Kit could barely speak. Overrun with emotions she just nodded. “I’m going to head to the school and get the truck from Abe. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely,” Harland said then looked to Zeke. “Can you take your mom there?”
“I’m sure I can.”
“Let me write down directions for you,” Harland said. “I’ll be right back.”
Near breathless, Kit faced Zeke. “How bad are they?”
“Getting worse, but their spirits are good.”
Kit closed her eyes in pain. “Are they as bad as some of these people?”
“I would label them a two.”
“Two,” Kit whispered. Thinking a ‘two’ was their blue and that meant there was hope.
Harland returned with a slip of paper and handed it to her. “Very basic. If you can’t find the truck, let me know, I’ll get you one.”
“Thank you,” Kit kissed Harland on the cheek. “Thank you for everything.” She faced Zeke. “You ready?” Kit started to walk.
“Mom.”
Kit stopped.
“Before we go…” Zeke reached out and grabbed her arm. “There’s something else you need to know. I won’t tell you what it is. Just be prepared for a shock.”
TWENTY-EIGHT – Librarian
Regis took a shower and felt a lot better. He applied the ointment to his facial wound, but forewent the bandage. Maybe some air hitting it would heal it.
He was able to keep some ginger ale down along with the pain medication. The crisp clean new clothes gave him a slight rejuvenation. He hoped it wasn’t going to be short lived, he was going to enjoy feeling semi normal for as long as it lasted.
He made his way back to the room he shared with his brother and found Mark in the bathroom. The door was opened, Mark, too, had cleaned up. He wasn’t leaning over the commode, instead he was in front of the mirror, a finger in his mouth.
Regis stood in the doorway, leaning against the arch. “Everything okay?”
“No.” Mark spoke muffled with his fingers moving in his mouth. “Thirty-one thousand, three hundred and two dollars. That’s including interest, on my teeth and…” he grunted and withdrew his fingers from his mouth. When he did, blood seeped over his lip. “They’re still coming out.”
He showed Regis the tooth
Regis cringed. “Aw, gees, Mark stop that.”
Mark spit in the sink then rinsed his mouth. “Third one today. They wiggle more and more when I touch them.”
“Quit touching them.”
“Aren’t yours?”
“My teeth?”
“Yeah, aren’t they loose?”
Regis chuckled. “No, I don’t think so. Then again, I’m not touching mine.”
Mark grabbed a towel and wiped off his mouth. “I guess we won’t be seeing dentures anytime soon.”
“Who cares?”
“Did you see this?” Mark pulled on the back of his hair and a small clump came out.
“Mark! Stop that. Seriously.”
“Oh, that’s right, you don’t have that problem.” Mark said about Regis’ bald head. “You always said you wish you had my hair.” He extended the clump to Regis.
Regis pushed his hand away. “I’m glad you’re in a better mood.”
“I’m still sick as a dog, but not gonna mope anymore. We have a plan, right?”
Regis nodded. “Yes, we do.”
There was a single knock on the door before it opened.
Regis leaned back to look. “Oh my God, Kit.”
“Kit?” Mark asked.
Kit’s emotional gasp was the only sound she made when she barreled into the room, she immediately embraced Regis, then grabbed onto Mark.
After the initial reunion, she stepped back, looked at each of her brothers and started to cry. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No.” Regis reached out to her. “It’s okay. We may be sick, but we resolved a lot of things.”
“Did Zeke find you?” Mark asked. “He volunteered hoping he’d find you.”
“He did. Right away,” Kit told them. “I was volunteering.”
“Where were you?” Mark asked. “I mean, they radioed the hospitals for us, the fire stations.”
Kit waved her hand. “I was in a basement bunker.”
“Well, we’re here,” Regis said. “We’re together. We not apart, we know each other is fine.”
Mark scoffed. “That remains to be seen. You aren’t losing your teeth.”
“Why are you two out of bed?” Kit asked. “The only way you are going to beat this is rest, take in lots of fluids, there’s a chance, but you have to rest and give your body a chance to heal.”
Regis shook his head. “They don’t know how much we got. They know it wasn’t enough to kill us right away, but it was enough.”
“No,” Kit argued. “I refuse to accept that.”
Mark breathed out heavily. “We can beat this. There is a chance, but honestly, Kit, I don’t want to spend that time laying in a bed waiting to find out if I will live, or die.”
“What choice do you have?” Kit asked.
Mark looked at Regis and then back to Kit. “We’re going to Spokane. There’s no report that it’s been hit. I want to see my son. I need to see my son.”
“I’ll go. Me and Zeke will go…”
Regis shook his head. “You can’t. Levels are low but still high enough to get sick. They’ll be better in a few days, but we don’t want to wait that few days.”
“This is insane. You aren’t well. I don’t understand,” Kit said. “It’s over a thousand miles away. You can’t walk. How are you going to get there?”
“We’re getting a helping hand,” Mark replied.
“Who?” Kit asked. “Who’s doing this for you?”
Regis pointed behind her. “Him.”
Kit turned around.
Their father was standing in the doorway.
Kit was frozen in her stance, eyes wide open. All she could do was mutter out an airy and confused, “Dad?”
GROUND ZERO CITIZEN – Eight
Terrence wept.
Kira had taken her last breath.
She never opened her eyes, stirred, moaned or spoke. The last thing Terrence ever said to her that she heard was when he said he’d be right back and they would play.
He blamed his sickness, his vanity, had he not run upstairs to hide that he was ill he would have been on that garage level when Keith took the food.
He would have taken a bullet before Keith would have taken a step to get into his car.
All that was heartbreaking hindsight.
Through some sort of twisted fate, his daughter survived the bombs only to have her life cut short by greed.
Kira was one of millions of children who died. That didn’t help Terrence feel better. She was his daughter, his baby girl.
Terrence was reading her the book when it happened. Skipping words that were too grown up as if Kira heard them, maybe she did. He mentioned how Dennis had underlined words, and even said to Kira, “I wonder if he knew this was going to happen and this book was his warning.”
He flipped a page and that was when it happened.
Terrence didn’t notice she passed, he felt her go. He was holding her tiny hand in his hand while facing Kira when he felt the life slip from her. Her hand just stopped feeling the same.
He wanted to call out, but didn’t because he feared someone would come and move her. He wasn’t ready to let her go, not yet.
The last time he saw anyone was when Deana was in his curtained off section, and that was a while ago. His IV bag had run dry.
Soon enough someone would come, he wasn’t prepared for that.
A part of him believed his daughter’s death was a blessing, that she would be spared living in a savage world where people fought for every scrap of food, where war was the act that killed humanity. Another part of him was angry because death robbed her of the chance to make the world a better place through life.