The Sun-Scorched Earth

Kay wiped her brow as the sun beat down on the cracked pavement of the old highway. The pack on her back was getting heavier with each step, and her right palm was sweating from the heat of the little girl’s hand in hers. But still, she had to do this.

“Do you think it’ll be there?” Athena wondered.

“Not sure,” Kay mumbled in response.

“I hope it is. Gramma said it’ll make me feel better!”

“Mm.”

Above them, the scorched evergreen trees shuddered in the wind, their needles long ago faded to dull browns and oranges. It looked like it was only a matter of time before they burned too.

“Hey, Kay? Want me to take my bag back?” Athena asked.

Kay adjusted the child’s backpack she’d slung on backwards, over her chest. “Nah. The counterweight is kinda nice.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it balances the weight on my back.”

“Oh. Okay!”

“Hey. There’s a stream. Let’s stop to see if we can get some water.”

Huffing, Kay picked up her pace a little, only coming to a stop when she reached the edge of the little stream that trickled through the fractured asphalt. She settled into a squat, shrugging both packs off and looting through her own for her canteen. God only knew how badly this water was irradiated, but at this point, it would do. They’d drunk so much radi water already that it hardly mattered.

“Here,” Kay murmured.

Athena took the canteen and raised it to her lips, drinking greedily. She grimaced only after she’d drained it all. “It’s warm.”

Kay chuckled, tousling her hair. “Sorry, princess. Gimme that. I want some for the road.”

She refilled their water, and stood to face the skeletal highway once more.

“How much further?” Athena wondered.

“I dunno,” Kay sighed.

Athena scratched her arm over the sweater she wore, her bony little fingers moving quick, as if that would make it harder to notice.

“Don’t,” Kay snapped. “It’ll only make it worse.”

“But it’s itchy,” she whined.

“Athena.”

“Okay…”

Their feet scuffed on the gravel as they continued, and Kay huffed, reaching out to take her hand again. “Sorry I snapped.”

“S’okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” She turned her head up, those big eyes with their big dark circles full of hope. “I think we’ll get there soon. It’s probably right around the next corner!”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“I’m excited.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Athena coughed. “Mm-hm!”

Kay stopped, reaching back to grab the water. “Here.”

“No. I’m-” she coughed again, her little body convulsing as she did. “I’m okay. You should save it.”

“Drink.”

Athena shook her head, even as the coughing spell overtook her. Heart seizing, Kay knelt and rubbed her shoulder, coaxing her to take the canteen and drink.

“Shh,” she whispered. “Big, slow breaths. You’re okay. Have some water and hold it at the back of your throat. That’s it.”

Athena swallowed, then made a horrible sound like retching, clapping one hand over her mouth as her shoulders hunched forward. Blood seeped from between her fingers and dripped onto the pavement. She retched again.

“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay,” Kay mumbled, her voice trembling. “We’re almost there, remember? You’re gonna be fine. We’re gonna- we’re gonna get what we came for, and then you’ll be all better. Remember?”

Slowly, painfully, Athena’s breathing steadied. She spat the blood from her mouth and rinsed it from her hands, and trembled.

“We’re almost there?” she croaked.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Athena. Here. Put your backpack on and I’ll carry you.”

“Kay?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna go home.”

Kay felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. “No… we- we can’t go home, princess. You’re sick. We have to keep going.”

“I’m tired.”

“It’s okay. I said I’d carry you. Come on.”

With a grunt, Kay hitched the girl up, her skinny legs dangling and bumping her thighs as she walked. Very suddenly, she felt all her skipped meals catch up with her, and her breath caught in her throat.

“Hey, you two! Stop!”

Kay stumbled as she turned around, veins suddenly afire with adrenaline. Over the sound of her blood roaring in her ears, she hadn’t heard the footsteps from behind them.

“We don’t have anything,” she spat at the raiders, her eyes darting between the three men and the animals they held on tight leashes. “Come on… She’s sick. We’re just trying to get into town.”

“Into town?” the one in the middle snickered. “You mean the one that’s underwater half the time?”

“Just let us go. We don’t have anything.”

“Not ‘til you hand over the packs.”

“Please.”

Athena had gone tense, her breathing ragged. Now she coughed, and Kay squeezed her tight. “Please!”

“Hand over the packs, I said! You want us to let these puppies go?”

The radi dogs snarled at the noise, and Kay tensed, ready to flee.

“Loose ‘em, boys!”

She clutched Athena tight and bolted.

Behind her, Kay could hear the raiders laughing. Only two of them had dogs, but those two were gaining on her, and quickly. They let out strangled snarls and barks, their eyes hazed over and patches of skin sloughing off from the radiation sickness.

Kay’s muscles burned and her breath came in ragged gulps as she ran, darting around a curve in the road. Suddenly, cruelly, something came into view just downhill. Dilapidated shells of old buildings from before the scorching, built close together like trees in the forest. The town. And the ocean, rising up to swallow it.

A radi dog snarled, and Kay could practically feel the warmth of its jaws snapping at her calf as she raced down the hill. There was another noise over the barking. Coughing. Athena coughing. And something warm and sticky was soaking Kay’s shirt. Blood.

But that was too much. Right now there was only the road, and the dogs behind her.

“Get away!” she screeched. “Mangy, radi mutts! Leave us alone!”

Before she even knew it, Kay was rushing past buildings that loomed over her in a blur, casting their shadows over the soggy streets. Seawater splashed onto her pants and soaked her shoes, slowing her, but stinging the dogs’ wounds and slowing them too.

Suddenly, she darted through a gaping doorway, nearly dropping the girl on the ground as she whipped the knife from its holster on her thigh. Facing the angry, half-dead creatures, she readied herself for their attack.

They didn’t wait.

With a gurgling growl, the first radi dog leapt at her. With a scream, Kay kicked it in the chest, sending it stumbling into the street. The second dashed in, sinking its teeth into her shin before she could stop it. Kay wailed in pain, driving her knife down blindly, again and again, until she felt the pressure subside. The second radi dog went limp, dyeing the water around it red.

In its confusion, the other growled and bit into its companion’s leg. This gave Kay just enough time to lift the knife and finish it off too.

When she turned around, Athena was laying on the floor, her hair floating peacefully in the shallow seawater all around her. Limping over, Kay picked her up so she wouldn’t have to lay in the dogs’ blood.

“Hey,” she whispered, sniffling. “Wake up. It’s safe now.”

Kay shook the girl gently, stepping over the bodies.

“Athena, wake up. We made it.”

Lifting her eyes, she examined the structures around her for the first time. Any wood which once supported the buildings had rotted away, and the concrete was dotted with barnacles.

Slowly, Kay limped her way through the flooded streets, looking for the building of gold. It should have been here. No, it had to have been here. They came all this way, and Athena was so sick.

“Kay,” the girl rasped.

“Yeah? What is it? I’m here.”

“Are we home?”

“No, Athena. We made it into town.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yeah.”

Minutes blurred and stretched as the sun continued its daily crawl through the sky, and Kay found herself falling again and again. Athena didn’t seem to mind so much, though.

Finally, like a mirage in the distance, she stumbled upon it. The building itself wasn’t golden, but Kay could tell that its sign once had been. Panting, she struggled to its entrance, setting Athena down on the counters once they made it inside.

The water in this part of town was deeper -up to her knees- so Kay waded through the old store. In tarnished glass cases all around them, golden necklaces and bracelets and earrings glittered, even in the shadow. Kay couldn’t help it- a laugh escaped her lips.

“Gramma was right,” Athena whispered. “Kay… help me find them.”

“I know. I’m looking. You stay there.”

Jewelry was all but useless in the new world, so it was no wonder the raiders had left this place alone. Still, Kay was shocked that so much remained. It was beautiful.

She searched until she found the case that hid what they had come here for.

Lifting her elbow above her head, Kay brought it down hard, shattering the case. Inside, several gold lockets sat on what must have once been velvet. They were so small and dainty, with their intricate engravings and their delicate chains. Kay scooped them all up and brought them to Athena.

The girl was laying on the counter, too weak to sit up. But the smile that lit her face almost made her look hale and healthy again. With shaky hands, she reached into her backpack.

Inside was a small plastic bag, and inside that was a little sketch of Athena’s face.

“Which one do you want?” Kay whispered, brushing the girl’s hair aside.

“This one,” she muttered, tapping one shaped like a heart.

“That one’s perfect.”

With her knife, Kay delicately cut the paper to fit in the magical little necklace, holding her breath to stop the shaking of her hands. Once it was done, she fastened it inside, then pressed it into Athena’s palm.

“Done.”

“Then… put it on.”

“Me?”

“Yeah… gramma said… if you wear a locket with someone’s picture in it… they stay with you forever. So you have to wear my picture. That way we’ll always be together.”

“No… no, this is for you. I can’t. You wear it.”

“It has to be you… so that… I can stay with you. All the other people who get sick like me have to go away. But if you wear my picture…”

“Athena.”

“...Gramma said. She said I’ll be with you. So that means I won’t have to go away.”

“Oh, Athena, I-” the words caught in her throat, and Kay let out a sob. “Alright. I’ll wear it. You won’t have to go anywhere. I promise.”

She smiled, those big eyes with the big dark circles filling with hope again. “Thanks.”

Hands trembling from shock and pain and exhaustion, Kay clasped the chain behind her neck, then squeezed the locket tight. “There.”

“Oh… wow. I think… I think I’m starting to feel better.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Her eyes fluttered, drifting shut like flowers in the moonlight.

“Athena.”

“I feel better. Keep it on, okay? I’m just… tired.”

“Okay.” Kay took her hand, squeezing tight as tears dripped into the water at her knees. “Okay. I’ll keep it on. Forever.”

“Forever and ever?”

“Forever and ever. So you…” her voice broke, and she blew out her breath, cheeks puffing. “You don’t have to worry. Get some rest.”

Athena mumbled something incomprehensible, and Kay watched her chest. Up, down, it fluttered. Up, down. Up, down. Up, up, down. Down. Down. Down.

Kay didn’t know how long she waited there for the girl’s chest to fill with breath and life again. Nor did she know how she made it out of the town and back to the road. But she did. Feet stumbling and dragging, hand clutching that locket, she made her way down the skeletal highway, alone, on the new, sun-scorched earth.