I glanced around the perimeter, checking hard to see places through my scope, and then turned to watch my happy family marching to the place Skeeter had set up for the challenge.
Ashley had stayed behind, standing over the graves of her father, her sister, Bryce, and Cooper. She stared at the crosses she had painstakingly made for them, mouthing words I couldn’t hear. Finally, the front door slammed and Skeeter appeared. He walked up behind Ashley and put his arm tenderly around her waist. They stood there for a moment, with Ashley leaning back against his chest. Skeeter leaned forward to kiss her cheek and then took her hand, leading her away.
Skeeter and Ashley had leaned on each other for support for a long time after we lost everyone. Their friendship turning into something more wasn’t really a surprise, but it was interesting watching them love each other while still mourning and loving Jill and Cooper. We lived in a strange new world, where even relationships required a new understanding.
As everyone I loved walked hand in hand or in someone’s arms, a familiar and yet strange sound echoed in the distance. As soon as I heard the sound, I knew what it was, but it had been so long since we’d heard or even seen an airplane, it was easy to believe it could be my imagination.
I stood up on the roof, trying to discern from which direction the muted, swirling sound of air was coming from. I turned, holding my hand over my eyes to block out the glaring sun. The sound of the planes’ engines was present, but the planes themselves were not. Nathan, the girls, Ashley, and Skeeter stood in the field, every one of their faces tilted to the sky.
The sound grew closer, and just before it was on top of us, two fighter jets soared over side by side, heading northeast.
Instinctively, I called out to Jenna, and also instinctively, she pulled Halle from Nathan’s arms and ran toward the house. Everyone hurried toward the porch, talking at the same time in excited tones.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Ashley asked loudly, most likely directed at me.
“Wichita, looks like. It’s about an hour and a half that way, right?” I answered.
Jenna encouraged Halle up the ladder, where they both sat close to me. The planes were out of sight, but we kept our eyes on the horizon.
Nathan set Zoe on her feet. “At those speeds, you’d think they’d be there by now.”
Just as Nathan finished his sentence, a bright light outshone the sun, and then a mushroom cloud formed, climbing miles into the sky. Every one of us stared in disbelief. I remembered seeing mushroom clouds on television, but in person . . . it didn’t seem real.
“What is that?” Halle asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Is that a nuclear bomb?” Ashley said, her tone signaling her impending panic.
“’Bout how far away are we from Wichita? In miles.” Skeeter asked.
Nathan shrugged. “Right at seventy, I bet.”
“We should get inside. I don’t know what kind of bomb that is, but . . .”
“Oh my God,” I said, seeing a wave of dust rising above the horizon. It was heading our way. “Go, Jenna! Go!”
Nathan and I helped the girls climb down the ladder, and I climbed down a few rungs, jumping the rest of the way when I saw the cloud was coming up fast. “Get inside!” I screamed. I closed the door and ran to get towels to stuff under it. Ashley and Skeeter were pulling up the blankets we used to cover the windows at night, and Nathan was shoving towels under the back door.
We stood in the living room, panting and staring at each other. I shook my head at Nathan, at a loss for what else to do. A roar welled up outside. Jenna, Halle, and Elleny ran to me, and I hugged them all, watching Nathan do the same with Zoe.
Ashley ducked under Skeeter’s arm and looked up at him. “What do we do?”
Skeeter scanned the room as the roaring got louder. “Everyone get down on the ground.”
We huddled together, waiting until the wave was upon us. The wood frame of the farmhouse creaked against the blast, and the dirt popped against the outer north wall. The three windows on that side burst, throwing glass all over the dining room table and the floor. I kept the girls’ heads down, praying that would be the extent of it.
As soon as the wave hit, it was gone. We all slowly looked up at one another, wondering what to do next.
Ashley sniffed. “Are we far enough away, if there’s radiation?”
“I can’t believe it,” Nathan said. “I can’t believe they bombed the city. A year after this all started? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe the cities are lost, and this is their way of cleanin’ up?” Skeeter said. “They can eliminate a lot of teds that way.”
“So does that mean there’s not a cure?” Elleny said.
“We don’t know anything, yet,” I said. Halle was curled into a ball in my lap, shaking. “Sssh, baby. It’s going to be all right.”
“Will they bomb us?” Jenna asked.
“No,” I said. “We’re so far removed from everything—”
“But what about Shallot?” Elleny asked. “It was full of teds. What if they drop a bomb that close to us?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think they will, honey. Most of the teds there have wandered off. Probably to Wichita.”
“I hope there weren’t any survivors left,” Ashley said. “To make it this long and then have that happen. How awful.”
“I don’t think anyone would survive long in the cities,” Skeeter said. “I think we should all stay inside for now. Wait till the air clears. We’ll watch to see how Butch acts the next couple of days, watch for fallout. I don’t see why they’d risk dropping a nuclear bomb. A regular one’d do the trick.”
Nathan nodded. “I agree. No sense in getting all worked up.”
“Okay,” I said. I stood up and pulled the girls with me. “Did you hear that? Birthday party has been brought inside.”
Jenna’s mouth pulled to the side. I cupped her face in my hands. “First thing’s first. There is a can of peaches with your name on it.”
“Can I have one, Jenna? Pleeeeease?” Halle begged.
I left them for the basement, searching through the pantry. Nathan followed me down. I pulled the can off the shelf and looked up at him from under my brow. “We didn’t make it this long just to die of radiation poisoning, right? You weren’t just saying that to make us feel better?”
Nathan shook his head and pulled me into his arms. “No, love. Skeeter’s right. What point would there be to using a radioactive bomb? Unless they had a specific reason to use it, I don’t think it makes much sense.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
I took a deep breath and squeezed him tight, and then followed him up the stairs. Even with his promise, a suffocating sense of dread consumed me. Jenna and Elleny crawled to the window and pulled back the blanket.
“Mom! Is that snow?”
I stood up and walked over to the window, peeking through a crack between the boards. “No,” I said softly, watching the fluffy, dark pieces float to the ground.
“That’s fallout, ain’t it?” Skeeter asked.
Nathan leaned down to get a better look through the largest crack. “Fallout isn’t radioactive in itself. It could just be dust and debris from the blast that was shot into the air.”
Everyone brought blankets and pillows to the basement that night, hoping that putting one more level between us and the ash covering the grass outside would provide a little more protection. By nightfall, enough of it had accumulated on the ground to look like a blanket of dirty wool.
After the children fell asleep, Skeeter and Nathan discussed what the fallout—radioactive or not—might do to our water supply, and other frightening things, until Ashley asked them to stop. It was too late, though; even after we settled in and tried to get some sleep, I found myself staring at the ceiling, worrying.
Nathan kissed my temple. “I think it’s going to be okay, Scarlet. I really do.”
“But what if it’s not? How can I save our kids from this?”
