Chapter 2
Mel walked beside me, her shoes clicking on the broken pavement. The street lamps lighting our way, the solar panels buzzing. The tall rusted out bones of buildings from Before stretched up on either side of us. A part of me always found them almost beautiful in the darkness with moon light shining through the cracks and windows. I had seen pictures of the Before. The time before the great earth quake.
Forty years ago a giant earth quake rocked the whole world. My parents told me stories. It was a normal day. They lived in a small town which is the only thing that saved them. Alarms started going off for warnings. With all the tools the government had, they couldn't give them more than two minutes. It hit. Islands and people were swallowed by the ocean; islands that were lost for what anyone knew could be forever. Volcanoes erupted that hadn't yet gone dormant. Cities crumbled to the ground. Cracks opened in the earth. After about a day, the electric grid shut down completely. A few nuclear plants leaked and destroyed the land, animals, and people around them.
The first count was over two million dead. People started going hungry and getting sick. More people died. One man came up with the idea to broadcast himself over the radios and tell people to follow him. The ones who could hear him went. He promised life. A new start. He got his wish. He became our un-challenged leader. Or for some of us, tyrant.
"Earth to Amaya? You in there?" Mel was looking sideways at me. She was the only one who ever noticed when I was lost.
"Sorry. I was off in my own world." I grinned at her. I was tired and really didn't want to go to the meeting but Zane didn't give much notice before one and he didn't give options on attendance. We were less than a block away from the meeting place.
"I knew you weren't paying attention when you didn't say anything about that little urchin hiding behind the dumpster." She spat on the ground. She couldn't believe anyone would bring a child into this poor excuse for a world. I just shrugged. I was not in the mood for this conversation.
We rounded the corner and Cookies was right across the street. The lights were set on flash because of how much solar power they used up. Cookies was the only bar in town that didn't have to barter up north for the beer or liquor. Cookie made his own. He also had the best burgers in town. I didn't eat them because he wouldn't tell me what the meat was. I'm funny like that.
We opened the door and the familiar everything hit me like a wave. Cookie said he had owned the place before he was even allowed to drink. H never told me how old he was but he was the oldest person I knew. Kid Willy told me once he was in his late 70s and that it why he was so good at everything. A pool table sat to the right away from tables next to what was called a juke box. As a teen i loved messing with it a listening to music. Cookie was behind the bar.
Cookie was tall and thin. He had a head full of long white hair and a mustache that was a grey and tickled over the top of his lip. He spoke real smooth and I could listen all day. He said he grew up in a state called Texas and that he came to what was known as North Carolina and got stuck here when the earth quake hit.
"Hello there my darlin' and my beauty." He was cleaning a glass and placing it on a shelf. Mel was the beauty and I was the darlin. I didn't take offence.
"Hey Cooke." Mel smiled and kept on walking to the back. She would be out in exactly five minutes to order food.
"Hey Cookie," I slid onto a bar stool. "I wish I could show you what I did today." Cookie always loved to see my art. He had one on his arm that had faded out into an almost blob.
"Oh I done seen what that salty headed fool had to show. He came in here about an hour ago to show it off to a few of the regulars." By regulars he meant the twenty or so people who actually lived in the area on a regular bases. Most people worked out at sea or more inland and came into town only for a few weeks at a time. "But you did good. If i had ever had any younguns' I would hope they had talent like you." He grinned. I smiled as he slid what he called Wild Strawberry Wine across the bar. He knew it was my favorite.
Right on time Mel came out and leaned on the bar.
"Zane is waiting on you Maya." She rolled her eyes as she used Zane's nickname for me. She wanted that man some kind of bad but she wouldn't let herself give in to him. I raised my brows and Cookie and grabbed my drink as a headed to the back.