The Bomb Went Off
And we ran into the shelter.
Not all of us. Me, mom, and our Rottweiler, Harlan, ran in immediately, but Uncle Jack was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you sure he saw it?” Mom asked. She was sitting on one of the cots. A pile of clean towels lay at the foot of the bed. You always want to make sure you have enough towels at the end of the world.
“Mom, it’s a nuke.” I said. “You have to be blind as Ray Charles not to notice it.”
“Henry!” She said. She didn’t like when I made jokes like that. Uncle Jack liked them. That man had no chill.
Harlan stood at the foot of the stairs, leading to the exit of the shelter. Harlan was Jack’s dog; he’d raised him since he was a puppy. That dog rarely left Jack’s side for long. It was waiting for his master.
And it was getting antsy.
“Harlan, come here.” Mom said. The little pooch wouldn’t budge.
“C’mon man, let’s get away from the door.” I said. The man who’d installed the shelter warned us that this door would be the weakest part of the shelter. Jack and Mom said he only said that so he could sell us a more expensive door, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
I grabbed onto Harlan’s collar and tried to pull him back. He stood his ground.
“C’mon Harlan.” I said. The dog growled. He wasn’t backing down without a fight. “Harlan, we can’t go up there. It’s not safe! We gotta stay down here.”
At that moment I turned and got a good look at the tiny one-room shelter. Then I had a nightmare. Or at least it felt like one.
At that moment, I suddenly had a vision of the future. I could see myself and my mother, and Harlan, pale, starving, our bodies covered in sores, lying on the ground, waiting to die. It’d be a while before we got to that point; mom made sure we had enough supplies for at least a few weeks. But we would get there.
No matter what road you’re on, you’ll always get to death.
I was distracted by the vision in my head, and my grip on Harlan loosened. He ran up the steps, pushed the door open, and ran out.
“Harlan!” I shouted, running up the steps.
“Henry get back here!” My mom said, coming after me.
We found Harlan in the pool in the backyard, splashing around like an idiot, and having a blast.
And sitting in the corner with his shirt off, soaking up the sun, was Uncle Jack.
“Jack! What the hell are you doing?” Mom said. My uncle just looked up at her, a lazy smile on his face.
“Megan, Henry!” He said. “C’mon in. Water’s great!”
“You suicidal idiot!” Mom said. “Get out of the pool now!”
“We should probably get inside,” I said. Everybody looked up, and saw what I saw.
The mushroom cloud was more than 200 miles away, but we could all see it; a tiny blip of irritated smoke and death on the horizon. We made sure not to look for more than a few seconds. Even at such a distance, that sucker could make you blind just by looking at it.
More powerful than any hurricane, deadlier than any plague. A state-of-the-art doomsday weapon. Mankind had finally found a way to best God. Not even Noah could’ve survived this flood.
Uncle Jack just shrugged. “Jump on in. We still got at least a half-hour before the wave hits us.”
“Are you crazy?!” Mom asked. She was shaking with rage. “Get out of that pool right now, and get into the shelter!”
“Why?” Uncle Jack yelled. “So I can spend my last days sitting in a hole until the food runs out?”
“It’s not that simple.” Mom said. But she didn’t sound so sure.
Jack shook his head. “You’ve been right about most things in your life, Megan. But in this one, you’re dead wrong.”
“At least we’ll be alive!”
“Rotting in that cheap shelter isn’t living. When I die, I’m gonna be scared no matter what. But I at least don’t wanna die miserable.”
I thought again about my vision from before, of all of just sitting in that dark claustrophobic hole waiting to die.
That was scarier than a million bombs.
I took off my shirt, and jumped into the pool. The cool water enveloped me. It was almost calming.
“Henry!” Mom said.
I turned back to my mother, and said, “Come on in.” I splashed water at her.
“Henry!” She said, smiling.
Uncle Jack laughed. Harlan barked.
My mom shot a quick glance at the mushroom cloud, at the wave of heat and destruction heading our way, and then she turned back to me.
A moment passed before she shrugged and said, “Fuck it.”
She jumped into the pool.
