunted at Ryan’s negativity.

And so we waited.

* * *

Each day was significantly drier than the last. I think it was five total days that passed before we agreed to try the doors, which I thought was a good thing since the generator’s energy dips were getting more frequent. Ryan continued to insist that everything was fine. According to the camera display there seemed to be some lingering water above, mainly located at the doorway. That was where the water would have been at its deepest, but we figured it wouldn’t be enough to flood the shelter. It may pour into the shelter a little but it wouldn’t do any significant damage nor did we think it would put us in any danger whatsoever. We all agreed to risk it and it likely wouldn’t make the shelter unlivable if it came down to us having to close the doors back up. I nominated Owen to do the doors if they needed to be closed since he was the strongest and could hopefully close them the fastest. He accepted the challenge without dispute.

Today we were all showered and dressed for the opening of the door which kind of felt ceremonial. We stood semi-circle around Owen and waited anxiously. My face was tight and my jaw was sore from clenching it tight, worried about all the things that could go wrong, the things we hadn’t expected.

“OK, here goes nothing!” He stepped forward and opened the first door. Nothing. Which was kind of what I had hoped for. The first door had formed a perfect seal keeping all the water out. Owen inched up the stairway to the next door, released the lock and thrust it open. Seth and I peered around the corner watching while the others waited behind us for an update. There were a few drips and a thin ribbon-like stream of water that fell to the ground, and that was it.

Owen turned around and descended the staircase, “Fresh air ladies and gents, but it is a scorcher.” I had felt the heat blast in the second he opened the door. “So what do we do now?” he asked mainly looking to Ryan for an answer.

“I’ll go check it out. Watch on the cameras just in case, and someone stay near the doors… just as a precaution,” he said, but he didn’t say what he was worried could happen.

Owen stayed to man the doors and the rest of us filtered over to the TV. I overheard Ryan talking to Owen, “Should something happen to me, do not hesitate to close this door with me out there. Keep them safe.” With that, he was up the stairs and in a matter of seconds visible on the cameras. He spun around in a slow circle. I couldn’t read his expression other than he was currently in his serious Ryan mode. He put his hand up to his forehead and wiped away sweat that had already beaded up. That wasn’t a good sign. He stared a long time in the direction where his house should have been standing, the look on his face told me it wasn’t there anymore. In fact, as he turned away, the look remained on his face which was enough to say there wasn’t much of anything left standing, at least in this neighborhood. He walked back towards the shelter, he was coming back down the stairs, the door closed and locked behind him.

“So, it’s hot then?” I asked the minute he was in sight, his hair a little damp around the sides.

“Yes. Very.”

“What did you see?” Dean asked impatiently.

“Not much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he pressed.

“The tornadoes… the storms were too much. My house is… nearly all the houses on this block are completely gone. There are parts of homes still standing, like a wall or two here and there, but I don’t think there is a single house still intact, at least not that I can see,” Ryan said hinting at the idea we should all assume the worst, that all of our houses were gone.

Sienna made a tight fist and hit her leg, “So we can leave, but there isn’t anywhere to go?”

“Um….” Ryan didn’t know what to say to her.

After things sank in, “Well just because things around here are gone, doesn’t mean everything is gone. We can go out looking for help, other survivors, our families, there is a good chance there are others like us,” I offered.

“That’s right. Maybe folks gathered at the school or something. Probably holed up in the basement. We won’t know until we go look,” Owen agreed.

“So what do we do now? Do we have any kind of plan?” Sienna whined.

“We pack up supplies and head out,” I said feeling a little bossy, but no one seemed to mind or argue with me, and no one offered up any other ideas. Maybe it was smartest to stay here and wait for help, I wasn’t sure. I mean, we have a perfectly safe shelter and a nice thing going on with this running water thing, but I needed to know what was going on out there. It was time to move on. I already knew from the radio that we weren’t the only survivors, we had heard others. It was time to get out of this claustrophobic shelter, I wanted to at least try to find my mom. She’s smart and strong, the toughest woman I know, if I survived, even by pure luck, surely she had survived somewhere too. “Anyone who wants to stay here obviously can, but anyone who wants to go out and search for our families or whatever, well, they can come with me. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“I’m with you,” Owen said without hesitation.

“Me too,” Seth said. I didn’t imagine Seth and Owen would ever split up.