Meteor (8 page)

“It’s okay,” Troy said, “we are safe.”

It was very difficult for Troy or Mary to get their daughter to come out of the bedroom. Brandon began sleeping on the downstairs couch so that he could give her some space and time to get over her grief. She did not eat for several days, despite Mary’s efforts to get her to do so.

Finally one night when Brandon and Troy were playing chess and Mary was making a tuna casserole, Cordelia suddenly came down from the bedroom and made an appearance. Her eyes looked hollow and there were huge rings underneath, indicating that she hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past few days.

“Are you hungry, dear?” her mother asked as she came over to where Cordelia was sitting down on the couch. Cordelia nodded her head and Mary went back to the kitchen to continue the preparations for dinner. Troy and Brandon kept playing chess, not wanting to force her to talk before she was ready. It wouldn’t take long before she began to talk on her own.

“How do you have such an interest in a such a boring game?” she asked Troy and Brandon. They both looked over at her and smiled. They were glad that she actually seemed to be returning to a state of normalcy.

“It’s not boring to us, dear. It requires a lot of strategy and concentration,” Troy said.

“Boring!” she said again.

“Dinner’s ready,” Mary said suddenly, causing the guys to put their game on hold. They got up and went to the dinner table. No one brought up Henry or what happened to him until Cordelia brought it up herself.

“Do you think Henry suffered before he died?” she asked bluntly. The statement was so jarring, Troy just about spit out the water he was drinking.

Mary put a hand on Cordelia’s head and patted it. “I really hope not, but I can’t say for sure.”

“I just don’t understand how God could allow all of this to happen. I mean, innocent people are probably dying all over the world, and for what reason?” she said.

“I understand why you would feel that way, but sometimes good things just randomly happen to good people. It’s not something that God probably intends to have happen.” Troy attempted to explain it as best he could. It was an odd subject to discuss with his daughter, due to the fact that he himself was agnostic and wasn’t sure how God fit into the picture. Though it was very understandable that she would be asking questions like this, at a time like this.

“I’m not sure I believe in God, anyway,” Cordelia said. “I mean, there’s so many things that don’t make sense about it all. I just don’t think some merciful God would allow this to happen to all of us.”

“You are welcome to believe whatever you want, dear. We have always told you that, and we still feel the same way. What you should understand is that lots of people have lost someone since this whole disaster began. As hard as it might be to believe, we are some of the lucky ones. We have only lost one person that we know of,” Troy said, trying to put everything in perspective for her.

“For a while, I had nightmares about it. I could see Henry over and over again yelling out in pain. Last night was the first night that I didn’t have the dream in a week,” she said. Her voice took on a somber tone. “I miss him so much.”

“I know you do, dear. It will take some time to get over this, but you will eventually come to grips with it,” Mary said.

“He was the only boy I ever loved,” Cordelia said, as everything about that horrible day came flooding back into her memory.

“Let it go, dear. You have to let him go,” Troy said as he patted her on the back. She nodded her head like she knew he was right.

“I keep going back to that day, thinking he might have been alright if we had only opened the door for him.”

“He was already badly burned when he got here, and whoever opened that door would risk injuring themselves and contaminating the shelter. We can only open the door for very short periods of time. Everyone needs to understand that we will not open that door for anyone. Others will probably eventually come around begging for help or to be let in. We cannot allow those people to diminish our supplies, and if someone we don’t know comes around, we can’t trust them. Trust me, I know it’s hard, but we are doing this for our own safety. We can make it through this crisis if we stick to this rule, and stick together,” Troy said.

Troy decided to take a break from the news for a few days, for fear that it would only upset his children even more. Besides, it was unlikely to be good news, and more than likely would only paint a bleak picture. Instead, he continued to get his family into a routine that involved chores, gardening, house work and school studies. They had given Cordelia a week off from her duties, and it was now time for her to get back to helping the family.

“Let me help you with the dishes, mom,” she said after the family finished dinner. Mary was pleasantly surprised that her daughter was offering to help.

“Sure, dear.”

As the two of them washed the dishes, they began to talk for a moment about everyday things, trying to forget the crisis that they were in the middle of.

The vegetables that Troy had been growing were starting to become ripe for the picking. They would soon be able to incorporate fresh greens, tomatoes, and carrots into their meals that they were planning. Troy, with the help of his son, kept strict tabs on the inventory of their supplies, and everything was holding out just as he had hoped it would.

That night after dinner, the kids went upstairs to their rooms to start on the homework that their father assigned them. They would not be allowed to come downstairs until they were through with it, and then, Troy would check it to make sure that it was completed, and completed correctly at that. This met with some groans of protest from Cordelia, but after a little bit of moaning and eyerolling, she would follow through with the request.

After the children went to bed, Troy decided to switch on the news to get a report. Mary, who was also anxious to hear some more updates about the outside world, came and sat down by his side on the couch as he switched on the television
.

“This is Gordon Thompson, reporting for CNN Headline News. Things have calmed down dramatically on the streets of major cities across this country. That of course, does not mean that we are not still in a crisis situation. The acid rain, which was been frequent in recent weeks has helped calm down the looting and burning of buildings. However, the situation for many families continues to be dire as supplies begin to run low. We are encouraging all of our viewers to stay within the letter of the law as you seek necessities.

“Unfortunately, most of the major grocery stores are still devoid of items, and are unlikely to get a new shipment of goods any time soon. Emergency drop-offs are occurring in all of the major cities. We will be announcing a bit later where and when those drop-offs are to occur.

“The president himself will be making a speech straight from the White House later this afternoon. Also, the government is working hard to get at least one major hospital back up and running in each major city. We will be displaying a list of these hospitals a little bit later in this newscast. Again, officials urge families to stay inside unless there is a serious emergency. There is still the risk of contaminated, possibly radioactive dust and acid rain, both byproducts of the problems with nuclear facilities that are occurring around the world. This is Gordon Thompson reporting for CNN.”

“Well, I guess things could be worse,” Mary said. “At least they didn’t report anything about any new threats.”

Mary’s optimism was one of the things that Troy loved most about his wife. No matter how bleak things became, she was always capable of seeing the silver lining. It was in this positive moment that a loud knock could be heard at the door.

Troy looked at his wife, and then jumped up to look at the security camera. He saw his best friend, Ken standing there looking like a shadow of his former self. He was gaunt and pale. There were several burns all over his face. Next to him was his wife and eight year old son who looked much the same way as he did.

“Open up buddy, I know you're in there.” Ken knocked again. Troy did not get up to open the door, but walked back over to the couch where his wife sat.

“It’s Ken, he and his family are asking to come in,” he told Mary, as Ken continued to shout outside the door.

“What are you going to do?” she asked him, as he looked at her with a grave expression.

“I don’t know,” he replied, turning back to the door.

Mary saw that Troy was considering opening it. She had to stop him. “Troy, if you open that door you could contaminate this bunker, you heard the man on the news. Think of the children, Troy,” she pleaded, holding on to his arm.

Troy was conflicted. His best friend was outside, begging to be let in, but he would be putting his own family in danger, perhaps irreversibly if he did so. The risk was too high.

Ken continued to plead outside. “Troy, for the love of God - it’s your best friend. We are starving and we need medical attention. I’m quite sure you have quite a few supplies in there that you can spare. I helped you build this place, for Christ’s sake. You should let me in based on that alone!” he shouted, becoming angry. The sound of falling rain began to filter into the shelter as Ken and his family began to cry outside.

“Troy, we are getting burned out here. The acid rain is back again. PLEASE!” he yelled as he pounded even harder. His son began to shriek in pain as the acid rain burned his skin. His mother did what she could to shelter him, but she was receiving bad burns herself.

Mary held onto Troy, stopping him from going to open the door. With the acid rain falling, contamination would be certain. She knew that Troy could pull away from her if he wanted to, as he was stronger than her, but instead he stood there, looking into her eyes, his face in a grimace as though in pain.

Ken shouted to his wife. “Come on, we have to find shelter elsewhere. The son of a bitch is not going to open his door. He has lost all sense of humanity. RUN!”

Troy looked through the periscope at Ken and his family who had begun running across Troy’s yard in search of shelter. About five hundred yards from the bunker, Ken collapsed as the acid rain melted off his skin. He lay bleeding on the ground. His wife and son collapsed a few yards from him, and did not move again.

Troy looked away as the family began to look like melted corpses as the flesh was completely burned off of their bones. Troy came over to Mary and began to break out in a loud sob. He had been strong for his family, all of these weeks, but seeing his best friend’s family cut down like this was too much for him. Mary comforted him as best she could, patting his back and whispering to him as the sobs came and went.

“Am I a monster?” he asked his wife, as he looked at her with a tear-stained face.

“Of course not, dear. You are only trying to do what’s best for this family. You couldn’t let them in. They were already pretty far-gone when they came here. They would have put a strain on our supplies and contaminate our shelter. You did what you had to do,” she said, reassuringly.

“You’re right, dear, I know. It’s just hard to see that happen to Ken after everything he helped me with. If it wasn’t for his help, we would not be here right now. He was a good man. He did not deserve what happened to him and his family.” Troy stood up and looked at the ceiling.

“Father God, you really have some answering to do if I ever make it to heaven - if there is such a place,” he said.

A few minutes later, the children came down with their homework ready for their father to check. He was sitting quietly on the couch, staring into space, and Brandon could tell something was bothering him.

“What’s wrong with Dad?” he asked his mother who was sitting at the kitchen table.

“Nothing dear, he is just tired, that’s all,” she replied.

“I’m fine, son,” Troy said, overhearing their conversation. He tried to pull himself together so that he could continue to be strong for his family. “Come over here and let me see that essay that you wrote.” He tried to maintain as much normalcy as he could, under the circumstances.

Troy looked over the essay, getting out a red pen to circle any grammatical errors or parts that he wanted Brandon to look back over again. He had assigned the children an essay to help them express how they would change their lives when and if things ever returned to normal. He was pleased to see that the whole experience was bringing out the humanity in his son.

In the essay, his son expressed the desire to become a doctor in a charity hospital to help people who were recovering from injuries associated with the natural disaster that had occurred. Troy was also pleased at how his son’s writing had come along since they had begun to live in the bunker.

“Good job son, you have a lot less grammatical errors in this one. You have just a few run-on sentences and misspelled words that I circled for you. I also want you to work on a more effective introduction. Make those corrections and get the essay back to me tomorrow,” he said, patting him on the back for doing such a good job.

“Thanks, Dad,” Brandon said as he got up to go back upstairs.

Cordelia came over to the couch to hand her father the essay that she had written. It was always like pulling teeth to get Cordelia to do any lengthy writing. She hated doing it and always had a hard time getting started. She much preferred to express her self vocally, which she did at every available opportunity.