Nicholas presented him with one half of the can opener. The plastic turning dial had melted away. “Thanks, bud.” Hayden took the metal piece and shoved it into his back pocket; at least it was the half with the can puncture part on the end.
“Are we gonna sleep in here again tonight?”
Hayden looked around them. There was no straw for them to curl up in, no water for his horse to drink. The doors were gone, and nothing stood between them and the radioactive elements. “Just one more night, Nicholas. We’ll stay one more night.”
“And then what? You gonna take me home tomorrow?”
Hayden listened as Jake’s snorts turned to mournful cries. “No, I won’t be taking you home. That place is gone. We’re going to try and find a new place to live.”
“Will my Mom and Dad be there?”
Hayden ran his big hand through the boy’s hair without answering. He smiled at him, kissed his forehead, and then went about the rest of his work; gathering up the meagre remains of their supplies for what would likely be a very long journey.
Chapter 12
“I want to have a fire.”
Hayden looked over at Jake as if the man had lost his mind, and then remembered that he already had. “There’s been enough fires.”
They were sitting outside the shelter remains, both propped up against the dirt edges of hill where the door frames used to be. The sky was growing dark, not from storm clouds, but the natural progression of day into night. If there wasn’t so much dirt and ash in the sky, they might’ve been able to watch the sun set.
Jake leaned forward and started pulling the shirt off his back. What was left, peeled away sickeningly from his flesh. Jake didn’t seem discomforted by it; he was far removed from physical pain anymore. He balled the cloth up and threw it between them. “I want to have a fire... nothing huge, just a few little flames to watch. You know, just like when we were growing up as kids, sitting around a little campfire with our friends.”
“We didn’t grow up together, Jake. I graduated from school before you entered junior high.” He wanted to add that they had never been friends either but decided against it.
“So you’re seven or eight years older than me. Doesn’t mean you never sat around a campfire.”
Hayden looked over his shoulder to see if Nicholas was still sleeping. The little form was only a few feet away, silent and unmoving, but it was impossible to tell in the gathering shadows if he was sleeping or not. Trixie wasn’t in there with him. Hayden had let her wander off into dusk. If she was going to die from radiation sickness, there was no stopping it now. Better to let her go off on her own. Maybe that nose of hers would sniff out the river; the poor animal deserved a drink of water as much as any of them, possibly more.
“Fire’s a bad idea, Jake. We have to save what’s left.”
“What, like this?” He threw a chunk of torn two-by-four onto his shirt. “I found about six more pieces just like it while you and my son were eating beans. Come on, Hayden... quit being such an asshole, and start a fire. I got nothing left, no fight in me... you won. Give me this.”
“This isn’t some kind of competition. And even if it was, there sure as hell weren’t any winners. We all lost.”
“Mandy,” Jake rasped. “We lost Mandy. Both of us. Light the fucking fire.”
Ready flame was one supply Hayden always carried on him. He pulled a lighter from his front pocket, shoving the other two deeper down with his fingers so they wouldn’t fall out. Hayden hadn’t smoked a cigarette since the bomb hit; he had forgotten the open pack on his kitchen table and the full carton in his garage. Like his pillow, cigarettes were a comfort he’d have to do without for the time being. Jake was trying to strip smaller slivers away from the larger pieces of wood with his nails. His fingers cracked open and started to bleed.
“Let me,” Hayden offered. The wood was jagged on one end, and it didn’t require much strength to pull some smaller pieces away for kindling. Jake crawled off into the dark while Hayden arranged the shavings into a pyramid shape over the shirt. Jake returned a few moments later dragging eight feet of splintered two-by-six under one arm.
Hayden took it from him. “This was the faceplate on the upper part of the door frame. Where did you find it?”
“Tried to take a leak a few minutes ago and tripped over the corner of it. The rest was buried under dirt.”
“Good thing you’re clumsy.” It was easy for Hayden to break the board into smaller pieces. Those left too thick to break over his knee were set one end on the ground, the other end against a rock. His heel slamming in the middle did the rest. Hayden lit his little pile and within minutes it was crackling and sparking with flames.
“Aaahhhh... that’s nice,” Jake said, pulling himself in and crossing his legs. He raised his hands and spread his bloodied fingers close to the fire. “Smells just like the fires my Dad used to build in the back yard.”
“Can you even feel the heat?” Hayden asked with concern. “You’re sitting awfully close.”
