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Sand scattered as I jumped off the bus and landed on the cracked remnants of the road. The sun beat down upon my head as soon as I was outside the relative shelter of the vehicle. I pulled up my hood and slid my goggles into position. Instantly the glare from the sunlit sand, which covered everything, was lessened.
Already I could feel the grains within the folds of my clothing, and I had barely been outside a minute. The wind whipped it against me so even the thinnest sliver of flesh on my wrist, not covered by my clothes, was scratched by the stuff. I tugged my sleeve down before surveying our stop.
It was a low building, long since abandoned to the encroaching sands. Still, it held promise. There were cars in the car park out the front which hadn't been stripped for scrap. That meant inside there might be things that could be of use to us.
I gestured to the others. Ola, Ven and Assan jumped down into the intense heat. Only their shape and height showed which was which, every other defining feature was covered to protect against the power of the sun and sand.
They knew what to do. We had done this many times before. This was just another routine supply run. Assan made his way to the cars to begin breaking them down for anything we could use. Hopefully some might have some fuel left, although I wasn’t going to bet on it. Meanwhile Ola, Ven and I trudged up to the front. It had once been a diner of some sort, the only reason it hadn't been looted already must have been due to how far out in the desert it was. Of course, it hadn't always been a desert. Once this had been a main route, lined with endless green fields. Now there was nothing but sand for as far as the eye could see.
Ola smashed the glass of the door and we stepped inside, our boots crunching on the broken glass. Inside was cool and dark, a welcome relief from the blazing sun outside. Years of dust storms had coated the windows in a protective layer. The only noise was a persistent clanging as Assan broke apart the vehicles outside. The parts would be used to repair our own vehicles and machinery back at our base. Scrap metal was useful for reinforcing walls as well as the repairs. Even if we had no use for it, it was worth taking in case we could trade it for something we did need.
Other than the granular layer coating everything, it didn't look that different to what it had been like years ago when it had been in its prime. Plates sat half empty on the tables, the food no longer recognisable as anything even vaguely edible. A few corpses hunched together under the tables where they had gone to hide and never come out. Their withered frames almost looked like a piece of art that somebody had left for us to find. The delicate skeletal fingers of a child still clutched a teddy bear. I crouched down to examine it. It was dusty and worn, but then again, everything was. I tugged the bear free and the child’s bones crumbled without its comforting fur to support them. I tucked the bear into my belt.
Ven was browsing the counter, nothing there was still edible. He bagged a few jugs which would be useful for carrying water. The cash register was still stuffed full of old-world money, all useless now. We left it untouched. The kitchen held more promise. Jars and tins offered questionable contents; however, food was food and we could no longer afford to be picky. We bagged it all.
It was only as we turned to the bathrooms that I noticed Assan's clanging had stopped. It was too soon for him to be finished yet. My hand reached instinctively to the machete at my side.
Too late.
‘Don't move,’ came the voice, it trembled a little. I turned slowly, keeping my hands visible, to see the woman in the doorway pointing a shotgun at us. Despite her voice she held the shotgun with a steady aim. Behind her, clinging to her leg was a small child, young enough to have never seen the old world. Outside I could just make out Assan's form lying in the dust, either unconscious or dead.
We raised our hands. Looking at the state of their clothes they had been wandering the desert for a while. I wondered how they had made it this far without shelter.
‘Drop the bags,’ she instructed.
‘You could come with us, we have shelter,’ I said.
The woman's posture was tense. Her trust had been shattered a long time ago. She indicated with the shotgun that she still wanted the bags.
I glanced at Ola who was trying to figure out her chances if she charged the woman. Ven was playing the long game and carefully removed the bag. I followed suite, attempting to make no sudden moves so as not to alarm her. We kicked them over.
‘And the bear,’ she said.
My heart sank. I told myself that the bear was worth less than my life though. My son would never forgive me for not coming home. He could forgive me not bringing him a teddy. I pulled the bear from my belt and threw it to the floor.
The girl darted forward, eagerly reaching for the bear, they had probably never seen such a well-kept toy before. The woman shouted and looked down at her child. Ola saw the opportunity and took it. She was a tall woman, much bigger than the newcomer. She charged straight at the stranger before she knew what was happening.
Ola barrelled into her, taking them both tumbling to the floor. She wrestled with her, trying to snatch the gun away from her thin fingers. The little girl began to cry, clutching the teddy to her chest. Ven and I rushed forward to try and help.
The gun went off. The bang echoed through the diner. My ears were ringing. I pushed forward and pulled Ola up, she was fine, huffing for breath, but fine. The stranger still held the gun in shaking in fingers, staring along its barrel to where it pointed.
Her daughter toppled to the floor. Crimson bloomed across her chest where the shot had entered. The woman screamed and dropped the gun. Ola snatched it away.
The stranger crawled over to the body of her child. She had already uttered her last breath; her eyes were still, and her body had gone limp. The woman sobbed.
‘You can come with us,’ I tried to say, but the woman's sobbing drowned my voice out.
I collected up the bags as Ola and Ven helped Assan. He was dazed but at least he was still breathing. They helped him back into the bus.
‘Come on!’ Ola shouted.
I glanced back at the woman who was wailing over the body of her child. I took a step closer and tried to pull her up. She tugged her arm away and clung even tighter to her daughter. Death was nothing new to me, even so, I felt a lump in my throat as she resisted our help. Her mistrust in us had perhaps been well placed. I told myself it was an accident, yet still guilt coursed through my veins. If only she had listened to us. Perhaps we should have just given her the things, they looked like they had needed it more than us. I took a deep breath. They would have been safe with us. My son would have loved having another child to play with.
The mother clung to her child tightly. She choked on her own tears as grief destroyed what little hope she’d had left. There was nothing left for me to do here. Two people had died when that gun had gone off.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, knowing it would mean very little to someone who had just lost everything.
I bent down and picked up the teddy bear, its dusty fur now covered in blood.
I'm Katy, but go by K H Simmons officially. I write a lot of sci-fi, dark fantasy and dystopian fiction. If you're here for sparkly vampires, you're in the wrong place ;)
I frequently post short stories on my Facebook page, as well as work on full length novels. If you want more short stories like the above - check out my anthology Death, Demons & Dystopia available on Amazon/Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YN5DY98
When I'm not writing, I can usually be found cuddling dogs, reading, at the gym or playing video games.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas & a happy New Year! Thank you all for your support <3
