A golden sliver of sun peeked over the horizon of the scorched land like the whole world was in on playing pretend it was going to be a pleasant day. Spencer sat on the compound’s wall around what used to be Springhill Middle School and watched Kate stride across the courtyard, her rifle slung over her shoulder, checking a box of rounds.
“Morning,” he said when she walked past.
Kate jumped and swirled around, dropping the bullets. “Dammit!”
“You know just throwing them around doesn’t work, right? Even I know that.” He clambered down and they both reached for the dropped slugs only to slam heads.
“Dude! Seriously?” Kate rubbed her temple.
Spencer straightened his glasses. “Should we count these?”
“Sure.” Kate pushed up her goggles. Her dark eyes all but burned a hole straight into his soul. “How about you count how many bullets it takes me to get rid of one Raydog and I will worry about not getting torn to pieces by one.”
“It’s useful to keep inventory. Isn’t that rule number one of survival?” Spencer felt a twist of irritation, followed quickly by a jolt in his stomach. Shit, the Raydogs. When half the planet blew up after a series of cosmic mishaps and the global power grid went down, nobody really had time to see it coming that a horde of escaped radioactive lab dogs might eventually become a problem. Granted, not many people were left to worry about it, but were they this much of a problem though? And were they gonna shoot them? Surely Kate could just scare them away with blanks? “That’s 13.” He blew the dirt off and handed her a handful.
“Thanks mister the accountant, the number is on the box.” She held her backpack open to reveal another box, before buckling it up.
He eyed her sideways. “That’s it? That’s enough to scare away those big bad dogs of yours?”
“Of course that’s not it.” She held up two machetes and pointed both at him. “Listen. I get that finding a radio tower is your idea of a good time, but going west? Walking into the Black Zone is like playing Pac-Man with your life. There are no funny ghosts, only starving, contaminated dogs, dying to turn you into their new favorite chew toy. So, unless you want to die a slow and painful death, stick to your radios and let me handle the rest.”
“Whatever,” Spencer said, now no longer holding back his irritation. “I told you I wanted to go alone. It’s not my fault you went all Katniss ‘I volunteer’ on me.”
She slid a hunting knife into the shaft of her boot. “I didn’t volunteer, radio head. Serge made me, since Bravo’s gonna be out for a while.” She called after him, “And what the hell is even a Katniss?”
But Spencer was already scaling the enforced gates of the compound.
He had heard about the Black Zone from the others at the compound, but Spencer understood it was aptly named as soon as they entered it. Trees were charred skeletons — their hands reaching into the milky sky while the land sat barren and desolate.
They crawled under collapsed overpasses and climbed over large, jagged pieces of asphalt in the road like they were giant, rotten teeth. Structures still standing upright were few and in between, and what remained would sooner or later be taken by the relentless elements. The sudden gusts of wind and dust made it difficult to see and they stopped often to wipe their goggles and check the RadCounters. The heat grew more intense by the minute and to minimise sweating they kept a slow pace, but within the first hour Spencer felt his clothes stick to his back. Dogs barked in the distance, though they never saw any.
“How many have you come across before?” Spencer asked after a while.
“Never stopped to count,” Kate grunted, without averting her eyes off the horizon.
“So far they seem to keep to themselves?”
“And?”
“And… I thought I would’ve been ‘torn to shreds’ by now.” His attempt to lighten the mood was feeble at best and Kate simply shrugged.
“After the last few solar flares, being out in the sun is probably too intense even on their skins.”
“But I thought they liked the heat?”
She shook her head. “They endure it better than we do. But the radiation makes them go bald. Eventually they can’t handle it so well.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“Then they become more aggressive.”
“So, you’ve been bitten quite a few times?”
Kate glared at him. “You’re hilarious.”
They stopped to check the map. Spencer had triangulated where the tower should be located. Back at the compound he sometimes heard bits of a broadcast — a voice and even snippets of music — but never long or clear enough to decipher anything useful. From the tower, he might pick up a stronger signal of some kind, perhaps even communicate with others, if he were so lucky.
“We’ll reach city limits soon.” Kate pointed to piles of rubble in the distance. “That used to be an outlet mall. We can check the gas station over there for food and some shade.”
* * *
“You actually enjoy this, don’t you!” Spencer shouted in between gunshots and the deafening barking. He huddled next to a burnt-out car and covered his ears, while Kate kneeled behind a gas pump and fired rounds at a pack of Raydogs that, minutes ago, had been asleep in the shade of a Circle K gas station. Disturbed from their downtime and activated by the blistering heat, they skirted around like wind-up toys stirred to life, drooling, all bark and looking to bite.
She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. “Wakey, wakey!”
“Don’t waste so many bullets!” Spencer yelled, but he knew Kate couldn’t hear him, because she was too far away and too busy firing at charging Raydogs. They were surrounded by a group at least as determined to stand their ground as he and Kate were on getting inside that damned Circle K to look for anything edible. “God help us.” At this rate, they would never make it to the radio tower. Or back to the compound. They’d be stuck living out their days in an abandoned gas station in the middle of a wasteland and, if they’re lucky, eat canned beans and cornflakes with warm Arizona Ice Tea till time showed them mercy. He rolled his eyes. She’d surely want to teach him about guns and rub in how useless radios are in a dead world.
“On your nine!” Kate’s voice forced him back to reality.
He turned to the right, wrong, to the left! At first, he still didn’t see anything, until he looked down at a raggedy Shih Tzu at his feet, wagging its tail, panting.
“Hey little guy,” he reached down when multiple shots rang and the dog crumbled to the ground, its tongue out, glassy eyes popping and blood streaming from its tiny, nearly bald, leathery body.
He jumped and fell backwards against the skeleton of a minivan. “What the hell, that one was cute and normal! You shot it?”
“Was I supposed to come over and pet it?”
“I thought those were dummy bullets!”
“I never said they were.”
“You should have told me!”
“Spencer, listen to me…” Kate raised her gun.
“What, you’re gonna shoot me too? If I had known you were—”
“Don’t move!” Kate pointed behind him.
Spencer ignored her and turned around. An absolute unit of a Mastiff had broken away from the pack was standing in the middle of the road. The beast, surely on a steady daily diet of a body part or two, locked eyes with Spencer. Raydogs were only problematic because they were unpredictable. Depending on when they got contaminated and how much exposure they had suffered, some were a bit friendlier than others. But their brains, or what was left of it, were fried in gradations from sunny side up to a grand scramble and they could snap out of the zoomies into maniacal monster-mode faster than anyone could say ‘sit’.
One look and Spencer knew exactly what this one was about to do. What it wanted to do to anyone that stood in its way. But slowly dying from radiation poisoning thanks to a festering bite wound wasn’t exactly on his apocalypse bingo card.
Kate cocked her head. “You wanna keep beefcake as a pet?”
“I would need a bigger yard…” He slowly backed up as the dog moved towards him, surely smelling his fear. “Stay, doggy.”
Kate reloaded, but she was taking her time.
Spencer could see the animal’s bloodshot eyes, the patches of furless skin that blistered and oozed, the foam dripping from its saggy mouth. “Anytime, you feel like taking that shot, don’t be shy.”
“Now you’re okay with killing them?”
The dog started trotting towards him, growling a wet gurgling sound, a thirst for his blood written all over its face.
“Kate?” Spencer swallowed.
Kate pounded the gun with the palm of her hand and swore under her breath. “It’s jammed!”
“Good god, this is why I’m a cat person!” He frantically looked around to see if there were any rocks he could defend himself with. He reached for a handful of gravel and slung it in the dog’s general direction.
“Don’t piss it off even more!”
“Dammit, I don’t need to check his collar for the owner’s phone number. Just take the shot!”
The beast was midair Superdog style about to crash into him teeth first. Spencer yelped, ducked down and waited for his life to flash by.
A single shot.
The silence that followed, minus the ringing in his ears, lasted for long seconds until he lifted his head and peeked between his fingers. Kate stood over him, smirking.
“So you do know how to take them with just one bullet!” He groaned as she helped him up. “This is bad for my blood pressure.” The dog’s monstrous wrinkled face slacked against the ground, and blood sputtered onto Spencer’s boots from a gaping neck wound.
“He’d probably say the same.” She shrugged.
The inside of the Circle K looked — and frankly, smelled — like it had seen a few old-fashioned Black Friday blowouts. Spencer stepped over fallen shelves and the rotting carcass of a Raydog to look for anything useful before glancing outside. Kate was reloading her gun. If she hadn’t been standing amidst an absolute carnage, she would’ve seemed relaxed, simply enjoying an extremely sunny day. He couldn’t help but grin. In the Before Times, if he had seen someone kill this many animals, he would’ve run for the hills and never looked back. But now… As if she heard his thoughts, she looked up. He held up a jar of pickles to her and shook it over his head like a trophy. She stuck up her middle finger.
“Jackpot!” Moments later Kate stood near the cash register.
Spencer peeked in the empty freezer, not sure what he was hoping to find. “You’re aware they don’t pay out scratch tickets anymore?”
She shoveled handfuls of Twinkies into her bag. “Definitely taking all of these, forget about the code.”
He made a face.
“Gah! Fine,” she sighed long and loudly. “I’ll leave a couple for the next idiots stupid enough to stroll in here. Didn’t know I came with Mother Teresa.”
It was too late in the day to keep walking and search for a new shelter for the night, so they waited for sundown, climbed onto the roof and laid out their sleeping mats.
“One benefit of the world gone to the dogs,” Kate said after they sat in silence for a while. She pointed at the sky. “It never really gets dark anymore.”
“You mean the space rubble and irradiated star splinters?”
“I like to think they’re planets, comets, lost stars and starships and maybe even worlds like ours.”
“I don’t find too much poetic beauty in things hanging over our heads that can wipe us out at any time.”
“Jeez. What’s got your dials twisted, Squidward?”
She was right. Now that the sun was down, he was too much aware for comfort that being as far away from the ground was their safest option, while roaming Raydogs weren’t even the biggest threat. Granted, one bite and you were next in line for the permanent dirt nap, but he hated the idea of being exposed on all sides more.
Kate seemed unbothered by their open-air perch. She fished another pickle from the jar and took a sip from her canteen. “You know what I really miss,” she sat straight up and gave him a concerned look.
“I’m sure you’re about to enlighten me.” The long day had worn him out and he didn’t have the energy left to give her a hard time.
She drew out the words slowly. “My office job.”
Despite his weariness, he looked at her with interest. It wasn’t exactly what he had expected from her. “You worked in an office?”
Kate got up and paced around. “I miss my boss and his passive aggressive emails, and I even miss the twice microwaved coffee and the stupid jokes and oh, the meetings.”
“Yeah, bet you also really miss taxes?”
She spit over the edge of the roof. “Eat this, IRS!”
Somewhere a lone dog responded, probably wondering where it could, in fact, find something to eat.
She came closer and the light of the space rubble reflected in her eyes. “I miss the commute. Being pushed up against sweaty bodies on the subway that smell like dirty laundry and having to dress business casual.” She made quotation marks in the air. “Did anyone ever figure out what that means?”
Spencer couldn’t help but laugh.
Kate jumped up and down. “Gosh darn, I really wish I had some bills to pay.”
“And how’s that credit score holding up these days, Miss Shootalot?”
“I’m terribly behind on my car payments,” she glowed.
“Then I’m afraid we’ll have to make a detour to the DMV tomorrow.”
“God bless the DMV.” Kate twirled. She seemed a long way from her usual gunslinging cool but Spencer kind of liked this version. Besides, she was more entertaining than wondering when the next big thing would come crashing down on them.
“Gee, I wonder what Fox and CNN dreamt up tonight.”
“I do miss television,” Kate plopped back down. “Then again, I think I just miss films. Besides hairdryers and washing machines and straws.”
“Straws? The world hit the skids six ways to Sunday, and you miss straws?”
She smiled, wistfully. “I would kill for a soda with beautiful fresh, clear ice. Hearing it crackle and pop. It rattles against the cup, and you poke in a straw,” she held up a finger, “a thick plastic one, not one of those soggy paper ones.”
“Yeah ‘cause screw the sea turtles. They’re all probably dead anyway.”
“Right! And you just taste the sweet refreshing carbonation, the coolness, the right amount of brain freeze, without the ice clanking against your teeth,” she now looked straight at him. “I would kill for that.”
“Noted.” Spencer raised an eyebrow. “When you put it like that, I miss straws most of all.”
“You know what else?” She leaned in like she was about to tell him her biggest secret. “I miss floss.”
He did a double take to see if she was serious. “Floss? Was that the name of your pet snake or something?”
She grinned. “I really miss being able to get gunk out of my teeth.”
Spencer nodded slowly. “Life hasn’t been the same since we’ve had to make do without floss.”
“But as long as we have these, things could be worse.” Kate unwrapped a Twinkie and carefully nibbled on a corner. “Do you remember how much Potato Peely Pete liked these? Still miss him. In fact, his mashed potatoes were my absolute favorite. And I don’t even care for mash that much.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you know he just peeled the potatoes, right? I cook them.”
“Hmpf. Nice one taking all the credit, hash slinger,” Kate put the Twinkie back in the wrapper. “I’m saving this for later.”
“You know what? I’ve never tried one.”
Kate reared up. “Oh my god, your parents took sheltered to another level. Did they teach you anything besides how to listen to the radio and cook crummy tater soup? I thought every family got a complimentary butt load of them during the first fallout. I ate so many I was this close to hallucinating them everywhere.”
“I’m pretty sure they change your DNA,” Spencer laughed. “Don’t they stay in your system for like, 40 years?”
“Perfect, so you won’t go hungry anytime soon.”
“They can’t be as bad as McDonalds.” He chewed thoughtfully. “I once saw a video about it. Remember videos? They tested how the burgers literally never break down.”
“Unlike you,” Kate said dryly.
She had blindsided him. Of course she had.
“Ha,” he replied too fast.
“I’m sorry,” she groaned. “That was a low blow. Your family. I know it has only been a few months. They seemed very sweet.”
“It’s ok,” he said, but what he really wanted to do was yell at her. Did it not bother her that 90% of humanity was wiped out and that they were hunted by radioactive dogs? Didn’t she also lose her entire family? She seemed not exactly grief stricken. He felt his anger bubbling but stuffed it down with the rest of the Twinkie. The irony of surviving on a destroyed and radioactive planet, yet cheap sugar irritated his throat. “Thankfully we still have Twinkies,” he bit, hoarsely.
“Right? Consider it an upgrade, star boy,” Kate didn’t catch onto his sarcasm and held up a hand to high-five him. He pretended not to see it.
“Think I’ll call it a day,” he prodded his backpack into a makeshift pillow and laid down with his back towards her.
“Yeah, probably for the best,” she replied.
Spencer had fallen into a shallow, restless sleep when a sound woke him. Kate was asleep on her mat. His brain had barely time to register how harmless she looked sleeping, because he heard the noise again, closer this time. It was a shuffle, a thump, then dragging sound. He felt around for his glasses but found instead his flashlight and clicked it on. His breath caught in his lungs when two green glowing eyes stared back at him, mere feet away. The beast’s mouth was dripping with foam. The light had blinded it for a moment, but now it was moving, towards Kate. How the hell had a Raydog climbed on top of the roof?
“Uhhh, Kate?” he hissed, but he didn’t want to make more noise and startle the animal that, with its back unhealthily high arched, was ready to pounce on her. He quickly searched the ground until his hand met a cold blade. He took a deep breath and clicked his tongue. The animal stopped again and looked at him. Before he could think it through Spencer charged forward, jumped over Kate and swung the machete across the beast’s neck, decapitating it in one fell swoop.
Kate was up in a second, a handgun drawn. She stared at Spencer and the bloodied machete in his hand standing over her. “What the hell!” She aimed the gun at him.
Spencer gasped and lifted his arms. “Where did that gun come from!?” Then he pointed, “Raydog!”
Kate jumped at the furry mass by her feet. “You… you killed… a raccoon?” She crouched down to check the animal.
“No! Don’t!” He dropped the blade and used both hands to stop his shaking as he pointed the flashlight. “That’s not a normal raccoon.” He grabbed his RadCounter and held it next to the carcass.
“There’s no way,” Kate uttered before he even showed her the final reading.
Spencer felt unsteady, now that his brain had time to catch up. Kate looked at him and although he had hoped for anything along the lines of admiration, he could read nothing but sadness on her face.
“Not the raccoons!” She snivelled. “They are so cute, they wash their food with their little hands, and they have thumbs, and I always wanted one… As a pet…” The realization was painful to watch as defeat washed over her entire being. “They have thumbs. They can get into anything! Don’t you get it? Don’t you see what this means?”
He thought for a second, trying to ignore the pounding in his ears, the adrenaline clattering his teeth. “Would that make them Raycoons?”
Her eyes shot daggers. “We have to go back, we have to warn the others!”
Now Spencer’s heart sank. “I’m not going back. I have to find the tower.”
“Why do you want to find this stupid tower so bad?” Kate’s face contorted with anger.
“What do you mean,” he reached for her shoulder. “We can’t hide forever at Springhill Middle School.”
“Why not?” She pushed his arm away. “Why is that not good enough for you?”
“There might be others. Don’t you think we should at least try to find them?”
“There is no point. Only more mouths to feed, more lives to protect. You don’t actually believe you will find someone you know, do you?”
“I can hope, can’t I?”
She grunted with frustration before she turned around and paced up and down. Calmer, she said: “Yes, you can.”
The tension eased from his body. He turned off the flashlight and they stood in silence while the sky shimmered quietly overhead. She was right. It was pretty, all things considered, objectively speaking, et cetera. Streaks of purple, orange and blue light splashed across the heavens in a way even the most skilled impressionist painters had never been able to capture. And he suddenly felt more tired than he had in a long time.
Kate picked up his glasses. “Hey, epic kill, by the way. Clean. Impressive considering you basically did it blind,” she said quietly. “Thanks.”
Spencer felt the blood rush to his face when she touched his hand. He quickly unfolded his glasses and pushed them up his nose. “It was nothing.”
At daybreak they pressed on, heading west, deeper into the Black Zone. The ruins of the city grew larger. They were quiet as they walked, beside the occasional warning for jagged edges of the road or rusty pieces of metal sticking out. They saw a group of Raydogs, but these creatures merely growled unenthusiastically at them from the shade of half molten bleachers.
By midday, they reached a tall silvery skeleton-like structure. The radio tower, almost entirely intact, looked fake in the otherwise dusty world.
“I can’t believe it,” Spencer said, catching his breath in the shade of the base.
With a sigh of relief, Kate lowered her pack to the ground. “Go get that signal, I’ll wait down here.”
Spencer climbed up to the small platform and with trembling hands set up a receiver. Now that he was here, he was nervous. What if there was nothing but silence? Up until this moment, he had only dared to imagine he’d hear a clear signal of a nearby group of survivors. What if he did, but they were hostile? If it was an entire group of Kate’s gung-ho kind, he’d only be inviting more trouble. His fingers barely managed to plug the earphones in. Static, crisp and clear. Then, his curiosity took over and he carefully adjusted the antenna.
There was more static and silence at first, until there! He fine-tuned the dials. Fragments of a melody came through that was familiar but felt foreign at the same time. Was this what he had heard back at the compound? How long had it been since he had heard a song? But the signal drifted away. Then, a voice. Only snippets of words before he lost it again. He shook his hand to steady it and took a deep breath before adjusting and scanning once again. There it was. Stronger this time.
“I’m getting something!” he called down to Kate. “Come listen.” He stuck his hand out to pull her onto the platform.
“Is it the Mothership?” she asked as she waved his hand away. “Tell them we’re out of toilet paper. Tampons, etcetera.”
“It’s better than that.”
She looked at him skeptically, but he could barely hide his excitement as he twisted one ear pad of the headphones and held it out to her, while he pressed the other one to his own ear. Kate’s hair tickled his face as she leaned in, and Spencer forgot to breathe. He adjusted the dials slightly and she touched his arm when she heard it. The signal was steady and loud and clear. It was music.
She looked up, her eyes large and beaming. “Oh my god! What is this?”
“Even the Cockroaches are Dead by Alien Liftoff, of course.” He smirked and hoped he sounded casual and cool although he felt like he was about to burst with happiness. There was a radio station out there and they were playing songs. Real, actual songs. It was more than he could ever have hoped for.
She elbowed his arm. “I knew that, Einstein. I mean, is this live?”
“Shhh.”
The song faded out. They looked at each other with wide eyes when a voice came on the air.
“This is WDFS, thank you for tuning in, sluggers.”
Spencer’s heart was about to jump out of his chest. Kate covered her mouth as they listened without moving a muscle, afraid to disturb the signal and miss a single word.
“If you’re hearing this,” the DJ continued, “you’re alive and that’s probably more than most of us can say. Who would’ve thought, the world actually ended, eh?” He paused. “Today’s June 6th, 2053, and…” the voice cracked slightly.
Chills ran down Spencer’s entire body. The blood rushed away from his face, his stomach dropped, and he watched Kate’s expression mirror what he felt.
“… this is our last song, our final middle finger to the world, but if you’re out there, stay safe, stay alive and best of luck. May God help us all. This is Classic Rock Cincinnati WDFS, signing off.”
There was a brief silence before the same song started again.
Kate kept her eyes cast down for what seemed a long time, until she banged a fist against the tower. “Damn it!” The platform vibrated from the impact. “Damn it,” she said again.
Spencer stared at the horizon. “It’s been playing on a loop for 2 years.” He glanced at Kate and the disappointment on her face deflated him even more. He swallowed to ease the thickness in his throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Sucks.” Kate grunted and climbed down and for a moment he thought she was leaving without him, but she came back with the Twinkies and threw Spencer one. She motioned for him to turn up the radio, leaned over the balustrade and shouted along with the chorus:
Whoo-oh when the asteroids split the world in half
The moon’s gone and quakes broke the seismograph
When the air’s on fire and radiation’s in the re-e-e-ed
You can run but even the cockroaches are dead
He wanted to join her, shouting would probably make him feel better too, but Spencer couldn’t move. He was sweating and yet he shivered. What was he supposed to do now? This used to be the biggest city in the area, but there was nobody on the radio waves. Were they truly alone?
Kate stopped singing and looked back. “Are you okay?”
He managed a nod, and she sat down next to him.
“Yeah,” she simply said. “I’m sorry.”
It felt good to have her exist nearby, and he liked that she didn’t ask any more stupid questions.
“What happened to your family?” he croaked after a while. “Do you miss them?” There was a part of him that wanted to believe, no — had to believe, that there was someone else who felt the almost unstoppable urge to get up in the middle of the night and shout names into the nothingness, hoping against all odds to hear something back.
“Pretty similar to what happened to yours,” she spoke softly. “Except it was the first wave that took them. My parents were at work and never made it back to our shelter. Instant obliteration… would be my best guess. My brother and I were on our way to the compound, but he didn’t make it. Raydogs.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
She smiled weakly and seemed lost in her own thoughts for a few moments before she continued: “I miss my dad the most. He taught me how to shoot even way before the riots started and I wish I could thank him for that. And I’d ask him to help me shape up. Improve my aim. So I never miss.”
“Improve? You made quick work of that pack of Raydogs. You’re basically the Sarah Connor of terminator dogs. He’d be proud of you.”
“He’d say I waste too many bullets.”
“I hadn’t noticed that.”
“Ha.” She smiled at him. “C’mon. Let’s go home.”
The song, chosen by some radio station as their last and the voices of people who were long gone, rang softly in Spencer’s ears even after they left the radio tower so far behind them, he could no longer see it.
The news of more animals changing into bloodthirsty infectious creatures had the compound hustling and bustling. One group was digging a trench outside the main gate to bury a new fence. Some reinforced the school’s windows. Others were training in weaponry and self-defense.
Spencer, on break from kitchen duty, sat in his usual spot on the wall, looking out over the desolation and turning dials on his radio, hoping to pick up the station again he found during his trip with Kate. He just wanted to hear the song, close his eyes and picture her sitting next to him. It had been a nice moment, in retrospect. But that was a week ago now and they had barely spoken outside of brief courtesies in and around the compound. To be fair, Kate had relayed the story in full color to the others, but the implications of the contaminated animal had entirely overshadowed the by far most heroic moment of his life.
Since their trip, the compound felt different. Smaller, while the world loomed larger. Even with the reinforcements it was still a school building, not built to withstand an apocalypse and its many smaller cousins, and it certainly wasn’t made to house a group of ragtag survivors who had nowhere to go on a planet on its dying breath. Eventually the world would claim it — and them with it — like it had claimed everything else. Minus the bloodthirsty, infectious dogs, raccoons and who knew what else, apparently.
“I thought you should have this.”
He was so deep in thought that when he heard her voice he almost fell off the wall. Kate was standing right beneath him, holding up the small handgun.
“If you ever want to go out on another trip and kill something bigger than a squirrel,” she shrugged.
Spencer quickly lowered himself down. “I’ll have you know it was a fat, rabid raccoon seconds from devouring you.”
She cocked her head. “If you say so, Davy Crockett.”
He wiped the sweat and dirt off his hands and carefully took the gun like it was a hot potato, pointing it directly at her.
“Wow,” she quickly pushed his hand away.
“Oh my god, it’s loaded?” He felt like an idiot.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I wouldn’t hand you a loaded gun. It’d be a waste of bullets, don’t you think?”
He laughed and pushed his glasses up.
“But you should always act like it is. Here,” she moved beside him and wedged her boot between his heels. “Ground yourself and hold it like this.” She grabbed his hand and held his arm straight out.
He felt her cool skin touch his and her breath in his neck and it took all his might to focus on her words.
She closed one eye and pretended to shoot, with each shot moving his hand and the gun to mimic the kickback. “Bang. One hamster down, bang, two hamsters down. Or more likely in your case: bang, bang, bang, no hamster down.” She squinted at him. “Are you counting the bullets?” She was standing so close, he could see her eyes had speckles of gold buried in them.
“My choice of weapon might be a machete, Calamity Jane.”
She considered it. “You certainly have a talent there. Plus, it’s very economical.”
Their eyes locked for a moment and Spencer couldn’t tell if it was the sun and the dust or that she suddenly seemed shy, her face turning slightly red.
“Anyway,” she cleared her throat and took a step back. “Hold onto that for backup.”
Spencer weighed the gun in his hand. “I might need some field training to become more comfortable with this. Besides, there are more towers to find.”
She sized him up. “So, you got a taste of it and now you want more?”
“I can’t give up after one, can I?”
“Yes, you could.”
“I want to try south.”
She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “And?”
“And you should bring more bullets.”
Now she laughed, so relaxed, not like they were standing behind a makeshift wall around a school in the middle of a devastated land that harbored countless dangers and a justified grudge or two against most living things. “You should bring a bigger radio.”
And for a moment, Spencer felt like he could slay a thousand more Raycoons or perhaps even a mid-range Raydog while the world around them danced and danced until it collapsed. It danced to a song he had never heard before and yet, it felt like home.