“Yes,” Matty answered. “But my story will sound boring after his…” She pointed to Tanner. “He was on a sub.”
I quickly turned to Tanner. “You were on a sub? How would Matty know?”
Tanner smiled gently at my daughter. “We talk.” He winked. “And yeah, I was on a sub. Actually I had just left the Faulkner Islands ten hours before it all started. So, rest assured, the United States government didn’t hide it, we didn’t know it was coming until the bombs were in the air. Things could have been worse that first day. We couldn’t stop the bombs already planted on our soil, but we managed to intercept about thirty percent of the SLBM and ICBM’s that sailed in. You guys probably didn’t even think of this, but Europe got nailed pretty bad. Probably because a lot of useful Mid Eastern nuclear weapons couldn’t make it to American soil, so they landed where they could. I’ll tell ya’…” He sighed out a heavy breath. “I never felt so helpless in all my life. Trapped. Useless.” His fork trailed across his cake. “I just listened with a knot in my stomach as they rattled off the first cities hit. I swear those first twelve cities are embedded in my mind.” Almost as if he weren’t even thinking, like a child reciting his times tables, Tanner rattled off, “Houston, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Miami, Tulsa…” He stopped. After a quick glance at me, he swallowed and shook his head. “It’s… it’s not important. We were given directives, we followed, and then we were ordered home. To what was left of home.”
“Wait.” Burke interrupted. “You’re a marine. Were there other marines on board?”
Tanner nodded.
“Then it was a security force.” Burke said. “You had nukes. Did you guys fire them?”
Reluctantly, Tanner answered, “Yes. Once the antagonists were discovered, we were ordered to turn our sub, take position and… fire. We released our entire bay. Thirty-two warheads. But that was mild compared to what France and Russia unleashed. Retaliation was major. Unfortunately, we were not wise to China’s involvement until it was too late.”
Davy spoke up in question, “Is there anything left? Any world left?”
“Oh, yeah.” Tanner nodded. “Davy, life prevails. It finds a way. We’re here, right? What’s that tell you?”
“But what about the rest of the world. Do you know?” Davy asked.
“I can take a pretty good educated guess from my military standpoint,” Tanner replied. “I believe the other countries are rising above the ashes too. Well…OK. Maybe not all. In the future there will be a history textbook that reads: There once was a place called the Mid East.”
A ‘low feel’ and hush took over the room. The crackling fire added an eerie effect as if we were all sitting around a campfire telling ghost tales.
“Sorry.” Tanner apologized then exhaled.”Now, I would love to hear Matty’s story. Please.”
“Oh, me too.” Rod said perky. “Trust me, me too. Tell it, Matty.”
“It’s dumb.” Matty shook her head.
“Well it can’t be dumber than the sub story, now can it?” Rod raised an eyebrow. “Tell it.”
“Fine.” Matty seemed nervous. Her fingers played with the cake crumbs as she spoke, lifting then mashing the crumbs together. “Math class,” she said. “I was on my fourth problem. Then the fire alarm went off. I thought it was cool, because I didn’t want to do math. Just as Ms. Busey was getting us lined up, Mr. Shep spoke over the speaker and said not to take us outside, but straight to the basement. OK, I’m not dumb. I hear my mom. So when he said basement I knew it was one of two things. Bombs or a tornado. Either way, we could be stuck down there and I knew it. So when we were all heading to the basement, I snuck from line to go to my locker. My survival pack was there. I thought for sure no one would notice.” Matty fluttered her lips. “Boy was I wrong. Mr. Shep saw me. All those kids and he saw me. He yelled and started chasing me.”
I couldn’t believe it. Matty was speaking about that day. How I had tried to get her to open up, but she wouldn’t. She stopped speaking, but I wanted to hear more. “What did you do?” I asked.
“Ran,” she answered. “I ran and screamed. I was almost at my locker when he got me. He said I had to go to the basement, but I told him I had to get something from my locker. He picked me up and started to carry me. Well… I fought. I kicked, screamed, wiggled. He kept saying, ‘Matty Collins, stop this.’ Finally, I bit him.”
A cough of surprise came from me without control. “You… bit Mr. Shep?” I questioned.
“Yep.” She nodded. “He dropped me, I ran, got to my locker and got my stuff. He chased me again, but it was too late. I had my pack. But that wasn’t all. Almost all the kids were downstairs and as we were going to the basement, guess what? Ms. Busey came running out. Mr. Shep said for her to stop. She was crying, ‘I got to get out. I got to get out.’ He told her one time to come back, then just said, ‘fuck her’ and took me downstairs.”
The second cough of shock came from me when my daughter swore as if she had been doing it her entire life. “Anything else?”
“No.” She shrugged. “That’s it. We got bombed.”
For some reason, I suspected my daughter had seen some sort of vile tragedy that spewed her into a silent shocked world after the bombs. That perhaps a vast array of death and destruction played before her youthful eyes. Something caused her to stop speaking, in my mind; it couldn’t just be the bombs. But it was. The bombs didn’t destroy her country; they destroyed her spirit as well. However, I started to see an inkling of that spirit creeping back and that made me happy. I pulled Matty closer to me, kissed her and whispered that I was proud and I liked her story best. Matty immediately turned her body into me to snuggle.
“More please.” Simon lifted his plate. “Good cake, Burke.” He smiled. “More?”
“Simon…” Burke seemed at a loss. “There is no more. I’m sorry buddy.”
“Wait.” Tanner called out. “Here, Simon. You want mine? I didn’t eat it.”
“Yes.” Simon, in a rush and holding Molly by the hair, leaped over Davy’s legs. He fumbled his doll, but managed to grab that plate. “Thanks, Tanner Niles.”
“You’re welcome Simon Reed.”
Someone huffed. Barely heard, laced with disgust, but they huffed. I had my guess on who had done so. At first I believed I was the only one who caught it, until I saw that Tanner, lifted his eyes, at the same time as me and to the same person.