Radon's Daughter

By Rick Hartford

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

Majestic ancient trees, embracing a cobalt blue sky dotted with cotton ball clouds. A green carpet of shimmering grass spreading out to a fairy tale castle, in front of which stood a stone altar.

All things that her mother had told her about.

“Oh Mother,” she whispered.

A tear ran down her face.

The door flung open just as she put her right hand to the cool glass of the window. It was the Master! She turned her face to him to speak when he struck her in the face with his fist, knocking her to the floor. Bolts of lightning exploded in her head. The room was spinning, blood flowing from her nose, making a dark red puddle where her head hit the floor.

“Why are you in here?” the Master bellowed, his enraged red face popping with veins that looked like blue worms moving under his skin, spittle raining on her face.

She had never been in the Master’s room before today. No one who lived in the underground caverns had.

Except her mother.

She was raised by her mother in the caverns where those who had survived the Great Occurrence had made their home. The Master and his consort, High Priestess Isabella, brought them to the panic room in the Master’s house, which then led into a passageway to the caverns.

They were saved only to become slaves under the pretext of becoming members of a religious order called the Sacred Place.

All the members of the Sacred Place wore masks. They were told by the Master that the Shivers could steal your soul from your breath.

The Shivers, who had come during the Great Occurrence, now ruled the outside world. They were almost invisible, save the glimmer they produced as they moved. You could see their outlines, but nobody knew for sure what they looked like.

The people of the earth had plenty of time to prepare for the invasion of the Shivers, whose ships hovered in the sky for months before landing. Some squandered their remaining time. Some put away stores underground, at first not knowing that the underground would become their home.

Once they were established, the Master told all of them that they must take medicine every day to keep them healthy.

The medicine was administered by High Priestess Isabella as they kneeled before her in the act of communion.

Mother would hide the pill under her tongue until she was back at their hovel, spitting it into the dirt. She instructed her daughter to do the same.

Once a week during communion Isabella would select one of the women and lead her out of the holy chamber. That woman would never be seen again. She told the congregation that the women were going on a wonderful journey.

Her mother bent to her daughter’s ear and whispered, “wonderful, indeed. They are being sent to their deaths, an offering to the Shivers.” Her daughter looked at her in horror. “I’ve been in the Master’s room,” her mother whispered. “In It there is a window that looks out onto the outside world. This is the place where the sacrifices are made. I’ve witnessed it.”

“Sacrifices?” Her daughter was frightened now.

“All the women who have been selected by the High Priestess are taken to the outside world where they are tied to a stone altar. The High Priestess and her acolytes then withdraw and wait for the Shivers to come to hold a ceremony of death.The Master gives them the women as an offering. In exchange, he and the High Priestess are allowed to do what they please.”

“Why don’t the Shivers just take what they want?” her daughter asked.

“Even the Master didn’t realize it right away, but the soil in the underground caverns is saturated with Radon Daughters, a radioactive substance that kills them almost instantly.” her mother said. They cannot enter the caverns. To them they are certain death. The Master has seen it happen.”

At the end of the following day’s communion, the unthinkable happened. Her mother was led out of the holy chamber by the acolytes. She looked back at her daughter, mouthing “I love you” as she was pulled away.

Her daughter vowed to rescue her mother. As the others went to their hovels the daughter slipped away and followed the acolytes to the passage. She hid as they returned to the caverns. She then slipped into the Master’s house and dashed upstairs where she found his bedroom.

And now she lay in a pool of her own blood, terrified.

But she wasn’t docile.

The Masters’s hands were on her, pulling her up. The daughter sprang up and pushed him away. He lost his balance and fell to the floor. She then threw herself against the window, smashing the pane of glass. She picked up a large shard as The Master pulled her inside.

“You stupid fool!” he screamed. “They’ll kill us all!”

They struggled, and the daughter pulled out the shard and brought it hard across The Master’s throat. His blood erupted from his neck and he dropped straight down, gurgling his final breath.

“Take your medicine,” the daughter said.

The daughter ran through the passage to the caverns. She filled the pockets of her dress with soil, digging desperately with her fingers.

Then she climbed through the broken window and ran across the river of grass toward the stone altar, her bare feet pounding as she ran, determined to be reunited with her mother.

The glimmer of the Shivers came at her from all directions as she ran.

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