One Night

Ruth hated those green flashing lights and everything they had come to mean to her. Sure, the perimeter was still secure, but all that really meant was no-one had gotten within fifty meters of their home. Home. There was a word whose meaning she questioned. She’d read enough to know home was supposed to be a good place, a happy place. A safe place. She mentally snapped at her own line of thinking. Safe was a word her father used a lot. Safe was the word he used to keep her underground all these years.

The truth, not that there was anyone to tell it to, was she had no idea what her father was keeping her safe from. When she asked, she got the same answer he’d always given, ‘society has become a pack of savages and you can’t trust any of them’. At one point, she’d thought he’d meant zombies. She’d read a few books and watched movies and television shows on disk, it seemed zombies were often the root cause of the apocalypse. Zombies at least would have been interesting. When she’d pushed on the matter, he’d given her a funny look and said, ‘yes, exactly like zombies.’

It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was lying, so she didn’t bother pointing out that ‘like zombies,’ wasn’t the same as ‘zombies’. She was growing sick of his lies and truly believed most of what came out of his mouth were lies and half-truths. If the world was as bad as he said, he wouldn’t disappear for days at a time and come back with fresh supplies. The fruit and vegetables she might believe at a stretch, they did occur naturally and he could have a place hidden somewhere on the property where they grew. The medical supplies were another matter entirely.

It wasn’t long ago that she’d worked up the courage to ask about it. The hesitation in his response was all the answer she needed. He’d been caught off guard and finally answered by saying, ‘there are a few traders out there if you know where to look’. She wanted to say ‘Bullshit!’ to his face, but couldn’t find the voice to do it. What was the point? He wasn’t about to let her out of their underground hole anytime soon. That was the day she made up her mind to leave.

The green light was still blinking. Ruth tried shutting her thoughts up. If she was going to do this, it had to be now. Walking back into the bunker she listened. Through the silence she could hear the sound of her father snoring and that was all she needed to hear. Quickly and quietly she made her way back to the alarm panel. Drawing in a long slow lungful of air, she punched in the numbers, hoping she’d remembered them correctly: 7-9-2-8-1-1. The tone to signal the alarm being disengaged sounded loud to Ruth’s ears. Unconsciously she held her breath. Being down this end of the corridor meant she could no longer clearly hear her father’s snoring. Quietly she exhaled. The control panel was now showing solid red lights.

Hyper aware of every little snick of noise, Ruth took hold of the door handle and pulled. Without looking back, she stepped over the threshold, gently shutting the heavy door behind her. She wasn’t free yet, moving carefully there was one more door, one that required a key. Stealing that had turned out to be the riskiest part of the plan. She was sure her mother had seen what she was up to but had only smiled sadly and not uttered a word. Maybe her mother was as tired of their entrapment as she was.

It was a big key, heavy in her hand and it required turning twice to retract the bolt completely. The door was heavy but moved smoothly and silently. Walking upwards Ruth crouched when she got to the top so she didn’t bang her head on the floorboards of the shed that sat above their bunker. Hunched over she scuttled outside.

A smile stretched across her face as she realized she’d done it. The thought was accompanied by a feeling of lightness. Standing straight, stretching her arms out, she turned her face towards the moon. It was beautiful, not quite perfectly round face shone down on her. For a long moment Ruth just stood staring at it. The moon. Something she hadn’t had the chance to look at in nearly seven years. There were a couple of clouds whisking across the deep indigo sky, grey and white, edged brightly in glowing silver. Ruth wasn’t sure if she’d seen anything prettier. The breeze that pushed along the clouds tripped over her skin. The sensation feeling strange as the coolness caused her skin to goose-bump. Walking, Ruth allowed the fresh scents to fill her nostrils, the crisp air providing additional sensations that had her heart doing a trippy little dance of joy.

Briefly turning back, she stared at the dilapidated shearing shed that stood guard over their hidey-hole. Once painted off white, she’d seen pictures, the moonlight now gave the chipped and peeling paint, missing boards and lopsided sheep runs, an eerie ghostly effect. It was an image that held a sad beauty, but that wasn’t what she had come out to see.

Quickly studying the lay of the land Ruth began to run to the right, where the rising tree line followed the incline of the hill. Shortness of breath causing her to stop before she’d gone far. Running on the treadmill her father had stored was one thing. Running flat out through shrubs, brush and trees, being slapped by branches, tripping over sticks, rocks and logs, was something entirely different. One of her tumbles had torn more than one layer of skin off her left knee and both her palms, but Ruth didn’t care. Not even blood could keep the smile off her face. There was a deep drive in her, a need to keep moving forward, and the way to do that was to stay in constant motion. Truthfully, she had no idea how long she would have to walk to see anything. It didn’t matter though, she was free and she wasn’t going to squander the time.

Suddenly the tree line ended and she found herself mere steps away from a dangerously steep drop. That wasn’t what caused her to stop though. Stretched out along the horizon were hundreds, no thousands of dots of light. Mostly shades of oranges and yellows with a few really bright white ones mixed through. The sound of an engine had her backing up under the protection of the trees. Looking up she saw flashing green and red lights moving quickly across the sky. There was no mistaking the plane for anything other than what it was.

Ruth was stunned. Her breathing sped up and she sank to the ground. She’d believed for a while that her father had been lying. Now she had proof and the extent of what he had done to Ruth and her mother amazed and shocked her. Slowly getting to her feet she understood she had to go back. She had to pack. Desperately hoping she’d done everything right and her father wouldn’t notice what she’d done tonight, Ruth knew this was only the beginning. She had to get out. There was life out there and she needed to know what it was like.

Casting one last look at the lights spread out in front of her, she turned back into the trees to retrace her steps. Next time she would have a plan. A better plan. Next time she was going towards the lights.