Earth After - Chapter One

Earth smelled sweet, but also tainted. Like the smell of something you know has long gone bad, but is somehow still tempting. Like the smell of flowers growing through the bodies of rotten corpses. Beautiful, but with undertones of death. Of millions upon millions of deaths. Maybe it’s because we know Earth’s history, or maybe it was the way it had always been. Earth’s crust has swallowed whole more beings, more living things, than could even be imagined from the beginning of time. It’s inevitable that everything dies, most of us just don’t imagine that those deaths are what builds the dirt beneath our feet. But that is exactly what I thought of as we took our first steps on its soil. I filled my lungs with Earth’s sickeningly sweet scent as we left the only life we’ve ever known behind.

Joss turned around as the bunker’s doors closed, creaking like an old man’s bones as the two dark metal sides mesh together like puzzle pieces meant for each other. The doors hissed as they seal tightly and we are left in silence. Then, as quickly as he had turned to look, Joss turns his back on the home that had turned its back on us and pressed forward with a huff, brushing past me in a cold silence. I didn’t say a word because I have no words. I followed behind him, shifting the heavy pack on my back not knowing when or if I would be setting it down. The sunlight beat down upon my skin and it wrapped me in its warmth in such a way I never knew was possible.

The longer we walked, the more their lies began to reveal themselves. Earth was beautiful. Not the barren wasteland that was described to us. Earth was full of life. I saw birds flutter by, insects scramble to avoid my steps. Trees in abundance welcomed us in the distance. To be fair, the land surrounding the bunker almost resembled the wasteland described to us as children, but small brown-green bushes sprouted up out of the dry earth and lizards basked on stones in the glaring sunlight as if to soak it up like water. It was very much alive and obviously habitable, at least for the creatures we saw as we walked. Only time would tell if we would thrive as they did.

We were told of a world that was dead, everything destroyed by mankind’s weapons of destruction. We were told nothing could ever have survived, but it did. The nightmarish world that haunted my dreams did not exist as far as I could tell. Joss must have been thinking the same, his eyes wide with wonder as he took in the living world around us. He was only twenty-four, but even growing up, I’d never seen him look so child-like. He caught me staring at him and his face returned to its natural state, one of solemn fortitude, but in that small glimpse I had hope that we were not as despondent as we were made to feel we should be leaving the bunker. And despite the hope I felt seeing Joss’ child-like wonder, I immediately felt guilty. It was my fault we were here. He was determined to protect me and therefore would never have allowed me to be banished on my own. He left everything we ever knew including his wife, child and our mother, and I knew that had to have cause him sadness as it did me. But if it did, he didn’t show it. Joss only took one step after another, leading us as though he knew where we were going, but I knew as well as he did that he had no idea what awaited us on this Earth. I wondered for a moment if my choices were worth the sacrifices he ended up making for me. The bunker was our home and now here we both were wandering into an entire world we knew almost nothing about. Would we have been better off in the bunker?

Bunker life was simple, we only had a few rules to follow. Be fair and honest, do the work you are assigned, do not eat more than you are rationed. And the most important rule, procreate to assure the survival of the human race. I broke the latter. But as I walked along the untouched ground of an Earth we thought we would never see, my offenses felt like the least of my worries. Joss trudged on and I behind him. My guilt the only thing weighing me down as we took step after step into a world we never expected to be in. The awe and wonder of it kept us going until the moon rose and the sun set.

“We have to stop now,” Joss said flatly. Neither of us had said a word since we left and his voice broke me away from the fantasy world I felt I'd been swallowed whole by and brought me back to our reality. The sun was setting and the light was waning. We had made our way into the forested area, trees so abundant you could no longer tell where you came from nor where you might be going. The trees felt like a blanket over the bare earth we originally met. It felt like safety, however the inevitable darkness felt like a threat we could not define.

Joss pulled his pack off his back and set it on the ground. He undid the tarp that had been rolled up against his pack, pulled it apart and only paused to look up before saying. “It doesn’t look like the sky will pour, but we will need this in case it does. Hand up some rope there to hold this up.” His tone was cold and flat as though he felt nothing about the circumstances we were in. And I felt as though he was trying to be strong for me and if my guilt wasn’t so heavy I might have asked why. Instead I grabbed the rope on my pack and silently wrapped one end around a small tree and stretched it to another and let him drape the tarp across as I secured the rope. After laying out my tarp underneath we curled up in our blankets and ate a little of the rations we were given. Joss had dehydrated vegetables and I ate stale bread my mother had snuck into our packs. Bread was a luxury she risked her own life to offer us. I savored every bite, knowing they would probably be my last.

It was a warm night luckily, we had been told of nights and days on earth where the earth became frozen and blanketed in ice. The bunker had taught us about earth before mankind’s destruction and some about surviving once it might be safe enough to leave the bunker, but I wondered as I lay there if it was enough for us to survive. I laid in the dark next to Joss, listening to his breathing, trying to remember all we were taught. Underneath the moonlight I recalled the artificial sunlight grow-rooms we had in the bunker. The closest thing to earth we had. It was where we grew vegetables and fruits that were later dehydrated to be stored for rations. They lasted longer that way I was told. As a child I loved visiting the grow-rooms. I knew the plants needed sunlight to grow so in my mind it was the closest I would ever get to true sunlight and I used to sneak away to visit the rooms whenever I got the chance. It wasn't even close, I thought, as I remembered the sun's warmth on my skin when we left the bunker.

My thoughts were broken suddenly from a howl in the distance. Joss shot up next to me, his eyes wide in fear, not child-like wonder this time. He placed a hand on my shoulder as if to reassure me he was there to protect me. But I knew. He wouldn’t be here otherwise. The howl faded and he relaxed enough to lay back down next to me. Not a word spoken between us, but an understanding. I couldn’t think about much after as the Earth screamed that it was alive. Howls, chirps, croaks and noises I couldn’t explain rang through the darkness and the trees. The Earth was alive even in the dark and more alive than the bunker ever was. It was only out of pure exhaustion that I closed my eyes and drifted into my dreams.