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a short story inspired by 48 hour short story contest |
| Flora overturned the charred metal canoe that had sheltered her from the brief thunderstorm. A rainbow arced across water in front of her, dazzling her with its vibrant colors. She sat on the beach. For a long moment, savoring the color that her gray world had deprived her of. Her bare feet buried themselves in the sand. Her toes wriggled beneath the damp fine fine-grained remains of old mountains. Even Mt. Everest would someday be nothing but dust. She dug her fingers into the sand and shoveled out a small hole. Flora stopped when her nails and fingertips encountered a smooth object. Curious, Flora briskly dug around the object until she had revealed the long, cylindrical barrel of a gun. Now beyond curious, Flora wrapped both hands around the barrel and pulled it out. The revolver wasn’t quite rusted, but it had been buried long enough that none of its moving parts still moved properly, not even the trigger. That was fortunate for Flora since the examination of the barrel revealed it was still loaded. That scared Flora enough that she flung the gun far out into the lake. Giving it a water burial fit its crimes well. Guns and weapons had taken so much; that it was good she could give back to the future. She got up from the beach dusting sand from her legs, arms, and dress. Smoothing the charred and torn fabric of her dress, Flora wished she had shoes to put on. She checked the bottoms of her feet for injuries blessing the creator that had allowed bare feet to acclimate to rough terrain with calluses, and swore against the weeks of blisters that had brought her to this point. Flora turned her gaze west along the beach. Not too far that way, a large river delivered its water and sediment into the larger body of water. She glanced east, the way she had come. There was nothing that way. Shrugging, Flora turned back and, began hiking along the beach towards the flowing water. Her thoughts along the way were as fleeting as the few remaining clouds. She wasn’t sure how long she shuffled barefoot along through the sand before the rocky riverbed stopped her. Flora looked upstream at the skeletal forest along its banks. She sighed. Perhaps she would find something useful along this path. She placed her feet more carefully as she entered the forest along the stream. Anything could be concealed beneath the ashy detritus of a dead forest. Everything was dead. Death had walked the path ahead of Flora. She had little hope of a real miracle, she knew she had already cashed in a lifetime of them just making it this far. Civilization wasn’t ahead. It wasn’t anywhere anymore. After a few days consuming only river water with her feet eating the distance from the lake to the river’s source, Flora looked seriously at the river which was still deep enough with a strong enough current that she couldn’t safely cross it. Flora wanted to throw herself into the river she walked beside. Instead she continued making progress towards no goal whatsoever. Up ahead, she thought she saw a flicker of yellow and a splash of green. Her walk became a controlled scramble towards the technicolor invaders in the gray-scale world around her. She was drawn to the color as though it were a freshwater spring. Solitude was the only thing more crippling than the bland colors her world had taken on. Flora did not see the man in black stalking out from the smoky forest trees. The swath of green and yellow drew her in and resolved itself into a single daisy growing up through the river bank. Then, in almost the same instant, a black leather military-style boot came down on the flower and ground it into the dark gray mud. Flora heard a shrill scream, slowly she realized it was her voice breaking the unnatural silence. She looked up into the face of a stranger, “You just robbed this river bank of the only plant life I have seen in weeks. YOU MONSTER!” A voice as dark and harsh as the world around them filled the silence, “I was just so glad to see another human!” “Especially now, all LIFE is precious!” She pounded on the man’s chest. He wrapped his arms gently around her, as her protest broke down into tears. His embrace soothed an anxiety in Flora that had numbed to a dull ache in her stomach in the weeks since the Incident. The sounds of their voices had loosed her tears. “What is your name miss?” He asked, softly patting her back. Flora’s legs went limp beneath her, and she sagged into his hug. “Flora,” she mewed. “James. I doubt my surname matters, There probably isn’t another James in the whole country.” “How did you survive?” Flora asked, bringing her feet beneath her again. “I was a doomsday prepper, hardcore. My family laughed at me when I told them that we were close to a SHTF moment. None of them would come to my cabin with me. How did you survive?” Flora sighed, “My plane crashed. Somehow, I was thrown clear into the lake. I saw the flames everywhere, and I treaded water as long as I could. I blacked out. When I awoke, I was on the shore. I wandered through the ashes for days until I came across a stone cabin with a metal roof. The roof had collapsed, but I found canned food and a barrel of fresh water in the basement. It ran out a few days ago. I’ve been wandering around on the beach ever since.” “I still have years' worth of supplies back in my bunker. I was just going stir crazy alone. I decided to try and look for other survivors.” James supplied. Flora looked up into his crystal blue eyes and smiled, “I’m glad I’m not alone!” “Come with me, I have plenty to share. Especially the company of another human being.” 1010 words prompt ▼ |
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