Chapter 5 - Riot

Don't get attached to anyone in the wastelands.

I took a long drag of my hand-rolled cigarette, and stared off into the orange, radiation blasted sky. The sun was just starting to set on another gloriously shitty day in the wastelands. I leaned on the ancient wooden fence and kicked the dirt. My boots were so scuffed and worn you couldn't even see the extra dust.

Behind me, the front door to the house opened and Cherry, my sister, came out carrying her radio, ruining my peaceful contemplation.

"Atlas Adam, screaming into the void. The sun has set on another day. I'm fixing to go over to Scissors and get me a drink and some of Scissor's infamous beaver cleaver pie. I don't know if she's ever even seen a real beaver, but if you close your eyes you can pretend it's edible. Non-stop, commercial-free listening for the rest of the night. Enjoy, and stay alive."

‘Welcome to Paradise' by Green Day started, and Cherry began to sing along.

"Can you not?" I inhaled the smoke and blew it out. "I was enjoying the quiet."

"There's no such thing," she teased, and set the radio at her feet, turning the volume down. "What are you doing out here, looking all sad?"

"I'm not sad." I shrugged and brushed my hair out of my face. "Do I look sad?"

"You do. You've been off all day. Even Soda noticed, and he never notices anything. We were thinking of going to Scissors and having a drink, but he wanted to stay at headquarters, just in case."

"In case what?" I smirked. What did she think I was going to do?

"In case you tried to go exploring alone."

Soda, my sister's boyfriend, joined us from the house. Rail thin, and at close to seven feet tall, he had to duck to get through the door. He didn't have a single muscle on him, despite trying to build some. I held back a laugh. He wasn't stopping me from doing anything. If I wanted to take off into the darkness, there was little either of them could do.

"Well, thanks. I'm not taking off. I had a long day is all. I'm probably going to head to bed early and get a head start on tomorrow. I think Tom is coming over with his bike." I rattled off.

"You're hiding something," Cherry accused. "I know when you're lying. What's going on?"

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to decide whether or not to share what was bothering me, when suddenly there was a loud clang.

"Holy shit. Is that--" Cherry gasped. Lights burst on in the distance.

"No fucking way." Soda shook his head. "That's Risky Rush Park."

"What's left of it," I reminded him. Everything that once was had long since been renamed three times over. That theme park was about 15 miles from Heathen Heights, where we lived. Risky Rush Park was a place for teens to feel adventurous. I used to go with all my friends when I got my first bike, but that was almost 10 years ago now. I was 20 now; that shit was for kids.

"Well, it looks like someone has it up and running. Have you ever seen it lit up like that?" Soda asked us both. He wasn't from here. Cherry had brought him back from her trip down Mercury Mile a few months ago.

"Never. Aren't they scared of drawing out creepies?" Cherry asked.

"Who are they ?"Soda asked.

"Who fucking cares?" I finished my cigarette and turned away. "They're gonna be dead by morning. No one with half a brain would pull that shit. They're asking for trouble."

Creepies and Crawlies, humans that were harmed and permanently altered by too much radiation, stayed away from the cities. While their brains didn't necessarily work like they did before they'd changed, they knew that the city folk had guns and other ways of taking them out. They kept to the outskirts in packs, hunting whatever got too close. But just looking at that park in the distance, I knew that it would awaken some of the zombie-like creatures. I wasn't interested in hearing their victim's screams. I started back toward the house.

"What if it's the people from the bunker?" Soda asked. I paused and turned back.

"What makes you think that?" Cherry asked.

"No one else would be that stupid," I smirked. "It probably is them. The bone snails are going to have a party tomorrow."

Cherry shuddered at the thought. The large, colorful snails with human skulls on their backs instead of shells had terrified her since we were little.

"I don't even know where the doors to the bunker are at. Hell, I didn't even know a bunker was nearby 'til I met you." Soda put his arm around my sister and leaned down to rub his nose against hers. I looked away and back at the bright lights.

"Yeah, there's tons of them all over, but usually they're disguised so they aren't easy to find. The one we know of is about two hours away. Riot and I used to ride our bikes over there to bang on the doors and try to catch someone coming in or out."

"Did you? Ever see one of them?" he asked.

"Not back then, no," I answered. My thoughts from before came back, and it must have been on my face, because Cherry looked at me and frowned.

"No. But we met one once. About a year or so ago. Didn't we, Riot?"

A year ago to the day.

"Yeah, we did." I shifted uncomfortably.

"What was her name? She was odd."

"Myrtle. She wasn't odd, she was scared." My mood shifted. I wasn't sad anymore, but defensive. "You don't know what you're talking about."

Cherry looked to Soda, and sighed. "She arrived while I was away over in Void Valley. I'd only got to meet her for a day before she took off. She was super skittish."

"It's a whole different world down in the bunkers," I said. Myrtle had told me all about it. How they trained little girls to go up and search for things. How they wouldn't let them live normal lives, and how they had to do everything they were told or face extreme punishments. That's how we'd met. Myrtle had been on the run after she'd aged out.

"You were fond of her, weren't you?" Cherry asked.

I shrugged and looked down at my hand. More specifically, at the tattoo Myrtle had put there right before she left. "Concerned, more than anything."

"Did you guys have sex?" Soda asked.

I glared at him. "No, I didn't sleep with her. She was a victim of those fucking bunkers. I wanted to help her."

"Did you love her? Is that why you're sad? You miss her?" Cherry pushed.Annoyance began to rise in my chest. She was every bit the annoying little sister.

"I've never been in love," I said flatly. I told the truth. While I had enjoyed the beds of many men and women alike, love had never been a part of the equation. "I just felt bad for her. She had a kid she was trying to get. They forced her to have a baby and then took it from her."

Soda shook his head and whistled. "Those bunkers are fucked up man. No wonder people call them rotten."

"So she left to go find her baby?" Cherry asked.

"She did, but she didn't make it far. I found her body by the bunkers, shot and abandoned a few days later."

My sister let out a yelp. "Do you think it was them? The bunker people? Would they do that to one of their own?"

I returned to the fence, putting my hands on it and swaying back and forth. "Yes. I think they would. And that they did. She'd said that when she escaped they were after her. The only reason she went back was for her daughter."

"That's so sad. You'd think the bunker people would be more civilized than us wastelanders. Even we wouldn't do that."

She was right. The people in the bunkers think they were superior just because their ancestors had been handpicked to be saved. But they were wrong. Ours had managed to survive and thrive. We didn't have to wear giant suits to breathe up here, they did. They were the weak, less superior ones.

"I should go to bed," I said with a sigh. "My mind was on her and her kid today and it got me in a funk. I'll be fine tomorrow, I'm sure." I looked away from the brightly lit park in the distance and nodded to my sister and Soda. They didn't believe me but knew better than to push me.

"Sure, get some sleep." Cherry smiled weakly. "Tomorrow we're partying though. We'll bring it to you if we have to!"

I chuckled, and gave her a thumbs up, not looking back at her. "I can't wait."

"Riot," Soda called out. I paused and turned my head slightly.

"Yeah?"

"What was her name? The daughter?"

I pressed my lips together tightly, wondering if I should share that little nugget of information.

"Was it Eleanor?" Cherry asked softly. She'd seen me look at my tattoo.

I nodded.

"It was."