The Sunken City

The few who survived the flash sauntered along the barren road in a bleary daze. Exhausted and stupefied, a band of ragged and disheveled youths dragged their footsteps along against the blazing heat. The pack was led by a boy of sixteen. Behind him trudged ten, six boys and four girls, all younger and (more unsure of themselves). It was Luke’s naturally assertive and commanding demeanor that convinced the reluctant children to depart from the ruined town in search of other survivors. The troop of kids were playing within an old bunker when death swept across the land and decimated everything within its path. When the deafening crash thundered across the sky, the children hurried up the ladder, and in vain, pushed against the hatch. The howling wind of a thousand gales pressurized against the vault and trapped the children for four days. When the wind ceased, it was immediately noticeable; it was as if someone were clapping cymbals in their ears without pause for days on end and suddenly relented. In fact, the abrupt quietude filled the air almost as quickly as did the howling, and from their restless sleep did the children awaken and anxiously scramble up the ladder. The open air was clogged with a thick layer of sand and sent the children immediately into fits of coughing. The wind, although distinctly calmer, still blew turbulently. The sky was a terrible haze of deep orange and sanguine streaks, and against the dust, the sun struggled to pierce through. Fine sand particles moving through the turbulent gusts of air scratched at the children’s exposed eyes and effectively blinded them, sending the investigation party back beneath the ground.The sand-beaten children sat rubbing at their irritated eyes, while those who had remained underground waited impatiently for a report.

“Well, who’s up there?” one boy inquired.

“Nobody. There ain’t nothing but heaps of sand”, a sandy-eyed boy grumbled.

“Heaps and heaps”, another concluded.

“Whaddya mean?”, demanded a little angry boy with knitted brows and indignant eyes.

“I mean just that. All there is is sand and sand, ain’t nothing else far as I seen.”

“Whadda bout Ma and Pa? Ain’t they up there? You ain’t seen them?” asked the little boy pleadingly.

The older boys, bleary-eyed from their scout mission, exchanged glances.

“Now well...”, one of them started with careful hesitance, before the indelicate boy interrupted his companion and began his callous recounting of his observations.

“Ma and Pa? There ain’t no Ma and Pa no more. What’s the use in being fragile with the boy? Ma and Pa? Ma and Pa are somewhere beneath those heaps of sand, that’s where.” The little boy’s chest heaved, and in a whirlwind of heartache and blinding rage at such heartless words, he assailed the brutal older boy, bombarding him with a series of flimsy punches, until he eventually exhausted himself and lay whimpering on the floor. This was information the other young, sensitive children could not swallow either, and the cold words sent them into uncontrollable,wailing sobs, slobbering and hiccuping and gasping for air. The older boys looked at the callous boy disapprovingly and shook their heads.

Aggrieved by the older boys' collective affront, he shouted: “It ain’t no use in telling fairy tales! Truth is truth and better it be spoken now than later. There ain’t nothing we can do about the truth, plain and simple. You’d rather give 'em some fairy tale mumbo jumbo just 'cause you don’t wanna hear 'em fret. Well, l I tell 'em straight, cause this ain’t no fairy tale land where we’re going.”

“Why don’t you just go and shut it already? You ain’t helping nothing”, the eldest boy said firmly.

“Luke’s right. That mouth of yours only done a handful of trouble”, an older boy to the left of Luke remarked.

The other boys assented to this and the insensitive boy withdrew into his own contemplations.

Luke, well acquainted with commanding authority, spoke out strongly, and the young children, huddled in the arms of the older girls, ceased crying and suppressed their sniffles as best they could.

“We will rise with the sun- if there is sun to be had-and venture out in search of provisions. If the weather permits, we’ll abandon this bunker and head north towards the central city. For now, let’s sleep”

All was quiet, and in the pitch black, the children’s senses focused on the gentle winds that blew above. It was not long before the children were whisked off into golden dreams of earlier days and simpler times.

In the early dawn, Luke arose silently and unlatched the seal and scanned the landscape. The morning was a greyish brown with a dust that languidly swirled through the air. Climbing out of the hatch, leaving the chamber exposed to the skylight, he ventured off south. Slowly, he foraged the wasted land, which bearing nothing aside desolate mounds of sand and sky, stretched as far as the eyes could see. As he trekked along, his foot collided with solid metal and, after cursing the sky, he brushed aside the heap of dust, and discovered a latch that unmistakably led into a subterranean bunker. Ecstatic over his discovery, Luke ran back to the bunker and boomed down into the hold that he’d struck gold. The older boys scrambled up the ladder, and followed Luke excitedly toward the uncovered bunker that had already begun to build up a fresh layer of dust. After some straining, the boys lifted the latch and descended below. Inside the bunker lay a plentiful amount of supplies, goggles, dried food, fire starter, water, candles, compasses, clothing, canned vegetables, a medical kit, backpacks, and a box of tools. The boys passed the supplies in a conveyor belt fashion and emptied the bunker of all things useful in no time at all. Back in the bunker, the chamber was astir. The older boys hauled the provisions over to the top of the shelter and began to distribute the provisions. By seven in the morning, the bags were packed, and the children stood in the open air. For all the frenzy and bustle of the morning, the young children, finally beholding the sanded-over landscape could not help wondering what occurred. The sight was a dismal one; the neighborhood, town, surrounding trees and farms were all expelled from existence. Nothing lay in sight; all was merely a vast expanse of rolling desert sand. The anguished children's lips began trembling. The older girls rushed to their sides, embracing and reassuring them that all would be well. But despite embraces and reassurances, the children knew all would not be well. The little boy with indignant eyes was bent over a scrap of metal, and stroked the twisted sign with his fingers longingly. Luke put his hand on his shoulder and guided him away from the wreckage and back into the band.

“We better get to” , spoke Luke anxiously, for the journey was long and timing was an invaluable resource, especially with the desert's temperamental moods.

They departed and headed towards the city walls that towered formidably into the morning’s sky. A young girl no older than six, being carried in the arms of an older girl, looked back on the buried city despairingly and buried her head into the motherly figure’s bosom.

As the troop trekked on, Luke studied deep fissures that stretched along the road.

“It’s a peculiar thing we don’t know nothing of any of it”, spoke Charlie, through hoarse voice and licked his parched lips.

“Something awfully mighty touched down”, Charlie reckoned, his widened eyes busy and unfocused, reliving his visions of the mysterious catastrophe.

“Quit prophesying! Quit it! You ain’t know a thing of it so quit starin’ into space like you do”, snapped the cold boy with hostility, and brought Charlie whirling back from the depths of his phantasmagorical mindscapes.

“Listen Gabe. Far as I’m concerned, this is the only thing to be talking about and if’n you don’t wanna hear none of it, why don’t you go an plug your ears?", retorted Charlie crossly.

“You talk like a…” , began Gabe, but was interrupted by a calamitous rumbling as the ground shook beneath their feet and out beyond the walls of the city shot upwards a violent electric blue ray of immensely powerful and unnaturally radiant light that assaulted the azure blueness of Earthly light and pierced up and through the domed sky, streaming high into space beyond.

The band of children stood in sheer terror, fixated with awe at the unearthly spectacle unfolding before their eyes. Instantaneously, the inviolable light dissipated and the onslaught shrank from existence. Almost as abruptly as the light intrusion halted did the cracked plateau beneath their feet open up. Charlie, caught in the imbalance, was the first to go, slipping fatefully into the deep abyss, his voice echoing all the way down. Then, three children standing upon superficial cracks, all at once were consumed by the eternal blackness. In an instant did this all occur, no impulse nor action could’ve prevented such peril, and suspecting the danger had not slackened, Luke led the remaining children single file line with locked arms toward safer ground. Yet safer ground was not to be found, for with another roaring crash came the monolithic collapse of the mountains of the East, and with a whooshing reverberation did a sudden gust of wind kick the sand of all the godforsaken land into the air in a whirlwind of chaos and sent the children in a frenzied sprint toward the ever distant city walls as the all consuming torrential cloud of destruction descended upon them. Blindly running, fueled by adrenaline, Gabe and Luke ran together, inattentively did they scan the ground, searching the horizon instead for shelter, when a large rift suddenly appeared before them and, Gabe swiftly cleared the gap and continued his sprint. Luke, grasping the ledge for dear life, struggled in vain to gain leverage and pull himself up.

“Gabe!”, he shouted. Gabe turned around and knew Luke’s fate was inevitable, for he judged the cloud was gaining on them with too quick a rapidity, and by quick calculation, Gabe determined Luke’s fate. He turned in the direction once more of the distant gate and lowering his head against the sanded wind, sprinted off. In the distance, Gabe fancied he perceived nascent outlines of a dwelling. As he neared the obscurity grew sharper, his spirits rising to unforetold heights, channeled reserved speed and broke through the unhinged door at maximum pace. The home was dingy and dilapidated with pools of light spilling through the apertures that lined the ruined drywall. Pots and pans, and a myriad of kitchenware lay scattered across the kitchen floor. Dishes and silverware all were strewn in piles across the counter tops. Chairs were overturned and the dining table was missing a leg. As Gabe scanned the room, he glanced down at a trembling little girl who sat curled up against a closet wall. Her hair was blonde and crusted over with a thick coat of dirt and debris and in her hands she clutched a small teddy bear. Her shimmering blue eyes were wet with tears as she gazed deeply into his own. Growing very timid, she hid her head in her lap and commenced to bawl once more. Gabe slowly approached the little girl, who was shaking uncontrollably, and sat down beside her against the wall, gingerly stroking her hair, hoping it might ease her sobs. When she came to, she still heaved and hiccuped and, looking up into the stranger's eyes, lifted up her closed hand and revealed a heart-shaped locket. Gabe grasped the locket, and opening the possession, looked upon a quaint picture. It was the little girl and her father, smiling gaily in the golden sun, laughing together in a field of lilies. Gabe held the girl tightly, and the white light swept over the land.