Love in the Wasteland

“Don’t you just love the smell of sulfur and the faint feel of radiation on your skin?” I ask my best friend and the absolute love of my life. “Well Sally I wouldn’t exactly say I love it but I know you, Ms. Brightside can find life even in this dismal wasteland.” I look at him with an ‘I-am-so-not-amused’ look. “Well Dr. Isaac, the gift of healing himself, I wonder whose fault it is that I can find life wherever I go.” I reply sarcastically and he blushes making me wish he wasn’t so cute. We live in a small community of survivors who actually care about the world and the way we once knew it to be. It wasn’t always like this. A chemical wasteland barely detectable on any map but it was home to any weary wanderer if they had what it took to survive but people would wander into this small little town that barely managed to survive. From the love I'm able to freely give and Dr. Issac's medical genius, this community is starting to once again rise to its former glory.

Issac and I were on our way home from the makeshift Mayor's house after visiting his son, Jacob, who often gets sick and requires the only doctor left. There isn't much for children like him to do here and Mayor Richard does what he can for his son so I try to bring him any books I can scavenge from the rubble. Even at what seems like the end of the world you have to spread joy and love no matter how small it may seem. Just then, a few feet from home, I start to cough uncontrollably. “Sally!” Dr. Isaac exclaims “This is why I told you you shouldn’t go out anymore.”

“I am fine!” I lie as blood spits out of my mouth. “Come on we are almost home,” he says as he picks me up crossing the threshold of our two story home. I say home, but it's as if a giant woodpecker came in and drilled holes out of every side, not that woodpeckers exist anymore. These aimless trails of thought are just furthering my ever growing suspicion that this town that I love is also slowly killing me. I wouldn't be the first victim to have been slowly eaten alive by the chemicals that only a few are immune to. Issac being one of them but I am not and it's getting harder and harder to hide the truth from him and nothing would destroy him more knowing there was nothing he could do. He kicks the door off its rotted hinges and runs up the stairs taking two at a time to hurriedly lay me down

“Tell me Dr. Isaac, in your professional opinion” I teased, “what is the one undeniable thing in this world that can save nations?” I tried to smile but it was hard with my life fading. He responds, “Well Sally decades ago I would have said medicine, but seeing as though medicine is scarce, if not extinct, then I would say there is nothing left to save the world. I can’t even save the one person who has kept me going all these years.” The look of despair in his eyes was worse than decaying from the inside.

We reached the year 2184 in Paris, France and I am on my death bed next to my best friend, my rock, the light of my life even at the edge of darkness. You would think a doctor could afford something nicer than a cardboard box with some sheets and balled up newspapers in a sack cloth but being next to him was absolutely priceless. He was home and all I needed.

It's not only my life that is reaching the end, but the world itself faces near extinction as the population of the human race dwindles with each breath. We were warned countless times to be more aware of our habits as wasteful consumers. But none of that matters now as every resource is scarce and the world has turned into a battlefield filled with bloodthirsty savages fighting to survive and surviving only to fight again. As Isaac stated medicine is non-existent, count yourself lucky if you eat every three days, there are people dying of dehydration and the mass violence has left people afraid. Things only truly took a turn for the worst when countries were running out of their own resources and started fighting opposing nations in an attempt to gain their resources by threat of mass destruction with nuclear weapons. Buildings like ours have been left to ruin due to the wars and instead of coming together to save mankind, the world resorted to survival of the fittest which has left almost no survivors.

So here we are, with everything around us falling to ruin as we wait for the inevitable end to it all. It isn’t so bad though because I have had the man I love right by my side the entire time, many weren’t so lucky. “And here I am as happy as I could be,” I thought to myself. I know it may sound selfish but I have him all to myself in my final hours and his warmth is all I have ever needed in this life. “You know it’s funny” I roll over to look at his warm clear blue eyes that always makes my stomach drop “I have had a better life with you here than I ever did in our old life”.

Before the world flung itself into chaos I was a nurse for Dr. Isaac at Ephi Medical Hospital. Since the moment I started working there we had an effortless friendship in that I always found safety in and we were inseparable. Then one day out of the blue, a rush of countless individuals swarmed the hospital with injuries and illnesses we hadn't seen before. Security did their best but they couldn't contain the masses and eventually we were forced to evacuate by the National Guard. We were led to a bunker and Issac held my hand the entire time refusing to have us separated. Not long after we were in the bunker we felt the Earth shake above us and there was silence besides the sound of the lights flickering on and off. We later found out that our country had run out of resources and we were at war with other countries who wanted our scraps.

"Shh, please, don't say another word," he stroked my hair from my face, "Save your strength to stay with me for another day, I can't lose you. Not now, not ever." His eyes pleaded for life to be thrusted back where there was none. Those blue eyes pierced my insides and reminded me how he won me over so long ago. Issac has always been a man of reason, but he is waiting for a miracle. I pull my heart shaped locket from under the collar of my once beautiful but now tattered floral dress. “Are you looking at that old thing again?” He smiles curiously. “This, this right here is the one undeniable thing that can save nations. It isn’t a weapon, it’s not some man-made medicine, it was never money or resources. Love. Love is the one undeniable thing that might have actually saved us all and allowed us to live even just a little longer. This locket you gave me all these years ago allowed me to hold on to hope. I can live or die today peacefully even though we are stripped of everything that gave us comfort because our love endured just like this locket”.

“Sally...” just hearing him call my name still sends shivers down my spine. Oh wait… it's not that… I sit up straight, suddenly completely alert. “I’m sure I saw a young couple hiding in this hole Boss. Let’s see what goodies we have today.”

“Bandits.” Isaac cursed, a growl in his voice, “Sally are you well enough to run?” I look at him for a moment and shake my head , “No Isaac, my time is up, you still have something you need to do. I have selfishly held onto you all for myself, but it’s time for me to let you go. It is people like you with the love you showed me and the love we shared, that can still save the world.” I unlatch my heart shaped locket and give it to him, “I give you back the hope you gave me. This is my sanctuary as your heart is my world that may you always keep me in there.”

“I’m not as great a man as you think I am. I do not care for a world without you in it” His eyes glisten with tears as he begs for me to stay. Suddenly there's a rattling on the door as it creaks open as yellow teeth, pale blue eyes, and a stench that reeks of death pops its head into the door. He whistles “Aren’t you a fetching young lass ain’t she boys? But you don't look so good my dear. Well I hope you two love birds have a wonderful time here in this hole but it’s time I took you somewhere more… comfortable.” They all cackle and I can feel Isaac tense up beside me, assessing the situation and readying himself to fight instead of flight. Ah, I love this man. Closer, closer, closer they approach and I hold on to Isaac. I wish he could have at least gotten away no matter what happened to me. I close my eyes ready to accept the end but then from nowhere gunshots echo from the walls.

“Move, move, move” a scruffy sounding man screams. Isaac shields me with his body as screams wail, bullets fly, and the smell of death wrap around my nose. Once there is silence surrounding the room I open my eyes as Isaac releases his grip on me. Standing in front of me is the Mayor and a few of the others from town, “Ms. Sally, Dr. Isaac, are you okay?”

“Yes we’re fine,” Isaac says rubbing my arm with his calloused hands, “just a little shaken is all. Not that I am not appreciative of your help, but what are you doing here?”

“Well my boy said he saw some suspicious men lurking around your hole the last couple days so we have been keeping an eye on them every now and then. Good thing they were stupid enough to act when I was on watch. You have saved my boy's life and the lives of our community countless times, you are essential for the rest of our survival and the kindness Ms. Sally gives all of us the strength to fight. I bet those scoundrels didn’t think that there are still people who know of love and community. None of them have the hope that Ms. Sally gives us.” The Mayor put his hand on Issac's shoulder and Issac nodded bashfully. He never liked receiving the praise he deserved.

A warm sensation sweeps through my body and then it becomes cold then I feel the wind as I fall to the floor. The adrenaline of a near death experience made me forget I'm dying. I can’t hear them but I can see the worried looks of Isaac and Richard looking down on me as tears hit my cheek. I can feel the air leaving my lungs and gasping for my last pieces of strength I utter to my one true love, “I love you Isaac, you are everything I need and this world needs. Don't lose faith, you are the answer. Love is the answer.". My vision is getting blurry, then it gets dark. It's cold, but I have never felt warmer, and I have never felt happier, and...